chapter 11

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Dad and Oliver had gone back to London a week or so later. We had talked a little but I wanted the space to clear my head. Hermione had come by to bid her farewell and wish me a Happy Christmas before she went home but Ron and Harry were sticking around for the holiday. Harry hated his Uncle and Aunt who he lived with and Ron's parents had gone to Romania to visit their other son Charlie so the Great Hall was mostly occupied by Weasley's at meal times.

I felt a lot better. Madam Pomfrey was pretty easy on me after I had gone down for every breakfast, lunch and dinner however she had obviously told someone to keep an eye on me all the time. I couldn't go to the toilet without someone following me. I didn't mind too much though, they cared.

"I wish it was like this every time." I said, looking around the empty hall and cutting a generous slab of turkey from the mound of food on my plate.

"No annoying first years and no annoying Draco Malfoy's." Ron laughed with his mouthful, a chicken drumstick in each hand, taking turns to bite each one. I shook my head at him, laughing at how much of a neanderthal he looked.

"So, who are you going to Petrify next? Could you do Ron so there's enough food for the rest of us?" Fred joked. He had been winding Harry up all holiday, both him and George had. They were the only ones who were actually joking. Harry, feeling rather in the Christmas spirit, dug his finger into a pot of mashed potato and launched it across the table at Fred, but it missed hitting George.

"Oh, you are so dead." George and Fred said in unison, jumping up from their seats and ensuing Hogwarts finest food fight. Food was flying every where, even I joined in between my laughter. Ron was trying to catch everything with his mouth but after a brussell sprout almost went in his eye, he resorted to his hands.

Percy was less than pleased with their behaviour, trying only once to stop them before a slap of gravy smacked against him and he had stormed off. George and Fred had found that particularly hilarious.

Harry had found a banana from somewhere and was pretending to use it as a wand but it soon became a Quidditch bat as he beat away the bread rolls that Ron was throwing at him, aiming them for mine and Ginny's heads.

Ginny grabbed a handful of sausages and snuck up behind Ron. I laughed as I watched her pull the back of the waist of his trousers open and slipped them down there.

"Ah! Pork pants! Pork pants!" He squealed, diving his filthy hands into his trousers whilst dancing like a lunatic to get them to fall out of the bottom.

"Oi, Wood, catch!" My attention was drawn to George who had thrown a whole cake at me which exploded all over me when I attempted to catch it. I ran towards him but he jumped over the table so I stood on the seat so I was tall enough to wrap myself around Fred and held a breadstick to his head.

"Nobody move or he gets it." I laughed out, poking the breadstick into Fred's mouth for him to bite before I jumped on him and he gave me a piggy back through the absolutely trashed Great Hall, trying not to slip in mashed potato or gravy whilst doing so.

"What on EARTH is going on here?" Suddenly everyone stopped. The sound of McGonagall's Scottish accent ripped through everyone and nobody could move. Behind her was Snape. They quickly walked up the hall but I saw McGonagall wink towards Fred who slyly passed her something.

"This is absolutely outrag- what the-" Snape began but was interrupted by the roast potato which flew directly from McGonagall's hand and onto Snape's forehead. Every one of us burst into laughter. Fred had to put me down so he didn't drop me. Snape was not impressed. He stormed out of the hall but McGonagall laughed the hardest.

"So worth the trouble I'll get later," Professor McGonagall laughed, surveying the state of the students. "Let's make this a one-time thing and as long as you clean it up, I won't say anything if you won't."

Everyone smiled at her. She was always the most down to earth teacher and she clearly loved a bit of fun. After we whipped out our wands and tidied the mess, everyone began to head back to the common room and I felt a sudden pang of loneliness as I said goodbye to everyone and went down towards the Slytherin common room. There was only one other Slytherin staying behind for Christmas and I hadn't seen them yet.

However, tired and covered in food, it didn't seem to awful that I could go and have a shower and relax in peace before going to bed in my own dorm without worrying about Pansy hexing me in her sleep. I headed straight to the bathroom and got cleaned up before I went to the common room. It was quiet so I sat by the fire for a little while, reading the History of Hogwarts book that Hermione had leant me when I heard footsteps coming down from the boys' dormitories. I kept my head down in a hope they would just ignore me if I ignored them.

"Ah, it's you." Malfoy. I had no idea he would be here, he never stayed for the holidays.

"Afraid so." I said quietly, briefly looking up to see him. He was wearing a dark green knitted sweater and black suit trousers and, trust me, that was colourful for him.

"Why are you still here?" He asked, seemingly genuinely.

"You know why I'm here." I said back bluntly. I was here was here for every optional holiday. He knew that because he had made fun of me for it plenty of times.

"Yeah, right." He said as if realising that himself. He walked past me, plonking himself down into one of the sofas near me. I raised an eyebrow to myself before placing a bookmark on my page and turning to him.

"Why are you still here?" I asked. Honestly, I expected him to turn his nose at me but he shrugged.

"My parents are too busy this year." said Draco, quietly and mumbling. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost, but not quite. Not sure what to say after that, I turned back to the fire and pretending to read my book.

It was a weird moment. He hadn't called me a house traitor or insulted me in any way. If I hadn't known him and everything he'd done to me, I might have asked if he wanted to talk but I wasn't that stupid.

"I heard you was in the hospital wing." He said after a short while. I turned to him again and nodded.

"Yeah, for a bit." I answered, unsure what to say.

"I heard you wasn't eating." He added. I closed my book properly this time and stood up. I moved from my seat to the sofa opposite his and placed my book on the small coffee table between us.

"Do you want something?" I asked. He shook his head. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No." He replied quickly.

"Then why are you talking to me? You hate me." I pressed, trying to make some sense of the weird conversation we were having.

He didn't answer.

"I was in the hospital wing because I wasn't eating because I couldn't sit at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall at mealtimes because people like you harassed me." I explained spitefully and he nodded slightly, showing me he understood. I wasn't sure why I had told him that, but I was sure it was something he could have figured out. It wasn't news.

"I was in the hospital wing before that because I was attacked, just up there." I continued, pointing towards the girls dorms.

"I was in the hospital wing last year because you locked me inside a cupboard with a boggart and traumatised me." I was letting something out that I never thought I would get to say to him. "Does that answer all your questions?"

As if speechless, he nodded.

"Good," I picked up my book and headed towards the girls dormitories. Before I went up the steps, I turned back to him. "Merry Christmas, Draco."

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