You meet up with Harry again, but this time your objective is to get him to hand over his invisibility cloak.
~~~
The rest of the week dragged by. Even in your classes, where you had inexplicably begun to excel—and with your friends, and in Quidditch practices—your mind was always preoccupied by the task you had looming before you that weekend.
You honestly would've preferred one of the Triwizard Tournament tasks to this—at least with dragons there was no risk of being expelled or thrown in Azkaban at a record-breaking eighteen years old.
Every time you shut your eyes you saw Dumbledore's face. Or worse, your parents—and the reactions you knew they would have if you were caught. Your face would be plastered all over every newspaper in the Wizarding World—and once your cell door in Azkaban shut, you knew you'd never see the light of day again.
And you still had to get Harry to let you borrow his Invisibility Cloak.
Everyone knew he had one—he'd bragged about it to Ron and Hermione. And it was also sort of obvious that Harry didn't always have the best judgement, which meant he'd told them all about his cloak in the middle of the Great Hall.
You knew he had one, and you also knew he was fiercely protective of it—which meant you would have to come up with a very convincing lie to get Harry to let you borrow it.
"How's he going to know you aren't lying?" Draco asked when you presented the idea to him.
"I'm going to pull out two vials, one's going to have Veritaserum and the other's going to have water," you informed him. "I'm going to drink the water and Harry's going to drink the Veritaserum. That way he's going to think the both of us are being forced to tell the truth, but I'm going to be lying through my teeth."
Draco smirked as he leaned back in his chair. "You're the smartest Slytherin I've ever met," he said with a chuckle. "I'm so fucking lucky you're mine."
Your heart swelled at the unexpected words, but you didn't let your expression show that.
"Do you already have Veritaserum?" Draco asked then, and you nodded. "Starting back in third year, I just started brewing some. I've got like six vials in my room, just in case."
Draco's eyes widened. "Have you ever used them on me?"
"No," you responded quickly. "They're only for emergencies."
Draco nodded.
You sighed, turning around and pulling your books off of Draco's desk into your bag. "I've got classes, and I'm going to be hanging out with Harry tonight," you said pointedly, watching as annoyance flitted across Draco's face at just the sound of the Gryffindor boy's name. "This means don't get jealous," you continued, looking intently into Draco's eyes.
"I never get jealous," Draco lied, folding his hands behind his head as he looked up at you.
"Sure, you just broke Cedric's nose for fun," you said, playfully rolling your eyes.
"Of course," Draco said, like it should've been obvious. Then he laughed, standing from his chair and making his way over to you.
"You know I only get that way because I haven't had anyone I was scared to lose since Pansy," he said quietly, and you nodded mutely.
"I just—my dad still doesn't know you exist in my life. He thinks your whole family is just full of blood-traitors, and—"
"Blood-traitors?" you asked, appalled by the mere mention of the word. "How in the fucking world are we blood-traitors?"
Draco shrugged. "I mean, at the very least, you aren't a blood-traitor anymore, with the Mark and all, but—"
"Anymore!?" you cried. "So you used to think I was a fucking blood-traitor?"
Draco's eyes widened, surprised by your sudden outburst. "I didn't say that, y/n."
You huffed, outraged at how coolly and nonchalantly Draco had dropped that bomb on you. A fucking blood-traitor. Just because your family hadn't jumped on the Voldemort bandwagon didn't mean they had soiled their pure bloodline. You were magic to the core, ever since the beginning. Your brother had been the only anomaly, and he'd been kept hidden for years due to that.
You sighed as you slung your bookbag over your shoulder, shaking your head at Draco's protests as you left his room.
"I've got classes, Draco, we'll finish this conversation later," you said as you turned to hurry down the stairs to the Common Room.
You found yourself in your Defense Against the Dark Arts class, sat next to Harry as you usually did, opening your books to begin learning about Unforgivable Curses.
"Are you alright, y/n?" Harry asked, leaning over to look at you more closely. You supposed your body language had given off the vibe that you were less-than-stellar.
A thought popped into your head as you looked back at him, and you let your shoulders slump as you sighed once more. "Not really," you said quietly, even as Lupin began the lecture up in the front of the class. "Draco and I broke up last night."
Despite it being a complete lie, you watched as Harry perked up nearly immediately. "I—I'm sorry y/n," he hurried out. "That's awful. What happened?"
"He's mad that I kept hanging out with you," you admitted, twirling a strand of hair in your fingers. You felt inexplicably stupid doing that, but you hoped it would help anyway. "So I broke up with him, because I told him he didn't get to decide who I could and couldn't spend time with."
Harry's shoulders squared a little more evenly when you said that, and you knew without a doubt that your plan had already begun to work.
"He's a dick, y/n," Harry said bluntly. "You deserve better."
You nodded, though you felt slight anger at Harry's words flowing through your body. "I could use a broom ride this afternoon, if you were up to it?"
Harry's smile was immediate and bright, and he nodded enthusiastically. "Sure, y/n!" he said, a little too loudly as Lupin shot a glare back at the two of you.
"I'd love to," he continued, his voice barely above a whisper as he continued to talk to you.
You smiled in what you hoped was an inviting way as you turned back to the lecture. "It's a date, then."
And you didn't turn back to look at Harry, but you could see even from your peripheral vision that the boy had turned redder than his tie.
~~~
The rest of your classes seemed to zip by. You had even managed to focus on something that wasn't killing Dumbledore for like, an entire half hour.
So by the time you met Harry on the Quidditch pitch after classes yet again, your mood had raised quite a bit.
"Good to see you smiling, y/n," the Gryffindor boy commented as you came up to meet him. You opened your arms to hug the boy, and he froze for a second before lunging to return the favor, the hug ending up tighter than you'd expected.
The tips of his ears were turning red once more as he adjusted his glasses once he let go of you, and the two of you turned to board your brooms wordlessly.
You felt a bit guilty for feeling nothing romantic for the boy who had clearly caught feelings for you, but you reminded yourself that this was essentially being required of you—that you would find a way to make up for this eventually. Once the war was over, you told yourself, you would make up for this.
The two of you took to the skies the same way you always had, but this time, instead of making a beeline for the Astronomy Tower, you zipped over to the Black Lake, touching down far sooner than you normally did on a broom ride.
Well, Harry touched down on purpose, you simply followed him, your curiosity peaked.
"Fancy a swim, y/n?" he called over to you as you dropped your broom gently on the bank.
You glanced over at him incredulously, not entirely sure if he was serious or not.
"Harry, I don't have anything to swim in," you protested, but the brunette boy shrugged as he pulled off his shirt, laying his glasses down on top of the fabric.
"So?" he asked. "You're a fourth-year, you know the Arefacio Charm. Just go in your underwear."
You felt your face heat up at the thought of harry seeing you nearly naked. He had a point, you did know the charm necessary to dry your clothes off once you came out of the water, so you didn't really have another excuse.
So with a sigh and an order for Harry to turn himself around, you stripped to your underwear and walked into the water until you were covered up to your upper arms, trying to ignore the prickling cold water. You were grateful you'd remembered to cover up your Dark Mark with Juniper's makeup that morning. She'd been so excited when you lied to her and said you were starting to wear makeup regularly, she hadn't even noticed when you left your dorm room with none of it on your face.
"You can turn around now," you said to Harry, watching as he quickly did so. His eyes were glued to your bare skin, and you had half a mind to use your arms to simply cover yourself up.
"Sorry," he said then, snapping himself out of his reverie. "You're just really pretty."
You blushed despite yourself. You never really heard those words from Draco, so it was nice to know someone thought you were attractive.
"Thanks, Harry," you said simply.
He smiled brightly, and next thing you knew he'd pulled you underwater.
You came up blubbering and gasping, shoving Harry even as he laughed.
You pushed hair out of your face to try to pull him underwater after you, but your hands were too wet and his arm slipped right out of your grasp.
You playfully yelled then, lunging forward and jumping right into him. His arms were outstretched to grab you, but the two of you still fell backwards into the water, not doing much more than getting both of you wet all over again.
You came up laughing this time, considering this your one victory.
"You got me, y/n," Harry admitted, pushing his own wet hair out of his face. "Nice one."
You laughed loudly as he held his hand up for a high-five, one you gladly gave.
The two of you spent the better part of two hours splashing around in the water, swimming and generally just having fun together.
Once you finally climbed out of the lake, the sun had begun its descent, or at least it looked like it had. You picked up your wand, saying a simple "Arefacio!" and watching your hair and underwear dry immediately.
"I don't know what I'd do without magic," you said with a chuckle as you and Harry both pulled your clothes on. "Life would become way too inconvenient for me."
Harry laughed as he put his glasses back on. "I feel that. And I can't even practice magic outside of school."
The two of you went to dinner together once again, something you'd been doing more with him than with Draco lately. You assumed that was the biggest thing fueling the rumors about the two of you, but as long as Harry was ignoring them, you were ignoring them.
"Say, Harry, do you think I could borrow your Invisibility Cloak this weekend?" you asked nonchalantly as the two of you finished up your dinner.
He looked at you quizzically, but you considered yourself lucky that his gaze wasn't suspicious.
"What do you need it for?" he asked, and your brain kicked into gear at hearing the question you'd been expecting.
"I have a feeling Draco was seeing someone on the side, and I wanted to hide in his room for a little bit this weekend to see if he brought anyone new into it," you admitted with a sigh. "I can get myself out of the room if I end up being right, and I'll return it by Sunday morning—I just want to know if there's any hope for us, or if I need to force myself to move on."
Harry sighed, looking down at his nearly empty plate. "Y/N, you know I would, but I really just need proof that you're telling the truth first," he said with a slight frown. "And I hate to make it sound like I don't trust you, but with everything going on—and my cloak being a gift from my dad—I just don't want to let it fall into the wrong hands."
You nodded, bringing out the two vials in your robe pocket. "That's why I brought these along," you said quickly.
You went through the whole spiel of brewing it in your third year, keeping six or so vials around in case you found yourself in a situation like this, and telling Harry this would help the both of you trust each other a bit more.
Harry nodded. "Okay, then. We can take them in the Gryffindor Common Room and talk about it there."
You followed him there once the two of you had finished dinner, and you were surprised at just how many stairs existed in Hogwarts. You had never really had a reason to go to the upper heights of the castle, since your dormitory and Common Room were in the dungeons, so it surprised you how much climbing the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws really had to do.
"Okay, hand me my Veritaserum," Harry said, holding out a hand as Ron entered the room.
"Bloody hell, Harry, what's a Slytherin doing in here?" he asked, looking you up and down. "It's y/n? Didn't she ditch you for Malfoy?"
Harry shot him a glare, shaking his head and trying to explain the whole situation to him as quickly as possible. You tried to appear upset and embarrassed by Harry sharing the fake story you had fed him earlier, and it was all you could do to hope you looked convincing and not just downright weird.
"Alright, well, go on then," Ron said, his voice betraying how unsure he still sounded about the state you two were in.
Nodding once, you handed Harry the vial of Veritaserum, and popped open your vial of water.
The two of you shook three drops each into your mouths, and you mimicked Harry's grimace as the liquid hit his tastebuds.
"Okay, y/n," he breathed out. He looked up at you, opening his mouth to speak. "I consider you one of my best friends and I really want to be able to trust you, and that and the fact that I fancy you are the only reasons I'm willing to lend you my Invisibility Cloak."
Ron's eyes widened quite a bit as he looked back at you, awaiting your answer.
You pinched the outside of your leg as harshly as you could, causing tears to begin to spring to your eyes. You sniffled a bit as you opened your own mouth, spilling the lies you had been practicing the whole day through.
"Draco broke my heart," you blubbered, "and I just want to see if he had been cheating on me on top of it. I want to sneak into his room and see if there's evidence he was cheating on me, because I want to know for sure whether or not I should move on."
Harry sighed as he looked back at you. "I believe you," he said then, and you knew it was the truth because of the actual Veritaserum making its way through his veins. You smiled slightly, not wanting to give away anything that might make it seem like you hadn't been truthful.
"I will lend you my Invisibility Cloak, but will you take the best care of it possible?" he asked, and you glanced between him and Ron, whose jaw may as well have been on the floor.
"I will protect it with my life," you said quickly, and that was the first thing you'd said that hadn't been a lie.
Harry looked up at you, sighing one more time. "I trust you, y/n," he said earnestly. "Because you took the Veritaserum for me to prove you weren't lying to me."
You felt a twinge of guilt at his statement, because you knew you would've been willing to take actual Veritaserum had you not wanted his cloak to get away with killing the headmaster of the school.
So instead you nodded, and when Harry walked over to you to hug you, you held on to him more tightly than you normally would have.
He told you to stay where you were, and you listened, remembering Harry actually shared his room with Ron, unlike Draco, who lived alone. You absentmindedly wondered once more how much the Malfoy family had shelled out to ensure that.
Harry returned only moments later, the shimmery blanket-like object in his hands.
"The fact that I'm trusting you with this means a lot, y/n," he spoke again, and you knew that it was true because he was still under the effects of the Veritaserum.
"Thank you, Harry," you responded. "It means a lot to me that you're trusting me with something so precious to you." Lies had begun to mingle with truth at this point, you weren't sure how much longer you could keep up this charade.
Ron still seemed flabbergasted by the whole exchange. He simply shook his head and turned around, heading for the boys' dormitory.
Harry handed you the cloak, and you took it gingerly. It was softer than you had expected it to be, and the silver shimmer was subtle, but definitely still there.
"I want to kiss you, y/n," came Harry's voice, and you shot up to see the Gryffindor boy's face turning as red as his tie once again.
"I didn't mean to say that out loud," he admitted, and you knew both statements had been forced out by the Veritaserum still in his system. It would take a few hours for him to get it all the way out, which meant he would have a hard time not speaking any painful or embarrassing truths that popped into his head.
"What about Ginny?" you blurted out, smacking your hand over your mouth immediately. You were grateful that Ron had already left the room, or Harry would've had a lot to explain.
"I—she's sort of gone back to Dean Thomas," he admitted. "He isn't, you know, being hunted by Lord Voldemort."
The mention of his name made your Dark Mark twinge ever so slightly, and you resisted the urge to cover your forearm with your hand, even though it was already covered, both with makeup and your clothing.
"I'm sorry, Harry," you said, wondering whether or not you actually meant that one. You didn't want him to be unhappy, but you also didn't want him to catch feelings for you again.
"C-can I kiss you, then?" he asked sheepishly, his face still beet red.
You wanted to tell him no, you knew Draco was waiting for you back in his Slytherin dorm. But you didn't have a reason to tell the Gryffindor boy no, and you also knew you had to keep his trust as long as possible.
So when Harry moved forward and placed his lips on yours, you kissed him back, wondering what this would mean for you and Draco, and more importantly, for you and Harry.
You stayed silent as you traveled back to the Slytherin Common Room that evening, the only thought on your mind being what Draco would do if/when he found out about what happened.
You decided not to tell him. It wasn't like Harry would tell him, Harry thought you and Draco had broken up.
But even as you crawled into bed that night, the Invisibility Cloak hanging safely in your wardrobe, you couldn't shake the feeling that you'd just messed everything up.
~~~
A/N: Hi, it's Autumn.. again! Please don't get mad at y/n! This is all *for the cause*
Anyway, I'm planning on wrapping up fourth year in the next couple of chapters. I want to move the storyline along, with both y/n and Draco's relationship, and with the Voldemort/Harry potter subplot lmao.
But I hope you guys liked this chapter!!! <3