〘 chapter x: MORTAL ENEMIES〙
"He's not that bad."
Silence.
"You're not really Harry Potter are you?" Harry started to laugh as Ginny said this. "I'm serious. There's no way you're Harry. Who are you? Why aren't you complaining about how much hair gel Malfoy uses or how he's always so rude and sarcastic?"
"Like I said, he's not that bad." Harry said.
"You've been mortal enemies for years now Harry." Ron snapped, making Harry lose his smile. "And now you're what? Friends? Bloody mates?"
"Ron, it's not a bad..."
"Not a bad thing?" Ron demanded, standing and glaring at his friends. "He's an asshole. All of them are assholes." He said through his teeth. Ron had been more... Volatile as of late. Ginny was constantly sending owls out to their parents about his behavior and everyone kept urging him to talk to someone, anyone about how he was feeling but Ron always... Shut down.
"Ron I know you're upset about what Pansy said but..."
"But nothing." Ron hissed. "You heard what she said. Everyone heard what she fucking said." Ron spat out.
"You were edging each other on." Hermione said gently. "Pansy's a nasty piece of work but so were you that night. You basically... It was like you were accusing them of... Starting the war. We're just teenagers Ron. We shouldn't have had to fight for anything."
"But we did fight. We fought and we won and they still act like they're better than us." Ron said with a scowl. "Why did they even come back? Why did McGonagall allow this?" Nobody had any good answers. "The Slytherins are bad. All of them."
"Andromeda Tonks was a Slytherin." Harry said softly. He had just received a letter from her recently with a picture of Teddy who was squealing in the photo, hair changing from blue to pink and back again. Harry had the picture in his sweater pocket right now.
"So was Merlin." Hermione reminded him.
"Pucey, from the Quidditch team." Ginny said. "He was one of the only players on the team who never tried to cheat. I would know, I analyzed their moves."
"Adelaide Murton was a friend of mine before she left two years back." Luna said lightly. "She cursed out some rather... Ruder older boys from her house so they would leave me alone." Ron didn't look impressed.
"I can't believe you're all defending them." He said with a sneer.
"Ron, we're not defending what Pansy said. We all hate what she said too." Hermione said, touching his shoulder lightly. "But you can't just say... All Slytherins are bad because that's not true. It's not like... All Gryffindors are good or all Ravenclaws love school. Those are just stereotypes."
"Well it's true."
"Stereotypes are never true." Hermione said.
"Yeah well Harry can fuck off for all I care. I'm not going to apologize for hating Malfoy or any of them." Ron said.
"You don't have to apologize. Nothings wrong with being angry." Harry said. "But I'm still going to talk to him and hangout with him. There's nothing wrong with getting to know him." Ron scoffed.
"Yeah, that's what you think. I bet he's plotting our downfall as we speak." Ron grumbled. Harry sighed as Ron began to gather his things and leave the courtyard. Harry ran one hand through his dark hair and sighed. He knew telling his friends about his and Draco's... New found friendship would be hard but he didn't think it would be this hard.
"So... When do you and Malfoy hangout?" Neville asked, confused. "I've never seen you two together." Harry shrugged.
"We've met in the library a couple of times and we talk in class all the time." Harry pursed his lips. "I think both of us find this a little weird so we don't really talk to one another when there's a lot of people around." Harry locked eyes with Draco across the yard. The blond boy was smirking, like he could hear their conversation. "Anyways it's not really a big deal. We just talk. At least we're not trying to kill one another."
"It is a step up." Ginny said with a sigh. Harry looked to Draco again. He was still staring at Harry, clearly ignoring whatever Pansy was saying.
"Yeah... It is." Draco watched Harry blush red.
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"Hey prat." Draco said, sitting next to Harry in the library.
"Jerk." Harry grumbled. Draco snickered, pulling out a quill and a sheet of parchment. Harry watched him scratch his name out on the top before twirling the quill between his fingers. Harry wasn't lying when he said Draco and him would often come to the library. Sometimes they just sat next to each other and did homework. It was a weird ritual they had acquired for Wednesdays. "Do your friends hate me?" Draco looked over at Harry, eyebrow arched.
"Of course." Harry huffed.
"You couldn't have lied?" Harry said.
"I'm not a lair." Draco said. Harry made a face. "Why?"
"It's just... Well Ron is still pissed. I told my friends we hang out and that you're sort of my friend now and they..."
"Sort of your friend? I'm offended. We shook hands." Harry chuckled.
"I was trying to downplay it so I wouldn't freak them out." Harry said. "But Ron was pissed anyways." Harry pursed his lips.
"Well, if he's expecting an apology from Pansy, he's going to have to wait for the rest of his life. Pansy is never sorry about anything." Harry sighed.
"Yeah, I know and it's not even... I don't even really think it's Pansy he's mad at he just hates the whole of Slytherin House now." Draco snorted and opened his book.
"What? Like he sort of liked us before?"
"No but... He tolerated the Slytherins. Now it's like... He just thinks you're all the bad guys."
"Well, it's not like he's wrong. We're notoriously bad people." Harry could tell Draco was trying to lighten the mood, get him to laugh. It was sort of working. Harry smirked.
"Especially you." He said. Draco put his quill down and looked to Harry with a solemn expression.
"Say that to my face Potter."
"You're notoriously a bad person."
"Fuck you." Harry snickered.
"Yeah, why not." He said, rolling his eyes and completely oblivious to what he just said. Draco on the other hand was not oblivious and instantly reddened. Harry continued to talk as if nothing was wrong. "I just don't get... I mean we told him a short list of people who were in Slytherin and weren't bad people but he wasn't convinced." Draco shrugged.
"Weasley just needs some time. He lost his brother. He still hasn't processed all of it properly. Eventually he'll stop acting so much... Like me." Draco said with a smirk. Harry didn't smile though.
"That was really nice of you to say." Draco's cheeks turned pink.
"Yeah well... Whatever." Draco muttered, clearing his throat. "Stop distracting me. I'm trying to work." He said. Harry smiled and turned back to his own homework.
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Draco was humming as he strolled back to the Slytherin eighth year portion of the castle. It was a secret door down from the main Slytherin dorms and common room. It was a part of the Slytherin House where a lot of overflow students would go and right now, overflow consisted of the handful of Slytherins who had returned to finish their final year. Despite what Ron and the others thought, a couple of Slytherins had actually stayed behind to help fight against Voldemort. The ones who survived were now trudging through their final year with deep mental and emotional scars weighing on them.
Draco entered the room he shared with Blaise and was surprised to find his friend still awake and staring at him. "What?" Draco said in a deadpan voice, hoping Blaise hadn't heard him humming. No such luck.
"What's been up with you lately?"
"I don't know what you mean." Draco said cooly.
"I mean you're acting weird. Weird even for you. Were you humming just now? I've never heard you hum."
"Never had much to hum about." Draco said with a shrug. Blaise shook his head.
"No, somethings up with you. Where do you go at night? You're gone for hours at a time."
"How would you know?" Draco said. "You're always at Pansy's dorm breaking the rules. How did you even manage to unspell the doorknobs?"
"I didn't unspell the doorknobs." Blaise said. Draco expected him to explain his step-by-step formula on how he got past the gender locked knobs but Blaise said nothing.
"Well I just go to my tower. I've told you about this. It helps me clear my head."
"You're way too happy for someone who has stayed up a couple extra hours just to be alone with their thoughts." Blaise said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Just go to sleep bastard." Draco said.
"I will but I still want to know what's making you so goddamn happy." Draco swallowed hard as his best friend finished getting ready for bed. All Draco could was think,
You'll learn who is making me happy over my dead body."