Harry nodded, that was probably the best idea, at least then he could defend himself a little. Harry wasn’t sure he could handle defending him against almost everyone in the house, besides it was bound to be a surprise if he was to defend him “Well, you’re going to have to do it soon or later, might as well just get it done now” he said

Once he could hear the voices, he could tell it wasn’t going over well, but that had been what he expected. He expected a few to be calm about it, while the others would be rash and voice their opinion on the matter, although there wasn’t anything they could do about it honestly, Dumbledores decision was absolute.

Harry watched him step from the room and remained behind for a moment to see what he had to say. He thought about letting him talk to them for a moment to see if he could do it himself, but he wasn’t going to leave Draco out to dry.

With a deep breath he stepped out of the room, and moved next to him, which seemed to earn a lot of shocked expressions on their face what he had been expecting to say the least “Because if I can make up with him, and be his friend you should all be able to as well” he said

“Part of growing up is learning how to forgive, or are you all going to remain childish and hold grudges that really have nothing to do with us, sure he has said things, but he honestly hasn’t done anything to half of you, you just dis-like because of who he is” He said.

He knew Draco couldn’t have directly hurt all of them, for the most part it concentrated around him, Ron, Hermione, And the other Weasley’s and if they could move on from it, they should be able to move on to.

[[Huum, we could both play certain people, or you can just continue, doesn’t matter to me much]]

((Cool, I'll run with it until I run out of steam. :D))

---

The Gryffindors were clearly shocked at Harry's pronouncement. Draco was, too. It was... eloquent. Inspirational and eloquent, and Draco found himself understanding suddenly why Harry was able to make people follow him so easily. It was easy to look up to him. He was, in the very true sense of the word, heroic. He took risks other people wouldn't, he trusted where his instincts told him to, and he wasn't afraid of what other people would think. Harry always did the right thing, even if it meant turning friends into enemies.

"Thanks," he said to Harry, and squeezed his shoulder. Draco could have kissed him, but... well, there was already enough to deal with. Coming out to the Gryffindors would simply not be a good thing, especially now. At least one person would probably insist that Draco was holding Harry in some kind of cursed thrall.

"Thanks, Harry," Draco repeated, a little more loudly for the benefit of the crowd, which was still gaping at Harry.

"Harry," said one of the Weasley twins finally, "you're barking mad."

Everyone laughed, a little nervously.

"But," continued the twin, "you've been through a lot, and if you choose to trust this swotty little git"—and he grinned mischievously at Draco—"I'm willing to give him a try, too." The twin strode forward and held a hand out to Draco, who, letting his shoulders sag in relief, held his own out to shake.

As soon as their hands met, Draco felt his skin rippling. His feet seemed to suddenly be the wrong shape, and he itched all over. He opened his mouth to cry, "What the hell?" but all that came out was a squawk. He stared down at his body in horror and saw that he was absolutely covered in bright yellow feathers, and his feet had turned into three-toed claws.

"Transfiguration powder!" the two twins were shouting. "Only two galleons an ounce! Turn your victim into a random overlarge avian!"

Draco saw that the Gryffindors were all howling with laughter, and some of them actually thumping their thighs. McGonagall was spluttering, clearly trying to get control of her laughter and reprimand the twins.

Draco turned helplessly to Harry, holding out his arms—which were now wings covered in the same bright yellow feathers—as if to ask, "What should I do?"

“No problem” Harry said as he glanced back at Draco with a smile. It was the least he could do, after all he couldn’t just let him do it on his own, everyone needed one friend to stand behind them and have their back when things hit the bottom. And right now for him, things were certainly far from the top.

Harry watched there shocked expressions, good maybe he would cause them to rethink and give him a chance. He was a bit surprised when Fred, or was it George? He didn’t really know which one it was honestly, he could never tell. He hadn’t expected them to be the first ones, to step up and be the bigger person, maybe they weren’t as immature as they seemed to be. But just as he thought that, they clearly proved him wrong. He gritted his teeth, trying not to say something he would regret, which was very hard to do at the moment.

Harry sighed as he looked over at the twins, obviously they were the most immature ones of the group right now, to use such a moment to sell a product needless to say he was pretty ticked off “Fred, George, honestly I don’t care who’s who right now, but fix it” He said.

“And honestly like you just did right now wasn’t wrong, either you aren’t perfect nor is anyone” He said. He had to resist the urge to yell at them, honestly they were older than him and he clearly had a better head then they did. He could tell he knew how to handle situations better than they did, something he valued, that he had a level head and wasn’t immature.


[[I was thinking of bring in Neville, He would trust Harry, and maybe Dean and Shemus, although they probably wouldn't]]

((Sure, Neville's always surprising!))

---

Draco tried, via an avian squawk, to express his gratitude to Harry and his indignation to the twins.

"Don't get your britches in a knot, Harry," said one of the twins. "It'll fade in a few seconds."

And indeed it did -- no less than ten seconds later, Draco's skin stopped itching, and with a poof the feathers exploded off him and vanished.

Draco gasped with relief.

"Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall said, sounding angry but also like she was still laughing inside. "That was completely uncalled for!"

"No it wasn't, Professor," said the twin innocently. "I'm testing a timeless Gryffindor quality: Can Draco Malfoy take a joke?" He turned to stare wide-eyed at Draco.

Draco, who was mostly feeling relieved that he wasn't stuck as a bird, actually felt himself grinning back. "Yes, he can," he said. "But it does itch, you know."

"Oh, we know," the twin answered easily. "We can't seem to solve that problem. But since the transformation only lasts thirty seconds or less, depending on body weight—"

"Mr. Weasley!" exclaimed McGonagall. "You will apologize to Mr. Malfoy right now!"

"No, no," Draco said hurriedly. "What with all the horrible things I've done over the years," and he winced slightly, "being turned into a bright yellow bird is getting off lightly. I don't mind. It was harmless."

McGonagall pursed her lips. "Well," she said, with an air of finality. "Well, I guess... Mr. Weasley, if I see any students turning into birds in class, it will be you who gets in trouble for it. Keep that in mind when trying to make money off of lessons I've taught you! Oh, and I'll be contacting you shortly about royalties, too." With that final, surprising remark, she left the common room, and Draco was left to face the horde of Gryffindors on his own.

Well, at least he wasn't a bird anymore.

Harry sighed, well at least they had managed to add humor to a tense situation he would give them that much. “Fine” He said. Maybe what they had done wasn’t so bad after all, everyone seemed a bit calm and they weren’t as angry and vocal as they had been before.

There they went again trying to make money, were they willing to use any situation to help their business. He couldn’t help but laugh at what McGonagall had said “Maybe doing that in front of her wasn’t a good idea, now you’re going to have to share the money” He said

“Well now back to more important business, Draco” he said and glanced over at the other Gryffindor’s, waiting for them to say something.

Hermione looked over at him, it seemed like he needed all the help he could get “I already promised, that I would give him a chance” She said and walked over and stood next to Harry as if symbolizing that she was on their side.

Harry glanced at the others, wondering if anyone else was willing to give him a chance, it seemed like hopefully they were thinking about it, which hopefully they would agree once others did

“Um, I trust Harry so I’m willing as well” Neville said as he walked over to them

Good old Neville, you could always trust him to do the right thing, he might not be the brightest wizard but he was certainly one the nicest and most trust worthy ones of all.

“This is stupid, there’s no way someone like him can change it’s in his blood, your all being stupid, he’s just going to stab you in the back” Shemus said “Besides Harry doesn’t have a very good record anymore does he, lying and all” He said

Harry decided against defending himself, this wasn’t about him, this was about Draco, and honestly he was more important right now.

"What do you mean, lying?" Draco said, flaring up at Seamus. "You don't think You-Know-Who is back?" He was appalled and angry. How could anyone doubt it? Didn't they notice the disappearances? Hadn't they seen the signs?

Draco stepped forward, towards Seamus, and poked a finger towards him. Seamus flinched, but Draco ignored that and said, "Look around, man! People are disappearing all over the place! And didn't you hear about the rampaging giant up north? That was You-Know-Who's work! And for those who truly doubt me, I have a letter—" His voice shook, but he continued, "I have a letter that bears the Dark Mark, sitting in my bag. Anyone who wants to see it is welcome to."

Harry glanced back at Draco, he didn't want this to turn into a war zone. He didn't want Draco to make enemies over him, that was far from what he wanted. "Draco it's not worth it" He said with a smile as he looked over at Seamus to see his reaction.

"If he really was back, the Ministry would be taking precautions even they aren't that dumb, no one but Harry was there, no one but him knows what happened" He said "OH yeah like were going to trust that the letter is real, from you" He said

Harry sighed, this wasn't going to turn out good, he looked at Draco and gave him a sort of 'Just drop it and let it be' look. He didn't want this to turn into anything, big, besides it was his battle not Draco's. He leaned in closer to Draco and whispered into his ear "You want to make friends not make them hate you more"

Draco liked the feeling of Harry whispering into his ear, but couldn't enjoy it at the moment. His shoulders sagged. "Right," he said quietly. "Make friends."

"In any case," he continued to the group of Gryffindors, "whether or not you believe me isn't important. All that matters is that I'm now a part of this house, and I'd like to get along with you all." He tried to sound sincere, but knew his words were thin and clichéd. "I know I've done some horrible things to a lot of you in the past—" and he looked straight at Ron —"and if there's any way I can make amends, I'm happy to try."

[[Is that thing with Ron going to happen now? Or later on?
And if you do want to, are you going to play him for this scene?]]

Harry looked at him and smiled "Good, because what they say about me doesn't matter anyway" He said. Though it was Ironic, once a hero and now he was a liar. He had once stood on a pedestal and now they had kicked him off of it, figuratively anyway, and he hadn't changed an ounce since they all first meet.

Harry could here the mumbles of people figuring out if they should believe him or not, which they were thinking about it which was good. The fact that they were thinking meant a lot, if they didn't think about it, it meant there was no doubt, but once doubt was there it would be easy

"Ron" he said softly and waited to see his reaction, if he would just walk off, or if he was going to say something. He was hoping he would remember what he had talked to him about before, hopefully anyway

((I think Ron'll be later. After all, he usually lets things stew and then flares up unexpectedly. :D In that case, did you want to control what Ron says to Harry? I'll wait for your response before posting.))

[[Well if he's going to stew on it, I think it'd be best for him to just walk away and say nothing]]

((Okay, I'll do it then.))

---

Ron simply gave Harry an angry, anguished look, and ran from the common room up a flight of stairs Draco presumed led to the boys' dormitories. Draco shrugged. "He has every right to be angry with me," he said. "I've no right to expect him to simply forgive me easily."

He turned to the mass of Gryffindors, and to Seamus especially. They were still staring at him, some with curiosity, some with hatred, and many with a kind of bubbling righteousness. "Well," he said, "I guess I'll just get started on my homework." And he turned to walk back into his new room.

[[I can add it into my post if you would like, not that hard to do]]

((I just did it...))

[[Okaay~]]

At least he hadn't started a fight, his reaction was way better than what he had expected it to be, it wasn't exactly a great reaction but it wasn't horrible either. He knew with Ron though, sometimes he sat on things before he exploded and when he did it was horrible. "He'll come around, like he always does" He said with a soft smile

Harry glanced at him for a moment, wondering if he should follow him up. After a second he decided to, he just wanted to make sure he was okay he would leave him to do his homework, once he knew that much. He made his way up and looked at him "I'll talk to them again, they will come around trust me" He said with a smile "But are you okay?" he asked

Draco nodded with his back to Harry. "Yeah," he said, feeling his throat tighten. "I'm fine." It was an absolute lie. He felt horrible. He felt really crappy. He felt guilty and remorseful and worried about what others thought about him for the first time in his life. "I'll be fine," he said, which was a little more truthful. "Come in and visit me whenever you want," he said, walking through the open door of his room and turning to close it.

He saw Harry then, looking anxious and caring, and his heart began to pound. He really hoped he could make things work with Harry, whether as a friend or—he barely dared think it, looking into Harry's eyes—lover. But first things first: he had to get through the night, and that involved his now incredibly-mundane-seeming homework.

With a last smile at his brand new friend, Draco gently closed the door.

He didn't believe his words once he heard them, but he wasn't about to argue with him. He would let him come to terms with it on his own unless he needed help with this. "Alright, if you need me you know where to find me" He said with a soft smile. Once he closed the door, he made his way back downstairs to the common room, things had seemed to be calm now, good.

Once Harry got downstairs he found Neville "Hey, thanks for before" He said with a smile. He knew Neville was one of the few who had a strong sense of friendship, and one of the few that was his friend for him and not because of what he had gone through.

"No problem, after all, I trust your judgment and believe you" He said as he turned around and walked away

Hearing those words meant a lot to him now more than ever. It seemed like almost no one trusted him these days, but that didn't matter anymore.

Harry glanced over at a clock, it was getting late he should head to bed. He already had all his homework done, from his previous night of no sleep and he was dead tired.

((Oh, a bit of "geography" — I've been envisioning Draco's room right off the common room, as it has to be on a level with the corridor with the entrance, too. That way we can in the future have an Awkward Scene When Harry Gets Caught Going Into Draco's Room. Is that okay with you?))

---

Draco sighed and turned toward his bag. Rather than reach in and take out his books and writing tools, he simply dumped the entire contents of the bag on the bed. Last thing to fall out was the letter, which began to smoke ominously when it landed on the red and gold bedspread. Clearly, the letter knew where it was. Did that mean You-Know-Who knew where Draco was? Draco felt a moment of sudden panic before remembering that Hogwarts was probably the safest place for anyone to be these days—excepting, of course, the students.

Thinking about that made him realize that if he wasn't safe from the Slytherins, then Harry probably wasn't either. He knew several of the seventh years who had already killed—and killed people—with the Killing Curse, and they probably wouldn't hesitate to kill Harry Potter if they could get away with it. For that matter, it would be tempting for any one of them to martyr themselves for The Cause, as they considered it, and simply do away with Harry without regard for the consequences to themselves. The thought made Draco feel faint, and he sat down on the bed next to the smoking letter.

"Evanesco," he said, pointing his wand at the letter. It stayed firmly where it was. "EVANESCO," he repeated with more force. The letter stoppped smoking, but it didn't vanish as it ought to have. Draco wondered if it would erupt into flame eventually. Taking one of his books, Draco delicately pushed the letter off his bed and into the wastepaper basket that lay between bed and desk. It simply lay there, smoking. Well, he'd try to ignore it.

As for Harry, now that the two of them would be in every class together (Yay! he thought), Draco would keep an eye out and protect him.

With a tired sigh, Draco stacked his books on his desk and got out his homework.

With that Harry changed out of his clothes and got ready for bed. He didn't bother to look over at Ron or say anything, he could tell by the atmosphere he should avoid saying anything, besides right now all he wanted to do was sleep. He didn't want to have to go to sleep worrying about Draco, and then worrying about his friendship with Ron. Although he knew it to be pretty strong and he was sure nothing could come between them, well for long anyway, all great friends had fights, it was a sign that you were close.

Once he finished getting ready he laid down in bed only to find himself staring at the ceiling for a while, a bunch of different thoughts were stiring through his head at once, what was going to happen. How tomorrow would go, what if the Slytherins tried something, which he was sure they would.

Once his thoughts subsided, he fell asleep. He had the same dream as always, with Voldemort, but this time it was different. It wasn't the normal dream this time instead of Cedric, it was Draco who got killed for betraying him and his family, for going to the good side. He didn't die a fast death like Cedric had it was long and painful, and the worst part was that no matter what Harry tired to do in his dream, he just couldn't seem to save him. Instead he stood on the sidelines and watched him die, without doing anything. It all felt to real, to real indeed.

[[That's perfectly okay c:
I thought it would be interesting to switch up the night mare so Draco died c:]]

((I'll see if we can't steer this so that Harry's dreams are a bit prophetic... :P ))

---

Draco was relieved that the letter from You-Know-Who had finally exploded, exactly at midnight, in the dustbin, leaving little char marks on the side of Draco's desk, and foul-smelling smoke drifting around the room until Draco had opened his window, a tiny narrow slit in the thick, round wall. The Dark Lord would now know, he thought. He suspected there had been a spell on the letter to know whether Draco had replied to it. He was glad, though, that the letter wasn't some kind of spying device. Not that the Death Eaters needed one, he thought glumly, staring out the open window down at the bit of grounds he could see, which was vague dark patches, with a bit of what he thought was the forest visible at the edge.

Draco turned back to the books on his desk. He was exhausted; he'd thrown himself into the schoolwork with a passion that he hoped would distract him from his worries, and it had sort of worked. His history essay was two feet long, in tiny writing, and he'd spent a while editing the sentences into eloquently flowing prose, mostly saying nothing in particular. His Arithmancy chart was a carefully drawn masterpiece of calculations, and his rune translation featured some of the most beautiful characters he'd ever produced for the class. Maybe, he thought with a dark chuckle, it would be good for his grades, being this worried all the time.

Draco looked around his room, wondering where the bathroom was. Would he have to go out into the common room? Would anyone be there? Picking up his wand, he muttered "Hominem Revelio!" which ought to tell him if there was someone in the room. It came back positive. Crap, he thought, wondering which angry person he'd have to face.

With a sigh, he cracked the door and peaked out. He exhaled in relief; it was just a couple of first-year girls, working on what looked like Potions homework. Grabbing his small bag of toiletries, he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out.

"Er," he said, and the two of them jumped half a foot. "Sorry to scare you," he apologized. "Where's the bathroom?"

They both pointed silently a little to his left. He looked, and saw a door clearly labeled "Wizards" right next to his room. Well, that was good, he supposed. He'd at least not have far to go. He went in, did his business, washed, brushed his teeth, and came back out into the common room. The two girls were still there, and he could hear them talking.

"I just don't get it!" one of them was saying in quiet, desperate way. "Why does unicorn hair work like that?"

Her friend was obviously trying to explain something she instinctively understood but couldn't articulate. Draco, who remembered the assignment from his own first year, walked over.

"Having a little trouble?" he asked kindly.

They jumped again, but the one who was confused recovered quickly and said, "You're supposed to be really good at Potions, aren't you?"

Draco made a little noise of affirmation.

"Well, can you explain this?" she asked, pointing at a section in her book.

Draco could, and did. The girl's eyes went wide, and her face lit up in a big smile, as she finally understood it.

"That's what I was trying to tell her," said the other one, sounding a bit irritated.

"You didn't explain it like he did," said the one who had been confused. "You're really good at explaining things!" she said to Draco. "Can I ask you for help again?"

"Sure," said Draco. "But not now," he said reluctantly, yawning. "I need to go to sleep. You two should, as well!" he added, pointing at the large clock. "It's past midnight, and if you have Potions tomorrow, Snape won't want you yawning."

"Okay," they chorused, and began packing their stuff up.

Feeling much more optimistic, Draco went back to his room, shut the door, and went to sleep.

When he woke up, there was what he suspected would become the usual stain on his sheets. Damn, he thought. Well, at least the house-elves probably didn't know what he was dreaming about.

Harry tossed and turned all night, it seemed like he just had one bad dream after another. Every one felt so real, and made him feel so helpless, like he wasn't worth anything and couldn't help anyone. One of the nightmares caused him to shoot up in bed, it was horrible, and it felt so real. The only thing he wished was he had awoken sooner, so he didn't experience that last dream.

Harry sighed as he glanced over at the clock, there was still a good hour before people would start getting up to get ready, and a good two hours before classes actually started. He knew there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep now though, if he laid his head down again, it would just be bombarded with images of the previous nightmares, something he didn't want.

With a heavy sigh, he decided to get up and get ready. Might as well, get ready while it wasn't busy, he was awake anyway. Within thirty minutes he had showered, cleaned himself up and gotten dressed. Now that, that was done he honestly he had nothing to do, he supposed he could just sit in the common room for a while, read a newspaper or something.

Harry made his way into the common room and took a seat on the sofa, at least he wouldn't be distracting and wake anyone up. It was odd how quiet it was in the common room, especially when it had been so loud before.


[[I can leave some of his dreams -open ended- so they can turn into a prophecy-ish dream]]

Draco yawned, grabbed his toiletries kit and a change of clothes, and opened his bedroom door to go out and use the bathroom.

Harry was sitting on a sofa, looking wonderfully rumpled and bed-heady. Draco's mouth went dry, as his mind was still full of the images from his (highly erotic) dreams.

"Morning," Draco said, and knew that he croaked a bit. He cleared his throat and said it again. "Morning, Harry."

Harry looked over from what he was reading, he had to admit seeing Draco around the common room would take a little getting used to. Just like it would take getting used to seeing him in Gryffindor colors instead of his normal green color which he wouldn't admit but it did look great on him

"Good morning" he said as he looked at him and laughed a little "You look like a mess" he said honestly, but he was sure he looked like that when he first woke up to "Trying to avoid running into people by getting up early?" He asked

[[Ahh I'm off to bed, good night]]

"No," Draco replied, "I just... woke up early. Dreams," he said uninformatively. He gestured to the bathroom, trying to keep something in front of his nether regions to hide the bulge that was beginning to form. Harry looked unfairly cute. "I'm just going to shower..." and he trailed off as he walked stiffly to that door and went in.

Once inside, he found a shower stall—thankfully they had individual stalls, not a big common shower as he'd seen in some places—and turned the water on as cold as he could stand. It hurt, but it solved his problem. Damn, would he have to deal with this every morning? And if the dreams continued, he'd always need to shower in the morning, so he could hardly switch to an evening shower schedule.

Not that he minded running into Harry in the morning.

“Oh I know how that feels, although I’d say mine are more along the lines of nightmares” He said. So it seemed like he wasn’t the only one having problems with dreams or nightmares, it made him feel slightly better knowing he wasn’t the only one having issues with this “Alright” He said as he went back to reading.

He could hear the footsteps from upstairs now, it seemed like they were all getting up now and getting ready to go to class. It seemed like the weekend would never come, and once it did he was sure they would be loaded down with homework. But now that he thought about it, he would get the chance to see Draco all day, in every class and would get to spend a lot more time with him then he had been previously allowed. Just the thought of that made him extremely happy, plus he would be able to watch out for him in case the Slytherins or anyone else tried something.