Strange // Drarry

twelve

       "What if it is? Who would it be? And why?" Draco inquired. It's been a few days since we realized it must be a professor that cast the Redosus Charm. There was a large group of us sitting in the courtyard discussing the issue. Ron, Hermione, Blaise, Pansy, Draco, and I sat in a circle spit-balling ideas.

       "My money's on Mad Eye. He gives me the creeps." Ron complained. I rolled my eyes and looked at the others.

       "How about McGonagall? I mean, you found the file in her office. Who else could it be?" Pansy asked. Blaise and Hermione agreed with Pansy's thought.

      "I thought so too, but then I put two and two together. When classes first started this term, Draco and I went to Dumbledore to ask if he knew what was going on. He acted as if he had never heard of Redosus, but I didn't believe him." I explained. "But, I doubt he did it alone."

      "You mean, another professor helped?" Hermione thought aloud. "Who, though?"

      "Severus." Draco spoke. We locked eyes and mentally agreed. "It makes sense, really. Severus is my godfather and he probably got tired of me talking about Harry as much as I did every time my parents invited him for dinner." Draco blushed. I nodded. "Next step, how do we get them to admit they did this?"

      "I have a plan." Pansy explained. "Tonight is the Yule Ball. The six of us will go on, business as normal." She explained. We all listened intensely, hoping there was a point to this. "All of us have to make a point of mentioning that you know about the Redosus Charm every time that Snape and or Dumbledore is near. Talk about ideas you might have about who did it and why they did it. At some point, one of us has to casually think out loud that Voldemort is alive and did this to bring harm to Harry. Dumbledore being who he is, will instantly jump in to say that it was not meant as harmful. Snape will probably just be nearby quietly shaking his head." The plan was probably the best shot we had to figure out why they did it. "Now we just have to figure out dates..." Pansy giggled.

      "Ahem. We already have dates." Draco smiled, looking at me. I nodded, smiling back.

      "So do I." Ron rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling. Blaise nodded too, slowly backing away. Ron was going with Susan Bones and Blaise was going with Astoria Greengrass.

     "I still need a date." Hermione muttered.

      "Last resort date?" Pansy asked Hermione, who shrugged and nodded. (a/n side note: i've always lowkey loved hermione and pansy) "Work's for me. After it all goes down, then what?"

      "Who knows. We'll talk about that when we get to it." Hermione spoke. We split up and got ready for the ball together. Hermione looked heavenly  in her dress, and Ron was very grumpy about his . I thought about wearing the outfit that Molly Weasley had sent me, but I borrowed a suit from Blaise. It was a simple suit, with an emerald green tie to bring out my eyes and match Draco's Hogwarts house. When we all met up as a group to enter, Pansy looked amazing in her dress as well. Blaise looked great in his suit and Draco looked absolutely amazing in his suit. He wore a maroon tie to match my house. I walked up to him and kissed him, smiling into the kiss. Pulling away, he chuckled. Hermione and Pansy vaguely matched, which must have been unintentional. Blaise matched his date and Ron didn't get along with his date.

        "Shall we go in?" I held a hand out for Draco, who accepted it with a happy smile. We entered the ballroom with our friends and prepared to enact our plan. The ball began with fast music and loud conversations. Draco and I danced, but made a point of talking about the Redosus Charm situation every time Dumbledore or Snape walked by. We watched as the others did the same. "Do you think Voldemort's back?" I thought aloud at one point when both Dumbledore and Snape stood near us. "Like, do you think he's behind the Redosus Charm? Who else could have done it? They wanted us close to kill me." I saw the fear in Dumbledore's eyes, but quickly he jumped in to interject.

      "Ahem. Mister Potter, Mister Malfoy. Can we have a word?" He spoke. Feigning confusion, we nodded and followed. We signaled the others to follow. Once all of us were outside of the ball, Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid I haven't been fully honest with you boys. I see your friends are here too. I figure you'll tell them soon enough." He frowned. Snape stood behind, frowning as we thought he would. "Professor Snape and I cast the charm on you. It is not meant to harm either of you. It is meant to bring you together. Seeing as we knew you would end up together eventually anyway." He chuckled. Draco blushed and I intertwined our fingers, squeezing slightly.

      "Why didn't you tell us before, sir? When we first asked you about it." Draco inquired. I nodded, mentally asking the same question. "We asked you twice, professor. And both times you insisted you had no idea what or who cast this spell. You tried to convince us it was a student." Draco glared slightly.

      "Honestly it was to speed things along. We, as a collective society of professors, were getting tired of you bickering twenty-four seven. And most of the students were getting to that point as well." Snape grumbled. "Of course, I'm not one hundred percent happy about this, but it was inevitable."

      "Thank you for finally being honest with us, professors. All we wanted to know was why. It had been bugging us since we found out the truth." I explained. After the conversation, we all went back inside to dance the rest of the night away. The end of the night came too fast. I walked Draco to the door of the Slytherin dungeons to say goodnight. "Draco, I-" He cut me off with a passionate kiss. "I love you." The words came out faster than I thought they would.

      "I, I love you too." Draco whispered, kissing me once again. "These last few months have been a roller coaster, but I'm glad I was going through it with you instead of anyone else. I love you, Harry Potter. You beautiful beautiful nerd." Draco wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for another kiss.

      "Be mine. We've spent months together now, but we've never put a label on us. Be mine. Be my boyfriend. Be my something." I insisted. He nodded and kissed me goodnight. "Goodnight, Draco. I love you."

      "Goodnight, Harry. I love you."