An Accidental Alliance

chapter 11

Harry wasn't nearly as speedy with his homework that night. Certainly it had something to do with three feet of potions essay, which was hardly his strong suit, as well as essays for Herbology and Charms. It wasn't helped by his memories of last night, or this morning, but that was definitely not the only reason he had only finished half of one essay by dinner.

"Honestly, Harry, you're quite ridiculous," Hermione said as they ate. "First you finish all your work in record time, and the next day you can't even manage a single essay? Are you absolutely positive there's nothing on your mind?"

"Absolutely," Harry said, sparing a glance at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was sitting with his friends and ignoring him. Of course he was, there wasn't any reason for him to do anything else. Harry ate quickly, keeping his eyes on his own table, and returned to the library, desperate to finish his homework by ten. He slogged through the rest of potions and had nearly finished when the library closed, forcing him back to the Gryffindor common room. It wasn't that he didn't like his common room, in fact he loved it, it was just a lot more distracting than the silence in the library. Exploding Snaps, wizard chess, heated Quidditch debates, all of which were a lot more interesting than essays. The result was by the time he had to leave to meet Malfoy he still had Charms left.

Harry was once again appraising his room, looking for things to bring. The slippers had been a brilliant idea, saving his feet from certain frostbite, and so those went in along with his Charms book, several quills, a roll of parchment and the Marauder's Map, in case he couldn't find the Slytherin dorms again. Feeling giddy, he added a clean shirt and boxers, and standard robes. His bag was bulging in protest, but it held. He slipped under his Invisibility Cloak and hurried off to see Malfoy. Or was it Draco? He wasn't sure when the name change occurred. Was working on the poster and homework enough, or did he have to be naked? Interesting question.

Harry was quite pleased that he could indeed find the innocuous bit of wall leading to Slytherin house without the map. Once again Malfoy-or Draco-was absent from the common room, and once again he was invisible behind his Taffy Trick. What had changed, however, was that Blaise Zabini was lying on his bed and looked up suspiciously when the door opened on its own.

"Who's there?" he asked, reaching for his wand.

Harry shuffled out of his line of sight as silently as he could, keeping a hand on his own wand, just in case.

There was no need to worry. Zabini sighed in annoyance, got up and closed the door, muttering about drafty, falling apart castles.

Crisis averted. Now just to get Malfoy to realize he was there. He poked at the Taffy charm, but nothing happened. He leaned against the charm as hard as he could with no real hope, and, just as he expected, nothing happened. He knew the charm was sound-and-lightproof, rendering anything he could pass off as a "drafty, falling apart castle" irrelevant.

Harry took out his wand and thought carefully. He touched the tip to the invisible barrier and whispered, "Finite Incantatem." Much to his surprise, the simple spell did the trick, and Malfoy suddenly appeared, bent over the parchment, working on the lettering.

Zabini jumped. "Merlin, Draco, give a man some warning, would you?"

Malfoy jerked up. He obviously hadn't realized the charm was broken. Harry quickly stepped within its bounds. "Sorry, Blaise," he drawled. "I didn't think I needed to tell you every time I've got to go to the loo. Besides, you can't hear me when I'm behind the charm. That's the whole point, idiot." He rose and left. Harry stayed on the floor; he didn't want to risk Zabini noticing an imprint on the bed. He also wasn't sure how quiet his bag was, so he remained standing, too nervous of being found sneaking into the Slytherin dorms to sit on even the floor.