Forgiven // Drarry

The DA

The members of the DA stood in the room, in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Draco was out of sight from everyone. Hermione had met up with him earlier so she could give him the enchanted coin and get him to sign the lists to ensure confidentiality. 

Harry wanted to be cautious telling everyone about the new member of the DA because he knew their reactions wouldn't be good. 

"So there's a new member in the DA, whom I thought I should talk to you about." Harry cleared his throat. Everyone looked around the room to see if they could find this new person. 

"Well he's not with you lot, we'd thought we'd wait and tell you who he his before he comes out." Ron told the group. Hermione had a concerned expression on her face, and everyone else looked confused. 

"Er, well, so I know you guys aren't going to take this lightly. Because well, this is someone you'd least expect to be with us." 

"Well who is it then?" Zacherias Smith yelled out from the crowd. Everyone looked at Harry for an answer. 

"It'll be our first Slytherin of the group- Draco Malfoy." 

Immediately the room filled with commotion and disgruntled faces. The Weasly twins laughed. 

"You can't be serious." George said. 

"His Dad's a Death Eater!" Fred chimed in

"He's had to have insulted everyone in this room once." George continued. 

"He's one of Umbridge's favourites!" The room was now loud with everyone talking. Hermione tried to silence everyone and failed, until Ron came closer to the front and yelled "SHUT IT" 

Silence waved over the room and they all looked at Harry. 

"Look, could you all please, just, look at this with an open mind. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't completely trust him now." 

"How do you know you're not being manipulated? I mean it's what Slytherin's do." Lavender Brown said. 

"Well I can't exactly explain to you-" Harry started but the room up-roared once again. But then Luna spoke, silencing everyone. 

"I trust Harry, he wouldn't do this if he doubted Draco Malfoy. Why shouldn't we give him a chance? People change after all. How would you like it if you tried to join, but you couldn't because of your past?" Luna said, a thoughtful and careful expression on her face. She looked around the room, not mad or upset, but almost disappointed. But for the most part she seemed unfazed, the dreamy look still caught in her eye.

Harry nodded. "Thank you, Luna. Now, I'm going to ask him to come out now. Please, just. Give him a chance? He wants to apologize." 

Everyone stayed reluctantly quite as Harry waited for a moment. "Alright." Harry sighed. Hermione went to go get Draco and came back, with him strutting behind her. They came back to the front of the room. 

"Hello, everyone. " Draco said calmly. The room was pen-drop silent. Harry could see the anxiety radiating off of Hermione. "I think the main thing I wanted to say is an apology, because I realize that I haven't been the kindest person in the past." 

"That's an understatement." Someone coughed. Draco refused to look awkward, and only continued talking. 

"I know that the reputation I've built for myself is... well, the only word I can think for it is, ugly. I've been terrible, and now, something life changing has happened to me, and it took that to realize that I no longer want to be that person. I want to be better, I know I can. And I think this would help me to become kinder, to become selfless, and to become..." Draco paused for a second. " And to become brave." 

"He's lying." Zacherias spoke out loudly. "He's a manipulative Slytherin and he's going to do is betray us. I don't know what you all expect. He's a Slytherin, and all Slytherins care about is power. " 

There were whispers in the room.

Draco turned to face him, a cold expression on his face. "You can't speak for all Slytherin's like that. You all think that my house is 'the bad house'  and none of you have even had more than one conversation with any of us! You know why we seem so mean? Because everyone else hates our house and no one even cares to know us personally before determining us as evil because we're in Slytherin! Do you know how lonely it is to be a Slytherin? And you all wonder why we're so mean to people in other houses." 

He became silent, as did everyone else. Draco cleared his throat, and faced everyone again, calming himself down. 

"I understand, I've been a horrid person. I understand that you guys won't trust me right away, and that some of  you might never trust me. I'm only asking for a chance. I really am sorry. Sorry to all of you. I'm sorry for the insults, for treating you cruelly, for judging you based on the purity of your blood and the amount of money you own." Draco looked at Ron for a second. Ron gave him a nod. 

"I grew up in a place where it was natural for me to do those kinds of things. Everyone else did those things as well, and I never really thought it wrong until I got to Hogwarts. But that doesn't cover for my actions, and I know that. And it's still difficult for me to break out of my ways." Draco looked down for a second. 

"I hate the person I've been. I hate myself for everything, but it had become second nature to me, and It was so hard to break out of it. I'll try my hardest though, for as long as I live, to be a kinder person. To all of you, to everyone in the different houses, and to myself. Nothing can excuse myself for everything that I've done. I know that. I've been so cruel. So if you never forgive me, I wouldn't blame you. But, please, give me a chance to redeem myself at least." 

Luna's smile stood out from the crowd of weary faces. She parted through the crowd and walked up to him, her earnings bouncing with each step. This seemed to surprise Draco.

" I accept your apology, Draco Malfoy. I think it's brave of you to even stand up here. I think everyone deserves a chance to change, and you've looked back at what you've done and decided you needed to change for the better. That's quite a heroic thing to do, I think." She gave him an interested look, a smile still on her face.

"Coming from Loony Lovegood." Zacherias scoffed. Luna still seemed unfazed, but Draco glared at him with cold eyes. Harry  spoke out.

"Hey- stop that. Her name is Luna, maybe you should learn that. She has as much valid input as anyone else here. This is a space to be free from Umbridge and to be able to learn, not just Defense, but learn from each other. If you're going to call her loony, get out." Harry told him.

"It's alright, Harry." Luna told him. "Everyone does it anyways. He's only afraid that Draco Malfoy'll betray us. But he doesn't have to be, because Draco's being genuine. I can tell."

Zacharias looked at her like he was going to say something, but stopped himself and stayed silent. He stayed where he was, an awkward expression on his face.

"We think we should give him a chance too." Fred spoke out, his arm on George's shoulder. George nodded.

"I agree." Someone else spoke out. Pretty soon, the entire room was in agreement. Harry and Ron smiled, while  Hermione looked relieved.

"Now that that's settled." Harry said to the group. "We should, er,  get some things done... I think there's a particular spell you should all learn, because I think it's quite important, in my opinion..."

Everyone worked on that spell and practice previous spells for the rest of the meeting. After the meeting was over, Draco stayed behind to speak with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"I just wanted to thank all of you for letting me join and giving me a chance." He told them.

"I mean, you can be a git sometimes, but y'know I really think you've actually started to change. And I mean, Harry trusts you. And Hermione has started to. So I think maybe I should look into that too. " Ron nodded.

Draco gave him a slight smile.

"I really am extremely grateful you've given me this opportunity." He said, a small, genuine smile on his face. He bowed slightly towards the three of them, before swiftly walking out, his black cloak trailing behind him.