Cheers, Potter.

It made me happy.

Draco's POV

It's hard to think that a month ago I'd been alone, bruised and prepared to give up. Now, I had friends, young, excitable, and sometimes annoying friends but still. I found myself improving, I spoke more, and was more comfortable in being in the school, I wasn't afraid anymore. I felt like people hated me less because they saw how I was with the first years.

I missed my old friends though, even if Pansy was still being a brat. Blaise had been less bitter with me when I saw him, and I'd caught him defending me to Pansy in the Common Room once. She was still angry that I'd switched sides in the War, but I could tell Blaise was just tired of it all now. I willed myself to find the courage to go and speak to them, but it never came, so I settled for having imaginary conversations with them in my head.

Sat at the dinner table, I propped my chin up with my hand, pushing my food around my plate having one of those imaginary conversations when I felt eyes on me. Assuming it was Constance or one of the others, I lifted my head and fixed my expression so I didn't look so tragic, knowing they'd tease me if I didn't, all in good spirit of course.

It wasn't them looking at me though and I shrugged it off as a weird feeling. My eyes wandered over to the Gryffindor table out of habit, and a bit of curiosity. Potter and his friends were chatting jovially and laughing at something he'd said, and without thinking I smiled too. Stupid scar-face, making me look like a bumbling, smiley fool. I remembered the conversation we'd had yesterday and remembered that I'm not supposed to be thinking like that anymore and shook it from my head. I looked away when Potter's eyes met mine.

"I told you!" Constance shouted across the table, but from the look her friend gave her, she shouldn't have said so loudly.

I couldn't help but grin and ask "Told him what?"

"Erm, nothing, I just had a bet with a couple of the others." She tried to wave it off but she wouldn't get away with it so easily.

I gave her a signature smirk and said "That sounds rather ominous... aren't you a bit young to be gambling?"

"It's not gambling if it's so easy to win," she grinned back.

I took a deep breath before asking, fearing the answer, "What was the bet?"

"That you'd look over to Harry Potter's table before the end of the first course," Constance said, an irritatingly adorable smile plastered on her face. She wiggled her eyebrows.

I didn't have a leg to stand on. I couldn't deny it, they'd caught me red handed.

"You fancy Harry Potter," the young Slytherin scrunched up her nose and laughed at the stunned look on my face.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." I said sipping pumpkin juice; I didn't break eye contact with her over the brim of my goblet which made her and her friends laugh all the more.

"Oh sure, so you stare at him longingly, you hate the girl he used to date, you literally defied Voldemort for his hand in marriage –"

"Okay, that is definitely not what happened, and I don't hate Weasley. She's a better Quidditch player than me and that annoys me."

She raised her eyebrow and nodded, like she didn't believe a word I was saying.

"You didn't deny the loving gazes though," Constance's friend, Cyrus, added quietly.

The two of them erupted with laughter and I couldn't keep myself from smiling too.

After Dinner I made my way to the Library alone, lost in thought so I didn't hear the first few times someone called me from behind.

"Draco!" I heard a familiar voice call from behind me, I thought I'd misheard him so I just kept walking but my old friend Blaise Zabini caught up. I must have been visibly confused because he reassured me with a small smile, "How've you been?"

It took me a while to register the conversation that had initiated but I couldn't help how relieved I was that he seemed friendly, "Oh, you know, had a hard first month back but I'm actually doing pretty well now... Um, you?"

"Yeah, yeah, been alright. Pansy's being a right pain in the arse though."

"As always," we said in unison and shared a wry grin.

We fell back into step immediately, like no time had passed and as though there had never been a rift between us. We caught up about things that had happened since our return to Hogwarts and talked about plans for the coming Christmas holiday and what had been going on since last year. We both avoided the subject of the Wizarding War, both very aware that we had played our parts for the wrong side. I told him about my new friends and their eccentricities; Constance was a potions prodigy (thanks to my expert tutelage) and Cyrus had a quiet temperament but was probably the funniest of the group. Blaise told me that he'd spent most of his time with Pansy since coming back but she'd been driving him a little mental. She refused to change her thinking, or acknowledge that she'd been on the wrong side of history. He did his best to convince her but she was turning cruel and bitter.

"Sounds about right, you know she spat at me on the first day back?" I said in monotone, my friend didn't seem surprised and apologised on her behalf.

We ended up forgoing the library and instead played Exploding Snap in the Common Room for most of the night, just talking and laughing, like old times.

~Ж~

At breakfast the next day I introduced Blaise to the others, at first they were wary of my tall and looming friend, admittedly he could look quite scary to the untrained eye, but soon warmed up to him and he seemed to love the unwavering attention they gave him, asking questions about the Slug Club and how he got into it, enthusing about how odd Professor Slughorn was, and how brave he'd been during the war.

I took the opportunity of Blaise's engagement to glance over to where Potter and the Weasel were sitting, attempting discretion. Granger wasn't there, I decided she was probably in the library, I'd seen her there a few times before. They were playing chess and I thought of the other week when I'd played with him. I enjoyed that, the ease of friendly competition and silently hoped it would happen again.

I soon noticed that the chatter around me had dissipated and they were all looking at me, smirking.

Blaise whispered "You think this is bad? Merlin, do I have some stories for you," and at the mere thought of my affections being more painfully obvious that it already was, they all laughed together. It wasn't a cruel laugh, a laugh intended to exclude or unsettle me, it was a warm gesture, one I'd not experienced in a very long time.

It made me happy