What If? -Drarry

Part One: Chapter Six

Chapter Six

It was good being back on good terms with Harry and Ron. Draco hadn't realised how draining it was to be snide, but as it turned out, it was much less effort to just be nice. Though Ron still clearly distrusted him, Harry seemed to forgive very easily. The two now enjoyed Potions much more, and Draco was helping Harry catch up on the subject when he could. Outside of potions, he had no contact with either of them, but it felt good to know that there was no bad air between them. He couldn't tell the other Slytherins to stop having a go at them, but he didn't take part in the abuse anymore.

Draco currently sat in the Great Hall, surveying the Halloween feast laid out before him. It was impressive, even to a Malfoy. Food plates were dotted with sweets, pumpkin heads were being used as bowls, live bats flew haphazardly above them. The atmosphere was great - giddy and excited. A thousand kids high on sugar perfectly set the mood. At the Manor, they occasionally had a Halloween feast, though on a smaller scale than this. Usually, they reserved Halloween for closer friends and people with whom his father wanted to 'deal'. Draco never knew exactly what his father did, but it seemed to involve a lot of negotiation with powerful wizards. Across from Draco at the table Pansy was, of course, complaining about some aspect of the feast, following the unwritten Slytherin rule: even if it's good, complain about it.

"This feast is so tacky," She said sniffily. "At home, we have real skeletons. But don't ask where we get them." The surrounding students laughed, more out of habit than humour.

"We enchant pumpkins to sing Halloween songs, instead of using them as gross bowls." Was Blaise Zabbini's input. Blaise had dark hair and skin, and he was good company due to his easy conversation and a good sense of humour. Their mothers were very good friends so, of course, Draco had practically grown up with Blaise. But Draco struggled to really see the other Slytherins as friends. They were more like allies. However, if he'd had to pick the person closest to being his best friend, it would have been Blaise.

Draco participated in the conversation occasionally, but his mind was elsewhere. He had an odd feeling that something was about to happen, though he wasn't sure what. There was a sense of time being suspended in the hall; as though the feast was a waiting room to something greater. He watched the food turn to dessert in front of him, and his friends appreciatively attacking the mountains of sweets, ice cream, truffles, and other delicacies. Draco sucked on a mint and began to phase out, as he often did, following his thoughts hither and thither as the mood took him. If anyone asked him what he thought about during this time, he could never answer them; the memory was gone as soon as he came back to himself. Muggles referred to it as 'daydreaming', a word that Draco had always been rather taken with. Unfortunately, Draco wasn't able to stay in this state of mind long, and he was soon jolted from his thoughts by a cry coming from the middle of the hall.

"Troll! In the dungeons!" The entire student congregation looked up to see Professor Quirrel, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, standing in the middle of the hall dazedly. Draco just about heard him mutter "Thought you ought to know" before he collapsed, out cold, on the floor. A few seconds of silence ensued, wherein the students looked at each other confusedly. Then, as the words sunk in, pandemonium.

"Order!" roared Dumbledore. The congregation ordered themselves. "Please, do not panic. Now, students shall be escorted to their dormitories by the prefects of their house. Teachers will come with me to investigate this 'troll'."

Before anyone knew what was going on, Draco was being herded along with his fellow Slytherins towards the exit of the Great Hall. There was a great deal of frightened whispering, and many of the Slytherins pushed each other in an effort to get into the corridors. Draco, of course, was very frightened too. He had met a troll once when accompanying his father on a business trip (the purpose of which was to teach Draco something about his father's work) and had almost been killed by it. It hadn't been fun, and his instinct was to take cover and allow someone else to take care of the problem. As he walked towards the dorms, something caught his eyes. Harry and Ron had detached themselves from the Gryffindor group and were whispering hurriedly. Then, very suddenly, they set off in the direction of the dungeons, along a different path to his group. A knot of worry tied itself in his stomach and for a second he considered following them but chickened out. He just hoped they didn't do anything stupid.

0o0o

"You did something stupid, didn't you?" Asked Draco, as Harry slid into his potions seat beside him.

"What?"

"I saw you and Ron sneaking off when the troll was loose last night. You did something stupid?"

"What? You must have been imagining things-" Draco raised an eyebrow and Harry wavered, and sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you. But pinky promise you won't tell anyone."

Draco scoffed. "What the hell is a pinky promise?"

Harry sighed. "It's a muggle thing. Look, we hold pinkies," Harry held up his pinky and Draco held it with his own, mystified. "And then you say that you promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"What do the pinkies do?"

"Get broken if someone breaks the promise."

"What the hell?" Draco spluttered. "Muggles are crazy!"

"Just say it, Draco." Harry continued, witheringly.

"Fine. I promise not to tell anyone what you're about to tell me."

"Awesome," Harry said, dropping his pinkie. "Now I can tell you."

"You know, Slytherins don't break promises, so it wasn't really necessary to do the whole... uh, pinkie... thing."

Harry just laughed and told Draco to be quiet. He then proceeded to tell Draco a completely unbelievable tale in which he and Ron battled a troll and used only 'Wingardium Leviosa' to knock it out, thus saving Hermione Granger from imminent death and earning them each five points. Draco laughed when Harry finished.

"Okay, Potter, very funny. Now tell me what actually happened."

Harry got increasingly frustrated trying to convince Draco that he was telling the truth. Eventually, this lost him his alleged 'five points' as Snape took them back off. However, Draco did admit that Hermione seemed to be much better friends with the boys now: he had seen her walking with them into the great hall that morning. Still, it was amusing to wind Harry up. He was even going slightly pink from frustration. Yes, this was much better than being enemies.