It's time you pick your battle and I promise you this is mine

Peace?

Very soon Harry felt himself reminded of his OWLs year. Between classwork, Quidditch, eating and sleeping, there was not much time for anything else, if any. He barely got to visit Hagrid, and when he did, he was mostly alone due to Ron and Hermione having some prefect business to attend.

He grew frustrated fast. When the first Hogsmeade weekend finally came around, Hermione and Ron planned to use it for a date. This would have been no problem for him if Ginny hadn't announced that she and Luna would do a girls afternoon (which excluded him from coming along) and Neville hadn't promised Professor Sprout to help her in the Hogwarts greenhouses. Having therefore nothing to do at Hogsmeade, Harry decided to stay in the castle.

He had too much homework to do anyway to be able to spend his time leisurely and due to some fifth years loudly practicing charms in the Gryffindor common room (Harry was obviously not the only one to forego the Hogsmeade trip to study) which made him unable to concentrate, he made his way to the library.

As he was descending from the tower, some younger student caught up to him. From the fact that Harry's presence seemed to excite him, Harry judged the boy had to be a first year and looked down to ask him if he needed some help. The boy however declined "no, no, I don't need help, I just wanted to ask..." and started to bombard Harry with questions. The similarities of this boy's manner with that of Colin Creevey when Harry had first met him was too striking not to make a panic-stricken retreat into the nearest corridor and into the first open door he could find, leaving the other student just the same way he had reproached himself for having treated Colin after seeing his dead body.

His breath had quickened, much too fast to be only an effect of the exercise of the run he had made to get away from the boy, much too fast to be anything than panic-induced stress. It must have come from him being reminded of young Colin, one who had died because he had idolised Harry, and so it was Harry's fought that he died, for he was too young to stay and fight.

Harry still clutched the door handle and now laid his head against the cold door to steady himself and try to even his breath out. No, he tried to tell himself, no, a death eater killed him. He might have snuck back because of me but I did not kill him. It was a death eater. It's Voldemort's fault, it's Voldemort's fault, it's Voldemort's fault.

And surprisingly enough, "it's Voldemort's fault" worked as much as a mantra as to slow his respiration down to a degree at which he was able to unclench his hand and let go of the handle. He lifted his head, massaged his forehead where it had laid against the door and he was sure of now sporting a giant red blot and took a step back. Realising that he was standing on tiles, he tried to remember what floor he had fled to and knowing it had been the second, hoped he did not find himself in the girl's bathroom. Fully expecting Myrtle to comment and ridicule his misery as soon as she was in his field of vision, he turned around to face her and to be surprised to find both Draco Malfoy, wand drawn, and the ghost in question staring quietly back at him.

"I do not plan to hurt you", Harry meant to sound annoyed but instead just sounded tired.

"We figured as much", his not so favourite ghost announced in her whiny voice, "you looked like you would hurt yourself before you'd be able to hurt anyone else"

"Last time we came across each other in this room, I ended up bleeding on the floor. I am not sorry for not wanting it to happen again."

Hary nodded. He could not even reproach him for it.

"Yeahh", Harry dragged the word, "I guess I should say sorry about that."

The two boys stood there staring at each other. Draco, Harry was sure, was just dumb-founded by Harry having apologised and Harry himself did not know how to act after that apology either. Neither him nor Draco had any intention to provoke the other as they had before and so Harry thought it best to leave.

As he turned around to grab the door handle he had clutched so tightly just a few minutes before, he heard a small "Thank you" from behind. If Draco's voice had not lowered about an octave since they were kids, Harry would probably mistaken it to come from Myrtle, who, he observed, was surprisingly quiet today.

"What for?", Harry asked in bewilderment.

Draco seemed to be torn between being honest and putting his usual mask on. But apparently deciding to settle on the first, said: "For speaking in defence of my mother. I know you could not care less about my life but I want to thank you for making it possible for her to stay with me."

"I cannot pretend to like your father, I don't, and I thoroughly believe that he deserves his place in Askaban, or the choices of your mother, or yours for that matter, even though I don't know how much of a choice they really were in your case, but I do not hate you as much as to want you to live without your parents. And your mother saved my life, after all, and so there was no evil in letting you have her."

Draco nodded to that declaration.

Harry took that as his cue to leave.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Myrtle started talking her normal amount and though a weird circumstance, as Harry could not make out the words she was saying, he meant to think no more of it and proceeded to continue his way to his original destination.

Ron and Hermione came back from their date happily and Ginny also graced Harry with a smile before heading towards the girls' dormitories, so in combination with his actually having been able to get some work done at the library (which he was sure Ron would be copying the following morning), Harry looked at the afternoon as a success.

The school year continued on as usual, Hermione studied and reminded them to do their own work, Ron raved on about the NEWTS being unnecessary for Harry and himself due to them wanting to be aurors (none of them realising how quiet Harry had been on the subject lately), Harry had his hands full with Quidditch Captain Business (and so far he had not lost one single player and was really positive about kicking Slytherin in the ass another year.

Draco and Harry never talked about their conversation in Myrtle's bathroom (not that they had ever much place or reason to do so) and their mutual non-provocation was now understood by both sides as exactly what it was, which led to a lack of the alertness they had been used to from their first year at school and subsequently to a calmness around each other that not only surprised both of them but had also seemed impossible before.

When Ron and Hermione mentioned it to him, Harry just said: "I don't think he'll try to give me trouble anymore, so I don't need to be on the lookout" and he wasn't even lying. His best friends weren't convinced though.

Still, Harry and Draco did not talk at all, even tho sitting right next to each other in Potions. So it came as a surprise to all three of them, meaning Ron and Hermione along with Harry, when Draco after visibly tensing up and seemingly quarreling with himself, announced to Harry "You need to stirr it 7 times not 5" and being met with three surprised if not doubtful pairs of eyes added, in a more proud tone than he had used before, "that the two of them would not know, I figured, but I thought at least you had listened to Snape's lessons, Granger."

Hermione looked at him dumbfounded and tried to remember if Snap, indeed, ever did say so until she saw Harry stirring a sixth time and hissed at him.

Harry did not let her destroy his calm. "It's not the same, Hermione. If it comes directly from Snape, it's fine."

"I'm not going to take any risks anyway", hissed Hermione and stirred her pot exactly 5 times.

"But are you sure, he did not say that last year, while we were away?", Harry asked Draco casually. He knew that he was walking onto thin ice but hoped to be able to get an answer out of Draco that would indulge Hermione's pride. He was kind of content with their current peace and did under no circumstance want one of his best friends fighting with his former enemy instead.

"It is possible", answered Draco, quietly, without the pride that had tainted his former response, "you missed a whole school year of lessons after all."

All four of them stayed quiet after that. They feared breaching a delicate subject and starting a fight, or on Harry's side also offending someone.