The Secret Author

10. Ight

19th November 1998

POV: HARRY
When I woke up, I remembered a small part of my dream. I was walking through the corridor down to the Great Hall when someone tugged on my arm begging for my forgiveness. To say I was confused was an understatement, but I got up, had a shower et cetera and walked with Ginny and Neville until they left me to walk with their significant others. I was left to navigate the last few staircases by myself. I was having a reasonably peaceful breakfast until I heard a quite argument followed by,
"Alright fine, I'll do it! Oi Potter?"

POV: DRACO
I woke up to Pansy banging on my dorm door. I slowly got up and crossed my unusually messy room and opened it.
"What do you bloody want-"
"Today's the day!" Pansy shouted, probably waking up the entirety of the Hogwarts population.
"I'm sorry Pans, I don't think I follow!"
"Oh shut up Draco, you know exactly what I'm on about. Now come on and get dressed, breakfast starts in 10 and I'm craving a waffle!" Pansy starts as she pushes me into my bathroom. I get ready and we leave as the common room clock strikes six thirty. We walk with Blaise until he sees his boyfriend and runs off to him, leaving me to have to listen to whatever Pansy was talking about earlier!
"Draco, you do know what date it is today don't you?"
"Yes, I'm fully aware that's it's Thursday the 19th of November 1998 Pansy! What significance does it have- shit? Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding!" We reached the
Great Hall and sat down a few seats from Potter who seemed to be fifth wheeling!
"Yep, it's the date we agreed on to become friends with a member of the Golden Trio! No, Draco don't say I haven't done anything, I sent a letter to Granger a few nights ago. We have been talking the past couple of days. This morning we were talking about her new job, it sounds really interesting and so she's gonna talk to me about it more."
"Pansy, I don't care, there is no way in hell that I'm going to talk to stupid Potter and his scar and his vibrant green eyes and his-"
"Draco, shut up. Just do it, go up to him and ask to start afresh. Tell him you don't want to be a git anymore and his Gryffindor instincts will kick in!"
I glared at her. She glared back. I rolled my eyes and huffed,
"Alright fine, I'll do it! Oi Potter?" I called down the table in the Great Hall. He spun his head round and looked at me weirdly.
"What do you want Malfoy?" He said almost exasperatedly.
"Can we have a word outside in the courtyard when you finished. I want to ask you something?" I asked him.
"What you gonna do, actually talk to me or hex me?" I mean fair enough of him to assume that!
"Look Potter, I just want to have a word with you, is that so much to ask?" I lower my voice.
"Are you coming?" He says, wiping his hands and standing up. I nod and we walk out of the Great Hall together, leaving a trail of gossip in our wake.

We decide to go up to the Astronomy Tower as it's more private and I had shouted in the Great Hall that we would meet in the Courtyard and nosy people would go and try to listen to our conversation. We both sit down on the edge, staring out across the grounds. It was strangely nice until Potter spoke.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" He questioned, his voice lacking his usual bite he had when he was talking to me.
"Right! Oh, wow okay I didn't think I was gonna get this far. I've been planning this like a couple of years but the war and all that- anyway then Pansy told me if I didn't speak to you myself then she would tell you herself and knowing her she would twist it. So, I wanted to ask you about possibly attempting to be civil or maybe even friends... maybe. I mean I get it if you don't want to be my friend after everything that's happened, but I have- I've always admired you. I mean yes, I thought you were a Gryffindork and an attention seeker. But I only said that because I think I was jealous. No don't give me that look, just hear me out. Eleven-year-old me would be having a fit if he knew I would even be saying this to you. It's just I always assumed you had the perfect life. I really admired your story, even dressing up as you for Halloween when I was 6! Mother probably has a picture of me on my trading broom dressed like that somewhere if you don't believe me. Then I came here and met you a second time, and you rejected my hand shake because I was a git and I think that made me upset because I had my heart set on being your friend. So, I decided I wanted your attention so I purposely picked on you and your friends to get a reaction from you so you would talk to me, even if you were insulting me! I get it if you get up now and leave, I won't bother you again...Probably. But maybe if you wanted to, you could sneak up here tonight and we can talk and maybe try and be friends! But I get it if-" I began to ramble when I saw Harry stick out his hand. I stared in shock.
"Ight! We can try to be mates but you have one chance, you fuck it up and we aren't mates anymore got it?" I nod. Harry chuckled looking at his hand outstretched towards me, "How the roles have reversed eh!" I laughed to and took his hand, shaking it. We locked eyes and smiled.
"Meet me here tonight Draco," He emphasised my name, "we still have a lot to talk about but I reckon we can be mature and talk through everything right?"
"Yes, we can be mature. Now we need to head to lessons!" I stand up, extending my hand towards Harry, pulling him up. We walk out of the tower and head separate ways to our lessons. By the time I reach Pansy and Blaise, I'm beaming, and they begin to wonder what happened. I told them everything and they looked in shock.
"Oh my Merlin Draco you are whipped!" Blaise says.
"Oh I am not; I'm just being friends with my childhood crush and enemy!" Blaise looks at me and I turn away, entering the potions class.

POV: HARRY
I walk into Transfiguration 5 minutes late, but I didn't care, I was still confused about everything that had happened in the past two days. First the book and now Malfoy wanting to be friends! It seemed mad but I really think we will become good mates!
Neville pulls me over asking about what happened so I tell him all about it.
"You know good on you Harry, just be careful!"
I smile and nod, and continue on with my day.

__________________________________________________________________________
21st November 1998

POV: DRACO
It was Saturday, two days had passed since me and Potter- sorry Harry and I had become friends. We were now on first name bases! We have spent most of our evening talking about all the shit we have done and said to one another but today we decide to go into Hogsmeade together. It was really fun. We did some shopping and laughed and went and got a butterbeer. I had a really good time and so did Harry. We cleared a lot of the awkwardness between us through our midnight conversations and apologies so today we just two 18-year olds having a good time with our new mates. However, discovering his sense of humour and getting to know him really had not helped this petty crush. It was going so well until he asked the damned question.
"Draco, did you hear about that Atari which was written about me?"

POV: HARRY
I asked Draco about the story, but he said he had no clue. It's one of the only things I've been thinking about. I just want to know who wrote it! I started putting a list together with the help from Neville about who it could be written by. I have started to loss hope that we would work it out when Blaise elegantly stormed into our room in order to wait for Nev to get back from the kitchens where he had gone 10 minutes prior. Turning to me, Blaise states,
"I hear you had an explicit story written about you, I want to help you work out who wrote it!" I rolled my eyes, sneered, and walked away from him, thinking about more names who could have written it.