Chapter Five
The next morning, Harry woke up to find that everyone had once again left early. He hadn't really expected anything less, yet it still hurt him just the same. As he got dressed, he went over his idea for the Slytherins in his head, wondering if the other House would be up for it. Then he went downstairs to find Hermione waiting for him once again.
She looked extremely anxious as she tapped her fingers against her leg. When she saw him, she rushed over immediately and started walking him out of the Common Room. Harry was confused at first but once he looked around the room, he understood; all of the Gryffindor boys, with Ron in the middle, had obviously been waiting for him to come down the stairs. From the looks on their faces, it wasn't to have a nice chat over afternoon tea...
"Thanks, 'Mione, you really saved me back there," He said as the duo walked down to the Great Hall.
"Anytime, Harry," Hermione responded sadly.
It was obvious to Harry that Hermione missed Ron and the other Gryffindor's and Harry couldn't help but start to feel guilty. Seeming to realize what he was thinking, she protested.
"No, Harry, don't you dare start feeling guilty about this! You've done absolutely nothing wrong, alright?"
"Alright, 'Mione!" He exclaimed, knowing that she was right.
As they reached the Great Hall and looked at the Gryffindor table, Harry quickly realized that he wasn't welcome at the table anymore if the glares were anything to go by. He sighed quietly to himself and contemplated walking over to the Slytherin table to show he had made a truce, but he quickly decided to keep that a secret for now. Instead, he sucked in his breath and calmly walked to the end of the Gryffindor table, sitting down to eat his breakfast with Hermione.
Everyone at the table either ignored him or gave him dirty looks, but he simply pretended not to notice and continued to eat his pancakes. Luckily, there were no incidents as the professors were all still at the head table. Once he was done, he and Hermione left for classes where nothing more happened other than people whispering about him.
After what seemed like one of the longest days of his life, it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts; his last class of the day. He sat next to Malfoy once again and immediately wrote the blond a note.
'Common Room tonight, 1 hour after dinner.
-HP'
Harry received a simple 'okay' from the blonde, both knowing that he was talking about the Slytherin Common Room since Malfoy couldn't simply walk into Gryffindor's. No other notes were passed for the rest of class and there was no sign that the two had interacted at all.
Finally, they were released from their class and they both went their separate ways.
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After dinner, Harry explained to Hermione what he was doing and what his plan was before he got ready to see the blond again. After the hour was up, Harry threw his cloak on and walked quickly towards the Slytherin Common Room. He didn't bother waiting for Malfoy this time and, instead, simply got Serpens to let him in.
Once inside, he removed his cloak, much to the surprise of the few students who were hanging around in the Common Room. After much ogling, one of the older students got up to go get Malfoy and so Harry waited just inside the door, not too sure of what to do. Eventually, the older student returned with the blond, who motioned for Harry to follow him up to his room.
"So, Potter, what's this about? You can't possibly need our help already." Malfoy asked as they went up the stairs.
"No, I don't need your help. This is actually about helping your Slytherins." He replied.
Harry couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face as the blond looked completely surprised and even stopped on his way up to his room. Harry simply walked past Malfoy and opened the door for the blond, who had started walking once again. Malfoy then walked into his room, Harry following, and took a seat on his couch. Harry sat cross-legged on the seat he had sat in last time, waiting for Malfoy to start the conversation back up again.
"Alright, I'll bite..." Malfoy said, "How is it that you plan on helping?"
Harry smiled to himself, quite happy with his proposal before explaining what exactly it entailed: "I plan on helping the Slytherins by teaching them to properly defend themselves against the Gryffindors and some of the other houses as well."
Harry watched as the blond contemplated this for a minute. Harry expected the other boy to question his skills, in which case he was happy to demonstrate. However, he never had to.
"Alright then, when shall this start and where will it be happening?" Malfoy asked, much to Harry's confusion.
"What? You're not even going to question my abilities?" He asked incredulously.
"Look, Potter, I know you have skills and that you're powerful. I mean, you can hold off the bloody imperious curse!"
Harry couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Everyone questioned and doubted him. Even Hermione had, and she's his very best friend! Yet here Malfoy is, just trusting what he said and believing him to be powerful. He didn't exactly know what to do with this information; didn't know what to say. He simply looked at the other boy before him, no doubt with his mouth wide open in confusion and shock.
The blond rolled his eyes before saying, "Oh please, Potter, I'm not blind nor stupid like everyone else in this school seems to be. The real question I have isn't about your skills, but about your motive. So tell me: why are you voluntarily doing this?"
"Well, it hardly seems fair that the Gryffindors and most of the other Houses have been taught some duelling spells by me and yet the Slytherins haven't been taught anything. Besides, you're no help to me if you can't even defend yourselves." Harry responded confidently.
"Well, well, well... If I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually care about us, Potter" Malfoy said with a smirk.
Harry rolled his eyes at the boy in front of him, "Well, you're not my enemy right now but I wouldn't call you a friend or anything, yet."
"Oh, how you wound me, Potter!" Malfoy said dramatically, clutching at his chest and pretending to be offended, causing both boys to laugh lightly, "So again, where would we do this?"
"In the Room of Requirement, of course." He responded matter-of-factly.
"Oh of course, how terribly foolish of me for not thinking of that" Malfoy responded sarcastically, obviously not knowing what Harry was talking about.
"Basically, it's a room which becomes whatever you need it to be. So if I need it to be a practice room, then that is what it'll become." At the doubtful look he received, Harry said, "Just trust me on this."
"Alright, let's go see what the others think, then."
Both boys got up and made their way back downstairs. Once back in the Common Room, Malfoy explained what Harry had proposed and offered a vote in which everyone agreed to go through with Harry's plan. Once that had been decided, Malfoy wanted to go and see the Room of Requirement in order to be sure they would have a proper learning space. Zabini and Parkinson also decided to join them and Harry, knowing that they wouldn't be back until after curfew, brought his cloak and his map so that they wouldn't have to worry about teachers or Filch sneaking up on them.
Once they reached the proper floor, the three Slytherins watched curiously as Harry paced back and forth in front of a blank space of the wall. They were about to question his sanity when a door suddenly appeared before him.
All three stepped into the Room of Requirement and looked around in amazement, Harry following closely behind. The Slytherins could not believe that this room had just appeared before them. Not only that, but they couldn't believe that Harry was capable of thinking up such a complex and nice looking space.
They had fully expected Harry's version of a duelling room would look very Gryffindor-esque (shabby and completely red and gold). However, what faced them was an extremely large room of black marble with white detailing and white marble pillars in each corner of the room. Behind one of these pillars was a stock room which had everything one could ever need to practice defensive and offensive spells with. Hanging from the ceilings were large crystal chandeliers.
"Well, Potter..." Zabini said, still looking around the room, "I'm surprised."
"Surprised?" Harry questioned, "How so?"
"No one expected you to have been able to come up with a room that is so... pleasing to the eye." Malfoy said, "We seriously expected you to have no taste what so ever, going by your choice in clothing."
Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at the three before him, "Oh please, I've never really had time to go shopping for muggle clothing before and my 'family' never allowed it. Trust me, I would have gotten much better clothes if I could have."
"Well, we'll have to fix that, then" Malfoy offered.
"When?"
"Next Hogsmeade trip; we'll sneak off and get you some real clothes."
"Alright, looking forward to it," Harry said with a smile.
Malfoy was about to say something else, but Parkinson quickly interrupted him with a cough and said, "Yes, we should definitely do that then... Next Hogsmeade trip..."
Harry caught the brief scowl the blond sent Parkinson's way but decided to ignore it as Zabini had started to ask him about which spells he'd be teaching them and discussing when they would have their first meeting. After about an hour, they had everything sorted out and decided to leave.
Malfoy went first, followed by Harry. Once they were out, Harry checked the map and found that Filch was coming their way. He quickly shoved Parkinson and Zabini back into the Room of Requirement and went to go in as well, but soon realized that Malfoy had kept going down the hall. Quickly, Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and un-shrunk it while he ran towards Malfoy.
Harry ran right behind the blond and pulled him to the right so that they were pressed up against the wall. He then threw the cloak over the both of them. Harry heard the blond suck in a breath and when he looked at the other boy's face, he noticed the light blush blooming on Malfoy's cheeks. Suddenly, Harry realized exactly how close he was to the blond and found himself blushing slightly as well. Just as he was about to step away, however, he saw Filch start to round the corner and was forced to push Malfoy even further against the wall.
Harry stood with his hands on either side of the blond's head and the rest of his body flush with Malfoy's. Malfoy, who hadn't seen Filch approach, was about to ask what was going on but Harry quickly placed his hand against the other boy's mouth, successfully stopping him. Harry tilted his head towards the direction Filch was, making the blond see exactly why they had to stay quiet.
Once Harry was sure Malfoy understood, he removed his hand from the blond's mouth and placed it back beside his head. Now that he could only wait for Filch to pass, he couldn't help but think about the position he and Malfoy were currently in. He became painfully aware of how close he was to the blond and of how easy it would be to simply lean forwards just a couple of inches...
Harry quickly stopped this train of thought, however, knowing that he was only thinking this way because he was so close to another boy and not because of who he was so close to.
After a few minutes, Filch turned the corner at the other end of the hallway and the boys were able to step away from each other. Both took a deep breath in, as neither had been able to breathe whilst so close to each other. Once they had gotten their breath back, they went over to the Room of Requirement and opened the door that had reappeared in order to let the others out.
When Zabini got out, he looked closely at Harry and Malfoy before smirking lightly and saying, "Did you two make out or something?"
"Wh-what?" both Harry and Malfoy stuttered, "No!"
"You sure about that? You're both all flushed and all." Zabini laughed.
"No, Blaise, we did not make out! We were hiding under the invisibility cloak which, for your information, has hardly any room under it." Malfoy said defensively, still blushing lightly.
Nothing much else was said after that as Harry escorted the Slytherins back to their rooms safely, only having to hide in an old classroom once along the way. Once they reached the Slytherin entrance, Harry spoke to Serpens, getting him to open the door which surprised Parkinson and Zabini who had forgotten he could speak to snakes.
"Goodnight, Potter" Parkinson and Malfoy said at the same time, giving each other a glare in the process.
"Goodnight," Harry said before putting on his invisibility cloak and walking back to his own bed in Gryffindor.