Title: The End Shall Come and We Will Dance Forever
Author: Makoto Sagara
Series: Harry Potter
Archive: fanfiction.net, afallenangel.net/makotosagara/, mediaminer.org, Foreverfandom.net, makochanupdates.livejournal.com, hpfandom.net, adultfanfiction.net; anywhere else, please ask
Category: Angst, Drama
Pairings: Eventual HP/DM, Some RW/HG, others possible
Warnings: Angst, language, OOC, 7th year timeline based upon OotP – Disregarding HBP and DH
Disclaimers: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Publishing, and Warner Bros. I make nothing from this. In fact, I lose money to write this, so… no suing, ‘kay?
A/N: Since rereading most of the Harry Potter series, I have decided that I will be addressing some of the issues I have with it in this fic. Mainly, the whole Harry/Ron/Hermione relationship bothers me to no small degree. So, don’t expect an easy reconciliation between the Golden Trio.
<lj-cut>Chapter Six - In Disgrace of Me
Draco woke up the second Monday of the new school year and sighed. He could smell where Potter had lain in his bedding, an earthy, spicy smell that did dangerous things to his body, adding to his already aching morning erection. He snatched up his wand and cast a quick Tempus spell, finding he only had forty-five minutes before his first class of the day and still needed to eat something for breakfast. Ignoring the painful throbbing in his nether regions, he bolted into the shower to begin his day.
Twenty minutes later, clean and newly dressed, Draco swept into the Great Hall, casting darting glances around the room. The last two days had left him feeling a little on edge with the fact that there were so few students, but the abysmal show for breakfast drove it home. The morning meal on Mondays was always very scantily attended, but with this late into the time, the tables should have been at least three-fourths full. The only table that was even half full was Gryffindor, and that one was missing many of the seventh years, excluding the infamous Golden Trio.
What made the Slytherin even more upset was the fact that when he looked up at the Head Table and found that it was missing his godfather’s dark presence. He could just imagine the look of disgust and displeasure on Severus’s face at the sad showing of students this year. Draco was well aware of the fact that his godfather both loved and hated teaching at Hogwarts, especially since his art was so misused by the pupils he instructed. And the very fact that Slytherin House was so poorly represented amongst the students that were present made everything worse.
However, he could feel familiar, heavy eyes on him. Turning towards the Gryffindor table, Draco could see the Golden Trio as they got up to leave for the first class of the week, Transfiguration. And the eyes, of course they were Potter’s. Who else would bother staring at him as if he was an interesting specimen for a potion?
Snorting at his delirious thinking, Draco turned his eyes to his plate, quickly but gracefully eating his toast and drinking his tea. And yet, he could still feel those serious, bright green eyes pinning where he sat. What did Potter want? Wasn’t it enough that he completely ruined his first weekend back? Did he have to make the first week back awkward as well? And what the hell was that the day before?
The shifting of many feet on the stone floor caught the blond’s attention, and he noticed that the rest of the student body was heading out of the Great Hall, for classes presumably. Standing, he made his way to join the rest of them.
Time to find out if that Swanly woman was any good at Transfiguration… McGonagall may have been stern, but she was a genius in her area, and it was a shame that she was gone. At least, that was all that Draco was going to admit to feeling.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Things had been difficult for Harry since the night before. His meeting with Dumbledore had left him angry and confused. From what the Headmaster had said, he was supposed to befriend Malfoy… And while his initial reaction had been anger and to deny the request, it just wouldn’t leave his head while he was supposed to be sleeping in the tower.
Ron and Hermione had been waiting for him, sharing worried glances as he sat down and stared in the fire near their seating arrangement.
“So, mate, how was your day?” Ron asked carefully, staring at him very obviously from the corner of his eyes.
“It was fine, I guess,” Harry said, bringing his hands up to rub at his temples. Maybe he could keep his headache away if he did it.
“We ran into Ginny, Luna and Neville at the Three Broomsticks while we were in town,” Hermione said. “It was a very nice time.”
“Yeah, Harry, you should have come with us.”
“I needed the time alone,” Harry replied, looking up to look at his ‘friends’ carefully. “I just wanted to get my thoughts together.”
“Harry, we’re worried about you,” Hermione whispered, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “You’ve closed yourself off since… Snuffles…”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, Hermione,” Harry growled, running a hand through his already messy black locks. “I’m going to bed.” He jumped up from the couch and made his way to the dorms, despite the yells from the other two.
When he was in the dorm room, he shut himself up in his bed, curtains closed tightly. He just didn’t know how to feel anymore. One minute, he was taunting Malfoy, the next he was in pain. Then, he was waking up in his bed and wondering what else he could be doing besides just watching the tall, lean blond sit across from him.
To say he slept poorly that night would be pointless. His dreams were, of course, about Malfoy. And he’d woken up with the biggest hard-on that he could remember. A cold shower did nothing to improve his mood, and so, when he made his way down to the common room and was ambushed by Ron and Hermione, he wisely kept his mouth shut before he said anything that would hurt the others’ feelings.
He continued to only speak when he couldn’t get out of it as they walked through the castle to the Great Hall, and when they reached the table, he immediately began to stuff his face. Sadly, Hermione was extremely determined to nag him that morning.
“Harry, how are you this morning?” she asked, sounding suspiciously chipper.
“Alive, just barely,” he mumbled as he reached for a glass of pumpkin juice to wash down the toast he’d been attacking.
“Did you have any interesting dreams?” she continued.
“Why? Are you going to interpret them? I thought you didn’t believe in Divination, ‘Mione?” He was trying for a teasing tone, but he sounded bitter even to himself. And the looks Neville, Ron, and Ginny were giving him backed that up; as did the pained expression his friend wore. “Sorry, slept poorly. I’m not really awake yet.”
“No problem.” The entire group was quiet for long moments and only the sound of students chatting at the other tables could be heard. Harry was able to finish a cup of tea before the conversation picked up again.
“I can’t believe that Dumbledore let him come back after what happened,” Ron snarled. Looking up, Harry saw Malfoy walking over to the nearly deserted Slytherin table, looking as perfect and cold as ever. “You’d think that having a Death Eater in the same school as Harry would be something he’d be against.”
“You don’t have proof that he took the Dark Mark, Ron,” Neville said quietly, his brown eyes burning with an intensity that was rarely seen.
“Funny that you should be defending him, Nev,” Ron replied.
“I’m not. All I meant is that you shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that he’s a Death Eater because of his parents.”
“What about the other Slytherins? None of the rest of those cowards had the guts to show up this year.” The redhead sneered unattractively before running a hand absently through the fiery locks. “You-Know-Who certainly isn’t going to stay quiet for long. Besides, Malfoy’s just begging for trouble, strolling around the castle like he owns the place. I’d like to rearrange his face so that he can’t smirk anymore.”
“Just shut up,” Harry said coldly. “It’s too bloody early to hear this shit.” He never took his eyes from the Slytherin table, not really caring about his Housemates’ reactions. He was tired and not in the mood to deal with Ron’s inane ranting over the evils of everyone who wasn’t a Gryffindor. It didn’t matter that his own pet rat turned out to be one of the most infamous Gryffindor traitors. No, everyone else was susceptible to being a Death Eater – especially any Slytherin student.
Although, a small part of his conscience told him he was being a hypocrite since he felt the same way until last year. It was only after much self-reflection after Sirius’ death and observation of his rival that he realized that they were both playing parts assigned to them by the adults in their lives. Harry was the “Savior” and Malfoy was the “Death-Eater-in-Training”. However, they were more than that. The blond especially, since he was constantly ditching his brutish compatriots and doing things like doing early morning laps around the lake or helping younger years in the library on the weekends. In fact, when it came down to thinks, Draco Malfoy might actually be a better person than Harry himself was – not that he’d ever admit it in a million years.
Finally, the silence, odd looks and general annoyance at everyone and everything took its toll and Harry stood up from the table, Ron and Hermione doing so as well automatically. Without another word, he headed up to his first class, wondering how the rest of the school year was going to play out if he was already preparing himself to fight with his friends.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I’m telling you, Lav,” Parvati Patil whispered to her best friend as Professor Swanly walked throughout the class’ practical portion of changing large furniture objects into small turtles and back. “He was staring right at our table the entire time he was there.”
“But, ‘Vati, it’s weird,” Lavender Brown responded quietly, sliding her eyes to stare at the lone boy at the front of the class. “He just sticks out too much by himself. Where are the others? I mean, it’s not as if he’s going to cause trouble alone. He’s not stupid.”
“Far from it,” Parvati’s twin, Padma, added, looking in the direction of the blond in question. “He’s only behind Granger in most subjects. The real issue here is that Malfoy’s reputation is less than savory and it is suspicious for the rest of his year mates to not show up while he does. I was under the impression that the Malfoys set the rules in that particular set.”
“Well, remember at the end of fifth year?” Li Su, another 7th year Ravenclaw student, asked. “I heard that Lucius Malfoy was arrested at the Ministry for some reason. Maybe You-Know-Who tossed him out?”
“That’s stupid,” Hermione snapped as her patience with the other girls around her disappeared after listening to them for the last twenty minutes. “Being a Death Eater would hardly be something that one can get ‘fired’ from and still live. The Dark Lord is hardly known for his patience and well-behaved demeanor, is he?”
“Well, what do you think?” Parvati shot back as she flipped her long black hair behind her ears.
“Hm, well, truthfully, I don’t know,” Hermione said, trying to tame her frizzy hair as she thought on her feet. “I agree that it’s suspicious that he’s the only Slytherin who came back, but until he does something, we can only speculate.”
Lavender rolled her eyes, causing the other girls to snicker. “So, what you’re saying, Granger, is that you don’t know any more than we do, right?”
“Yes, and until I have more facts, it’s pointless to guess at his behaviour. The only thing that’s certain is that he will find some way to insult all of us if we’re forced to interact with him, because that’s what he’s done since the first day.”
“True,” Padma said, shaking her head at Parvati’s turtle, which still had wood grain patterns on its shell. “It’s not as if we won’t have ample opportunities to observe him this year.”
“Well, at least he’s easy on the eyes,” Parvati sing-songed. “What a shame it would be if he weren’t.” Li and Lavender giggled, while Padma and Hermione shook their heads.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I want to know what he’s up to,” Ernie MacMillan, a Hufflepuff, whispered to Ron as the seventh year boys made their way to Charms with Professor Flitwick after Transfiguration.
“Bloody hell, what is going on with everyone talking about Malfoy?” Seamus Finnegan yelled. “It’s bad enough that it’s at the breakfast table, and that’s all the girls can seem to talk about. But, now, et tu, Ernie?” The other boys snickered as Seamus punctuated his statement when a melodramatic grab to his side.
“But, you have to admit, Seamus, it is interesting news,” Terry Boot, the only Ravenclaw 7th year to return, said.
“I suppose it is,” Dean Thomas said, smiling briefly. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he came back on Friday night, and here it is Monday morning and we’re still taking about him.”
“True, true,” Justin Fitch-Fletchley added. “New topic of conversation, please?”
“Did anyone hear the new Wicked Sisters’ song on the wireless? It’s brilliant,” Ernie said.
“Yeah, my sister convinced my mom to get us a wireless so that we could bring it to school this year,” Ron said. “We’ve been listening to it every night in the common room.”
“Seriously?” “Can we come tonight?” “What do you listen to?” The conversation continued along those lines, and no one noticed the silent, brooding figure of Harry walking behind them, accompanied by Neville only.</lj-cut>
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