* * *
"Draco, if you keep moping, I swear, I'm gonna have to beat you up!" Samantha said as Draco, Brianna, and Matt sat by her bed in the hospital wing.
It was now November, and Draco was still moping around about Hermione being kidnapped. And, Samantha had finally woken up, which was definitely a good thing for everyone.
"Like you could, in your condition," Draco said in a bored tone.
"Well... when I get out of this shitty place, I'll beat you up!" Samantha replied, laying back down on her bed.
"I'm afraid you three are going to have to go back to the Slytherin dormitory now," Madam Pomfrey said as she came into the room, carrying a large container of medicine for Samantha. Samantha grimaced as she saw it; she'd been complaining ever since she'd woken up about all the medicine they were giving her for "no apparent reason", as she said.
The three stood up. "Well, see you, then," Matt said as he followed Brianna and Draco out of the hospital wing.
"You know... I could always beat you up for Samantha..." Brianna said thoughtfully as they walked through the corridors.
"That's okay..." Draco said, walking a few inches away from Brianna as she grinned at him.
"But I won't, so don't worry. Hey, isn't that Harry?" she said suddenly, pointing to someone who was running towards them.
"Yeah, I think it is..." Draco said, staring at him.
Harry stopped in front of them, clearly out of breath. Obviously, he didn't really care about what Dumbledore had said very much.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked him, bewildered.
"I... have... an... idea!" Harry said, panting. Draco now wondered where Harry had been running from.
"What kind of idea?" Brianna asked.
Harry caught his breath for a few minutes before speaking. "You know how Hermione's been kidnapped, right? And you know Voldemort's after me, too, right? Well, I had this idea. For years, Ron and I have been accidentally going after Voldemort for several different reasons, but since Ron still isn't one hundred percent well, I need someone else to go after Voldemort with me. So, I chose you, Draco." Draco stared at Harry as he finished.
"So... basically, what you're saying is... we're somehow gonna find out where Voldemort is, rescue Hermione, and attempt to kill Voldemort?" Draco asked.
"Pretty much, yeah. I know it sounds really, really weird right now, but once we really get an actual plan... it'll sound a lot better. So, what do you say?" Harry asked, pushing his hair away from his glasses.
Draco thought about this for a minute. He knew it was completely crazy, and completely out-there considering the new rules, but he really wanted his Hermione back, and Voldemort dead. But, then again, working with his former enemy to do so would be kind of hard, since there was still some tension between the two boys.
"Well... what do we have to lose?" Draco said, smirking.
"Excellent. Well, we really can't talk much now, so... we'll talk later, alright? Bye, you guys," Harry said as he ran back in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.
"Draco, you do realize that if you and Harry do join forces, you'll be, like, unstoppable? This is so awesome," Brianna said excitedly as the three continued on to the Slytherin common room.
Draco nodded. "Yeah, I know, and I think we can pull it off," he said as they turned a corner.
"You know... this year has actually been kind of funny," Brianna said thoughtfully.
Draco and Matt stared at her. "What?" the two boys said in unison.
"Well, it's like this... everything bad has been happening to Harry the past six years, right? And now the tables have turned, and bad stuff is happening to you. I know that's not funny funny, but it just seems kind of weird funny, you know?" she replied as the two boys continued to stare at her.
"Uh-huh..." Matt said, not fully understanding what she'd just said.
"Yeah, you know, I think you might be crazier than Samantha," Draco said as they walked into the Slytherin common room.
"Hey! I am not crazy! You're crazy!" Brianna protested.
"And how do you suggest I'm crazy?" Draco asked with a smirk.
"You... you... um, you..." Brianna said as Draco continued smirking at her.
"See? I'm not crazy," Draco said once Brianna gave up trying to find a reason why Draco could be crazy.
"Fine. Whatever. I'm just gonna sit in this nice, quiet corner for a little while..." Brianna said as she sat down in the farthest corner of the room, away from Draco and Matt.
* * *
The next day, Draco and the rest of the Slytherins went to their classes as usual. Draco, however, wasn't exactly focused on his classes. For once in his life, Draco was actually looking forward to seeing Harry after classes were over so they could secretly discuss how to find Hermione and possibly destroy Voldemort for good. And, if he and Harry could manage to keep their plan and secret meetings a, well, secret, from Dumbledore, everything would ultimately work out in the end.
"Draco... Draco! The class ended, you idiot!" Brianna said as she violently shook Draco's shoulders to snap him out of his trance.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, preoccupied..." Draco mumbled, picking up his bag and following Brianna out of the classroom.
"Yeah, I know. You've been doing that all day, in case I need to remind you how many times I've had to wake you up at the end of each class," she replied, rolling her eyes.
Draco grinned. "Well, that's not my fault. Blame it on Harry. Speaking of which... I have to go, see you later!"
He walked down to the Quidditch Pitch, where Harry had said to meet him in a letter Draco had received from him this morning. Luckily, no house teams were practicing Quidditch that day, so it was the perfect time to secretly meet and discuss Voldemort-killing and Hermione-rescuing plans.
Draco waited around for about ten minutes before Harry finally showed up, carrying his bookbag and panting, out of breath. Draco rolled his eyes as Harry stopped in front of him to catch his breath for a few minutes before talking.
"Sorry I'm late... McGonagall wanted to talk to me about helping Ron catch up on the work he missed," Harry said once he'd caught his breath.
"That's fine, I don't have anything to do today, anyway," Draco replied.
The two "former enemies" stood there in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Harry spoke once again. "So... how do you wanna do this thing?"
Draco thought about it for a moment. "Well... first, we have to find out where the hell Voldemort is. We can't do much unless we do that, right?" Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we'll have to do that... but how? I mean, it's not like we can just say 'find out where Voldemort is!" to some random object and it'll tell us or anything like that..." Harry replied slowly.
"Well... we could always take our chances and ask Dumbledore. You never know what could happen," Draco said, shrugging.
"You know... that might actually work..." Harry said thoughtfully, looking up towards the castle.
"Are you serious?" Draco asked, staring at him.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I mean, Dumbledore's always been willing to help me and my friends out in the past, so why not now? And I'm sure he'll help you, too, since it's technically his fault Hermione was captured, you know."
"Yeah... it is, isn't it? Well, I guess we should go find Dumbledore then, huh?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, but you know, it is getting rather close to dinner time... we better do that first before any of the professors find out that we've been 'breaking a rule'," Harry replied.
"Alright, let's get going," Draco agreed.
The two boys walked back up to the castle separately, avoiding all contact with teachers and students as they walked along, just in case someone had seen them talking together. Even though everyone thought the new rules were completely stupid and pointless, they all just loved seeing their classmates get in trouble for some odd reason.
Once Draco reached the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, he quickly sat down next to Brianna. "Hey, Draco, how was your little meeting with, um, your friend?" Brianna asked as he sat down.
"Oh, you know, it was, um, good. Got a lot done," Draco replied once he noticed several other Slytherins listening in on their conversation.
"Well, that's good... hey! Did I tell you Samantha's gonna be back in classes in three days? She's nearly recovered. Matt's down in the hospital wing with her right now, by the way," Brianna said, smiling.
"That's great, I'll bet Professor Elaine will be glad to have her back in Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Draco said.
"Yeah, it's been kind of... strange without Samantha and Hermione around," Brianna agreed.
"Alright, what is going on? I know you two are hiding something. Now, cough it up!" Pansy basically shrieked from across the table, glaring at Brianna and Draco.
"Whatever do you mean?" Brianna asked innocently.
"You know we would never keep any secrets from you!" Draco replied sarcastically.
Pansy glared at the two of them. "Fine. Be that way. I really don't have time for you two Gryffindor-loving freaks." Draco and Brianna had to bite their lips to keep themselves from laughing as Pansy walked off in a huff, trying to be so indredibly cool, but ended up tripping over two Ravenclaw first year boys fighting on the ground. Pathetic.
"God, I hate her... she shouldn't even be allowed to live, she's so damn annoying," Brianna said as she laughed at Pansy, who was tangled up with the two boys from Ravenclaw. She looked so embarrassed words couldn't describe the expression on her face.
"You can say that again," Draco replied.
"I will. Pansy shouldn't even be alowed to live, she's so damn annoying!" Brianna repeated loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear with a smug look on her face.
Pansy glared at Brianna as she violently shoved the two boys off of her. "I don't care what you say about me, Brianna Dershin. I know everyone here loves me, and that's a fact!" Brianna and the rest of the Slytherins snorted at Pansy's statement. Since when was that very untrue fact true?
"What is so funny?" she asked, still glaring.
"Hate to break it to you, Pansy, but... no one loves you. In fact, we all hate you," Draco said simply as Pansy's face fell.
"W-what do you mean?" Pansy asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
"You know perfectly well what I mean," Draco replied, smirking.
Pansy stared at Draco and the rest of the smirking Slytherins for a few minutes before bursting into tears and running off into the girls' bathroom. The whole Hall erupted in laughter as Pansy, once again, tripped, but this time over herself.
* * *
"Don't you think that was a bit harsh back there, Draco?" Harry asked as he and Draco walked down the corridors to Dumbledore's office a few minutes after dinner ended.
He shrugged. "I guess, but you have to admit, it was kind of funny..." Harry grinned.
"You can say that again," Harry said as they reached Dumbledore's office. Then the two boys realized they didn't even know the password to get inside. Some plan.
"Well... this is a problem," Draco said as he and Harry sat down on the ground.
"Maybe he's not in his office yet... he might come back soon, you know," Harry replied.
"Yeah... hopefully," Draco agreed.