Chapter 6: Second Chances
As Harry approached, Draco threw a stone violently across the lake's rippling surface. The stone skipped four times before tumbling into the water. "Nice one" Harry said as Draco stooped for another stone.
Draco paused for a second then straightened. "What do you want, Potter?" he asked flatly.
Harry noticed the usual drawl was missing from Draco's voice. "Nothing. Just walking. You OK?"
Draco looked right into Harry's eyes. "Go away, Potter. I don't want to talk to you."
"Just trying to help", Harry murmured as he turned away.
"Help? I've had about as much of your help as I can stand." Draco's whole body was now quivering with suppressed rage.
Harry sighed in exasperation, "I hoped that since our last talk …"
"Do you really want to know why I hate you?" hissed Malfoy. "My family can trace its lineage back over a thousand years; we're one of the oldest pureblood families in the world. My ancestors toiled to create the Wizarding World and to make it what it is today. Because of their efforts, those with the gift of magic can live free from muggle persecution. My father, as his fathers before him, worked to ensure that our family would always maintain the respect due us for those efforts. By keeping our blood `pure', we showed our pride in our ancestors and their accomplishments by ensuring that ALL of their descendants would be able to follow their example. After a thousand years of my family guiding the wizarding community, we are now being shunned by that very community we created and ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"I'm not the one who told your dad to throw in with Voldemort …" Harry began. He was getting angry now too.
"On top of that", Malfoy continued, "I was always told that because of my `pureblood', that I am better than any half-blood or mudblood. Better because of the history I have to draw upon. Better because I have lived as a wizard all my life and know my place in wizarding society. Then I come here to Hogwarts and I meet you and your friends: a blood traitor and a mudblood and you a half-blood. I was always expected to be better than you at anything having to do with Wizardry from flying broomsticks to casting hexes. Yet somehow one of you always managed to edge me out. You made your house Quidditch team our first year here. My father was furious when Dumbledor wouldn't bend the rules for me as well. Then I make the team second year but whenever we've played against one another you've always managed to beat me to the snitch. My father cannot accept that you, a half-blood, continue to beat me at a game that my family helped develop. Plus your friend the mudblood, Granger, outscores me in our classes. Do you have any idea how disappointed my father is with me? Do you know how much of a disgrace that this has made me in front of my family and the entire Wizarding World? I bet when you fuck up someone pats you on the head and tells you that everything will be alright." Tears were streaming down Malfoy's face. He had stopped pacing, had thrown his cloak to the ground, and was now tearing his school robes off. He threw them to the ground as well pulled up his shirt and turned around. Draco's voice shook with rage as he said over his shoulder, "This is what happens to me when I disappoint my father!"
Harry's mouth opened in shock. There were faint scars crisscrossing Draco's back. Harry could tell that healing magic was used on them and he winced as he realized how bad the wounds must have been for there to be any scarring left. Even the scar left from the puncture wound on his arm he received from the basilisk in his second year here at Hogwarts didn't look as severe.
Draco pulled his shirt down and snatched his robe and cloak from the ground. He saw the look on Harry's face and hissed. "Don't you dare pity me you scar-headed freak! I deserved it. All of it for letting my family down."
Malfoy turned to head back for the castle but Harry grabbed his shoulder to stop him. Draco didn't turn around while Harry said quietly, "No one deserves that. No one." He took his hand off Draco's shoulder and watched him stride off feeling stunned and a little queasy.
Harry stood there staring into the steel grey depths of the lake. He was trying to assimilate this new revelation into Draco Malfoy's psyche but couldn't decide if this new element in their relationship was going to make reconciliation easier or harder. He sighed heavily, turned, and headed back for the Great Hall anxious to discuss what had just happened with Ron and Hermione. As Harry approached the doorway, he heard Professor Vigo's voice, "And it's deep too." This was followed by a rather girlish giggling laugh that Harry could not identify. Just as he reached the door, Professors Vigo and Snape stepped outside. Snape was smiling and chuckling softly but his face instantly lost all traces of humor and quickly twisted into its normal sneer of contempt when he spotted Harry.
"Oh, hello Harry" said Professor Vigo with a cheery smile.
"Hello Professor Vigo, Professor Snape"
"Potter" Snape sneered. Harry noticed Professor Vigo give Snape an odd look.
Harry walked towards Gryffindor tower without consciously directing his steps. Was that Professor Snape laughing? Harry could not remember Snape being that friendly with any of the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. It was definitely turning out to be a very odd sort of day indeed.
Harry reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and before he was able to give her the password to enter the Gryffindor Common Room, she swung open and Parvati came out. She smiled when she saw him and said, "Just the person I was looking for." Harry stepped back to let her climb more easily out of the hole behind the portrait and Parvati placed her palm on his chest and shoved him firmly against the opposite wall where she pinned him with a knee-weakening kiss. Harry stood there dumbfounded as Parvati grabbed the front of his school robes and started dragging him down the hallway. "Come on", she said urging him to hurry.
Harry regained enough of his wits to quicken his pace and ask, "Where are we going?"
Parvati released his robes and grabbed his hand instead. "It's a surprise", she said mischievously.
She led him down several staircases and through a concealed passage to a familiar hallway on the fifth floor to the fourth doorway to the left of Boris the Bewildered. Parvati whispered "Country Garden" and the door to the Prefect's bathroom opened. Harry wondered briefly if the passwords for this room always sounded like air fresheners.
Harry wanted to warn Parvati that Moaning Myrtle might see them but she started kissing him and pulling off her clothes and he forgot what he was going to say. Parvati broke away from Harry long enough to run a hot bath, then they both shucked their school clothes and jumped in. There was a very brief water fight but Harry caught hold Parvati's wrists and pulled her to him. Harry's mind was reeling. Feeling Parvati's warm flesh against his, he just stopped trying to figure out what to do next and let her lead. Later, their energies spent, the two frolickers quickly dressed and went their separate ways. Neither heard the faint sobbing coming from the drain in the bath.
Harry pulled himself together and realizing the time, decided to head down to Dinner. No matter how hard he tried, Harry could not stop himself from grinning. He knew that if anyone saw him smiling like the proverbial cat that got the canary, they would know he had been up to something but he just couldn't make himself care very much. So, grinning like the village idiot, Harry entered the Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table and waited for Ron and Hermione to join him. Hermione. What would she think? Harry mused. He knew what Ron's reaction would be and he smiled wider at the thought. For some reason Harry didn't want Hermione to know about his relationship with Parvati. Harry couldn't really say why this was. He sat absently eating his dinner wondering why he was sure Hermione would be upset with him. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he jumped when Ron clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey Harry. Sorry, you OK?"
"Fine", Harry choked. He grabbed for his goblet of pumpkin juice.
Ron sat beside him and Hermione sat opposite Harry. As they piled food on their plates and began to eat, Harry filled his two friends in on the conversation and resulting revelation he'd had with Draco. He also told them about his encounter with Vigo and Snape. When Harry imitated Snape's laugh, Hermione and Ron both doubled over and bit their napkins in an effort to retain some decorum at the dinner table. They were only partially successful.
Hermione sobered first and once she caught her breath started analyzing Harry's latest meeting with Malfoy. She reacted just as Harry knew she would. "This is serious, Harry. You should tell Professor Dumbledor".
Surprisingly, Ron immediately agreed with her. "I think so too, mate. Maybe Dumbledor could get him into some counseling or something. At least his father is locked up and can't hit him anymore."
"You'd think he'd be happy about that, but he's not. And he says it's my fault as well. This sucks. I actually feel sorry for the little slime ball." Harry put his head in his hands, "I really shouldn't be complaining. At least no one has tried to kill me yet this year. That's got to be some kind of a record."
"Nope, your record is two consecutive semesters", Ron said smiling. "You still have one to go to tie".
"That's not funny, Ron", Hermione huffed. She placed her knife and fork neatly on the table, and delicately wiped her mouth with her napkin.
Harry caught himself staring at the linen as it brushed softly across Hermione's lips. He looked quickly up and down the table but he did not see Parvati. He glanced at Hermione, but she did not seem to have noticed him staring. He turned to Ron and caught Ron giving him an odd look. "You're right", Harry said. "I think I'll go tell Dumbledor now while it's all still fresh in my memory.