DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. does, and she has every right to do whatever she thinks is best for Harry Potter. I just love writing. So sue me. Wait, seriously… don't.
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Harry had dashed further out of sight the moment he sensed Ginny and Malfoy parting ways, especially since he knew his Slytherin friend would be taking the corridor to where he had been hiding. And now, as he was walking back to Prof. Dumbledore's office, he couldn't help but think of some things he hadn't considered much about until now.
A few days ago, when Malfoy had apologized, Harry knew it just wasn't because he wanted to. Somehow, he felt there was another reason for the sudden change…but it never crossed his mind it would be Ginny.
And the more surprising thing was…she somehow had great influence on Malfoy to make him do something as humiliating and humbling as apologize. Knowing the guy, it probably took her a lot of persuasion…probably threats…to convince him.
But then, just merely complying with her, Harry knew one thing -- he really did care for her.
What to do about it would be an extremely hard decision -- not that he had any say in it -- but Harry knew the Weasleys would be difficult when they find out. Ron will surely flip out and immediately go against Malfoy, narrating to Ginny, and to any one else who would listen, the offenses he had done to him.
Harry then wondered when Ginny would tell them -- probably when everything's all right between Malfoy and the rest of her family. If they asked him, he wouldn't give in to the guy's words immediately, having experienced what it was like before.
But that was speaking for himself and his feelings. Ginny's point of view was different from the rest and he knew she had good sense in choosing people whom she trusted.
Maybe Malfoy really had changed.
But be that as it may, no one knew when people would begin to open up to him, even after they have accepted him. He was just too a Malfoy to begin with. Even if no one blamed him for being part of such a family, it had been his choice to taunt him and his friends, unless his father asked him to do it -- not that he had actually showed any sign of guilt and remorse over anything he had done.
"Heard something you didn't like, Potter?" the familiar drawl of the person in his mind had him stopping and looking back in surprise.
"Excuse me?"
"No need to act innocent." Malfoy smirked as he leaned casually against the wall. "I may have changed, but my keen sense hasn't."
Seeing no other way around it, Harry asked him, putting up an obvious challenge. "And what if I didn't like it?"
"Honestly?" Malfoy met him head-on. "I don't care. The decision's actually not up to you or to anyone else, is it?"
"Are you telling me no matter what the Weasleys say, you won't leave her alone?" Harry asked.
"I'm saying I can't stop it even if I try." Malfoy muttered.
"It? What's it?"
"Don't play dumb, you know what it is."
Harry was speechless. He just couldn't believe it. His enemy…the boy who had constantly tried to best him at everything, was actually in love with his best friend's sister…the same best friend who was appalled by his mere presence and would give anything just to see him as far away from them as possible.
Was it safe to trust him?
He had been a rival…a sneak who made living worse. No matter how real his feelings were for Ginny, he just couldn't put all those years behind him.
And what would Hermione say in this situation? She'll be against it even if Ginny's her close friend and she wanted her to be happy.
Maybe it was better if he let things be until she comes back so he can ask her.
`You mean, if she comes back…'
Harry sighed. Not an hour had gone by and already, he was thinking of her.
Sensing the sudden change in his mood, Malfoy watched him closely and asked. "Mind telling me what's on your mind right now?"
Harry stared at him in belated surprise. "You want me to tell you what's on my mind?"
He shrugged. "Wouldn't hurt, would it?"
"It wouldn't. But on second thought, when you consider all the humiliation you put me through, the trouble you caused us for years…yeah, I guess, it would."
"You know, Potter, sarcasm just isn't you."
"I'm not being sarcastic. I'm telling it like it is."
"Ok, look. I'm the one having a hard time trying to make you lot forgive me. It isn't easy…at all. And you're not helping. What you're doing is making it difficult for me to keep it up."
"I didn't ask you to apologize." Harry said. "Why you're doing this?" Harry asked. "It can't be just because of Ginny."
"Want me to tell you why? Then listen." Draco Malfoy's voice was quite but it carried a superior tone. "I'm tired. Tired of being used for personal advantages and for once, I would like to be somebody someone cares for. I'm tired of thinking what brilliant things to say next just to put on airs later though I know there isn't anything in me to brag about. And it doesn't make me feel any better when people tell me to sod off and leave them alone either."
He paused to draw a breath. This must be difficult for him; Harry thought and decided to keep quiet.
"Maybe that's why I've always tried to put you down--because I can't be up there with you. I wanted you to suffer as I suffered…but it never gave me what I wanted. The more I tried to shatter you; the more your friends supported you."
Another pause.
"People put up with me only because they're afraid I'll have my so-called friends after them. But Ginny," He paused, smiling and shaking his head in disbelief at the same time, "Ginny had treated me differently. Yes, she had been cold to me during the times we were unintentionally together, always reminding me of you and Ron and Hermione and the way I treat you. But she did something no one had ever done before: she became my friend."
He chuckled feebly. "It was an odd relationship at the beginning, not to mention, unlikely, but it happened. It only started because of a confrontation she had started, but I'm glad she had the nerve to do it, because if she hadn't, I'd still be who I was before."
Silence came next. Malfoy was looking away and Harry knew he was too embarrassed to look him straight in the eye. Then he heard a self-conscious laugh and found himself looking at Draco's face as he turned towards him.
"Now, Potter, tell me. Isn't that enough reason for you to stop judging me?"
That question had Harry thinking again.
He was actually serious…especially with Ginny. His entire speech was so sudden that it had him in awe till the end. He never expected him to say those things and he had to give him credit for them. No one in their right state of mind, evil or good, would be able to come up with such profound insecurities.
He decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Do you realize that that's the second sappy speech you gave me within this week?" He joked with clear affability to escape the formalities of having to accept him.
He visibly relaxed the pink coloration on his cheeks seemed to have changed to a deeper shade. "One more thing to talk about in the future then."
"So now you're talking about a future with us. Confident the Weasleys would be okay with all these?" Harry asked him.
"Why not? I'm likable." Malfoy said, splaying his hand in front of him.
"Sure you are." Harry mocked him and then he stopped, realizing what had happened.
His relaxed amusement with his enemy as if they'd been friends for a long time was one thing, but to believe Malfoy despite having made up his mind to let things be for a while was quite a surprise for him. This wasn't just like him, especially where Malfoy was concerned. But there was something in the way he had revealed to him what sounded very much real had him trusting the guy.
"Listen, I know my vote isn't important in this unexpected relationship of yours, but if you ever need it, you got it."
Malfoy's face lit up as he realized what he meant and knew that everything would be okay between the two of them.
But then Harry surprised him when he suddenly stepped forward to tower over him and spoke with a menacing voice and violent green eyes. "But if you ever hurt her, I swear, though I'm not her brother, you'll experience something far worse than what Ron would give you.
Malfoy, aware he was kidding, but still quite serious, nodded and smiled.
"Not a chance."
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"Here it is!" Erin called out to Hermione who was at the other side of the bookshelf.
Hermione looked up and turned her head towards Erin's direction. Sure enough, she was holding a familiar book that made Hermione remember the day she and Ron were in Prof. Dumbledore's office. That was the time when she found out about it when it had fallen as one of the many that did when she accidentally fell against the shelf.
She tried to be calm as she made her away to her end, but failed, as her wobbling feet wouldn't let her. It was a good thing though, that Erin was already skimming through the pages, or else she would have wondered why Hermione was walking quite lamely towards her.
"See." She modeled it once Hermione was standing beside her.
The cover of the scrapbook still looked the same, she noticed, and remarkably unaffected by the changes a century had gone through. The pages seemed as if a hundred years' number of graduates hadn't been added to it, which she was sure was one other magic done to preserve something like this.
"Let's go sit down." Erin suggested even as she walked by her to the nearest chair. But before Erin could actually take a seat, someone called her over, destroying subtly the silence in the library.
Erin turned around and saw a classmate. Looking back at Hermione, she said. "Be right back. You can check out the book now if you want."
She nodded as Erin left.
Hermione bit her lip and in a second, the book was opened and she was already searching for Harry's name. It wasn't a long while before she found his page. She stared at his photograph a hundred years ago, the present time in his own period, and marveled at how he had changed.
In the portrait, he was wearing emerald robes that gave emphasis to the vividness of his eyes. His hair, which was now shorter, but still messy, made him look more mature and attractive than the last time she had seen him.
He was wearing one of those grins that conveyed hidden messages. And knowing him for seven years, she knew exactly what was making him smile like that. And her theory was attested when Harry's portrait disappeared and was replaced by a new one, this time, with a woman in his arms.
Hermione was taken aback at the photo of a beautiful woman blinking and smiling back at her. She was slight in built with shoulder-length, blonde hair. She looked intelligent, young and fit. But her face wasn't familiar at all. She had never seen her in Hogwarts, which meant Harry met her somewhere else.
But a `who was she to Harry wasn't a question she had asked herself, though. The moment she saw him holding her that way, she knew right away she was Harry's wife.
Curious, she looked down and read Harry's profile.
Name: Harry James Potter
State: 117
Residence: Godric's Hollow (ancestral home - currently on vacation in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free)
Vocation: Partial Owner of Quidditch Team, British Seahorses
Successor: James Nicholas Potter
Wife: Alyssa McGee
Familiar Colleagues: Ronald Weasley (see Weasley - Generation 2)
Hermione Granger (see Granger)
Hermione's brows shifted slightly…no other generation? How come her line had ended…does this mean she had married? But to whom? She shut the book in frustration.
She was getting more than what she bargained for…and nothing was actually helping her at all. Maybe it was better if she stopped here, or she might find something else she'd be happy not knowing.
But something at the back of her mind told her to open the book again and for the last time -- an invisible force pulling her towards finding out more; although she knew her desire to see further had already gone.
For a second, she looked up to look for Erin and saw her a bit engrossed in a conversation with somebody from their Herbology Class. Because of this, she decided to read the book again without her.
This time, she scanned the pages for Ron's profile. She shifted sheets rapidly and began a slower pace when she reached the W's.
"Weasley…Weasley…" She mumbled as she searched his surname.
The first name that greeted her when she reached the Weasley family name, 2nd generation, was Bill, the oldest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley.
He looked the same and so did Charley, as his page came next…then Fred and George's followed, both had the same things said about them, with the variation of their families. The one who came after them was Ginny and although Hermione was still surprised at the outcome of her love life, she couldn't help but smile subtly at how good she and Malfoy looked together in the picture. Percy's profile followed his sister's, which contained very little information and then…finally…Ron's.
Looking down, the first thing that caught her attention was his photograph.
Ron was facing the camera, wearing robes that matched the color of Harry's and was putting on a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. She knew his smiles as well as she knew Harry's and Hermione couldn't help but worry as she saw the one Ron had on.
He was suffering…that was the simplest way she could explain it. He looked unhappy…as if something was bothering him, a heavy burden laid on his shoulders.
This had Hermione thinking. Where had she been in his entire ordeal? She found herself asking. Hadn't she been able to take away even half his worries?
She had been selfish, she realized -- busy asking him to be a friend and not have been sensitive enough to see if she had been one to him. Sulking about her own problems; she didn't see Ron had some of his own, too. Although Hermione knew he wouldn't blame her, she couldn't help but feel a sudden urge to lend him a hand.
But at the same time, she also felt miserable and useless as a friend, not being by his side when he had needed her most. She felt guilty and wicked…not seeing he had the right to having a friend, too.
…but all that changed the moment she saw the next picture…
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