Music of Destiny

Chapter Six

"So, just tap your wand against the knob, like this. Say the unlocking spell, wait three seconds, then say the password. Currently the password is 'Bubblegum'. Don't look at me like that, it was Dumbledore's idea. You can change the password by saying the current one, then the new one. I myself have a special password that lets me in regardless of what password you have. Once you close the door, it automatically locks. Oh, yes, and this room is magically protected, so any magic you do in here cannot leak or be detected outside. So, any questions? If not, I'll leave you here and you can go in now. The materials are inside." Professor Lupin looked at the two sullen boys and sighed. "Try not to fight, will you?"

"We won't," Draco answered coolly.

Remus gave them dubious looks, like he wasn't sure he would find either one alive when he came back. "Okay, I'll be back when class ends. Otherwise, don't go anywhere, hear me?"

"Yes, Professor Lupin."

Remus Lupin sighed and made his way back down the stairs, leaving the Gryffindor and the Slytherin to glare first at each other, then at the door that led to their tower room. Finally Draco sneered, "Potter, we need to decide a password. Any good suggestions?"

"How about 'bloody cowards'?" Harry suggested sourly. Last night with the pianist had been wonderfully relaxing and liberating, but this morning, a five-minute stay in the Great Hall had left him fully pissed at the Hogwarts population. He had left immediately after grabbing a piece of plain toast at random off the Gryffindor table, to eat his 'breakfast' by the lakeside in *peace*. Away from the rest of the school.

Draco smiled humourlessly. "Actually I was thinking along the lines of 'ignorant idiots'. I'm *hungry*, dammit." He, too, had had a wonderful night 'talking' to the flutist, only to run headfirst into a horrible morning. He had escaped from the Hall, to eat in one of the many lush gardens around Hogwarts. He had tried the kitchens, but the reaction from the house elves were... not very encouraging. He had left after barely a few seconds in there.

Harry looked a little startled. "You ate outside?"

"What's it to you if I did?"

"Forget I asked."

Draco looked thoughtful. "Tell you what, we'll combine our ideas. 'Bloody ignorant cowardly idiots' sound good to you?"

"Perfect."

"You do the honours."

Harry stepped forward and tapped his wand against the doorknob, muttered 'Pateso', waited for three seconds, and said "Bubblegum." Then, with savage, gleeful satisfaction hissed, "Bloody ignorant cowardly idiots".

The door swung open and the two boys went in, closing the door behind them. They surveyed their new workplace. It was about the same size as Draco's own room, which was a fourth of the Gryffindor dorms. As a Slytherin senior, Draco had been given his own room; as a Malfoy, he had gotten the most spacious one of them all.

A couple of two-seater couches were on either side of the cackling fire to their left, angled to face inwards to that the fireplace and couches formed sort of a triangle. The wall directly opposite them had a large window that jutted out, and the ledge inside had been padded to form a window seat facing the lake and the Forest. Stacked against the right wall were thick, aged tomes, the ones they had to go through. In the middle of the room, four wooden chairs surrounded a small round table, only able to seat about four people. All in all, it was sort of... cozy. Harry shuddered at the thought of sharing anything *cozy* with Malfoy.

"Well... this isn't half bad," Draco admitted. "I imagined something worse." He carelessly tossed his bag on the tabletop.

"Like a jail cell?" Harry muttered, following suit, but treating his bag with more care.

Malfoy heard him, and replied, "Yeah, but I should have known Professor Lupin would be considerate enough to not dump us in the dungeons. That's something Professor Snape would do. To you, at least."

Harry blinked at Malfoy's accurate description of Professor Lupin... or Remus, which was what Harry had called the quiet werewolf before *that* incident. He shook himself out of his thoughts and looked over at Malfoy, who had flopped down onto one of the couches. Funny, he had thought Malfoy was a vain prick who screamed if even one strand of hair was out of place. Yet here he was, being rather relaxed for a Slytherin who was stuck in a room with a Gryffindor.

"Sit down, Potter. Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be nice or anything. I was just thinking, since we're stuck here anyway, let's call a truce." Draco raised a perfect eyebrow at the dumbstruck Gryffindor. "Do sit down, it's quite comfy here, the couch is nice and squishy."

Harry sat numbly, on the other couch. Malfoy was offering a truce? Malfoy was - heaven forbid - being *nice*? Hello? Malfoy? There was something wrong with this picture. Surely there was a catch, a motive behind this. He was sure Malfoy didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart, since he most likely didn't have one.

"Why are you suddenly asking for a truce? Are you mad?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"I'm not *asking* for a truce, Potter, merely *suggesting*. I'm not about to ask anything from a *Gryffindor*. Particularly not you. But look, we have to co-operate to get anything done. If we're yelling and trying to kill each other, we'll most likely be stuck here till seventh year. And as much as I like this room already, that's not a very welcome idea, is it?" He paused, and then smirked. "And you know what? I think it's precisely because I've gone mad that I'm even considering a truce with you."

Harry shrugged, unperturbed. "Then I'm mad, too, for even considering having a civilized conversation with you, let alone a truce. But go on."

"So. We just call a truce, and try to get along civilly. No picking fights, no arguing. Only discussions. And only in this room, of course. Anything that happens here, never - and I repeat never, not even to your friends Granger or Weasley - goes out of this room. Here, we drop all the masks we have around the others, since we both go through the same thing so we both know what each other feels. Or have you not noticed we both want people to leave us alone when they keep giving us pity?"

Harry considered it, then nodded for Malfoy to continue.

"But at the same time, I don't want to know about your troubles or your problems. I don't want to become friends or confidantes or anything as close as that. Just partners. Associates. Laughing, joking is fine. Serious talks and getting to know each other are not. No prying into each other's lives, either. It's all business, like a partnership for profit and profit only. I need people to talk to me *normally*, and I think so do you. Fair enough?"

Harry considered the boy's words. It wasn't like they were going to become great friends or anything. This was just to ensure they would get along. And he needed to talk to someone who wouldn't pity him, who didn't care what he was doing to himself - it was killing him, having to keep his wall up around everything that talked. And here was someone offering that very chance. Better yet, since it was a secret that even Malfoy would guard closely, no one would know of their new truce, so he didn't have to worry about putting another person in danger, even if it was *Malfoy*, who he really didn't give a damn about.

So, why not? "Yeah. Sure. The truce also holds when we're sure no one's listening. Otherwise, we go back to glaring at each other." He held out his hand when Draco nodded. "Shake on it."

Draco sighed, a look of disdain on his face. Harry refused to let it get to him, however, still holding his hand out. He didn't trust the Slytherin much, and though he doubted a handshake would make Malfoy trustworthy, it might at least make him hesitate before breaking the truce anyway.

Draco shook his head and gave up, reaching over to grasp Harry's hand in a firm shake, not trying to test his strength like so many people did. Harry, to his credit, didn't do such a thing either. "My word as a Gryffindor and a Potter." His intense green eyes bored into Draco's sharp silver-grey ones.

"Yes, yes, and mine as a Slytherin and a Malfoy." They let go. "Honestly, Potter. Nowadays you're not much of a Gryffindor, always hiding from everyone. And you're not living up to your parents' legacy, cowering away from reality. They at least faced it unwaveringly. But then again, I'm not much of a proper Slytherin nor a proper Malfoy, so I guess both our words aren't much good."

Harry stared at the other boy. He didn't know whether to be angry at Malfoy's insult to him, or thank him for his sort-of praise of Harry's parents, or be shocked at his admission to not being a 'proper Slytherin' or a 'proper Malfoy', whatever that meant. So he said what seemed to be the best thing at the moment.

"Huh?"

"Forget it. Now, since we have forty-five minutes to kill, and I don't feel like starting work yet - let's talk about those 'bloody ignorant cowardly idiots', shall we?" Draco leaned forward, anticipation in his movements.

Despite himself, Harry was intrigued. Something was up. "So, what about them?"

"Did you see the way those Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs flinched away from you? The way they whispered and muttered amongst themselves and kept staring fearfully over at us? The way they cringed every single damned time we so much as moved or glanced over at them? It's ridiculous, that's what it is. Bloody irritating. I went to the kitchens, and the elves reacted the same way. They couldn't wait to get rid of me. This is assuming you got the same reaction as I did, of course."

"You forgot to mention the dirty looks your house was giving me and the way they kept saying loudly that you could beat me anytime."

"Yeah, well, your house did much the same thing, except instead of the respectful distance my house kept from me, the Gryffindors were *grinning* at you. Grinning! Don't they realize we could have killed them anytime? Bloody oblivious idiots, the lot of them. If Gryffindor is the pride of the Light side, you might as well die now."

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it. Malfoy was right. Hadn't he thought the same thing before?

Draco was surprised that the Gryffindor had let it go without a fight. Maybe there *was* a little hope for the golden boy, after all.

Harry looked steadily at him. "Now what?"

"Right. Well, I was thinking, why don't we get back at them?" The grin on Draco's face was positively devious.

It took a lot of effort for Harry to keep his appearance unaffected. "And why would you think that I would like to 'get back at them'?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Come off it, Potter. You know even better than I do all the rules you've broken. Besides, you have an Invisibility Cloak and better yet, prankster genes."

Harry froze. "You - know about the Cloak and my parents?"

"The Cloak was simple to figure out, I have one too. As for your parents, I recall I was the one who knew about Black and your father's friendship even before you did. Stands to reason if I knew they were friends, I'd know about their little group. Your father, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew. Didn't take a lot of research to figure that out."

"Research?!" Harry sputtered. "You *research* my life?"

"Yes," Draco said calmly. "Cool off. Truce, remember? It's the only reason I'm telling you some of my secrets now."

"Okay. First tell me why you're *researching* me," Harry ground out through clenched teeth.

"It's no big deal, Potter. One of our family mottos. 'Know Thine Enemy'. In Latin, of course. The ancient language of wizards."

"Ah. Any other Malfoy mottos I should be warned about?"

Draco looked thoughtful. "Well... if you're talking about those that would violate your strict Gryffindor code of honour and loyalty, or are 'dark' in some sense, then yes, but that means all of them. And I don't have the inclination to go through all three hundred."

"Three hundred!"

"Yes, three hundred. Are you going to help or not?"

Harry looked hard at Malfoy. If he thought about the boy in unbiased terms, he had to admit, Malfoy wasn't that bad. He didn't get by in his studies just because he was the teacher's pet (that was only in Potions) - he was a close second in the school, and that took hard work, determination and brains. These few years, he was one of the people Harry looked forward to playing in Quidditch, because unlike most everyone else, he really did have flying skill, -and- he didn't go easy on Harry like the others did. And when his judgment wasn't clouded by anger, he had to admit that Malfoy had a wickedly sharp sense of humour, if a bit sadistic. And he was a good leader to boot. Working with him would be almost... fun.

He allowed himself to relax. "You planned this all along, when you asked for the truce, right?"

Draco smirked. "Took you this long to figure out? Why would I ask for something when there isn't anything in it for me? You insult me, Potter."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Just remember - we drop our masks in here but that doesn't mean we start sharing deep personal secrets or trusting each other. Other than that, you've got a deal, Malfoy."

"Then let's get cracking, Potter. Any good ideas for a prank? And on the entire student population of Hogwarts excepting us, no less!"

"Well, between your Potions expertise and my Charms skill, and with both our Seeker reflexes to slip away easily if needed, we'd surely be able to come up with something grand enough to live up to our standards. I mean, it has to leave a lasting impression."

"And we have to beat the Weasley twins, the Leroy kids, and the legendary Marauders, too. But with my brains, we'll surpass them for sure." Draco reclined in his couch; arm thrown over the back with a satisfied, confidant smile on his face.

"It's not going to be easy," warned Harry, rolling his eyes at Malfoy's claim. "The Marauders came up with some pretty good ones."

Draco waved a hand dismissively. Harry scowled.

"Now, what do you say we include the teachers? And should we include ourselves to make it more believable?" Draco wondered aloud.

"Well, I think we should..."

And that was how Remus found them, talking earnestly and animatedly together.

+++++

Remus Lupin was not easily surprised. When you become a deadly wolf that rips up everything once a month, have a charming rogue who delighted in the unexpected as a best friend, a seemingly batty yet wise leader who thought that surprises sprung regularly were the best kind, and a past filled with sudden shocking pain, loss, and betrayal, you aren't really surprised at most things.

Yet, upon entering the room he had given two of his brightest and most promising students, he couldn't help but stare at the sight of the aforementioned two chatting. He had left a couple of sullen enemies shooting 'Die-you-evil-spawn-of-Satan' looks at each other who hadn't so much as smiled in the past few years - excepting yesterday in the Hall, of course - and had pushed away all the people who cared for them; and he was now greeted with a couple of *friends*.

*They look good together,* Remus realized. *Like they've been together since birth and are going to stay that way. Like they're best of friends. Like they belong to each other.*

*Like Sirius and me.*

That thought was too much for Remus. He had been thinking of Draco and Harry in a more-than-friends relationship - where the hell had the idea of he and Sirius being like *that* come from? He shook his head firmly at himself.

The movement drew the boys' attention to him, and they abruptly shut up. Giving each other unreadable looks, they stood up in one fluid movement and gazed coolly at their Professor. He nodded to them in greeting. "I see you're getting along," he commented mildly.

"Yes, we were just getting to know each other. You know, working out our differences so we can better work with each other in this project," Draco replied smoothly. "So we won't end up killing each other every five minutes. We'll start work next time." He moved gracefully over to the table and slung his bag over his shoulder. "I take it lesson time is over?"

"Yes, it's just ended," replied Remus as Harry also walked over to pick up his bag. "So I take it you managed to 'work out your differences'?"

"Yes, Professor Lupin, we have. But I suppose you didn't see anything just now, did you? You only hazarded a guess, seeing we're both still in one piece." There was a challenge in both Harry's gaze and eyes.

Remus looked at Harry steadily, causing him to drop his gaze after a while, before looking at Draco. The teen gazed back steadily, not looking away. Finally, Remus said, "My memory's been slipping lately. I seem to have forgotten what I just saw a minute ago. However, my memory has been known to come back at odd times, particularly when I'm under stress."

The message was clear: Remus would not mention to anyone what he had seen, but if the boys gave him any trouble, he wouldn't be held responsible for what he 'let slip'. Draco and Harry both nodded. It was fair.

"Well then. Let's go, boys." With a wave of his wand, Remus put the fire out, and the three of them left, the door clicking shut behind them.

They walked down the winding staircase and emerged out of the tower into one of the fourth-floor corridors. There, the three of them split up - Professor Lupin to his DADA classroom, and the boys to their next class, the Transfiguration classroom.

Upon entering the classroom together, the whispers that had been circulating amongst the Slytherins and Gryffindors came to an abrupt halt. All eyes turned to stare at the two who were currently the hottest gossip in Hogwarts. Draco and Harry noted that the seats had been rearranged into pairs, and that the Slytherins and Gryffindors had separated into two halves, one on each side of the classroom - leaving one pair of seats right at the front.

They looked at the seats. They looked at each other. They glared lightning and a thousand painful deaths at everyone in sight. Just then, McGonagall swept in. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy. Just sit down, you'll be getting up in a few seconds."

Draco and Harry moved reluctantly to their desks and sat while their professor stood at the front of the class and whipped out a piece of parchment. "Now, class. No doubt you know about the inter-house pairings, so I'll go straight to the point. Stand up, all of you, and move to the back of the classroom - " they did, with a little grumbling " - and come forward to take your seats once I call your names."

Draco and Harry weren't surprised when the first pair she called out was "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy", and sat at the very back of the room, in the right corner with walls to their backs and their right. They watched as "Ronald Weasley and Blaise Zabini" took seats directly in front of them, and "Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson" sat on their left.

"Seamus Finnigan and Larry Rhimes", "Neville Longbottom and Vincent Crabbe", "Lavender Brown and Millicent Bulstrode", "Kassia Jordan and Tracey Davis", and "Parvati Patil and Gregory Goyle" each found their seats with varying looks of disgust on their faces - particularly Goyle and Parvati, who were the only male-female pair. 'Ew...' was clearly written all over Parvati's face.

"This will be your permanent seating arrangement, at least for this year," McGonagall said in clipped tones. "No use trying to change them, unless I feel it will be more productive to rearrange your seating. Now, without further ado..."

She turned to the blackboard and began writing, explaining clearly what they were going to do. Her lecture, short and to the point, ended ten minutes later and the class got to work.

Ron, Blaise, Hermione and Pansy glanced surreptitiously at the quiet pair. Harry and Draco stonily cast their spells - Harry's frog still had a white bobtail, while Draco's had bunny ears, paws, and whiskers, with patches of white fur. They looked like they were ignoring each other. Satisfied that their friends weren't going to have another scene like the one in the hall, the four turned back to their own rabbits, blinking up at them peacefully through the bars of the cage.

"Sorry for this," Ron apologized to the rabbit. Looking around at the other students, he saw that Harry and Draco were by far the most successful (Hermione hadn't started yet, she and Pansy were cooing over the animals) - all the others had managed to do were little things, like turning their rabbit frog-green, and in Neville's case his partner. Ron sniggered. Crabbe looked better green.

Blaise snorted and rolled his eyes. *He's apologizing to a rabbit? Please.* A casual flick of his wand and a muttered spell later, his frog now sprouted white fur and a twitching bunny nose.

Ron turned to glare at him. "What was that for?" he snapped.

"What? I was just doing the spell like we're supposed to," Blaise replied with a sneer.

"I meant the pig-like snort."

"I suppose you know how pigs sound like, since you are one."

Ron turned red with anger, but tried to control it. "That was lame, Zabini. Can't come up with anything better, I suppose, since you don't have much brains."

Blaise raised a disdainful eyebrow - an art he perfected with Draco's help. "More than you do, obviously. At least I've proven I can work this spell to some degree. Since you haven't even started, I assume you're too afraid of blowing yourself up to try."

"Why you little - " Ron grabbed his wand and pointed it at the rabbit, hissing the spell. Blaise stepped back, knowing that the spell was bound to go wrong, since people in rages hardly did new spells right. And true enough, Ron's rabbit turned bright, neon green in a puff of blue smoke that dissipated throughout the classroom.

"Mr. Weasley!" Professor McGonagall seemed to materialize out of thin air, a disapproving frown on her face. "Concentrate! Please try to get it right this time."

Ron nodded, face now flushed from embarrassment. "Yes, Professor," he mumbled as the stern woman moved off to help Crabbe, who now somehow had gotten furry white ears, with Neville almost in tears at the side.

Blaise laughed quietly. "Thank goodness not all redheads are as clumsy and idiotic as your family, Weasley, or the Cannons would have lost every game without Lent Rogers and Johnny Davies."

Ron swung around in shock, knocking the cage off the table. Blaise had to dive to save it. When he emerged, running fingers through his hair to push it back, his annoyed look was replaced by irritation (not that there was much difference) when Ron repeated, "The Cannons? Lent Rogers? Johnny Davies? You support the Chudley Cannons?!"

"Yes, Weasley, I do. Anything wrong - no. No. Way. Don't tell me you do too?!" The look of horror on both their faces was priceless when Ron nodded dumbly.

"Oh *damn*!"

+++++

"Boys," muttered Pansy under her breath, "Can't they just accept the fact and get along?" Hermione, catching it with her sharp ears, sighed, "I know what you mean."

The two girls regarded each other with less hostility than before. With their shared opinion of cute animals and immature boys, Hermione was beginning to change her opinion of Pansy as a whiny air headed blonde, and Pansy was beginning to think Hermione might actually be able to act her age and not ten years older.

"So," Pansy said conversationally, watching Hermione turn her rabbit into a perfect frog, "How's Potter doing these days? Closed off as ever?"

"Yes, he's been very withdrawn, as you may have noticed," Hermione replied, watching amusedly as Pansy's rabbit's feet became a frog's webbed feet. "No, your wrist movement is wrong. Roll it in a full circle ending with the heel of the palm facing up, but keep your wand trained on the rabbit. Malfoy's not doing very well either, I see."

"Yeah, he's almost as bad as Potter, but at least he still talks to us, and eats," Pansy shrugged. She smiled as the rabbit turned into half a frog, so that it looked like the top half of a rabbit mounted on the bottom half of a frog. "Hey, much better, thanks, Granger."

"No problem. I'm worried about Harry. I mean, outwardly you can't see he's not eating, what with all the flying he's been doing. He's lean with muscle but skinny, know what I mean?" Hermione turned the frog back into a rabbit, then turned it into a frog again, and looked over at Pansy.

"Yeah, I know. Had the same problem with Draco before we convinced him either it was him eating or us nagging him to death." She frowned at the frog, which now had a rabbit's head and tail.

"We?"

"Blaise and I, Vince and Greg." Pansy looked at Hermione's doubtful expression before sighing. Softly she said, "Granger, you might think we Slytherins are heartless, but you might be surprised to know that we're human. Draco's like our brother, just like Harry is to you. And I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I guess I'm sick of all the hating that's going on and I'd just like to set things straight. Woman to woman, you know?" She smiled wanly.

Hermione looked at Pansy, really looked, and saw another insecure girl worrying about a dear friend, instead of the stuck-up Slytherin she had stereotyped the blonde as. Tentatively she said, "I'm sorry... Pansy."

Pansy gave Hermione a small smile. "Nothing to be sorry about... Hermione. It's just the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry that gets people making prejudices. I guess us girls are more open-minded than those stubborn boys, hmm?"

They grinned at each other, feeling much better.

"Now, *those* boys have the worst attitudes of all," Pansy said, indicating the two silent boys in the corner. Harry, being better at charms, had by now turned his rabbit into a perfect frog, while Draco still had ears and whiskers to get rid of.

Hermione nodded, before a thought occurred to her. "Um, Pansy, isn't Malfoy sort of... your boyfriend?"

Pansy blinked, then chuckled. "My, our acting must be pretty good to have fooled the top student in the school! No, it's just faking. It's how we help Draco to discourage any adoring fans going after him. With me to act the psychotic jealous girlfriend, Vince and Greg to act as the hulking bodyguards, and Blaise to do overall damage control, we save ourselves the trouble of restraining Draco from hexing them into next week. Or haven't you noticed he's one of the most sought after guys in the school?"

"Yeah, I noticed," Hermione admitted. "I heard from Parvati that Harry and Malfoy are tied at the top of the 'hot list' now, right?"

"Oh, yes!" Pansy squealed excitedly. Unknown to them, this attracted the attention of the quiet pair in the corner. "Here - take a look at this - "

She pulled a list out of her bag discreetly, looking at McGonagall, who was occupied with saving Crabbe. On the parchment, right at the top in flowing cursive script, was the title 'Draco Malfoy VS Harry Potter'.

"Malfoy versus Harry?" whispered Hermione, looking scandalized. "Parkin - sorry, Pansy, that's my best friend, and yours too!"

"I know," replied Pansy breezily. "But what they don't know won't hurt them. This list was written by some Draco and Harry fanatics, and I managed to get it when they were fighting over who was cuter."

Together they read aloud the list, checking once in a while to see if McGonagall was coming.

"Harry Potter - messily adorable."

"Draco Malfoy - sleek and sexy." Pause. "What?!"

"Shh, keep your voice down! Look, just read - Harry Potter has hair that has got that wild 'just shagged' look to it, and brilliant green eyes."

"Draco Malfoy - " Hermione's voice was still choked " - has got fine silky silvery hair and piercing silvery-grey eyes to match. Look, don't they have anything better to do than stalk Harry and Malfoy?"

"I guess not. Ok, to continue, Potter had that irresistible sweet innocence back then, and now he's got that brooding mysterious air around him."

"Malfoy has that dangerous smooth charm, and he's an enigma that we all want to solve."

"Potter had that gorgeous, cute, shy grin that makes you feel he's sharing secrets with you, and now he's got that soulful 'get-lost' look that makes us want to pick him up and cuddle him. "

"What? Soulful 'get-lost' look?! *Cuddle* him?! That's not - Ok, ok, I'll continue, stop glaring. Malfoy has that delicious devil-may-care smirk that makes you melt."

"Let's see... they both have that slim-yet-muscled body from Quidditch flying."

"And that natural liquid grace both on and off the ground, tall and slim and fluid like elves. Hey, elves aren't like that! The elfin species - "

"Please, don't start! I don't need a lecture on elves, thank you. The way they fly is breathtaking."

"What? Oh, the list. Okay... both their tenors flow so soothingly and almost makes you faint with sensory overload."

"You just want to jump them right there and then whenever they even move."

Pause.

"Ew. Too much information. You should burn this list, Pansy, before you get nightmares. Ugh!"

"What, you think I don't have them already?"

The girls looked at each other and then dissolved into helpless giggles, before hastily going back to work, seeing that McGonagall was making her way towards them.

+++++

"Is it just the light, or are you green?" Harry muttered to Draco under his breath, feeling ill.

"It's me, definitely. And you look green, too. How can they *listen* to such things?" Draco groused.

"How can they even *repeat* such things?" Harry agreed. He cast a wary glance at the two girls. Shuddering, he said gloomily, "At least they're getting along."

"Thank goodness we only caught the last bit of their talk. I'd hate to think what they were talking about before that." Draco waved his wand and growled when the ears disappeared from the frog but the whiskers remained. "Dammit!"

"Shh!" hissed Harry. "Try that again."

Draco did it again, with no result.

"Turn the forearm as well, to keep the wand trained on the rabbit, um, the frog. If you don't turn your forearm, the wand doesn't stay pointed at the rabbit - the frog - oh, the dratted animal."

Draco nodded and tried it again. His face lost its annoyed frown when the frog lost its whiskers, in all appearances a normal bullfrog. "Thanks," he said reluctantly.

Harry ignored his tone. "S'okay. Since we've both finished, and I don't think either one of us wants to listen to any more talk by the two fanatics over there - " they glanced over at the two boys, who were gesturing wildly and talking heatedly, animals forgotten (though there was a furious Professor bearing down on them at the very moment) " - or any more gossip on how attractive we both are, let's discuss our payback, shall we?"

Draco smirked evilly.

+++++

IMPORTANT A/N

You might think Harry and Draco were a little OOC in here. But here's a reminder *why* they're like that.

1. They have a truce, so they HAVE to put aside their arguments and everything.

2. They have established that they're both in the same situations, so they understand what each other goes through, and it's nice to have someone who understands.

3. They're both pretty relaxed after last night.

4. They're united in the revenge they want to carry out on the exact same people for the exact same reasons.

5. I got tired of writing angst!Harry and angst!Draco. I decided to speed things up a little. So sue me. Or actually, don't.