Snakes and Lions

Interlude -- The Hogwarts Express

"Hermione?" Ron advanced tentatively, from the door of Hermione's compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Hermione glared at him briefly, then went back to her book.

"Could we talk?" he tried.

"No. Find another compartment."

Ron drew his shoulders in. "Look," he tried, "I know Harry wasn't with you."

"Yes, Einstein? And when did this brilliant insight occur to you? Sometime after you were looking under my bed, obviously."

Ron stepped into the compartment and shut the door behind him.

"After I left your room, I went down to the bathroom," he said. "Harry was there, puking."

Hermione's lip curled in distaste. "I told you he'd been with Draco."

"That he was puking confirms he was with Draco?"

"I've seen their bar." Hermione couldn't repress a quirk of her lip at the thought of the bottles cooling in the water. She snorted. "This would be a lot less painful if Draco had a modicum of nerve."

"What?"

"As everyone but Harry knows, Draco is smitten with Harry --"

"What?! You have got to be having me on! Malfoy?"

Hermione looked irritated. "As everyone but Harry and a few of the more clueless boys know, Draco is smitten with Harry, but he has never bothered to say so. And Harry is practically in your class when it comes to ignoring hints."

"Oh." Ron sat nervously down on the edge of the seat across from Hermione. "So, you think Malfoy is getting him drunk to ... um ... take advantage of him, or something?"

"Ron!" Hermione sounded shocked. "No, Draco is just ... Draco is pushing everything except what he wants." She shrugged. "And Harry ... Harry just does it. Anything that doesn't hurt someone else."

"What's this 'Draco' stuff?"

Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my god! I'm so -- I'm just spending too much time with Harry, that's all."

"Well, shouldn't someone tell him? I mean, he shouldn't have that whining ferret drooling after him --"

"I'll tell him at the end of vacation, when Draco is back. They can settle it then." Hermione looked searchingly at Ron. "Don't assume Harry will be displeased."

"Look, he fancies girls --"

"He has fancied at least one girl, possibly two. I make no assumptions as to the global applicability of that interest. Harry is rather restrained." Hermione's mouth quirked into a momentary smile. "And Dr- Malfoy can be quite charming."

Ron scowled. For a while, he looked out the window.

"Hermione?" he said finally. She looked up from her book immediately. He thought that was a bad sign. She could not actually have been reading it. "You and Harry...."

"He's my best friend, Ron. Deal with it."

"He told me --"

"You said. And as I said, if I ever leave you for someone else, you'll be the first to know."

"Thanks." Ron reached out for Hermione's hand. "I'll trust you," he whispered. "I promise." After an uneasy minute, she returned the gesture. They held hands across the aisle of the compartment.

"He was wearing something new, this morning," Ron said, lightly. "Malfoy must have bought it for him. Green silk, trimmed in black. Looked like a bloody Slytherin." He grinned. "Green in the face, too.'

"Was he okay when you left? Neville said he was sleeping."

"He wanted to sleep. I woke him, but he said he'd promised Malfoy not to show up at the train."

Hermione frowned. "I don't like that."

"Why not?"

"They were fighting, yesterday."

"And that's bad? Hermione, this is Malfoy we're talking about."

Hermione dropped her gaze. "I know," she whispered. "Ron, would you wait here for me, a minute. I need to go ask Seamus a favor..."

"You want me to what?" Seamus asked in an outraged whisper.

"Just ask him, okay?" Hermione pleaded, equally quietly. "You can let him know that I'm fretting about it, if you want, but I can't ask him, and if I did, he couldn't answer me, even if he wanted to."

"So I'm to coddle to Malfoy's bloody prejudices because you are worried that he may have fought with Harry?"

"Please."

"Shouldn't you be happy if he fought with Harry?"

"Seamus, Harry is essentially alone. None of us stayed this year. I need to know if he just overdid it, last night, or if he's in some new depression."

Seamus sighed. "He didn't seem anything but hungover and grumpy for it, to me, but then I wasn't looking for more." He sighed again. "All right. I'll ask." He thrust a finger at Hermione's chest. "But you'll owe me, girl."

Draco turned at the sound of the compartment door opening. He had found a place by himself and had hoped it would stay that way.

"This space free?" Blaise Zabini asked, his face in a rueful half-smile.

"Sod off, Zabini."

"Come on, Malfoy," Blaise said pleadingly. "I'm willing to forget all of October, if you just would as well. I swear I'll never cross that line with you again."

"And what line would that be?" Draco asked coldly.

Blaise thought. "The one between what you have approved and what you have not," he said carefully.

Draco sighed. "Sit." With that, he went back to staring out the window.

Blaise sat. Draco was aware that Blaise was watching him, but pretended to be absorbed in watching the scenery. Eventually, Blaise pulled out a textbook and began to read.

The door opened again. This time, Draco looked for the faint reflection in the window, rather than turning. What he saw of the reflection was enough to make him turn.

"Finnegan?!"

Draco was too surprised to manage to get the right amount of outrage into his tone. Gryffindors didn't come looking for him -- well, only certain Gryffindors did. To have a lone Gryffindor enter his compartment was unprecedented.

"Believe me, I'm no more pleased than yourself," the Irish boy answered, but his eyes twinkled. "One Miss Hermione Granger has got it into her head that you may have fought with Harry, and is, for some reason that escapes us all, distressed. Since she knows you won't speak to her, she's sent me on to ask."

Draco fixed Finnegan with an even stare. After a long silence he asked:

"Well?"

"What well?"

"Are you going to ask?"

Finnegan rolled his eyes. "Oh, honestly, Malfoy! Did you fight with our Harry?" he asked.

"Your Harry?" Draco laughed. "Oh no, Finnegan. Not yours, nor mine. Bloody idiot." He scowled. "Tell the Mudblood that I like lightning, even when I can't control it. Now get out of here, before we need to fumigate."

A confusion of emotions crossed Hermione's face as she listened to Seamus's account.

"'I like Lightning' would seem to indicate that they're okay," she muttered, "but he did something Draco didn't like, but "Mudblood" -- Harry doesn't let him call me that -- could mean that they're still fighting, or that Harry's lost some control, so that Draco ... er, Malfoy, thinks he can...." She rubbed her forehead and frowned at Seamus. "Who was with him?"

"Zabini."

"Oh." Hermione frowned. "I don't know his family. How tight are they with the Malfoys?"

"Can't be much. He's a working class sort."

Hermione threw her hands up in despair.

"I'll just have to wait until Tuesday, I suppose. I hope he's okay."

"Hermione," Seamus said patiently, "this is Harry. If he's not okay, he'll be getting in trouble, at worst."