Today

TODAY

Shortened end of Shouldn't I Know Why? (Just to bring you up to speed).

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Hermione straightened herself up and studied two vials.

Harry instantly recognised one vial but the other one was one he had never seen before.

"Is that....?" Malfoy asked

"Yes," Hermione answered, "It's a love potion found in Moste Potente Potions. It's also available by mail order if you want to sneak it into the school and I think I know what they were going to do to Malfoy."

"What?" both boys were desperate to know

TODAY

The light from the morning sun spills over my closed eyes. I can tell this because the black I saw when I closed my eyes the night before was now a dark orange.

All is quiet. There is no sound in the wing as I am the only one there. I do recall having a neighbour, a young Slytherin. He was in Quidditch robes, possibly a chaser-in-training. With the exit of two chasers and our keeper at the end of the year, the urgency to train new team members has become a top priority for Marcus, whom he himself will be leaving us too.

The young boy was there because, according to the boy, Marcus was trying to get the existing and potential chasers to do a Reverse Pass accurately. In this instant, he looked backwards to throw the Quaffle, but didn't look to the front quick enough to miss a spectator stand.

He crashed into it, breaking his arm at the same time. I suppose that Madam Pomfrey just healed his bones and told him to rest and by the way it looks, he left not long after I went to sleep.

There's not much time to dwell on this because madam has bought me a small breakfast and a reminder.

"Eat up Mr. Malfoy. I expect Mr. Flint and Mr. Potter will visit you sometime this morning."

Mr. Potter. When I hear Harry's name, even in such a formal way, I always think of him and how much I do love him.

She gives me the tray and walks off. Porridge, toast and a glass of orange juice are on my tray. It looks so good that I finish it quickly, but I savour every morsel of food and every mouthful of juice.

I place the tray on the small table next to me. As I look up, the face of the one person I desperately want to see looks back.

"Hello Draco, feeling better?"

"Now that you are here Harry, I feel much better."

He gives me that gorgeous smile and sits on the side of my bed.

"I can't stay long, unfortunately, Draco - but I thought you should know this."

He seems worried, so I take his hand.

"What's the matter Harry?"

Harry draws a large breath as his shoulders rise and fall.

"Draco, Ron knows."

Those words bring a pain to my chest. It is too early for this to happen, I'm not prepared.

"When? Why? Did you?"

"The night you got hit by that Bludger and no I didn't tell him."

"So how did he find out, Harry?"

"He was at the Quidditch pitch, taking something over to Cedric from Oliver when you got hit. He rushed over to help and found out it was us. The rest he figured out himself."

I have to admit, to Weasley's credit, he's not as dumb as I thought he was.

I swallow hard.

"D...does Granger know?"

"I doubt it. I'm actually going to do that now," he pauses, "with your permission of course."

I look into those emerald green eyes and sigh. It's too early.

"I guess we have to tell her, now that Weasley knows."

"What will you do with Crabbe and Goyle?"

"I'll deal with them later."

Harry bends over and starts to rummage through his bag, giving me a good chance to perv. When he finally stands up, he hands me my wand.

"Knowing Ron, he'll visit you later so you might need this."

I take the wand and place it in a small drawer next to me.

"Also your owl dropped this on me this morning, I guess it's from your Mother."

He passes me a green box and the morning's mail.

"Thank you."

I open the box and find some biscuits plus the usual note asking if I was okay.

"Want one? They're chocolate chip. Made with Honeydukes' finest chocolate."

"Sure, why not?" I pass one over to him and he eats it quickly.

"Mmmm nice. Your Mother is a good cook."

"I'll pass that message on to her."

Harry leans over and plants a kiss on my cheek.

"I've got to go now. You know what happens when you're late for Transfiguration."

I nod in agreement.

"I'll bring the work up after class."

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay. I'll see you in a couple of hours then."

"Yeah and it's going to kill me to wait."

He's smiling at me and I smile back, which makes my head sore.

"It's going to kill me too. Have fun."

"See ya."

Before he exits, Harry turns around and waves. Feeling cheeky, I look around and blow him a kiss. He blushes crimson and leaves.

I pick up the Daily Prophet that was in the bunch of letters. The front page sports the first results of the Australian-New Zealand Quidditch League. The Woollongong Warriors had narrowly defeated the Moutohora Macaws, 290-280.

The Australian-New Zealand League, according to my Father, used to be two separate leagues. They were both pretty successful. So successful that the Department of Magical Games and Sports, who govern the game, decided to merge the two leagues together to make it more successful.

That, of course, was met with a lot of anger from most Quidditch players and officials, but the merge went ahead as planned.

According to the article, it was a sell-out game, and a very violent one at that. The article didn't elaborate on the violence but did mention that still half of each team was in the hospital.

I put the paper down as I hear footsteps coming towards my bed.

I quietly take my wand out of the drawer and place it next to me under the blanket as Marcus Flint rounds the partition.

"How's it going, Malfoy?"

"I feel good, apart from a sore head. Madam Pomfrey says that I can leave tonight."

Marcus looks anxious.

"What about Quidditch? Can you play yet?"

"She said no Quidditch for two weeks. Period."

"Damn!" he looks annoyed. "We play Ravenclaw next weekend and I hear that Chang has got better thanks to all the extra practice."

I hold up my hands in defense.

"Hey, I can't help it. She said no sport for two weeks. None, not even practice."

"What the hell am I supposed to do then?" grumbles Marcus.

"Put Terrence back as seeker and bring in one of the new chasers in. Either that, or forfeit."

Marcus was silent for a couple on seconds then he spoke.

"Good idea Malfoy. With thinking like that, you'd make a good coach one day. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Flint." I call as he leaves.

After he goes I look at the clock next to me. Class ends in half and hour so that means that Harry will be here in forty minutes. I can't wait. Even being apart from him for 2 hours is hard. Being apart some nights is unbearable for me.

Ever since I told him how I felt about him, I would fall for him again every time I saw him.

It didn't change after we started going out. In fact, I would fall for him even harder each time I saw, heard or felt him near me. I guess you could say that I am not a typical Malfoy.

"A typical Malfoy doesn't act like a love sick Muggle," my Father once told me. "they act cold, aloof and uncaring and they DON'T fall in love."

How wrong he was of me, although he did try to literally beat it into me. Sometimes he would beat me so viciously that I would look like I'd been hit with the Cruciatus Curse.

It never worked. The thought of Harry reciprocating my feelings kept me going.

When I finally told Harry about the beatings, he dragged me to Mr. Weasley and told me to tell him. I remember his face changing from aloof to concerned as I told him all about the beatings.

I told him everything under a powerful truth serum that goes by the name of Vitaserum. I asked Mr. Weasley for some so I didn't leave anything out and because of that I asked him to keep it all quiet, but to do what he could.

He was so good about everything. Arranged for a House Elf to go undercover at the Manor for about two months to keep an eye on me. After that time the Ministry moved in and arrested my father.

The latest news I got from the Ministry, through this morning's mail, was that father was formally charged with abuse and that the trial was in a month. That meant that my Mother was my sole parent, for now.

It's been hard. Harry had to stay with me some nights, hidden under his Invisibility Cloak, and other nights, I'd stay with him with me under the cloak.

Harry's been great to me and I don't know how I will ever be able to repay him for that.

"Malfoy!"

I look around but no one is there.

"Over here stupid!"

I still can't see a damn thing.

"Damn it Malfoy. Are you deaf?"

I see Weasley take off the cloak and place it on the partition.

"No, not deaf, but I cant see you when you have Harry's cloak on."

"Suppose you're right."

He looks a little annoyed.

"Okay then, what's up Weasley? Apart from the fact that you know about Harry and I."

"Nothing much actually."

"So why are you here?"

"To give you two warnings."

Two warnings? That was unexpected.

"Right then, shoot."

He pushes some hair from his face.

"First, if you hurt Harry in any way, just remember that my wand does work and you will be eating something a lot worse than slugs."

I try not to laugh. In second year he tried to place a hex on me that would make me puke slugs but his wand backfired and he started to puke slugs instead. I think he did it because I called Granger a Mudblood, a very rude name for a Muggle-born wizard or witch.

Weasley clears his throat, which redirects my attention back to him.

"Secondly, you should keep your wits about you. Once the news about your relationship with Harry, you'll be a marked man."

A sense of dread comes over me.

"You're not going to tell are you?"

"No I'm not, but it's bound to come out soon." Ron snorted

"Oh. Well, thanks for the warnings."

"Sure, just remember one thing," he walks up and places his wand next to my temple, "there are many things worse than eating slugs."

He turns and leaves, grabbing the cloak on his way.

I sigh softly and return to the paper.

The second page contains an advertisement from Flourish and Blotts.

They are selling a boxed set of books about Wizarding genealogy. It could help Harry find out more about his family. I'll keep it in mind for Christmas. It seems like a potentially perfect gift.

The there's.................

"You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do Draco Malfoy!"

The paper is snatched from my hands and instead I'm looking straight into the pug face of Pansy Parkinson.

"What the hell do you want Parkinson? Can't you see I'm trying to rest?"

I try to sneer at her but that also is giving me a headache.

"You know exactly what...I mean who I want Draco." The way she purrs my name is disturbing.

She produces a vial from her cloak and takes one of my hairs.

"The last ingredient."

She turns around to be facing away from me.

"Oi, I need it now!"

Although I can't see the look on my own face, my shock as Goyle appears and hands her a slightly larger vial filled with a thick, brown and gluggy stew would have made my face quite humorous.

After she adds my hair, she closes the larger vial and shakes it. The mix turns from brown to a dull gray.

"Mail order's great, isn't it?' she asks as she shakes the vial.

"If I was going to make this myself, I'd have to wait a month for it to be ready but I would of stuffed it up big time because I'm not that good at potions. Lucky for me you gave me that catalogue last month isn't it? Direct Delivery if you have the right amount of money"

She hands Goyle the vial filled with the black liquid. As he opens it, the strong smell of strawberries fills the area. It is then that I realize what is in it.

It's one of the strongest Love Potions ever and it's only available by mail order from a Potions shop in Knockturn Alley. It is so strong that it makes anyone change teams and the effects are permanent.

"Don't worry Drakey," she purrs, "Pansy's going to make it all better."

It's at this moment that I hear the doors open and someone yell.

"WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?"

Pansy moves out of the way and I see my beloved Harry, and his friend Hermione.

"Harry, Hermione, help me."

I could see that Harry was too scarred but Hermione pulls out her wand.

The next thing I see is Harry at my side asking me if I'm okay and Hermione bending over the frozen bodies of Pansy and Goyle.

"Are you okay?" Harry looks rather worried.

"I am now. I bet I owe you one Granger?"

All she wants is for me to stop calling her a Mudblood. That I can do.

"What happened?" Harry asks

Hermione stands up with the two vials in her hand.

"Is that....?"

"Yes," she answers, "it's a love potion found in Moste Potente Potions. It's also available by mail order if you want to sneak it into the school."

She opens the other vial, takes a sniff and takes it to Harry.

"Remind you of something?"

He takes a whiff and his face screws up.

"Yeah it does."

Now my curiosity is getting the better of me.

"What is it Harry?"

"Polyjuice Potion. It allows the person who drinks it to turn into anyone for around an hour. It's difficult to make, but the last ingredient is often the hardest to get."

"What's that?"

Harry strokes my hair. I love that.

"A hair from the person they want to change into."

I point to the large vial.

"My hairs in that."

"Well I know exactly what they were going to do to Malfoy."

"What?" I ask.

Granger starts, "Well, Goyle was going to change into you and go to Harry and break up with him. Meanwhile Pansy would have given you the love potion to make you fall in love with her."

Harry squeezes my hand as I sit there, shocked.

"I thought that Goyle was really stupid. I guess he proved me wrong," was all I could say.

Granger rushes out to grab the nurse and the two ladies take the two frozen bodies to the other end of the wing.

"Come down here, both of you," Hermione calls "and bring the vials."

Harry helps me walk down to the other end of the wing.

"Can I have that vial?" she points to the love potion.

Harry hands it over. Hermione studies it carefully.

"By the looks of it, this was bought through the mail, so it won't be as potent as the one in the book."

She empties half of the vial into one cup and fills it with water and then does the same with the rest of the vial. She hands one cup to Harry.

"Make sure they drink it all."

"We'll give them a taste of their own medicine. Its only going to last a couple of months, but it's enough to give you some peace."

She pulls us behind the curtain and points her wand at Pansy and Goyle. She whispers something and the two figures come back to life.

"Pansy?"

"Gregory?"

"What are we doing here?"

"I don't know. Hey Greg, do you know you're pretty cute?"

"You're quite the same yourself."

"Lets go have lunch."

"Sounds good. I'm starving."

They link their arms together and exit the wing.

I give Granger a big hug.

"Oh, thank you Granger."

She smiles although she does look shocked that I hugged her.

"I'd never thought I'd be saying this, but no problem Malfoy. Just call me Hermione from now on will you?"

"Only if you call me Draco."

"Sure."

"Mr. Malfoy, you can go now," calls Madam Pomfrey.

As we scoot out the door I cry out, "Thank you."

"Did Ron visit you today?" Harry asks.

"Yeah he did. He didn't touch me, just told me to keep my wits about me."

Harry's face clouds over and I know what he is thinking.

Harry turns to Hermione.

"Where's Ron?"

"How the hell should I know? Lets try Gryffindor Tower."

We run up to the portrait and Harry yells, "Starfish!"

The lady in the portrait must have heard the urgency in Harry's voice as she opens rather quickly.

Ginny, Weasley's sister, is sitting by the fire.

"Oh Harry, Ron's upstairs. Wait, what's he doing here."

She points to me.

"I'll explain later Ginny."

We run up the stairs and burst into the room.

Surprisingly, it is Hermione who speaks.

"Ronald Weasley, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ron turns around and looks at us one by one. He seems genuinely shocked when he looks at me.

"What do you mean?" Ron asks

Hermione's sigh fills the room.

"You know exactly what I mean Ron. Goyle, Pansy, a certain two potions. Something about Draco."

"Draco. Draco. You're calling him Draco now?"

"That's not for you to worry about Ron," Hermione walks up to the bed. "Now tell me about the little scheme you had with Pansy and Goyle."

Weasley looks rather confused.

"You want to explain this little 'scheme' you're talking about."

Hermione grabbed Weasley by the shirt collar and dragged him off the bed.

"You know exactly what scheme I mean Ron. The one you devised with Goyle and Pansy to break up Draco and Harry."

I see Weasley's eyes widen with shock.

"Hermione...you don't think...I couldn't...it wasn't me at all...I wouldn't do anything like that...you know that."

Before Hermione could talk again, Harry steps towards Weasley.

"Let Ron go."

She does so with much reluctance.

Harry grabs his shoulders.

"Ron, Pansy and Goyle tried to use Polyjuice Potion and a love potion to break up Draco and I and get Draco to fall for Pansy."

Weasley's expression changes from shock to horror.

"Harry," he pleads, "you know I'm not 100% behind you and Malfoy and sure, I did leave the classroom and not return for Transfiguration, but I didn't do anything to him. All I did was visit him and warn him about what happened if the news got out. I swear to you all, I would do anything like that."

At that moment he looks me directly in the eyes. The feeling that hits me indicates that he's telling the truth so I walk over to Weasley and place a hand on his shoulder.

"I believe you Weasley. Hermione said that the potions were bought through the mail and I know they are not cheap. My Father used to buy simple potions through the mail all the time, and they were very expensive. I doubt Weasley could afford them."

Hermione looks at Harry then turns her head back to me.

"Anyway, Weasley wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole if he had the choice."

I hear Weasley let out a sigh and I feel his body relax as he sits back on the bed.

"So," Hermione asks, "where did you go then?"

Ron looks up at her.

"I had to send an owl, then I visited Malfoy..."

I couldn't resist....

"Call me Draco, you really should."

Ron turns to me, "Do I have to?"

Harry giggles, "You might as well now Ron. For my sake?"

"Fine. As I was saying, I sent an owl, visited Draco and then I had some private business to attend to."

"Such as?"

"I can't tell you that. It's private!" Ron's face turns a dark shade of red.

"Come on Ron. You can tell me."

"Doubt it Draco. Anyway, it's none of your business."

"Okay then, what about the owl. Who was that to then?"

"Never you mind, I'm not saying a thing."

"Guys!" Harry's butting in now, "Do you think its possible to continue this outside. I surely doubt that Neville and Seamus would take Draco being in here well."

I stand up and take Ron's arm and drag him from his bed.

"Right you are Harry. Come on Ronny, lets go play outside."

The walk outside passes the Transfiguration classroom. I notice Hermione duck into the classroom.

"Hey everyone," she calls, "look what I found."

We walk into the classroom and see Hermione holding a piece of unrolled parchment.

"I thought I saw this on the way out of the classroom, and I was missing a piece of parchment."

She looks at the parchment but a nervous look on her face is obvious.

"Harry, Ron, there was only us in the classroom this morning wasn't there?"

Ron answered, "Yeah, only the three of us. Why do you ask?"

She hands over the parchment to us and we read it.

"This is not good. Malfoy and Potter, a couple. We have to do something. Imagine the shame it would bring to us?"

The next part was worse.

"We are going to make him suffer big time."

Ron looks at Harry and me and only says one thing.

"Draco, I don't think you're out of the woods yet, and I'm not sure that Harry's going to be safe either"

Story 6: Who is really threatening Draco? Or is it Harry they're after?