Harry Potter and the Adventure He Affectionately Calls Life

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"Welcome back, Gryffindors and Slytherin," Professor Dumbledore greeted them as they Floo-ed into his room. "I trust you had an enjoyable holiday, Miss Weasley?"

"Yes, sir," both Ginny and Lana answered in unison.

"Very good. I'm sure you are all quite tired, so please go and rest, and do not forget that you have classes in the morning."

Lana groaned.

"Miss Weasley?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye. "Is something wrong?"

"Um... no. Tired." She flashed him a grin.

"Very well. Good night." Professor Dumbledore left, giving them a few moments to themselves.

Harry looked at Draco, daring him to leave first. Draco obviously got it because he cleared his throat and said good night, and left the Gryffindor's alone.

"That was weird," Ron commented. "Doesn't he usually kiss you good night, Gin? I see it and all, but you haven't been spending a lot of time with him lately."

Harry faked a yawn. "I'm going. Ron, I'll see you later. Good night, Hermione. Good night, Lana."

"I'll come with you," Lana offered, hinting for Hermione to do the same.

"Umm... yeah. Me, too. Good night, Ron," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Hermione," he responded before letting her go.

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"Well, Harry and Lana," Hermione said, plopping down on a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room. "You both know something I don't. What's going on?"

Harry looked at Lana. "Ginny or Ron really should be telling you this."

"You mean Ginny or Draco," Lana corrected.

"Right. Because the word of a Malfoy Slytherin is just so trust worthy."

Hermione frowned. "Harry, I thought you and Draco were getting over your useless fighting."

"So did I," Harry murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "So did I." He looked at the two girls. "Ginny should be up soon," he told mon room, followed by his younger sister. "She'll explain."

"Harry?" Ron asked. "Upstairs. Now."

"Yes?" he asked, sitting down on his bed and taking off his shoes.

"You knew?"

"Yeah."

"Lana knows?"

"Yeah."

"Hermione?"

"No, but I reckon Ginny's telling her right now."

"You knew?"

"Yeah."

"You knew?"

"Um... yes."

"I should pound your face. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to!" Harry insisted. "I was about to knock on your door and Ginny stopped me. She said that you were here on vacation having fun with Hermione, and she didn't want her problems to ruin your happiness."

Ron let out a huge breath. "Typical Gin," he said. "Sometimes I wonder about her. Who else knows?"

"Ginny and Malfoy."

Ron rolled his eyes. "What a surprise. I wonder how they know."

"Other than that, that's it. Just us five and Malfoy."

"Should I owl home?" Ron asked.

"Why don't you let Ginny make that decision."

"Yeah," Ron said, thinking about this. "Yeah."

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"Miss Weasley!" Professor Fiora greeted. "Welcome back. How was your holiday?"

"It was nice, thanks," Lana said warily.

"Mr. Weasley, did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "Can't complain."

"And Miss Granger. You obviously felt that you were so prepared, you could afford to take a few days off." She didn't give Hermione a chance to defend herself, she just barelled through. "And of course, Mr. Potter. The great and famous boy who lived need not bother about passing his classes."

Harry said nothing.

"No matter. I have decided to give the entire class a project. You will be working with your partners."

Lana glared at Draco, who tried to avoid her glare.

"The project will entail..." Professor Fiora went on to describe the project, but Lana didn't pay attention. She could aed.

Defense was the last class of the day, so they had time to tackle this project. Draco knew Lana was furious that they had to be working together, especially under the given circumstances. But it wasn't his fault they were partners. And Draco had apologized to Ginny. What more could he do?

"Look," Lana said. "I want this project over and done with. What are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing."

"Wrong. I'll come down to Slytherin and we can do get this thing started. I'll come down after dinner."

"It's cold in the Slytherin room," Draco said. "Why don't I come on up?"

"Because you, Draco Malfoy, are officially on the death list of every fifth and sixth year Gryffindor. They all know that you broke Ginny's heart. They just don't all know how."

"You and your friends could have let that out, too," he pointed out.

"We could have," she agreed. "But we didn't."

So Lana passed the time between the end of Defense class and dinner with Harry. Lana never imagined she could feel so safe around someone, but that was how Harry made her feel. She was staring out of the window at the sun setting over the lake, and Harry was standing behind her, his arms around her waist and his face in her hair. She could feel the nerves on her scalp tingle with every breathe Harry took. Harry gently released her from his hold on her and turned her around. Lana drew in her breath at the shock from the brilliant green of his eyes. She had looked into those eyes before; they were hypnotic. She smiled at him, meeting him as he bent down to kiss her. "I love you," she whispered, hardly sure of why she was whispering.

Lana rolled her eyes, but grinned back. She gathered her Defense books and headed towards the Great Hall.

"You don't need those," Harry said. "We're going to dinner. Not prison."

"I'm going to the dungeons after dinner," Lana said. "Quite literally. I want to finish this stupid assignment as soon as possible."

Harry laughed. "Come on."

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Lana paced back and forth in front of the Slytherin common room. How could she get in without a password?

"Poor little Weasel locked out again?" Pansy Parkinson sneered. "For a Gryffindor practically married to Potter, you sure spend a lot of time with us."

"Lucky you," Lana retorted.

"Want the password?"

"Does it matter? You're not going to give it to me, anyway!"

"That's true," Pansy said.

Draco opened the portal just then.

"Draco! We were just talking about you!" Pansy's nose crinkled in disgust. "Farewell, Weasel."

"Whatever," Lana said, storming ahead past Draco. "Let's get this thing over with." She headed up to the boys dormitory and threw her books on Draco's bed, her quill fluttering down, missing the bed and falling to the floor. Her parents had given her that quill. It would last twice as long as an ordinary quill before it had to be re-dipped into an inkwell.

"I'll get it," Draco offered, bending down.

But Lana bent down first, accidentally disrupting the sheeunder the bed. "InstaChange, huh?" she said, reading the label. "The chocolate-covered strawberry flavor is good." Lana frowned. "The twins invented this stuff. They sell it in their joke shop. Expensive as hell! They sent me a dozen cans for my birthday. I had some fun with that."

"Why are you telling me this?" Draco asked, taking the can from her and replacing it.

"Sorry. I got a little carried away."

"Because you miss me."

"Because I miss your friendship."

"So if you miss me, why won't you talk to me?"

"Draco!" Lana was shocked that anyone could be like this. "You know what you did to Ginny. And I warned you. If you kissed me again, I would stop being friends with you. You kissed. I stopped. Kiss. Stop. Not that hard."

"I'm sorry, Lana! Are you happy now? Look. The Malfoy is apologizing to a Weasley."

"Think, Draco. Think of why it's going to take a lot more than that for me to be able to be friends with you."

"I am thinking, and I can't find a reason."

"Think, Draco. Use your head, and think."

"I did use my head," Draco saiuot;And look what happen."

"Not that head, Draco. The other one. The one that's supposed to have a brain. And just in case you can't figure it out, it's the head on your shoulders."

"I'm sorry, Lana. That's all I can think of."

"Sometimes sorry's not good enough, Draco." She picked up her quill, seeing a muggle plastic bag hanging from the bed. There was a label on the bag. "'Potter's Hair'," she read aloud. She looked at Draco, frowning in confusion. Then she looked at the InstaChange. "Draco, what the hell is Harry's hair doing here?" Her eyes widened as the truth dawned on her. "You've been pretending to be Harry, haven't you?" she accused. "Draco?" At his silence, Lana's paitence and self control snapped. "Damn you, Draco," she said coldly. "Why don't you try thinking of someone other than yourself?" She grabbed the hair, a can of InstaChange, and her books, rushed out of the Slytherin common room.

"Wow," Draco mused after she was gone. "I really fucked things up."