The Perfect Plan

Chapter five

The Perfect Plan

The Truth with Excuses

~*~~*~~*~

"Perhaps you would both like to take seat," the head master said watching them carefully. They were standing very close to each other and he suspected that behind the folds of their robes that they were indeed holding hands. He smiled a little as they edged their way forward and conjured two chairs for them to sit down on opposite sides next to their parents.

As soon as they sat down, both Ginny and Draco examined the wounds on their faces.

"Why haven't they been healed?" Ginny said with warning in her voice.

A voice spoke up from behind them, "It is a part of their punishment, my supplies have run down due to their lack of accordance to the school rules and I have so refused to heal them any longer, they shall have to heal the muggle way."

"What on earth could have possessed you to do this? Have I not taught you, if anything, common decency?" he said looking at Ginny as he said this.

She narrowed her eyes at him but chose to ignore his statement and turned away to face the headmaster. "Will I at least be able to take her home?"

"If you wish you can but it is up to her head of year." Ginny turned around to face Professor McGonagall. "Professor?" he said.

"Well they seem to be further enough in their studies to leave." Ginny was sure she felt Cordelia tense. "However, as you all know the end of the school year is almost upon us and exams will soon start, so I would rather they stay. Besides, Easter holidays are next week so they might as well finish the term." Both students sighed. They were glad to not have to go home with their parents.

"Don't think you're off the hook Chayse, you still have a lot of explaining to do."

"Indeed, and I am sure that we could start now. What do you say, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore's eyes bored into Chayse.

Chayse looked up and then chanced a glance at Cordelia. She too had done the same and smiled a brief smile at him. "Well... Sir, Father. I - we - um."

"We're friends," Cordelia cut in.

"What?" Ginny said astonished.

"Friends mum, Astie and I, we have been since we started school four years ago."

Draco noted the use of his son's nickname. He knew that he only ever allowed people he cared for to use it so she must be close to him. He clicked his tongue in thought, as much as he didn't exactly care for his son's company he had to trust his judgement. "Why didn't you tell me?" he said calmly.

Chayse looked at his father and observed the tone of his voice so he relaxed a little. "Father, I don't know if you've noticed but you kind of - hate her mother," he said quietly so that Ginny couldn't hear.

Draco laughed quietly to himself despite the situation. "So what, you decide to break every rule in the school in order to get me here, and then break it to me when I'm not in the most sedate of moods? Son, you didn't think of this yourself did you, because I am sure I drilled some sense into that mind of yours."

"No, the school helped."

"All of them?" Chayse turned to Professor Snape who had been silent and observing throughout the best of the conversation.

"Yes sir. But we told them not to talk until it was necessary," Cordelia finished.

"So that's why there hasn't been any communication between the houses, because you told them so?" Dumbledore asked truly amazed by what he was hearing.

"Yes Sir," both of them said.

"Besides the reps, there was no need to speak to each other, Sir," Cordelia finished.

"Reps?" Snape asked.

"Representatives Sir, from each house," Chayse finished.

Snape was about to comment when he was cut off by Dumbledore's laughing. "I can't believe this. To think that professors throughout the age of this school have tried to stop the interhouse rivalries with no success, then comes along two teenage students who have the power to stop them from talking altogether. It's unbelievable. How did you do it?"

Both Chayse and Cordelia looked at each other confused. How did they do it? That was an odd question to ask. Cordelia just asked for them to keep themselves from spreading it more than they had to and Chayse - well, he did what he had to. The school in itself had decided to just stop talking; they had nothing to do with that.

"How could the teachers not know of this, that there was a friendship between two houses? Especially these houses, surely you must have picked up on something?" Ginny said frustrated.

"No we hadn't, to us it just seemed like any other Gryffindor/ Slytherin relationship. They barely talked or looked at each other in class or spoke outside of class as far as we could see. Any person in this school who knew about it either refused to let on or just plainly chose to ignore them," Snape said.

Cordelia and Chayse smiled and had to fight the urge to chuckle, both had lowered their heads to shield their laughter. Sure everyone knew, but they hardly chose to ignore their friendship. It was more or less the other way around; their friendship chose to ignore everyone else. As for the not talking part, outside of lessons they talked all the time. It was just when a teacher came along that it turned into a pre-meditated insult. All in all it was the scam of the century and they had fooled every teacher for four years straight. The pride could not be pushed away from their bruised faces as they struggled to keep their heads down and out of sight.

Damn we're good.

Ginny rose and stepped away from her chair. Cordelia's face, now wiped clean from the pride she was previously showing, was now looking up at her mother. "I wish to talk to my daughter alone please, if you'll excuse us."

"Yes me too - with my son of course."

"Yes of course you would, go ahead." The teachers, nurse and the headmaster left the room. Cordelia gingerly got up and almost fell had Chayse not caught her. They both laughed at her clumsiness but quieted down when they spotted their parents watching them.

"Chayse come on let's go," Draco said leaving the women to have the room. When they reached outside he turned to his son and watched him with curiosity. Chayse waited patiently for his father's outburst. As much as Draco had wanted to shout at his son though, now was neither the time nor place to do so. Besides he too had made an error in judgement when he had chosen friends and such, so he could not lecture him now, not on this. It was way too hypocritical and he did not want to put himself into that situation. "Curarte," he said pressing his wand against his son's wounded face. He watched it heal as he spoke to him. "You should have told me, son," he said finally.

Chayse relaxed a little as he watched his father slide to the floor on the wall he was leaning on. There was a dreamlike look on his face as if he were far away. He had never seen his father look like this before. He joined him as he sat down on the ground. Draco seemed to feel at home here and frankly Chayse liked this side of his father. He was always like this but when he got angry it was time to run for cover. Honestly, he was sure this side of him wouldn't come out for another few weeks.

"What would you have told me to do, if I had told you about her, what advice would you have given me?" he said ignoring the arguing that was continuing on the other side of the door.

Draco chuckled to himself because he could hear it too. "I would have said 'murder her and bury her ashes in the forbidden forest,' believe me it would solve all of your problems in the future." They both laughed at this. Draco looked to the floor.

"Exactly, there would have been no room for any kind of friendship at all. You know that if we had told any of you that we would never have seen each other again. Face it."

***

"No, you wouldn't have. Frankly I would have pulled you from school and sent you somewhere else!"

"You see mum, you're being so unreasonable! You don't know Astie like I do, so you couldn't possibly understand. He's-."

"Like another part of you, an extension of your body that you couldn't possibly live without. You feel like you can't breathe with the very thought that he could be leaving you. And if he does you just don't think you can survive." She watched her mother as she said her piece. How could she possibly have known that? She shrugged it off, her mum read too many love novels. She was always buried in them. "Well Cordelia, thinking is a dangerous pastime and I most certainly cannot stop you from this I know it, believe me I do, but you should have told me. You should not have lied to me like that for four years. It makes me wonder what else you've hidden from me."

"Nothing, I know it was wrong and I'm sorry but you would never have let me see him mum."

Ginny eyed her daughter suspiciously when a thought suddenly entered her head. Just the thought of it made her face cringe with horror. "Cordelia, you haven't got - you know, feelings for this boy have you. He's not your boyfriend is he?" There was perhaps a little too much concern in her voice but Cordelia hardly noticed it. Instead she just contorted her face in horror.

***

"Father, no! She is definitely not nor will she ever be my girlfriend. Eew, she's my best friend I could never do that to her."

"Do what to her?" he asked with interest.

"Never mind." Draco dropped it and they sat in silence for a while. "Well now that you know, what do you think?" he asked curiously.

"I still think you've lost your mind but I can accept it. She's pureblooded right?" He noted his son's facial reaction. "Just incase that's all," he said raising his arms in defeat. "But she is right?"

Chayse sighed. "As far as I know yes, her father died in the war but her mother told her he was a pureblooded wizard."

"Ok then, then I can accept her." Once again he noted his son's facial expression. "Not that I wouldn't have accepted her otherwise. Don't push your luck though."

Chayse sighed. "Fine, seeing as you have opened your arms to her, I've invited her for the Easter holiday to stay with us. She said she was a little nervous meeting you so I said her mother could come too."

***

"No," Ginny said pointedly.

"What? But you just said that you accepted him."

"I also said don't push your luck." She got up from the chair.

"Mum, he's my best friend, at least let me stay for a weekend."

"Fine, but I'm not going." She walked toward the door. "I refuse to stay in that house for whatever reason you can muster. Besides I really don't think his father would want me there."

"Then do it for me. Mother, please?" Ginny sighed as she held her hand over the door handle. Cordelia only ever used 'mother' when she really wanted something. This must mean a lot to her that she and Draco get along, at least when she and Chayse were in the room.

"Fine," she said opening the door unaware that someone outside was opening it too.

"But don't expect me to like it," both parents said as the doors opened. They looked at each other and then at each other's children both of whom had wide grins on their faces.