Talk is Cheap

Chapter 6

"And where are you going?"

"Umm... out?" Pause. "Mother?"

"Don't take that tone with me, Harry. Just because I'm concerned for your well-being..."

Sigh. "I'm just out for a walk. I need to think. Is that all right with you, 'Mione?"

"I'm sorry Harry. But I worry. I can't help it."

"And I have to get out of this place sometimes. I can't help it. I know it's not the smartest or safest thing to do, all things considered, but God help me, I can't live in a box! McGonagall won't even let me fly by myself anymore. Remus tracks my every move, Dumbledore calls me into his office practically every other day... I can't take it, Hermione. It's even worse than Third Year when they all thought Sirius was trying to murder me. If one more person does something 'for my own good' I'm going to scream! I can't even be myself anymore!"

"Only because being yourself involves stupid and reckless things."

"Not... not all the time. I just want a moment to myself, that's all."

"I can't stop you. Not that I would."

"I'll be careful."

~~~~~~~

Sound of a door opening.

"Oh. Ah. Sorry. W-what are you doing here?"

"Thinking."

"I'll just - "

"No, you don't have to leave. I'll just be a minute or two."

Silence.

"So... why haven't you been in class?"

"I haven't been well. I was... injured over break, and have been too sick to attend any classes. Don't worry though. It isn't anything fatal."

Snort. "Well, that's good, I suppose. I think Snape really misses you." Grin. "Practically lost without his golden boy. He actually complimented Parkinson's potion the other day."

"That's quite distressing. I'm beginning to think it's a good thing I'll be in class tomorrow."

"You'll be back... tomorrow?"

"That is what I said, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, I just... right in time for a test, that's all. Properties of Nocturnal Plants."

"Bugger." Sigh. "Maybe I'll fake it for another day..."

"Oh, honestly. You're as bad as Hermione."

"Excuse me?"

"You and I both know you could walk into class tomorrow, take the bloody N.E.W.T., and pass with flying colors. Stop being so damned... unself-confidant!"

"That isn't a real word, you know."

Sigh. "I know." Pause. "Let me rephrase that. Start having more self-confidence. A little of your old arrogance isn't completely out of place when it comes to Potions. Besides, I think we both know Snape grades on totally different curves when it comes to Gryffindors and Slytherins. You'll do fine."

"Well... I am pretty good at Potionswork, aren't I? Certainly better than anyone else in that excuse for an Advanced Potions class..."

"I know you, and I see where this is heading. Stop it right there."

"But I was just working up towards a good - "

"Self-indulgent rant?"

"That wasn't quite the terminology I would have used, but it was something like that, yes."

Silence.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course. Whether I answer is another story. Whether I answer truthfully is still another story."

Slight pause. "Well, I'm going to ask anyway, I guess."

"Was that ever really a point of debate?"

Sigh. "Draco... you're... you're not really a Slytherin, are you?

"Where did you get a stupid idea like that?

"Watching you. Really watching you. Really thinking about things you've done. And you're not half as bad as you think you are, really. You don't like to hurt people. Not to say that you haven't, but you - you do pranks, like everyone else. You throw your share of petty insults too, but when it really counts... you don't move in for the kill, I guess you could say."

"W-what do you mean?"

"You remember when... when Stella Fitzgerald got pregnant last year?"

"She was as big as a house, Potter. I doubt I could have missed it."

"I meant... argh, just listen. Everyone was making fun of her, obviously. Saying things behind her back. I'll bet you did too."

"Well..."

"But she dropped her books one day, right in front of the steps near the Great Hall. Everyone pretty much stepped right around her. Some people even kicked her books around. You didn't. You handed her the one that landed near your feet. At the time I think I chalked it up as a fluke, but now, when I think back... there were quite a few little incidents like that, weren't there?"

"Because of that you think that I am really one of the good guy? I thought we had been over this. I'm a Slytherin."

"You want to be a Slytherin. You want to be what your father wants and what your Housemates want and what Voldemort wants - "

Snarl. "There is where you're wrong. I do want to be a Slytherin. But being Slytherin isn't exactly what you think it means. I don't want to be... that. My father can go to Hell. My Housemates I can forgive. Most of them don't really know what the hell they're getting into. As for Voldemort..."

Long silence.

"A lot of people want to kill him, you know, and they have good reason to. But you... you have reason to strangle him with your bare hands, drag him down Diagon Alley, cut him up into pieces and feed him to a flobberworm. Not necessarily in that order, of course."

"Is that what you'd do to him?"

"Me? Oh no. Nothing so barbaric as that." Pause. "I believe in the Beyond, Harry. I just want to kill him. Once he's out of this world and into the next... I have no doubt he'll get what he deserves. Retribution won't just be mine. It belongs to the other hundreds of thousands he's wronged. It would be enough for me to know that I'd sent him to it. It would be enough for him to just be dead."

"Draco Malfoy, Angel of Vengeance."

"Vengeance. Retribution. An eye for an eye. Whatever you want to call it, Voldemort has a hell of a lot to pay back, don't you think?"

Long silence.

"Did you mean what you said before break? About being... friends?"

"I don't say things I don't mean."

"Never?"

"Never. If I say something like that, I mean it. Does this mean you...?"

"Means I'm thinking about it."

Silence.

"See you in class tomorrow."

~~~~~~~

"Malfoy's back."

"So it would seem."

"He seems all right. Pale, but that's not all together unusual for the little pasty face..."

"Feeling a bit vicious today, are we, Ron?"

"I just took a Potions test. I'm feeling extremely vicious."

"Good thing it's only the first class of the day, huh?"

"You are far too cheerful. C'mere, let me strangle you."

"Vicious and violent. Hermione, break up with him. I liked him better depressed. At least he wasn't threatening to kill me."

"Sure. First you push to get us back together, and now you're trying to break us apart. Get your own girlfr- er, boyfriend."

"The pickings are a bit slimmer here for the gay population, I'm afraid."

Batting eyelashes. "You could always go comfort Dean..."

"Dean?!"

Silence.

"Uh, never mind, Hermione."

~~~~~~~

Mocking sigh. "We have to stop meeting like this."

"Prat. You're the one who stole my thinking spot."

"I don't see your name on it."

Smirk. "Look behind you. A little to the left."

Pause. "HJP. I can only assume that's you."

"Mhmm. Harry James Potter."

"How... quaint."

"Was that an insult? Because if it was, it was a horrible insult, if I can't tell when you're insulting me."

"It just means it was subtle and far too above your level of intelligence for you to grasp it."

"See, now that was an insult. I could tell." Pause. Short laugh.

"What?"

"I never even noticed that until now!"

"Noticed what?"

"How you manage to sound so high above everyone with even the simplest sentences."

"It's a gift."

Snort. "I'm sure it is."

"You see? I was toning that down. I could have said, 'It is a divine right from heaven bestowed upon the family of Malfoy..."

"Oh shut it."

"So rude."

Silence.

"You know, the teasing, the kidding around... that's the sort of thing friends do."

"I thought that was the point." Tentative smile.

Grin. "Well... good."

~~~~~~~

"Harry."

"Uh... Hermione. W-what are you doing up so late?"

"Waiting for you, idiot. You promised me. You promised you weren't going to sneak out and meet him like this."

"I haven't been."

Stare.

"Well, I haven't been sneaking out with the intention of meeting him, it just... happens."

"He happens to be where ever you go?"

"Well, he happens to always be in the same place, and I always happen to go there."

"I see."

Snort. "I'm sure you do."

Silence.

"Look, Hermione, you were the one who encouraged me to reach out to him in the first place, right? And now that I have, I see you were right. Which isn't really a big surprise."

"Harry..."

"I'm just saying. You were right. He really isn't all that bad. Sure, he's still stuck up and bratty and narcissistic. But he's funny. And when we're not trading insults or hexes or cursing each other's ancestors... he can be nice. I actually kind of like him."

Short silence. Sigh. "Hoisted on my own petard."

Grin. "While I'm not totally sure of the ramifications of that, I think I get the idea."

Another sigh. "All right. All right, go see him. But don't stay out too late. And please, please don't do anything stupid." Pause. "Oh, what am I saying? Just don't do anything very stupid. I'm begging you, really. I'd hate to see you survive six years at Hogwarts to die in the second half of the seventh."

"I'd hate for that to happen too. No plans to die anytime soon, I promise you."

"That's good."

"Goodnight, Hermione. Don't forget, DADA tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Harry. And yes, I am all ready aware that your favorite class is tomorrow."

Grin. "Sorry. Can't help that I like the one class I can manage to beat you in."

Sniff. "No need to rub it in."

"Oh, don't be so stuck up. You'll pass your N.E.W.T. with flying colors, and that's what you wanted, right?"

"I suppose so."

Eye roll. "Well, Ms. Sunshine, I'm off to bed. I'm afraid you've kept me up much too late."

"I've kept you up? I've kept you up?!"

Muffled laughter. "Goodnight, Hermione."

Sigh. "Goodnight, Harry."

~~~~~~~

"Is there a reason Granger was staring at me all through class today?"

"She found out about our late night visits. Well, actually, it was more like me confirming her suspicions, but... yeah."

"Let me guess. Now she's pissed, convinced that I'm going to kill you, torture you, kidnap you, convert you to that Dark Side?"

"No, mostly I think she's just afraid that I'm going to stay up too late and my school work is going to start to slide. And most of it can't afford to slide, unfortunately."

"Oh. Well. That's rather... I'm not sure if I want to say she's being reasonable, or that she's a pushover."

"A little of both." Shrug. "Hermione's the voice of reason in our little group, but we usually run over her pretty roughshod."

"Which is stupid, considering she is the only one among you with a lick of sense."

"Oh, thanks."

"It's true. Honestly, all the things you do? Completely stupid. Attacking a basilisk. Attacking Dementors. Fighting with a werewolf. Sneaking into the Department of Mysteries..."

"You know about that?"

"Of course. A lot of people have their ways of finding these things out, you know."

"People with certain... affiliations?"

"Yes. Father was absolutely livid, of course."

Snigger. "Wouldn't have it any other way, I'm afraid."

Small smile. "It's all right. Truthfully, I prefer him mad at you."

"So I take it you aren't daddy's little boy, after all?"

"Hell no. Hardly. I was never enough for him. And even if I would have been, I was only a means to an end. I was the heir. I carried on the family name, the family job, the family prestige."

"My family's the same way. Only I wasn't the heir, I was the servant."

Pause. "You simply must be joking."

"Afraid not. I cooked and cleaned. Weeded the garden, that sort of thing. And I slept in a broom closet under the stairs. My aunt and uncle and cousin... they hated me. They hate all magic folk. Anyone who isn't 'normal'.

"And here I thought everyone worshipped the ground you walked on."

Silence.

"Family isn't really all it's cracked up to be, is it?"

"No. No, it's not. Most people don't understand that."

"Most people don't have to understand that. They have families. Real ones."

"Even in Slytherin... it sounds strange, but even with all the arranged marriages, the titling, the pureblood lines, the... Volde - oh, everything, they all still have a chance. They still have families. They still love." Pause. "I'm not used to feeling like the outsider in my own House. But I do sometimes."

"I know what you mean. Not too many Gryffindor Parseltongues, are there?"

"You're a lot of things no one else is." Pause. "Not that I meant that as a compliment, of course."

Chuckle. "Keep that up, and I might find myself actually liking you."

Eyebrow raise. "Perish the thought. Mountains would crumble, cities would fall, and Snape would teach class in pink silk boxers."

Pause. "That last one was rather too vivid a picture for me."

"I see what you mean. It had slipped out without too much thought, but now that you've brought my attention to it, pink would be simply awful. He's much too sallow. He's the kind of man that screams neutrals."

"Draco..."

"And don't get me started on you! Really, Harry, the baggy look left awhile ago, and it doesn't even want to try to make its way back. And I know the green brings out your eyes, but do try and buy something else now and again, hmm? A nice sienna maybe, or perhaps a deep plum..."

"I've... er, got to go..." Scramble. Clatter. Slam.

Chuckle. "That was too fun."

~~~~~~~

Sound of a door slamming.

"I'm only going to say this once, so I suggest you pay attention. For all intents and purposes, you appear sincere. That you actually want a friend, and that friend is Harry. But if this is a scheme, whether a stupid Slytherin one or one from Voldemort himself, I suggest you stop now before he gets hurt. Because if you ever, ever hurt him, I guarantee it will be one of the last things you do. I've learned a lot here at Hogwarts, and not all of it is exactly legal or Light. You hurt him, you won't have much time to regret it."

"Why, that was positively Slytherin, Granger. I'm impressed."

"Oh please. Like a Slytherin cares that much about someone else."

"Some of us do, actually. For someone who preaches against house elf discrimination, you don't seem to care much about your fellow wizards."

"I've spent seven years watching the Slytherin House Malfoy, and I - "

"I spent seven years living in it. I think I'd know more about Slytherins than you." Pause. "I'm not going to hurt him."

"If you say so. Just remember what I said."

Soft laughter. "I doubt I'll forget it anytime soon."

Pause.

"If you do really want to be his friend, I suppose I'm sorry for what I said. A little while ago, I might have given you the benefit of the doubt. Can't afford to do that anymore. Just... don't hurt him."

"Don't hurt him? If anything... I'm worried it will be the other way around."

Silence.

Click of a door.

~~~~~~~

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you like about him? Malfoy?"

Pause. "What do you mean?"

"I just... the two of you, you talk, right?"

Nod.

"What do you talk about?"

"Cauldron bottom thickness."

"Prat." Smack.

Shrug. "A little of everything, a little of nothing. Voldemort, Dark Magic, Snape in pink boxer shorts." Grin. "Things that would scare lesser mortals."

"Things you can't tell me or Ron?"

Pause. "Not yet. But we might be... getting there, you know? For all the stuff you and Ron have gone through with me, Draco is still more.. dark, I guess. Dark like I'm dark. Not really because we chose to, but because... we are. We just are that way. I don't think we can help it anymore that Ron can help being a redhead. See, if Ron wanted to, he could dye his hair, or put a glamour over it, but underneath - "

"He'd still be a redhead."

"And no matter how Draco and I could act, underneath we'd still be dark. Draco's just more up front about it, I guess. People expect him to be dark. People have always been half-expecting it from me. After all, I am a Parseltongue. I clearly have an aptitude for Dark Magicks and Dark Creatures. And let's not even touch on the similarities between Voldemort and me..."

Silence.

"I guess when it comes down to it, he makes me feel that dark doesn't have to mean evil. That choice really is what makes us, even more than our nature. He makes me feel... less alone."

Soft smile. "I'm glad then. Glad you're friends."

"Even though you don't really like him?"

"Even then. And I suppose I see you being friends with him more probable than being friends with Parkinson, or MacDougal, or Cromwell..."

"Urgh. Let's not go there."

Giggle. "Or Snape."

Wave. "Oh, he's not really that bad. You look inside the man's mind, it's hard to hold a grudge, unfortunately. Though friends would definitely be stretching it."

"Earlier, what you said... were you serious... about Snape? And the..."

"Pink boxer shorts?"

Nod.

"Totally serious. But Draco came to the conclusion that he really 'screamed neutrals', so we decided to leave him in his basic black."

"Oh. That's... good. I think." Head shake. "From now on, please leave me uninformed about Snape and his underthings."