How to Save a Life

As luck would have it, neither Ron, Hermione or Ginny were in the Great Hall to see Harry enter, flanked on both sides by Slytherin’s. He bid farewell to his new friends and headed over to the Gryffindor table, ignoring as he went, the stares and whispers of his fellow students.

As he approached Seamus slid down the bench and Harry gratefully slipped into the space created by his friend. As he looked round he noticed that Dean was looking at him with a grin on his face.

“You certainly know how to make an entrance Harry. It’s a good job Ron didn’t see it, I think his head may have exploded.”

Harry smiled, but looked at his friend calmly. “Is it a problem?”

“Nah mate. I’m not so sure I would want to go hang out with them myself, but it’s cool if you want to.”

Harry then looked round at Neville and Seamus with a question in his eyes. Seamus merely shrugged, “Life’s too short I reckon. Besides, I never really had that much of a problem with them, well not till last year anyway.”

Neville turned a thoughtful gaze to Harry, “If you can let go of the past and be friends with them, then I think any of us can. You probably have more reason than most to hold a grudge. If you say they’ve changed, then that’s good enough for me.”

Harry thought for a moment before replying softly, “I think they have Neville, some of them anyway. Or maybe we were so fixated on the whole Slytherin’s are evil thing that we never bothered to look any deeper.”

Neville nodded and smiled, “You may be right Harry.”

Harry visibly relaxed, although he wouldn’t allow his friends opinions to alter his decisions, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about how they would take his sudden friendship with their one time rivals.

The four friends then sank into virtual silence; there was food on the table and healthy teenage appetites to be sated.

Once lunch was over Harry found himself led off to the Library by Neville, persuaded by promises of help on his Herbology essay.

It was 2 feet of parchment and it was due Monday. Harry, of course, had not even started it. How much could there possibly be to say about the uses of Mooncalf Dung he thought to himself as he viciously dug his quill into his parchment, tearing it in the process.

Neville looked up sympathetically and patiently gave Harry a few suggestions as to where to start. After a couple of minutes Harry had a basic grasp of what to write and was scratching away happily. Neville looked over and smiled as he noticed the tip of his friends tongue poking between his lips as he concentrated. Chuckling silently, he went back to his own work.

Harry finally completed the 2 feet of parchment, well almost, but he didn’t thing that Professor Sprout would worry too much about a couple of missing inches. He leant back in his chair and looked over at Neville who was still busy scratching away, and Harry could have sworn that he had completed at least 3 feet already.

As he watched his friend he couldn’t help but think back to what Pansy had told him earlier about catching him and Seamus together. She hadn’t actually said what they were doing and Harry hadn’t liked to ask in case she thought it was strange that he wanted to know.

Several images of exactly what they could have been doing came unbidden into Harry’s mind. He felt his cheeks heat up and he silently berated himself for thinking about his friends that way. Neville looked up at this point and seeing his friend’s thoughtful gaze and the blush on his face he whispered,

“Something on your mind Harry?”

Harry’s eyes snapped up to meet the enquiring gaze of his friend, the heat in his cheeks increasing. There were several ways he could answer that question, but somehow he thought that telling Neville he had been imagining him and Seamus fucking wasn’t really the way to go.

“No,” he replied, “Just thinking about stuff.” Great answer Harry, he thought to himself.

Neville smiled at him and went back to his work. Determined to look anywhere but at his friend, Harry took to gazing around the Library, anything to put off starting his Potions homework!

Neville watched Harry out of the corner of his eye and noticed as a small smile crept over his face. Looking up to see what had caught his attention, he noticed a small group Slytherin’s had entered the room, led by Draco Malfoy – who, Neville was amused to see, was smiling right back at Harry. Neville chewed on his quill thoughtfully as he observed the silent interaction between the two boys

“Harry”

Harry reluctantly turned his head back to Neville.

“Yeah?”

“There’s plenty of room at this table, why don’t you ask them to join us?”

“What? Who are you... oh you mean Malfoy?”

“No Harry, I mean the other blonde boy that just walked in and smiled at you.” Neville couldn’t help but let a hint of sarcasm creep into his tone and was rewarded by a renewed flush on his friends face.

“Are you sure Neville? I mean, you don’t exactly like Malfoy.”

Neville shook his head, “Its fine Harry. Like I said earlier, I trust you. If you’re willing to give him another chance then that’s enough for me.”

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Draco again struggled to reign in his joy at seeing Harry so soon. He felt a warm feeling spread through his insides at the sight of the small smile that was sent his way. His heart leapt again at the sight of Harry waving him over. Pulling himself together, he motioned to Blaise and Pansy to follow him and made his way over to where the two Gryffindor’s sat.

“Hi Harry!” Pansy spoke as she slipped into a chair at the side of Neville, smiling at the shy Gryffindor.

“Hey Pansy, I didn’t realise you were planning on studying this afternoon.”

Pansy huffed and gave a pointed glare in Draco’s direction. “I wasn’t planning on it; however, someone wouldn’t help me with my Potions homework.”

“What she means Potter, is that I wouldn’t let her copy mine. I told you I’ll help you Pans, but I’m not doing the work for you.” Draco drawled in response as he slid into a chair at the side of the green eyed boy.

“Longbottom,” he acknowledged.

Neville nodded at the blonde before speaking. “Maybe you can help Harry with his too Malfoy, he’s been sat there for the last 10 minutes staring into thin air to avoid starting it.”

Draco shifted in his chair and spread his books out on the table, “Struggling with Potions Potter? What’s gone wrong, you were quite the teacher’s pet 6th year, as I remember.”

“Must be losing my touch Malfoy.”

“Well I guess I could share some of my knowledge with you Potter, in the spirit of our new understanding.”

“You’re too kind Malfoy, really.”

Draco noticed at this point that not all of his friends had taken seats at the table, turning round he spoke:

“For Merlin’s sake Blaise, would you just sit down? They’re Gryffindor’s, they won’t bite you.”

Blaise smirked at his friend and went to take seat the other side of Neville to Pansy. Harry, observant for once, didn’t miss the quick sideways glance that he shot in Neville’s direction or his muttered comment that maybe Gryffindor’s didn’t bite, but he might, if someone was lucky.

Pansy turned to the boy at her side and smiled, “Hi, I’m Pansy,” she said shyly.

“Hi Pansy, I’m Neville” came the equally shy reply.

“You know Draco I’m sure, and this is Blaise.” The boys acknowledged each other and Pansy sat back satisfied. “Maybe now that the rest of us are on first name terms, you two could manage to do the same?”

Draco could have leapt over the table right then and hugged her. He had only been complaining to her at lunch how unfair it was that she was on familiar terms with Potter, while he was still stuck in the formalities that sprang from their enmity.

“I’m sure we can manage that, just to keep you happy Pansy – don’t you think Harry?”

“Of course Draco,” Harry replied, smiling. “Though it might take a bit of getting used to!”

Pansy winked at Blaise, satisfied at how smoothly her plan was going. She watched as Draco leaned over to Harry and began patiently explaining to him the properties of Abyssinian Shrivelfig and its various potion uses. Pansy found the topic supremely boring and she wondered, not for the first time, why she had allowed Draco to talk her into taking advanced potions. But it seemed Harry did not share her opinion as he was listening keenly to Draco’s words, and she could have sworn that on a couple of occasions she saw his gaze drift to the blondes lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


When the group finally left the library, tentative friendships intact, they went their separate ways. They Slytherin’s heading to the dungeons, while Harry and Neville made their way slowly back towards Gryffindor Tower.

“So,” Harry said, casting a sly glance at his friend, “Blaise seems nice.”

Neville nodded noncommittally, “Yeah, they all seemed ok. Not what I expected at all.” Now it was Neville’s turn to fish, “You and Mal...Draco seemed to be getting on well, like old friends almost.”

Harry’s eyes brightened perceptibly, “He was brilliant explaining all that potions stuff, actually made it sound interesting. If he was teaching the class, I’d get an O on my NEWTS for sure.”

Neville suppressed a chuckle, “Yes, he’s certainly an improvement on Snape or Slughorn.”

Harry nodded in agreement as they approached the entrance to their common room.

“Golden Snitch,” he offered to the Fat Lady, who smiled indulgently at him and opened the door.

As Harry entered the room he cast a quick look round for any sign of his friends. Seeing no sign of them he heaved a sigh of relief and followed Neville over to where Seamus was sat by the fire.

He managed to make it halfway across the room before he found himself face to face with an angry looking Hermione Granger.

“Harry,” she said her tone sharp and Harry felt his heart sink. “What’s going on? Ginny’s upstairs crying her eyes out, she says that you broke up with her and then went off with Pansy Parkinson of all people. And Parvati says you were hanging round with Malfoy too!” She virtually spat the last couple of words out. “She’s really upset Harry; you said some awful things to her.”

Stung by the injustice of his friend’s accusations, Harry kept a grip on his temper before replying.

“Pansy and Draco have nothing to do with this Hermione, who I choose to hang around with is my business.”

The bushy haired girl opened her mouth to speak at this point but Harry cut her off.

“I’m not done speaking Hermione. As for Ginny, did she by any chance mention what she said to me? Did she happen to tell you that what she said was that her mum was so looking forward to having me as a son, how could I possibly disappoint her – never mind that I’m not in love with the girl?And that I owed it to her family to be with her since, basically, Fred died because of me. Did she tell you that? Or were the two of you too busy discussing what a bastard I am.”

“Oh Harry,” Hermione gasped and placed a hand on his arm,” I didn’t realise, she just told me what you had said and I didn’t know what else to think.”

Harry shrugged her hand off his arm and looked at her, anger in his eyes. “I’ll tell you what you could have thought, how about that you’ve known me for 7 years and you know that I would never deliberately hurt someone, or maybe that you should wait to hear both sides before making your little judgements. Or just maybe, Hermione, you should have thought that it was none of your damn business and you’d be best to stay the hell out of it!”

Harry spun on his heel and stalked away from his friend, ignoring her pleas for him to listen and give her a chance to explain.

Heading up to his dormitory, he threw himself down on the bed, taking deep breaths to calm the anger he still felt. He was furious with Ginny but to be honest, after her behaviour earlier – he wasn’t that surprised. But he couldn’t believe that Hermione had just taken her word for it, they’d been through so much together and Harry had thought they were as close as brother and sister. He couldn’t rid himself of the sickening feeling of betrayal at his friends lack faith in him