Embracing the Real Us

Revealing

Once they were at the Manor, Draco settled the two newcomers into their own rooms and then the four gathered in the living room with drinks.

“What spurred on this new change of heart Harry?” Draco said using his first name for the first time.

“Well, it isn’t so much a change of heart. It’s more like Hermione and I were just tired of playing the part. We don’t want to be things other people want us to be anymore. She played the part of the goodie goodie bookworm and I played the part of the brave self sacrificing prudish savior. Sure, I’ll save them, but I don’t have to be Dumbledore’s golden boy to do it. And Hermione is definitely not a good girl.” Harry smiled and nodded towards his best friend. Draco smirked at the darker teen.

“I think I’m going to like this new Harry. I think I’m going to like him a lot.” Draco said. “It’s about damn time, and I see you’ve finally rid yourself of the Weasel.”

“Disgusting git!” Hermione hollered when she heard the name. “I can’t believe I pretended to date him.”

“Pretended?” Draco asked.

“Me date a guy? That’s just disgusting! The only reason I dated Weasley was because it was expected of us. At the time I didn’t realize that I could just say no and embrace the real me.” Hermione said with an arm around Layla’s shoulders.

“So what you’re saying is that, Hermione Granger, Dumbledore’s second favorite student, the bookworm ice queen, is a…a lesbian?” Draco asked in shock.

“It took you that long my dear? I thought that surely you would have realized from the way I’ve been flirting with your cousin here.” Layla laughed and went over to Draco.

“Oh my how dense you can be cousin.”

“I thought that you were just hitting on her Lay, I didn’t realize she was doing it too.” Harry laughed. “I thought that the two of them were together.” This comment made Hermione burst out laughing with him.

“Me and Mione? We’re more like would be twins Draco, not much of a couple, and considering we’re both utterly and completely gay, the sex would be terrible.” Harry joked. Draco perked up at the thought of Harry gay.

“Yes Draco, Harry Potter, the Savior of the Wizarding World, would love nothing more than to hop in bed with some hot young wizard instead of any of the witches who send him love letters every day.” Hermione said in between giggles. Harry threw a pillow at her, and she retaliated in kind, missing him and skimming Draco’s head.

“Watch the hair!” He cried.

“Oh please.” Layla said before ruffling it up more. Harry thought it looked better that way.

“You really shouldn’t put so much gel in it Draco, looks right better tousled like that.” Harry muttered before getting up and excusing himself to the bathroom. Hermione smirked at Draco from her seat at the way Draco watched him leave, looking at him with a mixture of confusion and hunger. Layla sat back down next to Hermione and the two watched the blonde.

“So, Hermione, tell me, what’s your favorite subject in school?” She whispered almost touching the other girl’s cheek with her lips. Hermione shivered slightly.

“Transfiguration.” She whispered back. “And you?”

“Herbology.” Layla was running her hand up and down Hermione’s thigh at this point. Draco scoffed.

“Oh go upstairs already. Go snog each other senseless up there, I don’t want to see it.” Layla laughed and took Hermione’s hand. The two girls were running out of the room when Harry returned. He watched them leave and chuckled to himself.

“And I thought guys were bad.” Draco said earning a smile from Harry.

“Too much for you Draco?”

“If they didn’t leave now they would be shagging right in front of us. I don’t need to see my cousin naked thank you.”

“So, now that we don’t have Layla to conduct the conversation, what do you want to do?” Harry asked quietly.

“Well, we could attempt a conversation on our own, unless you need Layla to help you along.”

“Very funny. But I have to admit, I like this Draco, you’re funnier when you’re just sarcastic instead of a right bastard.” Draco threw a pillow at him.

“I admit, I wasn’t ever a nice guy to you, but what would you do if you had been raised by Lucius? It was simply my breeding.”

“Right, and now that he’s gone, what’s changed about your personality?”

“Nothing.” Draco said coldly. “Aside from the fact that I can express my own opinions now, for instance, I understand the necessity for half-bloods and muggle borns, if we get rid of them all then we’d end up either dying out or having to procreate with our brothers and sisters. I’m not saying that all of them are acceptable mind you, but the useful ones can stay, like Hermione for example.” Harry was almost astonished at Draco’s admission. The two then spent the greater part of the evening talking. It wasn’t until five o’clock when the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon that they finally fell asleep together on the couch. Harry had drifted off first and his head fell into Draco’s lap. Not wanting to move the other teen, Draco simply curled up around the other boy and fell asleep, a slight grin on his face.

Upstairs, Layla and Hermione had fallen asleep in each other’s arms after a few hours of snogging madly. Their arms entwined, Layla’s head on Hermione’s chest, this was the position Narcissa found them in around ten o’clock that morning having returned from her trip early. She smiled at her niece and moved on in search of her son. When she opened the door to his bedroom she was shocked to find him absent from his bed. That’s when she heard a loud thud from down stairs.

“Ah.” She said as she sauntered down the hall with a smirk on her face, her pale blue eyes twinkling. Layla and Hermione sleepily made their way out of Layla’s room after hearing the same thud. They both jumped when they saw the older Malfoy move past them. Both girls smiled and started to run down to see the two boys. Layla, Hermione began laughing hysterically when they saw Harry on the floor and Draco on top of him, still sleeping. Narcissa raised an eyebrow and assumed the thud must have been from the two falling off of the couch.

“Should we wake them up?” Narcissa asked.

“I don’t think they went to bed until late Cousin Narcissa.” Layla said laughing.

“I don’t think they did anything interesting however, they look just like we left them, well, aside from the fact that they’re on the floor.” Hermione continued. Narcissa turned to look at the shorter brunette.

“What is your name child?”

“Hermione Granger, Mrs. Malfoy.”

“Ah yes, of course, Draco has spoken of you often. How long will you and Mr. Potter be staying with us.”

“I had hoped for the rest of the summer Cousin.”

“I assume Draco had the house elves prepare rooms already?” Layla nodded excitedly.

“Welcome then, I’ll have an early lunch prepared. Do not wake them up until I return, I must see this.” Narcissa smirked and walked off to the kitchen. Hermione and Layla stood staring down at Harry and Draco, giggling furiously at their position. It appeared as though Harry had fallen off the bed and landed on his back while Draco had toppled on top of him chest meeting chest.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Draco did that on purpose.” Layla whispered. Hermione just giggled and watched as Narcissa returned.

“How shall we wake them ladies?” She questioned with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Hard slap on the ass.” Hermione suggested.

“While that is a good idea, my son might take it the wrong way, you both know how he gets.”

“Cold water is to cliché. It has to be evil, but nothing too embarrassing.” Layla continued.

“I know!’ Hermione cried, ‘If we just stand here talking long enough about how completely adorable they are like this, and how much of a cute couple they make then they’re bound to wake up, and be thoroughly embarrassed to boot, considering you’re here Mrs. Malfoy.”

“Hermione, please call me Narcissa and that my dear, is brilliant. I’ll start. Girls, I must say, I have never seen my baby boy look as adorable as he does this very moment, I am so delighted to have ended my trip early.”

“Oh yes Cousin Narcissa, Drakeekins looks quite adorable, and so content resting on top of Harry like that.”

“Harry looks so content under Draco like that, I think he might like it too much.”

“Yes they do make the perfect couple; I couldn’t imagine my son in a better match.” At Narcissa’s statement Draco’s eyes shot open and he looked up from his spot on Harry’s chest to stare open mouthed at his mother. The movement caused Harry to wake as well and he looked from Malfoy to the three girls and back to Malfoy.

“Malfoy, I don’t remember falling asleep like this.”

“Nor do I. Ladies, any ideas?”

“Oh no, do not look at us! You two did that all on your own, Hermione and I were sleeping peacefully when all of sudden there was this thud coming from down here, we all came to look and there you were, looking so happy together.” Both boys blushed.

“Well, I must have moved in my sleep, purely accidental you see.”

“Right, it was an accident, we were sleeping.” Harry finished.

“Breakfast boys?” Narcissa asked. Thankful for the interruption they both stood quickly and Draco practically dragged Harry off to the dining room. Narcissa followed with Layla and Hermione laughing behind her.

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

Hermione and Layla soon became inseparable from one another and were showing signs of a nearing relationship. Harry and Draco spent many nights over the coming weeks talking until the sun came up, finding it was the only time they could be alone without disruption. That is until one night, barely a week away from their first day of classes; their nightly talk was disrupted, but Layla freaking out. She had come running down the stairs in nothing but a sheet yelling their names.

“Harry! Draco!” The two boys ran out to meet her and stifled their laughs at her appearance.

“What’s wrong cousin?” Draco asked calmly.

“I’m not saying I hate them, but there is a BAT in my room, and Hermione is missing!” She yelled. Harry had to put a hand on Draco’s shoulder to stop from falling over with laughter. His eyes wear filled with tears as he looked up at Layla and Draco’s confused faces. Suddenly, before he could speak, the bat in question came soaring down into the hall and landed on Harry’s shoulder. Draco began making weird noises and then the bat made similar noises, Harry and Layla looked on, confusion evident on their wide eyed faces.

“Layla, Hermione hasn’t disappeared. The bat IS Hermione.”

“How did you know that?” Harry questioned.

“Because she said so.” With that Hermione changed back to normal, standing there in her bra and panties.

“Draco can talk to animals.” Hermione said.

“I think it’s time we all had a little talk.” Layla said and headed upstairs. “I’m going to get some clothes on and then there are some things we all need to talk about.”

A moment later the four teens were gather in the living room. Hermione hadn’t bothered to put on more clothing and sat there in Layla’s lap comfortably. Harry and Draco sat side by side on the couch.

“I didn’t realize that it might become an issue if we hadn’t brought it up, but clearly it has.” Layla began and gave Hermione a mock glare.

“Layla’s right. It’s evident that we are all more powerful than we realize. Well, we all knew Harry here was powerful, but that’s beside the point. It’s best if we tell each other what kind of power we have now, before we get back to school.”

“I agree. Who wants to go first?” Harry added. No one spoke.

“Alright, I’ll get it over with.” Layla offered herself up. “While I am not fortunate enough to have an animagus, I do have an animal familiar, and that is a Wolf. My familiar Gelu, is adapting to life here slowly, he’s basically hiding. He and I can do powerful magic when together. Also, my focuses are in Herbology and in the water elementals. As you can see from my tattoos I prefer ice. Next.” Layla looked up at the brunette in her lap.

“I guess that means me. Obviously I’m an animagus, my form being a bat. I have power over shadow and can make myself invisible at will. My best class is Transfiguration and I work mainly under the Air elementals. And that’s me in a nutshell. Harry, Draco?”

“Alright, I’ll go.” Harry said quickly. “While most of you know, I can speak Parseltounge and somehow I just won’t die. But other than that, I can astral project, I’m highly telepathic, as in I can hear people’s thoughts without having to use Legilimens.” Harry laughed. “Oh yea, and obviously my best class is Defense Against the Dark Arts and I work well with earth elementals.”

“I guess that leaves me. Not only can I communicate with bats, I can do it with any kind of animal or person, wherever they come from. My element is fire; I can manifest it, control it, and manipulate it, anything really. And of course, my best class is Potions. Now that we’ve made these little speeches, what do we do?”

“Do you guys realize the four of us make up the four corners? The four elements?” Hermione said suddenly.

“Sure.” Draco replied.

“Do you have any idea what it could mean?” She asked, getting excited.

“I bet you’re going to tell us.”

“Cute Draco, but seriously, if we were to combine our powers we could be really dangerous, even deadly.” Hermione raised her eyebrow at Harry.

“That is good. That is very good.” Harry laughed.

“What did I miss?” Draco asked, looking from Harry to Hermione.

“We could defeat him easily if we worked together.” Harry said.

“Him?” Draco asked.

“Well, Voldemort of course. That is, if you were serious about wanting him dead.” Harry replied. Draco and Layla’s eyes got wide and then they began to smile.

“A bunch of teenagers, take on the Dark Lord?” Layla queried.

“Sure, they wanted Harry to do it all alone, all because of some bullshit prophecy foretold by some woman who can’t predict what color her hair is when she’s looking in a mirror!” Hermione practically shouted to the rest of them. It started as snickers, but soon the whole group was laughing. When it finally died down, Hermione looked at the two on the couch seriously.

“You two haven’t gone to bed yet have you?” Layla looked at them fully dressed and made the same assumption.

“Do you two ever go to bed before dawn?” She asked of her cousin. A blush crept up into Draco and Harry’s cheeks.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Draco spat, arms crossed and nose up in the air.

“We like talking.” Harry said.

“Right.” Layla looked at them.

“It’s true!” Harry shrieked.

“Sure boys, whatever you say.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter what Harry and I do all night; that is our business. However, we should be focusing on how we’re going to get Dumblefuck to resort these two.”

“Harry was supposed to be in Slytherin, Dumbledore made sure that everyone told him Slytherin was evil though, that way he wouldn’t want to be there.” Draco looked at Harry shocked.

“I think if Hermione just shows Dumbledore her new attitude, then he’ll have no choice but to resort her, after all, it was her fake good girl persona that got her into Gryffindor in the first place, as you can see she’s not a good girl.” Harry continued, ignoring Draco.

“He won’t give in that easy.” The blonde finally spoke. “He won’t let his precious plans go to waste because his two golden kids want to be resorted.”

“Once he sees that we are no longer the loyal Gryffindorks he wants us to be, he won’t have a choice, especially once we start terrorizing our own house.” Harry smirked as thoughts of the torment his house would endure if Dumbledore refused to resort them.

“That is true. Harry and I could cause loads of trouble if we don’t get resorted immediately. They won’t know what hit them.” Hermione continued.

“That’s right gorgeous; you give ‘em hell.” Layla said before taking Hermione’s face in her hands and kissing her.

“Go back upstairs!” Draco cried. “My little virgin eyes can’t take it.” Harry began laughing at the blond when Draco turned to him.

“Now, why don’t you explain how you were supposed to be in Slytherin?” Draco practically screamed at the darker teen.

“Well, when the sorting hat was put on my head, it told me that I would make a good Slytherin, but after what I had heard about Slytherins and how my parents had been killed by Slytherins, I told the hat that I didn’t want to be in Slytherin. I was practically brainwashed into thinking that all Slytherins were evil and I didn’t want to be there. But now, I know that Dumbledore wanted me in Gryffindor so he could control me, and not because that’s where I belong.”

“That’s brilliant. You know, I always did think that you acted surprisingly Slytherin for being the golden boy.” Draco flirted. It went unnoticed by Harry however, but not the girls who just looked frustrated before getting up and going back to bed.

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

The following day their lunch was interrupted by a loud tapping on the bay window in the dining room. A house elf popped in and opened a side window effectively letting in the two large dark owls into the room. A moment later they were gone again having dropped off their items.

“Those must be your Hogwarts Letters. Dumbledore must have realized you were here.” Narcissa said as the house elf gave her the four envelopes. She handed them out and three of the teens looked at them a bit apprehensively, for inside were their OWL results. Layla tore hers open and began reading while the other three slowly made their way into theirs.

“To hell with this!” Hermione cried and ripped the envelope open. She skimmed over the welcome back letter and her updated supply list. The third sheet of paper was a letter with a pin attached below.

“I made Prefect.” She stated happily.

“Congrats ‘Mione.” Harry praised as he took out his letter. Draco had made the same progress.

“I made Prefect as well.” Draco announced. Then the three laid their OWL results in front of them. Harry stared down on his results with minor awe.
Passing Grades: O-Outstanding S-Superior E-Excellent A-Acceptable
Failing Grades: P-Poor D-Dreadful U-Unacceptable

Ancient Runes-A
Arithmancy-E
Astrology-O
Care of Magical Creatures-O
Charms-O
Defense Against the Dark Arts-O
Divination-U
Herbology-E
History of Magic-P
Muggle Studies-O
Potions-O
Transfiguration-O

Hermione stared down on her results with a pleased look on her face.

Ancient Runes-S
Arithmancy-O
Astrology-S
Care of Magical Creatures-O
Charms-O
Defense Against the Dark Arts-O
Divination-P
Herbology-O
History of Magic-E
Muggle Studies-O
Potions-O
Transfiguration-O

“Never did like that Trelawney anyway.” She muttered. Draco could feel all their gazes on him as he read over his own results.

Ancient Runes-E
Arithmancy-O
Astrology-O
Care of Magical Creatures-P
Charms-O
Defense Against the Dark Arts-O
Divination-P
Herbology-O
History of Magic-A
Muggle Studies-A
Potions-O
Transfiguration-S

“So, how did you do?” Narcissa asked looking at all three of them.

“Ten OWLs mother, out of twelve.” Draco said before handing his sheet to her.

“Me as well.” Harry said and gave her his sheet to look over.

“I got eleven.” Hermione said.

“Very good, you all make me proud. Now, who wants to go to Diagon Alley?” Draco perked up.

“Shopping?” Harry smiled at the other boy and shook his head.