To Start Over

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Sorry everyone I misspelled Remus Lupins name in chapter two and neither my beta nor myself caught it before it was posted.
I just want to thank everyone that has reviewed so far. I appreciate any and all reviews and encouragement. Thanks
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MAKING AMENDS


‘Lunch never lasts long enough,’ had been Ron’s mantra, the entire time the trio trekked to their first DADA class. Not only was it Harry’s favorite class but he also had his favorite teacher back this year, Remus Lupin. Soon after every one was seated, Professor Lupin explained what they would be working on for this year.

“Class this year we are going to be learning a great deal about protective ldinlding and curse reflection. But more importantly we will be learning dueling, not like the dueling club you participated in your second year, but more like what it would actually be like if you were battling another wizard. For this, everyone is going to be paired up with a dueling partner for the year based on your practical achievements last year, your abilities, and your score from your OWL in fifth year. However, we will be working in teams; not against your partner, but with them, and you will be able to challenge others. Ok partners for now are as follows, Granger and Parkinson, Finch-Fletchley and Nott, Weasley and Zabini, Thomas and Boot, Finnigan and Goldstein, Crabbe and Goyle, and Potter and Malfoy…Please sit next to your partner and we will begin discussing tactics.”
The rest of the class was spent discussing how to be prepared incase you are ambushed, how to have a barrage of curses for your defense always at the forefront of your mind, never to let your guard down even if you think you’ve won and what things would absolutely not be tolerated in this class. At the end of class Lupin asked Harry and Draco to remain behind.
“Harry, Mr. Malfoy, the reason I wanted to speak to the two of you is to ask you to be my assistants for the year. The two of you will work as a team helping to strengthen the others abilities. You’ll need to work together, you need to know your partner and be able to predict each other so that you can help each other, watch each other’s backs, so to speak. Since there are no students that would serve as a challenge for the two of you, you will be going up against teachers to strengthen your own skills,” explained Lupin.
“I guess that makes sense and I don’t have a problem with it as long as Malfoy doesn’t,” Harry stated.
“I’m willing, to work with Potter; I’ve never had a better opponent, and I think as partners we could learn a great deal from each other,” Draco said appraisingly.
Harry stood there shocked, looking at Malfoy like he had never met the blonde before. ‘Am I imagining it or did he just give me a compliment?’ Harry thought to himself. Draco noticed the expression on his mate’s face and smirked.
“Well, Potter, I guess that means we will have to study this together as well. We might as well just make plans to meet daily after classes and maybe some evenings. Are you ready to head to the library to start on our potions project, then?” Draco drawled.
“A… yeah I guess so,” Harry replied, still in a daze.
“Good. I’m glad you boys decided to accept this so readily. It should be an interesting year,” Lupin said.

Harry and Draco gather their things and headed together to the library. Neither said a word until they arrived. Finally it was Harry that broke the silence.
“Malfoy, why are you being so nice to me?”
“Is that a problem, Potter? I thought it would make things easier since we will be working together.”
“Oh.”
“Look, Potter, we are older now and I would like to put the past behind us. I know we have never gotten along, but I would like to change that, start over. I guess the best way to do that is for me to apologize to you for the way I’ve acted towards you for the past six years, I’m sorry.”
“Why now, other than the fact that we have to work together, and why should I trust you?”
“Why now? Well, I had a lot of time to think over the summer and I regret things I’ve done and I don’t want to be that person anymore, I want to change. I have changed in more ways than one; I just hope you’ll give me a chance to prove it to you. You know, when we were eleven I wanted to be your friend but you rejected my friendship,” Draco said sadly.
“Well, what did you expect? You insulted the first friend I ever had. You know I didn’t really reject your friendship that day, I just said I could tell the wrong sort for myself. You just assumed and continued to act even nastier towards me; insults, pranks, fights, trying to get me into trouble.”
“You’re right, but I was hurt; you didn’t take my hand, you chose Weasley over me. I was embarrassed, jealous and insulted. My father raised me to believe I was better than everyone else, and I thought you should want to be my friend, that everyone would. I see now that those assumptions were wrong, but I was blind to it back then. Because you rejected me, I lashed out. All those things I did were revenge, for…for not excepting me. I thought I could prove that I was better than Weasley and make you regret your choice. It took me this long to see how wrong I was.”
While Draco had been talking, Harry took his Dragon heart pendant in his hand, just to see if the other boy was being sincere or playing games. ‘Well he must be sincere in his intentions; the pendant did not turn black,’ Harry thought.
“I don’t know if we can be friends; it will take a lot more than an apology for that. I am willing to make a truce, and maybe we can work up to something more from there,” Harry said, holding his hand out to Draco. Draco did not hesitate to except the proffered hand.
“Harry, I will prove to you that I have changed. Thank you for giving me a chance to.” Draco replied as he gave Harry his first genuine smile. Harry smiled in return; it was the first time he had ever seen the other boy smile, and he told him.
“You know, you have a nice smile. You should do it more often. Wait…did you just call me Harry?” he asked, shocked.
“Is that alright? I just thought if we are going to have a truce, we should start over and I sort of associate me using your last name with our past animosity,” Draco said hesitantly.
“That’s a good idea…Draco,” Harry said trying it out himself. “Um…I have a favor to ask you. Will you help me to study potions? It’s never been my best class and Snape doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Sure, no problem. When do you want to study? I think all of our afternoons will be taken up with our potions project and DADA research and practice,” Draco replied.
“I guess we will have to meet sometime in the evenings. I have Quidditch practice on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, so it will have to be on another weeknight.” Harry said furrowing his brow in thought.
“I have practice on Mondays and Wednesdays, starting next week, so that leaves Friday night and the weekend. Maybe we can start with just Friday nights and see how you do, and if we need to we can always work for a few hours on Sundays or something,” Draco said, relieved that things were going so well.
The two spent the rest of the time before dinner researching information about their first potions project. Though they did not talk about anything other than their project, the atmosphere was no longer tense. There were no snide comments, no insults, and no arguments between the two. When the time for dinner had finally arrived, the two said their goodbyes and went their separate ways to drop their books off in their dorms.

Dinner that night was uneventful for Draco. He ate, held the normal conversations considered appropriate for discussion at dinner. He received an owl from his father confirming that he would arrive on Saturday to speak with Draco, as his son had requested. Occasionally he would discreetly glance at his mate to see what he was doing as well as what the others around him were doing. That little red headed Weaslette was sitting next to his mate and kept leaning on him, trying to get his attention, he noticed. The Veela also noticed that his mate seemed almost oblivious to the attention. ‘I’m going to have to do something about that, get her out of the way somehow,’ he thought to himself. The blonde noticed Harry stand signal to Weasley who stood after giving Granger a quick kiss on the cheek and the two headed off out of the Great Hall; he assumed in the direction of the quidditch pitch for practice. ‘Oh yeah, I remember on the train walking in on Granger and Weasley snogging,’ he thought, just now registering that fact in his brain. ‘That could come in very handy. With the two of them finally getting together, they’ll surely want to spend most of their free time with each other, leaving Harry with more time on his hands,’ he mulled that over in his brain. He finished his dinner and headed back to his common room.

~SLYTHERIN COMMON ROOM~


Draco sat on a leather sofa in the Slytherin common room going over more thoughts, plans, and decisions in his mind. They all had one thing in common, helping him to get closer to his mate. Slowly, the rest of his year mates trickled in, as well as the sixth and younger years. Being head boy had its advantages and Draco was never one to let an opportunity pass by without taking advantage of it. He had all Slytherins forth year and up follow him into a side room, similar to a conference room, leaving all the third years and under in the common room.
“I called all of you in here for a reason. It has come to my attention, with the impending war looming over us, that the Dark Lord will try to call many of us into his service this summer. I want everyone here to clearly consider the consequences of joining him. I know many of your parents expect nothing other than complete obedience from you, and to follow in their footsteps. But I also know that some of you are saved from joining due to the fact that your family has remained neutral. I do not wish to face any of you, whom I consider my friends, on the opposite side during this war. But if it comes to it and I am forced to, I will not hesitate to dispose of any of you. That is why I’m letting all of you know right now that I do not intend to join sides with that of Voldemort,” Draco said, ending his speech and waiting for a reaction. He did not have more than a second to wait; as soon as what he had just revealed registered in the minds of those around him, gasps and loud exclamations were heard throughout the room.
“You can’t be serious!”
“Traitor!”
“What will your father say?”
“You will be on the losing side!”
“It will be your downfall!”
“Our lord will hear of this!”
These were just some of the outcries that the powerful Veela could hear. He tried to keep his temper in check. He knew this would be difficult but it had to be done. Waving his hand through the air, he placed a powerful silencing charm over all of the occupants in the room, so that he could again be heard.
“I know many of you do not agree. However if you change your mind between now and the time that you receive your mark, come to me and I will do everything in my power to help you. You have an entire year to think about what I have told you. Do not be to hasty in your decision.”
With that said he gave a cool glare to all those in the room, reminding them that they should not cross him, and swept out of the room. As he reached the door, he nodded slightly in the direction of his closest friend, Zabini, removed the charm he had cast, and exited the room. Murmuring could be heard through the room, but everyone knew that Draco had reached his full potential over the summer when he received his inheritance, and that crossing the powerful Veela would be a mistake with dire consequences.
Blaise Zabini joined his friend back in the common room and then followed him to Draco’s private suite, which he had not only because he was a Veela but because he was Head boy.
“I knew you were insane, making that kind of announcement in the snake pit!” Blaise said, trying to hold in his amusement at his friend’s recklessness. “Everything you do is carefully calculated and planned, so what’s going on?”
“You’re right, but it had to be done; I have had to change a lot of things. I’m sure I’ll have to change even more before I am finished, but I’ll need your help,” Draco drawled.
Blaise nodded but didn’t say anything, knowing his friend would continue.
“I know who my mate is. You can’t tell anyone, I’m not ready for him to know. I have a lot to make amends for, before I tell him. My announcement in the other room was just the beginning.”
“You know I would never betray your trust Draco. Who is your mate?”
“Harry Potter!”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Who can we get information from in Gryffindor, someone we can trust to keep an eye on things?”
“Lavender Brown.” Draco gave him an incredulous look. “What? She’s a gossip and she likes me. It should be easy for me to persuade her,” Blaise said with a smirk.
“Okay, I need to know if Harry fancies anyone. Our friendship is tenuous at best right now, and I d nee need the competition. That little Weaselette still has a crush on him too, find out whom else she likes so we can occupy her. I don’t think I can handle it if people keep pawing at him.”
“No wonder you weren’t upset when you were paired up with him for Potions and DADA. What about your father, Drake, what’s he going to say? Have you told him yet?”
“My father knows better than to come between a Veela and their mate. He is supposed to come see me this weekend so I can tell him.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Lavender tomorrow.”
“One more thing. Make sure that word gets around quickly about my little speech to the Slytherins,” Draco said with a calculated smirk.


~The Next Morning~
~Thursday~

When Draco entered the Great hall the next morning with Blaise, he could tell that the news about his announcement from the evening before had already circulated. Eyes followed him everywhere he went and he heard his name more than a few times. He ignored everyone, with the exception of Blaise and waited for the inevitable fireworks to begin. No sooner had he stood up after finishing his breakfast when Nott jumped in front of him to stop him from leaving.
“You’ll regret your decision, Malfoy. Betrayer!” spat Nott. He raised his wand and hurled a curse at the blonde Veela, which was quickly blocked. Draco sent his own curse, causing Nott to fly back and hit his head on the wall with a sickening crack. By this time Professor Snape had arrived, and though he knew exactly what had happened, he asked anyway.
“Mr. Malfoy, explain yourself!”
“I was attacked and I defended myself, sir.”
“In the future, try not to send any more of your house mates to the infirmary,” Snape said.
“Yes, sir,” Draco answered and left the Great hall to a torrent of whispers.
“Goyle, Crabbe, see that Mr. Nott makes it to Madame Pomphrey,” Snape ordered. “The rest of you, get to class.”


The next half of the day rolled along as normal, with Charms in the morning followed by HerboloSomeSometime before lunch Blaise found the opportunity to flirt with Lavender and wheedle information out of the notorious gossip. During lunch, Draco and Blaise sat off to the end of their table by themselves where others could not hear their discussion.
“Well, Drake, you’ll be happy to hear that Harry has not shown interest in anyone since his date in fifth year with Cho Chang, which was a disaster, by the way.”
“Why, what happened on the date?”
“All she did was talk about Cedric Diggory and start crying. When Harry mentioned that he had to meet Hermione later, Cho got Jealous, accused Harry of seeing a bunch of other girls and stormed out. Oh yeah, he kissed her once and when he discussed it later he told Ron that he thought it was ‘wet’.”
Draco started laughing hysterically. “Well… I don’t think I’ll have a problem competing with that. Maybe he is gay after all and hasn’t realized yet.”
“As far as the little Weaselette goes, he has been heard to say he thinks of her as a sister. Oh, and she has a crush on Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw.”
“Good, see what you can do about getting the two of them together. I’ll catch up to you later,” Draco said. He caught up with Harry at entrance hall.
“Potter,” Draco called out to get his attention.
“Yes?” he said, turning to face Draco.
“I’ll see you at the library at three then?” Draco asked.
As Harry started to nod in answer to Draco’s question, Ron, who was standing beside his best friend, said, “Why would he want to meet you, you slimy Death Eater wannabe?!”
“Not that it is any of your business, Weasley, but we have a potions project to work on,” Draco replied coolly.
“I’ll meet you there,” Harry said, quickly pulling his hostile friend away before things could get worse.
“I’ll see you at dinner, Ron, Hermione,” Harry said to his friends as he headed in the direction of his new class.

Harry arrived at the Infirmary and was greeted by Madame Pomfrey. They spent the first class going over what she intended on teaching Harry for the year; making a diagnosis, healing potions, healing spells, when not to use magical cures, and natural healing. She explained trry rry that very few wizards and witches were natural healers; you have to be very powerful and for the most part it is an inherited trait. She also explained that that was one of the reasons Dumbledore had suggested that Harry take this course; his mother had been a natural healer and most likely he would be one to. The thought excited him, as it was the first time that being set apart from other people had not really bothered him. If he could help other people, save lives, he would be very happy indeed. When the time was nearing three o’clock, the medi-witch released him, telling him that it was enough for one day, and his only homework was to read a few chapters in his book.

He arrived at the library about the stimetime as Draco and sat at the same table they had used the day before.
“I’m sorry about Ron being so rude earlier,” Harry said, offering a small smile.
“It’s Okay, I know he doesn’t like me,” Draco said giving a smile in return.
“I also appreciate your attempt at being civil, even after he insulted you.”
Draco only nodded and walked off to get the books for their project. Harry trotted off in a different direction to get a few books on curses for DADA. When he returned Draco was looking at him curiously. Harry blushed slightly at the intense gaze he was receiving and said; “I thought maybe we could work on DADA today, instead.”
Draco offered him yet another dazzling smile and said, “Good idea.”

The two sat side by side with their heads bent over, reading from the same book. Every once in a while they would come across a new curse that had what they considered extremely funny consequences, like the profanity curse, causing the accursed to swear non stop until the spell is lifted. Some that were not so funny but just sounded humorous, like the ants in your pants curse, leaving the accursed to feel as if there are itchy, biting bugs in side their clothing. They were sniggering with their hands over their mouths trying to keep from laughing out loud and disturbing others in the library.
“Maybe we should practice some of these, before tomorrow, for class.” Harry suggested, wanting to take the offer of teaching assistahat hat Remus had extended to them seriously.
“Okay, but where do you want to practice?” Draco replied.
“I don’t know. Somewhere we won’t destroy anything, and it has to be a large enough room so that we can try to dodge. Oh, I know, what about the Room of Requirement? Do you remember where it is from fifth year?”
“Room of Requirement?”
“Oh yeah, the room where you found the students for Umbridge, meeting for that secret club.”
“Yes, I think I do. On the seventh floor right?” Draco asked.
Harry nodded his head then started laughing again and pointed to a new curse he had just found in the book. They were both laughing so hard they had tears flowing from their eyes, and this was how Ron had found them.
“What’s going on here?” Ron said rather loudly, his face red from anger.
Harry jumped up from his seat completely startled by his friend’s outburst.
“Ron, quiet,” Harry, hissed, “You’ll get us all kicked out of the library!”
“Why are you so chummy all of the sudden with the Death Eater scum, Harry?” Ron spat.
“Ron, I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m working on my project with Draco, you know already that he is my assigned partner. So let it go already!” Harry said.
“Harry, this is some kind of trick of his, to lure you to their side or to trap you and hand you over to You-KWho!Who!!” Ron said with disgust, glaring daggers at Draco.
“I have no intention of doing any such thing, Weasley. Nor am I one of Voldemort’s sniveling lap dogs.” Draco drawled, glaring right back.
“Yeah, like we believe anything you have to say,” Ron said, voice rising again.
“Enough! I won’t have you two at each other’s throats. Draco, I will meet you after dinner. Ron, I think we should head down to the Great Hall. Now!”
The two Gryffindors left after Harry had received a confirmation from Draco to meet later.
‘Why did that stupid Weasel have to ruin it? We were getting along so well, talking and laughing. Maybe I should suggest that we meet somewhere where we can’t be interrupted. Ron was acting like a stupid prat and Harry didn’t take any crap from him. Well, he didn’t exactly defend me, but he did stand up to him. God, he is so sexy when he gets angry like that, I could feel the power radiating off of him. Well, now I know it’s not just me that he doesn’t like talking bad about people, he just doesn’t like it in general. Hmmm…the Weasel is just too easy to intimidate, and he loses his temper so quickly. I’ll have to use that to my advantage,” Draco mused.
Then he gathered his things and headed down to the Great hall for dinner.