Love by Numbers

Love by Numbers.

Chapter 4 – Growth.

When Josie met her friends and her boyfriend after
the end of class she told them about Malfoy\'s broken leg. Harry, after making
sure she was o.k., made a joke about her having a good aim. No one in the Trio
seriously considered that the Ferret made a conscious attempt to break the
sixth-year\'s fall. He simply happened to be conveniently on her way – or she
really did have great aim.

That evening, sitting in the corner of the common
room, in Harry\'s lap, Josie told him that she felt Malfoy actually trying to catch her.

"How can you be sure of that? He\'s the head
Slytherin, and you were falling at the time."

"I know what I felt, all right," she
frowned. "And he wasn\'t acting like you said he does. He asked if I was
o.k.…"

"He probably didn\'t know who you
were."

"So? I was in Gryffindor uniform and the
way you described him, he would probably get out of the way so that I would
crash. That\'s not what he did."

"Fine. Maybe seeing someone fall called on
some shred of human instinct that is still left in his twisted little brain,"
Harry grinned: "But truthfully – I don\'t think so."

"Harry! Why are you being so nasty? If it
was anyone else that caught me, and he was now sitting in the infirmary because
of that, what would you do?"

"But it\'s not anyone else. It\'s
Malfoy."

"I think you should thank him."

"What?!"

"He saved me!"

"That\'s probably exactly what he wants. For
me to owe him one."

"No it\'s not! He denied helping me, so I
don\'t think he wants anything," Josie thought for a moment. "I think
he was scared that I\'d tell people what he did."

"Who would believe it anyway?" the
young man scoffed.

"Do as you wish. But I think you\'re not
being fair."

"Come on, Josie, it\'s Malfoy. Think about
it."

"I did." The girl was getting really angry
with her boyfriend\'s attitude. "And I think Ron was unfair too."

"You can\'t mean that." He was shocked.

"Fine! I am done with this
conversation."

She rose from her boyfriend\'s knees. Harry
started to get up too, but she stopped him:

"No, I\'m going for a walk. On my own. I
don\'t like you much right now." With that the young witch left him sitting alone in his chair.

Feeling bereft and confused he started looking
around for his friends. As usual Ron was playing chess and \'Mione was studying.
He decided to talk with Hermione, she might be able to explain what just
happened; also, he didn\'t want to be staying alone in this blasted chair; it
was the first time his girlfriend left him like this.

"\'Mione?" Harry sat down next to her.

"Yes Harry?" The head girl lifted her
head from the parchment. "What happened?" She looked around.
"Where\'s Josie?"

"She went for a walk."

"Why?"

"She\'s upset with me because I don\'t want
to thank Malfoy."

"For what, on earth, would you thank
him?"

"She says he tried to catch her." The
boy related the conversation he just had.

"Well, it is hard to believe, but if she\'s
sure… Did he tell her that?"

"No, she says he denied it." Harry
looked at Hermione. "You were there. What happened?"

"We only noticed when she was already
falling. When we got there she seemed all right and she was holding up
Malfoy." The girl paused. "He was being quiet, which surprised
me."

"Why would she say that Ron was
unfair?"

"Ron said Malfoy was just faking it. And,
of course, called him Ferret."

"Well, we know he wasn\'t, but that still
doesn\'t make Ron unfair."

"It would if it wasn\'t Malfoy we\'re talking
about."

"But it is!"

"Sure it is. But he didn\'t start it this
time. And I noticed that he\'s more mellow this year. Didn\'t you?"

"I guess." The boy cringed. "But
it does seem so unlike him."

"People do change. Maybe he\'s growing
up."

"Right." Harry didn\'t know of he
believed in the possibility of the Ferret growing up.

"They do, you know." Hermione chimed
in.

Harry chose to ignore it for the time being.
"What should I do with Josie? Now she\'s mad at me."

"I think the easiest thing to do would be
to apologize to her and maybe thank Malfoy."

"That\'s not easy!"

"I know, I know. But if he helped her, you
should thank him."

Harry looked to the portrait covering the entry
to the common room. He didn\'t want to have this rift between Josie and him. He
needed to fix it.

"I guess I\'ll do it."

"It might be the right thing to do,"
encouraged Hermione.

When Josie returned Harry apologized and promised to thank Malfoy when he next saw him.

"You don\'t have to if you really don\'t want
to. You\'re not the one he helped."

"If he helped you, he helped me to. I\'ll
thank him. But nothing more."

"Great! I knew you\'d see it this way."
His girl finally hugged him. "Now, let\'s get to more interesting
things." And then she finally kissed him and things were right again.

That night Harry spent some time thinking about
Malfoy\'s actions. He had to admit that his archenemy did a good thing. And
looking back he realized that Hermione was right – the Slytherin\'s hostility
was nowhere near its past intensity. It seemed strange. Maybe he was growing
up.

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

The next day Draco swung by the staircase that the
French student fell off. While the spell on the portrait opposite the landing
was a one time, target specific, distraction charm that disappeared without a
trace upon its activation; the spell making the stairs appear closer than they
were was much more complex and tricky, so adding the no-trace clause was too
difficult. This meant that Draco had to go back and clean up its remnants, just
to insure the full safety of his plan. He chose to do it during breakfast while
most of the student body was in the great hall eating. Everything went smoothly,
as expected.

When he got to breakfast no one inquired why he
was late since people heard of the incident and saw that he was favoring one of
his legs. No one, of course, assumed that he was trying to help the lass that
fell on him. Most thought it was a great joke that Harry Potter\'s girlfriend
managed to break Draco Malfoy\'s leg. When Draco entered he noticed that the
Slytherin table was collectively glaring at the French Gryffindor. The blond
prince smiled; he already got an offer from his posse to avenge his injury. He had
replied that he was perfectly capable of dealing with the girl himself. For now
she was too valuable to harm her in any way.

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

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please!