There Is A Thin Line Between Hate And Love

Disclaimer: Not mine. Please don‘t sue I don‘t have any money
Pairing: (Eventually) Harry/Draco
Author: Catium
Beta: Catium
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3165
Genre: Romance/ Drama.
Status: In Progress.
Warnings: Language
Summary: What happens when that thin line between hate and love starts to disappear? Starts in the Half Blood Prince then moves on to year 7. The Deathly Hallows never happened.
Note: Reviews are not overrated. I like them.

Chapter 7. Apologising.

“Now if you will excuse me! I’m going inside now” Draco said sounding like his old self. Then he walked past the quartet and got inside.

Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny were all as one amazed. Was Malfoy really capable of showing his emotions like that even though it was just for a minute? Then Ginny said what they were all thinking. Specifically Harry.

“Well what do you know? Malfoy actually has emotions. Who would have guessed?”

The next day Harry found himself sitting once again in the kitchen at number 12. Grimmauld Place, facing McGonagall. She had come busting into his, Ron’s and Draco’s room just 15 minutes earlier where they had been sleeping demanding the two of them had a meeting straight away. Harry had dragged himself out of bed dead tired. Now he was sitting downstairs and McGonagall was saying.

“Well Harry I’m sorry I dragged you out of bed but I’m a really busy woman and I’ve got a lot to do so I had to talk to you now. So have you decided whom you can trust with the mission of finding the Horcruxes?"

“Yes I have” Harry said.

“Can I maybe get their names Harry?” McGonagall asked when Harry didn’t say anything.”

“Oh yes of course. Sorry professor” Harry said blushing with embarrassment. “I’m still pretty tired. Yeah ok so the persons I trust to do this mission are Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, Charley, Bill and Shacklebolt and of course you professor.”

“Thank you so much Harry for trusting me with this mission. So I’m going to go and get those people to a meeting. Firecall the ones that aren’t here.” McGonagall left to get the ones Harry trusted for the mission.

Meanwhile Harry was alone with his thoughts but too tired to think anything.

Soon enough McGongall came back and with her the eight persons mentioned. After sitting down McGonagall and Harry explained together what was going on, what the mission’s plan were and started planning how to find the rest of the missing Horcruxes. The mission was stamped top secret. Then they all grouped up and decided to start investigating if R.B. mentioned in the note was really Regulus Black, Sirius’s brother.

After planning that, the rest of the Order was called for a meeting which was planning how to perform the counterattack when the Death Eaters would attack the Burrow tomorrow, at Fleur’s and Bill’s “wedding”. When all of the Order had come inside McGonagall noticed Harry sitting in the corner playing invisible.

McGonagall smirked slightly at Harry’s pretty good attempt to try and be at the meeting. Then she said, “Harry you’re going to have to go now, I know you’re not underage anymore but until you finish school you can’t become and Order member those are the rules.”

Harry left disappointed.
___________________________________________________________________________

On Sunday afternoon Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were sitting in the living room talking about the events of the last few days.

“I just can’t believe it.” Ron said hiding his face in his hands. “I can’t believe the Burrow is gone! I just...” Ron’s voice faded out as something that sounded as a sob took over.

Hermione snorted “Those sons of a bitch. It’s unbelievable that they burned down the Burrow when they realised the wedding was a trap.”

“Dad said that it was clear that they had direct orders on only trying to catch Harry and not risking their lives. Otherwise they would have fought the Order. Instead they just apparated away, when they realised it was a trap and one of the Death Eaters sent a curse on the Burrow before apparating. Before the Order knew it the house was on fire. There was nothing they could do. It just burned. To the ground.” Ginny said tears in her eyes.

“Well at least you will get a new house. Your mom and dad are already planning how to rebuild it.” Harry said trying to get the siblings to see the bright side.

“Yeah that’s true.” Ginny said. “Maybe I will get a bigger room. But do you know what dad said? He said that the Death Eaters were already running away. Then one of them stopped turned around and threw the curse. He said that the Death Eater was clearly a women judging from her cloak and that she had long, black hair and when apparting away she was laughing. Like a mad person.”

“Bellatrix!” Harry hissed “That bitch.”

“We’ll get her Harry. Eventually we’ll get her and she will pay.” Ron comforted his friend.

“Which bring us to another but related subject” Hermione all of sudden changed the conversation. “What are we going to do about Draco?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Yeah...he’s a bastard as simple as that” Ron threw in.

“I don’t think he’s as bad as he pretends to be. You two were in the back yard as well. You saw him. For a minute there he was acting like a real human being. Not like his father’s emotionless little clone.”

“I think he’s faking it. This thing...whatever it was in the back yard was just an act. An attempt to try and get into our good books like he was doing with Mrs. Weasley the other day.” Harry said

“I agree and since he didn’t manage it with mom he has decided to try it with us.” Ron added.

“No I think his reactions were real as was his respond to Hermione’s question. You could just see when he put his mask back on. The-I-don’t-have-emotions-mask.” Ginny argues back.

“No!!! It’s an act, come on Ginny.” Harry said

You gotta be able to see that even though you fancy him.” Ron added

“Nobody is that good of an actor. And he was embarrassed too. He’s been ignoring us and when we see him, like we did the very next day and I was trying to say something about the incident in the yard he pretended like nothing had happened. I might fancy him but I’m not letting that infect my opinion on him like you’re letting your hatred on him infect your opinion. So why don’t you two get your heads out of your asses and see the truth which is that deep down Draco is an all right guy.” Ginny hissed angry at Harry and Ron.

Harry and Ron looked at each other feeling a bit embarrassed. Harry could see the words “Why do they always have to be right” reflect in Ron’s eyes and he said

“O.K. so I guess we can agree to you that maybe just maybe Malfoy has emotions and isn’t all that bad.”

“Why am I agreeing to this?” He questioned himself “Maybe it’s because you haven’t been able to stop thinking about Malfoy ever since you saw him dance.”A nasty little voice inside his head whispered. “You even had a...SHUT UP” Harry screamed at himself. Then he shook his head and heard as Ron mumbled sounding pissed off that he was always the one having to give in.

“Yeah I guess we can. But just remember. Emotions or not. He can still betray us. We can’t trust him.”

Just as Ron was saying those words the doors to the living room were opened and in walked none other than said Draco Malfoy. They looked at him as he stopped dead he starting backing out. He then stopped again and for a minute looked like he was arguing to himself. He opened his mouth...


Draco had been lying around doing nothing all day and decided to walk down to the living room and maybe find some books to read. He realised too late that there were some ones in the living room and just as he walked in he heard the last words Ron was speaking.

“We can’t trust him”

Draco froze dead in his tracks. He looked at the foursome looking at him and started backing out. But at that moment that little voice starting making itself present again, now sounding awfully like his father.

“Are you really going to run away like a coward? Why don’t you stand up to yourself instead of running? For once be a man!”

“There is nothing I can say that won’t make the situation worse. We had a huge fight on Thursday, and then they saw me dancing. They have probably been waiting for a chance to make fun of me.” Draco took a deep breath. “Well now’s their chance. I’m not going to run away I’m going to be a man. But I’m not going to insult them or stand up to them. I’m going to be a man for once and apologise. That is what I’m going to do father. Now shut up!”

“Can I have a word with you?”

Ginny started to stand up like she’s going to leave.

“No stay Weasley. You need to hear this too.”


Harry looked at the other three when Draco told Ginny to stay.

“What are you playing at Malfoy” They all thought. Then Draco opened his mouth and what he had to say blew them away.

“I want to apologize to you. For everything. For all the things I’ve said to you and all the things I’ve done to you over the years. I know I’ve been a complete bastard to you. All of you. That’s why I wanted you to stay Ginny. You’ve had your fare share of me. Whet ever you believe it or not the way I’ve been acting towards you haven’t been easy for me. Well, at first it was natural because that was the way I was raised. My father imprinted it in me that anyone how wasn’t pureblood like me wasn’t worth a dime. That they were worth less than the dirt under my shoes. And that was the way I was supposed to treat them. Like shit. And that is what I did. Then after our little showdown Potter, in second year my ego was broken. Big time. A tiny little thought crept into my brain that possibly, other people, non-Purebloods might be just as good as me. You had managed to beat me in a duel after all and you were a Mudblood. According to my father that was not supposed to happen. But that thought disappeared as quickly as it came. Then our third and fourth year came and went and you three, well four would beat me in all sorts of things, Quidditch, getting better grades at school, or simply just beating me up.”

At those words Hermione blushed a bit. The slap she had given Draco in third year still fresh in her mind.

“I had to use a spell to hide my mark for a week Granger, you can really slap a person when you want too. During those time that thought popped in me head again and again. Always getting more and more aggressive and every time it became harder for me to be an asshole to you. Then there was year five. He came back and all those bad things started happening. At first I was just like the rest of the pureblood kids raised to believe in the superiority of the Dark Lord and his followers. But then really bad things started to happen. People whom I knew for sure hadn’t done anything to the Dark Lord, started disappearing, were found dead or were attacked. Simply for being not Purebloods. And not even people how could be dangerous to the Dark Lord but children and old people. That’s when that thought first came to my head. This is wrong. This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. This mantra went through my head over and over every time I read about one more pointless death, disappearing or attack. Every time I would shut that voice up and bury that thought deep in my head. Just for it to come back up. Then after year five.”

Draco had to stop and take a deep breath.

“My father was in Azkaban. One night my and Mother were sitting in the living room reading. Claudia had gone to bed. After my father’s arrest I was starting to rethink everything. The first thought was that maybe the Dark Lord was wrong. Maybe Muggleborns and Bloodtraitors weren’t that bad. At least they shouldn’t die for just not having the right blood. That was a really rational thought. If all the Muggleborns and Bloodtraitors would die, then the Wizard kind would be endangered. We would be extinct, it’s as simple as that. And I didn’t understand why He couldn’t see that. But at the same time I thought that He knew that. He is just killing people how are or will be dangerous to Him. He knows the people who are, even if I don’t. When thinking those thought we had a visitor. It was aunt Bellatrix. She had come to fetch me and bring me to the Dark Lord. “It’s time you get your assignment” She said. I knew what assignment that was. The one every potential Death Eater has to go through to be qualified. I was thrilled. I got the house elf to fetch my clock and we left immediately.”

Draco stopped speaking again. When he started talking again his voice was hoarse.

“I was not thrilled for long. As soon as I saw Him I got scared. One look in His eyes and I was terrified. I didn’t know...Father never told me....never told me that He...”

“You didn’t know how he looks like. Did you?” Harry asked quietly.

“No I did not” Draco answered. “And at that moment I knew why my father had always refused telling me how he looked like. I asked him a million times. Wanting to connect a face to that name. He didn’t want to scare me. I would have been scared. No kid would not be terrified of hearing how that... Thing looks like. I managed to hide how scared I was. Then He told me the assignment. To kill Albus Dumbledore. One look into His eyes told me that He didn’t want me to succeed. He wanted me to fail. He wanted me to die in order to punish my father for failing his assignment in the Department of Mysteries. Then He said. “If you fail this assignment you will die, so will your father, mother and baby sister. Although I should have killed her a long time ago” That was the turning point for me. I knew at that moment that my family had been working for a madman. I knew that if I failed the assignment He would kill me to punish my father then kill him and mother and Claudia. And if I managed the assignment He would do the same. Failing an assignment has become a death sentence for the Death Eater involved and his family. This assignment that I was given was just an excuse for Him to kill His most loyal Death Eater and his family without losing followers. He is fucking crazy. He has started to kill everyone. Every single Death Eater that fails. No matter how pure their blood is. He will kill them mercilessly. He will kill everyone who are Bloodtraitors and all who are Mudbloods. At first His intentions might have been just to clean out the unwanted. The worst. But now, there are no intentions, no plan. He just wants to see the Wizarding world burn. When He has finished killing everyone there won’t be 100 Wizards left in Britain. If I think about all the Purebloods who He would consider worthy of living then there are only around 50 of them. And they are all too related to marry and have kids. If they do their children will be either physically or mentally retarded. Like I said that was the turning point. But it was too late to turn back. So I accepted and convinced myself that I could do this. When I realised I could not...it was too late. I watched helpless as Dumbledore was murdered. The bright, warm days of last summer I spent in a little cold dungeon room, with Snape of all people, making up a plan to get myself to the Order. To the right side like Dumbledore called them. A plan to get them...you to believe me. I hope you believe me now and that you will one day find it in your hearts to forgive me. I’m not asking you to accept my apologies yet. But I hope that you will eventually do so. And that maybe, one day you will start trusting me. That you will believe that I’m being sincere about...everything. Because I am trying even though it is killing me. Malfoy’s are not raised to show their emotions, their true inner self. To anyone. Ever. But usually they don’t have to, usually they are just bastards and don’t have anything more to show than the eye can see. Maybe we will even, one day, become friends.”

After all this the foursome was looking at him with a stunned expression on their face. Harry was the first one to snap out of it and respond to Draco’s words.

“We have to have time to think about this. We aren’t sure that we can trust you yet.”
“I understand.” Was all Draco said.


Draco turned around and got ready to leave. But before exiting the door he turned around and said.

“I am going to earn your trust, sooner rather than later. My actions are sincere and you will see that soon. If you thought you knew me from all those years at school. Well then you thought wrong”

TBC