𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐀

Chapter 7

Sankta Lucia, ljusklara hägring,

Sprid i vår vinternatt glas av din fägring.

Drömmar med vingesus, under oss sia,

Tänd dina vita ljus, Sankta Lucia

. . .

Santa Lucia, light clear mirage,

Spread though our winter night splendor of your beauty

Dreams with wings murmur, under us predict

Ignite your white candles, Santa Lucia

"Sankta Lucia" ("Santa Lucia"), Sigrid Elmblad

Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode and Ron Weasley were all standing in the entrance of the Great Hall earning more than a few puzzled looks.

"So," Weasley broke the silence and asked what everyone was thinking, "what do we do?"

"It should be okay if we sit at our usual tables and Potter just looks over from time to time, I think." Draco mused out loud, for the first time in history not sneering when talking to Weasley.

"You realize that won't work forever, right?" Granger pointed out.

"Yes, but it'll do for now." And with that Draco started walking to the Slytherin table with Pansy and Millicent just a step behind him.

Theo and Daphne were already sitting at their usual places and had been shooting them questioning looks since they had entered the hall.

"Okay, I have to know. In what universe do you three enter the Great Hall with the Golden Trio?" Daphne demanded as soon as they had taken a seat. Draco looked around to see if anyone was eavesdropping.

Since the goblet named Potter my protector and he failed to be there when a bookshelf decided to topple down on me this realized that I have to be in his eyesight all the time." Draco drawled.

"You're joking," Daphne said.

"A bookshelf? In the library? But that's impossible! Those shelves are spelled in place with permanent sticking charms just to prevent them from falling." Theo exclaimed, making all eyes turn to him. How he knew about the sticking charms on the bookshelves was beyond Draco.

"Well, maybe it fell on purpose." Draco snapped.

Theo's eyes widened as he understood what Draco was referring too.

"Still, a bookshelf. I was expecting dark creatures and demons and possessed bodies, not bookshelves." Daphne mocked.

"I think this is just the beginning," Draco said thoughtfully.

As the conversation continued, Pansy stayed unusually quiet. Normally she would have a comment for everything, but she hadn't spoken a word since they had left the Tower and Draco was worried.

"Pansy, darling, you're awfully quiet." he pointed out softly. She didn't meet his eyes, instead staring at her food that she had barely touched.

"Does it, perhaps," Draco continued, "have something to do with that bookshelf and what McGonagall said?"

"You know that's why," she said in a small voice.

"And yet, the entire time that you actually were in Potter's eyesight he didn't give you one disapproving or disgusted look! I checked."

"But it's more complicated than that, Draco!" she hissed, "He's going to be around all the time now, how am I suppose to cope?"

"You can apologize to him. I did, in a coldly worded letter, butit was no less an apology, and he accepted it. I really think that he hasn't given you much thought actually. He was gobsmacked when I pointed out how you have been treated."

"I don't know if a 'sorry' will do, Draco..."

"Hey, you don't have to listen to me. I'm just pointing out that he is a sentimental Gryffindor who will forgive about anyone that means it. I mean, he accepted my icy apology."

"Maybe, I'll think about it." And then they dropped the subject.

"Why did you come here with those Slytherins, Harry?" Ginny fired away before he had even had a chance to sit down.

"Er..."

"Wait. This is one of those 'I can't tell you' things, right?"

"Eh, no?"

"So this secret thing has something to do with Malfoy?" Ginny's quick conclusions and questions were too much for Harry sinceshe saw right through him and he was afraid that he might say something he shouldn't.

"Knock it off, Ginny!" Ron snapped, apparently still a bit upset about earlier.

"I just want to know, Ron!"

"But you can't and you won't, so stop bothering Harry, or any other of us for that matter!" Ron was shouting now, and a few fifth-year Hufflepuffs looked over at them to see if there was going to be a fight.

"Calm down, Ron." Hermione soothed and took Ron's hand, rubbing it with her thumb.

Harry looked at them, thinking how perfect they where for each other, and he felt a stab in his gut that he and Ginny weren't like that. He pushed the thought away and turned to Ginny with the hope of calming her down, but found that she was completely ignoring all of them and had turned to talk to a classmate next to her.

Harry sighed and looked over at Malfoy , seated across the hall. He was talking to Parkinson who was staring down at her plate looking extremely upset. Somehow Harry got the feeling that it was his fault that Parkinson was distraught and made his stomach twist at the thought that he had upset more than one person today.

Harry continued to watch Malfoy as he ate – to do his duty of course – and saw how the Slytherin moved. He ate with elegance, not at all like Ron who shovelled in food in his mouth, and he smirked like he was the king of the world almost all the time. But, at small moments, his smirk faded and he smiled, a glimpse of a real smile, and Harry found that he couldn't look away from Malfoy's face when he did. He caught himself staring at Malfoy, waiting for him to smile like that after awhile, and felt like slapping himself.

He took a mouthful of food and shoved it in his mouth, to demonstrate something to himself, though he was not precisely sure what.

"Wow mate, what did that potato do to you?" Ron joked across the table.

"It was on my plate, it bound to be eaten."

"True, but you just sat there for like ten minutes, not even looking at it and then just out of the blue – bamm! Potato: dead."

"I can't believe this conversation." Hermione rolled her eyes at them and Harry and Ron broke out in laughter.