No Longer

First Flight, Then Fall

Harry Potter**

Blaise and Draco were both sitting next to him, and Theo was across the table. Harry felt embarrassed about crying, and his mood maudlin, he just stared at the wood grain of the table. Draco began to pile food onto his plate, and nudged him until he began to take bites of the food.

Once he started eating, his appetite came rearing up, the tears left his eyes, and he swallowed the food with gusto. Relieved by his return to normalcy, the other boys began to speak to one another and serve their own food.

"Did you know," Draco said, "I felt like decking one of the older girls yesterday. Talking about my godfather like a piece of meat. It used to be all 'Oh he's the greasy haired dungeon bat' and now it's 'Oh my god, he's so sexy'. It's driving me nuts!"

Harry's head jerked up and he stared at Draco in outrage, how dare someone speak about his mate like that!

"What?" he asked, appalled.

"True story. I told her to shut her mouth and that she shouldn't talk about her professor that way, but the girl just turned her nose up at me."

"You should've decked her," Harry muttered venomously, glaring at the oatmeal with maple syrup and apples he was eating.

Theo's mouth quirked into a tiny smile, and Harry's cheeks felt a bit hot. He really needed to stop making comments like that.

"I really wish I could have," Draco sighed, "But I don't imagine my godfather much liking me punching someone on his behalf. Anyways, she's a Slytherin, and one of our house rules is no infighting."

Harry poked at his oatmeal sullenly, but could keep it up and just went back to eating it. 

"I wish I knew what happened to him," Blaise said thoughtfully, "I know he's not the type to have done something like this on purpose. He likes intimidating people too much, and if he'd done something like this purposefully it would make him appear vain, which might lessen his ability to be imposing."

Draco blew out a breath, "Well, I plan to ask him myself later. I'm curious too. The rumors are mostly about him creating some sort of potion to make himself more attractive, but that's complete nonsense."

Harry said, "You could ask, but I doubt he'd tell you."

"Why not? What do you know that we don't?"

"I know what happened," Harry said, not wanting to split the group at all by only telling Theo.

"No way. You're just pulling our leg."

"I know," Harry paused significantly, "Because I did it."

"I thought you and him didn't like each other. When Theo used his- I dunno, mind reading abilities, on you, he figured out that there was an issue with you and Snape. Did you do it to try and damage his reputation in revenge?" Blaise asked.

"No!" Harry exclaimed, a bit loudly in horror, "I'd never do that."

"Calm down, calm down," Blaise said, laughing now, "Don't look so horrified. I was just asking and if you don't want me to keep guessing, you'd better tell me what really happened."

"Well," Harry began, between bites of a chocolate cherry croissant, "I had detention Sunday night with Professor Snape. This time it was because Filch thought I'd put dungbombs in Mrs. Norris's bed. Pity I wasn't the one who did that, honestly, because I got a detention based on no evidence at all."

"Hmm," Blaise interjected then, "It's a shame we hadn't thought of doing that. I'd bet a sickle that those Weasley twins, they're red-headed Gryffindors, tricksters and magical twins, were behind it. They're seriously good at getting around teachers and performing all sorts of pranks. If I'd met them outside of school, I'd've wagered any number of galleons that they were Slytherin, but maybe they're just a bit too obvious. Snakes are more about not getting caught, see."