The Divided Dragon - A Dramione Fanfic

Halloween

The rest of September slipped by with a soft sigh, nothing at all like that first week. Life at Hogwarts slipped into a pleasant routine. His weekdays were filled with classes and all the work they brought along; while his weekends were spent with Ron and their fellow Hufflepuffs. Ron flatly refused to spend time with Harry as long as Tracy Davis was around. And as Harry, Davis, and Hermione appeared to be as inseparable as Ron and Draco, that meant never. Draco's only interaction with the Slytherin was a quick thank you one morning at breakfast. Apparently, his mother had written Harry and explained about Professor Snape.

Draco felt rather sad about this, but couldn't really fault his red-haired friend.

There was one slight change that occurred during the second week of school, on Friday.

Neville Longbottom came racing into Herbology, red-faced and breathing heavily. His robes were disheveled and even torn in a few places. Professor Sprout stopped mid-sentence and looked up at the chubby Gryffindor in concern, "Are you alright, Mr. Longbottom?"

Neville mutely nodded and glanced around quickly, mild panic in his eyes. Usually, he sat at a table with the other two Gryffindor boys up near the front of the greenhouse. Obviously, he thought this was too far to go as he stumbled over to the closest empty stool. It just so happened that said stool was at Ron and Draco's table.

The two Hufflepuffs shot the other boy concerned looks, but said nothing while Professor Sprout deducted ten points from Gryffindor for tardiness and then proceeded giving instructions.

Later, as they got to work on repotting dancing daisies, Ron spoke. "What happened, mate? Did your cauldron explode in Potions?"

Neville shook his head, looking miserable. "No, Potions wasn't so bad. But after I bumped into Crabbe and Goyle. They took offense."

Draco winced, Crabbe and Goyle may be lacking in brains, but they more than made up for it in brawn. No wonder none of the damage done to Neville looked to be magical.

The three of them slipped in companionable silence and continued their work. Dancing daisies weren't dangerous, but repotting them was difficult as their roots never stopped moving. Later, after cleaning up, Draco noticed that all of the Gryffindors had disappeared. Not a single one of them had stopped to see if Neville was alright.

This was made all the more obvious when Hannah, Justin, and Zach stopped by to check on Neville before heading to the Great Hall for lunch.

As they left the greenhouse, Ron was rambling on about the most annoying plants out there, with Neville offering some suggestions.

Draco wasn't really paying attention to them as an idea was forming in his head. His palms grew sweaty and he had to focus on controlling his breathing as the three of them stepped into the Great Hall. When Neville turned away to go to the Gryffindor table, Draco managed to get out the words he'd been running over in his head during the walk."Neville — um — do you want to join us? For lunch? At the Hufflepuff table?"

The Gryffindor boy froze, half turned away from Ron and Draco, his eyes as wide as saucers. "Wh—What?"

Ron grinned cheerfully and slapped a hand down on Neville's shoulder, "Do ya wanna join us?"

"For lunch?" Draco repeated.

"Is that allowed?" Neville asked.

Draco nodded as Ron said, "Of course. My brother, Charlie, used to join Tonks at the Hufflepuff table all the time."

Neville nodded slowly, "Uh, sure, I'd like that."

"Good," Ron said with a grin.

Draco grinned as well, feeling more relaxed now that he'd gotten the asking over with.