When the Snow Melts

Two Puzzle Pieces

Since the weather outside had turned pleasant, the library was conspicuously empty. Ron wished he could be anywhere else but there. Hermione kept pursing her lips and huffing in disapproval at him as he brooded rather than working on his essay.

He was struggling to wrap his mind around it; Malfoy had been holding Harry's hand when he had shown up to visit him in the infirmary and Hermione hadn't put a stop to it. The whole world had gone mad.

It didn't bother him that Harry was gay or bi or whatever. It surprised him for sure, but didn't bother him. What bothered him was that of all the people in the world it had to be Malfoy.

"I don't trust him," he grumbled, quite possibly for the millionth time. Hermione simply rolled her eyes at him, no doubt tired of this age-old argument.

"You're just going to have to get over it," she sighed. "I put up with the both of you when you made lousy dating decisions. Now it's your turn."

It really wasn't that simple though. It wasn't just a bad choice in relationships. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it, that this was part of some bigger plot. He just couldn't envision how it was possible that Malfoy could have fallen for Harry... nothing against Harry of course. Malfoy hated Harry and Harry hated him. Or at least that was how the world used to work. Nothing about this made any sense.

He let out a soft growl, glaring at the blank sheet of parchment in front of him, feeling frustrated that Hermione wouldn't even consider his opinions on the matter.

"At least pretend to be supportive," Hermione admonished, closing the book she had been reading and adding it to a growing pile on the table. "If you honestly believe that Draco is up to no good, then avoiding Harry won't exactly be helping him any. After all, you need to be close to him if you want to keep an eye on him."

"You have a point," he begrudgingly admitted, his expression turning sullen as he studied his girlfriend's face. "I'll think about it."

She smiled at him for the first time in days and he felt his heart flutter even though he was still a bit miffed with her and kind of didn't want to make her happy at the moment. It just made him feel more aggravated with the whole situation.

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Draco heard a tap at his window, followed by another, and then another. Every time he glanced over, there was nothing there. Curious, he left his chair by the fire and maneuvered around his room to peer out his window. It was dark outside, but he could just make out the figure of a person standing on the ground below. He was startled as another tapping sound rang out, but this time he caught sight of the pebble just before it struck the glass. There could only be one person in the world who would be throwing pebbles at his window in the middle of the night. He yanked open his window and leaned out.

"What the hell, Potter?" he snarled, watching as the boy readied himself to toss another pebble.

"I need a lift," Harry shouted up at him.

Grumbling, he dropped his broom out of the window, confident that the boy would catch it.

"Didn't Hagrid retrieve your broom?" Draco questioned as Harry crawled through his window.

Harry smiled at him sheepishly, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "Yeah, but Professor McGonagall locked it up. She's also kicked me off the Quidditch team. Said detention obviously wasn't working so she needed to do something a bit more drastic."

"That's got to be rough," Draco replied in commiseration. "Can't say I really blame her though; you did crash into a tree and almost die so...."

Harry shoved at him playfully. "No fair," he complained. "I don't even remember how it happened."