Now that Draco had left to see his father, I felt like I had so much free time on my hands. I figured I would work on the Quidditch project that I had introduced to McGonagall. I decided that I would recruit people first, people to come onto my 8th year Quidditch team, then I would go inform the other teams. I looked around my common room. At first, I thought about asking Ginny, but then I remembered she was younger than us. "Hey Ron!", I yelled across the room. He had been snogging with Hermione. He flinched, turning his head around to stare at me. "Bloody Hell, what's your problem, mate? Don't scare me like that!", he huffed. Hermione giggled, then looked at me expectantly. "I have a proposition.", I said, "I want to start Quidditch again, but what about a team made up of only 8th years? Well, McGonagall has already agreed to the idea and I thought you might want to be my keeper?", I explained. Hermione raised a brow, correcting me about not saying 'Headmaster McGonagall', then looked at Ron for an answer. He looked quite pleased to hear he got to play again for the school, actually, that was an understatement. The ginger sprung up from the sofa, jumped onto the table, and yelled: "Weasley is King!". The other students seemed quite surprised but immediately recognized the iconic song. They started singing it out of what I assumed was nostalgia. I hummed along, clapping as Ron posed on the table, flexing his muscles. "Are you recruiting for a Quidditch team?", a female voice asked. I turned around, surprised at who it was. I nodded and she sounded relieved.

"Would it be alright if I join? I've always quite enjoyed Quidditch, but I've never been allowed to play on the Slytherin team.", Pansy confessed, a smile on her face. "Well, what's your position, if it's seeker or keeper then I'm sorry, but-", I started. She had interrupted me to tell me she was a beater, and, her words not mine, 'the best there was'. I smiled at her and she left to join her friends. She wasn't the only one to come forward, a girl named Lily Moon and her boyfriend Wayne Hopkins told me they were both big fans of Quidditch, they used to be in the Hufflepuff team, but after Cedric's death, they quit. They were friends of his and thought it better to retire in his memory. Lily played as a chaser and Wayne as a beater. Dean came forward too, informing me that he wanted his position back. That left one chaser and luckily there was a Ravenclaw that was up for the position, Martin Zao. Now that the 8th year Quidditch team was complete, I visited each of the house common rooms, being generously welcome in each one of them, and explained to the students my idea. They all seemed very excited and immediately started recruiting people for their teams.

As I walked back to the room of requirement, I felt pretty accomplished. A new Quidditch team, and a soon-to-be boyfriend. It all seemed to go so well. My mind kept flickering to Draco, I wondered if he had arrived home yet and if he was doing alright, if he missed me, I wondered how he would do with his father, and if it would be very painful. I supposed it would because it was the last time he'd see his father. I tried to force the thought of Draco being sad out of my mind and focus on the upcoming Quidditch competitions instead. I was very excited and absolutely looked forward to it, but there was one thing I hadn't thought about yet. The Quidditch Pitch was almost completely in ruins and I had to fix that. There were some students that volunteered to help me out and rebuild it and some Professors would too. But first, I had class.

I had defense against the dark arts pretty early in the morning and without Draco, I hadn't been able to sleep very long or very well. I must've looked really tired because Hermione seemed to pity me ever so slightly. "Stop it.", I whispered to her as she watched me instead of the teacher. "What?", she whispered back. I sighed, "Stop looking at me like I'm some poor sad child and listen to the professor instead.", I said to her. I tried my best to speak quietly to avoid disturbing the class. I had gotten off on the wrong foot with Professor Sweet and wanted to improve the relationship. It was my favorite subject after all, so this was important to me. "I'm not, Harry. You just look like you've had a bad night's sleep.", she muttered under her breath. I rolled my eyes, but after a couple of seconds, I nodded silently. Hermione turned to me now completely, staring right into my eyes with that determined look of hers. "Harry, answer me honestly, is it the nightmares again?", she asked. I shook my head, watching the work in front of us that we were expected to do. "Do you miss-", she had started saying but was interrupted by the professor who was now standing in front of our joined desk. "I don't mind you talking to your boyfriend, Ms. Granger, but please don't do it while I teach.", he reprimanded her. He shot me a frustrated gaze and then continued his lesson. He had called me her boyfriend? How awfully awkward. Was that really what people thought of us, even after seeing her and Ron snog every second they got? She was like an older sister to me! I turned to look behind us, at the back of the class, where Ron was sitting next to Seamus, and sure enough, I had assumed correctly, Ron was fuming.

The class was barely over before Ron stood before us. We were still packing our school supplies. "Boyfriend and Girlfriend, are you now? I see how it is!", he angrily scowled, then without waiting for an answer, he stormed out of the room. Hermione sighed tiredly, "Don't worry about it, as per usual, I'll try to knock some sense into him.", she groaned, rubbing the back of her neck. I chuckled, "Snog some sense into him, is what you mean I think.", I said, and she answered me with a smile. "I don't even know where he got the energy so early in the morning.", I joked as we left the classroom. We had herbology now. "Harry, is it because you miss him? It's only been a day, he'll be back in a couple more.", Hermione tried to reassure me. I smiled. Of course, I missed him. He was my angel. "In a way, it is why I didn't sleep well, but it's too complicated to explain.", I told her. She stopped walking and stopped me as well. "Try. Please.", she pleaded, but I shook her off. "I said no, Hermione. I don't want your pity or your help. Now, come on, let's go or we'll be late to class!". That was the last of it. We hurried on to class, my mind clouded with the thoughts of my problems and images of Draco. It was nearly impossible to stop thinking about him, but when I finally did, class was already over again.

Ron was nowhere to be seen at lunch and he didn't say a word to us until the evening when he stormed into the common room and saw us do our work together. Hermione hadn't succeeded in calming him down and they were screaming at each other by now. I couldn't take it anymore. There was too much noise. Too much noise. So many screams. "STOP IT!", I yelled, having gotten up from my seat, "BOTH OF YOU!". Everyone was silent now. Everyone was staring at me and I suddenly found myself suffocating in the silence. I tried to make it stop and was successful. I had cast a charm around the three of us, so the other students couldn't hear what we said. "Hermione, you knew Ron was jealous like this and you accepted it. It was a compromise and you need to learn to live with it.", I said to her, still in a strange silent fit of fury myself. "Ron, I don't know how many times I have told you, but I and Hermione are not dating behind your back. In fact, I'm even...seeing someone.", I mumbled a bit more quietly now. He sighed and looked to the ground, his hands in his pockets. He waited a while and then he looked up at me again. "It's him, isn't it? Malfoy. You like him."; Ron said to me.

I felt myself panicking at that moment, a million questions racing through my mind. "How...?", I managed to ask. He shrugged, shuffling uncomfortably. "I'm your best friend Harry. I would be a bad friend if I hadn't noticed something was off between the two of you. You weren't there to say goodbye to him when he left, so I assumed you had given him a good snog in your dorm. You know, a proper goodbye.", he muttered, glancing towards Hermione who seemed to be completely frozen, shocked at the idea of Ron being so observant. I couldn't quite seem to comprehend either. In a way it made sense. As he said, he was my best friend, and he was smart when he wanted to be. He might've been a bit lazy when it came to homework or listening to the professors, but he was a fine student, with decent grades, and an intelligent brain and I pitied the people that underestimated him. I was guilty of this too, underestimating him, and he deserved so much better.

The three of us ended up hugging it out over this dumb misunderstanding, but at least I didn't have to lie anymore. Neither to Ron nor to Hermione, they knew the truth now. And they were both fine with it. I wouldn't have expected anything less from such amazing friends. I wondered if Draco had told his friends, Pansy and Blaise. I had observed some strange tension between him and Blaise, but I had no idea why. I remembered accidentally eavesdropping on an argument between them, but I hadn't been able to seem to figure out what their argument was about. What I do know is that Draco had seemed very hurt, and they hadn't been talking much ever since. I hoped they would make up soon. I also wondered what he would think of Hermione and Ron knowing about us. Would he be angry? Or pleased? Or awkward? Well, I knew he'd be awkward, that was a given. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't be displeased with the idea of my closest friends knowing he and I liked each other. Oh, I missed him so. I kept wanting to focus my mind on my homework or my Quidditch project, but it didn't matter really because he was always on my mind. He was either all I could think about or somewhere in the background of my thoughts, screaming for my attention. He would be back in less than half a week, why was I so worried? I guess, I had a bad feeling, although I couldn't describe it. Must be because he was so special.

***

I kept staring at the Slytherin table during dinner. I kept staring at the spot where he usually sat. During our years at Hogwarts, he had always sat right at the middle of the table, surrounded by his peers, but this year has been so grim for him. This year, he had sat with Pansy and sometimes Theo and Blaise all the way at the end of the table. Without him there, you'd assume there was an empty spot, but no, some Slytherin student had filled the spot. Some younger girl I had never seen nor paid attention to. She was sitting in his spot. I didn't like it. I didn't want her to sit there. Only he could. Because that was the spot where I could see him best, I didn't want somebody else to stare at him during dinner. Nobody even came close to him. I noticed a strange desire in myself to hex the girl, perhaps even go as far as killing her, with the sole purpose of no one sitting in his spot. But then I felt bad because that was a terrible thing to think about.

"Harry?", the voice called me back to reality, it was Ginny's, "Why were you glaring at that poor Slytherin girl over there? You must've spooked her, she looks so pale all of a sudden. That glare of yours will kill someone, I swear.". I chuckled in response to her comment about killing because it had been as if she'd read my mind. "Sorry Ginny. I guess I have been a bit out of it lately.", I admitted quietly. She looked at me, clearly concerned, with a look as if to ask what was wrong. "I think it might be Draco's absence, I know you don't like him much, but the room is just so quiet and lonely without him.", I told her. That's as far as our conversation went. She knew that I knew that she didn't like Draco at all, which is why to avoid making a hurtful comment she just nodded and continued eating. What I told her wasn't a lie, of course, it was the truth, but it was only part of it. I had actually started to feel a bit scared without him, worrying too much about him, and I had almost started seeing things in the shadows that weren't there. Our room felt so...cold without his warm soothing embrace.

The next day, we didn't have many classes. Charms had been canceled because Professor Flitwick was sick, so I and some others immediately got started on the Quidditch Pitch. We had a lot of work to do. Because it was such a large stadium that had burned, many parts had turned to ashes and overall there was too much work to use only magic. Wizards couldn't do everything. The banners that stood for the different houses, had all been burnt in the fire. A few students from the younger years had told me they could sow new ones, it would take some time, but they would get there eventually and they would ask their friends to help them too. Then there was the matter of all the rubble and debris and wreckage of everything that had fallen, melted together, and other half-burnt objects scattered about. There was also a lot of newer garbage that delinquent students had probably thrown there during their hangouts. All of that had to be cleared, and it was everywhere! So, me and Hermione and Ron and all those that had gathered to help us started cleaning up. We started wiping the place up with brooms and gathered the dangerous debris in one bag, and the new garbage in another, we also had a bag for pieces that weren't that damaged and could still be used in the rebuild or for other things, like some pieces of wood could be used for the fires in the common room. Winter was coming, so they would be used. It took about half a day and about two or three dozen people to clean up half of the pitch. Beneath all the wreckage that was left, you could see it was starting to clean up. Hagrid had come to help us too, he would play a big part in actually rebuilding it because he had some experience, and so had Ron. Because we had all, well most of us at least, worked so hard in cleaning the Quidditch Pitch I had decided to host a party for us in the room of requirement. Hagrid was invited but decided he wouldn't join. He told me that he'd feel weird standing with all of these young students while he was just some old groundkeeper. I answered him that he was still young, and although flattered, I couldn't convince him to join.

There were party lights everywhere, food and drinks, and alcohol that some people had snuck in. Even Hermione was dancing to the music, making heads turn all over the room. It was a Friday so even she submitted to the idea of fun. Ron was quick to make people look away, as he joined her in dancing. His hands were on her hips, and they were rocking slowly together. They were, of course, both very drunk. I myself was watching from the sidelines, observing my peers. Something I had found very soothing these days. Just having to watch, not being swarmed by fans or whatever. A crowd gathered around Ginny who was performing tricks with alcohol, making cocktails, and even sometimes sneaking in some of Fred and George's terrible candies. Which resulted in some weird-looking individuals on the dance floor. If only Draco had been there with me, then I might've been able to avoid this fight.

Someone joined my side, it was Blaise. "Enjoying yourself, Potter?", he asked me, taking a sip of his punch. I shrugged, "Enjoy is a big word sometimes. I'm doing alright is more like it. How about you? Is that Ginny's punch?", I answered him, pointing at his cup. He chuckled, "Yeah, you have to admit the girl can really mix alcohol. I should ask her to teach me, or perhaps I shouldn't. She isn't a big fan of me and my friends.", he answered, raising a brow.

"Well, that might not be a coincidence. Ever thought about that? We all have our reasons for things.", I said.

"No, she doesn't. She has a problem with Draco. Why should that include me, huh? Just because I and Draco are friends, doesn't mean she should take out her irrational anger on every friend of his she sees!"

"Well, you did join in bullying all those kids which sometimes included her, me, and our friends."

"Yes, I guess I did. I joined Draco in bullying. Yet I am the one being hated on, not him. Why? Because the both of you are suddenly so close? He isn't innocent either you know. Neither are you!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well for starters, he never bullied you! And if you really believe he did, well then you bullied him back just as much! Do you have an idea how many times I have heard or witnessed Draco crying or just feeling like shit because of you and what you did? You think you know him, but where were you when he was crying all those times? In my arms! That's where!"

And that's when I lost it. I let my rage consume me, perhaps it was also somewhat due to the alcohol coursing through my veins, but I punched him. And he punched me back. And after a while, we both ended up in the hospital wing with bleeding knuckles and nosebleeds, and I might've given him a light concussion too, who knows? The both of us didn't say a word when people asked us what was wrong, we both refused to speak about it. I must say that was perhaps the only thing that we had in common of which I was somewhat proud. We had both silently agreed to shut our mouths. Because this fight hadn't been about bullies, it had been about him telling me that he had been feeling for Draco what I felt for years. Although I doubt he liked Draco as much as I did. No one could ever love him as much as I.