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The Weasley twins were up to something. This was no great surprise under normal circumstances, but it quickly became alarming when Draco realised that their focus was entirely on him. Ever since he had run into their compartment on the train, terrified by the soul sucking monsters in the halls, they had dedicated an unhealthy amount of time to following him around and whispering things to each other. Not only that, but they had begun taking notes of all things!
This strange behaviour had been maintained for the entire first week of classes and as Saturday closed in, Draco finally lost his patience. Sure, maybe he’d thrown a fit after that god forsaken hippogryph attempted to maul him, and perhaps he’d been a bit rude to certain other students, but there was nothing that should have earned him the level of intense, almost frightening, attention that the twins were paying to him. So, despite his better judgement, he left the great hall early after breakfast on Saturday, abandoning his two beloved ‘bodyguards’, intent on confronting the two Weasleys.
He found them sitting on one of the few immobile staircases in the school, grinning and chatting over their ridiculous notes. Their smiles only grew when they took notice of him, and one of them carefully gathered the stack of papers, putting them in a bag at his side. Draco snarled, his rage and strange sense of foreboding only growing at their nonchalant behaviour.
“What are you two weasels up to?” He growled as he finally came to a stop a couple of feet from them.
“What do you mean, Malfoy?” said the one he was tentatively labeling as ‘George’.
“What would possibly lead you to believe that we’re ‘up to’ anything?” followed ‘Fred’ smoothly.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you?” asked Draco, “You’ve been following me around, acting like bloody creeps. If you thought either of you had even an ounce of subtlety you are sadly mistaken. Of course I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much better from a pair of filthy blood traitors such as yourselves.”
They turned to grin at each other, and faster than Draco could counter, one of them hit him with a well placed Petrificus Totalus . Stunned, lying on the ground, Draco mentally berated himself for letting his guard down for even a moment. Fear began to take precedence as the twins approached, and he suddenly realized what a stupid mistake it had been to forgo bringing back-up, especially with his dominant arm still in a sling from the Hippogryph attack.
“What a sweet little ferret you are,” ‘Fred’ said, smiling from ear to ear.
“Why, you’ve done half of our job for us.” ‘George’ finished.
With that they began to cast some sort of spell. It was nothing like any spell Draco had ever heard or seen before and it seemed like it took them an eternity to cast it. Had he not been immobilized, Draco would’ve been quaking with terror. There was a sudden, blinding flash of soft blue light, and the spell was finished.
Draco blinked a couple of times, his brain hardly taking in that he was no longer frozen, his mind only slowly absorbing a warm, fuzzy feeling. A kind smile found its way to his lips, his past fear fading away. He got on his feet without noticing that the twins were entirely focused on him. He glanced at them, giving a startled little jump and gasp when he met their eyes.
Then he laughed.
“Oh you two!” He said with a grin, “You shouldn’t have startled me like that!”
He blinked at them with confusion as they suddenly cheered and high fived, but smiled anyway.
“Have you two had breakfast yet?” He asked, vaguely registering that he hadn’t seen them in the great hall that morning. “You really should keep your health in mind you know. You can’t possibly focus fully on your studies with an empty stomach!”
They gave him mirrored looks of confusion, but before they could protest, he was already starting to pull them back towards the food and student bloated hall.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Harry stared. He stared for a long time, well past what was socially acceptable, but really the entire Gryffindor table seemed to be quite keen on doing the same.
After all, it wasn’t every day that Draco Malfoy joined them at breakfast, worrying sweetly about their eating habits.
“Ronald! Don’t take such big bites- oh don’t give me that look! You might choke, and then what would we do? How would your friends feel if you got hurt?” he was saying, his voice both stern and full of worry.
“Well it’s not like I asked you, did I?” Ron snarled, whispering ‘bloody ferret’ under his breath.
However, his friend’s rage dwindled swiftly as Draco’s face flushed, his silver eyes filling with tears.
“There is no need to snap at me like that! I was only trying to h-help.” Draco was taking in big gulps of air, his one free hand balling into a fist as he obviously fought not to cry.
Before Ron could respond, Malfoy was exiting the great hall at a run, his face buried in his sleeve. He turned to look at Harry and Hermione with concern and a great deal of confusion, but received only shrugs and returned befuddled looks.
“Now look what you’ve done!” said Fred.
“Poor soul, he didn’t mean any harm!” George continued, and suddenly the whole table knew who was at fault for the strangeness of this morning.
“What did you do?” Hermione asked, a familiar glare fixed on her face.
“What makes you-” one twin began.
“Think we did anything?” finished the other.
Before her rant could begin, the twins had fled from the hall, grins plastered on their faces.
“This isn’t over!” Hermione yelled after them.
Harry returned to his food, deciding that he honestly didn’t want to know what had happened for once.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
As Harry and his friends were leaving the great hall, they were accosted by Crabbe and Goyle, who looked both puzzled and infuriated. Before any of the gryffindors really knew what was happening, Crabbe had taken hold of Ron and thrown him against a wall.
“What did you do?” Goyle was snarling from over his friends shoulder. Harry took a moment to feel well and truly confused before deciding it was time to take hold of the situation. He stepped forward, grabbing onto Crabbe’s shoulder and pulling him back.
“First off,” Harry started, “Get your hands off of Ron. Secondly, What exactly did we do to make you so mad?”
“Draco was crying.” Crabbe snarled, his face twisted in rage, “After your weasel here said something to him.”
Both of Draco’s body-guards looked infuriated, and now that Harry knew why, he couldn’t blame them. He couldn’t help but think of how he’d feel if Draco had somehow managed to upset Ron to the point where he’d run off in tears, and found he entirely understood their anger.
Taking a deep breath and steeling himself, Harry pushed the goons back and put himself between them and Ron.
“I know it looks bad,” Harry said, “But honestly we didn’t do anything. Draco’s been acting a little… off this morning. Maybe you should go talk to him instead of beating us up.”
By the looks on their faces, they honestly didn’t care what he had to say, and were more interested in getting vengeance for Malfoy than bothering to try and comfort him.
Goyle grabbed the front of Harry’s robes with a sneer.
“No, I think I’ll just-” Goyle was saying, when he was very suddenly cut off.
“Stop that right this instant!”
Mcgonagall stormed up to them, her robes billowing behind her as she approached.
“What, exactly, do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s their fault.” Goyle said plainly, “They…” he trailed off, his face suddenly wary.
“Yes?”
“They made Draco cry.” Crabbe said, his face twisted in outrage.
“Oh? Did they now?” Mcgonagall asked, “And where is Mr. Malfoy now?”
“Er,”
“Did you not think to go comfort your friend before you started throwing fists around?”
Eventually, she released them, but not without a stern talking to and some points deducted from the lot of them. Crabbe and Goyle skulked off and the rest of them headed to class.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Things remained slightly off kilter after that morning. As the week went on, Draco remained smiling and even more kind and doting than Mrs. Weasley while the twins continued having giggle fits. Everyone else was moderately confused but not all that concerned. When pranks were pulled by the twins, they always eventually wore off, so there was nothing to worry about. They might as well have a good laugh at Malfoy until whatever they’d done went away on its own.
However, as this strange behaviour went on into the second week, it stopped being quite so welcome. Fred and George had started to look a little concerned and the teachers had noticed Draco’s sudden and prolonged change of heart. Draco himself remained oblivious and downright pleasant, disconcerting the entire student body.
“Oh, my father is on a warpath and I don’t know if I can sway him.” he was heard saying one day, a little teary-eyed to boot, “That poor dear didn’t know what it was doing. You can’t expect a hippogryph to understand these things!”
On another morning, he began talking to Harry unexpectedly, “Harry! Do you really think that, well, that follower of You Know Who is after you? I was thinking there must be some way to convince him otherwise. Maybe sitting down for some tea and biscuits and talking it out might- hey, where are you going?”
“Oh no, I don’t think I’ll be on the quidditch team this year. There’s far too much violence in that sport! It’s awful.”
“Hmm. Do you think we might start a charity drive for Professor Lupin? His clothes are absolutely atrocious! If the poor man can’t afford new clothes on his salary, then Dumbledore should be ashamed!”
On and on, he talked about helping people and then went on to do so. It was unnerving, to say the least. People started to shoot him alarmed looks when they caught sight of him and promptly went out of their way to avoid him. Teachers were keeping a ridiculously close eye on him. Fred and George began to sweat nervously and flee when his name was brought up. In short, it was getting ridiculous. Harry took pains to avoid the entire situation.
Then the fat lady was attacked and everyone was distracted rather thoroughly by that. Not long after that was a quidditch match and they were absorbed in that whirlwind too. No one had the time to worry about how Malfoy was acting. After that though…
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
It was the weekend and Harry was trapped in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey didn’t want him out and about until she was sure that he was fully recovered. He had many, many visitors during his stay, trying to cheer him up. However, he hadn’t expected Draco to be among them. It was on Saturday evening that he appeared, a large chocolate bar in hand. Already feeling humiliated and tired from his run in with the dementors, Harry was in no mood to see his once rival. He scowled at Draco’s good nature, already imagining the awful things he might say.
“Here to mock me are you?” He hissed out once Draco was in range to hear it.
Draco frowned, perplexed, “No. I don’t know what would’ve given you that idea!”
Harry’s anger drained out of him as he was very quickly reminded that Draco had been caught, perhaps permanently, in a prank by the twins that left him entirely too good natured.
“Has someone come in here and said something rude to you?” Draco asked suddenly, keen eyes locked on Harry’s face. “I know some of my dorm-mates are...well, a bit hostile , you know?”
“No, no. I’m just feeling a bit off.” Harry said, sighing and putting his face in his hands. He didn’t want to inspire another one of those crying fits in his schoolmate after all.
Draco didn’t look convinced but soldiered on anyway, “In any case, I brought you a chocolate bar. I hear they help a lot after a dementor encounter.”
Harry growled in frustration but reached out one of his hands to take it, the other still covering his eyes. Draco didn’t hand it over just yet, something stern in his expression.
“Harry, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about! Dementors are terrible for anyone to be around. You can’t help your reaction to them. So what if you faint, that’s not your fault!”
He buried his face in his hands further, feeling his face going red. Draco frowned harder.
“Look, you’re not the only one who reacts to them strangely.”
“Oh yeah?” asked Harry, refusing to move.
“Yeah. You know, I reacted pretty badly on the train. I don’t know if the twins told you what happened or not but-”
Harry snorted, “They said you nearly wet yourself.”
“Oh. That was considerate of them.”
Harry finally looked up at him and hoped his expression showed how incredulous he was.
Draco sighed and put the chocolate bar in his palms before continuing. “I cried, you know. They couldn’t get me to stop until we’d nearly reached Hogwarts.”
“No way.”
Draco looked up at him and frowned, “I’m being very open with you right now. Don’t be rude.” He paused again and looked down at his tangled fingers. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, “Everyone has bad memories, Potter. Not all of them are just scary.”
He stood up to leave, “Anyway, I hope the chocolate helps and that you get well soon.”
Harry stared at the chocolate bar in his hands for a long time after that, unsure what to think.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
As it grew closer to Hogsmead weekend and Christmas break, the twins passed on a certain map to Harry. They seemed a bit preoccupied, really, Fred holding onto a large stack of books and the both of them having ink stains all over their hands. Harry was, of course, overjoyed about the gift and fully intended to use it. At the same time though, he was a little bit worried about them. They seemed stressed as of late and couldn’t seem to keep their tired eyes from drifting over to Malfoy, something like concern on their faces.
On the first day of Christmas break, after that disastrous trip to Hogsmeade, they went down to visit Hagrid. He was a miserable mess, as it turned out. Draco was there, having chosen to stay over break to spite his father, trying desperately to comfort the half giant. Harry felt like laughing at the irony. The cause for his misery was trying to console him- Malfoy, who had deliberately set out to get Buckbeak killed, was now his staunchest supporter.
Hagrid didn’t actually seem to mind and Draco was dedicated if nothing else. Harry wondered if he was imagining the wetness he spotted on Draco’s cheeks. In any case, he made an effort to ignore it. Eventually, they did manage to calm the groundskeeper down. Draco seemed oddly quiet and contemplative after that. Harry couldn’t tell if he was reading him right but he thought there might be guilt and maybe some sadness there. He left too quickly after that for Harry to investigate further.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
As soon as the twins stepped through the front doors of Hogwarts, they were accosted by Professor McGonagall. She took them to her office without exchanging niceties. Both of them were filled with nervous tension as they sat in the offered chairs in front of her desk.
“Fred and George Weasley,” she started, her voice heavy as if she were a judge getting ready to present a verdict, “Young Mr. Malfoy has had an alarming change in behavior, one that has obviously been caused by some sort of mind-altering magic. You two have been acting incredibly guilty.” She raised her eyebrows pointedly at them. “As of right now, there is no proof to be held against you, but if you have any idea what has happened to him, now would be the time to tell me or one of the other staff members. We are hoping to find a way to reverse the effects of the spell and any information could help.”
Fred looked at George before he swallowed, coming to a decision. George looked at him in alarm and tried to grab at him. Fred smacked his hand away and started talking quickly.
“It was only supposed to last a week.” he said.
“Fred!”
“George come off it! We can’t fix it and we both know it!”
“But-”
“We’ve looked up everything but there isn’t anything we can do on our own!”
“Fine.”
Fred looked back at the now visibly worried McGonagall, “We… we made a new sort of spell. We thought- we thought we had everything under control.”
“We decided to test it on Malfoy,” George added in, “It wasn’t supposed to last this long.”
McGonagall frowned sternly at them, her mouth opening, no doubt to deliver a lecture on safe practices with new magic and when it was or was not okay to test it, but Fred interrupted before she could start.
“It isn’t meant to do anything bad!”
“It was only supposed to make him more erm, nice-”
“Yeah, like a curse of kindness or something-”
“But only for a week!”
She frowned heavily at them but eventually sighed in resignation.
“Get up.” she said, “We need to go discuss this with the headmaster. You will tell him exactly what you did and what the spell you used was.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Later that day, Snape took Draco up into the headmaster’s office as well. Draco was unsure of what was going on or why he was under scrutiny but sat down when he was offered a chair anyway. Snape looked rather angry and kept shooting frustrated and angry glances at the headmaster and twins respectively. McGonagall, in contrast, gave off a calm air- far too used to dealing with Fred and George’s shenanigans and their consequences.
“Um,” Draco glanced around awkwardly, “What’s going on? Am I in trouble?”
“No, no,” said Dumbledore, looking straight at the twins, “You’re not the one in trouble here, Draco.”
“Oh, well then, I-”
“However,” the twinkly-eyed man interrupted, “We need your assistance here.”
“Okay…? What can I do for you then?”
Dumbledore smiled, “Just sit still for a moment.”
His wand arm shot out suddenly, hitting Draco with a strange spell that felt a bit like being poked in the face a few times in quick succession.
“Hm, that’s odd.” Dumbledore said, his brow furrowed. He was silent for a long moment after that.
“Professor…?” One of the twins eventually ventured.
“It appears,” he murmured, “That young Draco is not, in fact, under a mind altering spell.”
Everyone in the room chose that moment to take a good long stare at the Malfoy, whose face flushed. He hid his face in his hands.
Fred, gaping like a fish stuttered out, “H-How--?”
“He shows evidence of having been caught in a curse of some sort, but it wore off a couple of months ago.” Dumbledore said. “Care to explain mister Malfoy?”
Draco peeked out from between his fingers.
“I- ” he muttered something into his hands that they couldn’t here.
“We can’t hear you, Draco.” Minerva said carefully, looking at him as if he was suddenly an entirely new person.
“I said,” he lowered his hands carefully, the high points of his cheeks rosy, “I- I actually quite liked being nice.”
Dumbledore smiled. Snape’s scowl became a confused one. The room was quiet for a moment.
“Go on,” the headmaster urged him.
“W- well. I was under that spell, you know, for a month. I didn’t like it- it was terrible and I felt like I couldn’t control anything.” He glared a little at the twins although it seemed halfhearted at best, “But then… things were different, I guess. Everybody still thought I was under that spell and they- they were nice to me. And so, I was just nice back, and since everyone still thought, that it wasn’t- wasn’t me … they accepted me, in a weird way. I didn’t want to- to go back to how things were before. I dunno, I just felt a lot better I suppose.” He twiddled his thumbs awkwardly.
“So, what you’re saying is that Fred and George Weasley cast a mind-altering spell on you that wore off on its own, and it inspired a genuine change of heart in you.” the Headmaster summarized, still smiling.
“Well, uh, yes. Basically.” Draco said.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In the end, the twins were still punished. Regardless of whether their choices had ended with good results, they had still cast something of a curse on another student. Business at Hogwarts went on as usual, and the only ones who seemed to know that Draco was not still under the curse were the people who had been in Dumbledore’s office that day. For Draco, it was a relief, but for the twins… well, it got them quite a lot of dirty looks from the Slytherins.
end