Harry stomped down the hallway. Hermoine walked by his side silently. She knew about his bad mood. Then again, it was not unusual for Harry to be in a bad mood nowadays. It was like every day, the universe was trying to proof to him, yes, it can get worse.

Right now, Harry was just angry.

The detention with Ron had not gone how he had hoped it would. He had not spoken a word to Harry the whole two hours except for anything related to their task of pickling rat's brains. It had not been pleasant work. And doing it with the person who was supposed to be his best friend, but was angry because he thought Harry was an attention seeking prat, had crushed his mood even further.

Additionally, Rita Skeeter's article was published, which fuelled Ron's ridiculous mistrust towards Harry even more.

And there it was. The first mockery quotes of the article accompanying his walk. Many of them were carrying the Daily Prophet, reading it aloud when he passed them.

He could kind of understand the Hufflepuffs. The newspaper article was supposed to be about the participants of the Triwizard Tournament, but Cedric Diggory, the champion who was supposed to represent Hogwards on his own, had not even been mentioned. Instead, the article was revolving around Harry and wrong assumptions about his life and feelings. 

Harry could understand them, but that did not mean he was happy being the victim of their mockery.

Yet the Hufflepuffs were not even the worst. They were mostly just glaring at him.

The worst were, surprise, surprise, the Slytherins. He had passed a fair share of them today and the quoting and mocking was really making him itch to hex something into oblivion.

"You cry about your parents? Aww, how touching."

"What is it Potter? Gonna start crying now?"

Harry passed all of them without giving them a single glance. "Just ignore them, Harry." Hermione said quietly like that was not what Harry was trying to do the whole time.

"Stunningly pretty? Her?" They heard a familiar voice shrieking. "What was she judging against- a chipmunk?"

Harry internally groaned. Now Hermione was getting jabs. Rita Skeeter had depicted Hermione as Harry's girlfriend in the article. Which was of course not true. 

Parkinson, who had just insulted Hermione, also meant that Malfoy was not too far off. "Ignore it." Hermione reminded him in a dignified voice, holding her head in the air and stalking past the sniggering Slytherin girls as though she could not hear them. "Just ignore it, Harry."

He really wished he could take it just like Hermione, but the anger at Ron, Snape and Rita Skeeter on top was really shortening his temper, not that he had ever been anything but short tempered to begin with. However, it seemed like the whole world was constantly working to make him angry. And this annoying high-pitched voice quoting Skeeter's article and mocking his best friend was not helping.

Harry heard another voice and his head snapped up. Of course, he knew it. 

Malfoy stood in between a group of Slytherins, loudly reading the twisted life story that had been made out of Harry's 'er's. His cold grey eyes met Harry's and he smirked at him, stepping out of the crowd surrounding him.

"Ooh, Potter is in company of his oh so 'stunningly pretty Muggle-born' girlfriend." Malfoy mocked and his little crowd laughed.

"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry snapped and tried to pass them but Malfoy stepped into his way. In a faux-touching tone he began quoting the article, making huge gestures just to make every word seem more ridiculous than it already was.

"I suppose I get strength from my parents, I know they'd be proud of me if they could see me now... yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them..." He made sniffling noises, "I'm not ashamed to adm-"

"Why do you know the whole thing by heart?" Harry interrupted him when he noticed that Malfoy was not even reading but got every word right. Although Harry could not be sure. Even he himself did not know the words that exactly. "Are you that interested in me?"

Harry only realized what he said when he saw the pale skin of Malfoy's cheeks colour. It was supposed to be an insult, but this... was definitely interesting.

Malfoy glared at his Slytherin friends who started to snigger. "You wish." Malfoy hissed before he turned around and left, Crabbe and Goyle following obediently.

Harry looked after him. "What was that?"

Hermione shrugged. There was a thoughtful frown on her face but Harry could tell that after a few meters of walking, she shrugged it off. Harry tried, too, but he was intrigued. He could not figure out why Malfoy had reacted like this. He could have just laughed it off and continued to mock him. But he seemed embarrassed. Embarrassed that he knew the whole article after only a day of it being published.

Harry had never been able to make Malfoy... flustered. Not that he had ever striven for it but something about this made his stomach flutter with... something. Harry was confused. Not only with Malfoy, but also with himself.

He was so distracted that he did not even notice the glares from the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and the mockery from the Slytherins for the remainder of the way it took to the Gryffindor Tower. Entering it, the first thing Harry noticed was bright red hair.

Ron was sitting at a table near a window with Seamus and Dean, playing Wizard Chess against the former, although Dean seemed to give his best friend advice more often than not. Harry considered telling Ron about the weird incident with Malfoy, but then he remembered that he was not talking to him. The excited flutter in his stomach was replaced by a heavy chunk that was pulling at his mood again.

Hermione had tried to get Harry and Ron to talk on more than one occasion, but Harry insisted on Ron apologizing first and Ron insisted on being stubborn. Hermione was right though. He missed Ron. He missed the good time they could have and Hermione just could not replace that.

In addition to that, the first task of the Triwizard Tournament came closer, weighting down the chunk in the pit of his stomach even more. Hagrid showing him that the task was passing a dragon was nice, but it did not help his nerves. And then there was Sirius telling Harry about Death Eaters that might be involved.

The only thing that could sometimes lift the weight he was carrying around was when he thought about... Malfoy. It was weird. It was not like Harry was constantly thinking about him, but sometimes when he got distracted, he saw Malfoy in front of him, his cheeks a bit pink and for a moment thrown off and speechless. Harry came to the conclusion that he just got excited about it because he had been able to shut Malfoy up, to startle him into storming off from the fight... or more like Harry-mockery. Harry basically won the fight. He felt victorious. 

That was why it always lifted his spirits. And since then, Malfoy had not crossed paths with him, so that was a bonus too.

He should have known that Malfoy was not going to stay away forever though.

Hermione was helping Harry practice the summoning charm in an empty class room. Professor Moody had nudged him into the idea of summoning his broom so he could get past this Dragon flying. It seemed to be the only talent he possessed. Well, this and surviving attacks from one of the most dangerous wizards in history.

It was already late at night and they should have already been sleeping but the first task was already tomorrow and he still could not manage the Summoning charm perfectly. It was a little before midnight when they heard a weird noise that Harry thought was a giggle until the door opened and Draco Malfoy stumbled in backwards with a boy following. They both seemed to be in a good mood until they noticed Harry and Hermione standing there.

Suddenly, Malfoy and this other boy retracted their hands from each other and straightened up. Harry recognized the unknown boy as a Beauxbatons. He did not know him by name, he had just seen his face around since he was popular with the girls.

"Secret hideout for the night, eh?" Malfoy sneered.

"Could say the same for you." Hermione retorted. Harry's head snapped to her, before looking back at the boys in confusion. This was a weird statement for this situation. Harry frowned when he saw the boys exchanging a look and Malfoy's cheeks... They were a bit darker than usual. Just like a few days ago when Harry had asked him why he was so interested in his newspaper article.

But this time, it did not excite Harry. There was no flutter in his stomach. More like a sting. "I'm gonna tell Professor Snape that you're here." Malfoy said.

"But then he will know that you're out in the night too." Hermione's answer had an undertone that Harry could not quite figure out. It was like a threat, but all she said was a logical argument.

Malfoy looked like he was about to throw an insult or something when the Beauxbatons guy stepped in. "'ow about we go, and nobody will know about this, agreed?"

"Okay." Hemione said. The Beauxbatons boy took Malfoy's arm and pulled him out, breaking the glare battle that Harry and the blonde had going on.

"Good luck tomorrow, Potter." Malfoy said sarcastically with venom seeping through his every word before the classroom door closed.

"Wow, I would not have guessed that." Hermione said.

"What?" Harry frowned.

Hermione gave him a look like she was trying to figure something out. "You really don't know what was going on there?"

"What?" Harry did not understand what she was talking about.

Hermione let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like "Boys...". Then she shook her head. "Nevermind. Let's practice. We don't have much time."

They could only practice in the classroom for a short while though before Peeves turned up, pretending to think that Harry wanted things thrown at him and chucked chairs and other items in the room at him. Harry and Hermione fled before Filch could be attracted by the noise.

Back in the Gryffindor Tower, they continued practicing until Harry got the hang of it at around one o'clock in the morning.

The First Task on the next day made him forget about the incident of the night completely.

~