"Where are you going?" asked Ron, sitting on his bed as he and Harry watched Ben rummage through his trunk to get a hoodie in their almost empty dormitory.

"I already told you," he answered, not paying much attention. "I'm gonna go see Malfoy."

Harry almost jumped out of his bed. "Are you really? I thought you were kidding!"

"I wasn't," he said, closing the trunk. Suddenly, Boots emerged from nowhere, being chased at full speed by Snowflake. Ben stood up, placing his hands on his hips. "Snowie, what did I tell you this morning? You must stop scaring her off, you know she's really sensitive!"

Snowflake naturally ignored him.

"Ugh, kids these days..."

Ron cackled. "Ben, they're cats."

Ben ignored him too and went to sit on his bed for a second. He really didn't understand why, but there was a worrisome feeling in his stomach. Or maybe it was fear, he wasn't sure. But he was honestly grateful to Malfoy for all of this, because it was what kept him from thinking too much about what had happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts that morning.

"Are you sure you're going to go?" interrogated Ron.

"Do you want us to go with you?"

"I'm going to talk with Malfoy, not to war," the boy chuckled. "I'm not scared of him."

"What if his gang's there, too?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Then I'll use this," he took his wand from the bed, and headed to the door.

"Hold up," called Harry. Ben turned to face him, and was surprised to see his friend holding out his invisibility cloak. "Take this. If Filch catches you, you'll be in trouble."

"Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't he?" asked Ron, as Harry nodded.

"Well, it was your father's..." he remarked.

Harry smiled. "I know you're gonna be careful with it. And I don't want you to get detention for being outside past curfew."

"Thank you, Harry."

———————————————

The journey to the Astronomy Tower would've definitely been much worse if it wasn't for Harry's cloak. Ben didn't come across Filch as he made his way there, but he still felt much calmer and safer with it. After climbing up the seemingly endless staircase, he stopped at the last part of it, and caught a glimpse of Malfoy, pacing from left to right nervously.

When he arrived at the last step, Malfoy somehow felt his arrival, and turned to the staircase, face white. "Who's there?"

Ben snorted, pulling the cloak off before taking a couple of steps towards Malfoy, not wanting him to see it.

The Slytherin was visibly relieved to see Ben. "Thank Salazar it's you... You're late, by the way."

"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

Malfoy stared at Ben like he had completely lost his mind. "What are you on, Walker?"

"It's a Galdalf quote."

"Who's Gandalf?"

"Galdalf, from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings," he explained but, judging off by Malfoy's expression, he had no idea of what he was talking about. "It's a really good muggle book series."

Malfoy furrowed his eyebrows. "Perhaps you've forgotten, but I don't waste my time with pathetic muggle things."

"Yeah, okay," he deadpanned. "Did you make me come here to discuss your hobbies?"

"No," he stated. "I told you to come here because I know... things."

"Congratulations."

"Things about you," he said, gritting his teeth. Ben stiffed, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "More specifically things that you have said..."

"What did I say?"

Malfoy smirked at him. "Oh, I think you know..."

"Malfoy, please stop this dramatic airs and just tell me what you know."

"You see... Even though you and I are, luckily, not friends," he began, talking slowly. "My parents and yours are. And that means they communicate- Walker, stop looking at me like that, I'm already getting to the point."

"Okay, fine, sorry."

"Your father told mine that you've apparently come to your senses and realised you've been friends with bad influences for two years," he continued. Ben took a deep breath. "But I've observed you were clearly lying."

Ben didn't answer.

"You aren't even trying to hide it, Walker," Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "And I want to know why."

"Because I don't care if they eventually find out it's true," he stated simply. "I just needed some time."

"Time for what?"

Ben chuckled. "I'm not telling you."

"I knew you'd say that..." said Malfoy mysteriously, picking on his nails as though he was one of those hot villains in the fantasy books Ben read. "And that's why I told you I wanted to make a deal with you."

"Continue."

Malfoy smiled slightly. "I am willing to help you cover that lie so you can get enough time to do whatever you've got in mind."

Ben stared at him for a good amount of seconds, biting his lip in concentration. He didn't trust Malfoy. He never would, not after what happened when they were younger. But he knew Malfoy could ruin everything if he told his parents the truth.

"And what do you want in return?" he asked.

Malfoy was silent for an instant, before speaking. "I want you to owe me a favour."

"To owe you a favour?" repeated Ben.

"Mhm," he hummed. "Exactly."

"Which one?"

"No, no... Not a specific one, right now," explained Malfoy. "I just want to make sure you'll do me a favour in the future, if I need you to."

"Only one, right?"

"Only one."

It was risky, and Ben knew it. He didn't like the idea of owing Malfoy something, because there was a really high chance that the Slytherin would take advantage of that for something bad. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked up at Malfoy, whose eyes hadn't moved away from him.

"Okay."

———————————————

"You really are dumb, aren't you?" asked Ron, the next morning as they ate breakfast. "Do you not know Malfoy?"

"I assure you I know him more than all three of you," snapped Ben angrily.

"Then you shouldn't have done something as stupid as that!"

Harry cleared his throat. "Ron, would you mind to stop insulting him? He did what he thought was best."

"But Ron's right..." agreed Hermione. "It wasn't a very intelligent move, Ben, now he has power over you. Who knows what he'll make you do?"

Ben clenched his jaw. "Perhaps I should remind you that it was my decision to make, not yours. If you now think I'm an idiot for it, I really don't care, because I think it was worth a try."

He took a last sip from his orange juice and headed out of the Great Hall to go have a walk through the castle grounds, as he and his friends usually did on Saturdays.

He knew they had only done that because they were worried about him, but he had already spent all night overthinking what happened, and he was sure he had made the correct decision, and he didn't like being treated like a stupid clueless baby who couldn't take care of himself.

Someone suddenly grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the way.

Ben turned to see Thomas, still holding him, eyes wide open in surprise. "You nearly crashed into that."

There was a column right in front of him. Ben had been really deep in thought, because didn't remember when he had arrived outside, but he was incredibly grateful Thomas was walking around there, too.

"Sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

Thomas eyed him in curiosity. "Is everything okay?"

"Yep," he answered. "All normal."

"Is crashing into stuff something you usually do, then?" joked Thomas.

Ben snorted. "Only on weekends."

"Interesting hobby," commented Thomas sarcastically. "I personally prefer writing, though."

"You like writing?" exclaimed Ben in surprise. Thomas nodded quickly. "That's great! Have you ever finished something?"

"Well, I've always wanted to make a comic. You know, I have the whole idea written down, but I don't know how to draw. I'm awful at it."

"I like drawing... I don't know if I'd be considered a good drawer or not, but I could try to help you, if you want me to?"

"That'd be awesome!" beamed the younger boy in excitement.

"Are you doing something this morning?"

Thomas shook his head. "Leah wanted to practise for the Quidditch trials, and I don't like Quidditch, so I don't have any plans today."

"Would you like to go to the library, then?" suggested Ben. "So I can show you some of the drawings."

"Yeah sure," agreed Thomas. "I need to go to get my notebook from my dorm, so we can meet at the library in half an hour?"

"Alright!"

When he arrived at the Gryffindor tower, the common room was filled with students doing homework, hanging out or playing board games. Fred and George were planning something, probably a joke, at a corner of the room. Neville, Seamus, Dean and Ron were having a game of exploding snap. Hermione was reading a huge book as she stroked Crookshanks between his ears. And he didn't see Harry anywhere.

Ben walked past all of them, rushing upstairs, wondering why Harry wasn't there, playing with his friends, and entered the dorm. The raven-haired boy was sitting on the floor with his back to the door, tickling Boots, who laid face up on the floor, her eyes closed.

"She loves you more than she owns her own mother, such a traitor..."

Harry spun around to face him. "Wasn't her mother... you know, dead?"

"I meant me," said Ben, walking up to his trunk. Harry chuckled, and the blond stopped being in a bad mood. Snowflake jumped into his trunk as soon as Ben opened it. "Snowie, get out of here."

"I'm glad you adopted them," commented Harry, smiling at Boots as she purred.

"I couldn't leave them out there, on the street," he replied silently, holding Snowflake carefully to take her out of the trunk and place her on his bed. "There's way too many dangers."

After that, there was silence. The only things you could hear were chats from downstairs, Boots' purring, and Ben rumbling between his things.

"Ben, I'm sorry for what happened before," began Harry. "Ron and Hermione didn't mean to offend you. They're just worried that Malfoy will find a way to hurt you, and they don't understand why you wanted to make a deal with him."

"I didn't want to make a deal with him, Harry. I don't want anything to do with him, but I needed to do it. If he tells my parents that I'm still friends with you..." he stopped, turning to meet Harry's green eyes. "It was what I had to do."

"If you think you made the right choice, then you did," he said in a hushed tone. "I'm with you."

"Thank you, Harry."

Harry smiled at him, and watched as Ben took out a rather big folder and closed his trunk. "Are those your paintings?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I'm meeting Thomas at the library and-"

Harry frowned. "Who's Thomas?"

"Remember that Slytherin boy we met on September first? He was with a Ravenclaw girl called Leah."

"Oh, yes, I remember them," said Harry thoughtfully.

"So, he likes writing, and he always wanted to make a comic, but he doesn't know how to draw, so I'm going to help him a bit with it."

"Cool," said Harry.

"Cool," repeated Ben, mocking his serious tone.

Harry chuckled.

"Anyways, I'd better go or I'll be late. Bye!" Ben ran out of the dorm, glad to know at least Harry wasn't mad at him.

———————————————

After spending around ten minutes complimenting Ben's drawing, Thomas told him all about his idea. The library was rather silent that morning, due to the fact that September was almost over, and sunny days would soon turn into darker and colder ones, so people wanted to take advantage of the good weather.

"Okay, so you said the main character is..." Ben looked down at the piece of parchment in which they had written the characters' names. "Madame Beaumont."

"Yeah, it means-"

"Beautiful mountain, I know."

Thomas raised his eyebrows. "How?"

"My father was born in France," Ben began tangling with his quill. "That's why he's called Sébastian."

"That's cool."

Ben shrugged. "Well, Madame Beaumont is a young woman whose dream has always been to be a detective. Whenever she tries to get a job at a police agency, she gets turned down because she has no experience yet, and it's like an endless loop. After a long time, she's finally accepted in one, and gets a job as a secretary, but they don't give her opportunities to do anything interesting. Until one day, her boss, an unbearable big shot, is found dead in his offi-"

"Hey, Walker!"

Theodore Nott was standing in front of them, leaned towards them, hands on their table.

"Hey."

Thomas was suddenly really interested in reading his own characters' names.

The older Slytherin glanced at him before looking back at Ben. "Do you remember what our DADA homework was?"

"We had to read the Boggarts chapter, and make a summary. We have to hand it in on Monday."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, thanks Walker, bye!" He made an exaggerated bow. "Goodbye to you, too, Stonem."

Thomas almost looked scared at his mention, but managed to utter a weak "Bye!"

There was a slightly awkward silence after that, until Ben broke it. "I'm going to draw a sketch of Madame Beaumont based on all the descriptions you gave me. And when you're happy with it, we can do it with more characters."

And so they did. 

A/N: two chapters left and i'll be done with rewriting!