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Returning to Sanity	By : AchillesTheGeek Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31212 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or films, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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23 Return Of The Slytherins
Monday, 25 May 1998
At dinner the previous night, Arthur had invited both Harry and Draco to come to the ministry to talk further about the issues that had been raised. Having been given special permission to enter directly into the Ministry's Secretariat, the two young men Flooed in to Arthur's office just before eight. Arthur greeted them both warmly, and plied them with coffee and pastries.
Harry had eaten a croissant, and Draco was on his third pain au chocolat, when Kingsley arrived and joined them. His eyes twinkled as he watched Draco finishing off the pastry; and he only just managed to stop himself from laughter as the blond hunted around for another one, before, with a pout, accepting that they were all gone.
"Try one of these," he said, passing over a plate of pastry escargots. Draco's eyes lit up happily; he took two. At this, Kingsley did laugh.
"Now, gentlemen," he said, his voice rich with good humour, "I have some things that I would like to discuss with Harry, and Arthur has a matter to bring up that specifically concerns Draco; so we thought we might separate, then let you compare notes privately if you wish to."
"I appreciate that, Kingsley," Harry said, "but after Arthur's little chat yesterday morning, I don't want to keep secrets from Draco."
"No, it's all right, Harry," the blond reassured him. "This way, we can hear what they have to say, and share it when we're ready."
"If you're OK, then," Harry said, sounding uncertain.
"Yes, go and talk to Kingsley," Draco said, putting on his bravest voice. But it was an act; even brazenly referring to the Minister by his Christian name was part of trying to reclaim the old Malfoy persona, the one in which it was perfectly natural to address the Minister of Magic by his first name. If Kingsley suspected anything, he didn't let on; he just ushered Harry out into his office.

Arthur cleared his throat.
"I want to start by reiterating what I said yesterday: I hope we can be friends. It's obvious that you and Harry are in love, but I suspect he's still hanging back a bit, isn't he?"
Draco was stunned. What did he say to that? And suddenly he got the point: if Arthur Weasley was his friend, everything was going to be open between them. They were going to talk about anything and everything; if he wanted it, he realised, he had a replacement for Severus, the one he had always been able to go to about everything.
Did he want to? Draco decided that he did. And if Arthur trusted him and Harry so much, it was only right to trust him back.
"Yes," he said, "he's very concerned about the Dursleys. He started telling me about them yesterday after you'd gone. He told me about the warrant, and the injunction; but he couldn't go any further."
"I'm glad to hear he's gone that far," Arthur confessed. "Draco, it's huge that he's talking at all; do you think he will tell you more?"
"As you said, he's hanging back: I certainly hope that we can get closer and then, maybe. But I've told him it's up to him to talk about when he's ready."
Arthur smiled. "Good for you. The last thing Harry needs is someone else trying to force him to talk. That's never worked for anyone."
"People have tried?" Draco said, appalled at the thought.
"Oh, of course," Arthur replied. "Out of love for him, I assure you. Certainly Molly, Hermione and Ginny. And Harry has blocked them all out. So I hope for his sake he does open up to you. And for your sake, too."
"For my sake?" Draco asked.
'Yes, you won't have much of a relationship together if you can't talk about the past. Which does demand the question, how open are you to talking about your past?"
"Hmm…" Draco mused. "To Harry, you mean?"
"Yes, of course. I mean, you're welcome to talk to me about it if you want, but I don't need to know it; and I think Harry probably does."
"I suppose I should think about that," Draco replied, not sure what to say, or even, if he was honest, what there was to say to Harry.
"Do," Arthur encouraged him. "Remember, he grew up with Muggles, everything about your childhood will be news to him. Now," he continued, with a radical change of subject, "Hogwarts begins on the first of July; have you given much thought to that?"
"I have discussed subjects with my parents," Draco began, but Arthur waved that away.
"Yes of course, and that's not really my business; I was more wanting to talk to you about your fellow Slytherin students. You see, apart from the Memorial, you've been pretty much sequestered away, but once school starts again you'll have the student body to deal with. We need to be careful about your safety, and know who will help you and who to be wary of."
Draco looked at him, taking a few seconds to run through the Slytherins in his mind. Theo, he knew, was in Azkaban; Vince was dead; that left Pansy, Greg, Millicent and Blaise. And himself, of course.
Arthur watched him; seeing that the younger man was lost in thought, he just let him take his time. Draco appreciated this very much; but then, realising that he was wasting the time of the Deputy Minister of Magic and not daring to do so further, he nodded to invite Arthur to continue.
"At the present time, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode have all indicated that they will return to Hogwarts, while Gregory Goyle has applied for and been accepted into Durmstrang. I know that Greg, Vince and you were always together -"
"Yeah, they were kind of my bodyguards," Draco admitted, wanting to make it clear that there was no other kind of relationship between them.
"Yes, that's what I heard," Arthur said, equably. "But I'm afraid you won't have them this year."
"But I will have Blaise –" Draco continued, thinking out loud about the accommodation; and suddenly remembered, "we aren't in dormitories, right? Who would be in our Tower?"
"Well of course that's really for the Headmistress to decide. I understand that the sexes will be segregated." At this point Arthur consulted a piece of parchment on his desk, and continued, "among the men there are five Gryffindors returning: Harry, Ron, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan; two Hufflepuffs: Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley; three Ravenclaws: Terry Boot, Michael Corner, and Anthony Goldstein; and of course you and Blaise from Slytherin. From the Ministry's point of view it would be ideal to put the Gryffindors with the two Slytherins in one tower; you know, promoting unity between former enemies, that sort of line. Do you think that would work?"
Draco thought about this for a good few seconds. If he'd been asked before the Battle of Hogwarts, there would have been no question: it would have been a recipe for disaster. But they were older and (he hoped!) wiser now, and he was already getting on well with Ron, Neville and Dean; and Seamus had shaken his hand. Harry and he, of course, were getting on better than well. No, overall he had no problem with the idea of sharing with the Gryffindors.
"I think those five all accept me, and we should get on," he said; "so we just have to make sure they'll be OK with Blaise."
"Good," said Arthur. "Ron said as much to me before he left; and he said he'd be happy to share a room with Blaise, assuming that you and Harry want to share." Arthur looked up and smiled at him; Draco knew he didn't have to answer, which was just as well as his voice would probably have failed him. He was finding this interview both incredibly painful – he wasn't used to such open discussion of matter so close to people's hearts; and amazingly freeing – there was not a hint of judgement in anything Arthur had said, he felt nothing but a warm, friendly acceptance from the man.
"As far as the girls are concerned," Arthur continued, "we're rather under-represented; the Patils will not be returning, so there's only Hermione from Gryffindor, and two from each of the other houses: Hufflepuffs Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, Ravenclaws Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin, and as we've already said, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode from Slytherin. Now, of course, all the details will be organised by Hogwarts; the real concerns I have, and the reason for sounding you out just now, are twofold."
Here it comes, thought Draco. He was sure there was a point here somewhere, and the Deputy Minister seemed at last to be coming to it.
"Firstly, as the Deputy Minister, it's very important that we make this work. As I've said, we need to worry about your safety. If there are people that might cause trouble, we need to know about it now, so we can monitor the situation appropriately. There's still a large part of the wizarding world that would dearly love to lock you and your father in Azkaban and leave you to rot, and we need to make sure that any antipathies at Hogwarts are dealt with swiftly. I don't imagine you'll be foolish enough to seek out trouble?"
"No sir," Draco agreed.
"Arthur, not sir, please! But, yes. So we'll need to keep the peace more on the other side. Smith isn't coming back; in fact, no-one knows exactly where he is. Hogwarts sent him an owl, and it appears that he received it; at least, word was sent back saying that he didn't want anything to do with any of us. So long as he stays out of society, that is his right, I suppose, and shouldn't pose a problem. Do you imagine you'll have any problems from anyone else?"
"Pansy and Millicent might be difficult," Draco admitted. "I mean, I've always rubbed along with the Ravenclaws, and pretty much ignored the Hufflepuffs as much as possible, and I can't see why that would change; they didn't really trust me or befriend me before, but we lived together without any real incident. But the Slytherin girls, I doubt they'll still trust me."
"Hmm. We'll have to work on that, obviously. I'll have a word with Susan Bones, and Hermione when they get back. All right. The second concern I have is parental; I'm pretty much Harry's father, you're pretty much his boyfriend, so I'm very concerned personally for you both. Do you think you will get married?"
Merlin! Draco thought. When he does get to the point, he comes straight out with it! But one doesn't say such things to the Deputy Minister. On the other hand, what could he say? Be daring, he decided. Tell the truth. "I certainly hope so," he said, looking straight at the Weasley.
Arthur returned his gaze steadily, searching for something. Assurance, perhaps? Whatever it was, he must have found it; for he smiled at Draco and said simply, "then I want you to know that you have my full support, Draco. Any way in which I can be of service to you, I will."
Draco was astonished, embarrassed, and delighted, all at once. "Thank you," he said, his eyes shining, and Arthur's heart lept for joy within him to think that Harry had this young man to help him. Returning to Hogwarts was going to be tough, he knew that; for the moment, they could hide away in Grimmauld Place if they wanted to, but come July that would be gone. He was glad they were both helping with the reconstruction; it meant their full re-emergence into wizarding society was being done in slow stages, which he had been quite sure Harry needed for some time, and now saw plainly that Draco did as well.

Kingsley discussed with Harry the precautions that were being put in place in view of the threat posed by Yaxley. He wanted to know what Harry's plans were, particularly in view of the threat to Draco.
"I don't really have plans," Harry admitted, a bit shamefacedly. "For the last couple of weekdays, we've been working at Grimmauld in the morning and Hogwarts in the afternoon; I guess we'll keep to that. The weekend was exceptional, of course; we visited Malfoy Manor on Saturday and the Burrow for the party and the farewell yesterday. I guess we'll be doing that a bit, I mean, visiting those two places, but I don't really have anything more concrete, sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Kingsley admonished him. "In fact, we need to be careful that it's so structured." Harry looked puzzled at this, so Kingsley elaborated. "Anything predictable is dangerous, Harry. If Yaxley wants to take you or Draco, he'll want to plan it ahead, so he'll have to rely on you reliably being somewhere. If we can guard those times we know about, you can do all the extra things you want, with Auror presence still I'm afraid."
"So, anything predictable is a problem?" Harry asked.
"Yes," the minister answered. "Why, does that make you think of something?"
"Yes," Harry answered, and discussed his thoughts at some length with the minister.
"Well," said Kingsley eventually, "I guess we have a plan then. Now, there's one other thing we need to discuss."
Harry didn't like the way this was said: Kingsley's tone made it clear this was something he thought Harry wouldn't like. He was right. "How would you feel about giving an interview to the Daily Prophet?" Kingsley asked him.
"I'd rather gnaw my own arm off," Harry replied. And then it struck him that this was an unfortunate turn of phrase as he remembered the curses fired at Draco and him at the Memorial service, and Theo Nott losing an arm …
"Kingsley," he asked, off in his thoughts, "is there any chance that Nott was innocent?"
"Hmm. Well, the Wizengamot found him guilty; but they could be wrong I suppose. It was treated as an open-and-shut case, there was no question that he fired the Sectumsepra spell; though we're not sure who fired the other two yet, we do have some leads that I can assure you are being followed up."
"Yes," Harry said, a little impatiently; he was sure the Ministry was doing its job with Kingsley at the helm, "but a Stupefy and a Confringo are less important than Sectumsempra. It's almost like someone was trying to divert attention from Nott's spell, using lesser ones fired first; but there wasn't quite enough of a gap for that to work. But if Yaxley was involved even at that early stage, is there any chance that Nott was under an Imperius curse?"
"The point was considered, but pretty much rejected; there were all too many wizards walked free after Voldemort's first defeat because they claimed they had been Imperiused, and then proved they were on his side in the second; so the Wizengamot is much less likely to accept a claim of Imperio than they were before. Do you want me to look into it?"
"Please," Harry said. "Draco has so few friends, if there's any chance of getting Theo back, it would be worth it."
"All right. But you're going to have to help me with an interview," Kingsley said, a little smugly.
"OK," Harry groaned. "What is it going to be about?"
"Oh, I'm sure Rita Skeeter will want to renew her 'special empathy' with you," Kingsley said, having the grace to blush slightly. Not that it was easy to tell on his dark skin. "But what we want is to get the message of the Potter Code out. No, you don't have to say anything technical," he said, reassuringly, as Harry looked a bit frightened, "you just have to get the message out about all working together. It's been done a bit, but we need to keep it in the public mind as long as we can. We've got quite a bit of legislation to get through, undoing all the nonsense about Muggleborn registration and so on, …"
"Is that still there?" Harry gasped, shocked at the thought.
"It's still law, we've just suspended it pending a hearing. And Umbridge's trial. Which, by the way, is currently scheduled for this coming Wednesday, the twenty-seventh of May."
"Do I have to worry about that?" Harry asked. He wasn't very interested; as long as she got what was coming to her, he didn't really want to know about Dolores Umbridge.
"I'm afraid you might. She has engaged counsel; unheard of in Wizarding circles, but that made it hard to prohibit. We're afraid she's going to pull out all the stops for sympathy and cast herself on the 'second chance' idea of the Potter Code. She may well call you as a witness; and if she doesn't, I suspect you'll get called in to advise anyway. So, keep it in mind. But, in the meantime, we've thought out some things we would like you to say to Ms Skeeter."
With this, Kingsley handed Harry a parchment. There were sample questions and suggested answers on it, together with a list of 'Points We Would Like to Put Across'. Harry was very apprehensive about this idea, remembering when Scrimgeour had tried to get him to be a mascot for the Ministry; surely Kingsley wasn't going to try to use him the same way, to peddle the Ministry line? But he found that practically everything on the parchment was taken from his own words, and was very surprised that it seemed to come to quite a coherent whole.
Kingsley watched him as he read. What was Harry thinking? His body language had been uptight to begin with, fair enough, the damned interview had been sprung on him with no warning, and now he'd been bullied into it as his half of a bargain; but as he read, Kingsley could see him relaxing. Doge's nephew had done a really first-class job of taking Harry's statements and turning them into a Code; and it was clear that Harry thought so too. Not that he knew about Aloysius Doge's involvement; but there was no need to mention that. The man himself had said he was a back-room boy; merely 'taking the rough gems of others and giving them a careful cut and polish to bring out their true inner beauty', he had said, demonstrating perfectly the skill of finding exactly the right phrases that made him such an expert at his job.
"This is really good," Harry said at last. "Why don't you just publish it?"
"We will," Kingsley answered. "But after you've said it, or most of it. I'm sorry, Harry, but you are 'the Saviour' and at the moment we can use that to get things done. I'm hoping when you get back to Hogwarts we can close that all down, at least for a while, but until then, you will find yourself in the paper every other day. We are trying very hard to keep them away from you, believe me; the Prophet has been told in no uncertain terms that if you allege harassment they're in deep trouble; and they haven't got at you, have they?"
Harry thought back to that Veronica or Virginia or whatever her name was who had come up to him at the Lupins' funeral; that was about it, he realised.
"No, I can't say I have."
"Quite. But there's a danger that you'll be seen as dropping out of society, and then you'll become a curiosity again. This interview should give you a chance to put your views across, to be seen back in Wizarding society, but on your terms. OK?"
"All right, Kingsley, I'll get my head around this lot and do the interview. Did you have a time and place set up yet?"
"No, we'll get onto that now. I suggest at the Ministry; best not to give them any chance to get to anywhere you actually like to frequent. How about I try to line it up for Thursday? That way it will come out after Umbridge's trial and hopefully negate any publicity or sympathy she might drum up"
At this point, Kingsley's secretary came in, to suggest that it was time for morning tea. "Thank you, Lucinda," Kingsley answered, "excellent timing, we're finished here; are Arthur and Draco done?"
"Yes, Minister."

After the Minister and his Deputy had filled them with tea, and cream cakes, of which Harry had eaten one cake and one bite and Draco three cakes less one bite, they Flooed back to Grimmauld Place.
As they left the Floo, Pig shrieked at them, and they found that he was sharing his perch with an intruder; a huge eagle owl sat there, preening his feathers and disdainfully ignoring the other bird.
"Ozymandius!" Draco exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
The owl looked at him, a look of recognition, and held out its claw. There was a letter attached, which Draco removed; then, seeing the addressee, handed it to Harry as he remarked, "it's from mother. It must be in reply to your owl of yesterday. Which reminds me …"
Harry opened the letter as Draco sat at the desk, pulling out parchment and quill.
Dear Harry, he read,
Thank you so much for your kind letter. It was our very great pleasure to have you to lunch. I am delighted that you and Draco are together. I can see that you are very good to him, and sense that you are very good for him.
As for having the two of you regularly, I can only say that I am stunned at your generosity and grace in suggesting such a thing and seeking to include us when you could so easily shut us out. I have discussed matters with Molly Weasley; she will expect you both to dinner on Saturdays, and we will expect you to Sunday lunch. Of course, you must let us know if this arrangement is inconvenient for any reason. Please send confirmation back with Ozymandias.
In the other matter, I need only say that you have my full support.
With my very grateful thanks,
And love,
Narcissa Malfoy.
By the time he had finished reading, Draco had finished writing his own letter, and hunted for an envelope for it. "What does she say?" he asked.
Harry smiled. "She wants us to come to lunch on Sunday," he answered, handing the letter to Draco to read as he sat down to write a reply. "I take it you're happy with that?"
"Oh yes," Draco said, a little absently as he had started to read, "that is, if you are?"
"Course," said Harry. His reply was short; he had finished writing and, much to Pig's relief, sent the imposing eagle owl off before Draco finished reading. The blond looked at him with arched eyebrows, his heart racing, and he sent his letter off with Pig to buy a little time to calm himself down.
"You asked if we could come regularly?" he said, stunned in his turn for such a thing.
"Yeah, um, sorry, I guess I should have asked you first, um, whether you would be OK with it, or, …"
"Harry!" Draco said, interrupting the awkward babble that his lover was coming out with. "It's incredibly kind of you, and I couldn't be happier."
He was so delighted that he decided against asking what his mother meant by 'the other matter'; he trusted Harry to tell him in good time. They spent the rest of the morning comparing notes on the different conversations they had had. Draco decided against talking about the past, his or Harry's, at all yet; that could come up as it did. So he concentrated on all that Arthur had said about Hogwarts and the Ministry's hopes for co-operation. Harry agreed that it was going to be very important to make Blaise work in with the Gryffindors; he was overjoyed to hear that Draco would have at least one friend-from-before-the-War at Hogwarts.
Draco, for his part, was extremely grateful to Harry for bringing up Theo, even if he did have to give an interview to the poisonous Skeeter woman. And he was of course very interested, and concerned, about everything that had been discussed about Yaxley. He quite agreed with Harry about the most probable target; and, as Harry had expected, fell in with Harry and Kingsley's plans to make it what they called a 'honey-pot trap': irresistable to Yaxley. Well, they hoped so. It was a dangerous game, he knew; but then, so was doing nothing at all. They couldn't live their lives in fear of the man forever.
Like Harry, Draco was very impressed at the quality of the notes he had been given.
"I wonder who did these," he asked.
"Kingsley wouldn't say." Harry answered.
"That nearly always means it's someone's brother or cousin or nephew or niece or something like that," Draco replied.
Harry laughed. He was much happier after the morning's talk. Draco wondered why; but Harry answered the unspoken question by saying, "it doesn't matter. At least we have some things to do!"
It was a Lumos moment for Draco. Harry always likes to have something to do, he realised. Very good; that would be a task for him, then, to keep Harry happily busy.
And the present task, he realised, awaited them at Hogwarts. Kreacher had told them that Flitwick had called in the morning, a bit put out that they hadn't been there, though happy enough when he was told they'd gone to the Ministry. Apparently there was now a Floo established in the Great Hall, for helpers to use, so that they could relieve the pressure on the Hogsmeade apparition points and the Headmistress's Floo connection. Flitwick had asked if they would come for lunch, and said that they were welcome to do so whenever they wished; and of course, dinner was available too on any day they cared to stay for it.
So Harry and Draco Flooed to Hogwarts Castle, as they had been bidden. It was very strange to emerge into the Great Hall; as they did so, Flitwick saw them and bustled up to them.
"Very good, very good! Now, Mr Malfoy, I have a little surprise for you!"
And saying this, the Professor led them over to the table, where Draco had already seen a new helper sitting. He was overjoyed to have a fellow Slytherin at last; Blaise Zabini had joined the team.

Draco was a little hesitant at first; he had not been in touch with Blaise since they had met in the Three Broomsticks. But Blaise jumped up from the table and ran over to him, saying "caro amico!" as he so often did, and wrapping him in a huge hug. Just as it was beginning to feel uncomfortable, Blaise let go; then he looked at Draco and Harry critically. Apparently he liked what he saw; he smiled at them knowingly. "I think maybe what you only hoped when we met a week ago has happened, yes?" he said. "And still you keep it out of the Prophet!"
A week? Draco thought to himself; but, yes, it had only been a week. It's just that so much had happened! "Yes," he replied softly, "it's not common knowledge yet; I think Arthur Weasley had quite a bit to do with that."
"Arthur?" Blaise asked, confused, "isn't it Ron who is Harry's friend? Oh, hang on – Arthur is Papa Weasley, yes?"
"Yes," Harry replied, laughing at the thought of describing Arthur as 'Papa', "and also, just co-incidentally, the Deputy Minister for Magic."
Blaise looked suitably impressed. "Of course! I had not gathered they were the same person," he admitted, chagrin in his voice. Draco was not surprised to hear it; Blaise had always liked to be well up on the gossip.
"Let's eat as we talk," Draco suggested; and the three of them joined Neville, who had been chatting to Blaise before Harry and Draco had arrived.
"Neville! Alone today?" Harry asked.
"Draco, Harry," Neville said, saluting them with his water-glass as they sat down, Blaise next to Neville and the two lovers side by side on the low bench running the length of the table. "Dean and Seamus are minding the shop as the twins have gone to visit a colleague in Ireland who wanted to show them some ideas suggested by Leprechaun tricks. Did you enjoy the weekend? Certainly looked like you were having fun on a broomstick yesterday, Draco!"
The blond smiled at the memory. "I'd thought I'd never get to play Quidditch again," Draco confessed, "and Harry even let me be Seeker."
Neville smiled at the love-struck expressions on both Draco and Harry's faces. George had told him about Operation Happy Harry, and he had agreed to keep it up; but right now, Draco was doing his job for him. Well, he decided, we'll have to start Operation Delighted Draco as well, if that makes Harry happy. "We'll have to see if we can line up a game some afternoon here," he said.
"Really?" Draco asked, his excitement obvious. "But won't Flitwick mind if we take time out?"
"I'm not a slave-driver!" exclaimed the Professor, who was sitting on a stool at the end of the table and had heard most of the conversation. Longbottom laughed, and added, "you two have been busy all afternoon 'cos you've been cloistered away, but as often as not the rest of us stop after four o'clock and just horse around."
"Yes of course, it was remiss of me not to tell you," the Professor chipped in, "but then, your work was so exceptional on the first day it seemed a shame to stop you on the second. You are quite welcome to come and socialise. We haven't had many good Quidditch players, so we've tended to play Shuntbumps instead."
"Shuntbumps?" Harry asked.
"It's a very old game," Draco said. "Basically, all the players are on brooms and they try to knock the opponents off using the handle of their own broom. The last player flying wins."
"And," Neville continued, "Professor Flitwick likes to play it because he wins every time! Everyone assumes he's going to be a pushover, being so small, but that gives him a lot of leverage, which is a bigger advantage than brawn, it turns out."
"It's not kind of you to give away my secrets, Mr Longbottom!" Flitwick twittered, but the smile on his face belied the scolding in his words. "Still, never mind, we can certainly look into playing Quidditch; the pitch is quite serviceable now. Though perhaps we could wait until Friday; if the work is well-progressed we could give the whole afternoon over to a game."
There was a general murmur of excited agreement with this, and several people sprang up, saying, "best get to work, then," and it occurred to Draco that perhaps Flitwick was a better politician than he had been given credit for – he had certainly manipulated his workers magnificently. Flitwick answered his thoughts by grinning at him and saying, "you have to learn how to motivate people when you're a teacher, Mr Malfoy – and to read what they are thinking, too!" Draco turned red at this.
The Floo suddenly sprang to life, and Flitwick beamed. "Ah!" he said, "I think we have some more friends for you, Mr Malfoy!" And, as he said it, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode came through the Floo and walked to the table.
Draco's heart was in his mouth. Arthur had wanted to set this up slowly, but Flitwick obviously had other ideas: Draco could only hope he'd got it right. He and Harry turned around, sitting the other way round on the bench so as to face the two girls, as Pansy came right up to him, with Millicent hanging a couple of paces behind.
"I'm sorry, Draco," she said, as she extended her hand to him. "I blew you away, you didn't deserve that. I'm glad you're not in Azkaban and I hope we can stay friends for this year. God knows we'll both need friends. Pax?"
Draco looked at her carefully. He had spent years watching Pansy, he knew how she worked, and he could see that this was a genuine change of heart. She had used the schoolyard word to ask for peace, and she meant it. He grinned, and grabbed her hand.
As he did so, Millie came up and saluted him in her gruff way, and his concerns from the morning evaporated. The Slytherins, it seemed, were going to stick together.
"OK, Pans, Millie. There's just one thing, though."
"Potter?" Pansy asked, cocking her head and looking at Harry, taking in for the first time that he and Draco were sitting very close together.
"Yes, Harry, and the other Gryffindors. We're going to have to work together with all of them."
"Harry? Really?" Pansy asked, disdain creeping into his voice.
"Yes, Pansy," the raven-head answered, standing up and extending a hand. She looked at him as though he was mad; then, seeing the glower on Draco's face, thought better of the insult that was forming on her lips.
"I suppose so," she said, shaking the hand. It was roughly done, without grace; but it was definitely a start.
"And the other Gryffindors," Draco repeated.
Pansy pulled a face, at which Neville stood up. "Pansy," he said, "we fought on opposite sides last year; but you're both right. You need friends; we have to work together. So, as you said, Pax?" he said, holding out his hands across the table to both Slytherin girls.
Pansy stared at him, not quite believing he could be serious. But Neville stared back, holding his ground, his hand not wavering. After several long seconds, Pansy made her choice.
"All right," she said, reaching over to shake Neville's hand. Millie, silently, did likewise.
Professor Flitwick grinned. "Now," he said, "to work! I would like to keep Mr Malfoy and Mr Potter together if you don't mind, since their work has been so exemplary; do you think you and Mr Zabini could work together, Mr Longbottom?"
"I'm sure that would be fine, Professor," Neville agreed happily.
"Very good! Then you and he can work on the fire damage in the Divination Tower, and perhaps these two lovely ladies," he said, turning to Pansy and Millicent, "would help? There is plenty to clean up, stones to mend, tapestries to re-hang."
Millicent's heart was beating. No-one had ever called her a 'lovely lady' before, and even though she knew the Professor was only being kind, it warmed her heart. "Come on, then," she said, the first words she'd said since arriving, "if we're going to work together, let's do it."
By afternoon tea time, the Divination Tower had been completely cleaned out; and Harry and Draco had finished all the building work of the second of Flitwick's four towers.
And by the time they returned home, Flitwick had won five games of Shuntbumps; and Draco had finally managed to best him in the sixth, and emerge as winner. Everyone had cheered him; and Harry had smiled.
Maybe, just maybe, it's all going to work, he thought.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have set up a thread for replies at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/56042-review-replies-for-returning-to-sanity/ . I will generally try to reply to posts before posting a new chapter.
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Returning to Sanity