A/N: I am very sorry about the long wait, I know I always say that, but this time it really wasn't my fault! My computer crashed, and so did all of my saved work, so blame it! Here's the next chapter, hope you all haven't lost interest yet! LPI3
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Harry had planed to send Hedwig out early the following morning with the contract to send to McGonagall. He figured it'd get there by afternoon time and then the angry McGonagall would show up at the house a little before dinner. Draco had insisted that he make up his own punishment for the Dursley's, but Harry was pretty sure he just wanted his family a little scared and guilty, not dead.
"For the last time, you're not boiling my aunt alive in her own soup." Harry rolled his eyes.
Draco let out an annoying breath, "Oh come on, Potter, where's your sense of humor? Don't you think I deserve a little happiness after having to deal with them all summer?"
Harry shrugged, "McGonagall will have to be punishment enough."
"Ooh, what's she gonna do, give them detention?" Draco asked sarcastically. Harry made a face at him. "Listen, Potter, think of this as my way of paying you back. Let me get rid of them for you."
"No! You're not going to kill my family, no matter how horrible they are."
"Well don't say I didn't offer." Draco mumbled.
"No, I'm going to pretend you didn't offer." Harry paused, "you realize that murder is bad, right?"
"I'm not stupid." Draco sneered, "But what's the harm in killing a few muggles? It's not much of a loss."
"Muggles are people too, you know." Harry frowned. He hadn't known Draco could be so comfortable with the idea of murder. He himself didn't think he'd ever be able to take someone's life, well, apart from Voldemort.
Draco shrugged. "The offer's still on the table if you change your mind." With that he left the bedroom.
Harry sat a moment longer on his bed. Malfoy wasn't serious, was he? He couldn't just kill three muggles because they put him through a little bit of hard labor, could he? Would it be easy for him to do? As he thought of these things he came to realize that he really didn't know the other boy like he had thought. How could a sixteen year old boy be so comfortable with the thought of murder?
Petunia's loud shrill of a voice calling for lunch broke him out of his thoughts. Draco appeared at the door again, his hair wet and wild, "you coming, princess?" he asked throwing his dirty towel onto Harry's head and then laughing all the way down stairs.
Harry threw the offending towel away from him in disgust and stood to follow, but as he did the mattress to his bed under him shifted a little and the corner of Draco's contract appeared. Harry hesitated and then pulled it out, the small piece of parchment that had caused so much drama.
Two months ago Harry wouldn't have hesitated to write down a few of his own demands onto the paper if he had had the chance, but now that the opportunity had arisen he couldn't bring himself to do it. He thought about all the things he would have liked to write: I, Draco Malfoy, will do Harry's homework for the rest of his time at Hogwarts. I, Draco Malfoy, will dress up like a girl every second Thursday of the month. I, Draco Malfoy, will never again insult Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, or Harry Potter. And so on and so forth. Harry sighed and put the parchment back under his mattress before heading down stairs.
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When Harry entered the kitchen, Draco was already sitting at the table eating his sandwich and staring nervously at the study door. Harry furrowed his eyebrows at the boy in confusion. Draco nodded silently at the door as Petunia, looking unusually pleased stepped out of the room and locked the door behind her. Harry and Draco looked at each other, knowing exactly what the other was thinking, Petunia had added to the list.
"Well, don't just stand there," Petunia snapped at Harry, "hurry up and eat you two, my flowers need watering."
Draco immediately scarfed down his sandwich and was out the door, cursing quietly, before Harry could take his first bite. He decided it'd be better if he made sure Draco didn't over do it again, so he took his remaining sandwich outside with him.
"You're really good at watering those daisies, Malfoy, maybe you should think of starting a garden of your own." Harry snickered walking up behind Draco.
"Shut up." Draco growled, "This is humiliating."
"Well, just deal with it because we have bigger problems on our plate now."
"Yeah, what'd she write on the contract?"
Harry finished off his sandwich and took a seat on the garden bench, "I don't know, but whatever it is, if you don't do it she's gonna know something up."
Draco was about to respond when Dudley came walking wearily through the lawn, careful to stay a good distance away. Draco smirked and squirted the hose his way, it hit dead on. The pudgy boy yelped and ran towards the door, while Draco drenched him in more water, "oh you definitely win this wet t-shirt contest, Dudders!" he yelled as Dudley ran inside.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as well. He had to admit, of all the things he hated about Draco, the way he could taunt Dudley was something he loved. Seconds later a fuming Petunia came outside.
"What did you do to my son?" She asked loudly, but not too loudly for the neighbors to hear.
"I got him a little wet." Draco shrugged.
Petunia pursed her lips like she always did when she was about to explode. "Why?!"
"He looked a little hot." Draco said again, "Plus it's fun."
"I will not tolerate you hurting Dudley any more, do you understand me?"
Draco clenched his jaw but muttered, "Yes."
Petunia let out a breath of anger and then spun around and walked away, "keep watering!" she yelled back at them.
Draco returned to watering the plants, "if only I had my wand right now." He muttered.
"Do you really think you could kill them?" Harry asked suddenly, he hadn't meant to, it just sort of happened.
"Of course." Draco said honestly and then faced Harry, "where'd that come from?"
"It's just, how could really be that comfortable with taking someone's life?" Harry knew he was using Draco's inability to lie against him and that would make definitely make him angry, but he couldn't help himself.
Draco glared at Harry, "I'm not comfortable with it, but I can do it if I have to…now drop it."
"Have you ever killed anyone before?" Harry asked. He couldn't handle the curiosity any longer.
Draco clenched his mouth shut and began breathing heavily, he was trying his best not to answer.
"I'm sorry, I just…I need to know." Harry said.
"No you don't need to know!" Draco yelled, "You want to know so that you can have yet another reason why you're better than me to hold over my head! So yeah, I've killed a little muggle girl before, my father made me. Now go ahead and tell me how you're better than me because you would never do that!"
Harry wasn't prepared for the outburst or the truths that came with it. His mouth fell open. "I-I'm sorry."
"Save it, Potter, I don't need your sympathy. Once this stupid binding curse is lifted I'm out of here. I should have known you'd stoop this low too to use this against me."
"Draco, I didn't mean to use anything against you. And it's horrible what your father did-" Harry was cut off abruptly as Draco lunged himself at him. They both hit the ground roughly and began wrestling for control punching and kicking.
"Shut up about my father, you don't know anything about him!" Draco growled and punched Harry in the stomach.
Harry grunted and kicked Draco off of him with all his might, "I know he doesn't love you." He panted holding his stomach.
"Oh, you would know all about a father's love, wouldn't you Potter? Considering you've never had one!" Draco wiped off some blood from his nose onto his sleeve.
"If he loved you he wouldn't have made you do something so horrible, and you know it!" Harry groaned from the pain in his stomach and head.
"He's my father," Draco said darkly.
"That doesn't make him right. And that doesn't mean that you have to do horrible things just because he says to."
Draco paused and breathed deeply, "I hate him. I hate everything about him. That's why I turned against You Know Who, not because I was scared, but because I couldn't stand the thought of him getting out of Azkaban and coming home."
"I shouldn't have made you tell me, it wasn't any of my business." Harry said apologetically.
"No, it wasn't." Draco said coldly. He sighed slowly and looked away before saying quietly "but it was good to get it off my chest."
"Just because your father wants you to kill, it doesn't mean you have to." Harry said. "In fact, if you really wanted to piss him off you wouldn't kill."
Draco half smiled, "yeah, well, I'm pretty sure I've already made son of the year on the disappointment list."
"So, would you really kill my aunt and uncle then?" Harry asked getting to his feet.
Draco hesitated a moment, "no, I guess not." He sighed.
Harry smiled, "Sorry again. And that little girl, it wasn't your fault."
Draco got to his own feet frowning, "yeah, sure," he said and then made his way inside.
Harry didn't bother Draco for the rest of the day, who just stayed upstairs in the room and didn't come down at all.
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"Alright, it's been sent." Harry smiled as he watched Hedwig fly off into the sunrise.
"Finally," Draco sighed rolling over onto his back in his bed, "if I never have to do a chore again it'll be too soon."
"Are you really going to leave after McGonagall sets things straight?" Harry asked sitting down on his bed.
"Well, yeah. There's no reason for me to stay, it's just a week I'll be fine."
"Yeah, but I figured since you can do whatever you want again we could have some fun tormenting Dudley more." Harry shrugged.
Draco closed his eyes. "You know that once we go back to school things go back to the way they were, right?"
"I figured as much, but why?"
Draco let out a little laugh, "What do you mean why? I'm not your girlfriend, Potter, we're not gonna hold hands and giggle about all the fun we had over the summer. I'll go back to Slytherin and you'll go back to your little 'wonder trio'."
Harry laughed too, "You're right, I guess I didn't think about how our friends would take this."
"They'd over react. So as far as we are concerned, we stayed out of each other's way, fought whenever possible, and did not share a room."
"Clearly you've thought this through." Harry grinned.
Draco shrugged, "I've had a lot to think of this summer."
"I'm just saying if you need somewhere to go next summer too…" Harry said slowly. "Don't think about asking."
Draco let out a snort of laughter and threw his pillow at Harry's head, "I'm not making that mistake again, believe me."
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McGonagall's appearance was sooner than Harry had expected. No later then the clock hit 12:01pm that there was a knock at the door.
"Potter, Malfoy." She greeted rather quickly when they opened the door. She looked furious, "a word with your aunt and uncle?"
"Yeah, glad you got the letter; they're in the living room." Harry said gesturing towards the living room.
McGonagall walked swiftly out of the room and seconds later her loud voice was demanding answers from a couple of very startled Dursley's.
Harry and Draco ran quickly to get a better look, laughing as they did.
"How dare you two do this to a child?" McGonagall demanded pacing back and forth between Vernon and Petunia, who looked rather small, bunched up in their chairs. "Not only could you have endangered Mr. Malfoy's life, but you have also violated the code of the binding contract! This shall not be taken lightly, I assure you! Why, if we were in the wizarding world, a few years in Azkaban might do you two some good!"
Much of the same kind of yelling went on for at least an hour. Vernon and Petunia never got in a word, and both looked as though they were in too much shock to answer. Finally, McGonagall turned to the boys, red in the face she said, "Consider the contract and its bind unsanctioned. I am terribly sorry about the inconvenience Mr. Malfoy. I assure you it won't happen again."
"Of course it won't." Malfoy said smugly.
"I can set you up in a room at the Leaky Cauldron if you don't want to spend the remainder week of break here; it is completely understandable with the outrages actions of these two." She turned around and glared again at Vernon and Petunia who shrank lower in their seats.
Draco thought a moment, "No thank you. I think I can survive one more week here, even though the past two months have been very difficult and painful." He tried to sound as pathetic as he could and it worked because McGonagall once again rounded on the two muggles and let them have it about child labor and unfair treatment. Draco winked at Harry who laughed silently next to him.
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"Harry! Harry!"
Harry turned to see Hermione and Ron running towards him through the busy train station. He grinned and made his way to them. Hermione hugged him instantly and Ron clapped him on the back.
"Thanks for the letters, pal." Ron laughed sarcastically.
Harry smiled, "Oh right, sorry, I tried to write more, but this summer was really busy."
"I bet." Ron said eyeing Draco some yards away with a group of Slytherins, "just trying to stay away from him can be a full time job."
"Oh, Harry, was he just awful?" Hermione asked concerned.
Harry looked over at Draco who was no doubt telling his friends how pathetic and stupid Harry was. "Oh, he was Malfoy." He said simply.
"You have to tell us everything," Ron said as they walked towards the Hogwarts Express, "Just how bad was it? Please tell me he at least cried once!"
Harry laughed, "It was one really long summer." He turned to look at Draco again, who was boarding a little farther down, when his friends weren't looking. Draco looked over at him as well and made a face before giving him a quick smile and then boarded the train.
Harry shook his head with a smile, "oh, I have tell you guys about what he talks about in his sleep!" He exclaimed and climbed on board after his friends.
~FIN~
A/N- Omg. I'm finished. Thank you all for reading and I really hoped you enjoyed this! I did enjoy writing it, even though it took me forever!! Don't forget to review! LPI3