signed anonymous

Exit Strategy

I woke up to Pansy gently shaking me. Looking down at me with soft worried eye's. "We will be there in an hour Harry. Time to wake up." The we need to talk was left unsaid. As I sat up I looked over at Draco, and Blaise. Both were looking at me with the same look as Pansy. "Harry we can't let you go back to those people." She looked like she was ready for an argument.

"I'm not going back. I was given a portkey to use I just have to slip away long enough to use it." I explained looking down at my feet not wanting to admit I was running away but knowing if I didn't they'd not drop it. "I have a plan for that if you'd like to hear." I said thinking they might like this part more.

Getting a nod from them I went on. "Well I plan to say I need to use the loo and go in then use my portkey. When I land where I will then I'll use my special cloak right away. To go into the place I need to in order to be sure I can't be followed. From there I have a contact coming to get me to the next location." I beamed a smile at them. 'Wonder what it's like to really feel like smiling?' watching them give extremely surprised and mildly pleased looks.

"Potter why aren't you in Slytherin? You managed to answer all questions we could've asked while not telling us a damn thing." He smirked at me and shook his head. Clearly baffled by how I'd managed to do that. "I mean a Gryffindor doesn't talk like that. Let alone make a plan."

I gave a shy look to Pansy before speaking. Seeing the curious expression on her face I desired to tell my secret. "Well I probably shouldn't have argued with the hat when it wanted me in Slytherin." (And cue the crickets) all three were starring at me like I'd randomly grown a second head.

"W-why did you argue with the hat?" Draco actually looked scared to hear the answer. I knew why. He felt responsible,but it was really the many thing said by Hagrid and Ron. The way Draco had acted had just been icing on the cake.

But payback is a starving Cerberus. So I stared right into his grey eyes for a moment. Just to make him sweat. "Well when Hagrid told me about Hogwarts he said it was a bad house for bad and shady wizards. Then Ron said a lot of the same and I didn't have any other points of view. Then you were sorted there. And well I didn't want to be bad or seen as bad. And I really didn't want to worry about drama." I snorted at that. "Great job of avoiding drama I did. But the way you acted was really just icing on the cake. Generally when I make up my mind. Not very easy to sway me to change it. Like a dog with a bone.

Draco's eye's started to tear up. And I panicked but before I could say anything he threw himself into Blaise's arms and started crying hard Pansy was there in an instant. As they both wrapped their arms around him soothing him. I met Blaise's eye's panic filling my eye's. "It's okay dragon. Harry meant it. It wasn't your fault love. You know how stubborn he is. He just as stubborn as your uncle sev." When Pansy started kissing his neck Draco started to giggle. My eye's bugged out as I looked between her and Blaise. I saw them both kissing him in slightly romantic ways and was very confused. Blaise must have noticed my confusion as he said. "We'll explain how it all works another time Harry. For now five minutes til we're there. And I think Draco could use a hug."

I stayed still for a moment not fully registering what he'd said to me. Which got a warm round of chuckles from the three. Effectively starting me out of my stupor. I quickly moved and gave Draco as tight a hug as I dared. Still very much confused but forcing my face blank.