Chapter 8

"I feel sorry for him," the boy whispered silently.

His two best friends shot him a look. Apparently, they didn't think the same as he did.

"What are you sorry for? I mean, I understood that you felt sorry for him before because he didn't have friends but now, he's hanging out with those bloody Japanese. You don't have to feel sorry for anything," the red head snapped and turned back his attention to the chess game he was playing with his girlfriend. "Really, Harry, you have got to stop being so nice."

Hermione nodded her agreement as she moved her knight to eat her boyfriend's pawn. "He's right, you know."

Harry sighed. "I guess."

"How are you doing?" Syaoran asked his cousin who was desperately trying to give him a smile on the bed. "Stop acting stupid and remove the fucking smile. It reminds me too of him."

Draco snickered. "Who?"

"Him."

"Who is him?" Draco asked although he knew full well who the "him" that Syaoran was talking about was. It wasn't as if the Chinese kid was trying his very hardest to hide the irritation he had for him anyway.

"Don't make me say his blasted name."

"If you don't tell me his 'blasted name,' I'd never find out who 'him' is, would I?"

Syaoran glared. "Hiiragizawa. You know the evil glasses kid."

Draco rolled his eyes. Really, he couldn't understand if his cousin was being immature or just plain stubborn, or both. "Yes well. He does smile a lot doesn't he? Especially around Tomoyo, he smiles a lot—a whole lot."

Syaoran narrowed his eyes. "Exactly what are you saying?"

"The 'evil' magician is crushing over your girlfriend's best friend or haven't you noticed? For the best warrior in the Li clan, you lack perception," Draco said smugly. "Really, maybe I should take martial arts and show you up."

Unfortunately for Draco, Syaoran had already stormed out of the clinic and was on his way to strangling the so called 'evil glasses kid.'

"Harry-kun!" Sakura called out to her Gryffindor friend. "Harry-kun! Over here! Mione-chan! Ron-kun! Here!"

The trio looked at each other and walked towards the Japanese. Was she there to bother them about the tournament the day before or was she, as she is wont to do, going to say 'hello?'

"Sakura," Hermione was the first one to greet their friend. "You should stop adding the 'chans' and the 'kun.' We're in England and don't you run out of breath when you say those?" she asked her with a warm smile.

"Hai!"

"She meant yes," Hermione informed the other two whose Japanese vocabulary was this small. "So, what did you want to talk to us about Sakura?"

Sakura tilted her head cutely to one side, trying to remember what she was going to tell them. Oh the woes of having both short memory and attention span. "I can't remember."

Ron chuckled. "Well, if you do remember, do tell. We're already pretty much in suspense about what the card mistress wants to tell us."

Sakura blushed slightly at her title. She didn't really want to go around being called card mistress and being treated like an important person when, obviously, Syaoran was more important than she was. "I think it had something to do with Draco-kun but I just can't remember."

Before Harry could stop himself, he blurted out "How is he?"

At this, Sakura perked. "Oh he's doing much better!" she chirped, oblivious to the odd stares Ron and Hermione were throwing at her and Harry. "He might be able to attend the last class. Madame Pomfrey said that it would've been much easier if he just broke bones but, apparently, he got some vein or whatnot damaged too and that caused complications."

"What kind of complications?" Harry asked again.

"None of your business," some deep voice, which was definitely not Sakura's, answered him. It was Syaoran. "I don't see why you're asking so much questions. Don't try bothering him. Let's go Sakura."

Sakura waved bye to them while berating Syaoran for being so mean, succeeding very well in making him blush the entire time.

When they were gone, Hermione and Ron turned to Harry with odd expressions on their faces.

"What's the sudden interest in the git, Harry?" Ron asked him.

Harry shrugged.

Sakura brightened up when Syaoran told her about the interest that Eriol was showing Tomoyo (or so Draco said). She just knew that they were perfect for each other.

"This is wonderful!" she crooned, grabbing her boyfriend's arm, thus causing the said boyfriend to blush. "I'm going to be an aunt!"

Syaoran looked horrified. "An aunt!? What are you talking about Sakura? Don't tell me that you actually agree to what my idiot cousin told me. Think about poor Daidouji."

"What about poor Daidouji?" the sweet voice of Tomoyo asked from behind them. "Why? What did Draco tell you Li-kun?"

Syaoran glared and stomped away for he saw that Eriol was with Tomoyo. He knew he was having a nightmare.

Tomoyo took one last confused glance at Syaoran's retreating back and looked at Sakura, who was smiling blissfully, unaware that her boyfriend had left her. "What's wrong with Li-kun Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked.

Instead of answering, Sakura smiled insanely at her and promptly jumped on her crying "Tomoyo-chan! I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!" She then let go and ran after Syaoran.

Eriol and Tomoyo looked at each other and shrugged. It was probably just one of Syaoran and Sakura's odd quirks. But still, they can't help but wonder.

Draco smiled in satisfaction to himself. Getting hit by a bludger wasn't so bad after all. He had a pretty day off with lots of chocolate to eat because "it'll ease the pain" as said by Madame Pomfrey. Sure the injury hurt once in a while but that was a small price to pay for missing divination. No wonder Potter kept on getting himself injured.

The only down part was that he was bored. Gods, he was insanely bored. There was nothing to do and he couldn't even read because of "medical reasons." And so, he was bored. Nothing to tinker with and only the castle ceiling to stare at. How sad.

Madame Pomfrey had left him a little while before because, apparently, Neville Longbottom decided to turn the Potions dungeon into a swimming pool of acid. No one was hurt, luckily, except two Slytherins (Crabbe and Goyle) who Draco couldn't care less about.

"Damn," Draco cursed. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Master Draco must not curse sir. Very bad it is," some odd crackly and superbly annoying little man said, suddenly appearing at the foot of Draco's bed. "Master will not be pleased."

Draco rolled his eyes. Of all the times to pester him, it had to be when he was aching and in a bad mood. "What do you want, Blinkie?" Really, house elves could do with better names.

"Master said that you will come home this Christmas with the girl sir. The girl's mother will be in mansion sir."

"Whatever."

With that, the house elf disappeared leaving an irritated Draco. His father had bad timing, really.

"Draco's doing well Tomoyo-san?" asked Eriol as they mindlessly walked about the empty corridors. They were late for some class they could not remember what but, apparently, Eriol didn't seem too worried about it.

Tomoyo smiled. "Aa. He's getting better. Really, what's the use of that stupid game anyway? It's so violent." She frowned. "People could get seriously injured."

"It's just the same as soccer or any other sport in the normal world," Eriol told her. "People do get hurt and get into trouble whether we like it or not. It's something unavoidable."

Tomoyo didn't seem to completely accept Eriol's explanation but nodded her head anyway. She didn't want a verbal sparring contest with the cocky magician, knowing full well who would win in the end.

"Anyway," Eriol continued. "I think that we ourselves would get into a whole lot of trouble if we don't figure out where our next class is."

"It's with Griffindor, I think."

"Yes but which class?" said Eriol. "I can't believe that we both forgot our schedules and I can't believe that we both can't remember. Do you think that it's some sort of spell?"

Tomoyo was about to answer when someone answered for her. "Oh it's a spell all right but not the kind you think Clow Reed," said the someone. "You wouldn't believe that spell hit you though."

Eriol smiled at their rather unwanted new companion. "And what spell would that be Terry?"

Terry Boot grinned at Tomoyo and smirked. "I'll never tell." Tomoyo and Eriol both groaned, causing Terry to smirk even more. "Honestly, everyone knows about it except you two. Anyway, I came to fetch the both of you for Defense against the Dark Arts. Glasgow got worried. Just so you know, I checked every closet I could find."

Both blushed at the implication and glared at Terry. Terry, on the other hand, just laughed himself hoarse and led the way to the Charms classroom.

"Snape agreed to have a joint project with the Defense against the Dark Arts. That's new," Ron commented as they went out of the classroom. "It's a good thing that we're not with the Slytherins then."

Hermione sniffed at him haughtily. "Well I think that it's a wonderful idea to learn how to defend ourselves against various love potions. Love potions could be dangerous, you know." She looked at Ron pointedly as the latter stared at the ceiling, ignoring her. "Besides, I think that some people might try it on someone else. It's almost as bad as the Imperius curse."

Harry nodded absent-mindedly as he clutched his papers, which were two times as thick as Ron's. He was busy thinking about something else and bumped into someone on the way. Flustered, Harry said a "I'm sorry" and received a "Gomen" in return. Not knowing what "gomen" meant, he looked up and found himself staring at odd amethyst orbs.

Hermione didn't see whom Harry bumped into and automatically informed him that gomen meant sorry. When she realized that there could only be so much Japanese students in Hogwarts and that the person Harry bumped into wasn't Sakura, she stared as well.

Ron had been staring since he saw them.

Tomoyo felt uneasy when she realized that all three Griffindors were staring at her. Really, did she have that bad an image? She felt slightly comforted, however, when she saw Eriol staring back at them calmly and evenly. Recovering her sangfroid, she smiled at them and said "hello."

"Hi," Harry Potter returned. "I'm sorry. I was too busy thinking that I didn't see you."

"It's fine."

Harry looked as if he didn't know what to say and looked thoroughly relieved when Hernione spoke. "Hello Daidouji," she said, her usually haughty voice rather shy. "I'm sorry about yesterday. Heat of the moment and all that. No hard feelings?" she thrust her hand forward.

Tomoyo smiled and took the other girl's hand. "None."

To cut the long story short, they all made up and became buddies.

"Tomoyo! Eriol!" Harry called out. Classes were over and somehow, he ditched his two best friends. "Tomoyo, wait up."

Tomoyo waited for Harry to catch up with Eriol and herself and gave him one of her pretty smiles. "Yes Harry?"

The boy flushed. "Could you please give this to Dra—Malfoy? It's his Potions homework."

"Isn't it better if you gave it to him yourself Harry?" she asked. Behind her, unseen by anyone, Eriol grinned evilly.

Harry blushed a darker red. "I don't think he'd want to see me, Tomoyo. We're enemies, remember?"

"Oh nonsense!" she exclaimed, taking his hand and dragging him to the clinic.

Eriol watched as Tomoyo grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him. For some reason, he felt an irrational irritation for The Boy Who Lived.

The two boys glared at each other.

"Potter."

"Malfoy."

They glared again.

Tomoyo sighed with exasperation.

Eriol looked on with interest.

"Potter."

"Malfoy."

Tomoyo couldn't take it anymore. "Stop it!" she told them both. "Just do what you have to and get it over already."

Eriol smirked.

With a sigh, Harry stopped glaring and threw the papers onto Draco's bed. "Here. It's your Potions homework. Snape asked me to give it to you."

Draco looked slightly confused. "Thanks," he finally said, turning slightly pink, "Harry."

Harry turned pale and pink at the same time (how? I don't know) and quickly went out of the clinic.

Eriol snickered.

Draco glared at him. "What?"

"Nothing," the magician answered innocently.

Draco rubbed his poor aching head. "Never mind. Anyway, Hiiragizawa, do you mind if I talk to Tomoyo in private?"

"No. Not at all," Eriol said and went. He felt the same irritation with Draco as he did with Harry.

"But Sakura-chan and Li-kun are staying here," complained Tomoyo when Draco finished telling her that she would be staying with him that Christmas.

"Your mother will be there," Draco informed her, hoping that she would quit moping so that he could rest his poor head.

"Oh I guess."

A/N: This took much longer than expected—a couple of months or so.

Actually, I think that there is more DracoXHarry here than EriolXTomoyo. For those who don't like the pairing or yaoi for that matter, my deepest apologies. I think that I have been infected by the yaoi bug.

Does anyone know a good psychiatrist?

If you noticed, the latter part of this chapter was rather rushed. I was too bored to write well.