The Sunrise of My Heart

"Bloody hell!" I heard someone gasp out. I groaned tiredly and sat up, rubbing my eyes.
"What time is it?" I mumbled, looking to see who had woken me up. Ron was standing a few feet away from my bed, staring at me wide-eyed. At first I was wondering what he was doing there, but then I remembered that I was in Harry's bed. "Ron, stop gaping like a fish. Nothing happened. Now what time is it?"
"It's almost time for breakfast," Harry said, coming in through the doorway. "You slept for a long time. Thankfully, you're not a bed hog."
"Morning, Harry," I said. "Sleep well?"
"Yup. Did you?"
"Quite well. You're a comforting teddy bear to sleep beside."
Ron was still standing with his mouth open, looking from me to Harry and back again. With a sigh, I got out of bed and walked over to Harry. "We might as well have fun with this," I murmured into his ear. "Since Ron's already convinced that we shagged. Which, by the way," I said loudly, turning to Ron, "How did you not notice me last night when you went to bed?"
"The curtains around the bed were closed," he mumbled, not meeting my eyes. "Harry didn't close them after he got up this morning."
Hiding a smirk, I answered lightly, "Well, thankfully he's not as careless in bed. If you know what I mean," I said, winking at Ron, who turned very red and stared intently at the floor. "Harry, thanks for 'relieving me of my tension' last night. I should get back to my own room so I can change. I hadn't intended to stay all night when I crawled into bed with you." I left, leaving Ron looking shocked and embarrassed and Harry looking amused.
When I made it back to the Slytherin common room, Draco was the only one there. Everyone else had already gone to breakfast. "Do you intentionally wait around to corner me, or is this just another seemingly impossible coincidence."
"Did you sleep in your own bed last night?" he asked, ignoring my question.
"Lack of answer means yes, you do intentionally wait around for me. And no, I didn't sleep in my own bed. I slept with Harry in his."
His eyes went from impossibly wide to tiny slits within a second, but he didn't say anything. He simply glowered at me as I went to my room to get some clean clothes. After a quick change, I went into the bathroom to brush my hair and teeth before finally going back to the common room, where Draco still waited, also still glowering.
"Wow, I never really thought you'd be jealous, Draco."
"I'm not jealous," he spat at me.
"Well, good," I answered. "Because nothing happened. I'll let you in on a little secret. my romantic feelings for Harry run about as deep as my romantic feelings for my dog Ace do. He's a great companion and fun to be around, but the thought of being with him in any kind of intimate way is really gross and awkward. It'd be like having sex with Adrian." I made a face, fake gagging.
"Who's Adrian?"
"Oh, right, sorry. He's Roxanne's twin brother. Anyways, the point is that I slept in Harry's bed with him because I needed comfort, and he was able to give it to me. Like a teddy bear. Like, literally, that's what I called him. A teddy bear. As in, comforting to sleep beside, nothing more."
"You didn't have to explain all of that to me. I'm not jealous." He did look less unhappy, though, and he was no longer glowering.
"I just don't want people to get the wrong impression about me and Harry. We mutually feel like the other one is a sibling. He's my brother, and I'm his sister. End of story. Oh, but you should have seen Ron's face when he aw me in Harry's bed. I might have made it seem like we did shag, just because his face was too priceless to let the opportunity slip by." I smiled at him, and he chuckled in response.
"Come on, let's go to breakfast," he said. I realized as we were walking that a sort of silent agreement had sprung up between us. Until our situation changed too drastically, we would pretend that everything was all right, and that we weren't two pawns on opposite side of the chessboard, waiting to make our moves against each other. For the next few days, at least, we were just friends looking forward to our summer holiday.
When those few days passed however, I could feel the ice fortress go back up, and he shut me out again. On our last day at Hogwarts that year, he hardly spoke to me at all, and when we did speak, he was cold and rude, a true Slytherin. I sighed softly and let his coldness roll off of me, no longer bothered by his mood swings.
One the train, he tried to taunt me, obviously hoping for some kind of reaction. Instead, I simply smiled at him, albeit somewhat sadly. His need to make others feel as bad as I was sure he felt always made me wish I knew what he was thinking.
"Have a good summer, Draco," I said, walking away from him without a second glance. I did look back a few steps later when I heard a bunch of spells go off at once. Curious, I turned around to see what used to be Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, and were now three large, oozing slug-type things. Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, and Terry Boot had all used various hexes on the three, probably because they'd tried to ambush Harry, who was standing there looking amused and pleased with their work. I smiled at Harry and joined him in his compartment with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.
They talked for awhile about random things, like who Cho Chang was currently dating (Michael Corner), and who Ginny was dating (Dean, which caused Ron to overturn an entire game of chess), and all the while, I couldn't help but be glad that I had them. Sirius's death was awful, yes, but having them around would help me get over much more quickly. I was also looking forward to spending all summer with my mother, whom I missed very much. There would be no visiting friends for me this time. All I wanted was to spend the summer at home.
When we got off the train and made it through the platform, I was thrilled to see the group waiting for us. Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George, and Remus. Without a second thought, I let go of my luggage and ran to Remus, hugging him tightly. He held me close for awhile, knowing I needed the comfort. Finally, I pulled away, smiling at him.
"I didn't expect...." I heard Harry say. "What are you all doing here?"
"Well," said Remus with a slight smile, "we thought we might have a little chat with your aunt and uncle."
And they certainly did. Through not-so-subtle threatening and promising, they convinced Harry's aunt and uncle to let Harry write at least once every two days, and were also bullied into treating him better over the summer until he could go to Ron's for the remainder of the holiday.
After this was done and everyone said goodbye to Harry, I looked at Remus and smiled somewhat mischievously. "I told them, you know. About Roxanne and Cassandra, the whole deal. And I fully intend to tell them stories of the great Marauders. So if there are any that you'd like me to leave out, I suggest you tell me now or be embarrassed later."
"Ah. Maybe not the one where we all played that silly game of Truth or--"
"Oh, no," I said, shaking my head. "I'm most definitely telling them about your crowning moment as the king of the Marauders."
He sighed in defeat ans shrugged. "True. The stories deserve to be told. They're certainly interesting enough. And they center around brave heroes." With a final smile and a farewell hug, I turned away from him and went back to my luggage. My mother was standing next to it, smiling at me.
"Mommy!" I cried happily, not caring how childish I looked. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.
"Oh, Riley, I missed you. Come on, let's go home, darling." And so, feeling happier than I had in about a week, I went home for the summer holidays, knowing it would be a good summer full of the joy of family, no matter how small of a family we were.