Chapter 23

                                    

                                          
"Right," Harry said once they reached the trapdoor that led to Honeydukes. "I'm going to have to ferry us out one or two at a time." He saw Pansy frown at him in confusion, so he reached into his bag and pulled out his invisibility cloak. Her mouth fell open in shock. 
                          
"You're kidding," she whispered. 
                          
"Nope."
                          
"No wonder you lot stay out of trouble."
                          
"I would hardly say they stay out of trouble," Hermione said. Harry narrowed his eyes at her, but Blaise snickered, so he let it slide. After all, this was supposed to be a nice afternoon out for all of them. Draco volunteered to go last, so Harry began walking everyone through Honeydukes, one at a time, starting with Blaise. 
                          
"This is legitimately very cool," Blaise whispered as they shuffled through the cellar of Honeydukes. "Do you ever take advantage of the fact that you can just enter their storeroom like this?" Harry frowned at him. 
                          
"Do you mean do we ever steal any of it?"
                          
"Yeah."
                          
"Of course not," Harry said, the shock at even having been asked evident in his tone. 
                          
"I didn't mean anything by it," Blaise said quickly. "I wouldn't either. I just wondered if you Gryffindors weren't as shiny as your reputation would have us all believe." 
                          
"Gods no," Harry said. "You think Hermione would stand by and let us do that?" At this, Blaise's face cracked into a smile. 
                          
"No, I suppose she wouldn't."
                          
"But that's not to say that we follow all the rules. I mean, clearly we sneak out of school on non-Hogsmeade weekends." 
                          
"Clearly," Blaise agreed. "And now you've made us your accomplices."
                          
"Yes, you're our insurance policy in case we get caught. We'll just say the Slytherins bullied us into it." Blaise's mouth fell open in shock. They had reached the top of the stairs.
                          
"I'm kidding," Harry said and then pushed Blaise out into the bustling shop. 
                          
Pansy said nothing as they walked through the cellar, merely looked around, eyes wide. She gave him a tight lipped smile as she slipped out from under the cloak to join Blaise in the store. 
                          
Ron and Hermione insisted that the three of them could fit under the cloak together as they all knew each other so well, and they spent a long three minutes shuffling through the cellar and up the stairs together, all the while Harry thought that really they couldn't all fit and why had they talked him into it?
                          
And then finally it was Draco's turn. Draco, who upon Harry throwing the silvery material over him, began immediately to kiss Harry rather aggressively. Harry pushed him away and the blond pouted at him. 
                          
"Not now," he hissed. 
                          
"But I've been waiting to do that all morning," Draco grumbled. 
                          
"Later," Harry said and kissed him gently on the nose. He was rewarded by Draco's hand in his back pocket while they walked, although when they reached the store, he took it back. 
                          
They pretended to peruse the shelves as they made their way towards the door and not for the first time, Harry wondered if the Honeydukes owners had any idea that their storeroom housed a secret passageway to Hogwarts. His suspicions were not allayed when he caught the shopkeeper's eye and she winked at him. He nodded stiffly back at her and flattened down his fringe. 
                          
"Freedom," Pansy cried as they joined the rest of the group out in the village proper. She threw her arms in the air and spun in a circle. Harry could not help but grin at her exuberance.