Eyes blazing, circling the indignant boy, "You know, I'm so fucking sick of you're excuses Draco. No wands. No professors. No brooms. Just you. And me. Right now. Take it or leave it." He stopped his pacing and glared hatefullyat thetaller boy. A curt nod is all the approval he would expect after knowinghim for 7 years. SoHarry was oddly surprised when he heard Draco's voice.
"You sure you wanna do that, Harry?" His sneered the name but his expression remained honest and stone. Harry tilted his head slightly as if contemplating the question. He suddenly lurched forward into Draco's face thoroughly pleased that the boy flinched ever so slightly.
Malfoys don't flinch, Harry thought, of course in Draco's condescending tone.
Great, now his thoughts are in the jackass's voice. This ends now.
"I have never been so positive about any decision before, Malfoy." Harry made sure to match the sneer in Draco's voice.
Harry gestured broadly for Draco to begin. He watched, anger still prevalent coursing through his veins, the boy remove his outer robe, square his broad shoulders and swing at Harry. Harry watching, of course, dodged and swung back. The blow hit Draco in the side right under his ribs with a sickeningly and pleasing thud.
The boy didn't even react to the blow and instead harshly shoved Harry backwards. He watched as the dark haired boy toppled over the benches in the middle isle. He quickly followed and before Harry could recover his balance Draco slugged him square in the mouth. The sound on this hit wasn't as pleasing as the spray of blood.
Harry's green eyes seemed to darken as he launched himself into Draco. Both of them flying across the room on the slick surface, they collided with the mirror firmly screwed to the wall. The force shattered the reflective surface and sent shards of glass raining down on the scuffle. Harry barely felt the thin cuts he received, instead focusing his attention on smashing Draco's face.
Draco felt the hard wall slam into his shoulders with Harry's heaviness atop him. The sound caused him to instinctively guard his face as glass poured down on them. Harry felt most of the cuts slice his neck and arms. Draco began to struggle once again. His movements paid off as he used the wall to propel Harry off of him and stand woozily, idly wondering if his nose or ribs were broken.
Harry righted himself quickly and they stalked each other. He only saw red blurriness out of his left eye as blood free ran down his face. His legs throbbed.
Instinctively they both ran towards each other hoping to knock the other's sense of balance off. But when they collided they fell to the ground and as they both attempted to stand they were violently held down. Not too angered by the force they slumped admitting defeat to the unknown assailant.
Severus Snape sighed and gripped his wand, effectively binding both boys to the ground. He watched slightly bemused as the pair fell to the floor again. Their usual annoying antics changed subtly over the course of the year. But he saw the slight changes, the snarky comments in Potions now were mostly one sided; Harry stoically ignoring his Slytherin student. But everybody has their boiling points. Once satisfied they had both passed out due to their injuries he levitated them up to the infirmary.
Poppy softly muttering curse words eyed Severus as he entered. He placed them on the nearest beds and fire called Albus to meet them.
As Harry left the world of grogginess his senses alerted him before he opened his eyes. The thin mattress accompanied by the aroma of antiseptic potions tipped him off. The infirmary. Great.
He only hoped he won the fight. Before making his awakened conscious known, he took a small inventory of his sore body. Breathing felt normal, not as labored as when the bludger crushed his ribs. Okay there. He flexed his legs, feeling the aching behind his knees, right, falling over that damned bench. Fucking cheap shot Draco. His right hand was hot, probably swollen and bandaged.
Slowly opening his eyes, he suddenly remembered the multiple blows to his face. His left eye's vision not only was red blurriness but now it was well on its way to swelling shut.
Perfect.
He scanned the infirmary for the other boy and found him to his left. Apparently Draco had not woke yet, or taking inventory. Harry reminded himself. Draco's face looked worse than what Harry thought his own might. The boy's nose was swelling slightly, dark circles ringed both eyes, a cut above his right eye drew Harry's attention. He couldn't remember if he caused that, or the quidditch match that preceded the fight.
Draco entered the near deserted Gryffindor locker rooms after the Quidditch match and began discussing, bitching, how the only reason that team received the win was Potter's deception.
In retrospect, Draco had never been one to defend his loss with accusations. For Merlin's sake, he usually was the one cheating. Why did he even come into the locker room? Harry's perplexed look was not masked as Snape approached.
"Finding it harder and harder not to deduct negative points from Gryffindor, Potter for pure stupidity." He thrust a vial into Harry's hand ordering him to drink. But Harry had other plans; he disgustingly looked through the vial at his professor, raising an eyebrow.
"What if I don't?"
"Don't tempt me, Mr. Potter."
Harry oddly tired quite quickly of their usual antics. He didn't feel like being ordered, and definitely didn't feel like falling into a dreamless sleep that resulted in a disorienting headache.
Harry stared at the professor and purposely dropped the glass vial onto the floor next to Snape's feet. Pleasantly smiling as the glass shattered. The Potions Master sputtered slightly before regaining his detached demeanor. As he formulated the correct clipped tone to use on Potter his attention was drawn to the other bed as the boy woke, groaning slightly. He quickly deserted Potter and leaned down to Draco.
Once Snape's attention was diverted, Harry kicked the sheets away from his overheated body. Too bad I can't fight regularly, his mind quipped, I'd never grow cold again.
His feet touched the cold ground, mindful of the shattered glass, just as he heard Poppy's soft growl.
"Harry, bed, laying in it now." Her soft tug from behind him sent him over the edge. He jerked away from her, slowly steadying his voice.
"Don't touch me."
Severus heard the tone and turned slightly. Something about that intrigued him. It wasn't anger or pleading. Just hard and cold. He wondered if that is what he sounded like.
He nodded to Poppy to let the boy up.
He began his administrations on Draco once again. Naturally, the Slytherin gulped down the potions and fell into a heavy sleep.
Why is Snape being nice to me now? Not thinking of a response to his own question, Harry rose slowly and drifted out of the infirmary, picking up his robe and clothes on the way out.
As he rounded a corner, still buttoning his robe over his bloody shirt, he collided into Dumbledore.
"My child, what happened? What are you doing walking around, come with me to the infirmary. I thought Severus said he transported both of you down there."
Harry had enough sense to wait for the man to finish before politely disagreeing.
"Yes sir, Professor Snape did apparently take both of us to the infirmary. But I awoke and left." He stated simply and went to buttoning his robe with his swollen hand.
"But you need to take the healing potions. Your face is a mess." Albus reached out to touch Harry's sweaty forehead, but the boy ducked away, placed a noticeable gap between himself and the other man.
"No thank you, sir. I know Poppy would have given me anything I needed to heal internal injuries before I awoke. I refuse to take a potion for anything more than that, sir." He locked eyes with the Headmaster, silently challenging him to question further.
"If Severus is being unusually difficult in treating you, I can tal-"
"I threw the healing potion on the ground, sir, it wasn't the professor. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Transfiguration essay I need to finish before tomorrow." He felt the shocked eyes of the Headmaster on his retreating figure and smiled at nothing, he was oddly pleased.
Severus watching the boy stride out of the room only slightly limping. He never imagined that the boy would actually leave the hall. Severus himself hated the infirmary though never ended up there as often as the hero. After tending to Draco, Severus stepped out into the hall listening to the Headmaster talk to the boy across the courtyard.
He's never been that brisk with Albus before. And that thought is oddly disconcerting.