Harry stared glumly down at his plate. It was the start of the Christmas holidays, and he was all alone. Ron had gone home to be with his family as his mum had gotten sick, and Hermione had gone to the south of France. This left Harry the only Gryffindor in the school. There were no Hufflepuff's, two Ravenclaws (who were dating each other, so no help there) and a few Slytherins.
Harry looked up at the Slytherin table,
directly into pair of soft, gray eyes. For an instant he thought he saw longing
in that gaze, but then it hardened, and Draco Malfoy sneered at him.
"Draco Malfoy?" Harry thought "What's he
doing here?" As far as Harry knew, Draco always went home for the holidays.
Harry suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. He got up from the table and headed
towards the Gryffindor common room. "Christmas" He said dejectedly to the fat
lady as he stepped through the hole.
He plonked himself down in the chair in
front of the fire. He was pretty much miserable and prepared to spend the rest
of the day in a sorry state of self loathing when an owl flew in the window. He
grabbed the note eagerly.
Dear Harry,
France is beautiful this time of the
year. The sun is shining and everything is lovely. I hope your not sitting
alone feeling sorry for yourself. If you are, then do something! Read! 'Hogwarts
a history' is particularly scintillating.
Love
Hermione
"Well", Harry thought "It's better then nothing!" and headed for the library.
#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
Draco
looked at Harry over at the Griffindor table. He was all alone and Draco felt a
pang of sympathy. Sympathy?! For Potter? Ugghh! What the hell was happening?
Ever since he started having those dreams…..
*Draco was walking along on a path. On
one side, there was a grassy field. On the other side was a barren desert land.
He knew that he'd have to make a decision soon. Treading this path would kill
him. He looked over at the dessert. He saw his father and him. His father
beating him, his father yelling at him, his father teaching him the dark arts
in preparation.
He turned to look at the meadow and saw
Harry. Harry helping him pick up his books, Harry laying a sympathetic hand on
his shoulder when Draco's mother died, Harry smiling at him. Which would he
choose? He was afraid to choose the dessert because if he did, he knew that he
would be forced to be mean and evil, as he'd been taught to be, for the rest of
his life. But how could he go to Potter? The obnocsious little goody goody had
always hated him. No, that wasn't true. Draco had forced Harry to hate him.
Every time Harry had tentively offered friendship, Draco had pushed him away,
until the offers ceased to come.
With a heavy heart, Draco would turn and
keep walking along the path.*
Draco snapped back to reality with a start
as a pair of deep green eyes looked into his. Quickly, Draco replaced his mask
of derision, and looked away. He was afraid of what Potter may have seen in his
momentarily unguarded gaze.
He watched sereptuously as Harry got up and
left the room, and felt his eyes strangely drawn to Harry's behind.
He mentally slapped himself "Draco you
fool!" he thought "Stop that at once!"
He needed to go somewhere to think.
Somewhere warm and quiet. Not in the Slytherin common room. That fool Pansy
could find him there. Draco got up and strode off towards the library.
He got there and scanned the shelves for a
book that he would have no chance of getting sucked into, but that every
student should read. His eyes landed on the last copy of 'Hogwarts: A history'
"Hmmm" he thought " That looks perfect". He picked it up, chose a page at random
and sat down not to read it.
#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
Harry walked into the library and saw Draco
sitting and reading. Harry started to look for 'Hogwarts: A history'. There
were no more copies left, just a gap where they should have stood. Harry
sighed. Now what? He didn't know what else to read! Hermione would know. The
problem was he was so sick of studying, that a book on practically any other
subject would seem like work. What he wouldn't give for a good fiction book.
He
glanced over at Draco and noticed that he was reading what was probably the
last copy of 'Hogwarts: A history'. And he didn't even look like he was reading
it either, just staring intently.
Even though he knew that he should probably
hate him like Ron did, Harry couldn't help thinking that there was more to
Draco then meets the eye. He was sure that no one could be that evil without a
reason. And that no one could be so mean that they couldn't be changed to be
nice. He decided to go over and ask if he might read the book, as Draco didn't
look too interested in it anyway.
#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
Draco noticed when Harry came into the
library, and was struggling hard not to stare. He had managed to keep his
glances down to one every 30 seconds, when he noticed Harry coming towards him.
Draco stared hard at the book, feeling his face go warm.
"Excuse me, Draco?" said Harry standing in
front of him, looking extremely nervous.
"Yes?" Draco said, surprising himself with
the way his voice shook slightly.
"Would I be able to read with you?" Whoa!
Where had that come from? Harry had meant to ask if he could borrow the book,
but something in the way Draco had looked…..maybe a tad vulnerable? Maybe just
because he'd sounded so unsure when he'd said "Yes". Whatever it was, Harry had
not wanted to leave him. Maybe he needed a friend?
"Oh my god!" Draco thought "What the
hell?!" He was so shocked that he just croaked out "Ok" before going back to
staring at his book. His body tensed as Harry sat down next to him. Draco
shoved the book towards the center of the table
"So, where are you up to?" Harry asked.
Draco just pointed to somewhere on the page. "Ummm, I don't suppose we could
read it the right way up?" asked Harry.
"What?!" exclaimed Draco, looking anxiously
down at the book. He hadn't had it upside down all this time had he? No, the
book was right way up. What was Potter thinking of. He looked up to see Harry
grinning impishly at him.
"Made you look!" Harry said teasingly
"That's not funny Potter!" he said
irritated
"Yes it is Malfoy!" replied Harry. Draco
just glared at him and looked resolutely down at the book.
Harry started to read next to him. Draco
just tried not to concentrate on where their thighs touched. Harry let out a
chuckle.
"I
can't believe that happened!" he announced pointing to a section of
writing. Draco leaned over him to read it.
"…A former headmaster of the school was
fascinated with the whereabouts of the squid during winter. One season he dived
down into the lake, through the ice. He was missing for three days, and was
eventually found, hanging upside down from his bedroom balcony singing "it's a
small world after all", and remained incoherent for the next few days…"
"I just had this image of professor
Dumbledore upside down" Harry explained. Draco, whose mind was now also forming
a picture of Dumbledore, burst out laughing.
For a moment, their eyes met and held, then
Harry blushed and quickly looked away. "Are you ready to turn the page now?" He
asked. Draco just nodded mutely.
From that moment on, Harry and Draco seemed
to form a truce. Draco even read some of the book with Harry.
Well
there is a lot more but I want to know what people think…I do not own anything
this fic was written by my friend Miasmas and I had to convince her to put it
on fanfic, it gets even funnier as it goes along so please review I m sure Miasmas will appreciate it…