A Winter's Tale
'Draco... Draco, c'mon, listen...' whispered an impatient sounding voice from... beneath him?
'Are you under the table?' Draco asked slightly disbelieving. Why had he agreed to this?
'Yeah, c'mon I wanna show you something!' the voice came again and Draco sighed.
'I will not crawl under this table, Potter. You might be a Gryffindor and dignity doesn't seem to mean anything to you, but I cannot be seen doing something as undignified as that...' silence, then suddenly something grabbed his legs, pulled him under the table and threw a cloak over him. He could still see everything that was going on around them, so he concluded that it was the invisibility cloak they were hiding under yet again. At least this way no one would see him on the floor like that.
'Oh? Potter, are you really that desperate?' he asked mockingly, a smirk dancing on his lips. Harry though only cocked his head on the side and looked at him blankly.
'I don't think I even want to know what you're talking about-'
'Oh, I'm sure you do'
'- I wanted to show you something that I'm sure you have failed to notice yet,' he continued on, grinning.
Draco raised an eyebrow.
'What makes you think I would miss anything going on in the castle?'
'Because you have been in the castle the whole day, studying, and what I mean isn't,' he continued on cheekily and began to lead him out of the library and up many stairs, through many corridors and passages Draco was sure nobody else knew of.
How the hell did Harry know of all of these secret ways anyways?
He realized after a while that they were heading toward the astronomy tower and stopped suddenly, causing in the cloak to slip off of him.
After two more steps Harry realized that he was gone and, shedding the cloak too, turned around to look at him questioningly. Luckily they were in one of those secret corridors at the moment.
'Why are we going there?' Draco asked, a slight scowl on his face. Harry just looked confused
'The astronomy tower. Potter, honestly, are you really that oblivious?' it was easy to see as comprehension dawned on the brunette's face and then morphed into something like sadness.
'I'm so sorry, Draco... If you want to, we can go to the owlery instead...' he said making Draco sigh again.
It wasn't like Draco was the one that hadn't once gone to the Astronomy tower since that day. He had continued his astronomy lessons, so he hadn't had much of a choice in that matter. It was Harry who hadn't been up there since the former headmaster had been killed.
'It's not me I am worried about. Have you at least once been up there since then?' Harry looked away, a slightly guilty expression on his face.
'Not really, no...'
'Then I guess it's best if we go together, lest you get any stupid ideas and jump...' Harry glowed a bright red at that.
'I wouldn't do that!' he exclaimed, Draco just raised an eyebrow sceptically. The idea wasn't that farfetched, as that had been how they had come together... sort of...
Harry had been in the owlery, or rather at the edge of the owlery, contemplating to do exactly what Draco had accused him of doing just now, when Draco entered.
He had of course stopped him. He really hadn't understood at the beginning, but as it turned out, Potter was purposeless and that was something he couldn't deal with.
Draco actually still couldn't understand how someone needed to be needed that much but he didn't mind at all giving the brunette a purpose again. After all, he was needed that way too and even though he hadn't even thought about suicide when he wasn't needed, he liked the feeling as well. As it turned out the two of them really fit together very well once they had looked past their old rivalries.
'I really wouldn't... not anymore,' he said quietly, shyly looking up at him through his lashes, making Draco smile at him.
'I know...' It was really nice to be needed for once.
'So, are you coming?' Harry asked, starting to walk again, Draco nodded and followed wondering what it was that Harry was so eager to show him.
They both went the rest of the way in silence, hidden to the rest of the world under the invisibility cloak.
When they reached the tower they took it off again. No one used the tower at day-time. It was there to watch and study the stars after all.
Harry skipped to the edge of the tower and turned around, his arms spread out
'Ta-Dah!' he exclaimed happily. Draco raised an eyebrow
'What is it?' he asked. He really couldn't see what was having Harry so excited
'It's snowing you dolt! It's really pretty, just come here and look at the view!' he said, pouting slightly, which Draco was finding rather cute actually, but he still came over.
He had to admit that it really was a magnificent view. Snow was gently but steadily falling down, blanketing the whole schoolgrounds and forest.
The black lake was beginning to freeze, and in the distance you could see smoke, most certainly from chimneys in Hogsmead, rising while, even further away the sun had started to sink plunging everything in red and orange.
In short, it looked like a really corny postcard.
He realized that Harry was looking up at him expectantly and he gave the smaller boy a smile.
'It really is beautiful,' he said. He cupped the others face in his hands and leaned down to kiss him softly 'Thank you for showing me,' he murmured into it.
'You're welcome,' Harry whispered with a smile, after they parted again. They just stayed there for a moment, enjoying the view and each other's company, when he heard Harry's stomach rumble.
'Hungry?' he smirked as the other's cheeks turned slightly red.
'We could have a picnic actually...' he mused and before Harry could even say anything about it he had summoned a house elf to prepare everything and set up warming charms around the blanket and a few warming flames that didn't actually burn, because he knew just how fascinated Harry was with those little flames. Draco would never have thought how amusing it could be to be with someone raised by muggles. The way Harry's eyes would light up, whenever Draco did a spell or charm that he had not yet seen or found fascinating... Draco was sure he had never researched so many spells without them being for school, just to see that look...
The House Elf showed up again with an assortment of Sandwiches, some goulash, cakes and cookies and of course hot tea, -chocolate and mulled wine (how the elves got alcohol into school he'd never know...).
It was actually quite romantic (and corny...so very corny), Draco mused, and he knew that Harry loved romantic things.
Harry thanked the little elf for the great work and it popped away blushing and spluttering making Draco shake his head fondly.
'I will never understand why you insist on always thanking them for every little thing they do,' he said
'It's just nice to be thanked for something, don't you think so too? I'd appreciate people thanking me if I were in their shoes.'
'They're not wearing shoes,' Draco deadpanned and promptly got a slight hit on the head for it.
'You know what I mean!' Harry exclaimed and Draco couldn't help laughing at that adorable pout on his Gryffindor's face making the other boy laugh too.
It was pretty rare for both of them to laugh so openly and most of the time they did so together. Draco always relished in the sound of Harry's laugh.
He hadn't realized it at the beginning of their 'second seventh' year, but after the war Harry's laugh and even smiles had become rare and scarce. But he had realized faster than his friends (which might have had to do with him accidentally being at the right place the right time, but he still blamed the Weasel and Granger for being too invested with each other to not realize how depressed their best friend was) and so he was the one that got Harry. Harry's trust, his smiles, his laugh, his friendship and most importantly: his love.
They both hadn't said that they loved each other yet, but both knew. And why would you need to say something that was so glaringly obvious? At least to themselves. They showed their love to each other with smaller and grander things, like the picnic they were enjoying at the moment.
And for now, that was all they need.
The End
Merry Christmas to everyone! :D
I hope you liked it! :) I myself feel, like this is very close to being too corny, so I decided to upload it during Christmas-time ;) it's the one time of the year when corniness like this is allowed ;D
uuuhm, to everyone that reads Another Beginning, I just wanted to say, that I have NOT abandoned that story! But I only want to update, when I can guarantee to update regularly, and it seems pretty impossible right now... :( But don't despair, it will be continued! Sometime... really...
Please comment and tell me what you thought of it! Even a small "nice story" would be great :D Criticism is also very welcome!
So once more: Merry Christmas!
