Harry watched the black dot move across the map. Draco Malfoy was climbing the steps up from the dungeon, as Harry was lying on his stomach in bed, illuminating the map with his wand. Malfoy was planning something sinister, but watching his name float around a map of the castle wasn't going to give Harry any answers.
A sudden spontaneity seized him and Harry pulled his invisibility cloak from beneath his pillow and crept out of the boys' dormitory. By the time he caught up with Malfoy and put away his map, he was walking down a deserted corridor on the third floor. This area of the castle seemed to be filled primarily with disused classrooms being used as storage. Harry, Rob and Hermione often spent time here in an empty classroom to study or talk, since other students rarely journeyed this direction.
At the end of the corridor, Malfoy turned left and opened a classroom door. Harry had to hurry to sneak in behind him before he closed the door. He was barely through when the door clicked shut. Harry tried to move further into the room and felt the cloak pull against him. A corner of the fabric was trapped in the door. Harry couldn't free it without risking being seen or heard, so he stood still.
"Well, well, Longbottom," Malfoy's voice softly echoed through the room, whose walls were lined with tables and chairs stacked so high, they could only be staying up by the force of some spell.
With all of the clutter, Harry hadn't noticed the other figure in the room. At the opposite end, Neville stood in his pajamas and slippers. Under the cloak, Harry quietly withdrew his wand, waiting to hex Malfoy before he could make his first move.
"Hello Draco," Neville's voice was calm and even, so unlike Neville in every way. He was no longer the small chubby boy he was in first year, when Draco stole his Remembrall. He'd grown nearly a full foot, thinned out and his features had matured. Yet Neville was still nervous and unsure, needing protection from bullies and teachers, which Harry gladly gave. But now, standing at the end of the classroom, alone with his biggest bully, Neville seemed like a different person. He stood tall, with no slouch and met Malfoy's eyes without fear.
Malfoy walked toward Neville. Harry, still confused, didn't move, more curious than worried for Neville's safety.
"Isn't it past your bedtime? I thought a Gryffindor would be keener on following curfew." Malfoy kept walking toward Neville.
"And why would you think that?" He smirked and kept his eyes locked on Malfoy.
"Because you Gryffindors are the good guys, yes? Now, Slytherins? We're the baddies. We can break all the rules we want."
"Only Slytherins break the rules? What do you think I'm doing?"
Malfoy was less than a foot from Neville. He reached out, grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him forward. When they kissed, Neville wrapped one arm around Malfoy's waist, grabbing his robes in his first. The other hand was in the other boy's long, white-blonde hair, delicately cradling the back of his head. Malfoy pushed Neville against the wall and slowly began to sink to his knees as Neville looked down at him, smiling. The two boys looked so at ease with one another. Harry, quiet and invisible, began to feel a pressure in his chest, like a cement block had just been dropped on it. Further down, he felt something entirely different, but equally strange.
Harry was still stuck next to the door. The room was only about twenty feet deep, but he was too far away to hear what Neville was frantically whispering to Malfoy, who was burrowed between his legs. Soon Neville went quiet, closed his eyes and gasped as a shudder went through his body. After a moment, he smiled. "Now it's my turn. " He helped the blonde boy to his feet and took Malfoy's previous position. Harry watched as Malfoy's mouth curled, not into a sneer, but a placid smile.
When Malfoy finished, Neville stood up and the two boys shared a slow, deep kiss. Neville brushed a lock of hair away from the boy's face. "Tell me when I can see you again.
"I will." Without saying goodbye, Malfoy turned and walked to the door.
Harry freed his cloak as the door opened and closed again, but he didn't move. The other Gryffindor stayed a few moments longer, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. When he left, he extinguished the two candles that had lit the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Harry alone and in the dark.
The next day at breakfast, Harry felt like someone had cast Muffliato on him. Ron and Hermione's voices hit his ears like a soft buzzing. Malfoy was sitting across the hall, lording over his cronies. The familiarity he had seen between Malfoy and Neville rankled him. He knew last night was not the first time they had been together. Neville walked into the Great Hall and sat across from Harry and Malfoy didn't even glance in his direction. Neville smiled at Harry, opened a book and began reading while eating his toast, crumbs falling onto the pages already littered with diagrams of leaves and flowers. Harry was familiar with secrets; people could carry them around for years, or their entire lives, hiding them from the people closest to them. But seeing these two hide something this well was confusing. Even more confusing was the feeling that Neville had somehow betrayed him, and maybe so had Malfoy.
"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione's brow furrowed as she took a drink from her tea cup and kept her eyes on him.
"What? Yeah." He looked away from Neville to meet Hermione's eyes. She continued to survey him over her cup.
"You look like you haven't slept." She kept her voice low, to Harry's appreciation. "I know you must be worried. You know you can talk to me."
"Some things I need to work through myself"
"I know this is your mission, but Dumbledore trusts us to help you."
Last night's discovery had driven his lessons with Dumbledore out of his mind. "Oh! Yeah, I know. I will. Yes."
Harry quickly finished his eggs and left the Great Hall at a fast walk. Harry leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt that same weight on his chest like a cement block. If he moved, he was sure his breakfast would spill out. A few minutes later, the other students started streaming out to head to classes.
"What's the matter, scar head?" Draco was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, both chuckling. "Wondering when you'll be joining your mum and dad?" His minions laughed even harder.
Malfoy's taunting voice grew distant down the hall as Harry set his face and made his way toward class.
Harry was again in bed with the curtains drawn, the map open and illuminated by wandlight. It had been a week since he'd seen them together and every night since, he stayed awake hours later than the other boys, waiting for Neville to sneak out. Each night he had been disappointed, but still studied Malfoy's dot move around the castle. Some nights he couldn't find him and woke in the morning with the map clutched in his hands and his wand poking him in the ribs. He wasn't anymore optimistic tonight, but still he kept watch. Tonight, Malfoy's dot was moving slowly down a third floor corridor. He was alone. Harry's heart quickened just as he heard a rustle of bedsheets and the soft sound of feet hitting the wood of the floor.
Once again, Harry stalked the halls in his cloak, invisible a short distance behind his classmate. Neville walked fast, he was taller than Harry now, and his long legs took wide, hasty strides. At the end of the corridor, a door was ajar. Harry sped up to overpass the other boy and entered the room before Neville.
Inside, Malfoy sat at a desk, looking less haughty than usual, more subdued. Neville closed the door and Malfoy looked up, smiling coyly. He stood to meet Neville in the center of the room, a few strides away from Harry, who was pressed against the wall.
"I was starting to think I'd been stood up." Malfoy reached up to touch Neville's face, but Neville pushed his arm away.
"I probably should have."
"Why?" Malfoy looked indignant.
"What you said to Harry! That first year you hexed! Everything your mates do and say! How can you say that, after everything!"
"You know that's not who I am! That's just how they want me to be."
"Well, when are you going to stop doing what they want?!"
"You know what I'd be risking! What I have to do for them..." Malfoy's voice grew weak and distant.
"Neville still looked angry. "We can't be together if you never even act like you!"
"Together? We're not together. I am not your boyfriend. " Malfoy's retort was cold and quick and seemed to have taken Neville off. He opened and closed his mouth, then turned around and left.
Harry had turned to follow him out when he heard a stifled sob.