Harry sighed heavily. He needed a break, hence the reason he was currently sitting off the edge of the astronomy tower, his feet dangling carelessly as he watched the tiny figures of the passing students of Hogwarts from above. He was jealous. Jealous that they didn't have the threat of the greatest Dark Lord in a century being their responsibility. Jealous that they probably all had loving parents. Jealous that they didn't have to worry every time they turned a corner that the dark lord might be waiting for them, ready to strike them down at any time. Yes, he was jealous. He sighed once more and fiddled with the nine and a half inch length of holly wood in his hands, idly twisting and twirling it.
One minute he was envying the passing Hogwarts students, and the next he was lying flat on his back with a fresh bruise on the back of his head. "Unh-!" He yelped as someone pulled him off of the ledge, onto the unforgiving stone floor below. His eyes widened as he gasped for air to refill his lungs. Voldemort! Wait, no. Not Voldemort! Unless Voldemort had somehow possessed the body of a Slytherin girl named Tracey Davis.
"What the bloody hell's wrong with you?" Harry cursed once the air in his lungs had returned. She had him bound and tied with thick conjured ropes on the floor.
"You were gonna jump! I couldn't just let you kill yourself!" She screeched indignantly, throwing her hands into the air. Her long black hair flew with them and it was splayed in a slightly frazzled mess.
She thought he was going to kill himself? What the hell was... Oh. He realized that sitting on the edge of a two thousand foot tower with a depressed expression on your face may look a bit suicidal.
"I wasn't going to kill myself." Harry retorted bitterly. He had thought about it before, and, as appealing as it sounded, he knew that he couldn't just abandon the world to Voldemort like that.
"Oh sure you weren't." She replied sarcastically. Harry's eyes narrowed.
"Can you please let me out?" Harry asked as politely as he could.
"How do I know you won't just throw yourself off the side as soon as I do?"
Oh this was getting ridiculous.
"I'll give you a wizards oath."
"Like that'll make a difference! You'd be dead anyway!"
"Oh my God! Seriously?"
"What were you doing here then?" She asked him with an inquiring eye.
"I could ask the same thing." He threw back, not missing a beat.
"For your information, I can here to clear my head." She said, returning to the cold façade that Harry was used to.
"You're not the only one." Harry replied sullenly. Just like that, the tension between the two was cut like butter. It seemed they both shared the need for peace.
"What problems could you have?" She asked. "You're the bloody boy who lived."
Harry rolled his eyes. Typical. "Let's put it this way. How would you feel if you knew you were the only person in the world who could defeat the dark lord of the century, and if you didn't, all of the people you knew were going to suffer. A lot." He was open about the prophecy now that Rita Skeeter had just recently release a whole front page article on it.. Her last article... Or, least as a human. Or a vertebrate for that matter. Lets just say, she's embraced the whole "Save the rain forest" thing.
Tracey's face paled. She'd never thought of it like that. "Oh, sorry. I guess I didn't realize..." She trailed off, not knowing how to finish the statement.
"Don't worry, it's normal. So, what's wrong with you?" He asked awkwardly. She being a Slytherin, and him a Gryffindor, they had never really spoken but a few words here and there.
"I- uh- Well, since we probably won't ever talk to each other again, I'll be honest. You-know-who has been pressuring my family to join him. My uncle was killed last week for saying no, and I'm really not sure what to do. I don't want to, but what if I don't? What if I do?" Tears were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. She leaned against the wall, putting more of her weight on it than before.
Harry fidgeted uneasily in his rope bindings. He never was good with crying women. She quickly wiped away her tears.
"Sorry, I just..." She couldn't continue; that much was obvious.
"It's ok. I know it helps to just talk about it. Sorry I couldn't be a better listener." He replied sheepishly.
"I don't really know you but... It's just so easy to open up to you. Too easy." She explained. It was frightening that she let out weeks of built up tension on an almost total stranger.
"Well, maybe we should get to know each other." He said hesitantly, unsure of her reply.
She smiled. That was exactly what she wanted to hear.
