Disclaimer: I'm not the original author of the Harry Potter series. :)
A/N: I'm back! Yeahh
Chapter 1
"Harry… I think we should go back now."
"No."
They went on walking under the invisibility cloak. The floor was full of little silver pools, the trace of the moon's soft rays glistening through the windows.
"Harry…"
"Ron, shut up! We're going to get caught!"
"Harry, this is crazy" muttered the red-head, stopping dead-tracks "; we go back to our bedroom, now."
Harry sighed. He knew it wouldn't work. He gently grabbed Ron's arm, trying to make him walk by force.
"We have to, Ron. This is for Hermione's sake. Something's going on, you know it! We have to discover what all of this is about."
It was no use, Ron resisted Harry's tugging with all his strength. Their shoes collided against the stoned floor, making little clacking noises that echoed all the way to the end of the long corridor.
"RON!" screamed Harry, forgetting for a moment anything about being silent. "Don't be such a sissy! Ron!" Harry went back to hushed mutterings" Something's happening to her… If she doesn't want to tell us, it's up to us to get to know what's wrong. Don't you understand, Ron? Don't you fucking understand?"
Harry grabbed Ron's both shoulders, trying not to let his irritation show on his face. Feeling the cloak sliding down his shoulders, he grabbed the watery fabric and placed it higher up his back. He fixed his best friend with serious determination, feeling his hands tremble slightly.
"I'm not scared, Harry…"
"Then, what's wrong?"
"All of this! You know we shouldn't spy on her like this! Why don't we just try and ask her?"
"Because she won't speak to us! How do you plan on asking her anything, if you can't talk to her, not even get near her? She's our friend, Ron –"
"Was."
"She still is, goddamn it! And you and me know she has a problem and we're going to help her, whatever happens! She is our friend, always was, always will be! And helping each other is what friends do!"
Ron remained silent.
"So, Ron?" Harry hissed impatiently "You're on?"
"…I'm on."
Harry grinned, his spectacles sparkling with the moon's faint light. They started walking again, making as little noise as possible. They were heading towards the library, where Hermione was. It had already been a few months since she had stopped talking to them. Suddenly, just like that, she had cut off their relationship. It looked as if, for her, their friendship didn't exist anymore. At first Ron and Harry had tried to quarrel her, getting no reaction from their now former friend. Then, they tried to ignore her. After that they resumed to argue with her… But nothing worked. She ignored them, and there was no reason to it. After some time, the two boys realized something more was up with her. She no longer spent hours studying (however her grades hadn't faltered at all), she came back more and more late to the Common Room, she had even skipped two or three lessons, something that had never happened before.
Even if their relationship no longer existed, Ron and Harry began madly worrying about her. So that same day they had decided to follow her in her nightly escapades, and now the two boys were hastily heading towards the library.
"Harry! Harry!" suddenly muttered Ron, interrupting Harry's thinking.
"What?!" asked Harry looking up at his best friend's horrified face. "What's wrong?"
"Shhhhh…! Look…"
Ron pointed at something far beyond them with a trembling finger.
"I don't see anything…"
"Look harder! Stop, stop walking! Don't make a noise, Harry!"
Harry's eyes turned into two little slits as he put all of his strength in trying to see what Ron was all worked up about. He then saw it: a bunch of perfectly immaculate blond hair creeping at the library's door, looking at something inside of it and trying not to be seen.
"Malfoy?"
"Yes, you dork! It's him! What's he doing here?" said Ron with a strangled voice, gulping difficulty.
"Let's get closer."
"What? No!"
They stumbled when their feet were intertwined, Harry advancing towards the door, Ron wanting to hide behind a sculpture.
"We've already got the cloak! Stop trying to hide! Let's just get closer without making any noise and try to find out what he's doing here…"
Ron followed Harry reluctantly. They took off their shoes and walked on the point of their feet. When they were a mere three meters from Malfoy, a sweet mango scent made its way up their noses.
"His fucking shampoo." mouthed Harry wrinkling his nose and pointing to his own hair.
"I like it…" silently answered the red head with a dumb founded expression.
Harry rolled his eyes and then fixed the blond. Malfoy wasn't moving. His hands were lightly placed on the doorframe, his body was completely hidden behind the wall, only his face was visible from the interior of the library. He breathed calmly, gazing into the darkness. Harry and Ron tried to look in the same direction, but they saw nothing.
It was like this for some time, until, suddenly, Malfoy turned brusquely and ran silently down the corridor and rapidly tried to blend in with the darkness behind a sculpture.
Ron and Harry panicked. They glued themselves to the wall, hoping that not one bit of their bodies wasn't covered by the cloak.
Blaise Zabini rushed out of the library, eyeing carefully the place.
"There's no one" he muttered to someone behind him.
"Perfect." Hermione followed him. "We better be careful, this is Filch's favourite time of the night."
Ron and Harry's breath stopped in their throats. Harry saw Malfoy's eyes widen impossibly big and the sight. His mouth parted slightly with surprise.
Zabini and Hermione, unaware of the three presences, rushed off into the night, speaking quietly and seriously to each other.
Harry sighed silently. When Ron made a move to go, Harry stopped him. He waited for Malfoy to come out of his hideout and disappear out of their sight. He then took off the cloak from them.
"What just happened?" muttered Ron.
"Hermione's night matters were… Zabini?" gulped Harry while adjusting his spectacles.
"…No… There's something else to it. Zabini's not the only problem… Hermione wouldn't have changed like that if there wasn't something serious going on."
"Zabini can be something serious."
"Harry… You forced me to come here. Don't jump to conclusions so stupidly. You don't normally do that. There is something big happening, right here, right now."
"…And Malfoy knows something about it."
Ron looked at him intensely.
"Perhaps he doesn't. Didn't you see his face? He was just as shocked as us."
"Yeah… You're right."
Harry sat on the floor, feeling all the strength of his body abandon him.
"This is too much."
"Yeah." Ron sat beside him. They stayed a few minutes gazing trough the windows, looking at the stars, those shining beings that, each night, saw everything that happened under their light and never spoke about it.
"Let's go, Ron."
**
The morning after, Ron and Harry were having breakfast with Dean, Seamus and the twins, while Hermione sat with Neville and Luna who, lately, always came to the Gryffindor table to chat with the two of them.
"Look at her. She acts as if nothing happened."
"She doesn't know we saw her."
"Guys." suddenly blurted out Dean "Look at her. She's sad. She's depressed. Look at her. She doesn't smile anymore…"
"Yeah. You should make peace with her. You're her best buddies." pointed out Seamus.
"Don't you think we already tried that?" angrily spat Ron. "We tried a friggin' hundred times. She doesn't want to know anything about her. Nothing. We don't exist anymore…"
"She's nothing without you two, Ron, you know that. She needs you. Aren't I right, George?"
"Yeah, Ron, Fred's right. Harry, you should stand up and go talk to her."
Harry felt something click in his mind.
"We already tried a hundred times. Stop repeating this every morning, just stop." He muttered with contained rage. His breathing was hard and his cheeks were turning slightly red. He couldn't calm down until he felt Ron's comforting hand on his shoulder, reminding him that loosing his cool would resolve nothing.
"See you later, guys. Me and Harry are going off." he stand up, urging Harry to do the same thing. "C'mon mate. Let's go."
"See ya, guys." chanted the twins.
They exited the Great Hall, Harry trailing Ron with his head down. He turned his fists into balls, dugging his nails into the delicate skin of his hands.
"C'mon man. Don't worry. Just don't listen to them anymore. They can't understand that what's happening can't be resolved talking. C'mon, let's sit on the grass."
They exited the castle and sat under a tree after ten minutes of walking. There was nothing around them but silence, which helped to gradually calm Harry down.
"Man, I think I saw the fork twitch a little!" joked Ron "Control your rage or we'll have to eat with our bare hands!"
Harry chuckled. He inwardly thanked Ron for being so comprehensive with his brusque spouts of rage.
"We'll follow her tonight. We're going to resolve this in no time." Said Ron.
"What the hell was she doing with Zabini?"
"I don't know, man. They must be lovers."
"They didn't act like lovers…"
"Maybe they're just fuck-buddies."
"That doesn't explain Hermione's attitude."
"…No, it doesn't."
"And Malfoy…"
"What about me?"
Ron and Harry whirled around and saw Malfoy standing beside the tree. They stared at the blonde, horrified. His arms were folded around his manly chest, and he shivered slightly since the air was cold and he was wearing no coat. His eyes were filled with hate and disrespect, and his mouth was twisted with a disgusted motion.
"What about me?"
"…No – nothing." Stuttered Harry, twisting his hands nervously.
"Don't give me that fucking stupid answer, Pot-Head. What the fuck about me?!"
Ron rose, defiant.
"Sod off, Malfoy. Go away, we don't want to fight right now."
"You were talking about me."
"SOD OFF!!" screamed Harry, feeling the hair on the back of his neck tremble at the sudden surge of excitement.
"NO!!"
Ron and Harry didn't understand Malfoy's strange behaviour.
"What the hell do you want?!" spat Harry.
"Tell. Me. Why were you speaking about me."
Ron and Harry looked at each other, not knowing what to answer.
"That's not your problem, Malfoy" answered Harry, trying to adopt a menacing tone. "Leave us alone."
"No."
Ron launched himself at him.
"RON!" Harry tried to stop the red head, who threw a fast punch at Malfoy, who dodged it surprisingly gracefully. Harry took his wand out, ready to use magic to stop the fight if needed.
Malfoy and Ron were struggling on the grass, and Harry didn't dare to throw a spell in fear it could hit Ron.
"Stop!" screamed Malfoy. "Fucking stop! I want to talk! Raaarrghh!" he punched angrily at Ron in the face, who felt dizzy for a moment. Malfoy took advantage of that to slip out from under the red head and rest against the tree.
Harry pointed at his face with his wand, and muttered:
"Speak. Now."
"YOU SPEAK! YOU TELL ME WHAT THE HELL YOU KNOW ABOUT ZABINI AND GRANGER!!!"
He was breathing hard, his face was flushed, he looked like an angry wolf showing his fangs to the enemy. He didn't seem to be scared of Harry's wand, he ignored it and fixed the brunette with an expression filled with rage.
"WHY WERE YOU SPEAKING ABOUT ME!!"
"STOP SCREAMING MALFOY!!" screamed Ron, who was still on the floor.
Remembering about Ron's dizziness, Harry asked:
"You okay mate?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Harry put his wand down. He looked at Malfoy with a shocked expression.
"What do you know about Hermione?"
"What do you know about her?"
Harry sighed, frustrated.
"Why should I answer you?"
"Why should I answer you?"
"Stop, you two." muttered Ron. "Hermione doesn't speak to us. She spends every night out of the Dormitories. We are trying to find out why. We saw her yesterday, getting out of the Library with Zabini."
"What? You're lying. I was there yesterday, and I didn't see you."
"We were… hidden." explained Harry. "And we saw you."
"So Zabini is acting strange, too?" asked Ron.
"You saw me? Where?"
"SO, Zabini is acting strange too. Don't speak about what isn't important."
Malfoy eyed him suspiciously.
"Yes. He almost doesn't speak. He goes out every night to do I don't know what… And it seems like he's involved with the Mudblood."
"Malfoy…" grunted the two other boys, warning him against insulting Hermione.
"There's something wrong with him. So I decided to follow him… And I heard you, just now, mentioning his name, so I wondered… I you knew something…"
"It seems that we don't know much more than you" said Harry, looked at him with defeated eyes.
"It seems so."
Silence reigned again.
"Okay, Potter, Weasel –"
"Weasley."
"If you don't suggest it, I will." he ran a hand trough his perfect hair "Let's unite forces. Let's do this together."
"Do what together?"
"Discover what's up." muttered the blond through clenched teeth.
"You're joking, right? Us and you, do something together?"
"Yes, Potter. It will be too difficult to do it alone. So let's unite forces, the three of us."
"What if you're trying to set us a trap?"
"What for? You fucking air-head, Potter, I'm desperate to know what's going on, just like you two."
"Okay. We'll do it together." Snapped Ron.
"What?!"
"Perfect."
Ron and Malfoy locked hands.
"See you tonight at 10 p.m. in front of the Great Hall."
"See you."
Then Malfoy walked rapidly away, not turning towards them once. Harry stood there, gaping like a red fish out of the water. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. Unite forces?
"Stop making that stupid face, Harry." Smirked Ron.
"This… Y – you…"
"It'll be all right, this is for the best."
"The best?"
"I told you, we'll resolve this in no time."
"But y – you locked hands with Malfoy. Malfoy!"
"Sacrifices need to be done in times of trouble. Harry… You know this better than anyone. Hermione is in trouble. Malfoy is serious, I don't think he's setting us a trap. He was truly worried. Just remember the face he made, he's desperate." Ron sighed. "Harry… I know this can be difficult and shocking, but think, just think. This is our only option for the moment. …C'mon, you're all ready to do this alone, to follow Hermione every night, you talk about being friends with her and all that shit, and you don't want a little help?! I know it's Malfoy, Harry, but he can be a great help! It's better like this… The more, the better! You know that!"
Harry remained silent, knowing that Ron was waiting for an answer. Finally, he sighed reluctantly. He put his hands into his pockets and pouted unconsciously.
"Okay, man. But if he tries anything fishy, it's over."
"Done."
They went back to the castle, suddenly realizing that they were late for potions.
**
Harry and Malfoy were cramped up in a tiny cupboard. It was long past midnight, they had been spying Hermione and Blaise in the library when they suddenly had to run away and hide in the first place they found, as the Slytherin suddenly declared that he had heard voices nearby and had set off to search for them.
"Gosh – where the hell is Ron?"
"I don't fucking know, Potter! I think I saw him turn the corner."
"Shit… Ron… What if he's seen?"
"You should concentrate on not making ourselves be discovered, you dumbass. You're making too much noise."
There was barely any place to move. Harry and Malfoy were standing up, squeezed one against the other. There was a faint light and all kind of cleansing tools.
"Did you hear anything they said?"
"No. I only saw them flipping trough some books from the Forbidden Section."
"… Malfoy, I can't breathe."
"Calm down, Potter. Be a man and wait for a while, we still can't get out."
"Can't you give me a little more space?! I'm all cramped up in here!"
"I am too!! Who the hell do you think you are, Potter? You fucking little egoistical hero!"
"Stop insulting me, daddy's boy!"
Malfoy hissed with rage, getting ready to snap another insult at Harry, when he suddenly heard muffled voices approaching the cupboard. He clamped a cold hand over Harry's mouth. He recognized Blaise's and Granger's voices who were returning to the library. As they were walking past their hideout, het felt Potter bite his hand down. He cried silently as the brunette's teeth sank into his skin.
"Potter!" he murmured.
When Granger's and Blaise's voices were at a safe distance, he snatched his hand away from Potter's mouth. He angrily took the smaller boy's neck into his hand and began to slightly strangle him. The boy tried to defend himself, but he was stronger. He released his grip only when he heard strange gurgling noises making their way up the scar-heads throat.
"You fucking bastard!" cried Potter with a raspy voice. "You tried to kill me!"
"You tried to bite my hand off!"
Potter tried to hurt him, but he could barely move since there was too little space.
"I hate you!" he hissed.
"I feel the same."
Harry saw Malfoy trying to open the door, gulp, and mutter:
"We're locked."
Harry tried to unlock the door, but the spell didn't work.
"We're locked…"
"Shit."
Half an hour went by. By that time, the two boys were sweating and swearing under their breaths. They had tried all the unlocking spells they knew, and none worked. Their legs hurt terribly and their bodies were stiff from being so much time in the same position.
"I'm hot…" whined Harry.
"Shut up, Potter. I am too".
The brunette started wriggling madly.
"What the hell are you doing, Potter?"
"I'm trying to get cool, do you mind?" grunted Harry with and irritated tone, frantically trying to unbutton his shirt. "Shit, I can't! There's too little space!"
"I can't believe this, Potter. Are you a man or a fucking kid?"
His hands snaked their way up Harry's shirt.
"Le me do it."
He knew he was making the boy furious, and he loved the feeling. He grimaced, disgusted, feeling the sweaty fabric on his hands. The brunette's skin was glistening with sweat, red from the excessive heat. Draco could see it was normally immaculately white, and wondered half absently how it looked like when it wasn't covered in sweat and dirt. It was difficult to move in such a tiny space, but either way the buttons slipped easily in his hands.
"See? It's not difficult. Geez, Potter, you're disgusting, you're sweating like a pig."
He felt the other boy's breathing get hard.
"What, Pot-head? Don't like me calling you a pig?" he snickered under his breath.
He was shocked to hear a furious hissing coming from the other boy's mouth. He stopped his ministrations, listening to the sounds Potter was making. Parseltongue! He stared at him, utterly shocked, faintly scared by those furious emerald eyes.
Potter stopped suddenly. Draco saw a reddish colour taint his white cheeks, and seconds after the silence was broken when the brunette muttered:
"Sometimes… when I get angry… I just – it slips out of my mouth. …Well, I don't know why the hell I'm giving you an explanation! Just leave me alone, Malfoy!"
Draco didn't say anything else. His mind was somewhere else. He was suddenly very aware of how close they were, of how he felt Potter's breath on his neck, of how he felt his bare skin against the black fabric of his robes. He was scared of the shiver he had felt when listening to the boy hissing at him, of the electrifying feeling that shook his body. He was scared of the craving he presently felt to hear more of that marvellous and mysterious language, of the wriggles their bodies made one against the other.
But, more than anything, he was terrified at the exciting jolt he had felt on the lower parts of his body when the smaller boy was hissing all over him, unconsciously rubbing their bodies together in the most impossibly pleasant manner he had ever seen.