A/U: Thanks for looking at my story, if you would please review ! I'd like to know what you think!:D
It was a frosty Christmas Eve morning at Hogwarts school; where Harry and a few other students, who decided to stay at Hogwarts for various reasons were eating in the great hall. Ron's parents were visiting relatives in Canada whom Ron utterly despised, so he made up an excuse to not go home for the holiday. Across the table, Ron sighed grabbing a bagel and miserably spreading butter on it.
"I should have thought of a better excuse than getting a warning from a teacher of failing so I have to do an extra credit report," He miserably bit into his bagel and mournfully looked up at Harry. "My parents - well mum was so mad, she told me I better get an Excellent on nearly everything or I could forget getting a new broom for my birthday. I've been promised that broom almost four years ago!"
He looked at Hermione expectantly, hoping for her to volunteer to help him. But Hermione, who was leaving for home in a few hours, wasn't listening to Ron but was staring vehemently at the Slytherin table, gingerly, holding a warm cup of black tea. The only Slytherins left were Vincent Crabbe, Draco Malfoy, and Adam Burkley; there wasn't any peculiar out of the ordinary behavior. As usual, they sat together whispering quietly of something that Harry had no interest in whatsoever.
Until he found out what it was about.
Hermione muttered something under her breath, it sounded oddly like, 'I'm watching you'; Ron looked from Hermione to meet Harry's gaze with a raised eyebrow. Harry shrugged and continued to watch curiously at the Slytherin table, where Harry could swear that Malfoy looked up and gave him a mischievous half smilish-smirk. Ron not being able to withstand the silent tension in the air, he gave a frustrated grunt and waved his hands in front of Hermione's face.
"Argh... Hermione, why are you staring at them? What'd they do this time?" He whispered, brows furrowed and glancing at the slytherin table."Hmm?"
Hermione's brown eyes slowly turned to Ron, her face showed that inside she was contemplating whether or not to say what she knew. After a minute of Ron squirming awkwardly under her gaze, she finally sighed and shifted closer.
"Okay, since I'm not going to be here tonight, I'm going to have to trust you two to do what I would do." She whispered quickly, darting a look at Fred and George who sat within earshot. They seemed to not be paying attention but talking to each other with serious expressions on their faces.
"Last week, Marillo Brocke tried to smuggle Firewink Rum into Hogwarts. I overheard those three talking about stealing it tonight due to low defenses ..." She was referring to Filch's little Christmas celebration of drinking and dancing with Mrs. Norris.
"Firewink rum... Oh!" Ron's face brightened. "I've always wanted to try s-" He was cut off by Hermione who slammed her hands down onto the table. A few hufflepuffs and teachers peered over for a second to see what the problem was, and Hermione noticing the attention flushed a little ducking her head.
"Ron!" She whispered sharply, "I told you to stop anyone from stealing it, not steal it for yourself! Harry, I expect you to be the responsible one, and please stop anyone from getting it, okay?" she pleaded, desperately looking at Harry.
Harry nodded immediately to calm her down, "of course, of course. Don't worry I'll keep an eye out."
After a few silent moments of eating with his eyes on his plate, he slowly looked up at Hermione to see that she had calmed down to normal.
"Just out of curiosity..."he said slowly, "what is this firewink rum?" Slight curiosity showed in his green eyes.
"Well, I've only heard about it from Charlie and Bill. But it's supposed to be really good an-" he was interrupted by Hermione who sounded informative as usual.
"It's made from Faerie dust, mixed with some fire lily petals which create a stimulating drink. You two are underage, if you want to drink it so badly, then wait!" She ended with a low voice and a stern look. "There's also some...Err...side effects..." she said this with a slightly flustered voice and a pink tint on her cheeks.
Looking at the time, Hermione excused herself after finishing her meal to have a last look in the library. Harry's train of thought mulled out and the direction of his head ended up facing the Slytherin's table. His attention was directed now to the way Malfoy's light blonde bangs... they brushed over his grey eyes when he moved his head a certain way. Harry frowned, wondering why on goblins terrain he would care what Malfoy of all people would do... Recently, Harry would randomly notice something about him... that would make him feel...
He was shaken out of his reverie by none other than the infamous twins, Fred and George. They were looking particularly devilish at that moment, probably up to something again; they shifted closer to him and smiled not so innocently.
"Harry, we have a magnificent idea that we want to share with you," said Fred mischievously glancing at his twin brother who continued. "We sort of overheard you guys talking about the small crate of rum that was ordered..." he paused, Ron and Harry looked puzzled.
"For us." George finished.
Ron and Harry blinked silently and looked at each other and back. They thought that the twins must have been joking, and was waiting for the laughter to start. But instead George looked patiently from Ron to Harry while Fred looked non chalantly at his nails.
"You see, that damned Fillip Broco got us to make a bet on who could get those infernal drinks back after he took it from Marillo, and got caught by Filch. So now we need pets - I mean allies to get them back." George finished smoothly.
"So... what? Do you want us to get it before his group and bring it to you?" Harry asked confused at what they wanted.
"Exactly," George said smiling, "you see Fred and I want to bet whether or not you guys can get it before them. You see, as a reward for getting it you guys can use it however you want." Ron looked baffled, and at a loss for words; Harry didn't want to betray his promise to Hermione.
"But why give it away after the hard work it took just to smuggle it in?" Ron asked cautiously, drawing away from them even with Harry between them. His imagination went wild as to why they would give it up so simply. Maybe it's poisoned!... er - maybe not. It could be a cheap knockout... It could just be pumpkin juice in disguise... Or ma-
Fred upon seeing his youngest brother's expression knew exactly what he was thinking. He rolled his eyes and stared dully at Ron.
"It's real and authentic. The only reason we're letting it go so easily is because the result of us - George and I - winning is that Broco swore that he'd run around the entire castle only in his underwear, which in our opinion is extremely satisfying."
Ron looked content with this answer, not at all bothered by the fact that he was an easy read. He turned to Harry with an expression that asked 'should we do it?', but Harry who was still undecided gave a grimace.
Harry was still trying to carefully think it over while the twins were explaining the rules.
Rules:
1. You are not given the identities of your opposing players.
2. The people who are part of the original bet cannot participate in the race.
3. You may commence once the clock chimes midnight.
"Just remember to bring the bottle back for proof, 'Kay?" Fred said, getting up with George from the bench looking back at them.
"Wait, no! I promised Hermione that I would stop anyone from stealing it, not steal it for myself!" Harry chased after them with Ron at his heels. Really, he wanted to do it. But...
Fred and George abruptly stopped mid step causing Ron to almost collide into Harry.
"Harry! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." Said George over dramatically.
"But if you really don't want to...then make sure Ron does it", Fred finished exasperatedly ignoring the fact that his own brother may not want to do it either and they ran off before any of them could argue.
After saying their goodbyes to Hermione and playing wizarding chess, the clock showed that it was 6pm. Ron was sprawled out on the carpet utterly exhausted in front of the warm crispy fire due to the number of times he and Harry had played (27 times); Harry was lying next to him, silently looking up at the intricate patterns on the light brown ceiling. They stayed silently in that position, with the exception of the occasional yawn and shifting of their bodies; both were in deep thought. Harry's mind wandered from quiddich to his latest obsession…
His eyes were drifting closed…
The warm heat of the fireplace enveloping his body felt so nice…
Harry was surrounded by colourful bubbles. He was scarcely aware of his surroundings; he stepped closer to a particularly large purplish bubble – about the size of his head. Looking closer inside, he could barely make out an image of … a park. Yes, it was a beautiful park. It looked so peaceful and serene. He stepped away focusing and entering into another bubble; it was one of a glamorous ballroom decorated finely with someone standing in the middle of the room. This mystery person's face was obscured by a silver masquerade mask on which complemented his shining blonde hair; he had a slim delicate figure which was covered by an expensive black suit. Harry's body automatically moved towards this mysterious figure, his hand unconsciously moving up towards the stranger's outstretched one. The first time Harry had laid his eyes on him, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he knew him from, but this person seemed too familiar. Nevertheless, the moment their hands touched, it felt as though it was only natural for them to be this close.
Gently grasping the soft frail hand that he felt was so real, their bodies drew automatically into a waltz position. Soft music played lightly in the background as their bodies glided lithely across the ballroom floor. Harry watched the other's masked face with a dazed expression, the only part of their face he could clearly see was the nose and mouth; he tried to place a name on this stranger as they continued to waltz. No words passed between them except flickers of changing smiles on their faces. As the music came to the end, the room began to shimmer and clandestinely morphed into what seemed to be the Gryffindor common room. The room was quiet, empty and dim with heat emanating from the roaring fireplace. Harry found themselves seated next to each other on the large couch closest to the fire; he felt a surprising yearning that he didn't know how to satisfy as he felt the presence of the other person. If only he could see his face.
The mask was the key. It was the only thing that was obscuring the familiar person's face. If only he could take it off maybe he could...
Without hesitation - surprising himself - Harry turned his entire body leaning over the masked person and brought his thumb and index finger to the right corner of the mask preparing to finally unveil the face. But at that moment he felt a cool hand clasping around his wrist and a focused unwavering gaze focused on his face. For the first time, Harry heard his voice.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," his voice was soft but crisp, sharp, and nostalgic. His lips turned up into a smile.
Harry cocked his head slightly to the side with a questioning look tugging lightly at the mask, but not actually attempting to pull off the mask. In turn, the familiar stranger shook his head once from one side to the other.
"What if you don't really want to know ... the truth?"
The truth? ...
"I can handle it," I think, "besides I'll need to face it one day. Think of it as shock therapy." He finished with a non chalante shrug, hoping that this would satisfy him.
Silence. "Shock therapy," he repeated monotonously he did not release Harry's wrist at but loosened his grip slightly. After a moment of contemplating this, he let go completely; slowly Harry lowered the mask revealing this mystery – this truth.
"-ARRRGGGHHHHH!" Loud agonized screaming pierced Harry's ear, startled he jumped awake to see Ron sprawled on the floor, his eyes were wide open with a frantic look about them and his body was covered in a sheen of sweat. Harry kneeled next to him with a look of concern, he waited for Ron to calm down and be aware of his current surroundings.
"Bloody hell. That was... I thought I was going to go mad!" he said shaking, wiping the sweat off of his face with his sleeve. "Everyone was eaten really grusomely by the most terrible gigantic spiders I've ever seen! Ugh, I'm a mess, I'm going to go take a shower..." with that, he walked off to the washroom.
Harry sat comfortably on the couch his heart was still racing from the screaming that had abruptly woken him, he glanced at the time, 9:30pm. He stared into the fire, he felt as though he was forgetting something important... Of course! He sat up straight in his seat, his eyes. The only thing Harry could clearly rememeber from his dream was the stranger's eyes, but that was enough to put a name on the stranger. His lips curved up into a slight smile.
But now that he knew, what was he going to do about it?