Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own neither Harry Potter nor Draco Malfoy as both belong to J.K. Rowling... I just use them shamelessly.
There's no real purpose to this one. Just the ramblings of a procrastinator really. Anyway, this was inspired by friendship, as the title implies, and conversations with friends.
Dedicated to friendships old, new and previously unrealised.
The two boys, young men really, sat together by the lake. They had met here by chance and the endless bickering that would normally have been between them was silenced in the darkness.
Draco glanced nervously at his companion, still expecting an attack despite their unspoken truce of the past few hours. He had been rather surprised when none other than Harry Potter had come across him in the dark and promptly sat down beside him without saying a word. Just as surprising was the ease with which Draco had become accustomed to the other's presence, despite the annoyance he would have felt during the daylight.
He thought back to when he had first met Potter on the Hogwarts Express. Upon first seeing him, Draco had been rather disappointed. The young boy wearing oversized hand-me-downs looked more like a Weasley brat than a hero. All his life he had heard stories of the great Harry Potter. Stories of how powerful he must have been to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at such a young age and of how he had destroyed Lucius' ambitions.
Confronted with the actual person, he had been nervous and had masked his nervousness with the cockiness always present in a Malfoy. He realised now that it had probably not been the best way to approach the nervous and somewhat withdrawn Harry Potter. Realised that his cockiness had only served to alienate him from the boy whom he had desired to impress.
He started slightly as he realised that Harry was watching him, had probably been doing so for awhile. Raising his eyebrow in question he smirked when Harry looked away, abashed. Draco regretted the tensions between the two of them in the past six years at Hogwarts. Regretted that Harry had never once smiled at him the way he did at his fellow Gryffindors; that before tonight, Harry had only ever looked on him with anger or pity.
"It's strange." Draco jumped slightly at the words, the first that had been spoken between them in the hours they had spent seated next to one another. "We've known each other for more than six years, and this is the first time we've ever been close without desiring to kill each other."
"Who said I didn't plan on killing you?" The words were out of his mouth before he had time to think about them and he regretted them instantly.
"That's exactly what I mean," Harry sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair. "I'm sick of the fighting. The bickering. I just… don't want to have to do it anymore. Couldn't we just… stop?"
"What are you suggesting? That we kiss and make up? Become best friends?" Draco was surprised, yet still sceptical. Harry had refused his offer of friendship all those years ago on the Hogwarts Express, he could hardly believe that he was making an offer of his own now.
"Well, yes," Harry answered, nodding in the dark before blushing. "Well, not the kissing part… that's just…"
"Wrong," Draco filled in for him, feeling incredibly happy for reasons he didn't care to explore at that moment in time.
The two fell silent again, both staring out across the lake with small smiles upon their faces. It was hours later that they left their spot on the bank, quietly walking together up to the castle and to bed, their truce and offers of friendship ensuring that both slept peacefully.
When Draco entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, his eyes automatically slid to the Gryffindor table, meeting the emerald green orbs of his former rival. He nodded to Harry who grinned widely at him in response. The smile usually reserved for his Gryffindor friends now aimed solely at Draco, who irresistibly found himself grinning back.
Yes, he thought to himself, he rather liked the idea of being friends with Harry Potter.