Assuming
Just makes an ass of you and me. Draco and Harry have assumed so many things about the other's life, but how much have they ever gotten right?
He sat high in the sky, much higher on the field than the snitch normally went, but he wasn't too concerned about it. His eyes flicked across the pitch, watching red dots fly circles around their Slytherin rivals, though ever since the end of the war the team had been in shambles. Really, it was no surprise as the entire house was in shambles. Since the war ended, most of the house was either still in hiding with their parents or trying to make the most of what was left of their life. He watched the seeker make an obvious break towards a snitch he couldn't catch. Harry waited, watching to see if the boy was going to hit the ground. At the last moment the wobbly little third year managed to save himself, effectively loosing the snitch. He sighed shaking his head, he turned in the air to watch the game. His lions were masacuring the Slytherin's and they were hardly treating it as more than practice. He thought about ending the game, but it was just a half hour in, and everyone would be disappointed if he made an honest go for the snitch and caught it. Besides, his team needed a bit of practice before they played Ravenclaw anyway. Sitting back on his broom, he smiled down at the stands, his sharp eyes picking up a red head bent over a bushy brown. It was about damned time.
It was odd, that Ron had decided to take a year off from Quidditch while he was still playing. The reason was even more odd.
"I have to have time for my studies." He had said, and Harry had split pumpkin juice all over the boy. Hermione, with slightly more tact, had merely dropped her jaw open, letting toast crumbs spill from her mouth.
"Say again?" Harry sputtered.
"Studies, you know, for Auror training. Honestly mate, I figured if anyone would understand it would be you and Mione. I know the rest'a the house'll be upset, but there's nothing I can do." He shrugged and continued to shove food in his face.
If Harry didn't know better, he would have thought it was a ploy to get on Hermione's good side, and if it was, well, it was obviously working. He smirked lightly as the brown and red took off from the stands and then grimaced at the thoughts of what they might be doing.
Determined to think about anything but that he turned his attention back to the game. The Slytherin seeker, some fifth year who's name Harry hadn't bothered to learn, wobbled a bit on his broom as a stiff wind. He wasn't much of a distraction at all, in fact, Harry thought that at some point me might have to go and rescue the boy. It was times like these he actually found himself missing that damned blonde. It was hard to believe, but something about the easy way they fell into senseless aggression… He smiled gently and started a slow sweep around the pitch.
His mind wandered a bit, searching the field subconsciously for the only person who was any challenge to him for the snitch. He sighed, seeing only the black haired fifth year again, this time trying and failing to avoid a bludger that Draco could have seen coming a mile away.
He didn't blame the boy for not coming back for a last year at the school, been happy at first. A year without the blonde git to harass him at every corner, to sneer and insult. But almost half way to winter break he found himself looking for the boy. The constant irritation, the insults and banter, they had become part of what school was to him. He would see a blonde head down the hall way and his eyes would strain to see if the evil git was finally back, and more than once had found himself nearly assaulting Luna. This had, unfortunately, been misinterpreted by Ginny as an unrequited love, and despite both his and Luna's best efforts, the Weasley girl would not be placated. Ron had stopped speaking to him for about a week, taking his sister's side of the story without listening to Harry, but by this time, Harry had just waited it out. He had had enough arguments with Ron to realize that trying to prove himself innocent only ever looked more incriminating to his best mate. After the appropriate amount of time had passed, Hermione had calmed down the boy, and their friendship continued where it left off, with only slight chips on both boys' shoulders. But that thought lead him right back to the thought of Ron's highly satisfied face and…
The snitched popped up to his left, as if greeting him before taking a swing down towards the pitch. Harry inched in the opposite direction as he watched the snitch. It flickered past forbidden forest and then flew back away, but there was something… silver down in its path.
Harry paused, watching the silver. It didn't glint or shimmer like a metal, but was soft like a fabric or… hair. He felt his gut churn in that familiar way. The way that said he had better listen to it or prepare to face multiple contusions.
Without a second thought he sped forward and leaving the pitch behind and ignoring the calls of Hooch and his teammates. He thought he knew what it was, even though there was no way it could be…
Harry pulled his broom up hard as his eyes recognized the prostrate figure.
"Malfoy." He muttered, amazed to see the boy. "Speak of the devil."
There was no answer though, no quick quip about Harry's ability to speak at all, or what would the devil want to talk to him about. There was a nothing. Not even the movement of a falling chest.
Hopping off his broom Harry ran to the boy, slowing only when he considered at last that it might be a trick.
"Malfoy?" He asked again, moving closer to the prone figure, his wand drawn. "What are you doing here?"
Again there was no answer, and with a nudge of his toe, Harry pushed the boy onto his back.
He gagged, his hands moving up to his mouth, suddenly uncertain if he had the right boy at all. Moving the boy on his back had revealed the puddle of blood that Malfoy had been lying in. It was thick and darker than his Quidditch uniform. But then his eyes trailed off of the blood, to the pale skin of the man. The pale skin that was even paler than he remembered, well the skin he could see around the blood and bruises. The boy's face was covered by bloody strings of hair, and his lips were cracked open. Harry paused, before kneeling down one hand checking desperately for a pulse and the other trailing the man's body, looking for the wound that caused the bleeding.
"Malfoy? Fuck, Malfoy?" He asked, his fingers digging deep into the boy's throat, searching for anything like a pulse.
"N-not in… wildest… dreams." The prat managed fluttering his eyes open slowly.
"What the hell happened to you?" Harry asked, pulling back and looking the boy over.
"Less… talk… more… saving... hero." Malfoy sneered through his broken lip. Harry paused, feeling an odd… gratitude that his rival wasn't dead. Later, he would chalk it up to being glad not to have to witness any more death, but for now he simply nodded and furrowed his brows.
"Where are you hurt?" He asked the boy, running his hands over the paler boy's body.
"Pom… frey." Draco sighed, and Harry looked up to see his eyes closing again.
"Oh no you don't, stay with me." Harry snarled and slapped the boy's face.
"Fuck off." Draco muttered, and Harry almost chortled that he could only manage to say that clearly. Instead he lifted the boy up and hurried back to his broom. After a moment's arranging, he threw the boy over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and took off towards the school.
"Mr. Potter I was just on my-Oh dear." McGonagall stopped in her tracks as she saw Harry carrying the boy. "What happened?"
"I was looking for the snitch and saw him out by on the field."
"Right, well then, let's get him to Poppy." McGonagall amended and Harry nodded, still on his broom he flew down the corridors to the Hospital wing.
"Mr. Potter, you should know better than to fly indoors." Pomfrey scolded without turning around from her patient. "Did someone fall off their broom? It would be the day that I have to be in taking care of a vexing case of—"
"It's Malfoy," Harry interrupted putting the boy on the nearest bed.
"Don't be ridiculous Potter, the boy wasn't returned to—You moved him?" Her voice changed from patronizing to angry in a moment as she laid eyes on the boy.
"I couldn't leave him out there, he was on the edge of the forest." Harry explained.
"Very well, but next time Mr. Potter…" She drifted off as she began to cast various diagnostic and healing spells before hurrying off. As she game back with a handful of potions she looked up at the boy with a vague amount of puzzlement. "What are you still doing here?"
"I, ah, wanted to make sure he was ok." Harry said, a bit confused.
"Get out, get out, if he wakes up you'll just inflame him." Pomfrey said shooing him towards the door as she leaned back over the boy. "And tell McGonagall to prepare a floo to St. Mungo's. I don't know what all I can do for him…"
Harry nodded and backed out of the room, before turning to see a gasping Professor McGonagall at the stairs in front of him.
"Mr. Potter, you will explain what is going on." She said after a moment.
"I honestly don't know." Harry muttered and McGonagall lowered her eyebrows a bit and Harry shook his head. "No, I really don't. I was flying high and saw the snitch and then his hair."
"You mean to tell me that at over a hundred feet you saw Mr. Malfoy and flew to him because of his hair?"
"Yes, I don't know why, it was just one of those things… I needed to do it." Harry said trying to explain it.
"Oh Harry," McGonagall sighed, setting a hand on his shoulder. "I thought we were past all this. I thought when the war ended…"
"Look, with all do respect Professor, I'm not looking to—to be a hero anymore." Harry said, backing away from the weight she was putting on him. It wasn't just her hand… her words, the ones she didn't say, they were too heavy for him.
"Oh, I'm quite sure of that Harry, but I'm afraid that we don't always have to be looking for things for them to find us."
"No, you don't understand. I might have saved him, but it's nothing that anyone else couldn't have done." Harry said finding his back against the wall.
"If that's what you say Mr. Potter." McGonagall said and started to move past him.
"Will you keep me updated?" Harry asked, as McGonagall started to enter the hospital wing.
"Of course, as long as Mr. Malfoy is alright with it." She said before disappearing into the room.
Harry sighed and backed his head against the wall.
"I can't believe I missed that… that… ugh," Harry groaned and set his head in his hands.
~~~~~Oh my, I haven't written a fanfiction in… years. How'm I doin' Comments? Questions? Concerns? I don't have anything to give out yet, but maybe if I get enough reviews the production factory will reopen, I have a sneaky suspicion that there might be Luna dolls coming out shortly… And she'll be with someone you won't expect!~~~~~~~
