Perhaps it was a good thing the school was asleep. Somewhere in the halls there was Mr Flinch and Mrs Norris wandering around and keeping an eye out but not there. There they were safe, at least until one of them decided to break their silent stand of and actually attack the other.

Harry's wand pointed straight towards Malfoy's and the other boy met his cool eyes with a equal calm gaze. Before that day they hadn't been quarreling for some time, they had actually begun to accept one another, figuring out after years of fighting and brawling that they weren't that different in the end.

But then night like this one came.

A night where both of them had begun by waking up on the wrong side, where Harry had felt so alone, outside the rest of the population where everyone treated him like something made out of glass. When his fame and God-like glory would make people swarm after him like ants to honey, when all he ever wanted was to be left alone. Hermione and Ron were content, they had after so much bickering finally found each other. Harry was happy for them, his friends deserved one another, but there was times when he himself wanted someone to feel connected to. Draco had almost ended up in the same predicament, his status as a soon-to-be death eater had made people fear and respect him in equal measures and he just couldn't stand it. Couldn't stand to not have any real friends that liked him for who he was, and not his father or his reputation, but it seemed impossible.

It had begun like so many fights did, with Harry and his friends walking past, merrily talking to each other and Draco had felt jealous. A fairly innocent taunt was all that was needed for Harry to react badly, throwing something equally demeaning back the two had begun to jab insults at one another until Hermione, Ron and Pansy Parkinson had joined them on either side of the argument. The fight became physical, in a sense, when wands was drawn and hexes was thrown across the room before the great hall. None hit it's target before Mcgonagall's icy tone made everything freeze and students that were cheering on had vanished in the blink of an eye. Harry and Draco was led to her office and got one hell of a telling off, not long after they were out again, blood still boiling from previous confrontation and a promise of revenge was made.

They were to meet that night, just the two of them, in the corridor on the third floor near the praying monk statue. It was a place people seldom used, the classrooms was for N.E.W.T. students when they needed extra lessons. They were to see who was the worthy one.

Harry knew, somewhere inside that it was pure madness to make such a promise to Malfoy, but he hadn't thought rationally, he just wanted revenge.

Draco on the other hand had seen this as his chance, to finally prove he was better than Potter and maybe deserved some of the glory he had too.

But things had gone so incredibly wrong from the start.

Harry had begun the night by having a slight argument with Ron, it wasn't often they argued but Harry was so sick and tired of his friend treating him like he didn't know what he was doing. He knew Ron didn't mean to be rude and he couldn't know that Harry didn't want to take Ginny to the Halloween feast, because to Ron it was obvious they wanted each other. But Harry was tired of having her, like everybody else, treating him like some kind of God.

So Harry had tried to explained to Ron that he wasn't sure Ginny really was the one but his friends hadn't wanted to listen to that ear. After a while Harry had been so frustrated that he had stormed back to their dorm, grabbed the invisibility cloak and left the tower without another word to nither Ron nor Hermione, who had tried to keep out of the discussion with her nose in a book. Harry didn't care if it was still time before his and Malfoys meeting, he just needed some space.

Harry had taken his invisibility cloak to first of all avoid the foul janitor that roamed the halls and his cat. But Peeves had gotten in his way and almost made Harry blind when he tipped one of the huge statues over him and Harry had to throw himself out of the way, hitting his head on the floor and cracking his glasses when he landed, barely avoided getting glass in his eye. His face stung but he couldn't say a word in case he would be discovered, so he scrambled to his feet and hurried out of there as quick as possible. When he reached the stairs he dared to stop and throw a Reparo over his glasses, just like Hermione had done that first time they met on the train to Hogwarts, it had become quite a useful spell since then.

But he didn't dare to do anything to his burning face, Harry had never been good with healing spells and he didn't dare to point his wand to his own face and maybe hex away his nose or anything. Not before this important meeting with Malfoy.

Dizzy and with a still burning face, Harry made his way to the third floor. For a moment he wondered why they hadn't chosen to meet outside, in the astronomy tower perhaps. Maybe Malfoy wanted the attention when the whole school could hear them hex each other. He hurried his footsteps as softly as he could, just in case some other ghost of that damn cat would be around the next corner, but he met no one. Not until he reached the outspoken corridor and could see someone sitting along the wall in the far end.

Harry was sure it was Malfoy, he didn't know if he was late of if Malfoy had been early, but that didn't matter, now they were here to end things. Harry drew himself closer, still with the cloak over his head he wanted to go for and dramatic entrance when he was near enough for Malfoy to scream like a Niffler. But as he approached his rival, Harry drew to an halt, something with the boy seemed wrong.

Malfoy was sitting along the wall, legs pulled into his body and head buried in his crossed arms that rested on the knees. He looked almost like he was crying and had pulled in on himself like Harry had seen Hermione do in their first year. But not a movement nor a sound came from the boy on the floor so crying it could not be. And despite that, it would have been so out of character if Malfoy really was crying that Harry would have taken him for an imposter instead of the real deal.

Harry stood like frozen in the spot, a few feet away from Malfoy and just watched him. Something felt so incredibly wrong but he could not put his finger on what. Suddenly Malfoy's whole being stiffened and he flew to his feet. The boy ran his wide grey eyes straight past Harry and down the corridor but found nothing, he spun around and drew his wand, muttering quietly to himself about Pheeves and ghosts. Harry felt suddenly stupid for wanting to make an entrance and pulled himself backwards and around the corner, when out of sight from Malfoy he pulled the cloak aside and stuffed it behind a painting with a slumbering knight, he could get it in the morning. Then he drew a breath of encouraging air and rounded the corner so Malfoy could spot him.

The moment their eyes met something in Harry begun burning. The same rage he had felt earlier that day when Malfoy was throwing insults at his friends, the same frustration he always felt when the other was around. Malfoy who already had his wand out, raised it when Harry approached. He did the same and stopped in the same spot he had previously stood. They were now facing each other, non had a really clear picture what they wanted to do, just inflict pain on the other.

Harry wasn't sure if the look he saw pass over Malfoy's face in that moment was due to his still hurting eye or to something else. But when a small movement from the other made him aware that they were actually dueling without having said a word to the other, he reacted on instinct and threw the first curse that came to his head.

Malfoy had apparently done the same and their hexes clashed with a bright light and a loud whip and then everything went black.