Key:
'Inner Voice'
Harry's Thoughts
Beta'd by Bombadilo Baby XD
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter or the Potter universe as written By JKR or constructed by the films (unless you count this slightly adapted plot? Which, yeah, please don't steal etc.). In any case, I am making no money from it. Nor do I intend to. I have a job, and I can tell you now, it's not this :-D
Have an Intriguing Weekend!
-GG
Chapter Three: Crazy, Not Crazy
Harry liked to think he wasn't a complete nitwit. He knew hearing voices wasn't a good sign.
The problem was, he hadn't quite decided what to do about it yet. . .
He flipped curiously through the slim black diary, searching through the blank pages for anything of interest. And preferably shed some light on his current dilemma. The initial pull he'd felt to the object had dissipated with a sudden dizzy rush the moment his hands had brushed the soft leather spine. Sadly, it was also that moment which he seemed to have gone complete insane.
"I should tell someone" Harry murmured, lying stomach down on his temporary bed at Malfoy Manor.
That's a terrible idea. The thought drifted through his mind.
Harry scowled. "Yes, because ignoring the voice in my head is a terrific plan." He countered, scowling absently at the wall in front of him.
And being branded as psychotic is so much better. Returned the calm drawl sarcastically.
His scowl deepened. "Better than putting up with you." Harry muttered mutinously.
Harry swore he heard a weary sigh. Stop being melodramatic.
" 'M not being melodramatic." Harry grumbled, shuffling slightly to scratch his buzzing scar.
Cease that at once! Before you scratch off your entire face. The voice snapped.
"My real inner voice was never so rude!" Harry complained, flumping his head on the bed.
Hardly surprising, since your inner voice is an imbeci- the rest of word was cut off by a knock at the door.
Harry quickly slid the diary under his duvet. "Come in!" he called out.
The door instantly opened, and Harry barely had time to register the familiar light blonde hair before he suddenly felt himself jostled erratically on his bed. Draco flopped down beside him, their shoulders bumping.
"So, dare I ask what you are doing still in bed at eleven am?" was Draco's greeting, grey eyes curiously raking over Harry.
Harry blushed under his gaze, acutely aware of where their bare arms brushed.
Keep those pubescent thoughts to yourself! I have no desire to hear you blather about a crush! the voice snarked at Harry, who blushed hotter at the comment.
"What!? I don't -" he blurted, wide eyes, before suddenly cutting himself off he mentioned anything to do with crushes or Draco. He quickly changed tack. "I – I mean – I'm - nothing! I was just about to come down for brunch!" Harry stammered, face by this point sure to be fire engine red.
Draco shot him an amused look "Mmmm hmmm" he hummed slowly, unconvinced.
Harry wanted to die of embarrassment. The snide scoff in his mind didn't help matters.
Draco nudged Harry's arm with his own, somehow managing to lean the entire length of his body against Harry's in the process. Harry's heart pumped wildly in his rib cage.
"Well, come on, you slacker. We'll be late catching up with everyone in Diagon at this rate!" Draco joked, with his wide perfect smile.
Harry blinked, before his brain suddenly clicking into gear. "Oh. Shit!" he swore, bolting from the bed and getting his legs tangled in the process. He'd completely forgotten about Diagon Alley! He hurried over the his wardrobe to change, unaware of the appreciative eyes taking in the newly revealed slope of his back as he wrestled the shirt over his head.
They voice scoffed again. No surprise there. As usual, all Blacks are perverts.
"What!?" Harry yelped, suddenly straightening with self-consciousness, arms crossed over his chest. Green eyes swung and caught on an hazed grey pair, which suddenly snapped into an innocent look upon being noticed.
"Aaa . . .ermm, I'll just-" Harry gestured awkwardly down to his clothes, then looked back pointedly to Draco. Hardly believing that he'd forgotten his presence in the room. Harry's cheeks suffused with red once more.
His best friend hastily stood, stumbling slightly as his eyes darting across to Harry's once more, an unusual display of incoordination as he hurried to follow Harry's request.
Harry stared, madly blushing at the door for several moments before he regained the movement of his limbs.
Several minutes later and finally dressed, Harry met Draco outside his bedroom.
"Ready to go?" Draco asked, passing Harry one of his favourite blueberry bagels as he closed the door behind him.
"Mmm" Harry replied, both in response and in appreciation for the meal he was already eating. He'd completely forgotten to come down for breakfast that morning.
They met Narcissa on the way out.
"Leaving now, boys?" she checked, placing her book on the side table as she stood from the lounge.
Draco nodded, walking over. "Yes, Mother. We should be back before sundown."
"Morning Narcissa!" Harry greeted his honorary Aunt (well, of sorts).
Narcissa smiled in amusement. "Good morning to you as well, Harry. I trust you are well rested?" she inquired, with the slightest slant of her lips.
And yep, there it was, the sudden desire to sink into the floor again. Harry barely stammered a response as Draco rolled his eyes, already dragging Harry by the elbow towards the flu. "See you this evening, Mother!" he called, before he hastily shoved Harry through the grate with a swirl of green flames.
Harry coughed, trying to dislodge the dust that he'd accidentally inhaled during the journey.
The floo flared behind him as Draco stepped through "Here." Draco murmured, his wands trailing along Harry, vanishing all the ash from his friend.
"Thanks." Harry croaked, with slightly watery eyes.
"Your hopeless." Draco said, with laughing grey eyes and crooked lips.
Harry half turned to scowl back at the floo grates murderously. "It's not my fault wizarding transportation hates me!"
Draco scoffed, before he suddenly laced his hands impatiently with Harry's and dragged him off through the crowds.
Harry stared wide eyes, and stumbling, down at their linked hands. Unsure if Draco was even conscious of the gesture. Suddenly his mind was filled with flash backs to their first meeting in Diagon Alley. They hadn't held hands like this since first year, when Draco would drag him around, hands locked tightly, almost everywhere they went.
Thankfully, even if he hadn't noticed the hand contact, Draco (unlike Harry) was cognizant of where they were going.
"Finally!" A fond exasperated voice cried. Harry looked up at the instantly familiar tone, snapped him from his daze.
Harry's eyes looked up to greet that of his friends. Pansy lounged with Blaise, Greg and Vince under one of the umbrella's at Florean's icecream parlour waiting for them.
If Draco was aware of their curious looks towards their (still) linked hands, he didn't make mention of it. "Hello," Draco smiled "apologies for our tardiness. Harry, decided to sleep in this morning."
"Hi Guys!" Harry waved, somewhat awkwardly, with his free left hand. He looked around the group, wondering where Daphne was, since they themselves were already ten or so minutes late.
Blaise noticed his glances around. "Daphe and Astoria caught sight of the Wealsey twins. They're plotting." He told Harry.
"Ah" Harry nodded, understanding. He tilted his head, expression crossed between curiosity and dread. ". . . anything we should be concerned about?" he asked with morbid curiosity, wondering what pranks they would unleash on the innocent halls of Hogwarts this year.
Greg and Vince shrugged "Buggered if we know." They admitted, shaking their heads.
Harry laughed. "I'll ask Dad to prepare the emergency kit again, then." He decided. After so many close calls in their last four years, Severus had finally conceded defeat, and had merely handed Harry the magical version of a first aid kit at the start of last year. With the instructions to call him immediately if serious damage was dealt.
Vince nodded. "Probably best." he agreed seriously.
Pansy smirked wickedly. "So," she drawled slowly, "anything you two need to tell us?" she asked, gesturing to Harry and Draco's intertwined hands.
Harry's eyes shot wide. "W-What?! No!" Harry burst out, embarrassed.
Not if the Black descendant has any say about it. Harry was distracted by the voice as so missed Draco's smug smile.
"This is merely so I don't lose track of him." He said, tugging slightly on Harry's arm "He's been awfully distracted this morning." He mused.
"Oi! I oppose that comment!" he scowled at his friend, zoning back into the conversation as he tried to free his arm from the bear trap that was Draco Malfoy. Draco, being a stubborn prat, refused to let go. "You were the one who invited yourself into my room this morning! I was busy!" as soon as the words were out he realised that it probably didn't sound how he meant it to.
Pansy scrunched her nose. "Didn't need to know."
"Wha-! . . .No! I was reading!" Harry yelped, his voice high.
Draco hummed considering. "I don't recall seeing a book." He drawled slowly.
Die of embarrassment. Harry wanted to die of embarrassment.
Thankfully Blaise took pity on him. He rolled his eyes. "All right guys, lay off. Lets get these bloody lists done. I, for one, don't want to be here all day."
Thankfully things quickly quietened down. Harry eagerly pulled out his Hogwarts list, he was quite excited to get back to his classes this year.
He read down through the list of what he'd need for each class: Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes.
He knew Draco had an almost identical class list, except he'd taken Astronomy instead of Ancient Runes. He walked over the investigate what everyone else had ended up taking this year.
Unsurprisingly Pansy had opted out of Arithmancy, she'd loathed it last year, in favour of Divination. Blaise had taken the same class list as Harry. Whilst Greg and Vince were again the same as Harry except they'd swapped Arithmancy and Ancient Rune for Divination and Astronomy.
It only took them a couple of hours to collect all their supplies, Harry giving them all tips from his Dad about what to look for when buying some of the potions ingredients. They were ones they hadn't used in previous years, and were (apparently) notoriously tricky.
They finished up in the Flourish and Blotts, but Harry had already found his booklist items and was mostly just browsing. He'd already picked up a few history books that he couldn't wait to sink his teeth into. He wandered down a new aisle, away from the history book section. He read a few titles, then stopped on one with intrigue, pulling the book down and skimming through with rapidly increasing interest.
That plan is dismal. The voice drawled. Harry ignored it. Only an idiot would believe it would work. The voice sneered with disdain.
Harry wasn't dissuaded. "Good thing I'm an idiot then."He muttered under his breath.
He tucked it under his arm, adding it to his pile of purchases, before heading up the front of the shop to pay and package his collection.
Draco met Harry at the counter while the staff started shrinking each of his own purchases.
"I think I've found a book that could help with our problem." Draco murmured, pulling out one of the books in his pile, showing Harry the section on charms to record and remember dreams.
Harry shook his head, trying to focus on what he was reading and not the other plan he'd been attempting to formulate. Harry's eyes shot up in surprise as he read the description before passing it back.
He nodded slowly.
"That . . . looks good." He agreed, considering.
Draco payed for his books, then turned to Harry. Something on Harry's face must have caught his attention because he paused, stared, then his lips tightening in concern. ". . . Alright, Harry?" he asked, regarding his friend closely.
Harry shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze, suddenly feeling guilty. Should he tell Draco?
No. The voice drawled in a bored tone (Harry ignored it).
Harry bit his lip, chest tight. He opened his mouth, not even knowing himself what he was going to say when Pansy and Greg walked up to them.
Pansy groaned. "Ughh! Why do we need so many text books?!" she whined, eyeing her shrunken pile with dread.
Draco turned away and the moment was broken. He chuckled. "Slacking off already, Pans?" he jeered.
Pansy straightened, chin tilting up. "Hardly." She scoffed. "If anyone's going to fail this year it will be you. Distracted, Draco?" she asked sweetly, with a sharp smile.
Draco's face suddenly flooded with colour, and he was very pointedly not looking at the shorter dark haired boy. Harry peered at his friend, amused and curious about his reaction, wondering what Pansy was referring to. But then the others walked up, so he decided to wait and ambush Pansy for answers later. He turned to greet Daphne and Astoria, who Pansy had finally dragged away from the Weasley twins.
Blaise hitched his purchases, safely ensconced in a bag, over her shoulder. "So" he grinned, turning to look at them all. "Who else is keen for the Triwizard Tournament this year?" he asked idly.
Instantly, Blaise winced as he ears were barraged with six loud exclamations of surprise.
