Warning: thischapter has mentions of child abuse,just mentions but still there.
Disclaimer- These characters are not mine, I just play with them while JKRowling isn't looking.
Chapter seven- Something New
Ginny watched as her friends disappeared in the telltale portkey blur. She allowed the worry that had been plaguing her all morning to show finally. Harry wasn't around and she didn't feel the need to act as his partner in crime. It was hard for her to see him so depressed or physically and emotionally drained. But it was even harder, in a way, to see him happy lately. There had been something unnatural about it for some time now and today his eyes had been almost feverish in his excitement.
She was finally sure that there was something actually wrong with Harry, something beyond sudden relief from the pressures of the prophecy and the expectations of the wizarding world. Ginny would do anything to help him but right now she felt helpless, he was gone and hopefully safe with Sirius and Remus and she was stuck in the castle with no way to help and no idea what was actually wrong. She resigned herself to worry and trudged off to find Luna to talk with.
Harry landed a little out of breath, but on his feet, or rather he was on his feet, until Ron fell on top of him. Harry let out a gasp of air and started coughing, he was still wheezing when someone pulled Ron off of him. He glanced up and smiled at Malfoy's uncharacteristically worried expression, the other boy visibly relaxed when he saw that Harry was okay.
"Alright Potter?"
"Yes fine, wasn't the first time I'd been tackled by a Weasley, frankly it was nice that it was just one this time. Thanks though."
"No problem."
Harry finally looked up at his surroundings, it was quite beautiful. For someone who had never been further from civilization then the Forbidden Forest, and those trips were all coloured with a healthy dose of fear and desperation, it was amazing to be in an untainted wilderness for once.
"Wow…" was all Harry could manage.
"I'll say," came the quiet agreement from his left, where Malfoy was standing, gazing at the purplish mountains on the horizon.
"Alright, kids," Sirius got some dirty looks for that, "Okay then, teens, we have a ways to go before we stop for the night so let's get to it!" He was clearly excited to be out in the fresh air, properly free for the first time in sixteen years. Beyond the year he was on the run Sirius had been in one cell or another since Harry's parents had died.
"Come on everyone, into the canoes, grab a paddle. To make sure it is the right length for you place the tip on your foot, the grip should come up to right under your chin. There should be one of proper length for each of you."
Remus took the lead as Sirius had run off and discarded his shoes to wade in the river and was trying to start a water fight with Anthony Goldstein and his partner Justin Finch-Fetchly. They had been trying to load their gear but soon gave up to fend off their attacker.
Harry grinned at his godfather's antics, he was soon soaked and being reprimanded by Remus for distracting the students.
Harry went to work helping his partner load their canoe and properly strap their things in place so nothing would get lost if they swamped. The boys stood back a bit, admiring their work before they pulled their canoe up to keep it from drifting and went to help Hermione and Pansy who were struggling a bit under the weight of their canoe. The boys carried it the rest of the way to the water while the girls brought the gear. When they turned around everyone else had their canoes in the water ready to go, paddles in hand.
Everyone was shown how to properly get in and out of the canoes and how to perform the different strokes they would need. When Sirius and Remus deemed everyone adequately capable of paddling and steering their craft the group set off.
Harry's was up front in the bow and was soon taunting Ron for falling behind them.
"Stop paddling like a bunch of girls! You won't even reach the campsite until tomorrow at that rate!"
"We'll see about that Potter!" Ron called back.
"I'll have you know, we resent that comment!" Hermione called over her shoulder. Her and Pansy were already much further ahead of the two canoes full of boys.
Harry stuck his tongue out at her back.
The morning was overall rather uneventful. Sirius offered insults and mockery when people fell behind while Remus corrected techniques. There was plenty of mocking flying back and forth from the canoes and the excitement of the whole thing made time pass rather quickly. It wasn't long before Remus was calling for a lunch break, he gestured them all towards a small beach.
Harry was staring in astonishment at what a lovely scene the trees, sand and water all made together.
"You are entirely too much in awe of nature, Potter. You seem to have forgotten how to row in your contemplation of the natural world," Harry shook himself and helped row them to shore.
"He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." Harry said quietly as they tied off their canoe.
Malfoy nodded slowly, brow furrowed.
"That was Albert Einstein, he was a famous physicist," Harry got a blank look for that, "That's a Muggle scientist, he made amazing contributions to the Muggle world, from what I can recall of primary school. One of the greatest minds, I was always told. I personally prefer William Shakespeare, 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' That's from his play Troilus and Cressida. The two had very different areas of work obviously."
Harry didn't seem to realize he was rambling, but Malfoy obviously didn't mind his thoughts were elsewhere, "That was a famous Muggle quote?"
"Yes, Einstein and Shakespeare were both famous Muggles."
"My father said that to me once, not long before Hogwarts. He told me that I should treasure my own amazement whenever it occurred. He said that if one is ever ashamed to find things amazing because others don't see them the same way then one doesn't deserve to witness great things. I had forgotten he'd ever said that."
Malfoy's eyes clouded for a moment before his whole face suddenly when hard. It was as though a mask had been placed over his features, hiding the moment of weakness as it happened. It must be painful to be reminded of the man that had raised you after all the good he had once been capable of was corrupt and gone.
"Sound advice, you should remember it."
Malfoy just looked at him for a long moment, then he nodded and led the way towards the rest of the group. Sirius had lit a fire, looking positively delighted by the use of matches, and was busy pulling the lunch fixings from his pack.
"Ah, dehydrated-rehydrate vegetable soup, my favourite!" he said.
When it was ready they all dug in with wary expressions which, on most faces, quickly turned to mild disgust.
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad," Sirius took a bite and swallowed with obvious effort, "Okay, so maybe it is that bad. But you still have to put up with it for the next three weeks so get used to it."
Harry dug in more heartily than the others, prompting Malfoy to comment.
"Food is food," Harry answered, "I'll eat what's put in front of me and be thankful of what I have."
"I see," was all Malfoy said.
As everyone finished their lunch the group resumed their places in their canoes and continued on their way to their first campsite. They took a break by rafting up in the middle of the lake after a few hours before continuing on to their first stop. The canoes were tied off to trees close to the bank and the supplies were all carried up to higher ground. The various pairs were soon staking out decent spots to set up their two man tents.
When tents were set up, with much help from the guides and students like Hermione that had experience with camping. The students went looking for firewood as Sirius and Remus discussed something called fire watch, whatever that was, and whether or not they should do this thing.
With the fire started and dinner being cooked under the watchful eyes of Terry Boot and Ernie Macmillan. Remus addressed them all, "Tonight we will be doing something called a fire watch. It is pretty much what it sounds like, we'll watch the fire in shifts of two throughout the night. Sirius and I will go last. It'll be the Slytherin/Gryffindor pairs tonight and the rest will be on watch tomorrow. Decide among yourselves what order to go in, you'll be in charge of waking up your replacements when your hour long shift is over."
"Tomorrow we'll be going a ways further than we managed today, plus we'll have a portage, which is when we carry our canoes along trails to avoid rapids. It'll be a long day so we're going to sleep now, don't stay up too late," Sirius and Remus headed off to their tent.
"In that case, we're going to bed too, right Pansy?"
"But I wanted to stay up past my bedtime and tell ghost stories!" Pansy joked.
"We have to be up in two hours for our own watch you know."
"Well in that case, goodnight losers. Do your best to forget to wake us up, would you Draco?"
Everyone else slowly trickled off to their tents, saying goodnight as they went. Soon it was only Harry and Draco sitting beside Ron and Blaise, who had first watch.
Draco rose and stretched, he gave Harry his hand to help him up. Harry turned to say, "Well we're off too, see you in an hour. Try not to burn down the forest Ron, Zabini."
"Oh ha ha, don't worry your pretty little head about it Harry, go get your beauty sleep," was Ron's reply.
Harry preened for a moment, tossing his hair, "It is pretty isn't it?" he spun on his heel and stalked off without another word. Draco trailed after him with a wave to the others two.
"Damn, is it just me or is this tent painfully tiny?" Draco looked at the inside of the tent; between their two packs there was just enough room for their sleeping bags.
"Roomier than my first bedroom," Harry said with a shrug as he crawled into his sleeping bag.
"How is that even possible?"
Harry paused, thinking of how few people knew the truth about his childhood. Ron and Hermione had pieced most of it together from things he'd said in passing over the years. They had never come out and asked him the truth of it but they knew enough to hate his aunt and uncle on their own.
"I slept in the cupboard under the stairs for the ten years before I got my Hogwarts letter."
There was a long pause.
"How could someone do that to a child? You were a year old when they took you in, yeah? You were just a baby, and they put you in a closet. That's barbaric."
"I think that's where they put me when I got there, yeah. The first thing I can remember is my closet."
Draco was shaking his head, "They were monsters."
Harry shook his head once, sharply, "No. They were just people. All of a sudden they have this little boy on their front step with a letter saying Petunia's sister is dead. They were scared, they thought if they ignored it our world would just forget about them, and me."
"Then they were idiots, which is worse than being monsters. They were just stupid, cruel people and they don't deserve the peace you earned for them and the rest of their world."
"But they wouldn't have deserved what Voldemort would have brought down on them either. No one deserves that," Harry said with a quiet intensity.
"No, you're right. I know that. But, how can you just let it be? They kept you in a cupboard for ten years, for Merlin's sake."
Harry sighed, "It's over now. I gave up on them a long time ago. What they did to me when I was a kid, it's a whole different lifetime to me. When I got my letter," he paused and a look of wonder took his features, "Everything changed. The Dursley's didn't matter anymore, they weren't the family I needed anymore. They were nothing. I had real parents that had loved me and I didn't need to follow my aunt and uncle's rules to try to impress them ever again."
The blonde boy made an abortive movement, like he'd been about to reach out to Harry, "What changed for them to let you have your own bedroom after that?"
Harry laughed, a small defeated sort of noise, "They were scared, they knew that there was no way they could squash the magic out of me after I finally got my letter. So they decided to pretend I didn't exist instead. It worked nicely until they found out I couldn't do magic over the summer."
At Draco's look he continued, "After second year, there was an incident involving a house elf trying to keep me from going back to school and a pudding landing on the head of a house guest that got me a letter from the Ministry."
"That made absolutely no sense Potter. Why would a house elf try to stop you going to school?"
"It was a very well informed house elf," Harry said, "It was one from Malfoy Manor, Dobby was his name. He knew what your father had planned for the Chamber of Secrets that year and he came to warn me to stay away. That incident got me locked in my bedroom, Ron and the twins came and rescued me in their dad's flying car. Don't even ask about that, if I told you every detail of the bizarre things I'd done over the years we would be here for a long time."
Draco was staring at Harry with an incredulous expression, "Dobby. You're the reason he disappeared?" Harry nodded, "I asked father where he had gone. He was my favourite elf, you know," he said absently.
"Are you alright Malfoy?" Harry started to apologize for bringing it up but stopped when he saw Draco flinch at his last name again.
"No, don't worry, I'm glad he was okay. I though father had killed him all this time. I asked him where Dobby had gone and he told me never to speak of it again. That was when I realized something was different about him. He had never really denied me anything before. But he refused to tell me what he'd done with Dobby. I yelled at him and he snapped. He-" Draco suddenly seemed to realize who he was talking to, he glanced at Harry and then looked quickly down and away.
"Mal- Draco," that caught his attention, "I'm sorry I brought up bad memories, but I know what it's like. I'm sorry you had to go through that."
Draco just shook his head and turned away.
"Let's just go to bed then. We can talk later if you want to, about whatever."
Draco nodded, and allowed the side of his mouth to tilt up just a bit, "Goodnight then, Harry."
Harry smiled back, turned over and went to sleep.
Draco watched him for a moment, a smile on his lips, "Harry," he whispered, liking how the other boy's name sounded. Then he rolled over so their backs were just touching in the small space of the tent and fell asleep as well.
End Chapter Seven
A/N: Oh my damn. These chapters are taking longer and longer to fix now. Jeez. But it feels really good to be doing this, I hope if anyone decides to reread this, having read the earlier version, finds this a welcome change.
Also, there is a slight nod to my one shot "Roadside Rivers" in here, when Harry is talking of his closet. That's my favourite of my stories I think, so check it out.
DerangedxandxSarcastic
