Chapter 7 – Limits

Harry looked forward to the forthcoming promise. He had missed the crowd, Weasley's family, even though he spent all spring and summer there. It must have been after all that has happened in the past year ... Now he had no home other than the Burrow and Hogwarts, so now there was nothing he would have anxiety about either. The Dursley family would probably never meet him again - well, well - except that the cousin Dudley had seemed to be nicer on the day they were seen last. Maybe Harry missed him a bit, anyway.

He walked between Ron and Hermione heading towards the Gryffindor tower after an early dinner. They would get up and pack, for tomorrow they would go down to Hogsmeade and then transfer to the small town near Weasley's house.

"We can also greet Luna some day." Harry said when they reached the entrance hall. "Neville and his grandmother are supposed to be there on the midday days."

"Of course!" said Hermione.

"I have to say that Mom said Lovegoods would have Christmas lunch with us." Ron said little preoccupied.

The lesson before dinner had been transformation with Professor McGonagall. Even though Harry, Ron and Hermione went the seventh year, the students had been divided into two groups; Those who would have taken the N.E.W.T exams last year and those who would take it this year, those who were one year younger. So, therefore, Harry's annual course gave even more difficult tasks - and that's why the three friends were so exhausted tonight.

"It will be nice to get to bed ..." Harry said and stopped. He had such a desire to just stretch and yawn. He shrugged - something had slipped into his mouth from a floor above.

"What was that?" asked Hermione with tense nostrils; she had seen it.

"It was certainly Peeves." Ron said, looking up, trying to find the source of the fluid.

"We have to go to the hospital flight immediately." Hermione grabbed his sleeve on Harry's robe and pulled him against the stairs. "How does it taste?"

"What does it matter?" asked Ron, he looked quite unhappy.

"If Harry suddenly fainted, Madam Pomfrey must get a little hum about what it was!"

"It tastes ..." Harry smacked. Even though his first reaction had been spitting on the floor, he had swallowed a part. "Apples."

"Could not it just be apple juice?"

"Do not be silly, Ron. Who pours apple juice from a slice straight into someone's mouth?" hissed Hermione.

But Harry stopped listening to Ron's and Hermione's quibble. A strange heat began to spread from the stomach down to his knees, his jaws relaxed slightly and the steps he took became more self-assured. No matter what Hermione came up with for theories, he was no longer afraid.

"How are you?" just asked Ron.

They had just come up for a stairway when Harry stopped. He felt such courage, self-assurance, but he did not know what he would do about it. And the thoughts he had ... that's something he did not want to share. "I'm absolutely sure it was just apple juice." replied Harry. "I'm fine, it's okay."

"But we should still ..."

"I'm fine, Hermione. Certainly. Go ahead, you. I'll look for Ginny."

"Come on. Stop worrying all the time." Ron took Hermione's hand and they went up the stairs.

Harry could not understand that they fell for it - Hermione if someone would have broken in other cases - but something in his voice had persuaded them. These strange feelings that were now bubbling within him were boiling over. It felt like he was dreaming, and he knew exactly why he thought so. Because it was exactly like this he had known in his latest dreams. And he knew who he wanted to find out, but it was not Ginny.

But before Harry had figured out how to find this person, he heard Hermione's voice from the floor above. "You did WHAT?"

Harry took two steps at a time against her voice.

"I did not say that, I tried to stop it." There was the voice he wanted to hear most of all.

"Harry, stay away." Ron knocked at his side as he got up and stretched a protective arm in front of him, so he could not go any further.

"Pots, I apologize so much, I did not mean to ..."

"Do not worry." Harry fluttered stupidly.

"You're sick." said Ron with disgust.

Malfoy, who stood before the three with pronounced facial expression, backed a few steps with outstretched hands. "I swear by my mother's grave, I dropped the bottle and it broke. You can see the split on the floor below us."

"So the drink just ran into Harry's mouth?" asked Hermione angry.

"Do you listen to yourself when you talk, Granger?"

"Watch yourself!" mourned Ron.

"I mean ..." Malfoy pulled his blonde hair backward, away from his forehead and eyes. Harry just stared at his sweaty forehead. "Why would I like that to happen!" He pointed to Harry.

"There is something in it." said Ron.

"But on the other hand, you walked around with a forbidden bottle in your pocket. What would you do with it from the beginning?"

"We do not have to do that, Hermione." Harry said calmly. "Right ... Draco?"

Malfoy blocked his eyes. "Oh ..." he saw from Harry to Hermione. "Not really." Then he quickly went down the stairs and ran almost through the entrance hall towards the basement.

Ron and Hermione discussed high with each other all the way up to the hospital wing. They said things like "Malfoy is not wise", "Going around with forbidden drinks in your pocket", "Imagine if we had not been there" and "Lucky it was just a love drink, and nothing poisonous."

"Just?" said Ron neglected. "There's nothing to scream about! It's sick!"

"But he could as well have killed him."

"Had we not been able to stop Harry, I swore that he would have liked me to kill him."

The explanation for Harry's behavior to Madam Pomfrey may be that a girl from the same student home had given him candy with love drink in, and then he was cured.

Nobody said anything on the way back to the Gryffindor tower. Ron and Hermione thought the whole situation was embarrassing for Harry, and did not want to pull it up if he were to be embarrassed. Harry did not know what he felt. Generated, yes. But he did not think it felt like he had been completely cured either. The thoughts were left, and he liked them. The dreams were recorded in his memory, clearer than before. It was as if the drink had forced something long hidden, which he had not dared to admit to himself.

A whining for his belly. Butterflies? He dared not even smile near his friends.

Hermione went straight to his room and Harry and Ron to theirs. Neville, Seamus and Dean were also packing.

After an hour they were all ready and lay in bed, they were just as tired of all. Harry lay awake and looked up in the bedside sky and listened to when his roommates, one by one, began to sneak or breathe deeply.

He did not want to be confused anymore.

It was only half past nine and Harry decided to go up to the owl tower. He quickly grabbed a school owl and gave it a letter, then he sent it out through the window. He sat on the floor waiting for fifteen minutes before he opened the door, went down for all the stairs and shut down down the stairs down to the basement.

"Come on, come on, come on ..." he whispered and jumped a little lightly into the place. He took three quick breaths and then went down.

The long corridor was slightly illuminated by torches hanging along the walls. It was cold, but Harry still felt very hot. When he reached the corner he suddenly became intensely aware of how nervous he was. But he was not nervous about what he would say, but what he would do if the person he had attracted there would not appear.

But Malfoy stood there at the door outside the classroom where they had magic art together. He looked up when he saw Harry, looked quite scared himself. Harry stayed a few meters from Malfoy. They looked at each other but said nothing.

It seemed like there was a wall between them, a barrier that slowly penetrated Harry's throat and lungs. He could not breathe normally or talk. He just stood there.

Malfoy broke the silence. "Do it then." He shrugged. "I give up."

"What?"

"You came here to kill me." His eyes were shiny, tired. "It seemed a bit illogical that you sent a note about it, but just do it. I do not care anymore. I just want to quit all this."

"I did not come to kill you." Harry said after a while. He tried to relax in the face muscles, he must have looked angry when he went to Malfoy.

"So ... what is it you want? You got your coat back. If your spell is gone, I can not help you. I do not have it."

"It's not the one it's about either."

Malfoy lifted his arms to the sides and let them fall down again. "So?"

"I want to talk about the dreams."

The blonde surprised his eyes. They shone in the frown of light from a torch near him.

Harry continued. "I think we can have the same dreams. Not the same, but the same."

"What are you talking about? Will we tell each other what we dreamed tonight, or what?"

"I mean these special dreams. You talked to the library. Just answer honestly now, do you know who I'm talking about?"

"You are ... You ..!" Malfoy walked around a lap with his hands wandering around, as though he did not really know what he would do of them. "Did you come down here ... to talk about ... dreams!" he stopped, backed up, walked one step and then sideways. Harry saw that he was as confused as Harry felt, but he did everything in his power to keep calm.

"Now it's going to bear or burst ..." mumbled Harry, but again he became speechless.

Malfoy said nothing. He waited for Harry to tell his dreams. None of them seemed to be the first to pick it up if any of them were wrong.

"I usually dream about ..." quietly. Malfoy looked at Harry, as if he did not want him to say something, as if it were a secret that was being played. "I dream about ... I ..." but he really could not say that.

So instead, he took three long steps to the Slytherin, stood on his toes, put one hand on Malfoy's neck and pulled his face to his own. Before Malfoy reacted, Harry had grabbed his arm with his free and held him firmly. Harry's lips rubbed Malfoys, and he kissed him. A quick but definite kiss, then freed Malfoy from his grip.

He took a step back and blasted the mistrust of Harry, who now played the whole event over and over again, very quickly, until he realized what he had actually done. In a fraction of a second, Harry thought to take the flight, but he remained as a star of the same place where he was left.

"Not a second too early." said Malfoy, opened the door to the empty classroom and stepped in. "Will you ever come?"

..

Minutes lasted for hours and soon two o'clock at night. The castle was empty and quiet, no one had been heard down in the basement since the nine-thirties. But it did not matter, the door was properly locked with several enchantments Harry had thrown over it, as he learned from Hermione while they were looking for horror jokes a few months ago.

They lay next to each other, Harry and Draco, on an old coat on the floor, quite quiet. One; the hero of the world and savior, and the other; death eater. None of them dared break the silence, they did not want to return to reality. The whole situation was so crushed, twisted.
Harry lay on his back with his head on Draco's right arm and looked up in the ceiling that was lit by the moonlight outside the tall windows. His lover drew a deep breath as if he were going to say something, but then breathed out.

Harry solidified, but then relaxed and turned to the side so he could look at the blond man next to him. Draco just stared up in the roof with tense jaws. His otherwise very pale face was white in the moonlight and the silvery eyes shone. Harry took his left hand and turned it so that the back of the forearm was upward. He had looked at the black mark between the kisses and the sluts an hour ago, and for some reason it had appealed to him more than he thought it would do.

"I can take it away ..." said Draco low. His voice was a bit different because they had not talked for a long time.

"No." Harry said immediately. "I ... really like it." He felt that he was opposed to just what he had ever believed. But what did it do now? He was used to unexpected surprises and disputes at this time.

Draco laughed at. "Then it must be left." It seemed that he regretted just when he had said it.

Harry also began to think. Was this just a one-time deal, or did they date? Must he, the first thing he does in the morning, tell Ginny that he can not stay with her anymore and stay at Hogwarts over Christmas? "Ginny ..." Harry stabbed, lay on his back and hit the palm of the forehead.

"Are you serious about her now?" said Malfoy wounded.

"I have to tell her." Harry sat up and pulled the t-shirt lying beside him.

"Now?"

"No. First, I have to get a way to do it."

"She does not need to know." Malfoy said, and also put on his shirt. Harry got a last glimpse of his narrow, bare upper body. "Nobody needs to know."

"So ... we will not tell this to anyone?"

"Of course not. It was only once. Tomorrow it's normal again."

"Is it?"

Malfoy drew on his narrow designer jeans and looked down at Harry. "You're pretty cute, Potter." Then he opened the door - the enchantments were lifted - and went out of the classroom.