Disclaimer: The wonderful and talented J.K. Rowling has dibs on the characters and the majority of everything else. I do however own this particular variation so if you'd kindly not steal and claim as your own, I'd be grateful.
Thank you again to all you lovely readers. You are all very sweet, and have quelled my anxiousness about this story. Do you want to know what chapter I'm currently writing: Part 16. :) You might think well post more already! But I can't do that, I have to have some lee way to change anything in case something doesn't work further on. Sorry.
However, next week, hopefully I will have the Christmas fic that I mentioned finished and up, I've been trying to work on it, I just hope I don't change my mind on it before I finish it, because I do tend to do that.
Anyway, enjoy!
Edit: Oh and have a nice Christmas! I'll still post next Monday, I promise.
Part 7
Their day had been dull and uneventful, much like most of their days had become at Hogwarts which strangely made a nice change. Boring but much, much less stressful. Nobody had to worry about Dark Lords or hidden monsters anymore and it was refreshing to say the least, the only thing they had to worry about was their exams, which to Harry seemed like a bit of a walk in the park after what he has had to deal with in the past. Hermione, typically, wasn't taking an as relaxed approach.
"Harry," she said her tone exasperated as she waved the piece of paper in front of his face. "I made this for a reason, not for it to get covered in coffee stains and lay at the bottom of your trunk. Exams are closer than you think you know,"
"Hermione, for the last time, I know what I'm doing alright? I have my own methods. I got through my OWLs remember? I can get through these too," Harry said snatching the sheet off her and stuffing it into his pocket, where it would probably remain until his robes got washed. "Just, take a chill pill alright?" he finished trying to lighten the thunderous look on her face.
Hermione huffed but dropped the subject and threw herself into the armchair next to Ron's by the fire place. Ron looked at her reproachfully as if scared to talk in case it set her off on a rant. Harry noted that he had remained silent during the argument and promised himself he would repay him for that when he got a similar rant once Hermione found out about how he had burned the homework planner she had given him.
Harry sighed and made to move around to the chair opposite them both before he felt his invisibility cloak press against his thigh from where it was hidden in the pocket of his trousers. He'd almost forgotten where he had been heading before Hermione had ambushed him and felt a surge of disappointment in himself for doing so.
"I'll be back later, don't wait up," he said and turned away, streaking through the almost empty common room. He heard Ron ask Hermione where he was going but was already at the portrait hole before either of them could ask him properly. He really didn't want to explain and hoped they either forgot or he thought up a lie by the next morning to save himself from the embarrassment.
Harry was going back to the bathroom and he was desperately telling himself that it didn't have anything to do with hoping to see Malfoy again. If he was honest with himself though, he had no other reason to want to go back. There were plenty of other adequate bathrooms to wash in and it wasn't like he was stressed or needing to relax that he would want to choose a bath over a shower. Something was just niggling at the back of his head, telling him he wanted to go back, needed to go back.
He climbed through the portrait hole and then pulled his cloak around his shoulders and over his head until he was completely hidden, confusing the fat lady quite a bit, ("Oi, where did you go? Are you still there? Come back here and explain yourself young man!") He moved slowly so that he wasn't making too much noise to attract any attention from the people still moving around the castle, mainly older students returning to their common rooms before curfew.
Finally, eventually he reached the fourth door opposite Boris the Bewildered and stopped with his hand hovering over it ready to push it open, looking carefully up and down the corridor in case anyone was about, but there was no one. He paused before muttering the password, preparing himself for what may or may not be on the other side. He took a deep breath and said it clearly and pushed through the door.
A wall of cinnamon scented steam hit him as soon as he walked in, filling his lungs with heated, moist air. His head snapped over to the bath immediately, finding Malfoy, turning to look at him, confusion written all over his pale face that looked fuzzy around the edges with the steam. His palms were starting to sweat already from the mixture of heat and nerves.
"Oh, erm...sorry," Harry said forgetting completely that he was invisible with his cloak still on and acting as if he hadn't prepared nor wanted Malfoy there.
"Potter?" Malfoy asked with a deep crease in the middle of his forehead. Harry finally realised and pulled his cloak off, still holding the door open.
"I-I didn't mean-I'm sorry I-I'll just-," Harry stammered violently most of it not even an act. He'd found himself incredibly tongue tied for no real reason. It was just Malfoy after all.
"Talking never has come easy for you, has it Potter? Eloquent as ever I see," Malfoy drawled smoothly, still having an uncanny air of Professor Snape about him. He turned his back on Harry and drew his arms back out to support himself in the back, clearly completely at ease with the situation, which surprised Harry a little.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, finding his speech again and thankful for an excuse to stay, weak though it may be.
"Exactly what you think it does," Malfoy said as Harry walked closer towards his back, trying to be quiet even though his shoes were echoing off the tiles and around the room, making him even louder. "Sit down will you? You're making it far too noisy and you're making the place look untidy," Malfoy said, giving up his relaxed position to turn in the water so that he was now facing Harry, leaning folded arms on the edge of the bath to support himself.
"I-I don't think I-" Harry started to stammer again, the sight of Malfoy with his hair hanging damp in his silver eyes pushing all ability to speak out of his head, plus the thought of a hidden agenda contributing as he was sure Malfoy probably had one.
"Are we really going to go through this again? Relax, I'm not going to jinx you. Are you seriously going to go all the way back to your common room and wait until you think I'm finished?" Malfoy asked, and before Harry could think of a response he spoke again, "I didn't think so. Sit," he all but commanded.
Harry did as he was told and sat down against the wall like Malfoy had done the night before, dumping his cloak and his towel at his feet before pulling his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. He felt strange under Malfoy's gaze, vulnerable, as if he could see everything he was feeling and thinking. He was no longer suspicious or anxious, like he had been the day before at the library when they first started speaking relatively civilly with one another. Strange what a day can do to be honest. He was still getting used to the idea of liking Malfoy, he was sure it would probably take a while.
"I didn't expect you to come and disrupt my bath again, you seemed pretty desperate to get out of here last night Potter," Malfoy said breaking the silence, his face blank and unreadable as usual, something Harry was starting to get used to.
"Firstly, I think you'll find that you were the one that disrupted my bath last night Malfoy and secondly, you didn't seem like you wanted me to stick around last night anyway," Harry said, drawing strength from the excuse to outsmart Malfoy and speak clearly. It was nice to know he could still hold his own when it came down to it even though he now knew he liked Malfoy. It might just take him a minute to get his bearings sometimes.
Malfoy laughed out loud in a way that Harry had neither heard before nor expected to come out of Malfoy of all people. It was full and genuine, amused laughter that held no other meaning of resentment or teasing in it. It was...nice, for the lack of a better word.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Malfoy said making it unclear which part he was sorry about and clearly not letting Harry in on the joke. Harry raised his eyebrows at Malfoy apologising to him in the first place but let it go for the moment, knowing that he had done something similar just minutes before hand.
Malfoy looked at Harry with amusement flickering in and out of his silver eyes as if he was weary of letting Harry see it. He pushed a few strands of silky light hair out of his face with his left hand. This gave Harry a clear view of the dark outline of the tattooed mark on his forearm- the Dark Mark.
Of course Harry had seen one before but never Malfoy's, at least not this closely. Harry couldn't help but think that it should be some sort of crime that something so ugly was on something so pale and flawless. At the same time however, to him that was what made it that bit more endearing.
"You know it's rude to stare don't you Potter?" Malfoy said suddenly making Harry realise he had been openly staring, transfixed at Malfoy's forearm for quite a bit of time. Malfoy made no attempt to hide his arm from him though only rested his chin on the hand on the end of the arm, staring back at Harry, waiting for an answer, or another fumbled apology.
"I know, I- Sorry," Harry stammered, just like Malfoy had wanted and probably expected, as Malfoy's eyes slid to the scar, that Harry knew was half hidden by his fringe, as he tried to keep it these days, not that it really stopped anyone from recognising him.
Harry tightened his hand that were clasped around his knees as Malfoy sighed and looked away from him at last, lazily gazing around the room as if he was bored and tired. The more Harry looked at him the clearer it was to see the dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheeks through the steam.
"I-I always hoped that you hadn't actually got that mark you know," Harry said finally, very quietly but loud enough for Malfoy to hear and snap his head back to look at him again.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Malfoy said slowly after a long pause.
"Did it hurt?" Harry asked before he really realised he was doing it. Malfoy's eyebrows shot up and for a moment Harry contemplated quickly apologising and changing the subject. Malfoy responded before he could however.
"Like a bitch," he said calmly, curiosity shining through on his otherwise blank expression as he studied Harry, trying to figure out why he was so interested.
"Haven't you ever tried to get it removed?" Harry asked softly. He realised Malfoy probably wasn't going to attack him or anything for asking these questions but was still treading carefully in case he accidentally treaded on an explosion.
"I did to begin with but it wouldn't budge. Plus I don't really want it removed not anymore," Malfoy said, still studying Harry, unwavering in his stare even when Harry looked outraged, horrified even.
"You don't want it to be removed? Why not?" Harry asked, really not seeing any reasoning for this what so ever. What could that mark possibly mean to Malfoy that he didn't want it removed?
"It's a reminder. A reminder of what could have happened had I not...changed," Malfoy shrugged casually. He dropped his arms into the water, hiding the mark and putting an end to the topic of conversation. He moved back into the centre of the bath, treading water and then sank down and under. Harry sat up straighter; concerned just in case Malfoy didn't resurface. Seconds later however, Malfoy was back above water, wiping his sodden hair out of his eyes so that it sat in a style that resembled that of what he had in first and second year.
"Alright, turn around, I'm done," Malfoy said and Harry quickly obeyed. He sat and stared at the tiles of the bathroom walls, just managing to make out a shape moving in them, the shadow of Malfoy. It was just a blur, nothing like a mirror but he knew it was him.
The sounds of water rushing off of Malfoy's body as he pulled himself out of the water made Harry close his eyes just so that he wasn't tempted to look around. He still had the sounds of the soft splashes of drops of water falling on the marble floor and of the cotton of his towel rubbing over skin and he seriously considered casting a silencing spell just so that it would stop his trousers from getting tighter.
This wasn't right in Harry's mind. He was practically perving on Malfoy and getting a kick out of it at the same time. And Malfoy had no idea; he was just innocently getting dressed while Harry sat there and fantasized about him getting undressed again. Thoughts and pictures ran through Harry's mind of Malfoy's bare, smooth chest that he had seen the night before and he tried desperately to ignore them the best he could. He could accept having some sort of feelings for Malfoy but this? This was bordering on perverse.
Once Harry started to hear the sounds of buttons popping into holes and a zipper being done up he knew it was only a matter of time before he would be able to turn around again and hopefully all of those previous thoughts would be gone and forgotten about. Or at least almost forgotten about.
"Alright Potter, your turn," Malfoy said and Harry was able to slowly open his eyes and turn around again, still sitting on the floor of the bathroom, now staring up at a very tall, very much clothed Malfoy from across the room.
"Er thanks," Harry mumbled as he got to his feet. The quicker Malfoy left the quicker he'd be able to get in the bath and calm himself down again. He looked over at the bath and saw that it was empty and spotless as if it hadn't even been used that night.
Malfoy made his way in the direction of the door before stopping at the mirrors above the sinks and checked his appearance, running a hand through his damp hair, styling it suitably to his liking. Harry, figuring he'd be gone without so much as a farewell in a matter of seconds turned around again and started pulling his robes over his head.
"Are we going to be bumping into one another a lot more from now on?" Malfoy asked gently from behind Harry and he paused halfway done with unbuttoning his shirt. He contemplated this for a few seconds, not looking round to face Malfoy considering he was almost half naked.
"I don't know. You tell me," Harry said calmly even though his cheeks had turned nice and hot and he could tell he was blushing, but as long as he didn't look round Malfoy wouldn't be able to know that.
"What do you mean by that?" Malfoy asked and Harry smirked at the quiver in Malfoy's voice.
"Well you started it so to speak. You approached me first in the library the other day," Harry said and turned around, boosting in confidence now that he had the upper hand and now that his blush had died down.
"You're the one that keeps intruding on my baths," Malfoy said, talking into the mirror but with his eyes fixed on Harry, his hand suspended in mid air from where he had paused in fixing his hair.
Harry shrugged and looked back down to unbutton the remainder of his shirt, deciding to let that go since that wasn't strictly true, it was the other way around the night before. Harry wasn't entirely sure what had just happened to change his confidence around Malfoy, maybe the Gryffindor in him was finally taking control and kicking some courage in to him. It was just Malfoy after all, he'd never been scared of him before.
"Am I going to have to change the time that I choose to bathe so that I don't run into you anymore or what?" Malfoy asked, getting slightly angrier the more Harry got confident.
Harry smirked and shrugged off his shirt at last. "I don't know Malfoy, that's up to you, just know that I wont be changing the time I bathe. I'll be here at the same time every night but if you wish to come at a different time then so be it," Harry said and turned again to start switching on the taps.
Malfoy was silent but Harry could still hear him breathing heavily as if they had just had a physical fight. When he turned off the taps and was happy with the bubbles he had he finally heard Malfoy huff and then stomp out of the room slamming the door in his wake. He clearly wasn't used to loosing a war of words.