Chapter 8

"So you think Ron managed to keep Voldemort off first, but then he grew too strong, and now the same thing has happened to you?" Hermione asked.

"Didn't I just say that?," Malfoy asked. "Potter, when you decided to go all suicidal, when did you manage to push Voldemort away?"

He thought for a moment, choosing to ignore Malfoy's insult.

"Just a few second before I called out for help," he answered.

Ron stared at him.

"That's when I got upstairs," the redhead said slowly, probably imagining what would've happened if he hadn't gone to the dorms in that very moment. "But that was just two days ago!"

He saw Malfoy meet Ron's eyes with a grim expression.

"Exactly,"

"Shit," Harry said and fell back on the couch.

"What an eloquent way to summarize our situation, Potter," Malfoy drawled.

Z*z*Z

"Stop poking at your bruises, dimwit," Malfoy said absentmindedly as he flipped a page in the book in front of him.

Harry quickly hid his hand under the table.

Two days had passed since the broom-incident. Ron and Hermione had gone home to their respective families this morning after much persuasion. Hopefully they wouldn't worry too much during the holiday. He had promised to stay close to Malfoy all the time, and the Slytherin had in return promised not to kill him – which really wasn't necessary considering that unbreakable vow of his.

Harry himself on the other hand had promised no such thing. If things got much worse, he'd apperate himself to Arctic, break his wand in two and kill himself. When Voldemort took over his body out there he couldn't do much damage before he died. Especially if he drowned himself. Yeah that was a good idea.

"Don't think about killing yourself either, Potter, Granger will blame me if you do that," Malfoy said and flipped the page again.

Harry didn't bother denying it.

"How did you know I thought about that?" he asked, a little annoyed by Malfoy's superior tone.

"You always tap your foot when you do it. That's another reason for you to stop thinking about it; your tapping is getting annoying,"

Harry pressed his lips together in annoyance, but followed Malfoy's advice and changed his mental subject. It couldn't be healthy thinking so much about killing yourself when all you wanted was a chance to live anyway.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

They were in the library because the Slytherin had said that he wanted to get some reading done, but he'd never said about what.

"I'm trying to find something about what will happen if Voldemort manages to kill you," Draco said and finally looked up.

Harry swallowed as his thoughts jumped right back on the suicidal track again.

"Do you think I should do it?" he asked.

He had asked Ron and Hermione about it, but they couldn't be objective. They couldn't be completely unselfish. And he couldn't blame them. But he thought Malfoy neither liked or disliked him enough to lose his objectiveness.

"Do I think you should do what?" the Slytherin asked, closing his book with a heavy sigh.

"Do you think I should go to the North Pole and drown myself?" He said.

Malfoy looked at him for a moment; then his head tipped backwards as he laughed.

Harry felt his cheeks heat, but mostly it was the lump in his throat that bothered him. He lowered his eyes and looked away.

"By Merlin, Potter, are you serious?" Malfoy asked as he saw him, all laughter gone in his voice.

"I've thought about it, like you noticed, and it's the best plan I've come up with. There's nearly no people up there, so if Voldemort takes over my body, there's not much to kill up there anyway. Breaking my wand will probably help to, and if I jump in the water from atop an iceberg he hopefully won't be able to-..."
"Stop." Malfoy interrupted him harshly. "Stop, you do realize what we're talking about here, don't you?"

Harry stared back at Malfoy. He knew all too well.

The Slytherin let out a deep sigh and mumbled something suspiciously similar to I'm not supposed to do this.

"Potter, this is your first chance to live in eighteen years, in your life. You shouldn't be throwing that away."

Malfoy looked like he'd rather be singing the Hogwarts-song at the top of his lungs than talking about this. Any other time Harry might have been amused. Now he just stared blankly back.

"Gee, Potter, ever tried thinking of yourself at some point in your life? It works fine for other people, you know?"

Now Harry actually got angry.

"So this is the right time to think about myself? Right now? Right now that the only thing that ties Voldemort to this world is my head? Right now that my only two choices are to live the few months, weeks maybe, I have left knowing if I choose that, Voldemort can return and kill thousands of people through killing me. Knowing that those people died because I was selfish and gutless! Or I can end all this, knowing that those people will live!"

He had stood sometime during his speech, but couldn't quite remember when. Now Draco stood too, looking as angry as he felt.

"No, you won't know that those people will live! You will do to yourself exactly what Voldemort is trying to do you right now! We have no idea what will happen if you die, what he can do if that happens! It's way more likely that he figured that you'd try something like your little Arctic-plan and all you'll have ended up doing is playing straight into his hands! You'll have set him free and left the world without your protection and you'll have given up!" at the last two words Malfoy pushed him harshly back onto the couch they had been sitting on before.

They stared at each other for long moments, the Slytherin panting heavily after his out-burst

"You're right," Harry admitted finally, but maintained the eye-contact, "I shouldn't do it."

Malfoy let out a sigh and looked away as he shoved a hand in his previously perfect hair as he sat down.

"That's what I said,"

"So what do you suggest that we do, then?" Harry asked.

Malfoy grew silent as he stared at the cover of his book, as if an answer would magically pop up there.

"I think..." Malfoy's voice died away as he lost himself in thought, before he took a deep breath and started over again, "I think we need to find out how much time we have, how much Voldemort's powers are growing and how they're doing just that,"

They fell silent for a while as they both tried to figure out how to get the information they needed.

"I think I know a way to find out the first part..." Harry said finally.

"What? How?" Malfoy asked and straightened up.

"We just check how far away I can get from you and compare from day to day. It's not very precise but it's-"

"It's enough," Malfoy decided quickly. "Shall we?"

"Now?" he asked, surprised.

"Why not, now is as good as ever," the Slytherin said with a shrug as he stood.

"Oh... okay..." Harry said and stood too, even though he didn't in any way look forward to be in Voldemort's control. "How do we do this?"

"Back away from me while counting your steps, and just tell me when you can feel him," Malfoy said and placed himself to give them as much space as possible.

Harry confirmed with a nod and slowly started walking away, still facing Malfoy.

He had gotten to seventy nine when he suddenly bumped into a table, and out of nowhere hell broke loose. Green flashed before his eyes and he felt steel in his hand. Fear mixed with anticipated victory inside of him as the line between Voldemort and himself was smudged. He identified the cold object in his hand as a knife that must have been placed at the table he'd bumped into.

Just my luck.

Through half-lidded eyes as his armed hand jerked towards his chest.

"Expelliarmus!" the spell hit him and the knife he held flew from his hand, merely scraping his already wounded torso, and hit the far wall.

He turned to see Malfoy sprinting towards him. The Slytherin reached him within seconds, and pressed him up against a bookshelf. For some reason probably neither of them knew, but not was going to question either, the blond pulled him close with an arm around his shoulders in a not-quite-hug.

"I didn't know Expelliarmus worked on knives..." he said and let out a heavy breath as he leaned closer to Malfoy, shuddering as he felt Voldemort disappear. He made a mental note never to try this again.

"Me neither," came Draco's tight answer.


Hope you enjoy!

I'm baking cream puffs so I have to go now!

Until next time, everyone!