Harry wasn't sure he liked this part of Malfoy manor much. It was damp, cold and dark with stone floors and walls but he supposed that was all he should expect for a basement. There were a few boxes and crates stacked in the corner but, other than that, the room was virtually empty. In fact, it reminded Harry less of a basement but rather a dungeon.
Harry had found the place almost by accident. After his strange encounter with Snape, he went to find out where Draco had got to and discovered a dark passageway somewhere towards the back of the house. Under normal circumstances, he might not have entered but when he had tasted the air with his tongue, he realised Draco's scent was coming from it. After tentatively sliding down the steep steps, he found Draco hunched over a bubbling cauldron, a book out in front of him as his eyes ran over the words.
Draco was so focused, to Harry's surprise, that he didn't even register he was there, so when Harry brushed his leg as he slid by, he jumped and almost stepped on him.
"Hey!" he hissed as he reared back, just in time before Draco's shoe crashed down where he had just been.
Draco looked down in surprise, "Oh! Sorry Scales but you shouldn't sneak up on me like that; I could have really hurt you".
"Funny, coming from you" Harry chuckled to himself before turning his attention to the book Draco was reading.
It was open on swelling solutions and Harry tried to stifle a laugh as he recalled the time they tried to do this in class and failed miserably. Draco looked down quizzically as he heard the snake make a funny hissing noise that sounded vaguely like a laugh.
"Are you laughing?" He asked and Harry looked up but only envisioned Draco with a giant nose and so burst into laughter again.
Draco looked between the snake, the cauldron and then the book as if trying to find a reason for the snake's amusement and when Harry finally calmed himself down enough to look Draco in the face, he saw he was scowling.
"Think it's funny that I have to revise on something as simple as a swelling solution, do you?" He said furiously and Harry flinched at his tone of voice. It had been a long time since Draco had spoken to him in such a way. "It's not my fault that during the lesson, someone threw a firework in Goyle's cauldron and made my nose swell to the size of a melon! I blame Potter for that and so did Professor Snape but, predictably, there was no real evidence so he got off it with no punishment. Typical!" Draco ranted and Harry had to hide under the table the cauldron was on just to get away from the blonds stomping feet.
Draco panted hard; the adrenalin from his rant slowly leaving his system till he had calmed down but Harry did not come out. His snake instincts were telling him to stay as still and as quiet as possible till the danger had passed. After a minute, Harry saw Draco get down on his hands and knees to peer under the table. As their eyes met, Harry wrapped tightly around himself and buried his head in his coils. He felt so vulnerable, more so than he had ever been in his life, with the now much bigger Slytherin staring at him.
There was silence before Draco's voice, more soft and tender than before, spoke out. "Scales, Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you," But Harry remained in the same position, not trusting his tone of voice.
"Scales, please come out, I didn't mean-I didn't…" he stuttered, trying to find the right words to say but nothing come out.
Harry heard him sigh and he peered over his coils slightly to see the young Malfoy slump into a sitting position on the hard stone floor, staring up at the ceiling.
Silence passed over them, only disturbed by the dripping of water from cracks in the ceiling as they hit the floor and the distant voices of the people above. Soon, Draco's eyes close and Harry thought he might burst into tears from the expression on his face. Unable to stop himself and think rationally, he slid over his coils towards Draco and nudged his hand with his snout. The boy looked down and lifted his hand to allow the snake to run his scally head along his palm. Soon his hand ran down the rest of his body as it unwrapped and stretched. Harry wasn't a fan of being petted because it made him feel like a pet, but he knew Draco liked the feeling of his scales, and so, allowed it this one time to cheer him up.
Draco smiled, propping himself up as Harry came to rest his head on his chest, the same hand now gently running over the top of Harry's head and, thankfully, avoiding his scar. Harry tried his best not to feel awkward as he lay on Draco. He kept telling himself it was to warm himself up, which was not entirely a lie either as the basement floor was very cold and his underbelly didn't have as thicker scales to preserve his heat. He also couldn't help but feel relaxed as Draco rubbed his head. It was like someone running their hands through his hair and, even though he didn't have hair or an exposed scalp, it was still equally relaxing.
Draco sighed contently and resumed staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought until he spoke once again. "I'm sorry I shouted. You probably don't even know why I'm angry or the reason behind the swelling solution. I'm just so frustrated with everything, you know, with OWL's coming up soon and all. Father tells me anything could come up, and so, he asked Professor Snape to give me extra tasks and homework which is not how I wanted to spend my holiday. I'm also frustrated because I know lots of people like Harry Potter and Hermione Granger that don't need to revise and are probably having a good time somewhere at moment. Even Ron Weasley I bet is having a good time even if his family is beyond poor. And here I am, stuck doing work on a holiday because father thinks I will fail my exams. He doesn't even try to hide it!"
Ignoring the way he said he and his friend's names, Harry could almost feel how tired and frustrated Draco was and genuinely felt sorry for him. Now that he was closer to Draco, he could see the dark shadows under his eyes and the lines of tiredness on his face that shouldn't be there at his age and realised that him falling asleep from overwork, like that time in the study, must have happened more than once since he came home from school. Harry wanted to say to Draco how wrong he was, how Harry was not prepared or even vaguely ready for him OWL's, but he couldn't.
Draco could not understand parseltongue and so hissing made no sense to him. As a way of conveying some reassurance, he lifted his head and nudged his neck which caused Draco to recoil with laughter.
"Stop that, I'm ticklish" he laughed, trying to push the snake gently away.
"Oh really," Harry said mischievously, and worked the end of his tail around Draco's guarding hand and used it to brush over his neck.
The young Malfoy kicked and rolled around in fits of laughter as the snake tickled him mercilessly. It was not until a violent spluttering and hissing met their ears did they stop.
The solution had boiled over and was now spilling over the side as large plumes of steam and smoke billowed out the top. Harry was pushed off as the Malfoy stood to tend to the burning potion. He reached for his dragon-hide gloves that were to the side of the cauldron and pulled them on before tackling the mess.
Harry didn't stay long, partly because he didn't want swelling solution fired at him and because the floor was still freezing.
When he made it back upstairs, he saw that the room was bathed in an orange glow, indicating the sun was setting and it was getting late. Harry mentally crossed off another day at Malfoy Manor and wondered how much longer he would stay there. Draco's mention of his friends had reminded him of just how much he missed them and how desperate he was to get away from here and more importantly, Voldemort.
Maybe Snape really had figured it out. He could only hope, but even then, it would still be difficult to retrieve him without proof and that could be dangerous, for them and him. All he could hope for was that help was on the way in some shape or form.
I just want to clear something up. There is nothing between Draco and Harry in this. I want to keep the characters as true to there real selves as I possibly can. However, having said that, they are going to have a better understanding of one another but more of that will come into play later.
Hoped this chapter is alright as I wrote it in a bit of a hurry, but its readable ( I hope ) so that's ok.
Next chapter might take some time so I don't know when it will be up but, hopefully, soon.
