Days passed before Harry even was feeling comfortable enough to be around his friends. Harry had been absent from the site of almost any student as he found refuge in a dusty old abandoned tower shoved deep past the depths of where anyone would want to explore. The entire weekend he spent up there kicking dust trying to organize his brain of the rushing gateway of new information he was meant to process. There was a building anger inside of him, the more knowledge he gathered, and the more Dumbledore pushed him caused it to boil. Dumbledore didn't care that Harry had a darkness creeping throughout him, one so strong that it had been as if he had been bunking with a dementor in that stale tower. Those few evenings were the last nights that Harry was able to keep his innocence intact, the black sky showing through the broken boards in the ceiling had stolen it each night before Harry closed his eyes to sleep.

Harry felt almost insane for the few days he spent alone, looking over every detail about horcruxes and obsessively watching for Malfoy on the Marauder's Map. Sunday's sunset finally convinced Harry that it was time for him to be back with people who cared about him and to pull himself out of the dark hole that he was beginning to lose himself in.

Harry had less than a knapsack to pack up before he left for the common room. A hot shower and his own bed were calling to him; not to mention Lia's scent, a mix of perfume and whatever plant she had been working on that day, hadn't left his mind. The common room was in sight and Harry could almost feel the hot water on his back until he saw Draco. The common room painting was flung open and Malfoy in a panic, running in a manic state.

"Draco!" A voice could be heard, yelling his name faintly from inside the common room.

Lia curled her fingers from around the painting and called his name again. Harry felt a boiling rage inside of him.

How dare Draco be in there? How dare he be with Lia?

Harry dropped his knapsack and charged off in Draco's direction.

"Harry?" Lia ran out from the common room.

"Stay back!" Harry boomed as he sprinted past her.

Draco disappeared behind one of the bathroom doors where Harry entered silently a few minutes after. The water was running and Harry could barely hear Draco sobbing over the trickling noise. Draco's face stared back at Harry through the fogged mirror, his tie undone and face red with tears. A red flash zoomed past Harry's head, barely missing the tip of his ear. Harry shot back, Draco dodged, causing the porcelain sink to explode. The two boys dueled and completely destroyed the bathroom, but Harry knew that it had to come to end. Draco's spells were countering Harry's too quickly, giving Harry no headway so he knew that he had to think on his toes. His brain pulled word that Harry hadn't ever used before, without a skip of a beat it came out.

"Sectum Sempra!" Harry yelled from behind what was left of a stall.

It was a direct hit, straight to Draco's chest and caused him to immediately fall to the ground. Blood rushed out from Draco, causing an instant pool of red to begin soaking everything. Snape rushed in, and Harry snapped back into focus as he heard Lia screaming from behind him. Her cold hands pulled him from the bloody floor and she dragged him from the bathroom as Snape knelt down to aid Draco. Harry couldn't remember much after that, just Lia getting him into the shower to wash Draco's blood from his body.

The next morning Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lia did not go to their daily classes. Harry woke from his bed and Ron's was already tidy and made while the sun reminded him that is was early afternoon. There were tiny cuts all over his body; Harry tried to cover them with a large robe before he made his way down to the common room.

The fire crackling was the only noise that Harry could hear as he descended down the large staircase to unite with his friends. There was a tiny tray with food that had barely been touched on the table in between them. As Harry approached, he saw that Lia's face was swollen and she could barely look at him.

"Harry!" Hermione leapt from the couch and threw her arms around him.

"Well, you're a bit roughed up, yeah?" Ron commented as Harry sat across him.

"Yeah, a bit. I'll be fine. How's Draco?"

Hermione and Ron both turned their heads to avoid the subject.

"Snape patched him up nicely. He will be out of the hospital wing by tonight." Lia answered after clearing her throat.

"Lia I-"

"Stop. You stop it Harry James Potter. Sorry will never cut it for what you did last night."

"Are you really upset that I hurt Draco? He attacked me first." Harry got defensive.

"Harry you're so THICK sometimes. Of course I am absolutely livid that you flew off the handle and hunted Draco down. But you could have seriously been hurt last night, Harry. You can't even imagine what state Draco was in. He could have killed you and not even batted an eye." Lia began crying again.

"It's pretty curious how I leave for a few days and Draco Malfoy ends up in the common room with my girlfriend."

"Harry, you needed space. I gave it to you. We all gave it to you. Draco broke in here last night to find me. He was hyperventilating, continuously saying how he 'couldn't do this anymore'. He was throwing up right before he ran out. "

She took a minute to stop crying, gather herself and turn to look Harry right in the eyes.

"Draco is my friend, Harry. You are my everything. Both of you could've been so mangled that would've been burying you instead of screaming at you."

Lia took a few more moments to erase the mental imagine of Harry's cold lifeless body entangled with a corpse of Draco Malfoy in that flooded boys bathroom.

"After I saw you the way I did last night, I knew it was bad. I ran straight to Snape's office knowing that if you two continued to duel, one or both of you were going to end up using one of the unforgivable curses."

"So Snape knows everything that happened?" Harry questioned, still having a hard time remembering every detail of the night prior; including which professor carried Draco out of that bathroom.

"After I was done cleaning you up, I went back to Snape's, spending quite a deal of time there. Somehow convinced him that it was unfair to expel you because Draco cast the first curse. Shockingly, he was more than willing to let you off with enough detentions to make sure you missed the last Gryffindor Quidditch game. "

Harry's knuckles were clenched white on a thick throw blanket that hung from the side of the stiff couch.

"I don't even know what to say. I lost it."

"Get your head on, Harry Potter. Get your head on before you don't have one anymore." Lia ended the conversation and headed back to her dorm. Hermione lifted herself from the large sofa and ran up the stairs after her.

"Girls." Ron shook his head toward their direction.


Harry packed up his wand, notepad and pens while the other Gryffindor's suited up for the last Quidditch game of the year. The girls needed a bit of convincing to go down to the field, knowing how upset Harry was about not leading the team to victory. But Harry assured them it was his own doing for not being able to join his team, and that Ron needed them there cheering him on.

The window was cracked in the hall, and Harry could hear the roaring screams traveling through the slit of fresh air. His notes were scribbled so hard against the pages of paper that some of it began to rip. The lights of the candles began to cause clouds of orange against the hall walls as the sun began to set. The cheering did not level out with the evening light, and it was clear that the match was extremely intense. A cold hand ran against Harry's back and startled him, due to the fact he was the only student body in the entire school.

"Gryffindor is winning. Remind you of something." Lia brushed her lips against Harry's neck.

"Lia.." Harry reached behind and grabbed a handful of her blonde hair.

"You didn't miss much, Harry. Let's go, okay?"

Lia snatched up Harry's things and pulled him by the waist all the way up to Common room, which was slowly beginning to crawl with red-faced wild Gryffindor's. A crowd of boys carried Ginny upon their shoulders, and an enthusiastic rush was chanting behind them. The music started shortly after, along with streamers and ribbons flying out of wands. Hermione and Ron were among the last Gryffindors to enter the common room, carrying two cases full of pumpkin juice.

"Congrats Ron." Harry hugged his best friend.

"I'm glad it's over." Ron sighed, while cracking open a pumpkin juice.

The common room exploded with energy, with fizzy drinks flying through the air, music blasting so loud it was nearly deafening. Ginny ran up to Hermione and Lia and the three embraced in a hug that turned in to sort of a hop.

"Ginny, great job out there!" Hermione screamed over the music.

"I couldn't have done any of it without Harry's guidance all year!" She screamed.

Her long intricate wand extended and pointed straight at the radio blasting the energetic music. The commotion stopped with the burst of light that came from Ginny's wand, and all attention sucked to her as she stood on top of the large table in the center of the room.

"You Gryffindor's fought like warriors in today's game!"

A loud cheer followed.

"We ended the season strong, and I am proud to be on your team, and be a friend. But we owe this honor to Harry! Our brave captain who has never failed us! Cheers for Harry!"

"FOR HARRY!" The entire room bellowed at the top of their lungs.

The music commenced, and Ginny gripped at Hermione and Lia's hands to join her on the dance floor. Lia could see in Harry's eyes that he was exhausted, and not ready to endure an entire night of celebrating.

"You two enjoy. I am going to call it a night."

The two disappeared into the crowd, and Harry and Lia snaked their way through the mass, getting stopped by just about every student for a congratulatory hug, hive five or quick dance. Finally, Harry's unkempt bed was in sight, and the two undressed into their undergarments and dove right into the puffy comforter. A soft acoustic music played from Harry's wand on the windowsill, and he wrapped his arm around her bare stomach. A quiet roar could still be barely heard in the background of Harry and Lia's peaceful embrace.

"Dumbledore talked to me this morning." Harry paused.

"If it wasn't bad enough to not be able to play our last game, he tells me that we need to go off campus tomorrow."

"Harry, don't worry about tomorrow. Focus on right now, focus on today. We might not have that tomorrow."

Harry rested his head into her bunched up blonde hair on the pillow, and realized she was right, this moment might not ever happen again.

The curtain was open just right that the starry sky was able to keep the room alight with the two stayed curled up in each other. Their tiny audible amount of music was just enough to drone out the chaos downstairs, and perfectly complimented their mood. The two placed tiny kissed all over each other's bodies; as if each kiss could subtract the amount of anxiety or pain the other was feeling. Harry's hand stayed wrapped in Lia's golden locks as the two began to doze off with an enormous rush of safety.