The Rest of Our Lives
Chapter Eleven-Not Knowing the Enemy
The first week of school rushed by Harry as he tried to get his bearings on the boy he was supposed to love and complete the toppling tower of homework he had received. It was a Saturday and he had just spent three hours doing homework. For such a "slacker" year, the teachers sure did know how to spread it thick. With Iris' daily homework assignments, McGonagall's tedious tasks and Snape's evil ways, Harry wasn't sure if he would make it another week, especially if he didn't start getting enough sleep. Harry had to admit though, he was getting more sleep than Hermione who was running on an average of three hours per night. She unlike the rest of the school, was again taking more courses than normal. Without the help of the Time-Turner, Hermione was in worse shape than Harry had ever seen. She was going to wear herself out before the first month was over.
Even though Harry was getting little sleep and most of his time was consumed by homework and plans, he did find time to fly, the only thing that took his mind off of his obstacles. Normally Ron would fly with Harry, to try and better his Keeper abilities, but today he was hindered. Ron was spending quality time with his busy girlfriend. What that quality time was, Harry did not want nor need to know.
As Harry soared above the tree tops, oblivious to all, something smacked into the back of his head. He lurched forward and nearly fell off his broom, but instead his nose cracked the wood of his handle. Blood started to run down his face. Clamping the sleeve of his robe to his bloody nose, Harry looked at what had hit him. A bludger was soaring through the sky, its releaser standing fifteen feet below Harry. He sighed, it was Draco Malfoy, as usual.
Landing on the hard ground, Harry staggered with his broom in one hand and a still bleeding nose in the his other hand. Placing his broom on the ground he mumbled a spell causing his nose to fix itself. Harry then siphoned off the blood from his robe before he gave a second look at the laughing Draco.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked, picking up his broom.
"Just thought I'd drop in and let you fall," Draco sneered.
"Mmm, thanks," Harry sarcastically said. "Seriously, what do you want?"
"Figured we could get that stupid project over for Raine, and seeing as you were too chicken to make the first move, here I stand."
Furrowing his brows, Harry grumbled. He was going to make the first move, he just hadn't known how. That didn't make him chicken. It just made him hesitant. Better yet, it made him concerned. Neither wanting to ruin the project or fail in getting to know Draco, Harry had put a lot of thought into their first real time together. All that thinking was now down the drain. Damn Draco and his rashness.
"Yea, whatever," Harry commented. "Let's just get it over with." He didn't want to seem too eager or too happy. It would be a sure give away to his true motives.
"Might as well go to the Library first," Draco directed. "Then later on we can go to the Room of Requirement."
"Sounds good to me, I just need to put my broom away and change. I'll meet you there in ten minutes."
The two boys split up as Harry took a shortcut to the Gryffindor common room and Draco went the long way to the Library. Harry looked back over his shoulder as the second boy retreated down the hallway. Even the back of Draco's head was distinguishable. Feeling the back of his own head, Harry wondered if his looked as apparent as Draco's and decided that was a no.
Following the disappearance of his broom and messy clothes, Harry hurried to the Library to find the Slytherin at the largest table. At least twenty books were already pilled on the table, some flipped open to a certain page and some still untouched.
"Why do we have so many books?" Harry asked, pushing aside a small stack of books to make room for his body.
"Because, Potter, we picked the hardest damn spell. That's why!" Draco complained.
"Hey, don't go blaming me. You picked the spell!"
"You're the one-"
A shadow fell on their table. An angry Madam Pince glared down at the two. "This is a Library! You will follow the rules!" she quietly hissed. "Shh!"
Harry grabbed a book, glaring daggers at Draco. "You did pick it."
"Shut the hell up," Draco hissed. "There isn't anything we can do about it now. So we are stuck with Duro."
For two hours, Harry and Draco wrote down everything they found on their spell. Nothing was said as the boys diligently worked; this was probably because the two boys were furious with each other. Neither boy wanted to admit they were wrong and neither wanted to be the first to apologize. Harry wasn't going to, that was for sure, even if it meant widening the gap between them. He didn't care at the time being.
'Duro, a form of powerful wand magic that enables the caster to turn an object into stone. Much like Transfiguration, one's entire entity and mind capability must be focused on the object at hand. Waving one's wand carelessly can create a backfired spell from which is nonreversible. For less mediocre objects, like Witches and Wizards, a wand will be of no use. This type of magic is known as Wandless magic and is extremely powerful, when done correctly. For more information, please read the second edition to Spells: A Guide to the Complex.'
Closing the book, Harry sighed. He had an entire piece of parchment filled from the ten books he had read. Most of it was repeated knowledge, passed from one author's hands to the next. Some of, however, was extremely new information but extremely vague. Nowhere could he find how to actually complete the spell. He merely had the thoughts behind it. What was the point of that?
"Have you found how to cast the spell?" Harry asked, breaching the extended silence around the large table.
Draco shook his head. "I told you this was fucking complicated. Twenty books and all of it says the same thing. 'This is what it does and this is what you would need to be thinking,'" the blonde mimicked, snapping closed his own seven hundred page book. "We are going to need the Restricted Section in order to finish this. Do you think whatever-her-name-is will allow it?"
"Her name-" Harry spat, "-is Professor Raine, get it right."
"Yea, whatever," Draco waved his hand with an air of majesty. "Why don't you go chat her up and I'll stay here. I don't want to talk to her anyways."
Ten minutes later, with a signed approval by Iris to use the Restricted Section, Harry returned to find Draco sitting in the same place Harry had left him, only Draco wasn't doing any work; the boy was sleeping with his feet on the chair next to him. The first thought that ran through Harry's mind was that of torture and then murder. 'How could that prat just sleep while I do all the work?' he thought venomously to himself. But then, a second thought flitted across his mind. 'He looks so peaceful. If only he could look like that every waking moment.'
Harry's reverie was broken as Draco's eyelids opened and his eyes caught those of the staring green eyes of Harry. "Can I be of assistance?" Draco asked, sarcasm dripping from every syllable as he put his feet down and stood. "Or do you just stare at everyone? Like the big freak you are?"
The blood that had been boiling two minutes before was once again red hot. How could a person envoke such mood changes one minute and then be completely sane the next? Harry didn't think he was ever going to be able to love this boy, let alone get to know him.
"Can you be anymore of an ass, Malfoy?" Harry questioned, leading the way to Madam Pince, note in hand. "Or is it that way because your face looks like an ass?"
"Shut the hell up, Potter. At least my face is unhindered by scars and blemishes," Draco shot back.
Madam Pince read the note and eyed up the two boys. Realizing that the note was authentic, she allowed them passage into the "unknown."
"Where do we begin?" Harry asked his partner, scanning the book titles of the shelves he passed in utter amazement. He had only venture into this area of the Library a few times, namely in the dark.
"This way," Draco grumbled. "Not much of a recurring customer, are we?"
"Sorry we can't all be like you, Draco."
Both boys stopped in their tracks. Draco's head spun quickly back at Harry and Harry averted his eyes. "What the fuck are you doing?" the blonde demanded. "Don't ever use my first name again! You are no friend of mine; you aren't even the lowly dirt beneath my feet." Draco then backed away from Harry and, taking the isle adjacent to the one Harry was in, left.
'Fuck,' Harry sighed. He had accidentally let slip a crucial piece of evidence. What an idiot he felt like. Draco wasn't interested in him, he didn't even want to be around him. At least now Harry could stop trying to get to know his enemy. Prophecy or not, Draco was not the one.
