The silence of the hospital wing was punctuated by the creaking of the door. It was not enough to wake a sleeping Draco however. The dreamless sleep potion that he had been given was doing wonders, allowing him to have his first Potter free night in weeks.
It was the silence in fact that finally slowed Harry up. He had half jogged the length of the castle but until this point hadn't really considered what to do if Draco was actually sleeping. He didn't particularly want to wake him, nor did he want to forgo this conversation. He stepped forward tentatively.
"Draco?" There was a soft little snort but no other response. "Draco?" Harry tried again a little louder, conscious that Pomfrey would skin him alive if she caught him. He leaned right in and said "Oy, Malfoy, your dads a prick." When this too failed to get a response he realised Draco was well and truly out of it.
He slipped a hand out of the cloak's protective cover and gently shook his shoulder. Realising that a disembodied hand waking him was likely to see Draco hitting the roof his slid the rest of the cloak off before trying again. And again. By this point the lack of response was getting comical.
Harry couldn't help but notice how peaceful Draco actually looked. He wasn't so sure he really wanted to wake him, he could not remember ever seeing Draco look so unburdened. And he was beautiful too, when his face wasn't being pulled into a sneer. His hair glistened in the half light, looking more silver than blonde.
With one more furtive glance to Madame Pomfrey's rooms, he leant forward over the sleeping boy. Nose to nose, Harry could feel the soft movement of air. It tasted of fresh apples. He said Draco's name and shook him more firmly. This at last caused him to stir. There was a sleepy moment as Draco's eyes fluttered open before he almost fell out of his bed in fright.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He hissed.
"Paying you a visit."
"Yeah well you've long missed visiting hours." Draco was trying to sit up in bed but was struggling. It was clear he hadn't yet regained full use of his arm. Harry didn't move, didn't say anything. The was an awkward silence before Draco finally looked up. "What are you really doing here?" His voice had gone soft, he sounded like the fight had gone out of him.
"I wanted to see you, and ask you a few questions. For some reason Hermione thinks you'll have the answers." Draco's gaze narrowed at this and for a moment Harry thought he was about to raise a commotion, but the moment passed and it was like Draco was shrinking before his eyes.
"Ask away, I don't see how it matters anymore." Harry thought carefully, trying to decide which question to put forward first. He perched on the very end of the bed.
"Did you have something to do with why Ron stopped talking to me?" Whilst this wouldn't answer much Harry was being cautious not to push Draco too far.
"I guess you could say that. Personally I think it was his own stupidity."
"Why?"
"I believe he said something along the lines of What if I refuse to accept my bestfriend is fraternizing with the enemy. He didn't seem too pleased that we were getting along."
"We were getting along?"
"No need to sound so shocked Potter, it hurts."
"Sorry I just, I don't remember that. I don't remember much."
"I made you forget."
"YOU WHAT?" Draco nodded his head in the direction of Pomfrey. "You what?" Harry hissed.
"I made you forget."
"Why the hell would you make me forget that we were friends? What the hell did I do to make you do that to me?" Draco refused to meet his eyes, instead resting his head on his drawn up knees.
"Please don't make me explain it Harry. It made so much sense to me at the time, but all those arguments have fallen down since. I thought you'd be better off, then Hermione lays into me talking about how miserable you are. Then you collapse when you see me and I thought the charm had broken and you'd hate me more than ever. Then you do a crazy dive to catch me today. You think your confused? My brain is falling apart with the strain of it!"
Harry moved from his tentative perch on the end of the bed and moved to sit on the pillow by the silently sobbing boy. He lifted an arm and put it around the shaking shoulders. Sat hip to hip on the narrow bed, Draco felt the last of his belief he had been doing the right thing break. He could have enjoyed this for longer and it would have been so much better.
"What really caused the scar on my leg?"
"I got insulted that you said you weren't scared of me and fired a curse off without really thinking. I didn't really know the power off it. You don't remember that?"
"You made me forget the bad bits as well as the good."
"I only wiped from when you started to like me."
"Clearly I already liked you then. I can't remember much from October time."
"You don't remember the bathroom?"
"No..?"
With shaking hands Draco pulled his sleeves back. Even in the darkened room Harry could see the pale scars that crisscrossed his arms and the hideous Dark Mark, currently motionless. He reached out to touch them but Draco snatched his arm away.
"They are not pretty Harry. They are not something that you can touch."
"I don't think they are pretty. That's stupid. I think that they are a part of you now though, just as much as that mark and you silver hair. You don't let define you. What do you think would happen if I let my scar define me? I think you need someone to accept that though, and then you'll begin to accept it yourself."
"I've killed Harry."
"I will. I will kill Voldemort. Like my scar however, I refused to let that define me."
"How can you say that? How is killing someone like Voldemort comparable to me killing an innocent muggle so that I could bear this mark?" Draco's voice was rising rapidly in pitch and volume. "Don't sit there and say you understand because you don't! You never could!"
"And don't you dare put words into my mouth. I sure as hell don't understand you. I am fighting my anger not to attack you for bloody changing my memory, I'm trying not to scream at you in an attempt to make you see sense. As soon as you get out of here I will be yelling, you can be sure as hell of that, but right now I am trying to do what I can to help-"
A light had flicked on in Madame Pomfrey's rooms. Harry had let his emotions get the better of him and forgotten to keep his voice down. He rolled off the bed and pulled his cloak off the chair to cover him. Draco had closed his eyes again.
Whilst Pomfrey had come out and frowned over at them, clearly deciding Draco was sleeping soundly, Harry could easily tell Draco was not really asleep. He lacked the peaceful expression he had worn earlier.
"You still there Harry?" He whispered.
"Yeh, budge up." Came the disembodied voice back. He saw the covers shifting and was about to protest but thought better off it. He shifted to the other side of the bed and felt Harry's warmth next to him.
"Does the cloak have to stay on?" Harry smiled even though it currently went unseen and pulled the cloak off, and put it back on the chair. They sat in a surprisingly comfortable silence.
"I don't think I can undo the memory charm Harry. I think I'd be in danger of doing more damage."
"Then we'll have to make new memories."
"Do you have any idea how cheesy that sounds?"
"Yes" Draco rolled his head to the side and saw that Harry was smiling. He realised he was smiling too. Looking back up at the vaulted ceiling above them, Draco did something he would never have done if he'd been thinking. He slipped his hand into the warm one just next to it.
He fell back to sleep, grateful that this was not a Potter free night after all.
.
.
"Did you sleep alright, Mr Malfoy." Draco opened his eyes to see Madame Pomfrey looming over him.
"Um yeh." He tried to sit up and was dismayed to find his shoulder was still not fully healed. "Can I leave today?"
"It doesn't look that way, that Bludger did some serious damage. One more night I expect." She was fussing around him, opening the curtains. He couldn't stay in here another night. Tonight was going to be the night that the death eaters entered the castle, and only he knew. Only he could change what was going to happen.
"I can't stay in here all day!" He burst. She lifted one eyebrow in his direction.
"And why is that Mr Malfoy? It is a Sunday, I hardly think you have anything too important. No, you will be staying firmly put in this bed."
"NO!"
"Yes, I will not have you defying me when your health is in danger. You will stay or I shall call Minerva and she will make you stay. Eat." And with that she matched away to the other end of the room, sitting down at her desk.
He began picking at the food she'd left on the little table but found he had no appetite. Instead he began thinking over his options.
Getting all the way to the seventh floor without being caught would be difficult, what with Pomfrey's hawk like glare fixating on him periodically. Getting a message to someone else to do it would probably more difficult, he was not expecting more visitors and even if he was, who could he trust? Potter clearly knew how the room worked but he was unlikely to visit in the day time and by night it would be too late. Crabbe and Goyle were just too stupid. Most of his Slytherin friends would welcome a deatheater presence in the castle anyway. If only he had Potter's cloak, once he made it out of the room he'd be fine.
He slipped back down and into the warm bed, wincing. He had until nine to come up with a solution.
.
.
Harry was grateful he had gone to see Draco last night. He may gained more questions than were answered but things were back to making sense for him. He had slipped out of the hospital wing when Draco's breathing had returned to the soft rhythmic noise it had been before. Once he was safely back in his own bed however he found it took a long time to greet sleep.
By the time he rose from bed it was almost noon and the dorm was deserted. He showered and changed before heading down to a quite common room. Ron was sat glaring at everyone from a corner and Ginny sat working with some friends. Lavender was on the far side of the room with her head together with Parvati.
"Hey mate, everything alright?" Ron grunted back. "Where is Hermione?"
"Enjoying a romantic stroll around the lake I expect." It was evident that Ron was in an awful mood. Harry sat himself in the next armchair and closed his eyes. "You can't be tired, you went to bed right after the match. Unless of course you weren't actually in bed the whole night." Harry couldn't help but notice the accusing tone with which Ron said this.
"I have work to get on with. You coming to the library?"
"No." Ron then continued to glare towards where Lavender sat. Shaking his head, Harry stood and left. He really did have a lot of work to do.
A glance at the map told Harry Draco was still in the hospital wing. If he was still there tonight Harry vowed to pay him another visit. He then tried to push all thought of memory charms, apples and that beautiful face out of his mind. Snape's latest essay promised to be tough enough as it was.
.
.
Draco was starting to get nervous. The sun had set and he had not had a single visitor all day. He had made up his mind that he was going to break the cabinet and stop the death eaters entering. He also knew that he would be a dead man walking from that point on, but at least he could finally say he did the right thing. It was clear now that the right thing was not always the easy thing.
It was going to take at least fifteen minutes to run across the castle, probably more. His shoulder still stung when he moved but the pain had lessened. He wasn't too worried about how he'd break the cabinet, an Expulso or Incendio should do the trick.
If he didn't come up with anything better in the next hour he was just going to have to risk it.
.
.
Hermione could not remember the last time she'd had a day as wonderful as this one. She and Viktor got along so well, the banter falling easily between them. They had strolled through the cold January air around the lake. Viktor had conjured a snow flurry around them then pulled her in close. He was humming a tune.
"Do you remember the first time ve danced, Hermoninny?" He had stepped backwards, leading them in a dance through the snow. She laughed and poked him in the ribs for the use of that nickname, he had long since learnt to say it right.
"Of course I do. I had a wonderful evening with you at the ball." He smiled and twirled her round.
"Good. I also consider it wone of the best nights of my life." The continued to dance together in the conjured snow for a while, until the snow had Viktor slipping and they both dissolved into laughter.
"I think we ought to return to the castle, the sun is setting." Said a laughing Hermione. Krum offered her his arm and lead the way back into the warmth.
The happy sight was just too much for some however. A mudblood dangling on the arm of an international quidditch player was causing quite a stir. Romilda Vane had watched them all day, waiting for Hermione to be on her own so she could teach the slut a lesson. Girls like her didn't deserve men like Krum.
The couple made it into the entrance hall. Krum bent to kiss the cold tip of Hermione's nose, both unaware they were being watched. Romilda could feel her blood boiling as she hurled a hex right at Hermione. She saw the curse hit just before her view was blocked by a furious Krum.
"Vhat the fuck do you think you're doing. Impedimenta!" Romilda felt herself pushed back and she collided with a column. The impact saw her blacking out.
Viktor scooped Hermione up, who was now clutching her face and sobbing. He carried her off in the direction of the hospital wing.
.
.
Draco was on the verge of climbing out of his bed when the door to the hospital wing slammed open. An irate Krum stormed in, cradling Hermione. Madame Pomfrey rushed forwards at once and guided Hermione to an empty bed. She gently pulled Hermione's hands away. The skin was red and cracked with puss filled boils. It looked as though she'd been burnt.
"Zat stupid Vitch attacked her! She fired out of nowhere!" Pomfrey gave both of them calming drafts before trying to reverse the damage. Krum refused to drink his. Pomfrey pulled a screen across, hiding Hermione from view.
Draco took this chance and swiftly slipped out of bed and out of the ward. He was barefoot and pyjama clad, jogging though the cold corridors. The commotion had wasted valuable minutes and so despite the pain he preceded to jog the whole way.
.
.
Harry had heard from Lavender that Hermione had been attacked. He left the common room at once and sprinted down to the infirmary. He was approaching the door when he heard McGonagall's voice.
"Where could he have gone?" Her voice was high and she sounded worried.
"I don't know, I turned my back for a minute to treat Miss Granger and he slipped out like the snake he is."
"Poppy, mind your tongue. I will go see Albus, he'll want to know that Draco's gone missing."
Harry shot round the corner as the door opened. He listened as Professor McGonagall walked away. Drawing the map out of his pocket he searched it carefully. Draco Malfoy's name was nowhere on it. That meant he had left the castle or he was in the room of requirement. Praying the latter was true, Harry shot off in the opposite direction to his teacher. He had a very bad feeling about what was coming.
A/N Two chapters in one week! Aren't you lucky things. It really does still amaze me who well this story has been received, I never thought I'd get anywhere near as many hits as this has got so I'd like to say a huge thank you for reading it. I get a little graph showing how many people I get from each country and the sheer variety of places blows me away. I intend to keep this fic going to the end for each and every one of you. Fe x