Accidentally shared.
was walking through Hogwarts, he went where his feet carried him. He wasn't really caring about where he went, as long as he could stay on the move; his mind running a thousand miles faster then he could ever run.
Harry didn't go to the obvious places, nowhere near the usual busy hallways or open class rooms full of students playing games and enjoying their time off. After all, they would be going home in two days for the summer holidays. He went for a walk through the dungeons, through the dusty corridors nobody ever came. It was where the spiders and other vermin made their homes between broken furniture by classrooms gone unused for centuries, and where the paintings on the walls hung empty. Harry subconsciously chose to do so, as it fitted his mood. He wasn't feeling all that great, he felt rather broken himself right now.
From the dungeons, to the empty parts of the castle and eventually Harry ventured outside. The weather was turning. All day it had been warm, the sun shining but now the sun was setting and the cool breeze came. It was chilly, and clouds gathered. Harry knew a summer night rain would come soon. He was perfectly fine with that. Once again, instead of going down the beaten paths where the last students still milled about on their way back in, Harry rounded the castle. He followed beside the backwalls, the dirt paths overgrown. He went under the bridge, circled around and right over the bridge nobody really ever went. There was nothing there.
Harry stopped on the bridge, pushing away some of the green plants that tried to reclaim the build so he could look over the lake and see the last of the sun disappear. He sighed, no matter the beautiful view, no matter how much he moved and tried to keep busy, his mind wasn't slowing down.
Harry began walking again. Now the sun was gone, there was barely any light except for the moon and stars. He let his feet carry him back to the castle but even though it was already past curfew, he never went inside. Instead, he wandered towards the docks, he knew if he passed the boats he could climb up a ladder, and see Hogwarts on one side, the lake on the other and he thought - he hoped that maybe there, he could finally calm down.
Harry was almost there when someone called out his name. There, long past curfew, in the cold and dark tunnel, barely lit by a forgotten to extinguish torch and where Harry was basically convinced about being alone, he heard his name. Harry was shook. He swirled around, wand in hand and a curse on the tip of his tongue. He looked, he felt steady enough but his hand was shaking. "Who's there?"
"Probably one of the last people you want to see." Came the reply, and Harry didn't quite recognize the voice, yet it sounded familiar. Harry waited, and there with his hands up in the air and a sheepish smile came Draco Malfoy in view.
"I didn't mean to scare you." Draco said, unusually friendly as he came closer. Harry just grumbled making Draco ask, "What did you say?"
"You could never," Harry said louder. He put his wand away and turned back, he started walking as if he was never interrupted. "Go away Malfoy, I don't want to deal with you right now."
"Please," Draco said. He went to follow Harry but he stopped right in his tracks to the plea Draco just spoke. He didn't turn around though, so Draco took that as a cue to keep on speaking. "I just want to ask one question." He uttered another please.
Harry never had heard Draco Malfoy apologise for anything, ever. Harry was so surprised by it, he actually turned around by the second time he heard the blond say it, as if he didn't believe it and had to see for himself that it was truly Malfoy standing there who had spoke. However, now that he had turned around he felt obliged to answer. "What?" He bit out harshly.
Nonplussed by Harry's behaviour, after all, Draco hadn't expected a warm welcome at all. He was already glad Harry hadn't actually hexed him when he first made himself known. He walked towards Harry and stopped right in front of him. He took a deep breath. "Was my father there?"
All Harry felt now was rage. After a rough year with the tournament, gossip and finicky friends; He had just two days prior seen Voldemort return and Cedric Diggory dead. He'd brought back the body and was rumored to be a murderer and not all quite there in the head by the newspapers because of it. He wasn't sure how Hogwarts in a whole thought about it because he'd taken to avoiding everyone but still he heard the whispers when he did came near and none were favorable. Harry had a lot on his plate, and here was Draco bleeding Malfoy disturbing the one moment he was able to try and find peace in his head because all of it and he wanted to know if his dear daddy had been there. The nerve. It was so incredibly rude. "Sod off, Malfoy," Harry growled. "Why would I tell you, of all people?!"
Draco knew this wasn't good. "I know I shouldn't be bothering you about this. I know that, but I really do need to know if my father was there, and there is no-one else to ask, really."
"And you'd think I'd just tell you? Are you mental?!" Harry exploded. "Then what? What if, say hypothetically, that arse you call a father was there? You'll gloat? You'll rub it in? You'll come all high and mighty and pester me about what a great man he is? That you-"
"That I know whether or not to renounce my last name and cut all ties with my family, friends and acquaintances so I can make a runner and bloody well live instead of dancing to the tunes of a madman?" Draco rushed before Harry truly got going. He never meant to give the truth, never meant for Harry or anyone to know but there he was, laying it out in the open and keeping his fingers crossed behind his back in the hopes that the only one who could give him an answer would give in to his prayer. "I need to know," Draco whispered and tacked on Harry's first name. It felt odd to say, but it caught Harry's attention in the fullest.
"For years all you ever blabbed about was doing just that." Harry said slowly, slightly confused and definitely out of steam now. Draco took the wind out of his sails in one swift move.
"Appearances." Draco rolled his eyes. "It's all show, and.." By now, Draco became really uncomfortable because it took more truths than he ever wished to speak out loud and it showed by the way he toe-ed the gravel and didn't look at Harry at all. "It's following the unspoken rules laid out in the community I'm part of-"
"Of being a Slytherin."
Draco shook his head. "Of what it means to be a pureblood. Being a Slytherin is just a minor part in it all, really."
Harry nodded, as he sort of understood what Draco meant. Slytherin, just like the other houses, were just the strongest qualities in a person being represented. It tied in the lifestyle of a person, and thus the community Draco was speaking of. Harry got it, as he knew of his own, although he wasn't exactly sure how different it was from the other standing in front of him. Massively so, he figured.
While Harry thought about it, Draco broke him out of his train of thoughts. Draco was under the impression, when Harry didn't speak, he wasn't getting an answer and said his final piece. "For what it's worth, I apologise for my behaviour all these years. It's how I've been raised, how I've been taught to behave and also, I'm sorry about your loss." Draco gave a nod, and made to take his leave.
"Malfoy," Harry said unsure.
"Yes?" Draco had only taken a few steps and looked over his shoulder at Harry.
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, hoping he was making the right choice. "Your father was there. Took a spot at the inner circle."
Draco nodded, and softly spoke his gratitude. He wanted to ask Harry more questions but knew not to push his luck. One last thanks, and Harry, who had questions of his own but didn't want to ask them right away, gave his own nod and wave goodbye before continuing on his own way, the opposite side. While he climbed the ladder up to his destination for the night, he wondered if he should thank Malfoy in the morning, the run in definitely had taken his mind of his own matters, and was mulling over Malfoy's instead and as he thought so, he wondered if he had just accidentally saved a dragon. He took his seat on the stones above, Hogwarts on the left, the lake on the right and enjoyed the rain that fell. Finally a moment of rest, now his thoughts had shifted.
Oneshot unless request to expand.
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