By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13 (up to "second base" explicit, beyond that implied)
Disclaimer: This is J.K. Rowling's universe. I just play here.
Warning: This will be a slash story (Harry/Draco) eventually, though romantically-slashy, rather than erotically-slashy. Hence the PG-13 rating.
A/N: I have no idea what wizards do for entertainment besides watch Quidditch games, but I figure that they if they have spellbooks and text books, they must have novels or something of the sort.
Oh, and Swedish fish are also one of my favorite candies.
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"Mr. Potter? Harry?"
Harry felt someone shaking him and calling his name. "Give me a few more minutes, Ron." He mumbled. There was something wrong with that request. The person shaking his shoulder wasn't his roommate at all. It was a woman. He went through a list of all of the women it could be, but came up blank.
It was then that he realized that he'd fallen asleep sitting up in a chair.
His eyes opened, and he saw Madame Pomfrey smiling down at him. "Good morning, Mr. Potter." She whispered. "We have another hour or so before daybreak, so I figured you should probably be getting back to your room."
Harry looked around, and saw Draco, still bound to his bed, the talisman strapped into place on his arm. He remembered then what had happened the previous evening. "Is he?"
"He's doing just fine. Still unconscious, but we're going to try to revive him. That's why I thought I'd wake you up. Just in case."
Harry didn't have to ask what she meant by 'just in case.' His own grudge against Draco had lessened during the previous 12 hours, but there was no guarantee that Draco's feelings for him had undergone a similar metamorphosis. And besides, he really didn't want to hear about it if Ron found out he'd spent the night by Draco's bedside.
"Thanks." He smiled at Madame Pomfrey and stood, yawning and stretching as he did so. He trudged back through the castle to the Gryffindor tower.
"Spindleshanks." He yawned at the fat lady, who yawned back and opened the door.
He walked up to the room he shared with Ron, Neville and Seamus, and immediately fell down asleep in his bed.
* * *
"Harry! Wake up!" Ron shook Harry's shoulder roughly.
"Huh? Wha?" Harry mumbled as he cracked open his eyes.
"Charlie and Trent, remember? They're taking us into Hogsmeade?"
"Yeah. When was that again?"
"In about half an hour. Get up and let's get ready to go!"
Harry straggled to his feet and yawned widely.
"Well," Ron joked, "you're already ready to go. You're even wearing your glasses."
Harry looked down at himself and realized that he hadn't taken his robe, shoes or glasses off when he came upstairs. He gave Ron a wan smile. "Stayed up too late waiting for Draco to wake up."
"So? Did you get the answers you wanted?"
"Answers?" It took Harry a moment to remember that he had let Ron believe that his reason for staying in the hospital wing was to question Draco about the Dark Mark. His eyes widened. "Actually, no. Malfoy never woke up.
"However," he continued, "that reminds me of something. Have you told anyone else about the Dark Mark?"
"Just Hermione."
"I hope she hasn't mentioned it to anyone."
"She wouldn't. You know that."
Harry felt embarrassed that he'd doubted Hermione. "I know she wouldn't. It's just that Dumbledore, well, he wants to keep it quiet. About the Dark Mark. He seems to think that if word gets around about it, Voldemort might do something more drastic."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. Like recruit a different student, that we don't know about, to work for him, I guess."
"That would be bad." Ron agreed.
After Harry had cleaned himself up and put on a fresh robe, he, Ron and Neville went do the Gryffindor common room, where they met up with Hermione, Ginny, and Charlie and Trent.
They went downstairs and headed for the front doors. On the way out, they passed by the hospital wing, and it was all Harry could do not to stick his head in and inquire after Draco. As it was, Harry craned his head around to peek in through the door, where he saw Crabbe and Goyle talking to Madame Pomfrey.
This effectively killed his interest in checking on Draco. If Crabbe and Goyle are here, then Malfoy must be awake. That's the last thing I need. An awake Malfoy *and* his two goons. Harry thought, sighing heavily.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, having heard Harry's sigh.
"Nothing. Actually, I need to talk to you for a second." He placed a hand on her arm and guided her to the back of their group.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I know I probably don't even need to ask, and I feel really strange asking this, but could you not mention you know what," he pointed significantly at his left lower arm, "to anyone?"
Hermione nodded shortly. "You're right. You didn't need to mention it. And I won't talk to anyone. But since you mentioned it, why did you?"
"Dumbledore asked me last night not to mention it to anyone. Seems that Voldemort might put another, you know," he pointed at his left arm, "here in the school if it becomes generally known . . ."
"About Malfoy." She finished.
"Malfoy?" Ginny asked. "What about him?"
Hermione and Harry looked at each other, eyes wide. "He was injured last night." Harry said. "And he might be in the hospital wing for a while." He figured that was safe enough, since Crabbe and Goyle had already been down to see him.
"Good." Ginny said with a smug grin. "The longer he's out of commission, the better."
Hermione laughed. "You can say that again."
Soon, everyone was joking about the terrible things that they would have happen to Draco Malfoy if they could. Everyone, that is, except Harry.
* * *
"Harry? You there, Harry?"
"Huh?" Harry looked around and saw that everyone else had finished eating. And they were all looking at him. His food sat, untouched, on the plate in front of him.
"Sorry." Harry said. "I didn't get much sleep last night, and I guess it affected my appetite."
"Don't worry." Charlie smiled at him. "After all, we're really here to celebrate Neville's good fortune at his new job."
"Seems my bad luck can't reach me in the hospital wing." Neville grinned.
"Maybe it's a sign." Ron offered. "You've found your true calling."
"Maybe it doesn't matter *what* caused it. What matters is I'm proud of him." Ginny kissed her boyfriend on the lips.
"We're all proud of him." Hermione corrected.
Neville blushed as they toasted him.
"To Neville!" Charlie said.
"To Neville!" They all responded, hoisting their butterbeers high.
"Oh! And I have an announcement, too." Everyone looked at Ron, who dug into the pouch at his waist and, grinning widely, pulled out the Head Boy badge.
"What?"
"When did this happen?"
"Congratulations!"
"Thanks. Dumbledore brought it by last night. Seems that our original Head Boy was unable to fulfill his full year of service," he grinned at Harry, who returned his smile weakly, "so as first runner-up, I am now Head Boy."
Pleased murmurs went around the table, except for Hermione, who squealed, in a combination of pleasure and disappointment, "Why didn't you tell me?" Before she kissed him. And then playfully slapped him across the cheek.
"I don't know. I wanted to tell you with everyone else. I wanted to . . . be able to make a big announcement about it." Harry could hear the unspoken I wanted to be the center of attention in his friend's voice.
"To Ron!" Harry lifted his butterbeer, to which everyone else responded in kind.
* * *
After some obligatory Weasley's Wizard Wheezes purchases and a stop at Honeyduke's You just can't get good chocolate frogs in Romania, Charlie had said as he dug into his bag of candy, they returned to Hogwarts.
As they stepped in through the front door, Charlie said to Trent, "We've still got a couple of hours before dinner. Why don't we go up and visit Professor Dumbledore now?"
When Trent nodded his assent, Charlie called Harry over. "Dumbledore told us that you could help us figure out his password?"
Harry nodded, and said to his friends, "I'm going to walk Charlie and Trent to Professor Dumbledore's office. I'll see you upstairs?"
After the two groups parted ways, Harry walked with them to the gargoyle. "It's always a Honeyduke's candy." He explained. "He's recently used Licorice All-the-Other-Sorts, chocolate frogs, and Fizzing Whizzbees. And it probably will never be Bertie Botts Beans, 'cause he doesn't like them. Let's see . . ."
And with that, Harry, Charlie and Trent each started throwing out names of candies. Finally they hit on the right one, Norwegian Fish -- chocolate-dipped lutefisk.
As the gargoyle leaped aside, Harry and the Weasleys bid their farewells until dinner, and Harry went back toward the Gryffindor tower. He stopped at the picture of the fat lady and turned back around, walking instead to the hospital wing.
Soon he stood outside the doors to the hospital wing, butterflies winging their way not only in his stomach, but also through his blood vessels, making him feel giddy and light-headed. Go on in Harry, he encouraged himself. You'll never find out how Malfoy's doing standing out here.
But he couldn't get his feet to take those final few steps into the room. He'd been into the hospital wing hundreds of times as a patient and as a visitor, but he'd never been so nervous about going in there. Even his fear the time Lockhart had accidentally removed all of the bones from his arm seemed eclipsed by this apprehension.
Finally, he decided to just walk in, ask Madame Pomfrey how Draco was doing, and leave. He took a step closer to the doorway, but heard when he heard Crabbe's voice, he turned and fled.
* * *
That night, after dinner, Harry joined Hermione, Ron, Neville and Ginny for a study session. However, the study session broke up pretty quickly, because Arthur and Molly Weasley were coming into town to see Charlie and Trent, and Ron and Ginny left to spend some time with their parents as well.
Soon after Ron and Ginny left, Harry's head began to slip forward onto the table. Hermione suggested he go to bed.
Harry cleaned his teeth and put on his nightshirt and laid down under the covers, the lights from the sconce by the door dancing across the ceiling. This'll never work. I'm too keyed up to . . . His eyes closed.
When he opened them again, the room was dark and the waning moon was high overhead outside the window.
That felt good. Like a cat, Harry yawned and stretched, feeling the relaxation of sleep still settled in his bones. He turned over. And over. And over. But he was unable to get comfortable again.
That's all right. He propped his pillow against the wall, and, lighting the candle on his bedside table, pulled a novel he was reading out from under his bed. I'll just read until I feel sleepy again.
Three chapters later, he was still wide awake. He blew the candle out again and stowed the novel under his bed. He stretched and fluffed his pillow, then lay back down, thinking, I wonder how Malfoy's doing?
As he lay there, he watched the moon climbing higher and higher in the sky. He couldn't get his curiosity about Draco's condition out of his head. Oh, bother! He sighed as he put his robe back on, picked up his Potions homework and bedside candle, and headed back down to the hospital wing.