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Author: Black Heart
Title: Perplexed Alliance
Rating: PG 13+ - low level swearing
Author's Note: Will be H/D slash eventually, but not QUITE yet - almost! ^- ^;;
Disclaimer: Characters, names, places, etc belong to JK Rowling. Plotline belongs to ME.
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CHAPTER 3
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"Yeah Madam Pomfrey, he was yelling in his sleep, like," Crabbe said, in the middle of a muffin he had grabbed on his way to the Hospital Wing.
"So we tried to wake him up, but he just started shakin' like mad!" Goyle said, waving his arms about.
"And he fell out of his bed, broke his skull and we all thought he was dead."
"Well plainly Mr Malfoy isn't dead, Crabbe! Now stop littering my quarters and get back to breakfast - I'll deal with the boy for now," Madam Pomfrey replied, and shooed the two muffin munchers out into the hall.
"You five! Out! The boy needs rest!!" Madam Pomfrey scolded. Dean, Seamus, Neville, Ron and Hermione were crowded around Harry's bed, all worried.
"What happened to Malfoy, Pomfrey?" Seamus dared to ask.
"MADAM Pomfrey, Finnigan! And it's none of your business, although I must admit your story about Potter's injuries and the story about Malfoy.rather peculiar."
And with that she ordered them to breakfast and slammed the door behind them.
-------
Harry opened his eyes.
Blurry. White sheets. Very blurry. Glasses?
He blinked, looked to his left, and realized he wasn't in his dorm. He was in the Hospital Wing. He put a hand to his head, and felt the numbness there, and also the bandages.
"You split your head, just like I did. Couple of damn fools we must look."
Harry jumped, hurriedly picked his glasses from the bedside cabinet and shoved them on.
"Relax Scarhead. It's me, your ultimate nemesis Malfoy."
"What - what are we doing here?" Harry asked, suddenly uncomfortably aware that his hair was messy and his eyes ringed in red behind his glasses. It surprised him he felt this way around Malfoy, enough to distract him from the fact that Draco Malfoy was talking (almost) normally towards the Boy Who Lived.
"I just told ya that, didn't I? We smashed our heads. Pomfrey gave us both this thing to numb the pain, but it'll take a few days before we can go back to our classes."
"You.smashed your head as well?" Harry asked, suddenly baffled.
"Yeah. Seems we both had a nightmare, a fit and then fell and decided we wanted to nearly kill ourselves. Must say I blame you, though. Had a dream I was you, floating in some river."
Malfoy started laughing then. "I dreamt I was you: how pathetic! My whole house would laugh at me for weeks if I told them."
"Y-you had a dream.about me?" Harry asked. He didn't feel comfortable about this at all. Both of them having dreams about one another, and nearly being killed straight after.
Draco stopped chuckling, and looked at Harry.
Harry had to say, that even though he hated Malfoy with a passion, the Slytherin boy looked kinda.handsome.with that smile on his face. And Harry's face exploded with colour.
"What's up with you?" Malfoy asked, frowning.
"Surprised."
"About me dreaming of you? Well I assure you it was nothing erotic - " Draco began.
"It's not THAT I'm surprised about," Harry lied, "It's just you."
Malfoy stopped frowning. Instead his eyebrows shot up, a light tinge dusted onto his cheekbones.
"W-what about me?"
Harry noted the quaver in his voice.
"We're actually talking as though we accept one another as humans, instead of scum," Harry said hotly.
Draco's small flush disappeared instantly, and Harry had to wonder about that.
"Look, Draco -" Harry began, but Malfoy gave a sort of dignified snort of annoyance.
"Don't call me that. Don't act like you really feel like talking to me civilly. Just don't pretend that, you got it pretty boy?" Draco said in a voice between fury and sadness.
"I - I'm sorry. But.I have to ask you something," Harry replied, stunned.
And Draco turned to Harry with eyes so heart wrenching, that the Gryffindor's heart sped up. Those gloomy, stormy-day eyes focused on Harry; so much like pale storm clouds...he could almost see the rain falling down Malfoy's cheeks.
But there WAS rain trickling down his face!
Malfoy was crying. Silently, softly, the tears so translucent and clear Harry could barely see them. But they were there, and they swam quickly down the pale cream cheeks, edging around the pale peach lips to fall off that beard-less chin.
"M-Malfoy?" Harry asked, and, not knowing what he was doing, got out of his bed and walked to the one across the hall, where Draco lay.
"Stay away. Stay away from me! I know what you dreamt. I know you saw me. I know you saw the Mark!" Draco cried. Lucky there was no one around at the time to hear him, because what he said next would have caused the whole school to erupt into a gossip-war.
"I never wanted to be a Death Eater, Potter. You understand me?! I never wanted to be like this, on the Dark Side. I only hated you because I despised how you could make your own choices, how you would have everyone behind you either way!"
Draco jumped out of his bed, on the opposite side of Harry.
"You don't know how damned lucky you are, Harry. I want this to end. NOW."
"Y-You want what..to end?" Harry asked, staring and desperately wishing the boy would stop crying.
"This whole charade about us being enemies! I know I've acted like I hate you, but when you turned me down that first day on the Hogwarts Express. Look, that day, I already knew I was bound to be a Death Eater, already knew my father had practically hung the Death Eater's robe in my wardrobe. You - you were my only ticket to freedom, Harry. If I could just befriend you, I'd never have to be a Death Eater! I'd had never had to lie to myself like this! But you turned me down, Harry! Damn you! DAMN YOU!!" Draco yelled. He launched himself at Harry, and they both tumbled to the floor, bandages flying loose.
As Draco landed on Harry's body, Harry whipped out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at Draco.
The stared at one another and Harry, though being underneath Draco, knew he would win the battle, if it had to come down to it. But he couldn't bring himself to curse the boy with eyes so grey.
Draco reached down and, unchallenged, traced a finger along the scar, and one last tear escaped his right eye, and dropped onto Harry's lip. Draco moved his hand and, amazingly, wiped the tear off Harry's lip with his thumb, his grey eyes suddenly clear and almost afraid.
His heart beating, his cheeks bright red and the warm feeling of Draco's legs parted against his own crotch, Harry knew something had changed. He knew, as soon as Draco started crying, that nothing would ever be the same.
Draco bit his lip, still sitting on Harry. And the Slytherin's skull fired up with pain, and he toppled over backwards in a dead faint, blood oozing onto the floor.
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"MADAM POMFREY!!! DRACO'S HEAD - IT'S BLEEDING AGAIN!" Harry almost screamed, skidding into the staffroom in his pyjamas and bandages.
Professor Snape looked up, surprised, and Madam Pomfrey, sitting next to him, bolted up out of her chair.
"'Draco', Potter? What happened to 'Malfoy'?" Snape sneered.
Harry ignored him.
"What? Potter, what is this?" Pomfrey asked, baffled.
"Draco, he.he had another fit," Harry started, his face flushing furiously, not wanting to admit what had happened. "Then his head just.just started bleeding and he fainted!"
"What have you done to him this time, Potter?" Snape whispered evilly.
"Nothing, I swear! I was watching him resting, and then - " and Harry stopped. Even though it had been a lie, he knew how.fey.that would have sounded the teachers.
Snape smiled cruelly.
"Were you now? Admiring his face as he slept away, were you, Mr Gryffindor?"
Harry scowled.
And a few minutes later, he burst through the Hospital Wing doors with Madam Pomfrey on his heels.
She unwrapped the bandage and saw to Draco, claiming that Harry's head seemed to have healed quite well, seeing how he could yell so loudly.
"So, Potter.why did you come to us that quickly? I thought you two would have.jumped.at the chance to see the other's head split and bleeding," Pomfrey joked, wiping her hands.
Harry stayed silent, but Pomfrey unwrapped his head, passed him a pot of healing ointment, and claimed that Draco must have hit his head harder, and needed to stay in the Hospital Wing for awhile more.
And she shooed him out the door.
It was now almost dinner, so Harry made his way down to the Great Hall, pondering all that had happened.
Draco was.sorry, for being the son of a Death Eater? He used Harry's first name as though it had been natural, and what was worse, Harry had felt quite content to have Draco's body against his own. No: more than content - eager, almost.
"HARRY!" Hermione threw herself onto the boy, hugging him. "You're alright!"
"Course I am, I'm the holy Harry Potter, aren't I?" Harry snapped sourly. Ron, standing behind Hermione frowned.
"What's up?" he asked suspiciously. Harry beckoned them out into the grounds and they walked around the lake while he told them what had happened.
Except he left out the part where Draco had jumped onto him, pressing their bodies together. In fact, the memory brought a soft shade of pink to his cheeks. He kept his head down to hide the colour in his face.
"Wow. So Malfoy's.not really evil?! Well.THAT'LL take some getting used to, eh?" Ron said, chewing a chocolate frog, watching the giant squid propelling itself around in circles.
"Oh honestly Ron. You accept it that quickly? What's happened to you? Malfoy's obviously planning something. I'd.be careful, if I were you, Harry." Hermione said, sitting down at the edge of the water.
Harry didn't answer. Somehow, he didn't think Draco was really planning anything. He just had to trust the fact that Draco had finally come clean. And there was less than a month to go of school.
Harry sighed, and looked at his chocolate frog. He handed it to Ron, his appetite fading, and walked back to the castle without looking back.
Ron and Hermione watched him go, then Ron turned to Hermione.
"So, how's Robert the Ravenclaw?" Ron asked.
"Oh Ron, you can be so insensitive, sometimes!" Hermione cried, and rushed after Harry.
"Surprised she even remembered my name after all the babbling she usually does about that boyfriend of hers," Ron said to the giant squid, who chose that point in time to hurriedly swim a few metres beneath the surface.
"Oh great. Anybody else tired of me?!" Ron yelled.
A couple of birds scattered, and a group of first years ran away with terrified expressions.
Ron shook his head and opened his best friend's chocolate frog.
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A/N: Please R/R!!
Author: Black Heart
Title: Perplexed Alliance
Rating: PG 13+ - low level swearing
Author's Note: Will be H/D slash eventually, but not QUITE yet - almost! ^- ^;;
Disclaimer: Characters, names, places, etc belong to JK Rowling. Plotline belongs to ME.
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CHAPTER 3
-------
"Yeah Madam Pomfrey, he was yelling in his sleep, like," Crabbe said, in the middle of a muffin he had grabbed on his way to the Hospital Wing.
"So we tried to wake him up, but he just started shakin' like mad!" Goyle said, waving his arms about.
"And he fell out of his bed, broke his skull and we all thought he was dead."
"Well plainly Mr Malfoy isn't dead, Crabbe! Now stop littering my quarters and get back to breakfast - I'll deal with the boy for now," Madam Pomfrey replied, and shooed the two muffin munchers out into the hall.
"You five! Out! The boy needs rest!!" Madam Pomfrey scolded. Dean, Seamus, Neville, Ron and Hermione were crowded around Harry's bed, all worried.
"What happened to Malfoy, Pomfrey?" Seamus dared to ask.
"MADAM Pomfrey, Finnigan! And it's none of your business, although I must admit your story about Potter's injuries and the story about Malfoy.rather peculiar."
And with that she ordered them to breakfast and slammed the door behind them.
-------
Harry opened his eyes.
Blurry. White sheets. Very blurry. Glasses?
He blinked, looked to his left, and realized he wasn't in his dorm. He was in the Hospital Wing. He put a hand to his head, and felt the numbness there, and also the bandages.
"You split your head, just like I did. Couple of damn fools we must look."
Harry jumped, hurriedly picked his glasses from the bedside cabinet and shoved them on.
"Relax Scarhead. It's me, your ultimate nemesis Malfoy."
"What - what are we doing here?" Harry asked, suddenly uncomfortably aware that his hair was messy and his eyes ringed in red behind his glasses. It surprised him he felt this way around Malfoy, enough to distract him from the fact that Draco Malfoy was talking (almost) normally towards the Boy Who Lived.
"I just told ya that, didn't I? We smashed our heads. Pomfrey gave us both this thing to numb the pain, but it'll take a few days before we can go back to our classes."
"You.smashed your head as well?" Harry asked, suddenly baffled.
"Yeah. Seems we both had a nightmare, a fit and then fell and decided we wanted to nearly kill ourselves. Must say I blame you, though. Had a dream I was you, floating in some river."
Malfoy started laughing then. "I dreamt I was you: how pathetic! My whole house would laugh at me for weeks if I told them."
"Y-you had a dream.about me?" Harry asked. He didn't feel comfortable about this at all. Both of them having dreams about one another, and nearly being killed straight after.
Draco stopped chuckling, and looked at Harry.
Harry had to say, that even though he hated Malfoy with a passion, the Slytherin boy looked kinda.handsome.with that smile on his face. And Harry's face exploded with colour.
"What's up with you?" Malfoy asked, frowning.
"Surprised."
"About me dreaming of you? Well I assure you it was nothing erotic - " Draco began.
"It's not THAT I'm surprised about," Harry lied, "It's just you."
Malfoy stopped frowning. Instead his eyebrows shot up, a light tinge dusted onto his cheekbones.
"W-what about me?"
Harry noted the quaver in his voice.
"We're actually talking as though we accept one another as humans, instead of scum," Harry said hotly.
Draco's small flush disappeared instantly, and Harry had to wonder about that.
"Look, Draco -" Harry began, but Malfoy gave a sort of dignified snort of annoyance.
"Don't call me that. Don't act like you really feel like talking to me civilly. Just don't pretend that, you got it pretty boy?" Draco said in a voice between fury and sadness.
"I - I'm sorry. But.I have to ask you something," Harry replied, stunned.
And Draco turned to Harry with eyes so heart wrenching, that the Gryffindor's heart sped up. Those gloomy, stormy-day eyes focused on Harry; so much like pale storm clouds...he could almost see the rain falling down Malfoy's cheeks.
But there WAS rain trickling down his face!
Malfoy was crying. Silently, softly, the tears so translucent and clear Harry could barely see them. But they were there, and they swam quickly down the pale cream cheeks, edging around the pale peach lips to fall off that beard-less chin.
"M-Malfoy?" Harry asked, and, not knowing what he was doing, got out of his bed and walked to the one across the hall, where Draco lay.
"Stay away. Stay away from me! I know what you dreamt. I know you saw me. I know you saw the Mark!" Draco cried. Lucky there was no one around at the time to hear him, because what he said next would have caused the whole school to erupt into a gossip-war.
"I never wanted to be a Death Eater, Potter. You understand me?! I never wanted to be like this, on the Dark Side. I only hated you because I despised how you could make your own choices, how you would have everyone behind you either way!"
Draco jumped out of his bed, on the opposite side of Harry.
"You don't know how damned lucky you are, Harry. I want this to end. NOW."
"Y-You want what..to end?" Harry asked, staring and desperately wishing the boy would stop crying.
"This whole charade about us being enemies! I know I've acted like I hate you, but when you turned me down that first day on the Hogwarts Express. Look, that day, I already knew I was bound to be a Death Eater, already knew my father had practically hung the Death Eater's robe in my wardrobe. You - you were my only ticket to freedom, Harry. If I could just befriend you, I'd never have to be a Death Eater! I'd had never had to lie to myself like this! But you turned me down, Harry! Damn you! DAMN YOU!!" Draco yelled. He launched himself at Harry, and they both tumbled to the floor, bandages flying loose.
As Draco landed on Harry's body, Harry whipped out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at Draco.
The stared at one another and Harry, though being underneath Draco, knew he would win the battle, if it had to come down to it. But he couldn't bring himself to curse the boy with eyes so grey.
Draco reached down and, unchallenged, traced a finger along the scar, and one last tear escaped his right eye, and dropped onto Harry's lip. Draco moved his hand and, amazingly, wiped the tear off Harry's lip with his thumb, his grey eyes suddenly clear and almost afraid.
His heart beating, his cheeks bright red and the warm feeling of Draco's legs parted against his own crotch, Harry knew something had changed. He knew, as soon as Draco started crying, that nothing would ever be the same.
Draco bit his lip, still sitting on Harry. And the Slytherin's skull fired up with pain, and he toppled over backwards in a dead faint, blood oozing onto the floor.
-------
"MADAM POMFREY!!! DRACO'S HEAD - IT'S BLEEDING AGAIN!" Harry almost screamed, skidding into the staffroom in his pyjamas and bandages.
Professor Snape looked up, surprised, and Madam Pomfrey, sitting next to him, bolted up out of her chair.
"'Draco', Potter? What happened to 'Malfoy'?" Snape sneered.
Harry ignored him.
"What? Potter, what is this?" Pomfrey asked, baffled.
"Draco, he.he had another fit," Harry started, his face flushing furiously, not wanting to admit what had happened. "Then his head just.just started bleeding and he fainted!"
"What have you done to him this time, Potter?" Snape whispered evilly.
"Nothing, I swear! I was watching him resting, and then - " and Harry stopped. Even though it had been a lie, he knew how.fey.that would have sounded the teachers.
Snape smiled cruelly.
"Were you now? Admiring his face as he slept away, were you, Mr Gryffindor?"
Harry scowled.
And a few minutes later, he burst through the Hospital Wing doors with Madam Pomfrey on his heels.
She unwrapped the bandage and saw to Draco, claiming that Harry's head seemed to have healed quite well, seeing how he could yell so loudly.
"So, Potter.why did you come to us that quickly? I thought you two would have.jumped.at the chance to see the other's head split and bleeding," Pomfrey joked, wiping her hands.
Harry stayed silent, but Pomfrey unwrapped his head, passed him a pot of healing ointment, and claimed that Draco must have hit his head harder, and needed to stay in the Hospital Wing for awhile more.
And she shooed him out the door.
It was now almost dinner, so Harry made his way down to the Great Hall, pondering all that had happened.
Draco was.sorry, for being the son of a Death Eater? He used Harry's first name as though it had been natural, and what was worse, Harry had felt quite content to have Draco's body against his own. No: more than content - eager, almost.
"HARRY!" Hermione threw herself onto the boy, hugging him. "You're alright!"
"Course I am, I'm the holy Harry Potter, aren't I?" Harry snapped sourly. Ron, standing behind Hermione frowned.
"What's up?" he asked suspiciously. Harry beckoned them out into the grounds and they walked around the lake while he told them what had happened.
Except he left out the part where Draco had jumped onto him, pressing their bodies together. In fact, the memory brought a soft shade of pink to his cheeks. He kept his head down to hide the colour in his face.
"Wow. So Malfoy's.not really evil?! Well.THAT'LL take some getting used to, eh?" Ron said, chewing a chocolate frog, watching the giant squid propelling itself around in circles.
"Oh honestly Ron. You accept it that quickly? What's happened to you? Malfoy's obviously planning something. I'd.be careful, if I were you, Harry." Hermione said, sitting down at the edge of the water.
Harry didn't answer. Somehow, he didn't think Draco was really planning anything. He just had to trust the fact that Draco had finally come clean. And there was less than a month to go of school.
Harry sighed, and looked at his chocolate frog. He handed it to Ron, his appetite fading, and walked back to the castle without looking back.
Ron and Hermione watched him go, then Ron turned to Hermione.
"So, how's Robert the Ravenclaw?" Ron asked.
"Oh Ron, you can be so insensitive, sometimes!" Hermione cried, and rushed after Harry.
"Surprised she even remembered my name after all the babbling she usually does about that boyfriend of hers," Ron said to the giant squid, who chose that point in time to hurriedly swim a few metres beneath the surface.
"Oh great. Anybody else tired of me?!" Ron yelled.
A couple of birds scattered, and a group of first years ran away with terrified expressions.
Ron shook his head and opened his best friend's chocolate frog.
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A/N: Please R/R!!