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Author: Black Heart
Title: A Month Too Small
Rating: PG-13 - low level swearing, slash theme
Author's Note: Slash eventually....wait a few more chapters. ^-~ Much thanks to Alicia for helping! And...
***OH MY GOSH! Thanks SOOO much to all the people who reviewed!! You guys are angels! Hope this chapter satisfies your insatiable need for H/D action...hehe. :) ***
Disclaimer: Characters, names, places, etc., belong to JK Rowling. Plotline belongs to ME.
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CHAPTER 2
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A week after the ball, the students of Hogwarts had received the results of their NEWTs. Suddenly the corridors were filled with people clutching their papers, moaning about their dismal results.
"Well, I knew I'd do OK, but I didn't know I'd come out with all O's!" Hermione said proudly, her eyes shining.
The three were stood in the Charms corridor, comparing results.
"Yeah, well..." Ron replied glumly. He still refused to tell them what he'd got.
Harry, on the other hand, was really quite pleased with himself. He had managed to scrape mostly O's except for Divination and Transfiguration, much to McGonagall's annoyance.
"Well, I just need to take a nip in the library, I'll see you at dinner!" Hermione said cheerfully, before bustling off down the corridor.
"Oi! Exams are over! What are you studying for?!" Ron shouted incredously after her. Hermione just waved over her shoulder as she turned a corner.
"Argh, I'll go after her, " Ron said, and jogged off after Hermione, leaving a disgruntled Harry behind.
And then he heard a loud drawling voice come from behind him.
"If it isn't wee Pothead!" Malfoy sneered, Crabbe and Goyle following him. Pansy was attached to Draco's arm, her pug-like face attempting a sneer (but failing considerably, as it made her look more like a gargoyle than ever).
"Where's your Mudblood bitch, Potter? Gone off to owl her Muggle-filth parents, showing them her results? And what about Weasel? Has he gone and sold his results for a Galleon? Might buy his fat mother a new dress with it, eh?"
Anger began to boil in the pit of Harry's stomach.
"So what about you, Malfoy? I saw Professor McGonagall look shocked when she gave you back your paper. What, did you manage a D or something? I bet that's the first decent grade in the Malfoy family, what with their intellect about the same as a teaspoon," Harry replied nastily.
A slow haze of magenta crept across Draco's pale cheeks. Harry's heart thudded painfully; he felt strangely satisfied to cause Draco such anger.
"Watch your mouth, Potter," Draco said softly, "Do you really want to end up dying like the pile of dirt you are, just like your parents did?"
Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy knew instantly he'd gone too far.
Within a split second of Malfoy's comeback, Harry launched himself at the Slytherin, rage pulsing through his veins - he had never felt this furious in all his life, not once. His other fights with Draco were only ever half- serious and usually verbal - Draco knew when to draw the line before they got into serious trouble.
But now Harry just wanted to injure Draco for all it was worth, forgetting about magic at all, like he had done when he first met Sirius in his third year - it seemed like 7 years of insults and threats from Draco had finally sent Harry over the edge.
The two boys landed on the stone floor, Harry on top, sitting on Malfoy's chest. He drew back a fist and drove it into Draco's cheek - Malfoy's skin tore away where a ring on Harry's finger had grazed along and blood spilled messily onto the Slytherin's robes.
But Draco, being more agile, managed to push Harry off as the dark-haired boy drew back his fist again. Harry fell back, a surprising amount of force coming from Draco's thin arms, and skidded on his backside. Draco, looking for a much larger excuse than verbal harassment to let out some pent-up frustration, picked Harry up off the floor by the collar, then kneed him in the groin. Harry bent over double, then stood up with a large amount of effort, and hit Malfoy in the stomach.
The violent acts got steadily dirtier, and a crowd was gathering, cheering both of them on, not caring who won.
"You - bastard - " Harry gasped after 30 seconds of maniacal scuffling, coughing up blood that spattered onto the hem of Draco's shoes. It seemed that Draco had remembered that his wand existed, and had hit Harry in the stomach with a strange curse, managing to severely wind the Gryffindor and crush his ribs at the same time.
"Yeah, well, you deserved it!" Draco said hoarsely, looking strange with his hair on end. "Yeah?" Harry asked dangerously, raising his wand.
"Don't even try it, Potter! EXPELLIA -"
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Harry roared before Draco could finish.
Draco jumped to the side trying to dodge the jet of light, but the curse hit him on his hand and his wand flew over the excited crowd. Jeers at Draco erupted from non-Slytherins. Hannah Abbott collected his wand from the floor and held it up triumphantly, refusing to give it back to its owner.
His face red from both fury and blood, Draco straightened his back slowly, almost gracefully, drawing his slender limbs about him, where he carefully massaged a massive bruise on his forehead.
Harry watched him warily, wondering what was coming. And suddenly, with a force that made his breath catch in his throat, Harry remembered their conversation at the ball only a week ago, and remembered how Draco had been just about to open up about something. Harry wondered what it had been, before seeing again in his mind the enraged expression on Draco's face when he had been interrupted by Peeves.
The memory washed away, leaving Harry staring at Draco, who was staring back. Slowly, the pink on Draco's cheeks grew more and more apparent, and Harry watched as the fury built up. And suddenly he felt just how Peeves had done a week ago.
Forgetting all dignity, Draco had let out a shrill scream of sheer fury and launched himself towards Harry, not unlike the way the fight had begun.
The speeding Malfoy hit him in the chest and sent Harry flying into the wall a few feet behind him; Draco couldn't stop himself, and so hit Harry a second time by accident, crushing himself and the Gryffindor together. They lay a few seconds, crumpled in a heap, the crowd now silent. Nobody had seen Draco so angry, and they were afraid. Soon it became clear this wasn't just a schoolyard fight - this was serious. Hannah threw Draco's wand to the floor and ran down the corridor, her pigtails flying.
His head pressed against Harry's chest, Draco sat back and retrieved himself from the Gryffindor, stunned by the impact. He fell back onto his ass and looked at Harry from behind heavily hooded eyelids.
Harry seemed to have copped it ten times worse than Draco, due to the solid brick in his back - he was propped against the wall and blood was trickling down his forehead. He had (luckily) chosen to wear contacts today, and blinked back blood from behind them. His scar was bright red.
As Draco looked at the lightning bolt with a trace of fascination, his anger drained away. Harry appeared incapable of doing anything to retaliate, and so they sat there for a few minutes, panting, wiping blood from themselves. The crowd stood stock-still.
"Ow."
Draco looked up, and saw Harry looking at him from beneath his eyelids, his head against the wall. A trace of a grin was on his face.
Draco gave a snort. He felt insanely humoured by such a stupid comment. "'Ow'? That's all you can say after all that shit we just did to one another?" he said, grinning.
"Yeah..." Harry said, his smile slowly fading: for he had just witnessed Draco Malfoy grinning - a thing he had never seen in his life. A genuine smile seemed so foreign on the boy - and the difference it made was startling. Harry was no longer looking at the slimy git Malfoy, but at Draco - a slim yet tall boy, whose reflexes in Quidditch could match his own - a boy with wits nobody could rival at the best of times. Draco was so much different to Malfoy - a difference that suddenly sent Harry down a spiral of emotion and surprise; his mind felt clouded and foggy and his vision seemed to be failing as his heart pounded against his ribs faster and faster - the platinum hair was fluffed up and ever so bright, and those pale-yet-stormy eyes were surveying him closely...the thin, peach lips parted slowly, and as Harry looked back at Draco's eyes, he saw them widen.
The Slytherin's face held astonishment, and as they locked eyes, Harry knew they had both seen something in each other.
"Boys!" a squeaky voice said not far from them. Harry and Draco tore their gaze from one another and realised the crowd had started to disperse. Hannah Abbott was stood next to tiny Professor Flitwick, her face afraid.
"Such a disappointing display! You should know better!" Flitwick said sternly, a look of dismay upon his face. "I shall have to fetch Severus and Minerva to decide your punishment - "
"No need," a curt voice said sharply. Flitwick and Hannah turned; Harry and Draco, both still sat on the floor, looked up and simultaneously felt their hearts plummet.
Snape and McGonagall were striding down the corridor, both of them looking extremely angry. "Come, Draco," Snape said softly. Not looking at his Head of House, Draco stood, looked back at Harry with a look of foreboding, then followed Snape down the corridor. As the two turned a corner, shouts erupted, sounding like 'disgrace' and 'your father...!'
Harry felt momentarily sorry for Malfoy, before he was brought back to reality by McGonagall, and suddenly hoped Draco could spare some sympathy for him, too. "MR POTTER! HOW DARE YOU BRING SUCH DISGRACE...."
The shouting continued for a few minutes, long after Flitwick and Hannah had departed. When eventually a tight-lipped McGonagall would allow him to stand up and go back to the common room, Harry was halfway down the corridor when he remembered Draco had left his wand behind. Harry limped back to the spot where they had fought, and with a clenching of the stomach, saw that Flitwick hadn't managed to remove most of the bloodstains on the stone - there had been a lot of it, thanks to the pointed ring on Harry's finger, and Draco's constant hexes. There was a trickle of the stuff dried on his neck and his head suddenly swam. He stunk of blood and sweat.
He picked up Draco's wand and jogged back to Gryffindor tower.
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When he reached the common room, Hermione approached him and gave him a slap across the face. "Ow! Hermione! What the hell was that for?" Harry said angrily, only just having scrambled through the portrait hole.
"Starting a fight as serious like that! I wouldn't be surprised at Malfoy for doing it, but YOU, Harry! YOU! I NEVER would have thought - "
"Hermione, would you just tell him the bad news and get it over with quickly?" Ron said quietly, coming up beside Harry.
"I - oh, alright then," Hermione said, beaten. In fact, on closer inspection, she looked quite miserable.
"Wait, how did you know about the fight? And what bad news?" Harry said, dying to have a shower to get rid of the blood.
"Everyone's talking about it, mate," Ron said, answering the first question. Indeed, people were looking at him, with wide, scared eyes, whispering to one another.
"And the bad news...oh Harry! They're taking your badge! That's why you didn't get a detention!" Hermione said and burst into tears, handing him an official looking letter.
Harry read it, his eyes widening, and saw it had been signed by McGonagall. When he had finished, a burning smell wafted up to his nose. He looked down and saw that his Head Boy badge had turned black. As he watched, it turned into a singed pile of ash that drifted down to the floor.
He looked at the postscript on the letter.
"Professor Snape has vouched for Mr Malfoy to become the new Head Boy. Despite his hand in your argument, Draco was permitted the badge by Professor Dumbledore."
"Shit."
Harry gave a sigh and walked off to the dorms. He didn't care about a silly badge, but the fact that Dumbledore had given it over to Malfoy really hit him hard - he felt guilty to have betrayed Dumbledore's trust. He was just glad they only had three weeks left to the end of Hogwarts.
And yet, as he stood naked in the steaming shower a few minutes later, he remembered the moment he had seen the real Draco, not the sneering, vicious Malfoy, but the Draco who was as good a seeker as himself, the Draco with a sharp tongue and slender body, with that amazingly silver hair, and pale grey eyes....
Harry looked down at the drain in the shower and saw blood pooling about the tiles as he washed off more of the foul-smelling stuff. Suddenly realising most of it was Draco's, a sensational thrill shot through his veins. To be alone with something that Draco had previously had in his own veins less than half an hour ago made him strangely hot inside. He sat down on the tiles, the bloodied water cool against his bare flesh. He smiled at the blood that was slowly dribbling down the drain and felt almost as though Draco was with him.
Remembering the wand he had picked up after the fight, he suddenly couldn't wait to return it to its owner.
The fiasco of the badge flew out of his mind as he closed his eyes, surrounded by Draco's blood; his own blood grew hotter in his veins as he again saw Draco's face with luffed-up platinum hair...
He didn't realise just what these thoughts meant.
Author: Black Heart
Title: A Month Too Small
Rating: PG-13 - low level swearing, slash theme
Author's Note: Slash eventually....wait a few more chapters. ^-~ Much thanks to Alicia for helping! And...
***OH MY GOSH! Thanks SOOO much to all the people who reviewed!! You guys are angels! Hope this chapter satisfies your insatiable need for H/D action...hehe. :) ***
Disclaimer: Characters, names, places, etc., belong to JK Rowling. Plotline belongs to ME.
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CHAPTER 2
-------
A week after the ball, the students of Hogwarts had received the results of their NEWTs. Suddenly the corridors were filled with people clutching their papers, moaning about their dismal results.
"Well, I knew I'd do OK, but I didn't know I'd come out with all O's!" Hermione said proudly, her eyes shining.
The three were stood in the Charms corridor, comparing results.
"Yeah, well..." Ron replied glumly. He still refused to tell them what he'd got.
Harry, on the other hand, was really quite pleased with himself. He had managed to scrape mostly O's except for Divination and Transfiguration, much to McGonagall's annoyance.
"Well, I just need to take a nip in the library, I'll see you at dinner!" Hermione said cheerfully, before bustling off down the corridor.
"Oi! Exams are over! What are you studying for?!" Ron shouted incredously after her. Hermione just waved over her shoulder as she turned a corner.
"Argh, I'll go after her, " Ron said, and jogged off after Hermione, leaving a disgruntled Harry behind.
And then he heard a loud drawling voice come from behind him.
"If it isn't wee Pothead!" Malfoy sneered, Crabbe and Goyle following him. Pansy was attached to Draco's arm, her pug-like face attempting a sneer (but failing considerably, as it made her look more like a gargoyle than ever).
"Where's your Mudblood bitch, Potter? Gone off to owl her Muggle-filth parents, showing them her results? And what about Weasel? Has he gone and sold his results for a Galleon? Might buy his fat mother a new dress with it, eh?"
Anger began to boil in the pit of Harry's stomach.
"So what about you, Malfoy? I saw Professor McGonagall look shocked when she gave you back your paper. What, did you manage a D or something? I bet that's the first decent grade in the Malfoy family, what with their intellect about the same as a teaspoon," Harry replied nastily.
A slow haze of magenta crept across Draco's pale cheeks. Harry's heart thudded painfully; he felt strangely satisfied to cause Draco such anger.
"Watch your mouth, Potter," Draco said softly, "Do you really want to end up dying like the pile of dirt you are, just like your parents did?"
Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy knew instantly he'd gone too far.
Within a split second of Malfoy's comeback, Harry launched himself at the Slytherin, rage pulsing through his veins - he had never felt this furious in all his life, not once. His other fights with Draco were only ever half- serious and usually verbal - Draco knew when to draw the line before they got into serious trouble.
But now Harry just wanted to injure Draco for all it was worth, forgetting about magic at all, like he had done when he first met Sirius in his third year - it seemed like 7 years of insults and threats from Draco had finally sent Harry over the edge.
The two boys landed on the stone floor, Harry on top, sitting on Malfoy's chest. He drew back a fist and drove it into Draco's cheek - Malfoy's skin tore away where a ring on Harry's finger had grazed along and blood spilled messily onto the Slytherin's robes.
But Draco, being more agile, managed to push Harry off as the dark-haired boy drew back his fist again. Harry fell back, a surprising amount of force coming from Draco's thin arms, and skidded on his backside. Draco, looking for a much larger excuse than verbal harassment to let out some pent-up frustration, picked Harry up off the floor by the collar, then kneed him in the groin. Harry bent over double, then stood up with a large amount of effort, and hit Malfoy in the stomach.
The violent acts got steadily dirtier, and a crowd was gathering, cheering both of them on, not caring who won.
"You - bastard - " Harry gasped after 30 seconds of maniacal scuffling, coughing up blood that spattered onto the hem of Draco's shoes. It seemed that Draco had remembered that his wand existed, and had hit Harry in the stomach with a strange curse, managing to severely wind the Gryffindor and crush his ribs at the same time.
"Yeah, well, you deserved it!" Draco said hoarsely, looking strange with his hair on end. "Yeah?" Harry asked dangerously, raising his wand.
"Don't even try it, Potter! EXPELLIA -"
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Harry roared before Draco could finish.
Draco jumped to the side trying to dodge the jet of light, but the curse hit him on his hand and his wand flew over the excited crowd. Jeers at Draco erupted from non-Slytherins. Hannah Abbott collected his wand from the floor and held it up triumphantly, refusing to give it back to its owner.
His face red from both fury and blood, Draco straightened his back slowly, almost gracefully, drawing his slender limbs about him, where he carefully massaged a massive bruise on his forehead.
Harry watched him warily, wondering what was coming. And suddenly, with a force that made his breath catch in his throat, Harry remembered their conversation at the ball only a week ago, and remembered how Draco had been just about to open up about something. Harry wondered what it had been, before seeing again in his mind the enraged expression on Draco's face when he had been interrupted by Peeves.
The memory washed away, leaving Harry staring at Draco, who was staring back. Slowly, the pink on Draco's cheeks grew more and more apparent, and Harry watched as the fury built up. And suddenly he felt just how Peeves had done a week ago.
Forgetting all dignity, Draco had let out a shrill scream of sheer fury and launched himself towards Harry, not unlike the way the fight had begun.
The speeding Malfoy hit him in the chest and sent Harry flying into the wall a few feet behind him; Draco couldn't stop himself, and so hit Harry a second time by accident, crushing himself and the Gryffindor together. They lay a few seconds, crumpled in a heap, the crowd now silent. Nobody had seen Draco so angry, and they were afraid. Soon it became clear this wasn't just a schoolyard fight - this was serious. Hannah threw Draco's wand to the floor and ran down the corridor, her pigtails flying.
His head pressed against Harry's chest, Draco sat back and retrieved himself from the Gryffindor, stunned by the impact. He fell back onto his ass and looked at Harry from behind heavily hooded eyelids.
Harry seemed to have copped it ten times worse than Draco, due to the solid brick in his back - he was propped against the wall and blood was trickling down his forehead. He had (luckily) chosen to wear contacts today, and blinked back blood from behind them. His scar was bright red.
As Draco looked at the lightning bolt with a trace of fascination, his anger drained away. Harry appeared incapable of doing anything to retaliate, and so they sat there for a few minutes, panting, wiping blood from themselves. The crowd stood stock-still.
"Ow."
Draco looked up, and saw Harry looking at him from beneath his eyelids, his head against the wall. A trace of a grin was on his face.
Draco gave a snort. He felt insanely humoured by such a stupid comment. "'Ow'? That's all you can say after all that shit we just did to one another?" he said, grinning.
"Yeah..." Harry said, his smile slowly fading: for he had just witnessed Draco Malfoy grinning - a thing he had never seen in his life. A genuine smile seemed so foreign on the boy - and the difference it made was startling. Harry was no longer looking at the slimy git Malfoy, but at Draco - a slim yet tall boy, whose reflexes in Quidditch could match his own - a boy with wits nobody could rival at the best of times. Draco was so much different to Malfoy - a difference that suddenly sent Harry down a spiral of emotion and surprise; his mind felt clouded and foggy and his vision seemed to be failing as his heart pounded against his ribs faster and faster - the platinum hair was fluffed up and ever so bright, and those pale-yet-stormy eyes were surveying him closely...the thin, peach lips parted slowly, and as Harry looked back at Draco's eyes, he saw them widen.
The Slytherin's face held astonishment, and as they locked eyes, Harry knew they had both seen something in each other.
"Boys!" a squeaky voice said not far from them. Harry and Draco tore their gaze from one another and realised the crowd had started to disperse. Hannah Abbott was stood next to tiny Professor Flitwick, her face afraid.
"Such a disappointing display! You should know better!" Flitwick said sternly, a look of dismay upon his face. "I shall have to fetch Severus and Minerva to decide your punishment - "
"No need," a curt voice said sharply. Flitwick and Hannah turned; Harry and Draco, both still sat on the floor, looked up and simultaneously felt their hearts plummet.
Snape and McGonagall were striding down the corridor, both of them looking extremely angry. "Come, Draco," Snape said softly. Not looking at his Head of House, Draco stood, looked back at Harry with a look of foreboding, then followed Snape down the corridor. As the two turned a corner, shouts erupted, sounding like 'disgrace' and 'your father...!'
Harry felt momentarily sorry for Malfoy, before he was brought back to reality by McGonagall, and suddenly hoped Draco could spare some sympathy for him, too. "MR POTTER! HOW DARE YOU BRING SUCH DISGRACE...."
The shouting continued for a few minutes, long after Flitwick and Hannah had departed. When eventually a tight-lipped McGonagall would allow him to stand up and go back to the common room, Harry was halfway down the corridor when he remembered Draco had left his wand behind. Harry limped back to the spot where they had fought, and with a clenching of the stomach, saw that Flitwick hadn't managed to remove most of the bloodstains on the stone - there had been a lot of it, thanks to the pointed ring on Harry's finger, and Draco's constant hexes. There was a trickle of the stuff dried on his neck and his head suddenly swam. He stunk of blood and sweat.
He picked up Draco's wand and jogged back to Gryffindor tower.
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When he reached the common room, Hermione approached him and gave him a slap across the face. "Ow! Hermione! What the hell was that for?" Harry said angrily, only just having scrambled through the portrait hole.
"Starting a fight as serious like that! I wouldn't be surprised at Malfoy for doing it, but YOU, Harry! YOU! I NEVER would have thought - "
"Hermione, would you just tell him the bad news and get it over with quickly?" Ron said quietly, coming up beside Harry.
"I - oh, alright then," Hermione said, beaten. In fact, on closer inspection, she looked quite miserable.
"Wait, how did you know about the fight? And what bad news?" Harry said, dying to have a shower to get rid of the blood.
"Everyone's talking about it, mate," Ron said, answering the first question. Indeed, people were looking at him, with wide, scared eyes, whispering to one another.
"And the bad news...oh Harry! They're taking your badge! That's why you didn't get a detention!" Hermione said and burst into tears, handing him an official looking letter.
Harry read it, his eyes widening, and saw it had been signed by McGonagall. When he had finished, a burning smell wafted up to his nose. He looked down and saw that his Head Boy badge had turned black. As he watched, it turned into a singed pile of ash that drifted down to the floor.
He looked at the postscript on the letter.
"Professor Snape has vouched for Mr Malfoy to become the new Head Boy. Despite his hand in your argument, Draco was permitted the badge by Professor Dumbledore."
"Shit."
Harry gave a sigh and walked off to the dorms. He didn't care about a silly badge, but the fact that Dumbledore had given it over to Malfoy really hit him hard - he felt guilty to have betrayed Dumbledore's trust. He was just glad they only had three weeks left to the end of Hogwarts.
And yet, as he stood naked in the steaming shower a few minutes later, he remembered the moment he had seen the real Draco, not the sneering, vicious Malfoy, but the Draco who was as good a seeker as himself, the Draco with a sharp tongue and slender body, with that amazingly silver hair, and pale grey eyes....
Harry looked down at the drain in the shower and saw blood pooling about the tiles as he washed off more of the foul-smelling stuff. Suddenly realising most of it was Draco's, a sensational thrill shot through his veins. To be alone with something that Draco had previously had in his own veins less than half an hour ago made him strangely hot inside. He sat down on the tiles, the bloodied water cool against his bare flesh. He smiled at the blood that was slowly dribbling down the drain and felt almost as though Draco was with him.
Remembering the wand he had picked up after the fight, he suddenly couldn't wait to return it to its owner.
The fiasco of the badge flew out of his mind as he closed his eyes, surrounded by Draco's blood; his own blood grew hotter in his veins as he again saw Draco's face with luffed-up platinum hair...
He didn't realise just what these thoughts meant.