"Harry, you look like a train wreck!"
Harry lifted his head up from his deep contemplation of his breakfast and gave Hermoine a slight glare. "Thanks," he replied.
"No, she's right," Ron put in. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
Before he could reply, Harry felt a slight buzz in the back of his mind. 'I'm going to need you to cast more spells after all' he heard.
Of course, it wasn't a question or a request. Either way, Harry was glad for the excuse to avoid his friend's curious gazes. "No, not really. I think I'll head back up to the room and see if I can get more rest," he replied.
Luckily, his friend's thought it was a good idea, and soon Harry was alone in the bedroom he shared with the other Gryffendor boys. Everyone else was still down having breakfast.
'What do you need?'
'Just a minute, my father is still talking.'
Apparently, the 'Weekend of Changes' wasn't quite over yet.
Harry found himself casting defensive spells, a few offensive thrown in here and there. Luckily, since he had no opponent, most of his spells pittered out before they went far from his wand. However, he could only wonder what was going on where Draco was. He couldn't pick up anything from the other boy's thoughts, they were firmly planted on the spells he was casting.
However, the spells began going more quickly, until Harry and Malfoy couldn't do their customary 'count to three' before he would have to say another. Once or twice, he felt a flash of pain work its way through. Not his own, but it hurt all the same.
'Malfoy, what's going on?'
There was a slight pause. 'Training. Now shup up and concentrate.' The response was rude and abrupt, but Harry didn't have a chance to reply before he was forced to cast yet another defensive spell.
Abruptly, he realized what was going on. Malfoy's father was giving him magical training. Probably to testing Malfoy's skill and speed. Harry couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be able to go home and have someone to practice with. It must be nice, to be allowed the luxury of casting at home. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be allowed, but with a father on the commity, Harry doubted Malfoy would get into trouble.
However, something still struck him as wrong. The amount of pain that came through the connection, the speed with which the spells were needed....
It wasn't like practicing at school. This almost seemed like a duel, except that Malfoy barely attacked his opponent. It went on for a solid hour before they could take a break, but went on ten minutes later for another two hours.
Harry had to thank whatever gods that were looking out for him that no one came into the dorm room while this was going on. He hadn't meantioned the mind joining to his friends, not wanting them to worry about it. Now he certainly didn't want to tell them, after the night he'd just had.
Finally, Malfoy told him that they were finished, and Harry fell onto his bed, truely exhausted by now. He'd hardly slept the night before, and this episode had taken a lot out of him. Now he was glad for making an excuse to his friends, because he could actually crawl back into bed and take the nap that he desperately needed.
This time, as he laid there, questions about last night didn't circle around his mind. It had only been so long that he could think about different things before the dream came back in full force. The implications that it created weren't many in number. Either it had been a dream completely out of the blue, coincidently on the night that they were joined.
Or Malfoy had a crush on him.
The second thought was completely rediculous, but that hadn't stopped Harry from lingering on it. He hadn't been able to stop himself from wondering what Malfoy's true feelings toward him were. Before last night, he wouldn't of thought anything but hatred. Now, however, he wasn't so sure.
It had, after all, been his own rejection of Malfoy that had begun the bad blood between them. What would the outcome of been, had Harry not made friends with Ron first? He was very grateful for the friends he had, but he hadn't been able to stop himself from wondering.
He was even more grateful that, this time, he fell asleep right away.