Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me! (Obviously) All Rowling's.
Harry didn't know what he was expecting; Sirius's death still fresh in mind, Dumbledore hiding secrets from him, and his blaming himself for Sirius's death had driven Malfoy's - supposedly - empty threat out of his mind. Malfoy sneered at Harry's slightly surprised expression. Harry felt a surge of old anger and hate seep into him. He laughed, "What, Malfoy? Like I said last year, am I suppose to be afraid of you now? I guess Voldemort, your dad and a bunch of his messed-up friends are nothing compared to you?"
"Shut it, Potter!" Malfoy said warningly, a tinge of red ebbing onto his face. All of a sudden, the ground shook. Whatever was shaking the world seemed to be approaching at a decently fast pace. Crabbe and Goyle whimpered, tripping over themselves as they scrambled back to where they had come from. Fear replaced anger on Malfoy's face, "Crabbe! Goyle! Get back here you thick numb skulls!" He stayed a minute too long, for he was contemplating on whether he should run after his friends or hide behind a tree and watch Potter suffer, after all, he had been waiting for this moment all along. When Crabbe and Goyle bolted from them, Harry took mental note that for once in their lives, they seemed to have done the smart thing. When the ground first shook, Harry and Ron moaned a dread - they were pretty sure what was heading their way. It all happened very fast, trees were being uprooted left and right. Harry and Ron dived under one of the top canopies of the fallen trees. Malfoy seemed to have lost his ability to move. Being the first object other than a tree or a bush, the giant's hand slowly extended downward to grab for the slytherin - who had finally regained his feelings and began to run, except that he wasn't fast enough. This giant was at least three or four heads taller than Grawp and quite a bit uglier, nevertheless, he had a screaming and kicking Malfoy clutched securely in his hand. Harry, who had been watching, horrified, felt several tugs on his sleeve.
He turned to find a peaky-looking Ron staring at him, "Harry!" he croaked, "Let's get out of here before he sees us!"
"What about Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously.
"He tried to get us killed! He knew what he was doing!" Ron hissed.
"No, I can't leave Malfoy, knowing where he is, to die!"
"You're going to get us killed, Harry! This ain't no Grawpy, this is a fully grown, pure-blooded giant! They're insane! Blood thirsty! Think about the last time you tried acting the hero!" Ron blurted out angrily.
Harry snapped. He shoved passed Ron and placed himself in front of the giant of a giant.
"OI! PUG-FACE!" he yelled. The giant looked around, cluelessly, attempting to find the source of noise. Harry was thinking fast. His eyes darted around and rested on a decent-sized boulder. Remembering what Ron ("That heartless git") did in their first year, he levitated the boulder slowly. He glanced around to see where Ron was, and found to his surprise, that he was no where to be seen. Angry, Harry went back to concentrating on what he was about to do. Just a bit higher. Almost! The giant suddenly swung around - Harry taken aback by shock, instead of dropping the boulder onto the giant's head, jerked his hand back, naturally, falling on his back and accidentally throwing his wand out of his hand, in an attempt to balance himself. It turned out to work quite well. The charm, still active, in response to Harry's actions had swung the boulder away from the giant's face and then quite suddenly flung forwards as Harry threw his wand, resulting in a sickening crunch. The giant swayed dangerously for a few breath-taking moments - still holding Malfoy, loosely - and then came crashing down. When the dust had settled and Harry's nerves at subsided slightly, he got up, picked up his wand and jogged over to the giant's hand. Malfoy lay on his opened hand, quite safe and intact, in Harry's opinion - Malfoy rolled over and threw up over the side of the giant's pinkie - perhaps not so intact, thought Harry. Harry began looking around at the destruction. Great, he thought bitterly. They were cornered against a cave with no means of escape. "Great. Thanks for getting us stuck here," Harry said sarcastically. "What now?" Malfoy was still stunned by his giant experience. "I guess we can climb over the giant," Harry considered out loud.
"NO!" Malfoy seemed to have recovered from his stupor. "What if the great brute wakes up? It's too wide to climb over in time, before it wakes!"
Harry threw his hands up, frustrated, "What do you want to do then? Sit here and rot?" Harry ignoring Malfoy, began to walk towards the giant. Just as Harry reached the massive hand, the giant grunted in pain causing Harry to jump back in fright. "Fine. FINE!" he yelled. He walked away from the giant and sat cross-legged on the ground. Malfoy followed suit. They sat there for what felt like hours, in silence. At first a trickle of water dropped on them, but then it came pouring down. Stomach growling, rage roaring at Ron and Malfoy, Harry ran into the cave with Malfoy following closely behind him. In addition to all that, he was now wet and cold.
After another few minutes of silence, Malfoy spoke up, "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?" Harry snapped.
"You could have left me - like Weasley and those idiots."
"Look who's talking," Harry muttered.
"Potter!" Malfoy pressed, ignoring Harry's last comment.
"Look, as much as you'd like to think that you are, you aren't in my top ten priorities." Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "I hate you. I hate everything about you! The way you strut around, acting like you own the place because you think you have the money to buy people's dignity! I have better things to do - like getting out of here - than to sit around brewing up ways to get back at you!" Harry hesitated, but the flow of deep hatred took over him, "I don't wish anyone dead. Not you, not Snape!" It was the first time he was revealing his pent up emotions - and to Malfoy. "Just her. That…that woman who killed Sirius - and Voldemort…you…YOU THINK I ACTUALLY WANT TO KILL OR BE KILLED OVER A STUPID PROPHECY THAT TRELAWNEY MADE?" Silence followed Harry's rant.
"Thanks…Po…Potter," Draco stammered.
"You're welcome," Harry said, louder and angrier than he intended. More silence followed. When Harry had gathered himself back up, slowly, he asked, "So…why do you hate me?"
"Habit, I guess." Because Harry had revealed his true feelings, Draco felt obligated to do the same. He hesitated, "I was…angry at you for choosing to befriend Weasley over me - that first day on the train." Harry stared. Five years, they had hated each other with every particle in their bodies and the reason was this. A misunderstanding. A premature prejudice against slytherins.
"You…you mean it?" Harry asked, doubting.
"Why else would I have introduced myself to you?"
"Then why did you try to kill me, if you don't hate me that much?" Draco hesitated again.
"I hate my father. I hate him because whatever I do, it's never good enough for him. He doesn't' know that I look up to him. He doesn't care! You putting him in prison…it gave me an opportunity to prove myself to him, that I could do something and hating you was just convenient- I know. It was all very stupid." He added. Harry couldn't believe that he was holding a civil conversation with his five-year archenemy. Draco got up quickly, surprising Harry. "Ugh…mice - so filthy." Harry looked over at where Draco was pointing. Sure enough a mouse began sniffing around a huge rock pile and then disappeared.
"Have you heard that mice can find ways out of places like this?" Harry asked. Draco shifted around, disgusted. Harry followed where the mouse was last seen and looked around. "Draco! Look! See if you can see what I see!" Harry said excitedly.
"Potter, did you just call me Draco?" Draco teased. Harry rolled his eyes. Draco walked over to where Harry was and peered through the gaps between the rocks. "Is…is that a light?" Harry nodded. A couple of hours later, the newly made friends walked out of the other end of the cave as the sun began setting. "I never have to do that servant stuff - ever!" Draco complained.
"It was only a few rocks, Draco," said Harry. "We better get back to Hogwarts, we should have been back there - " he looked at his watch, " - two hours ago. The feast must be have already."
As they arrived back at the castle, clothes torn and filthy, faces mucky and tired, they agreed that they would still acknowledge each other by their last names, lest they rouse rumours and trouble from both houses. The boys walked up the front steps and began separating to their dormitories to get cleaned up, bidding each other a goodbye, benignly, when they ran into none other than Severus Snape.
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