Summary: Harry is suddenly acting very weird – in both universes. Yeah, you guessed it. This is a parallell universe-fic, and the two Potters are switched, causing a lot of confusion, especially for Harry Potter himself.
Genre: Romance/AU – Rating: PG
Warning: apart from the AU and slight OOC, nothing major. This is obviously slash, but nothing graphic I think.
Pairing: Harry/Draco (also Hermoine/Ron, Ginny/Neville, Sirius/Remus, Narcissa/Lucius)
Change of Reality
Part six – The Worst Day Of My Life
The Hogwarts Express pulled to a stop. They had reached Hogsmead at last. As Harry had predicted, he hadn't been able to sleep one bit. He now grabbed his things and hurried out of the compartment and off the train, looking around in search of the familiar sight of the blonde head of his boyfriend, but he didn't see him anywhere. Instead, he laid eyes on the big half giant Hagrid and decided to go over and say hello.
"'Ello Harry!" Hagrid greeted with warm excitement, waving unnecessarily. Harry smirked, "Hello Hagrid. Have you seen Draco by any chance? I ehm... sort of lost him, I'm afraid..." he added vaguely, deciding that the long explanation would be very misplaced, and besides, he wasn't even sure if he knew it himself.
"Eh?" Hagrid said, his beaming face falling a bit, "Malfoy? Er, no Harry, I don' think I've..." he trailed off absent-mindedly, his gaze flickering, then he remembered his charge, "ALRIGH' FIRS' YEARS, SETTLE DOWN!-"
"Never mind..." Harry mumbled and sighed, turning away, "Thanks anyway Hagrd!" he called over his shoulder, "See you around!"
"Oh... Yea'! SEE YEH HARRY!"
Harry winced, muttering to himself, but then he concentrated on finding himself a carriage instead and forgot about the Gamekeeper. It turned out he got to share a ride with three giggling Ravenclaw Fourthyears who kept glancing at him and whispering behind their hands, but Harry didn't pay them any attention, he couldn't think about anything except Draco.
When they reached the castle, he jumped down quickly and immediately scanned the crowd of students thronging at the gates, and finally catching sight of his boyfriend up ahead. Harry didn't waste any time, but immediatly started pushing his way through the crowd, which went surpisingly well since the other students seemed to make way for him, he notcied.
Finally he reached the other boy, and he put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and turn him around. Draco stumbled again and when his eyes setlled on Harry they widened a bit, "Potter!-"
"Draco!" Harry exclaimed, his voice drwoning the other boy's, "What the hell's the matter with you!"
"Wha- Me, but..." Draco faltered for a moment, then glared back full force, "What the hell are you playing at Potter!" he demanded.
"Me?" Harry shrieked, "I'm not playing at anything, it's you who's acting wierd! Like you don't even know me and... and don't.. l-like me...!" Harry had to concentrate really hard to not start crying again and to keep his voice somewhat steady, but it was proving very difficult indeed. Draco was looking utterly bemused now.
"You've gone mental..." he mumbled, almost awed and inched slightly backwards, but before he had had time to step back, Harry had grabbed his arm, "Don't!" he cried desperately, "Drace please..."
Draco shook his head slightly as tears formed in Harry's eyes. Harry kept begging softly anyway, "Please, tell me... What have I done? Please! What's wrong, tell me!"
Draco glanced around and frowned uncomfortably as he confirmed to himself that, yes, the whole school was watching. But for some reason beyond all of the eavesdropper's comprehension, the Slytherin didn't use all of this to his advantage and mock Potter, instead he seemed to lower his voice to ensure some privacy at least.
"Potter" he hissed, "Someone must've slipped you a potion or hexed you... you should go see Madam Pomfrey..."
"What are you talking about?" Harry said, clearly not trying to keep his voice down. Draco scowled.
"Look Potter!-"
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Harry cried in frustration, tears spilling down his cheeks now, "What's the matter with you, Draco-"
"Okay that's enough!" Draco snapped, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU AND YOUR MUDBLOOD FRIENDS-" (There was a collective gasp around them when he said this, because Draco hadn't used that word in over two years) "-THOUGHT YOU MIGHT GAIN BY PERFORMING THIS LITTLE SKETCH, BUT I. AM. NOT. AMUSED!"
Draco panted slightly, glaring daggers at Harry who had now begun to tremble slightly and backed away, tears running freely down his face now.
"If you want to break up with me, just say so..." he murmured.
Then rushed forward past Draco and ran up to the Castle. He ran all the way down to the dungeons, and the Slytherin Common Room, only to realize that he didn't have the new passwords. Defeated, he collapsed against the wall and slid down to the floor. He couldn't face going to the Welcome Feast. He drew his knees up, folded his arms on top of them and buried his face in them and broke down a second time.
His self-pitying sobs were soon interrupted, however, by the sound of approaching footsteps. Harry looked up just in time to see Severus Snape round the corner, and he quickly got to his feet and tried to wipe his face as much as possible. Meantime, the Potion Master stopped merely a few meters away from him and regarded him with a cold expression on his stony face. Harry sniffed, "Sev..." he murmured in greeting, "I didn't know the new passwords, so I thought I'd wait here until the end of the Feast..."
"What. Are you doing here. Potter?" Snape murmured icily. Harry was too caught up in his own misery to react to his tone of voice and the use of his surname, and sniffed again, "'m sorry, I... I couldn't bear to go to the Feast, I... I think this have been the worst day of my life!"
"Is that so Potter..." Snape said darkly. Harry nodded miserably, "Things can't get any worse from here..."
TBC