Pebbles on the Water

by Princess-Meru

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. Never will I don't think.

Author's Note: Today was a snow day, so I felt like putting up another short story. Its another quicky so the grammar isn't superb. Sorry for that. Anyway's I feel like Christmas in a Snow Globe would have been a more proper posting for today but you can't change the past and this one is right in the same league.

Draco Malfoy heard the sound of water splashing as he took his afternoon walk. It was faint and felt far away, but it was there. Like hearing footsteps two floors above you, or a shout from the other side of the Alps. The sound was almost impossible to trace, and if Draco hadn't already memorized the Hogwarts grounds, he would never have been able to find its source.

It was coming from Harry Potter. He was sitting alone by the lake surrounded by disturbed earth and a small mound of rocks. The boy would pick up a stone, massage it with his thumb, throw it, and then repeat the process.

The blond watched for a few minutes before he was noticed.

"Hey."

Draco didn't respond. Instead, he just walked away, embarrassed at letting something so stupid give him pause.

---

It was sundown and Draco was once again on the grounds enjoying the colors splattered across the sky. When he was little he used to reach out his hand and pretend to smear the colors with his finger. His mother would find it adorable and cuddle him deeper into her lap. Back then he really believed that he could do that, but now he knew better.

He walked the same path he had earlier. The sound of stones falling in the water was still there, the same rhythm as before.

Draco stood watching.

"So you're back?"

The blond didn't say anything, just stayed where he was.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"The sunset."

Splash. A tiny ripple echoed, making a wave across the water.

"Sometimes, I just feel like I could hold it in my hand and mix it around. Like someone had just dumped the most beautiful paints into the sky."

"Don't be stupid Potter."

Harry stayed quiet.

Draco walked away.

---

He couldn't sleep. It had been the first time in a while, but Draco just couldn't sleep tonight. He pulled out the invisibility cloak his father had recently bought him and draped it around him. Outside the Slytherin common room he could hear the scuffling of panicked feet.

"He's missing!"

"Have you seen him?"

Very carefully he pushed his way out of the room and walked outside to meet the boy he knew hadn't moved since he saw him the first time that day.

He was still throwing the rocks in the water with that plain face.

"So you're back?"

Draco shrugged off his invisibility cloak.

"Why are you still throwing those rocks?"

Harry chuckled but it was dry, "You're right. Its pointless; you can't even see them. The ripples just disappear anyway."

Draco sat by him, quiet, contemplative. It was a heavy silence, as though inside the lake itself or in free fall where no sound can cut through or in a dark and empty room with no holes in its walls.

"Are you going to go inside?"

"Are you?"

"You did before."

Silence.

"Wingardium leviosa."

SPLASH.

"What...? Malfoy?"

The great waves of a boulder falling into the lake crashed against their feet and glittered in the false light of the moon.

"Even the smallest waves leave water on the shore, Potter."

Harry looked up at him with wide, sparkling, emerald eyes.

Draco held out his hand.

"Will you come inside now?"

"Yeah."

And Harry took Draco's hand.