Union/8

A/N: It's with my nerves on the wire I post this. I feel the transition may not fit and will need revision at a later date. Nonetheless, the chapter is here. Happy reading!

Surrounded by an unmistakable feeling of comfort wasn't what the young Slytherin was expecting after falling for what seemed to be forever, yet for no time at all. Cold, maybe a pit or an enchanted trunk, a floor made of stone, perhaps. As he came to, he realized he was in fact on stone, or at least his palms were touching it. Slowly, he became aware of himself, being pulled out from the darkness by the smell of crisp winter night air that welcomed him, and a curious sound prickling his ears. The clicking of lips on skin was undeniable, along with the small patches they touched coming alive with warmth. He felt a weight press into his chest and willed his eyes open and find himself in quite a predicament.

What were the odds that the person he had set out to find would be right in front of him, or rather, on top of him? There was no mistaking the eyes of Harry, whose green was unhindered by the dark of the night and fixated directly on him. They were laying down on a blanket of silky material at the top of what Draco came to observe was the Astronomy Tower, of which his hand had strayed past the blanket edge to the gritty floor. Harry had his arms tucked at Draco's sides and his chin rested on his chest as he watched him with a smile playing on his lips.

"I didn't think we'd get a moment alone like this again," he heard him say. He sounded nostalgic, as if they'd made a habit of this before.

The unfamiliarity of the situation must not have sunk into the folds of Draco's brain as he couldn't find anything too wrong about how they were here. Still, he knew this wasn't exactly normal for the two of them. Draco felt his eyes staring at him, clearly expecting an answer. He cleared his throat and moved to rest up on his elbows, causing Harry to shift to his side.

"Yeah, I didn't think so either." He forced himself to sound indifferent despite the ball of nerves in his stomach. It wasn't a lie. He truly never believed there was a moment where he would be in this scenario. Why would he have cared if he lied to this person, of all people anyways? He was pulled back by soft fingers on his chin, turning his face towards the person he still couldn't believe was there.

"You seem so far away," Harry cast his eyes down and quieted his voice to a whisper, "I thought this would be a good thing for us." He brought his gaze back to Draco's and the blond felt a twang of guilt in his chest.

"It is," he rushed out, "It's just I don't exactly get moments like this often," also not a lie, "especially with you." Draco's heart fluttered in his chest as Harry's eyes crinkled in a sad smile.

"I know." Harry laid his head against his shoulder and moved his hand from his chin to gently stroke his neck. "After all the craze of the tournament, and people stop worrying over me so much, we'll get back in the hang of things." He tilted his head up to Draco, who noticed his eyes were beginning to brim red. "I'm sorry I haven't been around as much."

Draco kissed him then. Once, and again. It felt like the right thing to do in this moment. His mind was blank, at complete ease in a moment that seemed to come so naturally. He wasn't expecting the lips his touched to be so soft, or for any reason of justification to come to him for acting this way. The way they were here together, there was nothing else he felt he could have done.

He was torn from his bliss by Harry jerking his head away and turning his attention toward the stairs.

"Potter, what-" Harry hushed him and as he did Draco heard the familiar grumbling of the caretaker, Filch, and noticed the growing glow of a lantern crawling up the wall as he drew nearer. Draco's heart quickened at the possibility of him being caught like this with his well-known rival. Definitely not that he didn't want this moment taken away.

He was still going back and forth with himself when Harry acted. He fisted the front of Draco's robes with one hand and the edge of the blanket with his other, and before Draco could think to do otherwise, Harry had flipped them over. Draco was flattened on top of him with the blanket shrouding them both. In the action it took Draco a moment to realize they could peer effortlessly through the delicate fabric.

"Invisibility cloak?" He whispered, and he received a puzzled look from the Gryffindor that suggested he should already know that.

Both of them eyed the top of the stairs, where Filch had appeared and was skulking towards them, swinging his lantern in each direction with Mrs. Norris in tail. The two of them stilled as he was a mere foot away from them, and though he couldn't see them, Mrs. Norris was sniffing where they laid curiously. Draco forced himself to ignore the urge to shift with Harry's breath tickling his neck and couldn't help but feel at odds with himself. In any other situation, he'd have thrown off the cloak or done anything to get the Gryffindor in trouble.

Much to their relief they heard Filch grunt in loss at not finding any misbehaving students and stormed back off down the stairs, shouting that he knew someone was breaking the rules and he would find them sooner or later.

Once the coast was clear, Draco stood to his feet and helped Harry up as well, handing him his cloak.

"Thank goodness for that, I'm not really keen on detention," he said. He tried to ignore the way Harry's eyebrows were knitted together in confusion still. Harry continued to study him, and his lack of response started to make him feel even more nervous than before.

He opened his mouth to say something else but movement in the corner of his vision caught him off guard and he turned quickly back to the stairs to see nothing there.

"Draco."

He turned back to Harry with his eyes wide at hearing his first name come from him. Harry's face turned stern as he stepped closer to the blond.

"There's something not right between us."

Shit.

"What do you mean?" He had tried to conceal the nervousness that was now inextinguishable, but there was no hiding the wavering in his tone. He saw movement again near the stairs and whipped around just in time to see a shadow cross the very top step and then disappear. "Did you see that?"

"See what? Please, stop." Harry grasped his arm and turned him back around. "You aren't just acting far away. You aren't yourself." He let his arm go and held the cloak out between them. "We've used this cloak at least a dozen times before yet tonight you acted like this was the first time you've seen it. And you haven't called me Potter in years!"

This Harry was definitely more alive than the last one he had seen.

"Potter- Harry," he corrected himself as Harry's eyes narrowed further at him, "I'm sorry, I've just been… confused, that's all. Recently, with everything." Harry's expression dropped as he said it, and he hugged his arms around himself.

"I understand. I know I've been hot and cold lately. What- what are you doing?" Harry jerked back as Draco whirled around another time, sure as anything that he had seen something at the top of the tower with them. He put his back to Harry and darted his eyes around. "For Merlin's sake, what is it?"

"Don't tell me you didn't see that!" he urged, "There's something there!"

Sure enough, there was a dark blur of a shadow moving towards them. He thrust his arm out to the side instinctively, and Harry shifted back towards the tower wall's shelved edge.

"Stay back!" He wasn't positive whether he was saying so to whatever it was coming for them, or to the boy behind him.

"Draco, there's nothing there. We need to talk about this!" His voice rose in frustration and he tugged on the back of Draco's robes, who had no intention of taking his attention away from whatever was there.

"There is!" His voice was frantic, he knew it. He didn't understand how Potter couldn't see the obvious entity. His heart was hammering in his chest as it drew closer, and a figure of a girl broke through the air abruptly moving toward them with little effort, as if she were gliding between each step. Draco yelled in surprise and fell as she seemed to cross the distance between them in a single step, and before he touched the cold stone of the floor, she shot her palm out to land it solidly on his forehead.

Time as it was had slowed, and he watched as Harry reached out and grabbed hold of his arm, and pulled him up, but he was no longer himself. He was still falling, a feeling of emptying overcoming him through the girl's touch as he saw from a distance the two students continuing to converse.

His focus was brought to the girl who was still pushing into him, moving him further into the ground through the floor of the Astronomy Tower like it was the surface of the lake. In the proximity they were, he recognized her, with her carelessly loose blonde hair, and soft face. The only difference was that her eyes were black as the night sky. He was captivated by them, sinking back into the dark he had been in before.

"Loony?" He said the name aloud before realizing his vision was fading into color and shapes again. He now stood in front of Pansy and the strawberry-haired girl from earlier just outside of the common room. He noticed the perplexed looks of his audience and cleared his throat.

"Gloomy, you know, it's a bit gloomy down here in the dungeons. Perhaps we can continue this somewhere else later?" He pulled his lips into a tight smile, still trying to piece together what the hell just happened to him. Striding out the dorm one second, fraternizing with Potter the next, and that Lovegood girl basically exorcising him from where he was? That was it, he was going mad.

The new acquaintance, whose name came to mind as Delma, beamed at him while Pansy's face began to get more splotched with color by the second. Delma left with a small wave to them and a bounce in her step, and Pansy called to her before shooting Draco a heated glare and hurrying after her. The relief that came to him in being alone didn't last long. His heart quickened at the sound of a shuffle against the stone floor behind him, and he turned quickly yet with a sense of caution as he remembered where he had just been, and the shadow that came without a body until it was too late.

The noise from down in the Gryffindor common room had ascended the stairs and pulled Harry out of a very helpful sleep. He was now flat on his stomach, staring wordlessly at the floor. He felt better, just as Professor McGonagall had said he would, but still certainly not like himself. He had so much raw information running through his head, and the useless work he had put into searching the library before laughed at him. Worst of all, the need to confront Malfoy was an undeniable prod in his side. He needed to find him.

He shifted to sit upright to see it was, in fact, the vial that was prodding him. Harry tossed the vial in his trunk and whipped the familiar old and worn map out and stared at it fervently. He was done waiting around. He was tired of lying to his friends and was going to get to the bottom of this, however he knew he couldn't do it alone. Dumbledore said he was the door, essentially. He had a hunch about who was the key.

He pointed his wand to the map and whispered the incantation, watching the magic ink bleed out onto the surface. Harry searched the map impatiently, pointing his wand to it once again.

"Show me Draco Malfoy."

There he was, unsurprisingly, in the dungeons by Pansy Parkinson and (assumedly)another Slytherin whose name he didn't recognize. It'd be odd for himself to be found there; he would have to have a plan in case he was seen. Harry thought for a moment and grinned proudly at himself as the idea surfaced into his mind. He stuffed the map into his trouser pocket and grabbed his invisibility cloak from his bag. As long as no one saw any doors open suspiciously on their own he should go undetected. Once he got there, he decided, he would keep Dumbledore's information to himself until it became necessary.

Harry rushed through the halls, students and classrooms blurring in his peripheral, stimulated by irritation and impatience to find Malfoy before he moved from his spot on the map. He slowed at the top of the stairs leading down into the dungeons to pull out his map but didn't need the confirmation from the magic ink to recognize the mocking laughter echoing off the walls from the blond he was looking for.

A couple of Slytherins rushed passed him, not noticing his invisible presence, and he stepped gingerly down the steps to the cool floor of the dungeons where he could see his target talking still to the pug-faced girl he so often was around and another, older he guessed, strawberry blonde girl, who was honestly being a champ considering the looks dripping of venom coming from Pansy.

Harry pressed himself against a stone wall under a dim lamp, noticing then how dark it really was down here compared to the upper floors, much like Knockturn Alley versus Hogsmeade, and waited until the other Slytherin girl had left seeming content with her conversation with Malfoy, Pansy giving him a dismissing glare and following after her. He suddenly felt thankful he didn't have to worry about the awkward war between people fighting over him.

He stepped carefully forward but was fooled by the skewed pattern of the stone floor and exclaimed as he staggered over a rock pointing up from the ground.

Malfoy whipped his eyes towards the sound and his eyes widened before narrowing amusedly, at the glint of crimson from the cloak sliding off of Harry's shoulder.

"Spying on me now, Potter?" Draco crossed the floor slowly, trying to piece his own mind together while enjoying the unsure expression on Harry's face peeking out from thin air.

"I'm not spying, I'm just…"

"Following up?" Malfoy had gotten much closer without him realizing, leaning casually against the wall beside where Harry was previously trying to sink himself into as if to make himself more invisible. All the impatience in Harry's mind fizzled out, substituted by a notion he couldn't comprehend. A feeling of expectation mingled with another thing that moved from his chest to his fingers and toes, buzzing like a thousand pixie wings.

Draco didn't falter at the blank stare he gave and reached out to grip at the warped edge of the invisibility cloak Harry wore, and pulled it back over Harry and himself. Harry's mind ticked on for a moment before registering what happened, and his eyes widened at how calm the steely gaze of Draco seemed to be in such an unfamiliar situation. He remembered then what he was there for and a small fire rekindled in his own eyes.

"Yes, actually," he said pointedly, "it's been days since you set me off to search for answers, and-"

"Can people really not see us at all?" Malfoy's eyes travelled along the passing students that moved around them none the wiser of the two of them standing under the torch, blatantly ignoring what Harry started to say.

"No," Harry's lips pulled tight in annoyance, "It's an invisibility cloak for a reason." He turned and made a rather horrifying face at a passing first year to make a point before moving his attention back to the blond. "See? Anyways, listen, I've found a couple things that…" He caught Malfoy's eyes again, finding the blond shifting closer than before, surely to listen.

The flickering of the firelight above them seemed to make the grey of his eyes dance at Harry even more playfully than was intended. He could smell him all around him, the cloak holding in the scent of the Slytherin more concentrated than he would've naturally liked; amber and lavender flooded him and curled around his brain, sending a dampening feeling through his thoughts, almost stalling Harry from what he had been adamantly brought here for.

He swallowed down the dryness creeping up his throat and continued on, "I've found a few things that might help us with what's going on." He forced his eyes to look into the constant leer Malfoy had on him, trying to bring as much of a Hermione-type gaze about himself as he could.

"Is this you trying to corner me?" Malfoy's lips had turned up at him, and his pulled into a frown.

"Would I have heard from you if I hadn't? You seem to be keeping yourself quite busy!"

"Jealousy, Potter," Malfoy said silkily, running his eyes over him, "Does not look good on you." The blond smirked down at him and spoke once more as Harry made to cut in, "Tell me what we have to work with."

"Right," Harry sucked in a breath, "Listen, I couldn't find much as I'd have liked in the library. There's talk about, on the obvious end, madness or mind-altering charms, and then at the worst what I could find was something called Legilimens-" he saw Draco's brows furrow "-obviously none of those things really describe what's going on here." Harry swallowed again, almost feeling a sinking stone of guilt in his belly for holding back the knowledge he was just given. Almost. He didn't want to let on everything he knew at once. His natural instinct was telling him to have an edge on his usual enemy.

Malfoy pursed his lips and fingered at the hem of the cloak to admire the silky material absentmindedly.

"What do you suggest, then?"

"Try to see this out ourselves." Harry tried to grasp at some kind of witty, smart remark to bring to the table, and failed.

Draco's gaze snapped back up to Harry's, finding the same determination in the emerald gaze as he did in their first games against each other as Seekers.

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted, "All I know is whatever this is happens only when I'm with you-" he paused at Malfoy's face spreading into a smug grin, "which is not to say that is a good thing."

"I don't know," Malfoy inched his face towards Harry's, his breath tickling his nose, "I think you forgot, I know what you've seen because I have, too. You certainly didn't mind any of it. Why not use this to my advantage?"

It was like any edge he thought he may have crumbled and sank into nothing. Harry, with his face hot and teeth gritting together, bored his eyes into the Slytherin's.

"I have enough shit to worry about, Malfoy, if you think this is anything but a minor inconvenience to me, you're fooled. I only want to solve whatever this is."

The chuckled that passed through Draco ghosted over Harry's lips and he settled his gaze heavily on him.

"So, if you've really been researching as it sounds like you have, what about the sensations we experienced?"

"Sensations?"

"Like before," Draco said impatiently, "The vertigo, or whatever you want to pin it down to."

"Right, the twirling walls and all that." Harry stated.

"Yes… the twirlies…"

"You know what I mean, you prat."

"Why don't we test it then?"

Harry had not expected this. He zigzagged his eyes up the blond, not really certain where to land them, quite unsure how his own face may be betraying him of his own curiosity on the subject. When he didn't answer, he heard rather than saw Malfoy pull back the sleeve of his robes.

"Potter, look at me."

He raked his eyes against the showing skin of Malfoy's slender forearm.

"My eyes." It was tantalizing almost, being directed by the blond. He trailed his eyes up to the ones impatiently waiting for him and felt a wave of realization wash over him like he was a mouse in a trap.

They were in the dungeon halls, underneath his invisibility cloak, free from the impervious stares and dubious onlookers they may find usually. A small thought pulled at him weakly, that maybe he could at least see what happened.

Malfoy held his gaze, and he felt the blond's other hand wrap around his opposite sleeve, moving it towards his bare arm. Harry's heart seemed to control his whole body with how it was reacting. His fingers were already buzzing as they moved towards the milky skin peeking out from Malfoy's robe. As they got closer, he felt the digits stretch out on their own intention and wrap solidly around the arm before him.

It was, to describe crudely, like being submerged in a pool of water.

The air seemed to rise to the top of their bodies, a weight of being holding them in place while the rest of their selves felt suspended. Static ran through Harry's fingertips, running up Draco's forearm and across his chest, neck, and back. In turn, Harry felt a soothing coolness flooding him like thick ink dropping into water. His fingers gripped tighter at the blond's forearm and he felt drawn to the eyes before him. A deep, grey void, a swirling of shades and shadows pulling him closer and strangling his thoughts.

Harry wasn't sure who moved first, perhaps it was him, perhaps Malfoy, but he didn't really care for the detail in the present situation as they started towards each other, both intent on connecting further. He could feel it then, just how the heat blossomed from the blond's lips to his own, prickling up in thorny petals across his cheeks. The ground shifted, or he was made to step back, but the world was moving now. He wasn't sure when his eyes had closed, but he found himself living in another place, where arms were encircling him and branches of desire were forming in his ribcage ready to burst. Harry's mind was reeling in the intoxicating scent of the blond in front of him, his lips tingling disappointedly when Malfoy had suddenly moved away as the silky material of the cloak moved off of them. One of them must have moved wrongly- rightly- but, nonetheless, he was filled with longing when the spinning slowed around him.

The bright flush against the pale cheeks the Malfoy shone like roses on snow as he settled his heavy eyes on him.

"So, it stands to say," Draco brought his hand to clasp Harry's shoulder to steady himself, "that stays the same even after days."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, trying to ignore the dizziness still leaving him, "We should probably find something to fix that."

Malfoy hummed to himself, pausing his eyes on the lips his had just left.

"I don't know," the blond leaned in once again and planted a kiss without an ounce of hesitation firmly against his dumfounded lips, "I think I'm still benefitting from this more than not."

All of what was happening seemed completely unreal to Harry. For one, how he himself felt, but Malfoy's reciprocation was even more unprecedented. Sure, Harry's subconscious had been cruel in toying his mind in making him believe he wanted something like this to happen, but it was far in the wastelands of his mind did he think an even semi-positive reaction may come from the blond.

Harry also realized that he felt, to say the least, good. The weighty tiredness that dragged behind him like chains for the past few days was lifted, and the empty feeling that pitted in his stomach seemed to have disappeared.

The both of them were taken from their trance by a low, hearty chuckle from across the hall and they both turned their gaze to see Blaise Zambini smiling devilishly at the two of them.

"Save it for the ball, you two. A day's worth of hours and you can teach not one, but three schools the meaning of envy." He shook his head at them in amusement and turned toward the Slytherin common room, leaving the two of them staring wide-eyed after him.

Harry let go of Draco's arm and stumbled forward, his eyes darting around the dungeon corridor.

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'? He just spotted us chatting pretty much, it's nothing I can't explain. It'll be his life if he says a word to Pansy." He watched half amused as Harry gestured around the hall to him.

"Tell me what you see?" he pleaded.

Draco looked at the frantic expression on his face, and it reminded him much of himself not that long ago, in that other place. He humored him and swept his eyes around the corridor. It was, to say… Dirty. The creases of the stones on the ground were filled with dust and mud from the soles of other students' shoes, from tracked in snow and dirt. The scent of old earth wafted over him and he wrinkled his nose in disgust, turning his gaze to Harry again. These were all things he had noticed once before, but now strangely popped out at him.

"If you're feeling sorry for me about living in a dungeon…"

Harry looked at him, defeated.

"You really can't tell?"

"Tell? Stop messing with me, I know we're supposed to work together but…" Draco watched Harry look nervously around them and his nerves started to spark back to life. "What are you not telling me?"

"We're here."

He wasn't sure why, but a heavy cold settled in his feet. He grasped the front of Harry's robes and pulled him to face him.

"Where exactly are we?" He searched his face for answers, only to find more questions pop in his mind.

If Draco hadn't known any better, he'd say the look Harry gave him made him look like a bird who had flown into a window with no way to get out. For him being the Gryffindor wizard that bravely approached any task, even blindly on a hunch, even a damned dragon just a month ago, that struck a cord in Draco deeply.

Harry met his gaze then, and the guilt he had been willing away was now clouding in his darkening green eyes. "We're there."

A/N: I have about two handfuls of family events this month, but I'm working on the next chapter now, I expect it to be up in the middle of next week. Thank you!