AN: Well, my exams are finally over and I'm getting some peace and quiet over here. Surprisingly, I managed to do fairly well on my history exam, a subject which I'm worst at…so I'm pretty excited about that. It's nice to be without all the stress of school. On that note, I will be writing more frequently, though my time will be split up between this story and other stories of mine.
Warnings: Same as always, slash, m for later chapters
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or its characters. All I made was the plot.
Immediately after having slammed the door shut Harry felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't really meant what he said, it was just that there were so many things happening lately, under all the stress he just snapped. He supposed he should apologise to the other. Now that he thought it through, Draco hand been surprisingly…nice lately. No shouts, no insults. There were some sneers and stupid remarks of course, but that was inevitable. It was strange really, for someone forced into this the blonde was being surprisingly cordial, which only added to the feeling of guilt.
With a small sigh, Harry moved to push the door open, still holding his potions book and quill in one hand. " Draco?" he added quietly, looking around the room only to find him sitting on the couch, legs drawn up and avoiding his gaze.
" Am I in your way again? Do you want me to leave?" the blonde asked. It sounded so unnatural for him to be speaking like this, he was a Malfoy after all, but somehow it just didn't seem to matter right now. Things weren't going particularly well, and it had only just begun. Faintly, he wondered just how much worse it would get when he turned seventeen and became a full blooded Veela. All he knew was that, if things continued this way, he'd just end up suffering a pitiful death at having not succeeded in keeping a mate. Stupid rules of life.
" No. It's fine." The Gryffindor answered quickly, biting his lip. " Look..I..I didn't mean that okay? I'm just really stressed…I mean, with the whole 'it's your destiny to kill Voldemord' crap. Life hasn't exactly been easy , and now to worry about that too." He mumbled with a sigh, plopping down on the couch beside the blonde, who turned to look at him from under his bangs.
" There's nothing that I can do about it…which is what upsets me the most..but that's no reason to take it out on you…You've been a total git but lately it's like we just switched roles. I'm sorry about that. I know you hate me, but still you've been trying to be nice so..I'll try too." Harry added in a mumble, glancing tentatively to the other.
The blonde gave off a small sigh, shaking his head. " You're so…predictable Potter. All of you Gryffindors have this hero complex..it's like you feel the need to please everyone." Draco mumbled, glancing down to the book the other was holding. " Do you still need help?" he added then, raising an eyebrow. " Well, I should say: Do you want any help. Because it's quite obvious that you need it.."
Harry smiled slightly at that. Well, at least Draco was back to normal. " I don't know if you canhelp me..I'm hopeless in Potions…and Snape has so much fun bothering me about it too." The raven haired boy added with a pout.
" Are you really? Bad in Potions? Or is it just because you dislike Snape." Draco asked with a roll of his eyes. " Maybe the reason he bothers you so often is because he knew you could be good in the subject if you actually tried and not just sat there brooding about why you hate it." The boy added.
Harry paused for a moment, surprised at how blunt the other was. He had to admit Malfoy was right. He was horrible in potions, but he never really tried understanding it since he hated Snape so much. " Are you saying you can teach me how to not screw up a potion? " he asked then, thinking that it would be sort of cool if he could go up and completely freak out the potion's master.
" I'm saying that I can have you brewing a potion correctly by tomorrow…want to bet on it?" Malfoy added with a grin. Not even waiting for the other's response, he conjured up a cauldron and some ingredients he'd kept with him, then took Harry's potions book and started leafing through it.
" Hobby takes on a whole new meaning for you.." Harry mumbled, picking up a strange looking root from the pile of ingredients. He dropped in suddenly though and jumped back with a startled yelp as the thing tried to bite him.
Draco ran a hand through his hair, chuckling, trying to stifle a full out laugh. " You're hopeless." He added, shaking his head.
" Are you saying you give up?" the Gryffindor asked with a raised eyebrow, being careful to stay away from the other ingredients
" No. I'm just saying that…I'm going to be laughing at you through the night…a lot."
" Ronald Weasly. I can't believe you're still playing that barbaric game instead of looking for Harry." Hermione exclaimed, seeing as the boy hadn't moved from the chair in the common room.
" Looking for him to do what? I don't want to talk to him Mionie, he betrayed us. He's banded together with Malfoy for merlin's sake." Ron was saying, though the way he said it sounded more like whyning than an actual argument.
" How do you know that, did you even ask him? You're impossible..I can't believe you'd give up your friend like that." The girl added, shaking her head. " I was out so long looking for him, but I couldn't find him anywhere, he even missed Quidditch practice..I think right now what he really needed was your support, and what did you do? You started yellingat him!" Hermionie was saying, her tone growing more and more elevated as the conversation went on.
" That's it!" Ron yelled out, throwing the Chess board to the ground. " I am sick of everyone telling me what I should do. And I am especially sick of everyone always being on his side…always Harry bloody Potter, he always did everything to get all the attention, like in the Trywizard Tournament when he entered his name without telling us. And everyone's always on HIS side. I've had it." Ron was yelling, before letting out another groan and moving to stomp up the staircase to his room, slamming the door shut in the process.
" Wow.." Seamus mumbled, who had witnessed the fight from the corner of the room. " I never thought I'd see the day when Ron called Harry selfish.."
" I know.." Hermione added with a sigh. " I just hope he realizes soon what and idiot he's being.."
" It's purple." Harry stated wearily as he looked on to the thin line of smoke coming off from the cauldron. " It's not supposed to be purple..Draco. It's purple..is it poisonous again?" he continued in panic.
Draco let out another small laugh. He'd laughed a lot this evening. It was strange really, that the one person he'd be able to laugh freely around would end up to be Harry Potter. " It's fine, you just added too much of the Newt Eye powder. You have to mix it in slowly and stop when the liquid turns purple…you made it give off smoke too…The potion is okay…but the taste definitely won't be anymore." The blonde said with a sigh, then started explaining to him again how Newt Eyes affected the potion.
Harry had such a distant look, so Draco stopped once in a while to check if the other was still listening, surprised when the other nodded along. Somehow, Harry even managed to retain some on the information, and in a few hours was able to brew the required potion. Not perfectly of course, it was so much progress compared to his previous skills.
After a few more tries the Gryffindor let out a small yawn, blinking tiredly. " Oh. That's right…I forgot you need more sleep than I do now..Sorry. We can stop now. Besides, you're actually getting the hang of this. Tomorrow's potions class should be a breeze." The Slytherin added with a nod.
" N-no, 'm not sleepy." Harry added through another yawn. " We can continue." He mumbled again, but didn't finish his sentence as he slumped against the other, drifting off into a soft sleep, mumbling something incoherent.
" Who are you kidding Potter." The blonde mumbled with a sigh, drawing out his wand to get rid of the mess they'd made and put away the cauldron and ingredients. Herry's door was locked, and he didn't want to spend half the night looking for the key so he just carried the boy to his room since he didn't sleep anyway, at least, not as much as a human.
Setting him down on the bed he turned to leave though stopped as he noticed that the Gryffindor was clutching at his shirt. " Aw. Potter. Let go." He whispered, more to himself, trying to unhook the fabric from his grip. When he was unsuccessful he sighed again and sat down on the bed next to the boy. It didn't look like he was going to be able to go anywhere. Then again, he didn't sleep anyway, and he felt much more at ease when he was near the boy than when they were apart or fighting when he'd just be freezing. " Sleep well." He mumbled into the dark.
About halfway through the night, the small dragon decided to return, scuffling about the rooms before finding both the boys in one of the rooms, the Veela holding the other.
'I knew I was right! See? You did manage to woo him, and it worked even though he's the said 'Golden boy' hmm? I was right. I was right. I love being right.' The creature started with something close to a giggle, jumping up onto the bed.
" Be quiet already, you'll wake him up." Draco hissed, reaching out to try to catch the thing with a frustrated groan.
Arriving in the potions lab in the morning, both Hermione and Ron sat down in their seats without saying a thing, having skipped breakfast arguing. Ron was still being completely thick headed, and Hermione refused to talk to him until he could be less of a jerk.
The classroom was about Halfway full by now, with various students still arriving, though both noted the absence of Draco and Harry, Ron more grimly than ever.
" What..time is it?" Harry mumbled again, shifting sleepily in the other's hold. He didn't really wait for a reply though and just performed a quick tempus spell, gasping at the outcome. " Aw merlin. We're late! We're really late. We already missed breakfast it'll be a miracle if we get to potion's in time." The Gryffindor exclaimed, jumping up and heading towards where he remembered the door to be, recoiling with a soft 'ow' when he walked into a wall. Blinking for a moment, he left the room, heading for the bathroom, still stumbling around from being half asleep.
Draco paused for a moment, looking after the dazed boy before sighing. " Oops." He mumbled, standing up with a small yawn of his own before heading to his bathroom to get ready.
It didn't occur to Harry until well through his shower that he'd woken up in the other's room…more so, in the other's arms. After thinking it through though, he didn't feel nearly as freaked out as he thought he'd be, especially since tonight had been the first night in months that he'd slept without having a nightmare.
After they were both ready, they started their walk to the potions lab together, neither of them mentioning the night. When they entered the classroom both had such murderous expressions that no one dared to ask why they were later than usual. Harry because he had to sit next to Ron and Draco because he had to face Pansy.
Stopping for a moment, Harry turned to head over to the other side of the classroom, dropping his books on the nearest empty spot, one next to a Hufflepuff girl. " I'm sitting here today. " he declared with a sigh. He was startled when the girl let out a small scream of joy, starting to babble loudly about how Harry Potter had finally given her attention and what not.
" Why do I always meet the crazy ones?" Harry mumbled to himself with a sigh.
As class started and the assignment was written on the board Harry grinned as he recognized the potion, realizing he'd actually be able to brew that one now. With a smile, he turned to discreetly mouth a 'thankyou' to Draco, watching him shrug in return.
AN: Okay, not Ron Draco chat here. That's because the plot changed slightly since the last time I wrote a chapter. Sorry about that, but it will come up soon enough. Now…I do have to get to work ( ah yes, darn work ) but I'll be back and writing soon :)