Hello once again! I've been rather busy lately, so this came out a bit later than I had planned, but whatever, it's here now, right?
I've recently realised that I've forgotten to mention that there probably be slash, but I think most of you have already realised that.
And I still don't own the HP world, so please go ahead and read now.
Chapter IV
When Harry came to the prison once again one week later, he had a good feeling in his stomach. Unfortunately, that feeling did not last long. He probably should have noticed that something was wrong by the fact that he didn't hear any noises or any kind of sound as he walked toward Draco's cell. But he didn't, and thus didn't realise that something was wrong until he stood before Malfoy's quarters.
The moment he realised that the man wasn't in his cell, he panicked. He slung the door up and quickly looked through the room. He realised that he was silly, there was no way that Draco Malfoy would even think of hiding under a bed, but when the vision of the blond lying underneath his bunk giggling entered Harry's head, he couldn't not check it. Alas, it was empty.
He quickly left the cell and hurried down the hallways, this time noticing what he had missed earlier. Every cell was empty, and several doors stood open. The doors were not supposed to be able to be opened by others than the authorised staff of Azkaban, and clearly neither Harry nor the prisoners fell under that category. That meant that either this whole ordeal was something that was supposed to happen, or that Azkaban just had a major breakout.
Harry really hoped for the first.
"Sally!"
The redheaded witch looked up and smiled as she saw the raven sprinting toward her. She and Harry had been on a first name basis since the Friday the week before, and strangely enough that made her feel much more confident in his presence. They were the same age, but she had grown up with stories about him being practically a god, then a loon, then back to god again. It wasn't all that strange that she was a bit star struck in the beginning.
"Hi Harry, what ya runnin' for?" she asked as the man was close enough to hear her talking in a normal tone.
Harry slowed down when he reached her, and then scratched the back of his head. "Eh, you don't happen to know if something weird happened lately?" he asked and looked at her with uncertainty.
"Something…weird?" she raised a brow and eyed him, making him blush slightly and break eye contact.
"Yeah, like a random burst of magic, a change in the wards or perhaps a massive escape that left the prison completely empty." He felt completely ridiculous asking those things, and even worse when Sally started laughing at him.
"Oh Harry, Harry, Harry. No one told you? The prisoners are out on The Grounds today, and will stay there for the rest of the weekend. We're rebuilding."
"Rebuilding? What for? And what are The Grounds?" Harry asked confused. Sally sighed and made a gesture telling him to sit down next to her, which he obliged.
"Since we finally got a competent minister after several years of downright dreadful one," she began, smirking at Harry in glee, who huffed in approval, "we have gotten the order to make the prison more comfortable to the prisoners. It seems that someone finally realised that the best way to make sure the people in here won't go out and make a mess isn't to lock them up under terrible conditions and drive them nuts. We'll have two different institutions in the same building. One for those mentally stable and who we have no reason to fear, and one for those who have gone insane, or something else that make them threaten the safety of the others." She explained.
"Draco?" Harry interrupted, stopping her from continuing.
"What about him?" Sally quirked, not understanding his question.
"Where will he go?"
"Oh." Sally finally understood and looked at Harry again, with that strange glint she had sometimes. "He clearly isn't insane, and hasn't been a part of a fight with neither us nor the others. He's rather calm, actually. He'll be in the better institution, though I think he has partly you to thank for that."
"What?" Harry asked surprised. "Why is that?"
Sally gave him a wry smile. "Because of his family's close history with Voldemort, the board is rather reluctant to give him any privileges at all. But word's spread that you have showed him some, oh I don't know, attention I guess, so in order to not piss off Harry Potter they'd rather look through their fingers at his friend."
"Draco Malfoy is not my friend!" Harry protested. "I'm doing this because I'm ordered to."
Sally shrugged. "Just don' tell the board that. They can't look at Malfoy without a prejudicing eye; all of them knew him father. You're about the only thing that stands between them and him right now."
Harry nodded slowly. He hadn't realised that, and couldn't help but wonder if Draco knew about it. Probably not, Malfoys were not keen on accepting help outside the family, only in emergencies, such as with Narcissa. Draco would probably have done something to show his displeasure, you couldn't say he wasn't the kind of person to do that.
"And The Grounds are a courtyard on the backside of Azkaban. While we are renovating the castle the prisoners will be camping out there." Sally continued, answering Harry's second question, which he had forgotten he'd even asked.
"Alright, thanks Sal. What would I ever do without you?" Harry stood, in a great mood again, partly thanks to the picture of Draco Malfoy sleeping in a tent underneath the bare sky. He'd bet his ass Malfoy was not happy about that. "See you later." He jogged away, in search for a door that might lead him to The Grounds.
"Surprised to see you here Draco." a cheery voice interrupted Draco's musings. He sat on a bench near the fence, staring at the ground and thinking about a little of everything.
"Blaise." was all his fellow prisoner recieved in greeting, although this did not seem to put him off.
"I thought you'd never be allowed to see the outside again without having to stare at it trough the bars in your window. Until you get out, of course. How long is it left? Nine years?" Blaise continued. Despite his wording he meant no harm, and Draco knew this.
At a nod from his former classmate he picked up the tread once again. "Ouch, tough luck mate. I only got four years left in this dump. Thank Merlin they're rebuilding it though, I've heard we're gonna get real walls and doors. No more bars, sounds nice don't ye think?"
Blaise kept on talking and Draco kept on listening. With half a ear. Blaise had always been a rather chatty guy, and apparently not even Azkaban could change that.
When Blaise was in the middle of talking about what sounded like a stone, or something of the sort, something black appeared in the corner of his eye. The corner of his mouth twitched and curved slightly in a small smirk. He didn't notice Blaise sudden silence.
"Oi Malfoy. Sorry I'm late. I thought the bunch of you somehow managed to run away or something." Harry Potter walked up to them smiling apologetically at Draco.
Blaise cleared his throat in a attempt to gain Harry's attention, which succeeded. Harry looked at him for a second, not remembering the name that belonged to the face, then smiled in recognition.
"Blaise Zabini, isn't it?" he was on his way to hold out his hand, then remembered where he was, and that it was quite possible that the person before him hated his guts. He was about to take a few steps back, but Draco lunged out and grabbed his wrist to keep him where he was.
Draco smirked and smiled at Harry's surprised, confused, and slightly scared face. "Oh no, don't you dare. You take responsibility for your actions. Besides, Blaise is far from the worst man in here, and he isn't too pissed with you."
That left Harry even more confused than before, even if it did make him feel a bit safer. He turned back to Blaise, who seemed to find the situation somewhat hilarious. "You don't hate me? Feel a desperate urge to kill me? You probably should, you know."
Blaise shrugged. "I'm alive, my family is too. They weren't involved so nothing bad have happened to them. Draco's alive and kicking. My sisters can now leave the house without having to worry about never coming back, and I'll be leaving this place in four years. Could've been worse ya'know. You all fought for your house, I fought for mine. I guess you could say I'm a rather good loser, 'sides, when the night falls I don't care about who rules the world, I just wanna sleep and wake up again in the morning."
Harry and Draco both looked at him as he'd suddenly grown rabbit ears and gained dragon teeth.
"You seriously don't care? " Draco asked incredulously. Blaise shook his head.
"Then why did you fight?" Harry inquired.
"I couldn't let Draco fight alone, and my family might have gotten in trouble otherwise." Blaise said and shrugged once again.
"You are really one of a kind Zabini." Harry said smiling almost sadly.
"It's not as unusual as you think." Draco replied, locking eyes with Harry. "The Dark Lord gained most of his followers through fear, not loyalty to his cause. Many pureblooded families might have agreed to his original ideas, but not how he did it and the pressure he put on them, they would have preferred to step aside."
"You can't just step aside when your country is thorn in a civil war." Harry protested, none of them paying any mind to the fact that they just had left Blaise out of the conversation.
"Of course you can, just not when the Dark Lord is involved." Draco argued back. "People feared for their loved ones, thus did what they could to keep those close them safe."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Harry muttered, although not quietly enough for the others not to hear.
To his great surprise Draco didn't push the matter further, he just looked at Harry for a moment, then smiled. "Perhaps that is true."
Harry smiled back, it was like a reflex, but looked away as soon as he realised what he was doing. In the beginning he hadn't noticed it, but it had become more and more prominent. Perhaps he had changed as well as Malfoy, but it was a fact that they became friendlier with each other. If Draco had behaved a little more as he did now compared to how he'd been when he was a kid, perhaps they could have been friendsback then.
But even if Draco had changed a lot, Harry wasn't sure about if his way of thinking was the same as it had been before, if he still believed in that racist shit about muggleborns. But to actually be able to thank one of them, and Hermione to that, was a good sign that perhaps he had. Changed, that is.
If he would become one of Malfoy's acquaintances, there was a good chance that it would make his job easier, but he'd never made a friend only to gain something, and he was not about to start doing that. Besides, the Malfoy could probably barely stand him.
Harry shooed his strange thoughts away. Whatever would be, would be. There was not much he could do about it, so he would just take it as it came.
"Anyhow." he mumbled, "I better be getting home. Ron and 'Mione are probably waiting for me to drop by. See you next week Malfoy, and it was nice to meet you Zabini. Thanks for not hating my guts." he smiled. Blaise laughed and shook his head, waving Harry a good bye. When his former enemy was out of sight he turned back to Draco, who had also watched the small figure disappear behind the corner.
"So Draco, why didn't you tell me about your little friend." Blaise inquired, narrowing his eyes at the blonde. Draco shrugged carelessly, not bothering to respond. Blaise watched his friend for a moment, then asked slowly; "Draco, does he know that you don't hate him anymore."
"Why would he? It's not true." Draco said simply, standing and left Blaise standing where he stood, observing Draco with watching eyes. Something was off with Draco, and he wasn't sure if was a bad off.
Well, I think that I can honestly say that this isn't the best thing I've ever written. Not much I can do about it now, I guess.
But whatever. A big Thanks to you who reviewed, you've all really made my week. (And don't worry, it doesn't matter if you feel that you should have reviewed earlier, do it now and I'll be very happy (: , but even if no one review, I'll still continue writing, don't worry)
See you all soon! / Lizzie