Chapter III – Five Years Later

The halls of Hogwarts were filled with students and undistinguishable chatter. It was late-November, so most of the students stayed inside, as it was getting colder. The bell rand for the last period classes, and several students began making their way.

"See you after Herbology, Harry!" Neville said as he walked away with the usual smile on his face

"See you, Neville," Harry said quickly. He looked at his watch, and realized that he was already late. He began running to his class, which was on the other side of the school. As he was running, he saw a couple making out in the corner. He didn't think much of it other than that they were going to get in trouble for being late—and then he realized that if they loved each other that much, it wouldn't really matter. He slowed his run to a light jog, and then finally a brisk walk as he grew tired. While walking, he noticed a familiar figure in the corner of his eye; it walked the other way, and just turned the corner. The footsteps were loud and steady.

It couldn't be him…could it? Harry thought to himself. He stopped and turned around, and began to pick up his pace again, with what little breathe he had left.

"Malfoy?" He called out while slowly walking faster. The footsteps began the hit the ground faster. "Malfoy!" Harry called out louder. A few teachers peaked out of their class to see who was interrupting. No surprise, it was Harry Potter. Harry ran around, hoping that whoever he hoped was following would stop. Harry ran all the way to the end of a corridor, just outside the library. He checked inside, and Draco wasn't there. Before finally leaving for class, after ten minutes of searching, Harry came across a large wooden door. The door what slightly ajar, and doors are never slightly ajar in Hogwarts. He walked in slowly, just in case there was a class going on. When he realized it was empty, Harry walked all the way in. It was clean and cool. The walls and floor were made of smooth grey stone. There was only one window lighting the entire room, and it seemed to be in the perfect position. Every speck of dust in the air hit the light, forming what appeared to be a solid box of light across the room. In the corner of the room was Draco. He was sitting with his head down, back slouched against the wall. He didn't let out much sound, except for the occasional sniff.

"Draco?" Harry asked in a firm and concerned voice. Draco didn't respond. "You've been missing for over two months, and you don't even want to talk to me? Do you have any idea how worried I might've been? Do you think you could at least come up to tell me where you're going to vanish of to next?" Harry's voice grew louder and the anger was ever-so present. "You didn't even write me this summer. What the hell were you thinking?" Harry paced in circles trying not to get to angry. If someone found them there, they'd definitely get detention for skipping class. Harry let a big breathe out, "Are you alright?" Harry got to eye-level with Draco and saw a single tear fall from Draco's eye. It hit the ground and its silence echoed throughout the room. "Oh, so now there you go again, crying. No wonder you got beat up all the time." Harry was uneasy, as he had a unit test the following day and didn't want to miss review.

"She's dead, Harry," Draco forced out. It was nearly impossible to speak, as he could barely breathe. The tears fell faster.

"You don't mean…her?" Harry asked. He imagined the worse as Draco turned his head and looked at Harry in the eyes. Harry sat down, and Draco leaned his head on Harry's shoulder. He held Draco tightly as the world never seemed colder.

"I've never been to Slytherin's common room before!" Harry said, as Draco pulled him by the hand up a seemingly never-ending series of stairs.

"I got to show you my room!" Draco said laughing. They walked through the door into the boys' dormitory. Crabbe was on his bed listening to music and smoking, what appeared to be, a blunt. The smile on Draco's face quickly faded. Harry looked at him unsure of what was happening. Crabbe opened his eyes after blowing a ring of smoke. He looked at Harry holding Draco's hand, and glared.

"So you really are a queer! I knew something was wrong with you." Crabbe said as he outed his blunt on Draco's pillow. "And all this time, I just thought, maybe he's just more feminine than other guys; there's nothing wrong." His face grew red as he slowly got off his bed and walked toward Draco. Draco quickly pulled his hand out of Harry's and he turned pale. Draco was apprehensive and scared out of his mind. "You know, my father had the right solution to vermin like you!" Crabbe spit at Harry and flicked his blunt at Harry's shoes. Harry immediately pulled out his wand. "Get that shit out of my face!" Crabbe yelled. He pushed Harry down and his wand rolled under a chest of drawers. As Harry fell, he hit banged the back of his head on the end-side of a bed, and Harry hit the floor unconscious. Crabbe then grabbed Draco by the collar of his shirt and kneed him in the groin. Once he was down, he began throwing punches at Draco's face. The first punch broke his nose. The second punch made sure it bled. Crabbe was on top of Draco, throwing fist after face. Blood ran from his nose and covered his face and got all over his hair. Draco tried to scream for help, but with a mouth full of blood, he was only able suffer.

The door swung open and Snape stood angry with his wand at hand. "What do you think you are doing?" He said firmly. Snape flicked his wand and Crabbe went flying. He then looked at Harry and flared his nose. He then waved his wand and Harry awoke. After, he began mumbling a short chant over and over, as the blood returned to Draco. His clothes were still stained, but at least Draco could see again. Snape then stepped over Draco and Harry and dragged Crabbe by the back of his shirt out of the room. Snape seemed overly angry than usual, but barely said a word as he left the room. Draco then helped Harry up as they say on Draco's bed.

"No!" Draco said, as he reached for a small picture frame. The photo within was scratched with the shards of broken glass that fell as he picked the frame up. "No! No, no, no, no, no! This was the only photo we had together," Draco ran his fingers through his hair as his eyes began to get red and water. He covered his face with his blood-stained hands.

"Who is she?" Harry asked.

"She's the reason why I'm still alive," Draco began.

"Do you want to tell me?" Harry asked, "If you don't want to share, I'll completely understand,"

"No," Draco said, "It's alright." He wiped away the moisture from his face with his sleeve. He put the broken frame into the top drawer of his end table. "When I finally came out, before I left Hogwarts, she was the only person that would talk to me. Even the teachers looked at me differently. The caf lady would never serve me, and people would do things like always stick their gum on the underside of my locker. She told me that she simply 'understood what I was going through'. She invited me to sit with her at lunch, away from the school of course, and we talked. She explained to me that her best friend was bullied when he came out. It's funny because she used to have a crush on him, and one day she tried to kiss him. I guess that's when he couldn't pretend anymore," Harry laughed. "All kidding aside, though," Draco continued, "He was bullied every single day, and she felt like it was her fault. One day, he just stopped coming to school altogether. She went to his house to see if he was sick or something." Draco's voice got softer, "She said that…she said he was never going to school again. His parents found him in his closet, dead. He hanged himself, and in his hand was a note. 'This is where I should have stayed'." Draco paused for a moment, "She told me she changed schools often, because people would bully her just the same after he died. They blamed her for hanging around with 'a freak'." Draco finally collected himself. "Well, that's when she found me locked in the girls' washroom."

"Why were you in there?" Harry asked.

"WELL," Draco began, "It's a really long story, I'm sure I've bored you enough,"

"No, not at all!" Harry said eagerly. "It's really nice hearing to finally speak out. You know, it scares me sometimes how often you're alone." The door swung open again. A bunch of Slytherin seventh-year jocks walked in laughing and talking awfully loud to each other. They laughter stopped when they saw Harry and Draco alone.

"Let's get out of here," Harry said. He pulled Draco up by my hand, and the two shoved their way through the tall jocks before anything else happened. The jocks forcefully bumped shoulder with Draco and Harry and gave them dirty looks. Luckily, Harry and Draco escaped without any broken bones or bruises. The two made their way down the quietest and most empty halls they could find.

"So you were saying?" Harry said, while walking with Draco.

"Er…What was I saying?" Draco laughed

"Bathroom?" Harry reminded, gently pushing Draco's face to the side.

"Oh, yes!" He smiled back at Harry, "Well, it isn't the jolliest of stories."

"I don't care!" Harry looked at Draco and laughed again. Draco didn't smile.

"Would you like to hear it or not?" Harry's face straightened out. Draco started laughing. "The end-of-the-year dance was approaching and I didn't have a date, for reasons that couldn't be more obvious. My best friend, Felix, didn't have a date either. And don't get me wrong, Felix was a very attractive young man. He was a year older than me. Anyway, I asked why he didn't have a date, and he said 'the right person hasn't come along yet'. At the time, I had the biggest crush on him. He was my mate for like three years, you know?" Harry looked at Draco unimpressed.

"Well, anyway," Draco continued, trying not to get Harry upset, "I finally found the balls to ask him...and…well…it didn't go to well. At first, I though he thought I was joking because he didn't react that much. But the next day, him and his friends…his real friends, ganged up on me. They pulled me by my hair, which was rather long at the time, and smashed my face on the floor. I didn't bleed immediately, because something like that had never happened before. After that, they kicked me in my stomach a few times. After that, they forced me into the handicapped toilet in the girls' washroom and blocked the door with the garbage can." Harry looked at Draco in disbelief.

"I cried out for hours, but no one came. They knew who was calling. Why would they help me?" Draco stopped walking as he and Harry had reached the top of the astronomy tower.

"That's when I found her."

They sat down and overlooked the red sun hit every tree and stone with, well, magic.

"She helped me out, and yeah." Draco looked at Harry.

"That must've been a lot to handle." Harry said quietly, "You really are an amazing person, I don't know if I've ever told you that."

Draco blushed, "That's not the end of it though."

"What happened after that?" Harry asked. He was surprised that any other hardship could be added to one's life. Yes. Harry Potter thought this.

"That night at the carnival," Draco's voice was unsteady and quiet "The one in the photo…that was the night she told me she had leukemia."

Draco stared blankly ahead at the sun slowly tickling the horizon. Harry turned to face Draco, bit didn't say anything. They just sat there and listened to the leaves hit each other as birds sang their songs. Draco rested his head on Harry's shoulder, and Harry folded perfectly on top of him. They weaved fingers and listened to each other's breathes and heartbeats.

Harry waited until Draco fell asleep. The room was tinted in the blue darkness of near-nighttime. He quietly got up and left. After a few minutes, he returned with two large pillows and a thick, heavy blanket. As Harry tried to move Draco from the cold, stone floor to the makeshift bed, Draco opened his eyes.

"Sorry," Harry whispered. Harry carried Draco and rested him down on the blanket. The two sat on the little bed on the floor as it slowly warmed up with their body heat.

"Do you remember when you showed me the Mirror of Erised?" Draco turned his head to Harry as they lied next to one another.

"Of course," Harry said. His voice was deep, yet quiet.

"You asked me what I said, and I told you that I saw myself winning the Glasgow Guitar Tournament."

"Yeah, I remember." Harry's voice was slightly raspy from not talking in a while; he cleared his throat.

"Well, I lied."

Harry sat up.

"I didn't see anything." Draco said as he sat up, too.

"That's impossible, how could you have seen nothing?" Harry asked with an annoyed accent. His voice was clearing up.

"Sorry," Draco said as he hung his head heavily.

"It's late, Draco. Just tell me in the morning." Harry lied back down, and faced his back to Draco.

Draco slowly lied down. "Sorry," he whispered barely audible. His eyes were dried out from the thousands of thoughts flowing through his mind. His body was dead tired, but his brain just wouldn't let him sleep. He tried to make sense of how the moon shines as lied in bed. Hogwarts was hosting the annual Dragon Convention in the Forbidden Forest, and every so often, a dragon would let out a breath of fire. The flame lit up the night sky and the silhouettes of hundreds of dragons in the distance was visible. Every time Draco heard dragon yell, he'd grab Harry tightly. He thought of this irony as he stared up at the moon. Ever since Buckbeak, Draco has been terrified of any sort of large creature. He thought of the night a hooded figure was drinking unicorn blood and cringed. He hated the idea of someone voluntarily killing another being for their own benefit. I wonder how he'll take it, he thought. He worried himself to sleep and wondered how long Harry Potter would stick around. There was still something on his mind. Something Harry needed to know. Draco didn't want to tell Harry, in fear of losing him, but if Harry found out another way, Draco knew Harry would leave. In the morning, everything would change.