Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Again, back wards, rettoP yrraH now ton od I.
Chapter 17-The-Boy-Who-Lived…OCD?
"Mmmm," Draco rolled over in the barely existing morning light and felt his hand fall over a slighter, tan one. His hand reached out and touched hard muscle and soft hair. Stopping his stretching in shock, Draco blinked and opened his eyes. He stared. Why was Harry Freaking Potter in his bed? (1)
He jumped back with a strangled yelp and retracted his arm from where it had looped around Harry's waist and pulled his hand back from where it had been touching Harry's hair. Harry yawned sleepily and slowly sat up. "Whatareyouyellingabout,Draco?"
Draco stopped in confusion, surprise and anger forgotten in curiosity as to what Harry had said. "What?"
Harry yawned again and repeated, "What are you yelling about, Draco?"
Draco felt his outrage return full force. "Ha-" He stopped. "Potter, what are you doing in my bed. Answer before I hex you into oblivion.
Harry looked up at Draco serioiusly. "Draco, you can call me Harry. We've cuddled. We're there; we've reached that point. (2) And no need for the threats, please; it's far too early in the morning for that. Besides, your bed is huge; you can afford to share for one night."
"Oh, um," Draco stood uneasily for a second, confused and unsure of what to do. He had a certain right to be; I mean, how often does a hero, then convict, and now hero again, that you used to hate but now seem to suddenly be friends with, randomly show up in your bed at 7 in the morning? Not often, I'm sure.
Draco checked his eyes to see is he was seeing what he thought he was seeing before gathering his wits. "Harry, what are you doing in my bed?" Now he just sounded world weary, not angry; and he knew it. Harry tended to have that affect on people.
"Sleeping," Harry replied, smirking.
Draco immediately gave up that line of interrogation; Harry was looking way to smug, and Draco knew he wasn't going to get any info with that approach. "How did you get into Hogwarts?"
"Through the front door."
Draco groaned out loud, and Harry's smirk grew noticeably larger. Hand covering his face, Draco tried again. "Why are you at Hogwarts?"
"Well, actually…" Draco peeked out hopefully from between his fingers. "I need your help."
"Ugh! Can't you give me a straight answer? Why on earth would you need my help?" Draco exploded angrily. He just wanted to get a cup of coffee or something; it was way too early in the morning to do this.
Harry smiled lazily and formed a peace sign at Draco. "Chillax, man. Go with the flow, ya know."
"What?" Draco all but screamed in frustration. He had no time for stupid muggle references; he wanted his coffee, Darnit, and for the world to suddenly make sense again and Harry Potter not to be lying on his bed.
"Take a chill pill?" Harry tried hopefully. At Draco's glare, he sighed. "Relax, Draco. You're lucky there are silencing charms in here. Now, as to your questions,"
"You mean you're actually going to answer them? After all that show of avoiding them?" Draco asked incredulously.
"Of course, Draco. Why wouldn't I?" Harry asked confusedly, inwardly grinning like the Cheshire cat.
"But I, you…" Draco broke off and took a deep breath. If he lost his temper, Harry would stop at nothing to drive him completely and totally insane.
"Well," Harry continued, still smirking. "I'll go out of order. I needed to come to Hogwarts in order to find a few things."
"What things?" Draco asked suspiciously.
"Eh," Harry shrugged. "Just one thing, now; but I need it in order to defeat Voldemort. It's Ravenclaw's Diadem, and don't say, 'But that's lost.' It's here at Hogwarts. Don't ask me how I know it's here and why I need it because that would take way too long to explain."
Draco blinked before saying, "I'm still at a loss as to how this is connected to me."
"Well, I need your help for a couple of things. First of all, I need your help finding the diadem; you must have some idea of where we could start looking for it at least. Second of all, I need your help with the lower level deatheaters." Draco's eyebrows rose in a silent question, so Harry went on.
"You, being a Malfoy, must have a good bit of influence among them. I need you, simply, to find out how many of them you can convince to help me. Not directly, of course. I only need them to not attack me in a while when I go visit Voldy; they don't even need to attack the real deatheaters, though they're welcome to if they want."
'But how are you going to get into the castle?"
"I got that covered. And so, that is what I am doing in your bed."
"What?" Draco was taken aback at the rather abrupt change in direction the conversation had taken. "How does that have anything to do with me waking up with you in my bed?"
"You mean I didn't explain?" Harry looked confused.
"NO!"
"Oh, well, I just came into Hogwarts really early this morning, or maybe really late last night…? Anyways, I hadn't slept the night before; and I needed to talk to you so I just crawled into your bed instead of waking you up."
"Er, I'm not going to thank you for that. And you still haven't told me how you got into Hogwarts."
"Oh," Harry said brightly, "Hogwarts likes me."
Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Hogwarts…likes you?"
"Yep," Harry chirped cheerfully. Draco stared at Harry in concern. "What are you doing?" Harry asked uncertainly.
"Wondering why you weren't taken to St. Mungos after you came back from Azkaban to see just how sane you are."
Harry shrugged. "They were probably afraid I'd hex them into oblivion if they tried to make me do anything. I might have gone pre-Fudge, but post-Fudge, I never would do what they asked, even if it might have been for my own good. I think it showed on my face because the healers seemed to decide that if I was able to mouth off to the minister off magic then they didn't need to check me. I did look pretty healthy considering where I'd been. But why back talking to the leader magic in Britain didn't make them think I was insane, I don't know."
Draco looked rather upset at this. "Still, that's wrong. For all we knew, you could have been half dead. Or you could have gone completely insane and been about to murder us all."
"Oh, so you weren't worried about me," Harry said humorously before shrugging. "Eh, it's not like most of you wouldn't have deserved it. Besides, the fact that I could out-argue Dumbles probably helped out in the 'he's sane' train of thought. So, there you have it; the consensus is that I'm sane."
"I'm not so sure," Draco said before tactfully changing the subject. "I'll do it."
"Do what?"
"I'll join you, but know this, Potter, you had better not let me down."
Harry waved his hand dismissively. "I won't; I won't. And I thought you were calling me Harry." Harry grinned at the glare Draco sent him. "Thank you, Draco. I appreciate your help."
Draco gave him a thin smile in return before moving to get dressed. Fortunately for Harry, Draco was wearing boxer shorts, so he didn't have to go scrub out his eyeballs anytime soon, like that one time with male ex-best friend. Though, certainly, Draco was much better looking than Weasley, though Harry would never admit it.
"Then it's time for us to go get that diadem or whatever. I think I might know where it could be, but I wasn't to go to breakfast first. You can come along invisibly." Draco turned to look at Harry's clothes distastefully. "Are you going to be wearing that?"
"Does it matter?" Harry asked in resignation. "I'm just going to be invisible anyways."
"It matters because you're going to be with me, a Malfoy, invisible or not." Draco reached into his closet and rummaged around until he found a pair of pants, a t-shirt, and a cloak that all looked like they may fit Harry. He tossed them over to Harry, who began pulling them on, grumbling.
"Won't people notice if there's an empty spot next to you where I'll be?" Harry asked as he slipped on the cloak, and Draco primped in the mirror.
"You won't be next to me," Draco replied. "You'll be eating under the table."
"Again?" Harry complained.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Again?"
Harry faltered. "I-I mean, what am I, your dog?"
"Sit, boy," Draco said, smirking. With a final fluff of his hair, Draco said a quick, "Let's go," and pulled Harry over towards the door. Harry cast an invisibility spell on himself and followed Draco as he opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
The amount of students gradually increased the further away from Draco's rooms they got, and Harry would surely have ended up getting caught had it not been for al the time he'd spent practicing with his father's invisibility cloak during school. As it was, he was still occasionally bumping into students, who would look confusedly in his direction and would get a glare from Draco in return.
'Darn, he must be getting lessons from Snape,' Harry thought as he watched a fourth student scurry away under Draco's harsh gaze. Hmm, speaking of Snape, should Harry tell him he was there? Harry could just here Snape now.
'You dunderhead! You're even worse than the rest of the Gryffindor idiots! Why the devil would you return to Hogwarts? Even I thought you were smarter than this, and I've met slugs with more intelligence than you!'
Yeah, because Harry really wanted to hear that. So…no Snape. Besides, Harry still didn't quite like him very much.
Harry and Draco waded through the sea of students (just how many people go to this school?) and into the great hall. There were only two teachers up there, and a few students still eating. It was a Thursday, so the students would have class; and most of the teachers would have classes soon. The two teachers up at the head table were that Ancient Runes teacher Vic or something and Trelawney.
Harry smiled. What sort of fun could he have with her while invisible? Draco and Harry walked up to the teacher's table. Draco sat down next to Trelawney, eying her with distaste, and slyly pushed Harry down under the table. Harry had to muffle a cry of pain as his head hit the bench, but Trelawney could hear said thud. She looked over from her…what was she eating? Harry didn't want to know. Probably some sort of food to boost her "inner eye."
She stared at Draco, and her large, bug-like eyes widened. "My dear boy," she whispered, voice quivering. "A dark spirit follows you. It has captured you within its grasp. You are being haunted. I must do more research on this if we are to save you from the dark and gruesome death the fates have foretold for you by way of this lone angry spirit. Perhaps you have gained a grudge over the years. Tell me; who do you know that would like to see you dead?"
Draco seemed at a loss of what to say, and he just looked at her. Trelawney herself looked extremely excited. Harry, from under the table, felt mildly insulted. He was not a dark spirit; he was angry, though, to be back here. Harry couldn't tell if she was just making this up and got lucky or if she could actually sense him somehow. …Stupid nondescript seer powers.
Harry shuffled over to her under the table, "accidentally" grabbing Draco's thigh to steady himself as he did so. Draco stiffened but kept up his staring contest with Trelawney, and Harry chuckled silently, getting way too much enjoyment out of this. Harry cast a wandless tickling charm under his breath and barely got away in time as her legs started kicking out at the sensation.
She began laughing hysterically and glanced under the table to check for anyone. By now, the entire great hall was looking at them. "My dear," she gasped out between bouts of breathless laughter. "The spirit obviously is angered at me alerting you to its presence. Quick, tell me; have you had any harsh breakups with any deceased girlfriends lately? Boyfriends?"
Harry nearly laughed out loud. She was not only trying to boost her standing as a seer but get some gossip out of it too! When Draco refused to comply, she continued. "Hurry, Draco! You must tell me anything you know. We must purify you of this spirit as soon as possible! We must hurry before he silences me before I can help you!"
Snickering soundlessly, Harry cast a silencio charm on her, just to move things along. By now, her eyes were practically the size of dinner plates. She began opening and closing her mouth, desperately gesturing that she was unable to speak.
"Is she choking?" Harry heard one of the students still there call out.
"If she is, let her!" Harry heard another jokingly respond. Apparently, she wasn't too well-liked.
Trelawney continued to gesture wildly with her hands while Draco just looked at her. "Professor Trelawney, somehow I do not think that Professor Malfoy is being followed by a spirit of any kind, and if you would stop pretending to be unable to speak, I would greatly appreciate it!"
Harry jumped and banged his head on the table again as McGonagall's voice suddenly rang out. He hadn't been able to see her approach from under the table, though he really should have been able to hear her. Trelawney continued to scream with out making a sound, and McGonagall sighed and whipped out her wand. "Finite Incantantatem!"
Immediately, Trelawney's screams echoed loudly across the hall. Harry wondered fleetingly, as he pressed both hands to his ears so hard it began to ache, whether she was distantly related to a banshee. She stopped after a few seconds when she discovered she was making sound. Trelawney glanced around confusedly, and, if Harry was right, a little bit dejectedly.
"You see?" McGonagall said form between gritted teeth. Harry could practically hear her eye twitching. "Obviously, some student just hexed you as a sort of prank. It had nothing to do with spirits, ones following Professor Malfoy or not. Now kindly go to your classroom and prepare for your next class." McGonagall fixed a glare towards Trelawney so icy it had Harry wishing he'd asked her for lessons.
She and Snape had both turned glaring into an art form. Harry wondered if anyone had ever arranged a glaring contest between the two of them; it would be epic. Hey, he didn't have to like someone to admire their glaring capabilities. Snape was a prime example of this.
Trelawney stayed put for a few seconds, shocked at the rude attitude that had been displayed for no reason whatsoever, before huffing and gathering her things. She stood up, and Harry caught snippets of conversation to herself that sounded like, "stiff minded old women," and "without the inner eye," and "don't understand what it's like to be a true seer." She then walked down the Great Hall and unhappily left, sending longing filled glances up towards Draco the entire time.
"Looks like someone's got the hots for Draco!" Harry muttered in a sing song vice, just low enough that Draco would hear it; but no one else would. Harry stifled another laugh as Draco kicked his foot out at Harry in response only to yelp in pain as it hit one of the legs of the table.
McGonagall turned from where'd she'd been watching Trelawney leave, a self-satisfied smile on her face, to look at Draco, one eyebrow cocked questioningly. "Something wrong, Professor Malfoy?"
Draco looked up in surprise form where he'd been grimacing in pain over his leg and said unconvincingly, "Uh…leg cramp." Harry snorted under the table. McGonagall's other eyebrow joined the one already raised at the sound. "I, uh, I'm getting a head cold, too," Draco said, more convincingly this time, though. McGonagall still didn't look convinced, but as classes were starting soon, she left with a terse good bye.
Draco sighed in relief and continued eating, passing Harry food under the table as he did so. Draco didn't' have any classes for a couple of hours, so they could take their time. When they were done, they both got up, and Harry carefully followed Draco down the now deserted hallways. Then, Draco stopped right where the room of requirement was. Harry rolled his eyes, but the gesture was lost on Draco as he was invisible.
"I could have thought of this, but you'd have to know what to ask for, and it could take forever to find the right room, let alone search it."
Draco smirked. "Well, lucky for you, I know what to ask it." Draco stood in front of the blank wall for a few seconds before it transformed and a large wooden door appeared. Draco smirked again as he pushed open the door and walked in with Harry following him. Harry got rid of the invisibility charm upon entering. Inside, Harry found himself in the room where he had dumped the half blood prince's potions book all those years ago.
"In here? Seriously?" Harry asked incredulously before the reality of the situation hit him. "The diadem is lost. This is where people come to lose things…makes sense in a weird way."
"Yep," Draco smiled triumphantly. "I figured that if no one else in this crazy school has found it yet, then it's gotta be at a place where lost things stay lost. Thus, here. Now…you have any idea what this diadem looks like?"
Harry looked around at the mounds and mounds of useless, broken, or scandalous junk and groaned.
~2 Hours Later~
"I still say we should just douse the place with fiendfyre," Harry complained loudly as he sifted through another pile of crap. Draco ducked his head out from behind a large coffin and cocked an eyebrow.
"Do you know how to use fiendfyre?"
"Yes," (barely)
"It's still a no," Draco responded, leaving Harry to huff impatiently as he dove back into that pile of whatever that was, searching for the diadem. Draco's voice carried over to Harry through the copious amount of dust they'd raised. "Do you have any idea how valuable a lot of this stuff is? It'd be a waste to torch it. Besides, I don't exactly trust you to be able to control that fire well enough that you won't torch us too."
Harry harrumphed grumpily before turning back to his pile. He was currently going through what seemed to be a bunch of ancient-time dolls that looked remarkably like Barbie dolls. He picked up a Ken-like one, which, for some reason, was in drag and dropped it with a yelp as the demented doll tried to bite his hand. Why did it come to life? When it fell on the floor, the demon toy began trying to bite Harry's ankle. All the while, it kept saying random annoying catchphrases that I won't even put in this fanfic, that's how horrifying they are.
Harry hurriedly kicked the thing away with another yelp of pain. The evil little drag queen doll went flying…all the way into an ancient (and probably invaluable) suit of armor. Harry winced as the suit came crashing down with a loud clang that brought Draco running.
"What did you do?" He demanded as Harry and he ran to go check out the suit.
Harry shrugged weakly and said, "The possessed doll tried to bite me."
Draco didn't seem to know what to say to that, so he just shook his head. The suit of armor was in pieces, and Harry cautiously reached down to pick up the helmet. Turning it over, he felt something cold and smooth drop into his hand. Looking down, he saw that it was…the diadem.
Harry and Draco exchanged a look before Harry quickly pulled the shrunken fang from his pocket. "You keep a basilisk fang in your pocket?" Draco exclaimed in surprise.
Harry shrugged. "Sure, you never know when you'll need one." He quickly removed the shrinking charm and took it out of its casing before proceeding to hand it to Draco.
"Why do I have the fang?" Draco asked dryly.
"You have to stab the diadem." Harry mimed stabbing with his hands and an imaginary fang.
"But it's Ravenclaw's lost diadem! Why on earth would I want to-"
"Just stab it!"
"Okay, okay!" Draco quickly punctured the diadem with the fang, and it let out a soft high-pitched screech and then fell silent. Draco raised an eyebrow. "Why did the-"
"Doesn't matter," Harry broke in, not wanting to be forced into a long explanation.
"But how-"
"Magic. Come on," Harry groaned, dragging Draco to the exit. "I want to get out of here before the demon doll decides to attack again."
Draco looked at Harry for a second before sighing and allowing himself to be pulled out the door. Harry recast his invisibility charm and followed Draco silently all the way back to his rooms.
Author's Note: (1,2) Ha! A smiley sticker to anyone who gets the AVPM reference! Okay, I don't know if that's actually where the diadem was in the room, but, oh, well. Thanks for reading; I hope you liked it.