DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter
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"Harry, what's wrong?"
Hermione came up quietly behind him, slumped on the floor with his head in his hands.
"What happened when I was outside?" he asked through his fingers.
Seamus paused in helping Susan wave away the smoke with their wands to turn and look at Harry's hunched body. "Your boyfriend went crazy, is what happened!
Hermione shot a look at him and sat down next to Harry in front of the open closet, crossing her legs and putting a hand on his back.
"He was just really anxious for you to come back. Then Neville told us about Ron's spell backfiring on you 4th year –"
Harry snapped his head up toward her. "He did what?" he whispered harshly. Hermione bit her lip and he let his head fall back into his hands. "Oh god…" he groaned. Hermione started rubbing his back gently, a pained look on her face.
Dean glanced over from his place at the window, watching for anyone who might have heard the explosion before. "Would Draco really go after Ron because of that?"
Seamus and Hermione both stared at him with raised eyebrows, as if to say Are you kidding? Harry sighed and stood up. "It would have taken so much less than that to get him going."
"So…what are we going to do?" Dean asked, getting up from his position on the windowsill. They all came together in front of Harry, except Neville. He sat on the couch, his back to everyone, staring at the floor in silence.
Harry blinked at everyone in surprise. "What? No, I'm not going to ask for your guys to help me on this. You don't need to get involved."
"Like hell we don't!" Seamus exclaimed with an excited grin on his face.
Susan stepped forward seriously. "Draco and Ron are our friends too. We want to help make things right again."
Hermione took Harry's hand and nodded in agreement. Harry looked around at his friends. He was touched at how much his friends cared. He still didn't think it was a good idea to get everyone deeper in the situation than they already were, but he knew he would never be able to stop Draco on his own, especially if something went wrong. He would need all the help he could get.
"Alright." He tried to smile back at everyone but only managed a grimace. "Do you know where Ron might have gone?" he asked Hermione. She shook her head but then paused for a moment.
"Maybe he drove back home, to his parents." She suggested. Harry raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. "He doesn't have a place of his own because he's been traveling with Charlie. It's a start, unless you have any better ideas."
He didn't. He had no idea where to go from here. Ron could be anywhere. Well, not exactly anywhere. Luckily, since he took Hermione's car, he couldn't get too far too quickly.
Harry ran his fingers through his hair and leaned against the wall. Things had gotten out of hand so fast. He stared at the open closet, the handle of his Nimbus 2011 sticking up from behind several coats. He suddenly felt sad, remembering it was a birthday present from Draco. He loved Draco with all his heart and would do anything for him. Now he had to track him down to stop him from committing murder. He had a feeling that if he found Draco and Ron before one did the other in, he would have to choose between them. Would he choose the love of his life or the life of his friend? Could he choose? Harry closed his eyes. If he came to the defense of Ron, Draco would never speak to him again. If he stood behind Draco, Ron would walk out of his life. He was going to lose either way.
As long as both are alive to disown me, I can deal with it, he thought.
"Harry?"
His eyes opened to Hermione's worried face.
"Yeah," he replied, grabbing his broom from the closet, "we'll try the Weasly's house. Maybe they can help us find him. We'll have to fly to give ourselves, and Ron, enough time." Harry paused when he noticed everyone had their wands already out. "Do you guys keep your wands on you all the time?" he questioned.
They all exchanged a few glances. Seamus answered for the group. "Yeah, um, well we kinda thought somethin' might've gone down tonight. Just to make sure, y'know?"
Harry nodded. "Alright well, if you have a broom you should get it. We'll leave in a few minutes."
The grin on Seamus' face was huge. "Excellent." With a pop! he was gone. The others followed soon after.
Neville got up slowly from the couch and walked hesitantly toward Harry. He kept his eyes down on his hands.
"Harry…listen. I'm sorry about telling him the story. I thought…I thought you might have told him already. I'm sorry." He hung his head in shame.
Harry placed his hands on Neville's shoulders and waited until he looked up at him, locking his eyes in place. "It's not your fault, Neville. You know Draco. Overreacts about everything. Don't beat yourself up about this. It was going to happen, whether you told him the story or not."
Neville nodded once, then turned and Aparated out of the room.
"Um, Harry?"
Harry jumped, thinking everyone had left. He turned to see Hermione still standing behind him, a little white in the face.
"I, I don't have my broom anymore. I hoped I wouldn't have to use it anymore…" her voice trailed off. Harry's mouth pulled up a little in a small smile. He knew she hated flying.
"S'all right. You'll ride with me. It'll be fine, I promise. I'm the best flyer around!" he tried making his voice sound confident to ease her nerves, but she just nodded meekly.
Within the next few minutes everyone had returned with brooms in hand. Despite the matter of which they had to fly, they all seemed eager to go. Harry understood. The rush he felt when flying was like nothing he'd ever experienced.
They exited the apartment single file and lined up across the sidewalk. Each member of the group pointed their wands at different street lights, flicking it once and sucking the light from its iron holding. When the entire street became shrouded in black so you couldn't even see your hand in front of you, they mounted their brooms. Hermione swung her leg over the broom behind Harry and gripped his waist tightly in preparation for take-off.
"Ready?" Harry whispered to her. She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly and nodded. "Let's go."
They all kicked off from the ground and rocketed into the air, whipping past buildings and trees until nothing but the low misty clouds surrounded them. As cold as it was, the adrenaline pulsing through Harry kept him strangely warm, his heart beating a million miles a minute. For the first time in years, he felt truly scared.
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