My Dear Volaticus
by kittenvks
Disclaimer: I own nothing
warnings: HPDM, slash, yaoi, homosexuality. Don't like it? Don't read it. Flamers to the left.
Chapter Three: Infirmary Food Sucks
Harry shrugged at the questions from his dorm mates at lunch the next morning. By then word had gotten around the entire school that Draco was in the Infirmary, and that Harry had brought him there. Everyone knew he'd been hurt, and that some type of creatures had attacked. How they found out all of this so quickly, Harry wasn't sure. It was apalling though. The rumors seemed to be centering around Lucius Malfoy though.
"I bet he had the things attack Malfoy," Seamus was saying. Harry had had enough at this point. He was beginning to get angry,
"He was protecting his son, Seamus, shut up!" he snapped, shoving a scone in his mouth. Everyone near him stared.
"He's not exactly the model father though, is he?" Dean said, choosing to ignore Harry's outburst.
"I SAID SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP! IT'S NOT YOUR BUSINESS!" Harry yelled, standing. The entire Great Hall hushed to turn and watch. A bit more quietly Harry hissed, "he certainly didn't send the damn things up here, they tried to kill him. I was there. You were not. Stop spreading *vicious* rumors, because that's all they are. Rumors. You'd think the whole lot of you would have grown up enough by now to stop that kind of crap!" With that, Harry turned on his heel, stalking out of the Great Hall. Hermione was the first to move, her face twisting to look rather like a mother hen,
"you know, he's right. It's time to grow up." she snapped, standing and whisking out after him. Ron debated going after them but dealing with an angry Hermione and an even angrier Harry wasn't something he wanted to contend with at that moment. So, instead, he began working back on his lunch. Everyone else seemed to follow suit, not mentioning the incident or the Malfoys for fear of setting Ron off as well. Though, in all honesty, Ron couldn't care less what happened to the Malfoys.
Hermione found Harry, sitting out by a tree, his fists red and bleeding a bit where he'd obviously punched it. Clucking her tongue disapprovingly at him, she drew her wand and healed the injuries before sitting down.
"You wanna talk about it?" she asked softly, reaching her hand out to touch his shoulder. Harry turned to look at her, his green eyes wide and upset.
"I don't understand any of this Hermione, not at all. Why would I give two shits about Malfoy? I mean... really? Why did I stay and help Lucius, or continue out there in the first place? I did my bit getting him in there! Then, I sat there with him while Lucius and Snape made eyes at each other...it doesn't make sense!" he cried, his fists clenching again.
"You know, I've been thinking," Hermione said, gazing out at the lake, "I've been wondering why I helped him as well as why you would have. It didn't make sense at first, but it began to. I mean think about it, Harry, really think. Who's the one person we can count on to always be the same? Year after year, he's there, since we came here in first year. I didn't know anything about the wizarding world and neither did you. Lots of people have came and gone and died, but he's always been the same. No matter what we get into, who dies, what happens, he's there. It may be that he's a completely slimy git, but he's still the same. Nothing changes. He's one of the only constants we have right now. I think... seeing him that badly wounded, and him practically begging me not to tell on him, it shocked us both pretty badly. I think we both came not to his defense, but to the defense of a constant. To keep things normal in a way, does that make sense?"
"So you're saying we both have Stockholm Syndrome, or something like that?" Harry asked incredulously, "I protect my enemy so that he can be my enemy?"
Hermione laughed, a light tinkling sort of sound,
"yes, Harry, something like that. Like both of our minds basically went into over drive and thought 'no one's going to hurt Malfoy, but me'. It's crazy but it makes sense psychologically."
"He's finally broken us, Hermione, we've gone completely bonkers." Harry groaned, staring out at the lake and watching the tentacles of the great squid rise and fall. Hermione laughed again, but said nothing, deep in thought. Harry broke the comfortable silence, "that still doesn't explain just what is going on."
"I keep forgetting how much of the Wizarding World you don't know about," Hermione sighed, "Malfoy just had his sixteenth birthday, yesterday actually. He would have come into his inheritance. Not legal, necessarily, but any family powers or anything of the like, would have manifested itself last night."
"That would explain Lucius Malfoy," Harry said, glancing at his friend. She nodded.
"Yes. He's probably here to help his son cope with whatever it is. The Malfoys are one of the oldest wizarding families, you know. They'll have lots of quirky little secrets and such."
"I wonder what it is. His inheritance I mean, and if it had to do with him ending up in the Forbidden Forrest."
"Probably, I'm going to watch for more signs, and see what it is. It could be anything, really, or nothing. Sometimes, most of the time, nothing happens on the sixteenth birthday. Though, I don't think that's the case here. I think that's why Draco is so confused, because Lucius didn't mention it. I think Lucius knows, but he doesn't. He- Lucius- may have not said anything, thinking it wouldn't happen, which is mostly the case."
"It'll have something to do with those Kobaloi that attacked. They seemed entirely focused on Lucius Malfoy and mentioned Draco, they didn't seem at all concerned with the rest of us. Though they did talk to me a lot." Harry said thoughtfully and Hermione nodded, standing.
"Let's go back in shall we?" she said, reaching her hand down to help Harry up. He took it, grinning,
"I suppose you're going to the library?" he asked. She nodded, still deep in thought.
"I'm going to check into the Kobaloi, in Care of Magical Creatures during second year, we learned that they don't attack wizards usually. So that could be a strong clue." she replied as they headed back into the school. Harry felt the same tug in his gut and looked toward the Great Hall thoughtfully. The food they served in the Infirmary *was* terrible. If anyone knew that, he did.
"I'm going to go check on Malfoy, I think," he said. Hermione turned to look at him quizzically,
"which one?"
"Draco. I don't give a snitch about Lucius," Harry said over his shoulder, heading into the Great Hall. Frowning thoughtfully at Harry's wording, Hermione headed off in the direction of the school library.
Draco scowled at Harry, sitting perfectly alone in his Infirmary bed and looking for all the world like he couldn't be more bored if he tried.
"What do you want Potter?" he snapped. Harry grinned crookedly at him, checking around again to make sure they were alone. He pulled a tray of treacle tart and several other desserts from behind his back and thrust it out to the blonde.
"Thought you might want better food," he mumbled, still keeping an eye out for Pomphrey. She'd hang him if he was caught. Draco looked at the tray disdainfully,
"why would you do that?"
"Because Infirmary food sucks and it's not poisoned, Malfoy, take it." Harry said, shoving the tray toward him. Suspiciously, he took the tray, setting it in his lap and looking at it carefully. Harry flopped down in the chair next to the bed and gestured his hand forward, urging Draco to eat. Draco glanced at the other tray next to his bed, untouched. Infirmary food did suck. Taking a piece of scone he carefully popped it in his mouth, tasting it. It didn't taste poisoned. Beside him, Harry scoffed.
"Thank you, I suppose," Draco said, eyeing the rest of the treats. Apparently deeming them safe, he began to eat. Harry puffed out proudly. He'd done a good deed.
"So, do you know what's going on?" Harry asked, looking curious. Draco shrugged.
"I've got nothing- you?"
"Nada," Harry said, his voice laced with disappointment. Draco scowled.
"Why do you even care? You bring me up here, then help Father defend me- yes, he told me about that- and then you sit around waiting for something to happen and now you're bringing me sweets. Did you bump your head?"
"Something like that," Harry laughed, "I spoke to Hermione about it and she thinks that we're helping you because you've broken our spirits."
"Excuse me?" Draco asked, about to bite into a chocolate looking confection. Harry shrugged,
"it's kinda like- do you know what Stockholm Syndrome is?" Draco shook his head, looking at Harry as though he were making stuff up, "ah, it's a muggle psychology thing. Anyway... it's like, if anyone's going to hurt you- it'll be one of us. Or something like that." Harry offered, reaching forward to grab a scone from the tray and chewing on it thoughtfully.
"I'm flattered... I think. I'm not really sure," Draco replied, chewing on his own scone.
"Well... it's like this, I suppose. See, Hermione's muggle born- as you know- and my mum was muggle born. I lived with her muggle family, my whole life. I had no idea, not even an inkling, that I was a wizard. Neither did she." Draco snorted, staring incredulously at Harry who just nodded, "yeah. My muggle relatives... they don't like us. Our kind or whatever. So I didn't know until Hagrid showed up with a cake one day."
"That had to be frightening," Draco said scathingly. Harry laughed, nodding, it had been strange. "but what does that have to do with me?"
"I'm getting there, Malfoy, calm down," Harry said, continuing, "so anyway, things change around us a lot. A lot of people have died, Voldemort is always trying to kill us. We never know what's going to change from one day to the next. It's very unsettling. Hermione says that you're always the same though, and she's right. A constant, she calls it. A steady point that doesn't change in a whole lot of chaos. You're dependable Malfoy. A git, but dependable."
"I'm not sure how to take that either. You're confusing Potter, using thinly veiled compliments as insults. Thanks... I guess?"
"I'm just as confused as you are," Harry said, taking another bite of his scone, "I guess it kind of makes us friends in some weird twisted and very dark way."
"But we're enemies," Draco protested, glaring.
"We are, but we're not. I don't know, it's weird. Really weird."
"You can not command me to be your friend, Potter."
"I'm not. It's just a school boy rivalry. It won't matter in the long run, really. Though, I don't think either of us would forget it, I think we're very capable of getting over it." Harry replied then, laughing, he added, "this is the most civilized conversation we have ever had. Short of a forced Potions assignment. Why does he do that anyway, always pairing us together?"
"My Godfather is a very saditstic man," Draco said, thinking, "so are we supposed to get along now? Be friends? Is that what you're thinking?"
Harry shrugged nonchalantly,
"I suppose, if you want to, I will. Though, you'd have to stop calling Hermione names."
"I'll think about it, that's all you're getting right now," Draco said, leaning back. In the distance Harry could hear the high pitched whine of Pansy Parkinson, talking about if her Draco was okay. Draco rolled his eyes, scowling and looking at Harry for help. Harry just merely laughed, standing.
"You're on your own on that one Malfoy, she's *your* girlfriend," he said, leaving quickly and narrowly avoiding having to talk to any of the other Slytherins. Wondering if Hermione had found anything else out, Harry headed for the library. Somewhere along the way he ran into Ron who joined him.