Harry's latest lesson with Dumbledore had been very…interesting. He had been shown a memory, from a man with a particular fondness of crystallised pineapple. Part of the memory was missing however, and Dumbledore had tasked Harry with getting the rest from Slughorn as soon as possible. It was vital that they knew what Slughorn had really said that night. That wasn't the really interesting part however.

Dumbledore had spent the last week trying to find out what 'monster' was lurking in the room of requirement. Filch had been positioned on the seventh floor corridor to stop nosy students making their own investigations. This meant that whatever Draco had been doing must have ground to a stop. Much to Dumbledore's confusion however he had no found any trace of a monster within the room of hidden things. Snape's story had been that he had heard screams of pain while on duty and the monster had gone by the time he had gained entry.

Sat in the headmaster's office, Dumbledore fixed Harry with another of those piercing stares.

"Are you sure there was nothing else Harry? No one else in the room with you?" Harry squirmed in his seat. He had protected Draco this far, he could not change the story now. Refusing to meet Dumbledore's eye, Harry shook his head. "You understand that what caused that wound on your leg is dark magic? That will be no ordinary scar either."

Harry wasn't quite ready to face the ugly scarring. He was yet to look at it as there were still bandages wrapped neatly around his leg. Harry felt this lesson was as much about showing him the memory as working out what he was hiding. The boy was no fool, he knew Dumbledore would see through him to some extent.

It came as a surprise to Harry that his Professor merely sighed then and dismissed him.

"What? I uh mean, is that it, sir?"

"It would seem we have nothing else to discuss Harry." Dumbledore stayed silent for a moment as if to prove this point before saying "I doubt we shall have another lesson before you have secured the rest of that memory."

"Yes sir." Harry ducked his head and left via the spiral staircase. His mind was buzzing with the idea of horcruxes, imaginary monsters and Draco. He was thinking so hard on the latter in fact that he thought he could almost hear his voice.

"Drop it Goyle. Leave her alone." Harry rounded the corner to see a shoeless Luna, flushed Goyle and bored looking Malfoy. Grasped in Goyle's paw of a hand was a pair of purple converse.

"Harry!" Draco whipped round at Luna's exclamation. His eyes grew at the sight of Harry and his ivory skin flushed. "I was thinking of joining you on your walk when I meet Draco in the corridor." Luna was the only one who seemed to be happy about the situation. She was positively beaming. Malfoy practically ripped the shoes off Goyle and dropped them at Luna's feet before storming off. The hulking Slytherin wandered off after him, looking more than a little confused.

"Wow. What just happened?"

"Goyle thought it might have been amusing to accico my shoes, while I was wearing them. It's a good job I didn't lace them to tightly really."

"No I mean did I really hear Malfoy telling Goyle to leave you alone? That's most unlike him."

"Is it? Do you really know Draco, Harry? I bet there are lots of things about him that could really surprise you. Where were we walking?" There was Luna's ability to say something potentially earth shattering make it sound like it were no more interesting than a walk round the empty castle.

"I was just heading back actually. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh you know, just that people aren't who they pretend to be." Harry didn't know, but nodded anyway. It was late, nearing midnight. They shouldn't really have been in the corridors at all.

"Did you really come out for a walk? It's after the normal curfew."

"Ron and Ginny were having an argument, I thought it best to leave them to it. Ronald argues a lot with people, especially Hermione. It's not very endearing really."

"Oh." It was all Harry could think to say. Luna did have a point after all. They walked the rest of the way back in a tired silence. By the time they reached the common room it was empty and had already been cleaned by the house elves. Harry bid Luna goodnight as she went up the staircase to the girls' dormitories. He himself flopped down on one of the cosy armchairs by the smouldering fire.

Harry pulled a tattered bit of parchment from his robe pockets and muttered the words. He wasn't intending to look for Draco, just to see who was up. As soon as the ink spirals were finished however it was Draco's name which caught his eye.

Alone now, Draco stood on the astronomy tower. He was running a gold galleon back and forth over his knuckles. Snowflakes were beginning to fall and the air was cold enough to see his breath. He huffed out creating a dragon's breath of steam.

He had always found the tower a good place to be alone. There were too many steps for the wheezing squib to manage and his precious cat didn't stray that far from him. The only people he had to worry about up here were hormonal couples which were easy enough to get rid of. It was even better in the snow and the dark. You could lean over the edge and see snowflakes disappear into the abyss below.

Despite being barred from the room of requirement, the shit he could still be in about that curse and the displeasure he felt rippling through his mark, Draco felt more relaxed than he had in months. It was the first time he had seen Potter since their disastrous meeting in the Room of Hidden Things. He had looked healthier than he had imagined too, dishevelled hair and all. A ghost of a smile crossed Draco's lips at the thought of that hair. He used to think it didn't suit him, the imperfect part of oh-so-perfect Potter. Now however, Malfoy had to admit it did have a certain boyish charm.

Oh the way it looks after quidditch matches too, all windswept-

There was a creak on the stairs below him, interrupting his thoughts. In a flash Draco's wand was out trained on the trapdoor. The moment the door opened Draco yelled "Expelliarmus!" and the door slammed shut. There was a thud and an ow below him, while a wand rolled across the stone floor. It was a familiar wand. Potter's wand.

"Oh shit." Draco yanked open the trap door and peered down. Harry was lying sprawled at the foot of the ladder. Thank god he didn't roll down all the steps too.

"Really not been my week, has it?" Whilst Harry was shaken and out of breath, he appeared fine.

"Maybe you should stop sneaking up on people then Potter." Even in the gloom, Draco could see Harry's smirk.

"Only you attack me for it, clearly you're just jumpy." Malfoy scowled. He considered slamming the door shut again and leave Potter in the dark but it was like he had read his mind.

"You better help me up. I think I ripped a couple of stitches." Malfoy continued to scowl as he weighed up the options. If Potter really had ripped some stitches he wouldn't get up here on his own, but he wouldn't leave without his wand either. That meant he would probably sit there until Draco was ready to leave.

Well there goes my peaceful evening in the snow.

Resigned, Draco climbed down the ladder to take a better look at Potter's leg. He slipped both wands into an inner pocket so he'd have both hands free. At the last step he had to jump off the ladder to avoid landing on the stalker-ish idiot.

"Do you think you'll make it up the ladder? I can't see a thing down here."

"Probably." This was easier said than done however. Draco looked at Harry, appraising the situation. He would have to wrap his arm round the boy to get him up really. The prospect made his heart speed up a little.

Carefully, Draco lent down and wrapped an arm around Harry. With his shoulder under the others arm, and Harry tightly gripping the ladder, he pulled. There was a sharp intake of breath as they finally got him up right.

"You alright?"

"Careful Draco, your caring side is showing."

"I can easily drop you." Harry didn't seem to need the support to much however. Gripping the ladder tightly and hauled himself up and through the trap door. The new cold patch on Draco's side was annoyingly unpleasant.

Draco climbed back up, much more gracefully than Potter had. Back at the top he saw the boy leaning against the battlements almost as pale as himself.

Harry watched as Malfoy approached carefully, as though he was some wounded bird about to take flight. The pain in his leg was bad and he had ripped some stitches if the moist feeling was anything to go by, but it wasn't the worst he had endured. Still, acting like he was in more pain was worth it just to see Malfoy squirm.

With upmost care, Draco pulled up the leg of Harry's trouser. The white bandages were spotted dark, blood glistening in the moon light. Malfoy gulped.

"I think I ought to take the bandages off and see how bad it is." Harry seemed to pale more at this. "What's with that look?"

"Nothing, it's just, uh, I haven't actually looked at it yet." Draco tried and failed to not roll his eyes.

"Diddydums Potter, has this ruined your perfect image?" He went ahead and removed the bandage anyway. Admittedly, it wasn't pretty. The wound ran from just below his knee up his thigh beyond the reaches of the rolled trouser leg. Every each another stitch puckered the skin. It was split and bleeding around the knee where some of the stitches had clearly come undone.

Harry watched the Slytherin's face intently for any sign of disgust. He wished he hadn't, for once he had seen it the pain in his chest was suddenly worse than that in his leg. Draco was staring at the ground, shaking slightly.

"That bad, huh?" Harry's voice was shaking too. Malfoy looked up then, looking straight into his eyes. Maybe it wasn't disgust, it was something more complex.

"I did this. It was my fault that this happened, and my fault you're bleeding again." It was self-loathing. Harry tried to roll the leg back down, to hide it away. "No. No, let me try and fix this. Please?" Silently, Harry nodded. He was unsure of what was even happening.

"Vulnera Sanentur. Come on come on, work. Vulnera Sanentur." Malfoy was muttering, his wand hovering just above his leg. Madame Pomfrey had tried this very spell to no avail and yet the pain in his leg was ebbing away, the gash slowly sealing. Mouth open, Harry stared at Draco as he worked.

His forehead was creased into a frown, ivory skin luminescent in the moonlight. His lips were pink and dry from the cold. Draco had grey eyes, something Harry had never noticed before. They were a deep kind of grey, stormy. Those very eyes flicked up and caught him staring.

"What?" When he wasn't sounding irritable, he thought Draco had a rather attractive voice. Light.

"I never noticed your eyes were grey." Without meaning to Harry blurted out and blushed immediately.

"Creepy Potter. Don't think I haven't noticed you stalking me either. How's the leg?" Looking down, Harry was stunned. Whilst a thick scar remained, it was healed over. The stitches remained, looking funny in the freshly healed skin.

"Wow. Madame Pomfrey could even heal that."

"Well it wasn't her dark magic." Malfoy's voice was dry and the look of self-loathing was back.

"Maybe you should have visited then."

"I considered it. I wrote you a letter."

"You did?"

"Yes. And no, you are not going to read it. I burnt it."

"Well rewrite it."

"Why?"

"I'm curious."

"You're always curious Potter and it will be your downfall. Curiosity killed the cat."

"That's jolly."

"I'm a surprisingly jolly person Potter." Harry chortled. "What?"

"Luna told me you were full of surprises."

"Did she now? Well I guess she is right. Goodnight Potter." Draco stood and left, his head full of turmutltuous feelings, with both a feeling of pleasure and distaste at the evening's events, and leaving Harry's wand next to the discarded bandages.

"Goodnight." Harry said as the trapdoor slammed shut.