Chapter 7: Draco's New Potter

Draco sat on the boulder near the center of the dimly sunlit chamber they had previous apparated into. Harry crouched over the pitiful little fire that he had made with dried vine branches strewn on the cavern floor. The cave was chilly but shielded them from the worst of the cold.

"I was going to shoot you with it, you know," Draco said, staring into the fire. His tone was only half playful.

Harry looked up from warming his hands, quirking an eyebrow.

Draco smirked at him. "Good thing that Polyjuice Potion was such bad quality and you turned back into yourself in that precise moment."

"I wouldn't have blamed you if you did. When you see a dog foaming at the mouth you don't call animal control, you blow its bloody head off."

Draco frowned. Whether it was a soldier's mentality or not, he felt disconcerted with how flippantly Potter treated the act of killing for survival. Noticing his frown, Potter shrugged and looked away from him.

"I don't know," Draco muttered hesitantly. "I don't know what's right or wrong."

"Not everything is clear-cut like that. I wouldn't waste time mulling over what's morally acceptable when faced with the end of a Death Eater's wand – certainly not from one that's already hurt you before. Any soft-bellied witch or wizard that thinks otherwise from the comfort of their home can shove their naivete up their arses for all I care." Potter's tone seemed to indicate something personal there. Draco didn't ask. He detached himself from society for a reason.

Minutes rolled by as both men stared into the fire before Draco whispered, "I don't ever want to kill again."

"You won't. I'll do it for you."

"That's not much better."

"Listen, Malfoy, you don't get to plan out a happy ending. You've got to choose: your life or your enemy's." Draco flinched and Potter added with a softer tone, "Just focus on keeping yourself alive and backing me up if the need arises. Leave the rest to me. I'm the one with combat training. You're a civilian under my charge. I won't ask you to do anything dangerous unless we have no other options."

Draco nodded, moistening his dried lips. If he thought too deeply about all the things that could go wrong, he'd lose his mind. Thankfully, the effects of the healing water were still in his system and it kept him calm enough to focus. Three-foot world, as Potter called it. He stared into the fire feeling strangely safe in the chilly cave.

"Before we plan our next move, we need to take stock," said Potter. "And we should form a backup plan in case things go pear-shaped. How long does it take to create a makeshift wand?"

"Depends. I made mine from the wood of one of the spruce trees behind my cottage and kneazle's hair at its core."

Harry scrunched his nose. "Kneazle's hair?"

Draco nodded with a small wince. "It's a magical substance, after all, but very substandard. You saw my transfigured chair."

"Why don't you have a proper wand?"

Sometimes Draco marveled at how Potter could seamlessly thread stupidity with his otherwise adequate reasoning abilities. It was almost a noteworthy talent. "You took it from me, remember? And no wand maker in Europe would sell me another. They all know what happened to Ollivander. They think it would be spitting on his honor."

Blinking like a dumb fish, Potter mumbled, "Oh. Well, what about your father's wand?"

"I'm not using his wand. He'll need it when he gets out of Azkaban – which should be soon."

Turning his head away from Draco, Potter stared glumly at the fire. "You still honor your father?"

"Yes, well," Draco replied stiffly. "Back to the problem at hand." Thankfully, Potter let him evade the question. He had mixed feelings about his father. "I need a magical core, otherwise, alas, no magical wand."

"Are there non-magical wands?"

Draco gave him a dry look. "Muggle Wiccans."

"Ah," Potter said and grabbed a twig that was mostly sticking out of the fire. "I won't ask if you ever tried using one."

"I'd rather roll down this mountain to my death."

Potter gave him a "yeah, sure" look, before going back to the dirt in front of him where he started writing letters and check-marking them. "Okay, we're armed with a gun, a pocket knife, my shrunken Invisibility Cloak, and a flask of healing spring water. Can you give me a layout of the terrain from here to the car?"

Nodding, Draco described what little he knew of the area from when he would drive up from home to forage in the mountains. As he did so, Harry drew lines on the dirt, making himself a map. Draco didn't know how accurate it was, but he trusted Potter to know what he was doing.

When he was done, Potter pointed with the stick, dragging it north, down the mountainside. "The car's near your home which is about sixty kilometers from where we are, is that right?"

Draco nodded.

"That could take us twelve hours on foot." He looked at Draco and said, "I doubt you'll be able to do the entire trek in one go. It's still early so if we start now we can knock off half the trip before nightfall. Setting up camp is the problem. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable because we'll probably have to dig ourselves in the snow and sleep there, no fire. It'll protect us from the cold and potential wolves." At that, Draco groaned and Harry shot him a glare. Draco looked away, arms crossed, as Potter told him, "We're going to have to rough it for the foreseeable future until we get word out to the DMLE. No complaining."

"I'm not complaining."

"You just groaned."

"So?"

Sighing, Potter shook his head and let it go. "You said there's a river here," asked Potter, pointing at a squiggly line. They would travel north alongside it before crossing it.

Draco nodded.

"Anything else?"

"I don't know. I've never traveled to that area. I usually cross it right here, just at the foot of the mountain. It's a bit of a hike from there, maybe twenty minutes straight east until you get to the road. Then I drive back. But we're heading north from here."

Potter didn't look to be too discouraged by the lack of information on the terrain. He simply nodded, and said, "Once we're there, we'll be coming up on the west side of the road in a clearing, in full view of your home. If it still stands, we should assume Lestrange is inside."

"What if he's not."

"That's why I said, assume. Assuming the worst danger keeps you on your toes and keeps you alive. Don't ever assume you're out of the woods." When Draco couldn't fully contain his smirk at his choice of words, Potter rolled his eyes and ground out, "So to speak."

"Sadly, your Invisibility Cloak won't exactly cover us."

With a grimace, Potter nodded in agreement. "I'll try to engorge it wandlessly tonight. Worth a try at least. Thankfully Stealth Training doesn't depend on Invisibility Cloaks. I can sneak around the cottage and surrounding area to make sure it's empty while you stay hidden. When I've determined the building is in the clear, we'll grab the hiking gear, then make a roundabout trek to the town. If there are hostiles..."

As he watched Potter lay out their plans and back up plans, Draco realized that it never dawned on him before, having never any cause to sit down and contemplate his former rival in a neutral light, that Harry Potter had an astonishing capacity to productively deal with the high stress of being in a life-or-death situation. It didn't come from Auror training. Even as a young boy, it had always come naturally to him. The war only hardened and refined his natural warrior instincts.

The Ultimate Griffyndor, Draco thought with dry humor.

Peering closely at Potter's face, his deep-set green eyes focused on the map, on his mission, strands of black hair falling over his furrowed brow with the light of the fire glinting of the glass of his silver-rimmed spectacles, Draco thought Potter had grown quite handsome. His jaw was more angular now that it lost the last of its baby fat, outlined by a chin-strap beard. His neck was thicker too. He definitely worked out.

"You've done this sort of thing before?"

Potter shrugged. "I'm no stranger to being hunted down by Death Eaters."

"I don't think I could have done this without you."

Whatever response he had expected, it wasn't the sight of Potter's teasing smirk and words, "Are you saying you trust me, Malfoy?"

Draco looked away and shrugged, hoping he looked nonchalant. "Well, you're not the untrustworthy type, are you, Golden Boy? Stop fishing for flattery. It's unseemly. Then again you've always been after my attention, haven't you? As I recall you couldn't stand the fact that I ignored you Sixth Year and decided to stalk me."

He only heard the sound of Potter's snickering in response, and he could not help but wonder why Potter seemed to laugh every time Draco insulted him, rather than instantly blow a gasket. It was an aggravatingly new development.

"I think you're the one that always sought my attention. I would have been fine going through school without looking your way, but you just couldn't leave me alone. That's why I knew something was up with you in Sixth Year." Amusement lightened Potter's voice, made him sound less of a soldier. It was a pleasant sound.

"Keep flattering yourself you speccy git."

Potter only laughed some more and Draco couldn't believe that the subject of Sixth Year had cropped up without triggering their trauma. He supposed their current predicament made it easier to block out the nasty details as they had more pressing matters to attend to. The mind didn't dilly-dally over past regrets when on survival mode.

Potter had removed the Invisibility Cloak from his pocket and stared morosely at it. Both of them had tried and failed to cast a wandless Engorgio.

"I can't do it."

Draco frowned and chewed his lip with worry. "So what then?"

"Let's hope I get my wand back. If all goes well we should get to your car by tomorrow morning. Let's go." Potter stood up, stomped the fire out, and pulled out the gun to check the ammo.

"I've got a few more magazines in the glove compartment," Draco informed him.

"Music to my ears," said Potter. "We need everything we can get. Anything else?"

Draco thought about it and after a few seconds, snapped his fingers. "I believe I have a hatchet with my hiking gear. I never used it though. I don't remember if it's in the car."

Potter nodded. "Well, we'll see what we've got when we get there. Ready?"

Draco nodded, feeling oddly calm. When he mentioned this, Potter told him it was natural after the high adrenaline of the day before and the natural ability the mind has to adapt to its circumstances. The way he spoke like it was an everyday thing for him caused Draco to swallow down a nasty surge of guilt from their schoolboy days. Back then he thought Potter's near-death experiences were great fuel for taunting him. He thought only of his own amusement. Now as an adult, with his own experiences, it finally dawned on him how wretched he had behaved towards Potter – even if it had been to get his attention.

One day he would apologize. For now, the words were stuck in his throat. He shuffled quietly after Potter as they exited the cave. Thankfully it was a clear day. Sun was high. From the path winding down the mountainside, they could see the vast white terrain to the north. It was heavily forested and not much could be seen other than the tops of fir trees.

Potter grimaced, then sighed. "Well, come on then." They trekked down the path Draco usually used and once at the foot, rounded towards the north.

Except for the one day a month that he came to forage and the odd walk around his cottage after tea, Draco usually stayed at home and wasn't terribly accustomed to walking for long periods. It didn't help that he had a pampered upbringing. After a few hours, his feet were aching and he had a cramp on his side. Still, he forcefully dragged himself through the snowy turf after Potter, who hadn't noticed that Draco started to lag behind.

Note: I wanted to shed some light on Draco's perspective of Harry in this chapter. As their circumstances start to change, I wanted to show him reflecting on their past. I had originally planned this to be Harry-centirc but I think I'll write from Draco's view more often. Hope you all enjoyed it! Reviews are always appreciated. :)