Weeping willow
Chapter 5, the gutter and the stars.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The course of true love never did run smooth;
But either it was different in the blood -
Or else misgrafted in respect of years -
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends -"
--A Midsummer Night's Dream
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author's Note:(picking right up where we left off)
Love to all the readers out there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "What the--? Malfoy, what's going on here?" Harry sputtered.
"Shhh! I could ask the same of you, but no time," Draco whispered, and promptly threw the invisibility cloak over them both. From their new vantage point on the ground, the boys watched Argus Filch shuffle down the corridor, muttering. Harry didn't realize how close they were until he felt Draco's breath on his ear. He was sprawled on the ground with Draco practically on top of him, their chests barely touching and legs crisscrossed. Draco seemed to realize this as well and shifted upwards ever so gingerly.
Harry gulped and whispered, "Is he gone?"
Draco seemed to be having a hard time holding himself up, but shushed Harry anyway. After what seemed like an eternity, Draco finally disentangled himself from the other boy and brushed himself off. Harry tried not to be unnerved by the fact he was looking at a floating head, but Draco seemed to realize this and uncovered his shoulders, leaving the cloak around his neck.
"Okay, Potter, what's all this about? Sneaking around in the middle of the night?"
"I was going to get my invisibility cloak, but what about you?"
Draco hesitated, listening for something Harry couldn't quite hear.
"Filch," he said, "Better get out of here."
Harry weighed his options, and then neatly flipped the tables by grabbing onto Draco's arm and pulling towards one of the exits. "Follow me," he said.
Draco was all colors of confused, but allowed himself to be led out into the fresh, starry night. Harry pulled him insistently towards the lake, but slowed considerably when they got close to Hagrid's hut.
"Potter, what the hell are we doing?"
"Getting away from Filch, and we're going to talk, but we can't be seen. Mind sharing a bit?" Harry moved in close enough to pull the cloak over the both of them, and quietly they walked past the stone hut. Over the loud snores emanating from within the hut, Harry told Draco to make a sharp left at the edge of the lake. This direction took the boys to Harry's favorite hiding place, the weeping willow. Harry felt strange being this close to Draco, but tried not to make things awkward and instead quickened his pace to reach the tree.
"Here, we can wait here till Filch goes off to bed." Harry said once they were safely within the shelter if the willow's drooping branches.
"That guy sleeps?" Draco said incredulously, and Harry chuckled.
"Well, we can only hope."
Harry slipped out from under the cloak while Draco fumbled with the throatlatch. Noticing Draco's struggling, Harry reached over and swiftly undid the catch from Draco's neck, letting the cloak puddle to the ground. Draco went very still, then mumbled a quick "Thanks," as he bent to scoop up the silvery garment. Harry moved close to the tree, placing one hand on its bark and peering up through the tangle of whispering branches. Draco shifted uneasily.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" The Slytherin asked.
Harry smiled sheepishly, "Well, I'm not really sure, actually. I didn't plan much further than getting away from Filch, to be honest."
Draco shook his head and turned towards the lake, silently admiring its glassy shimmer under the moonlight.
Harry shifted from one foot to the other. "Draco-" He began
The other boy didn't turn around when he replied, "What?"
"I-I just want to know what's going on. Why you're acting different. And why you've been watching me."
"What--?" Draco was amazed.
Harry lost a bit of his nerve then. It was possible Ron had made a mistake when he said that Draco had been observing him, but it seemed that even now Draco was avoiding something. Harry moved to stand slightly behind Draco, keeping his words moderated.
" I dunno. I mean, first you save my life, then say you don't want anything in return, then I hear you've been watching me," Harry sighed "And now--now I can't even have an argument with you anymore!"
Draco didn't turn. "What do you want from me, Potter?" He sounded strained.
"Just an explanation," Harry moved to Draco's side, watching the blond boy's unmoving profile.
"I can't give you that."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't have one," Draco said.
"Then tell me the truth."
Now Draco turned on Harry. "You really think it's that easy? Oh sure, tell everything I shouldn't to the one person who could use the information to the worst possible purposes. That sounds like a fantastic idea!"
Harry met Draco's angry gaze with serenity. "You honestly think I would do that?"
"I don't know, Harry Potter. You might hate me, you might not care. But that doesn't mean I should tell you everything just because you want me to."
"I don't *want* anything from you, Draco," Harry replied.
This use of his first name made Malfoy pause for a second. "I don't understand you at all, Potter."
"That's what I'd like to change. Because obviously we can't go back to being enemies like before."
As Draco stared Harry straight in the face, he realized that Harry was almost exactly his height. He dropped his eyes to the side and said quietly,
"Why not? I don't want to be your friend. I don't want to cozy up to the Weasel and Granger. I don't want to say hello to you in the halls and talk and tell you things. I want it to be just like it was, if it's all the same to you."
"Do you really think it would work?" Harry gave him a look that said he knew it wouldn't, "And it's not all the same to me. Things are different. You can't just pretend like it never happened."
Draco moved to put one hand on the willow's trunk. Night was a blanket of stillness over the two of them, the willow tree, and the world. He turned away from Harry with a grimace.
And as the part of his brain that was usually right screamed at him to run far, far away-Draco, for the first time in his life, told Harry the truth.
"I was supposed to kill you."
Harry blanched behind him. "You mean--?"
"Yes. Well, I was supposed to keep a tracking spell on you so you might," Draco swallowed, "Conveniently disappear."
Harry was nearly speechless. Draco had been told to eliminate him, but had gone two steps back and saved his life. It didn't add up, but Harry was too awash with conflicting feelings to play mathematician at the moment.
He put a hand tentatively on Draco's shoulder, "Then-why did you rescue me?"
The wind through the branches was the only sound to be heard for a long while. Finally Draco twisted around to look Harry in the eyes. All the nighttime sounds dulled as if the entire scene was waiting for this exchange to unfold. A large lump gathered in Draco's throat, catching his tongue and making him wince. Swallowing, he said,
"I couldn't let you die. As much as we might fight and bicker and compete, without you I'd have nothing to work for. I'd be bored as hell. Do you realize that all I've got in this world are Crabbe, Goyle, and competing with you? I-" Draco took a deep breath. He was in too far already, but there was nowhere else to go.
"I need you, okay? That's all there is to it."
The ever-composed Gryffindor took a stuttering step backward and tripped over a tree root, landing firmly on his hind end with a squawk. Silence reigned, until both boys began laughing so hard tears came to their eyes. It hadn't been that funny, but the laughter was such a release that neither of them could stop. They laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, at all the time spent worrying and fretting over issues that weren't there to begin with, and most of all at the irony of two of Hogwarts' greatest rivals spending time together in the middle of the night under a tree.
Harry was the first one to get himself under control. When his giggles finally subsided he stood up and grabbed on to a tree branch for support.
"I shouldn't have told you that, you know," Draco commented dryly from the ground as Harry swung himself up into the tangle of branches.
"Why? It isn't written in stone that once you hate somebody you have to hate them forever. I stopped hating you a while ago." Harry said with a casual flip of his hair.
Draco frowned in thought, letting his brain digest what Harry had said. This was uncharted territory, with thousands of potential dangers. Yet, he couldn't seem to stop no matter how much he backwatered. Harry dropped to the ground next to him, barely an arm's length away.
Harry showed a bit of crooked smile and rubbed the back of his neck, the perfect snapshot of innocent bashfulness. He cleared his throat and inquired,
"So, what do you propose we do?"
"Well, I can't exactly kill you now," Draco's voice was cold.
"I guess I ought to be grateful, then?" Harry teased.
Draco actually smiled. "Maybe, you never know, I could always strangle you while you sleep or something," He replied, with an air of nervous nonchalance. He looked out again from under the cover of the drooping branches, searching for something to say and at the same time trying to make it look like he wasn't.
"Harry-"
Draco turned to find the other boy closer than he'd expected it. Or perhaps it was his imagination. Harry seemed to be questioning something silently, and suddenly, the space between them closed. Draco's mind reeled and screeched in sheer panic for a split second, but as Harry touched his shoulders ever so cautiously, Draco realized that he was as rooted to his spot as the tree by which they stood. Mercury shades of grey leaped to collide in midair with jade overtones, and the world shrank to one point of feeling. Harry's lips closed over Draco's, gingerly at first, then with conviction. Draco might as well have been Petrified, standing like a specter hovering between the misty world of dreams and the tangible, waking side of life. But soon he responded to Harry's flowering kiss, and for a flickering moment, even the stars held their breath as two enemies both realized something that had been there all along. The kiss was a breath of air, a sonnet written in feeling, a steady pull within two people as swift and strong as the tide, connecting islands separated by an ocean of uncertainty. It was a dream and a nightmare come true.
But of course, poetic and pretty scenes rarely last long in the tangible, waking world. Draco's eyes opened wide and he flung himself away from Harry with a gasp. He stammered and nearly tripped over a root, while Harry seemed to be in a state of awe or shock. One couldn't be sure which.
"What the-what the hell? What're you-" Draco's words came spilling out too fast for his tongue to catch.
"I-I don't know-" Harry replied, touching his lower lip as if to see if the tingling sensation was real. They ran over each other with explanations and protests, each trying to say what had happened, really.
"I didn't mean to-"
"Hell yes you did!"
"Okay fine, but it was because I, er, wanted to thank you-"
"By slobbering on me?!"
"Cripes, it wasn't that bad was it?"
"Well, no-"
"You mean you liked--?!"
"NO! Jesus!"
"But you-"
"I didn't!"
"I thought-"
"Oh god,"
Eventually they wound down into silence and separate states of brooding. Draco was painted with an expression of anxiety, while Harry looked like one who had just discovered the secrets of the universe. Draco's mind was a riot of sensation. Family, friends, love? What on *earth *? He shook his head, and the demons subsided if only for a minute.
With an air of one who knows he is stating the obvious, Draco turned his attentions back to Harry
"You kissed me."
"I know. You kissed me back."
And then it hit him.
"-Shit."
~~~~~~~~~~~
(Author's Note: Yes, by golly, I'm ending this chapter now. Bwahahahahaha.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The course of true love never did run smooth;
But either it was different in the blood -
Or else misgrafted in respect of years -
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends -"
--A Midsummer Night's Dream
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author's Note:(picking right up where we left off)
Love to all the readers out there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "What the--? Malfoy, what's going on here?" Harry sputtered.
"Shhh! I could ask the same of you, but no time," Draco whispered, and promptly threw the invisibility cloak over them both. From their new vantage point on the ground, the boys watched Argus Filch shuffle down the corridor, muttering. Harry didn't realize how close they were until he felt Draco's breath on his ear. He was sprawled on the ground with Draco practically on top of him, their chests barely touching and legs crisscrossed. Draco seemed to realize this as well and shifted upwards ever so gingerly.
Harry gulped and whispered, "Is he gone?"
Draco seemed to be having a hard time holding himself up, but shushed Harry anyway. After what seemed like an eternity, Draco finally disentangled himself from the other boy and brushed himself off. Harry tried not to be unnerved by the fact he was looking at a floating head, but Draco seemed to realize this and uncovered his shoulders, leaving the cloak around his neck.
"Okay, Potter, what's all this about? Sneaking around in the middle of the night?"
"I was going to get my invisibility cloak, but what about you?"
Draco hesitated, listening for something Harry couldn't quite hear.
"Filch," he said, "Better get out of here."
Harry weighed his options, and then neatly flipped the tables by grabbing onto Draco's arm and pulling towards one of the exits. "Follow me," he said.
Draco was all colors of confused, but allowed himself to be led out into the fresh, starry night. Harry pulled him insistently towards the lake, but slowed considerably when they got close to Hagrid's hut.
"Potter, what the hell are we doing?"
"Getting away from Filch, and we're going to talk, but we can't be seen. Mind sharing a bit?" Harry moved in close enough to pull the cloak over the both of them, and quietly they walked past the stone hut. Over the loud snores emanating from within the hut, Harry told Draco to make a sharp left at the edge of the lake. This direction took the boys to Harry's favorite hiding place, the weeping willow. Harry felt strange being this close to Draco, but tried not to make things awkward and instead quickened his pace to reach the tree.
"Here, we can wait here till Filch goes off to bed." Harry said once they were safely within the shelter if the willow's drooping branches.
"That guy sleeps?" Draco said incredulously, and Harry chuckled.
"Well, we can only hope."
Harry slipped out from under the cloak while Draco fumbled with the throatlatch. Noticing Draco's struggling, Harry reached over and swiftly undid the catch from Draco's neck, letting the cloak puddle to the ground. Draco went very still, then mumbled a quick "Thanks," as he bent to scoop up the silvery garment. Harry moved close to the tree, placing one hand on its bark and peering up through the tangle of whispering branches. Draco shifted uneasily.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" The Slytherin asked.
Harry smiled sheepishly, "Well, I'm not really sure, actually. I didn't plan much further than getting away from Filch, to be honest."
Draco shook his head and turned towards the lake, silently admiring its glassy shimmer under the moonlight.
Harry shifted from one foot to the other. "Draco-" He began
The other boy didn't turn around when he replied, "What?"
"I-I just want to know what's going on. Why you're acting different. And why you've been watching me."
"What--?" Draco was amazed.
Harry lost a bit of his nerve then. It was possible Ron had made a mistake when he said that Draco had been observing him, but it seemed that even now Draco was avoiding something. Harry moved to stand slightly behind Draco, keeping his words moderated.
" I dunno. I mean, first you save my life, then say you don't want anything in return, then I hear you've been watching me," Harry sighed "And now--now I can't even have an argument with you anymore!"
Draco didn't turn. "What do you want from me, Potter?" He sounded strained.
"Just an explanation," Harry moved to Draco's side, watching the blond boy's unmoving profile.
"I can't give you that."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't have one," Draco said.
"Then tell me the truth."
Now Draco turned on Harry. "You really think it's that easy? Oh sure, tell everything I shouldn't to the one person who could use the information to the worst possible purposes. That sounds like a fantastic idea!"
Harry met Draco's angry gaze with serenity. "You honestly think I would do that?"
"I don't know, Harry Potter. You might hate me, you might not care. But that doesn't mean I should tell you everything just because you want me to."
"I don't *want* anything from you, Draco," Harry replied.
This use of his first name made Malfoy pause for a second. "I don't understand you at all, Potter."
"That's what I'd like to change. Because obviously we can't go back to being enemies like before."
As Draco stared Harry straight in the face, he realized that Harry was almost exactly his height. He dropped his eyes to the side and said quietly,
"Why not? I don't want to be your friend. I don't want to cozy up to the Weasel and Granger. I don't want to say hello to you in the halls and talk and tell you things. I want it to be just like it was, if it's all the same to you."
"Do you really think it would work?" Harry gave him a look that said he knew it wouldn't, "And it's not all the same to me. Things are different. You can't just pretend like it never happened."
Draco moved to put one hand on the willow's trunk. Night was a blanket of stillness over the two of them, the willow tree, and the world. He turned away from Harry with a grimace.
And as the part of his brain that was usually right screamed at him to run far, far away-Draco, for the first time in his life, told Harry the truth.
"I was supposed to kill you."
Harry blanched behind him. "You mean--?"
"Yes. Well, I was supposed to keep a tracking spell on you so you might," Draco swallowed, "Conveniently disappear."
Harry was nearly speechless. Draco had been told to eliminate him, but had gone two steps back and saved his life. It didn't add up, but Harry was too awash with conflicting feelings to play mathematician at the moment.
He put a hand tentatively on Draco's shoulder, "Then-why did you rescue me?"
The wind through the branches was the only sound to be heard for a long while. Finally Draco twisted around to look Harry in the eyes. All the nighttime sounds dulled as if the entire scene was waiting for this exchange to unfold. A large lump gathered in Draco's throat, catching his tongue and making him wince. Swallowing, he said,
"I couldn't let you die. As much as we might fight and bicker and compete, without you I'd have nothing to work for. I'd be bored as hell. Do you realize that all I've got in this world are Crabbe, Goyle, and competing with you? I-" Draco took a deep breath. He was in too far already, but there was nowhere else to go.
"I need you, okay? That's all there is to it."
The ever-composed Gryffindor took a stuttering step backward and tripped over a tree root, landing firmly on his hind end with a squawk. Silence reigned, until both boys began laughing so hard tears came to their eyes. It hadn't been that funny, but the laughter was such a release that neither of them could stop. They laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, at all the time spent worrying and fretting over issues that weren't there to begin with, and most of all at the irony of two of Hogwarts' greatest rivals spending time together in the middle of the night under a tree.
Harry was the first one to get himself under control. When his giggles finally subsided he stood up and grabbed on to a tree branch for support.
"I shouldn't have told you that, you know," Draco commented dryly from the ground as Harry swung himself up into the tangle of branches.
"Why? It isn't written in stone that once you hate somebody you have to hate them forever. I stopped hating you a while ago." Harry said with a casual flip of his hair.
Draco frowned in thought, letting his brain digest what Harry had said. This was uncharted territory, with thousands of potential dangers. Yet, he couldn't seem to stop no matter how much he backwatered. Harry dropped to the ground next to him, barely an arm's length away.
Harry showed a bit of crooked smile and rubbed the back of his neck, the perfect snapshot of innocent bashfulness. He cleared his throat and inquired,
"So, what do you propose we do?"
"Well, I can't exactly kill you now," Draco's voice was cold.
"I guess I ought to be grateful, then?" Harry teased.
Draco actually smiled. "Maybe, you never know, I could always strangle you while you sleep or something," He replied, with an air of nervous nonchalance. He looked out again from under the cover of the drooping branches, searching for something to say and at the same time trying to make it look like he wasn't.
"Harry-"
Draco turned to find the other boy closer than he'd expected it. Or perhaps it was his imagination. Harry seemed to be questioning something silently, and suddenly, the space between them closed. Draco's mind reeled and screeched in sheer panic for a split second, but as Harry touched his shoulders ever so cautiously, Draco realized that he was as rooted to his spot as the tree by which they stood. Mercury shades of grey leaped to collide in midair with jade overtones, and the world shrank to one point of feeling. Harry's lips closed over Draco's, gingerly at first, then with conviction. Draco might as well have been Petrified, standing like a specter hovering between the misty world of dreams and the tangible, waking side of life. But soon he responded to Harry's flowering kiss, and for a flickering moment, even the stars held their breath as two enemies both realized something that had been there all along. The kiss was a breath of air, a sonnet written in feeling, a steady pull within two people as swift and strong as the tide, connecting islands separated by an ocean of uncertainty. It was a dream and a nightmare come true.
But of course, poetic and pretty scenes rarely last long in the tangible, waking world. Draco's eyes opened wide and he flung himself away from Harry with a gasp. He stammered and nearly tripped over a root, while Harry seemed to be in a state of awe or shock. One couldn't be sure which.
"What the-what the hell? What're you-" Draco's words came spilling out too fast for his tongue to catch.
"I-I don't know-" Harry replied, touching his lower lip as if to see if the tingling sensation was real. They ran over each other with explanations and protests, each trying to say what had happened, really.
"I didn't mean to-"
"Hell yes you did!"
"Okay fine, but it was because I, er, wanted to thank you-"
"By slobbering on me?!"
"Cripes, it wasn't that bad was it?"
"Well, no-"
"You mean you liked--?!"
"NO! Jesus!"
"But you-"
"I didn't!"
"I thought-"
"Oh god,"
Eventually they wound down into silence and separate states of brooding. Draco was painted with an expression of anxiety, while Harry looked like one who had just discovered the secrets of the universe. Draco's mind was a riot of sensation. Family, friends, love? What on *earth *? He shook his head, and the demons subsided if only for a minute.
With an air of one who knows he is stating the obvious, Draco turned his attentions back to Harry
"You kissed me."
"I know. You kissed me back."
And then it hit him.
"-Shit."
~~~~~~~~~~~
(Author's Note: Yes, by golly, I'm ending this chapter now. Bwahahahahaha.)