Chapter 8

In just days, Draco had this intimate knowledge of Potter - Harry - that she never thought she'd have.

He had two kinds of smiles. A polite one he only used to reassure his friends, or when he wanted to laugh, but was too self-conscious because he was in a crowd. And a more genuine one that only appeared when Harry was having so much fun he forgot everything else, making him look younger.

Like when he was laughing at Draco. For no good reason. Draco only dressed up to help Hagrid as usual on Saturday, and experience taught her the best shoes for trekking in the Forest were not the ones she'd worn with her uniform, so she happened to have laces when she got back for lunch, and they came undone. So she fixed it with a spell, and Harry was grinning at her already.

"What now? Do I smell? Do I have fertilizer on my face? A baby Acromantula in my hair?"

"No, no, you're good," Harry said, but there must have been something, because Hermione was reading a book, not even looking at them, and she was also faintly smiling.

"Let me have it," Draco said.

"I mean... you used a spell to tie your shoelaces," Harry said before taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"So?"

"It's such a small thing, but you're using magic to do it."

"You mean to say you aren't? Were you raised by werewolves, perhaps?" Draco asked him but realized too late that of course Harry would tie his shoe by hand, raised by the horrid Muggles he mentioned. "I mean, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Harry didn't mind. "In a way, I was."

It took a second for Draco to process.

"You mean Lupin."

"Yes," Harry admitted. "But I'm curious: can you even do it without magic?"

"It's not that difficult," Draco huffed, but when Harry undid her laces, she was there, holding the two ends, and it wasn't as obvious as she expected.

In fact, she might have made a knot instead, which made Hermione forget about the book, and Harry smile at Draco so openly that Draco forgot her own name for one brief moment, not just what she was doing.

"Here," Harry helped her out. "This goes here, and that one there, and look at that. You're all set."

But just when Draco thought her humiliation was over, Harry undid his work again and was looking at her expectantly.

"You're lucky you're cute," Draco told him muttering while she reproduced what Harry did, but the laces ended up comically lopsided, and when she tried to pull on one, it wouldn't give.

That was when Harry wanted to help her out, his calloused fingers reaching for the laces, but somehow found Draco's fingers instead, which made both of them forget what were doing and where until Hermione didn't clear her throat.

"Maybe Draco could teach you to the spell, Harry."

"Right," Harry pulled back, while Draco was sure she blushed like a Weasley's hair color.

Harry got the incantation right on the first try, just had to adjust the force of the spell, and then he looked only too pleased with his accomplishment, smiling at Draco.

"Do I get to have a reward?"

"Yes, because you've accomplished something magnificent," Draco finally got her laces right without magic, a bit irritated at how it took longer for her than for Harry with magic. "Mastered a spell that most kids learn to do nonverbally by the age of 4."

"Not to brag, but I also know how to tie a tie," Harry said. "And there are different ways to do that, too."

Draco looked at her tie, and decided the last thing she wanted was to still try to fix it by the time the rest of the lions joined them for lunch.

"Fine. I'll get you something later."

"I meant more like a kiss," Harry said. "But you can also do it later."

Draco wasn't going to give in to such requests, but when they were in the Library, Harry looked as if writing an essay for Potions drained him of life when they were left alone at the table by Ron who went to get another book, Draco kissed Harry's cheek.

"Feeling better?"

"I don't know yet, do it again?" Harry offered, but when Draco didn't, he added. "Yes. But who said I wasn't?"

"You looked like the Potions book insulted your family's honor," Draco went back to her homework, but honestly, she found it hard to concentrate when Harry was sitting next to her. As so often these days.

"I was just thinking about someone, it's not the homework."

"Someone unpleasant?"

"More like a grumpy uncle who isn't even related to me, but he's my responsibility. For now," Harry sighed. "It's just... can we talk about something else?"

It was unthinkable that Draco wanted to comfort Harry Potter twice in a row, but just talking about the horrid Muggle, his shoulders tensed, so Draco might have volunteered herself to place just another sneaky kiss on his cheek, making him laugh.

"What did I do to deserve that?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Who knows, maybe I'm just feeling magnanimous today," Draco wasn't going to tell him if he didn't know.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you do," Harry said. "But if I don't know, one of these days I'm just going to turn my head to talk to you, and you might get more than you bargained for."

"Maybe that's all part of my evil plan," Draco could only say.

"Is it?" Harry asked, and he wasn't just flirting, either, but as if he was truly wondering, and couldn't decide whether Draco meant it.

So, Draco might have kissed him for real next, and Harry responded likewise, and Draco didn't stop him. They were, however, thrown out of the Library by none other than the very irritated Pince, who even took points from both of their houses.

"I'm sorry," Harry told her as if Draco wasn't part of that particular problem. "Maybe we could go to the Great Hall and finish homework there?"

And normally it could have been a good plan, but since it was the weekend, Draco could barely write a sentence or two before some students yelling something or another didn't interfere with her line of thought.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Harry asked when Draco gave up on ever finishing her Transfiguration essay.

"I doubt that we ever think the same thing," she told Harry.

"Let's ditch schoolwork, and go on a date," Harry suggested.

"Aren't you behind on multiple courses?" Draco couldn't help but ask. "Using your heroic status so the Professors don't fail you right away?"

"Is that a polite no?" Harry asked. "Because I am, but we've been kicked out of the Library, and it's not like I can concentrate, anyway."

"I'll help you," Draco decided. "And maybe you can tutor me in Muggle Studies in exchange."

It's not like Draco needed that as badly as Harry the good marks in most of his subjects, but maybe Harry looked so tired because he was doing a lot of work, just not the right way, and if Draco could help with that, she wanted to do it.

"I try to not take offense."

"Because?"

"You'd rather learn even about Muggles than go on a date with me," Harry said.

"Think of it as a study date."

"There's no such thing."

"I think we got close to establishing it, and that's why we got kicked out of the Library in the first place," Draco said, but then she realized she was distracting herself as well. "So let's find an empty classroom?"

They had about 5 minutes quiet until Peeves appeared, and Filch followed suit, accusing Draco and Harry of breaking school rules just by being there (they weren't, but they needed to leave).

"We could go to the Room of Requirement," Draco suggested.

"It's... not really safe," Harry said. "Last time I went to check it out, it was the size of a broom-cupboard, and the ceiling collapsed. Almost directly on me."

"Well, if we have no other options, you can also come to my dorm," Draco said, making Harry's eyes grow wide. "Only to study! Merlin, stop staring at me like that. It's practical. I don't have to share because there are no other eighth years in Slytherin, nor many new students who wanted to place in the House, so there is plenty of space. And quiet."

"I see," Harry said. "But I thought wizards can't just go to the witches' dorms."

"Than good thing that I'm still in the same room where I've always been," Draco said. "In the wizards'."

"Oh."

"Just one thing: maybe you want to grab your Cloak first, I can wait," Draco said.

"Why?"

"So people don't assume we're having sex?" Draco asked.

"Let them."

"No."

"I'm serious," Harry said. "If you start to live your life according to what people think of you, it will never stop."

It wasn't a big deal, really. Only a few Slytherins stared when Draco appeared in the Common Room with Harry Potter, but after the door closed behind them, they only discussed homework.

"How do you not know this?" Draco asked. "We've learned this in our fourth year."

"I guess you could say school years were chaotic for me," Harry said. "So I either have never learned it, or I've long forgotten."

"Yes, but it's also the base of what we're learning now," Draco said. "No wonder you're struggling if you have all these holes in the material from previous years."

"Has anyone told you you might be secretly a Ravenclaw?" Harry said, probably hoping to distract Draco from the previous topic. "You have a room completely to yourself, and instead of dark artifacts, you hoard books... and now you're starting to sound like Hermione."

"I don't hoard books," Draco said. "There's just no need to shrink my personal library into a trunk since as you've said, I have all the space. But, if you're giving up, we can go get dinner early."

Harry even held her hand on the way, and Draco noted she wasn't uncomfortable with it, so she got back to her room still smiling.

Unfortunately, that was when she found out that this time, all her possessions weren't ruined by just a couple of curses that were easy to fix. Someone blew up the potion she was brewing for Hermione, and it got to almost everywhere - dissolving everything in its path, causing irreversible damage to Draco's clothes, books, and bed.

She could Banish most of the gooey substance with a few hours of work, and if she was careful enough, she could save some of her stuff from total destruction too, but the toxic fumes still lingered even then, and she didn't feel safe, so Draco left her Common Room, thinking she can go one night without sleep.

Eventually falling asleep in an empty classroom, on the top of a desk, not really counting on dreaming about Harry's voice when she did.

"Draco, what are you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" she muttered. "Sleeping. So let me."

She didn't count on that it was no longer a dream, and that Harry's disembodied voice was real, coming from under his infamous cloak, that he took off promptly, and now looked at her pointedly.

"Why you're here, Draco?"

"How did you know I was?" Draco almost answered before she suddenly had to ask. "Did you put a tracing charm on me, or something?"

"Don't tell anyone, but... I have a map that shows where everyone in the castle is," Harry sighed. "Even the Professors. And I was using it when I accidentally saw you were here."

Draco looked around, still disorientated, but it was significantly darker, so it meant she'd fallen asleep some time ago.

"What time is it?"

"Two," Harry said.

"And you're using this magical map in the middle of the night instead of sleeping exactly why?" Draco asked.

"I'll tell you," Harry said calmly. "If you answer my question first."

"Someone broke into my room. Blew up a potion I was working on. I Banished most of it, but the fumes aren't so easy to get rid of, so I decided to not go back until I can figure out how to handle it."

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Harry asked. "You're right, and I should have worn my cloak. But they wouldn't dare attack me, so they took it out on you."

"To be fair, they started ruining my possessions long before you showed up," Draco said. "I didn't report it because the damage was nothing I couldn't fix, and I don't want my own House to despise me even more if I was to tell McGonagall, and she'd make a big deal out of it."

"But now it's different."

"You don't get it. I don't want all Slytherin students interrogated, and their wands and rooms searched," Draco shook her head. "Just because one person thinks I can't replace a few things they might destroy."

"There might be more than one person who did it. And who's to say they won't attack you next," Harry quietly said, but didn't push. "But I won't tell McGonagall if you won't."

"Why aren't you asleep?" Draco asked.

"I have a couple of errands to run, outside the castle, and I usually only have time for it during the night," Harry said. "McGonagall knows about it, and that's why I was allowed to keep the cloak and the map, to help me get around without being seen."

"What sort of errands?"

"I can't say," Harry said. "But when I was getting back, I saw you were here so..."

"So that's why you look so tired, and why you can't get up in time for breakfast," Draco said.

"It's not like I can sleep anyway," Harry blurted out, and Draco got it.

"Nightmares?"

"Yes," Harry said. "But rather than discussing that, I'll take you to the Gryffindor Common Room. At least there you can use the couch."

"And terrify Gryffs in the morning, so they curse me next?"

"I'd lend you my Cloak."

"And if someone sits on me? Look, I'm fine. Already slept more than I was planning on, and--"

"So I'll take the couch, and you take my bed. Draw the baldachin, and use the cloak to get out in the morning..."

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to keep you from the few hours of sleep you usually manage either," Draco said, and when Harry started saying something, she added. "And I won't share your bed either."

"Only to sleep, and I'd use a hidden extension charm, so you could sleep on one side and I'm far away on the other."

"Sounds like something someone with an ulterior motive would say."

"Oh yes, because I'm irresistible with morning breath, bed hair, and in my crappy PJs," Harry scoffed, but then he added. "Or maybe, I feel like it's sort of my fault, and I want to help? And I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing someone wrecked your room, and they might just attack you next, Draco. Trust me?"

So Draco got Harry's cloak and even considered using it just to escape, but when they got to the dorm, Harry truly didn't try anything funny, just wished her good night.

So, Draco was also the first who woke up when Harry started kicking and screaming in his dreams, followed by Ron who didn't even seem that surprised to see her in Harry's bed, still wearing her uniform.

"Usually, I wake him up," the Weasley said. "So I guess now you get the honors."

"Wait, I don't--"

"I'm going back to sleep," Ron said, drawing the baldachin back, not even listening.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Harry whispered to Draco when she finally woke him.

"You kind of woke Ron."

"Oh. I'll talk to him later."

But, Draco barely slept back when it started again, and she didn't want all Harry's friends to find them, so she went with a different tactic instead.

This meant that by morning, she woke three more times and realized Harry won't wake if she told him in his dreams that it was going to be okay, and if she held him for a while because that seemed to calm him considerably.

In fact, once she accidentally fell asleep with Harry in her arms, Harry slept soundly until early morning.

"I'm sorry," Draco tried to extract her arm from under Harry who was wide awake by the time she woke, but also trapped under Draco's leg, and the covers snaking around them.

"I'm not," Harry said. "In fact, I'm usually late for breakfast anyway, so we can still sleep in."

But when he saw Draco was trapped by the covers, he also helped her to get free.

"Do you want my cloak, then? I can also walk you out, to open the door and the Portrait..."

"No," Draco changed her mind once the panic in her subsided a little. "It'll be easier to sneak out once there are fewer people around, so you should sleep back."

Harry obediently closed his eyes but still asked.

"And you? Are you going to watch me sleep, like some creep or something?"

"You're the one with a map that tracks everyone, not me, stalker," Draco reminded him.

"On that note, if you want to get close to me again, this stalker wouldn't mind. It felt nice."

"Would that shut you up?" Draco felt embarrassed as if she was cradling Harry because she wanted to, not because it was a necessity for him to relax.

"Maybe."

"Turn around," Draco ordered, and when Harry did, she moved a bit closer, placing an arm over Harry in the hopes that it would be enough to keep him from the nightmares.

When she woke again, they were even closer, and Draco realized Harry had woken her by kissing the palm of her hand.

"Good news is that it's nice weather so basically everybody's cleared out pretty fast," Harry said. "Bad news is that if we don't hurry, we'll miss breakfast entirely."

Luckily it was Sunday, so they weren't late for classes, and Draco could easily leave the Tower without being seen.

But now she also had a very vivid memory of what it was like to run her fingers through Harry's hair, as she did during the night while trying to soothe him. How scared he looked when having a nightmare, like he was running for his life still.

And how, up close, when Draco was holding him, his magic was so strong, vibrant, and ready. As if it was talking to Draco's own.

It was no secret that some powerful wizards could influence a large crowd just by their charisma and magic, literary "enchanting" even other wizards and witches who became drawn to them, but Harry was nothing like Voldemort, for instance.

Yet now that Draco had a little showing what it felt like, she inexplicably felt a different kind of attraction to get close to Harry and his magic again - possibly even closer than before, that didn't make any sense.

Unless... It couldn't be, right? If this feeling was what being in love felt like, it couldn't happen that Draco only spent a few days in Potter's company, and she was already in so deep?

No, Draco was just sleep deprived, and maybe a little bit still shaken, and Harry was kind to her, so that must have been it. Still, she might have avoided Harry the whole day after, too scared that it might just be the reason.