Love, Lies & Loneliness

Chapter 17
(Living the ‘high’ life)

Harry sat patiently on the bottom of the steps leading up to his bedroom; his school robes discarded for a muggle pair of jeans and one of his better fitting shirts. The cake Dobby had made floated mid air at his side. The common room had been empty when Harry had come back from dinner, the Slytherin’s having left early obviously to attend their meeting. So now Harry sat waiting for Draco to come and get him. Hermione and Ron had told him sternly that if Harry didn’t come to breakfast the next morning, they would go straight to Dumbledore and tell him about the meeting. Harry had reluctantly agreed to let them do so, knowing that trusting Slytherin’s was like trusting a dragon not to cook you alive. Harry was beginning to think that Draco had changed his mind when the entranceway that led to the Slytherin 6th year boy’s dormitory opened from behind a bookcase. Draco stepped out and motioned for Harry to come over to him. Harry did as he was bid; a little stunned to see Draco dressed in a black pair of slacks and a fitted white t-shirt. The clothes weren’t exactly muggle but then again Draco’s family were hardly muggle lovers.

“Be careful there’s steps.” Having glanced Harry’s appearance over with a critical eye Draco turned and led Harry down a dark stairwell. The bookcase closed behind them and as they reached the bottom of the stairs Harry heard music and laughter coming from the room that lay ahead of him. Harry came to a stop the moment he entered the dorm. The boy’s dormitory was extremely similar to his own dorm in Gryfindor tower. Beds complete with curtains and trunks lay around the edges of the room and a warm fire burned slowly with four or five cushions scattered on the rug in front of it. The room seemed strangely full of people and although some spared him a glare none stopped their activities to engage him in any conversation. “Put the cake over there.” Draco casually pointed to a table off to the side of fire where it seemed people’s offerings were placed. Harry did as he was told noticing with amusement that no one seemed to have brought anything remotely to the extent of the cake. There were a few biscuits, some sweets and a bowl of pumpkin juice but nothing that would not have been taken illegally from the kitchens. “Come over here.” With a nod of his head Draco led Harry over to one of the beds, the two boys sitting on it already, shifting to allow Draco room to sit down. The group seemed to welcome Draco into thier fold by handing the boy a glass of some amber liquid. Draco drank from the glass easily and handed it back to the girl who’d slid across the floor to sit comfortably at Draco’s feet. “For fucks sake Potter, sit down.”

Harry felt extremely uncomfortable as he sat down awkwardly next to Draco on the bed. While no one had as yet said anything to him, Harry was well aware of the odd stares and glares he was receiving from other groups scattered about the room. The other thing that struck Harry was that Draco wasn’t surrounded by his normal group of friends he milled about with during school. Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere to be seen as were mysteriously absent other known children of death eaters Harry knew about. Harry turned to Draco to ask where they were but Draco held his hand up stopping Harry in his tracks.

”Don’t ask stupid questions like that one here Potter.” There was something unsettling about the way Draco stared into Harry’s eyes and then it hit Harry what Draco had just done without even batting an eyelid.

“Hey you…” Harry was abruptly cut off again as Draco cut in.

“Did you think you were Snape’s only student?” While those sitting in the group seemed too oblivious to the double meaning in Draco’s reply Harry was certainly aware of it. Draco had clearly just entered his mind and drawn out the question Harry had been thinking, just as Snape usually did during their lessons. Draco was an occlument and a good one at that. “I have a natural talent, it runs in my family.” By way of explaining Draco casually shrugged off the comment and turned to reach into the bedside table of what Harry now assumed was Draco’s bed he was sitting upon. Draco flicked his wand inside the draw and something popped, a moment later Draco withdrew his hand, in it a little tin box. Harry had begun to relax a little when he realised that no one was going to approach him, and those that sat around him were too busy talking amongst themselves to care about his presence.

Harry watched intrigued as Draco lay the little tin box in his lap and opened it. Inside was what Harry could only describe as what looked like dried dead grass and paper-thin parchment pieces. With nimble fingers Draco took one of the thin papers and a pinch of the dried green stuff in the tin and proceeded to roll it all up into a long thin tube.

“What is that?” Harry didn’t want to sound stupid but judging from the snickers from the three boys sitting on the bed Harry knew he’d done just that.

“It’s about the only muggle invention that’s good for something. It’s a joint.” Harry looked blankly at Malfoy still completely lost at what the little thing was. Draco rolled his eyes as he brought the little rolled joint to his lips. With the thing balanced between his lips Draco flicked the end of his wand into flame and proceeded to transfer the flicker onto the end of joint, which began to smoke almost immediately. Harry watched as Draco inhaled deeply, the blonde boys eyes closing as he held the smoke in his lungs a moment before exhaling it slowly from between slightly parted lips. Harry watched in rapt attention as Draco offered him the joint with a raised eyebrow. Harry warily accepted the so-called ‘joint’ and following Draco’s lead brought the thing up to his lips and inhaled. The thing tasted foul and Harry hardly inhaled any before he was spluttering and coughing much to the amusement of the crowd that seemed to have gathered around the bed to watch ‘the boy who lived’ get wasted.

“That’s awful, what’s it supposed to do?” Harry coughed again into his hand and accepted the glass of pumpkin juice the girl sitting at Draco’s feet silently offered him.

“It’s a hallucinogenic drug Potter, muggles use it to get high.” Harry skulled the pumpkin juice and handed the glass back to the girl who took it and refiled it for herself. “And you did it all wrong. Come here.” Draco took the joint from the boy behind him, the thing already having been passed around the inner circle of people before returning to Draco half gone. Unsure he wanted to be that close to Draco Harry shifted nervously forward so that he was sitting directly in front of Malfoy. “Right.” Harry watched as Draco inhaled again on the end of the ‘joint’ but instead of hold his breath and then letting the smoke slowly filter out Draco grabbed hold of Harry’s chin and brought the stunned boys lips to his own. Harry opened his mouth to protest but as he did Draco’s lips sealed around his own and the dense smoke that had been in his lungs transferred easily into Harry’s. Harry’s eyes were like saucers as he felt the smoke drift into his lungs and it seemed as if the world had gone cookcoo as Draco finally pulled back from him with a satisfied smirk on his face.

Harry didn’t know what to do and as he slowly exhaled the second hand smoke from his lungs he felt his muscles relax and his mind go all mushy. There was complete silence now in the dormitory everyone’s attention on Harry who stared sort of pale at Draco. It was obvious everyone was waiting for an answer but all Harry could think about was that his first kiss had come from Malfoy, if what Draco had just done could be classified as that. However as the drug slowly crept throughout his body Harry began to not care, his body relaxing to beyond anything he’d ever experienced. The only word Harry could manage as he flopped back onto the bed was…

“Wow.”

“Yeah it’s strong shit.” Malfoy smirked down at Potter extremely pleased with himself. “I bet your Gryfindork friends don’t do this at parties?” Harry was dimly aware that Malfoy had said it was a ‘meeting’ he had been invited to not a party but as Harry was offered another go at the ‘joint’ and a glass of what Harry had now realised was ‘firewhisky’ he didn’t really care…

As the night wore on Harry began to enjoy himself, his worries and cares disappearing with each ‘joint’ he shared with Malfoy and each glass of firewhisky he downed. Never had he enjoyed a party so much with the Gryfindor’s than he was currently enjoying with the Slytherin’s. Before too long Harry was lying stretched out face down on Malfoy’s bed the blonde haired boy lying beside him in a similar state of drunkenness. The music had died down earlier on and most people who were capable had returned to their own respective dorms. Harry however was far too gone to go anywhere.

“Why?” Harry cocked his head to the side to look at Draco. The blonde haired boy seemed to be weathering his state of inebriation far better than Potter was.

“Why what?” Draco responded his hands tucked behind his head as he stared up into the canopy above his bed.

“Why this? Now?” Harry gestured awkwardly to himself and then about him at the party that had finally wound down around him.

“Why not?” Draco replied quickly with a shrug of his shoulders that Harry didn’t see.

“Come on you hate me Draco and I hate you too, shouldn’t you be trying to kill me for your daddy’s master?” Draco was strangely silent at Harry’s comment and Harry bearly had the mind enough to lift his head and look at the boy he was addressing. Draco stared at him coolly his face set firm.

“Don’t believe everything people tell you Potter, some of us aren’t aspiring to live up to our parents expectations of us.” Draco turned his gaze from Harry’s and stared back up at the canopy above him. Harry frowned but let the comment go, he was too wasted to care.

“You suck Draco.” Harry couldn’t help but smile at the insult he threw at Draco for no apparent reasoning. Draco most unexpectedly laughed at this and poked Harry hard in the side.

“Wouldn’t you believe it.” Draco’s whispered comment was lost on the boy beside him who didn’t seem to hear. “Your bombed out of your brain Potter. Now if you don’t want me to kick you out to fend for yourself shut up and go to sleep.” Harry didn’t need further prompting and with a mutter he closed his eyes and fell into the most restful, dreamless sleep he’d ever had, his mind empty of everything.

TBC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...