Jaded

JADED

For Summery, warnings, spoilers and disclaimers see chapter one.

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Chapter Twenty- Three: And I realized, I'm going home
(Title from "I'm going home", from the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' soundtrack)

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“So, how did you spend your Sunday night?” Harry asked, tossing another stone into the lake. It was the first warm Monday in a long time and everyone was out and trying to get as much vitamin D and tan as they possibly could during lunch break. Harry was never one for crowded places, especially not now after he and James had finally buried the hatchet and the big feud of the year had ended. People just seemed, well, disappointed, and naturally that drove Harry mad. So he had dragged Draco for a stroll around the lake while trying to avoid the masses.

“It was ok I guess, nothing special.” Draco shrugged, sending his companion a sideways glance, “But I know you’re dying to tell me all about your weekend…” He winked slyly. Harry tried to shrug it off but wasn’t able to resist any longer, that bubbly feeling inside of him simply refused to leave and he found himself practically bouncing wherever he went.

"It was awesome! Just brilliant!" He cried excitedly and Draco tried to hide his smile while preparing himself to a full account of last night's events, probably in a mile-a-minute speech if Harry's shining eyes were any indication, "First we had to leave the castle, which was the less fun part since we all had to hide under James invisibility cloak. Luckily Peter changed to his animagus form and that meant only three of us actually had to cramp together and walk under the cloak. When we finally made it to the Whomping Willow Peter ran under the tree to freeze it… I'll show you sometime, and then we all changed quickly after going up the trap door and into the second floor to meet Remus. It was completely surreal, being a wolf all of a sudden, I mean, all my senses went wonky but not in a bad way. I could smell a lot better, it was like everything turned grey and there were loads and loads of colourful trails of smell, unbelievable! My hearing seemed a lot sharper too, but I was walking on all fours and that was weird. Anyway, we took Remus with us and went down the tunnel and off to the forest. I haven't been in the forbidden forest since the end of fifth year but this time it was totally different and so much more fun. We met the centaurs herd and one of them tried to hit on Prongs. That was so funny, poor Prongs nearly rammed the centaur with his antlers. Gods, I thought I might crack a rib from trying to laugh so hard, apparently it's not something that wolf is meant to do- funny that really. And we met unicorns! Oh, they were magnificent; they were just running about, all pure, white, and glowing. They weren't scared of us but they didn't come near us either, but man… and we were having so much fun, playing games and chasing each other between the trees, it was the best night ever! When the moon sank we came back to the Shrieking Shack and then the others left and I stayed with Remus and we just cuddled and fell asleep…" Harry trailed off with a misty look in his eyes and Draco wanted more than anything to smack that starry eyed expression off the other boy's face,

"That's lovely." He drawled dryly and the tone of his voice seemed to bring Harry back to reality. He shuffled uneasily for a moment,

"Draco, are you… jealous?" Draco looked up sharply, his retort coming a second too fast and a tad too passionate to be completely honest,

"Pfft, No! What would I be jealous of? You and your little lackeys running around the Forbidden Forest like complete morons?" Harry smiled sweetly at him.

"You want to become an animagus." He said with a satisfied smirk, which made Draco bristle even further.

"I, unlike you and the rest of your deranged family am a law abiding citizen. You do know that it is illegal to become an unregistered animagus." He replied haughtily.

"Yes I do know. I was in McGonagall's class too, thank you very much. And since when are you a 'law abiding citizen' Mr. Going-out-at-nights-trying-to-catch-others-out-after-hours-to-report-them-and-ending-up-in-detention-with-them?"

"Gods, Potter, that was six years ago!" Draco cried out, what the hell was Harry thinking bringing up such horrifying and humiliating memories- he had been eleven for the love of Merlin.

"Still, you, a law abiding citizen?" Draco shrugged,

"Oh, well I had to at least try…" Harry grinned wide at that, "Teach me."

"Ok. The first thing we need to do is find out what sort of animal you will turn into, there's a really simple spell for that, you just point your wand at yourself and say-" But before Harry could say what the spell was, a sultry voice was heard behind them,

"Hey Alex." Both Harry and Draco turned around to face Regulus Black, who was trying to look coy but failed miserably when his eyes practically ate up Draco's form. Draco just barely refrained from heaving a deep sigh and rolling his eyes; some people just don't know when to give up…

"Hey Reg, what do you want?" He asked in a brisk bored tone, hoping that Regulus would get the hint and beat it so that he could learn what animal he would turn into. It had been a life long dream of his to turn into an animagus but his mother had always thought that it was too dangerous and she even managed to convince his father of it and so Draco had never actually tried. But now he was in another time and he didn't have mummy and daddy looking over his shoulder and breathing down his neck, so he might as well give it a go.

"The headmaster wants to see you in his office. Right now." Regulus said in a clipped tone, trying not to look too sorry for Draco at having to go see the headmaster, because everyone knew that if you made it all the way up to Dumbledore's office, it couldn’t be for something good.

"Oh, thanks." Draco said, a little deflated, apparently his animagus lessons would be postponed for Merlin knows how long because more likely than not he'll have to deal with Harry's angst rather than practice animagi magic. Regulus gave him another flirting smile and then his eyes slid to the left of Draco and turned cold.

"You too." He snarled at Harry then turned and walked away, leaving the two friends alone to follow the headmaster's orders,

"Why do I have a feeling Reg isn't too keen on me?" Harry asked curiously as they made their way back inside.

"That's because he's not," Draco answered simply and Harry shot him an offended look, "I refused to sleep with him and you took away his old flame, we Blacks don't like to share our toys." Harry huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hmm," He said meaningfully, but Draco chose to ignore him yet again, "What do you suppose the headmaster wants with us?" He asked instead.

"I have no idea but I bet we'll find out soon enough." He gestured at the stone gargoyle that sprang to life as the two reached it. Harry and Draco took the circulating staircase together in silence.

"Enter." The over-cheery voice of Dumbledore came from behind the door when Draco hesitantly knocked on it. The two boys made their way in, silently taking seats in front of the big desk and looking at Dumbledore with avid eyes. "Tea? Lemon drops?" Dumbledore offered but they both shook their heads. "Well then, I'll get right to the point. I'm very please to inform you that after a long and hard study, we were finally able to pinpoint the exact date and time the alcove would reappear." Harry felt his heart sink in his chest, so they were going home… at last. This was something that he would have given anything to hear six months ago- gods, has it been that long? He rubbed his forehead and forced himself to listen to the headmaster, even though it seemed like a huge black cloud suddenly landed on him and was threatening to swallow him whole. "The time alcove will reappear next to the potions classroom on Friday the twelfth of May, which is three weeks from now. It's funny really, because the twelfth of May is exactly the date you left your year, although when you return it will be a week later, I'm not sure why…" Three weeks, just three more weeks to be with Remus, and Lily, and James, and Sirius. Harry felt his chest tightening and a lump forming in his throat. How could he possibly leave?

Harry's shock was apparently deep because he didn't even notice that Draco's hand was guiding him out of Dumbledore's office. All he could think was 'Three weeks', those two words signalled the end of his world and he still had to tell Remus he was leaving in the first place.

"Well, that's certainly good news." Draco's voice didn’t sound at all convinced by that and Harry sighed, feeling completely drained of energy.

"For you maybe…" He said sadly. Draco looked at his friend and was quite surprised to find out that he was feeling sorry for Harry; it can't be easy to leave all this behind.

"Come on!" He argued and sat down next to Harry on the window sill, "You can't tell me you want to stay here…" Harry lifted his sad eyes to Draco, looking more than anything like a lost puppy, "Oh, good gods you do."

"I… I just have so much going for me here, my parents, Remus…"

"Yeah, but… You're really going to stay here?" From some reason the thought of having to go back alone, wasn't making Draco feel as good as it would six months ago. Six months ago he'd hex Harry without a second thought if that would have gotten him home faster, but now…

"I can't stay here." Harry said in a dejected yet final tone, it was a nice fantasy but it could never be real, "That would cause too many problems. Especially in a couple of years, when I'm due to be born." Draco heaved a mental sigh of relief; at least Harry wasn’t too much of a Gryffindor on this,

"Good."

Harry buried his face in his hands, the weight of the news so heavy on him he felt like he was drowning.

"Gods, what am I going to tell Remus?" He mumbled.

"And your mother…" Harry nearly chuckled at that, ever since the big party Draco had taken quite a shine to Lily. Which was something that both amused and vexed Harry.

"Lily won't mind. She knows I'm gonna have to leave at some point."

"Your mum is something else, you know that?" Now that he had only three weeks the only regret Draco was having is not being able to get to know Lily Evans better.

"She found out who your really are, didn't she?"

"She's like a little cuddly thing that turns into a vicious monster when you least expect it! Are you sure she's not a werewolf?" Draco asked with an awed tone. He could still picture the look Lily's eyes took when she realized she was right, it was incredible. She was like a hound after the smell of a fox and at the same time scary as hell.

"She's not a werewolf, possibly Gizmo."

"Who?" Harry sighed; it was starting to get a little annoying that none of the pure-bloods was getting any of his jokes.

"Nothing, a gremlin." Draco glanced sideways at Harry, noting that the other boy was doing it again, giving all sorts of muggle references and then refusing to explain them properly, this was really vexing sometimes. But he decided to drop it all the same. Let Potter keep his little muggle secrets, he'll come running to Draco eventually with something as trivial as a levitating charm and then we'll see who has the last laugh!

"Your mother represents everything I hate- she's a mud… Muggle-born," Draco said in a sarcastic tone, like he was disgusted with himself for even thinking it, "And a redhead, and yet I find myself strangely attracted to her…" Harry's jaw dropped,

"You do NOT get to lust after my mother. Do you hear me!" He cried horrified, gods this was worst than James turning queer! "And what does red hair has to do with anything?"

"You have met at least one, or two, or 2,465 Weasleys have you not?" Draco replied calmly, feeling quite pleased that he managed to shake Harry to the core, "And I do not lust after your mother you pervert! I'm attracted to her intellect. She's a sharp little tool that girl is. She'd have made a brilliant politician." Harry smiled sadly.

"Well, we'll never know now, will we?" Draco bit his lip and cringed inwardly. Damn, that was a stupid slip of the tongue and now Harry was back to his morose, black mood.

"Look, I don't think you should tell your boyfriend that you're leaving."

"Gods Draco, you're completely rubbish at trying to lift up the mood…" Harry shook his head; this was like going from the frying pan to the bloody fire! "And what do you mean I shouldn't tell him I can't not tell Remus I'm leaving and then simply disappearing three weeks from now!"

"Would you rather have him brooding for three whole weeks or would you rather have him happy and ignorant till you leave?" Draco argued. It was all very straightforward as far as he was concerned. It was just Harry who kept insisting on making life hard for himself- I mean, it's the Hufflepuffs who were suppose to be all altruistic, right? "Just imagine all the sex you can have in that time…"

"I can't not tell him," Harry repeated stubbornly, "I won't be able to live with myself if I don't tell him."

"Have I mentioned recently just how pathetic you are?" Harry smiled.

"Not in the last couple of months."

"Well, it's about time I do, then."
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A/N: Isn't 'Gremlins' the scariest movie you've ever seen? And I'm not even talking about the hair and clothes!