How They Fell

Chapter Thirty


Why?

Why was he doing this?

Why was he pretending that they weren’t friends?

He didn’t understand. Had he hurt him in some way? Should he not have mentioned his parents? Was that what he did wrong?

All Harry knew was that for the last three days Draco had been…distant with him. Cold, in a way that was worse than before. Instead of going back to the name calling and taunting he just acted like their friendship had never happened. But it had!

For a week he had been friends with Draco Malfoy, actual friends! And it had been nice. He had liked it and him! He had wanted to keep it like that. Keep the closeness, the odd warmth that came when they talked.

He didn’t understand why Draco would want to turn his back on it, or what he had done to solicit such a response.

It just didn’t make sense!

In their lessons Draco had behaved just as normal with the teachers, talking and laughing with Tonks, but he no longer talked or laughed with him. Nor did he talk to him after the lessons. Instead he would make excuses, spending the day in his room, leaving Harry with an uncomfortable feeling of absence.

After their final defence lesson Harry made a last ditch effort.

Moody and Tonks had reported that they were very pleased with Harry and Draco’s capabilities. Their offensive spells were fast and effective, their wards could hold and protect against almost anything and their blocking abilities were beyond anything the Aurors had ever seen.

As they were dismissed with high praise and compliments Harry found himself unable to rejoice in his achievements. It all felt so hollow without the ability to celebrate with Draco. He felt like they had climbed a mountain together and their separation now that they had achieved their goal prevented him from feeling happy about it.

It was impossible for him to know that a similar sensation was being suffered in Draco’s breast and Draco took many pains to make sure that he did not find out.

Once again Harry jogged to catch up with him in the corridor.

“Um Draco?”

“Yes Potter?” Asked Draco waspishly.

“Oh…sorry.” Apologised Harry blushing slightly and looking down at his feet. Right now he was very aware of Draco’s additional four inches of height and how intimidating it made him.

“Well?” Harry looked up but meeting the others eyes only made him feel smaller. Why was Draco doing his best imitation of Snape?

“I – I was wondering if you want to practice Quidditch? We haven’t played in a while and it really is so much better with two people. I really liked your idea of using the Bludgers as well and it would be cool if you could show me that feint thing that you did last time, you know when you dodge one way, then spin and drop…”

Shut up Harry! Stop babbling!

“It would be a kind of celebration, you know for surviving the course.” Harry finished feeling rather pathetic.

Draco was very tempted to agree. Flying with Harry had been wonderful and part of him was longing to talk to the Gryffindor once more, but that was precisely why he should refuse.

He argued with himself, both desperately wanting to go and yet dreading the idea.

“Well?” Harry asked, slightly more hopefully due to Draco’s indecisive pause.

God he wanted to go! Especially when Harry looked at him like that, it had been so much fun and it was just amazing to be near Potter when he was on a broom. Watching him actually be himself, it was mesmerising.

“I – I.” He took a deep breath, trying to make up his mind, but at the last moment he made the mistake of looking into Harry’s eyes and panicked.

“I can’t!” He spat, his fear venting itself as fury and aimed at the closest object: Harry.

Harry watched as anger suffused Draco’s face. The yell shocked him, but not enough to stop him from stammering.

“Why?”

Draco looked at him incredulously.

“Why? You’re asking me why?”

Harry nodded miserably, sensing the build up of Malfoy’s anger.

“Because I don’t want to Potter!” He snarled viciously. “Because I don’t like to Potter! Because flying with you is the very last thing I want to do right now! Get it?”

But the look was too much for him. His anger evaporated, turning itself into self-disgust and hurt. But then he felt more anger rise up as he realised that it hurt him to hurt Harry.

With a snarl Draco wrenched himself away and strode menacingly away down the corridor leaving Harry standing unhappy and alone.

* * *

When Ron and Hermione arrived back at Hogwarts the next day Harry didn’t tell them about Malfoy. He had meant to. He had wanted to even, but somehow it wasn’t an easy thing to talk about. After all Ron would probably explode, the very idea of a Malfoy being nice would just be too much for him to comprehend. Hermione would be better about it, but she would still be concerned and try to get Harry to talk about his feelings, not something he enjoyed doing.

No. It would be too silly to tell his friends he decided. Especially when Malfoy had gone back to treating him with as much indifference as he had before.

It was so annoying now that Harry had seen how nice Malfoy could be. Without him the Christmas holidays would have been deadly dull. With him…well, they were nice.

Harry shrugged mentally, before getting angry again.

Honestly what was he playing at?

Cold to hot to hot to cold. What was going on? Why was he acting so strangely?

The word acting reverberated around Harry’s head and he hit his hand against his head.

It couldn’t be that could it?

God he was so stupid! He had actually trusted Malfoy, a Slytherin! Ron had been right after all! Malfoy wasn’t being friendly with him he was pretending to be! He was playing with him for his own gain or enjoyment or whatever!

It had all been an act, and now that Malfoy had got what he wanted, or got bored of his little game he was no longer interested.

He had been delusional to think that a Malfoy could ever have wanted to be friends with him.

His musings were disturbed by Ron bounding down the dormitory stairs and plonking himself heavily on the sofa.

“All unpacked finally! I swear that Herm intends to actually check that I’ve folded everything and placed my socks in neat little rows! Between you and me mate, I think that meeting my mother has had a bad effect on her!”

Harry snorted with quiet laughter and made a motion to shush his too forthcoming friend.

“Shh! If Hermione heard you…”

“I’d be pretty dead wouldn’t I!”

“Yeah.”

“Oh Harry there you are!” Hermione’s voice cried out from behind them. Ron turned pale and jumped about an inch. Harry had to hide his smile.

“Hey Herm, how was brides-maiding?”

“Boring. How about the defence course?”

Harry shrugged, careful to keep his expression bland.

“It was cool, I learnt some really interesting stuff.”

“Well you’ll have to show me sometime, but now, your Christmas present.” She said bringing her hand out from behind her back and looking pleased with herself. That would have made Harry very nervous had not the present been a very predictable rectangular shape. A book, nothing too bad there, Harry thought breathing a sigh of relief. He had completely forgotten about Hermione’s present and as he remembered the message in her card he began to feel cautious.

“Well hurry up! Open it!” Hermione urged.

Harry took the package and sat back down on the sofa. He took one corner of the paper and ripped. The paper then fell off leaving Harry clutching a book entitled:

‘How to be a Happy Homosexual: a guide for gay men’

Harry dropped it.

“What is it Harry?” Said Ron leaning over to read the title. “OH!” He too promptly let go of the book and both turned wary eyes to Hermione.

“I thought it would be really useful for you Harry.”

Harry was gaping.

“W-w-whaa?!”

“Oh honestly Harry! I’m sure your still confused about things, I mean for gods sake you haven’t fancied anyone for six months! This will help you come to terms with things.” Harry noticed that she was looking smug.

“B-b-but I don’t need it!”

“Don’t be silly! In such a repressive society as this you need some support and help.”

“But he doesn’t want it do you Harry?” Ron said earnestly.

Harry shook his head feverently.

“That doesn’t change anything. It’ll be good for you.”

Harry sincerely doubted it.

* * *

School restarted and was much the same as before, but with slightly more pressure. The teachers seemed determined to remind them at least once a day that NEWTS were just two terms away.

On top of that the build up to all out war seemed to have started in earnest.

There had been an attack on a muggle bus on boxing day leaving all the passengers dead which had only been reported long after it had happened and there were rumours that the flu network had been corrupted in some manner. The uncertainty of everything left the wizarding community feeling nervous and jumpy.

For Harry it served to confirm the fears that had haunted him all summer. There would be a major attack before the end of the year and he would once again face Voldemort.

To take his mind off it he focused hard on his schoolwork, much to Ron’s annoyance and Hermione’s pleasure. It also served to take his mind off Draco.

The annoying prat of a blond was still ignoring him and Harry was furious. It just wasn’t right to play with somebody’s feelings like that. How dare he?

Harry came very close to questioning Malfoy’s loyalty to the Order, but Dumbledore’s trust and the presence of the sneekoscope made it impossible. However, even if he was loyal he was still a complete bastard and Harry didn’t want to have anything more to do with him

Although he couldn’t help but notice Malfoy’s battle with Nott for the leadership of Slytherin.

Malfoy was right when he predicted that Nott and the others would come back to school with a plan to get rid of him. Unfortunately, they weren’t the most creative Slytherins and fell back on the typical plan of trying to knobble Draco as much as possible.

The first attack came from a seventh year in the charms corridor. Harry was sitting at the Gryffindor table at lunch when Colin Creevley ran over and started whispering loudly to Ginny and a group of sixth years. From where he sat Harry was able to overhear most of it.

“Yeah it was Parkinson who threw the curse at him!…I don’t know what it was, dark stuff probably…dodged it without batting an eye…and then hit her with a petrificus totalis!…stiff as a board and none of her friends could end it…most amazing thing…Malfoy said she was being a fool and that if she didn’t like this then imagine how miserable she would be when you-know-who decides to punish her!…I know…Malfoy…changed sides? Is it possible?”

Unfortunately this report only served to make Harry angrier. The git was definitely on their side so why did he purposefully set out to hurt him? Was their old feud really so important?

The look of smug satisfaction on Malfoy’s face as he sat down for lunch that day at the head of the table was infuriating. Although the look was quickly followed by a warning glare that was shot straight in the direction of Nott’s supporters, especially, Harry thought, Pansy.

Harry was in a terrible mood for the rest of the day.

The next day six of Nott’s supporters were absent from breakfast and there were rumours that they had spent the whole night in the hospital wing recovering from the curses and hexes that Malfoy had thrown at them.

At lunch there was a loudly staged argument between Malfoy and Blaise, who had gone to ‘confront’ Malfoy about taking so many points from his own house.

Harry had to admit that Draco’s performance of regret at having to take points from a few guilty people when it had so much effect on a majority who were perfectly innocent, was magnificent.

The mock fight ended with Draco shouting at Blaise loud enough for the whole hall to hear. “God damn it Zabini do you think I actually want to take points from my own house? At the moment we risk losing the House Cup! Again! But I have to take points for students’ misconduct, its part of being Head Boy! I have no choice!”

It was propaganda genius really, however Harry was too busy fuming over Malfoy’s acting abilities to do justice to his plotting.

The next day someone exploded his caldron in the Potions lesson – a ridiculously stupid thing to do in Harry’s opinion. Not only was Draco fast enough to duck under the desk, but it brought Snape into the fray, and he never responded well to having things purposely blown up in his classroom.

Snape quickly picked out Nott and his group as the most likely offenders, but even though his position as a Death Eater limited his ability to punish them, they still all got detention for a week with Filch until one of them owned up to the matter. Harry was close enough to over hear him berate Nott for disturbing the lesson and thus forcing him to interfere in the matter.

Snape’s support for Malfoy was obvious to Harry and he couldn’t help laugh slightly at Snape’s sneakiness in dealing with the situation.

Draco of course countered the attack by pointing out all of its floors. Not only was it an exceedingly stupid thing to do as ‘everyone knew that a Merion Potion in the third stage has such a high acidity that it is capable of burning through skin,’ and that they had knocked the cauldron over in such a way that it was more a risk for Zabini and the two Slytherins sitting behind him than for himself.

He then waxed lyrical about the typicality of this attack. Not only did they risk innocent Slytherin bystanders with their desperation for revenge, but one of their own number as well! This was also accompanied by dark hints that it had been proven that this was the case even in the very highest ranks of the Death Eaters and a crime of which the Dark Lord himself was guilty.

Blaise took this moment to show his support for Malfoy, claiming that he would not have his life threatened by being foolish enough to support blundering idiots; a statement that was given weight when an anonymous Slytherin set another trip jinks on Nott as he was walking across the entrance hall.

It was clear by this time that Malfoy had the support of most of the Slytherins and that Nott was in a minority. His group was now down to twenty-five close supporters, although Harry noted that there were about thirty or so Slytherins that were carefully remaining neutral.

By the following Thursday the battle was really over, but Nott and his supporters made one final effort in the fourth floor corridor; which Harry was lucky enough to catch coming out of charms, the last lesson of the day.

Just as before Crabbe and Goyle blocked Draco’s way, forcing him to stop in the middle of the corridor. He was then surrounded by Nott’s supporters who all had their wands out and pointed at him.

Harry paused and tucked himself behind a suit of armour. Part of him wanted to go to help Draco, but the other half was still too hurt by the Slytherins’ actions and was determined to watch him fight it out for himself. Although there was a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realised that there were very few Slytherins who would actually want to help Malfoy in the corridor.

“What do you want Nott?” Called Malfoy in a bored voice.

“Well you dead would be a start.” He said in something that was probably meant to be an imitation of a cool drawl, but which failed miserably. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you at the beginning of the year. You’re going to get exactly the same thing as your parents!”

“Who were innocent.” He replied with a bored roll of his eyes. “And are you really going to kill me? All of you? Kill a pureblood?” Draco was looking around the circle appraisingly, catching various people’s eyes. Crabbe and Goyle fumbled with their wands, a sixth year fidgeted and Pansy Parkinson blushed.

“Oh well then, have fun spending the rest of your lives in Azkaban, I hear those Dementors throw wicked parties.”

“Prepare to die Malfoy!”

“Oh how cliché! Get some style Nott, for Merlin’s sake!” And then he did the most bizarre thing, he laughed. His amusement filling the corridor and stilling every movement.

“Oh just look at the brave little Death Eater wannabe’s. What is it twenty against one? Ohh the strength, the bravery!”

“Flagrate!” Cried Nott.
Draco effortlessly shielded it, making it bounce off, setting fire to one of the portraits.
Nott shot another curse at Draco, who blocked it. Then some of his supporters started shooting hexes at him as well.

What resulted was one of the most spectacular things Harry had ever seen. Draco countered curse after curse, even two of three which hit him at the same time. The failed spells rebounded of his shields at odd angles hitting some of the surrounding students and Nott’s supporters.

Within seconds the corridor had turned into a war zone as the students, and especially the Slytherins present attacked Nott and his group. Draco stood in the centre of the mayhem blocking everything with his usual fluid grace.

Harry watched as a numbing charm hit Nott’s left arm, a sense of foreboding building in him. He saw Nott raise his wand, point at Draco and yell ‘Crusio!’

Without thought Harry brought up his own wand and sent a ward around Draco. He could feel the movement of the curse with a clarity that he had never had before, and from the look on Draco’s face he felt the same sensations.

Draco quickly raised a shield, adjusting it for the curse.

Harry watched stunned and hopeful as the curse slowed before the two barriers.

Then it crashed through them heading straight for Draco, who ducked.

Harry sagged with relief.

Nott was hit with a stunner and the corridor gradually became peaceful once more. The small fires that were burning were put out and some of the lesser curses removed from the students.

Then Dumbledore was walking down the corridor, his face inscrutable as he took in the damage.

All of the students present held their breaths.

“I think Mr. Nott, Mr. Avery. Miss. Parkinson. Misters Crabbe and Goyle, Miss. Perkis, Miss. Greengrass and all the rest, would please accompany me to my office.” He ordered, his voice calm but controlled and forceful.

As none of them were in much position to move Dumbledore conjured stretchers with straps which bound the few struggling Slytherins.

“Would all those hurt in this fiasco please report to Madam Pomfrey immediately. Otherwise I would suggest that you return to your common rooms…with the exception of Mr. Malfoy.”

There was another hush over the small crowd who all turned to look at Draco.

He stood straight and proud in the very middle of the decimated corridor, his face as inscrutable as Dumbledore’s. However, Harry could see that he was slightly paler than usual and that his hands were shaking. It was understandable, the amount of magic he had pulled off, blocking three different curses at once!

Dumbledore shot one more glance around the corridor, turned and with a swish of his robes was off down the hall, the stretchers and Malfoy following.


************
Authors note: The book ‘how to be a happy homosexual’ actually exists! I discovered it by standing in front of the English criticism section in my local borders trying to find a Norton Anthology of English Literature, anyway the criticism section and the gay and lesbian erotic literature section share a book case (that got me some funny looks) and low and behold there was ‘how to be a happy homosexual.’ It made me so happy I laughed all the way home. A couple of reviews will get a similar reaction I assure you. :)