Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Thirty Three

Harry woke up to dim sunlight filtering through the closed curtains over the
window. He squinted at it, trying to recall where exactly he was. The last
thing he remembered was the Knight Bus, and vaguely walking down Diagon
Alley. He closed his eyes again, sighing. He wanted to smack himself for
being so stupid as to run off like this. The thing was, Snape was the only
one he could talk to about this; he had to find him. Not because he really
wanted to talk to the man, but to Harry, it seemed far better not to spread
this around. He couldn\'t tell Lupin, and he wasn\'t even sure that the full
moon was over. It might be too late before he could talk to his father\'s
friend.

As much as everyone had wanted to pretend Lupin hadn\'t been ceremoniously
sidled into Sirius\' place as his guardian after the accident in the
Department of Mysteries, Harry knew what all had happened, too. He wished it
didn\'t have to happen how it did, but he was glad to have Lupin. He never
wanted to make the man think he wasn\'t thankful for it, but they all knew it
wasn\'t the same. Of course, it wasn\'t the same as it would have been if he\'d
had his father alive and well, and his mother, too, for that matter, but
that was the past. He couldn\'t change that. He\'d had a chance to save
Sirius\' life, though, and he\'d screwed that up. He couldn\'t change that
either, no matter how many times he wished he could.

Harry sighed into the pillow before starting to prop himself up on his
elbows. He\'d woken up on his stomach, and grimaced at the sore muscles in
his neck. Turning over, he squinted before reaching back to the other side
of the bed for his glasses that seemed to have fallen off in his sleep. He
didn\'t recall moving at all from the time he\'d walked through the door and
fell onto the bed. He put them on, and looked around the room, seeing Draco
sprawled, as much as one could in a chair, on the other side of the room,
near the fire place.

Harry wondered if Draco had taken them off for him, and he sat up on the
bed, watching the other boy for a moment. Slowly, a smile started to tug its
way onto Harry\'s lips as he watched. He\'d never seen Draco sleep before, and
it looked... strange. He supposed he wanted to laugh, but was too tired
still to do so. Draco looked like nothing Harry would have pictured he would
look while asleep. He wondered if Draco was even really asleep, or was just
pretending, and actually listening to his movements.

\"Draco?\" he asked to the silent figure.

\"What?\" Draco asked right back.

\"What are you doing?\" Harry asked automatically, not even sure why. It did
seem like the Slytherin not to actually be sleeping. He\'d probably not have
said a thing at all even if Harry got up and started dancing around naked
like a moon calf.

\"Waiting for you to get your arse out of bed so we can go and get some more
money, and figure out what the hell you\'ve gotten us into.\"

Harry looked affronted for a moment, though not sure why, because Draco
still didn\'t have his eyes open. He frowned a moment before chuckling. \"I
meant,\" Harry started, \"what are you doing over there?\" He gestured to the
chair when Draco had opened his eyes and straightened up where he sat.

Draco just looked back at him, a serious expression on his face, looking
absolutely nothing like he had a moment ago. \"I, uh, didn\'t think you\'d want
me over there,\" he gestured himself to the bed where there was still a Harry
shaped indent in the covers. He had been too tired to even pull them over
himself, Harry realized, when he looked down at the bed.

\"Oh,\" Harry said quietly. Draco shuffled his robes a bit, and Harry watched,
eyes watching the impersonal movements of the fabric as the other boy moved.
\"It would have been okay,\" he said, after a moment, though just as quietly.

Draco looked up and sneered. \"Well, thanks for the tip, Potter.\" He got up
from the chair and stretched his arms up in the air and twisting to the
side, cracking his back and making Harry wince at the sharp sound.

Frowning, Harry stood up himself, and went to the bag that he\'d brought.
He\'d dropped it just shortly after coming through the door. \"Are you going
to be a prat for the rest of the day?\" Harry asked, taking the bag back to
the bed and opening it to pull out his heavier cloak. He\'d just worn his
robes the night before, and it did feel a bit chilly in here, and it was no
doubt even cooler outside.

\"What do you want me to be, Harry?\" Draco asked back, seemingly serious now,
despite his earlier snark. Harry looked at him, and didn\'t answer. To Harry,
he looked like he had something to regret, which was something Harry had
felt more than once in his life, and knew that feeling quite well. Draco
turned and got his cloak from the arm of the chair which he\'d slung it over,
then put it on. \"Come on.\"

It was near to eleven thirty in the morning and there weren\'t that many
people in the downstairs area of the Leaky Cauldron. Tom barely noticed them
walk by as he was busy stacking mugs behind the bar, and not many of the
meager patrons even looked at them. They\'d lifted their hoods up over their
heads before they left the hall outside of their room. It wouldn\'t be that
strange to see them without being able to see their faces, since some people
kept their hoods up all the time, though they were usually the shady type of
wizards, and got strange looks from proper witches as they walked down the
streets.

Then, of course, it would simply draw attention to their cloaks if their
faces weren\'t shown. That, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, was likely to look
a bit odd if people noticed, but it was something they\'d have to deal with.
They\'d put Harry\'s smaller bag, which was now a lot smaller after his heavy
cloak was taken out of it, inside of Draco\'s. Draco had hoisted it over his
shoulder as they left the bar, but outside, he gave the bag to Harry to
position the strap of it over top of his badge, successfully hiding most of
it in the process. It\'d be easier to accept a Slytherin out of school than a
Gryffindor.

Their first stop was Gringotts, and they made good time down the street to
the wizarding bank, and got inside. Harry hadn\'t brought his key, and Draco
had his own with him, and he took his hood down for the goblin, but it
seemed alright. The goblin looked at him curiously, and Draco stared right
back into the old wrinkled face until the creature hurrmphed and got off his
stool to lead them to the vault. As long as Harry didn\'t have to be exposed,
it was alright, Harry thought. No one was out to get Draco, were they? His
father was in prison, but that didn\'t have anything to do with Draco, did
it?

He almost wanted to say something about it, to try and sympathize with the
loss of a father, but he had absolutely no idea how to brooch the subject.
He wondered how Draco felt about it, he certainly looked fine, and it wasn\'t
as if people hadn\'t mentioned it. The ride to the vault was as pleasant as
ever, and Harry didn\'t see inside of the vault before it was slammed shut
again, but the heavy looking bag that Draco had scooped some coins into did
look, well, heavy. When they got back to the main chamber, they changed ha int into Muggle currency, which Draco gave to Harry so he didn\'t have to deal
with the odd looking papers.

They were sufficiently prepared for Muggle inhabited areas now, and since
they had their school uniforms on under their robes and cloaks, they would
simply look as if they were on a vacation from a boarding school. They
wouldn\'t cause much suspicion with Muggles if they didn\'t have their robes
on; that was the big thing. It was the wizards they had to worry about, and
the little oddities that made up the difference. A Muggle wouldn\'t spot
them, but a wizard would.

It wasn\'t even half past noon by the time they got back to their room at the
inn, and they decided to eat before going back to sleep until it was dark
before they went on again. After a quick meal, they entered the room, Draco
ahead of Harry, and the blond went straight to the fire place and started
the wood on fire, heating the room quickly from the blaze. Harry felt a wave
of warmth settle over him as he set the bag down beside the bed.

Hesitating for a moment before he decided what he was going to do, Harry
started by taking his cloak off, followed by his robes. It wasn\'t like Draco
hadn\'t seen his body before, but it still felt strange to be undressing with
the other boy in the room, considering they hadn\'t exactly left off on the
right foot the last time they\'d been more.. intimate. Regardless, Harry
wanted a somewhat proper night of sleep before they headed off. Draco stood
from the fire, and the first thing he saw was a large amount of skin.

He swallowed, fighting the urge to ask one of the most stupid questions his
brain seemed to think of. What are you doing? he wanted to ask. If it wasn\'t
obvious enough for his stressed mind, Harry was undressing for bed. Even
though he felt a bit uncomfortable, he wasn\'t making any effort not to watch
Harry basically strip down to everything but his trousers. When Harry turned
around, Draco didn\'t look away. He still didn\'t feel like he had anything to
hide, but he supposed he should feel a bit more self conscious of what he
was displaying after what happened between them.

Draco\'s eyes were darting around Harry\'s smooth stomach, but his eyes slowly
drifted upwards to meet Harry\'s. They looked at each other for a second, and
Draco felt the urge to scowl, but held it back when Harry gestured to the
bed. Sighing only loud enough for himself to hear it, Draco shrugged before
taking off his robe and shirt, leaving his trousers on like Harry, and
taking his socks off.

Harry didn\'t take his socks off. Draco hated that, and spared a moment to
glare at the socked feet as they walked around to the other side of the bed.
They reached to pull back the covers at the same time, and that just struck
both of them as awkward. Harry got in first with a sigh of relief at the
comfort, though at the same time, Draco could see his body tense when the
Slytherin sat down on the other side.

The bed was big enough for the two of them not to have to cling to each
other to keep from falling off the edges, so there shouldn\'t have to be any
problems with bumping into each other. Draco slid his legs under the covers,
and they both rustled the covers around for a minute before they seemed
happy with the arrangement. Draco laid on his back, unable to find another
way that his knees or his arse didn\'t just barely touch the other boy.

Harry had turned on his side, facing away from Draco, who stared up at the
ceiling. He could feel Harry\'s heat, and it was strange, and completely
distinguishable from the heat from the fire. It wasn\'t like he had never
been in bed with anyone before, but this was... different. He didn\'t know
what it was about it, but it felt odd, and he couldn\'t put a better word to
it. There was a part of him that wanted to do more than sleep, but another
part made him feel horrible about past indiscretions, freezing him to the
spot. He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. Harry shifted slightly,
and that was the only other sound in the room that Draco heard before they
fell asleep.

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