Only Time

Chapter 4



Chapter 4 – Far From My Side

" I know who you really are,"
he said without missing a beat, while Draco stared at him with wide eyes.

"Huh?" asked Draco eloquently,
after opening and closing her mouth several times.

"It wasn’t very difficult to
uncover after those hints, Malfoy," established Harry.

"Hints? What hints? I don’t know
what you’re talking about, Har...I mean, Potter," stuttered Draco,
sweating coldness.

"Don’t you see? You almost called
me by my first name!" said Harry, with victorious air and a sardonic smile
on the face.

"You must have been in the sun too
long, Potter. Now, excuse me. I have to sleep, its late," said Draco trying
to outwit Harry, without a lot of success.

"Don’t you leave Malfoy. Not if
you don’t want everyone to know about your little secret by tomorrow morning,"
challenged Harry.

"If I didn’t know that you are a
Gryffindor, I would swear that you are a Slytherin, Potter," commented
Draco, "Therefore, sinou bou behave as one, you will be tried as one,"
continued Draco, while Harry looked at him with annoyance, "What will it
take to keep your mouth shut?" Draco asked arrogantly with his nose raised.

"What do I want, well, its simple,"
said Harry, quickly, while he approached the blond, "Draco," Harry
said, earning a distrustful look from Draco, "I want to know you better,"
he finished, their noses touching.

Draco did not know how to react. A minute ago she was calm and casual in the
kitchen with her old house elf, and in the next she was penned in. She had
lowered her guard too much, and now she didn’t have a way out. She had been
discovered by the only person who trusted everyone; her love Harry Potter.

Draco lost her famous quick reasoning. In barely two phrases, Harry Potter had
completely disarmed her calm, cool, and collected manner! She could feel her dry
throat, and she tried to make an effort not to tremble. But her brain was
paralyzed, and the only thing she could utter was, "Ok."

"Ok., then," said Harry awkwardly, caught by surprise by the quick
acceptance of his offering, "Then tomorrow we will meet at 1 a.m. in the
Astronomy Tower," he said quickly.

"Yeah," she heard her voice
answering, without having any control of what she was saying.

"I think that I should be going,"
said Harry trying not to conceal his smile, "Oh and one more thing, call me
Harry," he said while putting on his cloak and walking towards the tower.

Alone after Harry disappeared around the corner, she let out the breath she had
unconsciously been holding. Swallowing air in big gulps, she tried to regain his
composure. After a few min, sh, she was abo wao walk back tot he dormitory that
she shared with Crabbe and Goyle, in the Slytherin dungeons.

Upon entering the dormitory, Draco passed by her friends who were discussing
which flavor of biscuit they were going to go eat, and she went and laid on her
bed which was in the corner of the room. She barely had the strenght to take off
her cloak and her shoes laying the beside the bed, she then curled up underneath
the covers. But no matter what she did, she couldn’t sleep, her heart was
still beating quickly in her chest. She rolled on her side, absorbed in her
thoughts. Still not falling asleep, she gave up and sat upright in his bed,
holding his pillow.
"He mentioned "hints","
thought Draco, "But what hints is he talking about? I don’t remember
hinting about anything. Though Lupin and Granger didn’t need hints…they
could just tell. Is there something showing on my face?

Draco looked in the mirror.

"Is there something that I won’t be able to hide?" she continued
while looking in the mirror, "No…I look the same as before. Noting has
changed, my hair is still short, and my eyes are cold just like my fathers. Ok
well, then it wasn’t my appearance" certified Draco, "You couldn’t
look at my face and say that I’m a girl," she smiled putting away the
mirror and getting into bed, "Was it a bluff? No it couldn’t be," she
thought while embracing a pillow, "He looked to full of himself for it to
be a guess. He knows, that much is certain, the problem with that is how he
knows. Granger and that little professor Lupin wouldn’t have opened their
mouth now after so long. But outside of the two of them, only Dobby knows. But
Dobby doesn’t count, or does he? No, he knows what would happen to him if he
told."

And amid those thoughts, Draco finally fell asleep.

That day, the Great Hall was full of students eating breakfast and reading their
mail or newspapers, however, everyone stopped when Draco practically flew into
the hall. When she entered, she felt like everyone was staring at her. Unable to
control her tongue she asked angrily, "What?! Have you never seen someone
be late before?" she asked removing a piece of hair from her face and
walking towards the Slytherin table.

"You look like crap," stated
Crabbe looking at Draco from top to bottom.
"It’s your eyes," retorted
Draco.
"No it’s not. You look like crap
without hair gel, your ties not knotted," continued Gregory.
"Well if you would have woken me up,
I wouldn’t look like this, Goyle," stated while looking at herself,
"I look like a Weasley!" laughed Draco
"Too bad that Halloween’s already
gone," laughed the three while they finished their breakfast.

Her morning classes passed quickly, and they were relatively calm, with Hermione
and Harry watching Ron who was now around five years old, and like all kids that
age, he never stopped moving.

Ron spent most of the classes bothering
the student in DADA, especially the Slytherins. And he spent the entire
Divination class crying, mainly because the professor predicted a horrible death
for the Boy-Who-Lived.

Thanks to the whole scandal of his friend, Harry was expelled from the class he
hated. However, when he had collected his stuff and turned to leave with his
little friend, a hoarse voice made him turn. It was the professor, who had
entered in a trance, like in his third year. More astonishing was not that it
was a prediction, even though he knew they were rare, it was the fact that she
hardly ever could foresee the future. Harry heard the prediction which left him
flabbergasted. Without stopping to think, he picked up Ron and ran for the Great
Hall.

"Hermione!" called Harry as he ran towards the Gryffindor table.uot;uot;Are you feeling ok Harry? You look
pale," asked Hermione, while Harry sat down at the table, "Does your
scar hurt? If it does, we had better tell Professor Dumbledore, or Sirius,"
she finished standing up.
"Its not that, I want to talk with
you about a thing Trelawney said," he finished while signing for Hermione
to com and sit back down.
"That old bat? Oh Harry, don’t
scare me like that. For a minute I thought it was something serious,"
grumbled Hermione annoyed.

"But it is serious!" said
Harry urgently, "She said that"
"That Harry is going to have a
girlfriend! Harry is going to have a girlfriend! La la la," interrupted Ron
while singing and clapping with a smile on his face going from one ear to the
other, "Sorry," he said after seeing the grave look that both of his
friends gave him.

"Continue Harry," said Hermione, glaring at Ron who shrank back.
"When I was leaving class, the
professor went into a trance," said Harry. After seeing the skeptic look
Hermione shot him he continued, "like when she foresaw that someone would
go help Voldem…I mean, You-know-who," he quickly corrected himself upon
seeing the tension in Hermione when he had started to the name of the Dark Lord.
"She said that I would soon fall in love"

"Well, you should be happy then Harry," Hermione shrugged her
shoulders and went back to eating.

"But that’s not all Hermione! She
said that I would love the person I’ve always hated!" continued a
panicked Harry, while Hermione looked in the direction of the Slytherin table.
"This is going to be interesting to
watch," said Hermione between laughs.
"Don’t laugh, Mione! This is
serious! What if my love is Voldemort?" asked Harry while Hermione was
laughing so hard she was almost in tears.
"Harry, you’re hilarious,"
Hermione said while wiping the tears from her eyes, "I don’t think that
the person she was referring to was You-know-who."
"Well, who was she referring to
then?" he question, curious.
"Who have you fought with almost
every day since we started Hogwarts?"
"Malfoy," he answered
automatically, still not understanding.
&quherehere’s your answer," she
said trying to contain her laughter after seeing the incredulous look of her
friend, "But you know what Harry? No matter what your sexual preference,
you’ll always be my friend," concluded Hermione not being able to contain
her amusement, which quickly became laughter.
Still not understanding, Harry decided
to focus on lunch. However, he couldn’t help but throw furtive looks in
Draco’s direction. After awhile, Draco felt extremely uncomfortable with the
looks from Harry.
The night soon arrived.
Harry spent more time in his detention
than he expected, but it was expected, since cleaning Moaning Myrtle’s
bathroom by himself would be difficult.
After his detention, Harry ran towards
the tower. In record time, Harry was ready to meet with Draco. He was extremely
curious about what would happen. After he picked up his cloak and map, he left
for the Astronomy room.
Draco was very impatient and walked from
one side of the room to the other, cursing and talking to herself.

"I’ll get you
Potter! No one stands a Malfoy up" claimed murmuring.

"BOOOOO!" yelled Harry, still
invisible causing Draco to jump.
"Never do that again," ordered
Draco, breathing heavily with his hand on his chest.
"Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Besides, you deserved it. You looked like an old lady pacing the room,"
said Harry while he imitated Draco.
"I do not look like an old lady!"
said Draco, taking a small mirror out of his pocked and looking at himself.
"An old lady…a vain one but still
an old lady. Hmm..Draco…maybe
you should have gotten some botox injected here," he said pointing at the
corners of Draco’s eyes, "That was we couldn’t see your crows feet."
"I do not have crows feet!"
said Draco insulted.
"Calm down I was just joking,"
said Harry who walked in front of Draco and extended his hand, "Hi, I’m
Harry James Potter," he said presented himself.
Draco looked at him confused.

"Were you dropped as a baby? I’ve known your name for the past five years!"
exclaimed Draco.
"No, I was not dropped as a baby. I
just thought that if we are going to get to know each other, it would be better
to start all over," said Harry, not bothered by Draco’s reaction.
"Draco I. Malfoy, and the pleasure
is all yours," finally answered Draco.
In there five years of living together
in Hogwarts, they had never been able to remain in the same room without
exchanging insults, and on the rare occasion they had a civil conversation, they
both felt extremely uncomfortable with the situation. However, after a few weeks,
Draco and Harry had become accustomed to one another, and were slowly forming a
friendship.

They always met in the same room. Sometimes they talked, or they simply lay on
the ground, appreciating the night and one another’s company. Then finally
they began to tell each other personal information.
"Then it was you who sent Dobby to
prevent me from going to Hogwarts my second year? When the Chamber of Secrets
was opened?" asked an astonished Harry.
"Yes it was," answered Draco,
without not even turn, "Would you have rather had me personally go and
knock on the door of your muggle relatives, huh?
"Yes I would have."
"You would have slammed the door in
my face," stated Draco.
"I would not," defended Harry.
"Yes, you would have," refuted
Draco.
"Ok, maybe I would have,"
Harry admitted, "but why did you want to warn me?"
"You were an annoying git, but you
didn’t deserved to die," justified Draco, shrugging her shoulders.
"That’s not what your father
thinks," nudged Harry, scooting towards Draco.
"Yeah, and I bet your uncle agrees
with him," retorted Draco, moving away from Harry.
"Ok! You earned. I won’t speak of
your family, and you won’t speak of mine," said Harry, seeing Draco smile
in return, "You know, I was thinking…"
"That’s a miracle!"
interrupted Draco laughing.
"Hey I’m serious! What’s your
middle name?" asked Harry, scooting towards Draco again.
"Isabele," answered Draco,
noticing how close Harry was and moving away again.
"That’s strange," said Harry.
"Strange?" asked Draco.
"Isabele is a girl’s name,"
said Harry, while looking at Draco with wide eyes.
Draco sat still. She had spent three
weeks with Harry. At the beginning, she feared that Harry would spread her
secret throughout the school. However, these past few days, she had become
really attached to him. It gave her the chance to be near the one that sheed, ed,
even if it was as a friend.

From Harry’s reaction to her middle name, Draco knew that she had been
mistaken. The one she loved still didn’t know that she was in fact and girl,
and that the big secret he had referred to was her friendship with the house
elfs. What a problem. And now what should she do?
"Draco? Are you ok?"
questioned Harry after seeing Draco’s puzzled look, "I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean to offend you," he said while hugging Draco.
‘He doesn’t know….he doesn’t
know. And yet Harry stayed with me. But he’s made a mistake! If someone
figures it out…they won’t like it" she thought while feeling Harry’s
strong arms wrap around her. But she had to be in control. Especially now, that
there was a chance to keep her secret!
"Don’t come over here,"
ordered Draco, extricating herself from the embrace.
"What? I apologized, you don’t
have to be like this," argued Harry, trying to approach again.
"Stay away!" she said, her
voice raised while avoiding Harry’s touch.
"You act like I have some
contagious disease!" said Harry irritated, "Every time I get close to
you, you move away!"
"No…" said Draco.
"Whenever I mention a personal
matter, you quickly change the subject. I know that your still bothered about
what I said about your name, but why won’t you say anything? Why don’t you
just say it so we can put in clean sheets at once?" asked Harry.

"Is not well like this…" tried to defend Draco.

"Logical that is. You cannot be the plague that everybody think, but when
is a matter of me, you do not pass from a ice cube," Harry yelled. His fury
was so strong that the glass in the windows shattered.

But Draco didn’t have time to be frightened. She lost control to and yelled,
"Don’t you understand that I love you, you idiot?!?"

Harry immediately shut up and stared at
Draco, no knowing how to react. His eyes still grew wider behind his glasses.
Draco gasped, the silence blanketing the two. To break the tension, she
continued, "I shouldn’t but I do!" and then unable to hold it in any
longer, she fell sobbing.

A little piece of the shattered window fell and the clink it made when it joined
the other pieces was the only noise in the room except for Draco’s hiccups. By
now Draco had buried his head in his hand and his shoulder shook violently,
while his tears ran.

Harry still hadn’t moved and looked flabbergasted, he experienced a range of
emotions at once. Few things and been more beautiful and exciting than what he
had just witnessed. Suddenly, one certainty dawned on him.

"You must hate me now, even more that before," hiccuped Draco.
Not being able to stand it any longer,
Harry sealed his lips of those of Draco, which answered after the initial shock
wore off. They kissed with urgency, and Harry murmured senseless words.

Draco, finally realizing what they were doing, pulled away from Harry and moved
backwards.
"I love you," said Harry,
looking at Draco who was trying to cover his mouth with his hand.
"You love what you see, but your
eyes mislead you Harry," said Draco amid tears.
She turned quickly and left, leaving a
confused and disturbed Harry Potter behind.