Stand Up For Judas

Stand Up For Judas

4
Prince Charming

     Harry sat alone in the dark, his face in his hands. He'd run in to an empty class room and been there, curled up on the floor, ever since. His mind was running wild, in less than two days his entire world had been turned on it's head. Just that one comment from Hermione, that was all it had taken for everything to come crashing down around him.
     ‘What am I going to do?’ he whispered to the floor. He liked Malfoy, that much was certain. He’d resisted it, he’d tried to run away from it, literally in some cases, but it hadn’t changed and he was beginning to realise that no matter how far he ran, figuratively or otherwise, he wasn’t going to escape how he felt. He knew Malfoy would never feel the same about him, so he needed to focus on getting rid of the feelings, rather than pretending they didn’t exist.
     ‘But how?’ Harry had never had to get over someone before. With Cho it had just happened, he hadn’t had to put any effort in to stopping himself thinking about her. With Malfoy it was like he was possessed, like his actions and thoughts weren’t his own any more.
     ‘Merlin,’ thought Harry, his face sinking further into his hands ‘Just two days and he’s done this to me.’
     It was taking all his strength to come to terms with his feelings and after sitting there in the dark for so long he felt physically drained. He sighed and steeled himself, he hadn’t been sorted in to Gryffindor for nothing. He forced himself to think of his friends and how they would react, recalling the disgusted looks he’d pictured them wearing. He didn’t want them to hate him.
     ‘But that‘s happened already, hasn‘t it?’ He thought to himself. He remembered the how hurt Hagrid had looked when Harry had shouted at him, all the scared little glances Hermione had been giving him and the worry on Ron’s face. If he kept on this way they’d all hate him anyway.
     Harry threw his head back in exasperation, hitting softly it against the wall.
     ‘Even I don’t fully understand how I feel about him, how can I expect them to?’
     ‘How you feel about who, Harry?’ Hermione’s voice was soft, almost a whisper. Harry’s eyes shot to the doorway, he hadn’t even realised he’d said the words out loud.
     ‘I, er, I-’ He stammered, scrambling to his feet. Hermione sighed and folded her arms
     ‘Harry, when I said you could tell me about it, I meant it’ It was then Harry’s turn to sigh. He collapsed slowly back to the floor as Hermione walked over.
     ‘I know I can, Hermione, it’s just difficult when you don’t even know how you feel yourself.’
     ‘Who is he?‘ Hermione asked sensitively, crouching down so that they were at the same height. Harry braced himself, drawing on all the Gryffindor courage he had. Once he said it there was no going back
     ‘Draco Malfoy’ He closed his eyes as he said the name, not quite able to bring himself to look at Hermione for fear of the disgust he might see there. When he opened them, she had a wry smile on her face.
     ‘I guessed as much’ she laughed gently at his stunned expression.
     ‘I- what? how did you-? how can you-?’ Harry’s mouth opened an closed like a grindylow out of water
     ‘Well, It’s a little obvious’ She teased, then seeing Harry's look of horror at her words she added hurriedly ‘Oh, only to someone who spends lots of time with you, and Ron’s not really the type of person who notices this kind of thing’
     ‘So Ron doesn’t know?’ Harry didn’t know if he was relived or worried by that ‘Wait, where is Ron?’
     ‘He was a bit nervous about coming to find you, you know he doesn’t cope well when people express their emotions.’ Hermione bit her bottom lip.
     ‘Hermione? What is it?’ Harry decided it was worry he should be feeling.
     ‘I’m so sorry, Harry, Ron’s been going on about it since Defence Against the Dark Arts. I thought it would be better if I came and found you by myself.’ Hermione looked at the floor, apparently not wanting to meet Harry’s eye.
     ‘Been going on about what?’ He could hear the fear rising in his voice ‘What’s he been going on about? Hermione?’ She looked up at him slowly.
     ‘About you and Malfoy. He hasn’t worked out that you actually have feelings for him’ Harry looked at her expectantly when she didn’t continue. She sighed and started again.
     ‘He’s been cursing Snape for insulting you. I’m really sorry, Harry, he thinks the idea of you and Malfoy is wrong’ She finished feebly.
     Harry looked at the floor. He’d expected that, it’d been stupid to hope Ron would react otherwise, given what he’d said the other night. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes.
     ‘Harry?’ Hermione sounded so worried that he forced himself to look at her and smile, although it didn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. ‘Oh Harry, I’m so, so sorry.’ It looked as if she was about to start crying, too.
     ‘It’s not your fault Hermione’ Harry said, his voice choked ‘I guess Ron will just have to come round to the idea’
     ‘Yeah, I guess so’ Hermione smiled back at him.
     ‘And in the mean time I need to work out how to get over Malfoy.’ Hermione gave him a quizzical look ‘C’mon, its not as if he’s been harbouring feelings for me for the past five years’
      ‘You never know, Harry, he might feel the same’ Harry couldn’t help but admire Hermione’s eternally positive attitude, even in the face of disaster.
      ‘Hermione,’ Harry smiled sadly ‘You know that’s never going to happen. He hates me.’
     ‘And you hate him, remember? Things change Harry.’ She whipped her eyes with the back of her sleeve ‘Come on, lets get going, we don’t want to miss lunch.’
     ‘Is it that late already?‘ It’d felt like hours since he’d come in to the classroom, but Harry had put that down to his emotional state.
     ‘Yeah, but don’t worry, I covered for you in Potions’ And with that she hauled him to his feet and they left together for the great hall.

     By the time they’d got there, lunch was over and they’d practically had to run all the way to Charms to get there on time.
     'Are you going to be okay seeing Ron?’ Hermione asked him as they sprinted along the final corridor
     'Haven't really got much choice, have I?' Harry huffed, finally slowing down at the classroom door. Now he had someone to confide in, he didn’t feel nearly as bad. He knew Hermione would help him forget about Malfoy and things would go back to normal, and that knowledge gave him strength.
     ‘Blimey you two’ Ron said as they slipped into the seats either side of him ‘That was cutting it a bit fine. Where’d you get to, Harry?’
      Before Harry could answer, Professor Flitwick entered the room and started the lesson.
     ‘Right class,’ He squeaked ‘Today we’re going to be working on a simple speed charm, but one which can take a great deal of skill to perfect. You don’t want to end up going too fast, or you’ll never be able to stop! Now would everyone please come to the front and collect a snail.’
      There was a faint squeal of disgust from some of the female members of the class. Hermione did not seem impressed.
      ‘Oh for gods sake, their only snails!’ She swept up to the front of the classroom to get a snail each for her, Harry and Ron.
     ‘She’s not normal, that one’ Said Ron, with a faint hint of admiration in his voice.
     The speed charm they were supposed to be practicing involved gently tapping the object that wanted speeding up and saying the incantation ‘rapido’. Ron gave his snail and experimental prod, and it started bubbling alarmingly. Hermione sighed and pulled the snail towards her, having perfected the charm already and put her own snail under a glass to stop it whizzing off the desk.
     'I can look after my own snail, thank you very much' Ron said, indignantly.
     'Yes, I can see that' The sarcasm in Hermione's voice was only just hidden, and the two of them started arguing whilst Ron's snail continued to bubble on the desk in front of them.
     Harry looked down at his snail. It seemed to be trying to make a bid for freedom, but wasn't going anywhere fast
     ‘Well, I'm supposed to fix that’ Harry pointed his wand at it 'Rapid-Ow!' At that moment, Ron's snail decided to burst in to several hot, gooey pieces, one of which would have hit Harry in the eye, had he not had his glasses on. Stunned, Harry shot his speeding charm in an unknown direction.
     'Are you alright, Harry?' Ron sounded faintly guilty.
     'Yeah, I think so' Harry hook his glasses off to wipe the remnants of Ron's snail off them. 'What did I hit?'
     'Dunno' Ron looked around the room. Hermione seemed to have stopped talking to him 'Guess it was something that doesn't move any way.'
     The rest of the lesson passed fairly uneventfully. Professor Flitwick refused to give Ron another snail, telling him that he didn’t want his classroom redecorated by his students, and Ron pestered Hermione to let him practice with hers until she relented and started talking to him again, but only after he’d admitted he was wrong. Wrong about what, Harry wasn’t sure, but he’d already come to the conclusion he didn’t understand girls.
     It was only when they left the lesson that Harry saw what his spell had actually hit.
     The stairs.
     As the three of them left the classroom, Ron and Hermione started arguing again, but the sight that greeted them as they neared the end of the corridor seemed to stop the words in their throats. The many staircases were now in constant motion, staying in contact with the corridors for only moments at a time. A few brave students were attempting to jump on to them as they passed, but the majority were stood next to the stairwell, gawping or cheering on the few on the stairs.
     ‘Well, come on you two’ Hermione grabbed the boy’s arms and started to elbow her way through the crowd in front of them ‘I’m not being late for another lesson today.’
     When they finally got to the staircases, they realised the main problem with the staircases wasn’t their perpetual movement, it was knowing which one to get on.
     ‘Damn’ Said Ron, unconvincingly ‘Looks like we’ll have to wait ‘till this all gets sorted out, eh?’
     ‘Oh don’t be so silly Ron’ Hermione scolded ‘Professor Flitwick’s working on a counter-charm. Look, he’s got a few of them already’ The two boys looked down the stairwell to see that a few of the lower staircases seemed to have become stationary.
     ‘Right’ Hermione braced herself, still holding the boy’s arms ‘I think its this one we want’ And with that she leapt forwards, pulling Ron and Harry after her. The three of them landed alright, but as soon as they did Hermione was up and off again, sprinting up the stairs ‘Come on, you two! We still need to get off!’
     ‘Like I said, not normal,’ Ron pulled himself up, running after Hermione ‘Oi! Hermione! Wait for me!’ in spite of what had happened over the past two days, Harry grinned at his friends and took off after them. He reached the top of the stairs not too out of breath, but just as he got there, Hermione shouted ‘Jump!’ launching herself into the air, her arm wrapped around Ron’s, taking him with her and leaving Harry to try to follow. He managed to get off in time, but caught his foot on the last step, stumbling on to the landing and colliding with a hapless student, knocking them back against the wall.
     Winded, Harry half collapsed on whoever it was. They seemed to stunned at having Harry land on them to resist.
     ‘No public displays of affection in the corridor, please.’
     Harry froze. Surely those words weren’t directed at him? He turned the way the voice had come form, only to see Professor McGonagall’s retreating back. As if sensing his gaze, she turned back to look at what she had assumed to be a mooning couple. Her face dropped.
     ‘Boys! Get to my office. Now!’
     Harry turned to see for the first time the poor student he’d landed on, and felt as if he’s insides had been ripped out.
     It was Draco.

Authors Note: Thank you so much for all the reviews! I said I’d get it up today, and I did =D Even if it is four in the morning o.O This chapter was going to have another scene, but it fits better later, so you’ll have to wait for that ;] Anyway, I hope you like it. I’ll re-read it when I wake up, my brain has stopped working [it’s actually getting light now. Oh dear]. And this should be the end of Harry's Forest Gump impressions. Yay!
WeasleyWench - I was planning on having it all from Harry’s POV, like the books, I don’t think I’d have the first idea about how to write from Draco’s perspective ^^;;
Oh, updates may be a bit few and far between for the next two weeks, I’ve got some real life stuffs going on, and unfortunately that’s going have to come before the fic.
Edit: I've sorted out all the dodgy bits now.