Close Enough

Ch 40 I’m fine

Severus arrived to his chambers in time to see Harry packing away his supplies for his project, humming happily. How the boy could be anything near happy at this moment Severus had no clue; he had just been attacked by one of his former friends, who was now on their way to Azkaban. Nonetheless he smiled and made his way over to the young man, who was currently sliding the box into its hiding place under the sofa.
“Feeling alright, Harry?” he asked as he perched himself on the armrest of the sofa.
“Yes, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me Sev.” Harry looked up smiling softly, “besides, he’s gone now, nothing to worry about. Lucky thing that you were there. Thanks.” Harry stood. “I’ve finished my project; I should be heading off to see Draco. I’m sure he’s heard about the whole Ron thing and is wondering about me.”
“Yes, it is probably best if you go.” Severus said with a smile. “So when will you be retrieving this mysterious project?”
“I’ll pick it up on Eve, don’t want it just lying around the room.” Harry smiled happily, hugged Severus quickly and exited the rooms, humming again. Severus watched the boy go, smiling to himself, ‘He is most certainly something else.’ He thought to himself with a slight laugh, ‘Who ever would have guessed…’

Harry slowly made his way toward his dorm room, still humming slightly to himself. His day had been trying and complicated, but he felt lighter somehow. He stopped suddenly when he heard voices, one he recognized as Draco’s.
“You were supposed to be right behind him!” Draco yelled.
“I got held back… I’m sorry…” a voice Harry couldn’t place said.
“I don’t care that you’re sorry!! Do you honestly think that I lay down all of these precautions for nothing! I spent over a month working on this, and you couldn’t do your part!” Draco leaned around the corner, wondering what Draco was so pissed about.
“I got held back!! I wasn’t there fast enough, I’m sorry!!!” Dean screeched, clawing at Draco’s hand that was clutching his throat. “Please…” he whimpered.
“Nothing was supposed to happen to him!” Draco growled, leaning forcefully on his hand, pinning the smaller boy to the wall. Harry ran up down the corridor toward the altercation.
“Draco!” Harry yelled. “What do you think you are doing! Put him down!!!” Harry grabbed a hold of the arm that was suspending the other boy in the air. “Draco! Have you lost your mind?!” Draco turned to look at Harry, his eyes narrowed slightly.
“He was late.” Draco snarled, not releasing his grip on Dean’s throat.
“Draco, you’re killing him.” Harry voiced, now slightly panicked.
“He hurt you.” Draco spat, now glaring back at Dean, tightening his grip slightly, “He will pay.”
“I am fine, Draco. I don’t know what you are talking about. Dean has done nothing to me… EVER! Now put him down! Please, I’m begging you, put him down!” Harry all but commanded, looking at Draco pleadingly. Draco looked back at Harry, his eyes slowly roaming over Harry’s form before he relaxed his grip and Dean fell to the floor gasping.
“Harry, I’m sorry. I should have been faster, I got held back about my project. I’m so sorry.” Dean confessed as he stood up quickly, setting himself to right. “I was supposed to be right behind him, and I wasn’t. I’m so sorry you got hurt. Draco tried to make sure you didn’t, it’s my fault you did.” Harry eyed Dean suspiciously.
“What are you on about, Dean?” He said confusedly, looking between Dean and Draco. “You were supposed to be right behind who?... make sure I didn’t what?”
“I was supposed to be right behind Ron, keeping an eye out. But I got held back about the new project we’re starting, and Ron left before me. I was supposed to set out the alarm if Ron was going to go off the deep end again, and I wasn’t there to do it in time. I’m so sorry you got hurt.” Harry didn’t know how to feel, he looked from Dean who stood there seemingly pleading for forgiveness for Gods only knows what reason, to Draco who was standing there staring at him an unreadable expression on his face. However, by the time Dean had stopped talking; Harry was standing staring wide eyed in realization.
“You called Severus to stop Ron. He didn’t have a meeting.” Harry turned his eyes on Draco, “and you… you knew… I was bait… you used me as a trap to get him in trouble?.. You set this up?” Harry eyed Draco for a moment strangely before looking back at Dean, “As you can see, I’m fine. Thank you for trying to help, Dean.” Harry turned and looked at Draco, however continued talking to Dean, “Go ahead, I’ve got him from here.” Harry took a hold of Draco’s arm and pulled him down the hall toward their dorm.


“You weren’t supposed to get hurt.” Draco pleaded softly, sitting on the foot of Harry’s bed while Harry paced in front of him.
“That doesn’t matter Draco! You should have told me what you had planned!” Harry growled, “I know you did this to try to keep bad things from happening to me, but Draco, bad things find me. It’s what happens! You can’t protect me! And if this is your form of protection, then I’d say I’m better off on my own!”
“Better off on your own? How many run-ins have you had with Ron, Harry? How many?” Draco paused, but didn’t wait for an answer, “I know that it is more than you should gave gone through before you went to someone about it, no matter what your pride tells you.”
“PRIDE!? You think I didn’t go to anyone out of PRIDE!?” Harry screamed, stopping in front of where Draco sat, “He was my friend Draco, I don’t tend to want to hurt my friends.”
“WAS Harry! He WAS your friend! Not any more, and from what I have heard this crap has been going on since the end of fifth year! That’s over a year and a half of someone trying to kill you, and you didn’t go to someone about it.”
“People knew about it.” Harry mumbled, pacing again.
“Oh yea, I know they did. I also know that there was nothing that they could do because you wouldn’t fess up to what was happening to you.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Harry said softly, sitting down at his desk, propping his elbows on his knees with his face in his hands.
“It bloody well does matter, Harry! You could have died! So, since you wouldn’t take care of it, I did. I made it so that you don’t have to fess up, because he was caught in the act and there is a third party involved.” Draco stated as he slowly stood and made his way over to where Harry sat, “Look Harry, nothing bad was supposed to happen, but Severus got there quick enough, I guess.” Draco knelt down in front of Harry, pulling Harry’s hands away from his face, “I care too much about you to let someone, who used to be your friend, beat the hell out of you whenever they feel they can. No, I can’t protect you all the time, and alright maybe I botched it up this time. But I need to know that you are as safe as possible when I can’t be there.”
“I can take care of myself.” Harry countered weakly.
“I know you can Harry, but you, unlike me, hold your former friends in some sort of bank of people not to be hurt in any way. He hurt you, and for that matter he hurt Granger. Now I never liked her much, she’s growing on me now, but she was always such a know-it-all. Be that as it may, he was hurting her, and he was hurting you. I felt he needed to be dealt with.” Draco reached up and caressed Harry’s cheek, “so maybe I messed up, I’m sorry for that. But I didn’t want him to hurt you again.” Harry scoffed, “and I thought I had an air tight plan. I didn’t count on Dean being held up.” Draco growled the last part.
“it wasn’t his fault though. You didn’t have to attack him.” Harry said, leaning his cheek into Draco’s touch.
“It was his fault that you got hurt.” Draco said, running his fingers through the hair around Harry’s ear gently. “I was trying to stop you getting hurt, not get you hurt.”
“But I’m fine. Don’t worry so much.” Harry quickly turned his face and kissed Draco’s palm. “okay?” Draco just smiled softly at the expression of forgiveness and light tone in Harry’s voice.
“I’ll try.” Draco said, leaning forward pulling Harry into a tight embrace.