Close Enough

Ch 41 Yule

Classes ended for the term, and nearly all of the students were heading off to their homes to be with their families. Even Cord was going to be gone for all of the Yule time holiday to the States, as she would be spending time with Cloe and the rest of her family. As far as Harry could tell, this only vaguely bothered Severus; but he said it was more important for her to spend the holiday with her mate than with him. Harry was excited about the break from school, it meant more free time to spend just enjoying Draco’s company than anything else; seeing as Blaise, Justin, and Hermione were all going back to their parents for the holiday, Harry and Draco would be spending most of their time alone.
The pair made their way to Hogsmead station to see off their friends just four days until Christmas. Draco and Harry sent presents home with their friends for Christmas morning, and bade them goodbye and a safe journey. When the train round the corner out of site, the pair wound their arms around eachother and slowly made their way back to the castle. Draco laughed about not being able to wait until he got back to the fire and Hot Chocolate in the common room and out of the cold outside. Harry smiled at him, holding him tighter to himself, feeling bliss in the comfort of Draco’s arms.

Harry woke early, pulled himself out of Draco’s arms, and padded softly out of the room. he smiled to himself, ‘Only three days until Christmas.’ He grinned madly into the mirror thinking about how happy having someone to spend the holiday with was making him. with the rest of the dorm empty, it was easy to pick up the moment when Draco woke; any morning Harry would wake before Draco, when he woke he would say grumble loudly about not knowing how Harry did it. As if on cue, Harry laughed as he heard Draco calling for him.
“Harry… how do you manage to get up and not wake me? I am the lightest sleeper in the world.” Draco stated in disbelief as he walked across the hall, watching Harry finishing washing his face at the sink.
“I’m magic, what can I say.” Harry laughed, as he toweled his face, eyeing Draco in the mirror. “Sleep well then?” Draco smiled softly.
“Yea, I slept fine.” Harry walked past Draco, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek.
“Good.” Harry called back to Draco as he entered their room gathering clothes for the day. “We’re going to Hogsmead today, yea?”
“I don’t really feel like it. Do you think that we can just spend some time here?” Harry knitted his brow in confusion, ‘he’s been looking forward to shopping for a week now, he hasn’t talked about anything else.’ Harry thought to himself.
“Oh, yea… sure.” Harry looked concerned, “Are you alright, Draco? It’s not like you to turn down a shopping trip.” Harry said cautiously.
“I just don’t feel up to it, okay? We’ll go another time.” Draco stepped into the washroom fully and closed the door. Harry was terribly confused now; Draco turned down shopping, the bond had faint signals of distress, but maybe Draco just wanted to stay in, he was a very hard man to read.

After a confusing morning for Harry, the pair spent the afternoon reading by the fire, sipping Hot Chocolate and peppermint tea to their hearts content. Harry was reading a muggle novel, smiling faintly at the book; where as Draco was scowling slightly over an experimental potions magazine he had borrowed from Severus. The look on Draco’s face made Harry laugh suddenly, when Draco looked at him an eyebrow raised Harry just smiled back.
“Nothing.. you just look like you’re trying to burn a hole through the magazine.” Harry nuzzled his nose into the crook of Draco’s neck, “You’re cute when you concentrate like that.” Draco pushed Harry away from him slightly.
“Stop that.” Draco scowled at the magazine again, pulling his arm away from Harry’s shoulders, “Malfoys are not cute.” Harry just smiled.
“I think this one is.” He said sweetly, setting down his tea and resting a hand on Draco’s cheek gently. “Personally I think you are very cute.” Draco swatted Harry’s hand away from him and stood up.
“I’m going to return this to Sev.” Draco said suddenly, not looking at Harry.
“Draco, what’s wrong?” Harry asked, standing slowly from the sofa.
“Nothing.” Draco spat, heading toward the door.
“No, Draco. I can tell something is wrong, what is it? Talk to me.” Harry walked a little closer to Draco. “please talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong.” draco looked at the magazine in his hands.
“I hate that I’m here and it’s Christmas.” Draco said softly, leaning his back against the wall. “I should be at home, with my family.” Leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “But I can’t, and I’m never going to spend another holiday with them.” Harry closed the distance between himself and his mate wrapping him in a tight hug.
“I know you miss them, Draco.” Harry hugged his mate close, pushing his positive feelings through the bond, “It will get easier, I promise.” Draco pushed himself off the way, and Harry away roughly, his face hard and eyes dark.
“It’s easy not to miss something you never had.” Draco growled and left the dorm room, loud bang of the portrait following in his wake. Harry stood, slumped shouldered, and crestfallen, frozen. Blinking away the tears he could feel prickling at the corners of his eyes, Harry left the common room. Slowly making his way up to the entrance hall and out the doors onto the grounds, before allowing the tears to fall.

Draco didn’t find Severus in his chambers, which he thought was a good thing at the time, so he merely left the magazine on the table near the fire figuring that his godfather would find it later without a problem. Not wanting to return to the dorm and face Harry, Draco went for a walk up to the library to find a good book to read and take his mind off of everything. After a few minutes searching, Draco found a book that interested him; Magical Creatures and you: a guide to understanding the Creatures around us. Taking the book off to a secluded corner of the library, Draco sunk down into one of the chairs he found there and began to read.
A loud crack jolted Draco awake. Blinking rapidly, trying to figure out where he was, Draco stood. ‘The library, reading. I must have fallen asleep..’ Draco thought to himself, and looking at this watch he had been there all night. ‘Harry’s probably worried about me.’ Draco ventured out of the library, toward his dorm, only to find upon his arrival that Harry wasn’t there. ‘it’s still to early for him to be up already.’ He thought to himself and set off into the castle to search all of Harry’s usual haunts.
After the fruitless search, Draco was starting to get worried, when he saw a small group of people near the dungeon stairs. He walked closer to them to find that it was all of the ‘death kids’, all the children of death eaters who had passed during the war.
“Draco, you coming to the party? It’s going to be a good one.” Vince said, smiling at him. “You are invited as always. We’ll probably start soon.”
“this early?” Draco said disbelievingly.
“Well yea, we all figured that being together is good, and holidays suck. So we might as well party.” Greg shrugged. Draco listened to his fellow ‘death kids’ chat about the holidays and family. He followed them as they began to move down the hall to the empty classroom they utilized for their get togethers, and his search for Harry was quickly pushed out of his mind, as Vince passed him a butterbeer and the music began to play.

Draco woke with an amazing headache the next morning, finding himself on a couch surrounded by many other waking and groaning individuals. Slowly standing, Draco wove his way through the bodies of his still sleeping or slowly waking friends, toward the door. ‘I’ve got a hang over potion in my trunk, I just have to make it to my trunk.’ Draco muttered to himself as he walked toward his dorm.
Sinking onto his bed, a vile gripped tightly in his hand, Draco used slightly shaking fingers to uncork it before downing the contents in one gulp. Closing the vile and setting it on the table by his bed, Draco sank back onto his pillows sighing heavily. After a handful a minutes his headache and slightly nauseous feeling gone, Draco sat up and looked over at Harry’s bed. Granted it was nearly noon, but Harry’s bed was crisply made and Draco noticed that his mates scent was very faint. ‘Harry hasn’t been here.’ Draco panicked, searching the bond for his mate. His chest went tight, ‘He’s not at Hogwarts.’