Mind Meld

Disclaimer: not mine. everything belongs to JKR, well, except portions of the plot. And whatever Scholastic Books, Warner Bros. etc own.

A/N: Apologies to all waiting updates on my other stories. I will get to them! I promise they are not abandoned. I just haven't had time to write lately. This story is mostly prewritten, was hiding on my computer. Between holidays, overtime, and family issues, free time is a minimum. And to all who ask for alerts, I would love to do it, but need you not to have your email address hidden! Thanks for all your support!

The next day passed quickly and Harry was again waiting for Draco to tell him where to meet that night. They had decided to talk about researching the spell…or whatever it was that they had accidentally cast. Neither boy was sure they actually wanted to reverse it, but they wanted to know what had happened.

They didn’t want to examine the reasons why they didn’t want to reverse it. That was too disturbing to think about. They just felt…comfortable. It was nice knowing there was someone they didn’t have to hide themselves with. Someone they *couldn’t* hide from.

They made their way to the restricted section of the library, both huddled under the cloak and peering at the map. Harry heard Draco snicker and looked at him questioning. Draco pointed to a pair of dots on the map, in a small classroom on the first floor. The dots were so close they were almost on top of each other, labelled “Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger”

Harry gasped. “I knew it!” he muttered. “About bloody time too. I thought I was going to have to do something drastic like kiss her to make him jealous.”

“You mean you haven’t already?” Draco asked. “I kind of assumed, the way you two are always around each other that you had.”

Harry couldn’t hold the slight shudder that went through him. “Hermione? No thanks. I love her to death, but just as a friend. Kind of like Ginny, a sort of sister. Besides, I would hate to kiss her, she would break the whole thing apart and start telling me everything I did wrong and what I should do to fix it.” Draco let out a smothered snort of laughter.

“Why can I see the Mudb…” he broke off the thought and quickly changed it and the fury the ripped through Harry. “Er, see Granger doing that.”

They continued the path to the restricted section. Finally, they got to where they wanted to be and threw off the cloak. Making sure no one was anywhere nearby they decided that Harry would watch the map while Draco searched for a book that might help. It was slow going and at the end of two hours, they had nothing.

They debated staying longer. It was Friday night, no classes, but Harry was holding Quidditch tryouts the next day and he didn’t want to be out too late. Plus a quick glance at the map showed him that his friends had left their love nest and returned to the rooms. He knew he couldn’t be out too much later without them questioning it.

Mostly however, the two boys wanted some time to just talk. So they found their way to a nearby classroom and sank into a corner. They almost never touched. They just sat side-by-side or facing each other and talked. Sometimes it was about their respective childhoods. Sharing memories. Sometimes Harry recognized bits of Draco’s memories and realized they were the dreams he had at the beginning of summer.

Tonight they were discussing the tryouts tomorrow. Harry admitted to being nervous about it. What did he know of choosing a team? He was raised by Muggles and never heard of the game until 5 years ago.

Draco offered him some advice, and finally told him to listen to the Weasel. Harry had given up on trying to correct the name. He knew it was just jealousy. Unlike when Draco used the term Mudblood. That was years of conditioning at Malfoy hands. It was a phrase Harry was going to eliminate from Draco’s vocabulary.

At the end of the night they gave a quick hug and rushed back to the dorms. And neither boy ever mentioned the way their minds held each other at night.

The Quidditch tryouts were a nightmare. Nearly every student in Gryffindor showed up on the field. Harry started by telling them that if they were in first year or weren‘t in Gryffindor, they needed to leave the field. Several kids left. That still left the problem of organizing the remaining students.

To make matters worse, the Slytherin team showed up to ... Harry didn’t know what they were doing. Other than being pains in the arse. He could hear Draco and Crabbe and Goyle snickering when Harry tried to get the remaining students to divide into those trying out for Keeper, Chaser and Beater, and several of the girls stood there giggling and looking at Harry. He asked them again what they were trying out for and they blushed but gave him a look that said they had no idea what he meant.

Harry sighed and asked them to please have a seat in the sidelines if they weren’t actually going to try out for a position. The girls started to giggle at that comment. Harry blushed but turned away from the girls. He was getting a headache. He hadn’t even started to test the people wanting to try out.

First he decided to make sure they could all fly decently. He had Katie and Angelina join him and they led the students in a quick flying test. This weeded out over half the students there. They started just flying low and in circles. Harry flew up to each student and quietly told those that weren’t able to keep up to go ahead and land. Slowly they made the flying moves more complex until they were flying in circles and up and down. Harry finally landed the group and had them split back up into what they were trying out for.

Ron was trying out for Beater and Harry was grateful. After his shaky performance as Keeper the year before he was afraid of the results. Surprisingly, Ginny was trying out for Keeper. The next few minutes were spent organizing the students into groups to try out. They flew the first tryouts in the air. Harry acted as a Chaser and they tested the new Beaters and Keepers, rotating the tryouts.

In time the tests were done and Harry had a decent idea of who he was going to put in each position. Ginny made an excellent Keeper, having only let one shot through. Ron had done an excellent job as a Beater. He was almost as good as Fred and George. A young second year had made a surprising showing in the Beater tryouts and Harry was split between him and a fifth year.

There were also a couple potentials for the empty Chasers positions. These tryouts he had saved for last, wanting to fill the other, more difficult positions first. When he landed his broom to start the last round of tryouts, he was embarrassed to realize that his fan club of giggling girls was back. They seemed somehow worse.

His head was really starting to hurt. Quickly he glanced up into the stands, trying not to be obvious. Draco was rubbing his head with one hand. Harry closed his eyes and tried to breathe a couple slow breaths. It seemed to help a little.

He braced himself to continue the tryouts. Finally, after what felt like forever, he had a team together. He consulted with Ron several times, once with Draco, and three times with Katie and Angelina. He wanted to talk more to Draco but was afraid of being obvious that something was going on.

Finally the tryouts were over. He dismissed all the students he had not chosen and told the rest to get him their class schedules by the following weekend so he could set up a training schedule. At last he was free to go. He turned to see once again the giggling fan club. This time however, it seemed Ginny, Angelina and Katie decided to take matters into their own hands. The three girls walked over to Harry. Angelina and Ginny each took a side and wrapped an arm around Harry’s middle. Katie slide behind him and wrapped both arms around his chest.

Harry felt his face turn red. He heard Draco start laughing. The laughter was not even in confined to his head. He turned around to see Draco doubled over with laughter. Crabbe and Goyle and the other Slytherins were staring with jaws dropped. Especially when Angelina and Ginny cuddled up tighter to him and both leaned up to kiss a cheek. Katie leaned up and nibbled on an ear. Harry couldn’t move from shock.

Katie unfolded herself from Harry, walked up to the group of girls, who miraculously had quit giggling, and said “Bugger off ladies; he is much too busy for any of you.” She turned to Harry and waggled an eyebrow. Harry felt faint from embarrassment.

Harry felt a sharp pain in his buttocks and elbow at the same time as he heard a “thump” behind him. He resisted the urge to flinch from the reflected pain.

Instead he turned and said over his shoulder “Jealous Malfoy?”

“You wish Potter,” was the sneering response.

‘Go with it Harry. They are giving you an “out” for the twit brigade,’ Harry laughed. Out loud. Oops!

Quickly he recovered. He moved to kiss Ginny but changed path to kiss Angelina instead. Ginny was too much like a sister. It would be…weird.

His lips met Angelina’s and the kiss quickly turned into something more. Something deeper. This was different from the fumbling kiss he shared with Cho.

He pulled back in amazement. Angelina was looking at him with a strange look.

‘Oh Man!’ Harry had to agree with Draco’s sentiment. ‘This could get really kinky’ Draco’s voice was a bit shaky.

Katie came back to the trio and wrapped an arm around Harry’s neck. She moved to pull Harry down for a kiss. He pulled back and grinned. “Why don’t we take this to the Tower?” he asked with a grin and a bright blush.

“Sounds great,” chimed in Ginny. “Then maybe we can get naked!”

“Ginny!” Ron and Harry yelped in unison. Harry had forgotten about Ron. He glanced around and saw the amused and some scandalized students.

Harry decided to hurry the group back to Gryffindor Tower. They passed the group of girl on their way in. Once they were safe inside Harry pulled away from the three girls.

“Umm…thanks for…um…you know,” he stammered. He was turning red again. Idly he wondered if it was possible to turn that shade permanently from blushing too much.

He couldn’t look at Angelina. He wasn’t sure what to think of the kiss. He thought he wanted to repeat it, but with Draco…observing…it seemed too strange. They really needed to figure out this spell soon. Not that he wanted to get rid of Draco per say. He really liked the feeling that he wasn’t alone. He just wanted something. Hmm, he didn’t even know what the right words were. Wanted to let Draco go if he wanted? Harry sighed. It was really too complex to consider.

That evening he got the first message for a meeting with Dumbledore. He went to the Headmaster’s office and was very surprised at the lesson he received. It was about Tom Riddle. Or in this case, about Tom’s family and birth. So Riddle wasn’t the only one that was messed up. His grandfather, uncle and mother were real prats. He was thinking about what he had learned, but didn’t know how it applied to battling Voldemort. It was really confusing.

He only had an hour until he was supposed to meet up with Draco. He rushed back to his rooms to talk to Hermione and Ron. They were still trying to hide their relationship. Harry thought it was amusing. They would look at each other and blush. Hands linger next to each other before being pulled away.

Finally Harry snickered and asked “So did you two enjoy yourselves last night in the Charms classroom.”

Ron sputtered and Hermione turned red and shuffled papers in her hands, hiding behind a book. Harry laughed and said “Marauder’s Map, remember?”

He took advantage of the moment and excused himself. “I will give you guys some time here in the room.”

He took off with his cloak in his pocket. ‘Draco, I’m out early. Told Hermione and Ron that I was giving them some alone time.’

He snickered at the groan from Draco. ‘I didn’t want the mental image Potter.’ There was a pause. ‘Looks like the way is clear to the library. Meet you there.’

Harry hurried to the Restricted Section and prepared himself for another round of teasing for the tryouts scene and being cross-examined about what he did in Dumbledore’s office. Topped with a round of research and this was working out to be a very long night indeed. And to make matters worse, Hagrid still hadn’t returned from where ever he was. He wondered if Hagrid was with Madame Maxine, wherever he was.

As expected, Draco started in on him as soon as he got to the library. He took one look at Harry and burst into laughter that was almost as hard as the fit he had at the Quidditch pitch earlier. Harry gave him a glare and started looking at the shelves hoping to find something they could use.

It was several days later that Harry finally found something. Ironically enough, it wasn’t even in the Restricted Section that he found the passage. He was working on a paper about the history of curses and their path through the laws. He read the passage twice. Then a third time. It was definitely the first spell that he had come across that fit all the symptoms that he and Draco were showing, but it couldn’t be! This just couldn’t be right!

The first known spell to ever be banned in the Wizarding World was banned shortly after the fall of the Babylonian Empire. It was called (roughly translated) Two Become One. It involved two persons of magical ability binding themselves together; mind, body and soul. Very little is truly known about this spell. Most people did not survive the casting of the spell and the unstable nature often caused death or madness shortly thereafter. It is reported that the two would develop physical characteristics of the other, ability to feel pain when the other was injured, increased healing abilities, the capability to communicate with the mind without the accompanying madness. Most important to note is due to the soul mate binding nature of the spell, if one partner died, the other followed, usually after a period of madness that would last for up to, several years before succumbing to death. It was used to bind people whose souls were well matched. If not a match, the spell would kill the casters and often the recipients. The stronger the mates, the stronger the powers granted. It was even rumoured their magical abilities increased. However, if the bond formed too quickly, it was impossible to control, causing magic to rage out of control destroying everything around it. Many theorize this is the true reason that the Babylonian Empire fell.

Harry felt the blood drain from his head. He felt dizzy. ‘Harry? You okay?’ Was that Draco? He looked around barely aware. Hermione and Ron weren’t there. It must be.

‘Yeah,’ he took a breath. ‘I think I found it.’ He was almost afraid to say even those words.

‘Found it? You mean the spell?’ Draco was sounding excited.

‘Yeah,’ he couldn’t bring himself to say more.

‘Um, shouldn’t this be a good thing?’ Draco was starting to sound worried. Harry was way past worried.

‘Um, get up here now,’ He knew it would grate with Draco’s stubborn “no-one-orders-me” attitude but at this point he didn’t care.

‘Where?’ It was a sign of Draco’s worry that he didn’t even argue or scold Harry.

‘Back corner, left side. I’ll put on the cloak when you get here,’ Harry could sense Draco’s urgency building. He wanted to reassure him but needed to reassure himself first.

He saw Draco coming in and quickly threw the cloak around himself. He moved out of the chair he occupied and pushed Draco towards it. Looking around he slipped a hand from under the cloak and pointed out the passage.

The minutes clicked by. Draco did exactly what Harry did, read the passage over and over before his head fell forward onto the edge of the table.

“Oh hell. Is this saying what I think it is?” Draco muttered.

‘Dunno, which part? The part that we could potentially destroy all of Scotland? Or how about the fact that we are likely to go mad?’ Harry shuddered.

‘Wait! This can’t be the right spell!’ Draco suddenly exclaimed. ‘It says “soul mates” and I don’t think that we can be described as that! I mean, we are both straight for one. Or at least I know I am.’

‘I am too. But what else could it be? The signs are all there.’ Harry felt a slight flicker of hope. ‘Let’s find something on soul mates. See if there are any explanations there.’

Draco moved to find a listing of books. Harry waited for him to get some of the books and come back. His mind was racing. The article mentioned strengthening of powers. He hadn’t really noticed that. Maybe it wasn’t the right spell. After all, no one could have described Draco and he as soul mates. The thought was ludicrous.

Harry let his thoughts stray to the kiss he shared with Angelina. That was a memory worth savouring. Well, except that Draco also felt the effects. Which was kind of embarrassing.

Suddenly Draco was back. He had several books in front of him. Casually he slide one off to the side. Harry slid it under his cloak and started reading. The two sat side-by-side, one visible, one covered, reading for hours. Harry saw Hermione and Ron looking for him. Draco sneered at them when they came in but didn’t say anything.

It was many hours later when Draco once again dropped his head to the table top.

‘Found it,’ the tone didn’t fill Harry with hope. He grabbed the book and read the passage.

The term soul mate has taken on many new meanings in recent years. The traditional meaning of the word is one in which two souls are perfect partners. When pairing souls, gender, sexuality, age or upbringing are meaningless. It is not a romantic blending of souls, rather two souls that compliment each other. Strengths in one where there are weaknesses in the other, similar emotional and psychological needs, and above all else, the ability or desire to be the most important thing in the other person’s life. Many times, the perfection of the blending has led to romantic involvement.

Harry sighed. He knew that they fit that description. Even their classes, where the one got lower grades, the other got better. As for being most important in each other’s lives, until recently, they had been probably the most important negative forces on each other. They went out of the way to annoy each other.

This was bad. Really bad. ‘Draco, let’s find somewhere to be alone. Really need to get…oh gods.’

Draco stood up and headed out the door. Harry trailed behind him, barely seeing anything but Draco’s back. The kept going until they reached the Room of Requirement. Harry was shocked when they went inside. All that was in there was a single, very large comfortable armchair. Big enough for two.

He swept the cloak off and both boys looked at each other. Harry saw the fear in Draco’s eyes. He knew it was there, he felt it but seeing it was something else. He knew his own eyes were showing the same fear. The two boys moved into each others arms and towards the chair. They sat down, clinging to each other.

‘What…’ Harry paused, and then spoke aloud; almost afraid to use the skills they had become adept at.

“What does this mean Draco? Are we going to …go insane?” he was very confused.

“I don’t know Harry. I mean, if the writings are correct, the last time the spell was cast was literally thousands of years ago. How can they be accurate? Most of it was talking about rumours even,” Harry couldn’t tell which of them Draco was trying to convince.

He finally looked up into Draco’s silver eyes. They burned with a fierce intensity that made Harry pull back. He focused on the emotional link and realized that Draco had a determination to protect him. HIM, Harry Potter! It was an unusual experience, and Harry didn’t know how to react. But he knew he felt the same way. The idea of Draco going mad was, terrifying.

“I think we need to do more research. We know where to start now. The name of the spell at least. It should…and the time frame. If we look in stuff from Babylon,” Harry tried to pull them back into focus.

The two boys remained in the chair for some time. They were curled into each other, silent. Both lost in their own thoughts and fears, neither wanting to lose the contact that gave them comfort.

Finally Harry sat up, pulling away. He gave a sigh and said “We should get going. Ron and Hermione are already looking for me. They will start getting worried if they don’t find me soon.”

Draco nodded. “You go first; I’ll follow in a bit.”

Harry slipped out the door and ran back to the tower where his friends were waiting. He painted on a bright face not yet ready to explain what the problem was. Several days passed. He and Draco spent time both together in the evenings and on their own during the days trying to find anything on the Two Become One spell.

It was a potions class that things started to once again go weird for Harry. He was barely doing anything. Waiting for the damn thing to finish heating. Just then Snape yelled at him for being careless and daydreaming and gave him detention.

Harry sighed. Somehow he suspected that it had more to do with “extra lessons” than actually anything he was doing, but it was still annoying.

That night Harry showed up at Snape’s office for his “detention” and barely walked through the door when Snape threw a “Legilimens” at him. Once again Harry had no hint of the invasion of his mind.

“What have you done Potter?” snapped Snape. “How have you so completely blocked my mind?” Harry was mystified.

“What do you mean sir?” he asked.

Snape gave him a look and handed him a book. Harry looked at the book and read the cover. It was a text he had seen Snape reading through the week, during classes.

“You will spend the evening reading this book. I do not want it to leave this room and you will not discuss it with your friends when you leave here,” Snape gave a sneer at the word friends. He didn’t pause for any response from Harry before he turned and stormed away.

It was a book on Legilimency. Harry opened the book and started reading. Time passed very quickly. Before he knew it, Snape was back telling him it was time for Harry to return to his rooms. Harry rubbed his eyes and glanced down. He had read several chapters already.

It raised many questions. He suddenly realized what Snape had meant by his question at the beginning of the class. Most people who study have to study for sometimes years before they can completely block another person. Usually they are only successful at blocking a portion of the thoughts.

Silently Harry handed the book back to Snape and left the room. He realized that the time was rather late and when he felt for Draco realized that the other boy had fallen asleep already. When he got back to the tower, Ron and Hermione were in the common room waiting for him. They had dozens of questions to which Harry simply told them that he couldn’t talk about it. They were extremely frustrated with him when refused to budge on the subject.