Fighting For My Love And Right

‘Harry, are you all right?’ Harry wanted to shush Ron away; he didn’t feel like he had got enough sleep.

He weakly remembered waking up that night, annoyed that he couldn’t sleep more than three hours at a time. Then he remembered the sleeping potion Pomfrey gave him and decided that it was his best chance at the moment. He couldn’t remember how much he should take but sipping a few drops couldn’t be too much. It must have been a strong potion since he fell on his bed and barely made it under the covers before falling asleep.

‘Leave me alone.’

‘But it’s two pm; you have been sleeping most of the day.’ Had he been sleeping for that long? He couldn’t figure out how it was possibly, he was either really tired or it was only the potion that was stronger than he thought?

‘Okay, I’ll get up.’ He didn’t have much of a choice; Ron wouldn’t leave him before he was sure Harry wouldn’t go back to bed. Even if he wanted to go back to sleep he didn’t want to spend the whole day in bed either, and when he remembered what his plans were for the day so he dressed even faster, if Malfoy didn’t find arithmancy difficult either he would have already be done with it, and then he maybe would hide in his room again. Harry grabbed that opportunity to check his map. He checked the dungeon first, no Malfoy there, he found the Slytherin a few levels higher in a classroom. It could be the exam classroom, but what was he still doing in there? Hermione had arithmancy to but she wasn’t sitting in the room; maybe arithmancy wasn’t his strongest subject.

He folded the map and walked out of the bedroom, regretting it immediately. Every Gryffindor watched him in silence while he headed over to the portrait hole. He knew what had probably caused their silence. He couldn’t blame it on anyone either, it was his choice to set out a bad rumour about himself. Even his class mates ignored him, luckily for him he had more important things on his mind to even care about glares from others.

‘Harry.’ Neville approached him slowly, looking worried. ‘Dumbledore asked me to tell you to go and see him when you have the time.’ He opened his mouth again but shook his head instead and walked away. What did Dumbledore want with him now? Could it be about the exams and when he should take them? If there was any problem with that arrangement then he would rather not take any exam at all.

On his way over to the gargoyle he crossed Snape’s path, the Slytherin professor stopped and waited, probably surprised that Harry was actually walking out amongst people.

‘Mr Potter, may I have a word with you?’ He couldn’t refuse a professor, but maybe he could say that he had been called by Dumbledore and couldn’t make him wait. He threw that thought away, it would make him sound like he was Dumbledore’s pet and he hated being controlled by others.

‘Something important or is it only so you can have some fun humiliating me.’

‘I will not repeat myself Potter, if you rather wish to discuss this matter later on then fine with me, I have better things to do than wasting my time on the Golden Boy.’ The last two words sounded like they had ripped his throat on their way up.

‘And I have better things to do than wasting my time on a slime git like you.’

‘Five points from Gryffindor, next time I’ll take twenty. Now stop behaving like a spoiled brat and follow me, I need to discuss your behaviour against one of my students.’ Yes, one of his students was important, but a Gryffindor was not worth anything at all. How he wanted to hex the professor even if it would get him into trouble.

‘Fine.’ He silently followed the other man, his hand tucked in his pocket holding his wand in case Snape was leading him to his Death Eater buddies. They turned a corner and then entered an empty classroom before Snape raised his wand and waved it over his head, Harry was close to getting his wand out to protect himself; you could never know what a Slytherin was thinking.

‘I have received complaints about inappropriate behaviour against one of my students in my house.’ He knew exactly who Snape was talking about. So that little rat couldn’t handle his own problems?

‘And what kind of complaints have you got?’

‘A complaint about you stalking him, even after he had told you to leave him alone.’ How much had Malfoy told his head of house?

‘That is a lie.’

‘What exactly is a lie?’

‘That I have been stalking him. He was clearly hiding places I walked into and would find him, that can’t be stalking.’

‘But he told you to leave him alone, and since you kept on following him and finding him as you put it you have been stalking him.’

‘I have never done anything to hurt him.’ Not as far as he knew. When he was holding Malfoy the previous day he never held him with a force that could hurt him, maybe Malfoy didn’t need much force to be in pain.

‘I never said that you hurt him, I said that you stalked him, I think there is a clear difference in those two words Potter.’

‘Then why do you act like I have hurt him?’ Snape’s voice had been hard through the entire conversation, he had been angry but not completely since he never raised his voice to high.

‘Why are you even following him?’ Why he had to think about it first, in a way he had forgotten the main reason; so much had happened since Sunday, even if it was just two days ago. It started with a sorry, and the strange looks.

‘There is something going on with him, he is acting really strange.’

‘And your behaviour isn’t strange?’

‘Like I have ever been normal or anything around me has ever been normal.’

‘Do you think that everything is about you?’ There must have been a misunderstanding somewhere; he hadn’t meant it to sound like it was about him. ‘Don’t you think others may have problems?’

‘I know that, and I see that Malfoy has a problem. And I actually want to help him even if people do look at me like a maniac, not that it is any different from what they might already think of me.’

‘Has it ever occurred to you that you may be a part of that problem?’

‘No, why? Do you know why he is acting like this?’

‘So you don’t have a clue?’

‘No, how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t know?’

‘Then maybe you should leave him alone, some problems can be solved by leaving them alone.’ He walked past Harry and out of the room; Harry was close to using a full body lock on him and make him confess, even if it would get him expelled, the only thing that held him there was the thought of Malfoy, those puffy red eyes that glowed with sadness. Maybe seeing Dumbledore would help his anger towards the greasy Slytherin professor.

‘Come in Harry, have a seat.’ He offered Harry a bowl with pink candy formed like an o, they seamed safe enough, and they tasted even better, like having sweet candy in your mouth that wasn’t too sweet. ‘The Weasley twins thought it was nice to send me a whole bag of these; their recipe to.’ He took two and put them in his own mouth, smiling while sucking on them.

‘Neville mentioned that you wanted to see me.’ Was he going to give him a talk about not showing up for the exams or the new rumour or maybe Malfoy had talked with him too?

‘Yes. I wanted to tell you that the arrangements for the exams are made; you can take them whenever you want. I have talked to the ministry and convinced them that your position is rather delicate, and that they should let you continue at your own peace since you have done the wizard community a great favour by vanquishing Voldemort.’

‘I appreciate that you did that for me, but I hate it that you didn’t even ask me about what I wanted.’ His intentions were good but without asking Harry about what he wanted he had done something Harry didn’t like, and there was no excuse for that.

‘I did ask you once, but you weren’t sure; so I made the arrangements so you can do as you pleased. If you chose to take the exams as the rest of your class mates you can, if not you can take them any time you want. I’m sorry if you don’t like me trying to help you.’ That raised Harry’s brows, it was the same thing Malfoy was trying to do, work things out on his own. Now when he knew what Malfoy maybe was doing he could have an easier time getting him to open up.

‘Don’t be sorry, I am just too stupid to see that people really want to help me.’

‘You’re not my boy; you have gone through a ruff time, with a lot of things on your shoulders and you should get some rest away from everyone.’

‘But that doesn’t give me the right to avoid everyone that wants to help me. Is there anything else you would want to talk to me about?’

‘How are you my boy?’

‘What?’

‘I want to know how you feel, I know that even the thought about male pregnancy had never even been presented to you while you grew up, so this is a new experience.’

‘I’m fine. Just have a lot of things on my mind.’

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Maybe Dumbledore would understand his whole Malfoy dilemma, but he couldn’t take any risks at destroying it for himself again by telling Dumbledore.

‘Maybe later, it’s more my problem right now and I want to see what I can do first.’

‘Okay, another sweet?’ Harry took one to not seem ungrateful, he shouldn’t have in case he wanted more sweets later but it couldn’t hurt. Dumbledore began to talk about the end of school and how he would miss the action he had while Harry was at school, there wasn’t many that could cause that many problems each year and still get out of them, alive even. After one hour with tea drinking and sweets Harry thanked Dumbledore and left him.

The entire time he sat with Dumbledore he had been thinking about Malfoy, and drifted away a few times. Dumbledore thought it was because Harry was tired and needed to relax, he had no idea Harry was tired of not getting Malfoy to lower his guard. Harry found his map and checked it once he was outside the headmaster’s office, shocked to discover that Malfoy was the only one sitting in the classroom apart from the teacher. He walked down and waited beside the door, when Malfoy would come out he would be sure to catch him.

He didn’t need to wait for long, ten minutes later the door opened up and Malfoy slowly made his way out, not looking up or sideway so he didn’t notice Harry on his right when he turned left. He continued down the hall and was just about to walk down the stairs when he noticed Harry.

‘Stop it.’ It was the only thing he said before continuing down the stairs.

‘Malfoy, why do you keep ignoring me?’ The Slytherin continued like nobody had been calling him. ‘I just want to help.’ There was still no reaction from him. ‘What has your father done?’ Malfoy stopped immediately and turned towards Harry, completely shocked over Harry’s question.

‘What did you just say?’

‘What has your father done?’

‘Why do you think he has done anything?’ He was slowly taking a step up the stairs.

‘Moaning Myrtle said that you are acting like this because your father and something he had done.’

‘Do you think she knows what my problem is? Myrtle barely cares who the headmaster is, what makes you think she would care about my problems?’

‘She knows more than you think then, don’t you think she cares about others besides herself?’

‘Why are we even having a discussion about her? She doesn’t know what my real problem is.’

‘Am I a part of that problem?’ Malfoy was silent for five seconds, not sure about what to say.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘Apparently Snape thinks so.’ The mention of Snape made Malfoy look Harry straight in the eye. ‘He told me to leave you alone.’

‘I told him to not say anything.’

‘Do you think that if he knew that I am apparently stalking someone in his house he wouldn’t take the chance and warn me? He loves it when I get into trouble; it gives him a chance to harass me.’

‘He does not.’

‘Of course not, and I am actually stalking you.’ The last words was quite sarcastic, he would never admit that he was stalking anyone.

‘You do stalk me.’

‘Stalking and trying to help are two different things.’

‘Why would you ever want to help me? You have no idea what things I have to deal with every day.’

‘Like you know what I had to go through since Voldemort decided to target me as a threat when I was only a baby.’

‘So we both have had a shitty time growing up, why don’t you go and try to make yours better? I can handle myself.’

‘What if I don’t care about my shitty life and would rather help you, at least I won’t keep worrying about what the hell is up with you.’

‘My only problem right now is you, why can’t you let me be? I am sure I failed my exam today because I couldn’t stop thinking about you and the way you were behaving towards me yesterday. And not only that, I can’t sleep at night without thinking that you may suddenly appear in my room and won’t leave me alone there either.’ He had no idea he was affecting Malfoy that much, and if he wasn’t a part of the problem before he surely was now.

‘I won’t leave you alone before I know what’s up with you and help you if it is in my power to do so.’ Malfoy wanted to say something but changed his mind; instead he turned around and walked down the last steps. Harry followed Malfoy; he wouldn’t give up that easily.

‘People will notice you following me Potter, do you really want more rumours to go around about you?’

‘I don’t care about them or what they are saying about me. The only way I’ll leave you alone is if you agree to meet me.’ Before Harry knew what had happened Malfoy had turned around and used a full body lock on him. The only difference between this time and how it usually used to feel like was that slowly he started moving again. Malfoy stood in front of him and watched Harry come to life, his mouth opened in shock before slowly backing off.

‘How… how did you do that?’ His wand was still raised at Harry while he was backing up into the wall, he didn’t move at all, just watched as Harry was started moving in a normal speed.

‘I will tell you if you agree to meet me.’ The only way he imagined the spell could break was by the extra magic provided by the pregnancy.

‘In your dreams, I don’t want to know it that badly.’

‘I will follow you till you do agree to talk to me.’

‘So if I agree to meet you one time, would you leave me alone?’

‘I guess so, as long as you don’t use a Slytherin trick on me, if you do that, it will be more difficult to get rid off me.’ Malfoy had to think about the proposition; Harry hoped he would accept the offer.

‘When?’ He had a lot of self control because inside he was jumping and screaming, Malfoy accepting to meet him and trying to talk was more than he had hoped for the previous day.

‘Whenever you wish, I am free till I decide to do something.’

‘Yeah, I have noticed that you didn’t show up on the exams.’

‘If I had a home I did care about I would have left school, since I don’t have anything near that I decided to stay here.’ There was a short pause, Harry didn’t want to say anything; Malfoy would have to take the first step here. And after one minute of silence Malfoy finally got the picture.

‘What about later on today? I will spend tomorrow to study for my next exam so I don’t want to be disturbed.’

‘That’s fine with me. Where and when?’

‘What about the owlery at nine?’

‘See you then.’ Harry smiled briefly at Malfoy who was still stunned by everything before he walked over to the main hall to grab a bite.

What should he do till their meeting? Maybe he could take a trip down to the lake or maybe see Hagrid; he hadn’t had the chance to meet him since he came back, he kind of missed his oversized tea cups and stone cookies, so he could surely visit him shortly.

The day seemed to go well, he hoped it could stay like that or get even better if possible; he only hoped it wouldn’t suddenly change.

TBC