Hit the Floor

Disclaimer: Does not belong to me, that would JKR.

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Chapter Ten – Calm Before the Storm.

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The next morning, Harry dressed and left his room before anyone else woke. He wanted to avoid another confrontation with his friends. Harry was going to do everything he could to stay away from his housemates until after the battle. Having to be cold and distant was hurting them, as well as himself. He couldn’t deal with it, not now, not with everything that was about to happen.

After the argument with Ron and Hermione, and the encounter with Draco, he’d fallen into bed too exhausted to think about what had happened, and what was soon to come. Now, though, he wanted to find a secluded niche to sort out his thoughts.

As he wandered the castle, Harry tried to remember just when Dumbledore had ceased to be infallible. He wondered when he’d left Ron and Hermione behind. He wondered when he’d started thinking of Draco and Snape as the people he trusted the most.

Most of all, he wondered why he was now standing in front of the Room of Requirement.

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“Voldemort’s attack is planned for five days from now. He has approximately one hundred and sixty two Death Eaters: one hundred and fifty three males, nine females. Eighty-seven Dementors are in his ranks. It is likely that Voldemort will be protected by all of these forces for as long as possible. He won’t want to face Potter until forced to,” Mad-Eye stated. “We will have the entire Auror force, the Order members, and the Hogwarts staff on our side, totaling two hundred and sixty one.”

Moody walked over to a map of Hogwarts grounds that hung on the wall. “Potter will lead the charge down the middle, surrounded by Aurors. Albus will lead from the right, past the Shrieking Shack, with the rest of the professors and the Order members. Snape and Malfoy will lead a charge from behind, pinning the enemy between the groups. They’ll be accompanied by a task force of Aurors, including myself.”

“What about us?” Ron asked as he stood.

“No,” Harry said quietly, but forcefully. He didn’t want to have to worry about protecting his friends during the fight, it would be a deadly distraction.

“No way, Harry, you aren’t keeping us out of this. We’ve always been there!” Hermione protested.

“Not this time. This isn’t some exciting quest we’re going on here. This isn’t a situation where there will be puzzles and clues and giant chessboards. I’m sorry, but you don’t belong here,” Harry said. He glanced at his friends briefly, before turning back to Mad-Eye. “No students on the battlefield. Not even the ones who were in the DA. I want your word.”

Mad-Eye stared at him intently, his magical eye spinning wildly. “Alright, Potter, no students.”

“What? No!” Ron shouted. “You can’t do that!” He walked over to Harry. “Harry, come on, we have to be there. You can’t make us miss this!”

Harry stood and turned to his friend. It was strange, standing face to face like that. When Harry had left for Baltimore, he had been a few inches shorter than him, and now he could look Ron directly in the eye. “No, Ron. Not this time,” he said. “I don’t want you there.”

Ron snapped back as if hit. That hadn’t come out the way Harry wanted it to, but it was too late to take it back. Maybe if Ron was hurt enough, or mad enough, he’d stay away. He’d stay safe. It was true in a way; Harry didn’t want them there. Neither of them understood the magnitude of the situation, the danger they would be facing. They would be a liability, an unnecessary distraction. The farther away they were, the better.

Hermione stepped up and took Ron’s hand in her own. She stared at Harry balefully.

“Who are you, Harry?” she whispered.

Harry glared at Dumbledore in a mixture of aggravation and sorrow. The fact that Harry himself had to take part in this battle was bad enough, but that Dumbledore had been willing to allow other students who were not adequately trained…that was wrong. Ron and Hermione shouldn’t have been going to Order meetings, and they shouldn’t have found out Harry was back. He looked over at his friends.

“I think you need to go.”

--

Four hours and a dinner later, they were still in Dumbledore’s office. They had already gone over the specifics of the battle plans. Harry was more than a little uncomfortable to hear that Draco and Snape weren’t going to be at his back during the battle. He’d come to trust them with his safety, and the daily duels had given them a comfort level that allowed the anticipation of each other’s moves. Instead, he would be fighting with a group of Aurors he barely knew.

At the moment, they were discussing Harry’s current spell repertoire, and which spells would be most useful.

“I do not want Harry using Dark Arts spells unless absolutely necessary, Severus,” Dumbledore stated, not for the first time. He’d been arguing the point for close to a half an hour.

“Headmaster. Forcing Potter to duel with Death Eaters using only Light spells before he even gets to the Dark Lord is suicide,” Snape said wearily. “The Death Eaters will not stick to simple curses and Light hexes to accommodate him, and he will be exhausted if he does not use what he has learned.”

The Order was split on the matter. Dumbledore wanted him to save his use of the Dark Arts for his duel with Voldemort. Snape thought he should do whatever he had to in order to make sure he was still on his feet when the time came. Frankly, Harry thought Dumbledore was too concerned with appearances.

Draco elbowed him in his side and motioned towards the Headmaster. Right. Harry supposed he should get up and say something, since he was the one the argument was about.

“Sir, may I speak?” Harry asked. Dumbledore sighed and nodded. Harry cleared his throat and tried to assume a calm exterior to put the room at ease. “I know that this is a sensitive topic for everyone, but most of you are forgetting our goal here. I need to get to Voldemort.” Harry was amazed at the number of Order members who still flinched at the name. “If using Dark spells and curses will get me there faster, and conserve my energy, so be it. I’ve been practicing for months now, and I haven’t succumbed yet. I’ll be fine,”
he said, with a small smile.

Dumbledore sighed again, and pressed his fingers to his temples. “Harry, we’ll continue this later. I suggest we all retire for the evening, and meet again tomorrow just after lunch.”

Harry closed his eyes and slumped in his chair in resignation. Dumbledore was just avoiding the issue.

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After the meeting, Harry and Draco headed straight for the Room of Requirement. Harry thought he detected some uneasiness in Draco, and for a brief moment, considered the possibility that he was not the only one apprehensive about being separated in battle, the possibility that maybe Draco cared more than he let on. That thought had been pushed quickly out of his head and replaced with the white static that took over when they were together.

There had been a desperation not present before between them. It had done away with some of the violence, and replaced it with something hurried and frantic, but no less intense.

It had ended, however, as all things must, and it was time for Harry to go. He looked at Draco, who was sprawled out on his back with his hands on his stomach, and eyes shut. Harry wondered if he was asleep as he sat up and got out of bed.

“Stay.”

The word was barely audible. Harry was sure he’d imagined it, but there it was. A pale hand, stretched out on the bed, palm upwards, reaching.

“I can’t,” Harry whispered back, as he searched for his pants.

Draco’s eyes remained closed. “Why not?” The words were softer than Harry’s breath.

“Because my friends will wonder where I am,” Harry whispered back. It just didn’t seem right to make even the slightest bit of noise. Something big was going on here, something a part of Harry had wanted for months now.

“Why do you care? You said you don’t fit with them anymore.”

‘You fit with me.’ The words were unspoken, but were there, in Harry’s mind.

“Okay,” Harry breathed, and slipped back into bed. Draco never opened his eyes, just rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face in his pillow. Harry knew there would be no cuddling that night; it wasn’t the way things were between them. Even though Draco had asked him to stay, even though Harry had accepted, things hadn’t really changed. There wasn’t enough time to death cth change right now. Change could wait until later. Right now, they were alone in Hogwarts, both outcasts in a way, using each other for comfort, both physical and mental. In the coming days, neither needed the added distraction of being alone.

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The next morning they awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the door. It had to be Snape, he was the only one who knew where Draco was staying other than Harry. He glanced over at Draco who’d pulled his pillow over his head to block out the noise, obviously not going to be the one to get the door. Harry got up and pulled on the first pair of pants he came across.

Opening the door revealed a frantic and wide-eyed Snape, who pushed his way into the room followed by Mad-Eye, Dumbledore, and the rest of the Hogwarts professors.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked, more than a little unnerved at the usually stoic professor’s appearance.

Draco chose that moment to sit up, revealing a bare chest and one long pale leg. “What the hell is going on?” he asked, annoyance palpable in his voice. He glared at the new occupants of the room.

Snape was the only person not rendered speechless at the sight of the two former enemies, it seemed. “Voldemort is on his way.”

Only after they all had left to give Harry and Draco time to dress, did Harry realize he’d been standing in front of his professors wearing only a pair of pants. Draco’s pants, actually. With said owner of pants currently in a very mussed bed, obviously sparsely dressed.


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Within half an hour of the announcement, the entire force of Aurors appeared at the entrance to Hogwarts, and Harry was in Dumbledore’s office going over last minute battle plans. There were parchment maps strewn all over Dumbledore’s desk, depicting the grounds of Hogwarts, the dungeons under the castle, and the Forbidden Forest. Harry and his force would march right out of the Entrance Hall, while Dumbledore and his took the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack. Draco, Snape, and Moody, along with their troop, would take a passage through the dungeons that led to the middle of the forest, allowing them to surprise the Death Eaters from behind.

The students were all locked away in their common rooms, and Dumbledore had prepared to activate Hogwarts emergency safety wards. Once they left the castle, no one would be able to enter until the wards were removed. While this was a risky move, since injured persons would not be able to get to the infirmary, it would protect the students within from Death Eaters, something immensely important to Harry.

It was time to go. Dumbledore’s detectors had gone off when Voldemort and his followers had entered the Forbidden Forest, which meant they would be reaching the edge of Hogwarts grounds in about ten minutes. The Aurors and Order members filed out, followed by the professors and Dumbledore, leaving Harry and Draco alone. Harry looked at him, not knowing what to do or say. It could very well be the last time they saw each other, and Harry hated how that made him feel. It made him want to run away from all of this, from his destiny. He wanted to say so much, but the words got stuck in his throat.

Draco walked up to him and placed a hand on the back of Harry’s neck. He stared at Harry for a long moment before leaning forward and touching his forehead to Harry’s, resting there for just a second with closed eyes. With a final gentle squeeze, Draco turned and walked away, not once glancing back.

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