Summer Squall

I'm really feeling up to doing something productive, so I think that this will be a decent fic. I really haven't been happy with the last few. o.-
Written in response to Lady_Diablo's Sticky!Situations challenge!

*

The Great Hall was nearly empty when he wandered in sometime between lunch and breakfast. There were a few studious Ravenclaw's using the free time to advantage and getting in some extra reading. Three hufflepuffs crowded around one corner of their table, listening to someone relating a tale of what they'd done in class the day before.

To his great surprise, the Gryffindor table was completely free of students, though nearby, it seemed as though most of Slytherin had come down to the hall for a brunch. Seating himself so that his back was towards the green-clad students, he wondered about the fact that their Hogwarts houses had such an impact in their lives. Even in casual dress, the different houses could be told apart by the colour of their clothing; Hufflepuffs tended towards yellow while Ravenclaws preferred blue. Similarly, Slytherin students were rarely without something green on their person, and likewise, Gryffindors favoured red.

Glancing down at himself ruefully, he grinned to himself about the maroon shirt he'd donned before coming downstairs. He'd made some changes in his appearance for this, his final year at Hogwarts. Chucking out all of Dudley's hand-me-downs, he'd changed some of his gold into muggle cash, and gone on a much needed shopping trip. Now, with clothes that fit him, he felt a lot better about the world in general. Most of his outfits entailed black jeans and various tee shirts. He had some 'nicer' clothes, slacks and button down shirts, just in case they were needed for something, and while at Madam Malkin's for his new school robes he'd bought himself a new set of dress robes, as well.

The glasses were gone, replaced by contacts at long last, and he'd gone to a stylist about the mop he called hair. The end effect was rather stunning, Hermione had told him. Instead of flying wildly up into whatever direction it could manage, his hair now lay relatively to one side, occasionally covering one of his eyes. The stylist had explained mousse and gel, and how to make use of both products. Harry had absorbed it like a sponge; the end result, he now resembled a 'skater' from one of the muggle magazines Ginny and Hermione liked to giggle over. Ginny had nearly lost her head the first time she saw him, and Harry had decided to surprise everyone with the new look. To this end, he wore his glasses, sans lenses for the first week of school, and washed the gel out of his hair. Today would be the first time anyone had seen the 'new' Harry, and he was expecting, almost anticipating, stares.

Taking a plate and some food, he ate in silence, listening to the buzzing of conversations around him without really taking any of it in.

"What's this? Potter? Is that you? I hardly recognized you without those horrid glasses. Did you finally fall on your face and break them, or did you lose them on one of your romps through the castle?"

The needling voice was almost pleasant, and Harry looked up into the face of Draco Malfoy with a grin. "Hello, Malfoy," he said, disregarding the comments. Rising with a grace he didn't particularly feel, Harry made a spectacular exit by simply leaving without response. Behind him, he could hear Malfoy sputtering and growling, angry that he hadn't gotten a rise out of Harry.

Putting his hands behind his back, Harry whistled a muggle tune from a show Dudley liked to watch, and tried to decide what to do. Most of his friends would be in Hogsmeade at the moment, probably in Zonko's or Honeydukes.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't really feel like joining them. The day was warm, with a cool breeze floating through open windows every now and then. Wandering out of the castle, Harry made his way down to the lake.

Lingering beside a tree he'd seen in Snape's memory, he wondered about how it was smaller back then. Biting his lip, he realized that if he squinted, he could almost see the Marauders lingering around, laughing, joking, studying or just talking.

Lowering himself to the ground where his dad had sat, years ago, he imagined that he could hear the other three cracking jokes, talking about class and Lily Evans, and Snivellus...

*

Harry's eyes snapped open, and he jerked upright. The room was unfamiliar, but neat. Being the only occupant, he took a moment to take stock of himself. He still had his wand, it was tucked into his pocket where he'd left it. The Marauder's Map was also safely ensconced in his jeans; it crinkled when he moved, and he pulled both items out and performed a straightening charm on the map, smoothing out the wrinkles.

He could hear thunder faintly, as though the noise were coming from far away, and looked around again.

He was in a dorm room; a single, it seemed, so he didn't think he'd gone too far from Hogwarts. It was dim, and he couldn't make out many details. The first thing he did was unfold the Marauder's Map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered to it, and watched, ever amazed, as the spidery lines formed themselves across the pages. To think that his father, godfather, and for lack of a better word, uncle had had a hand in writing this together. It never failed to stun him, the intelligence and power behind the Marauders. Remus had told him they'd enchanted the mirrors themselves to talk back and forth while in separate detentions, and then there was the whole Animagus thing...

Suddenly Harry was powerfully proud of his parents and their friends. He knew that he wouldn't turn up in the Room of Requirement, so he didn't bother looking for it. Instead, he turned his attention to the Gryffindor dorms first. No sign of himself. Searching through both the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw dorms also yielded nothing; likewise a search of the grounds and Great Hall.

Becoming nervous, Harry lowered his wands to the less detailed dungeon portion of the map.

Slytherin Dorms; Harry Potter Draco Malfoy Vincent Crabbe Gregory Goyle Theodore Nott

"Shit!"

"You're awake?" The voice was familiar to him, but he didn't place it immediately, more intent on getting the map away.

"Mischief Managed!" he whispered into it, and folded it before it had finished fading.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Potter," Malfoy said, waving his hand at the wall. A light drifted on, slowly enough that their eyes had time to adjust.

"Malfoy."

"Yes?"

A hundred questions ran across his mind. Why am I here? Why are you here? How did I get here? What happened? Why am I in your bed? When can I leave? Why are you dressed like that? What the hell is going on?!

"Nice poster."

Malfoy blinked at him, before turning to look at the Viktor Krum poster near the door. "Thanks." There were a few moments of silence. Harry abruptly remembered that he was still sitting on Malfoy's bed as though it belonged to him, and scrambled up, stuffing the map back into his pocket.

"Well, this is awkward." Malfoy muttered.

"You could start with how I got here," Harry offered, taking a cursory glance around the room.

"A rabid band of Hufflepuffs flooded the lake with pygmy puffs, and in order to save your life, Dumbledore and Snape both agreed that it would be best to Portkey you into my bed. Now that I have you here, I fully intend to ravish you and then Obliviate you before sending you packing back to your little groupie friends, who are by now quite worried that you've caught the wrackspurts from Loony."

Harry didn't think he'd ever heard Malfoy say so much without insulting everyone and everything he knew before. The rather embarrassing result was that he found himself gaping at the blond, mouth wide open and eyes fixed to his face. "Pardon?" He choked out at last.

"Merlin, Potter, your face!" Malfoy laughed a bit, then became serious. "I found you about to get soaked by the storm, and couldn't wake you up. Since I had no where else to bring you, I brought you back here."

"You didn't think of my common room, perhaps?" Harry suggested, feeling himself flush over the thought of Draco carrying him into the dungeons to get him out of the rain. It was an awfully friendly thing to do.

"Don't know where it is. Chocolate frog?" Harry refused the offer of candy, and Malfoy kept on. "Besides, what would they think, even if I could find the damned entrance, of seeing Draco Malfoy, pure-blood extraordinaire, turn up on their doorstep holding the seemingly lifeless body of their Golden Boy?"

Harry pictured that in his mind, and his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Malfoy nodded.

"Exactly. I wouldn't have lived to see my next breath. You're not stuck here. You're free to go at any time, you know."

Harry fidgeted with his clothes a bit before moving forward. Surreptitiously glancing about the room, he realized that it wasn't at all how he'd pictured Draco's dorm to look. He'd been thinking something along the lines of a torture chamber; chains hanging from the wall, an Iron Maiden in the corner, and possibly a hapless Gryffindor first year stretched out on a rack. It was surprisingly normal; just some quidditch posters and some textbooks scattered around. A pair of shoes sat calmly beside a desk, and Harry belatedly realized that Malfoy was clad in only an open button down shirt, jeans, and socks.

For some reason this incongruous combination of pureblood in jeans and socks seemed outrageous to him, and he hurried through the open door. Thankfully, the door lead out not into the common room, but into a dungeon hall.

"I'm sure you can find your way back out from here," Malfoy said almost pleasantly.

Harry stopped, turning back as the door was closing.

"Malfoy..." The door stopped moving, but there was no reaction from within. "Thank you for bringing me inside."

"You're welcome, Potter," he replied, and the door shut gently. Harry wandered back up into the Gryffindor common room feeling pretty good about his life and everything in general.

-fin-

That felt cute. :3 I'm sure I could have lengthened it somehow, but I was searching for songs to add to my mp3 player (ten hour shift at work tomorrow, and i'm NOT going in with no music!) and got distracted often. I think it shows, but I'm not worried about it. Tell me what you think!
This was in response to the challenge/prompt:
g. Falling asleep by the lake, only to awaken in someone else’s bed. Turns out there was quite the storm starting while the person was still asleep; he was consequently rescued. Slight fluff. by Lady_Diablo.