Haunting Perfect

Part 8~Friend

Wandering around the school, Harry glanced at the watch. He still had no idea who the other hands wanted but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. He had gotten a good night's sleep and was now in a good mood.

Or he was. Groaning, Harry pushed himself up, rubbing his forehead from where the other human had hit into him. “Little shit. You should watch where you’re going.” Glancing up, Harry froze, spotting the person to who he was talking to. “Draco?”

Draco didn’t say anything, avoiding Harry's ever-darkening glaze.

“Not Draco.” He pushed himself up, brushing off the dust and shoving past the fake who dared pretend to be his friend.

“Wait.” Grabbing Harry, Draco gulped, seeing the hateful look Harry was giving him.

“Let go of me before I throw you through that wall.” Harry’s gaze didn’t soften as Draco retrieved his hand.

“Harry… I… I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. I know Madam Pomphrey signed you off but… You’ve been acting weird, everyone noticed it.”

Harry paused, taking a deep breath. “Firstly, as Madam Pomphrey has signed me off, are you questioning her judgement in thinking I am unwell? Secondly, I am perfectly fine and would like to continue my day without interruption.”

“But… that’s exactly it. Ever since the accident you’ve been different. You stood up to Blaise and you’ve been fighting Nevile. You never fight with Nevile. I know something is wrong.”

Harry didn’t say anything for a minute. He lowered his head, stepping closer and glaring down at Draco. “Don’t pretend to know me. You are right. There is something wrong but it’s nothing you can solve so stay out of my way. Unless you really do want to go through that wall.” Harry spun walking away when he stopped. “Oh, and tell Zabini that if he harasses Nevile again or uses that word again then a few broken bones will be the least of his problems.”

Draco watched Harry walk away.

~~~

“What did you do?!” Bursting into the Nevile stormed towards Harry who was sitting comfortably on a beanbag.

Harry shifted his gaze away from the book, raising his eyebrow. “I do a lot of things in a day so if you could be a bit more specific it would be helpful.”

“I ran into Malfoy and Zabini earlier. According to them, you threatened them.”

Blinking, Harry smiled. “Oh, yeah. They were annoying me.”

“What is wrong with you?! You’re meant to be staying under the radar so people don’t start trying to lock you up! Is it impossible for you to withhold from being a jerk for five minutes that you start a fight every time I leave you alone!”

Harry sighed, putting down his book. “Are you done? I understand that you don’t want me ruining your precious Harry’s reputation however I did do that for a purpose. Zabini’s constant harassment of us would have eventually caught us out and this way he won’t bother you again.”

“And Draco?”

“I… I don’t think I can lie to Draco.”

Nevile blinked in surprise, collapsing next to Harry. “What do you mean?”

Taking a deep breath, Harry lifted his head. “Before I tell you, you can’t tell anyone this. Not only is a lot of what I’m about to tell you personal, but the majority is also technically illegal. Understand?” After Nevile nodded, Harry smiled. “Right, so it started when I was in my first year. Back then I had an untamable love for magic, I wanted to learn it all.”

“You?” Nevile couldn’t stop himself from speaking, grinning innocently as Harry punched him.

“Yes, me. I didn’t know an awful lot about the magical community or their laws back then so I didn’t understand why we only learnt magic from England and Latin origins. I had this friend, she would translate the books I happened to find. We would try all number of different spells, not all were legal or safe but we didn’t know that.

One day we were trying out this Egyptian spell and it was not safe. As we were just finishing it off, Draco found out and stormed in. He knew I had been hiding something from him and he confronted me but… It was too late. The spell was complete and it exploded. Without thinking, Draco pulled us out of the way and protected us. We weren’t badly hurt but we did get a few scars from it.

After my friend healed us, Draco made us promise to never hide anything from him ever again and to never lie. I don’t think I can break that after so long. If he asks again, I’ll tell him everything.”

Nevile stopped, rubbing his eyes. “Which is why you told him to stay away.”

Harry nodded, picking his book back up. “It’s how I knew this world wasn’t mine. Draco didn’t have his scar.”

“And here I thought it might have been your friend that tipped you off.”

Shrugging, Harry scoffed. “She isn’t my friend now.”

“And why not.”

“She betrayed me for you.” Harry paused, seeing the confused look on Nevile’s face. “In my world, I was known as the boy who lived and was destined to defeat an evil wizard but after becoming a Slytherin, they abandoned me and went for you instead. One day, you were in danger and for some reason, Weasel got it in his head I was trying to hurt him. She betrayed my trust and hurt me to try and save you. I wasn’t even the one putting you in danger. Haven’t trusted her or spoken to her since.”

“I’m sorry… Your world isn’t the kindest.”

“Nope. I do wonder what she is like here though. Probably still a know it all.”

“Well, what’s her name? I might be able to tell you.”

“Hermione. Hermione Granger.”

Nevile paused, his eyes widening. “Harry… Hermione’s not at this school anymore.”

“What?” Harry snorted, shaking his head. “You’re mistaken, she loves this school.”

“She was bullied. It got so bad she had to move. She almost died.”

A small ding brought Harry out of his thoughts but he ignored it. He didn’t care about that at the moment. “What?! How?!”

“Some spell gone wrong. Apparently, she was trying to prove she was brave enough to be a Gryffindor but it went wrong. She was in the hospital wing for months until her parents pulled her out and sent her to a French school. We saw her briefly in the fourth year but she didn’t talk to anyone. I think she’s happy there.”

Nevile let Harry relax before he grinned. “You still care about her, don’t you.”

“No.”

Snickering, Nevile nudged Harry. “Right, you don’t care about anyone. That’s why you didn’t threaten Zabini to protect me. Or force Draco away so he didn’t get dragged in. Or panic when you thought Hermione was in danger. You’re such a Hufflepuff.”

“I thought I told you not to say that.” Pushing himself up, Harry began walking away, ignoring Nevile’s shouts from behind.

“Deny it all you want, you can’t hide from the truth!”

“Yes, I can!”

~~~

Snape sighed as he looked over the files again. None of this made sense. Coughing, Snape covered his mouth as he got up, sipping at his fire whisky. “What happened to you… Harry?”