Two Sides of the Same Coin(DRARRY)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

To her dismay, she realized he hadn't been paying a whit of attention to her and was in fact staring bemusedly into the space over her left shoulder. A turn of her head told her there was nothing unusual there this morning – just Slytherin table, as always.

"Harry," she said sharply.

With what appeared to be some great effort, he refocused his eyes and turned them on Hermione, trying and failing to suppress a smile that spilled out between his lips like sunlight between clouds. That smile had nothing to do with her, that much was clear. The question was, what was Harry smiling about? Smiles from him were so rare lately.

"You haven't heard a word I've said, have you?" she asked.

"Wha'?" he asked absently, his thoughts evidently taking more time to focus than his eyes. "Oh, no."

Hermione sighed. "Not that it was that important," she said. "I was only attempting to discuss your future."

"Sorry," Harry apologized sheepishly.

Because Hermione knew he was sincere, and because he was her best friend, and most importantly because her curiosity far outweighed her annoyance, Hermione forgave him immediately.

"It can wait," she allowed.

Harry's lips quirked in gratitude as his eyes started to drift over her shoulder again.

"So," she said, reigning him back in again, "to what do we owe your relaxed spirits this morning?"

"What do you mean?"

"Judging by the insipid smile you can't try hard enough to keep off your face, I'd say you're much more content than I've seen you in a long while."

"Oh, well, I just had a really good night, I guess."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Did Ron pilfer Winky's butterbeer store again?"

"No, nothing like that."

"What, then? Did you just sleep well or something?" That in itself would be a miracle; Hermione doubted whether Harry had had a single peaceful night's sleep since the war.

"Well, I didn't sleep very much... but yeah, I slept well."

"No nightmares?" She asked in amazement, relieved for her friend if it were true.

"Nope. My dreams were far more... well, they weren't nightmarish in the least," he reported, his lips twitching playfully and his eyes sliding over her shoulder.

"That's good," she said, turning in her seat to follow Harry's gaze. But all she could see was Draco Malfoy, looking tired and slightly skittish as he drank his coffee.

What was Harry seeing that she wasn't?

… & …

Draco had managed to avoid looking at Harry all throughout breakfast. It had been an effort of constant resistance – Harry's presence tugged at him like a magnet – but his fear of what he would see and how he would feel gave him the determination to manage it.

The truth was that he didn't feel remotely ready to face Harry. To face Harry he needed to be composed and level-headed and sure of himself. As it was, he was still a mess of desires conflicting with reason and conscience. To face Harry he needed the strength born of objectivity, not this vulnerability that bared itself raw to be influenced by Harry's ill-conceived and impractical – albeit seductive – arguments.

Draco rounded a corner and almost tripped when he was abruptly yanked by the arm into an empty classroom. He was opening his mouth to protest – he'd been half-expecting an ambush all term, from people unhappy to see him free to pursue higher education, and was actually surprised it hadn't happened before – when he realized who his captor was.