Gold Tinted Spectacles (Hecatemus Book #1)

Chapter 8 - Sharing (pt1)

Looking up at the serious face of the man who was everything to him, Draco learned, and he took the lesson right to his heart.

The scene changed again and Harry found himself back in his own past. This time he was at school, the primary school he and Dudley had attended. It was playtime, but Harry was still inside with the teacher; he had a cold and he wasn't allowed outside with the other children. He had a book on his lap and he was reading, it was a large book with lots of pictures and fantastic stories of wizards and dragons. It was his favourite and Miss Michaels had pulled it out from the bookshelf for him as soon as the others had gone out to play.

Harry liked Miss Michaels, she was pretty and she didn't look at him like some of the others did. Aunt Petunia told everyone he was a troublesome child and Dudley made sure the other children wouldn't play with him, if their mothers hadn't in the first place. Miss Michaels told him not to take any notice of what anyone else said; there were better people in the world than those he had met. When she said it, Harry believed her.

The memories continued, some happy some sad: Draco's grandmother dying; when Harry won the art competition at school because it was judged by someone his Aunt and Uncle had never spoken to; the time Draco had snuck out of his room in the middle of the night and met one of the ancestral ghosts in the garden. They moved through time together experiencing formative events in each of their lives. They shared their joy at their Hogwarts letters and the fear they had felt for the first time on the train. The first conversation in Madam Malkin's from both of their perspectives revealed to them how maybe, they could have been friends if it hadn't been for childish insecurities.

Harry shared how Hogwarts had become the family he had never had, and Draco showed him just how much being away from home had scared him. They shared everything that had been behind the masks of Gryffindor hero and Slytherin bully.

Then came the first memory of Voldemort; the first time Harry had risked his life for a cause he did not really comprehend. There was no holding back and Harry let everything flow from him. The vines, the chess set, the potions room, and the mirror with Quirrell in his turban. Harry showed Draco his terror and anger and then the astonishment when Voldemort was defeated.

There was no pretence of the infallible hero that over the years the retelling of the tale had turned him into. Harry let Draco see the real events; he revealed his thankfulness for Hermione's brain; he let his soulmate feel the confusion and the helplessness as Ron sacrificed himself at the chess board so Harry could go on; and he showed him the complete shock and disgust at finding Quirrell was the enemy. It had been an astounding moment as Harry realised that not everything was as it seemed, and probably one of the most important lessons he had ever learned.

When that memory was over the experience did not shift to Draco this time, but moved on to Harry's second year. There was no exchange of recollections this time as his thoughts showed Draco what his life had become about: Tom Riddle, the basilisk and Harry's real fear that he was the evil which threatened his home. He replayed the first time he had heard the monster's voice and how the knowledge only he could hear it had affected him.

Harry let Draco see how they had used the Polyjuice, and how after the loss of Hermione the twelve year old Harry had been terrified that it was all his fault. Then the memory skipped to the end of the year where Harry and Ron had taken Lockhart down in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry revealed the desperation at finding Ginny so still and almost dead, he showed his lover the cold knowledge that the bite of the huge snake would kill him, and the determination to stop Voldemort before he died flooded out of his mind.

Draco replied with his memory of the duelling club; exhibiting his determination to beat the great Harry Potter and his fear that he might lose. The images and emotion flooded into Harry and he realised for the first time how much of Draco's life had been about bringing down the Gryffindor hero. What he had never known and he saw as Draco revealed it to him, was how much the way the duel had ended had affected the twelve year old Slytherin.