I'll Take That Chance

CH 41 - "Stay With Me Tonight"

"Very good, Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed excitedly. "I wasn't sure it could be done, but you've done it. I'm very proud of you both."

"Thank you, ma'am," Draco said. "At first I had some hesitation, but Harry came up with an interesting method for me to try and obviously it worked." Harry smiled at him and felt the heat crawling up his neck.

"We've been working on it and perfecting it for quite some time now and he's got it down perfectly. The first time we really got it was after that last letter came, and we've just been working on it ever since." Harry smiled at Draco but he could tell he was getting edgy. The closer the end of the year came, the more shut in Draco became. The anticipation of an attack was even bringing back the dark circles under his eyes and he had stopped eating again.

"I'm glad to hear it," she said. "There haven't been any more incidents, have there? I hope nothing is going on that I'm not seeing?"

"Nothing. It's been very quiet, thankfully."

"Glad to hear it. Thank you for letting me see your progress, Draco. Harry, you're a great teacher." She stepped out and Harry instantly reached for Draco's hand.

"You know, if something does happen, we'll be ready."

"I know. I just hope it'll be enough," Draco replied, a hint of anger to his voice.

"You okay?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine." He twirled his wand while Harry tidied up the room. He knew when Draco was in a mood like this, it was best to just give him his space to calm down or settle his thoughts. He paced around the room for a moment before checking his watch.

"It's dinnertime. You ready to go down?"

"Sure," Draco said. He held the door open for Harry and they walked silently down the hall. At the bottom of the steps, Harry stopped when he noticed Draco had stopped walking.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just going to go up to bed. I'm not very hungry so I think I'll just go and turn in early."

"Draco, you need to eat something."

"Harry, I'm not hungry. I'll be fine, I'm just going to get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning." Harry watched as Draco walked off up the stairs, the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.

"Is he alright?" Ron asked, coming up behind him.

"Yeah. He's just anxious and edgy. He's worried someone is going to attack me or us or something. And I have to admit, I would be surprised if something didn't happen. But you know how he blames himself."

"Makes sense. Is he going up to his room?"

"Yeah, he said he was just going to go to bed early." They went to the table and sat down, ate some dinner and then went up to their dormitory. Harry paced around the room for a bit and then sat down, tapping his foot against the table where Hermione was doing work.

"Harry, why don't you go check on him? It'll ease your mind and his." He thought for a moment and nodded. He grabbed his cloak from his trunk and climbed out of the portrait.

When he stepped through Draco's portrait, he saw the faint blue light coming from his bedroom and he slowly walked in. He slid out of his shoes and placed his wand and cloak on the dresser. He came over to the bed and saw that their pocket watch was open on the bedside table next to Draco's wand. He was just looking at the photo of them when Draco's voice startled him.

"Harry, what are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you. You've been so quiet and tonight when you skipped dinner, I got worried." He could see Draco's face soften in the light and he relaxed a little.