Harry was exhausted.
He and Draco were both lying on the grotty floor of the Room of Requirement, leaning back heavily on their elbows and taking in deep gulps of breath.
He stared at Draco's weary face before him, wondering if he felt just as bad; judging by his worn expression, it seemed he did. It didn't make Harry feel any better that they were suffering together. Although typically he believed in 'misery loves company', on this occasion, Harry found that he wished Draco could at least feel okay about it all.
It would feel worth it if Draco still felt happy. Harry would take all the pain over again if it would mean Draco would be fine.
And yet, he couldn't.
So here they were.
Harry knew he should probably do something useful. Like get up and begin a day of productivity, or plan on how to find the other Horcruxes, or see if Snape made any progress - Hell, even checking in on Ron and Hermione would probably do them some good - but he didn't want to.
He was sick of doing things for other people, just to make them feel better without helping himself. For once he wanted to be a little selfish.
To put himself first.
This, consequently, lead to Harry blurting;
"Stay with me?"
Draco lifted his gaze to meet Harry's. His expression turned from one of a forlorn dread, to a confused tiredness as Harry watched him mull over the question in his mind.
"Stay with you?"
Harry nodded, he hadn't planned to be quite so forward, but whatever, it was done now.
"Today. Now. I don't care, I don't want to go back to the Common Room and face all their questions and stares and everything. I don't want to talk to Snape. Or plan anything. Can we just hang out, without all the pressure- just us?" He said slightly sheepishly.
Now that he said it out loud, it sounded preposterous. Draco definitely didn't value their friendship on the same level that Harry did, in fact he hadn't even wanted to be friends in the first place, Harry had just pressured him into it like the fool he was.
Getting along and having a bit of fun in the time they spent planning the new timeline together was one thing, hanging out just to hang out- just to enjoy eachother's company was another thing entirely.
Something which Draco evidently, by the look he was wearing, did not want to do.
"You want to- just.. hang out? Like, just me and you?"
Harry felt very stupid all of a sudden, and he could feel his face reddening rapidly.
"We don't have to! You don't have to, I just wanted to- I s'pose that I thought... because I don't have to fake anything with you, so-" Harry said, panicked, before Draco cut him off.
"Wait, Potter! No, I mean, I do. Want to spend today with you, that is. I was just," he paused, "surprised. I wouldn't have thought you'd want to spend it with me."
Harry stared at him in shock, before recovering himself with an easy smile, "Well, I do." He said, getting up from the dusty floor and brushing himself off. "You should be flattered, Malfoy. There's people here who'd dream of this."
Draco raised a brow as Harry extended a hand to help him up, "And here I was thinking you didn't like the fame, are you telling me I'd been right in First Year all along?" He drawled playfully.
Harry swatted him, putting on a haughty voice "Well, I am the Famous Harry Potter, slayer of Dragons and Dark Lords alike, you - peasant," Harry grinned, "- should bow before me."
"Oh, dear, do forgive my misbehaviour, your majesty." Draco drawled back.
Harry giggled, returning to his usual voice, "Apology accepted. Although, I expect excellent servitude from you from now on."
"Certainly, your highness." Draco snorted.
As they joked back and forth, they made their way slowly to the doors of the room. Harry was glad for their easy bantering, it left no room for the hideous memories which accompanied the room to fester between them. It was plainly clear that neither of them wished to rehash the events of the Fiendfyre situation.
The destroyed diadem lay forgotten where they left it. Neither of them wanted to touch it much, and nobody could do anything with it now that it was ruined. They figured there'd be no harm in leaving it there.
Harry pushed the door open, stepping into the corridor bathed in watery sunlight from the winter sky outside. Draco blinked in the brightness, "What day is it? Have we really spent that long in there?"
"I don't know." Harry said, "Do you care?"
Draco looked at him, "Honestly? Not really. It's the holidays so there's no classes, and I already know everything I got for Christmas. I really can't be arsed to go back to Slytherin right now."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, "God, me too. I can't face the questions. Can we go somewhere?"
Draco looked at him quizzically, "Yes, but where? There's only so much we can do when we are restricted to Hogwarts. Pretty much everywhere is fair game to other students, even Hogsmeade- unless you count here, but I don't think either of us fancy spending the day shut up in there."
Harry suppressed a shiver at the thought, "No, that's true. We need somewhere secret. Somewhere to relax."
Draco nodded, "Yeah, and somewhere no one else can find. It's a shame there's not another Room of Requirement, or like, some sort of secret room in the grounds or something."
It was then that Harry was struck with an idea.
"A room in the grounds! Oh, Draco I know where we can go!"
"You do?"
"Yes! Just wait here, I'll get my invisibility cloak, then we can go."
Draco looked uncertain, but agreed all the same.
"Great, okay, see you back here in ten minutes!" And with that, Harry took off down the corridor.
—-
Draco thought he was doing exceptionally well at remaining coherent whilst being in such a close vicinity to Harry.
In fact, he was quite proud of it.
For some reason, he had not at all anticipated that being under an invisibility cloak with Harry would involve quite so much brushing up against each other. The hip to hip contact was doing unfortunate things to Draco's train of thought, and every time Harry whispered something to him, and his breath ghosted across Draco's skin, Draco's brain short circuited and he couldn't even remember whatever it was Harry had said.
Before long, they had crossed the chilly grounds and were crunching their way through the frosted grass to the Whomping Willow. When they neared it at last, Harry stopped, tearing the cloak off them and looking around at the leaf strewn floor.
"Harry, what are you bloody doing? I thought you knew somewhere we could hang out in secret!" Draco said irritatedly. As pleasant as the journey had been for the buried away parts of his mind, his warming charm was rapidly wearing off, and he was not happy to be standing in the freezing cold in the middle of winter without so much as a cloak to keep him warm.
"I do! I just need a big stick."
"Sorry?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Oh, shut up Draco! Just help me find a stick and then you'll see what I mean."
Draco huffed indignantly, but began searching around for a stick as well.
-
Several minutes later, Harry emerged from some nearby shrubbery brandishing a long, pointed branch, "Aha!" He said.
Draco glared at him, he'd given up the search less than a minute after he'd started, resorting to instead standing in wait with a nice new warming charm whilst Harry crashed around in the undergrowth.
"And what, O' Great Potter, are you going to do with that? Turn it into the Elder Wand?" Draco said sarcastically.
"No, look." Harry rolled his eyes, mood unwavering despite Draco's complaints. He held the stick aloft, before moving it in a sort of odd motion between the boughs of the Willow, when he seemed to find somewhere he was looking for, and he jabbed the stick rather hard against the trunk of the tree.
Draco stared at the still-stationary tree before them. The wind whistled through its scarce leaves, branches swaying lightly in the morning breeze.
"Great. I'm so impressed." He drawled.
Harry sighed, not even bothering with a response, instead grabbing Draco by the wrist and yanking him towards the tree.
"Merlin, Potter are you insane?!" Draco spluttered, but when Harry stopped, gesturing at the still-frozen Willow, Draco finally understood what he'd done.
"Ohhhh. Right. Okay."
Harry gave another enormous eye roll. "Come on," he said.
He then lead Draco into a small tunnel slightly obscured by the tree's great roots. The place was rather dingy and dark, however Draco was smart enough to know this was likely not the final destination Potter was taking him to.
"You know, Potter, if you just told me where we're headed, this would be a lot easier."
Harry snorted, "Actually, I have told you about this place before. I thought you would've realised where I'm taking you by now, but maybe you're not as sharp as I remember."
Harry finished the sentence with a smirk at Draco, Draco glared at him.
"I don't ever remember you telling me about a special room hidden by the Whomping- Oh!"
And suddenly, he did remember. Harry had told him all about how he'd come here when Ron was kidnapped by dog-Sirius-Black.
"The Shrieking Shack!"
"Yep!"
Draco could've slapped himself for his own stupidity, of course that was where they'd be going. It was the perfect place for a secret hangout. Harry's own father had used it as such.
"Wait, but I thought it was all hideous and old and filthy?"
"It is, that's half the fun." Harry responded optimistically, however seeing the disgusted look on Draco's face, he quickly said, "Not the filthy part! The fact it's abandoned and old, it means we can fix it up!"
Draco brightened at that, for once, that actually sounded enjoyable.
"Fix it up? Like, make it our own little place?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah! We can make it really nice if we want, nobody else ever comes here. In fact, I don't even know how many people know it exists, or that it's still in use if they do. The only reason my dad never fixed it is because Remus would've just destroyed it again when he became a werewolf."
"Ah, yes. I suppose that would've been an issue." Draco agreed.
The rest of the way, they discussed potential decoration opportunities, eventually deciding that they would pick out decor on the next trip to Hogsmeade, and would settle for simply cleaning it up for today.
—-
They spent a couple of hours cleaning. It wasn't especially difficult, considering they both had a fairly extensive repertoire of cleaning spells, however the size of the Shack as well as Draco's insistence that they rearrange the furniture in every room meant it took more time than expected.
Despite this, they were both extremely pleased with the results. The Shack looked excellent, and whilst Draco had been cleaning the master bedroom, Harry summoned some things for them to do from Hogsmeade and the castle. As well as calling Dobby to request some food from the Kitchens.
Dobby had been alarmed to see Draco, but with Harry's disclosure that he wasn't the same Draco Dobby had lived with, and that he'd changed, he had warmed right up.
He brought them a selection of pastries and cakes, as well as fetching a delicious array of sweets from Honeydukes. Harry had gotten some other things too. Things summoned from his and Draco's rooms in the castle. On the bed he laid out Wizards Chess, Exploding Snap, and Gobstones (Draco's request), as well as a large red and gold blanket he'd gotten from his bed in the Gryffindor dormitories.
Soon, Draco was finished cleaning, and the pair of them spread out on the king sized mattress in the rickety old bed frame they'd fixed. The room was dark, but Harry had lit lanterns in all the corners of the room, giving it a cozy sort of orange glow.
The atmosphere was sweet, and Harry found himself falling easily into warm conversation with Draco. Their usual talk of the future and Voldemort and frightening plans was pushed aside, and instead they focused on all the pointless things that Harry loved hearing about more than anything.
He learned that Draco used to be afraid of the dark. That the peacocks at Malfoy Manor used to chase him. That he loved rain - something they had in common - but also lightning - something they didn't. He learned that even as a child Draco had been scared of his Aunt Bellatrix, just from the stories he'd heard. He learned how Draco loved his mother more than anyone, how he'd never been in love before, how his favourite sweet was Pepper Imps, how he only took his coffee black.
He learned about Draco, when before it felt like he'd only ever known Malfoy.
Harry loved it, and even better, it seemed that Draco loved it too. He returned each of Harry's questions with his own, and he was always interested to know the answer.
They talked about the most random of topics, until eventually they grew tired and fell into a comfortable silence. Harry could hear rain starting up outside, creating a gentle pitter-patter upon the wooden walls.
—-
"You know, Potter, we've actually done quite a nice job, I'd say." Draco said quietly, breaking the silence. He'd been lost in a daydream, thinking of all the things they had coming. In the end, he realised he wasn't even all that scared. He'd have Harry, and they'd do it together.
Harry didn't respond, and so Draco looked over at him. He was met with the sweet sight of Harry asleep, limbs strewn haphazardly about the bed, with his head resting against Draco's thigh.
A surge of affection coursed through him. There was something so wonderfully trusting about falling asleep together, and Draco was secretly honoured that Harry had enough trust in him to fall asleep so blatantly in his presence.
Draco could still hear the rain outside- the rain they both loved. It was stronger now. And with the warm glow of the lanterns, as well as the smell of caramel and chocolate and a hint of smoke from the exploding snap, Draco felt as if he and Harry were in their own little bubble.
He allowed himself to card his fingers through Harry's hair. It looked soft, and oh, he was right, it was soft. So soft.
He ran his fingers through the dark strands. Harry murmured at his touch, long eyelashes fluttering in sleep.
He looked so young like this, and Draco suddenly wanted to stay like this forever. To hide them both away here. Keep them from all the horrors which lurked outside, keep them in their bubble.
He knew they couldn't.
But now, with the flickering glow and the patter of rain, Draco could almost pretend they could.