Harry knew that he promised himself that he would lay off using the Marauders Map to stalk people. But he couldn't help it.
His curiosity was eating him alive and Harry felt like he was going to explode if he dares to spend another second sitting alone in the occupied Common Room if he hadn't knew the truth about Malfoy right away.
He knew that after 6th year, he swore to himself that he won't ever stalk Malfoy or anyone ever again. But habits sometimes come rushing back to you like a tidal wave whether you'd like it or not.
So that was when Harry found himself climbing up to his dorm room he shared with his friends, digging the bottom of his trunk for the map that his father and his friends had made early on their days.
As his fingertips brushed some kind of paper in his trunk, he wasn't hesitant to pull it out and let out a small grunt of approval.
The Marauders Map was slightly crinkled, and Harry whispered a charm which helped it get back to it's natural perfect state. He was able to do wandless magic now, even though he could only cast small and simple charms and spells.
He hadn't touched the map since 6th year, using it to stalk on Malfoy and whatever he was doing for Voldemort even though unwillingly.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," He murmured to the map, unveiling the names of the four Marauders and opening the map.
It shown the whole activity in Hogwarts, the cursive names slowly moving in directions they're going to. He scanned the map for Draco Malfoy, his eyes leading to the Astronomy tower.
His dot was still and in place, it seemed like he wasn't going anywhere as his dot lingered after being watched by Harry for five minutes.
He made his decision bold, he was going to encounter Malfoy whether he'd like it or not because he was going to know who's he as or what's he's hiding. He might sound insistent but hey, you can't ever blame one for being so bloody curious.
So that was when Harry found himself in his feet, clutching the map tight on his labored palms and the invisibility cloak draping over his shoulders and to his feet, revealing his head.
Beneath the thick cloak, he was only wearing a thin overly used shirt, making the original striking blue colour fading into pastel blue and a pair of grey sweatpants just below his waist, other than that he was wearing only socks.
He climbed his way up to the Astronomy tower from the Gryffindor tower by feet, feet aching because it was late at night and he was exhausted and not to mention that the Astronomy tower is practically on the other side of Hogwarts.
As he reached the top of the Astronomy tower, he clutched the invisibility cloak tighter around him, hugging his every invisible figure and squinted to the map in his hands to make sure that Draco is really indeed there.
And he was indeed there. He was sitting in the cold stone pavement of the tower, clutching the same book from earlier in his pale, dainty hands and occasionally flipping the pages. And there was something he couldn't quite believe.
His hair was purple.
It was a light shade of lilac, the purple faint and there was a little amount of his natural platinum strands, but an influx of lilac clouded the strands of his hair.
He would never, ever expect Draco Malfoy being a Metamorphmagi. It'll be weird seeing Malfoy with his hair not a blinding shade of platinum, but to be frank, Malfoy suited purple.
Harry figured that the theories he had put together of Draco being a Metamorphmagi is indeed correct, and Harry had no idea what he was going to do with that information. He could use it to blackmail Malfoy? No, Harry, what the hell? What are you, 1st years?
As he was about to silently leave the tower, he heard Draco drawl, "You know, Potter, that cloak of yours is pretty much useless since you were never very subtle with being silent."
Harry felt his breath hitch in being caught, stopping dead in tracks and still formulating no word. Draco marked the page he was reading with a slender bookmark and closed it, then continued to stare at the empty air that Harry is currently standing at. The pureblood clucked his tongue, "Potter, what are you doing?"
How can he know that he's here? Is the cloak suddenly useless that anyone can see him? Or Malfoy is just undeniably powerful that he can see right through the cloak?
Surrendering to himself, he let the cloak fall down his body, revealing his broad figure and the cloak still pooling in his feet, making his feet disappear. "How did you know that I'm here?"
Malfoy sighed and rolled his eyes, "You were never one for being quiet, Potter. And you think I didn't acknowledge the fact that you always follow me everywhere back in 6th year?" He shot a light smirk.
Harry felt his cheeks heat up at being acknowledged then, was he really not quiet? It is indeed stuffy under the cloak and he had to take long, deep breaths but he didn't think it was loud at all. Or Draco is just half bat.
"I wasn't that loud," Harry muttered, untangling his feet from the cloak beneath him.
"Sure," Draco grinned, and then his expression turned perplexed. "You still haven't answered my question, Potter; what are you doing here?"
Not much, just fell back to my old habits from 6th year of stalking you.
"Um, I was heading up to the tower also." He reassured.
It's clear that Draco was not assured judging from his raised eyebrow and a probing 'hmm?'
"What." Harry added lamely.
"What, Potter?" Draco chuckled, cocking his head to the side.
"You're a Metamorphmagi, aren't you?" Harry blurted and decided to jump straight into the point. At the inquisition Malfoy went stiff albeit he nodded still.
"Yes, I am."
"Can you only change your hair colour? Or change your form into another being? Lupin's wife, Nymphadora-"
"Nymphadora? Nymphadora Tonks? Isn't she like my long relative or something?" He furrowed his eyebrows at the mention of the woman.
"I suppose. Your mother's sister, Andromeda Black, married a muggle, Ted Tonks, and had a daughter with Metamorphmagus skills, Nymphadora Tonks. So yeah, she's kind of your relative or some sort." Harry confirmed and took in the dawning expression on the other's boy's face in immediate recognition.
"Mother mentioned her once." He murmured quietly. "She's a Metamorphmagi, I take?"
"She is. She can change her appearances and sometimes her nose too, sometimes it's all for the jokes but as an Auror, it's really helpful for her Concealment and Disguise test during her training. So it has it's benefits too." The raven added, informing the things Tonks had told him herself back in her days.
"Oh." Draco inclined his head. "I can't really change anything other than my hair colour, even if I can, just have yet to master it. I can't really control my hair at will; it always depends on my mood."
"Like Teddy, then." He reconfirmed, gaining the other man's attention.
"Teddy?"
"Teddy Lupin. Tonks' and Lupin's son. I'm his godfather, he's also a Metamorphmagi. So you're kind of his cousin." He was about to visit Teddy and Andromeda next week, he had promised to pay a visit to his little godson. The last time he came to see him was a little over a month ago and at the sight of Harry, the little boy was clinging on his leg mercilessly until Andromeda tutted at him.
Draco's brows rose in surprise, "He is? He got the genes from his mother then?"
"I suppose. What about you? Have you got any other Metamorphmagis in your family?" He queried, it would be a ludicrous sight to see Lucius Malfoy in pink hair.
"I think my grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, was one. Father told me about him, he told me that I inherited his ability of being a Metamorphmagi. I'm not exactly sure where he got it, either." The blond gnawed on his peachy lips, his pearly teeth digging on the flesh. The sight was almost explicit if it was even intended for him.
The two boys broke into looming silence, the invisibility cloak still draped around Harry's legs giving the illusion that it vanished into the thin and cold air of the night. Draco still had the book sprawled across his robe dressed thighs, despite not reading it in the slightest. Tranquility was painted all over his face and he stared down at the inky skies.
"My glamour broke, earlier." Draco stammered, swallowing slightly.
"Pardon?"
"My glamour. It broke. When you saw the tips of my hair turn orange in the corridor. It broke. It has never done that before." He leaned even further, digging his back to the rough brick wall of the Astronomy tower.
To be frank, Harry was surprised that Draco was able to get back and wander around in the Astronomy tower after everything that had happened in 6th year with the Death Eaters and Dumbledore. It personally took Harry months to gain his courage and climb the many stairs leading to the tower.
Harry hummed for him to continue and thankfully, the blond got the signal without saying much more.
Draco swallowed once again, "Snape and my father helped me find the strongest glamour that has ever existed since I was 11. It's always casted on me and after I started Hogwarts, I didn't receive any assistance to cast the glamour from my father anymore. I had to do it with the help of Snape. And to cast the most powerful glamour drains an awful lot of energy, that's why Snape and I always look like a walking corpse, Potter." He chuckled delicately, fiddling with his lissome fingers.
"And now with Snape being gone, I have to do it myself. None of the Slytherins knows I'm a Metamorphmagi, so I can't really ask for their help since I trust none of them." He explained to Harry with detail about the current situation that he is in, exhaling the heavy breath he didn't knew he had held the whole time.
"I apologize for my rambling, it is completely out of my own control and it very much frustrates me." Draco added, before pinching the bridge of his nose and tries to contemplate about his predicament further.
His hair slowly changes into a shade of blue, reminding Harry of the deep, azure sea, synonymous to his former rival's state of bashfulness.
Harry only gave him a worrying look, eyebrows furrowed. "No it's okay Malf- Draco. I understand that you're having a hard time right now. I absolutely have no problem with you talking to me about all of this, okay? I also understand that you might need someone to talk to." He said with a consoling tone. Harry himself was unsure on how he can help.
"Where do you usually cast the glamour? In the Slytherin dungeons or? Because I reckon it won't be quite safe down there with so much people wandering around."
"Well, Snape used to call me to his chambers before school starts, so probably 5 in the morning. But since he isn't here anymore, I do it myself, here, in the Astronomy tower." Draco rubbed the back of his neck. "It's quite uncomfortable here, but, I can't ask for more, can't I?"
The bespectacled man pondered, pushing back his glasses to its proper position again.
"Can't it be anywhere else?"
"No."
"How about the Room of Requirement?" Harry suggested, looking at the blonde with wondering eyes. Draco opened his mouth, about to refuse the suggestion gave, but instead places his hand, balled into a fist below his own chin, thinking about it further.
The Room of Requirement is quite a flexible place that people never breached into, let alone actually know that place even exists in the first place. Considering its trait to be able to transform into a space that the people inside it wills, it can be adaptable to create a safe, comfortable place where he can apply the glamour for his condition.
Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad had tried so hard to search for the so called Room of Requirement that the Dumbledore's Army had used for defense practice back in 5th year. Draco himself didn't want to willingly join the squad that was led by the toad looking woman, but the slimy devil had calmly threatened that if he hadn't wanted to join the squad, news about this will reach his father. And he didn't felt like being confronted by his father about this absurd matter.
"You know,"
"That does sound like a good idea." He agrees with the suggestion, as Harry follows up by pumping his fist with a small "Yes" coming out from his lips.
But Draco still feels uncomfortable about this whole glamour hubbub, Harry can obviously see through this with the hair color-changing wizard biting his nail in rapid repetition. Draco seems to wince as he notice that the bite mark below his thumb nail seems to start bleeding small amount of blood, as the constant biting has made a small tear to the skin tissue. As if on a moment of a trance, Draco's hair changed into a shade of black, realizing that his thumb had bled.
"...Why did I do that?" Draco said with a blank look on his face. Harry did too, only with a more concerned expression. "Do tell." Harry murmured before grasping the color-shifter's hand, muttering a few words as the wound on Draco's thumb starts to heal by itself ever so slowly. Harry looked up only to see the Malfoy looking comically astonished.
"You're able to do wandless spells?"
"Eh." Shrugs Harry.
Harry instead focused on Draco's chilly hand and held it tighter, with a firm grasp and more intense than before. "Jesus Draco, you're freezing." The bespectacled Gryffindor's hand was warm and clammy, with the sudden fervor of his hand clashing and equalizing with the Slytherin's cold and frigid hand.
He didn't hesitate in the slightest to put his wandless magic into use, whispering a string of incomprehensible words of the healing spell that Hermione had used on him when he accidentally cut his hand when slicing open a lizard.
"Hey Draco."
"Hm?"
Harry looked up to his face again, eyes locked to each other with their pupils gazing. "Maybe I can help with this all glamour thing."
Draco's expression was one that was a sight to behold for Harry himself. It was very cartoonish even for Draco Malfoy. His eyes were blank. His mouth agape and jaw dropped to the floor. He was so shocked. So shocked as if he was a muggle that saw a dementor, sucking their soul out. Draco Malfoy was shocked.
"No!" Draco shouted as loud as he could do. Hair turning flaxen with streaks of yellow. His hand that was being held by Harry fought the grip and managed to get loose from it. His face going red of a mixture of fluster and agitation.
"I definitely cannot ask you to do that! It might be too much of a hassle even for you!" Draco stammered with embarrassment, he was about to say more but the grip on his hand that was currently being healed immediately tightened.
"I insist."
Those were the words that he needed to gain Draco's affirmation. Draco himself already started to murmur some words, before he takes a deep breath and exhaling it into a big sigh.
"Can you at least give me a reason why, Potter? You've done enough for me back in the trial, and I have yet to repay you this emotional debt after you helped me and my mother." Draco using his last name means that he's actually serious about this.
Harry can only smile warmly, "Because my own godson is also Metamorph too. And if Tonks ever knew that you are one, she will do anything to teach you about all of this without caring who you are. She's a part of your family anyways." Harry explained, before adding more to the detail, "Also, I really want to get to know you better."
Draco can feel his heart stop for half a second hearing the last part of the explanation. Before it starts pounding hard again like a dragon stomping its feet to the earth.
"Why would you want to know me better?"
"You want to know why?"
Draco takes a big gulp of his own saliva.
"You're not as much as a git as you were before." Harry said jokingly.
That is before he see his own glasses flying off across the room, a hard pulsing pain was felt across his cheek, the skin on his face rippling from the hard impact that was thrown on the left side of his face. He almost lost his balance even when sitting down, as if he himself was also going to be thrown away with the hard impact.
Draco fucking Malfoy slapped him.
"Asshole." Was the only thing that Draco said. He then proceeded to apologize profusely after he saw the mark that was left on Harry's face, and the poor glasses that was flown to the opposite direction of the place they were sitting at. "Oh God, I'm so sorry so sorry so sorry so sorry! It was supposed to be a playful slap and I-", his hair started to turn into a shade of mold green, signifying his intense worry to the point of nausea.
Harry tried to smile at him, but it only made him look like as if he's grimacing on what Draco did to him.
"I take back what I said about you," he chuckled. "I made a point to never underestimate a Malfoy."
Draco winced, before a soft smile crept his face, "You should've known to make that point years ago, Harry."
"Oh, I did." The Gryffindor guffawed slightly, taking in the pout in the other's boy face.
"I really did hurt you, did I?" The blond bit his lip in utmost concern, the shade of green in his hair wavering back into violet out of embarrassment.
"It definitely hurt, yes, but I know better not to mess with you now." He smirked, left hand still rubbing his red cheek and with a string of "Accio glasses" escaping his mouth, the spectacles flew back to his hands and he spared no second to shove the glasses back to his face. His eyesight is really that awful that he can't stay without it for even a minute.
He averted his eyes from Harry before murmuring, "Did you really mean it when you said you wanted to help me?"
Harry nodded, giving him a sort of affirmation. Draco then abruptly stood up, one hand on his hip and the other on his face. "Fine. But I'll have you know that this will drain you an awful lot of your energy."
"You've been doing it yourself and you've been looking like you just climbed out of your grave, Draco." Harry pointed out the fact. "I don't care if it'll drain my energy, as long as you aren't losing as much. And I guess we'll eventually have something in common later on."
Draco stared down at the grinning man and raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, "And that is?"
Harry then eventually got on his feet too, directing the grin now to the Slytherin in front of him. "Both looking like corpses."
The pureblood's hair transitioned into dusty pink, matching his now dusted with pink cheeks at being stared at like this and averted his gaze to the side of Harry's head, "Git."
Harry laughed loudly and turned around to climb down the many stairs of the Astronomy tower, before turning around once more to see the currently pink haired man, "5AM tomorrow in the Room of Requirements, then?"
Draco nodded softly and a warm smile spread his face, "Yes."
"See you then, git." A shit-eating grin flew into Harry's face as he scurried down the steps, leaving Draco alone with the smile still on his face, in the Astronomy tower, slender arms wrapped around himself in action of providing himself warmth and hair a light shade of pink, in the cold air of September.
—
"Where have you been?" As soon as Harry entered the Gryffindor common room, he quickly fell under Hermione's probing questions. She was sat in front a mountain of books and Ron looking like he might fall asleep right then and there in the plush maroon sofa.
"Uh," He quickly tried to think of an excuse to free himself from this confrontation, he had to wake up earlier than usual to help Draco out tomorrow. "I was at Hagrid's?"
He mentally slapped himself for making it sound like a question.
"You were?" She raised an eyebrow, bot convinced in the very slightest. "Because you weren't at dinner and Hagrid was obviously sitting there eating dinner, so think of a better excuse."
Crap.
"So where were you?" She narrowed her eyes, he swore that her eyes almost turned into slits as he gulped and found his shoes suddenly interesting.
Ron yawned loudly besides her, "Oh let him go, Hermione. He probably snagged himself some girl. Didn't you, mate?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
He didn't know if he should thank Ron for that God-awful excuse that would probably get him out of the situation, or having to lie to Hermione that he was with a girl. Or worse, having to lie about his preferences.
"Yeah." He confirmed groggily, the lie bitter in his mouth.
"Good for you, mate!" Ron stood up and playfully smacked him on his back, earning a wince from Harry.
"Really?" She still didn't look convinced.
"Oh leave him be, let's go up, Harry. I'm bloody tired and Hermione's been holding me hostage down here." The ginger grumbled and yawned again.
Hermione looked affronted, "I did no such thing! I was only needing your company to wait for Harry's return!"
"It's okay, Hermione. You don't need to worry so much," he smiled warmly. He loved his friends, but sometimes they were too much of a worrywart. "Let's go up, Ron. You should sleep too, Mione."
The bushy haired girl sighed deeply and nodded, "I suppose I am quite tired. I'm going up, goodnight, boys." She flew to her feet and gathered the many books in her arms, pecking a small kiss to Ron's cheek and mumbling a goodnight, then proceeded to smile warmly to Harry. "Goodnight, Harry."
"Goodnight, Hermione." The girl walked up wobbly towards the many stairs to the Gryffindor girls dorm, leaving Ron and Harry alone in the now empty common room, the fire vocally crackling in the background.
"Let's go up then." Harry didn't know why, but he knew that he can't wait to meet Draco tomorrow morning.