Harry refused to leave his side and had fallen asleep next to Draco, his hand on the soil close to his body to feel his warmth. But Draco was sure if he stayed here any longer, he would most likely end up like this, some empty thing with fear that looked like him.
After an hour of making sure Harry's breathing is steady, Draco slowly lifts his head tentatively, he exhales and sits up.
Harry stirs, Draco freezes.
He waits the couple of seconds it takes for Harry's unconscious form to realize there's still warmth next to him and he relaxes. Draco spends the next minute debating how to go about escaping.
As soon as he starts thinking about different ways to stand up, Harry opens his eyes and Draco refrains from gasping. They stare at each other, Harry in mild sleepy confusion and Draco in unfaltering alert.
Then he just runs for it.
He doesn't remember rising to his feet but he did, and it takes a spare second for Harry to realize what he's doing and then he's hot on Draco's heels.
Draco hears his name being shouted once or twice, the word danger mixing between it, from what sounds like Harry, but he's just too terrified to face him any longer and he keeps pushing.
"You'll die!"
Immediately, Draco's pounding footsteps falter, and he jerks to a stop. He quickly turns and finds that Harry also stopped quite a ways away. Both boys stand there, rooted to their spots and staring the other down.
"I am not staying here," Draco says warningly, firmly.
Harry rolls his eyes in a mix of mirth and despair, nodding sarcastically. He gives Draco a look of confident affirmation. "Well, you're not leaving."
"Contrary to popular belief, Potter, I have a life outside of the likes of you. I have classes to go to, a sentence to fulfill. I have assignments that must be completed and people to report to. I am not staying here."
"Draco, I'm not letting you leave!" Harry throws his hands up in exasperation. "You said it yourself, I've been here for months. Months, yeah? So that means I know more than you and right now I know you're safe inside this bloody circle of trees!"
Now, Draco is clever. He's not just book smart, he knows that things have consequences and he knows he should always think about making a decision--the outcomes, the loopholes, the solutions--before making up his mind.
He's a Malfoy, for Salazar's sake.
So, he stares. Long and hard, he stares at Harry's still panting chest, he sees that Harry has his fists stubbornly balled up at his sides and he's staring back at him with just as much fire.
With a final scoff and a rub down his face, Draco stomps his foot. He looks directly into the unmoving green eyes as he points his finger menacingly. "You are explaining everything this instant. As in now. No evading, no changing the subject. After that, I will be the one to decide if I leave or stay. I do not care if your blasted hero complex will not allow it. You will not tell me what to do, Potter."
Harry only exhales in relief. He nods frantically, and he ushers Draco forward again quickly with his hand. Once Draco is close enough where he can clamp his hand down on his wrist, he pulls him back to the thermal spot in the center of the copse.
He looks down at Draco expectantly, and he gives him a pleased smile when Draco cringes at the soil. "I am not sitting on dirt, Potter."
The raven-haired boy shrugs his shoulders and his sweater off. He makes a show of bowing dramatically as he spreads it before Draco, who is watching him the whole time with crossed arms and twisted lips. "My liege."
Draco huffs as he sits, pristinely as possible, on a rag on the ground in the middle of Merlin knows where. "Finally, some royal treatment."
Harry slumps down next to him, he clears his throat. "So."
"Start from the beginning," Draco snaps. "How did you get here."
His black curls bounce up and down as he nods. "I visited Dumbledore's painting during the summer, so I had access to the castle grounds. A few weeks before classes were supposed to start I found myself wondering up to the seventh floor corridor," Harry looks up at the clouds swirling past the light sky. "I was upset that day, Professor McGonagall kept trying to convince me to go back and I kept telling her I wasn't ready."
There was a beat of only background noise, the gentle washing of the waves from the small waterhole. "And what happened?"
"I came upon the Room of Requirement. I don't think I meant to end up here, but I know I was pacing. I was so upset. And I just kept thinking, "Take me away, take me away, take me away." And next thing I know I'm here."
"And what did you do once you found yourself here, Potter?"
"I went exploring, as you do," Harry pulls his legs up to his chest, hugging them as he brings his eyes back to the trees surrounding them. "And I almost died."
"Excuse me, what?" Harry had said it so casually, so normally, that Draco's brain has to take a few paces to actually catch up.
"I crossed the vine curtain, right over there," Harry points somewhere to his left where there is a crooked tree marked with a slash. "To try and find a way out, like you. There was something out there. I didn't know it at first, but I kept spacing out, I wouldn't remember certain things and I would wake up without any memories of the night before."
"When I first landed here," Draco gulps, remembering the whisper in his ear, feeling everything from his most precious memories he had of his family. "There was something...pulling me towards the edge of the circle. And I felt..."
"Happy," Harry finishes, yanking blades of grass from the ground. He nods solemnly. "I thought it was a Dementor, at first. But the Kiss doesn't make you feel happy. It forces you to relive your worst nightmares. This thing...it feeds off of happy memories, makes you feel like you can have your biggest desires if you step outside the circle.
"It feels like the Imperius Curse, but there's something about that thing...it gets in your head, and if you're out there without knowing where you're going, you could be out there for days at a time," Harry sighs. He was tearing through the grass more aggressively now.
"And how do you know you could be out there for days at a time? Is that not what you keep telling me not to do, Potter?"
Harry looks up, an annoyed twitch in his eyebrow. "Don't you think I had to try it out first? What, you think this is guess work? I'm trying to keep you safe, you git!"
Draco ignores the scathing tone. "Where are we?"
Harry throws his hands up like he has been doing, exasperated. "I don't know, Draco. The Forbidden Forest, for all I know."
"That's impossible. The Room of Requirement would not have thrown us out of the castle."
"Good catch, genius," Harry mumbles. "That's because it didn't."
Draco's lips purse in indignation. "What does that mean?"
At this, Harry turns to look at him, the fire of the fight gone from his eyes and replaced by confusion. "You don't...You haven't figured it out?"
"Would you just," Draco crosses his arms frustratedly. "What is going on, Potter!"
"We're not...This place didn't," Harry stops and silently stares at Draco for a split moment. "Our bodies are somewhere else."
As soon as Harry's mouth had finished making words, Draco was on his feet, swishing his wand around his head making a bubble appear around it. Harry looks at him weird, but soon his eyes widen and he, too, shoots to his feet. It's a comical view, the Chosen One chasing the Prince of Slytherin, and perhaps later Draco can dwell on the thought and laugh, but right now he needed to get out here.
He was already past the vine curtain, he only noticed when he looked back to see Harry hot on his heels, his mouth moving but Draco could only hear his blood thumping in his ears. And Draco ran, and ran, and ran.
The whole time thinking, take me back, take me back, take me back.
He feels rather than sees the blinding light that encompassed him on his arrival, it's warm and gentle, and he pumps his legs harder, faster, higher. There's a small moment where time stops, and his body feels light; feathery, almost.
And as the full weight in his body returns to him limb from limb, he knows he's safe. Because the whole time he thinks, and don't let him follow me.