Guys, I know this song doesn't really represent this chapter, but it was the best I could do XD. Happy New Year's Eve I hope that you have a great day with all your friends and family, and though I won't be posting tomorrow, on the first, I may post today again, hopefully...
Harry's POV
The next few days were fine, I guess, I didn't see any of Malfoy, though I couldn't say if that was a good thing or not. Ron and Hermione and a few others asked what had happened to my arm, and I just said"Quidditch". Then Ron looked guiltily away because he had bailed, but I smiled to show him it was fine. I still didn't know why Draco had done that for me, but I wanted to really thank him. However, I knew that he wouldn't respond to it very well. I had been thinking about this again when Hermione tried to get my attention. Unwisely, I remained in a state of accidental ignorance.
"Harry!" she yelled into my ear, and I jumped.
"What is it, Hermione?" I asked, a little annoyed.
"I want to talk to you about Ginny," she told me, and I internally facepalmed. I couldn't really care less about Ginny right now, but I had to pretend I did. Because there was nobody else I could say took her place in my heart, was there? At least, I didn't think there was, but... With the sudden random feelings I was having, anything could be possible, really. But I nodded and turned towards her.
"What about her, 'Mione?"
"She says you've been avoiding her, Harry. Is that right?"
Ugh. Seriously? Could she be any more self-absorbed? But then I immediately felt bad for thinking that; I mean, it wasn't her fault she was overly intuitive. So I just shook my head quickly, looking appalled.
"Come on, 'Mione." I snapped. "You know I wouldn't do that."
She just shrugged. "I'm just repeating what Ginny told me."
"Well, why didn't she tell me herself?" I raised an eyebrow in challenge, and I saw Hermione begin to get cross (guys I'm not even British, I'm just trying to sound it...).
"Look, Harry, I'm just the go-between. All I'm trying to say is that she feels like you're avoiding her, and wants you to be honest with her." Hermione's voice showed concern for Ginny, and for the first time I felt... Separate. As if I didn't belong. Hermione must've seen it on my face, though I tried to mask it because she smiled at me.
"Nothing personal, Harry." I nodded listlessly and she sighed. "Look, Harry. I care about you. But I also care about Ginny. She is my friend as well, and I want to assure that both of you are happy. I don't know why she didn't tell you herself, but I'm just trying to have both of your backs, okay?"
I nodded, a little sheepish. "Okay. But tell her if she has something to say to me, then next time, I'd appreciate it greatly if she didn't send someone else, and actually told me herself."
I was guessing my tone came off a bit harsh by Hermione's rolling of the eyes, but I knew Hermione would understand. She nodded and left me in peace. Well, outside peace. There was a war raging in my head.
That night, I could not sleep. At all. It wasn't even just having trouble falling asleep. It was just the fact that I wasn't tired. Which I should have been, giving the fact that I could barely think. But I wasn't sleepy. Not even close. Giving up, I just got out of bed and remembered to take my invisibility cloak this time. Perhaps a walk would dull my racing head (I don't know what that sentence means, but just roll with it) and give me a chance to taste the sweetness of sleep.
So I slipped out of bed, barely processing what was around me, and set out.
Draco's POV
The next day passed by as normal, me snubbing Harry as much as I should, but not seeing much of him. I noticed at the Great Hall that his arm was healing, and that made me smile. Smile in my head, at least. My insomnia seemed to be getting better, and I could sleep for a full two hours, but I still felt as if something were... Wrong. The calm before the storm, as they say.
Anyway, Pansy kept annoying me about the Harry situation, to the point where I threatened her that I wouldn't do it if she kept that up. Well, that settled it. I got into a few fights with Blaise too, because he kept "Teasing" me that I liked... Who was that girl? Astoria? Yeah, her. I tried to explain to him how bland she was, but he didn't understand.
But the more I actually hung out with her, the more I found her less bland. She seemed to have quite a sense of humor, really, but her sense of entitlement was quite annoying. I saw her nothing more than a friend, however. My heart still belonged to someone else. Someone I couldn't have.
But then that was when I fully realized it. I could never have him. So I should stop pining for him... By moving on. Slowly, I began to get closer to Astoria. I knew she was a pureblood, so my family would approve. Rather, my mother would. I no longer believed that I could gain my father's approval, and, quite frankly, I didn't care.
But she seemed like a good choice, and slowly I got to know her better. But I knew that if I were to marry her, it wouldn't be because of my heart. It would only be for my family.
I was thinking about this as I laid in bed one night, a few days after the troll incident. I knew instinctively that my insomnia was back, and worse than ever. The last few nights had been a rare reprieve, I guessed. I knew that I would get no sleep tonight, and I was feeling restless. Something called me to get out of bed and go outside. I knew a walk would clear my head.
Sighing at my own foolishness, I got out of bed and crept out into the hallways.
Harry's POV
After a while of aimlessly stretching my legs, I began to walk back, feeling... Disappointed? I didn't know why, but I felt like I had been unknowingly expecting something to happen... And it didn't. As I was coming back, I heard a noise. Confused, I spun around, clutching my wand, which I'd had the insight to bring. There was nothing there.
Breathing a little heavily, I walked a little quicker. I couldn't deal with this right now... Not when I was so hung up about... Everything, really.
But then the sound came again, just footsteps, some footsteps I had heard regularly, but not a teachers'. I turned around, wand out.
"Luminos," I whispered. I didn't really care if it was a teacher... If I attacked whoever it was, and it was a student or a teacher, I'd be done for. So even if I got into trouble... I didn't really care.
But a crown of blonde hair greeted me.
Draco.
I immediately let the light go out as we stared at one another in the dark. I took my cloak off, knowing he'd somehow identified me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice shaky.
"I could ask the same about you," he told me, his voice perfectly even.
"I asked you first," I said, seriously. I didn't care if I sounded immature; If I were to tell him about my nightmares, he'd just tell his buddies. And then...
"Can you be any more childish, Potter?" his cold, sneering voice chilled me to the heart, but I just glared at him.
"What are you doing here?" I repeated, more insistently.
"I came for a walk," he muttered, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Couldn't sleep?" I asked, surprising myself. Why should I care?
To my surprise, he nodded, and then told me I owed him an explanation. Which, of course, wasn't wrong.
"Same reason as you," I told him, and although he narrowed his eyes, didn't say anything. "I was just leaving, actually..." I swallowed, needing to go away. Back to safety. Away from him. He nodded quickly, but then I remembered something.
"Wait, why are you here? The Slytherin dorms are all the way on the other side of the castle. Why would you even walk this far?"
I didn't understand, but I felt as if I should. I felt as if I were missing something vital. He almost seemed to blush, and he went as far as to open his mouth. But then he just rolled his eyes and walked off, without an explanation. But I heard him whisper "I'll see you again.". That should have creeped me out.
But it didn't.
Draco's POV
When I began walking, I noticed small things that I had never noticed before. How nice the air felt on my face, how when things were quiet around me, my mind was calm... How I could actually think in peace when there was nobody around me.
But suddenly, I heard footsteps. Footsteps leading away from where I had walked. I knew exactly who those footsteps belonged to. Harry.
And I knew that, even if I tried to fight it, I would end up following him. So I didn't bother to resist. Instead, I silently trailed him, and he looked back a couple of times, but I hid. The second time, however, he cast Lumos with his wand, which I wasn't aware he had. I didn't know where he was, seeing as he was wearing his invisibility cloak, but I could hear just fine.
And then he stared at me. And I stared at him. I couldn't see him anymore, because he let his light go out, but I somehow could still make out the panes of his face. When he asked me what I was doing here, I answered with an echo of the sentiment. He avoided my question and I teased him about it, but then I answered, hopefully, snobbishly enough, informing him that I was going for a walk, and he just asked me if I couldn't sleep. Then I saw surprise flit across his face as if he wasn't quite sure why he'd said that.
I nodded, and he told me he was going for a walk too. Then we just kind of stared at one another for a split second, and then he said he was just going. I breathed a huge sigh of relief that he hadn't asked-
"Wait, why are you here? The Slytherin dorms are all the way on the other side of the castle. Why would you even walk this far?"
I tried to make my cheeks stay pale, and not flame up as they were bound to do, and I saw that Harry looked... Simply confused. And bewildered. I opened my mouth, thinking that I would say that I had just been walking a long way, but that sounded sketchy (guys, I'm sorry. I really don't know how to put this into more Draco-like terms...), even to me. So I just rolled my eyes and made a great show of walking off. I couldn't resist mumbling "I'll see you again.". I wanted to say "I hope to see you again.", but I knew he couldn't hear it anyway, so what did it matter? That was perhaps the first time I let my heart bleed through my lips.
When I looked back at him, he was already gone.
Third Person POV (I swear, I haven't given up. I'm just bored with these POVs.)
Harry walked the next night as well, because he slept, and then woke up with an imaginary hand squeezing his throat, making tears leak out of his eyes. He kind of hoped to see Draco there, but wouldn't admit it. Even to himself. But Draco didn't show, not for the next few days.
Draco was having a hard time on his own. He didn't think he could face the rejection if he went out seeking Harry whilst he was taking a little stroll, only to realize that Harry was playing him for a fool. So he just spent those nights staring at the ceiling, wishing that he wasn't so alone.
Until one night, he couldn't stand it anymore. He had to risk it. He couldn't stand himself if he left Harry there on his own, which was dumb, because Draco knew that Harry wouldn't be there. He knew that Harry hadn't heard what he'd said.
But, Draco reasoned, he'd been wrong in the past, hadn't he?
So, one night, he headed off, kind of in search for a dark-haired, emerald-eyed somebody.
And he didn't find him.
Draco refused to feel heartbreak; he'd been right, hadn't he? And yet, something possessed him to go back and cry. (I'm just picturing Draco pulling his covers over his head and crying, but like, as a cartoon. Geez, I need help.) Yes, he knew it was a very un-Malfoy like thing to do, but he didn't care.
He was a masochist, he thought bitterly, as he tried again the next night. But all thoughts like that disappeared when he saw Harry, turning back to go to the Gryffindor dorms.
"Potter!" he walked a little quicker (we all know you ran, Draco. Who ya playin'?) to Harry and took him by the arm to turn him around. He saw the surprise and the... sudden delight in Harry's eyes as he beheld Draco actually turning up.
"I didn't know you were coming..." Harry said, then blushed, looking at the floor, as he realized he'd admitted that he'd thought of it as a... Meet. (DATE!)
"I didn't know either," Draco told Harry and balked at his sudden spurt of confession. Of Honesty. To be honest, he liked the absence of the acidity of lies on his tongue.
And then Harry backed away.
"Look, Malfoy..."
Draco couldn't take it anymore. He hated the way Harry's head was turned slightly away from him, as if by default. He couldn't stand it. By Salazar, if it made him weak, he no longer cared.
"Potter... It helps to walk with someone." Draco tilted his head downwards to look at the shorter boy, who smiled a little awkwardly.
"I know." he looked up at Draco.
And so it began. The night walking commenced. (That's legitimately the only reason I started this book. To write this line XD. That was fun.) Gradually, they began meeting, and just walking around together, not saying much, just enjoying the feeling of not being alone. Though neither would admit it, of course, and to everyone else, they both were still enemies.
They weren't friends, exactly, but... Harry would catch himself looking forward to the night far more than he used to, and Draco would do the same.
They still hated each other, of course.
Guys! How did you like that chapter? It was a little longer than usual, but there were a lot more POV switches. Do you like the POV switches? Oh, and do you like the third person (me. I was there.) POV? Also, yes, I know, you were expecting them to kiss. But... Just wait... *laughs evilly* Have a great day, and have a great new year! I may post something else today (December 31st) as fluff because I guess that's what I'll do for the holidays (I can't wait for Valentine's Day, then) but I don't really know, because I'll have to write it, because obviously, I haven't written it. YouTube exists, I'm sorry. Oh, and if you have time and you want to check out something, there's something called Detentions with Dumbledore on YouTube and it's gold. Have a great day!
-S