The Dark Is Cold

The Dark Is Cold - Chapter 2

Malfoy felt strange when he woke up the next morning. The pain in his shoulder had gone, although his forearm, thigh and shin still hurt a little. He frowned, then remembered his...erm, encounter with Potter. And Potter had been the one to heal his wounds, Malfoy thought cynically. Wonder how unlikely that is, maybe two to the power of two hundred and seventy six thousand, seven hundred and nine to one against? Yeah - Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world, Gryffindor Golden Boy and Hogwarts Most Shaggable, and Draco Malfoy, son of Voldemort's right-hand man, Slytherin Evil Bastard and currently Under Attack By Gryffindors.

But one little part of him was being annoyingly and persistently hopeful. He got up silently so as not to attract attention, trying to quash it, knowing that nothing would have changed. Potter would go back to being politely distant, and he would sit on his own at the Slytherin table, receiving dark looks and sneers from those who knew him and most who didn't.

Malfoy picked at his breakfast, not really feeling hungry. He had noticed that despite Ha-Potter's assertions that he was 'all right' lately, he still slept little and ate less. However, Malfoy still refused to look in that direction. Until he felt a strange sensation, and got the distinct impression he was being stared at. He looked up, and was caught in Potter's gaze. He shivered, despite feeling very warm, and stared back helplessly. He could feel power and heat radiating off the boy, from those green eyes of his.

"Fallen for a Gryffindor, Draco? I'd thought even you couldn't sink so far. That's called Stockholm syndrome, getting attached to your attackers. For pathetic mudbloods who haven't got anything, so they need to fall in love," said Blaise, snorting. The Slytherins surrounding him all smirked. Stockholm syndrome is when you become attached to someone who's kidnapped you, idiot, Malfoy thought numbly.

He looked discreetly over to the Gryffindor table again, where Harry had put his hardly-touched breakfast into piles to make it look like less, a sign that he had finished. He caught Malfoy's eye again and gave an almost imperceptible nod, before standing and leaving. Malfoy waited a few minutes before following him, still reeling from staring into those eyes...

Hermione frowned and examined Harry's breakfast, so she didn't see Malfoy.

"So you're still alive then," said Harry with a half-grin. He put his hand on Malfoy's shoulder and the blond shivered, but didn't flinch. "It worked," Harry sounded faintly surprised. "I never did get the hang of healing toads; I usually ended up killing most of them." Seeing Malfoy's alarmed look, he smiled. "Just joking," he dropped his hand, a little embarrassed. "Though at the start I gave one of them blood poisoning."

"So, you do medical magic?" said Malfoy, finally finding his voice.

"Yes...thought it might be useful," said Harry quietly. Malfoy frowned, but decided not to press it.

The conversation suddenly became very awkward, as neither of them seemed to want to say anything. Then, Malfoy had an idea.

"Let's start over," he said, and held out his hand. "I'm Draco Malfoy,"

Harry took his hand. "And I'm Harry Potter. Friends, Draco?"

"All right, Harry," said Draco. They shared a wry grin, linked hands again for a second, then went their separate ways.

Harry and Draco kept their allegiance strictly behind closed doors. They met whenever they could, usually with one of them in Harry's invisibility cloak. "Sometimes I feel like we're a pair of illicit lovers, what with all this sneaking about." Draco joked once. Often nighttime, when the whole school (except Filch and Mrs Norris) was asleep, was the best time to meet; especially since their insomnia had failed to clear up. Old habits die-hard, it seemed.

Although there was the occasional Difference Of Opinion, their personalities fitted better than wither of them had anticipated. Both of their former personalities reasserted themselves, even if more subdued for their experience. Draco was arrogant and obnoxious, although he could be amusing, and Harry, who had seemed ever the stalwart Gryffindor, had a devious Slytherin streak a mile wide.

Harry dropped the 'charming and confident' face. The girls of Hogwarts (whose devotion Harry had been unable to see before and was still only partly conscious of) decided that assured was alluring but aloof was intriguing.

Hermione watched all this with interest, at least what she saw of it. She saw the subtle change in his demeanour, more like the Harry she knew. Something had changed, probably for the better, though she had yet to find out what. Her mental list of Changes in Harry's Behaviour went like this: eating more, less fatigued (though Ron says he still leaves the Dorms late at night sometimes), less flirtatious, more relaxed. And he talks to us now, she added silently. I'll leave it, and let him tell us when he's ready. Later, she would wish she had tried to find out.

*********

Harry rounded a corner after Care of Magical Creatures some days later to a sight that stopped him dead in his tracks. Some people with Gryffindor badges - he didn't stop to register which ones - were attacking someone, mostly without wands. Harry caught a glimpse of someone with white-blond hair, and realised it was Draco. Harry was furious and somewhat nauseous; he had known, somewhere in his mind, that this was happening, but the thought hadn't really registered. His friends - which included Ron and Hermione, he realised - were actually attacking someone, ganging up on him and beating the shit out of him, though he had done nothing to them to warrant this. Harry had always thought that seeing, and probably being a part of, that scene would be a glorious moment, and he would feel some satisfaction, but all he felt was rage and sorrow.

These thoughts took little more than a second, and fury provoked Harry into instant action.

"Nonperturbus infligo!" he bellowed, choosing the fairly powerful shield spell in an instant, almost at random. The Gryffindors were thrown back, and a shield separated them from Draco. Harry cast a spell on him to send him into painless unconsciousness, and turned his attention to his 'friends'.

"And just what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he yelled at the startled group.

"Harry...it's Malfoy," said Ron, confusedly.

"You say that as if it changes something." Said Harry, acidly, more restrained. "If you ever so much as look at Draco the wrong way again, I will go to Dumbledore, and I know more powerful spells than that shield charm." Harry's voice was almost a whisper, yet ten times more deadly. "I am going to Snape." No one bothered to be surprised; they had too much shock to deal with already. Harry removed the unapproachable shield charm, daring anyone to challenge him. Then he picked Draco up gently, turned on his heel and stalked toward the dungeons, carrying Draco in his arms. He left behind him a silently stunned group of shamefaced Gryffindors.