The River

The River

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Chapter Two:
The Fine Line

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The crystalline water was cool that night as Harry Potter stood knee deep in it - the gentle tide pushing on the backs of his knees. As he stood there, looking down into the river, the wind whispered secrets to him in the faint voices of fairies. Pale moonlight filtered down through the canopy of leaves and branches that hung above Harry's head and cast sparkling designs upon the surface of the stream. The nearly blue water below was so reflective that Harry felt he was looking into a shattered mirror - the calm glow of fireflies shone a million shades of light in the warm mid-spring night air. His robes hung lavishly on his limbs and floated freely in the water, the pale moonlight lit up areas of his face, and his disheveled hair blew angelically as the wind played delicately with the dark, raven strands.

"You're not supposed to be here," a voice chimed from the banks of the river. Harry turned toward the voice and his eyes were filled with the sight of Draco Malfoy standing on the banks of the river.

"I can come here if I want to, Malfoy," Harry replied sharply, "There is no sign that restricts this area to only you and your bunch."

"Would you like that sign taken from your skin then, Potter?" the blonde questioned with a sharp tongue. Harry could plainly tell that Draco was in a sinister, if not his most awful, mood. The cruelty in this tone said all that Harry had needed to hear.

"You know, Malfoy, you sure know how to ruin things for people," Harry said, not answering Draco's prior question, as he walked up the bank and toward his Slytherin adversary, "But that doesn't matter to someone as heartless as you, now does it?"

"What do you know, Potter?" Draco questioned, the harshness in his voice taking sudden leave, "What do you know about me anyway?"

"More than is necessary, Malfoy," the Gryffindor said bluntly as he brushed past Draco, "And more than I want to know."

"Potter..." Harry heard Malfoy say quietly, almost in a whisper, "Pansy left me today..."

"And? Do you want my sympathy?" Harry said coldly as he halted in his tracks, but kept looking straight ahead.

"No. But, we're here for the same reason. At dinner, I saw your little friends together and I saw you at the other end of the table. She left you, didn't she? She left you for your best friend," Draco whispered to the ground, his voice was sincere and upstanding. For the first time, Harry heard Draco Malfoy forget his wicked tongue and drop his arrogant shield. Harry turned to face Draco and sighed softly, his shoulders dropping lower and his eyes toward the ground.

"Yea," he said lightly, "She left me for Ron."

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Draco said with rare truth in his words.

"Please, don't rub it in..."

The two of them stood there in absolute silence, neither lifting their eyes nor saying a word. Their heads remained hung, and their hands balled into loose fists at their sides.

"Should we stand here, or sit down?" Draco asked after what seemed to be much too long.

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Draco and Harry sat side by side on a moss-covered log; the silence nevertheless hung in the air. Sideways glances were exchanged every few seconds and shy eyes laid upon the other when heads were turned away.

"You're crazy, you know," Draco said quietly, his voice just above a whisper.

"What?" Harry asked sharply in response, his emerald eyes instantaneously locking onto Draco nearly colorless ones.

"It's a full moon tonight," Draco began slowly, "You know what that means, right?"

"Of course," Harry sighed, "but, if that makes me crazy, you are just as crazy."

"You're right, I am crazy."

Draco smiled and Harry smiled back, quickly turning his eyes to the ground and away from the blonde next to him.

"You're crazy, but you're brave too. No one else would come out here tonight - except me," the Slytherin said with a dashing tone in his voice.

"I'm so sure," Harry said still looking at the ground. Draco, though, could see a smile firmly planted on the lips of the dark hared boy beside him.

As a gentle night wind blew, and Harry's hair followed its elegant path in the air, his eyes shone even when to moonbeams didn't touch them. Draco sighed silently to himself as he gazed admiringly at Harry.

"You and I," Draco said quietly, slowly, "we're the crazy ones. Don't say it's not true. There is a fine line between bravery and craziness and for us to be out here, on a night like this, with the moon like this, is to really blur that line."

"There are fine lines between a lot of things," Harry replied. Draco cursed to himself; Harry still had not lifted his eyes.

"There is a very fine line," the blonde said as he shifted a bit closer to Harry. He paused and rested his chin on Harry's shoulder. His lips now nearly brushed against the other boy's ear, "between hate and love."