Gingerbread House

There were several things Draco Malfoy hated: dogs, first years, having his picture taken, bed hair, asparagus, and Harry Potter.

Given that list, Draco found waking up quite odd. He was in his bed, with Harry Potter draped over him like he was Potter's personal pillow, and liking it. Potter gave off a very comfortable heat that made the bed cozy. Draco scowled, pushed him off, and sat up. Potter groaned and wrapped himself around the pillow Draco had just vacated. Draco stared down at him a minute before swinging his legs over the side and getting out of bed.

Smirking, Draco pointed the wand at the bed and returned it to its original shape, the desk. Potter yelped as suddenly he was cuddling a wand-shaped letter opener. He sat up abruptly, the motion leaving a cut on his cheek. "Malfoy," he said flatly. Draco smiled in reply.

"Better heal that, Potter," Draco waved his wand towards the cut on Potter's cheek. Potter just blinked blearily in response, before reaching up to touch his cut cheek. He noted with some amusement that the letter opener was still in Potter's hand.

As soon as the metal touched his cheek, Potter blinked at the letter opener as if he couldn't see it very well. Draco noticed that Potter wasn't wearing his glasses, so it was quite possible that he couldn't see it. "Where are my glasses?" Potter asked hoarsely.

Draco shrugged. "Where did you leave them?"

"On top of my robe, I think."

Draco looked around and saw Potter's robe neatly folded up in the chair next to Draco's. On top of the black robe were Potter's glasses. Draco grabbed the glasses and handed them to Potter, who put them on. "Why am I holding a letter opener?"

Draco laughed and turned away to put on his robes. "Sano," he heard Potter say behind him, presumably healing the cut. He turned back and the cut was still there. Potter was frowning. "Can you try, Malfoy?"

Draco nodded and pointed at the cut. Potter seemed to be concentrating. "Sano," Draco said. This time the cut healed.

"Well, that's going to be a problem," Potter muttered.

"What?"

Potter stood and retrieved his own robe. "If I'm never able to cast healing spells on myself."

Draco nodded. Given Potter's predilection for trouble, both with the Weasel and the Mudblood, and on his own, it would be a distinct disadvantage. "Come on Potter, we should go." He nodded and stood up.

"Do you think we should take anything with us?"

"I don't know," Draco shrugged. "Did we lose the Invisibility Cloak?"

Potter scowled. "Yes. You couldn't have managed to grab it along with me?"

"Well, it's not like it was doing any good anyway," Draco shot back, annoyed. "Diggory could see right through it!" Draco found himself slightly regretting the words as Potter's face paled.

"Fine, let's just go." Potter strode to the door, and threw it open. He stalked into the hallway and Draco followed him at a slightly more sedate pace. Potter was waiting for him with his foot tapping.

"Right or left?"

Potter shrugged. "Don't think it matters really."

Draco turned to the door they had just left and pointed his wand at it, causing a red X to appear. Potter gave him a strange look. "It's marked in case we need to come back. It seems to be one of the few safe rooms here."

"But if this is really all coming from our heads, shouldn't we be able to manipulate the rooms?"

"Theoretically, yes," Draco said. He started walking, Potter fell in step. They seemed to be heading back towards the kitchen. "But I doubt we'll be able to consciously manipulate all the rooms. Look at the room with Diggory. Neither of us wanted to be there, but we ended up in there all the same."

"Hmmm. Do you want to try another door?"

"It seems less risky than just wandering around here aimlessly. We might run into those children otherwise."

"Oh there you two are!" Both Potter and Draco stiffened at Hansel's voice.

"Speak of the devil," he heard Potter muttering. They turned in unison to stare at the little boy. He was smiling happily at them.

"You were gone so long, Grethel and I were afraid you'd gotten lost!" Hansel said, smiling brightly. He seemed genuinely pleased to see the both of them. He had changed his clothes, and was now wearing a pair of blue-jean cut-offs and a plain white tee shirt. He seemed to be holding a red lollipop in his hand.

"More's the pity," Draco whispered under his breath. "No, we weren't lost," he said loudly.

Hansel pouted. "Then you didn't want to come back to us, did you?" Hansel stuck the lollipop in his mouth and sucked on it, his cheeks curving inward. Draco found himself faintly disgusted by the expression, a mixing of cherubic innocence and mischievous deviousness. Slowly Draco shook his head no. Potter took a step in front of Draco, shielding him with his body. Draco found himself grateful for the protection. "That's too bad. It's not safe in the house alone," Hansel spoke clearly around the lollipop and his tone became faintly menacing. Draco found himself reaching for Potter's arm to pull the other boy away before he stopped himself, scowling.

"I think we'll be fine," Potter said shortly.

"If you think that, then you are far less intelligent than I thought you'd be, Harry," the little boy replied, seemingly dropping all pretense of being either innocent or a child. He took the lollipop out of his mouth and stared at it for a minute. He popped in back in his mouth and looked nonchalantly at both Draco and Potter.

"You knew we were coming?" Draco found himself asking.

"Oh yes." Hansel nodded and started to walk forward. Both Draco and Potter stepped back quickly. Hansel frowned. "I won't hurt you." Draco snorted. "No, really." The boy smiled at them ingratiatingly. "You haven't really started yet, it would be against the rules."

"Then what are you here for?" Potter asked, his brow was furled in confusion. Draco noticed that it changed the shape of his scar.

"Why don't you come into the kitchen and I'll explain." Draco looked at Potter. The black haired boy seemed to actually be considering the offer.

He quickly grabbed Potter's robe and started backing away. "Thank you for the kind offer, but no." The other boy started to resist, shooting Draco an annoyed look.

"But don't you want to know how to get out?" Hansel asked.

The question stopped both Draco and Potter in their tracks. The turned back to face the little boy who was grinning at them.

Draco stepped up and pointed his wand at the thing's forehead. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, just follow me back to the kitchen and I'll explain the whole thing." Hansel turned and started walking away.

"I think we should follow him, Malfoy."

"No! No way! You can go with him and walk into whatever trap those little demons have set up for you, but I sure as hell will not!"

"Scared, Malfoy?" Potter looked scornful and crossed his hands over his chest.

"Oh leave off, Potter. I'm not stupid. You won't goad me into going with you!"

Potter laughed. "Perhaps then I should just go alone, get the full story, escape, and leave you to stew in your own mess then?"

Draco scowled. Potter was right in that; if those two little whatever they were knew what was going on, their information would most likely lead to the way out of the trap. But that didn't mean he was going to make it easy for the scarred boy. Draco mirrored Potter's own pose. "Or maybe I should just let you walk into that trap, escape on my own, and leave you to die an excruciating death?"

"I say, Malfoy, I think you get less witty as time goes on."

"Coming from you, Potter, that's not saying much."

Potter sighed, and dropped his aggressive stance to run his hands through his hair. The infamous Potter hair seemed to get even messier with the action. "Look, Malfoy," to Draco's mixed surprise and amusement, Potter seemed to be pleading with him, "we don't have time to argue on this. Look, this may be the only chance we have for information. We should go."

Draco studied Potter. He seemed truly earnest, his black hair framing his face, green eyes blazing in the dim light. He had his right hand, his wand hand, open in front of him. Potter was biting his lip. "I'll watch your back, you watch mine," Potter finally offered, turning his hand slightly.

"What, like friends?" Draco wanted to spit out the words at Potter, rebuff him once again, but instead they came out subdued.

Potter shrugged a bit, once again offering Draco his hand. "If that's what it takes."

"I don't know if that's a very good idea, Potter."

"Oh for god's sake, Draco, just say yes. We can work the details out later. Right now I think survival is a bit more important than a schoolboy duel!" Potter took a deep, calming breath. "Besides, if we get to know each other, you never know, we might actually start to like each other."

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blue," Potter answered, surprised. Draco sighed and took Potter's hand. The other boy's touch was surprisingly warm, and his palm was slightly damp. They shook firmly, once, twice, three times before Draco pulled back. Potter looked at him oddly. "Why'd you ask me about my favorite color?"

"Isn't that how people become friends? Get to know each other before they decide? Besides, you're the one who brought up getting to know each other. I just figured we out to start small."

"Decide what?"

"To be friends."

Potter shrugged. "I suppose it's different for everyone. With Ron we decided to be friends immediately and then started to get to know each other later. With Hermione, we got to know her, and then became her friend." He turned and started walking towards the kitchen. Draco watched him for a moment, before jogging to catch up with him. "What about you? How'd you become friends with Crabbe and Goyle?"

"We grew up together." Draco didn't think it would be a very good idea to elaborate. Besides, given Potter's definition of the word, he highly doubted Crabbe and Goyle counted as "friends." He never even called them by their first names.

"All right then... What's your favorite color?"

"Look, Potter -"

"Harry."

"Harry, I really don't think we have time for this." Draco pointed ahead of them where Hansel was leaning against the doorframe and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Are you coming in here, or not?" Hansel called out. He sounded highly irritated.

Harry smiled, and of all things, reached over and squeezed Draco's shoulder reassuringly. Draco rolled his eyes and Harry laughed at his expression. "If anything comes at it, just stay behind me and shoot nasty spells at it, okay?" Harry leaned in and whispered.

Draco sighed at him in exasperation. "You never make things easy do you?"

"Of course not. It's never easy, that's why it's called a relationship." Harry smiled faintly and walked into the kitchen. Hansel was glowering at him, and Draco raised his wand.

"Oh, just get in here," Hansel said, sounding distinctly annoyed. Draco walked into the kitchen and was pleased to note that it hadn't changed since he and Harry had left. Hansel pointed at the seats that Harry and Draco had been in earlier. "Sit." They did, and quickly.

"Don't do that again," Draco hissed.

"Do what?" Hansel asked with an angelic expression.

"Oh not now," Harry broke in. "Just explain what's going on. Where are we? What are you? How do we get out?"

Hansel held up a hand in a stopping gesture. "You each get one question. That's as much of a hint as I can give."

Draco looked over at Harry, and nodded at him, intending for Harry to ask his question first. "Where are we?" Draco raised his eyebrows, surprised by Harry's guile. By asking for location first, if either Harry or Draco recognized where they were, there was a much better chance that one of them might know the way to get out. If they already knew the way out, then of course Draco wouldn't have to waste his second question.

"You're in a shadow dimension, one of several, actually. It's only accessible through one object, the gingerbread house that brought you here," Hansel answered quickly.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Harry asked suspiciously. He looked at Draco and gave him a quick shake of his head, as if to tell Draco that he had no clue how to get out. Yet another example of that Gryffindor subtlety.

Hansel smirked at Harry and leaned over to pat his hands, which were laced together tightly on top of the table. "No, no, no! You only get one question! Unless, of course, you want that to be his question!"

"Oh, no, that's okay," Harry replied quickly waving his hands in a warding gesture. Draco kept his mouth firmly shut, if Harry could get himself into this alone, then he could damn well get himself out.

"Fine then," Hansel seemed disappointed, sticking his lower lip out, the picture of wounded innocence.

"How do we get out?" Draco asked simply.

"Oh, that's the easy part!" Hansel said brightly. Draco felt something heavy drop into his stomach, he prayed vaguely it was one of Harry's sandwiches and not a general feeling of foreboding. "There's a door on the third floor. You walk through it, you escape."

Draco sighed and reached up to rub his forehead. He felt a headache coming on. He looked over at Harry. "Somehow I get the feeling it's not that simple." He turned back to Hansel. "Would you care to elaborate on that?"

Hansel glared. "I don't want to, where's the fun in that?" Hansel smiled and adopted a pompous tone. Draco found himself reminded of the Weasel Head Boy they had a few years back. "Besides, that's technically a second question."

"No, technically," Draco mimicked Hansel's tone, "it's related to the first question, therefore still valid."

Hansel stamped his foot on the floor, looking royally annoyed. "Fine. There are three floors. Each floor has four doors. You have to open the doors, face what's inside. If you make it through the four doors, then you meet the one in charge of the floor." Hansel smiled and Draco suddenly realized.

"You, Grethel and your grandmother are the ones in control aren't you?"

Hansel just beamed, and Draco took that response as a very definite yes. He glanced over at Harry, who was rubbing his forehead. Draco felt a perverse bit of satisfaction that he wasn't suffering alone. "Well, that was decidedly unhelpful." Harry was scowling; the look seemed strange to Draco. He wondered if that was because it was trained on someone else.

"I am helpful!" Hansel sounded vaguely wounded. Harry and Draco snorted in unison before shooting each other confused looks. "Fine, I'll give you two freebies. Two of the doors lead to things you fear, one of the doors is a safe haven, and the fourth door, well, we don't know where it goes. Could be to certain death!" Hansel was positively beaming.

"A door to certain death." Harry's voice was flat.

"Whoever created this handy pocket dimension really needs to lay off the melodrama," Draco said to Harry wryly, who nodded in reply, a small smile on his face. "What's the other hint?" Draco asked, turning back to Hansel.

Hansel produced another lollipop and stuck it in his mouth. "I changed my mind," he pouted. "You aren't properly respectful. I think I'll stop being nice to you, now get out of my kitchen."

"Are the rooms we've already been in completed?" Draco asked.

"I'm not telling! You'll have to look and see for yourself," Hansel said spitefully before disappearing.

Draco looked over at Harry, who had gone deathly pale. Come to think of it, Draco wasn't all that eager to open the door to the graveyard again either. "Well, Potter, I suppose we should get moving. We'll check the Headmaster's Office first, if it's still there, we can almost safely assume that..." Draco trailed off as Harry seemed to grow even paler. "You promised."

Draco's reminder seemed to snap Harry out of his trance. He jerked visibly and looked at the blond as if he had never seen him before. Harry was still pale, and Draco could see both of his hands shaking, but his eyes showed resolve. He vaguely recognized the expression from when Weasel Jr.'s kidnapping was announced in the Great Hall during dinner. The Weasel had not been present, presumably with his family. The Mudblood and Harry had been and while the Mudblood had seemed genuinely shocked and surprised, Harry... Harry had been different. Draco had watched the range of emotions play across his face: shock, fear, anger, and finally resolve. The last had ended up almost exactly as Harry looked now. "Right. Let's go then."

"After you, Harry," Draco said politely. Harry shot him a look.

"You know, Draco, it's odd to see you being so nice. And calling me by my first name. What changed your mind? Why did you decide to stop being a nasty prat?"

Draco sighed. "I was never a nasty prat, Potter. You just never agreed with my superior opinions, so labeled me as such."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't start."

Draco look at him innocently, eyes as wide as he could make them. "Start what?" Harry just looked at him for a few minutes before bursting into laughter. Draco wasn't quite sure what to make of Harry's reaction. When the other boy had calmed down a bit, Draco continued. "You asked me to call you by your first name."

"You mean, after six years of constant bickering, the only thing I would have had to do to stop it was ask you to call me by my first name?" Harry seemed both amused and astonished, but thankfully refrained from laughter.

Draco shook his head. "It's not that simple, Potter, and you know it." Draco took a deep breath. "You're right." The words came out in a rush, and Draco could see that Harry had almost missed them.

"Oh, I know that. Right about what in particular?"

Draco scowled. "You're right in that we won't be able to get out of here alone. The less we fight, the more we work together, the better chance of survival we have. I need you." Harry's eyebrows shot up and an odd expression came over his face, one that seemed incredibly familiar to Draco, but he couldn't quite put a name on it. "I need your power," Draco elaborated, and the expression dropped off Harry's face replaced by a quickly stifled look of disappointment. Draco filed that away for further study when neither of them were trapped in a shadow dimension. "Just like you'll need my powers to get out."

Harry cocked his head to the left slightly and studied Draco. "So you decided to be my friend out of self-preservation, then?"

"Of course," Draco replied, somewhat confused by the question. "Didn't you do the same?"

"You're being awfully honest. I can't say that it seems in character for you." Draco looked at Harry, honestly surprised. He hadn't expected the Gryffindor to think him dishonest. Trusting was one of Harry's character traits, it seemed odd that he would lose it now. "You expected me to trust you straight away, didn't you? No fuss, no mess." Harry said, surprising Draco further. He hadn't thought Harry could read him so easily. Harry shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. Especially for you, Malfoy." Harry emphasized Draco's last name as if it was the one true answer. "You have to earn it."

"And how does a Malfoy go about earning a Potter's trust, then?" Draco spat back. He found that he didn't really feel angry, in a way, he actually quite respected Harry's caution. It was almost Slytherin of him. But it also worried him a bit, if Harry was picked up some of the ingrained Slytherin traits, who knew how Draco would be acting before they got out. Would he be the one throwing himself in front of the Killing Curse? Draco felt a small tremor run through him at the thought.

"The same way you have been: telling the truth, not fighting with me, giving me information as you find it."

"Doesn't sound much like what friends do."

"No, but we're not quite friends yet, Draco. I told you it wasn't that easy."

"Few things are."

"Not if they're important." Draco opened his mouth to answer that and realized that he had absolutely nothing to say. Harry sighed. "Never mind, let's just go before our little friend comes back and decides to kick us out."

Draco nodded, and the pair of them walked into the hallway. It had changed again. While still unrecognizable, the multitude of doors had disappeared leaving just four: two on the right side and two on the left. To Draco's dismay, none of the four doors had the mark they left behind. "You pick."

Harry shook his head emphatically. "Oh no, I picked the last room. After you, Draco."

Draco glared at Harry who looked unrepentant. "Oh, fine." Draco randomly pointed to the second door on the left. "That one."

Harry reached out and placed his hand on the doorknob. "Are you sure?"

"Well, if you don't want to trust my judgment, then pick one yourself!" Draco snapped.

Harry smirked. "What was that I just said about trust, Malfoy?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"No, Draco, it isn't." Harry dropped the smirk and looked at Draco seriously. "Be ready."

"Always am, Potter." Draco raised his wand and instantly thought of several nasty hexes to use. Harry moved so that he was standing on the right of the door, and Draco moved to the left. Once again, Draco felt himself starting to respect Harry's guile, it seemed there was far more to the Gryffindor than blind luck. Although Draco was rather sure that luck was still a large factor.

Harry swung the door open slowly, allowing both Draco to look in but Harry to move so that he wasn't trapped behind the door. It was the Headmaster's Office. Draco let out a breath of air that he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Looks like we found the safe room on this floor." Harry nodded.

"Thankfully. I hope you're right about..."

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right," Draco said haughtily bringing a small smile onto Harry's face. "We'll have to check the next room though," he sighed. Harry nodded.

"I suppose it's my turn to pick." He slammed the door shut and used his wand to mark the door with a red "S". "They moved once, who says they won't do it again?"

Draco studied the mark and felt his lips twitch. "If you wanted 'S' for 'Slytherin,' I would have thought green might be a better color. Besides, we did mark the door once already."

Harry looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "That's 'S' for 'Safe,' idiot. And red is a perfectly good color. And it's worth a try," Harry said. He closed his eyes and spun in a circle on one foot with his arm stretched out. "So, which door do you think I'm pointing at?" Harry had ended up pointing somewhere in between the doors. Draco studied Harry's finger, and pointed to the door on the right.

"That one, I think."

Harry nodded. "All right." They repeated their positions and slowly opened the door. Draco peered in, but couldn't see anything beyond a very thick mist. The gray fog was seemed thick enough that Draco might be able to grab a handful of it. It would be quite easy to get lost in the mess.

"Maybe we have to go in?" he offered. "Before whatever it is appears?"

"Maybe. But somehow I don't think so. Remember the graveyard? It was there before we went into the room. I think that fog -"

"And what's in it!" Draco muttered, interrupting the black-haired boy.

Harry glared at him for a moment before continuing as if the interruption hadn't happened. "I think that fog may be the nightmare. It looks pretty nasty." Harry took a deep breath and stepped inside, Draco followed. He raised his hand in front of his face, starting at the full extension and pulling in. The mist was so thick he literally couldn't see his hand in front of his face when it reached his nose. It was a disconcerting feeling, almost what Draco would thing total blindness felt like. "I can't see anything in here!" Harry reached out and grabbed Draco's hand. "We can't afford to be separated in this."

"If you can't see anything, Potter, how did you grab my hand?" Draco asked, hoping that it really was Harry and not something else.

"I didn't think you'd moved, so I reached out and grabbed the air where your hand would have been." Draco felt both annoyed and reassured by the answer: reassured because it was Harry, and annoyed that Harry's Seeker reflexes were just that good.

Draco looked down at where he presumed their hands to be. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder about you, Potter." Draco raised his wand and conjured a short magical rope, long enough to keep them from tripping on each other's heels, but short enough that they wouldn't get seperated in times of trouble. "Harry, can you reach around and find the end of the rope?" He waited a few moments looking around nervously at the thick fog, feeling the tug and pull on his arm through Harry's hand.

"Yes, I've got it."

"It's connected to my wand. Tie it to something on you."

Draco felt Harry let go of his hand, and waited some more. The longer he spent in the mist, the less he liked it. Even the sounds seemed to be deadened. "Done. It's tied around my waist. Well, let's get moving!" Seemed as if the ever-brave Gryffindor felt the same way Draco did.

"After you," Draco offered graciously.

"I didn't expect anything else."

Draco followed into the fog where he felt his wand tugging. The fog seemed incredibly oppressive, like it was closing in on Draco. He resisted the urge to wave his hands to try and clear some of the mist in front of him away. If moving through the fog didn't displace it then his hands wouldn't help either. He decided to try talking to Harry, it would help them both from getting nervous and twitchy. Plus the sound orientation would help him if something did attack. If he could pinpoint Harry by sound, then Draco wouldn't be throwing hexes at the Gryffindor instead of the attacker. "So, Harry, is this your nightmare, or mine?"

There was no answer to Draco's question.

"Harry?" Still nothing. Draco stopped walking, waiting to feel the pull of the rope drag him on. "This is not a joke, Potter. Say something." Draco tugged on the rope. There was no resistance as he pulled it close to him. "Harry?" Draco had reached the end of the rope, there was nothing and no one attached to it.

He flicked his wand, releasing the rope and placing it against his throat. "Sonorus." He took a deep breath and shouted with all his might. "HARRY!"

There was nothing. Not even an echo.

"This is not good."

Author's Notes:

No actual notes this chapter. Shocker. This is the one of the shortest chapters to date, but I'm still rather happy with it. I moved quite a bit information along in a short time.

I did want to make a quick note to all the people who asked about Draco's innate powers: just because Draco doesn't know what they are doesn't mean that they aren't working. In fact, you see quite a bit of it in this chapter and the previous one. Take a stab at it. Hermione's talent, which has been hinted at rather heavily, will be revealed in the next chapter I think.

Yes, next chapter takes us outside the house. Stay tuned for more wackiness.