The Spirit of Death

A shorty, but a goody, I hope. I am aware that I haven't posted in a while, and I didn't want you to think I was neglecting you. I have exams this week, so I'm unlikely to update again for about a fortnight, unless I have an overwhelming urge to visit Harry and Draco (which isn't entirely unlikely)!!

Harry and Draco are starting to find a way to come to terms with what Ron and his friends did - who will they turn to? In the mean time, there is other stuff to be thinking about, and how will Gryffindor react to what may happen?

Harry stood still, only his head moving as Ron walked quickly to his four-poster bed and hastily drew the hangings without even changing into his pyjamas. He finally lowered his wand and softened his expression a little before moving to sit beside Draco. He sat about halfway up the bed while Draco sat at the bottom, watching Harry in silence. They looked into each others eyes. One boy saw fright and worry, the other anger and concern.

Harry slid down towards Draco and offered his hand to the boy. Draco took it tentatively; Harry could feel Draco's hand trembling, and gave it a gentle squeeze of support. Draco finally slid his legs over the side of the bed to sit beside Harry, staring glumly at the floor. Harry leant over and put his right arm around the frightened boy, his left hand holding Draco's right, on Draco's lap. At length the blonde withdrew his gaze from the floor and fixed Harry with an adoring stare. His grey eyes seemed warmer than they ever had before, to Harry; possibly because they were wetter than usual with anguish and relief he had experienced whilst reliving the previous ten minutes in his head. Harry smiled weakly and watched as Draco tried to smile back.

"Are you OK?" Harry asked finally, seeing that Draco wasn't going to speak first.

"Mm-hmm" Draco hummed quietly, contemplating Harry, his eyes still focussed on Harry's emerald irises. "I was scared that would happen," he admitted finally, "but not because of what could have happened to me, but because I thought that you might not defend me against your friends."

Harry swallowed. "How could you think that I wouldn't stick up for you?" he asked finally, trying not to let tears well up in his eyes as he thought of how unnecessarily scared Draco had been that Harry would take his old friends over Draco. He wanted to be strong for Draco.

"I just thought that," he swallowed, "maybe, even though you're stuck with me forever, that you might turn against me again if everyone else ganged up on me," he finished, looking back down at the floor.

Harry sat in silence for a few moments, then reached out to Draco's face, cupping his hand under Draco's chin.

"Look at me," said Harry, quietly, following Draco's chin with his hand, then moving his hand to place it against Draco's usually pale, but now slightly blotchy cheek. "If anybody has a problem with you, or us, then they have a problem with me. Whatever happens, we're together - I'm not 'stuck' with you, and I hope that you don't feel stuck with me - we'd be good even if it wasn't for the magic."

Draco sniffed, and Harry swallowed slightly. He had never said anything like that before. He thought it was probably something that he would ordinarily have expected Hermione to say. But then he wouldn't have expected his friends to have reacted in the way they had, so it wasn't really a day for whatever 'ordinary' was. He felt Draco move against him, and looked down.

"Thank you, Harry," he said weakly. Then in a stronger voice, "you were damn scary, you know - it was really sexy." He smiled up at Harry, who smiled back. Trust Draco to brush off everything that had just happened - just like that. The pair of them heard a loud cough from Ron's bed, as he unsubtly indicated that he was still awake. Harry scowled and made to start across to tell Ron exactly how he felt about Draco, but Draco held onto his arm.

"You don't have to destroy all of your friendships in one night," he said. This did not placate Harry particularly, but he remained at Draco's side. He looked around the room distractedly, Ron's attitude irritating him deeply. As he looked over at Neville's bed, the boy shifted and Harry thought he saw his eyes snap shut, and evidence on his lips that he was suppressing a small smile.

Harry leaned his forehead against Draco's, and adjusted so that their noses touched.

"Night," he breathed. Draco shifted to move in towards Harry, but at that moment Harry withdrew his face from Draco's and got back into his own bed. Before they each drew their hangings they propped their heads on their forearms and looked at each other. Finally they smiled and both drew their hangings around their beds.

One person who did not seem at all bothered about what everybody else thought was Angelina Johnson. She had been made Captain of Gryffindor Quidditch for her final year at Hogwarts, and was eager to recruit Draco to the team. At the end of the week, on Friday at dinner, she had walked up to Harry and Draco who had been sitting with Hermione, apart from the rest of the House, and addressed Draco directly.

"I want you at Quidditch practise," she said, very directly, "at ten-thirty tomorrow morning. Its not an early start, being as it's the beginning of the season, but I think you both ought to get some sleep tonight, as I want a full day's session tomorrow. The team haven't played since before the Triwizard Tournament, and I want to get everything up and running again properly - especially if we're incorporating a new member. Harry." She acknowledged Harry as she walked back off down the table. Harry wondered vaguely about what Angelina thought they got up to that would preclude them from sleeping at night, but doubted if she was anywhere near the mark. Seamus and Dean had not told anyone what Harry had done to them, and Harry and Draco had told noone except Hermione. Ron was also keeping quiet about the whole incident, and had not spoken to Harry for the entire week.

Hermione had not spoken to Ron either. The morning after Harry had Stunned Seamus and Dean to sleep, once he and Draco had washed and dressed, he had Enervated the two boys from the doorway before quickly leaving the room. Hermione had been down in the common room waiting for Ron, who had not appeared.

"Have you seen Ron?" she had asked, the moment she had seen Harry.

"I thought he would have been with you - he's not upstairs," had been Harry's truthful, yet disinterested-sounding reply. Hermione had shot a look between Harry and Draco, then demanded they spill everything.

By the time they had finished their story about how the three boys had bullied and threatened Draco in the dormitory the previous night, she had been incredibly angry, though had reproached Harry slightly for not having revived the boys the previous night.

"They weren't about to try anything else," she had said, though she had accepted Harry's argument that it would have been too late had he been sleep.

"You can't Stun them to sleep every night, though," she had pressed.

"Watch me," Harry had replied, menacingly. This had drawn a half-adoring, half-worried look from Draco. Harry was aware that Draco did not expect him to rearrange his world to accommodate their new relationship, but as much as Draco didn't like the idea that Harry should jeopardize what he already had, Harry wanted to make sure that Draco didn't feel as if he would ever be subject to his wrath. He had seen the look of fright in Draco's eyes as he had looked at him over the Stunned bodies of Seamus and Dean.

"I read about a Shield charm that might be useful, or you could always Imperturb your hangings," Hermione had suggested helpfully, before falling deadly silent as she had spotted Ron skulking into the room and carefully selecting a seat which he had thought was out of view.

Hermione, not one to make a scene, had excused herself from Harry and Draco and had quickly crossed the room to Ron. The two boys could see that he had obviously patted the seat beside him on the sofa he had chosen, in the sickly sweet way couples have of inviting the others' company, but Hermione had sat rigidly in an armchair set at right-angles to the sofa, right by where Ron was sitting. She had leant in close and Harry could see her whispering furiously at Ron. Hermione had returned to them a few minutes later, leaving Ron looking stunned, still looking angry, and stiffly suggested they go down to breakfast. That had been the last time the incident had been mentioned.

***

Obviously his usual position of Seeker was already very capably occupied by Harry, though Draco turned out to exhibit many more skills than he had heretofore showcased on the Quidditch pitch. During Keeper tryouts (Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's previous Keeper had left Hogwarts two years previously), Draco was once again exhibiting the explosive force his delicate frame could exert an amount of energy, on objects such as Quaffles, which was surprising to all those who had underestimated him, which was most of the Gryffindor team.

Being similarly built, almost exactly the same size and build as Draco, Harry could understand where the power came from; during practise sessions previously he, Harry, had surprised even the Chasers with his ability to throw the Quaffle very hard during warm-ups.

His weight, and inherent agility, combined with Draco's immense flying skill made him perfect to fill the position of Keeper, which had been left vacant by Oliver Wood who had left the school at the end of Harry's third year. Keeper was a position more often associated with bulkier players, purely for the beating usually received from opposing Beaters and their Bludgers.

Other members of Gryffindor House, who had turned up after Angelina had opened the place up to competition from all who were willing to try-out, looked aggrieved by his performance. Ron, particularly, looked rather bitter. Harry had been surprised to see Ron arrive at the Quidditch pitch with a school broom, and took a degree of satisfaction from seeing all three Chasers - Alicia, Katie and Angelina herself - put several easy goals past him. Draco had not let past a one.

Once the tryouts were completed, the hopefuls were hovering in front of Angelina - though it was truthful to say, Harry thought, that they did not look particularly hopeful. When Angelina announced that Draco had made the team, the others descended back to ground level without a word, though Harry was sure he saw Ron make a bitter-looking comment to some second-year Harry didn't know. This left Draco looking small and alone, nervously facing the team. Fred and George thumped their Beaters' bats into their palms in the silence before Angelina, who had been making sure everyone left the stadium quietly, returned and rebuffed them.

"Draco is now a member of this team," she had said firmly to them, "and anyone who has a problem with him or any other member of this team can leave now." Fred and George, the only two who had had a problem (the girls seemed to have warmed to Draco already) had quickly apologized to Angelina and the training commenced.

The training session went well - the Chasers practised all their manoeuvres and formation flying, though for the entire day they had entirely failed to put a single goal past Draco. Harry had caught and re-released the Snitch about fifty times, always quickly retrieving it, though as part of their practise Fred and George had almost broken Harry's hand by belting a Bludger at the Snitch, smashing it out of Harry's reach. Harry turned around and grinned at the twins, who were grinning too.

"Good shot wasn't it," Fred had called. Harry had only smiled in return - he wasn't sure about the twins' attitude, whether or not they meant that almost getting him or hitting the Snitch with the Bludger had been 'good' about the shot.

Angelina was keen to keep her team selection a secret before their first Quidditch game because she figured it would play into Gryffindor's hands to unnerve the other team, or make them overconfident at taking on such a diminutive-looking Keeper. She, and the rest of the team, doubted whether the news would remain secret for long though. With gossip about Harry and Draco rampant in the castle, it was likely that the larger portion of the school was aware already.

After most of the team had left the changing rooms at the end of the successful day's training, Angelina took Draco aside briefly and enthusiastically expressed her pleasure at his performance. Draco was beaming at Harry when they left the stadium together, unaware that Angelina was watching them walk away into the sunset with an even bigger smile on her face - they would win the Quidditch cup for sure this year.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, the room was once again hissing vehemently when Harry and Draco re-entered; it seemed that the House was most displeased with the fact that Draco had come over from Slytherin and taken a Gryffindor's place on the Quidditch team. Both of them were too tired to point out that Draco was not only now a Gryffindor but an excellent player, and after only a short spell sitting with Hermione in their usual corner (during which Hermione threatened to go get Professor McGonagall to shut everyone else up, which Harry thought was very poor idea) Harry and Draco stood, and left the common room.

After the portrait hole had swung shut behind them, the two boys linked their fingers and sighed deeply. However tiresome life with the Gryffindors got they could always find solace in each other's company. In the middle of a dark corridor they paused on their way for a brief, tender kiss. Draco gently manoeuvred Harry so that his back was against a wall, and though Harry could hardly see him in the dark, after Draco had removed his glasses, he knew exactly when Draco's lips were going to touch his own. When that contact came though, that knowledge and confidence did not prevent him from shaking with pleasure - Draco always made him feel this way. For a couple of minute they were lost in each other's worlds, their tongues caressing and their desires aligned. They broke apart, breathing heavily, though in unison. Smiling at each other, in pleasure and inherent happiness in each others' company, they set off again.

Where are we going, anyway? Asked Draco, mentally.

Anywhere but Gryffindor Tower, Harry replied, not letting on that he knew exactly where they were going - they were going to see someone who would not ridicule them, who would say exactly what he thought, who might understand. They were going to see Hagrid.

There will be more Quidditch in the next chapter, and plenty more other action to look out for too! Please review - Logan.