Why me? or The Real Midnight Duel

It was soon after midnight, and without the gaurdian moon shining on the castle, it would have been pitch black in the clearing. The two dark figures reached the boundaries of the Hogwarts grounds, their dim shadows reflecting on the water of the steely gray lake as they strode past it. Both of them would have been easy to spot in the light of day, and even now in the dark of night they were perfectly recogniziable.

Their whispers matched the level of noise of the cool breeze blowing across the grounds, and though they were trying to speak to the lowest level of noise and still being able to hear each other, the wind slyly carried the sound across the grounds, helping anyone who was listening hear almost exactly what they were saying.

". . . should have brought the invisibility cloak. . ."

"I couldn't find it, so why don't you shut up. . ."

The chilly air blew at the taller cloaked figure, and he gingerly wrapped a worn cloak around himself, shivering. As he did so, his hood fell and even in the black of night his fiercely red hair was visible before he hooded himself again. He spoke to the person next to him, sounding a little nervous.

". . . I think we ought to be careful out here, Harry. We could get expelled if we're caught, you know. Hermione was right." He smiled faintly. "For once." The other boy laughed quietly, but soon stopped, stood up straight suddenly and looked around, his face alarmed. He was still a bit too thin and small for his age, and his very messy black hair over his pale face made it seem even more so. He frowned, watching suspiciously around.

"Ron, can you hear something out there?"

The other boy shivered slightly, or might have shrugged, but didn't say anything, so he could try to hear what the other boy had. He heard an abrupt rustling noise, but it appeared to be only an owl fluttering out of a tree. The red-haired boy shook his head and looked at his friend with a quizzical expression on his face.

"Nothing," he started to say, but just at that moment there was a crashing noise behind them, a loud crackling of leaves, and the two boys jumped back just as they spun around to see what had happened. They ended up sprawled on top of one another, caught inside a bush, because both of them had accidentally tripped over each other's feet or the root of a nearby tree.

The black-haired boy looked up and tried to get out of the thin scratchy branches. "What was that?" he asked hesitantly, slowly standing up. The other boy, who was already back on his feet, shook his head again. "No idea," he muttered, walking towards the place where they had heard the disturbing noise. "Let's go have a look."

Harry caught up and grabbed the taller boy's arm. The boy named Ron looked surprised.

"What?" he said, "Don't you want to see and make sure nothing's hiding-"

"Remember, wands out," whispered Harry, interrupting him. Ron nodded. They proceeded foward, lighting their wands cautiously and walking ahead as silently as they could.

When they reached the less bushy edge of the forest, what Harry saw lying there made him gasp involuntarily. Ron suddenly looked bewildered and understandably angry. He pushed the thing lying there with his foot so that it rolled onto its side. The pair spotted Slytherin robes on a pale, blond boy lying on the ground, who had apparentely fallen from somewhere above.

It was Draco Malfoy. And there was no doubt he had been spying on them from up a tree.

Ron broke the silence. "Slimy git," he growled, looking disgusted. Ron turned toward Harry, who nodded silently. Harry was immensly glad that the darkness concealed the fact that he was blushing, but for what reason, he wasn't exactly sure.

"What do you think we should do with him?" Harry asked him in a falsely nonchalant voice.

Ron's face split into a sort of mixed emotion between anger and ironic amusement. He grimaced and looked back at Harry, who spoke again. "We can't just leave him here, can we?"

He shrugged, and suddenly found himself almost matching Ron's expression of revoltion, though not nearly as strongly. And he wasn't feeling it for Malfoy, but for himself. He was acting so stupid, Ron was sure to notice that he just wanted to be alone with Draco. . . but why would he ever want that? I'm going mad, Harry thought, feeling sickened. At least Ron clearly thought he was revolted at Draco Malfoy. Good.

Ron and Harry looked back at Malfoy, who was still lying there. Ron raised his wand. Harry frowned at him. "We better just leave him where he is, you know," he said warningly. "What if someone finds us out here, hexing an unconsious Slytherin at one in the morning? We'd better not risk it."

Ron looked rather reluctant at being stopped throwing curses at his worst enemy, but nodded all the same. "You're right. Better not try this here."

Harry stared at him with dawning understanding and slight foreboding. He shook his head. "You mean you're still going to curse him? But that's not fair, even if he did spy on us tonight. He's not awake, is he? That's not fair competition." (what I meant is go away so I can make out with him) Harry hesitated, pushing that thought away, and repeating without knowing he already said it, "That's not fair competition."

Draco opened one slit of an eye, muttering "Right you are, Potter," to himself, but they didn't notice. Of course they had guessed he was spying on them, but considered him "unconsious". What idiots. He had only rolled rather noisily off of a branch and accidentally slipped, but he tried at least to gain some dignity and kept watching, not even close to fainting. He had never fainted in his life, and certainly wasn't about to now. Draco crawled out of their sight as quickly and silently as he could. It wasn't very elegant for a Malfoy, but it obviously had to be done. . .

Ron was still considering what his friend had just said, noticing that Harry said the same line twice but overlooking it. Harry probably just wanted to make his point.. He always did want more attention, and what better way than to have every noble-sounding sentence repeated?

There was a thoughtful silence, other than more crackling of leaves on the dry fall ground, but all of them were too preoccupied in their thoughts to pay much attention.

Finally Ron spoke. "But Malfoy doesn't do anything fair," he snarled, turning to look back at Draco. . . and Draco wasn't there.

Things then began to happen very fast.

Ron swirled around and gaped at Harry, but Harry wasn't looking at him. He had an alarmed expression on his face and stood stiff and astonished, looking past Ron. Harry glanced at him and yelled out a warning.

"RON, LOOK OUT-"

Suddenly something collided with the side of Ron's head, making him hurtle into Harry and splattering small specks of blood everywhere. Harry gasped as Ron fell to the ground. He looked down at him, stunned, horrified, but in an awful way he didn't like, pleased. Ron looked terrible. There was a nasty footprint on the side of his face. He appeared to be knocked out.

Harry slowly stood up and found the Slytherin smiling at him derisively. Harry scowled.

Draco Malfoy smirked at him. "I figured you wanted me to do that, Potter," he drawled. "Who says Malfoys have to play with 'fair competition' weighing down on them?"

Harry was so furious, he could barely get around to form a reply. "Wha- what the hell did you do to Ron?!" he shrieked, meaning to sound frightening, but knowing that his voice had gone up an octave higher in his haste. He groaned in humiliation.

Draco's nasty smile widened. "Why do you care what happens to the Weasel, Pothead? You don't have any affairs going on again just like last week, do you? Because I don't like it. What were you doing in the bushes again with the red-haired retard?"

Harry was lost for words. He glared at him. As Malfoy started looking overwhelmingly satisfied, Harry could bear it no longer and seized Draco by the front of the robes, pushing him hard against a nearby oak. Draco didn't have much room to move, right behind him was the giant tree, and they were very close together. If he looked carefully enough he thought he could almost see Harry's mouth foaming in rage. It was actually deadly amusing and he tried to laugh, but he found he couldn't; he was pinned against the giant oak so much it hurt to breathe. He didn't struggle against Potter's firm grip and didn't really care. His gaze was fixed on Potter, as it was very entertaining to watch him fume.

"What is the matter with you, Malfoy?!" Harry yelled as if from far away. There were bright red spots on his cheeks, flushed with anger, frustration, and not-so-slight embarrasement. "Why do you go around nosing into everybody's business, you foul, stupid, ugly prat?"

Call me all you want, Potter, but I'll still know your worst-kept secret.

Draco grinned malevolently, maintaining his self-control not to burst out laughing and kept staring straight in Potter's emerald green eyes. Harry found it impossible to stare back, but also impossible to look away. His knees seemed to melt in Draco's piercing gaze. Harry's legs gave up, and he nearly crumpled to the ground. Draco caught him gracefully and smiled at him. It was a very charming smile. Harry couldn't believe he was actually thinking that.

Then Harry remembered that he was supposed to be angry with Draco, he was supposed to hate that sharp, abnormally pale face staring back at him. . . but it went against nature. How could anyone. . . ? He would not let him charm him out of his furious state. . . would. . . not. . . But just as he managed to look savagely irritated again, Malfoy did something that shocked Harry completely.

He ran off, smirking at him over his shoulder and heading toward the castle. Harry blushed scarlet, furious with himself again for expecting something entirely different.

You could never trust a Malfoy.

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(You thought it would end with snogging, didn't you?)

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