Immortalitas Aestas

Pansy walked quietly along the second-floor corridor, checking each classroom for anyone who was out after hours. So far she'd found two Hufflepuff fourth years whose snogging she'd interrupted, and two Ravenclaw third years who were in the Charms classroom practicing some sort of spell that had lit the entire room in a blue glow. The spell, as Pansy had seen, was from a book out of the Restricted Section, and neither Ravenclaw could explain how the book had come to be in their possession. Pansy had confiscated the book and removed ten points from each of the four, smirking at their complaints and sent them back to their common rooms. The book she kept for herself - one could never pass up an opportunity to learn new spells, after all.

All in all it was a pretty typical night.

She closed the final door with a sigh and glanced at her watch. It was currently half past eleven, which meant that she still had half an hour left of patrol duty. One of her duties as a Prefect was to patrol the school three nights a week for two hours at a time. Tonight she was sharing the job with Justin Finch-Fletchley, who she'd sent off to monitor the Ravenclaw territory. Her usual patrol partner was Draco, but he'd disappeared right after supper to do God only knew what and had not, to Pansy's knowledge, returned yet. So instead, she was stuck with a Hufflepuff for the evening.

It was completely unfair, she decided with a huff.

She pushed herself away from the wall and headed back down the corridor; she figured she might as well find Finch-Fletchley and then head back to her common room. After all, she had to write up the reports on the students she'd found out after hours. And maybe Draco would be back, too.

At that thought she quickened her step. As she rounded a corner she promptly slammed into someone. The collision knocked the wind out of her, and she felt herself falling toward the ground, before strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back to her feet.

"Parkinson," the familiar voice said. "Are you all right?" His hands, which were still resting on her hips, steadied her.

Bloody hell. Of all the people she could have run into it had to be Harry Bloody Potter.

"Potter," she replied, stepping backwards to put some distance between them. His hands dropped to his sides.

"Sorry," he told her, reaching to push his glasses up. "I didn't see you."

"That much was painfully obvious, Potter," she retorted. "What are you doing out here anyway? Don't you know it's past curfew?"

Potter rolled his eyes. "I just got out of detention with Snape." He spat the name and she couldn't help but smile a bit at the venom in his voice.

"Ah." She ran a hand over her shirt to straighten it out. It was odd, she decided, to be standing in the middle of the Charms corridor talking to Harry Potter. She couldn't ever remember having a civil conversation with him before in all their years together at school.

Pansy realized that Potter was staring at her with his head tilted to one side. "What?" she snapped somewhat defensively.

He shook his head slightly, and she was surprised to see a small smile on his face. "I'm just trying to figure out why Draco cares for you, that's all."

She blinked. "Oh," was all she found herself able to say.

He laughed quietly. "Sorry. That didn't come out right. I didn't mean that the way it sounded." He shifted his feet slightly and shoved a hand through his hair. "I'm sure you're perfectly lovely, but it's just that you and I, I mean, we've never really got along. We've had a lot of arguments."

Pansy resisted the urge to smile at him and folded her hands to keep from reaching up and straightening Potter's hair, which was poking up haphazardly around his head. He smelled vaguely of dust, too, and she wondered what on earth he'd been doing for his detention.

"Well, to be honest, I've asked myself that question as well, in regards to you. I mean, Draco may speak very highly of you, but I'm not so convinced," Pansy replied, then smiled slightly, giving herself away. She was rewarded with a grin and a roll of the eyes, and decided that no, Harry Potter was not at all bad to look at; Draco definitely had a point there.

"I see," Potter eventually replied, after clearing his throat. "Anyway, I'd better get up to Dumbledore's office. That's where I was heading when I, er, ran into you. You sure you're all right, by the way?"

"I'm fine," Pansy said. "Is it about Draco? I mean, is that why Dumbledore wants to see you?" The humor that had been in her voice was quickly replaced with worry.

Potter sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know."

Pansy nodded. "I know I probably shouldn't ask you this, and I don't really expect you to tell me, seeing as Draco wouldn't even tell me," she added as an afterthought, "but where exactly is he?"

Potter regarded her silently for a moment. "You're right. I can't tell you."

Pansy pushed down on the anger that immediately bubbled up inside of her at his nonchalant answer. Like she'd told him, she hadn't really expected an answer, but couldn't help but be upset at being kept in the dark about what was going on.

"Can't? Or won't?" she asked sharply, then hauled in a breath to calm herself down. Potter continued to watch her calmly.

"He's my best friend, Potter," she finally told him, her voice very quiet. "And I love him." She saw something flash briefly across Potter's face at that, but it was gone before she could really decipher it. "And I know that he's doing whatever it is he's doing for you." Potter looked like he was going to object for a second, then decided against it and merely shrugged. Pansy continued. "If anything happens to him because of you and your need to involve everyone else in your problems, you're going to wish that You-Know-Who had succeeded in killing you. I promise you that."

Potter looked shell-shocked for a moment at the calmly-intoned threat, but pulled himself together quickly. "Parkinson, nothing you can do to me will be worse than what I'd want to do to myself if anything happens to him." And with that, he gave her a curt nod, before brushing past her and continuing down the hall.

Pansy watched him with wide eyes until she couldn't see him anymore. That last response had not been what she was expecting and now gave her quite a bit to think about. She wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath. Well, this was certainly interesting, at any rate.

Jesus, let Draco be all right, she thought to herself, as she walked down the hall in search of Finch-Fletchley.

***

Harry stood in front of the Gargoyle, silently counting in his head to ten, trying to reign in his temper. He was so angry at Pansy for insinuating that he didn't care about what happened to Draco. What did Pansy think, that she was the only one who cared about him? That Harry didn't care if Draco got himself killed? And now Harry had practically told her the opposite - what was he thinking? Draco hadn't wanted to tell anyone about them, and now Harry had gone and really done it. Not to mention the terror he was still feeling that something had happened to Draco and that's why Dumbledore wanted to see him. What if something had gone wrong? Harry didn't even want to think about it, which was probably why he was unable to think of anything else.

He took a deep breath and released it, running a hand down his sides to try to straighten his shirt and remove any leftover dust acquired from the storeroom from his palms. The movement also helped to slightly calm his nerves, for which he was grateful. It was no good going into Dumbledore's office openly upset.

"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," Harry spoke clearly, stepping back as the revolving staircase appeared in front of him. He stepped on, hoping that once he reached the top Draco would be safely inside.

Climbing the rest of the stairs, Harry paused for a moment at the door to knock.

"Come in, Harry," came Dumbledore's voice, and Harry rolled his eyes at the way the Headmaster always seemed to know everything.

Harry turned the knob, opening the door, and stepped inside. His breath instantly caught in his throat: there, leaning against the side of Dumbledore's desk with a horribly smug grin on his face, was Draco.

Harry felt his knees nearly give out with relief and he grabbed at the doorframe to keep himself upright. Draco's grin widened.

"Harry," he said, his smugness also apparent in his voice. "I got the book." He gestured towards Dumbledore's desk, where Caligo Devotio was perched on the corner.

"I see that," Harry replied, pushing himself away from the doorframe and closing the door quietly. "Did you run into any trouble?" He noticed that Sirius and Narcissa were also in the office and that Sirius was giving him a curious look, which he ignored.

Draco shrugged. "Not really, although I'm sure that by now Lucius has figured out that I was there and that I am the one responsible for ... borrowing the book." His voice had taken on that drawling quality that Harry used to find absolutely irritating.

"How would Lucius know it was you?" Sirius asked.

"Well, for one thing, I'm the only one besides Lucius himself who could have gotten into the library. And secondly-" here he paused for effect, "-well, let's just say that I had a run-in with one of his portraits."

Narcissa nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "Yes. And I'm sure that by now the portrait has told Lucius everything."

Draco shrugged. "Doesn't really matter now, does it? I got the book, and now we can start working on ending this heat spell. In case you hadn't noticed, it's rather warm in here."

"Indeed," Dumbledore finally said with a grin. "Draco, have a seat, please. Let's have a look at the book."

Draco pushed himself off the desk and sat in the chair next to Narcissa, looking pointedly at the empty seat next to him. Harry sat in a rush, nearly tipping the chair over, and gripped the arms to keep his balance.

Draco coughed. "It's nice to see you, too," he said quietly, and Harry felt himself blush. He hadn't meant to be so obvious.

Dumbledore ignored their exchange, although his eyes were twinkling a bit more than usual. He opened up Caligo Devotio and turned to a page toward the center.

"Ah," he said, straightening his glasses. "Here it is."

Draco and Harry both sat forward in their chairs.

"You found the spell?" Harry asked. "Is there a countercurse?"

"Immortalitas Aestas," was Dumbledore's only reply.

"What?" Harry asked. He'd never even heard of such a spell.

"Immortalitas Aestas," Sirius repeated, nodding slowly. "I think I remember hearing about that. What exactly does it do?"

"Makes it hot, obviously," Draco muttered, humor apparent in his voice.

"Besides that," Sirius responded good-naturedly.

"Immortalitas Aestas was created fifty years ago by Derodus Alagache. It is used to create a concentrated area of heat by placing the charm on the wards of an area."

"Of course!" Sirius exclaimed. "Now it makes perfect sense. Why didn't we think of that?"

Dumbledore held up his hand, continuing to read silently to himself, and Sirius fell silent. "Ah. Here it is. The countercurse."

"Is it complex?" Harry asked.

"A bit difficult, Harry. But it's nothing that our professors here can't handle."

"The professors? Why can't we help, Sir?" Harry asked.

"You two have done more than enough to help us," Dumbledore said firmly. "We will handle this ourselves. Besides, it's getting late, and both of you are now out after hours."

Harry opened his mouth to complain but Draco stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Well then you won't be needing us anymore tonight," Draco said smoothly, standing up.

Harry looked up at him in confusion. Didn't Draco want to help end the spell?

Dumbledore stood up as well. "No, Mr. Malfoy, you're free to go. Thank you, again. Harry, you're free to leave as well. I'm sure both of you are tired after your busy evenings."

There was a glimmer in the old Headmaster's eyes that made Harry a bit suspicious. "Are you sure you don't want us to stay?"

"No, no. Go on. You two no doubt have a lot to catch up on."

Oh. Oh. Harry felt himself blush again and Draco coughed to hide his laughter. Harry stood up quickly.

"All right, well, goodnight then." Harry turned towards the door, bumping into Draco who had moved behind him, and hastily turned the doorknob.

"Goodnight," Draco said to the room at large and followed Harry through the door.

As soon as the door closed, Draco collapsed into laughter.

Harry felt his ears turn red and quickened his pace down the stairs. He was stopped by a sharp tug on the back of his shirt and toppled backwards into Draco, who was still laughing. Draco wrapped his arms around Harry and rested his chin on his shoulder.

"You smell like dust," Draco said, turning his head and kissing Harry on the side of his neck.

"You would, too, if you'd had to clean out Snape's storeroom. I've never seen such a mess in my life," Harry told him, a bit grumpily. He paused a moment, lowering his voice. "I made a fool of myself in there."

"Nah, you were just being your noble heroic self," Draco murmured. His grip tightened around Harry, who relaxed into the embrace.

Harry leaned his head against Draco's. "I'm glad you're back, and that you found the book."

"Hmm," Draco said. "Me, too, Harry. Me, too."

***

"So apparently Dumbledore knows about us," Harry whispered to Draco as they walked down the hall.

"It would seem that way, yes," Draco replied with a laugh. The two boys were huddled under Harry's Invisibility Cloak to avoid being seen by Filch or Mrs. Norris, but it was slow going with the two of them. They had to keep pausing to readjust the cloak to keep their feet covered - it wouldn't do to have two sets of feet walking by themselves down the corridor.

It was an unspoken understanding that they were going to Draco's room, as he had the private quarters with less chance of anyone walking in on them.

Draco reached the Slytherin entrance and glanced around before stepping out from under the cloak. "Stay close to me," he whispered to Harry, who nodded even though Draco couldn't see him. Draco spoke the password, the stone wall slid open, and he stepped through and took a few steps forward, hoping Harry had followed him in before the door slid back closed.

As soon as he moved toward the staircase, Pansy jumped up off the sofa where she'd been sitting filling out the forms on the out-of-bed students she'd found during her patrol.

"Draco!" she said, dropping the papers on the floor. "You're back! Are you all right? Is everything okay?"

"Pansy," Draco replied. Pansy threw her arms around him and knocked him backwards a bit with the force. "Hello to you, too."

"Don't give me that, Draco Malfoy. You had me worried sick! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Pansy," he said, returning her embrace. "I had to take care of something for Dumbledore, but I'm back now, and I'm fine. Really."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I had a run-in with Potter this evening."

Draco could almost hear Harry's head whip around behind him, and fought to keep a straight face. "Did you?"

"Yes. He literally ran into me while I was patrolling, but was nice enough to grab me to keep me from falling."

"Well, Harry does things like that. It's the Gryffindor in him, I think. I hope you were nice to him, Pansy. Harry's not done anything to you, after all."

Pansy waved the statement away. "I was perfectly polite, Draco. He wouldn't tell me where you were, of course, so I got a bit tetchy with him, but really, I was just worried about you. I was concerned that he'd gotten you to go off on some dangerous mission for him when it should be he himself who's taking care of his problems. He shouldn't be sending others into danger. But he did say something interesting which I'm going to have to have a think about."

"What did he say?" Draco asked, but Pansy shook her head. "Okay, don't tell me right now, we'll talk about that later. But think about this, Pansy. Harry can't always take care of everything. I had to do what I did tonight. There was no other choice; no one else could have done it. Now don't ask me anymore," he added when she opened her mouth to complain. "It will all be clear enough tomorrow. Please, just let me go to bed. I'm tired. It's been a long night. I promise you I'm fine."

Pansy looked at him for a moment before nodding. "I'm glad you're back safe, Draco, from wherever you went. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to you." She leaned forward and hugged him once more, kissing him on the cheek. "I love you, you know that, right?"

"I know," Draco said, reaching up a hand and running his thumb along her cheek. "I love you, too. I'm fine. Please don't worry about me. Okay?"

Pansy nodded. "I'll try not to. Goodnight, Draco."

"Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning. We'll have breakfast together and talk. I'll try to tell you everything I can."

Pansy smiled at him and nodded, before returning to the sofa to scoop up her papers that were scattered all over the floor. Draco watched her walk down the stairs towards her room and waited until he heard her door click shut before speaking.

"You're in here, right Potter? I wouldn't want to leave you out in the corridor all night, after all."

"I'm here," came Harry's voice. Draco felt invisible arms wrap around his middle. "She really cares about you, doesn't she?"

"She does. And I care about her. It's mutual." Draco turned his head in the direction Harry's voice was coming from. It was very strange to be talking to nobody. "I'm sorry if she said anything to make you angry. Pansy's just very protective of me. By the way, what did she say to you?"

"Oh, no. I'm not telling you if she didn't. Anyway, I think she and I have come to a bit of an understanding. It was a very eye-opening conversation at any rate."

Draco raised an eyebrow at that but let it go. He'd prod Pansy later until she told him. "Tired?" he finally asked.

Harry sighed. "A bit. But ... I don't really feel like sleeping at the moment."

A wicked grin spread across Draco's face. "Oh, I don't think you'll have to worry about sleeping, Harry. At least not yet." And with that, he set across the room, down the steps, and toward his room, with Harry close behind him.

Draco fumbled with his wand before finally being able to cast the spell to unlock his door. It was difficult to think when invisible lips were currently latched onto the side of his neck, but he finally got the door open, just getting through it before shutting it and slamming Harry against it. He reached out to get the cloak off of Harry but it was really disconcerting to not see anyone in front of him even though he knew Harry was there, so Harry finally had to throw it off himself.

"I'm really glad you're okay," Harry whispered, kissing Draco deeply. When they broke apart Draco immediately cast a locking charm on the door and a silencing charm on the room. He definitely didn't want there to be any interruptions tonight.

After casting another spell to turn on his bedside lamp, he tossed his wand over onto his nightstand, which skidded across the surface scattering some scraps of parchment onto the floor, before turning his full attention to Harry.

Harry was lounging against the door, looking at him. Draco stepped forward and reached down, sliding one hand under Harry's shirt and using his other to unfasten the three buttons at the top. He pulled the shirt over Harry's head, who coughed once.

"Dust," he said, waving a hand in front of his face. "You should have seen how dirty Snape's storeroom was."

Draco grinned at him and leaned forward again, kissing Harry fully on the lips and sliding a hand up into Harry's hair. Harry still smelled like dust, but the underlying scent of soap and grass clung to him as well, and Draco breathed in deeply, wanting to pull the scent into his memory. Running his hands lightly across Harry's chest, he leaned in for another kiss, their tongues meeting and caressing each other, sliding fluidly against one another.

Harry went to work on the buttons of Draco's shirt, unfastening them and peeling the fabric off his shoulders without breaking the kiss. Harry slid his hands down Draco's torso, and he shivered slightly at the light touch. He trailed his hands down to the waistband of Draco's trousers before going to work on Draco's belt buckle, and Draco broke the kiss to step out of his shoes. The button and zip were undone and Draco's trousers fell to his feet.

Pulling Harry away from the doorframe, Draco made quick work of removing the rest of Harry's clothes before pushing him onto the bed and climbing on top of it himself. He looked down at Harry in the low light from the bedside lamp, letting his eyes glide over his body. Harry, instead of blushing like he had the first time, actually returned his gaze full-on, and Draco grinned at him before draping himself over Harry's body.

There were few words spoken, only touches and caresses and moans and sighs, as each boy told the other just how much he meant to him, and how glad he was that he was safe.