Any Day Now

Any Day Now

Chapter 2: Hallelujah

"Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played and it pleased the lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth,

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing hallelujah"-Leonard Cohen

Why was he there? What was he doing? It hadn't been that long ago, but he couldn't remember. Still, there he was, walking down one long stretch of corridor, believing it to be empty. He should have known better, really. He shouldn't have taken off his Invisibility Cloak, but well, if he hadn't, none of it would have happened at all.

He had been walking back to the common room, that much he knew. He could remember the exact time too. Early October 6, two-thirty in the morning.

"Potter? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Could ask the same of you, Malfoy."

Oh yes, they had been quite witty. He remembered feeling so tired, far too exhausted to think of anything truly awful and cutting to say, and besides, it was Ginny who was good at that anyway. Not that he had known that then.

Tensions between them had been mounting for months, ever since Draco's father had been sent to prison, and they had gotten even worse when his father had escaped, even though Draco claimed at the time that he had had no communication with hi father since he was first arrested.

So of course, they had fought.

"I told you you'd pay for my father."

"So go on then. Make good on your promise. Hit me."

With that, Draco lunged forward, seething with something that was beyond anger. He pulled Harry down and did not really hit him very much at all. For the most part they rolled around on the floor, each one thrashing and pushing in order to get the upper hand. It was obvious that Draco was stronger, and accordingly, Draco managed to force himself on top of Harry, holding the other boy down between his legs, his hands pinning Harry's arms up above his head.

"You going to scream, Potter?"

"Never."

Draco looked disappointed for a moment before he bent forward. Harry wondered wildly that maybe Draco was going to break his head off with his teeth or something when he felt the other boy's lips press against his. He did not resist, in fact, somehow he felt as if he had known, had always known, that it was going to happen. Although he was surprised at how gentle it was...

Harry woke with a start, wondering how he had fallen asleep. He looked around the common room. He had drooled on his papers, he saw. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something shaking convulsively. He looked over and saw Ginny, kneeling before the fire with her hands through her hair, shaking her head and muttering. He ran over immediately, finding that she was shoving her fingers into her scalp so harshly that blood had begun to run through her hair.

"Ginny!" he cried out, pulling her hand away and trying to get her to look up.

"It won't stop," she muttered, her voice sounding week as she barely met his eyes. "Harry? Harry, it won't stop. It won't ever stop."

"What won't stop?"

"It'll never..." she trailed off, looking into the fire. When she spoke again, her voice was normal. "It must be late. I should go to sleep. We have school tomorrow." She got up to go.

"Will you be sleeping?"

"For tonight, yes. I don't think there could be anything else." She turned to meet his eyes. "It's not healthy, you know. We've gone for a long time without sleep. Besides, sometimes there are circumstances."

"Circumstances?"

"Yes." She turned away once more. "I don't think I could go there, not now. Besides, you know how you can't remember things when you first wake up? I like that."

***

He was looking for Draco this time. Draco? When had he become Draco? Shouldn't he still be Malfoy? It didn't matter anyway. He was looking for him and he had to find him.

Ask and it shall be given.

He found it interesting that Draco had chosen to sit in a classroom so near to where they had fought just two nights ago. Harry wondered, for only the fleeting second that he could allow himself, if Draco had also been awake for the entirety of the previous forty-eight hours.

"Malfoy."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Draco had been writing in something and he refused to look up from it even as he spoke.

"Well, I think I'm currently talking to you, but I may be mistaken."

"You are. And whatever else you're thinking is probably wrong too." He still didn't look up.

"I just-I-I wanted to ask you...what that meant."

"What it meant?" Finally, he turned his face up and met Harry's eyes. "It meant nothing."

"What?"

"Are you hard of hearing, Potter? I said 'it meant nothing.'" His eyes betrayed no emotion at all.

"It meant something to me." Harry took a moment to register what he'd said before trying to stumble on. "I mean, I've never kissed another...boy before."

"I haven't either!" Draco replied quickly, almost, but not quite, defensively.

"So...shouldn't we try to-to figure out what- what happened?"

"You were there, weren't you?"

"Yes, but that's not what I mean, and you know it."

"Hm. You seem to be addressing me as if we are well acquainted. I've rather grown tired of your presence now."

"Malfoy!"

"Yes, Potter?"

"Alright," Harry sighed. "I felt something when you kissed me and now I don't even care that you're being such an ass, so please, I'd like to know what's going on."

"Go away."

"No! Jesus, how the hell does Parkinson put up with you?"

"She doesn't." Draco smiled, laughing slightly to himself.

"I have a lot of things to do, you know. There's the battle with ultimate evil looming in the future, not to mention the regular torture session with Snape looming tomorrow, so I really don't want to have to worry about being kissed by the school bully."

"You're an idiot."

"Stop changing the subject!"

"Alright." He stood up and walked toward Harry, and kept walking until he'd backed the shorter boy into a wall. "I'll make it simple. You don't have to worry about it, because I'm certainly not going to. I don't care about it. You repulse me. And you're very whiny, and annoying, and you're the stupid hero type. So just forget about it, okay? It didn't mean anything to me, and it shouldn't mean anything to you."

Harry noticed then how close they were standing. Draco's hair was falling forward, barely touching Harry's face. His hands moved up along Harry's arm, suddenly contradicting what he had just said. He blinked, pulled his hand back. Harry turned his face up, closer to Draco's, and stared at him helplessly. The moment seemed to stretch on forever.

As if merely to break the tension, or possibly to increase it, Draco dipped his head further down, his mouth landing solidly on Harry's. As soon as he did it, he seemed to remember what he was doing, and he pulled back and walked away. All Harry could think was that he didn't even have the decency to run away. No, Malfoys had to walk calmly away from whatever crisis they were avoiding entanglement with.

***

"Harry! Wake up!"

"I'm up, I'm up," Harry replied frantically, only realizing as he said the words that he had actually fallen asleep. How had that happened? It wouldn't have bothered him if it hadn't been the second time.

"Harry?" Ron asked quietly as Harry pulled himself up and began to get dressed.

"Huh?"

"What...what were you saying?"

"Erm...that I'm up?"

"No, before that. You were saying something in your sleep. You were saying this one word over and over again, and I couldn't tell what it was."

"Oh. I don't know. I don't remember saying anything."

"Okay."

They walked down to breakfast in silence, Ron staring at the floor determinedly, as if he knew what Harry was thinking about, as if he knew exactly what Harry had been saying over and over, exactly whose name he had been chanting like a mantra.

Ginny wasn't at breakfast, which Harry wondered about. At dinner, he heard from some of the girls in her grade that she hadn't been at any of her classes either. He didn't think much on it, caught up in his own mind. He wouldn't have thought about it at all, if he hadn't noticed Draco's absence at dinner.