Beautiful World by Lissadiane

part 32

It took him a long moment to realize that the roof above him was not his own. Panic ensued, because the shadows weren’t stretching the same way and the stone did not twist into the familiar cracks and bumps. Sitting up and sucking in a startled breath, he glanced around.

Draco’s bed. Slytherin house. He’d… they’d kissed. Oh god, he’d told! Told Draco that he was going to die! That made it real.

“Oh god.” Oh god. Before he could stop to think about it, Harry was up and out of the room. He ran through the common room, blinded by tears, secure only in the knowledge that he could only deny this if he never saw Draco again. Because now Draco knew, which meant that it was more than just a cruel trick being played on him by Dumbledore, which Sirius was going along with. That wasn’t all that rational either, but easier to believe than that he was going to die.

He ran through the halls, empty now as first class was well under way. Into the Gryffindor common room, up the stairs, he flew into his room, and the door slamming against the wall with all the force of his panic.

He’d run in the opposite direction of Hogsmeade, like Draco had said. Run fast. Maybe fly. Flying was faster. No one could catch Harry on a broom.

Swallowing shakily, Harry nodded to himself and threw his trunk open. He didn’t have much time. He had to leave, get out before Draco told anyone, before everyone knew. Before Draco came back and looked at him because Harry just knew that something in the way Draco saw him would have changed, and that change would be there, in his eyes, and Harry couldn’t stand the idea of something in Draco’s eyes changing.

He emptied his books out of his book bag and started cramming other things into it instead, things he couldn’t see living without. Invisibility cloak, some clothes, a bit of money… After a short hesitation, he slipped the album of his parents into his bag as well, and then grabbed his broom, glancing around the room. What else?

Hedwig. She’d find him, she always did.

That was it then. Glancing around again, Harry nodded and hurried from the room.

***

Draco had gone back to the library to take out a few books and then returned to his room, only to find the door wide open and the blanket tossed to the floor as if Harry had left so fast that it had still been draped over him when he left the bed. “Harry?” Draco called cautiously, but Harry wasn’t there. “Shit.”

He could only imagine what Harry was thinking now, or where he had gone. Hopefully just back to his own room, but with the way Harry had been acting, it was bound to be something more unpredictable and irrational.

“He’s just gone back to Gryffindor,” Draco said to himself reassuringly as he walked quickly towards Gryffindor tower.

The Fat Lady refused to let him in, but Draco only had to wait around for a few minutes before Hermione Granger came hurrying down the hall. She stopped abruptly when she saw him.

“Malfoy. What are you doing?”

“Looking for Harry, can you let me in?” He hated asking favours from her, but it was his only option.

“No.”

Thinking fast, Draco suggested instead, “Well, just check if he’s in there for me?”

“Ron told me he never came back to his bed last night. If you’ve gotten him in trouble again, Malfoy, I swear —”

“He was sleeping in the library,” Draco snapped, having no patience for this. “Can you just go check if he’s in there?”

“Did you hurt him? Did you have an argument with him or something?”

“No! I’m just... worried. Just go see if he’s there, will you?” he snarled, and Hermione, eyes narrowed, slipped inside, leaving him standing alone in the hall under the watchful eye of the Fat Lady.