Sectumsempra

4

What just happened? Harry thought for the umpteenth time as he crept in to his room, praying that none of his roommates would wake up. They didn't. They were all fast asleep. What just happened?

Harry silently took off his shoes and lied in bed with the clothes he had on, suddenly feeling a huge tiredness come over him that he hadn't even realized he had. Maybe all the sneaking around had caused it. Not that Harry was unaccustomed to sneaking around Hogwarts, but this time it was sudden and unexpected. And with an even more unexpected company.

Either way, Harry clung to that tiredness as to not think too much about what just happened and fall asleep already. He fell asleep.

*

Only one week later did Harry see Draco for more than two seconds as he passed in a hallway or entered a classroom. That was because Draco was avoiding encountering Harry as much as he could, confused and embarrassed as he was. There was another thing, too. If they encountered in the hallways, when there were other people, Draco would be expected to insult Harry, to verbally attack him, his friends, his family, his friend's family, his "blood status", well, just about everything. And the thing was, Draco didn't feel like it. He didn't want to do that anymore. He never felt comfortable doing it in the first place. But he did what he was "supposed to do".

Supposed to do, Draco thought and chuckled with disgust, very easy for Father to tell me what I'm "supposed to do", like he knows what he's talking about. Draco had been, for a while, starting to feel like his father didn't know anything about any of the things over which he acted like he had total control. Over the years this role Draco had been pushed to play felt more and more unfitting. He continued to do so for many reasons. It gave him some sense of knowing his place, a thing that he craved so much deep down, always feeling like he didn't fit, like he didn't belong, and worse, like he wasn't welcome, even inside his own family. So he decided to embrace it, say "fuck it", he decided to start acting like he didn't want to be welcomed. That sure granted him some success amidst the Slytherin, his House praised those who had the guts to claim their grandiosity shamelessly. The Slytherin sure despised the prudes and hypocrites who pursued glory only to, having attained it, act like they never wanted it.

On top of all that, once Draco had started playing that role he didn't have much of a choice, did he? Once he starts he got caught in the role and if he just stopped insulting the famous Harry Potter people would find it odd, and that could risk the whole thing falling apart, his father "guidance", so to speak, even his relation with his family, which wasn't the healthiest.

And did Draco want to stop insulting Potter? Were the insults empty of meaning? Only there because Draco was playing a role? No. They weren't. Draco hated Potter, that he did. When he looked at Potter he really wanted to scream at him, and call him names, and see the glee fall from his face, and ruin his day. The way that the thoughts of Harry ruined Draco's days.

Since year one, Draco felt that there was something special about that boy. When the years passed he grew to understand the essence of the attraction Draco felt for Harry, and he hated it. He hated to be feeling it, he hated that Harry would never feel it back. So he hated Potter.

But now he was tired. He didn't want to go on with all that. It was tiring – exhausting – and nonsensical. So he avoided Harry at all costs. Until he was surprised as he turned a corner in an empty hallway and bumped into someone.

Harry's face went quickly from the surprise running into someone to loathing as he saw who he had ran into. Too late, Draco realized he had been staring at Harry's face.

"What is it, Malfoy?" Harry asked expecting, Draco realized, to receive insults.

Draco took a moment to find his voice. "Sorry. Excuse me." He said finally, grabbing the books he was holding more tightly and starting to go on his way, looking down.