𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Friendship

The night was calm and dark and it called out to Harry subconsciously through his slumber.

He hadn't expected to go visit Malfoy tonight, seeing as he had been overpowered by an obscene amount of homework.

Yet, at two in the morning he found himself awakening to the quiet once again, just like clockwork. He had tried desperately to return to his dreams (which, for a change, had actually been pleasant) but to no avail.

Silently crawling out of his bed, he found his slippers beneath the bed and slipped them on. He knew that there would be no other way to get sleep tonight if he didn't go and visit the prat, even for just a few minutes. He did have a test come tomorrow morning in Potions, which, no doubt, he would fail.

Suppressing a sigh and hoping that Crookshanks wasn't about; Harry arrived in the common room and glanced hurriedly about him. He didn't know what he felt guilty about. After all, he was out of bed during hours, and he was going to visit his rival...but that wasn't so bad. He wasn't breaking so many rules, was he?

"God, what am I doing?" he whispered to himself as he crawled out of the portrait hole.

He was startled to find the fat lady replying, "I don't know, but you're out of bed after hours."

The halls were silent, quiet, and colder than he had expected. The weak light of the fading moon highlighted the steps leading down, down, down towards the hospital wing.

Pulling the invisibility cloak over his shoulders, Harry chose not to reply and quickened his step towards the hospital wing.

Draco sat in bed, oblivious to the moonlight that pooled around his form. He fidgeted with the coverlet as he waited for the familiar sounds of his visitor. A smile spread over Draco's face as he heard the wooden door quietly open, the sound echoing throughout the empty ward. Wiping the smirk from off his face, trying to hide any emotion he felt whatsoever.

"Hello, No One," Draco whispered to the mysterious boy once the door closed and the footsteps approached him.

Harry paused, flushed, and looked down. So, Malfoy had been expecting him then? He felt slightly guilty at brushing off the visit for sleep, but then again, it wasn't as though they were friends or anything. No, certainly not. They were just acquaintances, if even that.

"Uh, Hullo," Harry mumbled softly, not having yet look at the Slytherin. Every time he saw the boy, he always felt guilty. Sure, it wasn't his fault or anything, but...He sighed to himself. This berating would get him nowhere, unless deeper into a depression. This visit was purely for him, and that was it. He couldn't care whether if the boy was lonely or expecting him-it didn't matter to him a bit.

He just wanted to get back to sleep.

Pulling up his chair, which had by now become his "usual chair," he questioned softly, "So, any luck today then?"

Draco blinked behind his gauze. "What are you talking about?" he asked. Any luck with what? It wasn't like he could do anything, he was stuck in bed all god damned day.

Harry, finding that he was blushing again, gulped and explained hurriedly, once again feeling like an idiot in the presence of Malfoy, "Oh, erm, I meant, if they found out the reason why you went blind."

"Oh. Umm, no, not yet. No, Snape and Pomfrey are working on it. Still nothing, though," he reported to him. He shrugged lightly. He was finding that he didn't really mind having to stay in the Hospital Wing if he got to talk to his mysterious man and miss classes. He got waited on hand-and-foot, too. This, he supposed, was like being treated royalty - like he, a Malfoy, should be.