No Idiot

It's a cruel world, is it not?

It’s dark and cold in the forbidden woods, the winds hardly reached Harry and Draco through the dense trees, but what did made unseasy whistling sounds as it passed the branches. Fang had run away after a particularly unnerving rustling sound, leaving Harry and Draco to wander the dangerous woods alone at night.

Draco had not brought a warm enough sweater, but that was not the only reason he shivered so seriously as he trailed behind Harry. Occasionally, Harry would look back at him, just to make sure that he was still with him, and ok. He knew that Draco would never admit it, but he was obviously scared, and he would never blame him considering the situation that they were both unwillingly forced into by Dumbledoor.

Harry breifly stopped walking, hearing as the crunches of Draco’s footsteps stopped as well, “What are you doing?” Draco asked quietly, to which Harry looked over his shoulder at him, “I’m just making sure that you’re still with me. I don’t want to lose you, not in a place like this, Malfoy.”

Harry swore he heard Draco sniffle as he began walking once more, slower this time just to be on the safe side, “I don’t need a babysitter, Pottah.” Draco fussed, however his voice wavered in a way that Harry found upsetting, “I’m not babysitting you, Malfoy. I am just trying to make sure we do not, under any circumstances, get separated. Being alone could be a beginning of the end in a place like this.”

Everything became very quiet after that, Draco did not utter a response, only whimpered and walked faster. Harry did not mind, if anything it kept them together more and lessened the chance of losing one another. The night got colder, every breath the boys took left a white cloud in front of their noses and mouths. Every breath Draco took sounded shakier and shakier, Harry looked over his shoulder at him more frequently but he couldn’t gauge how he felt when he tried to look brave in front of him.

After a series of rustling sounds and whistles from the trees, Draco picked up his pace enough to walk side by side with Harry. He whimpered and fussed quietly, putting on a facade of annoyance, “Shhh… We don’t know what is out here.” Harry whispered, “I’m not afraid of a few trees, Potta-” He wasinterrupted by the sounds of branches rustling behind him, quickly he fell silent and looked over his shoulder fearfully.

“Em… like I said, there is far worse out here than the trees, Malfoy. Try to keep it down, and stay close.” There were no words spoken for a while after that, they walked slowly and without purpose, simply because it was better than sitting still to listen to the unnerving sounds that surrounded them. Their lanterns allowed them to see no more than their path directly in front of them, the rest of the light was eaten by the shadows created by the dense trees everywhere they looked.

There was no light left in the sky, no sign of an end to the unforgiving forest, they had lost the path long ago and they had not heard a single comforting sound from the woods. They thought that they would hear soothing from Hermione, Ron or Hagrid by now, but they had been walking for nearly four hours without a peep from them. They were tired, Draco was scared beyond belief and Harry didn’t know what to do.

After too many whimpers and small cries that were thinly vailed by an attempt to remain strong and unphased by Draco, Harry paused his walking and uselesly looked around into the dark void that surrounded them, “Ok… We are not getting anywhere. It’s dark, it’s cold and we can not walk out in the open all night, it is dangerous. I’m going to find us a place to stay.”

Draco’s breathing sounded ragged with fear, whimpers here and there and he looked around as well, “O-ok. I’m tired, Pottah, just… do we have to go off the, erm, path?” He gestured to where they stand, Harry wouldn’t call it a path, but the trees wern’t so thick and the foliage was worn down a bit, perhaps by centaurs, “I don’t like it either, but we can not see into the trees. Anything could be watching from there, I won’t lose you, Malfoy. Come on, let’s find somewhere quickly.”