The Domino Effect [DRARRY]

6.

Everything you say to me, takes me one step closer to the edge and I'm about to break - Linkin Park

After leaving Draco at the front entrance, Harry made his way back up to the Gryffindor tower feeling better than he had since the attack. It felt... good to talk with Draco, to laugh with him. Even though he was positive that the other boy had been about to hex him when he'd found out that Harry had sent him the broom back in sixth year, Harry felt that he could trust Draco now.

Harry was so lost in his thoughts on Draco, that he didn't hear the person approaching him and when a firm hand came down on his shoulder he spun around and shouted, "Expelliarmus! Stupefy!"

Seamus and Dean didn't know what hit them as one of them flew backwards, and the other found himself unable to move and toppling toward the floor. Harry watched in a fascinated kind of horror as Dean picked himself up off the floor and rubbed the back of his head. His fingers came away bloody.

"Geez, Harry, remind me not to sneak up on you ever again," Dean mumbled as he came closer. "Uh, you think you could let Seamus go now?"

Harry blinked and then, with his wand still trained on Seamus, murmured "Ennervate."

Seamus groaned and got to his feet. He reached down and picked something up off the floor and then stood straight again. "I was only trying to return your broom, mate. Someone left it outside the portrait with a note on it," Seamus spoke as he pulled a slip of parchment from his pocket. He read:

You should be more careful, Potter. You never know what some people might try and get up to with your broom handle.

Seamus laughed, "Can you imagine? I mean, if Creevy had gotten hold of it, you might have to force him to marry it, eh?"

Dean joined in the laughter with Seamus; neither boy noticed as Harry's face drained of colour and he started to shake. It was only when he turned and bolted from the hallway and back down the stairs that they stopped chuckling and frowned in confusion.

"Ah well, I'll just take it up and leave it by his bed then," Seamus said, shrugging his shoulders and taking the last few steps toward the Fat Lady and the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Dean followed behind him, still rubbing at the back of his head.

~!~

Harry ran. He didn't know where he was going, or why he was running, he just ran. He took off out the front doors and across the lawn toward the Whomping Willow, following the same path he had led Draco down earlier that night. It wasn't until he was safely ensconced in the old Shrieking Shack that he finally let himself stop.

He collapsed onto the floor of the old living room and crawled into a corner. Pulling his knees up to his chest he rested his head on them and let himself cry. Strange how it wasn't nearly as cathartic without Draco there to hold him this time.

~!~

"And he just took off?" Ron asked when Dean had finished explaining what had happened in the hallway.

"Yeah, he seemed really freaked out. I mean, it's not like him to go flinging hexes around like that, or to run off without even saying sorry," Dean said as he shook his head. "I mean, I saw him with Malfoy earlier, and maybe he said something to rile Harry up, but it didn't look like they were arguing. In fact, they seemed to be laughing together."

Ron's eyebrows climbed into his hairline. "Harry and Malfoy? Laughing together? Tell me you're joking, mate."

"No joke," Seamus answered. "I saw it too."