Aftermath (Drarry)

Chapter 5: "Deer Caught In Headlights"

HARRY:

Harry had begun to love the time he spent in the Room of Requirement. It was a few weeks after he had started coming here and he was sat on the sofa with his legs curled up. This was something he had gotten used to since living on his own at 12 Grimmauld Place. With the Dursleys, he was rarely even allowed to sit on the sofa let alone relax on it like this, but since the war, he'd learned that he could sit however he wanted. He had his journal and a self-inking quill in his hands and was writing a new journal entry:

I haven't felt any better about the war today. I still feel isolated and I still feel responsible for all the deaths. Hermione told me that I keep disappearing, but she's noticed that when I am with them I'm not as quiet. I wanted to tell her that she also keeps disappearing with Ron, but I didn't want her to think I had a secret girlfriend or anything. I want to tell her that I've been coming to the Room of Requirement to try to sort myself out but I'm worried that if I did she would try to follow me. I know she just wants the best for me but sometimes she can be really overbearing.

I wish there was someone who could understand how I was feeling. Ginny used to be able to understand, what with her also having been possessed by Voldemort and all, but now it's just not enough. She wasn't forced into this war as I was so there's no way she could understand.

Harry's stomach rumbled loudly, disrupting the peace of the room. He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly dinner time, so he shut the journal and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. When he got there Neville and Ginny were sat by the fire and he went to join them, thinking that even these sofas weren't as comfortable as the one in the Room of Requirement.

"Hi, Harry," Neville said as he sat down.

"Hey guys," he replied.

"Have you seen Ron and Hermione?" Ginny asked him, looking around, presumably to see if they were with him.

Harry shook his head. "No, sorry. Did you need them for something?"

"Not really but no one's seen them since last period. We thought you were with them because you disappeared at the same time but obviously you weren't," Ginny explained.

"Yeah, where did you go off to then, Harry?" Neville asked.

Harry quickly thought of a lie to tell them. "I was just taking a walk around the grounds, trying to clear my head, you know." The others nodded and seemed sated with his story.

"Shall we head to dinner then?" Ginny stood up and Harry and Neville followed suit.

Ron and Hermione showed up about ten minutes into dinner, sitting down opposite Harry and immediately digging into the food.

"Where have you two been?" Ginny demanded as they sat down. Ron and Hermione glanced at each other and Ginny's face contorted into a grimace. "Actually, never mind, I don't want to know." She pretended to gag into her plate and Harry and Neville laughed while Hermione looked down into her plate and Ron turned a shade of pink that clashed horribly with his hair.

Once everyone had recovered, the conversation turned to schoolwork and Harry zoned out, thinking about how he was planning on going back to the Room and Requirement after dinner and reading one of the books in there about Defence Against the Dark Arts. He had only read one of them so far, and that one had been very stimulating.

Harry waited until they had all finished eating and were back in the common room before telling them he was going to bed. He climbed up to the dormitory and, after making sure there was no one else in there, got his invisibility cloak out from his trunk. He put it on and made his way back down to the common room. His friends seemed to be deep in conversation as he passed them, so they didn't notice him push past a second-year boy that was coming through the portrait hole. He only took the cloak off once he was a safe distance from the common room. He stuffed it into his bag and carried on to the seventh floor.

Harry had become particularly jumpy since the war, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a figure come around the corner at the other end of the corridor with the tapestry of the dancing trolls at the same time that he did. He couldn't quite make out who it was because they were engulfed in shadow, but he was almost relieved to see that they also seemed to have nearly jumped out of their skin.

He thought that whoever it was probably didn't know about the Room of Requirement and so he decided his best bet was to carry on down the corridor and wait until they had passed. As he got closer, however, the figure didn't move and when he got close enough to see who it was, he received another shock. Draco Malfoy. Now he, Harry thought, definitely knows about the Room of Requirement.

"Malfoy?" Harry said, his voice coming out harsher than he had meant it too. He studied his face. He had bags under his eyes and his hair had obviously been neglected. He also seemed to be rooted to the spot, Harry noticed. His eyes gave him the look of a deer caught in headlights. "What are you doing here?"

"Potter," Malfoy said, his voice sounding weak. Then he coughed and seemed to gain some courage. "I could ask you the same question."

"I think you being here is slightly more suspicious that me being here, don't you?"

Malfoy's eyes shifted around, as if trying to look anywhere but at Harry. "I just wanted to see if it still worked after the, you know, fire." He hesitated before he said the word "fire" as if it was something he really didn't want to think about.

Harry didn't believe him at all. Everything Malfoy had ever done in that room was bad, so it was fair to assume that he was up to something. "Well, I can tell you that it does still work so you can go now, right?"

When Malfoy didn't move Harry stared him down until he started speaking again. This time his voice was a rushed whisper and Harry had to strain his ears to hear what he said. "I've been coming here to try to get over the war, okay?" Harry looked at him, stunned. He couldn't believe that Malfoy was doing the exact same thing that he was. "Are you happy now?"

Harry nodded and eventually spoke. "Me too."

"What?"

"I've also been coming here to get over the war." Malfoy looked as shocked as Harry felt.

A moment passed before Harry spoke again. "Well, are we going in then?"

Malfoy took a step back and shook his head. "Wha-? No. I should get going. It's getting late."

"Don't be stupid, you only just got here. And actually, I wanted to talk to you." Harry walked past the entrance to the Room of Requirement three times and thought of what he wanted, the same as he always did. "Come on," Harry said as the door materialised. Malfoy looked ready to vomit but followed him inside anyway.