Bitter Transmutation : Cruel Transformation || Drarry

Part 6

Draco was flying, it was the quidditch pitch and a game although he couldn't make out any details other than the cold rain and the broomstick handle he was clutching tightly with both hands. He needed to focus. He needed to fly. His team was relying on him, and he wasn't going to be an embarrassment.

He just- but it was so cold, and he suddenly remembered that he hadn't flown in two years, he hadn't practised for ages. How could he win without practising? He wasn't ready- He gripped the broom tighter with the sudden surge of fear, the ground so very far away and- and he fell. One moment on his broom, the next he was plummeting towards the ground-

Draco jerked awake and sucked in a startled breath. A shudder racked through him eventually settling into a persistent shiver. He had fallen asleep on top of his blankets and was chilled to the bone.

A high pitched whistle made him look towards the dark end of the room and pull his arms tight around himself as he followed the sound.

Draco carefully stepped onto the floor, sweeping his foot around until he found his discarded trousers and pulled his wand out of the pocket, casting lumos, illuminating the room in pale blueish light.

The room was empty. Draco didn't feel anyone other than Potter downstairs. In the silence, his ears started picking up the sound of the wind outside, gusting against the tower. With every gust came that whistle and cold. Draco followed it to the double doors leading out onto the balcony. The latch holding the two doors together had slipped off just enough for the wind to push inside.

Draco pressed his hand against the doors, holding them closed and then unhooked the latch. He let the wind open the doors fully and shuddered, taking a step out to the waist-high bannister. He braced his hands on the bitingly cold stone, leaning over and looking down at the castle turned into grey silhouettes by the faint light from the windows below. The dream was already fading from his mind as he stared down at the ground, trying to call up the terrifying sensation of falling. But there was nothing there, not even a suggestion of vertigo.

He shivered hard and stepped back inside, shutting the doors tightly behind him and went back to bed.

-

Harry groaned as his alarm spell went off, reaching up and waving around blindly for his bedside table, and finding nothing. He dropped his hand onto the wood floor, the hard edge of the cot digging into his arm. Harry shoved his face into his pillow with a beleaguered sigh, he wasn't in Gryffindor tower. He kept forgetting.

The alarm spell continued to wail. Harry finally leaned over, grabbing his wand and glasses off the floor. He dispelled the charm and put his glasses on with a yawn. He sat on the edge for a while, gathering the will to stand up.

The faint clatter of Malfoy's breakfast tray appearing on the table forced Harry to his feet. He didn't want to miss his own breakfast, he had enough trouble paying attention in class without an empty stomach to distract him even more.

He grabbed his uniform, neatly folded and cleaned by the house elves overnight, and changed quickly, frowning at how cold it was. There was still a low fire in the grate, but the tower was cold as ice. Harry threw a few more logs on the fire before going upstairs to use the loo, wincing at every creak of the wooden floor that he knew Malfoy would chew him out for. But Malfoy was quiet, curled up in his blankets and down comforter.

Harry figured Malfoy would probably try to startle Harry as he left.

He didn't.

Harry counted himself lucky and hurried down to the dining hall.

-

"Today we're going to be expanding our work on shielding spells," Professor Quintquick said, her soft voice barely carrying through the room. "All of our basic protego's are exemplary, so today we will be working on our protego maxima-" she cast the spell as she spoke creating a bubble-like barrier around herself- "If we can master the strongest shielding spell then we can use the rest of our time combining our shielding spell with a fianto duri, and a repello inimicum. Together those three spells make a barrier that is almost impenetrable by force or magic-"