Parseltongue Pandemonium - a Drarry fanfic

Chapter 9 - Boundaries

It was late by the time the two boys got back from detention. Draco was feeling pretty tired, but Harry wasn't. He convinced Draco to go out under his Invisibility Cloak, even though it took him the entire walk back to their dorm. When they got to the portrait, Harry said the password, then ran to the dorm room to get the cloak. He draped it over them and then turned around to head back out to the corridor.

The castle was dark and quiet. Draco wasn't normally very fond of the dark, but tonight it felt almost friendly. And because they were under the cloak, Draco wasn't worried about being caught. It took away some of the suspense, but it was more peaceful

Harry seemed to have a destination in mind. He crept up staircases and around corners. He finally pushed open a heavy door onto an open, windy, place, that Draco recognized as the Astronomy Tower. He looked up and gasped.

The velvet sky was matte black and decorated with millions of stars that twinkled down on them. Harry walked over to the edge to look over the grounds, but Draco couldn't stop staring at the view above. Somehow the stars never looked so pretty when you were trying to map them for astronomy, but now they were beautiful.

Harry sat down, leaning against the wall that wound around the edge of the tower. Draco curled up in a ball next to him. They sat in silence for a while, watching a few clouds race each other across the sky. Harry finally broke the silence.

"Draco?"

Draco tilted his flat head to look at the Gryffindor sitting beside him. "Yes?"

"You know that stuff I said in the library?"

Harry wasn't looking at Draco, but focusing on the crescent moon, which was reappearing from behind one of the clouds.

Draco didn't answer at first, even though he remembered the entire conversion from the library quite clearly. "....Yes."

"It was nothing; you know that, right?" Harry still wouldn't look at him.

Draco's heart sank a little, even though he didn't know why. "Yeah," He finally muttered. "Yeah, I do."

Harry seemed relieved. He glanced over at Draco, then looked away again. They sat awkwardly for another minute or so. Then:

"Harry?"

Harry's mouth quirked up. "Yes?"

"Why did you take me here?"

Harry suddenly looked uncomfortable. His smile was gone, replaced with a slight blush. "No reason."

Draco stared at Harry for a few seconds, calculating his next move. "Well, I think this was intentional. What were we supposed to talk about?"

Harry looked even more self-conscious, and his blush deepened. He shot Draco a glare, before answering. "I don't know what you mean."

Draco rolled his eyes, trying his best to make sure Harry understood. He seemed to get the hint well enough though. He looked back towards the moon again and snapped, "What does it matter Draco? Stop pushing it."

"Sorry," Draco said with careful deliberation. "I just wanted to know."

"Doesn't matter," Harry remarked brusquely, but his tone was no longer mad.

"It does!" Draco insisted.

Harry smiled a little and shook his head. Draco wasn't going to give in that easily, even though Harry really did have a nice smile.

"Please tell me," Draco whispered.

"Um," Harry blushed some more and stared carefully at the moon. Draco could tell he'd won.

"Uh," Harry continued. "Er, not this?" He looked down from the moon and smiled weakly. Draco just shook his head, not impressed.

Harry sighed in defeat. "The library, I guess. I made a lot of mistakes that night, so I wanted to apologize. I was totally out of bounds."

Draco watched his companion's face carefully. The back of his mind noted how the ends of Harry's hair tickled his jaw. He no longer thought much of such an observation, choosing to sweep it away so he could focus on other things. Like what Harry had actually said. For so much work convincing, he really hadn't paid very good attention when Harry finally conceded.

He'd been talking about the library. Apologizing. He thought he'd been "out of bounds".

Then Draco studied the boy next to him a bit more closely. Harry was gazing at Hagrid's hut with a look of meticulous unconcern on his face. Draco saw right through THAT, of course. He was a Slytherin after all; his whole job was reading people.

After observing Harry for a minute or two longer than was strictly necessary, he had come to the conclusion that Harry didn't really believe what he was saying. Or at least he didn't want to. Draco frowned.

"No, you weren't."

"What?"

Draco must have taken too long with his analysis because Harry seemed to have forgotten they were having a conversation. He'd have to work on that.

"I said: No, you weren't out of bounds."

Harry looked over at him, and Draco could feel the tension in the air. Every word either of them said was decided carefully; thought out before-hand.

"Why would you say that?" Harry's tone was light, but his face was a mixture of confusion, curiosity, fear, and hope.

"Out of bounds. What does that mean? Who set these 'boundaries'?"

"I-" Harry was back to staring at his hands which were folded in his hands. Draco really had to talk to him about eye contact.

"I really don't know," Harry finally sighed. "You? Me? People?"

Draco thought about that. "Yeah. I guess so." He began uncoiling himself. "I'm freezing! These stones feel like ice cubes."

Harry looked over at him cautiously. He seemed hesitant but immensely grateful to no longer be having that conversation. "Oh, yeah! Sorry." He held out an arm, then realized he was wearing a hood. "Um.."

"It's fine," Draco replied. He slithered up Harry's arm and poked his head into the hood, and slithered around Harry's neck like usual. Inside the hood it was warm and out of the wind. Draco sighed in pleasure.

Harry had stiffened when Draco had first made his intention clear, but he now relaxed and stood up. He grabbed the invisibility cloak and threw it over them, then walked back towards the door. Harry tip-toed back through the silent castle, Draco peering around for any sign of teachers or ghosts. They got back to their dormitory without any problems, however, and once they got inside Harry took off the cloak, and they got ready for bed.

Draco could tell they were both still tense. He recognized the purposeful calculated tone of Harry's actions. He felt himself overthinking his own movements. He wanted to laugh at the pair of them, but Harry would want to know what he was sniggering about, and he wasn't sure he could explain even if he wanted to.