Chapter 6
This time the place was familiar. Too familiar. Not only were they back inside Hogwarts but they were standing in the very corridor where they had first arrived, staring at the door of the cupboard. They looked at each other in silence, pondering the meaning of it.
“Do you think this means we’re back?” Harry asked but as he said it, he took in the moonlight flooding through the dusty windows. According to his watch, the time in the present should be early afternoon but this was clearly evening, just like when they had stepped out of that door what seemed ages ago.
An unpleasant thought struck him at that, what if they were in some kind of loop, about to run into Snape and a slimy first year Draco trying to land Harry in detention? Perhaps they had missed some clue the last time? He automatically moved towards the door of the cupboard but Draco grasped hold of his arm before he could reach the handle.
“You don’t want to do that.”
“Why not?”
Draco sneered at him but before he had time to reply two people rounded the corner and entered the corridor, walking towards them.
They ushered against the opposite end of the wall, pressing against it to avoid being walked into, by now mastering the act of moving as one. As the figures came closer, Harry was able to make out that it was once more Draco, this time being pulled by the hand by Pansy Parkinson and looking rather unhappy about the whole thing.
“Don’t” the other Draco said as Pansy placed her hand on the handle but unlike Harry, she proceeded to push the door open.
There was some loud swearing in a male voice as the door opened and she quickly shut it with a giggle. “Learn to cast a bloody locking charm” she called through the keyhole and a muffled voice ordered her to fuck off.
“Told you” Draco whispered next to him.
“Nott never remembers” said the younger Draco, watching the closed door with something resembling relief. “One might think Daphne would by now though.”
“Seems we’ve embarked on a journey of your teen sexual adventures” Harry told the older Draco under the cover of a muffliato, watching Pansy’s flushed cheeks and lust filled eyes, remembering his words about how this very cupboard had been put to use only too well.
“Oh, shut up” Draco muttered.
“Maybe that timeturner is just really kinky? Know any curses of that kind?”
Draco stepped on his toes. “Potter, shut it or I’ll punch you, and knowing those two, they’d only be too happy to join in.” He nodded towards what Harry assumed was two fifth year Slytherins.
“Maybe we should patrol the corridors instead” the other Draco said, adjusting his prefect badge.
He made to leave the way they’d come but Pansy leaned against the wall, blowing a pink bubble that popped with a loud smack. “Patrolling is boring.”
“Yeah” Draco agreed with a sigh, leaning against the wall too. “Wish she would let us do other things than just deducting house points, no one cares about those anymore.”
“Mm” Pansy agreed, leaning in on him. “What would you like to do then?” her red lips nearly brushed against Draco’s cheek and Harry noticed him edging slightly away from her, staring straight ahead.
“Wish she would let us give out detentions.” A smirk formed across his face. “I’d love to get Potter for something.”
Harry gave Draco an annoyed look under the cloak, resisting the urge to thrust his elbow into his ribs. Draco made a frown that might have been meant as an apologetic grin, his cheeks burning a little red.
In front of him, Pansy mirrored Harry’s annoyance for some reason. “Bet you would” she muttered under her breath.”
“What?” Draco asked her, a slight edge to his voice.
Pansy shrugged and blew another pink bubble.
“What’s taking Nott so long anyway?” Draco said with a frown towards the door.
“Eager much?” Pansy grinned, pouting her lips, though Harry didn’t think Draco was, there was rather a dismal look to his face.
“I guess you haven’t come out yet then?” he said to the older Draco who let out an annoyed huff.
“It’s perfectly possible to like boys and girls, Potter.”
“I know” Harry teased. “Don’t think you do though.”
“I hear he does it to her too” Pansy said in a low voice, eyeing Draco intensely.
“Oh” Draco let out, taking care to stare at the ceiling.
Pansy gave him a disappointing look and fiddled with her nails.
Point proven Harry thought but chose not to say. Even in the dim evening light he could tell Draco’s cheeks were burning and he decided not to pester him any more about it, things had gone awkward enough as it was. In fact, he kind of wished the time turner would choose the moment to whisk them away because even separated from the two teenagers by more than ten years, he felt himself cringing in their uncomfortable silence and was strongly reminded of his date with Cho Chang. Looking back, that should probably have been the first clue to him not liking girls.
It had taken him a while to figure out, the truth slowly dawning on him after some disappointing experiences with the female sex, including a failed attempt to get back with Ginny after the war and a string of clumsy hook-ups. The realization he was into guys had on the other hand been instant and happened during a drunk night when he’d ended up snogging Dean Thomas. Dean might not have been the right one, but he certainly had the right body parts, and on that way it was.
The first time he was spotted romantically involved with a man, it hit the papers hard, but being gay was not as big a deal in the wizarding world and eventually the dust settled. Still, being Harry Potter was, and he took care to keep his romantic interest from the press after that and had succeeded well. Given that he had no idea where Draco had been four years ago, he wasn’t sure he knew those details about him, it wasn’t like they discussed their love lives between dispersing curses and writing up reports. In the light of that, Harry making fun of Draco just now might not have come across as the joke on self-recognition it was intended but seemed rather like a cruel taunt.
He was trying to come up with a way to casually mention he too was into dudes without being totally weird about it when Pansy broke the silence.
“I heard Potter has landed himself with another set of detentions.”
“Yeah?” Young Draco latched on to the subject like a lifeline. “Wish she’d have him doing something worse than lines though. I suppose it’s a nuisance to him, I’m not even sure he can read and write, but even so…”
“I’m still not sure of that one” Draco muttered next to him and this time Harry did push his elbow into his ribs.
“It’s not just lines” Pansy said with a smirk to her face. “I hear she has him carving things to his arm with his own blood.”
Draco looked a little sick at the idea. “That can’t be true” he said. “Who told you that?”
“I heard Weasley and Granger talking about it in the library.”
Draco snorted. “They were probably messing with you.”
Pansy looked hurt. “They didn’t see me, and they sounded really bothered, apparently they’d had a fight with Potter because he wouldn’t tell Dumbledore about it.”
“Because there isn’t anything to tell” Draco said. “Potter must have made it up for sympathy or something. He was probably running low on attention. I don’t think the Prophet has printed anything about him this week.” He spoke with his usual drawl but he still seemed a little repulsed and it sounded like he was trying to convince himself rather than Pansy.
“She was right, wasn’t she?” the older Draco asked quietly next to him.
Harry offered his hand, showing the etched words that still had not faded completely. “Maybe I just did it to myself, you know for the attention” he said, attempting a joke but it might have come out disgruntled. Surprisingly Draco didn’t bite back but reached out to touch his hand, trailing the letters with his thumb with an unreadable expression to his face. The touch was surprisingly soft, leaving a warm trace to his skin. Then he looked up to meet Harry’s eyes and immediately let go of his hand, turning to watch himself and Pansy once more.
Harry followed his example. Draco was still drawling away next to Pansy but he seemed to have abandoned the topic of Harry and had started bashing Neville instead.
“I don’t think it’s a stretching potion” Pansy said impatiently.
“But have you seen Longbottom lately? He’s grown about six inches since last summer and he’s looking all fit, he certainly doesn’t have the genes for it, his grandmother is quite a hag.”
Harry snickered next to Draco, muttering “so gay” under his breath.
“Oh, shut up” Draco groaned.
For a moment Harry thought the muffliato had given in because Pansy interrupted her counterargument but then he noticed the door sliding open, a ruffled looking Nott stepping out, with a giggling Daphne Greengrass in tow who wore a ludicrous smile which had Pansy scowl.
“All yours” Nott told Draco, grinning openly as he adjusted his robe.
Draco held the door to Pansy and followed her inside with a resigned look to his face. A second later, it slammed shut behind them. Daphne’s and Nott’s voices faded as they made their way down the corridor and then it was just him and present Draco again.
Harry turned to him, a snide remark about what was taking place on the other side of the door on his lips, but he stopped himself as he noticed Draco’s face having gone positively white.
“That bad a memory, was it?” he asked carefully, wondering whether to tell Draco about that one date with the girl in the ministry cafeteria that had gone well enough to bring them into her bedroom but ended with him claiming to need the bathroom and in panic disapparating from there. To this day, he still ventured out into Diagon Alley to get his coffees.
“No, that’s not…” Draco started. “You were right, about the pattern. It just finds me at random places and moves ahead a year.”
Harry nodded. “It seems.”
Draco turned to stare straight ahead. “Sixth year holds very few good memories for me” he said quietly.
“Oh” Harry said, catching up. He swallowed hard, thinking about Draco’s teary eyes finding his in the bathroom mirror, wands drawn. What if they landed in the middle of that?
“At least we never stay long anywhere, let’s just try to get through it unseen and then we move on” he suggested to himself as much as Draco.
Draco snorted. “Oh what a relief, because seventh year was such a party.”
Harry sighed. “Then we’ll get through that one the same way.”
He waited for Draco to make some hint of whether the time that followed the war would be better or worse, unsure of the details in his post-Hogwarts life, he had pretty much disappeared after the death eater trials and then turned up in the ministry seven years later, but he only offered a stiff nod.
Harry took out the time turner and they both stared at it, waiting for the inevitable.
“Maybe it will just be something random again, watching you have lunch or something” he tried halfhearted.
“Maybe” Draco mumbled in a hollow voice and sank down on the floor in a sitting position. Harry followed, leaning against the wall, time turner in one hand and the other holding on to Draco’s arm because it looked very much like he was considering apparating away.
He wished he was better at these things, that he could find something soothing to say but minutes passed in silence until the golden circles begun to twirl in his hand.
“It’ll be alright” he whispered, tightening his grip on Draco’s wrist.