Un-Mate

“It’s not worth it Harry.”

Harry knew Hermione was right, but he didn’t really care. He was methodically checking through each of the carriages and their compartments. He hadn’t seen the strange mix of black and blonde hair exit the train. Idly he’d had pretended that he wasn’t watching for it now, but both Ron and Hermione knew him too well to really expect anything else.

“I know you’re worried mate, but it sounds like he’s the same old twat he always was. It’s not your job to look out for him, regardless of his designation. Anyway, I saw Zabini exit earlier, I’d bet you a galleon they’d already found him and dragged him out.” Ron’s words were close behind, his own eyes meticulously checking the areas after Harry. Whilst he definitely felt no need to help the fool, he also didn’t want to see Draco reach the wrong end of someone’s wand. Tensions were already high enough in the wizarding world, no one needed a few hardheaded school kids to cause further issue by attacking the Malfoy heir.

“I just, I know it’s stupid, but something was wrong on the platform, you didn’t smell him,” remarked Harry, coming up to one of the last compartments. The door was still closed with no noise coming out from it which should have meant it was empty, except there was the faint scent of a someone still there; an Omega.

“Not really selling the experience there,” replied Ron as he came to stand still behind Harry.

“Here?” asked Hermione quietly looking at the locked door.

“Alohamora,” spelled Harry, the door popping open a mere centimetre to show a sliver of the dozing form inside.

“I swear he looks almost peaceful and significantly less twatish like that,” stated Ron as he took a glance in.

A sharp swipe was heard in the air with an even sharper, “Ow!” as Hermion’s hand connected with Ron’s upper arm.

Harry paused a moment, looking between Ron and Hermione as he considered the situation.

“You guys go ahead yeah, I don’t want him to freak out when I wake him up.” Harry waited for the quiet confirmation as they both nodded, Ron’s hands coming up to rest on the small of Hermione’s back as they made their way back to the end of the carriage.

Harry glanced back into the compartment, waiting for his friends to exit the carriage before tilting his head to the side and viciously flinging open the door with a loud bang.

Draco startled awkwardly, almost ending up on the floor but catching himself at the last minute.

“What the hell was that for Potter?” snarled Draco as he quickly righted himself.

“Not on common terms, remember?” shot back Harry as his eyes flicked up and down Draco’s form.

“Get a good look then?” shot back Draco, the venom slipping in and out of his words as if the effort to sound affronted was hard to keep a hold of.

“I was checking on you. I didn’t see you leave the train.” Harry replied, answering the original question as Draco fixed his clothing; his frame seeming smaller than it ever had before. Harry reached forward without thinking, righting a part of Draco’s cloak simply as the Omega went deathly still at the attention.

“I don’t need you looking out for me Potter,” whispered Draco, his hand coming up to grab at the place where Harry had righted his cloak. Harry desperately wanted Draco to meet his eyes; his heartbeat was echoing so loudly in his ears it felt like it was surrounding his whole world. Harry wasn’t sure why it seemed important, but as his brain slowly took in the true state of Draco, his anxiety had skyrocketed, his body readying as if for a fight. Harry flicked his head to side as if trying to round on Draco. He just needed to see the other man’s eyes, to see the same emotion there that had clouded their grey depths for all their years long history; he needed to know that Draco was alright.

“I never said you did.” He said in response as Draco finally rounded his face to him.

The grey eyes weren’t settling as they came to rest on his, and the manufactured sneer had no bite to it as he watched Draco’s eyes rake up and down his body.

“You can leave now. I don’t know need anybody getting any ideas about me. I have enough to deal with without them assuming I need the assistance and protection of mighty Alpha Potter at my back.” The words were tight, and Harry knew they were the only response he was going to get at the moment. Draco’s bolstering only seemed to last for so long before being deflated again as the now shorter man made his way past him.

“I didn’t know you were an Omega.” The words were out of Harry’s mouth before he could stop them. It had been one of the resounding thoughts that had echoed in his head the whole train ride but he had certainly not planned to the say them.

“I didn’t either. Surprise,” said Draco sarcastically over his shoulder as he quickly walked down the length of the carriage.

Harry watched Draco leave the carriage, still standing there as if waiting for something else to come about. The soft, wafting scent left in his wake was strangely calming, familiar in the same way that the smell of lightning after a summer storm is. His hands felt oddly tight as he flexed them and his body finally followed his command and he left the carriage.

The ride up to the castle disappeared in his memory, and he couldn’t recall the meal either. In fact Harry felt as if a fog had wriggled it’s way into his skull and settled obtusely in front of his eyes until he entered into his new common room.

New, because the returning seventh years, otherwise dubbed the eighth years, had been given an entire new quarter to themselves. No house lines dividing them and with only half their year returned he felt almost as if he wasn’t back in Hogwarts at all. The experience disorientated him as he was one of the last few to enter into the common room.

It had been decked with all of Hogwarts colours on the walls. There were still separate male and female quarters, but the washrooms were single use and there was even extra cupboards around the walls. The fire crackled merrily as the lounges were loudly dragged across the floor; the eighth years having decided that they didn’t like the original set up which had been orientated into several separate seating arrangements, and instead were arranging all the furniture in a large semi-circle around the fireplace.

Harry didn’t pay much attention, aside from noting Ron avidly chatting with Ernie about some Quidditch stats whilst Hermione was admiring Hannah’s new quill set, already having chosen to seat themselves on one of the rugs in front of the fire.

All around him were faces of people he knew but the daze seemed to blur them out and though he tried, he kept coming up short in his attention. Eventually he just stood and watching for a minute, noting the lack of Slytherin bodies in the mix. Harry knew that Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson had returned to Hogwarts, he’d seen them both on the platform, and along with Draco whom Harry assumed was keeping well away from company, he realised that none of the others had returned.

“Are you gonna come help us Harry, or are the dust mites more interesting than us?” The words were joking as Neville’s smiling face turned to him from his place behind one of the lounge’s, satisfied with this expended energy as the semi-circle was now completed.

“I just…” started Harry, suddenly unable to put into words that feelings that had overwhelmed him, “It just doesn’t feel the same.” The dejection in his tone caused several of the others to look at him carefully before returning to their own conversations.

Neville came over to stand beside Harry, a hand resting on his shoulder as he took in Harry’s face. “It’s not supposed to feel the same; it’s a different world now,” stated Neville simply.

Harry nodded, his gaze drifting and searching as Neville took that as queue to leave. It was a few minutes or so that Harry stood still gazing as the rest of his year settled into the lounge’s and began the regular return to school activity of comparing their summers. The chatter and the warmth almost hid the truth behind its simplicity.

The world had changed but Harry wasn’t sure if he had changed in such a way that allowed him to fit neatly within its folds anymore.