Heavy Chains. A Shared Weight, A Shared Space
A few days into third year it happens. James had honestly started hoping that maybe Malfoy forgot all about their deal.
Reality hits him in the face, or rather shoulder, as he walks through the corridor toward potion class, and Malfoy bumps into him.
He looks the same as last year, maybe he got a haircut because his fringe frames his face differently than he remembers. His eyes however have not changed. The same color of greyish skies in the morning.
His friends yell slurs after him as the blond keeps walking, while James tightens his grip on the little piece of paper that the boy had sneaked into his fist.
The corridor left from Potions class, 3rd painting on the right.
At Midnight
Even his friends notice his unusual demeanor today, but when they ask he laughs and skips to class. If anyone asked him anything about what he did that day, he couldn’t have recalled anything but waiting in fear of nightfall.
Half an hour before the meeting is to take place, James sneaks out of his dormitory and tells the fat lady how wonderful she looks in her robe and if she maybe could not tell about his little nightly walk. After all, there is nothing wrong with a bit of fresh air before bed.
He makes his way to the dungeons following the directions on the paper.
Finally, he arrives in front of the painting. It’s beautiful, James notes and wonders how he had never noticed it before.
It depicts a cemetery, it seemsabandoneded and old, graves overtaken by moss. In the cent,er there is a statue and James almost steps back as he recognizes of what.
An Angel
Head held high as it looks at the sky, hand outstretched trying to reach for the stars, to take flight, but the chains around his ankles keep it from flying higher than a few centimeters. It’s melancholic and broken and beautiful.
So much so that it takes James an embarrassing amount of time to realize, that he is not alone.
“Seem’s like I wasn’t wrong about you.” It comes from the shadow, as Malfoy steps out into the dim light of the torches.
“What?” he asks, without getting an answer as the boy steps in front of him, fumbling with the painting’s frame.
After a small click the painting opens like a door revealing a narrow stairway going down.
“How- how did you find this,” James whispers “not even my father’s map showes this secret passage.”
“Fewer questions, more walking” is all he gets back, as Malfoy slowly descends into the darkness.
There is a brief moment of hesitation, heart beating loudly in his chest before James follows him down.
After a few flights of stairs, the stairway ends making way for a room.
It’s about the size of his dorm room, made cozy by a fireplace and a big comfy-looking reading chair. There is one big desk, covered with papers and weird little trinkets. Almost every surface is covered in papers and books, to be honest. There is a pair of huge shelves, one filled with books, the other one still mostly empty. Looking up he sees the ceiling painted dark blue with planets and stars moving in a sort of dance.
And the view!
One of the walls, instead of being made of wood like the others, is made of glass, giving a perfect view of the inside of the Great Lake. Between the ceiling and the inside view of the lake, it feels like being part of the unreachable line where the water touches the sky on the horizon.
“Holy shit” is all he can say, “what is this place?”
“The only place I have” it comes back “so if you ever try telling somebody else about it, or to take it as your own I will-“
“I won’t. I promise. This is not the kind of place I would ever take somebody to” he confidently says.
Because it’s true.
This place feels like a safe space. A hidden heaven created to protect from the rest of the world.
And does James not understand that feeling better than anyone, he thinks as he envisions that small crook under the lowest shelf in the poetry section of the library.
Malfoy seems to find something in his eyes then, something truthful because he nods.
“Anyway, this is what I called you here for,” he cuts in stretching out his arm and opening his palm.
There is a small bracelet there, made of leather with a small golden coin in the middle.
James raises an eyebrow at him.
“For Merlin’s sake, James take it! It won’t kill you.”
Malfoy helps him to put it on and James tries very hard not to think about the boy’s hands touching his wrist with a featherlight touch, or the body heat coming from the other as they stand so close to each other.
“It’s simple. Every time you get a panic attack you simply turn the coin and I will feel it through its partner” he says as he takes out a necklace with a similar coin hanging from it, “and just like that I’ll be able to help you”.
“How will you know where I am?”
“You’ll have to say it out loud and the coin will register the location”
“Where did you buy this? This is really cool!”
Malfoy actually blushes, blushes, at that. James would rather not think about how that makes him feel, thank you very much.
“Actually, I created them…” James’ eyebrows shot up at that.
“That is- I didn’t know somebody our age could just do that. It’s… impressive” he admits.
“…Thanks.” Is the awkward response.
They look at each other for a while then and James feels that yearning in his chest again, that really should not be here. But Malfoy blushed and actually helped him, going as far as to invent something to find a solution, and they’re under a dancing sky, below water, and feelings are hard to conceal in places like this. James knows, however, that if he actually stays, the consequences would be catastrophic.
“Well then, bye..” is the only thing he can muster before walking back up the stairs, away from more than one angel tonight.