Nearly

When Harry sneaks inside the dorm, his is the only four poster with open hangings and the glass jar with murtlap salve sits waiting for him in the middle of it. He looks over at Draco’s bed and tries not to burst into tears. He doesn’t know what’s going on with his boyfriend, with them anymore… Draco just wilfully got himself into detention and had his hand carved up for Harry, all of it for Harry and yet now, apparently, they’re going to bed angry. 

Draco said he wasn’t upset with him, but what is Harry supposed to think? He’s obviously not not angry with him either, since he’s not even speaking to him… 

Sighing heavily, Harry pads over to his bed and sinks down on the edge of it, reaching for the jar and gently pulls the stopper out. 

Draco usually does this for him… 

Doesn’t matter, Harry tells himself. Maybe he was just tired. I know he doesn’t deal well with pain. 

Again, white hot rage for Umbridge flares up inside Harry. 

I’ll bloody show her, he vows to himself as he rubs the salve so furiously into the cut on his hand that the words now permanently etched there starts bleeding again. Damn it —

”Harry?” 

Draco’s whispered voice startles him and he jumps, almost loosing the grip on the glass jar, but catching it again before it crashes to the floor. He looks up to see the blonde’s head sticking out of the hangings on his bed. 

”Draco? I… I thought you were asleep…”

”No”, Draco murmurs quietly. 

”Are you… I mean…” Harry hesitates, then tries again. ”Are you okay?”

”I will be.”

”Right…”

Harry looks down at his clenched fist in his lap, glistening with blood and salve, the skin swollen around the words I must not tell lies.

”Harry?” 

”Yeah?” he mumbles, flexing his fingers and watching in mild fascination as new droplets of blood begin to bloom in the gaping cuts. 

”I’m scared…”

Harry jerks his head up and stares at the other boy in surprise. 

”I’m sorry for taking it out on you”, the blonde adds and even though Harry can see his throat working compulsively around what he imagines to be a lump of built up emotion, his voice comes out thin, almost brittle. ”I know that’s… that’s very shitty of me… I’m, I’m a shitty boyfriend—”

”Hey…” Harry says, rushing to his feet as the other boy’s voice finally cracks and when his face crumbles, Harry hurries to sit down next to him and gather him into a strong embrace. 

He rubs the other boy’s back and arm, hushing him gently as his ragged breaths turn wet and he turns his face into Harry’s chest as if chasing the vibrations of Harry’s heartbeat, but most likely he’s just trying to hide his vulnerability. Harry turns his own head, kissing soft blonde strands of hair and, as a selfish after thought, he inhales the addictive scent of coconut shampoo.

”I’m sorry”, Draco whimpers again. 

”Don’t be silly, you have nothing to be sorry about”, Hary says firmly, hugging the other boy closer still. 

”I want to be brave like you, Harry, but I’m not. I’m just not.”

”Gryffindorkish, you mean?” Harry says lightly, but the blonde simply shakes his head. 

”I’m a coward, a complete coward.”

”Hey…” Harry pulls back slightly and tries to catch the other boy’s eyes, but Draco stubbornly buries his face under his chin. 

”And I’m really scared…”

”Hey, look at me… Draco? Please, look at me?”

The blonde shakes his head again and the cold tip of his nose brushes over the hollow between Harry’s collarbones. 

”I think you’re brave”, Harry adds. ”Really. One of the bravest people I know—”

”That’s stupid.”

”Well, we can’t all be as smart as you…”

With a shaky, deep breath Draco finally pulls away from Harry and sits back, wiping his face of tears with trembling fingers. 

”Hey…” Harry says again, rubbing his back gently. ”What’s brought this on?”

”Nothing… everything”, Draco says, chuckling a little and shaking his head. ”I just got to thinking, while I was waiting for you… Umbridge, detentions… even this”, he holds up is hand in a half-hearted wave and Harry’s stomach churns at the sight of the scratched up skin, even if the cut has at least healed over now. ”It’s nothing — nothing, Harry — compared to what’s waiting for us. Compared to… to him…”

Harry swallows, and then slowly nods his head in understanding. Draco’s eyes flicker over his face, then drop away again. He looks so young, Harry thinks. So young, and yet he seems to have aged several lifetimes since this morning. 

”It will be okay”, Harry says softly. ”Somehow.”

”How can it possibly?” Draco says softly, shaking his head. 

”I don’t know…” Harry says honestly. ”But I know it will. I just know it.”

They fall asleep carefully curled around each other in Draco’s bed and Harry dreams he’s being chased by angry ravens, pecking at his hands when he covers his head, until finally he escapes into a long, dark tunnel lined with torches. 

He slows down, catching his breath as he walks further and further into the tunnel. A sense of deja vú grips him as he reaches a dead end and is left staring at a locked door, unable to go any further.

Draco wakes him up at the usual ungodly hour and Harry grumbles into the other boy’s pillow, ”You don’t need over an hour to eat breakfast anymore…”

”No, but I need to go to the owlery before”, Draco insists and pokes him again. ”Come on, let’s go.”

”You go”, Harry protests weakly, swatting blindly behind him. 

”You’re not coming with me?” comes the ridiculously small-voiced reply and Harry sighs heavily into the pillow, his hot breath seeping into the fabric and warming up his whole face.

”Fine”, he grunts and pushes himself up to sitting. 

He rubs the sleep from his eyes and fumbles for his glasses. By the time the other boy comes into focus, a smug grin is splitting his face in two and Harry shoots him an unimpressed look — just to make it clear that he hadn’t been manipulated into getting up exactly, because he knew what Draco was doing… he just chose to go along with it, because he’s an awesome boyfriend, that’s all…

”Well, come on then”, Draco says cheekily. ”Put some clothes on, and let’s go!”

Harry flips him the bird, then swiftly turns his hand around and catches the shirt Draco throws at him and puts it on, his sleep-clumsy fingers fumbling with the buttons. 

By the time he steps into his shoes, Draco is waiting impatiently by the door with the the note to his mother clutched in his hand and Harry can’t help but to notice the angry scratch still standing out sharply against the marble-white skin. 

I’ll bloody show Umbridge, he thinks again. Somehow, I’ll make her pay. 

They make the trek to the owlery in comfortable silence and when they get to the top, Harry walks over to say hello to Hedwig while Draco ties his letter to Bertram’s leg and tells him to get it to Narcissa as soon as possible. Hedwig gives an excited hoot when Harry pokes her awake and then nips at his fingers affectionately, even as he tells her he didn’t bring her a treat this time. 

”Alright! Ready to go to breakfast then?” 

Draco’s voice is cool as a breeze, completely carefree, but it’s too carefree and Harry doesn’t buy it at all. Sure enough, when he looks over his shoulder he immediately sees the tension in the other boy’s shoulders. 

”Sure”, he says lightly and gives him a smile. ”Bye, Hedwig. I’ll come by later with some treats for you, okay?”

The bird gives him another nip, then sticks her head under her wing for another nap. 

They’re just finishing up their breakfast when Bertram swoops down from the rafters and delivers Narcissa’s response and Harry feels his stomach flip over when he watches Draco break the seal with shaky fingers. 

”That was quick”, Seamus comments and Harry suspects he just wanted to break some of the sudden tension around the table, as everyone else has stopped whatever they were doing and gone silent, all watching Draco’s face nervously to gauge his reaction. 

”What does it say?” Harry asks finally, when almost a full minute has ticked by and Draco’s face remains enervatingly unreadable. 

Draco blinks and hands him the letter without a word. Blaise, Pansy and Seamus all scramble up from their seats and lean towards him, crowding around him excitedly to read the message and Harry huffs, elbowing Seamus in the chest when he gets so close to Harry’s face he can smell the cinnamon on his breath. 

”Hold it still”, Pansy says sharply, snatching the paper from his hands and holding it up. 

Draco, 

Your father will speak to the Governors after breakfast and he assures me that the matter will be taken care of promptly, even if he has to take it to the Minister of Magic himself. 

However, if I hear of you getting caught doing anything that warrants a detention again, I shall be highly disappointed.

Your mother

”Well…” Blaise says with an air of finality, settling into his seat again and reaching for his cooling coffee. 

Pansy hands the letter over to Draco again and tosses her hair over her shoulder, a thin smirk ghosting over her face. 

”Think he would?” Seamus grins mischievously. ”Talk to the Minister?”

”Yes”, Draco says simply. 

He shoots Harry a sidelong look and Harry smiles, knocking their shoulders together gently. 

”I still say we re-decorate her office…” Seamus mutters. 

”Shut up, Seamus”, Draco snaps. 

Harry laughs as the two begin to bicker good-naturedly. He can’t help it, he feels light-hearted and happy, like he could soar up to the ceiling at any moment. Things will get better now, even if he knows Draco was right last night when he said that all of this is nothing compared to what’s waiting for them out there… but at least for now, here at Hogwarts, things will be all right. 

His high spirits last all day — especially when Draco receives a second note from his mother at lunchtime,  informing him that the necessary amendments have been made to the decree concerning methods of discipline to exclude the use of blood quills and related equipment — But they come crashing down on him again in one swell swoop, when a timid-looking Second Year scurries up to him in the Great Hall at dinner and hands him a pink roll of parchment that stinks of lavender. 

Harry snatches the string off and unrolls the parchment aggressively. It’s a short note reminding him of his detention in Umbridge’s office at seven o’clock. 

”What the Hell…”

”What?” Draco says, snatching the parchment from him. ”No, no, no, no — mother assured me — okay — okay, it’s okay, we can fix this —”

”Draco, breathe”, Harry mumbles. 

”It’s okay, it’s going to be okay” Draco mutters, his eyes flitting all over the place and his breathing speeding up as his thoughts are racing away from him. ”We just have to talk to Severus, and yeah, it’s going to be fine—”

”Draco, stop it…”

The blonde’s crazed eyes swivel over to him and he frowns incredulously, the pink note crumbling in his fist on the table. Harry sighs. 

”There’s no point”, he says gently. ”Professor Snape won’t be able to do anything about it, anyway. He’s already tried, remember?”

”But now it’s illegal”, Draco insists. ”It’s actually illegal, she can’t—!”

”We don’t know that”, Harry counters. ”I know your father works fast, Draco, but one day… Look. It’s fine. I can take it.”

I can take it, he keeps telling himself as he’s walking towards Umbridge’s office after dinner, and as he sits down at the small rickety table and starts scribbling out the dreaded words onto the parchment waiting for him. 

He never mentions the Malfoys, doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction. He just keeps his head down and the blood quill moving. 

Two hours in, Umbridge lets out one of her ridiculous little coughs and he stops writing abruptly, the last line reading ”I must”

His left hand is pounding, but he avoids looking at the back of it, scared to see the damage tonight has caused. Professor Snape’s words echo in his head: there’s no way that won’t scar… you should tell your dads… they should hear it from you… 

”Let’s have a look, then”, Umbridge says softly and Harry jerks his head up, startled to see her standing over him suddenly, one of her flabby hands held out towards him expectantly. ”Ah yes… much better… I think we’re done for tonight, Mister Potter.”

Harry doesn’t need telling twice. He snatches his hand back from her and jumps to his feet. 

”Good evening, Mister Potter”, Umbridge says pointedly at his back, but he ignores her and hurries out of the office. 

When he walks into the Common Room, he’s nearly mauled over by a very livid Draco waving a piece of parchment around in silent fury and Harry staggers back from him and gently cradles his injured hand to his chest with a frown, but for once the cut on his hand is not the first thing the blonde notices. In fact he seems so outraged by whatever is written on the parchment, that he barely notices anything else around him. 

”Give the bloke a chance to sit down at least”, Pansy says in a long-suffering voice from the other side of the Common Room.

”They okayed it”, Draco says shrilly. ”Immediately. Fudge himself. Said it was outrageous that they should even have to put it into the decree, that it should go without saying. Sent her an owl this morning. This morning, Harry!”

”Okay, calm down”, Harry says, backing up another step as the blonde accidentally steps on his toes. 

”She knew! She bloody well knew!”

”Can I have a seat and put some murtlap on my cut, please? Before you start hollering in my face—?”

”HARRY! She was explicitly told by her boss to stop using the fucking blood quill! This morning! And then she sent you that fucking note!”

”I heard you”, Harry snaps, shoving past the other boy and collapsing next to Pansy on the sofa. ”Obviously her hate for me is stronger than her love for Fudge! But it doesn’t matter now, does it? That was it, my last detention. It’s over now.”

”You don’t care?” Draco says incredulously, his eyes wide and slightly manic. 

”Well, what do you want to do about it?” Harry counters. ”Organise a protest?”

”I want her fired!”

”Yeah, well…” Harry says, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. ”I think we all want that. But I doubt it will happen.”

Pansy hands him the jar of murtlap salve with a thin smile and he accepts it gratefully. As soon as he’s lathered a generous amount of the salve across the back of his hand and the magical properties have begun to soothe the searing pain, he looks around and notices everyone’s tired and almost pained expressions and he wonders just how long Draco has been venting about this before he showed up. 

”I want her fired too”, Harry says again. ”And I want to get back at her. I really do. But just in case Fudge or Dumbledore can’t get her to stop doing whatever she wants, we all need to be a lot more careful from now on… and yeah, I know, me especially… believe me, I don’t plan to get any more detentions with her. Even if I have to granger the fuck out of her, I will stay in her good books from now on!”

”Did you just use Granger as a verb?” Pansy asks with a lightly raised eyebrow. ”I like it.”

Harry shoots her a smirk. 

”I can’t believe you’re all so relaxed about this?” Draco says, flapping his hands in frustration. 

Harry leans his head back over the backrest of the sofa and sighs heavily. 

”Well, I’m not”, Draco continues stubbornly. ”I am going to make her pay.”

”Draco”, Blaise says in his calmest, most patient voice. ”You’re the one who said it would be too dangerous and stupid to do anything—”

”That was before”, Draco snaps.

The blonde continues to pace in front of the them and there is a loaded pause as everyone in the group seem to simultaneously swallow their sighs, while exchanging subtle looks with each other. 

”I want to make her pay… I want to make her suffer…” 

”Why don’t we sleep on it?” Harry suggests gently. 

”Good idea”, Blaise says and jumps to his feet decisively. 

He makes a beeline for the dorms and the others eagerly follow suit, leaving Harry alone with the still pacing Draco. 

He swallows another sigh, but can’t help but to smile at his agitated boyfriend, grumbling furiously under his breath, his hands twitching with excessive energy at his sides. 

The unwanted memory of when he was transfigured into a ferret jumps to the forefront of Harry’s mind, just before Moody begun to bounce him up and down, when he’d sort of twitched on the floor and then tried to make a run for it… 

Harry sidles up to him now, blocking his path and gingerly sneaking his arms around his body in a tentative embrace. Draco stops pacing immediately, his hands finally going still on top of Harry’s shoulders but his eyes continue to flicker all over the place, his mind obviously still jumbled with furious thoughts. 

”We’ll get her…” Harry murmurs, brushing his lips over the other boy’s cheek. 

”Yeah”, Draco says, nodding. ”Yeah, we will. We’ll get her. We’ll make her pay.”

”Yeah”, Harry says, soothingly. ”But first… bed.”

The next day being a Saturday, Draco allows Harry to sleep in to a reasonable time in the morning and the fact that he doesn’t insist on dragging Harry out of bed before dawn lures Harry into a false sense of security and he thinks, rather naively, that the blonde has calmed down and possibly even dropped the idea of getting back at Umbridge, but as they make their way out of the Great Hall again after breakfast and Draco immediately pulls Harry towards the great marble staircase instead of the direction of the dungeons, he begins to suspect this was rather foolish of him… 

”Where are we going?” he asks in trepidation as the blonde continues to pull on his arm in determination. 

”Library”, Draco says shortly. 

”We don’t have our homework”, Harry reminds him, but dutifully climbs the stairs after him. 

”We can do the homework later”, Draco says dismissively. ”I want to do some research…”

”For what?” Harry asks warily.

”Not here”, the blonde mutters under his breath. 

Harry swallows a huff and doesn’t say anything else. 

When they get to the library on the third floor, Draco commandeers a small table in the far back and then slowly but steadily begins to fill it up with books on hexes and curses. But it’s when he drops an especially heavy tome about untracable poisons on the table with a thump and then sits down and begins to pour over it with the same furious determination that he’d had the night before, when he was pacing the floor of the common room, that Harry realises with a sinking feeling that he hasn’t given up the idea of revenge at all. 

”Draco…” he says slowly. 

”Start reading”, the blonde snaps. 

Harry sighs. 

”What?” Draco demands, his steely eyes flitting up to Harry’s face and pinning him with a slightly manic look. 

”We’re not going to poison her”, Harry says quietly. ”So why don’t you calm down, and then we can talk about this…”

Draco opens his mouth to retort, but before he gets a word out, Ron and Granger suddenly walks up to their table and he swivels his head around to glare at them instead. 

”Look, it wasn’t personal, I just needed Umbridge to give me detention”, he tells them roughly. ”We don’t want to fight—!”

The two Gryffindors give him odd looks, but completely ignore his comment and turn to address Harry instead. 

”Harry, do you have a minute to talk?” Granger asks seriously. 

”Er…”

”The thing is”, the girl ploughs on passionately without encouragement. ”Professor Umbridge’s way of teaching is a joke. We’re not learning any spells and at this rate, our entire year is going to fail our Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL! Not to mention we won’t be able to defend ourselves out in the real world either!”

”Ehm… yeah”, Harry says awkwardly.

”Well, we were thinking—”

Ron lets out a pointed cough and she shoots him a sour look and shakes some of her hair out of her face, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. 

”Oh, all right, I was thinking”, she amends irritably. ”We need to take matters into our own hands! If we’re to learn to defend ourselves, we’ll just have to teach ourselves!”

”Er, all right…”

”Don’t you agree?” she demands, her eyes flashing with excitement. 

”I…”

”And we were also thinking, we’d need someone to lead us, you know, if we were to create a… study group, let’s say… someone with a little more experience in defending themselves against the Dark Arts really ought to be the leader of that group, don’t you think?”

”I mean… yeah, that’s… yeah”, Harry says, frowning. ”But why are you telling us? You’re asking us to join your study group?”

”No, no — well, sort of — we were thinking maybe you could lead—?”

Harry widens his eyes and quickly shakes his head. 

”But—” Granger begins to protest.

”No, no way”, Harry says, shaking his head firmly. ”Sorry, there’s no way—”

Granger suddenly slams her hand down on the table and the three boys jump. 

”Sorry”, she says quickly and Harry stares at the Gryffindor, who at least has the grace to look sheepish as she stuffs her balled up fist into her pocket. 

”Will you at least think about it?” she asks carefully. 

Harry grudgingly agrees to, but thinks to himself that there’s no way he’s going to start a secret DADA group with a bunch of Gryffindors right under Umbridge’s nose and risk the wrath of both his dads and Professor Snape. Not to mention Draco, he thinks as the blonde leans in to hiss in his ear about Granger already losing her mind over the OWLs already. 

”By the end of the year, she’ll go on a rampage and kill us all”, he murmurs darkly. 

Harry snorts and shakes his head.

They’re sitting in the Common room later that evening when a shooting pain suddenly erupts in Harry’s scar. He gasps and clamps his hand over his forehead, focusing on his breathing until the nausea subsides and the pain gradually simmers down again, and only then does he become aware of Draco’s arm around his shoulders and everyone in the Common Room staring at him in alarm. 

”I’m… I’m fine… it’s nothing”, he says breathlessly, swallowing thickly around the lump in his throat. 

He slowly leans away from Draco and grabs his things. Draco is watching him worriedly and he gives him a shaky smile. 

”I’m fine”, he repeats. ”Just tired. I’m going to bed, all right?”

The blonde nods mutely and even though the worried glint is still present in his steel grey eyes he lets Harry retreat without objection and Harry is extremely grateful for that. As much as he loves it when Draco comforts him, right now he really just wants to be alone… because it wasn’t just that his scar had hurt, he thinks grimly as he lumbers down the stone steps towards the dorm. He was also filled with a feeling… and it wasn’t his feeling, that’s the scary part. It was Voldemort’s. 

He lets his book bag drop to the floor with a clunk and curls up on top of his bed, hugging one of his pillows to his chest as he closes his eyes and thinks back… a rush of images erupts inside his mind and he remembers hearing voices, howling voices but filtered as though he’d heard them from below the surface of the water in the lake… none of it makes any sense to Harry, but he remembers feeling a surge of pure rage when the pain shot through his head and just knows that wherever Voldemort is and whatever he was doing tonight, he was angry —

Because he wants something done, Harry thinks. And it’s not happening fast enough. 

He blinks his eyes open in surprise and stares out into the gloom. He doesn’t know where that thought had come from, but as soon as it popped into his head, he just knew it was the truth.  

*

Their first Quidditch match of the season — meeting Gryffindor — approaches and Draco, despite promising Harry to leave Ron alone, designs buttons reading ”Weasley is our King” and convinces all the Slytherins to wear one — Harry being the only one refusing, much to the blonde’s annoyance — and insists it’s not breaking his promise at all, because Ron started it.

”What do you mean Ron started it?” Harry exclaims in a long-suffering voice and giving the blonde an exasperated look. ”He hasn’t done anything to you! We’ve barely even seen him all week!”

”Dean Thomas told Seamus that Weasley had told him that Gryffindor had the match in the bag, because I’d be too busy worrying about my hair to score any goals”, Draco says in a rush. 

Harry blinks. 

”See”, Draco points a finger at him. ”He started it—!”

”Did you just make that up?”

Draco purses his lips and glares back at him. 

”…maybe—”

Harry huffs and rolls his eyes. 

”Okay, so he didn’t start anything per se—”

”Take the fucking button off—” Harry demands, moving to tear it from the other boy’s robes front but he bends out of reach and swats his hand away. ”You promised!”

”It doesn’t count!” Draco insists, moving further away from him and holding his hands out in front of him like shields. ”It’s quidditch! It’s a tactic! All’s fair in—!”

”Oh for fuck’s sake”, Harry throws his hands up and sits back in his seat. ”Do what you want, I give up!”

”Are you going to be angry about it though?” Draco asks, squinting at him suspisciously. 

Harry sighs heavily and rubs his hands over his face, then shakes his head. 

”Promise?” Draco insists. 

”Will you take it off if I say ’no’?” Harry counters with a half-hearted glare in the blonde’s direction, then sighs again. ”No… I won’t be angry…”

”Good”, Draco mumbles, warily sinking into his seat at the sofa again. ”Because I kind of wrote this song—”

”What?” Harry snaps. 

”—to go with the buttons, as well—”

”Draco!”

”It’s just an innocent joke type of song, you know like a cheer, but ironic, but it’s all in good fun—”

”Draco…”

”Oh, come on! It will be fun! Besides the buttons won’t make any sense without it, I mean, ’Weasley is our King’? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

”That Ron is such a bad Keeper he will win the match for us?”

”Well”, Draco says, his lips twitching. ”Not everyone is as clever as you, they’ll need some context to get the joke…”

”Do what you want”, Harry mutters again. 

”It will make you laugh”, Draco says, draping himself over Harry’s side and nuzzling the side of his face. ”Promise.”

Harry grumbles quietly, but turns his head to give the blonde a quick peck on the lips and recieves a devilish smile in return. 

The fact that Harry had begrudgingly agreed that if it could in any way be construed as a tactic to win a quidditch match, then he wouldn’t be angry with Draco for doing it, Draco had apparently taken to mean that he was now allowed to tease, pester and psychologically terrorise Ron and anyone else on the Gryffindor team as much as he wanted, during the week leading up to the first match of the year because he takes every opportunity to cause the Gryffindors grief. 

Harry has to swallow yet another sigh as the blonde imitates Ron dropping a Quaffle next to him, something he’s started doing whenever the redhead is in sight. 

”Just ignore him”, he hears Granger hiss across the courtyard and she then pulls Ron away just as the boy’s ears start growing red. 

Draco immediately stops acting and turns his head towards Harry, smirking proudly. Harry simply raises an eyebrow at him. 

”Pansy thought that was funny”, Draco mutters petulantly. 

”So did I”, Harry retorts. ”The first five times you did it…”

”Are you calling me predictable?”

”Yes.”

Draco purses his lips and then, with no warning whatsoever, he slaps Harry hard over the head. 

”OW! What the hell—!”

”How’s that for predictable?”

”You lunatic—!”

”Don’t be a baby, I didn’t hit you hard—”

”Yes, you did — mmphhm —!” Harry’s protest is suddenly smoothered when the blonde leans into kiss him and his heart stutters in his chest, because, Draco is kissing him in a hallway where anyone can see them —

Just as suddenly as it started, the kiss is over again. Harry blinks stupidly at the other boy, who takes a deep breath and looks away nonchalantly. 

”What…”

”What?” Draco says coolly, raising an eyebrow at him. 

”What… the hell… was that? When I said you were predictable, it wasn’t a challenge—!”

”Of course it was”, Draco sniffs. ”Any insult to a person’s honour is a challenge.”

”Insult to…” Harry shakes his head in wonder. ”Bloody purebloods…”

Draco shrugs, clearly not too bothered, his attention caught by something across the courtyard and Harry follows his line of sight to see the Weasley twins standing with their heads together, muttering passionately about something. Probably those skiving treats they’re selling, he thinks. 

Then a thought suddenly strikes him and he swivels his head back to glare at Draco. 

”Tell me what you’re planning!”

”What?” Draco frowns at him in confusion. 

”You’re planning something and I want to know what it is. Tell me.”

”I’ve told you already, I just wrote a song and designed some badges and that’s it—”

”Not Ron”, Harry says shaking his head dismissively. ”Toadface.”

Draco’s eyes immediately shutter, but he sniffs indifferently and says, ”I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

”Yes, you do. Don’t lie to me”, Harry says sternly. ”You haven’t mentioned her in days and you’ve stopped reading your books, which means you’ve already come up with a plan for revenge and I want to know what it is! — Draco — please tell me you’re not going to poison her—!”

”Shhhh!” the blonde says harschly, glancing around them worriedly. 

”Draco!”

”Of course I’m not!”

”Or do anything to her that could get you sent to Azkaban?” Harry adds desperately. 

”I’m not going to do anything to her”, Draco says slowly and fixes Harry with an intense look. 

”You…” Harry trails off uncertainly.

He’d like to think he can read Draco well enough at this point to know when he’s lying, but… it just doesn’t make any sense… Harry’s gut feeling is telling him that the other boy is telling the truth, but he just can’t see him dropping it so easily either… 

”I’m not”, Draco adds with a meaningful look. 

”Wait, what…?”

”You’ll see”, Draco says and smirks.