"...And *darling* students, you will have a summer assignment." A general groan greeted the news and Severus Snape smirked at their disdain. "Furthermore, it will be a partnered assignment." More groaning and grumbling. "And further yet, your partners have been pre-selected by a committee." Now there was a deadly silence.
"I will be reading off the names of the pairs and both you and your partner will be coming up and receiving your information packet. You will have four assignments: one for potions, one for defense against the dark arts, one for charms, and a general paper. The grade you receive on these assignments will greatly impact your following year. They are extremely complex, involved and structured so that you must work with your partner, as it is entirely impossible to complete the assignment without doing so. Additionally, the assignments are set up so you cannot work with someone else on it. If you do not complete the assignment, you will be placed in remedial classes and it is more than likely in such cases that you will graduate late. May I suggest you make other arrangements to spend the summer with your partner as-- once again-the assignments are extensive."
Snape let his eyes roam over the class, his tell-tale smirk twitching his lips upward. He picked up a roll of parchment and began reading the names. "Weasley and Granger... I don't know how that happened, but I'm sure you won't mind..." Ron breathed a sigh of relief and stood to collect the depressingly large stack of papers and the medium sized chest that went along with it. "Crabbe and Goyle.... no surprise there..." Snape continued to read the names out, making the odd dry comment at some of the most unlikely pairs, but so far it had been strictly Gryffindor-Gryffindor and Slytherin-Slytherin. Snape paused for a moment and looked up at the class, then down at the list, then up at the class again. "Potter and... Malfoy..." A deathly claustrophobic still settled over the room and the already cold dungeon classroom seemed to drop five degrees. "I am so sorry, Mr. Malfoy," Snape murmured in absolute sympathy as the two approached the desk and collected the various items. Draco was glaring at Snape and Harry was just glaring.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What an absolutely God-awful way to end a year! And I have to spend the summer with him too?! Good God! Are these people nuts!" Harry complained, hefting the chest up higher and letting it fall on his bed. Grumbling, he tried to lift the lid. It was locked. "And the damnable key is probably in Malfoy's stack of papers!" He hissed when unlocking spells didn't work.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Severus Snape had just barely made it into his rooms when the door flew open agin.
"How could you do this to me?" Draco asked incredulously, the door slamming sharply behind him."And don't even tell me you had no control over it!" He added as an after thought
"You're right, I chose the pairing myself. I had my reasons, Draco." Snape responded carefully.
"Your reasons? What could they be?! Did I do something despicable and you’re trying to get back at me?!" The young blonde returned with a snap, throwing himself into his customary chair.
"No. Draco....."
"Don't 'Draco' me! And I am absolutely not staying with those goddamned Muggles!" Draco declared, jumping out his seat restlessly and pacing the length of the throw rug.
"Draco, do you really want Harry to stay at the Manor? Moreover, do you?"
Draco stopped pacing for a moment and took a deep steadying breath. "That's why you did this? To keep me out of my house? You couldn't have picked anyone else?" he asked quietly.
"Draco, think about it. The whole wizarding world knows about the Malfoys; your parents would have absolutely no trouble retrieving you and getting you both to the Manor. Potter's guardians, however, don't know anything about your family or your family name; they hate wizards to such an extreme that it is assured that they would never let Harry anywhere near Malfoy Manor. And though they're absolute idiots and a few other choice words, one thing they are not is your parents. They'll not do the things to you that your parents do; you'll be safe for this summer at least."
Draco considered the argument carefully and couldn't help but agree with the potions master. He hung his head in defeat.
"I am doing this for you, Draco."
Draco looked up at Snape and sighed. "You've always been good to me. What happens when you can't save me anymore?"
"By the time I can't save you anymore I expect you to be self-sufficient enough not to need it." Snape and Draco shared a small smile and the silence stretched. "Now get out of here!" Snape snapped teasingly, his face settled in a mock scowl.
Draco chuckled softly and turned from Severus Snape's personal quarters. No good-byes or hugs, they didn't need them. Draco left with out a word and both were well aware that he was comfortable to be leaving Hogwarts for the first time in six years.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry was standing at the top of the main stairs in a small group of sixth year Gryffindors, discussing the upcoming summer assignment in heated tones when Draco stormed up the stairs and roughly pulled Harry out of the circle. Harry waved apologetically and allowed Draco to pull him all of two paces down the hall before he jerked his arm out of the other boy's grip.
"What the hell do you want, Malfoy?" He inquired hotly, adjusting his robes.
"Alright Potter... what are we going to do?" In truth, he already knew what they were going to do, but he needed to keep up appearances.
"Well, I am absolutely not stepping foot in Malfoy Manor." Harry told him sharply.
"Good, I wouldn't want you to taint my home with your presence. Not that I'm exactly enthusiastic about spending the summer with a bunch of Muggles." Draco retorted, his face twisted in disgust, the last word spat like a curse.
Harry sighed and massaged his temples; this was going to be a long summer. "Alright...fine. I think the Headmaster has a phone in his office, I'll go call my Uncle Vernon. This is going to be fun..." Harry muttered sarcastically. Not that it wouldn't be amusing for Draco to go through the kind of things he did every summer, but this summer there would be no respite coming from the Weasleys. Harry sighed again and went off in search of a phone without another word. Draco made a small sound of relief and watched Harry go, muttering to himself the whole time.
Harry stalked down the halls toward the Headmaster's office.
/Bloody hell...I don't know what's worse, the thought of being stuck with Malfoy all summer, or the thought of the Dursley's reaction to him being there all summmer,/ Harry wondered to himself as he gave the gargoyle the password and mounted the revolving stairs. The Headmaster's door was open and Dumbledore could be seen inside playing a game of miniature wizard's golf. Harry knocked on the open door and waited patiently for the old wizard to coax the legged ball through a ring hanging three feet in the air.
"Ah, Harry. What can I do for you?" Dumbledore asked, without turning to face him. Harry chuckled softly as the ball leaped onto the Headmaster's shoulder and promptly crawled into his beard.
"Do you have a telephone I could use, by chance?" Finally, Dumbledore turned his twinkling eyes on him and watched him curiously for a moment before nodding and retrieving the requested bit of Muggle technology from a chest in the corner.
"Is it hooked up?" Harry asked, turning it upside down and not finding a chord.
"Yes, yes." Albus answered absently, chasing the spider-like golf ball around in his beard. Harry eyed him bemusedly, his head shaking slowly as he dialed his uncle's number.
"Uncle Vernon? I'm bringing a classmate home this summer; we have a partner project to do. He's really well-mannered, you won't even notice him." Harry said simply, then held the phone away from his ear while Vernon screamed.
"Why the hell do you have to bring him here!?"
"It's either that, or I spend the whole summer with a pure-blood wizarding family. Meaning that they're all wizards and have been for generations and generations...."
"Alright! Alright! He can come. But if anything goes wrong..." Vernon left the sentence to hang and Harry could just imagine Vernon's purple face purpling further, his already almost non-existent neck receding further into his shoulders. Then the phone simply clicked off.
"Goodbye." He muttered to the deadened line and thanked the Headmaster before leaving in search of Draco.
The Slytherin boy was found in the Great Hall with his group of lackeys, vehemently bad-mouthing Gryffindors and brainstorming all the things Draco could do to make Harry's summer miserable. Harry didn't notice that Draco was not contributing anything but a smirk and an occasional nod to the conversation. Harry rolled his eyes and roughly jerked Draco away from the Slytherin table and toward the entrance.
"Well, my uncle said you can come. But I told him you were really well-mannered. Please try to fit the description." Harry told him dryly, ignoring Draco's eye-roll. "You can take the train home with me, then depending on whether we finish the project early or not, ride the train back, I suppose. Have you already contacted your parents?" Draco nodded wordlessly and refused to offer up any further explanations, so Harry simply turned and headed back to his dorms.
Draco watched Harry's retreating back somewhat remorsefully. He had indeed contact his parents and had simply told them that he had a summer assignment and wouldn't be coming home that summer; they hadn't been happy about it and had required confirmation from Snape before they begrudgingly allowed him to go. "Fun, fun, fun." He whispered to himself with another chest-heaving sigh before leaving in search of his own dorm, a headache tagging along behind him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry gave Ron and Hermione a desperate look as they got off the train. Draco had not taken the train, but rather a private Malfoy conveyance and from his stance, he had been waiting for the Hogwarts Express for awhile. His giant hawk-owl looked equally bored in a tall gilded cage, nipping insistently at the bars of his cage.
"Good luck, Harry."
"If I'm not back next year, remember me kindly." Harry told them melodramatically. Both gave him a sympathetic look, promised to write and watched him as he rolled his cart in Draco's direction.
"Poor Harry," Hermione said carefully.
"Poor Harry? I say poor Malfoy; because if Harry comes back in any less than absolutely perfect condition-- I'll tear the slimy git to pieces!" Ron hissed fervently, cracking his knuckles in anticipation of Draco's upcoming beating.
"Alright, let’s go," Harry said simply, without stopping. Draco heaved an overly dramatic sigh, picked himself off his trunk and wheeled the cart after Harry.
Harry's Aunt Petunia had been waiting impatiently in the parking lot, arms crossed over her chest and foot tapping rapidly. Harry vaguely wondered where Vernon was, but in the end said nothing and only loaded his trunk into the car, assisting Draco with his just to get it done faster. Draco sat calmly in the back seat with the owls while Harry sat in the front, trying to stay as far away from his aunt as possible as she was looking even more angry than usual.
"Do you know how much trouble you two are in when we get home?!" Petunia screeched suddenly. From the back seat, Draco lifted an eyebrow in confusion and considered casting a silencing spell on the woman, but remembered that he not only had to spend the rest of the summer with her, but also the area wasn't protected like Malfoy Manor was so he would receive warnings from the ministry if he did anything remotely resembling a spell. He sighed and wondered exactly what Potter had managed to do to get them in trouble already. Petunia refused to say anything more that was of any use, but did insist on just generally ranting about everything.
As soon as they stepped through the door, they were assailed by a large burly man with an apparently permanently purple face and no neck. "How dare you little shits!" He screamed, slamming a finger in their faces. "I can't believe you, you little... freaks! Of all nasty things to do!"
"What have I done?" Harry asked finally, calmly excepting the familiar pain in his ear as Vernon latched on and dragged him down the hall, tugging Draco behind by his wrist.
"What have you done?! What have you done!? Don't give me that innocent bullshit! We know the only reason Dudley failed was because you two little freaks be-witched his teacher!" Vernon screamed, pulling on Harry's ear harder. At first Draco had tried to struggle out of the man's death grip, but Vernon had squeezed his wrist so hard that he felt the bones beginning to creak, so he subsided and let the enraged muggle drag him down the hall and throw first him and then Harry into a small closet under the stairs, Draco darting out of the way as Harry stumbled into the small space.
"Bewitched his teacher? I didn't know you had it in you, Potter." Draco commented, looking around the poorly appointed, horrifically small closet.
"You helped, you know." Harry told him then added, "Heads." Draco turned to look at him in confusion when the door suddenly jerked open and a bucket and cleaning supplies went flying into the closet taking an erratic path over his left shoulder, where his head used to be. Then the door slammed shut again.
"We're going!" Uncle Vernon screamed through the grate on the door. Draco glared at the door and tested it; locked tight.
"They can't do this to me!" Draco screamed when the front door slammed; but he knew that they could. After all, they just had, and his parents were expecting no form of mail or anything of the sort from him so he had no form of rescue. He turned and slammed his back into the door. "What are you doing?" He asked sharply upon seeing Harry on his hands and knees pulling things away from the wall underneath a shelf. When he didn't answer, Draco took the opportunity to survey the small closet. It was just barely tall enough for them to stand upright, and only about four or five feet long; the walls were lined with shelves filled with cleaning supplies, towels and the odds and ends one expected to find in a closet. The only real furniture was a short, narrow bed against the opposite wall, shelves hanging over it. Draco looked back down at Harry and was surprised to see that he had actually disappeared through a ragged roughly square hole in the wall that he had uncovered. Curious, Draco got down on his hands and knees and poked his head through the crawl space.
"Don't come in here. You won't fit at the moment." Harry told him quietly. Draco pulled his head back through the hole and waited on his knees to go through the small hole in hopes of finding it a way out. "Would you hand me the cleaning stuff?" Harry called through the opening. Draco gritted his teeth and momentarily considered snapping something along the lines of 'why should I?' but figured that it wasn't going to get him far. Having no clue as to how long he would be stuck in this closet with Harry, he decided not to push it, so he collected the various items and shoved them through the hole.
"Do you want the mop and broom?" he drawled, his tone suggesting bordom and disgust.
"No." After a minute he heard water turn on and he was told he could come in if he wished. Grimacing at the heavy layer of dust on the floor, he squeezed through the hole, doing his best not to tuch the softened wood floor. To Draco's dismay, it was not a way out. What he crawled into was a bathroom. Sort of. The space was barely two and half feet wide and about six feet long. /At least it's a constant height,/ he thought, glaring at the room. At one end was a shower that was little more than a sink with a door; its base was a two foot square of tile with a drain in the center and a rusted shower head poking out of the wall. The other end was just as depressing. The sink was less than a square foot and was distinguishable from the toilet simply by virtue of the rusted miserable faucet and lack of toilet seat. And the place was filthy.
"Should I even ask?"
Harry sighed heavily and turned off the water. The room was extremely cramped with both of occuping the small space, so Draco carefully backed up against the shower to give the other boy room to turn around. "Well, essentially, welcome home for the rest of the summer." Draco could feel his jaw drop, and looked up at Harry sharply, pulling his eyes away from the disgusting yellow tiles that looked as though they may have been white. Once.
"You're kidding."
"No. But I suggest we get to work; we won't have light for much longer," he said, gesturing to the miserable little bulb swinging from the ceiling, casting a sickly yellow glow over the bathroom.
"Work on what?"
"This place hasn't been cleaned for a year and it's difficult to clean in the dark." Draco's face scrunched up in disgust.
"Me? Clean?" He asked incredulously.
"Here," Harry said, ignoring Draco's former statement and handing him a wet wash cloth.
"What do you want me to do with it?" He asked, holding the stained, dripping cloth at arms length, his upper lip curled away from his teeth.
"Clean any surface you can reach. I suggest you clean well; spiders tend to hide in the corners and they're really not fun to track down in the dark." Draco made a face, but took the soaking cloth back through the horribly small hole, looking for all the world as though he might vomit at the feel of dirt and mold under his knees. Shuddering reflexively, he removed his shoes before climbing on to the bed and running the cloth lightly over the first shelf, trying to avoid contact with the rough wood. He found quickly that Harry was not lying. After about ten seconds of trying to clean around things, he just took everything off the shelves and began cleaning that way; killing at least a dozen spiders in a the first ten minutes, his face twisting in disgust with each dead arachnid. After awhile, he set up a rhythm and Draco found that cleaning turned out to be remarkably calming once he got past the indignity of it all.
Harry scrubbed the small bathroom as clean as he could with the available supply of luke-warm water before moving back into the main 'room' and sweeping the floor. While Draco took everything off the shelves and scrubbed them clean, Harry cleared a place for their owls and trunks once they came in.
"So they're just going to leave us here?" Draco asked suddenly, wiping dust off his face with an unhappy huff and dipping his cloth into the already filthy water. Harry nodded.
" 'We're going' generally means they're going to go to the grocery store to buy food, dump it in on us and leave us on our own. When they get home, they jerk the door open, push the bags in then shut us in. Shortly after they'll nail a frame up blocking all light, then they'll turn off the electricity to this room."
"They'll turn off the electricity?!"
"Don't worry, I have a stash of candles and I know how to pick the locks on our trunks. I also brought enough owl food to get them through the summer." He said, pausing to wipe his hands off on his faded jeans with holes in the knees. Draco sneered at the display and turned his back to his roommate. He felt dismay settling on his chest, but it *was* better than what he would be getting at home so he returned to cleaning. Harry swept the dirt into a small waste basket and began taking inventory of what they had in the vicinity. Most of the shelves' contents were useless, but they did have an ample supply of candles, matches, holders, and water so Harry was satisfied with the venture. He was just emptying the filthy water down the toilet when the front door slammed open. He left the cleaning supplies in the bathroom, crawled back into the closet and shoved a crate in front of the opening. Harry then removed his shoes and pulled Draco onto the bed. "Don't make a noise," he whispered as the door was unlocked and thrown open.
Harry and Draco sat calmly on the bed and watched as bag after brown paper bag were pushed into the closet. Both boys winced as their chests were pushed none-to-gently into the cramped space, their owls protesting loudly as they were jostled on top of the black trunks and nearly knocked over. As the tide of brown paper was ebbing, Dudley came in and smiled at Harry and Draco sinisterly before sticking his tongue out and turning around to show them his ample rear. Harry had to hold Draco back as the blonde made to leap at the overweight teen. Vernon leaned into the closet when Dudley left and attached the two on the bed with a deadly glare. "You know the rules," he said simply before slamming the door.
Harry sighed but remained still as the grate was shut, a frame set up against the door and nailed closed. Harry immediately jumped off the bed and began to rustle through the bags. To his relief there were twice as many bags and supplies as usual.
"Can you come over here and help please? Just start putting things on shelves while we still have light." Once again Draco held down the urge to argue and got up to help.
"What rules?" He asked while Harry starting putting candles in protected holders and setting them around the closet.
"Well, the walls are pretty much sound-proof once the frame is put up, but rule one is still 'no noise' and rule two is no magic. That about sums it up." Draco's jaw tensed, but he continued putting the various items of non-perishable food-stuffs on shelves.
"They expect us to live off this?" He asked distastefully, glaring at the packets of freeze-dried foods. "It's all junk!" He declared, and it was. The bags contained candy-bars, sodas, dried fruits and camping supplies of freeze-dried everything.
"Well, I don't think they really care, but at least your father will skin them alive when you come back malnutrition," Harry answered thoughtfully, seeming to gain some amusement from the statement.
Draco snorted. "Not likely," he said before he could stop himself. He immediately regretted having said it, but though Harry paused, unlit match in hand, he said nothing. Draco sighed softly in relief, then jumped as the dull yellow light over-head turned off. They were plunged into darkness for a moment before Harry struck the match and lit the candle. It gave off poor light and seemed to cast shadows that created pools of light instead of the other way around. Harry said nothing as he went around the closet, lighting candles until they could see properly.
"So... what are we supposed to do in here?"
"Well, technically, we’re supposed to stare at the walls, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Harry told him, drawing some pins out of a tin and kneeling in front of the chests. "We have our projects, I borrowed a chess game from Ron, and there's tons of paper in here." The chests flipped open with a mechanical click and Harry moved to the cages, carefully working the giant locks off. Hedwig barely stirred, but Hawk began to click at Harry angrily. Harry backed away from the enraged hawk owl and fished out Hedwig's food. Taking the hint, Draco located Hawk's food and calmed the angry black owl.
"I guess we could start on our projects." Draco could feel a sense of depression falling over his heart and really didn't feel like sparring. Harry nodded and dragged a small chest out of his larger one. Once again he came up against the lock.
"Malfoy, were you given a key?" Draco shook his head but went through his papers again.
"No... it's locked? Do any spells work on it?"
"No, I've tried and so has Hermione and Ron; theirs didn't have a lock on it by the way." He grumbled pulling on the lock vainly. "Snape did this on purpose!" He hissed finally. Draco sighed and reached over, planning on removing Harry's hands from the lock but as soon as their fingers connected, the lock sprung open; Harry made a face at it and Draco just shrugged.
Harry watched Draco as the blonde pulled the potions equipment out of the chest./I've never seen him like this... well I've never really looked at him unless we were dueling or fighting... / Draco was actually very elegant now that Harry really looked at him. When Draco's expression was unguarded he was a completely different person, his features were softer, his movements more flowing and his touch more gentle.
"What are you looking at, Potter?!" Draco snapped when he noticed Harry's attentions. Harry said nothing, only turned back to the instructions found in Draco's stack of papers.
"Congratulations. If you're reading this, you've managed to open the trunk; perhaps I underestimated your intelligence, Potter. Unlikely, but perhaps. Follow these instructions carefully, I want my top student back in one piece, Potter."
Harry could just imagine the dry smirk on Snape's face and couldn't help but roll his eyes. /How did the bastard know I would be reading this? He gave it to Draco after all.../ Harry stopped himself. Draco. He had thought of his arch nemesis by his first name, which was a first. /I guess being stuck in a closet with someone changes your perception... even if it's only been a few hours.. /
The potions assignment turned out to be just as extensive as promised and would take several days to complete. The charms assignment was paired with an enchantment, but they were also tied into the potions assignment which didn't make them any less difficult to complete. The promised Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment was absent all together, but the general paper turned out to be the biggest slap in the face. An extensive paper on the other person: Draco. Harry had to write a full biography on Draco.
"Not that I'm any happier about writing a paper on you," Draco muttered when Harry expressed his disdain after reading the instruction out loud. "Let's just get to work, okay? And would you mind terribly if we bypassed the conversation bit?" Harry growled at him, but in the end, said nothing.
"I wonder what this is for?" Harry asked himself reading through the potions assignment again.
"We won't know till the beginning of the year when Snape tests them," Draco told him absently, pulling out his table and carefully slicing the wolf’s bane. They passed the time in relative silence, Draco carefully cutting the wolf's bane into exact measurements, and Harry reading through his texts. It wasn't until Draco's stomach growled at him that he remember that he hadn't eaten. Harry laughed a little and went in search of something suitable to pass off as dinner. While Harry opened a bag of freeze-dried potatoes, Draco cleaned up the slight mess he had made.
"I've got to use the toliet. It does work, right?"
Harry laughed softly. "Yes, actually it does. Don't stray too far, wouldn't want you to get lost now, would we?" It took a moment for Draco to realize that Harry had just shared a joke with him, and he smiled secretly to himself, his back turned to his roommate. Maybe this summer wouldn't be *that* bad.
"Does the shower work?" Draco asked, after emerging from the bathroom to the pitiful sight of powdered potatoes, dried apples, and some kind of jerky with water to wash it down. He so intent on a shower that he forgot to be scathing about it. Harry made a face at his 'dinner'.
"It does, but you have about two minutes of semi-warm water, then it gets pretty cold." Draco perched on the creaky bed and poked at his food with the camping set of dented silverware. "If you're planning on taking a shower you should take it before bed." Harry told him around a watery mouthful of potatoes, wincing as he forced himself to swallow.
"Why?" Draco asked, considering throwing the food out, but realized that wasting food probably wasn't very smart in this position. Only then did he begin to wonder at the sleeping arrangements. Harry was currently sitting on the floor and Draco had a sinking feeling that one of them would be spending the night there as well.
"Well, the Dursleys take their showers in the morning so you can usually get slightly hotter water, and you can climb right into the blankets when you get out. There's a towel in the little space under the sink." Harry had finished his dinner and was already crawling toward the bathroom to fill up the bucket to wash the dishes-- as if the dented tin could be called 'dishes'. Draco washed his own dishes noticing the frigid temperature of the water.
"So, are you going to go take a shower?" Harry inquired after having dumped the water and returned the bucket to its place in the far corner.
"Do you need one?" Draco asked absently, missing the amused expression on Harry's face; he had thought they weren't talking.
"No. I'll take one tomorrow. Would you like a pointer? Get your hair wet with cold water from the sink and put the soap in it before you turn on the hot water." Draco nodded and dug his nightclothes out of his trunk before crawling toward the bathroom.
"And, Draco? Hang your clothes and towel over the door and turn the water off when it gets cold. Just dress in the stall; you'll stay warmer." Draco had paused at hearing his name and was so shocked that he had been called by his given name that he barely heard the rest of Harry's advice.
Taking Harry's advice, Draco had gotten his hair wet under the freezing trickle of water in the sink and had quickly worked his shampoo into a lather. He was already freezing, but he took the time to make sure his towel and sleep clothes were securely out of the way of the water stream before turning the hot water on all the way. The water was just barely warm, but Draco was glad for it. However, he took no time to enjoy the relatively warm stream and set to scrubbing the soap out of his hair and the dirt off his skin. As promised, the water went cold just as the last of the suds washed off his body and he quickly turned the water off; it had not even been hot enough to gather steam. Shivering, Draco dried off quickly and shoved his clothes on; careful not to get anything wet. When he emerged from the bathroom, he was shivering slightly, his bare feet protesting to the cold touch of the floor, Harry was already dressed for sleep and reclined against the shelves at the head of the bed, reading a potions text. Draco sighed and continued drying his hair.
"I'll sleep on the floor," he offered. Harry's head snapped up.
"Like hell you will. That vent starts blowing cold air at about midnight. You'll freeze!" Harry told him sharply, noticing Draco's bare feet and scowling at them. Draco's eyes followed him quizzically, confused by Harry's sudden concern for his well being. Harry finally climbed out of bed and padded over to his chest. After a moment he drew out a pair of wool socks and tossed them at Draco. Draco growled as they hit him square in the face, but he said nothing and pulled them on his feet, making a face at the feel of the rough material. Harry ignored him and pulled a solid black candle out of his chest, lighting it from the flame of a near-by candle.
"What's that for?" Draco asked, jerking his chin toward it.
"Hermione gave it to me; it's been charmed so it doesn't burn down."
"Afraid of the dark?" Draco teased maliciously. Harry gave him a serious look and his smirk melted.
"I'm not afraid of the dark, Malfoy... though heaven knows I should be... no, it's just hard to find candles in the dark when morning comes." Harry explained. "Is there anything else you need to get?" He asked over his shoulder, crawling into the bathroom and lighting another of the black candles before blowing out the others. Draco was still waiting calmly on the bed when he emerged again, so Harry assumed that the boy was indeed ready for sleep. Harry went around the room and ritually blew out the candles. The black candle cast just enough light to turn the room into a swirl of gray shapes against black backgrounds.
Harry crawled up on the bed and pressed himself against one wall, turning to face it, apparently taking pains to give Draco the illusion of privacy. Draco smiled secretly to himself; a small twitch of the lips. /He's so noble... Did I really just think that?/ he thought mildly confused, he then tapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Roll over," he ordered. Harry sighed but did as he was told so he was on his opposite side facing Draco. Holding back his laughter at the thought of Harry Potter obeying orders, coupled with the thought of how odd this whole situation was, Draco pressed his back against Harry's chest and cuddled under the thin blankets. Harry was so shocked that all of his muscles tightened painfully. "This will be easier," Draco explained, yawning and falling asleep before Harry could respond.
Getting over his initial shock, Harry carefully wrapped his arms around Draco's waist. /It's just easier this way,/ he told himself, but wasn't sure if he was lying to himself or not. Draco sighed softly; it was a cute sound, like a kitten's mewl. Harry relaxed further and carefully buried his face in Draco's neck. Unbeknownst to Harry, Draco had been awake since he had felt Harry's arms slide around him and was embarrassed to no end at the noise he had made, but amused when he felt Harry's face bury into his neck. /One of these days, Snape,/ he promised his benefactor, but oddly enough he couldn't find it in himself to be angry at his potions master for putting him in this position.