WARNING/ Shonen-ai, perhaps future yaoi… maybe…

DISCLAIMER/ … yeah… I don’t… I mean… I didn’t… damn, it just isn’t mine… (Crawls into a corner and dies)

Chapter 1/ Attributes of change

- “Realization dawns on those who are too stubborn to see it.”-

It was raining outside, but Harry was longing to escape the captivity of the Gryffindor Common Room. Leaning his forehead against the freezing glass, he sighed and fogged up the window. He watched as the white warmth that had entered soon faded away. He should be studying for his potions exam that was the next day, but he simply couldn’t concentrate.

He glanced over his shoulder at Hermione and Ronald. The girl was lecturing the freckled boy; most likely about how he had once again forgotten to annunciate the correct syllable in the new charm they had learned in transfiguration, which made objects grow wings. Luckily, Harry had mastered how to make his ink well fly above his head, and therefore was spared from Hermione’s “helpful” instructions.

The pair was sitting in a couple large, squishy chairs a few yards away from him, and they were doing a pretty good job of not acknowledging Harry’s presence. Deciding that he would rather walk around the dismal castle than stand here pointlessly, he made his way up to the dormitory to grab his cloak and umbrella (one which Hagrid had so kindly given him for Christmas last year). It wasn’t until he came back downstairs and made for the portrait hole when Hermione decided to take notice of him.

“Harry? Where are you going? You should really be studying for your potions exam. You haven’t gotten the procedure for brewing Neklis memorized yet, and you know as well as we do that Snape will show you no mercy if you stir right only eight times instead of nine, or chop the Liseb horizontally instead of diagonally. And – ”

“Hermione! I’m only going for a walk. It’s not after hours yet, and I’ll study when I get back, alright?” reassured Harry, cutting into the lady’s rant on why he was perfectly going to fail potions.

Ron, who was nearest Harry, whispered, “Fine, mate. But hurry back. I can’t take much more of this…”

“I heard that, Ronald,” stated Hermione stiffly.

Harry nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t be long.” With that, he turned to the portrait hole and left the others to do their ‘studying.’

XXXXXXXXXX

Draco sat on a boulder at the edge of the lake. He had been caught out there when the rain had started, and was soaked through so quickly that he hadn’t even bothered to try to get under some shelter. Besides, it was peaceful there. Yes, the rain was loud, but at least it wasn’t the deathly quiet of the Slytherin Common Room. He gazed over the surface of what appeared to be the sea: uneasy, sharp, slapping and slashing each other due to the joining of water with water. He didn’t quite understand why it seemed so harsh to reunite something with another one of it’s kind. It reminded him of when he went home to his father.

For some reason, beyond Draco, he and Lucius harmonized in the presence of others. Yet, when placed alone together in his father’s study, there was a tension that whispered both hatred and admiration. To say the least, he understood this rain just about as much as he understood his own father. With an aggravated sigh, he laid back against the bitter cold of rock and concentrated on the stinging of raindrops hitting his soft, bare flesh.

XXXXXXXX

Harry had successfully made his way to the Entrance Hall without a single confrontation with a teacher or another student. Ghosts were a different matter as he could already see Peeves floating about in front of the grand doorway to the Hogwarts Grounds. He stayed low, studying the thing’s new ‘game’ and calculating just how to avoid it. Somehow, Peeves seemed to get a hold of balloons filled with… paint? Harry frowned as the ghostly male started redecorating the hall in many different colors that slid down the wall with each strike of a balloon.

Now paint was certainly something that Harry didn’t want to deal with, especially in the hands of Peeves. He briefly considered returning to the Common Room, but decided quickly enough that he’d rather have a paint fight with an unfair opponent then study for potions. He regarded himself thoughtfully for anything defensive. Duh… he had an umbrella. He rolled his eyes at himself. Well, he'll go out there without it at first, and if the other attacks, he’ll open the red and gold device.

Stepping hesitantly out from behind the banister, he revealed himself to the creature. It didn’t take long at all for it to notice the student watching. “Oh, look. Potty-Head has come out to play.” Harry slowly descended the steps to the ground level, keeping on-guard for the first balloon that it threw his way. Peeves simply continued chattering all the way down. But once Harry reached the bottom stair, the ghost smirked mischievously. “Ah, ah, ah. You shouldn’t interfere when an artist in working.” He cackled and grinned widely as he reeled back and shot a balloon through the air in Harry’s direction.

Instantly, Harry had the umbrella opened and placed in front of him, breaking the line of fire for the paint-filled missile. Great… opening an umbrella indoors… Professor Trelawney was going to give him extra-horrific death patterns for the next week…

Peeves continued laughing manically, throwing bomb after bomb at Harry, who blocked them easily enough with the red fabric while somehow managing to reach the front doors. Standing before the great wooden slabs, face toward the levitating ghost in the middle of the hall, he reached behind him and pulled the door open just enough for him to exit. He slid through, closed the umbrella to pull it out, and sealed the door just in time for another round of paint balloons do crash into the oak barrier.

He gave a sigh of relief and examined the exterior of his umbrella. You couldn’t even see the red underneath all the multicolored paints. At least the gold-colored metal was still clean so as to not make him worry about getting it on his hands and staining his clothes and such. The solution to his problem was simple. It was raining, after all. He re-opened his umbrella, held in above his head, and stepping into the pouring rain. Immediately, he saw multiple colors draining off the edges of the fabric and he smiled to himself. For once, Peeves’ trickery didn’t have a lasting after-effect. Satisfied, he made his way across the grounds, the deep gray sky barely giving him any gloomy light to see by.

He reached the tree that he had once seen his father sitting under. Harry had accidentally fallen into the pensive Severus was using at the time (He didn’t mean to; Honest). Harry sat down under it and placed the umbrella at his side. The canopy of the tree was so thick that barely any water came through at all. He stared at the area around him. The little light and thick rain gave limited visibility, but he could make out the trees and boulders along the edge of the lake. He wondered absent-mindedly if the squid was enjoying the pattering of rain on the roof of his ‘house.’

But then, something caught his eye. Something, a figure, could barely be seen lying on one of the large stones. Harry blinked, staring hard into the rain, trying to determine if it was his eyes seeing things or if someone was truly lying in the pouring rain, getting drenched and sick. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. Grabbing his waterproof contraption, he moved down the slope toward the water’s edge and the location of the silhouetted figure.

XXXXXXXXXX

The stinging cold had long ago made Draco numb, and so lying with his eyes closed became as natural as lying in the sunshine, except this was better and there were no other people around to screw it up for him. Suddenly, the rain stopped hitting his face, yet he could still feel it pounding his legs. What in the world…? He peeked open a single eye to see the cause of this strange effect. There was something, a person, standing over him, above his head; the color of crimson blocked the dreary sky. “Malfoy?” came a voice. He immediately recognized it. No one else said his name in that way… whatever “way” that was. He didn’t have the time to think on that at the moment though. Sitting up, supported by one hand and resting the other arm in his lap, he turned and looked up at Harry Potter.

“Potter.” Draco said bitterly. It wasn’t that he necessarily disliked Harry, but ever since he had rejected the offer of them being friends in first year, he felt obligated to make Potter regret the choice.

“What are you doing in the rain?” asked the Gryffindor skeptically, curiosity and concern tinting his voice.

“What about you? I don’t see you any less ‘in the rain’ than I am.”

Harry glanced up at his umbrella and then back at the blonde. “… You’re soaked.”

“No? Really? Thanks, Potter. I don’t think that I could have figured that out by myself,” responded the doused boy dryly. Sarcasm was something that had become attached to almost every single one of Draco’s sentences. Not to anyone’s surprise.

“Look. I came out here to get away from the stupid Common Room,” said Harry, before shaking his head at himself. “Wait. Why do I need to explain myself to you? I just saw someone lying over here, so I thought I’d make sure that they were all right. But since it’s you, I’m quite reassured that you became a lost cause a long time ago.”

“Think you’re so funny, don’t you, Potter? Why don’t you crawl back up to the Gryffindor tower and play wizard’s chess with that weasel friend of yours?”

“I probably should. Any company is better than yours. I think I’d rather go back with the basilisk than stay here with you.”

“Then why don’t you? Trust me, I won’t try to stop you from getting petrified.”

“No, of course you wouldn’t. That’s what makes you so horrible.”

“Thanks, Potty. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Harry shook his head in disgust. “You know? I think I should stay, just to torture you.”

“Torture me? I wasn’t the one saying that I’d rather go be petrified than be in your presence.”

“No. But you’d probably do something worse.”

“Some of us aren’t as desperate as you, Potter.”

“Some of us aren’t as idiotic as you, Malfoy.”

“Why? Because I’m sitting in the rain? Ever think that I might have wanted to get away from my Common Room, as well?”

“At least you could have tried keeping some part of you other than your personality dry.”

“I was out here before the rain started. Sorry I wasn’t as prepared as you were.”

“You couldn’t get back inside? Or even under a tree?”

“Water had already seeped through to my bones before I even had the chance.”

Harry frowned and paused. “Would you rather stay out here longer so that the cold will make you sick? Or do you want to go inside and warm up next to the fire in dry clothes?”

Draco glared up at him. Who did Harry think he was, acting all logical and actually making sense and… and… damn it. Draco matched Harry’s frown. Harry returned Draco’s glare. And they stayed like that for several minutes, both too stubborn to back down. At last, Draco pulled himself off the stone slowly, his numbed muscles having slight trouble supporting his body weight. Facing Harry head-on, he crossed his arms. “What do you want me to do, Potter?” He really didn’t care what Harry wanted. Whatever it was, he would probably do the opposite, just to anger the other.

“Personally,” started Harry. “I have had enough coldness for one night. I don’t really care what you do, but I want to go back to the warmth.”

“The dungeons aren’t really warm, you know?”

“How would I know? I don’t live there. But compared to how numbingly cold you are right now, it’s got to feel pretty inviting.”

Damn… He wasn’t supposed to know that Draco was that numb…

Stifling a sigh of defeat, Draco sneered at Harry. “Fine, we’ll go inside.”

It would be an understatement to say that Harry was surprised. Draco actually agreed to do something that Harry told him to? It was, indeed, unheard of. Not that Harry would point this out to the blonde lest he suddenly change his mind and freeze himself to death all through the night. Not that Harry cared or anything…

They slowly made their way across the grounds towards the main doors. Draco could hardly move his legs at first due to the lack of feeling in them. Harry almost went to support him in order to help him walk, but thought it better if Draco didn’t hex him to death. Nonetheless, they soon made it to their destination. Draco reached out to open the door when Harry remembered what was on the other side. He pushed the door closed again before Draco had even opened it six inches.

“What’s the matter with you, Potter?”

“I almost forgot. When I came out here, Peeves was playing a nice game of one-sided tag using paint-filled balloons. I thought I should warn you in case he were still there.”

Draco looked at him strangely. “Thanks,” he said, before opening the door again, more cautiously this time. Whoa… Did… Did Draco Malfoy just say ‘thank you’ to Harry Potter? Impossible…! Harry was quite stunned to say the least. He just stared at Draco’s back questioningly. Did staying out in the rain really make him sick in the head? Draco turned to Harry, startling the dark-haired boy out of his thoughts. “Let me see your umbrella,” Draco practically ordered. Harry had no choice but to hand it over. The Slytherin boy slowing stuck the umbrella through the opening in the door. At first there was nothing, and then came the predictable splat of one of the balloons striking it. The poor umbrella was getting a beating that night…

Draco opened the umbrella, grabbed hold of Harry’s upper arm, and pulled him underneath it with him. Harry’s eyes went wide and blinked profusely at their closeness and Draco’s protective hold on him. The blonde didn’t even seem to notice the predicament. They stepped inside, both huddled underneath the umbrella, and came to see Peeves still floating there in the hall.

Malfoy examined the surrounding walls and floor, which were absolutely saturated with paint. Boy, was Filch going to be furious. How many of those balloons did he have? Draco gently pushed Harry away so that Draco stood between him and the ghost. “I like what you’ve done with the place, Peeves. What? Needed some color in your afterlife?” he asked sardonically. Peeves did his infamous cackling laughter and threw another paintball at the two students. Draco instinctively swung the umbrella in front of them and blocked the shot, causing yellow paint to splatter on the floor due to the impact.

“So Potty-Head and Ferret-Boy are friends?” He cackled. “Too bad. You’re timing is dreadful. I was just running out of balloons!” He threw two last cannon balls at them, both of which were successfully slashed away by Malfoy, and then somersaulted through the walls, out of the Entrance Hall, and out of sight. The two stayed in their defensive position momentarily in case the nut case of a ghost came back and threw another curveball at them. When he did not return, Draco let his arm fall, closed his weapon, and handed it back to its owner.

“There, no more Peeves,” said Malfoy casually. Harry was too shocked to really say anything, although he tried to keep this feeling from showing on his face. Draco led the way further into the Entrance Hall, and then looked over his shoulder at Harry. “See you later. Dungeons are this way,” he said, pointing to one of the side doors and pushing some of his dripping hair behind his ear. Harry nodded and they were about to part when they heard a meow.

Both turned to look at the top of the stairs. There stood Mrs. Norris. Of course. They looked at each other, both looking quite panicked. No way was Filch going to find them there and blame them for Peeves’ pranks. They got in enough trouble as it was without the help of a mischievous ghost leaving them to pay for his mess. Harry took a step forward to run for it, but heard a squish sound. He lifted his foot and realized that his shoes were covered in paint from the puddles on the ground and the splattering of broken balloons, and he had just left a very clear shoe print on the wooden flooring. Again, both boys glanced at the print, at each other, and then at the top of the stairs as they heard a voice call out, “What is it, Norris, my pet?”

Draco squeezed Harry’s arm to get his attention and indicated for him to follow him. He slipped off his shoes and began jumping across the floor, stepping only on the clean patches of wood. Harry went to do the same thing, but first smeared the shoe print with his now colorful sole before slipping off his shoes. By the time Harry had caught up to the other, the blonde was eagerly indicating him to hurry through the door that he was holding open. They wasted no time in rushing through and closing the door behind them. They stood close as they waited for a sign of discovery. It came all too soon…

“Someone is going to be hung by their thumbs for this!” yelled the raspy voice of the squib. The boys turned tail and ran deeper into the hallway, taking numerous turns in order to lose a pursuer that did not exist. It wasn’t long until they had to stop due to lack of breath and energy. Draco leaned against the stone walls while Harry bent over, hands on his knees, both breathing deeply. Draco closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself, but the soft chuckling of another interrupted his peace. He peeked open his eyes for the second time that night to find himself looking at Harry. Harry’s chuckling soon grew into full-fledged laughter.

“And just what is so funny?” he asked seriously.

“Did- didn’t you hear him?” He asked through his laughter. “It was priceless! You- you have to admit that it was pretty funny!”

Draco just looked at Harry’s grin disbelievingly. “We were almost caught!”

“I know! But we out-smarted them! Or more, you out-smarted them. I have to admit Draco, you are a pretty fast thinker,” said the raven-haired boy, smiling at the other. This caused the Slytherin to smirk proudly. “So… where are we now?”

“Near the Slytherin Common Room. We’re deep in the dungeons,” answered the blonde.

“Is there any way for me to get to the Gryffindor Common Room from here?”

Draco furrowed his brow. “I don’t think so- Ah-choo!” Draco wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and gave a little moan. Great. The stupid rain did make him sick. That’s just what he needed. He had a potions exam the next day. He couldn’t afford to sneeze into his concoction and ruin it!

“Are you alright?” asked the other. “You need to go get into some warm clothes. It will be after hours soon, anyways.”

“What about you? How will you get back to the Gryffindor Common Room?”

Harry shrugged and held up his shoes. “What choice do I have? I have to go through the Entrance Hall.”

“Filch will kill anyone who even goes near that hall.”

Again, Harry shrugged. “I don’t have any other option.”

Draco thought for a moment. You can stay in the Slytherin Dormitory tonight.”

Harry scoffed. “Are you kidding? That’s suicide!” he exclaimed, causing both of them to chuckle. “Well, both Crabbe and Goyle are in the Hospital Wing tonight. I think they ate something and got food poisoning.” It was now Draco’s turn to shrug. “And Slytherins make it a habit of staying out of other people’s business. It’s like a mutual agreement that no one is allowed to break. I doubt that the few people in the Common Room would even notice you walk in.”

Harry thought momentarily. It may be crazy enough to work. True, no one would ever suspect Harry to be bold enough to walk right into the Slytherin Common Room, and Slytherins did have a habit of only caring to notice their immediate party of friends. And with Malfoy’s help, maybe he could actually— Whoa! Wait just one second! Is he really considering this? It’s impossible! No way! No How! Absolutely not!

“What about Pansy Parkinson? Or Blaise Zabini?” asked Harry, looking for an excuse.

“What about them?”

“Won’t they notice you walk in, and then notice me following you?”

“Pansy is usually in bed by 8:30 and Blaise is a very quiet guy. He wouldn’t notice. And even if he did, he probably wouldn’t say anything.” (1.)

With a sigh, Harry considered the offer once more. Have Filch kill him… Or have the Slytherins kill him… Jeez, that’s a hard choice…! “Fine, I’ll go with you.”

TBC…

I know absolutely nothing about Blaise’s character, so forgive me if that was a complete lie. I really didn’t mean it to be. (Cries)

A.N. / Wow… I have no idea where this is going. Lol. I didn’t actually think that I was going to post this. I got an idea for the rain thing with Draco from a pic that I saw.

http/ then the Peeves thing happened… And then the sleepover thing happened… And now, the posting the story thing happened… (Laughs nervously) We’ll just have to see where this goes, I guess.