Scarhead (A Drarry Fic)

Chapter Twenty Two-Half-Blood Prince

He did not get a chance to speak with Draco at all that week. He was not present at any of the classes they had together. Nor was he there for any meal of the day. Even odder than that was that he could not be spotted on the marauder's map. Like he had completely vanished off the school grounds. Hermione told him that that was impossible. The security the school had at the moment was too great to just leave or enter willy-nilly. He had suspected that it was a personal error, that he just couldn't find him, but he spent hours of ceaseless vigilance, staring at the map.

He was slowly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy. Ron told him this and he didn't even argue about it. He knew it, but he was also very tenacious in that he needed to find out what he was up to. The place to start, as he figured, would be the room of requirement. But he could not enter no matter how hard he thought about It. the room door would not appear for him. He frustratedly gave up and called upon Dobby and Kreacher to follow Draco around the castle and report back with anything suspicious. But they never watched Draco do anything out of the ordinary.

"Harry you need to rest," Hermione said one night after about two weeks of staring at the map, she pulled him away and sat him in the chair next to the fire. "Harry, if you want to know what he's doing, go and talk to him. Please. This is just torture to yourself." she took the map from his hands, "mischief managed." the line faded from the paper, leaving it blank. "Go talk to him."

"But he's never around anymore. I don't know where to find him. He's not even on the map half of the time."

"You realize that the map wouldn't show what's going on in the room of requirement, right?"

This had not occurred to him. "You're right! "He said jumping up from his chair, Hermione pulled him back down to his seated position, "what do you think he's doing in there. He's constantly in there. Like most of the day."

"I don't know. Go and talk to him."

"Talk to him? What would I say? 'Hey Draco, I've been stalking you for the past few weeks and noticed that you have been spending an awful lot of time in the room of requirement, what are you doing in there?'"he shook his head, "give me some time, or him some time. I'll figure out some way to approach him with the topic to seem non-threatening. For now, I'll just play it off like I haven't noticed."

"Harry, that's not-"

"That's not what, Hermione? A good idea? Just butt out. I can handle this."

She went a little red in the cheeks but did not say anything in return. He felt somewhat guilty for his sudden outburst but he did not follow her to apologize as she left. She would get over it.

He had been so distracted by Draco the next few days that he had forgotten his potions book. It only made him feel worse when professor Slughorn had given him a completely trashed copy to borrow. All of the pages had been written on, he could barely see what was originally written. Instead of trying to interpret what the text said he followed the written part, finding it to bring him more success than any of the other students. Even better than Hermione.

Being satisfied with the markings of the book he slipped it into his bag at the end of class instead of returning it to the professor. He more fully looked over the book during lunch, noticing that on the inside cover were the words written 'this book is property of the half-blood prince'

In some of the other pages were spells that sounded as if the prince had made them up. Taking special note in one written under the words 'for your enemies.'

"Sectumsempra," he read, gazing his hand over the top of the spell. He noticed Hermione coming his way and closed it immediately, he knew she would gravely disapprove of him having the book. Plus he had not apologized for what had happened earlier. she slumped down in front of him, glaring at her plate.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" he asked after a devastating silence.

"Why don't you go into the common room and find out."

He didn't want to go down to the common room and find out, he wanted her to just tell him and spare the effort it would take to go down there. He resisted the urge to argue with her and strode off to Gryffindor tower. "Pumpkin Juice," he told the fat-lady and she swung open. He had expected something bigger. More noticeable. Like someone had set off dungbombs. But there was nothing of the sort. The only thing he found to be there was Ron, snogging Lavender a little too sloppily for his comfort.

Ron didn't look up as he came in. How could he have noticed, his face was completely engrossed in Lavenders. He left the room quite upset that Hermione had sent him up there just to see Ron suck face with Lavender brown. He supposed it probably agitated her quite a bit. And guessed this was a way of revenge for Viktor Krum. He hated it when they fought. He was always in the middle, each of them always wanting him to take their side when he wanted nothing to do with either of them. Why couldn't they just get along?

There was no time to get back and finish his lunch. So he went to his next class, transfiguration. Which he had completely opted out of the homework because he had been so obsessed with following Draco that he had forgotten about it. He found Hermione outside of the classroom. good, He thought, I might be able to get her to let me copy her homework.

No such luck. So he quickly faked out on an essay about the correct wand and wrist movements before the bell rang, it was not nearly long enough but it was something that he could turn in. At least he had something.

During class, his thoughts traveled back to Draco, who was probably in the room of requirement right at that moment. He might have been able to catch him When the door was still visible if he had skipped class instead. As he listened to professor McGonagall drone on, he kind of wished he had skipped class.