In Your Mind's Eye.

Chapter Nine.

(Disclaimer: this story and its characters belong to J.K.Rowling.)

Song: I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off by Fall Out Boy (Obviously, look at how long the title is).

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Dear Readersss: I feel as if this story is appreciated, it tears me up a bit :'). Again, I'm sorry for the pathetic amount of time it takes for me to write the next chapter, blame school, blame procrastination, blame Gilmore Girls.

*cough* and I totally haven't been writing a different story and abandoning this one at all *cough*

Also, I know, some of the bits in this story are predictable. Oh, what a surprise, who would have thought Draco would have been put with Harry as a partner? I'm shocked!1!1!
Buuuut, that's the point. They're being forced to spend time together, not by my hand, by McGonagall aka: Ultimate Shipper Supreme.

Forgive me for my ranting. It's not always controllable.

Anyways, let's get to it, mushrooms.

- R xxx

Maybe, Harry thought, as he lay in his bed with his eyes closed, maybe the day would just cease to exist if he didn't move. His bones felt too heavy, too weighed down, as if they were pinning him onto the mattress. Around him, his dorm mates were stirring, yawns and stretches punctuating the silence.

Nobody, despite his appearance of sleep, tried to wake him up. After he had fainted for the second time week ago, on Halloween (unfortunately), Hermione had forcibly demanded that his professors should let Harry have a few lessons off. Which Harry wasn't too pleased about. Sure, he felt like he was going to throw up constantly, he had trouble standing sometimes, and he hadn't slept properly since the year had started, but going to class seemed to be the only stable thing in his life right now. Kind of.

But, in spite this, Harry was more than glad to lie in on this particular day. That way, he had a viable excuse to miss the DADA spell-practise with Malfoy.

So there he lay, waiting, until everyone had exited the dorm, leaving him alone.

It always had been that way, now that Harry thought about it. He wasn't being delusional- he knew that people loved and cared about him. But over all of those years, he had always been the odd one out, the person who didn't quite fit. He knew many would argue, he got enough attention for that to be proven wrong. But that wasn't really the type of isolation he had felt.

Sometimes, the loneliest people are those who are surrounded by others.

After a moment of lying in bed staring at the ceiling blankly, Harry sat up, feet hitting the floor, and stood up shakily.

He felt like shit.

But he made his way to the window, and leant against the sill, looking, as he had done his first night, out at the grounds. Things were a bit more alive now, as it was later in the day. The trees of the forest swayed in a light breese, the lake rippled with minor disturbances, and smoke had started to rise from Hagrid's chimney.

Harry quickly averted his eyes, but he knew, deep down inside, that he needed to stop avoiding people, in the end.

There was only one person out on the grounds it seemed. They moved slowly, through the long unkempt grass, head lowered and breaths coming in short clouds.

Even though they were far away, Harry wouldn't ever mistake that blonde hair and green Slytherin scarf for anyone else.

Harry watched with building curiosity as Draco Malfoy continued on his morning walk, watched as the boys moved occasionally upwards to the sky and down again. He seemed so...peaceful. So different.