The Boy: Brandon Dursely

Chapter 28: Resuming of Term and the Stone

Harry tossed and turned on his bed, trying to sleep. It has been a month or so since classes started and his Professor told him to behave. He was still trying to get himself to tell Hermione about his problem and the Headmaster's insistence to not be called Harry Potter, but there was always something holding him back.

He knew that Harry Potter was a name that was too well known in this World, but Harry still wanted it. He still wanted to be called as that because it made him feel like he was free, and it was his. To be called as Harry would meant that he was honoring his real parents' death, but then again, Snape told him that to honor James and Lily, he had to live. He had to survive.

Survive? he wondered, survive from what? Was the end of the world coming?

But Snape only gave him a pointed look that says the conversation is done. Harry was to be Brandon Dursely for a while, as he had been when he entered Hogwarts. It didn't help that he had minimal time with his guardian, and sometimes, he would assign detention to himself just to have some time with Snape, but it seems the man was more than busy with something.

"Bran? Bran! You awake?" Harry scrambled as he tried to decipher who was whispering near him. Just then, he saw Draco, whose blonde hair was glinting along the dimmed lights of their dorm. What was he doing awake?

"Draco? Is that you?"

"Yeah," he said. Harry then saw Draco trying to reach up the window, and Harry was surprised to see a black owl, so black it almost blended in the night, "I think its for you."

Harry's brows furrowed. But Draco was already tiptoeing to him, the parcel in hand. Harry saw his name, Brandon Dursely, on the parcel. He held it in wonder. Who sent it? Why did that person sent it at the dead of the night?

He looked at Draco with questioning eyes. Draco looked back, his icy blue eyes looking almost like Winter, "I don't know. I just woke up to its tapping."

Draco woke up to its tapping? Harry was awake the whole time! Why wouldn't he hear it? Harry glared at his friend, "Stop lying, Draco. I've been awake for a long time now. I haven't slept a wink."

Draco gave a smirk in return, "Alright, you got me, then. I was looking at the sky."

Harry looked at him, more intently this time, "Is this about your Constellations again? Quit lying. I told you, I hate it when you lie."

Draco slumped his shoulders, "Why can't I get anything away from you? Why don't you just open that up?"

"I will, if you tell me the reason why you're awake."

Draco frowned at his friend, "Must I?"

Harry kept his eyes firm on Draco's, "Just tell me what it is that's bugging you, please."

"Fine," Draco sighed, "but promise me you won't tell. Even to your girlfriend."

Harry frowned, "'Mione's not my girlfriend!"

"Your future one then. Why don't we continue this at the Common Room? No one will be awake at this hour. It's almost morning."

Harry followed his friend. At the Common Room, he found Draco trying his hardest to lit up a fire, "Don't you know how to start one?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "By the Wizarding Way, not the Muggle way. And do not look at me like that, Dursely. I wasn't raised like you."

"Hey! I am not judging you or anything. I was just asking, Malfoy! Where's your wand, anyway?"

"Upstairs," Draco shrugged, "Ugh! How do you get this bloody thing to work?!"

"You don't. You do the work. Here, let me," Harry then crouched down to where Draco was and started a fire in less than ten minutes.