Let's Help Each Other (drarry)(eighth year)

Chapter 3

Harry and Malfoy walked out of the Headmasters office, and headed towards the Hospital Wing. Malfoy's arm had been getting worse minute by minute. It was now completely black and purple and very swollen. It was throbbing and he stared to feel lightheaded.

"Um..Malfoy?" asked Harry "are you alright?" He had begun swaying and staggering.

"Dizzy," was all Malfoy had managed to say before he hit the ground. Hard. Harry started to panic. He looked around for someone to help him, but no one was to be seen. They were, after all, supposed to be asleep, as it was very late in the night. Harry cast a quick feather weight charm on Malfoy and picked him up. He grabbed Malfoy's hand and put it around his own shoulder and put his other arm around Malfoy's waist, blushing profusely at the contact, very grateful that at the moment the other boy was unconscious. He half-carried, half-dragged Malfoy the rest of the way to the Hospital Wing.

When he got there, he pushed the large Hospital doors open, and walked along the long row of beds until he got to one in the middle of the row, away from everyone else. He laid Malfoy down and ran off to get Pomfrey. He ran to her office and was about to knock when Madame Pomfrey opened the door and almost ran right into him. "Goodness Gracious, Potter! What do you think you are doing?"

"Malfoy.....there.....hurt....arm," Harry panted, completely out of breath from dragging Malfoy all the way here. Even with the lightening charm, Malfoy had still been fairly heavy.

"Oh, my, Potter. What have you done now?"

"Nothing!" Harry insisted, before realizing that Malfoy's broken arm had indeed been his fault. A look of guilt spread across his face and very quietly he muttered, "well, actually, we kinda got into a fight and-"

But the school's nurse didn't listen to the rest. She just huffed and muttered "honestly, Potter" before running off to tend to her patient.

Harry slowly walked over to where Malfoy was, thinking about whether he should stay or not. He had caused Malfoy's injury, he should at least stay to make sure he's alright, right? But, thought Harry, when do I even care in the first place if Malfoy's all right? Sure, they had agreed to be friends, but it wasn't friends friends, it was more like just agreeing to stand each other and not hex each other into oblivion every night. Surely, he didn't have to stay in the hospital wing just to make sure Malfoy was going to be ok?

Luckily, Harry didn't have to decide what to do about Malfoy because as soon as he got to his bed, Pomfrey shooed him away. "Off you go, Potter. I can take care of Mr Malfoy on my own and I sure don't need you here causing him any more discomfort." Madam Pomfrey turned to him and cast a quick charm, making his busted lip and other injuries vanish. Then she practically shoved him out the door.

Harry stood dejectedly outside the Hospital Wing for a long time before he finally decided to go to bed. He had no idea why, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave Malfoy. Slowly, Harry walked towards the eighth year common room and whispered the password. He walked up the stairs and threw himself into his bed, not even noticing how his room was completely back to normal. Harry tossed and turned, feeling a slight, very confusing, pain in his chest when he looked over and saw Malfoy's empty bed. He cast a Tempus charm and saw it was 1:48 in the morning. Suddenly realizing how exhausted he was, Harry fell into a deep sleep.

Only a few hours later, Harry woke up, still feeling utterly exhausted. Harry dressed himself and dragged himself downstairs. He met Ron and Hermione in the common room.

"Oi, mate, you look terrible," Ron said when he spotted Harry.

"Thanks," Harry responded, in a deadpan voice.

"Harry," asked Hermione "are you alright?"

Was he alright? Harry didn't even know the answer to that question. Only a day ago, when he had first gotten to Hogwarts, he had been positively happy. He was actually overjoyed at returning to the one place that he had ever been able to call home. But for some reason, when he stepped into the building, seeing the place where so many people had died, all because of him, and seeing how happy everyone else seemed to be, and how happy Hermione and Ron were together..... he didn't really know. He had no idea what had changed in less than 24 hours but suddenly Hogwarts didn't seem like home anymore and he felt so distant from Ron and Hermione. He felt, sad, angry, depressed, and at the same time, felt nothing at all. But overall he just felt so alone.