Roommates (Drarry)

Chapter 2 - Potions and black cats

"We'd better get to the feast," Harry said quickly. "We can... work this out later."

Both hungry, they rushed to the great hall before either of them could register the fact that there was one double bed and no room on the floor.

They were told by Professor McGonagall that the four of them had a table to themselves if they wanted it, and all of them sat down at it, feeing awkward around the younger students they didn't know. The table, which could have sat about ten, was at the other end of the hall to the teachers' table, but Malfoy sat with the Ravenclaw girl with their backs to the teachers so as to give the four of them more space.

The feast was delicious as always and the eighth years trudged back up to their rooms, full and exhausted, and got ready for bed. Harry and Malfoy looked at the double bed.

"Well don't keep staring at it Potter." Snapped Malfoy. "We both know we don't have a choice. You keep to your side and I'll keep to mine."

With that, Malfoy strode over to the right side of the bed and got in, and Harry quickly got in the left side. He turned the lights out. Malfoy shifted but said nothing and Harry was soon asleep.

Harry awoke about 3am. Malfoy was thrashing in his sleep, muttering things. He screamed suddenly and rolled over to Harry's side of the bed. Harry, startled, reached out a hand and started to soothingly rub Draco's back. He relaxed and curled up into Harry's chest.

*Draco pov*
I curled up into Potter's chest. He didn't have to know that I was half-awake. I let myself calm, trying to forget the dream where the Dark Lord had been torturing me because he'd found out I was gay. I usually kept the light on to try and chase away the nightmares, but it rarely worked.

But as I curled up to Potter's chest, I felt safe. And as long as he didn't realise I was awake, I'd be able to sleep this time next to him.

I didn't have another nightmare that whole night.

*Harry/narrator pov (idk, how it was before dracos pov)*
Harry woke up with Draco still in his arms. Carefully, he got out of bed without waking him and got into his robes.

A black cat stalked into the room and leaped on Harry and Malfoy's bed. It started to rub against Malfoy's face, purring.

"Smokes, not now..." groaned a voice from under the covers. Malfoy sighed and sat up stroking the cat a little before getting out of bed.

"Morning, Potter." He said almost cheerfully, opening the wardrobe and taking out his Slytherin robes.

"Morning, Malfoy." Replied Harry, trying to conceal his surprise. "Um, nice cat."

Malfoy's ears went slightly pink. "Smokey likes to purr at me in the mornings to get me up. Otherwise she just, ah, helps me with spells. You grew up with muggles, so you wouldn't know, but they are very beneficial to, er, transfiguration."

Harry eyed the cat, who was now rubbing around Malfoy's legs. "Yes, yes." He was saying to her irritably. "I'm sure the kitchens have plenty of mice for you. Off you go."

It was strange to see Malfoy so affectionate about something. Harry knew Malfoy had a bad side too but all the same he felt bad for being so quick to dismiss him as a monster and an enemy.

"Well, are you going to stand there all day, Potter? I don't know about you but I'm hungry."

Harry followed Malfoy through the common room and down to the Great Hall for breakfast, and as usual the two of them sat as far away from each other as possible. But this time, the gap between them felt forced. Harry wasn't really sure how to describe it, but sitting away from Malfoy just didn't feel right. It was like it just cancelled out all the events of last night and sort of this morning as well. Harry reminded himself that Draco hadn't even been awake last night, so he obviously didn't remember it. But still, he liked to think they'd reached a sort of truce this morning, and it was a bit hurtful to see that Draco was still avoiding him like the plague when he could.

Harry made his way gloomily down to the dungeons for Potions. Snape was considerably more shaken this year, and had lost some of his sneer and loathing of the Gryffindors, but his classes were still very strict.

All four eighth-year students were taking NEWTs in Potions and Charms. Harry and Malfoy were also taking Transfiguration, whereas the Ravenclaw girl, Felicity, was taking Ancient Runes and the Hufflepuff girl, Susan, was taking Astronomy.

Snape's dungeon was emptier than usual, but there were about six other students who were seventh-years that hadn't fallen behind during the disastrous events of last year. Snape ordered them to pair up and to start preparing Felix Felicis from memory, and since Susan and Felicity were working together and the seventh-years were already in pairs, Harry and Draco ended up working together.

It didn't go too badly. Malfoy blamed Harry for adding too many Murtlap tentacles, but it seemed to work out fine in the end. They even had quite a lot of fun attempting to crush the Occamy eggshells enough to make them into a fine powder, flicking bits of thyme at each other when Snape wasn't looking. All in all, Harry was surprised to admit to himself that he was actually enjoying Malfoy's company. It seemed that he wasn't too bad when he wasn't around his snobbish Slytherin friends or his proud pure-blood parents.

At lunchtime a few weeks later, Harry noticed that Draco was now sitting opposite him, having swapped places with Felicity. (He didn't really think of him as Malfoy anymore. It was weird to call someone you shared a room with by their last name, and also, they were sort of friends now. Sort of.) Half term was quickly approaching and Draco would be going home to see his parents soon. Harry had been invited to spend the week with the Weasleys, but half term was a very short time and Harry had a lot of Potions homework to do. Just because Snape had almost died at the hands of Voldemort didn't mean he relaxed the homework load.

Harry made a rough plan for the week. He could go into Hogsmeade maybe, get started on the Transfiguration paper on Wednesday and practise his potion-making in the dungeons for half an hour every day which should improve his practical skills.

He sort of regretted turning the Weasleys down. A week on his own at Hogwarts wasn't going to be much fun.