Please Be There If I Remember

Chapter Eleven: Concern

The mediwitch looked at him sideways, like she was calculating something and turned back to Malfoy with a swish of her wand.

"I am not sure what time he will awake, Mr. Potter. But, if it is really important to you, I shall get McGonagall to fetch you when he does."

"Ok. Uh, thanks again. Bye," Harry said quickly and basically ran out of the room before his damn emotions could betray him any further.

He could have sworn he felt the witch smile fondly at him from the hospital wing.

Taking the steps up to Gryffindor tower two at a time to try and get rid of his nerves, Harry all but burst into the common room before calming himself slightly and entered in a more calm manner. His mind had played over the conversation he had with Theo when Malfoy had entered the hospital wing and Harry watched them talk before Draco was walking through the closed doors. He had been trying to talk to Malfoy since yesterday, but the boy disregarded any attempts that he made. Harry doubted he even noticed it when he had called his name after that first defence class where he had taken his spot.

He had then ploughed through the halls towards the hospital wing, hoping to be able to finally talk to him, up to where Theo was standing. He had startled at the sudden presence behind him and took one look at Harry's face and instantly narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"What do you want, Potter?"

Harry took on a look of contemplation as he regarded whether or not to tell Theo the truth. After a moment he decided on the former and spoke up. "I wanted to talk to Malfoy about something."

"And you think I'm just going to let you walk in there and harass him after the past few days he had? Ya, not happening Potter."

"Please I just—"

"No."

Harry frowned and glared at him. "And who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?"

"I'm not telling you to do anything. I am stopping you from talking to my best friend. Learn the difference," Theo sneered.

"And what if I say no?"

"Then that's your problem—not mine."

"But—"

"Goodbye Potter."

Harry put his hands on his hips and glared at Theo with as much strength as he could muster, bringing out all the hate that was churning in his gut and putting it on his face.

"If you think that's going to work, then you are more delusional than I thought you were." Theo put on a clearly exaggerated thinking face, "And that's saying a lot."

Harry seemed to visibly deflate; his shoulders hunching over themselves and his hands flopping down to his sides.

"I know, I just— I wanted to talk to him, is all," he finally said with a shrug.

Theo peered at him with a raised eyebrow like he was trying to figure him out and he might be able to do that if he stared at him hard enough.

"Do you promise to be civil?" He said, after a long pause of silence.

Harry perked up and the puppy-dog-eyed look that he was giving Theo vanished in a second, turning into barely restrained eagerness.

"Yep. Cross my heart and hope to die and all that shite," Harry said with a small chuckle, attempting to diffuse the tension that was crackling in the air. Theo sighed and started to walk away but Harry stopped him quickly, saying, "Oh, by the way, thanks Theo."

The boy turned around with a glare and warning in his eyes like the last thing he wanted was to be thanked, and walked briskly away.

Slytherins, Harry thought on instinct, with a small shake of his head.

He had turned to the closed door and waited for Draco to finish whatever was happening inside the hospital wing.

Now here he was, calming his eradicated breathing from running there and speaking the password to get inside Gryffindor Tower to wait for Professor McGonagall.

When he strolled into the common room both Ron and Hermione who were sitting on the maroon couch near the fireplace brought their heads up from where they were talking and focused on Harry.

He had gotten distracted slightly when he walked in—as he always did when he strode into the Gryffindor common room. He loved the way the fireplace in the corner made the room feel like a warm hug; how the colours reminded him of the burrow where Weasleys would prance around the house, filling it with the noise of a loving family—one that Harry used to dream of having when he was stuck in his cupboard alone at night; how, whenever he walked in it, people would be there chatting away or doing homework and Harry could sit by the window in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep if the nightmares became too much and watch the quidditch pitch below him and stare dreamily at the night sky.

He got a reign in on his thoughts again when Ron asked, "Where have you been mate? Me and Hermione started to get worried."

Harry knew they were mostly empty words—he usually stayed late after class to wander around the halls so he could think about the DA and the haunting image of that door he saw almost every night now. He just smiled and turned to his two best friends.

"Just wandering around. You know, the usual."

"Is that why you're out of breath?" Hermione questioned with a strange glint in her eye like she knew that something was up.

Harry felt his ears pink and turned away from her knowing stare. "Ya, I just went for a little...jog, you know?'

"Jogging?" Ron asked. "I'd take flying a broom over running any day. But whatever floats your boat, I guess," He said with a shrug.

Harry loved it when Ron just accepted random things about him that weren't 'normal' per se—like going for a run in the middle of November as if it wasn't absolutely freezing outside. He smiled at his friend and sat down beside the two on the couch.

"About Quidditch..."

They chatted away the rest of the night and Harry had almost forgotten about the way Malfoy's face had turned into panic when he started to tip towards the ground.