Draco shivered at the look on Harry's face, but nodded slowly. "If there's… anything you need…." Draco hesitated, he was uncertain how to offer aid and once again the look and air of menace that was on Harry's face had him shivering.
Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Go to bed Malfoy. Thank you for the warning. I will see you in the morning."
Draco frowned and hesitated before nodding slowly. "Okay, let me know if you need anything. Worse comes to worst I can always be your alibi. I'll see you tomorrow morning bright and early." Draco hesitated and then scowled. "Don't forget to ward your door. They might come after you as well. In fact, I'd wager on it."
Harry nodded slowly, a smirk crossing his face. "It won't be a problem, but thank you for the warning. As I said, I'll wake you in the morning if you're not up and ready to go by 4:30."
Draco shook his head a little bit, "I'll be up. I… don't sleep well right now. Since I got here."
Harry nodded once. That was one thing he could sympathize with. He didn't often get much sleep himself, so he had learned to go on minimal. But he did leave Draco with a parting shot. "If you're not up, I'll meet you in your room at 4:30 sharp."
Draco hesitated and then shook his head, and headed towards the door to make his way toward his own room, determined to set up a ward scheme that Potter wouldn't be able to get through.
Unbeknownst to both of them. Someone had heard every word the two had just said.
After Draco left, Harry shut the door with a flick of his hand. He took a breath and then slumped leaning back against the door. He was tired. And it wasn't a physical or magical tiredness. He was just weary. The entire day had been a lot more emotionally draining than he expected. And now the sorting hat, or the founders, or the castle itself seemed to be laying more expectations at his feet, when all he wanted to do was finish his damn job.
It had been harder than he thought. Being here again. He had deliberately kept his focus on the area immediately around him and that was just because he was trying to make sure he didn't fall under attack. Harry had done everything he could not to look to all the familiar faces he remembered. He did his best to avoid even glancing toward Gryffindor's table, sure he would see the red-headed forms of the Weasley's.
The fact that every death in that family save for Percy's could be traced to him, still weighed on Harry. He was determined not to look out and see those faces, specifically Ginny and the twins, though he had already failed by seeing Ron's face right after his sorting. Harry still shuddered when he remembered the look on Molly Weasley's face when she had been told of the death of the twins. Harry was thankful for the very small mercy that Molly had died before Ron or Ginny. He was certain their deaths would have completely broken the woman. It was the same with Ravenclaw, apparently Hermione was there and Harry definitely wanted to avoid her as well. Harry never had gotten the nerve up to go to Australia and restore the memories to Hermione's parents. Once she had died, Harry had kept putting it off, telling himself that he would do it after Voldemort was dead. But he could never really bring himself to put any more than idle thought into it. Bringing back a couple's memories of their daughter, only to tell them that she had died, and he was at fault.
Harry shook his head. He knew he couldn't avoid every familiar face forever. But he still hoped to minimize it. Harry had slipped only twice during the evening. The first had been when he glanced at Lily Potter. Harry refused to think of her as his mother, because then that just made things harder. But he had avoided meeting her eyes for long and he had braced himself for that. Harry knew from reading the papers that she taught muggle studies here. Harry knew he wasn't taking that class so avoiding her wasn't likely to be a problem.
The other time was when he had looked at the Hufflepuff table and found Cedric, alive and smiling sitting there at the Hufflepuff table. The popular Cedric was among a good deal of friends. Harry only remembered that his was the first death his actions were responsible for.
Harry shook his head a little bit, shaking off the morose thoughts even as a somewhat amusing thought occurred to him. Malfoy of all people had been somewhat of a stabilizer during the day. Harry never thought that that was something that he would ever ponder. Malfoy's presence had thrown a wrench into Harry's plan. Now Harry had another life he was directly responsible for. Then again it seemed that Malfoy had realized where his path was headed. Of course that only happened after his death. But there were times Harry had doubted Malfoy had enough sense that he would be aware even then.
Harry ran his hands over his face, as he rested his head back against the frame of the door behind him. This had started out so simple. Relatively speaking. At least as simple as things were when they came to anything involving Harry.
Kill Voldemort once and for all.
Complicating things was pretty much par for the course when it came to anything involving Harry. A world in which he never existed. A world where alot of the people closest to his family seemed to live better lives because he hadn't existed. Now Harry hoped his mere presence didn't ruin that.
Now he had Draco Malfoy not just agreeing but volunteering to follow him. He had a hat making demands of him to fix an entire house. He was surrounded by faces of people that he had absolutely zero fond memories about.
Why him? Why was he expected to do all this stuff? Fix the whole damn world that was a mess not of his own making.
Harry sighed deeply once more before he shook his head firmly and straightened, pushing the feelings of tiredness and melancholy to the back corner of his mind with everything else he didn't want to dwell on. He was not going to stew on those emotions. What and how he was feeling wasn't important. And that's the way it would stay if he had anything to say about it. No need to linger on it.
He once more surveyed his room. "There was no use in complaining when you've got a job to do." And Harry had things he had to do. He turned to his room, and snapped his holly and phoenix feather wand into his hand.
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