Confrontation


Kat Potter

Harry Potter, 28-year-old Savior of the wizarding world, war hero of the second war and current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor stormed through the halls of Hogwarts. Fucking prick, he thought angrily to himself. If he thinks he can bloody get away with this, then he really did get his brain fried. The person in question being cursed so colorfully was the current Transfiguration professor, one Draco Malfoy.

After Dumbledore had been killed, Snape had dragged Malfoy off into hiding, as per Dumbledore’s instructions. It turned out that the whole thing had been planned, what with the curse from Marvolo’s ring eating away at the old Headmaster and Snape’s loyalty being in question, it was the best solution they could come up with. So Snape immersed himself in the Death Eater life, while subtly sabotaging things where he was able. For almost a whole year, the whole Order had believed him to be a traitor and most likely would have killed him on sight, had he met any of them. However, while going through some of Albus’ things, a pensieve with conclusive evidence of Snape’s innocence forced the Order to forgive him. And so with his help from within the enemy ranks, Harry and the Order were able to vanquish the deranged madman who had tormented their world for so long.

So Snape was invited back to the side of the Light, grudgingly by some, if not most. Surprisingly, he took up his old post at Hogwarts as Potions Professor, adding Deputy Headmaster to his duties, as McGonagall had taken up Dumbledore’s old post. Harry, for his part, accepted this grudgingly, admitting that the Snape had only been playing his part in the chess game between the old Headmaster and the man formerly known as Tom Riddle. He himself had done some things that he wasn’t proud of in the name of saving the wizarding world and so in the name of peace he forgave the man. The same was not to be said of his feelings towards Draco Malfoy.

In Harry’s opinion, the man was a bloody coward, who didn’t deserve to be called a wizard. The only reason he hadn’t been thrown in Azkaban with the rest of the Death Eaters was because Snape had argued his case heatedly. According to Snape, the boy had been forced to do the things he did or face having his family murdered. Snape had claimed that the boy had been young and terrified and had made the mistake of not coming directly to Dumbledore for help, but it wasn’t right to punish the boy for his mistake forever. Harry said that Malfoy was just too much of a coward to perform an Unforgivable, or he’d have been dancing on Dumbledore’s grave with the other Death Eaters. Then again, many people said Harry had a blind spot when it came to Draco Malfoy, but Harry begged to differ.

However, Harry had not gotten his way and therefore Draco was not rotting in Azkaban, but had gotten the Transfiguration post, much to Harry’s annoyance. Working together for roughly eight years hadn’t done much to ease the friction between the two men. Draco constantly used his power of point taking to grate on Harry’s nerves, as he was Head of Gryffindor House and didn’t like Malfoy taking Snape’s example in that area. He usually tried ignoring these things but every now and then, he had enough and would then track the other Professor down and proceed to alternately bellow and curse the other man.

This time Harry had had enough when Malfoy had taken 15 points from poor Christopher Adams for having no taste in clothes. Harry liked the poor, muggleborn third year, he reminded him a bit of himself in that he was rather poor and had rather ratty clothes, and a bit of Neville Longbottom, in that he was rather shy and timid. Therefore, when Malfoy started picking on him, Harry decided to take it as a slur on his person and would predictably blow up whenever this happened.

He had reached the door that led to Malfoy’s rooms and proceeded to pound the door down.

“Malfoy!” he yelled, “Open the bloody door! We’re settling this right here, right now!”

He stood there for about ten minutes, until his hand was red and sore and his throat starting to get a bit raw. Suddenly the door was ripped open and Malfoy pushed his way past Harry, who stood gob-smacked for a moment before turning and following his fellow professor.

“Don’t you fucking walk away from me, Draco Malfoy. I’m not done with you.” He kept walking after Malfoy, who did likewise and didn’t seem to be hearing a word.

They continued this way for quite some time, going deeper into the bowels of the castle without realizing, Harry yelling at Malfoy and being ignored in return. Finally, Malfoy seemed to give up on the hope that Harry would give up and leave him alone if he was stubborn enough. Therefore, Harry was quite surprised when Malfoy suddenly stopped and turned around, and ended up plowing into him.

“Potter, you bloody oaf!” Malfoy spat at him as he pushed Harry off his person. “Cultured people such as myself do not appreciate being accosted in the hallways by uncivilized buffoons such as yourself.” He dusted himself off while glaring at Harry with a raised eyebrow.

Harry pulled himself together while glaring equally at Malfoy. “Yeah, well stopping in the middle of the bloody hallway when somebody’s following you isn’t the brightest thing to do, now is it?” he remarked with a smirk though it was quickly wiped off his face when he noticed that Malfoy was looking around the hallway with a frown on his face.

“Malfoy!” he snapped, “stop ignoring me!”

Malfoy turned his glare once again upon him and growled, “Shut the bloody hell up, Potter. Do you have any idea where we are?”

Harry snickered with an evil smirk on his face. “Is the ickle slytherin lost in the scawy dungeons?” He himself wasn’t worried; he knew the layout of the castle like the back of his hand.

Malfoy gave him a withering look, while crossing his arms across his chest. “For your information, I know every inch of the dungeons in this castle and I am telling you that I’ve never been here before.”

Malfoy watched Harry look around and could practically see it on his face when he came to the conclusion that he, too, had no idea where they were. Then, of course, he rounded Malfoy, steadily turning red with fury.

“Are you telling me that we’re fucking lost?!” he sputtered. “How bloody stupid can you be?!”

“Hey, I’m not the only one who walked down here, Potter. This is just as much your fault,” he retorted.

“Well, if you weren’t such an annoying slytherin, I wouldn’t have been following you around in the first place! Therefore, yes! It is your fault!” Harry practically bellowed at him.

Malfoy just glared at him for a few moments before saying, “Come on, Potter. We’ve got to find a way out of here.”

Harry stared at him as if he was stupid and crazy. “If you think I’m following you again, then you’ve lost your mind. Besides, that’s what got me in this mess in the first place.”

Malfoy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he retorted, “Potter, it’s beyond stupid to split up, so we are staying together and going to a way out of here.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Whatever, let’s go then.”

So they headed back they way they last came in silence. However, when they had been walking through the dungeons for about twenty minutes, they still had no clue as to where they were. It was Harry who was the one to break the silence between them.

“Malfoy,” he sighed, “I think we’re walking in circles. I swear we were walking through this same hall about five minutes ago.”

Draco turned and looked at him with a frown on his face. “I hate to say this, but I think you’re right, Potter.”

Harry rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “So what are we going to do?”

“Well,” replied Malfoy thoughtfully, “if this is where I think we are, there was another hallway a little further down. We could try going that way.”

“Ok,” Harry sighed, “I guess that’s a good a plan as any.”

So they headed on down the hall until they did indeed come to what looked like another hallway. So, they entered it, forgetting that all is not always what it seems when it comes to Hogwarts. As soon as they were inside they saw that what had looked like a hall was really a small room, not much bigger than a large cupboard really. Before they could turn back, they heard the door slam shut behind them. Harry ran to the door and frantically tried to open it but to no avail. However, he didn’t give up, using both magical and muggle means, but nothing worked.

“Potter,” Malfoy growled irritably, “it’s no use. The bloody door obviously isn’t going to open.”

Harry sighed and slid down the wall. He opted not to speak to Malfoy, knowing that they would only end up fighting again and he really didn’t feel up to it at the moment. Malfoy seemed to feel the same way, as he sat on the floor across from Harry with a blank look on his face.

After ten minutes, Harry was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable. He had never told anyone about this but his life spent living in a cupboard had scarred him in more ways than one. He was extremely claustrophobic. No one had ever noticed because the situation had never come up again at Hogwarts and he never felt the need to tell anyone about it. Of course, there was that one incident with Rita Skeeter and the interview in the cupboard, but his friends had chalked it up to him being uncomfortable with the interview and no one had been the wiser. Now Harry was afraid that his secret would finally be revealed and to his worst enemy. He had started fidgeting nervously and glancing around to make sure the walls weren’t any closer. Malfoy was sure to notice any minute and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Malfoy huffed irritably and asked, “What is your problem, Potter?”

Harry made a face as if the thought of him having a problem were completely moronic. “Nothing. Why would I have a problem with anything? That’s just bloody stupid.”

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at him. “Potter, you are fidgeting like a first year. Obviously you have a problem. What is it?”

Harry sighed and looked anywhere but at Malfoy. “…I…I don’t really like small spaces. They…make me uncomfortable.”

A strange look flashed across Draco’s face but it was gone before Harry could analyze what it was.

He sighed. “Potter, look, it’s ok that you’re claustrophobic. Crabbe is too and I’ll tell you that I had to deal with that a fair few times when we were students.”

Harry looked at Malfoy for the first time with no preconceptions. He felt the niggling of a feeling at the back of his brain that maybe Draco Malfoy wasn’t all that he seemed.

~*~

They had been sitting there for a couple of hours, mostly silent though they had made a few attempts at conversation that had been too disastrous. Harry though was getting more and more uncomfortable, and was getting his nails bitten really well at the moment.

“Potter?”

Harry’s eyes snapped over to meet Malfoy’s and they stared into each other’s eyes for a moment.

“Yeah?”

Draco took a deep breath. “Is there any particular reason you’re phobic?”

Harry looked down at his toes. “My…er, family used to lock me in the cupboard under the stairs when I was a kid. In the dark. After that, I just…don’t like small, cramped places.”

Malfoy’s face had twisted into disgust. “They actually…did that to you?”

Harry nodded.

“I mean…” Malfoy sighed. “I heard a bunch of rumors about how horrible they were to you but I thought they were just that. Rumors.”

Harry snorted. “Yeah, well…me too.”

After that, they didn’t speak for quite some time.

~*~

Harry had drifted off into a restless sleep, memories and nightmares, from the war and from his childhood mixing together into a horrific batch.

Harry was lying on his cot in his cupboard and Dudley was thundering up and down the stairs, only because he knew that it frightened his small cousin. Harry was always terrified that one day the stairs would give under the tremendous wait and would crush him. All of a sudden, Voldemort stood before him, as he had been at the final battle, except this time Harry was only a small boy, defenseless against the horrible monster before him. Before he could even scream, it cackled and he saw bright green light shooting towards him.

“Harry, wake up!”

Harry shot up and grabbed the nearest thing to him, sobbing.

“Please! Please, make it stop! Make it stop, I can’t take it anymore!” Harry sobbed into Draco’s shoulder, clutching him with a death grip. He couldn’t stop shaking.

Harry felt hands cup his face and force him to look into slate grey eyes.

“Hey,” shushed Draco softly. “Don’t worry. We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

“You promise?” Harry whispered, knowing deep inside he would hate himself for how weak he sounded.

“Yes,” whispered Draco back. “Promise.”

~*~

When Harry woke up, many hours later, he was mortified to discover that he had his arms wrapped tightly around Draco’s middle and had apparently been cuddling up to him in his sleep. He slowly untangled himself and sat up, only to look into the deeply amused eyes of his cudlee.

“Er…I hope this doesn’t mean that you think I’m into you.” Harry said, feeling a blush rising on his face.

Draco chuckled. “No, Potter, I don’t swing that way.”

Harry exhaled in relief. “Thank Merlin.”

Draco seemed to be considering something. “Potter…Harry. Do you think we could, maybe, do away with this stupid rivalry of ours?”

Harry stared into his eyes for a moment, trying to gauge if he was being serious or not. After moment, he nodded to himself. “Sure. It’s time we grew up.” He replied with a small quirk of the lips.

Draco stuck out his hand. “Friends?”

Harry stared at the hand with a strange feeling of déja-vu. Then he stuck out his own hand. “Friends.”

And as their hands met, the door swung open.

~Fin~