who had told Harry about his parents in the land of the dead, giving him a tool with which to sharpen all his feelings of loss and rage and despair into a now-unbearable point. He had thought the gift of the Pensieve would help, but it hadn?t, since Harry couldn?t bear to use it. He was a fool to have thought of it in the first place.
He reached out, and gently touched the now-dry shoulder of Harrys dark cloak. 'Potter.' Harry didn?t move. 'Potter, I?m sorry. I — '
Harry fell off the chair and slid bonelessly to the ground.
'Oh, hell.' Draco was off his chair and kneeling down next to Harry in a flash. He put a hand on Harrys shoulder and rolled him over. He seemed unharmed, and blinked up at Draco with sleepy half-open emerald eyes.
'Harry? Harry, are you all right?'
'Fine, thank you, Professor,' said Harry, smiled, and shut his eyes.
'And one day I will remember why I let you drink so much.' Draco sighed and sat back on his heels. Only then did he realize that the whole bar was staring at them. Even the scantly clad waitresses were looking at them curiously. 'Come on, Harry, get up. No, don?t fall back down again. Yes, I know, gravity is a harsh mistress. But we have to learn to work with her.
Now come along…'
'Look, he?ll come back.' Ginny gave Hermiones hand a comforting squeeze. The two girls sat together just outside Hogwarts' great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps. Both were warmly wrapped in fur-lined cloaks: Hermiones dark blue, Ginnys pale gold. A few flakes of silvery snow were caught in Ginnys scarlet curls, and her dark eyes were wide and anxious as they fixed on her friend. 'You two hardly ever fight.'
'I know,' said Hermione, through a tight throat. 'Thats what makes it so awful.'
'Fighting all the time is worse by far, believe me,' said Ginny, and rolled her eyes. 'Draco and I — ' She broke off. Despite her miserable state, Hermione found her ears pricking with interest.
'Draco and you what?'
'Nothing,' said Ginny with an elegant shrug. Hermione studied Ginny out of the corner of her eye. Ginnys scarlet hair and gold cloak stood out like beacons against the snow. When students argued over who was the prettiest girl in school, it usually came down to an close choice between Blaise Zabini and Ginny. Ginny, in Hermiones opinion, was easily as pretty, but she didn?t try as hard as Blaise did. Hermione wondered for the hundredth time what had caused her rift with Draco. They had been quite close when they?d all returned to school in September, and then, quite suddenly and with no explanation, they were no longer speaking. In fact, unless it was at a Quidditch match, they seemed to try never to be within a hundred yards of each other.
Ron had been ecstatic. Hermione, although she tried to hide it, had also been pleased. And Harry had barely noticed that anything was happening at all.
Harry. Hermiones heart turned over, and she against raised her eyes to the dark tree line in the distance, searching for a familiar dark head and scarlet cloak…
Ginny saw them first. 'Look,' she said, and rose to her feet, her gold cloak swirling around her. Hermione squinted where Ginny was looking, but her eyesight wasn?t as sharp as the other girls: she saw only a vague dark approaching shape. Ginny sniffed. 'They?re back…might have known who he?d go running to.' She turned. 'I?m going back inside.'
Hermione caught at her hand. 'No. Wait.'
Ginny waited, reluctantly. The dark approaching shape resolved itself into a clearer figure. Hermione could now see that it was Draco, bareheaded, his silvery hair bright against the dark horizon. But he was not alone; he was carrying Harry, whose scarlet cloak stood out against the snow like a splash of blood.
Hermione was down the stairs in seconds. In the icy silence of the night the sound of her feet crushing the iced-over snow was like the sound of breaking glass. She reached Dracos side and almost barreled into him in her haste to get near Harry, 'What happened? Is he all right?'
'Hes fine.' Dracos eyes were shadowed, his lids touched with silver in the moonlight. 'He just drank too much, thats all.'
'Oh.' Hermione let her hands drop to her sides. She couldn?t look at Harrys sleeping face, he looked so vulnerable and so childlike in the icy light. She looked up at Draco instead. 'So he passed out?'
'Well, he woke up briefly, but he called me Professor, and then he demanded to be taken to Buckingham Palace because he was late for high tea with the Queen. When I didn't let him run for the train he became abusive, so I knocked him out and here we are.'
Hermione shook her head. 'With friends like you, who needs severe head injuries? I cannot believe you let him drink that much.'
Draco looked at her with big eyes.
She sighed. 'On the other hand, you did carry him all the way here.'
Draco shrugged. 'I couldn?t leave him on the floor of the.. ah… Three Broomsticks. I did a Legerus spell to make him lighter.'
'Did you now?' It was Ginny, who had come to stand behind Hermione.
She pointed her wand at the unconscious Harry. 'Finite incantatem,' she said.
There was a brief flash of light, and Draco stumbled forward and nearly lost his balance as his burden assumed its normal weight. Hermione reached forward and caught at Harry, and together with Draco she helped lower him to the snow-covered ground, where he made a faint sleepy noise, rolled over, and put his head on his arms.
Draco straightened up and looked at Ginny. His light eyes were flashing with rage. 'That was stupid, Weasley,' he said. 'I might have dropped him.'
'Like you care,' said Ginny, tossing her thick red curls. 'You could have done a Mobilicorpus spell on him and gotten him here. You didn?t need to carry him. You were just showing off to impress Hermione.'
Hermione stiffened in surprise. What had gotten into Ginny? She looked at Draco, almost afraid what she might see. His eyes were narrowed as he looked at Ginny, his mouth a thin hard line. 'What a rich and inventive fantasy life you lead, Weasley,' he said coldly. 'I can only assume that its because your ordinary life is so colorless and boring.'
'At least I have a life,' snapped Ginny.
'Right and it consists of waiting around outside school at two in the morning for other peoples boyfriends to show up, because you haven?t got your own.'
'You don?t have to prove how hateful you are,' Ginny said icily. 'I already know it.' And she turned on her heel and walked back up the stairs, yanking the heavy front doors open with venomous force before disappearing inside.
Hermione turned and looked at Draco. The angry look had disappeared from his face, and there was an odd light in his eyes. Without looking at her, he said, 'If you start asking me what happened between me and Ginny and telling me what a great couple we were, I will bury you up to your ears in snow.'
'Can I ask you how you can possibly stand dating Blaise Zabini instead?'
'Have I ever answered you when you asked me that?'
'No, but I thought tonight might be different.'
'It might, in fact, be the night your boyfriend freezes to death, unless you get him inside.' Draco looked pointedly down at Harry, who was still lying on the ground the with head pillowed on his arm. Hermione doubted he was in any danger of freezing, since he was lying on his cloak, which she had charmed with a Warming Spell back in October.
'He looks so cute,' she said.
'Debatable,' said Draco, and stepped back. 'But hes all yours now. Have a good night, and don?t let him throw up on you.'
'Aren?t you going to help me get him inside?' she asked.
'No,' said Draco. 'Get Weasley to help you.' She knew he meant Ron; even when he called Ginny 'Weasley'
