Sep 12 2008
Waiting on the Rain
Title: Waiting on the Rain
Author: dorrie6
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Harry, Draco
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The characters and universe presented in this story belong to JK Rowling.
Note: Originally posted 9/21/04 for xnera.
*****
Waiting on the Rain
It rained a lot that summer, after he’d lost Sirius. Harry would stand in the yard, hair dripping, the cool rain streaming over his face and down his chest, plastering his clothes to his body. He’d stay until he’d forgotten everything but cold and wet, and the world was hidden safely behind rain-streaked lenses.
When he returned to Hogwarts, it closed in on him, all the color and noise and the comfortable warmth. It crawled through his skin and moved toward his heart, threatening to wake it, to make him remember everything. The night it finally rained, he ran out, desperate, hardly caring if he was seen.
He ran blind toward the lake, tripping over rocks. When he hit something hard, he wasn’t surprised. When it pushed him back, he was.
He squinted through the twisted shapes formed by water, focusing vaguely on something small and pale. Harry pulled off his glasses, rubbing them with his already soaked shirt. When he put them back on, he caught a glimpse of Malfoy’s empty eyes before they covered over with rain again.
*****
They stood.
*****
Harry wondered about Malfoy. Why he was standing in the rain. How he got out after hours. If he’d always been so thin. Why he hadn’t hexed him yet.
In the end he said, “Malfoy?”
The blurred shape of Malfoy started to step forward and stopped.
“Get stuffed, Potter.”
It moved away, quickly, back toward the castle. Harry watched until he realized that the light-colored shape he was focused on was no longer Malfoy, but a lantern burning softly at the castle’s entrance.
*****
In the morning, he heard shouting from the Great Hall before he’d even reached the doors. At the table, Hermione held out a copy of the Daily Prophet, her mouth pinched tight. “Death Eaters Escape Azkaban!” the headline read. The sneering face of Lucius Malfoy was the first on the page. Harry’s eyes flew to the nearly empty Slytherin table.
“They say he was seen in Hogsmeade last night. They couldn’t track him in the rain,” Hermione said, her voice hushed. “They say he came to get Draco out of Hogwarts, but I haven’t-”
“He did.” Harry stared at the picture in front of him.
“He did?” Hermione asked. “Harry, what do you mean?” He didn’t answer. She tugged at his arm. “Harry?”
He looked up at her. “He didn’t go.”
*****
Later, Harry waited in the dark, enveloped securely by fog and streaming rain. When something small and pale turned up nearby, he wasn’t surprised.
“Potter,” it said, low and even.
*****
They stood.