Book Four Chapter Eighteen: Absent Again

"Longbottom?"

"Here,"

"Granger,"

"Present,"

"Weasley,"

"Here,"

"Potter," A silence, pause in their daily routine caused McGonagall to look up for the first time since class started. "Potter?"

No one answered, several students instead surveying the classroom warily. Whispers bubbled and gained in volume, a small cacophony of worried and excited gossip whirled before McGonagall smacked a heavy volume down on her wood desk, hard. The sound startled them all back into a guilty silence.

"I take it that no one knows where Potter is?" Again, no one could answer, so she placed her book aside and breathed out softly. Then she resumed, picking up her wand and beginning the lecture.

"Today we will focus on turning a rock into a feather, then into a mortar and pestle…"

Hermione and Ron exchanged concerned, unsure glances, holding hands tightly under the desk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry pulled Draco down again, melding their mouths together. Draco tightened his embrace around Harry's upper back and sucked Harry's tongue before massaging it with his own. He ground his hips down as Harry arched, moaning and biting Draco's lip in retaliation for the sudden move.

They had abandoned training, lying themselves down on a spread cape that Harry had hurriedly tugged off. It had all started with a knowing glance, both wizards adrenalin levels spiking in the Hall before class. Most times, it seemed they no longer needed to speak to each other. They had skipped class simultaneously without exchanging more than that single look.

In fact, they had been skipping classes so often that Dumbledore had most of their Professors come knocking at his office door to complain. The Headmaster merely smiled wistfully, explaining without conferring with them that the 'two students in question' were undergoing a special training at his behest, and that he could assure their progression in advanced classes would not be impeded. It was that statement that had McGonagall demanding a demonstration in light of all their absences to show what exactly they were learning.

After a small dispute (maybe a little too small on Dumbledore's part) they had been persuaded (forced) to agree to a Wizard's Duel with one another.

And that was what they were supposed to have been practicing for, but they couldn't ignore the heated gazes and accidental-purposeful touching…it was torture trying to leash themselves and hold back.

So, after almost an hour of non-stop punishing, excessively brutal sparring, they found themselves on the ground, with Harry allowing Draco to pin him down. It wasn't long before they began a very similar, but still very different battle. In many ways, nothing had changed. They were still so violent with each other, but now they enjoyed, flourished under the pressure of one another's challenges.

Which was why they knew, even without practice, that displaying their newer abilities would not be difficult – in fact, it would be child's play. Maybe that shared look in the Hall was a catalyst for this instead of some undecided form of sparring…

But Harry wasn't thinking about that, not while Draco held him so possessively, so forcefully, claiming his mouth and skin and spirit. Draco was the only thing in his mind, and when a pause came for breath, he pulled back further to rest his head on the ground. Draco looked down at him questioningly, with dark eyes.

"After…" Harry breathed out slowly, "After all this, will you come with me?"

The blond was hit with the memory of a similar invitation given when they had been in the Diablo world, merely nights before they fought with the annoying, gigantic monster. He had answered then, but he considered what would happen if he did not allow himself to follow Harry, since the raven was giving him a chance to back out now that they had returned. Draco wasn't sure how long he could fool his family; survive under his father's thumb and the added weight of his mother's worry.

How long would it be until Voldemort asked him to take the Dark Mark?

In a way, in a cynical and dark place in his mind, Draco was glad for his father's disposition, his obsession with pride, family, and self-assurance of privilege. His mother did anything and everything is father said. It made this so much easier. What was there to lose, since he had no family to think about?

"I'm not sure," Draco pretended to contemplate, his mocking attitude a stark contrast to his harsh thoughts. "Leaving you to your own devices is never a good idea…" He smirked, not even flinching when Harry smacked his arm.

"Come off it," Harry warned, but shared the same expression. "I'll take that as a yes…"

Draco simply nodded, then kissed him senseless once more. Harry slid his hands up, deftly clasping the chain of the completed amulet around Draco's neck, sealing the deal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Grand Hall was crowded and loud surrounding the two table risers that the duel was to take place on. Word had gotten out about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy's rematch in the morning, only a few hours before. Hogwarts had been in state of near chaos ever since, everyone wanted to see the epic battle between the metaphorical Princes of Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Harry and Draco had yet to enter the Hall, waiting for Dumbledore or one of the other Professors to announce them. It was almost like a public execution with all the mud-slinging and the aggressively-charged atmosphere instead of a simply Wizard's Duel. Then again, maybe the excitement was lost on them both because of how safe the Duel was in comparison to all they had faced in the four worlds.

In other words, Draco thought to himself, The students here need to get lives.

It almost pained him to think of how similar he had been to all those out there, mindlessly grasping at the chance of fame and notoriety and adoration from all the others who were so 'below' him. He knew he was the one who had changed the most from the trials of the amulet, the one who had gained the most. Draco may have taught Harry a thing or two about underestimating people, but Harry had taught him about everything else. His fingers unconsciously caressed the amulet.

For Harry, all the wizards and witches waiting beyond the doors were just as fickle and meaningless as they had been before. He found himself longing for the summer more and more as the weeks wore on, knowing his only redemption from this most tiresome world would be in solitude. The only moments of reprieve came from Draco and his friends, but his friends had even been weighing on him lately.

"We hardly ever see you anymore Harry," Hermione had said the day before, and Harry had just smiled back and said that he thought she and Ron would appreciate the space. Hermione couldn't control her blush enough to counter that.

The subject had been mercifully dropped, but he wondered just how long before it would be examined again, possibly bringing to life one of his worst fears: the time lost in the amulet. Ron had tried several times to goad him into telling them about his adventures with 'that annoying ponce', but Harry had shut him down as effectively and politely as he could. He knew his friends had so many questions for him, but Harry himself didn't know the answers. Had he changed? That much was obvious. Was it for the better or the worse?

He was still debating with himself on that one.

But he knew that he had been pulling away from Ron and Hermione, however unintentionally. It was all building up and morphing the situation between friends into something unrecognizable, and it would eventually come to a head. Harry knew he had the loyalty and compassion from them both, it had been tested so many times, but he often wondered if their friendship was about to be pushed to their limits…

"Will Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy please come forward?" Dumbledore announced them, and the two boys opened the doors and walked together into the crowd. The masses parted like receding tides on either side of them, forming a pathway closed off by bodies dressed in black. They made it to the riser and stepped up, facing the Professors sitting on the opposite end of the room behind their large table. Dumbledore waited until the bustling crowds rearranged themselves so that everyone had a clear view and then quieted down.

"This will be a demonstration of the abilities that Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter have learned in their time apart from us. As such, they will not follow the exact rules of a Wizard's Duel, and only stop when I say so. At the end, there will be a meeting with myself and the rest of the Professors as to the nature of your future schooling. Now, prepare yourselves and make your way to the opposite ends of the platform,"

Harry and Draco nodded to him, then turned away from each other and walked to their places. The students below them were thrumming with tension, and there were a few shouts of praise and violent encouragement from several individuals.

Draco turned to face Harry again, smirking and deciding to play up their act, "Ready to lose, Potter?" he yelled.

"You wish." Harry smiled devilishly back, "You couldn't beat me the last time,"

"Neither could you - We didn't even finish." Draco rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "It's different this time,"

"'Course," Harry replied, "This time there won't be any question who wins,"

And then he started the battle with a fireball heading directly for Draco's chest. Draco deflected it as the crowd drew a collective gasp of shock. No one had known that Harry and Draco could use wandless magic. Everyone except for Hermione and Ron, and they were surprised at the level of magic being deployed by both parties and how dangerous it was…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the end, they made such a big mess that they and four other sixth years had to stay behind to clean up and repair the burnt, cracked walls and broken furniture. Niether had won, persay, but the battle had been something magnificent - it would be the talk of Hogwarts for months to come. Harry and Draco had been approached by many students after Dumbledore called a stop once a piece of the stone ceiling was broken off and almost fell on some of the students (how they managed to miss that badly was both and neither of their faults, as they both had blocked one another at exactly the right – err – wrong moment…)

Even though the damage had been such a disaster, the goal of the Duel was at least reached. None of the Professors claimed that Draco or Harry needed any further study, and actually encouraged excluded training from the rest of the students instead of coming to class (except Snape, whom had seen not one ounce of Potions aptitude in their 'little performance' as he called it.) So, with the exception of Potions and Care of Magical Creatures classes, they had nothing on their schedule except training and studying whatever else Dumbledore would assign them to work on.

It was a pretty good trade off, they had to admit. Most classes that dealt with any wand magic were too novice for them at their current level. This realization made Harry smile: he knew that he had not been a very apt and magic oriented Wizard before the plunge into the amulet's worlds, but now he was probably capable of teaching the classes he had been doing poorly in not four weeks (Hogwarts time) ago. This new agreement of study also meant that they didn't have to interact with the other students nearly as much, and that was a welcome reprieve. Harry hardly saw the point in chatting with anyone who wasn't Hermione, Ron, or Draco anymore. It would have made him sad that he had so few friends at Hogwarts anymore, except that he wouldn't have traded them for anything else in the world.

And with the way Draco would look at him sometimes, he knew that the blond probably felt the same.

He couldn't wait for the four weeks to pass and summer break to come.