you're not going to help, then fuck off. I'm not wasting more time explaining this situation again. I won't have her distracting me from what I need to do."
"Oh, I understand the situation! But I think you need to sort out what she means to you before you go on this quest, because if you succeed, you're not going to be the same when you come back. And it might be helpful for her to know how long she has to wait for you."
"She doesn't have to do a bloody thing." Draco hissed.
There was something in Draco's eyes that made Harry's blood run cold. Quite suddenly, Harry recognised Draco' s motives, because they also happened to be Harry' s motives. It wasn't a case of 'when' he was coming back. 'If' was more to the point.
"You don't think you'll be coming back, is that it?" Harry asked, with undisguised amazement at his epiphany.
"This conversation is over," Draco announced and then turned his broom around to leave.
Harry darted forward to block him. "I know what you' re thinking. What the hell do I know, right? My own love life's a mess."
"If you mean that business with Alice Crowley from Hufflepuff earlier in the month, then that's something of an understatement, Potter."
Harry flushed. He took hold of Draco's broom handle when it looked like the other boy would take off. "Look, I'm in love with Ginny. But to be with her would expose her to the type of life I'm thinking you don't wish for Hermione. I'm not made of stone, however. Alice didn't have any expectations from our relationship, however brief and uneventful that it was. It would have been safe for me to be with her, you see."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Draco whispered.
"Because I've just realised you're not the completely selfish bastard I thought you were." Harry paused for effect before continuing. "And I think you need to realise it too."
Harry was convinced then, that he was going to be insulted, ridiculed and scoffed at. None of these things happened. Malfoy had no ammunition.
"If you care for her, keep her away from me," a frowning Draco told Harry, without looking at him.
And then he left.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Goyle stood at the head of the dungeon corridor and suffered through an attack of second thoughts.
He was not supposed to be there. In fact, he was supposed to be three floors above, eradicating a nest of doxies that had taken up residence in a rafter and had so far been hurling suspect 'debris' at any one who happened to walk into the room.
That was in addition to biting, which was arguably the more usual doxy pastime.
They were in the north of Wales, in the remains of some old Roman fort and some later wizard-lordling's attempt at a castle. A magical castle, of course. Blaise had not revealed to Goyle the exact location of the Death Eater barracks until they had arrived via Portkey from Hogwarts, just after sunrise on Sunday morning.
There was a particular tree in the Dark Forest, located ten minutes outside of the Anti-Apparition Boundary that protected Hogwarts Castle. The funny thing was that Goyle would have walked right past the rowan, not noticing that there was anything even there to gawk at, had Blaise not stopped him and pointed it out.
"Beautiful, isn't she?"
The tree was the fucking creepiest thing he had ever seen in his life.
After that, it was impossible to not notice the rowan. It sat there, almost throbbing with dark magic and ill-begotten vitality. On a lower branch, there hung a hammered iron chain with a gold coin attached to it.
Blaise had grinned and explained that the coin was their Portkey to the barracks.
Ah, so that was how Blaise had been travelling back and forth with such apparent ease.
The 'barracks', or so Blaise called it, looked a bit sad to be honest. Goyle inquired as to how Voldemort had found the place. Rumour had it that Tom Riddle had accidentally walked right smack into the eastern wall of the old castle one summer's day in the mid 1960s, when the building's aging, original Concealment Charms finally gave way, revealing a dilapidated, but potentially useful hideout.
There were fourteen rooms at the barracks, spread across three floors. The structure might have fallen down years ago if it weren't mostly made of stone. Oh, the walls were crumbling in some areas and there was still a gaping, man-sized hold in the dining hall, but this was the type