It’s almost Christmas now von Ryuuzaki (a drarry christmas.. developement) ================================================================================ Kapitel 8: December, 8th ------------------------ “-iously work, George wants them to go into production on Monday- ” “Pass the juice, please?” “- bloody amazing, that is! I mean, dragon sighting, who do you know who actually-” “Harry? Can you please pass the juice?” “- totally! It’s insane, especially with the Christmas bustle right now, but he’s crazy enough to make it actually-” It couldn’t be heard above the noise the students were making over dinner when the door to the Great Hall opened once more, but Harry, who’d kept it in sight from the corner of his eyes, immediately snapped his head up as soon as it got pushed in. He looked tense and hopeful for all of two seconds, until a group of Ravenclaw girls came in and his eyes fell dejectedly back to his plate. The green eyed man was so concentrated on keeping track of who entered and left the hall that he didn’t even hear a thing of the conversations his friends were having around him. Only when someone next to him shook his shoulder shortly, did he react with an irritated stare. “What?” Neville returned the stare with an insecure look of his own, thinking about changing his mind, but then got a grip and carried on with what he wanted to say. “Sorry if I interrupt anything important, but I can’t reach the juice. It’s next to your left elbow, do you mind passing it?” He pointed to the aforementioned jug of juice. Harry turned his head and looked at it blankly for a moment, since ‘juice’ wasn’t fitting within his thoughts at all right now. “Oh. Of course.” He passed it to Neville. “Thanks. Are you waiting for someone?” The other Gryffindor asked as he finally got to pour the juice into his mug and nearly spilled half of it when he looked at his friend instead of where the liquid went. Harry meanwhile had been distracted again by the opening door. “What?” The clumsy young man gave him a curious stare (after placing the jug safely down again). “Well… it’s just you’ve been looking up at least seven times in the last five minutes, whenever you saw someone come in…” He watched as Harry’s eyes flickered over the other house tables, then back to the door. “Oh? No, I’m not.” Neville looked doubtful, but shrugged and didn’t push the issue. Neville doubted his answer rightfully, since Harry was going crazy over not seeing Malfoy in the Hall. At breakfast, it had already occurred to him that he hasn’t seen the blond menace at meal times all week. But the guy had to eat some time, or he would collapse and that’s how Harry’s self-imposed mission started to pay very close attention to the eating habits of the elusive Slytherin. So far it hadn’t work, since the only time he’d seen him today was in the single Defence lesson and this time he didn’t have a chance to approach him since Professor Carbuncle already pulled the blond aside for a word, while the rest of the class practised or did nothing. He only noticed that Malfoy didn’t follow them to lunch. And now the Slytherin was missing at dinner as well. Harry remembered that on Monday, after the incident in the Entrance Hall Malfoy also strutted back to the dungeons instead of following the other students in the Great Hall, but he thought it was because he was upset and not that it was a regular occurrence. The ravenette had noticed that his former rival looked thin and pale, but he looked like that for two years now and Harry didn’t think anything of it, besides the obvious reasons. He’d lost a lot of weight in the past year too, but Mrs. Weasley took it upon herself to coddle him up again as soon as she had the chance. Malfoy could use a Mrs. Weasley – made meal as well, Harry thought, the corners of his mouth etching up slightly. But as he still saw no distinctive white-blond hair at the Slytherin table something terribly similar to worry gnawed at his stomach. Malfoy wasn’t trying to starve himself, was he? The pale eighteen year old went through a lot and still had to put up with more shit with a father in Azkaban, his family name slaughtered regularly in the newspapers and the way his fellow students acted towards him. The worry got joined by anger when Harry thought about it. It was a topic he regularly got pissed off about, since some people seemed to have learned nothing from the war. Harry frowned. He couldn’t believe that Malfoy would be giving up on himself. He was a Slytherin after all and they always had their own best interests in mind. At least he hoped Malfoy wasn’t giving up. The doors opened once again, this time because students left the hall. And as Malfoy still failed to show up when his friends started to gather their things and nudged him to come with them, Harry resolved he’d personally shove food down Malfoy’s throat the next time he saw him, if he found out the blond wasn’t properly taking care of himself. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)