Life could have been better. But then again, Harry supposed it could have been much, much worse.
True, he had to forget his dream of becoming an Auror.
True, he had been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.
And true, he still had to sort his shit out, find a new goal for his life. He had always been task-oriented and he needed to follow a direction.
Yet, he didn't have to care about money.
He had a family who was trying to support him.
And after his failure with West Point, he had enrolled in college, even if it was two years later than usual.
It was always better to focus on the positive aspects of one's life, but the eagle with a rifle inked on his skin, and the two rounds of meds he had to take each day, were a constant reminder that life was not peachy as he would have liked to believe.
Harry had started college almost five months ago, deciding that; fuck it, the Ministry didn't want him? He was going to follow them anyway. He could no longer be an auror, but he could still get to the front lines of battle as a war reporter. His family was not happy with his decision, too many triggers for him on a job like that, but Harry wanted at least to try. At least in the next four years he could come to understand himself, what he was capable of, and what his limits were.
London was cold as fuck in December but he didn't really mind. Actually, breathing the chilly air and feeling his face freezing was a nicer sensation than being suffocated inside a class full of students.
He walked through the Hogwarts campus, swinging a left, then right, and opening the door where his potions class would be starting in a few minutes. He looked around and noticed two waving hands on the left wing. Harry smiled at the two guys when he took the seat next to them.
"Thanks for saving me a seat," he murmured as he pulled his notebook out of his bag.
"Yeah we didn't want your perfect ass too far from us," replied Seamus, the blonde closest to him, in his usual flirty tone. "By the way, you look gorgeous in that shirt."
Seamus softly touched Harry's clothed chest, causing him to roll his eyes. Sometimes he found Seamus too gay for his own taste, but he was a good friend. The other guy, Dean, was too. Except for those death glares he would send in Harry's direction whenever Seamus was flirting with him. Like now .
"Hey," Dean just said in greeting. Harry replied in the same manner
The professor entered the room, walking towards the blackboard. His brown eyes glanced up and found Harry's, before moving them to assess the whole class. Nobody was paying attention to him. As usual.
"Ok, guys. The lesson is starting…" began Snape.
Nothing. The chattering of the student body continued.
"I would really appreciated if once you could just be silent…"
Nope.
"C'mon… Not every time!"
A loud whistle caused the much desired silence. But it wasn't Professor Snape who had emitted the piercing sound. The whistle came from the left wing, and the professor turned his face to find Harry winking at him.
The professor coughed hastily to cover his dumb smile and, now the center of the attention, started his lesson.
The professor was putting his papers back in his briefcase so slowly, that if someone actually bothered to pay him any attention, they would have thought he was retarded.
Not Harry, though.
He headed out of the classroom, then told his friends he had left a pen there. He hastily made plans to meet them for lunch and went back.
The classroom was empty except for the professor.
"Professor Snape," Harry said in a husky voice, approaching the man behind the desk.
The professor smiled at the address and closed the distance between the two of them.
"You know, you can call me by my name when we're alone," he said in the same low tone, putting his forearms on Harry's shoulders. One hand gently curling the student's brown hair.
"Severus."
Harry leaned in to kiss him. A soft kiss. An affectionate one.
They had started their affair two months prior. It was a little difficult for Harry to ignore those languid, long stares in his direction from the professor during the lesson. Normally, a guy like Severus wouldn't have stood a chance with someone like Harry. Circumstances where different now, though. Harry had been on meds for a little more than a year and during that time he hadn't tried to fuck anyone. He loved sex as a teenager and had become reckless when his bipolar symptoms had kicked in. After starting with the treatment, he was scared to have sex again. Not the act itself per se, but the fact that sex was one of his biggest triggers. The months passed in full mania had been filled with unprotected sex, participation in porn and blackouts caused by heavy drugs, making him wake up with pain in his groin and fuzzy memories laced with shame.
Harry stayed celibate until he met Severus. The professor was not hot and not even remotely funny, but he was nice, ordinary, and faithful. Well, as long as it's possible to define a gay married man with kids and a lover faithful. Even in this situation, Severus was steady. Fucking him was not mind blowing, but it was enjoyable Safe.
It wasn't bad.
The sound of the door opening made the two of them jump away from each other.
A guy they both recognized strolled in confidently, and they both froze.
The dark-haired intruder smirked, looking them up and down slowly.
"Hey, Bat man. Potter…" He grinned obnoxiously.
"What do you need Malfoy?" Severus replied, composing himself.
"Nothing from you. Yet." He nodded towards the higher seats "Just wanna nap here. No lesson for the next hour."
Severus relaxed, and picked up his folders and bag, gingerly leaving the room. Harry stood awkwardly, alone with the guy. He watched as the guy went up to the seats at the back of the room. How the hell did someone with so much money dress like a homeless person? He thought distastefully. Harry knew it was pretty gay of him to think that, but really, that brownish sweater was horrible. It looked like he had been wearing it for years.
"The fuck are you looking at?"
The blond-haired guy had noticed Harry studying him, and was now looking at him with his eyebrows arched. He had the most expressive eyebrows Harry had ever seen. Swear to God.
"Nothing, Draco." Harry shrugged, turning his gaze away from him.
"Well, then fuck off." Draco motioned for Harry to go with the flip of his middle finger.
When Harry was almost at the door, Draco called out after him.
"Ay, remember, Potter. You make my sister cry, I'll fucking kill you."
Harry just rolled his eyes, nodded and closed the door behind him.
Severus may have had a wife, but Harry had a girlfriend.
Well, a beard, to be precise.
He had met Lyra Malfoy at the end of an English class. The assistant professor had cornered the blonde-haired girl to "talk about Shakespeare" and she looked as uncomfortable as shit at his attention, as he stood too close to her.
Since apparently Harry couldn't escape from his White Knight side of him, he stepped in.
"C'mon, we're late for the next class, let's go!" He said loudly, shouldering past the AP and taking her by the arm and pulling her from the room.
She was confused and upset by his attention at first, but she soon smiled and thanked him. Not exactly for the reason he thought, though. She had been about to kick the bastard in the nuts before Harry approached, and she had feared it would not have been good to do that to an assistant professor.
"So yeah, your solution was way better," she told him before extending her hand with a grateful smirk.
"Lyra."
"Harry."
She quickly became attached to Harry and he thought he had just acquired a new friend.
Wrong.
She invited him in her room to study and, while both were sitting on her bed, she got up and straddled him, trying to push into him for a kiss, and palming him through his pants.
Harry was so dense with understanding girls that he sat up quickly to rebuff her, making Lyra fall on her ass.
He was about to open his mouth when she screamed.
"GET THE FUCK OUT!"
"Let me just explain…" he tried to say, holding his hands up towards her.
Lyra threw him a high heels boot at his face with a force he didn't think a girl could possess.
He backed out of her door quickly, shrugging in disbelief as he turned and walked away.
The next morning he was prepared to track Lyra down to explain himself. What he was not prepared for was the three guys coming at him with two bats and brass knuckles.
They spotted the redhead easily in the middle of the campus quad, and the short one in the center yelled at him
"Harry Potter! You messed with the wrong girl!"
Harry didn't know who the fuck they were, but sure as hell he didn't want to find out.
He turned on his heel and started running instinctively. The three guys were visibly strong, but not that fast, and Harry outran them with ease. He lost them after the first couple of minutes, slumping against a wall as he collected his thoughts. T he fuck had just happened?
There was only one possible explanation.
Lyra.
He found the girl at the entrance to her dorm, and he had to grab her by her hand to stop her from walking away from him.
"What the fuck do you want!" Lyra spat at him angrily.
"What the fuck do I want? Didn't you send me your three gorillas to beat the shit out of me? What the hell, Lyra!" He retorted roughly.
"You played me! I thought you were interested and…"
"I'm gay." Harry interrupted her quietly.
Lyra's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"What?"
"Gay, completely, helplessly gay. You're beautiful Lyra, but not my type." He replied calmly.
"You think I'm beautiful?" she asked after a few seconds.
"Of course. Listen… Can we just keep on being friends? After you call your gorillas back, of course."
She smiled a little at that.
"They're not my gorillas. Well, one's my brother. He's kind of a gorilla, I guess. The other two are his fucking puppies. They pledged to his fraternity, so…"
The two of them became best friends. Harry was surprised at how quickly he felt at ease around Lyra; he even told her about his disorder, and his affair with Severus. Lyra always listened without prejudice, and she shared her own stories about her family and especially her piece of shit father., Harry had always thought that his Father, James, was the worst, but he was wrong. James was a drunk and a horrible human being, but her father was a monster of an entirely new level. He was abusive, manipulative, violent. He was part of a White Supremacy group. His first wife divorced him after he had sent her to a hospital left for dead. His last wife, Lyra and Draco's mother, killed herself. Lucius had already decided the future of his boys, and he didn't really care about his only daughter.
"As long as I score a husband with money and connections, I can do whatever I want. I guess I should consider myself lucky," she said in a low voice. Harry hugged her tightly in response.
It was after only a few days of their new friendship that Lyra brought up the subject.
"I want you to be my boyfriend."
"Lyra, I thought we've already cleared up that I'm gay." Harry replied with a surprised smile.
"Yeah I know but… last night a guy was fag-bashed outside his own dorm. And… and if you keep on being friends with me I don't wanna risk Draco suspecting that you're gay, he'll fucking kill you, Harry. Not to mention that your relationship with Severus would go a lot smoother. He has a wife, you have a girlfriend… easier, right?"
Harry stayed silent for a few minutes while he thought about Lyra's words. He wasn't keeping his sexuality secret, but he wasn't advertising it either. Being raised in Tottenham taught him to think twice before announcing he was into dudes… Still, he hadn't planned on being afraid of who he was at university.
"I can see how this would benefit me," he said finally. "But why should you sacrifice yourself?"
Lyra blushed a little, fiddling with a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Well, nothing much… I mean. These last few days, you've felt more of a boyfriend than any other guy I've been out with. It's nice, you know? You're nice. I'm tired of guys who are after my money or just wanna get under my skirt. I like spending time with you, so…"
That's when it hit him. Lyra needed him. She felt alone, and she wanted to rely on someone who was not family; someone she trusted. Again, the knight in shining armour prevailed.
"I still think you're the one at loss in this deal, but yeah. Why not, girlfriend? Let's do this."
The smile that Harry received for that simple sentence, made him sure he had made the right choice.
Inside Professor Snape's small office, Harry was pulling up his pants, looking down at the man kneeled in front of him. Severus wiped his mouth with an embroidered handkerchief and got up to lean on his messy desk.
"So..." Severus started. Before he could complete his sentence, the door slammed open.
"Over Grown Bat!" Draco exclaimed.
"Malfoy, uh…"
Severus got interrupted –again- when Draco noticed a red flushed Harry.
"Potter? What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Uh… just asking questions?" Harry knew he didn't sound convincing, but it didn't seem like Draco cared.
"Yeah, whatever, nerd. Get the fuck out." Harry stood in place for a few seconds, looking at Severus for direction. When the other man nodded, he slowly left the room. Fearing for Severus, however, he didn't go far, planting his ear to the door so he could listen to their exchange.
"So," Draco redirected his attention to Severus. "Just wanted to check if our deal was still on. I noticed you've been avoiding me lately."
Severus gulped, nervously shuffling some papers on his desk.
"Uh…" He sighed heavily. "I can't do this anymore Malfoy. It's too risky."
"Risky? You just need to make me fucking pass your stupid exam. It doesn't take that much, man!"
"I've been doing this for years already… Some of the other professors are starting to notice, making some remarks and… my wife is pregnant again. I can't afford to lose my job."
"It was your wife's job before you decided it was better for her to be a stay at home mum, so you could have your little fun here." Draco moved closer to Severus. The student was shorter than Severus, but stocky and menacing. Severus was almost climbing the desk to put some space between him and Draco.
"Don't forget you got paid for this shit," Draco added threateningly.
"I only got paid the first time…"
"Well, you took the money, you greedy bitch. So…" Draco's eyes fell from Severus's to his laptop. The screen was on again, Severus having moved the mouse by mistake in his urge to back away from Draco. The grin that spread all over the Malfoy's face was wider than the Cheshire Cat's.
"Lookie what we got here." He leaned to read the open file. "Isn't this… Uh-oh."
"Malfoy, please don't…"
There was a USB drive inserted in the laptop, and in a few little clicks from Draco, the file was saved on the flash drive.
"Too late, Bat man." Draco stuffed the flash drive in his right pocket and shoved Severus against the wall. "I guess you've already submitted the exam. So don't even try to make things complicated. Okay? You won't even need to upgrade my sheets this time. All for the best, right?"
Severus didn't say anything, lowering his head as Draco patted his shoulder.
"Bye! Always a pleasure to deal with your greasy ass."
When Draco opened the door, Harry had just a few seconds time to hide behind a fucking statue. He was definitely glad that Draco went the other way, or the statue wouldn't have been the safest place to hide.
Harry went back into the office to find Severus slumped on the chair, hands covering his face.
"What the fuck, Severus?!"
Severus looked up to see Harry looking at him in disbelief.
"I heard everything!" Harry growled. "You just let him cheat like that? You're gonna get in trouble!"
"You don't understand…"
"Oh no, I do understand. Don't you have some pride? You got bribed once and now you're at his service?"
Severus couldn't look into his eyes. He was fidgeting on the chair, searching for an acceptable excuse .
"C'mon Harry. It's no big deal. He'll graduate this year… and I mean, other professors got bribed by that family, I'm sure. Don't know who for sure, but…"
When he managed to find the strength to look Harry in the eyes again, he found an expression that he never seen in them: disgust.
"God, Severus. You're such a pussy."
And with that, Harry stormed out of the office.
The following day, Harry stood nervously in front of the Slytherin common roo, Draco's house. The place looked uninhabited. No one was outside and silence reigned. One would almost think it was deserted, if not for all the sleepy bodies sprawled around the immense living room. Most appeared to be in zombie mode, the heads moving imperceptibly and croaky sounds coming from their mouths. There were kegs on the floor and plastic glasses keeping them company. The smell of weed entered Harry's nostrils.
He looked around the messy room for Draco, but apparently he hadn't participated in the party. Either that, or he simply he wasn't there.
Harry decided to risk it and went upstairs.
He barely opened each door he found, only pushing them aside enough to peek at the rooms inside. They were all bedrooms. Some with double beds, other single ones.
At the fifth door, the one in the corner, he finally found what –or rather who- he was looking for.
It was probably the biggest bedroom there, with a queen size bed and lot of space filled with all kind of mess: clothes, beer cans, empty packets of cigarettes and many other pieces of useless junk. Harry wondered how someone in their right mental state could voluntarily live in that pig sty. It even smelled like dirty socks.
Draco was there on the bed, sprawled on his stomach amongst messy blankets and half-covered pillows. Fully clothed and still wearing his shoes. He probably had had just enough time to crawl into his bed before passing out.
Well, time to wake Sleeping fucking Beauty up.
Harry grabbed a bat that was lying on the floor near his feet. He seriously doubted that it had ever been used in an actual game.
He prodded Draco lightly with the tip of the bat, causing the comatose man to shift on the bed with a groan.
"The fuck…"
Draco wrenched open his eyes and looked at his surroundings without really focusing on anything in particular. He was about to yawn, when he noticed Harry, bat in hand.
"… Potter?" he asked in surprise. His voice was groggy with sleep.
"Give me the flash drive, Draco," Harry managed to say. He was the one with the bat. But he was also in Draco's bedroom, with all Draco's house brothers downstairs. He just wanted to solve this quickly; get the flash drive and get the hell out of there.
Scrubbing at his eyes with his fist, Draco nodded slowly.
"Alright…" He moved towards the bedside table, murmuring "What is it to you anyway?"
Before Harry could come up with an answer, Draco took him by surprise, punching him straight to the face. Taking advantage of his adversary's loss of balance, Draco managed to throw him on the bed. During the movement the bat flew loose from Harry's hands, landing somewhere in the tangled sheets.
Draco moved to straddle Harry, ready to strangle his neck, but Harry used all his weight as a leverage and managed to throw the both of them out of the bed, pushing Draco onto the sofa. But the Slytherin was fast, and charged towards Harry with his fist. Harry slammed him against the wall before he could get punched again. Draco looked at him like a wounded bull stares at the red flag, and tackled Harry with all his strength onto the bed. He straddled him again, this time fetching the bat to smash his fucking stupid head in.
He would have done it, really.
But the adrenaline rush went straight to his dick, causing an immediate, growing bulge in his pants. It didn't go unnoticed. Harry looked straight at it, then to Draco, who was panting hard and not just from the fight. Harry looked back at Draco's his groin again. Draco was daring him to say something, anything, wrong. He was ready to crack Harry's head like a watermelon. But the fucking wanker didn't say anything, not a fucking word. Instead, Harry's green eyes darkened and his breath took up an irregular pattern.
It wasn't long before Draco let the bat fall on the floor, starting to tug off his clothes swiftly. Harry followed his movements, yanking off his own clothes as quickly as he could.
Soon they were both stark naked in front of each other. Draco gnawed at his bottom lip, taking the sight of Harry in. It was clear that he liked what he was seeing. He took Harry by surprise, slamming him back again onto the bed. This time his intentions were very different.
He hovered over Harry, fumbling in the first drawer of his night table. He shuffled through it, taking out a bunch of condoms and tossing them to Harry, keeping a small bottle of lube in his hands.
Harry noticed the condoms were all different in type and size. It was pretty clear that they weren't meant for Draco, not all of them at least. His thoughts flicked over to Severus at the momentary realization that this, here with Draco, was not a stable situation, and probably something he should avoid. But then he felt Draco's mouth swallowing his dick and all his cautious thoughts disappeared from his brain. The one in his head, at least.
While Draco hummed appreciatively around his cock, Harry fumbled at the condom, tearing the golden wrapper open. He noticed then that Draco was already preparing himself while sucking him off. That got Harry even more turned on, and he pushed Draco away to roll the condom over his dick. Draco whined a little when Harry's dick left his mouth, but grinned once it was covered with latex.
Draco rolled over, positioning himself on all fours. He looked at Harry expectantly over his shoulder with an arched eyebrow.
Harry thought he'd never seen anything more arousing in his life.
Not long after that, they were going hot and heavy on the bed. Draco, who hadn't said a word while attacking Harry, turned out to be quite chatty during sex. He growled instructions at Harry through gritted teeth.
"Harder! Yes !"
"Right there! Again!"
" Oh God !"
A constant barrage of "FUCK!"'s littered the remaining silence.
They soon felt on the brink of coming. Draco was the first to let go, coming hard on the sheets with a loud moan. Feeling Draco clenching around his cock, Harry didn't last much longer, slamming his hips one more time against Draco's ass and releasing himself in the condom.
He pulled out after Draco started to move, and the both of them fell in a silent impasse.
Awkwardly, Harry pulled the covers up over them, taking his time while trying to find something to say. He hadn't expected that looking for a flash drive would lead to this awesome fucking sex. Because it had been awesome, no point denying in that.
But with Draco Malfoy off all people? Harry hadn't even suspected he was gay, and his gaydar was usually pretty good.
"Umm…" Harry started quietly.
He was interrupted by the door opening and a blond guy making his entrance. His eyes were puffy and he looked hammered. Actually, at closer look, Draco was no different. His whole body emanated the smell of vodka, but Harry didn't actually care.
"Dray, got any Advil or some shit? My head feels like it's gonna explo…" He left his sentence in mid air when he noticed the two bodies under the blanket. He burst into laughter.
"Shit, man! How wasted were you?!" He pinched between his eyebrows in pain before either boy could respond. "Fuck, I feel so bad… Think I'm gonna go back to sleep."
Blondie yawned and closed the door behind him.
Harry and Draco stared blankly at the closed door, before Draco got up and started to dress. Harry did the same in silence. Finally dressed, they stared at each other, not knowing what to say or do.
Without proper thought, Harry decided to do the dumbest move he could ever think of; He leaned in to kiss Draco. Draco promptly avoided the trajectory of Harry's lips by stepping back and turning away from Harry with a growl.
"Kiss me and I'll cut your fucking tongue out."
Harry took the incredibly subtle hint and turned to leave.
He was heading out the door when something small hit the back of his head. Looking down at the floor he reached to grab the offending object; the flash drive.
Harry looked up to meet the other boy's eyes, but Draco didn't say anything more. Just waved for Harry to get the fuck out.
Once outside of the smokey, alcoholic stench of the common room, Harry let his thoughts wander.
That had been unexpected. And yet amazing.
He hadn't been feeling good since he started taking his medication, and certainly didn't remember feeling that good since then, maybe even before that. Maybe, possibly, when he had been manic, but this kind of good wasn't the same as that high, crazy way. It was different. Better.
And Harry wanted to feel it again.
…
What the fuck?!