Ace of Hearts
The day had dawned bright, but right now, it looked like someone had thrown a thick gray blanket over the sun. Vincent Crabbe idly scratched his left ear, squinting as he thought about the question on the Potion's test before him. His large body was hunched over the small desk and Crabbe couldn't help but wonder if he would ever manage to graduate. He sighed and began scrawling an answer that to him made some sort of sense and frowned when he realized too late that his inkpot was empty. A momentary panic settled on him and Crabbe looked around, noticing, to his disgust that Potter had come prepared with four pots of ink. Well bully for him, Crabbe thought and raised his hand tentatively.
Professor Snape looked up then and nodded to Crabbe, who shuffled to the front with his empty inkwell, dropping it unceremoniously on Snape's desk. Snape raised an eyebrow and Crabbe shrugged. "D'you have an extra inkpot?" Crabbe asked gruffly. Snape nodded and rummaged through a desk drawer coming up with a pot of brilliantly pink ink. Snape smiled nastily, and Crabbe groaned inwardly. No matter how he tried, he would not be able to hide that ink. Feeling the heat of embarrassment creeping up over his cheeks, Crabbe shuffled back to his seat at the back of the class.
Malfoy, sitting on Crabbe's right and between him and Goyle, smirked and hide a derisive snort behind his quill. Crabbe's face flushed even more if possible and he thumped heavily down into his seat, dipping his quill into the ink and getting on with the test.
Writing down the answer to the question at hand, Crabbe felt his mind wandering and he soon found himself watching Goyle covertly. He noticed something strange about Goyle's test then. Goyle's test was also being written in pink ink. Goyle looked up at that moment and smiled at Crabbe. Crabbe smiled back and went back to writing his test.
Later on that day, in the Common Room after dinner, Crabbe and Goyle were engaged in a 'nod and smile' fest as Draco went on about something or another that had to do with his hatred for Potter. Of course, Crabbe knew that Draco was faking and that he and Harry were obviously together. Crabbe may have been slow, but he wasn't stupid. As he didn't listen to Draco droning on, he caught himself looking over to Goyle again. Goyle sat there, dealing himself a game of Muggle solitaire, something that Malfoy would have killed him for if he'd known what it was, with a stupid smile on his face.
Crabbe couldn't take his eyes off his friend, watching the way Goyle frowned in concentration and the way his hands with their pudgy fingers dealt the cards efficiently and gracefully. Something had definitely changed between them and it was brought to a head when Goyle looked up, catching Crabbe's eye and then looking away hurriedly.
"What's the matter with you two?" Draco asked, annoyed that they'd missed the punch line of his very clever new joke about the Weasel and how poor his family was. Crabbe looked at Draco, he was sure guilt was written all over his face and Draco announced that he was off to bed and that he would see them in the morning. Crabbe grunted a good night and Goyle merely ignored Draco, as his hand crept along the carpet to grasp Crabbe's. Crabbe squeezed the hand that held his and turned to look around the empty Common Room. It seemed that they were the only ones still awake. That was fine with Crabbe, he wasn't much of a people person anyway. He looked at Goyle who had a smirk on to rival Malfoy's and Crabbe leaned in close, meaning to whisper something about meeting later. However, the words never came out as Goyle pressed his lips against Crabbe's. Crabbe was startled but soon found himself kissing Goyle back with equal ferocity and awkwardness.
Sometime later, Goyle lay curled up against Crabbe and Crabbe fingered a playing card that was face down on the carpet. He flipped it over, revealing the Ace of Hearts. A smile tugged at his lips and Crabbe carefully tramped up to bed, taking the playing card with him. Goyle would figure it out…he always did.