This is my first attempt at slash, so don't judge me too harshly :) For the Fastest Challenge in the History of Challenges challenge at HPFC :)
"So, Potter! I heard you've been crying into your pillow every night since you got here! Missing Auntie and Uncle Dursley that much are you? And here was me under the strong belief that you didn't actually get on with your family. But then, I guess even the greatest of us can be mistaken. So why the tears, Scarhead? Did Snape give you another detention for breathing? Oh, oh, I know! Was your treacle tart just a little bit burnt? No, wait, that's ridiculous. I know the answer, don't tell me, moronic Weasel finally came to his senses and broke up with you?"
"Piss off, Malfoy. I'm not gay, though I know you wish it, and nor is Ron. I feel sorry for you, at least I have a friend I'm so close with that some people question our sexuality!" Harry snapped, stuffed his textbooks into his bag and hurried out of the courtyard, leaving a jeering Malfoy and his followers behind. He almost knocked Ron over when he finally found him, not actually looking where he was going.
"Hey, Harry! What's wrong?" Ron asked, annoyed and concerned at the same time. Ron was like that.
"Nothing… I need to tal- never mind. I just need to be by myself for a while. I'll see you in class." Harry pushed past him and hurried up the stairs to his dormitory, where he collapsed on his bed and flicked his wand to draw the hangings. A groan escaped his mouth as he closed his eyes.
Malfoy's taunts didn't usually get to him so badly, but this time he'd hit a nerve. It wasn't anything about Snape or the treacle tart, nothing to do with either of those. Harry had lied to Malfoy when he answered. He was lying to everyone, in fact.
Okay, what he had said to Malfoy had only partly been a lie.
Ron wasn't gay, nor were he and Harry romantically involved with each other. Harry didn't feel sorry for Malfoy because he wasn't as close to anyone as he was to Ron, he felt sorry for Malfoy because what he was, and what he felt was just so obvious that Harry wondered how Malfoy hadn't even realised it yet. The fact that Harry was referring to him as Malfoy showed how angry he was about the hold that Malfoy had over him. Usually, Harry called him Draco in his head.
Ron might not have been gay. But about himself? Harry wasn't sure.
Draco watched Harry storm away and laughed for the sake of showing off in front of his friends.
He didn't really hate Potter, honestly. Anyone who had watched the two grow up together, if that person didn't know well, would have bet that Draco did hate Harry, and that the feeling was mutual. But anyone who had watched the two grow up together and who did know Draco would probably have said something different. That was why Draco hung out with Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe couldn't even tie his own shoelaces without help and Goyle wasn't any better.
Because, honestly, Draco teased Harry so relentlessly in an attempt to hide his real feelings for him. He knew what Harry's feelings were for him – at least he was pretty sure. He had first noticed in their third year, when he had become aware of Harry watching him carefully in a potions class. At first, Draco had thought he was trying to come up with a plan for getting Draco back for his latest insults at Quidditch but then he had realised that the look in Harry's intriguing green eyes wasn't disgust or vengeful – it was curious. Ever since then, Draco had been watching him back and slowly the two had become slightly less showy to each other and slightly more intimate. That's how Draco thought of it anyway.
If Draco were to insult Harry in a corridor, Harry wouldn't react in a loud manner anymore. Draco had been half horrified and half delighted when Harry had muttered a threat in his ear after Draco attempted to trip him a week ago. Draco hadn't taken it entirely as an insult either, it had sounded different coming from Harry than it would have done coming from, well any other male.
Now, Draco didn't insult Harry for the sake of embarrassing him in front of a crowd. He insulted him in a more private setting, always hoping he would get a more personal reaction every time. And usually, Harry delivered.
"Hey, Hermione?"
"Yes, Ronald?"
"Have you noticed Harry behaving oddly at all recently?"
"In what way?" Hermione glanced up from the hat she was knitting at breakfast and glanced at Harry who was sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor table, glaring at the Slytherin table with an expression that seemed to be made up of hatred and an emotion Hermione couldn't identify.
"Well, he seems to be constantly angry, like he's never happy anymore. And he never really seems to talk about Cho either, didn't you notice that? I could have sworn he was head over heels for her. Plus, he seems to be having more and more arguments with Malfoy. I just can't help thinking it's a little odd." Ron spared the knobbly hat a disgusted glance before he glanced at Harry, then at the Slytherin table and then to Hermione.
"Well, he's your best friend. Maybe you should talk to him about it. But maybe not. He said earlier that he wanted to be left alone, so let's just give him some times to think things over. Yes, it is a little odd, but he's under a lot of stress right now so he does have an excuse to act strangely. Just leave him be, for now, Ron."