If Umbridge saw him, he would be in big trouble.
"Harry, it's less than a month before our OWLs! You can't get in trouble now! Please stay in tonight..."
That voice in his head, was the one of his reason. Also known as Hermione Granger.
Hermione though, had taken Neville to McGonagal's office- since he had another panic attack.
Harry looked around to make sure he was alone. He was on the third floor, just a few steps away from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
It probably was so stupid of him to be near Umbridge's classroom right now, it went full circle back to smart. He simply sat on the window ledge between two armours, hoping Peeves wouldn't jump out of either of them, Mrs Norris wouldn't appear and Umbridge wouldn't find out one of her "students" was out of bed again.
He put his forehead on the cold glass and closed his eyes. He hadn't had one of those dreams a few days now. Perhaps he had actually gotten better in occlumency...
With that thought, a familiar image appeared in his mind- Snape raising his eyebrows, giving his student an ironic look. Harry smiled, but that smile disappeared from his face quickly. The fact that he wasn't seeing those dreams anymore probably meant that Voldemort was up to something... bigger than that. He sighed.
He heard footsteps approaching. He suddenly felt too tired to move. Whoever it was.. well, he certainly hoped they would be friendly. Of course, with Umbridge as the Headmistress and everyone in the school hating him since the beggining of the school year, the odds of that were pretty low...
Someone was standing beside him right now. Probably too surprised by Harry's indifference to move.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Oh, he knew that voice. He turned to face the young Slytherin, emerald eyes meeting silver. Draco seemed confused and slightly annoyed to see Harry.
"I'm actually just sitting here, minding my own business... waiting to get caught by someone. Oh, wait... I think I just did. So.. you are turning me in to Umbridge?"
The attractive blonde rolled his eyes and walked away from Harry. The ebony haired boy got up and ran after him.
"So, I take it that you are not... That's weird!" he said when he caught up with him.
"Potter, as much as it hurts you, not the whole world evolves around you..." the annoyed boy answered.
They were both walking very fast, their footsteps echoing in the dark. Harry was definitely risking getting caught. Malfoy decided to leave him alone for once, and yet..
Harry was actually running after him. He could imagine Ron's face if he mentioned that. Which he would better not... or they would get into a weird conversation. Two people knew of his attraction to Draco... and that was enough.
"What do you want, Potter?" Malfoy growled. Well, the Malfoy version of growling.
"You know, it's past midnight. Prefect or not, I don't think you should be out of bed either...". Well, he didn't really mind walking next to Draco, watching his skin and hair take a silver hue everytime they walked past a window and the moonlight touched the young Slytherin, but he should not really mention it. Not a good idea.
"Well, if you really need to know.. I just gave Umbridge some Hufflepuff fourth-years to play with and I volunteered to patrol around the castle for a little while, to make sure you didn't sneak out of your dormitory. I really hoped that you would hide a bit better, but apparently you are incapable of that, too. Or that, at least, I wouldn't fall on you." he answered, trying to walk faster than Harry.
"So... you just gave her some poor fourteen-year-olds to keep her busy and now you're taking a walk around the castle." Harry said.
"That's a way to say it. Now, how about you leave me alone and go back to your window?"
"That requires a lot of thought... no, I'm not going anywhere!"
Draco suddenly stopped and turned to look at Harry. He sighed.
"Potter, don't test my patience. It's limited. Actually, when it comes to dealing with you, nonexistant." His voice and eyes were cold. But then again, weren't they always when he was talking to Harry?
"You should really do something about that, Malfoy. Here, let me help you."
Draco opened his mouth to answer but then, surprisingly, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly walked away from Harry. It wasn't difficult to keep up with him now.
"You seem tired. And paler than usual..." Harry whispered. Probably sounded concerned, too. Go on, Harry. You're doing great. You're showing him how much you don't care about him.
"I take it you usually notice how I look like?" Draco answered, in a less ironical tone than Harry had expected.
"I walked right into that one, didn't I?" Harry said, staring at his shoes.
"Pretty much."
Harry followed Draco to the fourth floor. "Potter, if I wanted a dog, I would get one. Can you disappear?" he said, turning to look at Harry.
For some reason, Harry was now feeling frustrated. Look at him, being all... Malfoy-like. Staring at him with those silver eyes.
"How do you do that?" he said angrily.
"What...what am I doing?". Finally some emotion- confusion. Way better than his usual total indifference.
"Being so indifferent... and bossy. Pretending you own the world... pretending you know what people think and how they feel. Looking at us with those eyes of yours...!"
Harry was frustrated. Voldemort was getting stronger every day. There was no sign of Dumbledore and Umbridge had turned Hogwarts into a prison. And he had also realised he was in love with Malfoy. Which was freaking awesome. He was in love with a Slytherin bastard, that didn't really give a fuck if Harry lived or died. Probably prefered the second choice, though. He knew he would regret this afterwards, but now he didn't care. Malfoy was acting like a bastard? Well, he would give him a reason to do so.
"Right... Are you drunk, Potter?" Draco said and walked away, once again. Why couldn't Potter simply stay away from him? He just wanted to be left alone for once...
Harry ran after him and pushed him on the wall. Orange light, coming from the torches that were around them, was dancing in the emerald depths.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Draco shouted and quickly looked around to make sure nobody was there to see this. He tried to push the angry teenager off him. Harry was holding Draco's arms tightly, keeping the boy on the same position.
"Giving you yet another reason to make the whole school laugh at me." Harry answered abruptly.
Draco wanted to answer that, but it was extremely difficult since, a few seconds later, Harry's lips were on his own. He froze. Harry tightened his grip around the Slytherin's arms, not realising that he was hurting him. He was forcefully kissing a completely still Draco Malfoy.
It was his turn to be surprised, though. Draco kissed him back. He lifted his arms and touched Harry's. He turned the emerald-eyes boy's wild, careless kiss into a soft, deep one. Harry let go of Draco's arms and wrapped his own around his waist, pressing his body against the blonde's.
They were holding each other tightly. As long as their kiss lasted, everything else seemed far away, meaningless. They eventually broke the kiss-they needed to breathe.
Harry pulled back and looked at the boy he was kissing a few seconds ago. Draco's cheeks were surprisingly reddish and he was trying to catch his breath. Harry fixed his glasses, still looking at Draco, anticipating something. A curse, a punch...something creative like that.
He kissed him back. This was fascinating and terrifying at the same time... And now, what?
Draco rubbed his right arm. He was still in pain, but that didn't really matter now. He looked at the Gryffindor with the emerald eyes.
"Next time", he gasped, "try not to break my arms."
He strongly pushed Harry away and tried to walk away from him. The dark-haired teenager was faster.
"There's going to be.. a next time?" he said, grabbing Draco in his arms once again.
He turned around to face Harry. Their lips were barely touching. Harry wanted to capture those dreamy lips once again in his. "Don't be stupid, Potter..." the boy whispered and released himself from Harry's embrace. This time, managing to walk away, fast. When he reached the end of the corridor, he looked at Harry above his shoulder.
"When I see Umbridge, I'm gonna tell her I saw you on the fourth floor." and then he just disappeared.
Harry practically threw himself on the wall. His heart was still pounding in his chest. How the hell did he find the courage to do that? Every time he kissed Cedric, he was shaking like a leaf. When he had kissed Cho, he was feeling completely self-conscious... but that could have been because she was crying.
And yet, he just grabbed Draco and forced him into the best kiss Harry had ever experienced.
What was wrong with him?
What the hell was he thinking?
"Next time... try not to break my arms"
There was going to be a next time?!
"Don't be stupid, Potter..."
This was confusing, terrifying and awesome. Not necessarily in that order. How did he do that?!
He pressed his hand on his chest. The feeling of Draco's body against his... was driving him insane.
He staggered away from the wall. He left the corridor and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor, hoping they wouldn't change.
"Next time..."