Lure of the Forbidden
x.x.x.x
The forest has always had a certain lure. No one believes for a second that it is a safe place to venture in—that it's branches are adorned with leaves and not spikes—but yet, no one can stay away. I suppose the name "Forbidden Forest" also contributes to the curiosity, which in turn contributes to the pull.
I, personally, hate the forest. I avoid it at all costs, careful to keep my meticulously cared for hair free of any stray brambles and blossoms. My nerves quiver even when we linger at the edge, the smell of dew-covered trees swirling around us, during our Care of Magical Creatures class. I repeat the words "Fear is not Cowardice" in my mind over and over, until I can stick my chin superiorly in the air once again.
Trekking along the mud, Harry Potter disagrees with my notions of the forest, a charming grin on his face. "It's not as bad as they say—" he begins, my fingers closed tightly around his as his free hand pushes away a sullen branch.
"I don't like slugs," I reply dully, contemplating squeezing too hard and injuring the Gryffindor with the silver ring sitting restlessly on my thumb.
A sweet laugh reaches my ears as Harry tugs a bit harsher, pulling me slightly closer and it's then I realize the leaves above us are dripping with the falling rain. I make a less-than-joyful face as droplets hit my pale blonde hair, causing it to take up a darker shade.
"There aren't many slugs, Malfoy," He says playfully, his short hair beginning to curl at his ears because of the drizzling rain. "Spiders, however—"
"Spare me," my voice is dry as Harry once again laughs, looking back at me with sparkling green eyes.
"Honestly, if I take you out onto the lake, anyone can spot us…" His voice is deeper, more contemplative. A bit sadder.
I slow down, looking toward the murky floor as my boot steps into a filthy puddle. "We could stick to that broom-closet, you know," I start softly, stopping in my tracks and feeling our arms separate for a brief second before Harry s tops walking. "It's really quite fine—honestly, I don't even notice the dust any—"
Harry interrupts, his expression more offended than I thought it would be. "Draco, sometimes I want to talk, you know? Groping is fine and all, but do we ever use our mouths for actual communication?"
I drop my head for a moment, before grimacing, "Actions speak louder than words?"
He smiles softly, a look of almost regret on his face, before he continues walking without another word.
I feel somewhat guilty, but my fear of trusting someone enough to talk properly to them outweighs my fear of even the forest itself.
The silence of the walk makes it drag on, and I can't help but mumble complaints as insects buzz at my ears and the sun retreats completely, leaving nothing but a brief streak of moonlight between the tree branches as light. I can't even see Harry's pale skin, but only his shadow, moving quickly and quietly between the thorny bushes.
"Can't we stop now?" I finally mumble. My hair is damp and hardly in the appealing state I had left the castle with, while my legs feel sore.
Harry smiles, although I can't see it, I know it's there for he does nothing but smile, and nods. "There's a clearing off to the side." It's a couple more steps, and he's setting his cloak on the twisting grass inviting me to sit next to him.
"I never knew you were so cliché, Potter," I drawl, looking up at the stars he's pointing out with excitement.
He falters in his movements, before grinning. "It's romantic," he states, as though we're in some sort of romance novel and I'm a perfect girl dressed up spectacularly for the occasion.
"I'm a boy and wearing muddy slacks." I decide to point out, and though he looks confused, Harry can't help but laugh.
"That you are."
I smile briefly, before looking at the newest star that he's obsessing over.
x.x.x.x
"Dudley's a great oaf, only takes a bit of a brain to sidestep his nasty tricks." I listen carefully as Harry opens up to me, feeling as though I'll be tested on it much like a quiz in Transfiguration.
I grin, leaning over to flick Harry's head gently. "Must be hard for you then, considering you lack "a bit of a brain."
He lets out an indignant laugh before turning over to face me with searching eyes. Then, his lips lift up at the corners and I feel myself being pulled into a warm embrace as equally warm lips brush across mine.
Closing my eyes, I wrap an arm around his neck and feel him lean over me, drops of water sliding from his fringe and fluttering against my eyelashes. He doesn't let the kiss progress, but instead leaves it at an intimate sweep of the lips, before opening his eyes and smiling down at me.
"Obviously that's true, Malfoy, because if I had anything akin to a brain, I wouldn't be at all attracted to you."
Opening my mouth to let out a retort, my eyes narrowing, he interrupts (something he's so very good at doing) and uses the opportunity to slide his glistening tongue into my mouth, his fingers lacing with my own. I decide to let the remark slide, just like his tongue against mine.
It makes me nervous, feeling his humid body against my own while a smooth mouth nips gently at my chin. Hands clasped tightly, my eyes fluttering open only to close within the next few seconds, and heavy breathing below me.
It's all very nerve-wracking compared to the usual mild force and heady lust.
Just as his soft hands are running up my arms, I break away and push his frame off my own reluctantly. "You said you wanted to talk," I say shortly, finding my breath coming out in short gasps.
He looks a bit irate then, and I tug away, picking at the ties of his cloak. "You want to talk now?"
I nod, looking up at him innocently.
"Then talk."
He's patient, I give him that much credit. I'm lost, confused and indecisive; sometimes I think he really is brainless for sticking with me for so long.
"I received an Acceptable on that Astronomy essay—" I began, leaning back to get comfortable and starting off my regular rant about Astronomy. Acceptable just wasn't... well… acceptable!
"I don't care about school," Harry says shortly, laying down beside me and looking at me painfully serious. "I want you to trust me. Merlin, Draco, it should be harder for me to trust you."
I narrow my eyes and sat up, staring down at him. "That's not fair."
He sighs and watches me pulling on my hand to stop me from pulling on my gloves and starting an angry retreat back to the castle—even if it did mean trudging through the forest alone.
"I didn't mean it like that."
It's true; I should trust him right away. He's a savior, a hero—why wouldn't I? "You seem to forget trust isn't only a trait between those who are born onto opposite sides. Normal people need time to develop trust for one another as well."
He nods, catching my fingers and delicately pulling off my glove. "And it's been nearly an entire year. We graduate soon, Draco, and you haven't even spoken to me about your future plans." The silent question Am I even included in them? rings silently throughout the air.
"Who cares about the future, Harry?" I finally say exasperatedly, letting myself fall into his embrace. "We have now… isn't that enough?"
He smiles, and I'm disheartened by how sad they seem to grow, before nodding and kissing the top of my head in a lingering gesture that melts what feels like every single one of my limbs. "It's enough."
It's a lie, we both know it, but I let myself get lost in its folds until I finally accept its dark abyss.
We stare at the bending trees for a while, and I feel Harry's warm breath skitter across my neck.
x.x.x.x
"…Took care of me, even though he wasn't physically there." I stroke Harry's hair gently, playing with the silky strands at the nape of his neck, before kissing just above his shoulder. "Sirius even left me everything he owned, you know?" There is a pause before he turns around, and it's then that I notice my leg is numb from the position it had taken as Harry had lain on them comfortably.
He looks at me hesitantly for a moment, before casting nervous glances toward the sky. It's still dark as night, which meant morning was miles away.
"Including Grimmauld Place."
I nod, "Not a very nice manor, though I suppose it could be had it been cleaned up once in a while." I smirk at Harry's brief roll of the eyes.
"If I cleaned it up," he starts softly, seeming to finally get to his point. "Would you consider staying with me for a while… Or, even just visiting?"
My smirk disappears and I brush nervously at my robes. "Visiting?"
"Yeah."
I'm silent for a long while, and Harry glances at me often until he finally continues talking as if his question hadn't even been asked.
It was when I interrupted him what seemed like hours later as he raved on about his experiences with the Triwizard dragon that I let out a sharp, "—if you have running water and competent house elves."
He gives me a look, clearly confused as his eyebrows knit together in a beautiful frown. Then comprehension dawns, and I pretend to be nonchalant, examining a twig next to the wet cloak on the ground.
"Well, we don't have running water—"
He dodges the boot I throw at him quite nicely, before holding me close and laughing into my neck.
After a minute of tender kisses, "Harry, go fetch my boot, will you?"
"So you can throw it at me again?" His grin rubs against my collar, and he looks up at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Precisely."
x.x.x.x
Harry, one seemingly for clichés, stretches beside me and I open my eyes with a low groan. "The sun isn't even up yet."
"Yes Draco. That would defeat the purpose of watching the sunrise." He says with a sleepy tease to his voice.
"Sunrise?" I roll over so my back is to his chest, and let out a small sigh, realizing our clothes are now dry. "Give me an hour, and then I can conjure one up for you, alright?"
"That sounds like an Astronomy-type spell, Draco. I don't think you can handle that."
My head shoots up, messy and a bit dirty, as I cast him a warning look. "That professor just hates me is all; he's probably jealous of my knowledge."
Harry roars with laughter and I glare before falling against the cloak once more, which serves as a horrible pillow.
"Really, Draco, you wouldn't want to miss out on something like this."
After an annoying amount of persuasion, I moan and lean against him as he lets his lips run along my jaw. "This better be worth it."
The sunrise, surprisingly, ends up being extremely boring. "I much rather would have slept for that extra hour, Potter." Though, that's a lie…Harry's warm embrace and exploring hands more than make up for the lack of sleep and dull swirl of oranges in the sky.
"I thought it was spectacular."
I smile and turn around so I'm facing him. I lean forward and cast a gentle gaze that locks with his eyes. My heart beats a little quicker, and I shy away, afraid of what that means. "You enjoy the forest, which says enough about your tastes."
He grins, pulling me close again, and kissing me softly, his tongue running across my lips. His hands pause at my waist as he pulls away. "I enjoyed this you know."
I open my eyes slowly, almost forgetting how our meetings usually were like—hurried, heated and voices only used to moan, not talk. "It's different." I say shortly, not sure of how I feel about something so soul-binding compared to the usual body-binding.
"It's better."
I don't reply, and instead kiss him. He can interpret that as an agreement if he likes, for honestly, it truly was.
x.x.x.x
On the way back I saw a slug. I blamed its disgusting appearance on Harry.
"It was only a slug, Draco," Harry says through gasps of laughter.
"You're right." I say with an irritated voice. "If I really had so much against ugly things, I wouldn't be in the forest with you right now."
He smirks, stopping just ahead of me and spinning around to kiss me. It had been happening a lot, I was afraid we would never get back to the castle at this rate.
"You can be beautiful for the both of us." He whispers, letting his nose graze against mine.
"You really are sickening, Potter." I say, making a face, though a faint blush is appearing on my cheeks.
His eyes shine with laughter as he pulls me along again.
"Draco, do you love me?"
The question is so blunt and sudden that I trip over a few roots I had been carefully sidestepping. "Wha—what?"
Harry pauses in front of me and helps me gain my footing once more. "Do you love me?"
It isn't fair, I decide, for him to spring a question like that one me so soon after I see the traumatizing slug. In fact, it's not fair for him to spring that question on me at all. I stay silent and push past him to start walking.
I hear the crackle of branches as he walks behind me. "I love you, you know."
The soft voice is almost lost in the wind, and I sneer at him as I turn around. "That's not fair."
He gives me a look that seems almost exhausted. "You say that a lot."
I search for words, and finding none, turn around and break off into a brisk walk, almost a run.
His footsteps are persistent, and I let out a frustrated growl. "I don't."
He stops completely, and I turn around to see his reaction. The beat of my heart is erratic and my chest is constricting with a slight twinge of pain as a flitting expression of hurt comes across his face.
Then, he nods and smiles and continues walking.
As I gaze at his retreating back, I begin to think of myself as uglier than the slug.
x.x.x.x
The forbidden forest has a lure that seems almost inexplicable. The ghastly creatures inside are not something that a normal wizard should want to witness, at the fear of being killed and eaten. The thorny branches should be a witch's biggest fear, the way they catch onto clothing and keep you immobilized.
However, personally, I adore the forest. The lure for me is the small clearing just a little ways inside where a worn cloak sits silently, waiting for a couple of rowdy boys to emerge through a secluded path from the forest, one that only they know of.
Or, maybe the lure is just Harry and the warmth that radiates off him as we lay there, staring up at the boring sunrise.
He tells me often that the lure is love, and why I always stumble through the trees is I'm searching for it. I often have to remind him that I'm a boy in muddy slacks.
Sometimes I agree with him, following the pull of my heart that's like a magnet attracted to him. Other times I complain about what the weather is doing to my hair, and how I really don't mind the dust of the broom-closet.
Though, if I'm truthful with myself, the broom-closet is too stuffy, and there's no place for you to sleep as I tell you bits and pieces of my life story, as I'm always afraid it'll bore you as much as the rising of something simplistic as the sun bores me.
Though, you always manage to stay awake, and catch the wisps of trust I let out into the open night air, releasing all holds except the one of my arm around you.
"Do you love me, Draco?"
You say it teasingly now, running your fingers through my short, blonde hair. I look at you for a moment, before nodding, my knees digging into the cloak as I straddle you, fingers entwined tightly with your own.
"…Only because I have fewer brains than you."
x.x.x.x
Authors Note: One-shots used to come easily. I used to have plenty of ideas that were just itching to be put on paper… I must admit, I've been stumped lately. I can't seem to write something that I like, and my expectations have raised stories high! But, as I sat down today and read over previous works, an idea slowly formed into my head—and this is the result. I hope you all enjoy it, as I quite like it myself :)