A/N: This is a prequel to 'Deal Me In', but that doesn't necessarily have to be read first. Draco and harry are friends, but when Harry needs to share something, Draco could've taken it a little better. Wasn't intended to be so hard on Draco, but it happened that way. It will be continued, because if you'd read 'Deal Me In', you'd know they kiss a few days after this is set.
You're What?
Harry Potter didn't know it, but Draco Malfoy was watching him closely. Not to hex or maim him, but because Draco was worried about him. Harry bit his lip, a sure sign that he was terribly nervous and Draco wondered- as he seemed to be doing a lot these past few days- what was wrong with him.
The two sat in Draco's Head Boy dorm trying to do the homework they'd been assigned by the new DADA teacher, who was, undoubtedly, a complete moron. Draco was beginning to think the position really was cursed, the Dark Lord's death be damned. Draco, at the moment, lay sprawled on the bed, and Harry had draped himself over a conjured lounge.
The last twenty minutes had been entirely unproductive and anyone who could have seen would have noticed that. Harry had sighed and mumbled under his breath, and once stabbed his page with his quill, but other than that made no movements toward or away from his parchment. Draco had pretty much given up even trying to do his work, Harry being all the distraction needed to stop his focus completely.
"Err. Umm, Draco?"
Draco looked up from his book with what Harry saw to be a vaguely exasperated expression. The expression was really Draco just wondering what had taken Harry so long to ask about, considering the last almost half-hour he'd been deep in thought.
"Yes, Harry? And don't say "Err" and "umm". It makes you sound like a moronic Hufflepuff. You're not stupid, nor are you a Hufflepuff."
"Err, thanks? I mean, umm. Sorry."
Draco closed his book and put it aside. Harry was going pink now and Draco figured that, as his best friend (it'd been a productive few months since the Dark Lord's death) that Harry deserved his undivided attention.
"It's fine, Harry, really. What is it you wanted to say?" Draco smiled at him, trying to ease Harry's mind over whatever was clearly bothering him.
"I just wanted to ask… I mean, how would you feel if, hypothetically… as in, not literally, but just as an imagined situation… with no bearing on real situation…"
Draco threw his book at Harry, who ducked with the swiftness of a seeker and glowered at the snake. "Shut up, and spit it out."
Harry smiled for just a millisecond at how Draco now used Muggle terms easily and completely without disdain. How far they'd come.
Harry breathed in a deep breath, then let it all out in one long, noisy exhalation.
"You'd say we're pretty close now, right?"
Draco nodded when Harry looked up for affirmation.
"And you're honest with me, right?"
Again, Draco nodded.
"Well, I just wanted your opinion. Hypothetically speaking, how opposed would you be to having a friend who was, let's just say, vaguely attracted to his or her own sex than to the opposite?"
The way Harry said it was more mumbling than properly formed words, but Draco had seem hundreds of men before the Dark Lord in his manor and knew how to decipher under-the-breath tones.
"You mean gay? It's not that uncommon in the Wizarding World, and I don't suppose I'd care. Why, is one of our friends cracking on to you? Bloody Slytherin, I bet. Is it Theo? I always knew he wasn't as straight as he said. Anyway, just be a Gryffindor and tell them you're not interested."
Harry nodded, and mumbled something even Draco failed to decipher before he picked up a book, seemingly happy to end the conversation there.
Draco sighed, deciding to let it go rather than try and work out the inner mind of Harry Potter.
An hour later, Draco had written only another page and a quarter, distracted as he was by Harry still sighing and stabbing innocent parchment pieces with his quill.
Draco huffed in an un-Malfoy fashion and got up, stomping over to Harry. He picked Harry up by his arms and pushed him against a wall, banging him just a little against it, and snarling.
"I answered your question and you're still not leaving me alone to work. What the bloody hell is wrong with you? "
Harry met Draco's eyes with steely determination.
"I'm gay."
Draco snorted, "Don't lie to me, Harry. No bloody Gryffindork saviour bats for the other team. If you won't tell me the truth, then fine, but at least go and find a ginger to share your story with! I can't do a single thing with you dramatically sighing every five seconds and what in the name of Merlin's beard did that parchment every do to you? So I ask again: What. Is. Wrong. With. You?"
Harry's face was a mask of frozen shock from Draco's outburst, until he broke and hung his head down. After a few seconds he looked up and Draco was shocked to see a tear in Harry's eye, so shocked that he let go of his friend's arms.
Harry stumbled a little, but regained his footing and stood up taller. Not quite able to meet Draco's eye, his gaze set just a little low, he growled out words.
"What's 'wrong' with me? Interesting choice of words, Malfoy. I'm gay. That's the problem. That's what's wrong with me. I like men! You 'don't suppose you'd care'? Clearly, you do care. Whatever, Draco. It's fine. Because you know what? I'm gay and that's not something you can change just because your best friend doesn't appreciate you for other reasons!"
With that, Harry stormed out, leaving an unmoving Draco in his wake.
The Boy-Who-Lived was gay?
Draco found Harry 4 hours and 37 minutes later in the Room of Requirement, which, for some reason, let him in immediately.
Harry's eyes were wet when he looked up and scowled upon seeing Draco.
"The Room has a funny sort of humour these days," Harry said softly, "I don't want you here."
Draco came forward anyway.
"Harry, I…"
The Gryffindor snarled. "If you're going to say you're sorry and you didn't mean it and it doesn't matter, don't. Because you're lying. I had just so wanted you to change, Draco. So much. I couldn't see the truth. Leave, please."
Harry watched with sad eyes as Draco started walking backwards, but then confusion became apparent when Draco walked to one side, sitting down cross-legged on the lounge that had just appeared for him. From his pocket he pulled a small bottle.
Harry looked on curiously as Draco unstoppered the bottle and drank the contents, before throwing the empty bottle over to Harry.
The label 'Veritaserum' was clearly inked on the bottle's tag and Harry gasped, looking up to see a serious Draco, whose expression was something of sadness mixed with a smile.
"Ask me something, Harry. Check I took the potion."
Harry shook his head, this was crazy. What game was Draco trying to pull?
"Ask me," the blonde insisted.
Harry sucked his bottom lip in between his teeth. "What were you really doing in the bathroom the night I found and cursed you?"
Draco grimaced, "You just had to, didn't you? I was crying, Harry, crying."
Harry gasped a little, but smothered the sound. Draco telling the truth? And under the potion, it was impossible not to with such a direct question. Harry decided that at this point, he couldn't lose much more, so he pressed on.
"Ok, so you took the potion. Why did you come here?"
Draco took a deep breath, and Harry waited as still and as patiently as he could.
"It took me 4 minutes and 29 seconds to release you were telling the truth. You had no reason to lie to me, and I to you. I was wrong to doubt you were telling the truth, but you must consider how impossible it was for me to imagine. You, the Gryffindor Golden Boy, are gay? Something not planned for you at birth? Something you actually controlled? Something you would be harshly criticised for? I didn't know why you would bring it upon yourself. But still, if you are, you are. And I meant what I said; I couldn't care less. We're close, Harry, the best of friends. It sounds stupid and I sound like a bloody Hufflepuff, but I don't want to lose that."
Harry's eyes were still glazed over, but Draco knew he'd said the right thing. In any case, it was all he could say. He did mean it though, because Draco loved his friends.
"You still said it, though, Draco. You still said it so you must've thought it. What's 'wrong' with me?"
Draco shook his head vehemently. "I didn't mean that, honestly. I'm bisexual, for Merlin's sake. It's not something you choose, and it can't be beaten out of you. We know that. When I said that it was out of confusion and seeing as I can't lie, I was also thinking of the press. They won't see this as a positive development in your story."
Harry smiled a little at that last line, and nodded. "True, but I've never much cared for them."
"Friends?" Draco queried, holding out a hand.
"Definitely," Harry nodded, grasping the blonde's arm firmly.