So I would just like to thank my beta, .net/u/2723884/letthebutterbeerflow ...she's been so wonderfully helpful to me as I write this fic. Reviews are greatly appreciated, and I'll post chapter two soon...once I see if people are interested =) Enjoy!

It was raining—hard. And whenever it rained, Harry liked to wander around the castle in his invisibility cloak, and think. Mostly he would think about the past: all the people who he had lost, who had died in that very place. But sometimes, he thought about the present: how much better life was without Voldemort, how lucky he was to have such amazing friends. And on nights like these, when all he could hear was heavy rain pounding down, and no one else was around, he liked to think about love.

He and Ginny had realized after the war that they were both very different people, and it didn't feel right anymore. They were still friends, still very close, but they had lost their desire for each other. It was sad, for both of them, but they knew better than to force it.

Harry was pretty sure he didn't even like girls anymore. He had only talked to Hermione about it, who had shared some magazines with him, with shirtless guys and things like that. He had returned most of them, but kept two he especially liked—a muggle one called "Playgirl" and a wizard one called "Wizard Wands". Hermione had been very supportive. She promised not to tell anyone, although advised him to discuss it at least with Ron, and answered all his questions. She had even let Harry kiss her, to see if it was just Ginny he wasn't attracted to. The kiss had been nice, but he didn't get turned on at all.

He also stopped noticing girls in the halls, and tended to shift his focus from boobs to butts—guy butts. He loved the curve of them, how they would fill his hands, how he loved undressing boys with his eyes and wished he could do so with his hands—yeah, he was pretty bloody sure he was gay.

He'd even found someone to test it out with. After the war, he had helped the Dursleys return to their home, and ended up staying with them for a while; they weren't fully convinced that they were safe, and insisted Harry be their body guard for the summer. During the first week, Harry had met Mrs. Figg's nephew, Griffin, who was just two years older than Harry. He and Harry became fast friends, being the only two wizards around. Griffin was very kind to Harry, and Harry felt safe telling him secrets.

One night, while they were out on a walk, Harry kissed him. He hadn't meant to, but Griffin had been talking about how much he missed his sister, who was killed in the war, and Harry couldn't stop staring at the lips that were uttering such tragically beautiful words. So he kissed him—and freaked out. Griffin tried to calm him down, explaining to him that it was okay, he wouldn't tell anyone, he understood. But Harry only stopped freaking out when Griffin said those nine magnificent words: "I've been waiting forever for you to do that".

Harry couldn't believe it. While Griffin had never said explicitly whether he was gay or straight, Harry had just assumed—well, he didn't know what he assumed. But he definitely wasn't expecting Griffin to be okay with Harry kissing him. And he definitely, definitely wasn't expecting Griffin to invite him over. Mrs. Figg had been out that night, and they went up to Griffin's room to…experiment.

Griffin had been gentle with Harry in those weeks, letting him learn and explore at his own pace. He introduced him bit by bit to all aspects of gay sex. Harry, having already lost his virginity to Ginny, experienced what it was like to be the receiver. He found that he liked being on the bottom much more than being on the top, which Griffin made him try out a few times as well. Harry had to admit that both positions were enjoyable. There was just something about being taken that he enjoyed so much more, though.

When the summer ended, the Dursleys got over their irrational paranoia, and Harry had to go back to Hogwarts for his 7th year to make up for missing the previous one (apparently, fighting a war and defeating the darkest wizard of all time wasn't an excuse for skipping the last year of school). He and Griffin knew they had to break up—they both knew the long distance thing would never work, especially with Harry at school and Griffin stuck on Privet Drive, and the fact that their entire relationship was based on the physical aspect of it all. The day came for Harry to leave. He told Griffin how thankful he was for everything that he'd done for him. They parted knowing they'd helped each other out, and that they would probably never see each other again.

As the school year began, Harry was still confused. Everything with Griffin had happened so fast and was so intense that it was hard for him to let it all sink in. The more he thought about it, the more unsure he got that he only liked boys—hence, the Hermione kiss. After that, he was convinced. Girls just didn't do it for him anymore.

He told Ron about it, who took it really well, cracking jokes about Harry fancying him and warning him not to spy when Ron was taking a shower. Harry was really glad that Ron was so accepting. Unfortunately, Ron was also really curious; he wanted to know how everything worked, what it felt like, how different it was to being with a girl. He made Harry promise to always give him the dirty details. It was obvious Ron was pin-straight; he and Hermione were full-on-crazy-in-love, but it didn't stop Ron from being totally intent on learning all he could about gay sex. He was, after all still a horny teenage boy, and gay sex was still sex, so naturally he was interested in it. Harry appreciated having a guy friend to talk to about the sex, and a girl friend to talk to about the feelings, although he knew he could talk to them each about both.

The rain got harder. Harry meandered mindlessly through the halls, pondering his situation and not really paying attention to where he was going. Which is why, when he stepped on a stair and his foot sank in and stuck there, he wasn't too upset that he had forgotten to skip over the trick stair. It was his own fault, after all, and he didn't mind being stuck on the staircase; it just gave him a better excuse for staying out later than he meant to. He decided to take off his invisibility cloak so that if anyone passed by him, they a) wouldn't walk into him and b) could try to help him. He didn't care if a teacher caught him—after all, it's not like they're going to give a 7th year (let alone Harry Potter) detention for walking around the castle at night.

Harry managed to maneuver his body so that his leg turned around and he could sit on the step above. Apparently, his foot could move inside the step, he just couldn't get it out. He spent the next ten minutes just stuck there, with his eyes closed, enjoying the pound of the rain. He sighed, perfectly content being stuck there all night.

"Potter?" an amused voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs. Harry's eyes snapped open. None other than Draco Malfoy stood, watching Harry as someone would watch a highly entertaining television show.

"What are you doing?" he asked, the amusement strong in his voice.

"I, erm…I was, ah, taking a walk, and…thinking. I forgot about the trick step. I've been stuck here for about 15 minutes," Harry explained lamely. Draco was full on howling with laughter at this point. Harry rolled his eyes. He wasn't mad at Malfoy for laughing at him—he would definitely be pissing himself too if he found the other boy in this situation.

"Look, are you going to help me, or what?" Harry asked exasperatedly. His leg was seriously starting to hurt from being stuck so long.

"No…not yet. I rather like having the Golden Boy like this—all damsel in distress style." Draco chuckled and carefully, dramatically, stepped over the trick step and sat on the stair above it, right next to Harry.

After Harry saved Draco's life, something had shifted for them. They weren't best mates all of a sudden, but they didn't hate each other anymore. Any teasing that occurred now was purely playful, and never crossed the line labeled "offensive"—they were very cautious of that line.

Surprisingly, Ron warmed up easily to the idea of forgive and forget when it came to Malfoy. Malfoy had apologized for everything he'd ever said about Ron's family, and Ron had pretty much just accepted that as that. They ended up getting along really well, even sitting together occasionally at meals to discuss Quidditch. Even more surprising was that Hermione had had the toughest time forgiving Malfoy. Apparently, the taunts and jokes about her "impure" blood had left deeper scars that anyone knew. It took a very long while, but after his endless apologies, gifts, and offers to help her with S.P.E.W., she warmed up to Malfoy as well. Unfortunately for him, she took every offer seriously, and kept him very busy very often with plans and projects for species equality.

Harry shoved Malfoy's shoulder lightly with his.

"You're a prick, you know that?" he said, but he couldn't hide his smile as Malfoy started cracking up again.

"Okay, okay, it's hilarious. Now please help me out!" he begged. Malfoy's giggles subsided, and he smirked as he stared straight into Harry's eyes.

"You're kind of cute when you beg," he drawled. He started laughing again when Harry blushed and looked down, smiling slightly and shyly.

"Merlin, Malfoy, don't say things like that," he said embarrassedly. Malfoy seemed to realize he was treading in dangerous waters and abruptly stopped laughing.

"Sorry, did I…was that too far?" he asked, not even really sure what he might have said wrong.

"No, it's not…I'm just…you didn't…" Harry stuttered. "It's just that I'm…well, I'm…gay," he said slowly, almost as if he couldn't really believe it.

"Oh," Malfoy said, lighting up. "Well, in that case," he whispered, his voice getting a little low, "you are definitely cute when you beg." Harry's head snapped up and his confused eyes met Malfoy's fiery ones, and something clicked. Harry literally felt something click. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was something very important.

Malfoy's eyes fell away from his, and the next few minutes were a blur for Harry as he vaguely heard Malfoy cast a spell and felt himself being lifted up. It was only when he realized that his foot was free and he had been staring at Malfoy for at least a full minute and a half that he snapped out of it.

"Uh, thanks, for…that. Right, helping me out. Yeah, okay, well, thanks." Harry silently judged himself for his complete idiocy. Malfoy just stared at Harry, smirking, which did not help. The intense gaze made Harry squirm, so he bolted out of there and back to the Gryffindor common room, never looking back.