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Summary: Routine fails Draco as Blaise confronts him about his love life and gets a public confession out of him saying that he likes Harry Potter. What does he do now?! Short, sweet, and super cliche...like always! Loosely based on a song by Relient K.
Disclaimer: All of the characters, places, and names mentioned in this story belong to J.K. Rowling, AOL Time Warner, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and the other important (not to mention, very rich) people involved in the Harry Potter franchise. No copyright infringement is intended, and certainly no money is being made from this piece of fiction.
This story was also inspired by the song Who I Am Hates Who I've Been by the band Relient K. The title was directly taken out of the first verse of this song, as well.
I'm just a poor college student with a slight creative streak. All I own that has some sort of value is Sorry, the laptop, and my iPod. So please don't sue me...I'm saving my pennies because I'm in Italy, and it's much more expensive here than in the US!
Rating: PG for slight language and, of course, the slash factor! Yes, that means boys kissing other boys! So if that makes you squeamish, then don't bother, for your sake and mine.
The Proverbial Sunrise
It dawned a regular day. The sun rose in the East, birds sang, alarm clocks went off and the world went about its business.
It dawned a regular day...but Draco Malfoy had no idea that the day was anything but regular.
He vaguely heard the loud snores coming out of Crabbe and Goyle's beds as he blearily got out of bed to get ready for the day. Draco wasn't exactly a morning person...and it was a good thing most people didn't know.
"Nice hair," Blaise smirked at him.
"Bugger off, Zabini," Draco said around his toothbrush. He spit into the sink, "you've said that every morning to me since our first year."
Blaise grinned. "And it's not about to change. Call it routine, if you will." And with a flourish, Blaise stepped into a shower.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Routine. Right."
As he walked down the hall, Draco noticed a small group of people coming down the stairs off to the side.
The Golden Trio.
Perfect in every way, they were laughing at something Weasley had said. Of course, this was the way it always was. The Golden Trio were always happy, nothing ever went wrong in their perfect little world. Draco once again rolled his eyes as he heard Potter laugh at Weasley's crack on a comment Snape made on one of his essays.
And, as every morning since first year, Draco kicked himself for not being the one Potter was laughing with.
The blond glanced at the trio again, and Potter glared as he passed.
Call it routine, if you will.
"Draco, are you paying attention?" Pansy said, managing to sound very annoyed and annoying at the same time.
The Slytherin in question quickly glanced up and away from the direction his eyes had been previously focused on. "What?"
Pansy rolled her eyes. "Draco! Did you or did you not talk to Professor Snape about that party we've been planning? You said you'd take care of it!"
"Oh...right. Yeah, I asked him yesterday. He said he'd get back to me. I'll let you know when he does."
"You know, Draco," Pansy began in a suspicious voice. "You've been very distracted lately. Where were you looking?" She looked around in the general direction Draco had been ogling. "Is it a Gryffindork? Are we planning another scheme on Potter?" Pansy asked with a smirk.
Draco mentally sighed with relief. He answered positively and began an elaborate explanation for a prank he made up on the spot. Like most mornings, he'd been caught staring at Harry Potter.
Unlike most mornings, Blaise's mental wheels began to stir. Every morning this week Pansy had made a comment about Draco staring at Potter. And Blaise had seen the look on his face once he'd been called on - not exactly one of hatred. Something was wrong...and unlike most mornings, Blaise was going to confront Draco about it.
Draco walked briskly down the hall, on his way to Potions. It wasn't that he was running late, oh no...he just wanted to make sure he was there early, as always.
"Draco!" He heard from behind him. "Oy, wait up!"
The blond turned on the spot and raised an eyebrow at the messy-looking Blaise running towards him.
"Blaise, what are you doing?" He asked in amusement.
"Oh, not much," the dark Slytherin stopped in front of Draco and breathed deeply. "I was just curious about something."
"Oh?" Draco raised his other eyebrow.
"Yeah. So, I want to pick your brain."
"Right..."
"So, I'm just going to come out and ask you."
"As always..."
"So...do you like Potter?"
Wait. What?!
"What?!" Draco voiced his thoughts, slightly panicked.
"Do you like Potter?"
"Are Potter and I friends, Zabini?" The blond answered quickly.
"No...I'm not asking if you like him as a friend, I'm asking if you like him as a lover."
"What?!"
"A lover, Draco. You know...the one and only, you're other half, the apple of your eye...the one you want to hump..."
"You did not just say that!" Draco yelled with a cringe, covering his ears with his hands as though it would stop the words from flowing out of Blaise's mouth.
"Draco, do you like Po- ?"
"Zabini, shut up!"
"But, do you...?"
"I'm not answering that question! No!"
"Wait, so then do you...?"
"Shut up!!!"
"Draco, are you crushing on the Boy-Who-Lived?"
"Zabini!" Draco hissed, looking around frantically. "Shut the hell up!"
Blaise raised an eyebrow. "Ah...but that can only mean one thing."
"What? Zabini, what in Merlin's beard are you talking about?"
"You like Potter!" Blaise yelled with a grin.
"No...shut up!" Draco covered Blaise's mouth with both hands, still looking around the hall for any signs of intelligent life that could spread around what Zabini was repeatedly yelling like a retarded parrot.
"But you do!" Blaise's voice came through his fingers muffled. "Just admit it...I already know, and I won't drop it!" He said as a sort of warning.
Draco thought this through very quickly. It was true. If there was any adjective to use in description of Blaise, it was persistent. Draco felt like beating his head against the wall repeatedly.
"Fine, Blaise!" He said in a huff, for a moment forgetting about their public situation. And, unlike ever before, Draco confessed his deepest secret. "I have a crush on Potter! Happy?!"
And then there was a gasp.
Scratch that. Several gasps.
Draco turned around in denial, but it was no use. There was a small crowd of students that had been headed towards the Potions classroom as well. But that wasn't what Draco was worried about...there, in the middle of the crowd, stood the Golden Trio, with Potter in the center. His bright green eyes were wide, and his mouth was slightly open.
The blond stared back, not able to hide his fright and...well, shock. He'd just revealed himself! What the hell was he supposed to do now?
So he did the first thing that came to mind. He ran for it.
Draco was a coward. That was it.
The Slytherin in question was currently hiding under the stands of the Quidditch pitch, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes closed, and banging the back of his head against the wall he was leaning on.
How the hell was he going to get out of this one? There was no denying it...Blaise had gotten those dreaded words out of him, not only in front of Potter and his friends, but also in front of a considerable amount of his classmates. Everyone saw it, everyone heard it. And to top it off, he'd ran away! There was no clean way of getting out of this.
Why did he have to fall for Potter? Even Granger would've been easier. At least she was a female, and Draco knew that she liked boys! Potter was male, and as far as he knew, straight. He'd broken up with the Weaselette for good last month, and hadn't shown any signs at all that he might swing the other way...or both ways, at least.
Like most times Draco thought about Potter, he knew he must be going insane.
Draco sighed.
"Malfoy?"
Draco held his breath. Had he been that loud, that someone had heard him? Were they coming to point and laugh at him, just as he'd done to...everyone...for seven years straight?
"Malfoy?" He heard again.
Oh no...this wasn't just someone. This was The One. How the hell had Potter found him?!
"Listen, I know you're here, so don't try to hide because I'll eventually find you," Potter called out. "I just want to talk."
"About what, Potter?" Draco found his voice from somewhere below his knees and spoke out. "About how strange and pathetic I am for what I said earlier?"
Suddenly, Potter's head was visible from behind the wall perpendicular to where Draco was sitting against. "I just want to talk."
Draco closed his eyes and sighed again. "Fine, Potter. Lay it on thick, like I know you want to."
And when Draco felt it, he knew he must be going insane. The slight pressure against his lips and the soft warmth along his side meant something that simply couldn't be possible. Harry Potter would never kiss him!
Draco's eyes opened wide, as he stared into Potter's lovely green ones. He pulled his head back quickly.
"Potter, wha- ?" Silver eyes looked at the dark-haired boy in confusion.
Potter was giving him a slightly blank look, clearly not sure as to what response he should give or what he should do next.
"Well, you said...you know, back in the hall...?" Draco was taken aback...Potter was nervous! What the bloody hell was going on?
With a suspicious look, Draco plowed on. "Why did you just kiss me, Potter?"
"Er..." He was twiddling his thumbs. Potter was twiddling his thumbs!
"No way...I'm not that lucky," Draco said matter-of-factly, both of his eyebrows raised.
Potter looked up. "What do you mean?"
"You can't like me back! I was a right bastard to you for seven years, it's not bloody possible!"
"Er, well...it is because...I sort of do..."
"Potter," Draco started with a serious look.
"What?" The other boy answered, looking quite shy for someone who should've had the upper-hand in this conversation.
"What are you doing over there?"
"Well...I don't know..."
"Come here."
"But you..."
"Shut it and come here, Potter!" Draco ordered.
The Boy-Who-Lived quickly scuttled over and looked up at Draco with wide eyes.
Draco had been hating himself for the last two months. Hating himself for being the way he'd been all of those years to the one person that he wanted in his life.
For the past two hours, he'd been hating himself for being careless and saying his most guarded secret in front of that very same person...the person he wanted to find out, but at the same time the person that could never know.
Draco had basically hated his life for everything that didn't work out, and for everything that did (because even things that worked out, he tended to regret later on).
But now, staring into Po - no, Harry's eyes, under the stands of the Quidditch pitch, he knew that he wouldn't be hating his life anymore, because it'd all come together in the long run. It was like the sun was rising over his once shadowed life...and it made him feel warm all over.
He was definitely willing to make days like this a routine.