YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. DRARRY IS COOL.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, though, there would be so much more gay subtex.

Warnings: This is rated M, guys. So if you're uncomfortable with gay sex, or cursing, and whatever else this story could hold, then kindly gtfo.

_o-O-o_

Harry's head throbbed painfully as he opened his eyes to the bright ceiling he had come to familiarize himself with. He was in the hospital wing. Why was he in the hospital wing?

"Oh, Harry!" He heard Hermione's worried voice ring loud and clear in the room. He could vaguely see her blurred outline. Where were his glasses?

He blinked a couple of times, getting used to the lighting, before he reached over to the nightstand for his glasses. He was pleased to feel the frame under his palm, and quickly shoved them on his face.

With his vision restored, he could actually see his two best friends. Their pitiful faces were not encouraging in the slightest for someone who had just awoken in the hospital wing without a clue as to how he had gotten there. Ron practically looked like he was about to vomit as he eyed the brunette.

Harry's expression dropped completely. "What's wrong?" Besides the fact that I'm in the hospital wing right now.

"Well, it's-" Hermione began, but she cut herself off in fear of saying what was sure to be really terrible news. He watched her eyesight slip pointedly to his left. He followed it desperately.

Harry jumped as he began to take notice to one of the most bizarre sights he had ever seen. It seemed as though someone had shoved a different bed up against Harry's own to create one large, queen sized bed. And laying on his stomach on that other bed in a deep slumber, with his sleek, white-blonde hair sprawled out messily on the thin pillow, was none other than Harry's childhood nemesis Draco Malfoy. Confusion drenched his mind, wondering why exactly the pair of them had been sleeping so close to each other.

But that confusion was nothing compared to the terror that came to him as his eyesight traveled down the blonde's long arm and onto the brilliantly white hand which happened to be intertwined with his own. He quickly tried to shake it off, a narrow gasp escaping his lips.

Only it didn't let go. Frantic trepidation began to seep into Harry's bloodstream, now, as he quickly tugged on the hand. It was as if the hand was glued onto his own, as it was clear Draco had not been voluntarily holding on so desperately like this. He yanked hard, pushing his whole body backwards and almost toppling off of the bed.

"Stop! You'll hurt him like that!" Hermione sounded a quite panicked as well, seeing the utter desperation in Harry's demeanor. Harry noticed that he had been pulling Draco so that his face pressed harshly against what looked like an invisible wall. He also noticed Draco had just opened his eyes.

It was almost comical, the way Draco's eyes popped and his eyebrows furrowed down, taking in this situation less than gracefully. "The fuc-..?" he started, but then quickly began pulling his own hand backwards, sitting upright on the bed for a better pull.

It was utter pandemonium. The two were beyond desperate now for their hands. Their hands unexpectedly unlinked as they both tugged, both of them falling backwards only to be caught once more by the tips of their middle fingers, which refused to part from each other. Hermione was flailing about trying to get them to stop before they caused any damage. She flicked her wand to cancel the barrier that was set between them, which Draco had been using as leverage to keep him from sliding forward on the bed.

With the force field gone, Draco had tumbled forward. This combined with the force Harry was providing sent both of them falling to the ground roughly, Draco landing painfully on top of Harry.

"Stop struggling!" Hermione insisted, though honestly it was a fruitless case.

Harry shoved Draco off from on top of him, feeling almost triumphant as he realized he had gotten his hand back to himself. Draco flopped over, obviously realizing this too as he cradled it in his chest. The blonde convulsively began to crawl backward to get as far away from the Gryffindor as he could.

Which turned out to be not that far away at all, seeing as now their bare feet were the limbs that were super-glued together.

"What the bloody fuck is going on?" Malfoy cursed, his voice almost screechy in fright as he began kicking about, bringing Harry's own foot thrashing around with it.

"Ow- fuck- stop that!" Harry warned as Malfoy brought their feet into the ground roughly.

Hermione looked beside herself. "I've been trying to tell you- you have to stop struggling with each other-"

"'Stop struggling'?" Malfoy was beyond frantic at this point, "'Stop struggling'? He won't give me my bloody foot back!"

"As if I want it!" Harry defended himself, holding onto another bed behind him to keep Malfoy from dragging him away.

Malfoy suddenly gained his infamous threatening scowl, which Harry was so used to seeing it was hardly 'threatening'. "I swear you'll pay for whatever you've done-"

"What makes you think I've done this?"

"Guys! Stop it! We don't know who did this-" Hermione tried to gain control over the boys, but again it was fruitless.

Draco rounded on her, leaning on a hand to turn and face her, "You better be explaining what the fuck is going on here within the next thirty seconds, Mudblood, or I will-"

"Don't you talk to her like that-" Harry yanked his foot back so that Draco lost his balance and hit the floor.

"I'll talk to her however the sodding fuck I want, Scarhead-" Draco lifted their legs in the air, making Harry lose his own balance and hit the floor as well.

"Language, Mr. Malfoy!" Came the voice of the school's healer, Madam Pomfrey. She made her way over to the boys on the floor, tutting at the way they were kicking at each other with their linked feet. "Honestly, look at you two! You would think you would have the littlest bit of decency to not kill each other every five minutes!"

"Madam Pomfrey-!" Harry exclaimed, trying to keep their legs still through Draco's constant attempts to break free.

"Yes, yes," She hushed him, grabbing Draco under his arm to lift him upward. Harry was pulled in turn. "Oh, sorry dear!" She bent over to help him up as well. As he got to his feet, he was suddenly aware of how close he was to Draco, being their feet were still stuck together. He tried to take a small step away.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I tried to stop them-"

"It's perfectly fine, dear," Madam shushed her as well. "Given their condition, I understand if it was a little difficult to get them to come to..."

"What's going on-?" Harry started rather rudely; being this close to the Slytherin making him a little testy.

"Well, I-," began the healer awkwardly. She tried to give them both a reassuring smile. It did little to reassure Harry. "I think you should both sit down for this." She added politely.

Heeding her advice, the boys sat down on Harry's bed, both of them scooting as far away as possible. Their legs bent sideways in a bit of an awkward angle, but both of them found that was better than the alternative.

Harry took this small pause in conversation to look over to Ron, who had been surprisingly quiet during the tussle. It became obvious why; judging by the green tint to his complexion and the way he was covering his mouth he really was on the verge of throwing up. Harry swallowed thickly.

Pomfrey pulled up a stool that was situated at the foot of the bed, and sitting down so that she was level with the two nerve-wrecked boys. She took a breath dramatically, before she spoke. "I'm certain neither of you are familiar with the Sanguis Tactul curse?"

Both of them furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. Madam Pomfrey sighed, as though she had figured they wouldn't have.

"Well, it's a very, very old curse that has hardly been used for at least seven centuries. It used to be used by newlywed witches and wizards, more commonly those who were in fixed marriages." She paused here, making sure both listening. They had identical looks of deep interest in her words, as well as identical looks of deep horror. "Essentially, what the curse does is link the two of you together."

Harry's eyebrows furrowed. "'Link us together'?" he questioned, his brain not wanting to believe something like that.

"Well, yes," said the healer, wearily. "While you are under the effects of the curse, it will be impossible for you two to not have skin-on-skin contact."

Draco stood up frightfully fast. "And why can't we reverse the spell?"

"Wha- you can't reverse it?" Harry exclaimed sitting upright, very nauseous from having Madam Pomfrey fail him. She's never failed him in the past. She knew of a way to re-grow an entire armful of bones within one night!

"No shit, she can't reverse it, Scarhead." Draco hissed, his steel eyes aflame, "Otherwise we wouldn't still be in this situation-"

"Draco Malfoy, watch your tongue!" Draco flinched at Madam Pomfrey's tone. She stood up and placed an accusatory finger to his chest, somehow towering over him despite the fact Draco had almost a foot on her. "I understand you don't like this turn of events but honestly, have some dignity in your crisis! Cursing and yelling at Potter will not solve the problem! I'll take five points from Slytherin for that remark!"

Reluctantly, Draco sat back down, looking evermore fumed even with how his face had blushed a light pink.

"Now," She continued a little overwhelmed, "There is a way to unlink you two, and frankly it's a really easy spell, however..." Harry looked around hopefully toward Hermione, who was chewing on a thumbnail. She sent him a weak smile when she noticed his gaze.

Madam Pomfrey also turned toward Hermione, holding out her hand expectantly. Hermione began to ruffle through het bag that lay on the floor next to her, exerting a very large, musty book from the depths. "Lucky for us all Hermione here is a very good researcher." The healer commented watching as Hermione reddened, a little pleased with herself. Madam Pomfrey opened to a page that had been marked with a folded corner. She began to read from the text out loud.

"The caster of the Sanguis Tactul is the only wizard who is able to perish the curse; this is because in the case of an arranged marriage the parents of the couple would not want them to disobediently cancel it without permission. Back then it was essential that the couple remained linked for several months to a year so that they could learn to live well with each other. The father of the groom would more than likely be the caster, as he would be the one most in power of the families-"

Harry interrupted, "So then we have to find whomever set the curse and get them to remove it?"

"Obviously," Draco rolled his eyes, aristocratically crossing both his legs and arms. Harry almost yelped as his foot was carried with it.

"Can you not?" He pulled his foot back to the position it had been in before, uncrossing Draco's legs again.

Draco pursed his lips angrily before crossing his legs again. "I'll do what I want." He protested, even though Harry's leg was now awkwardly hanging in front of Draco's, attached by the foot.

Sensing another tussle coming on, Madam Pomfrey intervened, "You guys can pick and choose where you are linked, you know." She the added wisely to Harry, "It would probably be less awkward for you to just lay your hand on his arm."

Despite knowing that it would be less awkward than having his leg draped over the blonde, Harry wasn't all to comfortable with initiating the other option, either. Draco seemed to be ignoring him pointedly, so it was no use hoping he would make the first move. Taking a deep breath, Harry reached out his left hand and laid it on Draco's bicep. The blonde flinched away for a moment childishly, but eventually let him touch; even if he was still tense about it.

The effect was instantaneous. Harry's foot fell to the ground, bouncing slightly. He quickly pulled it away and back into his own claim. Draco was eyeing him disgustedly, making the whole action seem far more embarrassing than it really was. Harry cleared his throat. "So we just have to have even the tiniest bit of flesh touching at all times, then?"

Madam Pomfrey gave a light chuckle at his choice of words. "Well, you'll find it'll be 'the more flesh touching the better', actually."

Draco scowled. "And what do you mean by that, exactly?"

She flipped back a couple of pages in the book, and began reading again. "It is impossible for the wearers to pull apart from each other completely. However, it is quite possible to get to a fraction of a millimeter of contact, but it will eventually wear out the pair of them quickly. The muscles in their bodies will eventually long for contact again, becoming painful to stay apart. They would tire themselves out very quickly."

Harry became aware of his muscles right now. He felt tense, but that was because he was nervous and very wary of the situation. To be honest he felt quite fine at the moment- all things considered. He wondered how long it would be until he started to feel the effects. But, he supposed, maybe since they had Harry's whole hand as contact they wouldn't tire at all. He decided to voice this.

"What about right now? Would we eventually get tired if we don't get more contact?" Harry noted Draco's blush, and became certain Draco had just been wondering the same thing.

"Eventually, yes." It was not Madam Pomfrey who spoke this time, but Hermione, "It could make you restless to not have a decent amount of contact. But the time in which you can stay apart depends on how strong the caster casted it."

Draco murmured something under his breath, and Harry had a vague suspicion it was about Hermione's blood stature. Harry was unsure, though, if Draco had actually meant it or not, given everything Draco had gone through in the war. It could just be old traditions for him. Harry tried to stop thinking about it, because quite frankly he couldn't give less of a damn about what Draco Malfoy thought.

Madam Pomfrey smiled at her, "You boys should thank Ms. Granger here, for researching this curse so indomitably since you were attacked. I admit, I have only ever heard of it in passing before during my training. This spell has been out of use for so long it wasn't in any curriculum I've taken!" Hermione blushed again.

"Where are Blaise and Pansy?" Draco called out rudely, interrupting what Hermione was about to say. "Why are Weasley and Granger here but not my friends?"

"Oh, they actually only left about ten minutes before you woke up to go down to breakfast." Madam Pomfrey assured him, "They were here practically all last night. I told them there was no need, as I also told Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley, but they all insisted..." Harry was glad. He had a feeling this would be much worse if he didn't have his friends here. Even if Ron was looking more and more like the ghoul in his attic by the second. "I could go call for them now, if you wish. I need to go tell McGonagall of your awakening, anyway." She offered.

Draco nodded his head toward her, and she scurried out of the doorway. A moment later, she popped her head back in.

"And please refrain yourselves from getting physical again. If one of you punches the other you'll both go flying..."

An awkward silence filled the air after her departure, no one wanting to speak for fear of making it more awkward; with the exception of Ron who was still in no condition to open his mouth. Eventually, Draco pulled the arm Harry was holding away, loosening his clasp slightly.

"Stop doing that," the blonde mumbled. Harry was confused for a moment, then took notice to the way his thumb had been lightly rubbing a small line along the inside of Draco's arm. He flushed brightly, muttering an apology, unsure of why his thumb had done that.

Trying to hide his embarrassment, Harry asked a question that had been running through his mind for a while. "How long have we been in here?"

Hermione looked up at him from where she had been gazing off in deep concentration, realizing he was asking her a question. "Neville found you two passed out in the seventh floor corridor the night before last. You've been in here a whole day now."

Harry, ignoring Draco's scoff at 'Neville', pressed this further. "And that was Monday right? Is today Wednesday?"

Hermione nodded her head. "I think it's safe for me to assume you don't remember how you got like that, then?"

Harry smiled weakly at her, "The last thing I remember is going up to the common room alone after supper."

"So then your attacker had to have gotten to you both between six-thirty and eleven, as that was when Neville found you. Though it seemed as though you were there for a while, so I'm thinking ten-thirty at the latest."

Harry found it wise to ask, "Did anyone see either of us after supper?"

Her head shook sadly, "We've been asking around. No one recalls seeing either of you after you left the Great Hall." She paused for a moment before adding, "Parkinson said Malfoy was supposed to meet her in the Quidditch Pitch at eight, but he never came-"

"Can we stop playing Auror for five minutes? I'm not really in the mood to hear you two sputtering random nonsense, right now." Draco cut in, pinching the bridge of his nose with the fingers on his left hand, letting his right arm fall into his lap.

Harry practically growled at him, "Well sorry for trying to get to the bottom of this! Unless you want to be stuck to me for the rest of eternity?"

Draco tensed. "In your dreams, Potter. I'd just rather try to pretend you weren't here, at the moment. But that's really hard to do with you two bickering like that."

"We weren't 'bickering'," Harry rolled his eyes with a scoff. "And for your information, finding the time of day when the attacker hit us is a rather valuable piece of knowledge."

Draco went quiet for a minute, only the intense look of concentration keeping Harry from continuing his investigation with Hermione. Draco had his eyes shut tightly, resuming his earlier position of hunching over and pinching his nose. This time, he was muttering lightly under his breath. When Harry had finally had enough wondering what Draco was doing and began to start talking again, the blonde had shushed him with the raise of his hand. Finally, without lifting his position, he blurted, "The last thing I remember was walking up to the seventh floor sometime after eight o'clock- because I hadn't exactly felt like being in the Pitch at the time. I was hit from behind with a stunner."

Everyone went quiet with this piece of information. Then Harry burst, "Why would you hide this information from us for so long?"

"That's a crucial bit to keep to yourself, you know-" Hermione continued before Draco interrupted hastily, sitting straight up.

"I only just figured it out, thanks!" He spat harshly. "Uncovering memories under the Oblivious curse is no easy task, thank you!"

Hermione blinked twice, "You can uncover memories that were blocked by the Oblivious curse? Is that what you were doing?"

Draco clenched his jaw tightly, refusing to look at anything other than the carpet. "My aunt taught me..." He mumbled. Harry didn't need Draco to elaborate the fact that it was probably around the same time she taught him Occlumency. The room became awkward again with the mention of Bellatrix Lestrange. "But I can only do a little. And whomever casted it did a good job covering up anything after I got stunned."

"Hang on," Harry was surprised to hear Ron speak up, sounding a little hoarse and looking a little green, but speaking nonetheless. "Why were you going up to the seventh floor anyway?"

Draco pursed his lips dignifiedly. "That's none of your concern, now, is it, Weasel?"

Ron glared at him, "Damn straight it is!" He turned toward Hermione, pointing toward the blonde. "He's probably the one who casted the spell!"

Draco uncrossed his legs very suddenly. "I beg your pardon?"

"It's some evil, sick, scheme he's plotted to get back at Harry!" Ron continued, making Draco almost jump at him in anger.

"You think that I would want this? You think I wanted to be stuck to this specky git for what could be the remainder of the century?" Draco was standing up now, bringing Harry's hand with him. "For your information I was intent on spending the rest of my days forgetting Potter's existence!" He looked ready to storm out of the room, dragging Harry along with him in his rage. Thankfully though, he sat back down, muttering under his breath so only Harry could indistinctly hear, "I have nothing to 'get back' at him for anyway..."

"Oh yeah? Why don't you try saying the counter curse, then! I'll believe it when I see it!"

"Ron," Hermione interjected, a hand on his chest to push him back. "Malfoy did not cast the spell."

Harry chuckled, a little nervously. "Yeah, I don't think he's very keen on this entire situation, so... sorry, mate."

Begrudgingly, Ron fell back, muttering darkly all the while.

"And for the love of god, Potter!" Malfoy flinched his arm again so violently if it weren't for the spell it would have left Harry's hand. Harry went completely red.

"I definitely think that's the spell, Malfoy." He muttered, tentatively regaining his hand's original position around Draco's arm.

"Yeah, well, it's bloody annoying and I can't concentrate with you doing that. So control yourself or I'll-"

"Draco!" The next moment, Pansy Parkinson had tackled Draco backwards on the bed, ripping Harry's grip again. The end of Harry's finger caught itself on his arm, though, and slid its connection all the way down until just the tips of their fingers were touching.

"Ow! Pans!" Draco was rubbing the spot where her head collided with his chin. She nuzzled into his chest.

"I'm so sorry I was out for your grand awakening, but someone couldn't control their hunger." She glared at Blaise, who was standing a few feet from the doorway next to Pomfrey. "Will you ever forgive me?" She asked dramatically.

Draco scoffed harshly, his voice sounding breathless due to her weight, "I'll forgive you once you stop weighing so much."

She made a very scandalized, high pitched noise, a hand going over her mouth. "Here I was crying by your bedside all night, having to endure the company of Granger and Weasley, and this is the comfort I receive!"

"Just to let you know, I might not forgive you for letting me wake up to this horror with only these three in the room."

"Alright, alright," Madam Pomfrey tried to regain control of the room. "Right now I need to check over the boys to make sure they're as healthy as they seem, so Ms Parkinson, if you please..."

Pansy got up off of Draco, pouting at Draco's last jab. "That was Blaise's fault!" She protested. "He was the hungry one!" Blaise rolled his eyes. Harry saw both Malfoy and Blaise give each other a smirk in acknowledgement.

Draco sat up, loosening the stretch between his and Harry's hands. Almost instantly the hands slid into one another, neither of the boys consciously tell their hands to do so. Both of them froze instantly, going a little pink. Harry lifted his hand up to Draco's wrist instead, figuring this was much less awkward for the both of them.

Madame Pomfrey began waving her wand, poking, and prodding at the two boys, writing down her calculations on a clipboard as she went. She finished soon, happily humming, "Healthier than ever! It seems your attacker didn't really want either of you harmed."

Hermione spoke, "Yes, I was wondering about that." She then asked Harry, "Why would someone want to do this to you, instead of kill you or something while they had the chance?"

Unsure himself, Harry shrugged. He saw Ron eyeing Malfoy suspiciously again.

"It's probably just to ruin our pride," Malfoy waved her off glaring back at Ron, though addressing everyone. "Seeing as though it's utter horror for the two of us to be in the same room as each other."

"It could be for laughs." Both Harry and Malfoy glared intensely at Blaise for mentioning that. Blaise lifted his hands innocently, chuckling a bit. "You've gotta admit, it is rather humorous."

Draco stood up, his face deadly as he pointed toward the door. "Get out." He said through his teeth.

Blaise only laughed more, "You don't even have your wand on you, mate."

Draco was practically fuming as he lunged. Harry, sensing danger, gripped tighter on the blonde's wrist and pulled him back before any damage was done. Madam Pomfrey was eyeing Draco much like Harry had seen Mrs. Weasley eye the twins a while back, calling his name in a scolding tone.

The blonde seemed to not notice though, as he kept tugging at the hand that restrained him. "God fuc- Potter!"

"Well, sorry if I didn't want to go flying with you as you punched him!" Harry gave once last angry tug on Draco, making him wobble on a foot for a second before crashing to the bed. Enraged even more, Draco pushed on Harry's chest so that he fell over backwards.

"Boys!" Madam Pomfrey's voice echoed in the room, but Draco and Harry had already begun. They were kicking and scratching at each other, occasionally sticking to each other halfway through a punch because their skin was not touching elsewhere. Harry managed a good punch to the eye, though he felt blood on his lip. Madam Pomfrey managed to grab them both by the scruff and, with the help of Blaise and Ron, held them both back. They were both pulling towards each other by the tips of their fingers, which were connected, for another chance of getting some damage.

After a moment both boys went limp; still enraged, but sensing defeat. Madam Pomfrey began to nag, "Honestly! Don't you two have any dignity? You should spend your energy working together to find the culprit! I'll take five points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor for fighting! You're lucky I'm not taking more!" She turned to the other four teenagers, waving at them with a grave gesture. "I'm going to have to ask you four to leave so that these two can work out their situation without anyone to provoke them!" She held her glare heavily on Blaise.

As Ron and Blaise let them go to leave, Draco and Harry's hands once again involuntarily slid into each other. Draco scowled at him before being the one to take Harry's wrist this time. He clutched the grasp painfully hard, his fingers digging into the inside of Harry's wrist. Harry bit his tongue to keep from screaming out in pain and letting him win.

"Now boys, I have a report to file." Madame Pomfrey told them as she began to pack up her clipboard. "Professor McGonagall has requested a private word with you two about housing arrangements and whatnot and will be down here in a few minutes-"

"Housing arrangements?" Harry questioned.

Draco scoffed at him, gripping even tighter. Harry cold see his hand going white from the loss of blood flow. "You didn't expect for me to just prance into the lion's den, did you?"

"Your Headmistress will clear it all up when she gets here." She informed them, "But I've got to write this report- note that I'll only be in the next room and can come in at anytime to break up another fight." She sighed, "I guess I might as well mention that you'll find out more about this spell as you go."

"Like what?" Harry asked a little bit nervously.

She coughed a bit to clear her throat. "Well, I'm not too certain myself. That book didn't have too much information on this spell, only just enough to explain what it was and how to use it." Harry frowned, not really liking that answer all too much. With that said, the healer nodded to them then turned the corner into her office, leaving the two linked teenagers alone.

Harry could feel the icicles forming between them.

_o-O-o_

Kcool. We'll see how the rest of this story turn out...