Disclaimer: All is owned by J.K. Rowling. She is the mastermind behind everything; I'm just a fan who gets bored while waiting for the next book to come out and (sadly) I get no money from this.
Pairings: HP/DM slash!
Warning: This is a slash fic. Boy/boy love, so if you don't like that kind of thing, kindly hit the back button and forget all about it. Deny vehemently to anyone including yourself that you ever came this close to reading slash.
Author's Note: Be forewarned! MAJOR AU! I'm talking Potter parents still living/extra Potter siblings/no magic/nice Draco (though still evil Lucius) kind of AU. It kind of popped into my head after hearing a Darren Hayes song (yes, I am a closet-case Savage Garden fan, what about it?), and I couldn't help but write an outline for it.
So Beautiful
Chapter One: Pranking Potter
He should have known, Harry Potter thought to himself with a half-amused, half-exasperated chuckle. He shook his head wildly, trying do dislodge the pieces of rainbow confetti that had lodged themselves within his messy black hair and behind his glasses lenses. The shiny little pieces of paper fluttered around him briefly in the mild breeze caused by his school mates hurrying around him, before dropping to the floor and joining the other half of the bright confetti that hadn't managed to cling to the green-eyed boy when they'd first come shooting out of his locker.
It really was a magnificent prank, Harry finally decided, as he eyed the portable hand-fan that had been taped to the bottom of his top shelf, and the empty plastic bag – which had undoubtedly previously contained the confetti – that hung from the top of his locker, swinging innocently in the fan's breeze. The people who had stopped when they had seen the explosion of colored paper fly out of the black-haired boy's locker and consume him, were now openly laughing as a completely ridiculous song that Harry vaguely recalled the title of ("I'm Coming Out") began playing from a tape recorder that had been adhered strategically against the inside lock. The pictures of scantily-clad men all oiled up and posing sexily for an unknown photographer pasted all over the inside of his locker door was a nice touch, he admitted, but the clincher – the finale that made the prank the best one Harry had yet to witness in his seventeen years – was the Polaroid camera that sat jauntily on top of the middle shelf, which – coincidentally – happened to be eye-level to Harry. Seconds after Harry had opened his locker, the camera had flashed and clicked, and now there was a not-so-flattering picture of his bewildered self completely covered in confetti lying on the floor next to his trainers, picture side up, visible to all passers-by, and now an excellent opportunity for black-mail should it ever fall into the wrong hands.
All and all Harry couldn't help but feel proud of the practical joke, even though he had been the unlucky victim of it. It was simple, brilliantly thorough, well-executed, excellently timed, and had Harry's twin sister's name written all over it. The prank itself screamed Potter – from the hand-fan (which Harry now recognized to be his own, ironically enough) to the tape recorder – and Harry, who knew well from experience, looked around for his cunning sister, who had never missed one of her own pranks when they went off. Sure enough, after taking a quick look through the surrounding crowd, he spotted his sneaky twin, standing off to the side, hugging her books to her front and grinning madly.
You cunning little sneak, Harry thought to himself, as he briefly saluted Harmony before waving her over to him. I hope she realizes that this means war.
"Well done," Harry commended, after Harmony had bounded over to him and kissed him on the cheek, satisfied grin still intact. "Impeccable timing, as always. I suppose this is the reason you left for school half an hour earlier than usual this morning?"
"Of course," Harmony replied cheekily; Harry could hear the self-satisfaction in his sister's tone as she continued to grin at him. "I needed to set up the tape recorder and the camera, after all."
"Of course. And I suppose the confetti –?"
"– was done yesterday afternoon, once I had finished with detention –"
"Wait, wait," Harry couldn't help but interrupt. "You had detention?"
Harmony gave him a look as if to say 'duh?' "Yes, so?"
"Harm, today's the first day of school!" Harry exclaimed feeling exasperated that Harmony was looking at him as though he were a particularly dim-witted toddler. "How did you manage that?"
His sister shrugged nonchalantly at him. "Hooch gave it to me yesterday at footie practice. I expect she just wanted to get an early start on the year."
"And obviously you had done absolutely nothing to deserve said detention?"
"Yes, obviously so," Harmony replied, a look to match her indignant tone blooming over her face. "I was completely innocent, and how dare you assume otherwise."
"Ah." Harry decided not to comment on this, as Harmony – who was the funniest, smartest, and most rebellious girl at Hogwarts Secondary School – had spent half of their school career tormenting the twins' teachers, and the other half in detention.
"It took me a few trials to get the bag hanging properly," Harmony continued on energetically, with the air of someone explaining a particularly fascinating chemical explosion. "At first I couldn't get the confetti to stay in long enough to close the door on it, and twice I had to sweep it all up from the floor. Then later Filch nearly had me as I was pinning those lovely pictures up. Luckily he didn't realize that it was your locker and not mine, and so I was able to get away by explaining that they were my pictures, and that I was taking them down on McGonagall's orders. Quite lucky, really."
"A near miss, I reckon," Harry said, as he turned back to his locker. He pulled out his history text from his bag (completely ignoring the hand fan and the tape recorder that had finally switched off), wiped some stray confetti off of the bind, shoved his bag rather unceremoniously into his locker and closed the door with his foot before leaning his shoulder against it and gazing balefully at his twin sister. "I'll have to find Filch and thank him for being so dim, I think. If it weren't for him not realizing that anything that comes out of your mouth is a fobbed lie, I'd not have confetti in my ears and people laughing their arses off at me."
"Oh, don't be that way, Binky," Harmony said, her lip protruding into an oh-so-familiar pout that usually had boys not related to her falling all over themselves. "You must have expected something to happen today, yeah?" She turned and opened her own locker, the one next to Harry's, continuing on as she did so. "After all, it's not everyday a girl gets to congratulate her brother on finally outing himself, is it?"
Harry, who had momentarily cringed at his sister's use of his wretched nickname, merely shook his head and didn't reply. He couldn't help but marvel at what Harmony considered congratulatory, but honestly didn't find it in him to become irritated with her; it was in Harmony's nature to take things that were immensely serious – like, say, admitting to your family and friends that you much prefer blokes over girls – and turn them into one big joke. It was what made Harmony so likable at Hogwarts, and the reason Harry loved his sister so much. She was still just a little schoolgirl at heart, and it was somewhat refreshing to see the world from her point of view – a load of rubbish that could be used to make people smile.
Harry and Harmony had always been very close. It wasn't just that they looked vaguely similar (green eyes, messy jet-black hair and – to Harry's chagrin – small statures), or that they had shared a very small space for nine months, but the fact that they just worked well together. They weren't exactly what people would call alike – on the contrary, when it came to Harry and his sister's personalities, they were complete opposites. Harry was inverted and speculative; Harmony was outgoing and boisterous. Admittedly, Harry had been known to joke off during class as well as the next person, but he had always managed to actually pay attention and get his notes done properly – basically learn something – while Harmony, who had the attention span of a fly, couldn't go five minutes without disrupting the lesson in some way, and knew the detention hall better than any other person at Hogwarts. Harry liked to think himself a more tactful person than Harmony, who would generally spout off whatever thought was on her mind, heedless to the havoc that could be caused by it. Harry, though he didn't really like admitting it to himself, was generally a people pleaser: always going out of his way to keep others satisfied, even at a cost to his self. Harmony, on the other hand, was blunt in an in-your-face type of way, and had never had any trouble calling someone a prat when she felt the situation warranted it. Basically, they were completely different in almost every way, but that didn't stop them from being best friends to each other for their entire lives.
However, that's not to say they never argued. Their polar opposite selves had obviously caused problems between Harry and his sister, especially when they had been younger. They had grown up butting heads and getting into petty arguments, their personalities clashing at almost every turn, but it had been an almost unspoken agreement between them that neither of them would ever stay angry at the other for long, and no matter what, they would always be there for each other. Their relationship was something very important to the green-eyed boy. It was something stable, something committed, something that was constantly there, and something that Harry would depend his life on if necessary.
In fact, Harry had been so sure of the sturdiness of his relationship with his sister that she had been the first one he'd come out to. The nerves had still been there, of course, as it was most definitely a life-defining moment for Harry, to admit to someone other than himself that he was gay, but he'd known that it wouldn't have been right for him to tell anyone before her, and Harmony hadn't disappointed him. The second after he had confessed his secret to Harmony, his sister had smiled widely at him, squealed something that had resembled, "About damn time, Binky!" and had hugged him so tightly he had at some point wondered if perhaps a few of his ribs had cracked. He hadn't really expected that reaction from his twin, but as Harmony had later explained (once Harry had regained the feeling in his torso) that seeing as she knew Harry better than he himself did, it was only natural that she would have realized years before him that he'd preferred boys to girls. Harry couldn't say he wasn't relieved by this, but on more than one occasion after that conversation, he had petulantly wondered why Harmony hadn't told him that he preferred boys to girls when she'd realized all those years ago: it sure as hell would have saved him a lot of time of feeling confused and miserable as he'd tried to figure out why the lead singer of Savage Garden had appealed to him so much more than Baby Spice ever had.
Coming out to the rest of his family and friends had been a difficult thing for Harry. After spending most of his teenage years trying to mold to what he thought to be "normal" it had taken him about two months after telling Harmony to pluck up the courage and announce it to his parents and older siblings, as he'd felt sure that he'd used all his luck with his sister, and that surely not everyone in the family would be accepting with his confession. He'd been wrong, of course. His mother had smiled and told him quite plainly that she still expected grandchildren from him, even if he adopted; his father, who owned and ran the local pub in town, cuffed him on the shoulder and reassured him gruffly that him being gay didn't change anything; Jack, Harry's older brother (and a top rugby player at university), had declared that anyone who messed with Harry would have to answer to him; and Ellie and Mia, Harry's older set of twin sisters, had both simply giggled like mad for about a half hour before lunging at him and kissing him repeatedly on each cheek.
His friends hadn't fared much worse, either. He'd decided to tell a select few within his group the next night, knowing full well that within an hour everyone else would hear the news anyway. He'd asked for them to meet at their normal spot, in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, treated them all to ice creams, and had told them his news. Hermione Granger, one of his and Harmony's best friends, had reacted in the exact same way as Harmony, and had immediately afterwards gone into a spiel about a scientific article she'd read on homosexuality, losing Harry within the first few sentences.
Harry's other best friend, Ron Weasley, had seemed a little uncomfortable about the announcement at first, undoubtedly thinking back to all the over-nights and camp-outs he and Harry had had over the years, but he'd grinned reassuringly at the green-eyed boy before abruptly changing the subject to football, seemingly content with forgetting about the whole thing and moving on.
Ron's younger sister Ginny had seemed a little disappointed, but to that Harry was fairly sure he knew the reason: it had been common knowledge throughout their group that Ginny had had a massive crush on Harry ever since they'd gone to school together, and he suspected that finding out that the person you'd fallen for had never really been interested in your gender in the first place, let alone you, could be a bit of a shock to the system. But as Ginny had put cheerily, after she took a few minutes to digest the whole thing, at least now she understood why none of her advances had ever worked on Harry, and that it hadn't been anything personally wrong about her.
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, a couple of good blokes that Harry had grown up with, hadn't really seemed all that surprised with the announcement, and both had chalked it up to Harry having to live with so many women all the time at home, so naturally it had turned him off them permanently. This bizarre logic had caused Harry and the rest of his friends to laugh over their dessert (after Harmony thumped both offending boys on the head with her spoon), and the rest of the night had been devoted to his friends mercilessly teasing him about crushes and how he'd need to start dressing proper if he ever expected to get a boyfriend. That had quickly led to Harmony, Hermione and Ginny coming up with a shopping date involving Harry; one the green-eyed boy was keen on avoiding at all costs.
Harry couldn't have asked for better reactions from the people he cared about; no one else's opinion mattered to him, so long as he got to keep his family and friends, and so that morning Harry had come in to school, feeling as though a weight had finally been lifted off of his shoulders, and that he could start living true to himself. He didn't think he was quite ready to declare himself gay and looking for love to the rest of the school quite yet, but the thought of that being a possibility later on – of maybe someday finding himself a boyfriend to spend time with – had most definitely put a spring into Harry's step.
There were of course people who hadn't taken Harry's news very well. Just that morning, as Harry had arrived at the front of the old grey school building, a group of blokes from his year had apparently heard the news, and had started yelling a few obscenities at him, including some names that Harry had expected to eventually have directed at him, though was still surprised to hear all the same. It hadn't bothered him – not really, as he'd never gotten on well with that group of boys anyway, and their opinion had never mattered much to him. He had wondered how his other fellow classmates would react when they found out – the ones that he usually got on with – but he hadn't really experienced anything odd other than a couple of curious glances and some reassuring smiles as he'd walked through the hallways that morning.
As Harry stood there now, leaning against his locker, staring past his sister and gazing absently down the crowded hallway, lost in thoughts about how his teachers would possibly react if they ever found out, it took him a few minutes to realize that his eyes had alighted on a figure a few meters down the corridor, who was leaning against the opposite wall in a way similar to Harry, his arms folded across his front in a relaxed manner, and his eyes gazing straight back at him. Harry felt his cheeks start to color at the thought of being caught staring at someone he hadn't even realized he'd been looking at, and he quickly dropped his gaze down to his sister, who was still rooting through her locker, babbling about something nonsensical and apparently unaware of Harry's sudden embarrassment.
Cheeks still feeling flushed, Harry rubbed at the back of his neck and fiddled with his books as he waited for his sister to get her things so that they could head to their first class. He tried to keep his curiosity squashed about the mysterious boy, as he hadn't recognized him in the few seconds he'd registered staring at him, but it didn't seem to work, as after only a few seconds of embarrassed fidgeting, he felt – as though of their own volition – his green eyes flick quickly over to where the figure had been previously standing, only to find that the boy was nowhere to be seen. He checked the surrounding crowd of his peers bustling around as they tried to get to their first classes, but couldn't find the other boy anywhere. Disappointment flashed through Harry briefly before he resolutely pushed it away and turned back to his twin, who had finally found her books and was just slamming her locker door shut, when an unfamiliar voice sounded behind Harry, causing him to jump in alarm and spin around.
"I think you dropped this."
It was the boy who had caught Harry staring; standing in front of him, wearing loose black trousers and a white button-down, his blonde fringe falling into soft grey eyes, and his pink lips quirked into a friendly grin, the boy was holding out something to Harry. Harry soon realized, with a feeling of dawning horror blossoming in his stomach, that it was the Polaroid from Harmony's prank, the picture of his face, up close and personal, with a look of bewildered surprise and colorful paper littering his hair.
As mortification swooped through the green-eyed boy, effectively numbing his mind, all Harry could think to mumble out was, "Er," as he quickly snatched at the atrocious picture and shoved it deep into his pocket, taking a mental note to burn the wretched thing when he next got the chance. "Thanks," he managed to stutter out between suddenly very dry lips, his eyes flicking down at his shoes briefly before back to the other boy's face.
"No problem." The boy was still smiling pleasantly at him, and Harry managed to catch a glimpse of straight, white teeth as he spoke. "I saw it flutter to the ground earlier, and wasn't sure if you'd noticed it or not. You'd seemed rather … preoccupied."
"Oh." That's the nice way of saying I looked like an utter fool. God, kill me now, Harry bemoaned to himself, as the thought of the blonde boy witnessing such an embarrassing moment for him flashed through his mind. "Er – right."
The boy ducked his head in what Harry assumed was a nod, before hoisting his knapsack further up his shoulder and flicking his fringe away from his eyes again. "It was rather funny, yeah?" the boy commented, after he and Harry had stood there for an awkward second or two. Harry felt his face begin to burn again. "Very … creative, with the song and everything. D'you know who thought it all up?"
"That would be me," Harmony suddenly cut in (Harry had momentarily forgotten that she had been standing right there), and she offered her hand to the blonde boy. "Harmony Potter, resident prankster here at Hogwarts."
"Draco Malfoy," the boy returned, smiling at Harry's sister as he shook her hand. "New student."
"Oh, really?" Harry would have rolled his eyes as his sister flicked her hair flirtatiously behind her shoulders and feigned curiosity at the new boy, had he not still been frozen to the spot by the abruptness of the boy named Draco's appearance. "Just move here, did you? Where did you come from, then?"
"London," the boy replied. Harry saw his grey eyes glance over at him, and the blonde-haired Draco smiled pleasantly at him once more. Harry supposed he should smile back and maybe even introduce himself to the new boy, but couldn't quite get his mouth to function properly. He'd managed to open it, but was only able to emit odd gurgling noises with absolutely no relation whatsoever to English. It was quite embarrassing, actually.
"This is my twin, Harry," Harmony said quickly, after giving Harry a strange look that clearly asked, Why are you acting an idiot? Harry tried to shrug hopelessly at her, but even his shoulders didn't seem to want to cooperate with him.
"He's – erm – shy," Harmony finished rather lamely, her voice dwindling slightly, her gaze still telling Harry that she found him quite bizarre.
"Really?" Draco was still looking at him, Harry found when he glanced back, and at that moment Harry would have rather disappeared through a hole in the floor than have the blonde witnessing his momentary lapse in sanity. Mentally the green-eyed boy was yelling at his brain to start functioning again, to at least close his gaping mouth, but all he seemed to want to do was stare at the boy in front of him open-mouthed, and stare in fixed fascination at Draco's pink, soft-looking lips as the boy spoke again.
So transfixed was he on the other boy's mouth, he'd failed to realise that Draco had been asking him a question, and after a sharp jab in the side by his sister's elbow, Harry returned to himself with a jerk and soon noted that the new boy now had one blonde eyebrow raised and was smirking at him.
"All right there?" he asked, sounding thoroughly amused.
"Er –" After being completely humiliated – multiple times – in front of the new boy, Harry did the only sensible thing he could think of that would save what was left of his dignity: he turned on the spot and high-tailed it down the hallway, his face on fire and feverish thoughts of his sister's eminent death racing through his mind. He heard Harmony call bemusedly after him but didn't answer, instead praying that he would never come into contact with the boy named Draco again, as obviously Harry was allergic to him, if the blonde could cause him to feel and act so utterly odd within mere seconds of meeting him.
Harry kept his eyes firmly on the floor a few feet in front of him, barely managing to prevent himself from colliding with some over-keen first-formers, and only looked up when he had made it to his first class, World History with Professor Binns. With a deep sigh of relief, he glanced around the filling classroom and spotted Ron and Dean sitting in the back, frantically waving him over to an empty seat in front of them.
"Brilliant!" Ron exclaimed once Harry had thrown himself into the uncomfortable wooden chair and dumped his books on the desk. "Here Dean and I thought we'd be the only ones stuck in Binns' snooze-fest first thing every morning."
"I doubt you'll be doing much sleeping in here this year," Harry said as he twisted himself in his chair to face his two friends. "Harm's got this class first thing as well."
"Excellent!" Dean exclaimed, rubbing his hands together, a mischievous glint appearing in his dark eyes. "We've got the pranking Potter and the note-taking Potter in the same class. We're passing History this year, Ron old boy!" The two boys whooped and high-fived each other. Harry laughed; his feelings of humiliation and embarrassment lessening as deep relief and contentment washed over him at having his friends act normal around him after what he'd told them the day before.
The embarrassment flooded back instantly however, when suddenly Blaise Zabini, one of the blokes who had been yelling at Harry earlier looked up from where he was holding court in the back corner with all the popular prats, spotted the green-eyed boy, and sneered.
"Hey Poofer!" he called out, and immediately everyone in the class stopped paying attention to their own conversations and turned to him. Noting where Zabini was looking, most of the class gave each other curious looks, and then swiveled to gaze at Harry.
Harry stiffened when he felt all of his classmates' eyes turned to him, and he had to remind himself that it didn't matter what all of them thought, and that it would do him no good to react to Zabini's taunts.
"Watch your mouth, Zabini!" Ron snapped back, who apparently had no problem whatsoever with reacting to the other boy's taunts. Him and Dean, who were two of the tallest boys in the school, had both turned to the much shorter Zabini and were scowling darkly at him.
"Goodness, defending your fairy friend, Weasley? Awfully sweet of you," Zabini simpered, even as he grinned wickedly. Harry knew then that anything else that came out of Zabini's mouth would most likely not be very complimentary. He wasn't wrong. "Maybe Potty's rubbed off on you, hmm?"
Zabini's friends all snickered. A pug-faced girl named Pansy Parkinson, whom Harry'd been in school with since primary and had disliked from about the first second he'd known her, squealed, "Oooh, good one, Blaise!"
Ron's ears turned about as red as his hair, and he rubbed his knuckles threateningly as he growled out, "Shove off Zabini, or you'll be seeing out of your arse for a week after I'm through with you."
"My, my, what is the fascination with you people and arses?" Zabini asked haughtily, his tone mocking as he glanced pointedly at Harry. "Rather unnatural obsession, don't you think?"
Ron spluttered angrily and Dean opened his mouth furiously, looking as though he were about to say something obscene to Zabini, but Harry quickly cut in, not wanting his two friends to get into a fight over him.
"Leave off Dean, he's not worth it," Harry said quietly, silently pleading with his friends to just let it be and not draw any more attention to the green-eyed boy. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end and he was gripping the back of his seat, he was so tense, but he was trying to ignore how most of his fellow peers were now whispering speculatively to each other.
"What's the matter, Potty? Don't like talking about my arse? Maybe because you enjoy staring at it, instead?" Zabini offered, and he and his prat friends all cackled loudly.
Harry felt blood rush to his face in an angry flush; he shouldn't have to take this from the stupid git, as he'd never done anything to warrant such mockery from Zabini. With the blood pounding in his ears, and his teeth gritted painfully, Harry slowly pushed himself from his seat, deciding that he'd had enough of the other boy. He hadn't come out to his friends and family just to allow himself to be provoked by close-minded idiots. He'd promised himself that this year would be different, that he'd spend his last year at Hogwarts with his friends as himself, not as what everyone else wanted or perceived him to be.
He was just wondering on whether he should either yell at the tanned boy or punch him in the face, when a very familiar voice sounded, drawing everyone's attention away from Harry and Zabini and over to the doorway, where Harmony stood, books held in front of her, her hip jutted out to one side and leaning against the door frame, with a very dangerous look on her face.
"Did I hear you correctly, Zabini?" she asked the brown-haired boy, her voice sounding mockingly perturbed. "Did you just accuse my brother of checking out your arse? Did he actually say that, or are my ears deceiving me?" She directed her attention around the classroom to their peers, her eyebrows raised, seemingly at a loss, before snapping her gaze back to Zabini. "That can't be correct. I simply must have heard you wrong, because I'm fairly certain that my brother told me he fancied blokes, not dogs."
The entire class was silent once more. As though watching a tennis match, everyone's heads swiveled from Harmony, who was still leaning in the doorway, to Zabini, who now had his eyes narrowed at Harry's sister and a slight pink tinge to his sharp face. He seemed to have been somewhat taken aback by Harmony's comment, but soon collected himself, his face turning even more ugly as he sneered at Harry's twin.
"Figures you'd be here to rescue him, Potterette," he snarled. "Perfect timing, as always. Doesn't it get a bit tiring, always having to protect poor, pathetic Harry?"
"'Poor, pathetic Harry'?" Harmony repeated in a skeptical tone. "Please, Zabini. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, coming from you? When's the last time you had a girlfriend, eh? Four years ago, was it not?" Snickering erupted round the room.
"How dare – I'll – why …" Zabini spluttered, his face contorting spectacularly as he fumbled through his words. "I'll – I'll have you know that I have plenty of girls wanting to be with me, Potter! I've got a girlfriend right now, as a matter of fact. Yes, that's right." Zabini smirked triumphantly at Harmony now. "What have you got to say about that, eh?"
"Girlfriends who charge aren't actually girlfriends, Zabini," Harmony said slowly, as though explaining to a cranky three-year-old that two plus two actually made up four.
More snickers arose from Harry's peers as Zabini's sputtering became increasingly present. After what appeared to be several attempts at calling Harmony a rather nasty word, Zabini eventually managed to shout out, "Well, at least I haven't got a pouf for a brother!"
The snickering died down instantly as those who hadn't yet heard of Harry's outing himself all swiveled their heads around to get another look at him. Harry's back straightened, and he was determined not to let the incredulous stares get at him, even though mentally he was again wishing for another black hole to suck him through the floor.
"That's right," Zabini sneered, his bravado coming back along with his regular complexion. "Poor, pathetic Harry is also a ponce. What did you think about that, Potterette, hearing that your precious brother is also a pillow-biter? Have you always known, or was it a big shock?"
Well, that's the first time I've been called that one, Harry thought demurely to himself, as he watched his sister's eyes become cold and hard. He dimly hoped that the professor didn't arrive any time soon, as the look in Harmony's eyes as she gazed down at Zabini did not bode quite well with him.
"Was it a big shock, you asked?" Harmony reiterated, before shrugging coolly and pushing herself off of the door frame, entering the classroom more fully, her glare never wavering from her face, and her eyes never leaving Zabini's. "Not as big a shock as what your … girlfriend must have received when she saw for herself that the – to put it mildly – stuffing rumors going round about you were actually true, I expect."
There were approximately three seconds of stunned silence, before the classroom exploded with laughter. Four boys in the front row were rolling on the floor, clutching their sides as they laughed loudly. A group of girls near the door were giggling behind their hands as they all glanced pointedly towards Zabini's trousers. Ron and Dean were holding each other up, tears of mirth in their eyes, they were laughing so hard, and as Harry watched Zabini's eyes widen and his face flush with color, he felt that he had never loved his sister more than in that moment. He smiled gratefully at Harmony when she looked up and caught his eye.
Harmony grinned back at him, and then jumped out of the way of the door as Professor Binns bustled in, looking as crazed and disorganized as usual. Papers nearly falling out of his packed briefcase, his remaining grey hair in complete disarray and his bottle-lens glasses crooked on the end of his nose, the teacher glanced around the class, his bushy eyebrows rising behind thick, black-rimmed spectacles when his squinting eyes landed on the four boys still rolling around on the floor.
"What's all this?" he asked in his usual wheezy voice. "What's this noise about? You there, Macmillan, Carmichael, Hunt, Lawson – stop rolling around like a bunch of ninnies and get back in your seats. Settle down, everyone, settle down – Miss Potter, please find yourself a seat before I give you a demerit. And no, you may not sit by the window; we all know what your attention span is like. Miss Prewett, stop giggling like a silly loon, and get a hold of yourself. Go on, quiet now, I need to take roll call."
"I owe you one," Harry murmured to the back of Harmony's head as his sister seated herself in the desk in front of him. Harmony turned fully in her seat and grinned cheekily at him.
"No worries," she replied easily, reaching out to ruffle his hair. Harry ducked immediately and swatted Harmony's hand away with his own; he despised it when anyone touched his unruly hair, his twin included. "We're even, anyway. Think of it as an apology for what happened back at your locker."
"It wasn't your fault," Harry whispered, listening half-heartedly as Binns began calling out his peers' names for the roll call.
"Yes it was," Harmony said back, not even bothering to keep her voice down. "I did do the prank, didn't I?"
She did have a point. If Harry hadn't been embarrassed by that little stunt Harmony pulled, the new boy wouldn't have taken notice to him, and Harry wouldn't have made himself look like such a foolish arse in front of him. He decided not to argue with her and instead concentrated on pulling out a notebook and pen for what was surely to be a boring round of beginning-of-term rules and notes.
"Why did you go so funny, anyway?" Harmony asked him. "I've never seen you lose your cool like that. Not even when you'd had to do that report on the properties of ideal gases for Snape last term."
"Oh yes, go on and bring that catastrophe up, will you," Harry muttered, his stomach churning at the mere thought of the disaster which had been him trying to fumble through his presentation with his least favorite teacher, Professor Snape, glaring holes through his forehead. "What an utter nightmare that was."
"Complete fuck up, more like," Harmony corrected with her grin widening. "Not unlike earlier, either. So go on, what caused you to freeze up like that? Surely the prank didn't bother you that much?"
"Miss Potter!" Binns called out irritably, before Harry had a chance to reply.
"Here, Professor!" Harmony called out cheerfully without turning around to the front. Harry saw the professor scowl darkly at his sister's back.
"I already know you're here, Miss Potter. I passed your name ages ago," Binns said wheezily. "Which you would have heard if you hadn't been talking to Mr. Potter, I'm sure. Turn around, this instant, or you'll find yourself in detention!"
"Nothing new there, sir," Harmony replied. Mouthing, This isn't finished, to Harry, she gave him a quick wink before turning back in her seat, acting for all the world like an innocent school girl, with her back straight and her hands folded neatly in her lap. Harry snorted at his sister's back while mentally breathing a sigh of relief at Binns' impeccable timing. He didn't feel as though he could quite explain to his sister that he'd been too busy studying what was surely the most attractive boy he had ever come into contact with, than to remember such inane things as breathing or talking coherently. Besides, just thinking about what a complete prat he must have looked in front of the new boy was enough to make the contents in Harry's stomach squirm uncomfortably, and he was quite keen on never seeing the blonde-haired, grey-eyed Draco Malfoy again, if only to keep his cheeks from flaming, lest beet red become his new signature color.
A poke on the back of his head had him sigh and turn back around to peer at Ron, who was grinning at him rather wickedly, his many freckles stretched over his face.
"So did Harmony's prank work, then?" he said in a conspirator-like whisper, his grin splitting into a full-fledged smirk when Harry scowled briefly at him before turning back around to face the front. "No need to have a snit, I was only wondering! It sounded bloody brilliant when she described it to me last night."
"Oh, so you knew about it?" Harry spun in his seat once more, staring incredulously at Ron. "You think you could have warned your best mate about it, eh?"
"Well." Ron had the decency to look sheepish. He glanced shame-faced at Harry before grinning again and shrugging his shoulders. "It sounded like good fun, and I honestly didn't think it'd work. It seemed a little far-fetched, to tell you the truth."
"Yeah, well, if someone can pull it off, it's Harmony," Harry mumbled, turning back around in his seat once more when Binns let out an annoyed cough. He merely shook his head when he heard Dean lean over to Ron and whisper, "I think that means it worked," and tried to conceal his exasperated smile. He slouched down into his seat when Professor Binns stepped up to his lecture podium, preparing himself for what was no doubt going to be a very boring fifty minutes.
"Welcome to World History, students," Binns said loudly over Ron and Dean's muffled snickering. He peered at them nastily before continuing. "I see that most of you are familiar faces –" Harry didn't miss the disappointed look Binns shot in Harmony's direction – "and so you will all know by now that I demand quiet and respect from my pupils, and that if you cannot cooperate with this system, then you will be seeing a lot of the detention hall this year." This time over half the class glanced in Harmony's direction, who had put on a "who, me?" expression that fooled no one. Harry smirked at her back.
"As this is an elective class, you will note that it is much smaller than most of your regular classes. There are some extra desks, but I still expect you to keep your feet flat on the floor, and absolutely no sleeping! This will be the seating arrangement for the term, so get used to it, as I will not be moving you around like little children because you cannot behave. No exceptions."
Harmony leaned over to the nervous-looking brown-haired boy beside her and murmured, "Apologies in advance if you get thrown into detention by association." The boy gazed shiftily at her and gulped.
A knock on the classroom door sounded suddenly. Harmony twisted round in her seat once more and gave Harry a rather smug look. Harry just gazed back at her, nonplussed. What was that look for, he wondered.
"Ah, that must be our new student," Binns said, blustering over to the door to open it.
Harry shot up in his seat as whispers once more sounded around the room. Sitting ram-rod straight and gripping at his pen to the point of nearly snapping it in half, he watched as Binns approached the door, his heart jumping in apprehension. A new student? Surely it couldn't be –
"Welcome, welcome," Binns said as he opened the door and held out his hand. Harry felt his stomach flip when a pale hand clasped his history teacher's and shook it firmly. The now-familiar feeling of complete embarrassment mixed with a healthy dose of disbelief coursed through Harry as he watched as if in slow motion as Professor Binns stepped back and ushered Draco Malfoy into the classroom.
"This year is going to be excellent," Harmony murmured, a mischievous look suddenly gracing her features as bright grey eyes briefly passed over her before landing on Harry.
Oh bloody hell, Harry thought morosely to himself, as he shot a look at the empty desk next to him, before allowing his forehead to connect with a dull thunk to the top of his desk, his face already burning. I'm never going to pass history now.
Author's Note: All right, I figure I had better explain a few elements to my little fic that could be confusing, and which obviously add to the whole AU part of it. First and foremost: Harry's twin sister. Now, I realise that he doesn't have a twin in the books, or a sibling of any kind, for that matter. But honestly I'm writing this story based on true events of my final year of secondary school, and while I can assure you that I am, in fact, a heterosexual female, I happen to have a twin brother who has the same preferences as dear Harry. I love my twin dearly, and I honestly can't imagine writing a story with a coming-out-of-the-closet teenaged Harry where he doesn't have the kind of bond that I myself share with my brother. Harry has always reminded me of my brother, even when I first read the Philosopher's Stone, and so I thought it fitting that I write this story with parallels to my brother's own coming-out tale; hence, Harmony Potter was created. This is also the reason I gave Harry three older siblings: I, myself have five older brothers and four older sisters (yes, I know, my parents couldn't keep their hands off each other), and in all honesty I doubt I could have written a story with a small family, as I've simply never experienced it, being the youngest of ten. So it was either add a few extra Potters to the mix, or write about the Weasleys…you obviously realize which one I chose. And obviously Draco Malfoy is quite OOC in this fic, but frankly, I don't give a flying tit, as it is my story and I believe its high time he get a little friendlier.
PS: Please review...I'd love to hear what you think!