RIGHT. First off, I know I said that I would update "Being A Friend" over the summer holidays, and I did not do so.

There are two reasons for this.

1. I was totally uninspired for what to write. :(

2. I had a pretty crap summer and was in no mood to write anyway. :((

Anywhore, I hope this new little one shot will hopefully satisfy some of you who read it. I got the inspiration for this when I was reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the bus to college, and started to write it that evening.

Hope you like it. :)


It was Harry Potter's fourth year in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which had been swamped with foreign students due to the prestigious Triwizard Tournament, of which Harry was a participant, albeit reluctantly. Harry had passed the First Task almost unscathed, and the Golden Egg was in his possession. But he didn't have time to think about that, as the second task loomed on his mind – The Yule Ball.

Harry had ended up asking Parvati Patil to attend the ball with him, persuading Parvati to ask her sister, Padma, to go with his best friend, Ronald Weasley. His other closest friend, Hermione Granger, had been asked by one of the other contestants in the Tournament, Viktor Krum, from the rivalling school of Durmstrang. As Harry and Parvati, and Ron and Padma got down to the Entrance Hall, Harry finally had a chance to see how many people had come to the ball. The hall was flooded with students. He could see Ron's younger sister, Ginny, with a fellow Gryffindor, Neville Longbottom. He also spotted Draco Malfoy dressed all in black, with Pansy Parkinson hanging around him like a bad smell.

As the Champions of the Tournament were to lead the dance, Harry and Parvati, and Hermione and Viktor, and the remaining two Champions of the tournament and their partners, Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, and Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies, were to lead the Ball with the first dance. Harry survived the dancing, making sure not to become distracted enough to put his feet in the wrong place, and allowed Parvati to guide him long enough for the rest of the castle to start dancing.

Eventually, Harry decided to stop dancing for a while, taking a seat with Ron to have a drink. He had heard whispers of Professor Dumbledore buying eight hundred barrels of mulled mead for the event, but from what Harry could tell, this had been untrue. He popped open his bottle of Butterbeer, and took a sip, but the warmth that it usually provided him seemed distant and unfamiliar, Harry putting it down to the nerves of dancing for its lacklustre taste. He got to his feet and glanced at Ron.

"I'm gonna see what else there is to drink. Come with me?" he asked.

"Nah, you're all right." Ron muttered, staring daggers across the room in the direction where Hermione was dancing with Viktor.

"Okay then, I'll be back in a bit." Harry said before walking off towards the buffet tables. The tables, lined up around the edge of the hall were laden with food and drink. 'The house-elves have their work cut out for them.' He thought as he looked at all the food; cocktail sausages, pumpkin pasties, and other food that looked distinctly foreign. He also saw several bowls of punch, the contents seeming not to decrease when people took some. Harry put it down to house-elf magic keeping them constantly full.

He eyed the purple liquid suspiciously for a moment before scooping some into a cup and taking a sip. Almost immediately, he was flooded with warmth and comfort which would normally have come from a Butterbeer, but this was ten times better. Harry quickly finished the rest of the cup, not wanting the amazing feeling to end, and began to pour another cup, taking a look around as he did and saw Hermione sat with Ron. He smiled, unable to stop noticing Hermione's smaller teeth, and walked over, cup in hand.

"Harry, did you see me?" she asked as he approached. "Viktor was dancing brilliantly, and I think I was pretty good too, if I do say so myself."

"Yeah, you were great(!)" Ron spat sarcastically.

"Ignore him." Harry said, sitting between the two of them.

"What're you drinking?" Hermione asked, looking at the purple fluid.

"Oh, it's some punch. It's like Butterbeer, but better." Harry explained as he handed her the cup, allowing her to take a sip. Her nose crinkled as she swallowed, and shot Harry a disapproving look.

"Harry, this has alcohol in it. More than what's in Butterbeer. You shouldn't be drinking this." She said, making Harry frown. He didn't know why anyone wouldn't want to drink such a lovely concoction.

"Fine, I won't have anymore." He lied, standing up and leaving. As he wandered aimlessly around the hall, watching other students, he started to wonder how someone could've gotten alcohol into the punch without Dumbledore having found out, unless it was Dumbledore who'd done it. But it only took him five seconds after spotting Fred and George Weasley with Ludo Bagman to put two and two together. The twin Weasley's were notorious for sneaking into the school kitchens for food, not that it was a difficult task, as Harry had found out when he went into the kitchens, having food practically forced on him.

He realised that the boys must have snuck into kitchens before the ball and spiked the school's supply of punch with alcohol, thinking it would be amusing to see everyone else stumbling around drunk. Harry knew what alcohol would do to some people, having seen it first hand with Uncle Vernon, who would sometimes have a bit too much to drink, Harry noticing that these times were the nicest that Vernon ever was to him. He was still mean, just not as much.

Noticing his cup was empty again, he started to make his way towards one of the punch bowls, trying to avoid being spotted by Hermione, who would sooner put a body-binding spell on him than let him drink more. He was pretty sure that he had heard her and Ron, who were yelling fairly loudly about something, Ron mentioning 'fraternising with the enemy' and Hermione saying 'magical co-operation'. With the bowls in sight, he saw that a numerous other students had started to catch on that there was something more in the punch, one of which being Draco Malfoy, who was conversing with a couple older Slytherins, laughing about something.

'Draco has a nice smile when he laughs.´ Harry caught himself thinking before shaking his head roughly, reminding himself that Draco never had a nice smile, nor did he have a nice anything. And it was Malfoy, not Draco.

After he'd finished his third cup, Harry could tell that despite it being his first real taste of alcohol, he had all ready had enough to tell that he was feeling the effects. Everything seemed a little funnier, and it was taking his brain a couple seconds to catch up with what he was seeing. The band on stage, the Weird Sisters, started to play a different song, which everyone had clamoured to the front of the stage to hear.

Harry let go of his inhibitions and ran into the crowd as the song got into the chorus, causing everyone to start jumping up and down, fists in the air, waving their heads to the beat. Harry did the same and began to jump wildly, flinging his head up and down, and side to side. People were bumping into him, but he didn't care, he was having too much fun to care. He looked to his left and saw Michael Corner, a Ravenclaw boy in his year, jumping wildly, the boy's long black hair being flung in every direction. Michael's eyes met his, and the both put an arm around each other, and started to jump at the same time, pumping their fists in the air and whooping at the band's bagpipe player.

As the song ended, and Michael gave him a pat on the back, Harry noticed he was thirsty, but he didn't really need an excuse to go and get more of the punch. He loved how it was making him feel, and never wanted it to stop. He hurried to the bowl and rushed his fourth drink and poured his fifth, finding a table to sit down at, as his legs weren't working with quite the effect that Harry desired, stumbling slightly.

It didn't take long for Hermione to spot him, and was even quicker to spot the cup of punch on the table beside him.

"How much of that have you had to drink?" she asked him sternly, her hands on her hips as she glowered over him.

"S'the same cup I had when y'tol' me not to drink anymore." He lied again. Hermione's eyes narrowed at him, seeing straight through his less-than-cunning lie.

"Don't come crying to me when you wake up feeling like dragon dung tomorrow morning." She said simply before walking off back into the crowd, Harry assuming she was looking for Viktor. He had no idea where Ron was, but he remembered seeing flashes of red hair around the hall, but that could've been any of the Weasleys. Ginny, Fred, George and even Percy were somewhere in the room, it would've been difficult to locate Ron, but then again, he could've gone back to the Common Room. Alone at the table, Harry just sipped at his punch, throwing glances across the hall.

On the other side of the room, Draco, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle were stood; all having had plenty of punch themselves, and had started a rousing game of Dares between the four of them. Goyle dared Crabbe to leave the Hall, take off his clothes and run back through the Hall naked. Crabbe refused, but after some persuasive words from the others, he was soon rushing through the Hall, hands covering his modesty, startling everyone in the room and causing almost all of the students from Beauxbatons to scream, everyone else laughing raucously. It had left the teachers so stunned, that none of them did anything to stop him before it was over.

Crabbe didn't come back afterwards, they assumed he had been caught putting his clothes back on by a teacher, but carried on their game nonetheless. Draco dared Pansy to kiss Goyle, and even though she cringed at the suggestion, she followed through, having kissed the boy for longer than Draco had expected. When they finally relinquished their lip-lock, it was Pansy's turn to dare. She looked at Draco and grinned devilishly, starting to devise a dare for the platinum-blonde boy.

"I dare you to..." she started as she looked around the hall, wondering what she could get him to do, and spotted Harry sitting on his own, drinking punch. She grinned, which grew even wider as a slow song began to play.

"I dare you to dance with Potter." She said, smiling as wide as a Cheshire Cat. Draco laughed at the thought, but was stopped by Pansy. "And, when the song ends, you have to kiss him." She said, shutting Draco up. If Pansy had suggested that at any other time, Draco would probably have slapped her. But with the punch in him, he had other ideas. He turned and saw Harry sat alone, and almost felt sorry for him. 'It's the drink talking.' He said in his head.

"You want me to dance with Scar-Head?" he asked her. "And kiss him?" Pansy nodded, her grin starting to get on Draco's nerves. But he didn't have time to think about what to say before he'd said "Okay.", and was all ready walking towards Harry, leaving Pansy and Goyle covering their mouths with laughter. As he made his way towards Harry, Draco unfastened his robe, allowing his crisp, white shirt to be revealed, and also unbuttoned the top few buttons, to show off his slightly toned chest. 'What do you think you're doing, Draco! I'm being sexy, now piss off.'

Harry drained his cup of its contents once more and took another look around the room, and noticed the figure of Malfoy walking towards him. He was about to stand up and walk away, but as his eyes travelled up and down the boy's form, he realised his legs weren't working. As he got closer and closer, Harry tried to think of something he could say to make the Slytherin leave him alone, but all he could think of was: '... so hot.'

"Harry," Draco said, greeting him as he stood in front of Harry. "Enjoying the ball?" he asked, with a surprising lack of animosity, which was usually more than apparent.

"S'all right." Harry said, stunned by the fact he hadn't been called 'Potter' yet, or had Rita Skeeter's Daily Prophet articles about him quoted. Harry looked down at his lap, not sure why he didn't want to make eye contact with him. Draco's feet shifted uncomfortably as he tried to work out how he could ask Potter to dance – he wasn't sure if it was the punch or not, but he couldn't give a toss about the dare anymore, he just wanted to dance with him.

The two were silent for a long moment, the song having barely started, before Draco took a deep breath and extended his hand to Harry.

"Dance with me." Draco said quietly, his hand open in front of the boy.

"Sorry?" Harry asked, having not quite caught what he'd said. Draco sighed, rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his platinum blonde hair. He met eyes with Harry, and the two boys stared into each other's eyes.

"This tournament's all abou' magical co-operation, and friendship, isn't it? I know I've always been terrible to you, but I wanna try an' fix it. In the spirit an' all." Draco explained calmly. "So, Harry, will you dance with me?" he asked hopefully, re-extending his hand to Harry. Harry was slightly awe-struck. Malfoy being nice? It was a new experience for him, but nonetheless, before he even had time to work out what to say, he had taken Draco's hand and stood up, Draco leading him to the dance floor, where many other couples were dancing together.

Draco stopped and turned to look down at Harry, being a couple inches taller than the Gryffindor, and decided that he would lead. He took Harry's arms and lifted them to sit on his shoulders around his neck, and then put his own arms around Harry's waist. He pulled Harry close, their chests against each other, and slowly began to lead Harry into a dance – which wasn't really a dance at all, they were mostly just rocking on the spot and rotating, which is what every other couple on the dance floor were doing.

Harry was unable to pull his eyes away from Draco's penetrating stare, feeling that the blonde was staring into the very depths of his soul. He laced his fingers together behind Draco's neck, and realised that the only sounds between the boys were each other breathing, Draco's fresh – yet slightly alcoholic – breath hitting him in the face and causing his head to spin. He looked down for a moment, gathering his thoughts before looking back up.

"Why?" Harry asked quietly, still perplexed with the situation he found himself in.

"Because," Draco started, slightly tightening his grip around the back-haired boy. "Pansy dared me. If she hadn't said it, then I wouldn' be dancin' with you." He said bluntly, causing Harry's expression to drop slightly. "But," he continued, meeting eyes with Harry once more. "That doesn' mean I wouldn' wanna be." Draco said, a small smile curling at the edges of his mouth. Harry's smile was much more prominent, despite the boy not being sure why he was smiling. He leant his head against Draco's shoulder and allowed him to continue.

"I know I'm always mean to ya, and yer friends. I don' mean any of it, and I know that doesn' really make up fer what I've done, but at least it's a start, right?" he said, feeling Harry laugh quietly against him, and pulling himself closer. "It's jus' my family, and the other Slytherins... I don' really believe in all that pure-blood stuff. I jus' do it so that other families in my father's... circles, don' think any less of him. I jus' wanna make my parents proud, and make friends in school. If things were different, Harry, I'm sure we'd be friends. I like you, Harry. Your friends, Weasley and Granger, aren' too bad either." He said, smirking.

"If 'they're not that bad', then you could use their firs' names." Harry said softly, lifting his head to look at Draco with a small smile.

"Fine, Ron and Hermione aren' bad either." He repeated, making Harry's smile grow.

"Better." He said, putting his head back against Draco's shoulder. The two danced in silence for a moment before Harry had realised what Draco had said, catching the boy's cold, grey eyes. "You said you like me." He said softly, trying to fight the urge to smile.

"Yeh', an'? I do like you." Draco responded, not sure what Harry was getting at.

"You... like me?" Harry said again, his heartbeat quickening as he waited anxiously for the Malfoy's response.

"Would I be dancin' with you if I didn'?" Draco asked with a charming smile, making Harry blush. At the sight of a red-faced Harry, Draco couldn't stop himself any longer, and dipped his head, capturing Harry's lips in a chaste kiss. When Draco pulled away, Harry was left dazed, confused, and lighter than air, the somewhat goofy look on his face making Draco smile. He tipped his head slightly, his lips at Harry's ear, breath tickling the shell and causing Harry to shiver. "Yeah, Harry. I do." He whispered. Harry turned to look at Draco, who caught his lips once more, but this time in a much slower, yet infinitely more loving than the last.

Little did they know that the song had ended a couple minutes ago.

Little did they know that they were the only two people left on the dance floor

And little did they know that everyone else in the hall was standing in a circle around the dance floor, watching them with surprise, adoration, and most of all, acceptance.

Ron and Hermione were stood side by side, smiling. They both glanced at each other for a moment before giving the other a smile, linking their hands together. Pansy and Goyle on the other hand were in the worst fits of laughter that had possibly ever hit a student at Hogwarts, Goyle doubled over in pain from laughing, and Pansy lying on the floor, crying tears of laughter as she banged her fists on the floor.

The two boys in the middle of the room, however, were deep into their passionate embrace, hands gripping tightly at each other. They slowly began to realise that there was no longer and music, and pulled their lips apart, their heads staying close together, and breath mixing in a manner that intoxicated both boys. Draco finally tore his eyes away from Harry's and noticed that the dance floor was bare. He looked around the room, his face quickly turning red. Harry followed suit, seeing everyone looking at them, and his face soon matched Draco's.

But no one laughed. No one jeered. And one by one, the students and teachers began to applaud the two boys, having seen that the school's current, fiercest rivals had met the Tournament's aim. As the hall filled with the sounds of cheering and clapping, the two boys grinned, Harry taking Draco's hand and pulling him at a run towards the door. No one knew where they went that night, but neither of them could stop smiling for a month after.


Was it amazing? Was it utter balls?

REVIEW FOR ME, MY PRETTIES.

When I get the next chapter of "Being a Friend" out of the way, I will reply to reviewers there, as well as the reviewers of "Being a Friend".

I'm sorry for keeping you waiting on that, by the way. :'(

THANKS FOR READING. :D