A/N: Thanks a lot to the people who reviewed the last chapter! :) I really, really appreciate it.

"What have we got first today?" Ron asked Harry, his red hair tousled as he slid into a seat next to him in the Great Hall. Harry dived into his bag, pulling out his timetable.

"Potions," he said, sighing heavily and dropping the timetable back into his bag. Potions was marginally better now that Snape was no longer there, but Harry still found it hard to like the subject. It was much harder now he didn't have the Half-Blood Prince to help him.

Ron pulled several slices of toast towards him, grabbing a nearby pot of strawberry jam and beginning to spread it enthusiastically on each slice of toast.

Harry was distracted from his thoughts by Hermione, who sat down opposite him and Ron. "Morning," she said brightly, smiling at Harry and shaking her head at Ron, who was now munching on the toast with gusto.

"Honestly, Ron…"

Ron looked up indignantly, opening his mouth to speak before thinking better of it, closing it again before he choked on the toast and ended up spitting it out all over the table. Harry shook his head in amusement – some things would never change.

"Hi Harry," came a voice from behind him.

Harry glanced round and found himself face to face with Ginny. "Hi," he said, smiling at her. "How are you? I haven't spoken to you for a while."

"I'm fine," said Ginny, her eyes searching Harry's face. "But how are you?"

"Fine," said Harry, shrugging.

Ginny nodded slowly, glancing down the table to where one of her friends was frantically beckoning to her to come over. "I'd better go – I guess you'll need to get to class. See you soon." She smiled at Harry and the others, before continuing down the hall, sitting down next to her friend.

Harry bit his lip, uncomfortably aware of Ron and Hermione's eyes on him. He still felt guilty about breaking up with Ginny, but on the other hand, it had left him feeling wonderfully free and open, now that he had told Ron, Hermione and Ginny the full truth: he was gay.

At first, Harry had found it hard to come to terms with this, as he had always pictured himself with Ginny, marrying her and starting a family, and it was hard to realise that he was never going to do that. But it was gradually getting easier to accept, and his friends, including Ginny, had been wonderfully supportive of him, although he and Ginny had been rather awkward around one another ever since. He was still unsure about how the rest of the school would react if they heard the news though, never mind the rest of the wizarding world.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Ron, who was choking on the toast. He automatically reached out a hand, thumping him on the back as Ron's face began to match his hair, rapidly getting redder and redder, his eyes streaming.

Hermione pointed her wand at Ron, and his coughs subsided almost immediately. "Thanks," he gasped to Hermione as he rubbed his eyes, swallowing a few times.

"Let's get to class," said Hermione wearily. Harry hid a smile as he stood up, glancing casually around the hall as he did so.

Almost mechanically, his eyes met Draco Malfoy's, sitting over at the Slytherin table. Draco had been wearing an expression of vague amusement, but the smile vanished as soon as he met Harry's eyes. The two boys stared at one another for a few seconds before Harry gave him a faint smile, which he could have sworn Malfoy returned.

As he followed Ron and Hermione from the hall, he frowned, deep in thought. He couldn't get rid of the image of Malfoy in his head, when he had first looked at him. Why had Malfoy looked as though something funny had happened? Under normal circumstances, Harry would have put it down to one of his friends perhaps making an amusing remark, however, it seemed as though Malfoy had been looking at him, Ron and Hermione before Harry had seen him, so he must have been laughing at something one of them had done. Of course, Harry realised, he would be laughing about Ron choking on his toast. That was exactly the kind of thing Malfoy would find funny. Although he didn't seem to be laughing about it in a mean way, or sneering in the same way he would have done when he was younger…

"Harry?"

Harry glanced at Hermione, who was watching him with a faint frown on her face. "Sorry, what were you saying?" he asked distractedly.

Hermione sighed. "I was asking you about the Charms homework. Whether you'd done it," she added, in case Harry thought that she hadn't done it, and was asking him for help.

"Yeah, I've done it, I did it last night," said Harry, focusing back in on the conversation.

"Well, Ronald has not," said Hermione, fixing Ron with a stern look.

"I was busy!" Ron protested feebly. Harry sighed and prepared himself to have to listen to an argument between his two best friends for the next few hours.

Xxx

"Draco?"

Draco turned round irritably. "What now, Pansy?"

Pansy pouted. "I was only going to ask you if everything was all right. You've been staring at Potter and his friends for ages now."

"Yes," said Draco, wracking his brains for an excuse, "because Weasley's choking."

Pansy glanced over to where Weasley was spluttering and gasping, smiling slightly as Potter began to bang him on the back.

"Hello Draco, Pansy," said Theodore Nott, as he sat down in between the two of them.

"Hi, Theo," Draco replied, tearing his eyes away from the Gryffindor table.

"What are you two staring at?" Theo asked in mild interest.

"Oh, Weasley was choking on his breakfast," said Pansy, standing up. "I'll see you two later – I have to speak to Slughorn about something."

"Bye," said Draco, already glancing back at Potter without realising it. It was as though Harry was a magnet and his eyes were constantly drawn to him: he couldn't help it. It both angered and frustrated him at the same time that he could stare at Harry for ages, but still couldn't bring himself to talk to him. The idea of simply walking up to Harry and starting a friendly conversation with him made his heart twist in embarrassment. He owed so much to Harry, despite the fact that he had been so horrible to him throughout their time at Hogwarts, plus there was the uncomfortable fact that…well, he didn't even want to think about it anymore. In fact, he thought miserably, it would be best if he simply tried to erase the whole thing from his mind. It would only upset him more if-

"You all right Draco?"

Theo's voice pierced Draco's thoughts. He nodded vaguely, pinning a smile onto his face as he continued to watch Potter…

For a second, it felt as though his heart had frozen. Harry was looking directly at him.

Draco stared back at him for what seemed like forever, before Harry's lips flickered into a faint smile. Draco inhaled sharply, before smiling weakly back.

As he watched Harry leave the hall, he felt strangely elated. All they had done was smile at one another, and it hadn't been a particularly wide smile, but it didn't stop the now genuine smile spreading across his face as he gazed at the door that Harry had just vanished through.

A/N: I'm kind of starting to have second thoughts about this story, and I'm beginning to consider deleting from Fanfiction and maybe working on it a bit more before reposting it? Any opinions on that will be welcome!