Chapter Two
Minutes seemed to pass faster than the falling rain the next day. It was one o'clock before Harry had even blinked awake. With the help of a pepperup potion, Harry to felt at full health in no time; however his guilty conscience was far from cleared. Last night's events were on a constant loop in his head, each time as vivid as the last. He recapped everything: the intoxicating scent of Draco's cologne, the burning sensation in his stomach, the throaty sounds he couldn't help but make, and the sickening fact that he enjoyed every last detail. It was difficult not to hate himself for something so sudden yet so significant.
The evening arrived earlier than Harry had hoped it would. It was 10:45pm and Harry hadn't even considered where to look for Ginny. The Gryffindor Common Room seemed like the obvious first place to look. Of course, that would be the last place Ginny would choose to meet. Harry checked multiple locations such as the greenhouses, several deserted classrooms, the library, and finally the third floor corridor before realizing that none of which sounded ideal for such an occasion. At that point Harry had drawn a blank. Unable to think of where Ginny could be, and fearful that he would not find her in time, Harry walked up as many stairs as he could before noticing something he should have thought of a long time ago. The seventh floor. The Room of Requirement. How did it not occur to him sooner?
Harry rushed to the blank wall across from Barnabas the Barmy and paced three times while concentrating on the note Ginny had sent him so many days ago. Surely enough when he opened his tightly shut eyes, a large wooden door appeared on the wall in front of him. He reached for the door handle and pulled it open; he was stunned to see just how much smaller the room before him was compared to the room he used the last time for a DA meeting. It was cozy, and no larger than his dormitory in Gryffindor Tower. To the left was a fireplace, crackling softly against the night's quiet hum. From the ceiling there hung a crystal chandelier, lit with many small candles and gold-tinted gems. In the middle of the room was a king sized bed, upon which sat Ginny.
Her long, red hair fell elegantly over her sharp collarbone, and her skin was flawless, apart from the occasional freckle. Harry felt his jaw tighten as his eyes fell upon her light yellow night slip and how pale her skin looked in comparison. He stared into her adoring eyes and felt a strong mixture of love and guilt and sadness all at once. She was so beautiful, so kind. She deserved so much better, but Harry was far too selfish to let her go just like that. So he climbed upon the bed and kissed her lips, kissed her neck and pushed her gently onto her back. And then he took her just like she'd asked. It was slow and affectionate. It was contained and comfortable. It was everything a first time should be, only it wasn't Harry's first time. Harry had fucked everything up. He had failed the test of faithfulness and as a result was stripped of his virginity in a quick, meaningless, not to mention humiliatingly pleasurable fuck with Draco Malfoy of all people.
As Ginny's eyes closed and she let out a delicate sigh, Harry's heart twisted into a stiff knot. He felt her smooth fingertips dig into his back as she pushed against him, begging silently for him to go deeper. And he did. He read her purrs and gasps and obeyed her every unspoken order, because he was just too fragile to break any more rules.
/
Much to Harry's contentment, he and Ginny were seeing each other quite often over the next few days. All of their encounters snogging between classes and holding hands in the corridors made him almost forget about Friday night entirely. There were certain occasions when Harry would see Draco out of the corner of his eye and feel his gut wretch, or hear him taunting Ron or Hermione and would want to say something, were he not terrified of so much as speaking to Malfoy. Harry avoided him like the plague, and it worked for the most part, so long as Draco kept his distance.
One evening as Harry sat in the Great Hall and poked at his mashed potatoes he couldn't help but notice Draco's eyes on him. At the time he was sitting hip-to-hip with Ginny; her hand on his thigh and his arm around her waist. Draco's expression was just like the one he wore before he had pulled Harry into that stall: contemplating, nervous, insecure. Harry avoided eye contact at all costs, but it was like trying not to look at a viper about to strike. He felt like if he looked away he would miss something. So in a single second, he pulled his eyes away from a Ravenclaw girl sipping her pumpkin juice and found Draco's eyes. When their gazes met Harry felt as though he wouldn't be able to look away even if he tried. Draco's eyes narrowed further, scrutinizing Harry, dissecting him with his stare. And then Ginny's fingers began to massage the inside of Harry's thigh, first gently and then harder, ascending up his leg until Harry could no longer compete in the staring contest. He bit his lip and looked down at his lap. Ginny simply smiled mischievously and kissed his cheek before pulling him by the hand out of the Great Hall and up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.
"Dilligrout," Harry panted to the Fat Lady, after rushing up the stairs hand-in-hand with Ginny. The portrait gave a sly wink before opening up to grant access to the common room. It was then that Ginny pushed Harry out of the way and quickly climbed through the portrait hole before shouting, "Race you!"
Harry beamed foolishly and rushed right behind her, managing to reach the stairs to the boy's dormitories before her. His warm laugh filled the stairwell as he jumped two stairs at a time, Ginny not far behind him. By the time he pulled open the large door she had caught up, bolting into the room and throwing herself onto Harry's bed before pumping a fist into the air and laughing. Harry ruffled his hair as he drew near her.
"Hey, slow poke." She teased with what Harry thought of as an adorable smirk.
"Hey, cheater." Harry grinned back. Ginny gasped in what seemed to be mock-offense.
"I'll have you know I won fair and square!" She claimed, pulling Harry by the collar onto the bed with her.
"Right." Harry said, smiling as he pressed his lips onto hers. As Ginny put a hand on either side of his face and drew him in closer, she didn't seem to care so much about who won the race anymore. With a bit of awkward rearranging, Harry was sitting up against the headboard with Ginny straddling his lap. Their faces only broke apart when Ginny pulled off Harry's shirt as a result of impatience regarding how long it took to unbutton. The next moments quickly became intimate as their laughter and kissing became panting and whimpers. With a nauseating jolt to his stomach, Harry visualized that same stare that Draco had given him in the Great Hall not even an hour before. Harry pushed back against Ginny's hips, digging just as deep as her, hungry and desperate to push Draco's familiar look from his mind. Though even as she rode his lap and he kissed her jaw, he was unsuccessful, and that gaze still haunted him.
/
Later that night, Harry found himself wandering the corridors of the school after hours, trying to clear his head of anything that reminded him of Draco. He stared out the windows as he passed them, seeing the moon mirrored over the black and occasionally his reflection by torchlight. The lower he descended into the castle, the fewer windows he saw until eventually there were none at all. He knew then that he had reached the dungeons.
He continued walking through the dungeon corridors, though paying little attention, and found himself crashing head on into a tall blonde boy with sharp features.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Harry Potter, 'The Chosen One'." said Draco, who appeared to have recovered from the collision rather swiftly. "How's the girlfriend, Potter? Is she hearing wonderful stories about your adventures in Hogsmeade?"
"Sod off, Malfoy." Harry spat with narrow eyes. He made an attempt to continue walking, but he found that the hand pushing on his chest prevented him from doing so.
"Don't touch me." Harry threatened, pulling out his wand.
"Funny, you didn't seem to mind the last time we saw each other-"
"Impedimenta!"
"Protego!" Draco shouted immediately afterwards, causing Harry's jinx to ricochet off what appeared to be an invisible shield and knock him onto his back. He scrambled up to his feet quickly to face Draco once more before hearing a voice from around the corner rapidly approaching.
"...and a good dinner you'll have. Isn't that right Mrs. Norris?" said Filch, appearing to have been talking to his cat.
Harry and Draco looked at each other with wide eyes, and completely forgetting about the argument, starting to search for a place to hide. Seeing no other options, Harry sighed miserably and pulled a sheet of shiny fabric out of his book bag.
"Get under here." Harry said irritably. He knew that if he hadn't hidden Draco as well, his cover would have been blown regardless. As the two boys huddled under the invisibility cloak, Filch walked by, sniffing the air flagrantly as he did so. The limited amount of space under the cloak made it inevitable for their bodies to be touching, and as Harry pressed closer to Draco to avoid Filch scraping the fabric of what appeared to be thin air, he felt something firm on the inside of Draco's thigh. Instead of flushing with embarrassment, Draco grabbed the back of Harry's head and kissed him hard on the mouth, knowing that he would be unable to resist in their current situation. Harry attempted to pull away from the kiss with as much furtiveness as he could muster, despite his mind screaming to latch onto Draco and never let go. He pretended to resist the kiss until Filch was out of sight, and then punched Draco's stomach as hard as he could. With Draco doubled over, the opportunity to escape was impending. Harry quickly disappeared under the cloak and ran after Filch, giving the uncloaked Draco a safer getaway. As he rounded the corner at the end of the corridor he looked back, seeing Draco bring his fingers to his lips and walk off in the opposite direction.