DRACO-
Normally what Harry had just said would not have been audible, but I learned a spell to enhance my hearing, specifically for the purposes of spying on Harry Potter. That may sound crass and not like something any pureblood, let alone a Malfoy, would even consider admitting to doing, but I had to know what it is Potter and his little gang are doing. It's important. Besides, Father thought it was useful enough for his own purposes so it must be alright. This spell must be faulty though. There isn't any other way to explain what sounded like Potter waxing eloquent about my eyes, of all things. No other way. We're enemies after all, though I only hate him publicly because it's less painful than fawning over him like I'd like to. But maybe pitiful is alright when it's Potter- when it's Harry. I've seen many people doing the same. A Malfoy may never "go along with the crowd, Draco" but it isn't as though Harry doesn't deserve it. He's talented and powerful and stunningly attractive. Those are the kind of people who deserve respect and admiration and in the privacy of my own bed I more than give it to him. But I'm tired of that.
"Hey, Harry," I say.
He flinches and it almost breaks my heart to think he could be so afraid of me. But thenagain I do try to push people away-it's my father's philosophy. Push away anyone who might reject you to save face ahead of time. I was afraid to come out and before Harry I had never had trouble staying in the closet so I felt the urge to push him away from the handle of the door.
"Would you help me learn to cast a Patronus? I know you taught all of those other kids and I'd like to learn," I say.
There. Asking for help in public. Very un-Malfoyish and as close as I can get to saying what I want to.
"Er," he says while looking helplessly into my eyes, "Sure, Draco," he says.
Draco. He called me Draco.
I smile at him to suggest that a Patronus is not what I have in mind.
"What about after everyone goes to the Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw game?" I suggest.
Harry nods at me and turns the cutest shade of red I've ever seen. Five torturous days until he's mine.
RON-
I see Harry turn the color of a ripe tomato and decide it's time for rash action.
"We're still working on our predictions tonight for Divination, right?" I ask.
Malfoy looks at me with a smirk. I can't figure out how Harry sees anything as peotic as rain in his stupid, beady eyes but still, for him, I force myself to look. No. Nothing. Harry looks at me with an apologetic grin.
"Erm.. yeah, of course, Ron," he says.
He drops his knife and bends down to get it. Malfoy's smirk grows wider and he disguises a chuckle as a cough.
"Jealous, are you?" he mouths.
Is this something I missed happening? When did Harry and Malfoy fall for each other? They're enemies. They've always been enemies, ever since...ever since I told them to be.
"Back off, Malfoy," I mouth back.
I shoot him my meanest glare and he pretends to quake. It's a weak defense and we both know it. I spend lunch sleeping in the Forbidden Forest. It's not like it can be any more damaging than that just was.
Harry and I lie on the couch and make up predictions to appease Trelawney. Well, actually, I make up predictions for both of us as Harry plans his future as Harry James Malfoy. Hermione's off in her room writing Harry's DADA essay because she wants Snape to have no more reasons to give him detention. I've been feeling strange since lunch. Or, my lack of lunch. That's probably it. I clench my fists around my particularly spectacular prediction, "I will see a cloaked figure at three pm who will promise me the world and bring me pain." Don't know where that came from but it's brilliant. It's etched in my mind in a way that makes it feel genuine. We'll get full marks for sure. I look down at Harry, who's fallen asleep, and seethe. That's strange.. I'm angry.
Harry is mine. He's always been mine.
Erm..
That's a bizarre thought. I shake it from my mind.
There is none who can take him from me and live. He cannot leave me without punishment.
I pour my glass of water down my throat and lug Harry upstairs. I burrow into bed and shut out the night.
DRACO-
Crabbe and Goyle look at me with empty devotion in their eyes. I despise them both, I really do. There's no passion there. They're shells waiting for command, not people. How can they give themselves to the Dark Lord? It's enough that I have to pretend to- for the time being, but they really and truly love him. But these two are the closest thing to friendship I've found. I should tell them, I tell them everything else.
"Crabbe?" I say quietly.
Salazar, Malfoy have you taken an ill prepared potion? Don't do anything 'quietly' or 'meekly'. Your father will eat you alive.
His big, dull eyes focus on mine and brighten.
"Finally!" He exclaims.
"Finally what?" Goyle asks.
"Finally Malfoy admits it. He's in looove," Crabbe says.
I look at him blankly.
"In love? What… love? Hah! Love, Draco Malfoy in love?" I stutter.
"But mostly finally the Ice Prince admits we're friends enough to know," Crabbe says.
I have treated them like nuisances. I despise the very idea of letting them in so much that I haven't granted either of them the use of my first name.
"Draco," I say quietly.
Malfoys be damned.
"The same to you," Goyle says- Gregory says.
"Who is it?" Vincent asks.
I smile softly.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" I ask, "Wouldn't everyone?"