Chapter 2
"Potter, are you okay?"
"No."
Draco cringed at the response, but could hardly blame him; not that this stopped him from being worried. Harry had been sitting on the ground, legs crossed, with his head on his calves for the past half hour and that couldn't very well be good for circulation. "Potter, are you going to sit there all night?"
He saw the shoulders raise and lower in a heavy sigh, "No, Malfoy." Well, that was good. "I'll be sitting here all week as I'm not entirely sure I can move."
Okay, not so good. He sat down next to the other boy and put his back against the heavy wooden desk. It wasn't all his fault. Harry had been the one to suggest it, and not even bother to ask if Draco was gay, let alone if he'd ever had sex before. Of course, he'd had sex, but Pansy was about as attractive as a garden gnome, and just about as adept in bed.
"Are you mad at me?"
"No." That was…. "I went well beyond mad when you shoved your cock up my unlubricated ass. Do you mind keeping it down? I'm trying to ignore you."
Draco winced, but didn't say anything else for a time. He knew he deserved it, but it was rather difficult to have the first real friend he'd ever made mad at him less than an hour after they acknowledged the friendship. "Potter?"
"What!?"
"If it makes you feel any better, I think you put me off sex entirely."
For a moment he was afraid Harry had taken it as an insult, but then he heard the familiar deep chuckle, "Well, then, at least it was for a good cause. Harry Potter saves the world yet again." When they'd finished laughing, Harry looked up, anger no longer flashing behind his eyes, "You really should have told me you didn't know what you were doing."
Draco scrunched his nose distastefully, "It was a matter of pride."
"You know what? Of the two, I'd choose my partners ass over my pride, besides, it's not that embarrassing to be virgin." His voice took on a decidedly sappy tone, "I think it's rather sweet and noble; the great Draco Malfoy saving himself for the right person."
Draco scowled and resisted the urge to punch Harry's arm, afraid the movement might make it worse, "I was not saving myself, Potter, and I was not a virgin. No matter how horrible the experience, you alone could not put me off women."
"Oh, and who can?"
"Pansy Parkinson."
He watched a look of sympathy cross Harry's face before he started laughing again, "I am so sorry, Malfoy, I had no idea. Honestly, if I knew she was your first and only I would have put you out of your misery a long time ago."
Draco did slug him this time, but not as hard as he wanted to, "Shut up, Potter."
They sat in silence, listening to each other breath. With the amount of time they'd spent alone in the past few months Draco had become very familiar with Harry's breathing and could, for the most part, tell what he was feeling from it. It was evening out, becoming normal, which was a good sign that the pain was lessening.
"Malfoy?"
"Hm?
"I think you may have to take me to the hospital wing."
Draco looked down in shock, "What the bloody hell will you tell Madame Pomfrey? That you fell the wrong way on your broomstick?"
Harry punched him this time, "That doesn't hurt nearly this bad. Come on, I can actually feel myself bleeding and that is not a good sign."
"You serious?"
"Yeah."
As he helped Harry up, he winced almost imperceptible at the thick stream of blood running down his legs and wrapped an arm protectively around the smaller boy's waist, "How should we do this? Can you walk?"
Harry took a small step forward and fell into Draco's supportive grip, his legs turning to rubber, "I'm thinking no."
After much scrambling to get their cloaks on without jarring him around too much, Draco bent over and scooped Harry up, surprised at how heavy he was for his size. Physically he looked no more than 120. He'd only taken a few steps when he felt Harry looking at him. "What?"
"If it ever gets out that you had to carry me I will personally see to it that you never have to worry about sex again."
Draco laughed, but tightened his grip and tried to keep from moving erratically, "Good threat, but tell you what, I won't tell anyone I carried you if you don't tell anyone about my stunning premature ejaculation."
Harry chuckled into his chest, it felt almost like a purr, "I don't think it counts as premature if you get it in."
"Anything under a minute is premature."
Neither of them said another word as they made their way through the halls, but Harry couldn't hold back "ow ow ow" as Draco laid him on the bed before going off in search of Madame Pomfrey, who, it turned out, did not need an explanation. She shut the young Malfoy out of the room, telling him to wait outside. Five minutes later she came out and glared at him for a few seconds before thrusting a tube of some kind in his hand and sending him back to his dorm for the night.
The tube turned out to be a numbing salve. Setting it on his bed side table, he pulled the covers over himself, not bothering to disrobe.
Draco sat in his desk during Potions absolutely seething at the way his own Head of House had treated him. Snape had actually given him a B. He'd never received a B in Potions in his entire life. He lowered his voice and grumbled to himself, ignoring the fact at his lab partner could hear him. "God damned Madame Pomfrey, why can't she keep her big mouth shut?"
Harry kicked him under the table, "She could have said worse, Malfoy. I'd be thankful she didn't let it slip why you brought me in."
Crossing his arms abstinently across his chest, Draco leaned over and dropped his voice, "Yeah? Well, she could have left out the part about my looking concerned. I did not look concerned."
"No, you didn't, you look constipated." Harry tried to muffle his laughter as Draco sputtered.
As soon as Snape looked back down at the papers he was grading, Draco leaned over again, "I was not constipated, I was in pain! I'd just about taken a layer of skin off one of my favorite bits. You'd be a little ansy sitting in those wooden chairs, too." He left off the part about it being entirely numb until the next morning. It seemed to diminish his case against what had been his rather obvious worry.
It had been nearly a month since it happened and things had gone down hill very quickly for the once powerful Slytherin. He was still feared, he was still respected, its just that he was now also a traitor to his house. Having the entire school know that he and Harry were indeed friends of a sort was more humiliating and devastating than coming out. Not that he knew what that felt like, but he was sure he was right.
Weasley had taken it horribly. He'd thrown a fit the first time Harry dragged Draco into the Grffyindor common room insisting it was safe. Draco absently rubbed the faded mark on his hand that proved Gryffindors, at least those of the Weasel variety, did indeed bite. Granger had been civil, she hadn't even asked for an apology; not that he ever intended to give one. It seemed that, after the novelty of his being there wore down, most of the house was perfectly content to leave them alone.
"Oh, yes, Malfoy, so terribly sorry I forgot your discomfort. I think I was little too preoccupied with a certain mangled part of my own body to notice."
Ron kicked the back of Harry's chair and he looked up to see Professor Snape staring at them from behind his desk. It was fairly obvious that he'd been watching for some time, and Draco silently prayed, though he wasn't sure to what, that he hadn't been using a hearing charm. "Mr. Malfoy, five points, Mr. Potter, twenty, and detention for you both. I do hope neither of you had plans tonight."
Harry turned slightly red, "Why twenty?"
The professor sneered unpleasantly, "You provoked him. Ten more for your insolence."
Draco watched Harry's jaw clench as Snape stared, daring him to say something else. When nothing happened he went back to grading papers and Harry went back to writing out the essay on why their potion hadn't worked properly. The blonde sneered down at his own. It had worked properly, it had done just what it was suppose to, however, Snape had absolutely refused to believe it was the correct color. Draco finished scribbling on his paper and slammed his quill down, staring blankly at the board.
Potions was the last class of the day and when Snape dismissed everyone ten minutes later the two of them stayed behind to start their detention. Weasley stared at Draco irritably for a moment before turning his full attention to his friend, "You'll be all right then, Harry?"
"Yeah, probably, if he doesn't make us clean caldron bottoms again. We'll meet you and 'Mione in the common room later."
Weasley made a face, obviously adverse to the thought of Draco joining them, "Why's the ferret have to come, anyway?"
Draco stood up straighter, tensing, but Harry stepped forward, "Ron, I hang out with him twice a week. You'll live. And stop calling him ferret."
"Yeah, Weasel."
"You too, Malfoy."
Draco smirked, "I'm not calling anyone a ferret."
"You know what I mean." Harry elbowed the Slytherin in the gut, not bothering to turn around as he tried to regain his breath in large gulps.
The red head's eyes widened, "Bloody hell, Harry, and you call yourselves friends."
Snape's shadow fell over the group and Ron blanched, "Right, I'll just give 'Mione your best, then."
Draco watched his professor in amusement as Harry and Snape glared at each other. It wasn't anything abnormal, their hate had only intensified since the beginning of sixth year when the professor had spent a great deal of time nursing a starved Potter back to health on Dumbledore's orders.
After several moments of intense staring, in which neither backed down, Snape handing each a piece of paper and lead them to a door on the right wall of the room, "You will be spending your evening taking inventory of my store room. Certain potions have gone missing recently," he eyed Harry suspiciously, "and I would like to make sure nothing else has mysteriously vanished."
Once they were locked in, and he was sure Snape had left Draco narrowed his grey eyes dangerously, "This'll take us hours."
Harry had already found the first item on his list and was methodically counting the vials with the matching picture and label, "Yes, four, in fact. Me and Ron had to do it at the end of last year. So, Malfoy," he half turned his head around, giving a sarcastic little smile that oddly resembled Draco's smirk, "I suggest you get started."
Five hours later, Harry was trying, as he generally did on such occasions, to pointedly ignore Draco as the blonde made every attempt to kick his shin again. Harry was sitting cross legged on the floor with a very bruised right leg. Draco was laying on his stomach, feet in the air, facing away. Every so often he dropped one boot clad foot onto the leg behind him and chuckled evily as Harry cursed.
He went to do it again, but Harry grabbed his foot this time, twisting it to the side and forcing Draco onto his back to keep his ankle from snapping. "Stop it."
"You said four hours. It's been longer." He pushed up onto his elbows and saw that Harry was untying his shoe laces, "What are you doing?"
Taking off one boot, Harry threw it casually behind him and started on the next, "You're feet turn me on." He rolled his eyes at the disgusted, questioning look he received from the other boy, "You'll do less damage this way." When both had been removed, and placed out of the blonde's reach, Draco straightened his leg quickly, shoving his heel directly into a spot he knew he'd hit before and smirking as he heard the now familiar curse.
Harry scowled, but wasn't about to try a return assault just yet. If there was one thing Draco had figured out about Harry, other than the fact he was gay, it was that he took his time getting revenge. Sometimes, when he was feeling very contemplative, he wondered why he bothered doing things that incurred the Gryffindor's select, and rather vicious, form of retaliation, but he'd yet to come up with anything plausible.
Looking over his shoulder at Harry, he watched him running a finger down his list, "I only counted 297 general healing potions which means there are eleven missing."
Draco raised his eye brows at the number, but turned back to his own, "Okay, I've got four hang over remedies gone."
"Only four? There should be five." Harry blushed crimson as Draco shot him a look, eyebrow raised even higher, "Well, it wasn't like I could ask him for them. You sure it's only four?"
"Yeah." Draco kicked back, becoming annoyed when he missed, "Maybe Snape miscounted."
There was a grunt of disbelief, but he said nothing else about it. "You missing anything else?"
After a moment, Draco chuckled, "Yeah, there were supposed to be two male fertility potions, I could only find one."
"Male fertility?" Harry laughed as he crawled over to look, "Why would Snape have male fertility potions at a school?"
Draco handed the paper over for Harry to inspect, "He's a potions master, dimwit, you think his only source of income is teaching? He does owl orders and the like. Chances are someone ordered it and then changed their mind."
Harry seemed very thoughtful as he turned the information over in his head, "Well, that explains the leather and silk."
"The what?"
Harry, who had just begun scanning the shelves for the potion, stopped and looked at Draco with an utterly blank expression. "You weren't... I mean..." He frowned deeply, "It was one of the dares in sixth year, before the... you know what. Fred and George dared me to go into Snape's rooms and redecorate. They even went so far as to teach me a spell to turn things pink. Anything."
Draco's eyebrow's shot up, "You went into Snape's private quarters and turned his things pink?"
The brunette shook his head dejectedly, "I got in, but he caught me before I could do more than charm the candles. Thing is he had leather furniture, all leather furniture. And not the stiff, uncomfortable kind in the Slytherin commons; I'm talking soft, really nice, rich black leather that you can just sink into and never come out of again."
He stopped as he saw the way Draco's mouth was hanging open, "Potter, I can't help but you notice you sound a little... familiar with his furniture."
The blank stare slowly changed as Harry began smiling impishly, "Well, I was there for half an hour before he caught me."
"You didn't!"
The smile turned absolutely wicked, "It was a nice couch! Honestly, I live in a dorm with four other boys, how exactly am I supposed to get any privacy?"
Draco's eyes filled with a sort of admiration diluted in shock, "You wanked off on Snape's couch?"
Harry blushed slightly at the indelicate way he had put it, and turned his back to his friend as he resumed his search for the potion, "You'd better get started double checking my list or we'll be here for..."
He went very quite. At first Draco thought he'd just decided not to finish, but he also seemed to have stopped breathing. Before he could ask what was wrong Harry thrust the paper into Draco's hand and cast a spell that nearly knocked Snape's magically locked door off it's hinges.
Turning around for a moment, Harry stared at Draco, assessing the situation, "I am really sorry, Malfoy, but I have to go. Tell Snape... oh hell, tell him I ran out." He started to turn and then stopped, grinning slightly and pointing at something that seemed to be behind Draco, "Oh, and that's for kicking me."
Before he could say anything in protest Harry was gone, running through the classroom and out the door as though there had been a call to arms. With a huff of annoyance, Draco took a moment to look behind him, but saw nothing of interest. He started to walk briskly from the room, intending to go straight to Snape (there was no way he was recounting over three hundred general healing potions on his own) when he caught his reflection out of the corner of his eye and stopped dead. His hair was pink.
