Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, I don't. But maybe, if I think about it, Harry Potter owns me.
Warnings: Language, I guess
Author's note: Here it is! Firstly, thank you for your reviews. They are always appreciated! And second, that centaur might or not have been based on me. I mean, a centaur, with red hair, saying abstract stuff? It's such a big coincidence. Now I really should go because it's three in the morning and my cat is purring on my elbow and it's like she is begging me to just go to sleep. Anyway, I hope you like it!
Chapter Three
But it was Potter who was there, asleep and tied on a tree. He looked like a ghost, the only thing illuminating his face was Draco's wand. He studied Potter's features for a bit while he slept, but then he was interrupted by a centaur.
"Good evening" said the centaur. Draco turned his eyes to the centaur and saw it was female, with long and uneven red hair.
"Hello" Draco answered "I didn't know that there were girl centaurs"
"What the humans don't know" she replied calmly "Could fill many skies"
"Right" Draco said, wondering if she was offended by it. She, however, was looking at the sky.
"Venus is bright today" She said suddenly "In some other, darker times, Mars used to be bright"
"Right" Draco replied "Mars is the planet of war and Venus is the planet of… love"
"War and love are just words made to try to understand what the universe portraits" Draco looked at her, confused. He had studied astrology for this and now she was telling him that everything was much more abstract? "Humans love feelings, they love naming feelings and they try to gather all the meaning of something as complex as the universe in a single word. This cannot be done. Venus' energy, however, is very similar to what humans dare to call love. But love isn't opposed to war, as Venus' energy is to Mars'. Well, if you think for a bit more, nothing is really opposite to anything. Things always carry something in common, or aren't related at all."
"Centaurs are the symbol of the sign of Sagittarius. The opposite sign to Sagittarius is Gemini" Draco said, struggling to show the centaur that he did know something.
"Yes. Only two brains could understand the mind of a centaur. The problem with your human brain is that it seeks knowledge. But us, centaurs, know that knowledge changes as fast as the wind. Wisdom, however, remains the same. So do the stars" She looked him in the eye "Now you, Gemini boy, must rescue your lion on that tree. And know that all his stars are turned to you."
With that enigmatic note, she left.
Draco had no problem on untying Potter from that tree, but when he fell on his arms he realized that it might now be a problem. The centaur lady had left, and Potter wasn't very heavy, but Draco doubted he would be able to carry Potter all the way back.
But that's what he did, or tried to anyway. He dragged Potter around, almost tripped in a lot of roots and decided to ignore the giant spiders passing by.
But damn, Potter was heavy. He was. Draco wasn't built to carry stupid Gryffindors around a forest, he should be walking graciously and having people fainting from all the beauty that he emanated.
He was considering leaving Potter in the middle of the woods when Potter blinked his eyes and woke up.
"Draco" he said, almost falling over "Hey"
"Are you okay?" Draco asked.
"I'm okay now" Harry answered, widening his eyes and looking closer. He looked positively insane.
"Are you sure?" Draco asked
"No" Potter answered, and he got closer and closer and suddenly he couldn't get any closer because he pressed his lips against Draco's, muffling a cry. Draco stood there, his eyes wide, his heart beating faster and faster, as Potter kissed him softly. He didn't seem like he was in his right mind.
Still, Draco couldn't find a reason to stop him. He enjoyed it, closed his eyes and was going to kiss Potter back when a thought struck him. Potter was in some kind of weird effect of the spell that had put him to sleep. He wasn't in his right mind. He really didn't want this. So Draco stopped him.
"Potter" He said, and Potter turned his drunk-like eyes to him "We should get going"
He nodded and they walked through the woods, silently. Never a silence between them had felt so uncomfortable.
As the time passed, Potter seemed to be coming to his right mind. When they were almost reaching the edge of the forest, Potter grabbed his arm and looked at him in the eye.
"Draco" he said sharply "Sorry about that. Back there."
"No problem, Potter" Draco said, hurt. He sort of hoped that Potter had pulled him over to finish what he had started "I know how irresistible I am"
"You are a dick" Potter answered, but beamed. Draco beamed back and tried to forget about it, but his night was filled with dreams about centaurs and Potter's lips.
He missed breakfast in the next day, and went straight to his first class. Herbology with the Ravenclaws, and he couldn't stop noticing how overly nice people were being with him. And this was saying something, because when he missed breakfast he had the tendency to be very, very rude.
But people were nice. Not just polite, but actually nice. Two Ravenclaw girls asked Draco if he wanted to group with them, and even Professor Sprout didn't look at him disapprovingly. He thought that maybe it was the fact that he had been the first place in the second task in the day before.
By lunch, he was feeling so much happier. Even some Slytherins talked to him, but he didn't see Potter anywhere. Neither Weasley nor Granger were in the Great Hall for lunch.
After his last class, he went to the classroom. He didn't think Potter would be there, but he was. When he saw Draco, he blushed, however.
"Oh" He said "I didn't think you'd come"
"Why not?"
"Haven't you seen it?" Potter asked, grabbing something from his bag.
"Seen what?" Draco asked, confused.
"Here" Potter answered, putting the Daily Prophet in the table. And there it was, in the first page. A picture of that stupid kiss, and the headline: "The Boy Who Loved?"
Draco's eyes met Potter's.
"That explains a lot" he shrugged. It was odd, because he really didn't mind. He should mind, but he didn't.
"What?" Potter asked "And aren't you mad?"
"I'm not, Potter" Draco replied sharply "Worst things have been said about me"
Potter smiled shyly.
"And people have been treating me so well today, I thought it was because I won the second task" He added
"Maybe it was?" Potter argued
"Don't be stupid, Potter, of course it wasn't" Draco rolled his eyes "But tell me, what are you going to do?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing" Draco rose his eyebrows and Potter stood silent for a while. "I thought that we could pretend that it is real, you know, if people really are nicer to you"
"Oh" Draco said, careful not to meet Potter's eyes. It was an obvious thing to do, really. He didn't need to worry about people talking shit about him behind his back because they already did that, and if he did what Potter suggested, people would be nicer to him, and that was what mattered now. But, for some reason, that bothered him.
Still, he couldn't say no.
"Great!" Potter said, getting up "We won't have to worry about Yule Ball dates, then"
Draco didn't smile.
"And since the third task is years away" Potter said "I think I'll go meet my friends. I mean, Ron and Ginny wanted to fly for a bit and I really do miss flying"
"Okay" Draco answered, his voice almost trapped inside his throat.
"So you could go and meet your friends too, what do you think?" Potter asked, cheerfully, and Draco agreed.
He watched Potter leave the room, and stared at the door, feeling miserable. Of course that Potter wouldn't have thought that he didn't have any friends to meet.
He sighed, and looked at the books in the table. He loved books, and loved learning, even though he wasn't as insane as Granger about it. But he didn't want to read anything now, he just wanted to… fade away. He felt so lonely.
He was staring numbly at the books when the door opened again. It was Potter.
"I'm sorry" He said "You don't have any friends to meet, do you?"
Draco shook his head, his eyes watering. He didn't want Potter to see it, so he looked down.
"Well, you technically have a friend" Potter continued "You have me"
He was shaking. He didn't know why, but there he was, in an empty classroom, with Potter saying that he was his friend and he was shaking. Like an idiot.
He just raised his eyes when Potter stretched his hand out to him. He looked at his hand, now 7 years older than the hand that didn't take his on the first day of school. That sight gave him strength to stop shaking and to take it.
"Come on" Potter said, pulling him towards the door "Let's fly!"
Potter didn't let go of his hand. Actually, when he realized that there were people looking, he even laced their fingers together and gave Draco a warm smile. In that moment, Draco's heart stung a little bit.
They played in pairs. Weasleys against Potter and Draco. Granger decided to stay on the ground, with her books, but was very supportive.
When they stopped playing, with Potter and him winning 5 of the 7 matches they played, it was way past curfew. Potter then said that he would take Draco back to the Slytherin common room and grabbed his hand again. Both Weasleys flinched and Granger got a weird look on her face, but no one said anything.
"You know" Draco said in the way to the Slytherin dormitory "We really do fly well together"
"Yeah, maybe if we weren't against each other for so long, things could have been easier" Potter replied, and Draco was going to say that they would always play against each other because they were from different houses, but then he realized that Potter wasn't really talking about Quidditch.
When they arrived at the door of the dormitory, Potter let go of his hand and they stared at each other for a while.
"Good night, Potter" Draco said, finally.
"You know, if we are going to pretend to date, the least you could do is call me by my first name" Potter whispered in his ear and gave him a small kiss because there were some people passing by.
Draco didn't reply, but Potter left with a smile anyway. Draco, however, couldn't smile back.
Because, in that moment, he understood what was wrong. He didn't want to pretend. He wanted it to be real.