When the movies ended Jenny couldn't wait to get Eric alone, she wanted more than anything to find out what was going on with him, and staying around chatting with everyone wasn't going to get this to happen. Lucky for her Eric seemed just as anxious to leave, so Jenny made an excuse of needing to get home and Eric went along with it.
Several times on the walk home Jenny almost brought the topic up but she wanted to wait until they were home and Eric couldn't ignore it. When they finally made it home Eric tried to make a bee line for his room, but Jenny managed to stop him dead in his tracks.
"What was with the popcorn?" she asked.
"What…what do you mean?" Eric asked as he turned to look at her, trying and failing to keep the deer caught in headlights look from his face.
"Eric I'm not stupid. Something is going on between you and Harry, and you seem to be the only one aware of it." She paused, but when it was clear he wasn't going to willingly spill his guts she demanded answers. "Damnit Eric, what is going on?"
Eric sighed and walked to the kitchen table and sat down heavily in a chair. "You're not going to believe me."
Draco rubbed the back of his neck. Jenny knew something was off and he couldn't pussy foot around it anymore. As Jenny sat down next to him he looked up at her and briefly thought about telling her everything. He opened his mouth to do just that, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't hurt her like that, he just didn't have it in him, so he told her as much as he dared.
"Harry, doesn't remember me, but I sure as hell remember him." He started. He looked up at Jenny once more before putting his head down and lying as little as he could. "Harry and I went to school together. We never really hung out, or anything. We didn't exactly get along. I was so different back then, physically, mentally, you could say I'm an entirely different person now, so when he didn't recognize me I was actually pretty happy, you know fresh start and all. But I see him and I can't separate past from present and as much as I want to forget everything and start over, I'm going crazy just knowing that I know him and he doesn't know me." Draco took a breath and looked up. Jenny was silent. She was searching his face for something, and he prayed that he had stayed close enough to the truth that she couldn't see the bit of doubt in him.
Draco chewed on the inside of his cheek waiting for Jenny to say something, anything. When she opened her mouth Draco stopped breathing in anticipation. "Wow. That…sucks." Draco let out the breath he was holding.
"Yeah it really does."
"Why don't you just, remind him?" This was the question Draco really didn't want to answer. 'Because I'm not who you think I am and he thinks I'm dead' really didn't seem to be a good thing to tell her.
"Because I like the way things are now, I don't want to go back to all of that. Him not remembering me is one of the best things to ever happen to me."
They both sat there in complete silence, neither knowing exactly what to say. When Draco couldn't take anymore he finally spoke. "Just please don't say anything to him about it."
Jenny nodded and put her hand on his. "I promise." Then she got up and went to bed without another word, leaving Draco alone feeling lower than he'd ever felt before.
The next few days went back to pretty much normal with Harry coming over every other day to work on his and Jenny's project. Each night he came by he'd stay later and later, hoping to catch Eric coming back from the library, and he always did. The first time they were all in the same room together Jenny had tensed up completely. Knowing what Eric had told her, she felt completely confused, and didn't know how to react. She felt a newfound respect for Eric for not just running out of the room, like she wanted to do.
She was pretty shocked that Eric managed to make conversation with Harry, she wanted to puke just watching it all. Although she and Harry were actually getting along well Jenny had all but made up her mind to break all ties with Harry after they were done with the project, making life for both her and Eric a lot less awkward. Harry however didn't seem to have the same idea.
"So, my friend Gene is having a party at his place Friday, you and Eric should come. It can be a kind of celebration for finishing this project." Harry said as he put another piece of their model together.
"Sounds fun, I'll see if we can make it." Jenny answered not looking up from the work she was doing.
"Cool. I know Gene would really like it if you came." Jenny glanced over at Harry, and bit her lip. She really wanted to make a joke about Harry wanting Eric there, but didn't want give him any false hope.
"So you don't want us there, just Gene does." Harry blushed and Jenny found her response adaquet.
"I don't actually think I'm going." Harry said. Jenny whipped her head up to stare at him.
"What? Then why ask me and Eric to come?"she asked.
"I've got a friend visiting and I'm not sure how big they are on parties, Gene asked me to make sure you two got the message though."
"Oh." Jenny was saved from saying anything else, by the door slamming open and a crazed looking Eric sprinting through the house straight to his desk.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…' was all Draco could think as he ran from the library all the way home, as fast as he could.
He had been sitting in the library doing research for a paper when he noticed a very pale hand sitting on his book. Looking up to see who the hand belonged to, Draco was confused when no one was there. He looked back down, but the hand was still there. He stared at it for a good long while before noticing the tan wrist it was attached to, the tan that perfectly matched the one he was used to seeing in the mirror every day. The second the information penetrated his brain Draco panicked like he had never panicked before.
Slamming his books closed and haphazardly throwing them into his bag Draco sprinted home as fast as he could. As he ran he wracked his brain for anything that could help him. After starting his life as Eric, Draco had gotten rid of just about everything magical he had only keeping things that might be necessary in the future, mainly a book he had been given when in hiding about all things that could go wrong with glamour charms. He had at one point committed it to memory, but over the years the information seemed less important as nothing went wrong, and now for the first time in over 5 years something was going wrong and he couldn't remember anything from the book.
He didn't even look up when Jenny called out to him as he ripped apart his desk looking for the book he knew had to be there somewhere. Finding the book at the very bottom of one of the desk drawers Draco kissed it and continued his sprint to his bedroom, only barely managing to spit out a "Can't talk" response as he locked himself in.
He flipped through the pages of the book looking for anything that seemed like it would help. About half way through the book he found something, and let out an uncharacteristic whoop.
"Is he okay?" Harry asked as Eric ran at a full out sprint into his room.
"I have no idea." Jenny said. They sat on the couch for a minute until they heard a whooping noise coming from his room. "I guess it's good news?" Jenny said looking suspiciously towards Eric's door.
"I guess so. Uh, well I should get going." Harry said as he gathered his books. As he reached the door Eric came bolting out of his room again, this time headed directly to the kitchen.
"Jenny, do we have any tomato paste?" He didn't even look over as he searched through every cabinet within his reach.
Jenny and Harry both stopped and looked at each other before Jenny turned to answer. "Uhh, yeah, it's on the fourth shelf, I think"
"Why do you need tomato paste?" Harry asked. The sound of Harry's voice stopped Eric dead in his tracks. The blonde boy turned and his eyes grew wide as they locked with Harry's.
"Project." Squeaked out of the tall blonde, who then backed up slowly, stopping only when he knocked into the fridge.
The poor boy looked terrified as he stared into Harry's eyes. Holding back a sigh, as everyone in the area seemed to be frozen solid, Harry walked into the kitchen and reached up to the shelf Jenny had indicated and pulled down a tube of tomato paste. "Here." He said handing the tube to Eric, who again stared at it for a minute before taking it. "Uh thanks."
Harry just nodded and left saying goodbye to Jenny on his way out.
"What was that abou…" Jenny began asking as she turned, only to find Eric missing again. She stormed over to his room and banged on the door. She waited impatiently for a moment before Eric opened the door. "What the fuck was that?"
"I needed tomato paste." Eric said leaving the door open and going to sit on his bed.
"That's not what I mean and you know it. You acted like Harry was about to kill you, when you saw him." Jenny stared down at Eric, who clearly looked ashamed of his actions.
"I know. I wasn't expecting him to be there and I freaked, I'm sorry."
Jenny sighed, "You don't have to apologize to me, but he's gonna want an explanation at some point."
"I know."Eric said head slowly making its way into his hands.
"Eric, are you sure there isn't something bigger going on here than just a weird past?" She had to ask. It didn't make sense for Eric to be having such strong reaction to Harry just because they didn't get along well back in school.
Eric let out a small moan. "I don't know."
Draco was glad that the tomato paste had worked as fast as it had, when he placed his head in his now both tanned hands. They still smelled like the stuff but they looked normal and that was all that mattered.
"Eric are you sure there isn't something bigger going on here than just a weird past?"
'God, if only she knew.' He thought, but he didn't know what to say. "I don't know." He settled for, still holding his head in his hands, refusing to look at Jenny, who simply sat down next to him and put an arm around him, comforting him.
Harry threw his stuff down by the couch, went into the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down, banging his head on the table repeatedly.
"Bad night?" his roommate who was currently eating a slice of pizza across from him.
Harry lifted his head momentarily to half glare at the boy. "You think?"
"I have a gift for noticing these things." The boy smiled as he took another bite.
"I thought we were starting to get along." Was all Harry said before twisting off the cap of his beer and taking a long swig of it.
"This that guy Gene was talking about the other day?"
"Yeah." Harry quickly downed half of his beer in another gulp.
"Sorry dude." The boy said ripping a bit of his crust off and shoving it into his mouth.
"You always know just what to say Ken." Harry threw a fake smile at him before downing the rest of his beer. "I'm going to bed."
"Night man!" Ken yelled as Harry walked away.
Harry laid on his bed staring at the ceiling. He was really beginning to like Eric, the guy was smart, funny with a sharp tongue, they had tons in common, and to top it all off he was gorgeous. Unfortunately for some reason that Harry couldn't figure out, the boy hated him, or was terrified of him, or some combination of the two. He just didn't get it. He hadn't done anything that he could think of, although Eric did say they'd met at a party, and it was possible he'd done something stupid then, but certainly nothing that would cause Eric to fear him, at least he didn't think so. Angry with life as it was, Harry flipped angrily over and buried his face in his pillow, desperately trying the get some sleep, at least Hermione's visit this weekend would cheer him up, maybe she could even shed some light on the situation.
The next day Draco found himself nervously standing in front of the school's bookstore, debating on whether or not to go inside. He needed to apologize to Harry but didn't want to go to his apartment so he had settled for trying to catch him at work. Taking a deep breath he went in and walked up to the cash register.
"How can I…oh hey, Eric right?" the brunette at the counter asked as he walked up.
"Yeah, and you're Gene right?"
"Yup. So what can I do for you?" The friendly guy asked.
"Uh, is Harry here by any chance?" He asked, feeling a blush rising up his neck.
"Nah sorry, he's not on today, but I bet you could catch him at his place." Gene's smile made Draco uncomfortable so he just nodded, offered his thanks and left.
New Text – Gene.
Harry's phone blared to life, in front of Ken. Being nosey by nature Ken grabbed Harry's phone and opened the message.
Heads up, Eric's headed to yours, thank me later.
Ken closed Harry's phone and looked around at the mess of the apartment, before sighing and starting to clean, "This guy better be worth it." He mumbled as he picked up a pair of smelly socks from the floor.
Draco really didn't want to do this, but he wasn't big on putting things like this off either, so he stood in front of Harry's apartment door, deciding if he'd knock. This was the second time he'd stood somewhere deciding things and he was getting sick of it. If Harry wasn't there this time he wasn't getting an apology. Draco lifted his hand to knock, but had the sudden thought that being there made him look like a stalker so he quickly dropped his hand and turned to leave.
"Eric?" a voice yelled at him.
Draco turned around, only to see Harry, dripping in sweat, pulling head phones out of his ears. Draco went to respond but his mouth had gone dry. Harry, clearly back from running, was wearing only a pair of shorts and some running shoes, with an arm band holding an mp3 player in place, this left his tanned and muscled chest and abs out in the open, with beads of sweat trailing down, and dragging Draco's eyes with them. Draco was so lost in watching one of those beads of sweat he didn't notice Harry walking towards him and almost missed what he was saying.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked, and Draco shook his head clear.
"I umm I was just stopping by to uh apologize for last night. I was having a really weird day and you being in the apartment just kinda freaked me out I guess." He said, trying to look anywhere but at Harry's body.
"Oh, yeah. Don't even worry about it. Trust me that's not the weirdest reaction I've ever gotten from someone." Draco watched as Harry ran his hand through his hair.
"Uh, cool…well I'm glad you're not mad at me" Draco nearly smacked himself at how stupid he sounded. Harry just laughed as he opened the door that Draco had been too afraid to knock on. "I'll see you round." He said trying to make his escape.
"You wanna come in?" Harry asked, as Draco turned to leave.
Turning back around Draco accidentally looked directly into Harry's eyes, and found himself having to shake his head clear again. "Sure." He wasn't sure why he accepted, he just followed Harry into his place.
Harry tried not to let his shock show as he entered his apartment and found it spotless. He walked over to the fridge and opened it up to get a bottle of water and found a note.
You're welcome. –K
Harry gave the note a quizzical look and then turned back to see Eric standing in his clean apartment. "Would you like anything to drink?" He asked motioning to his own water bottle.
"Huh? Oh no thanks." Eric answered.
Harry closed the refrigerator door and realized he had no idea what to do now. Inviting Eric had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he had no idea what to do.
"You're not wearing your glasses." Eric stated after a moment of awkward silence.
Harry instinctively reached up to his face and felt for the glasses he knew weren't there. "Oh yeah, they're not that great for running, so I wear contacts." It was at this point that Harry realized that he was almost naked, and he began to blush. "Uh make yourself at home, I'm just gonna go throw some clean clothes on." He said putting down his water bottle and heading to his room.
Draco had no idea what he was doing. Things had been weird enough when he was freaked about Harry exposing his secret, especially after seeing what he'd done to his glamour charms, but seeing Harry half naked and sweaty, with no glasses, just added to his pile of problems. Now he was standing in Harry's apartment alone, with pants that were slightly tighter than when he had put them on that morning. Things were not going well for Draco.
Draco took a seat on Harry's couch and had just managed to calm himself down when Harry walked out of his bedroom in tight jeans and tight shirt, neither of which Harry had ever worn around him before. The sight effectively undid Draco's calming work as Harry reached for his water bottle, causing the too small shirt to ride up a little. Draco found himself shifting in his seat as Harry walked over to sit near him on the couch.
"So, no classes today?" he asked hoping to get his mind off of what he had so clearly missed over the last two weeks.
"No, we don't have Drug Psych until Tuesday so I'm free for the day. What about you?" Harry answered seemingly much more comfortable than Draco felt.
"My classes are done for the day." The two fell back into an awkward silence as Draco tried not to think about how good Harry looked without his glasses.
"Have you heard the new Girl Talk album?" Harry asked, standing up and walking over to a stack of cds on the other side of the room.
"What's Girl Talk?" Draco asked, watching Harry.
"He's this mash up artist. His stuff is really good." Harry said before picking up one CD and putting it in the player. As the songs began to play Harry came back to sit on the couch. Thanks to the music the silence didn't seem so strange.
They had been sitting, just listening to the music for a while when Draco couldn't take the silence anymore. "This is a really long song." He commented.
"Actually we're on like the fourth track." Harry said.
Draco looked over to the player, "no way."
"Yeah, this CD is probably about 16 tracks long, but they all fit together seamlessly." Harry informed him. Thankfully that was all it took to break the string of silences as Harry and Draco began to actually talk.
It wasn't until Harry's roommate came back, that Eric mentioned that he had work, and needed to get going. "Oh are you and Jenny going to Gene's tomorrow?" Harry asked as he walked Eric to the door.
"I think so." Eric answered, then said his good byes to both Harry and Ken.
Once Eric was gone Harry got the chance to ask Ken about the apartment.
"Why'd you clean it?" Harry asked.
"Gene texted you saying Eric was headed over. I figured that was the guy you were going alcoholic over last night so I thought I'd do my part to get you laid." Harry gave Ken a very awkward look.
"You've been spending too much time with Gene."
Ken just shrugged. "Oh here's your phone." He said tossing a confused Harry back his phone.
