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Chapter 7

HARRY

Harry struggled all week to talk to Dawn, but every time he tried Malfoy was around her. He finally decided to talk to her during the Slytherin quidditch practice, since he knew that Malfoy would be busy and she would be left alone. So on Saturday morning he made his way to the library. On his way there he saw a disgruntled looking Malfoy heading in his direction; he slipped into a corner so that Malfoy wouldn't see him. When he was out of sight Harry continued his way toward the library. Once he was inside he started to browse the aisles for Dawn. He found her in the muggle fiction section. Odd, Harry thought, why would she be here? Then he saw the romance novels and understood. Well, she is a girl.

"Hey," Harry whispered in her ear. She jumped and spun around.

"Harry, hi, what are you doing here?" she asked surprised.

"I wanted to talk to you; don't worry Malfoy is at quidditch practice," he added at her nervous glance around.

"Harry, this is dangerous you could—"

"I'm already on the Dark Lord's most wanted list, I can't get in any more trouble," he said, half-joking.

"That's not funny Harry, she said, giving him a reproachful look.

"Sorry. So how have you been?"

"Good, I missed talking to you though," she said, a little embarrassed. "You?"

"I missed you," he said, inching closer to her.

"Harry, I don't think—"

"See that's the problem," he whispered, closing the space between them, "you think too much." As he kissed her he felt new and unfamiliar, yet pleasant, sensations. When they broke apart Dawn's cheeks were flushed a light pink and she couldn't quite meet his gaze. He smirked and kissed her forehead.

"Harry, what are we doing?" she asked, laying her head against his chest.

"I don't know, but I don't feel the need to stop," he said, sighing slightly.

"Harry, we can't do this—"

"Yes, we can, we can keep it a secret," Harry said, cutting her off.

"You could keep part of your life a secret?" she asked, now looking him straight in the eyes.

"If it means having you in my life, then yes."

She studied him carefully, the stern doubtful look in her eyes giving way to a gentler, subdued look. She placed both hands on either side of his face, tracing his lips with her thumbs.

"You're sure?" she asked in a soft whisper.

"Yes," he said firmly. She smiled and kissed him. He was so overjoyed that she had caved in to her feelings that he barely noticed what time it was when Hermione came looking for him.

"Harry, Ron and I have been looking for you all day. What have you been doing?" she asked him as they made their way towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"Er, just reading," he muttered, smirking slightly. He was still thinking about his parting with Dawn: the hasty kiss good-bye and the plan to meet later that evening.

"In the muggle fiction section?" she questioned doubtfully.

"Yeah, I, er, just needed a bit of a break,' he lied. She didn't seem to believe him, but she didn't bring it up again.

"What are you smiling about?" Ron asked as they sat down to eat.

"Nothing, just in a good mood."

Harry found it a bit disturbing that he could lie so easily to his friends. But his frequent, yet subtle, glances at the Slytherin table proved to him that it was worth it. Every now and then a small smile would appear on her face, but just as quickly it would disappear and she would go back to looking sullen. Harry smirked when he saw Malfoy looking annoyed; obviously he wasn't getting what he wanted from her. Harry had to wonder why as he realized this: Why not be with Malfoy? Why did Dawn prefer Harry to Draco? Wasn't he a better, safer choice? He was a pureblood, a Death Eaters' son, and probably one himself.

You must have or be something he's not, a voice in Harry's head said. Yeah, but what?

XXXXXXX

Later that evening Harry was in the back of the library waiting for Dawn. He had had to use the Invisibility Cloak to sneak past Ron and Hermione and had decided to stay under it so that no one would see him and start questioning him. He spotted Dawn walking slowly towards him. She set her bag down and sat down in an empty seat. He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, "Hey." She started, but quickly regained her composure.

"Must you do that?" she muttered. Harry chuckled and pulled he under the cloak with him.

"I must," he joked. He pulled her closer and kissed her. What started out as slow and gentle soon turned to heated and passionate.

"Harry," she said, as his lips moved along her neck.

"Hmm?"

"Can we stop for a sec?"

"Can I ask why?" he asked, inching away.

"I can't breathe," she said, blushing a bit.

"Haven't heard that one before," he joked. She rolled her eyes and laid her head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. He tightened his embrace and stroked her hair.

"Dawn, how'd I talk you into this?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. For some reason I'm drawn to your honest character and devilishly handsome good looks," she said, giving him a small smirk.

"I think I'm ok with that," he said. He leaned in to kiss her again when a sudden white-hot pain shot through his forehead. It was so powerful that he staggered backward, pulling the cloak off of them both.

"Harry!" Dawn rushed to his side and helped him into an empty chair. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"Nothing, it's…it's your…grandfather. He's happy about something. Do you know why that might be?" he asked, running his hand over his scar.

"No, I wouldn't," she said quietly. Her eyes were full of worry as she repeated her unanswered question. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, really," he said reassuringly. She sat down weakly beside him. "How did you know that he—my grandfather—was happy?" she asked, after they had sat in silence for a few minutes.

"It's hard to explain; we share some sort of connection through my scar. Sometimes I get glimpses of what he's doing, but only when he's really happy or angry," he explained. He noticed that she could barely meet his eyes. "Dawn," he said, taking her hands in his, "look at me, please look at me." She slowly lifted her light blue eyes to his green ones.

"You didn't know any of this?" he asked. "Your grandfather never told you?"

"Grandfather doesn't really tell me things, especially things concerning you," she said, giving him a weak half-smirk, half-smile.

"Never, not even to curse me to hell?"

She laughed, "Only for that." He pulled her closer so that they were inches apart.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?" he asked, caressing her cheek.

"Can he…sense, when you're happy or angry?"

"It's possible, why?"

"No, reason," she said. She closed the distance between them and kissed him. "Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight," he said as she kissed his forehead. They walked together to the front of the library before they went their separate ways. The few people who saw them didn't pay too much attention, due to being distracted by their studies. As Harry made his way back to Gryffindor Tower he realized that it had been a long time since he'd been this happy.

XXXXXX

During potions the next day Slughorn assigned them partners, saying that the houses (especially Gryffindor and Slytherin) needed to 'intermingle' more. While Harry joined in with the groans from both houses, he didn't mind Slughorn's decision when he learned that he had been paired with dawn. As they began to work on today's potion Harry noticed Malfoy shoot him a few worried-angry glances.

"What's wrong with Malfoy?" Harry muttered under his breath.

"Well, er…his parents and my grandfather wish for us to marry, but I don't. So I'm doing my best to ignore him and his advances; and keep him out of trouble," she explained while adding the mandrake root.

"So not only are you defying your grandfather, but you're on more than friendly terms with his worst enemy."

She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. They finished with the potion, exchanging whispered words so the wouldn't be over heard, and cleaned up.

"Will I see you later?" Harry muttered, as they packed their things.

"No, Draco was too suspicious about where I was last night. I'll try and meet you tomorrow night in the Astronomy Tower, ok?"

"All right; I best get going, Malfoy's heading this way." Harry stood up and left, causally brushing against her side. She shot him a quick longful glance and then turned to Malfoy to listen to him complain about Harry. Harry caught up with Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall.

"There you are Harry, Hermione said as he took a seat across from her and Ron. "What took you so long?"

"Er, potion mishap," he lied, " measured wrong and the potion started to bubble over."

"Hmm…that's odd, that Riddle girl is usually very good at potions," Hermione observed.

"Er, well, it was my fault," he amended quickly.

"At least she was smart enough to fix the problem, Malfoy kept screwing up and neither of us could fix it," Ron said, angrily. Harry smirked at the knowledge that he was causing Malfoy discomfort. He stole a quick glance at the Slytherin table and saw an annoyed Malfoy trying to engage Dawn in conversation.

"What's so funny?" Ron asked.

"Malfoy screwing up at potions, I bet Snape would've loved that!" Harry and Ron laughed, while Hermione gave them a reproachful look. They finished their lunch and made their way to Transfiguration. Halfway to class Harry was stopped by Malfoy.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Harry asked coldly.

"Stay away from Dawn, Potter," he snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, trying to sound confused and unconcerned.

"Just stay away from her, you don't know what you're doing." Malfoy stormed off looking livid. Harry half-run rest of the way to class, wondering the whole way if Malfoy had found out about him and Dawn.

"What was all that about?" Ron asked as Harry sat down.

"I don't know; just Malfoy being Malfoy, I guess," he muttered. The rest of the day passed without another encounter with Malfoy. Several times he tried to get Dawn's attention, but was unable to without being noticed by Malfoy and other Slytherins. He could not help wondering that night, before he fell asleep, if Malfoy was bluffing or telling the truth.

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