A Malfoy By Any Other Name
Chapter Nine

"My only love sprung from my only hate."

― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

The short walk from the disused classroom to the Transfigurations one was quiet, but only in one respect. The air between them hummed with feelings and unsaid things.

Harry was fearful they would bump into someone because he was sure the sexual tension was glaringly obvious, he fretted that they would taste it in the air just as he did. He walked close to Malfoy, their hands apart only fractionally. Logically, he should be panicking - something had just happened that would change his entire outlook on life forever.

But Malfoy was walking so serenely, and practically emitting calm vibes that Harry felt extremely hard pushed to be stressed. Indeed, Malfoy seemed to have a certain spring in his step which intrigued and pleased Harry no end.

"What are we going to say?" Harry said finally, when they reached the classroom door. Malfoy looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.

"Er - Potter - I don't really-" he twisted his fingers awkwardly.
"To McGonagall!" Harry added hurriedly, seeing how his question had been construed.

"Oh." Malfoy looked immensely relieved. "Just say you came over ill, Potter. You're the Chosen One. She'll lap it up."

Harry nodded, and nervously opened the classroom door. Hermione's mind would probably explode with suspicion when she saw who he was with.

"Mr Potter! Mr Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed when they entered. "May I ask where you've been?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply but Malfoy spoke first.

"Potter came over faint after English. He said it would pass, but I waited with him. He started burning up after ten minutes or so but he insisted we come to lesson."

Harry immediately tried to look overly warm. This wasn't too hard because, as Malfoy was well aware, his cheeks were already flushed and burning after his recent activity with him.

"Come over here, Potter. Mr Malfoy go to your seat." Harry nervously walked to the front.

"You look fine to me." she said sternly, giving Harry a piercing state. He tried not to gulp. "Next time try to have a better excuse prepared?" she advised, frowning disapprovingly.

"Yes, Professor." Harry mumbled.

"Detention, my office, tomorrow night." Professor McGonagall sniffed. "You too, Mr Malfoy," she added raising her voice. Harry turned around to see an irritated looking Malfoy.

"Certainly. Professor." he all but spat. Harry got a sudden feeling of déjà vu. Slughorn's Christmas party - Snape asking Malfoy to accompany him out of the party - "Certainly. Professor".

Harry shivered.
.-.

"Harry. Talk to me." Hermione hissed the minute Harry touched his seat. Ron looked on attentively.
"What?" Harry muttered, deliberately drawing out the process of taking his books out of his bag as so to delay looking at her.

"Where were you? And don't give me any of this 'ill' business," she added, when he opened his mouth. "Even McGonagall knows it's a lie."

Harry searched his mind for what would qualify as a good, innocent answer for why he stayed behind with Draco Malfoy.

"We were…" he started aimlessly, casting his mind around desperately. Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"..Reading through our lines." he finished somewhat lamely.

Excellent. So he and Malfoy had kissed not five minutes ago and he was already feeding people lies. He had a sudden image of returning to the common room late at night and telling Ron and Hermione elaborate stories about his whereabouts.

Ron and Hermione looked at him, respectively shocked and unimpressed.
"Mate, why would you do that?" Ron asked, aghast. Harry tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"We were just continuing the scene and .. lost track of time."
Behind Ron, Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry felt a sense of foreboding. She would be expecting answers very, very soon. He knew that much.

.-.

That day was spent in a very similar fashion to the one before; dodging Hermione. Harry only succeeded doing so by lurking in various corners of the school, under his invisibility cloak until long after the curfew.

By 11pm, he was just leaving the Astronomy classroom. A quiet mewl called his attention, and to his horror he saw Mrs Norris padding ominously towards him. He may have defeated the Dark Lord but the sight of the caretaker's car still invoked fear, and he quickly sprinted up the nearest staircase.

Unfortunately, this was the Astronomy Tower, the tallest tower in Hogwarts, and therefore not a good place to jog up. Harry was wheezing and panting by the time he reached the stop. He steadied himself against the wall for a few seconds before stepping out into the top of the tower that held so many memories for him.

He hadn't been here since the night Dumbledore had died.

He would never forget that night, nor the look of pure, undisguised terror on Draco Malfoy's face. As he stepped out of the stairwell, onto the tower floor, he immediately saw a lone figure leaning over the battlements. The boy who had been here the last time too.

Malfoy was a sight like no other in the moonlight. He was pale enough in ordinary lighting, but bathed in white rays he looked ethereal and translucent.

Harry gasped; he couldn't help it. Malfoy whipped around with a look of rising alarm on his face. It fell away when he saw it was Harry, and his eyes searched Harry's face almost imperceptibly. He turned away after a second, looking back out over the tower.

Harry slowly walked up to stand next to him. Unlike Malfoy, he made no pretence of observing the view, but turned his body sideways as so to stare directly at Malfoy's side profile.

Malfoy eventually turned to look at him.
"I'm sorry." he said, in a voice so quiet it was barely above a whisper.

"What? Why?" Harry asked quickly, in a far louder voice.

Malfoy continued to look at him, his face unreadable. Harry was struck by how much of the fire he'd know Draco Malfoy to possess had disappeared. The taunting boy of their youth seemed a million miles from this somber version.

"For kissing you." Malfoy said finally. Harry felt his face contort in shock.

"Why would you be sorry about that?" Harry asked, his heart thudding. He should have known - this was Draco Malfoy. He wasn't going to just take sudden kisses in his stride.

Malfoy looked at him in surprise, as if it should be obvious.
"For inflicting myself on you, of course." he said, with a faint, ironic sneer. "I shouldn't have let my feelings get the better of me. I apologise."

Harry stared at him. Malfoy was backing out; it was probably some side effect of his childhood - avoid anything considered unusual and a subject of gossip.

He knew he had just been delivered the perfect way of excusing the whole event; he could live with the memory, content with the reassurance it was all Malfoy's fault. He could move on, telling himself it was nothing to do with him.

That would be the easier choice. But when had he, Harry Potter, ever chosen the easier choice?

"No." he said finally, surprised by the strength of his own voice. Malfoy's face flickered from impassive to slightly confused.

"I wanted to kiss you, as hard as that may be to hear." he said, smirking slightly. "You didn't inflict yourself on me." he stared into Malfoy's conflicted grey eyes, unsure of what Malfoy was thinking. "I have wanted to kiss you for a very long time." he admitted softly, blushing furiously at the words.

If Malfoy was to change his mind about Harry, he had just given Malfoy some deadly ammunition with those words.

Malfoy's face remained unreadable as he seemed to contemplate those words. He turned back to gaze out over the grounds, the moonlight bathing his pointed, beautiful face once more.

"Good." he said finally, with a ghost of a smile.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but Malfoy continued talking.

"I'm not as strong or spirited as I used to be, Potter." he said, not looking at Harry. "I've lost a lot of things. I may act with bravado but I'm damaged. You don't want to get caught up with me."

Harry swallowed the lump that had rose in his throat. So this was what it was about. He surprised himself by placing a tender hand on Malfoy's arm.
"I do." he said, and Malfoy's breathing hitched. "God knows why Malfoy, but I do."

Malfoy muttered something about "A saving people thing".

"That sounds more like the Malfoy I know." he whispered and he finally saw Malfoy's composure break as a smirk spread across it, as familiar as an old friend.

Malfoy's hand suddenly snaked around Harry's wrist and tugged Harry closer, taking a step forward at the same time. All in the same, flowing motion, he angled his head and pressed his mouth against Harry's. It was a soft touch of lips, a gentle pursing of a kiss to counter the aching grip that the Slytherin had over Harry's wrist.

All too soon, Malfoy's lips released his, and Harry heard a groan escape from his own lips as he stared desperately at Malfoy's wet, red mouth.

Malfoy smirked again and Harry felt warm just looking at it.
"All in good time." he whispered quietly. He turned to leave, the green of his robes fluttering in the slight breeze.

"Good night," Harry called out softly, feeling foolish even as he did so. For half a second he thought Malfoy would ignore him, but he slowly turned around, his grey eyes all the more piercing in the pale light.

"Good night." he replied. Then a smirk stole across his face, causing Harry's heart to melt once more. If mere smirks had this effect on him, it would seem that Draco Malfoy provoked dangerous effects in him.
But he had always known that.

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow." Malfoy quoted, still smirking.

"That I shall say good night till it be morrow." Harry finished quietly. Malfoy smiled deviously, a smile reminiscent of better times, and left the tower.

Harry closed his eyes as he leant back against the battlement. It had been a wonderful, but strange day.

As he stood there, blind to his surroundings, he could have sworn he felt the a kiss on his cheek, so faint it could have been the wind.

But could wind create the sound of the soft footfalls Harry heard retreating?

Or the warmth that lingered on his cheek?

I'M SO SO SORRY. I had networking problems which lasted a week and half, meaning my first opportunity to post this was today. I know it has been horrendously long between chapters and I assure you this was a one of, and to expect a new chapter within a few days.

Did anyone notice the new cover? All credit goes to the lovely OliviaLipstick for making it.

Review and tell me what you think, as usual :)

P.S: to any waiting for an update for A Match Made In Hell it will probably come later today or tomorrow, I haven't written it as yet.

P.P.S: I have been procrastinating wildly from school work, and the result is a new story, the first chapter of which has just been published - see 'Clarity'. It's Draco and Harry, naturally.