Author's Note: I had to remove a bit of this chapter, to comply with site rules.


For the second task, the Merpeople chose to take Draco from me. It turned out fine, because my order of Gillyweed came through. I saved him and Fleur's sister, and tried to save Hermione and Cho Chang too, which cost me time, and all because I believed the song that said the people would die if left. I ended up getting points for moral fiber though, which meant I was tied for first place.

Afterwards there was a party. After the party, Draco and I snuck off to be alone in an abandoned classroom.

He was on me the moment the door was shut, pressing me up against the wall and snogging me senseless. He was a brilliant kisser, hot and demanding. My entire existence shrunk down to the tingling feeling of my lips molded against his and his tongue darting into my mouth.

Then I felt his hands at the waistband of my old jeans. Having once been Dudley's, they were too big for me and held up by a belt. I turned my head in order to break the contact between our mouths, catching my breath and looking down to see his long slender fingers fumbling to undo my belt.

"What are you doing?" I gasped out.

"Thanking you for saving me," he answered, making progress with my belt.

"What about the contract? We're not sixteen yet," I protested weakly.

"That was for our first date. Besides, that was just to please my parents. My parents aren't here, are they, Harry?"

"No," I answered, mesmerized by the sight of my belt finally coming free.

"Do you mind if I touch you?" he asked, dipping the tips of his fingers into my waistband.

"No, go ahead. Be my guest," I said eagerly. If he wanted to touch me, I was more than willing.

He pulled up my shirt and I helped him take it off. Then he made deft work of my trouser button.

I reached for him, pulling up his shirt. But he didn't help me. Instead, he pulled away, pushing my hands off his body. "No, don't!" he protested.

"Why not? You took mine off!" I countered, holding my jeans up now that we weren't getting totally naked.

"Because," he said.

"Because why?" I pressed.

"Because I want to see you and I don't want you to see me," he answered, arms defensively over his clothed chest.

"Well that's not fair," I protested. "If you get to see me, I should get to see you."

"Fine, if you don't want me to touch you, then I won't," he replied.

"I do want it, Draco."

"Well I want to touch you and I don't want to be touched, so you can take it or leave it," he insisted.

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I just don't."

"You're not ready?" I asked, hoping this was it, because otherwise, I didn't get it. I was past thinking him liking me was a cruel prank with the gotcha coming just around the corner. I knew it wasn't like that.

He nodded.

I smiled then, understanding. We were still young. "Okay. If you're not ready, that's fine. I'm not going to push you. We can wait," I said, grabbing my belt and preparing to refasten it.

"I'm ready to see you. Can't you just show me first?" he asked.

"You are ready to see me, but not ready to show me?" I asked to make sure, my brow furrowing as I tried to puzzle him out.

"Yes." He looked at me with pleading eyes, silently begging for me to understand.

"Is this because you're different? You're scared that I won't like you?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Oh Draco! You don't need to worry about that! I love you just the way you are," I said engulfing him in a hug.

He hugged me back for a long time. When he pulled away, he asked, "So can I take your clothes off and leave mine on?"

"For now. Until you're ready. Eventually you have to get naked too," I answered.

He nodded and I let my hold go. My jeans being several sizes too big, fell down my narrow hips, leaving me in just my pants. He moved his hand to cup me through the thin cloth of my pants. I gasped and then leaned in to recapture his lips.

After a time, oxygen grew in short supply and I had to break away to gasp for breath. He gasped too, but did so while pulling at the slit in the front of my pants.

"Pull it out. I want to see," he said in between deep lungfuls of air.

I did.

"Is that where your pee comes out?" he asked, motioning towards the tip.

"Yes. You've never seen one before?" I asked curiously. I knew what he had in his pants was different from what I had in my pants, but he'd spent three years in a boy's dorm; surely he'd seen a penis before.

"Not up close. I use the bathroom with stalls if I'm not using one of the loos for prefects; I don't get to be a urinal perv." The boy's dorm in Gryffindor had stalls with toilets, stalls with showers, and a separate room for the urinal. From the sound of it, I figured Slytherin had the same arrangement. We weren't old enough to be prefects yet, but he probably got special permission to use the prefect's bathrooms, so that he didn't have to go into either the girl's bathroom or the boys, when he was in the rest of the castle. "Snape said he'd give me detention for a year if he catches me in a bathroom with a urinal. Besides," he shrugged, "At the start of every year, Snape gives all the boys in Slytherin a lecture about privacy and not letting other people see their stuff. He said that the next report he gets of someone whipping it out for show, they're expelled."

"Oh…" I trailed off, trying not to think of Snape. Snape was so not my type.

"Can…I, um, touch it?" he asked, catching my eye.

"Yes! Oh, please, yes!" I exclaimed.

*Censored

Afterwards, he nestled his head into the crook of my neck. I held him like that.

"I'm proud of you, for saving us all today. You're a bit daft—of course they weren't going to let us die; my father would've never allowed that—but you still saved me. You saved me with your cloak too. No one's ever saved me, before you," he said, breaking the silence.

"And I'll save you again. Anytime you need saving, I'll be here," I promised, hoping I could keep that promise.


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