Disclaimer: Praise to JK Rowling. I love you!

Chapter 10

A few days after we last saw Harry and Draco in their secret room, all the other students returned to Hogwarts for the new term. Everyone was in high spirits following Christmas and New Year and Harry, who was still buzzing knowing he'd stolen the heart of a once cold Slytherin boy, could barely contain his excitement at seeing Hermione and Ron again. That morning at breakfast before going to Charms, Harry thought for sure his life was as close to perfect as it was going to get; Hermione was fussing over him not eating enough, Ron was talking about his family who had been very disappointed Harry wasn't there for Christmas too, and Draco – Harry sighed contentedly at the thought of his boyfriend – Draco loved him. He felt so warm.

Draco Malfoy's morning wasn't going quite so well. He had met up with Harry once more the night before everyone arrived back and at the end of the night was still left waiting to hear those three enchanting words he so longed for. Much to his own disgust, in order to prompt Harry into saying what he needed to hear, Draco said it himself; he had been kissing Harry goodbye after a thrilling night of snuggles and pillow fights and was feeling very vulnerable having been sure Harry would return his feelings and when he hadn't in that last moment of desperation he kissed Harry again and whispered, 'I love you.' Harry just said goodnight.

There was no way his day could get worse, or so he thought. Harry, who was by now entirely oblivious of whispers behind giggles and pointed stares, never noticed anything but Draco saw every one. It started at breakfast with gasps of surprise and lots of 'No, Really!?'s then, once the rumour had made a complete round of the room, they just stared. Draco told himself that he wasn't certain what the school knew (this was a lie, he knew) and until lunchtime he had managed to convince himself they were speculating about whether or not he was actually a Death Eater, that was until he overheard some third years arguing. The group of small 13 year old boys were discussing whether 'they kissed and stuff' which in itself wasn't all that suspicious but then one of them spotted him nearby and said a little too loudly 'oh my god, its him!', the others looked over and another said, 'Well, I don't blame him, I'd be gay for Harry Potter too!'

Shit.

The next day Draco heard the stories get wilder and wilder; apparently someone had seen Harry and Draco running around naked in the snow playing a kinky version of kiss chasey with whips, a wooden paddle, and chains with, oddly enough, Peeves the Poltergeist trying to join in.

Harry still hadn't noticed anything – bless his sweet innocence.

While Draco was busy worrying about these persistent rumours, Harry was making his way up to Dumbledore's office. The headmaster had caught him at breakfast this morning and asked him to drop by after Potions for a quick chat; "Nothing serious," Dumbledore had assured him.

Harry's stomach clenched nervously as he stepped into Dumbledore's office. It hadn't changed at all since he was last here; Harry cringed at the memory of what happened the last time he was in Dumbledore's office, Sirius had just died. Fawkes was blinking at him silently from his perch and most of the past headmasters were snoring away in their portraits.

"Come in, Harry, come in," Dumbledore greeted him ushering him into a chair by his desk. "How have you been going?"

"Good, Sir," Harry replied honestly. "Really well actually."

Dumbledore nodded, smiling slightly. "I understand you've made a new friend?" he inquired.

Harry's breath caught, so this is what he wanted to talk about. He shouldn't have been, but he was surprised Dumbledore knew and then concerned about what he would think.

"Um, yeah…" Harry replied uneasily.

"New friends are very rarely a bad thing, Harry," Dumbledore reassured him as he noticed Harry's hesitance.

"Yes, Sir."

"Still it does pay to be cautious, especially with a new friend you've had such a volatile history with," Dumbledore's eyes were kind but serious as they held Harry's stare, even if he'd wanted to Harry couldn't look away.

"We didn't know each other before, it was a misunderstanding."

"That's quite a misunderstanding, Harry."

"We just got off on the wrong foot!" Harry snapped at Dumbledore, he didn't care for the way he was talking about Draco and he was starting to lose control of his temper.

"I didn't mean to upset you Harry," Dumbledore said as he released Harry's eyes from his.

Harry stood up immediately, he felt vulnerable trapped in that chair and he needed to move around. "You think I can't trust him!" Harry accused.

"I think he is a scared and confused 16 year old boy who barely has a hold of his life!" Dumbledore retorted, loudly and firmly. "That's a dangerous thing to be Harry. He could seriously hurt someone, even you!"

"He wouldn't hurt me!" Harry raged, he was furiously pacing the room now. His hands were shaking and he felt like he needed to release a deep scream; he was so frustrated at the lack of support he was receiving about his relationship with Draco.

"Harry, I apologise for upsetting you. Please, sit for a moment and listen to what I wish to tell you," Dumbledore asked him softly, trying to calm his prize student.

Harry wished to do no such thing, but felt obliged so he sat clamping his teeth together and fixing a frown on his face so Dumbledore could see his displeasure.

"I am an old man, Harry," his headmaster began, "and believe it or not I once found myself in your shoes; in love with a boy everybody else thought was bad news. I didn't listen but I wish I had and I'm asking you to listen now, I hope to spare you some of the pain I couldn't save myself from." Dumbledore paused, to let Harry consider what he'd just said.

Harry was too angry to care that Dumbledore had just admitted he'd once been in love with a boy or what that meant.

"People are not always as they seem Harry," Dumbledore continued. "While I think it is part of the wonder of youth to believe that all people are essentially good, it does not do to forget past wrongs quite so easily. Be careful who you allow yourself to become vulnerable to Harry, you are quite possibly the most important person in the wizarding world right now and there are many who would see you hurt."

Harry was silent.

"Do you understand?" Dumbledore prompted, forcing Harry to acknowledge his words.

"I'll be careful," Harry promised, deep down he meant it but for now he just wanted to say what Dumbledore wanted to hear so he could get the hell out of there.

Harry charged through the halls of Hogwarts not much caring where he was going or who he was bumping into; he was still seething from learning Dumbledore's opinion of Draco.

Why couldn't someone just be happy for him for once!?

As he turned a sharp corner on his way outside for some fresh air he slammed headfirst into another student knocking both him and the other person off their feet and onto the floor with books and papers flying everywhere.

"Fucking hell!" he heard the other boy rage. "What the fuck is wrong with you don't you have eyes!?"

Harry looked up surprised to see Draco dusting himself off next to Harry, as Draco glanced up at Harry is expression flickered only for a moment from outrage, to shock then moved swiftly into a fake disgust that only Harry knew wasn't real.

"Shove off Malfoy! I'm not in the mood for your shit!" Harry growled as he scrambled to gather his things up off the floor. He was secretly relieved to see his boyfriend and hoped his contempt seemed genuine enough.

"If you don't want to deal with me, stay the fuck away!" Draco snapped back, gathering all his things with a whispered 'accio' and a flick of his wand.

He glided swiftly and gracefully down the corridor leaving Harry on his hands and knees looking ruffled and still gathering his books together.

Harry was stalking around one of the many courtyards in Hogwarts kicking the snow with his feet and taking big mouthfuls of cold air. It felt good like the air was soothing the fiery anger he had raging in his chest, of course he wasn't even half as angry as he was before he'd seen Draco; just the sight of that boy had Harry melting. He wasn't there long before he was joined by Hermione and Ron who were both red faced and panting.

"Wh-what h-happened?" Hermione managed to breathe out.

"Did you guys run here?" Harry asked looking at them both gasping for breath.

"All the way from Gryffindor Tower!" Ron gasped, he was coping better than Hermione. "Dean came up, said – said you knocked into him – said you were about to – to blow a gasket!" Ron panted.

"What happened?" Hermione asked again, she had caught her breath somewhat now.

Harry's anger bubbled up again as he recalled his conversation with Dumbledore. "He doesn't trust him! He thinks he's no good for me!" he yelled, flinging his arms into the air.

This courtyard was rarely used, which is why Harry chose it – for privacy. The trio didn't have to worry too much about being over heard, but Hermione cast the Muffilato charm anyway.

"Wait," Ron asked. "Who thinks what about who?"

"Dumbledore! He thinks Draco is faking it!"

"Faking it with you?" Hermione asked, shocked.

"I don't know! I don't know what he thinks!" Harry started pacing again; he was so worked up and confused with a million thoughts running through his head it was hard to keep up!

Ron could see his frustration and tried to sound soothing as he said, "Why don't you start at the beginning maybe we can make sense of it."

"He asked about my 'new friend' said I'd been too quick to trust him and I should be careful. He said Draco was scared and dangerous, he said he wasn't what he seemed! Whatever that means!" Harry said in a flood of words.

"Well Harry it was awfully quick-" Hermione started to say, but Harry wasn't listening and he cut her off in another babble of word vomit.

"I mean have you heard of anything so ridiculous!? Draco isn't dangerous! And he isn't faking it! He loves me; he told me he loves me!" Harry shouted at his friends, they knew better than to take it personally although Hermione was starting to anyway.

"He said that?" Ron asked quietly surprised.

"Yeah he did, over the holidays…" Harry started to calm down as he thought about Draco and the time they'd spent together over the last 2 weeks, but it didn't last long after Hermione spoke up.

"Maybe Dumbledore has a reason to think that Malfoy can't be trusted," she said.

"He can be trusted!"

"I'm just saying, Harry! What if Dumbledore knows something-" she persisted.

"He doesn't know anything because there's nothing to know! If there was Draco would tell me!" Harry yelled, he said the words but deep down he knew they weren't true and worse still Hermione knew he knew it wasn't true.

"Calm down Harry and be honest with yourself! Is that true? Do you really know everything there is to know about Draco Malfoy?" Hermione challenged.

Harry was silent. Ron could see Hermione pushing Harry too far and decided to control the situation before it got too ugly.

"Hey! Let's not jump to any conclusions okay?" he said. "Dumbledore only said to be careful, so Harry will be careful, right?"

Ron looked over at Harry who nodded.

"And in the meantime," Ron continued, "maybe we could do some snooping see if we can't dig something up on what Dumbledore might think he knows about Malfoy."

Harry looked at Ron sharply. "You want me to snoop on Draco!?"

"No, no, Harry. Not snooping on Malfoy, snooping on Dumbledore…" Ron corrected him.

"Do you think we should?" Harry asked frowning.

"How else can you be sure mate?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Harry agreed reluctantly. He just hoped there was nothing to find.

Hermione was outraged at this idea. "Ron, I don't – OW!" she screamed. Ron had just stamped on her foot.

"What the-!?" Hermione stared at Ron open-mouthed.

"Oh, Hermione! I'm sorry! We better go have a look at that! Harry you don't mind, do you?" Ron said taking Hermione by the arm and leading her out of the courtyard without waiting for Harry's reply, not that he minded – he had a lot to think about.

Once they were out of earshot Ron slowed down and Hermione was able to break free of his grasp.

"What was that!?" she demanded to know.

"Just protecting our friendship before you ruin it!" he accused her.

"Me!?"

"Yes, Hermione, think about it! At least this way Harry's agreed to be careful, we still snoop around and find out what's going on, and Harry isn't mad because we didn't accuse his new boy toy of anything…" Ron reasoned to her.

"Okay, I can see that. But snooping on the headmaster? Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"Only Harry needs to think about it that way so he doesn't feel like he's betraying Malfoy, we know we're snooping on Malfoy, he thinks we aren't. Understand?"

Hermione smiled, she was impressed. "Sometimes, Ronald Weasley, you really surprise me. That's so genius I could kiss you!"

"So why don't you?" Ron grinned at her suddenly feeling confident.

He was mostly just teasing her, expecting her to blush and change the subject; instead she leaned in and sweetly kissed him on the lips.

That night Harry met Draco in their secret room. As usual, Draco met Harry outside the Slytherin common room then under Harry's cloak the two boys snuck into their private love nest. Draco was on Harry almost as soon as they were inside, drawing him into a close hug.

"How are you?" Draco mumbled into Harry's hair. "You looked so upset when you bumped into me today! God you have no idea how much it killed me not to be able to just kiss it all away right there in front of everyone!"

Harry melted into the strong arms wrapped around him. "Oh Draco, I've needed you all day," he said.

"What happened?"

Harry knew Draco would ask this and he had decided, since he and Ron had a plan, not to mention Dumbledore's words to Draco. 'No point in worrying him unnecessarily,' Harry told himself, but if he was honest he would have known that keeping this from Draco wasn't about being selfless, it was about being selfish. Truthfully Harry didn't want Draco to know he doubted him just in case, so he lied – well, not lied just bent the truth.

"Nothing really," he said. "I just had a blow out with Hermione. She's just worried about us dating you know, I guess she doesn't trust you with me completely. She doesn't know you like I do."

"She should know enough to trust your judgment," Draco growled.

"I know, baby. That's what I told her, she'll come around you'll see."

"Still I thought this would be coming from Weasley not Granger, he seems more unreasonable than her," Draco surmised.

"Yeah, he's taking it so much better than I thought he would," Harry admitted honestly. "But I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about anything; I just want to touch you."

Draco couldn't argue with that, he'd been dying to touch Harry all day. Harry pulled Draco up on to the bed; snuggles just felt so much better lying down than any other way. Draco rested his head upon Harry's chest and listened to the rhythmic sound of Harry's heartbeat. Ba boom, ba boom. Perfect.

"I can hear your heart," Draco whispered.

Harry laughed. "What's it saying?"

"Dray-co, Dray-co."

Harry laughed even harder. "I bet it is!"

Draco sat up from Harry's chest to look at his face – look at his beautiful green eyes. "You haven't said anything about the latest Hogwarts gossip yet," he said.

"I never pay any attention to that stuff; most of it is just lies about me."

"This latest piece of gossip is dangerously true information about you," Draco paused for a moment. "About you and me," he added.

"No!" Harry breathed in disbelief. "What are people saying?"

"Okay. How's this? I was ambushed by Pansy and that pack of Slytherin girls she always hangs around which figures since no one else is game enough to actually say it to my face. Doesn't mean I can't tell from all the looks everyone is thinking it…" Draco frowned as he spoke.

"Thinking what? What exactly did she say?" Harry was staring intently at Draco anticipating his next words.

"She called me a Potter-lover then proceeded to ask about who takes who up the arse."

"Shit."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" Harry punched his pillow as he exclaimed the last 'fuck.' "Where did all this come from? Do you think someone saw us together?"

"I'm not sure," Draco admitted. "I don't think so. If they saw anything substantial everyone would be talking about all the gory details. At this point I think its just speculation. We were too friendly over the holidays."

"There was no one fucking here over the holidays!" Harry yelled.

"There were a few people – enough it seems. There's some wild stories going around about us and what people have 'seen' us doing, none of them are remotely close to anything true so I'm confident no one really has anything to go on."

"Since when has anyone ever been interested in the truth! Ah shit!" Harry cried out in aggravation.

"Hey, don't worry babe. We'll just have to make sure we give each other a wide berth, throw a few insults around and it will all die down in no time." Draco said soothingly.

Harry knew it wasn't true though, he'd had enough experience with rumours to know that.

"Let's change the subject," Draco requested. "I wanted to ask you something anyway."

"Please do."

"Well, I hate that I have to wait for you every time we meet here. I mean what if one day I want to come in here before you arrive, I can't can I?"

"Why would you want to come in here without me?" Harry asked playfully.

"Alright, imagine this. You arrive here and find me totally naked on the bed. I'm rock hard for you and covered in chocolate sauce waiting for you to lick it all off me! And there are candles everywhere and music playing – oh! And strawberries! Fresh wild strawberries for you to feed me with your mouth," Draco had slowly climbed on Harry as he spoke and he ground his now hard cock into Harry's. "How does that sound?" he asked.

"Mmm, goooood," Harry groaned.

"So I'm thinking you need to teach me how to speak parseltongue…"

"You want me to teach you Parseltongue?" Harry asked, his eyes springing open in surprise.

"Just the word to open the room for me!"

"I'm not sure if I can. I mean it's not just the noise you make; it's the tone and the vibrations of your tongue too. It has to be perfect."

"At least try, won't you?" Draco pleaded, pouting a little.

"Okay," Harry conceded. "I'll try just for you!"

Harry spent the rest of their time together trying to teach Draco the parseltongue word (or noise might be more correct) for 'open'. Draco actually did really well, he listened to Harry carefully and did exactly as he told him too, he watched the movement of Harry's mouth and tongue as he demonstrated and did his best to duplicate it. Before they left Draco was pretty damn close to getting it, if not spot on.

As they left that night Draco told Harry again that he loved him. The normally proud Slytherin decided as he had held Harry that night that he didn't care if Harry didn't respond, he did love him and love was not something to be ashamed of, even if Harry hadn't realized that yet. Deep down both boys knew the feeling was mutual.

Okay my lovelies! What did you think?

Review please :D

Keep Dreaming.