Harry stared down at the moving picture of him and Draco. Harry's hands were on Draco's cheeks and Draco's on his waist. Both their eyes were closed and their lips moving against each other's. It was obvious that they were both into the kiss. There was no claiming one of them was forcing it on the other.
Harry didn't even read the article. He simply threw the paper down on the table and turned his attention to Draco. He wasn't too surprised to see Draco standing at his table and yelling at his classmates. He couldn't quite tell what he was saying, but the words he could hear were not very kind. Harry watched as he tore a copy of the paper away from a laughing Pansy Parkinson before striding out of the Great Hall.
Harry immediately got up and ran out of the room to follow Draco, ignoring his friends.
"Draco!" he called after him, but Draco either didn't hear him or ignored him. Harry ran after him, doing his best to catch up. It didn't take him long to realize Draco was heading to Slytherin. Without thinking it through, he slipped into the Slytherin common room after Draco.
"You're not supposed to be in here Potter!" Draco spat, but he didn't stop walking until he got into what Harry assumed was the eighth year dorm. "You're not supposed to be here!" Draco repeated as he dug through a drawer.
Harry looked around the room. It was much less homey than the Gryffindor dorms, but they were still rather nice. He glanced at the bed Draco was sitting on that was of course perfectly made. "This is where you live?" he asked and Draco sent him a glare. "Um, not important. Uh- what're you doing?"
Draco sat on his bed holding a quill and staring at a piece of parchment, not moving. "What does it bloody look like?" he spat.
"Er, well..."
"I'm writing my mother, Potter!" Draco said, only briefly glancing at Harry before returning to staring at the parchment.
"What're you going to tell her?" Harry asked as he awkwardly sat down on the bed.
"I have no bloody idea" Draco said as he threw down his quill. "What am I supposed to say? 'Hey mum, sorry I didn't tell you that I've been snogging the Chosen One and you had to find out from the Daily Prophet, but what're you going to do? See you at Christmas.'"
Harry gave a small laugh, but then turned it into a cough when Draco glared at him. "I'm serious Harry!" he exclaimed "do you have any idea how she's going to react to this? First of all she's going to be furious that I'm- I'm-" He made a face that looked rather painful before finally continuing. "That I'm gay. I'm not going to be producing an heir and that's pretty much the most important thing to a pureblood family!"
"That's ridiculous! She's not going to react like that!" Harry reasoned.
"You clearly don't know anything about my family" Draco said, his voice angry.
"Well- you were going to have to tell them eventually" Harry said. Draco simply stared at his hands and said nothing. "Right?" he insisted, but Draco just gave a small shrug. "Draco, you were going to tell her eventually, right?"
Draco didn't say anything, but he started anxiously tapping his finger against his leg. "Well I think she'd figure it out when you never married a woman" Harry reasoned, but Draco just shifted his weight on the bed.
Harry stood up off the bed, anger flooding his body. "Wait, do not tell me you were intending to just dump me after Hogwarts and go marry some pureblood girl?" he practically yelled.
"Well what was I supposed to do?" Draco asked.
"Oh, I don't know! Maybe be honest to yourself and your family? What a crazy idea!" Harry exclaimed.
"You don't understand" Draco gritted out, clearly trying to remain calm.
"You're right, I don't" Harry said back. "I can't be around you right now."
"Oh, come on Harry. You're being ridiculous. It's not like me and you had some great future ahead of us" Draco said which only infuriated Harry even more.
"I'm being ridiculous? You're the one with a ridiculous plan to hide who you are and live a lie for the rest of your life!" Harry yelled. He realized he probably sounded like a maniac, but he couldn't help it.
"Well none of that matters anymore, does it?" Draco said, no longer trying to act calm. "Because the whole bloody wizarding world knows we're together! Seriously, look at this!" Draco grabbed the Daily Prophet and started to read from it. "'Wizard hero Harry Potter has finally cracked and thrown all caution into the wind. No longer is he chasing after the females of Hogwarts, but the males. And not just any male, no he went after the 'bad boy' Draco Malfoy, former death eater. Rumor has it they've been maintaining a secret relationship for years. This raises the question, did Mr. Malfoy escape Azkaban after the war because he was innocent or because he shagging the Chosen One?'"
Draco threw the paper aside and glared at Harry. "You're hearing this, aren't you?" Draco said. "If my reputation weren't ruined enough, it's completely trashed now. No pureblood woman would give me the time of day!"
"Oh boo freaking hoo!" Harry yelled back. "Seriously Malfoy, of the 8 years I've known you I've never been this angry with you and that is really saying something." He turned to leave the room, but Draco grabbed his arm.
"Oh come on Harry, don't be like-"
"Shut up! I've got to get to class" Harry said as he ripped his arm from Draco's grip and stormed out of Slytherin.
If Harry thought things had been bad the past couple days he was sorely mistaking. At least before the article came out over half the school didn't believe the rumors of him and Draco. But now, everybody knew. Even the professors knew. They all made an effort to act like they didn't know, which only made things worse. Harry didn't even want to get into the constant string of commentary from his classmates.
By dinnertime Harry was ready to kill himself.
"Hey Potter, where's your girlfriend? Got 'em chained up somewhere?"
"Bugger off or I'll hex your bollocks off!" Ron yelled in the general direction of whoever made the comment. Harry was doing his best to ignore what everyone was saying, but Ron wasn't having any of it. Which Harry decided was probably a good thing considering he'd spent the past couple days being intensely awkward around Harry.
Harry sunk into his seat at the Gryffindor table. He rested his head in his hands and stared blankly at his food. "Don't let them get to you mate" Ron said as he put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "They're idiots."
"He's right" Hermione comforted. "They'll get over it eventually and find something else to gossip about."
"I don't care about them" Harry mumbled.
"Then what's wrong?" Hermione asked.
Harry sighed and rubbed his temples. "Malfoy" he said "he's not taking it very well. We had a fight and-"
"There's a big surprise" Ron muttered and Harry shot him a glare. "Er- sorry mate. Continue."
Harry sighed and told them everything that happened this morning between him and Draco. "Bloody ridiculous, isn't it?" he asked.
Ron nodded. "Well it's Malfoy. What do you expect? Logic?" he asked.
"Ronald!" Hermione scolded, but Harry nodded.
"He's right" Harry sighed. "Malfoy's a git, I knew that getting into this, but... I don't know, I was starting to think that things were different."
Hermione made painful groaning noise. "Merlin Harry" she complained "I really don't want to be giving you relationship for Malfoy, but I'm going to do it anyways."
Harry made a weird face. "Er- thanks?"
"You're welcome. Now listen, everything Malfoy said about marrying a pureblood was utterly ridiculous, but you need to think about from his point of view. His family is going to be outraged about this. He's probably been lying to himself for years about his sexuality because he was afraid of how people would react, and now his secret's out and he has to face everything. He was probably just lashing out because he was upset and you running out on him was not helping."
Harry groaned and lied his head down on the table. "I hate that you're right" he mumbled.
"That's nothing new" Hermione said "now what are you going to do?"
"Talk to Draco?" Harry tried and Hermione gave an encouraging nod. Harry groaned once again and got up to go to the Slytherin table. He wasn't surprised that Draco wasn't there, he'd been hiding out all day, but he went to talk to Blaise.
"Lover boy's not here!" yelled one of the Slytherins as Harry walked up to the table.
Harry promptly ignored them and tapped Blaise on the shoulder. "Zambini" he said "I need you to tell Draco that I want him to meet me in the Room of Requirement after dinner. I'd tell him myself but he's hiding from me and I'm pretty sure you're the only Slytherin who doesn't absolutely hate the idea of us being together."
Blaise gave a small nod. "Alright Potter" he said "I'll make sure he's there."
"Thanks" Harry mumbled as he strode out of the hall trying his best to ignore the comments from his classmates.
Harry found himself pacing the Room of Requirement for the millionth time waiting for Draco to show up. It'd been an hour since dinner and Harry was starting to believe that Draco wasn't going to come, but the door finally opened to reveal an angry looking Draco being pulled by Blaise.
"Alright I'm here!" Draco complained "now get your hands off me!"
Blaise held his hands up defensively. "I'll leave you two to it" he said as he walked out of the room.
Draco straightened his robes and frowned at Harry. "I thought you didn't want to be around me" he said.
Harry sighed and stepped closer to him. "I may have overreacted" he said "but that's only because you don't know how to express your emotions."
Draco snorted and crossed his arms. "That is not true" he snapped, but Harry tilted his head and stared at him. Draco sighed. "Alright, fine" he said "I may have acted rather... irrational today."
"Ya think" Harry mumbled.
"Yes" Draco continued "look, I don't care about marrying a pureblood girl. I'm not that dense. I just... I wish that's how it could have been. I wish I wanted to marry a pureblood girl like I'm supposed to."
"And you think I don't?" Harry asked. "You think I don't wish that I could just marry Ginny like I'm supposed to? But no, instead I fell for not only a boy but an arsehole with the most screwed up past in the history of the world! But there's nothing I can do about it. I'm stuck with you! And you're stuck with me!"
Draco shifted his weight back and forth for a while before finally speaking. "I hate this" he mumbled.
Harry laughed and stepped closer to Draco and wrapped his arms around his waist. "So do I" he said quietly. A small smile spread across the boy's faces as Harry leaned forward and kissed him.
Hope you liked this chapter please review! Be warned the smut will come next chapter so read at your own risk.
