AN: It's Christmas! For all of you that I work with, Siobhan, you know what that means :D I had to split this chapter in two because I was having way to much fun with it, but don't worry, I'm uploading them both at once.
Warning: Rated M for Mature content, M/M
Disclaimer: Just borrowing JKR's characters and doing naughty things with them. :P
Chapter 11, It's Christmas!
The day before Christmas Eve the snow fell heavily covering Hogwarts in a thick white blanket. Draco was sat on the sofa by the window, and he was planning what he was going to do over the next two weeks. He had the entire place to himself, or at least he would do in about half an hour when everyone else left to go home for the Christmas holidays. At the moment they were all upstairs packing their things.
He was looking forward to the quiet Draco time. He hardly ever got any time to himself anymore and it would be good do all the things he couldn't with so many people around. So far he had decided on finishing all his homework assignments, thinking about Harry, going flying, thinking about Harry, oh and if he had a some spare time he might think about Harry some more.
His thoughts on his holiday plans were interrupted when he felt a dip in the sofa and he turned to find Harry sitting down beside him.
"Finished packing already?" He asked, turning towards him.
"Nope," Harry said cheerfully.
"Er, you do know the carriages leave in half an hour don't you?"
"Yup. Change of plan, I'm staying here for Christmas," Harry said.
Draco couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I thought you were staying with the Weasleys?" He asked.
"I was staying at the Burrow," answered Harry, "until Molly and Arthur decided that they're going to spend Christmas with Bill and Fleur. Blaize is taking Ginny to meet his mum and so I thought Ron and Hermione might like the place to themselves."
"That was kind of you. Not going back to Grimmauld Place then?"
"Didn't fancy spending Christmas on my own."
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with spending Christmas on your own," Draco said defensively, after all he had planned to do just that.
"I'm sure there's not," Harry said, smiling in a way that looked innocent but Draco could tell he was up to something. "I suppose if you'd rather not have my company over the next two weeks..."
"I didn't say I didn't want you here," Draco said testily. Harry was messing with him and he didn't like it.
"Good so it's settled then. Fancy a game of chess?"
The question threw Draco off guard. "What?"
"Chess, you know you command your knights to fight each other..."
"I know what chess is Potter." He didn't know why he was being so snappy but Harry's sudden change of plans had left him uneasy. He wasn't sure he could trust himself to be alone with him for so long.
Harry got up and picked up a pillow, placing it at one end of the table. When he sat down and looked up expectantly Draco sighed and got up to do the same.
"I should warn you I'm not very good at chess," said Harry.
"Looks like I'll finally beat you at something then."
Draco expected his words to sting but Harry only laughed. "Looks like it."
After about fifteen minutes the rest of the eighth years started to come down the stairs with their trunks and other belongings. Most of them ignored the two men sitting by the window, but they got a "see you later!" From Blaize and a "have a good Christmas Draco!" From Pansy. Hermione and Ron came to stand beside them and they had to stop their game so that Harry could get up to give Hermione a hug.
"You sure you'll be ok?" She asked worriedly.
"Yes, I'll be fine. You two go have fun."
Before he could pull away Hermione whispered "good luck," in her friend's ear.
Harry tried to look confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he whispered back.
"I'm sure you don't." She was smiling in that 'I know what you're up to' sort of way again, but before Harry could even ask she pulled away from him. "Have a good Christmas Draco," she called to the blonde still sitting at the chess table. Ron turned to look at her as though she'd grown an extra pair of legs.
"Why did you wish him a happy Christmas?"
"Everyone deserves a happy Christmas Ron, isn't that right Harry?"
Harry felt his cheeks growing hot and he wanted more than ever for this awkward moment to end. "Er, sure, of course."
Hermione only laughed and said "see you later then," before taking hold of her boyfriend's hand and leading him away. They were the last to leave the room, and once the tapestry fell into place Harry and Draco were alone.
Not knowing what else to do they finished their game of chess. Despite usually being pretty terrible at the game Harry held out against Draco for quite a while. He guessed all those times getting beaten by Ron had finally paid off, but in the end he inevitably lost. At the start of the game they had decided on 'loser makes tea' as the rules so Harry got up and stretched before making his way over to the kitchen.
"I should warn you I'm a pretty terrible cook," he called over his shoulder. "You'd think having cooked for the Dursleys since I was five I would have learned something by now, but I guess I just don't have the natural talent."
"You cooked for them when you were five?" Draco asked incredulously.
"Er yeah, it didn't take long to figure out that if I didn't make it then I wouldn't get any."
"That's awful! Didn't they know who you were?"
"Not really, and what they did know was what made them hate me in the first place. They hated magic, thought my mum and dad were freaks, so they tried to pretend it didn't exist. I never even knew I was a wizard until Hagrid showed up."
"Harry that's terrible! I never knew, and to think all those times..."
Harry knew what he was going to say and he really didn't want to start their holiday talking about how they used to hate each other. "It's ok, how were you supposed to know? No one did."
Draco felt bad so he stood up and came over to join Harry in the kitchen. "I'll make dinner," he said.
"You? Have you ever even cooked before?"
"Only a few times, but I'm amazing at everything I do remember." He was smirking again and Harry could not argue with that smirk.
"Ok then." He said, then began to feel uncomfortable from Draco's close proximity. "I'm er, just gonna go take a shower," he said before rushing off upstairs.
Draco watched him go feeling pleased with himself. It was fun seeing Harry getting all flustered, and he liked to think it was because if him. He knew he'd panicked when Harry first said he was staying for the holidays, but now that he'd gotten over the surprise he couldn't wait to see how things would play out. This was the perfect opportunity for him to test the waters a little. The next two weeks were definitely going to be fun.
Standing under the flow of the hot shower Harry tried to calm himself down. He couldn't keep getting flustered like that, it was too obvious. He didn't want to spoil everything right from the start. His plan was to take things slowly, ask innocent questions that might tell him what he wanted to know. He needed to keep a level head, and stop getting turned on every time the bloody man smiled at him.
Draco hadn't heard Harry coming back down the stairs and it wasn't until his nose was suddenly assaulted by the familiar sent of his shampoo that he realised he was standing right behind him. When he turned around he had to suppress a moan. Harry had changed into tight jeans and a black shirt, with the top few buttons left open so that a small amount of chest hair could be seen poking out the top. His hair was still damp and he smelt delicious.
"Dinners almost ready," he said, clearing his throat so that he could actually speak properly.
Harry smiled so brightly that Draco vowed he would make him dinner every day if it meant he could see that smile. After a few seconds Draco realised that he was staring, so clearing his throat again he picked up his wand and flicked it, and a bottle of firewiskey came whizzing down from upstairs.
"I had some left over from Halloween, " Draco explained, then took out two glasses from the cupboard and handed them to Harry. "Could you take these over to the table for me? Dinners almost ready."
Harry took the glasses and the bottle of firewiskey followed him over to the table. He poured a generous amount into each glass before sitting down to wait for Draco.
"Mmm it smells good," he said when Draco came over with the plates of food.
"It's nothing special, just penne carbonara."
While they ate they chatted amiably. When the meal was done they headed back over to the sofa and continued their conversation there. The alcohol was loosening their tongues and it felt like they could never run out of things to say to each other. At one point Draco had Harry laughing so hard he was clutching at his sides and struggling to breath. "If I knew you were this funny," he said between gasps, "I never would have said no to being your friend all those years ago." And just like that the atmosphere changed. Harry looked up too see a pained expression written across Draco's face.
"You have no idea how much I wanted that," the Slytherin said.
Harry was confused. "But I thought you hated me."
"I never hated you Harry I was angry with you. You rejected me, how did you expect me to feel? After a while though I wasn't angry with you anymore. I was just sad that we could never be friends, that's why I made a point of proving to myself and to you that we hated each other."
"I'm sorry," was all that Harry could say, and then he added "At least we're friends now".
"Yeah we are." Draco agreed.
After that the conversation turned back to less depressing subjects. They continued to drink the firewiskey, feeling more and more drunk with every glass. The more drunk he got the braver Draco began to feel, and the fact that his confession earlier hadn't scared Harry off gave him courage, so he decided to ask Harry about his relationship with Ginny.
"Well it didn't last very long for a start," said Harry. "I knew I liked her and I knew she liked me and one day we were both high on the victory of Gryffindor winning the house cup and she just sort of kissed me. I thought it was what I wanted, I only ended it to keep her safe, but after the war it just wasn't the same between us."
"Can I ask why?"
"You already know why, I didn't see her in that way anymore, I didn't see any woman in that way anymore."
Draco suppressed a smile. Finally they were getting to the answers he really wanted to know.
"When did you figure it all out?" He asked, hoping he wasn't pushing it too far.
"After the war Hermione made me do these meditation exercises to get my memory back," Harry started, he knew he had to be careful what he said from now on, he really really didn't want to fuck this up.
"You lost your memory?"
"Not my memory just, emotions and feelings and stuff, you saw what I was like. Anyway I did these meditations every night and the more I looked back on my life the more I realised that there were a lot of things I'd never had the time to think about. Finally being able to just focus on me for once made me realise a lot of things about myself, and other people, things I'd ignored or just never thought about before, my sexuality being one of them."
Draco was silent for a while, taking in what he'd just heard. "I remember what you were like at the rebuild, you were like a shadow of yourself. I didn't like it," he said.
"Neither did I."
"But you're better now right, you got all your feelings back and stuff?"
"Yeah, thanks to you mostly."
"Me?" Draco asked, surprised.
"Yeah, being around you helped. And you were there for me when I, you know, finally let it all out."
That night beside Dumbledore's grave still haunted Draco sometimes, hearing Harry keen like that had ripped at his own heart. He nodded, wanting to say something comforting, but before he could say anything Harry had changed the subject.
"What about you?" He asked, "when did you realise you were gay?"
Draco felt himself smiling despite the previous topic. "I knew right from the start. When we were thirteen Blaize and Theo would always go on about girls and Pansy was always flirting with me but I was never interested. I wasn't going to tell them but they figured it out for themselves in the end."
"How did they find out?"
Draco paused, not sure if he should continue. "There was this one guy I had an infatuation with," he said, shifting in his seat a little which unintentionally brought him closer to Harry. They were sat face to face, one leg tucked under the other in a position that mirrored each other. "Once they caught wind of that well the rest was obvious."
"Do you still like this guy?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.
Draco was surprised at the question, he hadn't expected Harry to be so forward about it.
"Well yeah," he said shrugging.
Harry felt disappointed, and slightly jealous, but he couldn't let it show. "Did you ever tell this guy you liked him?" He asked.
"No, I never knew he was into men until fairly recently," Draco said carefully, then he decided that he was sick of being careful, if the way the conversation was going was any indication then now was not the time to hold back. "If I did I would have said something about a year ago, when we became good friends."
Harry's heart raced, he had to be talking about him. He couldn't think what to say, and was it just his imagination or had Draco moved even closer? Or maybe he had moved.
"Maybe you could tell him now," he heard himself saying quietly, hopefully.
"I'd rather just show him," Draco whispered back, and finally, after all those years of waiting, he closed the gap between them and placed a small kiss on Harry's lips.
Harry felt like a fire had erupted inside of him, starting at the place where they were joined and slowly spreading down to his stomach. He had never in his life felt like this, so alive, so right. Draco's soft lips continued to caress his own and he brought an arm up to circle around his neck, his fingers reaching for the soft blonde hair. Draco gripped onto the front of Harry's shirt as the kiss deepened, tongues beginning to explore each other's mouths for the first time. It was new and electric and exciting and Harry never wanted this feeling to end. Eventually though the kiss slowed and they finally pulled away. Draco let go of Harry's shirt and instead twisted his fingers into Harry's own.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he whispered.
"Since you were thirteen?"
Draco laughed softly, "that was an educated guess. I never in a million years thought you would ever like me back," he said honestly.
"Neither did I until I realised that I'd never been able to stop thinking about you."
"What do you mean?" Draco asked, leaning back so that he could look at Harry properly.
"Ron and Hermione, they always said I was obsessed with you. I used to blame you for everything, and I always wanted to know if you were getting into trouble. It was only when I was looking back on my life that I realised there had been a lot more to it than that."
Draco couldn't hide his smile. "Everything makes a lot more sense now doesn't it?"
Harry nodded, and then he decided that he'd had enough of talking and wanted to do more of that lovely kissing thing they just did, so he pulled Draco closer and resumed their kiss. It wasn't any less spectacular the second time round, or the third or the fourth. They stayed awake well into the night kissing and finally getting to say the things that they really wanted to say. They fell asleep of the sofa, wrapped in each other's arms, and didn't awake until well into the following afternoon.
