Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my plot with help from The Scarlet Letter!

Thank you so much for your reviews, love, and patience. This story got put on hold for a long time, as have my others, because, you know. Life. So I do apologize but I have at least two more chapters written! It won't be a constant thing, updating the story. But I will update it as much as I can. I definitely have the rest of it planned, just not written yet. Working 40 hours a week, being in a wizard rock band, writing fanfiction, and being on a quidditch team takes a lot out of you! ;)


Draco followed Harry around the corner and he smirked; they were finally alone. There was no one in sight. "Potter!"

'Shit,' Harry thought. He was on his way to their common room when Draco tried to corner him.

"Potter! For goodness sake, will you stop?!" Harry picked up his pace as his heartbeat quickened; because there was no one around, it was much harder for him to escape. "Why do you keep avoiding me?" Draco sounded pissed. "HARRY!" This stopped Harry in his tracks. "Oh good, you do have ears." Draco stalked over and stopped in front of Harry, who noticed how furious he was. "Answer me. Why do you keep avoiding me? Standing me up? Not answering my owls? I'm almost inclined to believe your crush on me isn't real."

Harry's face contorted in anger. "Muffliato. Why do you want to talk to me? I have nothing to say to you and there's nothing I want to hear you say to me. We have nothing to do with each other now that the war is over so why can't you just leave it that way?"

"We were fine before I found out you have feelings for me, and then you started avoiding me at all cost! On top of that, you won't even let me speak to you when even though you have nothing you want to hear from me, I have a lot to say to you! Why have you been acting so weird around me? It's infuriating!"

Harry balled his fists with barely controlled anger. "Don't you get it, you ass? I can't even be around you!" Draco's face softened a little. "Before you found out, I could barely be around you. Now that you know, it's impossible. Leave me alone, Malfoy!"

"We played monopoly just the other night! And then you went back to avoiding me! What the hell kind of a mixed message is that?"

"Yeah because Ginny gave me a death glare when I tried to leave after you sat down and because at first, you made me feel like I could stay and you wouldn't do anything, but then you went on to tease me and fake flirt with me. Don't you realize how hurtful that was? I know you aren't gay and I know you don't have feelings for me so why else would you do that other than to hurt me? I thought you had changed!"

Draco looked surprised; he hadn't thought that might be taken the wrong way, but Potter was the king of taking things the wrong way and he should have known. "I didn't mean for it to be hurtful - "

"I don't wanna hear it!" Harry snapped.

"Then don't ask! Goddamnit, Potter! You've been doing everything in your power to avoid seeing and talking to me. No matter what I do, you want none of it and I've HAD it! Don't you want to hear what I have to say? Aren't you curious?"

"No." Draco looked hurt and Harry almost felt guilty. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I'm embarrassed enough as it is; I don't need more, and I certainly don't need to hear your rejection when I already know it's coming."

"How fair is that? You won't let me speak so you get what you want but I'm left here with so much to say but I can't say it just because you're too much of a coward to find out what I really think about all this? Aren't you supposed to be a Gryffindor?! You don't even know what I'm going to say!"

Harry thought for a moment. "Fine. I'll listen."

Draco's eyes widened. "What? Really?"

"But not here."

"Follow me." They started walking and Draco's heart started hammering. He knew what he wanted to say, but now that Harry agreed to listen, he was nervous. Losing himself in thought, he barely registered Harry taking his invisibility cloak out of his bag and throwing it over himself. By the time Draco whirled around, Harry disappeared.

"What the fuck, Potter?!"

"Leave. Me. Alone," Harry said fiercely. "Stop trying to talk to me."

Draco heard him run down the hallway and he rushed after. When he heard Harry's footsteps stop, he stopped too but couldn't pinpoint where Harry was. "You know what? FINE. BE a coward!" he roared. "You're not worthy of the Gryffindor name and now you'll NEVER hear what I wanted to say to you! I've lost all respect for you, Potter! ALL OF IT!" He stormed away, leaving Harry alone.

Harry slid down the wall he was leaning on and held his face in his hands. He refused to let the tears fall, but they wouldn't listen. He had to get out of there before someone heard him crying, especially after the yelling Draco just did out of the muffliato range. So with all of his will power, he stood and made his way back to the dorm.

When Draco got back to his room, he slammed the door so hard it made Blaise jump and drop his book.

"Wow, that must be a painful wedgie."

Draco sneered so nastily that Blaise actually leaned back in shock. "Don't patronize me."

"Jesus, Draco. I was just joking around. But clearly this is more serious than I thought. What happened?"

"Fucking Potter won't fucking TALK TO ME!"

Blaise blinked. "Send another letter he didn't respond to?"

"I caught him on the second floor just now with no one around and I actually got him to stop for a minute. I was pissed and explained that it wasn't fair of him to not let me speak to him about my thoughts on what I heard him say weeks ago. We went back and forth, did a bit of yelling, and he said fine, he would hear me out but not there. I stupidly believed him so I told him to follow me and he whipped out his stupid fucking cloak and fucking disappeared. I yelled at him that I'm done, called him a coward unworthy of the Gryffindor name, and left."

"Oh Draco...

"DON'T you take his side on me!"

"I'm not taking his side but that probably hurt him a lot."

"WHAT ABOUT ME?!" Draco roared. Blaise raised an eyebrow. "That stupid little brat put the idea of him and me in my head and now I can't stop thinking about it! I dream about it! I fucking WANT it! And the asshole can't even give me the time of DAY because he's too fucking scared to hear me out because he's convinced that I'm not gay! Well FUCK him! I'm done! He had his chance!"

Blaise was blown away. He knew Draco had developed feelings for Harry but he didn't know they ran deep enough to hurt him at the face of rejection. "Draco, I know you're paranoid about writing your feelings to him but you know there are spells to hide the words from everyone except the receiver. You yourself used them to hide the notes you wrote Potter."

"No, it's too risky to put something so personal under a charm. And I told you, I'm done."

"So you're just gonna give up?"

Draco's eyes flashed dangerously. "Give up? I've chased him, sent letters, and tried to get him to talk to me every chance I got for three weeks. I. Am. Done."

"What if I could ensure he will listen to you? Would you come?"

Blaise's question was so preposterous that it shocked some of the fury out of Draco. "What? That's ridiculous, Blaise. It will never happen, so stop hoping."

"Just humor me. If I could make sure he would listen to you, would you come?"

"That's impossible!"

"Humor me."

Draco groaned. "Fine. Maybe. But ONLY if I knew that he would DEFINITELY listen."

"That's good enough for me."

Draco looked curious through his anger. "What are you planning? You're serious about this, aren't you? What makes you think you can make him listen if I can't?"

"I have my ways. Be in the common room tomorrow night at nine."

"This is ridiculous."

"Do you want him or not?"

Draco hesitated, then sighed frustratedly; there was no lying to Blaise. "More than I care to admit."

"Good. Be there. Now let's go meet Pansy Daphne and Theo."


"Ginny, we need to talk."

The redhead looked up from her homework. "Okay. How did you find me? This is a pretty secluded part of the library."

"Muffliato." Blaise sat across the table from her. "Potter. I said I needed to ask you about something important."

"And he knew where I was?" Ginny was pretty sure Harry wouldn't tell the Slytherins about the Marauder's map.

"He gave me a few places to look. In any case, this is serious business and it involves Potter."

She immediately knew what he wanted to talk about. "Draco."

Blaise nodded. "He's gone mad about this."

Her eyes bugged. "Draco has gone mad? What about Harry? He's the one in love."

"Ah but you see, Draco has fallen hard. Harder than I even suspected."

Ginny's heart soared. Her smile could have lit up the entire school. If only Theo hadn't snatched her up... "Really? He's really fallen for Harry? Wait, he's gay?"

Blaise chuckled. "Yep, and he'll kill me once he finds out I told you, but I'll manage. This is for the greater good."

"I can't believe it..."

"He hides it well."

"Yeah, but I mean, this is working out so perfectly. Harry has been avoiding him because he's so goddamn sure that Draco isn't gay. And it doesn't matter what I say to him. It doesn't matter that none of us except Seamus had even an inkling that Harry might be gay before he told us. Logic doesn't work on him when he gets tunnel vision. Oh Blaise, thank you so much for telling me! Are we setting them up?"

Blaise grinned. "That's exactly what we're doing. I need your help because Potter is being a huge pain in the ass."

She looked concerned. "How so?"

"Draco has been sending him notes to meet him at the astronomy tower at a certain time, but Potter never shows. This has happened three or four times. That's why Draco pulled that stunt in the monopoly game. It was stupid and he didn't think it through, but in any case, that's why."

Ginny was fuming, so he gave her the chance to let out what was on her mind. "That little shit!" she seethed. "He never told me! That little shit lied to me! I told him the other day at least Draco isn't trying to corner him or talk to him, and he just said yeah! ARGH HE IS SUCH A STUBBORN, HARD-HEADED IDIOT!"

Blaise's eyes were as wide as they could go. "Are you done?"

She took a deep breath but the fire was still in her eyes. "Yeah."

"Okay, then you're going to have to brace yourself for this."

"Oh god. What did he do?"

"Just remember, don't shoot the messenger. I'm innocent in all fo this."

"What did he do, Blaise!"

"Well, Draco cornered him on the second floor last night and wouldn't let him walk away. Since there was no one in the corridor, it was easy to do. I assume he got Potter angry enough because Potter actually agreed to finally listen to what Draco had to say. Poor Draco was so shocked that he told Potter to follow him, and walked down the hall. He heard something and turned as Potter was throwing his invisibility cloak on. Draco screamed and shouted some pretty nasty things, including calling Potter a coward unworthy of the Gryffindor name, and then stalked away."

Ginny was vibrating. "I'm... I'm pissed at Harry and I feel so badly for Draco. I don't know what to feel at this point. We have to fix this. You were right to come to me. I'll do things the others wouldn't because they'd be too afraid to. I'm not scared of Harry's temper because mine can beat his out. I'm in."

He grinned. "I knew I could count on you."

They shook hands. "What's the plan?"

"You're asking me?"

"You're the Slytherin."

He smirked and leaned his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together in glee. "Well Miss Weasley, you're the one with the twin menaces for brothers. You could plan anything as well as any Slytherin. So we do this together." She developed a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "Draco was so adamant about giving up - or, rather being done, because he hates the words 'giving up' - last night after he came storming into our room ready to commit mass murder. You think Potter's temper is bad... anyway, I made him agree to one more shot if I could ensure that Potter would listen to him. It was hard, but I did it. I need you to figure out how to make Potter listen."

Her brows furrowed in concentration. "The only way I could do that is, unfortunately, by locking them both in Harry's room until they listen to each other. I will try my damndest to talk to Harry while Draco waits outside in the hallway, but if I can't convince him, I'll let Draco in, tell Harry that I'll be waiting in the hallway, and then lock the door."

"Really? You really can't convince him?"

Her heart sank, as did her eyes. She looked sad. "If you knew how Harry grew up, you would understand why he is the way he is. So many people have taken advantage of him and treated him poorly, that trusting anyone takes a huge amount of effort and time for him. He latched on to Ron and Hermione very quickly after befriending them because they were the first people to show him love. Then my mum, and the rest of us Weasleys. But, by the time he befriended us, he had already been taken advantage of. People were already using his fame to get close. So he pushed me away, thinking that my crush on him was just because of his status, not who he was as a person. So he didn't let me get close to him until fifth year - his sixth. Then we dated for a short while before the war, but it didn't work out. We became very close over that summer and during the war. The summer between the end of the war and the start of this year, during the rebuilding of Hogwarts, was when we became like siblings. We had a long talk and we both understand why we didn't work out - we're too much like brother and sister, and now that we know he's gay, we really know why that didn't work out!"

They laughed. "Man, he's had a hard life, huh?"

"You have no idea. His childhood severely damaged him. It's also why he's so short, just a bit taller than me and most of the girls in our age group."

"Was he starved as a child?"

"I shouldn't be telling you this."

"You can trust me with these secrets, Ginny. I trust you with Draco's, and I feel confident enough to call us friends. You don't have to worry about that with me."

She smiled. "Thank you. Yes, he was starved... his aunt is his mother's sister, but she's a horrible woman, and a muggle, and so is her pig of a husband. They despise magic. They've treated Harry worse than a house elf his entire life. He cooks and cleans for them. He slept in a tiny closet under their stairs for most of his life until they finally let him move into his cousin's old bedroom - only because he got too big for the closet. They never let him eat with them, and he had to eat whatever was left over from their meal. He was beaten if he misbehaved, which is why he's so shy around new people." She stopped to wipe angry tears from her cheeks. "He's so broken, Blaise. If Draco really wants him, he can't play around. He has to be serious. Harry is so in love with him and he isn't even sure why. I know they have some severe chemistry going on; I just really hope it works. I don't think he can handle it if it doesn't."

She finally looked up at him and saw that he was seething. "I've heard of abuse in families. Hell, even Draco has been abused and tortured by his own father. But never malnourished. Never forced to sleep in a cramped closet. Never forced to do house elf work. Now, that doesn't mean I am downplaying Draco's abuse because abuse is abuse... but I... I have no words."

She frowned. "I didn't know Draco was abused. I'm so sorry."

"They need each other, Ginny. More than even we know."

She nodded. "Tonight?"

He nodded. "Tonight."


"I'm glad you're all here. Thank you for dropping everything and meeting us."

"So," Seamus began, "what's so important that you both put this together for what seems like Harry's and Draco's friends?" He had a knowing glint in his eyes, but he wanted to hear it from them.

Pansy, Daphne, Astoria, Theo, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and Luna were asked to come to Hermione's room by Blaise and Ginny at eight o'clock, where they knew Harry and Draco wouldn't find them. They locked the door, anyway.

Ginny smiled. "Because Blaise came to me earlier today with exciting news." She glanced at him, letting him take the stage. "I think you should tell them, since the Slytherins are Draco's friends and they should hear it from you."

He nodded his thanks to her and faced them. "As you all know, about three weeks ago, Draco and I overheard Potter talking to Weasley - Ron - about his feelings for Draco. What Potter's friends don't know is, and I have to tell them this," he said, addressing his friends, "Draco is gay." The Gryffindors were shocked; Luna just looked mildly amused.

"Why would you tell them that?" Daphne asked. "That's Draco's biggest secret, Blaise!"

"Trust me, Daph. I would only tell it if it was necessary. And it is. So, I worked my magic, talked to Draco about this, made him think about the possibility... and now Draco has it bad for Potter." Everyone had different reactions. Some gasped, some cheered, some mouths dropped open, but it was a common theme that they were all excited by the news.

Ron guffawed, and everyone looked at him. "Sorry, it's just, when Harry told me about having a thing for Malfoy, I told him that maybe there's a .001% chance that Malfoy was gay, too, and to hold out for that. Well, here's his .001%!"

Hermione shook her head and giggled, Ginny straight out laughed, and even the Slytherin girls chuckled.

But then Pansy's smile fell. "Why wouldn't he tell us if he told you?" she asked, a bit hurt.

"He didn't tell me. I pried it out of him. Trust me, it was fucking difficult."

Daphne nodded. "You are good at doing that." Pansy looked relieved at his answer.

Blaise went on to describe what he told Ginny, about Draco developing feelings for Potter, trying to get him to talk, failing, and about his temper tantrums.

"This makes so much sense now," Pansy breathed.

"Harry's too stubborn for his own damn good," Seamus said, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Daphne agreed. "Why wouldn't he just listen to Draco?"

"He has reasons," Ginny answered. "Good reasons. Bad things have happened to him during his life, mainly people taking advantage of him for his fame. It's very hard for him to trust people. I can't give details because it would kill him, and frankly, it would destroy our friendship, so if you want to know, you'll have to befriend him yourselves." She was addressing the Slytherins.

"We get it," Theo said. "Believe me, we understand secrets. Anyway, what are we doing about this?"

Blaise smiled wickedly. "Ginny and I have devised a foolproof plan to get Potter to finally listen to Draco. I told Draco last night after his final blowup that if I could get Potter to listen, he would give this one more chance. He agreed after much bickering. So I told him to meet me in the common room tonight at nine."

"That's in half an hour!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ginny nodded. "Right, so we have to act fast. I told Harry to meet me in his room at nine and I'm going to have a chat with him. If I can't convince him to listen to Draco without telling him about this, and that Draco is gay, then Draco, who will be waiting outside in the hallway, is going to go in and I'm going to threaten Harry with his existence if he doesn't let Draco speak. Then I'll lock the door and wait. If they don't come out in twenty minutes, I'll come back down to the common room to wait with you lot. So, are you all in on mission get-Harry-and-Draco-together?"

They cheered and scattered.


Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!