Author Notes at end of chapter!

Disclaimer- My ID does not indicate I am J.K. Rowling so therefore I am making no money on this little story, and do not own any of the charcters except those in which I have created

Harry and the Prince

Chapter 13- The Day After

The rays of a late-afternoon sun trickled its way into Harry's bedroom through a small crack in the curtains. As the sun rose higher and made its way from the east and began on its descent towards the west a ray of light made its way to the tops of Harry's closed eyelids. He winced as he felt the afternoon heat and brought a hand up from the bed to shield his eyes from the evil that was causing him to lose precious sleep. He cracked open an eye, only to shut it immediately and flip onto his belly, burying his face into the pillow. After resting there a minute, he slowly moved his head to look at what time it was. The green letters told him that it was 12:33 P.M.

Harry grumbled to himself as he sat up and stretched. He looked down next to him and saw a simple green scarf lying on the bed next to him, and the memories from last night hit him. Going to the ball, kissing Draco, turning back into a guy, Draco rejecting him, crying all night over him… over the pain and hurt that had now plagued his heart once more. Harry started to feel the same sting in his eyes once more, than promptly shook his head. He was better than this, he could get though it, he had to for the sake of the play…. The play!

"Shit!" Harry swore aloud. Today was the last day to practice before the kids actually had to perform. Harry quickly got up, ripped his shirt off, and ran off into the shower, all thoughts of Draco, Craig, love and romance pushed to the back of his mind.

Harry ended up being 5 minutes early to the one o'clock p.m. practice rehearsal because he wasn't a girl anymore and didn't have to worry about which skirt would got best with which blouse, or maybe a vest would be a better choice…

As usual when he walked into the office, Neville was sitting there.

"Hey Harry," Neville said, glancing up for a minute to see who had walked in.

"Hey Nev," Harry said as he walked past.

"Wait, you're Harry again!" Neville said excitedly. "The kids have missed the male version of you so much."

"Neville, there wasn't that much of a difference between me and 'Kelly,'" Harry said, walking into the Break Room area, Neville in tow.

"So how was the Ball last night?" Neville asked as he re-filled his cup of coffee. "His royal pounce didn't announce anybody," he added in slight confusion and curiosity, wondering if Draco had mentioned anything to Harry.

"Nev, I don't want to talk about anything to do with last night, ok?"

He took his mug of coffee and left Neville alone in the break room, letting him wonder what exactly had happened last night.

Harry walked into the stage area where they were to rehearse the play one last time before the performance tomorrow. "Crap," he stated out loud. Sure, the stage had been magicked to fit all their accommodations, but the seating was still the same carpet floor with bean bags and potato chip stains. Harry closed his eyes, trying to remember the spell, took out his wand, and suddenly red velvet chairs popped onto the floor along with balcony seating.

"Looks much better," Harry told himself.

"Jeez, Harry, you're finally back, we were so worried about you!" said a little girl who ran up and hugged him, throwing her make –up bag on the floor.

"We all knew he was coming back, Katherine," said a young girl around 16 as she picked up the make-up bag and handed it back to the little girl after she had hugged Harry.

"Yeah, about as worried as you were when Michael didn't show up to the Welcome Back feast at Hogwarts," said the little girl, following her older sister.

"You guys headed to the greenroom?"

"Yeah, Harry we know how things work!" said the older girl.

"Lucy, don't get mad at Harry cause I'm bugging you about you worrying about Michael I mean-"the girls' voices drifted off as they went backstage to get ready, leaving Harry to wonder if Michael was ok.

Slowly but surely the rest of the cast wandered in and Harry set up his notes and Kelly's with a light so he could look over what he needed to do. He saw Michael come in and thanked God that he was alright. After all, what kind of Cinderella play didn't have a prince? When it got close to 1:30, Harry got up from his seat and walked onto stage and called everyone out to do warm ups. Soon there was suddenly tapping of many character shoes and soon the whole cast looked perfect and ready to go for the first scene.

"Hey guys, how's the play going? Am I going to be impressed?" Harry asked the group of kids, who all let out a hearty "Yeah!"

"Ok, well then, let's start with warm- ups and than start the play. Now, everyone: 'Unique New York…"

The run through of the play had not gone as well as Harry had hoped. Maybe he had been so happy- in- love with Drac- that he had not noticed the little problems in the show. The problems were easy to fix, but nonetheless some small problems were sometimes the hardest to fix.

The kids ended up staying till six when the parents came to pick them up, leaving Harry behind to work on some paint touch ups on some of the set pieces. He had just opened a can of paint when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Harry," a young voice called out. Harry looked up to see Michael walking towards him.

"Hey, Michael, your mom not picking you up till later?" Michael nodded.

"So I heard you didn't go to the Welcome Back feast," Harry said casually as he started to mix up the paint.

"No, I'm just going to get to school in time for classes on Monday. Didn't see the use in going back for just one feast," Michael said, shifting his weight around.

"You mean you don't want to go back to school for the yummiest feast ever?" Harry questioned.

"Well.. See, it's not that.. ummm… Didn't Kelly tell you that I wanted to talk to you?" Michael asked, looking hopeful.

"Yeah, she mentioned it…," Harry noticed the uneasiness of the adolescent at that moment and felt awful for forgetting that Michael had wanted to speak with him. "Here grab a seat on the stage," Harry said, motioning with his head towards the stage.

"Ok," Michael said, sitting on the floor "Well, see, I have no idea how to begin with this and then these—"

"Michael," Harry cut him off. "Let's just talk for a bit. Tell me about your summer vacation, how was my sister as a teacher?" Harry let Michael talk in hopes that it would relax the teen so he wouldn't be as nervous and fidgety as he was minutes before. Once it seemed the teen had felt completely comfortable (about twenty minutes later) Harry waited for a pause in the conversation and jumped straight to the question that was bothering him.

"Michael, why don't you want to go back to school?" Harry asked quietly.

Michael looked up at Harry and paused, then sighed. He realized that in order for him to get to his problem, he was going to have to explain everything. "I'm trying to avoid someone or rather something, I'm feeling…"

"..Lost?" Harry finished for him. Michael waved his hand in a so- so fashion. "Afraid?" Harry asked

Michael nodded.

"Michael, what exactly happened while you were at school that made you so afraid to return?"

"There was.. someone I had feelings for last year, and we ended up having a thing in a old classroom day before school ended and then…"

"Haven't they talked to you all summer?"

"Well, yes and no.. The thing is, I have about a dozen unopened letters from them."

"Well, why haven't you opened any of them? I thought you liked this person and it seems they are trying to get in contact with you..?"

"Because even though I have accepted who I am, it doesn't mean others have or will!" exclaimed Michael.

"And that is…?

"I'm gay alright," Michael shouted out. "GAY! Gay! ...gay…" he said, getting quieter and quieter. "I'm gay," and suddenly Harry found himself with a very confused, crying teenage boy on his shoulder, who just made occasional sniffles and little mumblings that sounded like 'why me'. Harry just let him sit there and cry.

After some time, Michael backed away, rubbing his eyes. "Sorry, I guess I haven't fully accepted it yet."

"So why haven't you opened any of the letters from this guy, yet?" Harry asked with some confusion.

"I'm afraid that all these letters are full of insults and hate, that he hates me."

There was a pause and Harry finally asked the question that was begging to be asked, "Michael, what exactly happened in that classroom?"

Michael took in a deep breath and than let it out. "Well, I thought we had had some sort of connection, there were times when he looked at me and our eyes would meet and I swear I could see a tinge of pink go onto his cheeks as well," he looked up from the very interesting piece of floating fuzz on the stage to look at Harry, who was giving him a look that either said to get on with it, or one of complete confusion. He decided that the fuzz was something better to look at. "Well, he was walking down the hall and I reached out and pulled him into the classroom, I'd practiced what I was going to say to him so many times. But when he looked at me and asked why I just pulled him into the room, I got so nervous that I didn't know what to do and all of a sudden I found myself kissing him. I don't remember how long it was but once my conscious kicked back in I pulled myself away. I think… he might have said something, but I do remember saying sorry before I ran out. I managed to avoid him the next day but.. that was what happened…"

There was a pause and Michael looked back up at Harry, who looked like he had gone into his own world 'Uh… Harry?" Michael questioned. Then he noticed Harry's eyes began to water up and tears were falling.

"HARRY!! Snap out of it!" Michael said, shaking him

"Craig…" Harry said softly.

"Craig?" Michael questioned

"Oh.. Michael, I'm sorry, they just started to fall," Had Michael been in Harry's brain it would have made much more sense.

Harry's POV.

"…the next day but ... that's what happened..." Michael finished.

In the back of Harry's brain, his own memory of a day with Craig popped up. One almost exactly like that…

He was walking down an empty hallway on a late Saturday afternoon. The only sound was the echoing of his shoes against the walls. Than out of nowhere, something yanked his arm and soon he found himself in a small closet. He heard the door close and his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. When he was about to ask what was going on, he heard something muffled a couple of inches away and than suddenly there was a weight on his shoulders that had felt an awful lot like hands that pulled him closer, and suddenly there was a pair of smooth lips on his own. The kiss was short and suddenly he was pushed away and the door was opening and he swore he saw a glimpse of that brown hair. Before he knew what he was doing, he was chasing after the boy. He caught up with him and grabbed his hand. The boy turned around.

"Craig?" He questioned.

"Please don't hate me, Harry. Look, I'll never do it again, I just had to know what it would be like.." Craig said, looking away.

"Now, who said I hated you?" Harry asked, going up to the smaller boy

"Harry?"

The next thing that happened was what Harry would later call magical. It was a kiss that started one of the best relationships that ended had so badly.

Harry wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Harry, you ok?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, ignore me…" There was silence, and Harry turned back to painting.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I ask who Craig is?"

"Craig was my boyfriend."

"You mean you are—?" Michael asked, astonished.

"Yes, Michael, I'm gay. But I do have some advice for you: go home and read those letters."

'B-but what if they—"

"And what if he's trying to contact you? Before you say anything else, like I don't know or I wouldn't understand, I was the person Craig pulled into the closet and I liked him as well. If I hadn't ran after him, I wouldn't be who I am today. So the letters could be hateful, but do you think that he would write more than 2 if they were hateful. Maybe he does feel the same and you'll never know. He could be just as afraid,."

There was a pause before Michael finally spoke. "You think he might like me too?"

"Go home and read the letters," Harry said, and went back to painting.

After Michael had gone home and Harry had finished painting, he went home as well. When he got there he made some dinner and sat quietly eating, it thinking about Craig.

Maybe it was a good thing Craig left him … after all, that was how he'd gotten into the arts and found his true passion.

It took him a couple of years, but he'd finally let Craig and the hopes of him returning go. Harry smiled to himself, wrote Hermione an owl, and went to bed.

Now all that Harry had left to worry about was the play going well tomorrow and getting over Draco Malfoy.

Over at the Weasleys' house, Hermione opened a letter from Harry. She looked over at Ron, who was sitting on a chair across from her reading an article about Chudley Canons, and smiled.

"Hey, Ron?"

"Yeah, Hermione?"

"I think Harry's finally grown up," she said looking at a small piece of parchment.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, walking over to sit next to her.

" Look at this parchment," she said, passing the parchment over to Ron.

It read-

Dear Ron and Hermione,

I feel as though I've had a revelation, an epiphany of sorts. I feel I have completely gotten over Craig. I know I told you guys before that I thought I had, but now I truly believe it. I was with one of the kids this afternoon and it hit me that if Craig hadn't left, I wouldn't have been depressed and I wouldn't have started talking to Snape, and I wouldn't have gotten that first sketchbook, and I wouldn't have found my love for the arts.

So about now I'm feeling pretty good, and even though Draco hates me, (and I'm not completely over that) it could be another life lesson I needed to learn.

Love Always,

Harry

"Hermione, I do believe you're right," Ron said.

"But I'm always right," Hermione said with a smile.

Soon there was laughter and naughty things ensuing over at the Weasleys' house. There was also a man named Harry Potter sleeping soundly. And a man named Draco Malfoy trying to figure out how to fix everything.

Squee! There was the long awaited chapter( or well seemed long to me!!!) I hope you guys enjoyed it!!

Tell me what you think in a review or e-mail me at