Main Characters: Draco/Harry
Prompt: "I hate you, but I can't stay away from you. What is this power you have over me?"
Setting: Hogwarts corridor/classroom, sixth year

"I hate you, but I can't stay away from you. What is this power you have over me?"

Harry raced down the corridor. He spotted a glimpse of white-blond hair disappear around the corner and followed immediately.

Skidding around the corner, he came to an abrupt halt. There was no glimpse of hair this time; he'd been too slow. With a sinking feeling in his chest, Harry cautiously crept down the corridor.

Classroom doors lined the corridor that Harry now walked down. He paused at each one, listening for movement in the room within. As he approached the end of the corridor, feeling disheartened, Harry noticed one door in particular, which was ajar. Pushing the door open, he peered into the room. Moonlight streamed through a window, eerily illuminating the classroom.

Harry's gaze fell on the blond-haired boy who was perched on a desk with his back to the door.

Hearing the soft creak of the door, Draco Malfoy whipped his head around to see his intruder. "You followed me?" he whispered, recognising the skinny silhouette of none other than Harry Potter.

"I couldn't stay away," Harry replied gently.

"Are you here to curse me?" Draco slipped down from the desk, backing up against the back wall of the classroom. The colour had drained from his face; he looked nothing short of timid. Incredibly so. "I'm unarmed; it would be an easy shot. You disarmed me—remember?"

"Actually, I came to return it," Harry said, holding out the wand he had seized from Draco barely five minutes ago.

Draco eyed it nervously, then, after receiving a reassuring nod from Harry, strode across the classroom and took back his wand from Harry's outstretched arm. He pocketed it hastily.

"Are you going to curse me now?" Draco asked, unable to disguise the nervous lump in his throat.

"No," Harry replied coolly.

Draco gulped. He wasn't sure what game Harry was playing with him.

"But I attacked you, unprovoked. I embarrassed you in front of your friends." Something in Draco's expression was almost apologetic.

"I'm not like that, Draco. And as I remember it, you were the one who ran. You were the one who was disarmed. I was not embarrassed."

"Then why did you follow me, Potter? I thought you hated me."

"Look, Draco—"

Draco's insides shuddered as Harry said his name.

"—there are a lot of things I don't understand. I don't understand why you attacked me or why I so badly wanted to follow you; I don't understand why my heart races and my palms sweat every time I'm near you; I don't understand any of this." Harry's green eyes glazed over with sorrow. He couldn't cry in front of Draco, no matter how much he felt like it. Instead, he chose to say the words which had been clawing at him for months now.

He took a shaky breath and stared right into Draco's cold, entrancing eyes. "I hate you, but I can't stay away from you. What is this power you have over me?"

For a moment, there was a chilling silence as the two boys stared deep into each other's eyes. Then, in a voice so quiet, barely more than a whisper, Draco said, "It's called love, Potter."

The moonlight bounced off of Draco's hair, causing it to gleam in the deserted classroom. Harry slowly lifted his hand and twisted it into Draco's hair. The blond boy shuddered at his touch. Never breaking eye contact, Draco leant in so close to Harry that he could almost taste his lips. In one swift movement, he closed the gap between them.

Author's Note: I've never actually written Drarry before so I thought it would be fun ;)