Harry sat down, his mug of tea now cold and still. It had been that way for a while. He rubbed his face again, chasing the haze from his eyes. It was weird, how he could be wide awake one instant, then drowsy the next. Perhaps that was the consequence of his lack of a real sleep cycle.

"Are you going to drink that or not?"

Harry smirked. It hadn't been longer than half an hour and Draco was already asking him questions again. Turning in his chair to face him, he looked at him in the eye and stretched out his arms, pressing his palms into the seat of the chair. Draco's eyebrow quivered as if surprised by how relaxed he seemed.

"I suppose I could," Harry replied, smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world, and turned back to his cup, picking it up. He had added some sugar to it as if he really intended to drink it all along, but no cream. "Be a dear and grab me the half-filled carton of half-and-half from the fridge from me, would you?"

"You know I can't do that," Draco said crossly, waving his hand in front of Harry to emphasize its transparency.

Harry reached for it, and Draco instantly flinched and drew it back. "But I know you can, um, harden sometimes. Can't you?"

Draco stared at him blankly.

"You know...firm up, be uh, more physical."

Ghosts didn't blush. But Draco's expression sure looked like he was missing all but the telltale red color.

"I'm, uh, gonna shut up," Harry giggled, covering his mouth with his hand. Standing up, he went to the fridge to get the half and half himself. By the time he sat back down, feeling a little hot-faced, he could see Draco was covering his face with his hands. Harry took this as a cue to shut up and silently poured the half and half into his tea, stirring it with a metal spoon that was left on the table (clean or not, he didn't know). Picking up the cup, he began to drink it, grimacing at the cold. Draco listened to him slurp awkwardly for the next five minutes, occasionally coughing or dripping tea on himself, and did not comment.

Once Harry had finished his mug, Draco cleared his throat and stared at him pointedly.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"I can," Draco said drearily.

"What?"

"Yes, I can 'firm up,'" Draco replied, looking horrified at the word choice even as he used it. "But I can't do it all the time."

"Only when you're in the mood?" Harry asked.

A second passed, and suddenly they were both snorting and cackling their asses off.

"Potter, what - the - fuck?" Draco gasped for air in between raucous laughs. "Does - your fucking mind - ever leave- the gutter -?"

"I...I don't know," Harry gasped as well, laughing so hard his lungs hurt. "it just happens naturally, I guess!"

"Somehow I doubt that!" Draco retorted, crossing his arms. He looked so serious Harry was sent into another fit of giggles. Then when Draco didn't laugh, he stopped and stared at him. Draco glared at him with steely eyes.

"What?"

"I don't believe these are just slips of the tongue," Draco narrowed his eyes.

"They're not?" Harry asked confused, wheezing.

"Stop dancing around it, Potter. I get it. Just spit it out, that you-"

"Dancing around it?" Harry laughed. "What am I dancing around? A pole?"

"Stop laughing!" Draco growled, which only made him laugh louder. "Stop it! You're so annoying when you're like this. Can't you take something seriously?"

Harry stopped and stared at him again. "What do you mean? I'm not serious enough?" The last part came out a lot harder than he intended it to. Draco looked at him almost defensively. Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair, straightening up. He had taken it too personally. Spoke without thinking. "I don't understand what you're saying. I've been serious as serious gets for a while Draco, I think maybe years. It's not something I particularly try to do, it's just who I am. So I'm sorry, if my lack of seriousness bothers you, but I don't get what I'm supposed to be apologizing for."

"That's not it," Draco retorted, looking bitter.

"Then what is?" Harry asked.

"You...I don't like the way you keep jerking me around."

Harry almost dropped the mug. He immediately set it down to avoid breaking Hermione's favorite tea holder.

"You said I'm not your friend. That we weren't...lovers," Draco swallowed. "Fine. I don't care. Your real friends hate me? I'm fine with that. You hate me? Fine," he bit his lip and looked down at the ground. "But still I'm tied to you. I have to be around you every day. I'm not...supposed to touch you. You don't like me looking at you. Even if I wanted to be, I'm not really here, either," he murmured. Harry looked further up and saw a light beam pass through where his eyes were, creating a false illumination that lit up the grey spheres of his irises. The sunlight shone, glinting through where his hair should be, the same pale white. He looked almost like an angel in the cold London version of sunshine.

"But then you keep looking at me. I hate it. It's not like I have any other place to go...you see, I know now why I can't, it's because you can't really leave if you're not really there in the first place," Draco continued. "And then you keep talking to me. Why! You told me to stop talking to you. And when you keep...saying these...innuendos," he pouted for a moment, and the unfiltered bi section of Harry's brain automatically responded to the way his lips' shape changed. "When you keep talking to me that way, it makes me think that you want something you don't. And that frustrates me because I couldn't avoid it if I wanted to. Just go away, move on, whatever. I can't move away from you," he finished.

Harry licked his lips without realizing it. Draco tensed.

"There you go, doing it again," Draco sneered. "Ugh! You're not even doing anything, anything particularly impressive, and it just...gets to me. Ugh, forget I said that. Never mind. I need to get away from you," he muttered, turning around.

Harry sat silently.

"You're not even interested in men," Draco mumbled, probably thinking Harry couldn't hear him. "So why do you give off such a, a..."

"You don't know that," Harry retorted, crossing his arms.

Draco swiveled around. His hair looked disheveled, his eyes wide with shock. Harry stretched out, making sure to show off the way the muscles in his arms slightly bulged. He wasn't a particularly tall or impressive looking man, but he knew how to work what he did have. Draco's eyes bulged out, but they followed his arms and descended lower, then he quickly averted his gaze.

"You don't know what you're saying," Draco murmured, a long strand of blond hair getting into his eye.

Harry stood up and reached out, and before Draco could pull away, Harry pushed the strand of hair away from his face. Draco jumped back five feet.

Harry simply smiled awkwardly at him, rubbing his wrist.

"I know why you can't get me that half-and-half now, Draco," Harry replied in the sultriest voice he could manage (which he had to practice after losing that bet for about fifty times for that stupid play until he wanted to die of shame and Parvati Patil was finally satisfied). "Because there's only one thing in this room that you can touch. You don't want to admit it because I didn't say so earlier, but there is only one thing that you are linked to. That keeps you tied to this place, and not your body at St. Mungo's."

Draco opened and closed his mouth, suddenly breathing a lot more heavily than he expected. Harry smirked at him, walking towards him now. Draco looked as if he wnted to run away but also had to choose between that or staying in place. "And the only thing you can physically touch is me, isn't it?" Harry purred, deciding to throw a wink into the mix for good luck. He didn't know where all this confidence was coming from. Whoever was in control of Harry right now had not come out for a while, not since he had been dating Ginny and they made plans to make out secretly. He'd almost forgotten about this side of Harry Potter.

Draco, it appeared, wasn't sure if he could handle this side either. And yet he had been acting as if he was entilted to it all along when he first awoke on Harry's bed.

Slowly, Harry watched for a sign. Draco's eyes darted about wildly, unsure of what to fix on. He looked at the ground. Harry sighed.

"Anyways, I don't know what you're going on about, but I wasn't trying to tease you or drive you crazy on purpose."

Draco looked back up. He was clearly disappointed, but a little of the jitters had gone out of him, and he was breathing steadily now.

"At least, not before now," Harry winked again, hoping he wasn't overusing his wizardly wiles. Draco looked as if he'd just gotten a kick to the back of his knees. "Of course, unless you don't want me to. Then I can stop."

Draco opened his mouth and stammered some incoherent babble. "You - you're not - I thought?"

"You guessed correctly," Harry posed flamboyantly and winked again, definitely going over his daily wink limit. Maybe this was going to become his thing. "Tell all the newspapers the rumors are true. The Chosen One is a double threat. Not even the blokes are safe from my intense, sexual power."

No one was attacking Draco, and yet he looked as if he had been.

"You dated a girl! And...a Ravenclaw!" He sputtered, then looked as if he was puzzled by the words that had just come out of his mouth.

Harry studied him quietly. So he was remembering things. Maybe he didn't know what a Ravenclaw was, but he vaguely remembered the fact for whatever reason.

"You mean Cho? Or Anthony?" Harry asked bored. Draco's jaw dropped. "Blind date," he clarified. "Ginny and Luna thought they were being funny. Nice bloke, actually, just my type. But I was still depressed and, well, dating doesn't cure depression, so I couldn't bring myself to commit to more dates until I had gotten at least a bit better." He could still remember bits of that year, in the back of his mind, but the memories were always detached and condensed to avoid fully feeling the grey despair that had tainted that time of his life. "But now, he could definitely get it. Or any other gentlemen who happen to be my type too."

Draco sulked. "Har, har," he growled. "What was he, a blonde?"

"Yes, actually!" Harry smiled.

"...Okay, shut up!" Draco yelled.

Harry backed away.

"I just...ugh. Be honest. Are you flirting with me or not?"

Harry closed his mouth. "I-"

"Whatever!" Draco turned around. "I- I should just go. I'll see you around. Goodbye," he said curtly.

Some part of Harry's stomach fell but he stopped himself. He needed to stick it through. He needed to see.

Tell me if he disappears, the Mediwitch's voice echoed in the back of his head. In that moment, he'd wished he was better at Occlumency because the telepathic connection made him feel uncomfortable. I don't mean lie to him, but find out if he's really forgotten everything and can't leave you. Some spirits aren't what they seem to be.

Harry had not responded immediately. He hadn't even known that the Mediwitch could see Draco.

Oh yes, I can see the man by your side, she nodded. "Let me see your wrist so I can check your vitals," she said cheerily. Harry held out his wrist, unsure of how to respond.

I...can you understand me just thinking like this? Harry had asked, and she'd nodded without saying anything out loud. Draco had stared at them a little suspiciously, but didn't say anything. I don't think Dra...the um, the man following me is anything other than he appears to be, he tried to communicate as quickly as possible so she could stop communicating to him like this. I thought that at the start. But I think he's just...not planning anything nefarious. He just saved my life.

The Mediwitch had simply reached out and patted his hand gently. Lots of people think that when they're in love, she thought to him before he could realize what she was saying. But that doesn't make the people we love trustworthy. Let me know if you ever feel unsafe. I will give you my Floo contact.

Before Harry fully realized what she had said, she was tucking him in and putting on a fake smile. "Right as rain," she said to Hermione and Ginny. "He's in good shape."

"He's not my boyfriend," Harry had said out loud, then realized what he just did and wanted to crawl into a hole. Hermione and Ginny's jaws dropped.

The Mediwitch smiled and said something reassuring out loud. To him, however, her thought reply was a lot harder than he was expecting. Then why do you two have a soulmate connection? That's a veeeeery heavy commitment to make to a man who you aren't going to marry, she practically tutted.

It was then that Harry realized what the red bracelet actually was and almost died of shock. The reason why, once he had returned home, he had brewed himself a mug of tea and blanked out for god knows how long. Draco probably thought he was in shock over the attempt on his life. Nope.

Presently though, he couldn't afford to space out again. Not when his subject was right in front of him, needing to be studied.

Draco walked about five paces and crossed his arms.

He didn't vanish.

Harry let out a deep breath.

AHAHAAHAHA sorry "last update 7/30/17" today is 3/14/19 I LITERALLY HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR A WHOLE YEAR

pleeeease review and make this worth the trouble . Otherwise, I'LL GO ON HIATUS AGAIN AND WON'T BE BACK UNTIL 2021! I'LL REALLY DO IT! MWAHAHAHAAAA!

-Raven