A/N: This chapter was always supposed to be here... I accidentally deleted it one night and was like 'OH bleeping NO!' So anyway, here it is, the rational lead in to the ending...
Thank you to:
koolmint26, All-knowing Alien, Street-Rats-Unite, Nfinity Nite Monaghan, mars explorer, HAZEL RAAAAHHHH, MyStOrIeS, HandsOff, justmessingwithharry, Hotaru Snape Riddle, meiXtakai, smurff, Lanfear1, brionyjae, oliver1234, xX Konoha Ninja Xx, coolmarauders, fifespice, female half - breed, Megalicious Moony, Cithara, MimiTaylor, Dreaming-Sensations, &JadeLilyMalfoy. You guys all reviewed the last chapter, but your thanks are here for that instead...
Please enjoy this!
Warning : SLASH! LEMON! I will say no more…you have been warned!
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Chapter 26 – Red Handed
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"Draco?"
"Mmph."
"You're crushing my arm."
"Argh…"
Draco obligingly rolled away from Harry, pulling with him all the comforter and sheets in which the two of them had been coiled together under. Harry was conspicuously naked and undeniably cold at this point and began a tug of war to retrieve even a corner of the blankets.
"Come on Drake, give them up, I'm freezing."
Draco continued to feign sleep but Harry could see the faint smile that he couldn't hide play on his pink lips. Harry stopped tugging at the blankets for a second and since Draco thought he had won so easily his smile grew.
Fuck, I want to kiss those lips again.
Harry allowed himself to lean in a kiss Draco while his eyes were still closed and he believed he had still won the fight against Harry in seconds. Draco was understandably surprised but more than willing to dive right into the passionate kissing he and Harry had begun only the night before. The earthy smell of Harry was all around him and his skin prickled with the pure delight of being touched by Harry's strong hands.
"Harry, that's the kind of good morning I should wake up to."
Harry pried himself from Draco's lips and smiled.
"Well, my arm was falling asleep and I was getting pins and needles. It wasn't pleasant, mind you and –"
"Harry, shut up."
Draco smoothed out the sheets as best he could and offered a still very nude Harry back under them to join him. Draco didn't seem to notice or care that the both of them were bare but Harry couldn't help but to blush at his current situation.
Please, do not notice this, please just let it go…
"Harry…You're blushing aren't you? Oh you are, don't shake your head! I know a few things I could do that could really make you blush…" Draco had grabbed Harry and rolled on top of him, the both of them only covered from the waist up by their comforter. He began to trail kisses down Harry's face and shoulders just as the sun hit their bed and illuminated his hair just the way Harry liked it.
I've never been so happy. It's a gorgeous sunrise, I have Draco, naked on top of me and apparently feeling considerably naughty…The houses are just waking up and we will too, go make a cup of coffee and lounge around all day…
Just at that moment in time where Harry thought nothing could go wrong Draco stiffened and sat up, turned around slowly in the bed to a sight Harry never, never could have imagined seeing. It proved that no matter how good things were going for him, they could always turn around 180 degrees and bite him in the ass.
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"Ron, I –"
Harry rolled from under Draco the moment Draco himself had whipped around. He had heard footsteps at the doorway and had turned just in time to watch a cheery Ron bound into the room. Ron's eyes had taken in the obvious scene of the two lovers' mid-kiss and had drained of all cheerfulness and color.
"Ron, please, I can –" Harry continued to stumble on through his words of explanation to Ron as he tried to rip the sheets higher about himself than his waist but the red head was already shaking his head in a silent 'no, this isn't happening' and began to slowly turn from the room. Harry finally wrapped the blanket around himself and held it beneath his arms but Ron had already stepped from the room, slamming the door shut with a finality Harry couldn't bear.
Oh god, how dim-witted am I to not realize that morning is a stupid time to do this? We should have slept separately last night, poor Harry. He can't lose Ron; he can't lose that friendship over me but…
Harry had fallen to his knees with the black comforter pooling around him like a puddle of sorrow as Ron had slammed that first door. A second door slamming down the hall caused him to double over and a third made him release his first pent up sob.
"Harry, don't cry over this now. He was just shocked, he'll be fine by tomorrow, give him time to get over it-"
"NO!" Harry pulled away from Draco's softest touch as though electrocuted, stumbling away across the room to throw on a pair of boxers, jeans and a random grey t-shirt.
"You don't understand, this wasn't how it was supposed to be! I can't lose him Draco, I physically can't and… he'll never forgive me for betraying his trust like that, he'll never…" Harry was back to square one; sobbing. He sank onto Draco's bed as Draco dressed himself as rapidly as possible before holding him tight
"I can't Draco, I just can't think of losing him and the Weasley's, Hermione…"
"He just needs time Harry. He loves you like a brother, minus Percy. He'd never leave you over this. I'll talk to him-"
"With me. We both will, I won't leave you to be mauled alone. We both knew it was coming someday, right? Might as well be now, seeing as how we have no other options."
Draco rubbed Harry's back for a while before parting him with a quick peck on the check. He left hymns sitting on his bed, wiping the tears from his face and compulsively straightening the bed sheets around him to concentrate on anything but real life. On his way down to the kitchen however Draco finally let him mind wander to the thoughts he had kept at bay all morning.
What if…what if Ron does sever ties with Harry? What if he and the Weasley's are so old fashioned that they wouldn't let us be together? What will Ron say, what about Hermione? If they cut out Harry, will he cut me out too, to get them back? Am I any more important in his life? Am I even worth this to him?
"What was all that commotion upstairs?" Draco couldn't help but to look a little scared and stunned that the sound of Ron's slamming doors had traveled all the way to the kitchens and the other residents of the house.
"Uh, a ghoul or something was slamming doors. I'll go and check it out with Harry in a bit. Nothing big…" Draco mentally sighed as Mrs. Weasley took this lie with no further questions. Draco quickly put together a tray with coffee, tea and scones before heading back upstairs to face Harry and much worse, Ron.
"Harry, let's go now before we lose the nerve or he kills something out of anger. Let's just go." Draco kept the rickety bedroom door open with his foot to let Harry through, watching as his eyes darted around with the most fear he had ever seen them filled with.
"Don't be so scared the worst is that he needs time to get over it, right? Nothing worse than that Harry, nothing worse. Or we have to stop sleeping in the same room for the remainder of the summer but I just might make it if that happens." Harry tried to smile and nearly threw up with the effort so as he stretched his fingers to turn the handle to the room in which Ron was hiding he instead to a single steadying breath before plunging straight in.
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"Ron, you've got to let me-"
"How long Harry?"
Harry stood tall in one of the many unused rooms of the Place even though his very bones felt like gelatin. Ron was sitting on a bed that looked as though it should have rotted away sometime during the 1800's and was simply hanging in there for the hell of it. He ran his fingers through his already mussed red mop, staring hard at the floor to avoid Harry's fearful and mostly saddened eyes.
"How long what?" he croaked back, his voice deserting him again in a time of desperate need.
"Were you two …you know…" Ron was counting the scratches along the length of the floorboards, ignoring the feeling of Draco's piercing gaze on him. Draco held his breakfast tray as though it were a lifeline, something to throw at Ron should he decide to attack out of rage. It wasn't a completely bizarre scenario.
"Since the beginning of the summer, nearly two months."
Ron shook his head at this, up and down a little at a time, soaking it up and not really wanting to believe it.
"And how long were you going to keep this a great dirty secret?" He whispered, finally reaching the 50 mark of scratches gouged into the wood and looking up into Harry's eyes for the first time since the conversation had begun. Harry's blood wanted to stop flowing, to freeze and simply congeal where it was. His voice wanted to plea for Ron to believe him and to keep him around, his eyes wanted to cry and beg, He swallowed and spoke the only true words he could think.
"As long as we had to. As long as we could, I guess."'
Ron didn't break the stare and neither did Harry. Both could see hundreds of mixed up emotions between the infinite layers of their opposite's eyes, but neither could pinpoint what they meant. All Ron wanted to see was 'I'm sorry' and all Harry was looking for was "It's ok' but they couldn't pinpoint that which they needed most.
Please, if there are God's out there let Ron take me back. I couldn't stand life if I didn't have him around to joke with and have with me when everything else is crazy and no-one else stands behind me. I need Ron, like I need air and water, like I need Draco…
"I wanted to tell you though, not just let you figure it out. I wanted to so bad but…I was scared you'd up and leave or something, and that you wouldn't understand. That I wouldn't be able to explain what it was… And Draco thought it was too dangerous to make enemies over this right now when we both already have more than enough to deal with now. It's all so complicated and…it was never supposed to happen like this. Things in my life tend not to end quite the way I'd like it." Harry finally seemed to lose the feeling in his legs and sat heavily on the low, dust mote infested dresser behind him. He rubbed his face with his hands, covering his eyes from showing the shining tears that were building there.
Draco couldn't bear to watch Harry fall apart all alone over this and he placed the tray delicately on the dusty floor before sitting beside him on the ancient makeup dresser and placing and hand on his shoulder. It was simply kind and supportive and also the first true signs of affection Ron had seen Draco give Harry since everything had came out. It wasn't making out for fun, it was deep. It was true and Ron hit on the idea that that was what Harry needed most of all. Somebody who truly cared, no matter who was watching or what the consequences were.
"Harry I'll get over the shock of this in…well give me a week and we'll get back to that but….since when did you like blokes? There was Cho for God sakes, where does this all come in?"
Harry's shoulder's fell as though they had each been lifted of a 100 pound weight. He sighed just enough that Draco noticed, that Draco knew it was all going to be fine now as he squeezed his shoulder. But Harry couldn't help but take a second to really think when this had all come about.
It wasn't a time or a choice or a thing it was…random act of the day? I can't explain it, Draco's the first, and it hasn't been a growing thing since first year or anything. It's just…
"It's not so much that I like blokes in general, just happens that I love Draco as a person. Just him, no one else." Draco couldn't help but beam, his heart nearly breaking from the simple truth of being loved by Harry being known by someone else. It marked him as something special, something worth having and holding onto.
Ron's brain was still in shock of something like this coming up and between him and his best friends, to have the it be Draco Malfoy, bane of his life since he was 11 years old. He could go through every memory, every second of the past 2 months and see where and when they could have been doing, when he had appeared so oblivious.
But at the exact same time he knew, somewhere deep down that Harry wasn't stupid when it came to trusting to people. That he had very few people around him to trust, that he needed somebody more than just a friend. And he knew that Harry, this Harry, the one with Draco was happy. He was in love, something he couldn't take back or change.
"Harry," Ron began slowly, his mind and mouth still not quite connecting, "you're happy and I guess that makes me happy for you. And it'll take some getting used to but…its fine Harry, really it is. And I can' even get mad at you because I didn't tell you that-"
Ron didn't even get the words out before Draco exploded at him.
"Oh, you and Hermione! You little bugger, getting all pissed off and you two are probably of at it like rabbits all the time and-"
"That's great Ron. And about fucking time too, any longer and I might have locked you two in a room together." Harry interjected before Draco could go any further and wreak any accidental damage.
"And Ron, I think you should tell Mione, although she doubtless already figured it out." They pondered this and shared a communal anger for a moment that yes, she probably did already know. "Only thing is that we both only have a few days before school and I don't want it all over and out and weird between everyone before we leave so-"
"Let's send Mum a letter instead. She'll go crazy if she finds out about all four of us while we're still here. Start knitting babies booties or something…" Harry couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Mrs. Weasley's reaction to them all, his worry trickling away in seconds, just as fast as it had come.
"She won't be…mad or anything will she?"
Ron had gotten up and was shaking the dust from his trousers before he responded.
"Are you kidding me? She'll be sobbing all over the place my guess is, and then she'll send you something in the mail as a present and start dreaming of weddings and such. You two get off so easy though, Mione and I…it'll be 'crazy Mum' hell at my place for years. I can see it now and maybe it's better not to say anything."
Harry followed Ron from the room, Draco trailing only a little behind him and still glowing from the Harry's statement of simple love from him.
"So, you tell Mione now and we'll all send letters from the relative safety of school. What do we tell the school?"
Ron shrugged his shoulders noncommittally and began to lope down the staircase, the lovely smells of bacon and eggs drawing him downwards.
"No clue, it's your call."
Harry stood at the top of the staircase, his options of telling the school becoming as black and white as he and Draco's contrasting hair.
"Do we tell them? Make it public?"
What if he hasn't changed? What if we go all year without being able to hold each other and kiss in front of anyone but Ron and Mione? What if we spend all out time together and still can't be together the way we need?
Draco had been quietly supportive of Harry through the entire session with Ron, but had been thinking his exact same thoughts the entire way through.
"You love me, and I love you." He began softly, kissing that sweet spot he had found just beneath Harry's ear. "You've told Ron and he'll tell Hermione and they'll still care about you. And the one's who don't understand… well they're just not worth having in the first place, are they?"
This was as open an answer of 'Yes, we'll tell the school' from Draco was going to get but after the trial of kisses down Harry's neck continued he found he didn't really need anything more.
"So we'll tell them all. Shock them, more like. And you'll probably have to move out of Slytherin, and perhaps Gryffindor might kick me out…maybe we can actually be together. Maybe…"
"Maybe we won't tell them Harry. Maybe I'll just kiss you madly at the Great Feast on the first night. At the Gryffindor table. Or maybe I'll stand up at the table the following morning instead, pronounce my love and then snog you while I have an audience.
"You wouldn't." Harry was astonished and more than mildly scared as he didn't put either past what Draco Malfoy was capable of.
"Oh yes, yes I will. Unless I think of something better between now and then."
Harry shook his head but smiled, not caring if Draco's ideas of coming out involved mid airs make out session at the first Gryffindor/Slytherin game. He couldn't have cared if the roof over their heads fell in because he was floating 10 feet in the air and felt as though he was never, ever coming back down.
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