The rest of the holidays passed much as the first few days had. There were fake wand duels and quidditch matches, even one that went right through a blizzard. The next day, there was a snowball fight, complete with teams and fortresses built out of snow. Draco ended up soaked to the skin and exhausted, and laughing harder than he could ever remember doing before.
He didn't even mind that his side had lost terribly… it had gotten so bad that Bill and Charlie had actually switched sides at the end, leaving himself, Harry, and Ron to be mercilessly pounded with the wet snow. "It's a good thing none of us play chaser normally," Harry said ruefully, after being wrapped up in blankets and force-fed cocoa by Mrs. Weasley after they'd been dragged inside, caked in snow. "Apparently none of us can throw straight to save our lives."
.
"It's the one night out of the year Mum lets us drink anything stronger than butterbeer," Ron said excitedly, when Draco asked what the point of all the firewhiskey was. Apparently New Years Eve was as large a celebration for the Weasleys as Christmas had been, even if the feast wasn't the same.
Draco volunteered for kitchen duty again, and was put to work assembling tiny dumplings stuffed with cheese and pork and vegetables, one of the many snack-ish dishes that were going to be fed to them all evening long. Ginny teased him good-naturedly about the lumpy shapes he was making, and showed him how to do it properly, until the two of them had turned out a truly incredible number of the little treats for Mrs. Weasley to fry.
People started dropping in again, the way they had on Christmas, some showing up with more food, some with more drinks, and some just showing up anyways. They didn't work all day… Mrs. Weasley made sure everyone stopped for at least a couple of hours to play games or visit. Draco was a little distressed at how quickly the day was going by… they'd be going back to school two days after New Years, and he was surprised at how badly he just wanted to stay here.
Determined to make the best of it, he visited with everyone, helped in the kitchen, ate far too much cookie dough, played an uproarious game of wizard chess with Ron, amused at the ancient, quirky pieces the Weasleys kept. Soon enough, the sun faded, and the cheerful, productive yet lazy day changed into evening.
There were still games being played, stories being told, but the main difference was instead of making food, food was served, trays of sandwitches, of sliced fruit, of little dumplings and buns. Bottles of Butterbeer were opened, served along with glasses of firewhiskey for the adults.
Of course, since most of the kids were adults or almost of age anyway, nobody really protested when a round was passed around the teenagers. The stuff burned on the way down, but was incredibly warming and pleasant after the initial swallow, and Draco felt his already happy mood expand, buoyed up by the alcohol.
He didn't really recognize he was drunk until he realized he was leaning on Charlie, badly singing the lyrics to some bawdy muggle song that Mr. Weasley had been teaching them all to sing. It was then that he remembered that quite a bit of time must have passed in a happy, warm blur, and he couldn't remember exactly how much he'd had to drink. He knew that Mrs. Weasley was making sure nobody passed into being unpleasantly drunk, and so hadn't really paid any attention to it.
Hermione was bright red and giggling at something Ron was whispering in her ear, Fred and George acting out some ridiculous story that seemed to require dancing. Mr. Weasley had his arms wrapped around his wife, smiling happily at the scene, Lupin was actually rolled on his back by the fireplace, while Tonks rubbed his stomach. It was close to the full moon, she was telling Bill, who was watching the two of them with a great deal of amusement, and Remus started acting more doggish at this time of the month… especially when he'd been drinking.
"Wait, wait!" Harry said, waving for everyone's attention and turning up the Wizard Wireless. His cheeks were slightly pink and he was grinning, clearly having enjoyed the firewhiskey as much as everyone else. "It's time!"
Oh yeah. There was a point to the celebrating… Draco didn't feel the least bit foolish counting down with the rest of the room, although the sheer exhuberance of the hugging and cheering after the year clicked over did take him by surprise. He found himself swept up in group hug after group hug, someone passing him a glass to make a toast to the new year.
After midnight, people slowly started to drift away, using the Floo Network instead of apparating. Drunk people tended to get splinched a lot, and nobody wanted to end the evening on a note like that. Fred and George helped Ron off to bed, who was almost asleep already, stuffed full of treats and firewhiskey.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley melted away from the room after the last of the out of house guests had gone, and the room got steadily quieter as more people turned in for the night. Bill and Charlie had claimed a bowl of homemade crisps and dip, and looked to be making the night into a marathon, determined to be the last ones up. Draco shook his head at them, and stood up, wobbling a bit. "Whoa…. Definitely time to sleep for me."
"You're probably right," Harry agreed. "But you shouldn't go up those stairs by yourself. You might fall over."
"Riiight. Because you're so steady on your feet yourself," Draco teased, concentrating and making it over to the staircase. He looked blearily up it, and then decided it might be better to go up the stairs on all fours, slowly crawling up it. The stairs were steep enough it was almost like climbing a tilted ladder anyway.
Harry followed him. "See? You're not even walking…" he said, then realized Draco had the right idea, and made his way up the narrow staircase the same way. He liked being friends with Draco, Harry thought to himself. He was nice… happier and more fun to be with than he'd expected.
Up at the top of the staircase, Draco pushed himself back up against the wall, feeling a little more in control of himself now that he was moving a bit. "This place… throws a really good party," he said, reaching down a hand to pull Harry to his feet.
Harry lurched to his feet, falling against Draco, pinning him to the wall. "That's true," he agreed cheerfully. He liked Draco… he liked the way he smiled, and the way they joked around with each other… he was a surprisingly nice person, really. And then he looked down at him, Draco just slightly shorter than him, his eyes wide and and full of happy warmth, despite their cold colour, his cheeks flushed… and it hit him.
"It wasn't a mistake," Harry whispered to himself, and leaned down purposefully this time, kissing him gently. Much to his relief, he didn't immediately get punched or a wand stuck in his gut.
Draco's reflexes were slower than usual, and so were his thoughts, so he didn't think to push Harry off of him right away, just observed how his weight felt almost nice pressing him against the wall, and he was kind of happy that he was getting more hugs, hugs were nice, and then before he realized what was actually happening, Harry was even closer, there were lips on his, and he relaxed into the kiss. A few moments later, his mind caught up with what was happening. He was being kissed. By Harry. By his sister's boyfriend… and it wasn't bad. It was actually kind of nice.
Harry pulled back after a moment, eyes searching Draco's face for a hint, for disgust, for permission, for… he didn't know what, really. "That was kind of… nice," Draco said quietly, and leaned forward to kiss him again, just to see if he liked it again the second time.
His head was a blur. Some part of Harry's mind knew this couldn't be a good idea, but the firewhiskey was keeping a warm, hazy barrier between him and most of his thinking brain… and then when Draco kissed him back, even that vague thought of bad idea just kind of faded away, unimportant next to what was right in front of him, right now. Draco's skin was soft under his fingers as he reached up to touch his cheek, slightly salty under his tongue when he broke the kiss to tease at his neck.
Draco sighed, leaning heavily back against the wall, Harry's arms on either side of him, keeping him in place. His mouth was hot on his neck, leaving wet marks behind that were contrastingly cold in the night air. He thought for a moment about why this was wrong, why they should really stop, than lazily pushed the thought away, vanishing into the haze of heat and firewhiskey and the sheer pleasure of having Harry suck on his ear.
How did he know to do that? He was surprised to hear himself let out a low moan when Harry's teeth grazed against his earlobe, sending shivers down his back and making it even harder to stand up. "You react just like she does," Harry observed, his voice low and intimate next to his ear.
"Well, we are twins," he murmured back, ignoring the little mental voice that told him Ryua would be furious when she found out. He leaned forwards, tilting his head to kiss along his jawline, letting his tongue trail light swirls over Harry's skin.
"You do that like her too," he sighed, tilting his head back to let Draco at his neck.
"I can think of one thing I'd do very differently," Draco said suggestively, nipping at the place where Harry's throat met his shoulder.
Harry froze in place for a moment, unsure how he felt about that statement. And then realized that there was a growing heat inside him that was quite intrigued to explore what Draco meant by that. "I bet there is," he replied, surprised at how hoarse his voice had gotten. He let Draco push him backwards, opening the door to their room behind them to get out of the hallway before Ginny or Bill or Charlie came up the stairs.
"I… oh, fuck," Harry gasped, as Draco pushed him down onto his bed. Ron was snoring, clearly dead to the world, and he felt no compulsions against pulling Harry's sweater up, trailing his tongue up from his navel to his chest. Draco climbed on top of him, swaying slightly before he leaned forward to kiss him again, this time pressing his tongue forward, teasing through his lips, tasting the hint of firewhiskey and chocolate dipped strawberries in his mouth.
Harry's mind went deliciously blank as Draco kissed him, reaching up, his hands running clumsily, desperately under his sweater, running over his familiar, athletic body, warm and slightly sweaty under his hands. For his part, Draco would have kept going, except for an unusually loud snort from Ron, and a bleary voice muttering, "What're you… doin over there…"
It was enough to realize that maybe in a shared room in the Weasley's very crowded house wasn't the best place for this. "Just getting into bed," Draco said, shifting off of Harry and almost falling before landing in his own bed. He grinned to hear Harry's protesting whine, and pushed away Harry's blindly groping hand. "Not here," he whispered. "We're just lucky it's so dark." And that Ron was drunk enough he probably didn't notice what they were really doing. He'd meant to stay awake, to entertain thoughts about going further… and was asleep within moments of laying down, the Firewhiskey buzz pulling him under.
.o.o.o.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly happy and satisfied with himself. He'd had a delicious dream about Ryua last night, very vivid, very enjoyable. In fact, he was a little surprised at just how vivid it was… most of his dreams had been blurry or non-existant, and his mind was still working a little slowly this morning. In fact, he stumbled downstairs, had a drink of juice, and was halfway through his first pancake before his eyes focused on Draco sitting across from him and everything snapped into place.
He choked, coughing on a bite of pancake, nodding at Fred's amused comment that he shouldn't eat so quickly. He took a drink of juice, and looked over at Draco, who stared back for a moment before turning his attention to his own food. Playing it cool probably was the right idea, he realized, and forced himself to finish his breakfast. Luckily, almost everyone was a little subdued this morning, from partying too much last night, and nobody remarked on how quiet he was being.
He followed Draco out to the broomshed when he said he was going to go for a walk, get some fresh air. Harry followed him in silence for a while, until they were well, well away from the house. "So…"
"So indeed," Draco said, laughing a little ruefully. "I don't think Ron noticed anything."
"We're lucky it was so dark," Harry said, laughing a little himself, the sound dying off when Draco stepped up close to him.
"Was it just that I reminded you of her?" Draco asked, looking up at him curiously. He didn't sound desperate, or hurt, just honestly curious.
Harry was quiet for a moment, thinking about the answer instead of just spurting the first thing that came to mind. "No." he said finally. "No, I knew it was you I was…"
"Kissing?" Draco finished when he trailed off, grinning at him. "I thought so, but I wanted to make sure."
Harry smiled back, then groaned and closed his eyes. "What are we going to tell her?" It was one thing if it was just a mistake brought on by too much firewhiskey, but…
"We'll ease her into it," Draco said, looking a little worried himself. Of course he was nervous about his sister trying to kill them, but he was more worried about her being hurt. "And if she forbids us from ever talking to each other again, well… we were sworn enemies for years. I'm sure we can do it again."
Harry nodded, his stomach sinking at the thought. He'd enjoyed having his rival develop into his friend over the holidays, even over the last year. And then Draco poked him in the stomach. "Who knows? Maybe she'll say she wants to share you," he teased, laughing at the expression on Harry's face as he went from worried to shocked to aroused to embarrassed in the space of about two seconds.
