A/N: hello wonderful people! i hope you're all doing okay in the midst of everything at the moment. this is a VERY long chapter so hopefully makes up for the months i've not uploaded for. i got a bit carried away. anyway enjoy the chapter and remember to wash your hands 3
HARRY:
Harry left the classroom smiling more than he had in a long time. When he followed Draco into the bathroom, he hadn't expected it to end with them kissing. He wasn't complaining, though, although his cheeks were starting to hurt from the smiling. He didn't see anyone on his way to the Great hall, and by the time he got there, he had managed to get his smile under control.
"Hello, guys," he said to Ron and Hermione as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. He made sure to sit on the side where he could see the Slytherin table; he wanted to make sure Draco actually did come to lunch.
"Where the hell did you run off to?" Ron demanded, a half-eaten chicken drumstick in his hand.
"Just the bathroom," Harry said, aware of how he'd been gone way too long for that to be believable, even though it technically wasn't a lie.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Was it a good trip?"
"What?"
"Well, you just seem happier than usual."
"Am I not allowed to be happy, now?"
"No, of course you are, Harry, that's not what I meant."
Harry knew what she meant – he hadn't exactly been very happy recently – but, for the sake of keeping what had just happened a secret, he had to pretend. He selected a sandwich from a plate nearby and began to eat, trying to watch the doors without being too obvious.
He was halfway through his sandwich when Draco entered the Great Hall. They made eye contact and Harry saw a smile flicker across his face.
Harry returned his attention to his friends. "Hermione, did you understand what we have to do for that transfiguration essay? Please would you help me with it?"
"Can you help me too, Hermione?" Ron said, through a mouthful of chicken.
Hermione rolled her eyes at them. "Yes, I will help you both."
Ron grinned at her. "Thanks, Hermione."
"What would we do without you?" Harry said.
"I don't think you would survive, but let's hope we never have to find out."
They chatted all the way through lunch, and Harry felt that it was almost like how hanging out with them used to be. They headed back to the common room together for their free period, Harry sneaking a look at the Slytherin table on his way out. Draco was still eating with his friends.
The common room was quite rowdy, as there were plenty of other NEWT students who had a free period, so Hermione suggested they take their transfiguration work to the library.
They managed to find a free table and after they had set out their work, Hermione disappeared into the shelves looking for books that would help them.
"You would never think I'd fall for her, would you?" Ron said, looking fondly at the shelf she disappeared behind. "We don't need any extra reading materials, we have textbooks for a reason." He gestured towards his battered copy of A Guide To Advanced Transfiguration which was sat on the table next to his blank parchment.
"It took longer than it should've done, I reckon. If only you'd asked her to the Yule Ball straight away."
Ron chuckled. "That would've saved us a lot of drama, wouldn't it?"
Hermione came back with a mountain of books in her arms and dumped them down on the table. "I've just picked up a few—"
"A few?" Ron muttered in disbelief. Hermione ignored him.
"—books on human transfiguration that should be able to help us."
"Hermione," Harry said, "why do we need so many books?"
"If you want my help you're going to have to do things my way," she said, beginning to page through a book that was about as thick as Harry's arm.
"Why is it so busy in here?" The voice came from behind the nearest bookshelf and Harry recognised it as belonging to Pansy Parkinson. "If this table isn't free I swear I'm going to murder someone."
"You might not want to announce that, Pansy." That voice belonged to Blaise Zabini. Harry's heartbeat quickened. Was Draco with them?
Ron groaned, obviously having realised who they were as well.
Parkinson, Zabini, and Draco walked around the end of the shelf and into their view, stopping when they saw who was at the table. It was Zabini's turn to groan.
"Fucking Gryffindors," Parkinson spat. "Come on, guys."
Harry couldn't help but smile a little at Draco as Parkinson turned to lead her friends away. Draco quickly returned it as he walked away, and Harry hoped nobody else has noticed their exchange.
"I notice Malfoy kept quiet there," Ron said when they were gone. "Scared of us now, is he?"
"Maybe he's turned over a new leaf," Harry said, picking one of the books Hermione had selected and opening it, so as to not seem too invested in the conversation.
Ron snorted. "That's likely."
"Well, he did try not to give us away at his Manor last year," Hermione said. "Even though doing so would probably have put his family back in Voldemort's good books."
Ron looked at Hermione incredulously. "What about all the times he made fun of you, Hermione? Called you a mudblood?"
"I never said I had forgiven him, but people can change."
Harry listened to their conversation with growing doubt that his best friends would accept whatever it was that was happening between him and Draco.
"What do you think, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know," Harry said quietly.
He saw them exchange a glance before Hermione went back to looking through the book.
That evening, because he felt more like himself than he had done in a while, Harry decided to hang out in the common room. He was playing chess with Ron while Neville and Hermione talked about some special plant and Ginny sat with them and played with a pack of exploding snap cards.
"Am I actually winning?" Harry said, laughing as he watched Ron scour the board for a move that wouldn't end in his king's demise.
"Only because you had a brilliant teacher," he muttered before sighing. "Queen to E3."
"Bishop to E3," Harry said, laughing. Once Ron's queen had left the board, he exclaimed victoriously. "Checkmate!" Ron put his head in his hands and groaned loudly.
"Wow, you really hate losing at chess, don't you, Ron?" Ginny said, laughing along with Harry.
Ron cleared away his chess set and went to sit on the sofa, putting his arm around Hermione, who was still deep in conversation with Neville. They had a book open between them that was showing some kind of veiny purple leaf.
"Do you have any spare parchment?" Harry asked Ginny, who was flicking the cards around in her hands the way Harry had seen muggle magicians do.
She put her hand into her pocket and brought out a small roll of parchment. "This do?" Harry nodded and she handed it to him. "What's it for?"
"I just need to write a letter." He fished a self-inking quill out of his own pocket and went to an empty corner of the common room. He saw Ginny frowning at him as he went and hoped she wouldn't be too curious. He wrote:
We need to talk. Meet in the room of requirement at midday tomorrow? I'll bring some food.
Harry
He folded the parchment and scribbled 'Draco' on the front.
"I'm off to the Owlery," he said, putting the quill and letter in his pocket as he headed to the portrait hole.
As he walked, he thought about his day. He wasn't sure what had come over him when he asked Draco if he could kiss him, but it had obviously turned out well, and he had thoroughly enjoyed the kiss. He hadn't really been expecting Draco to like him back, even if he was gay.
Many of the inhabitants of the Owlery were beginning to wake up when Harry got there. The sight of all the owls around him sent a painful pang through him. He missed Hedwig. For a moment he just stood and looked around him, memories of Hedwig swirling in his mind.
He called one of the school owls down and attached the note to its leg.
"Take this to Draco Malfoy in Slytherin, please," he told it and it took off. Harry suspected it wouldn't be able to get to the dungeons, but at least Draco would get it at breakfast. And hopefully, none of his friends would see it.
At breakfast the next day, Harry wasn't able to sit somewhere where he could see the Slytherin table. When the post arrived, he turned to try and spot Draco, but couldn't find him in the seconds he had to look before he started to look suspicious.
As he turned back to face his friends, he noticed Errol was approaching, looking frailer than ever. He landed in a heap next to Ron who detached the letter and opened it.
"It's from mum," he said. "She says you two are welcome to come for Christmas."
"Oh, that's so kind of her," Hermione said.
Harry nodded in agreement, but he knew he didn't want to go to the Weasleys for Christmas. "Don't you think it would be nice to stay here?" he said. "With it being our last Christmas at Hogwarts."
Ron and Hermione both contemplated this.
"You're right, Harry," Hermione said. "It would be nice to stay one last time. And I'm sure we have as many Weasley Christmases as we would like ahead of us."
"Yeah," Ron said, "Mum'll never get enough of you two. I'll stay too. Maybe we can have a peaceful Hogwarts Christmas for the first time."
"Don't jinx it, Ron," Hermione said. "I mean, what've we had so far? Polyjuice potion in second year."
"My Firebolt in third year," Harry added. "We were angry with you for ages because you got it confiscated by McGonagall."
"I was right though, wasn't I? It was from Sirius."
"You weren't completely right," Ron said. "It wasn't jinxed." He looked pointedly at Hermione and she rolled her eyes at him. "And then it was the Yule Ball."
They continued to reminisce until they had finished eating and then they left the Great Hall. As they were approaching the Grand Staircase, someone pushed between Harry and Ron and Harry felt something move in one of the outer pockets of his robes. He looked at the person who had pushed past and realised it was Draco. He didn't look back as he walked away from them and Harry caught himself admiring him from behind.
"Oi, Malfoy!" Ron shouted, making to go after him.
Harry put his arm out to stop him. "Leave him, Ron."
"That git," Ron mumbled, but he stopped trying to go and fight him.
Harry suspected Draco had put something in his pocket but he wasn't stupid enough to look with Ron and Hermione walking next to him.
By the time they got back to the common room, Harry was practically itching to look in his pocket. Leaving Ron and Hermione, he went up to the empty dormitory and sat down on his bed. The piece of parchment he had sent to Draco was in his pocket with writing on the back of it that read:
See you later.
It was beautifully written in cursive and Harry stared at it for a while before looking at his own barely legible handwriting and cringing.
When Harry returned to the common room, Ron and Hermione weren't there.
"They've gone for a 'walk'," Ginny told him, air quoting the 'walk'. Harry wrinkled his nose and Ginny laughed. "I know. They'll be back later all rosy-cheeked and giddy."
Harry wrinkled his nose again. "They could do a better job of hiding it, couldn't they?" She nodded. "Anyway, what are you doing today? Anything nice?"
"Well, I've got plenty of homework, and Luna and Neville and I are having a picnic. We're going to get some sandwiches from lunch and take them outside."
"You're eating outside?" asked Harry, horrified. "You'll freeze."
"According to Luna, when it's cold is the best time to have a picnic so—" she shrugged "—we're doing it."
"Good luck with that," Harry said, still wincing at the idea of sitting outside in the cold.
Harry left the common room and slowly meandered towards the kitchens, even though he still had a few hours before he was due to meet Draco. He passed a group of first years who were talking excitedly on the stairs. They went quiet when they saw him and stared at him passing. He was reminded of when he was a first year like them and everything was new, including the stares and the whispers.
The house-elves were eager to provide food for him when he arrived at the kitchens, but he dismissed them and sat down on a stool in a corner. He took the Marauder's Map out of his robes – he kept it on him at all times – and opened it up. He found the dungeons on the map but couldn't make out Draco's dot from the mass of others. He put the map away and proceeded to pass the time by watching the house-elves at work and thinking.
He wasn't sure what exactly he was going to say to Draco when he saw him. Were they going to be boyfriends? The idea of having a boyfriend was so foreign to Harry that he didn't know what to think about it. He had only just realised he liked boys, after all. He wondered how much more experience Draco had than him in that department.
At 11.30, Harry collected some sandwiches and a couple of cupcakes from the house elves and wrapped them in cloth napkins from a large pile at the side of the room. He carefully put the food in his pockets and left for the room of requirement. Draco wasn't there when he arrived so he busied himself setting the food out on his desk as an attempt to distract himself from his nerves.
When Draco arrived, Harry was sitting on the sofa watching the door. Draco sat down next to him and they turned to face each other. Harry ran his hand through his hair.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi." Draco seemed to be matching his level of awkwardness.
"So…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say. Draco looked at him expectantly, patiently waiting for him to speak. "We kissed."
"Yes," Draco said, letting out an awkward laugh. "We did. I'm assuming that's what you wanted to talk about."
"Yes." He paused. "What happens now?"
"What do you want to happen now? We could forget it ever happened. Or we could… move forwards."
"I don't want to forget it ever happened," Harry said, frowning. Surely that's not what Draco wanted to do.
"Neither do I." Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"So," Harry said, "we move forward. Into… a relationship?" He couldn't remember this being so hard with Ginny. It was like it just happened. They had hardly needed to talk about it at all.
Draco nodded. "If that's what you want. Is it?"
"Yes. I think."
"You think?"
"Well, I've never done this before. With another bloke, I mean. I don't know what to expect."
"Neither do I," Draco said. "We're just going to have to figure it out, aren't we?"
"You've never done this before?"
"Well, the wizarding world isn't exactly teeming with gay eligible bachelors, so no, I haven't."
"Am I an eligible enough bachelor for you?"
"Harry, you are the eligible bachelor." He started counting on his fingers. "You're the saviour of the world, the chosen one, the light against the darkness, the-"
"Okay!" Draco laughed as Harry grabbed his hands and forced them apart. "I get it."
Draco bit his lip and looked down at his hands, which Harry was still holding. "Are you going to ask me then? Are we doing this properly?"
Harry took a deep breath and tried to control his nerves. Draco flicked some hair out of his eyes and looked at him expectantly. Harry noticed how much better – how much less pale and sickly – Draco was looking since the start of the year. "Will you be my boyfriend?"
Draco made an exaggerated thinking face. "I suppose we could give it a try." He smirked and Harry rolled his eyes. "And to think, not too long ago we hated each other."
Harry gripped Draco's hands harder. "Maybe we should take it slow."
"Definitely."
Harry finally let go of Draco's hands and they set about eating the lunch Harry had brought.
