The fifth time

Ever since Harry had first heard of the Order of the Phoenix, he had been on edge. And he wouldn't have had to have been, if someone would just have included him in any of it. Apparently half his friends had already known about it, except for him! And his own Godfather still wouldn't let him join completely, and kept keeping him out of the loop... it was infuriating. It seemed that the only people who didn't know about it were his Slytherin friends. He wasn't sure whether he ought to tell Draco or not... Draco had told him that keeping secrets was alright for their own safety, but this seemed like a pretty huge one.

His friendship with Draco had been complicated even more for him after Draco had kissed him at the Ball. Yes, he had asked for it, and maybe he shouldn't have. It awakened a lot of awkwardness on Harry's part, and he started seeing his guy friends in a... different way. And after Cedric died at the end of the fourth year, he had been plagued with nightmares about the older boy. It didn't help much that he had also started to see Thestrals. It was Harry's fault that Cedric died. And Harry didn't want anyone else to have the same fate, especially one of his best friends. But everything about Cedric still haunted him.

What made him feel even worse was that he had started to have feelings for not just Cho, but Cedric as well. Harry had kissed Cho once... and couldn't sleep afterwards. He was even in a good mood afterwards, but it didn't matter. He shouldn't have those feelings. Which was why he didn't think he could involve Draco in any of this. If he thought about their kiss once more he was going to lose it. And Draco had thought nothing of it, instead joking about it whenever Harry brought it up. He was much more of a experienced kisser than Harry had thought. Which made Harry wonder what Draco did with all the girls who swarmed him... or Pansy.

It made Harry sick for an unidentifiable reason. Harry now had a unreasonable dislike for the girl who had used to ride the train to Hogwarts with him, just because she had now been spending more and more time with Draco. Of course, Draco rebuffed her attempts to try and be apart of Harry and his close-knit partnership, but that didn't make Harry feel any better. Of course, he was about as close with her as he was with Cho's friend Marietta, but that didn't mean he had to hate her all of a sudden. Harry didn't know why that even though Harry was the one who asked for the kiss, he was still the one feeling used.

Harry decided that he couldn't stand by while the adults he loved worked alone, possibly hurting themselves in the process. So he decided to make his own group. His own order. When he asked his Gryffindor friends, they were more pleased then expected. Umbridge had been a living hell on all of them, and they all wanted to do something against the rules for once. So he enlisted more and more people, except for Draco. He just couldn't involve him right now, not when Umbridge was up the Slytherin's right arse. She didn't like Harry though. What a surprise. Her and her many rules were about to be broken, and Harry was ready for it.

~.~.~.~.~.

Draco began to notice that Harry was spending more and more time 'sneaking out.' When he asked Harry about it, Harry had nothing to say but that he was 'studying' or 'hanging out with Cho.' Draco knew that all of those excuses were shite, as Harry had never met up with Cho, and had already disappeared nowhere near the library. Draco had tried following him sometimes, but the prat always eluded him. It came to his attention also that Weasley, one of Harry's biggest male admirers, also disappeared around the same time with a bunch of other Gryffindors. Draco had no choice but to conclude that Harry had a plan to go against Umbridge.

If Harry was out keeping secrets with what was probably a club of sorts, Draco had to help him. But that seemed harder and harder when Umbridge seemed to sniff out that something was amiss, and starting cracking down on the rules even more. She even started her own 'club'. When Draco asked Harry if he wanted to join with him, he looked at him with disgust. "That woman is the worst. You won't find me anywhere near her. But if you can, you join and make her leave me alone." The woman had already harassed Harry once, so with that Draco decided to join. But it wasn't just the club that seemed to impact Harry.

Ever since Draco kissed Harry, he had been acting strange. Sure, it was a great kiss, up until when Harry pushed Draco away when he saw Snape come around the corner and talk to another professor. Draco didn't seem to see what the big deal was. He tried to hide it when he brought it up, but Draco could tell that he had mixed feelings about it. "Have you ever kissed other blokes?" Harry had asked nervously one night while everyone else in the dorm was asleep. "No. But I have a feeling if I advertised it, I could kiss more. Thinking of pimping me out, Harry?" Draco had joked. But Harry had acted like Draco hadn't answered the question sufficiently.

Even worse, Harry had been in a bad mood whenever Pansy joined the conversation, (which was all the time, Draco couldn't get rid of her since the dance) which made trying to get Harry to spill about his adventures afterwards even harder. Harry acted as if Pansy was going to take his place or something! There was no need for him to be such a prat, when Draco was just trying to protect him from the evil pink lady that would be storming the halls once one of Harry's friends squealed about the club. Draco had a bad feeling about all of it. At least he had Goyle and Crabbe to let him know everything about Umbridge's little club, even if it was nonsense.

Draco couldn't help but be protective over the stupid tosser. He had thought they had become close over the past five years, but apparently the only thing Harry wanted to be close with was Draco's lips. Draco couldn't remember feeling this protective over anyone, in fact, even Pansy, who didn't do much with her time except complain and flirt. Harry was the opposite of everything Draco thought he would be, but he was still strong. But to Draco, the wanker was still a tiny bird who had trouble flying and was nothing short of reckless. Things had been harder and harder for Harry lately and Draco thought he had to do something to help, even if Harry never knew.

TBC -