"Now that we have gone through the theory of the polyjuice potion," Professor Slughorn said on Wednesday morning. "It is time to start brewing it!" He clapped his hands together excitedly. "Professor Snape and I have taken the liberty of stewing your lacewing flies for you. So this brew will not actually take the full month to brew, merely seven days."

"Brilliant," Ron said in a loud whisper. Harry looked around Draco and grinned at Ron. Pansy rolled her eyes.

"Who can tell me what ingredient is added first?" Slughorn asked. He peered around the classroom. Hermione's hand shot up. Harry surprised even himself when he raised his own at the same time as Draco.

"Mr. Potter?"

"Fluxweed," he said. "That has been picked at the full moon."

"Correct! Five points for Gryffindor." Draco kicked him lightly under the table and Harry elbowed him back. Harry was still feeling a bit giddy about the fact that he had told Draco he loved him and Draco had said it back on Saturday, so every touch, be it a kick or otherwise, sent tingles of delight through him.

"You will notice that we have also provided you with copper cauldrons for this potion as they also cut down on the brewing time," Slughorn continued. "Due to the specific properties of copper."

"It's more conductive," Draco whispered to Harry. Harry noted that down. His parchment was framed in a border of stars, broomsticks and quidditch goal hoops. There was also a small sketch of Draco towards the bottom of the page, which Harry hoped Draco would not make fun of him for.

Slughorn ended his announcements by saying that they could partner with whomever they wanted to, and no one batted an eye at the fact that Harry and Draco immediately nodded at each other. Even the other Slytherins who were not as close with them had figured out the pair were friends.

"Neville?" Seamus asked. "Partner?" Neville seemed surprised that anyone had asked him and so quickly agreed. His confidence in potions had grown since his Ehwaz potion had turned out so well.

"So I expect you to be an expert," Draco said as they started gathering ingredients.

"Well, I'm not," Harry said. "Hermione did all the work in second year. Ron and I just watched."

"I still can't believe you three did that," Draco said with a shake of his head. "Incredible. I had no idea."

"Yeah, well, no offense to Crabbe and Goyle, but they're not that hard to impersonate," Harry said.

"Particularly not in second year," Draco said. "They're a bit better now."

"I notice you don't hang around with them as often anymore," Harry said. Draco shrugged.

"I found I have a lot more in common with Blaise and Pansy," he said.

"Such as being able to string a sentence together?"

"Harry, that's mean," Draco said, frowning at him. The frown wasn't overly convincing however because Draco was fighting to keep a smile off of his face. Harry grinned at him and Draco rolled his eyes before turning his attention to the beaker lacewing flies they had been allotted.

Draco poured the solution into a graduated cylinder and held it up to eye level so that he could determine how much they had been given. He wrote down the amount and then began calculating the proportions of the remaining ingredients that they would have to add. Harry watched him in fascination. He copied down what Draco was writing, trying to wrap his head around the calculations.

"Wait," he said. "This is just maths."

"Yes," Draco said. "And?"

"I thought it would be more complicated."

"Why would it be?"

"Because it's potions, and it's difficult," Harry said.

"It's just following a recipe."

"I guess I'm not very good at following instructions."

"You don't say," Draco muttered. Harry nudged him.

"Hey," he protested.

"Oh, you love me," Draco said, nudging him back.

"So what if I do?"

At this point a paper airplane landed on the desk in front of Harry. He frowned and looked around to see who had sent it. Hermione and Blaise were staring at the pair of them, hands on hips. Harry and Draco looked at each other and then Harry unfolded the plane.

We're in public, the note read. Harry clapped a hand to his mouth and looked guiltily over at Hermione. She raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes before returning to her potion.

"Why are we so bad at this?" Harry whispered to Draco as they turned their attention back to their ingredients.

"Because you have no impulse control," Draco said immediately.

"Oh. Right."

Somehow Harry and Draco made it through the last week and a half of the term without outing their relationship to anyone else. The six of them kept mostly to themselves, and though they did all take part in their respective houses' end of term activities, their minds were on the plan to steal Hufflepuff's cup from Malfoy Manor.

Draco practiced his Gemino spell every morning, which turned out to be handy for Christmas gifts, provided people were interested in pairs of cashmere socks, which Ron was, or his Slytherin Quidditch shirt, which Harry inexplicably wanted.

"It's like wearing your boyfriend's letterman jacket," Harry tried to explain, but only Hermione understood the reference.

They bid goodbye to most of their friends on Friday evening and when they went to the Great Hall for dinner, they found that the house tables had been put away for the holidays.

"Wonderful," Harry said. "No one can stare and suspect things if there's only one table." He nudged Draco gently with his shoulder. "Sit next to me?"

"Yeah, alright."

Harry delightedly spent the entirety of dinner with his whole leg pressed against Draco's from their hips to their feet. Hermione remarked on how close they were once to Blaise, but he gestured around the mostly empty hall and she let it go.

As they were the only Slytherin and Gryffindor sixth years who had stayed for the Christmas holidays, they took over a corner of the Gryffindor Common room after dinner. ("No offense, Pansy, but the underwater view of the lake always creeps me out," Ron had said.)

"Exploding Snap?" Ron asked.

"Boring," Draco drawled, throwing his head back and pretending to snore.

"Well, what do you want to do then?" Ron snapped. Pansy put a comforting hand on his arm.

"King's Cup," Draco suggested. When the Gryffindors frowned at him, he explained that it was a drinking game.

"We don't have any alcohol," Hermione said in a hushed tone.

"Like hell we don't," Harry said. "I'll be right back." He stood up and hurried up the stairs to his room. He threw open his trunk and pulled out Seamus's expanded bag. Seamus had entrusted it to Harry over the Christmas hols saying that there would be more than enough whisky for him at home. Harry carried it back down the stairs, clinking with every step he took.

"So your bedroom is up there then," Draco said quietly when Harry sat back down next to him. Harry flushed. He wondered if he could ask Draco to stay the night. Were there any rules against that? Did rules even count during the holidays? But Draco cut off any further thinking by pulling the bag out of Harry's arms and passing around bottles.

"I am not drinking straight firewhisky," Hermione said as one bottle reached her.

"Fair point, Draco," Blaise said. "Do we have any mixers?" Draco scrunched up his face. "Also glassware?"

"Dobby!" Harry cried. It was almost too convenient sometimes, he thought as the elf appeared next to him. "Can you please bring us six glasses and-"

"-And all the fizzy drink and juice you can carry," Draco cut Harry off.

"What he said."

Dobby nodded and disappeared. While they were waiting for him to return, Draco picked up a bottle of normal whisky, uncapped it and took a swig. Harry watched, appreciating the way his hand held the neck of the bottle and the way in which he wrapped his lips around - oh no. Now was not the time to think this way. Harry looked away quickly. Draco passed him the bottle and he took a quick sip.

Presently Dobby returned and Draco spent the next five minutes mixing up the "Draco surprise" for everyone (1 part rum, 1 part tequila, 2 parts orange juice, 2 parts cranberry juice and a squeeze of lime) and handing them around. Hermione eyed hers nervously.

"It's delicious," Draco said. "I promise." He was right. Somehow the ingredients blended together in a way that made it hard to taste the alcohol.

"Cheers," Ron said, holding up his goblet. (Dobby had brought six gold goblets that normally were reserved for dinner as their glassware.)

"Prost," Draco said, clinking his goblet to Ron's. The rest of them followed suit.

"Right then," Blaise said once they had all taken a sip of their drinks and nodded appreciatively at Draco who had smiled in what was only somewhat of a condescending manner. "Rules."

An hour, and several drinks later, everyone was in high spirits. Hermione had emerged as undoubtedly the best player, as evidenced by the way in which she was still the most sober, which was how she preferred to be. Most sober was a relative term as they were all three sheets to the wind.

The common room had emptied of the few other students who had stayed at school for the holiday and now it was just the six of them. That gave Harry the confidence to shuffle over to Draco on the couch and drape his legs over Draco's lap. Draco wrapped an arm around Harry and pulled him close.

"Ugh," Pansy said. "You two look so cute." She and Ron were sharing an armchair. She was perched in between his legs, leaning back against his chest and he had his arms around her. Blaise and Hermione were sharing both a beanbag and a blanket on the floor.

Harry looked around and he could picture them spending time like this together, years from now, after school. It gave him a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had gone over the future he had seen from the Ehwaz potion so many times that it felt to him like the certain outcome. He knew that the others had seen horrible futures, but he truly believed that if they all worked together, they could get to the one he had seen.

"I have a question for the prefects," Harry said. An idea had occurred to him. Pansy, Draco, Ron and Hermione all turned to look at him. "Right, I had forgotten it was so many of you."

"Poor lowly Potter," Draco said, smirking at him. "The pleb."

"What are the rules around, uh, students sharing beds?" Their reactions were just as he had expected they might be. Hermione turned slightly pink but frowned as she tried to remember the rules. Pansy and Draco both smirked at him and Ron looked at him like he was a genius, an amazed half grin on his face.

"I don't know if there are any," Hermione said after a long moment. "There are enchantments to prevent boys from getting into the girls' dormitories, but there are no such enchantments on the boys' dormitories. Remember last year when you tried to get something for me, Ron, and the stairs turned into a slide?" Ron nodded.

"Well that's alright for us then," Draco said, tugging Harry closer to him.

"Oh no," Ron said. "I don't want to share a dormitory with the pair of you."

"There are curtains, Weasley," Draco said.

"Go to the Slytherin dorms," Ron said. He glared at Draco over Pansy's shoulder.

"You go to the Slytherin dorms," Draco retorted.

"Oi, what about me?" Blaise asked.

"I repeat," Draco said. "Curtains."

"Surely there's a way around those enchantments," Pansy mused. "What if we levitated Blaise up the stairs?"

"Why am I the one being levitated?" Blaise spluttered.

"Because I have no idea what the Slytherin dorm enchantments are, Blaise, and we're all right here," Pansy said. She pulled out her wand and turned to where Blaise was sitting. "Up you get."

"Must I?" he asked. He looked at Hermione who grinned slyly at him and nodded. He gave an exaggerated sigh and stood up.

It took Pansy and Hermione working in tandem, but they managed it. There was one tense moment where Blaise's foot brushed one of the stairs, but he pulled it up quickly and spent the rest of the time levitating in the smallest ball he could make himself.

"I guess this means we're going to bed then," Harry said to Draco.

"Guess so. You're up the other stairs?" Draco pointed to the boys' staircase.

"No," Ron said quickly. "You two are going to the Slytherin dorms."

"But curtains, Ron," Harry said.

"But nothing, Harry. This way everyone gets their own empty dorm room." Harry turned to Draco, a look of outrage on his face, but Draco just shrugged at him.

"He's got a point, Har'," he said.

"Fine," Harry relented. "But I'm getting my pajamas and toothbrush first." He stood up and ran up the boys' dormitory stairs before anyone could stop him. When he reached the sixth boys' room, he picked up his schoolbag and emptied it onto his bed. He stuffed a change of clothes, his pajamas and his toiletries into it before making his way back down to the common room.

"You know, Harry," Draco said as he sat back down on the sofa next to him. "You're not going to need the pajamas."

"And this is why just curtains were not going to be enough," Ron said.