"And now, Potter," Draco said as they walked through the deserted Slytherin common room. "I will show you where you could have slept, had you not demanded to put put into a different house." They were holding hands and Harry decided the Slytherin common room was much nicer when he had Draco's hand to hold. It seemed warmer somehow.

"I bet it's mostly the same as the Gryffindor dorm," Harry said.

"Take it back," Draco said. He stopped walking and stood in front of Harry. "Our common room is decently nicer than yours." Harry shrugged.

"It's rather dark," he said.

"Yes, dark and rich. I mean, look at these sofas." Draco gestured to the leather sofas that were grouped around the fireplace. "They're so luxurious and comfortable." Harry resisted rolling his eyes.

"Yes, dear," he said. "They're lovely." He let go of Draco's hand and instead put both of his hands on Draco's waist, pulling him close. "But do you know what's even nicer?"

"What?" Draco asked. He had the ghost of a smile playing about his face.

"Kissing you in the middle of the Slytherin common room." Which is precisely what Harry then proceeded to do. He leaned in close and pressed his lips to Draco's. Draco kissed him back greedily, bringing one of his hands up to cup Harry's face.

What had started as just a kiss progressed very quickly to them grabbing at each other's clothes. Before Harry could think about the consequences of what they were doing, Draco had his jumper off and was pushing him back onto one of the aforementioned leather sofas. As they sank down onto it, Harry did appreciate how comfortable it was, but his attention was mostly elsewhere. And by elsewhere, his attention was mostly centered around the fact that Draco was unbuckling his trousers.

"Are we really doing this?" Harry asked, pulling his mouth away from Draco's for a moment.

"Are we really going to fuck in the common room? Hell yes, we are, Potter."

"Okay," Harry said and turned his focus to undoing Draco's trousers.

"I'm going to think about this every time I sit on this sofa," Draco said about half an hour later as he and Harry lay in each other's arms. They were sweaty and boneless and very, very happy. He snickered to himself. He was immensely pleased by how the evening had played out.

"I'm starting to think you just like adventurous sex," Harry said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Last week you gave me a blow job in front of everyone-"

"-Invisibly-"

"-Yes, invisibly. And now you just let me fuck you on this sofa."

"Are you complaining?" Draco asked. He reached up and traced his finger down Harry's cheek.

"No." Harry turned his head and gently kissed Draco's finger. "But it almost seems," he continued with a smirk on his face. "Like you want us to get caught."

"I can assure you that is not the case," Draco said quickly. Harry smiled.

"I know," he said. "I'm only teasing."

"Mm," Draco mused. He leaned forward and kissed Harry on the nose. "We should go to bed."

"You mean you don't want people to come into the common room in the morning and find us like this?" Harry asked. He sat up, disentangling his arms from Draco's.

"Weirdly no." They gathered up their clothes and Draco led them back to the Slytherin sixth year boys' dorm.

Harry had to admit that it was nice. He still thought that the Gryffindor rooms were more cosy, but he supposed Draco would probably prefer green silk curtains and what looked like satin bedspread to the red velvet of the Gryffindor rooms. Draco dropped his clothes at the foot of one of the beds and then walked, still starkers, to the bathroom. Harry followed, bringing his toothbrush. He slapped Draco's bare arse as he passed him on the way to a free sink and was rewarded by Draco smirking at him around the toothbrush in his mouth.

As Harry brushed his teeth, he reflected on how normal this felt. Here he was, in the Slytherin dorms, naked, brushing his teeth, and standing next to the man he loved. He would never have dreamed that this was how his year would go at the beginning of term. It was amazing the difference that a few months had made. And Harry wouldn't change any of it for the world.

Yes, Harry thought as they climbed into Draco's bed. This was where he belonged. Perhaps not in Slytherin house, but definitely in Draco's arms. Why hadn't they realized this sooner?

Normally during the Christmas holidays, Harry, Ron and Hermione would have been found lazing around the common room, playing wizard's chess or reading. But not this year. After having spent Friday night relaxing, the three of them, along with Pansy, Blaise and Draco, got right back to work on the horcrux problem.

Blaise spent all of Saturday trying to talk to the Bloody Baron using sign language that Hermione had taught him. He wasn't sure if the Baron couldn't understand him or if he just didn't want to help, but it turned out to be a dead end. And so he spent Sunday trying to find Helena Ravenclaw instead. He and Hermione finally tracked her down in the fourth floor corridor outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

She was predictably taciturn and so with help from Hermione, he trapped her in place using a salt circle. He felt rather bad for resorting to such means, but they were starting to get desperate.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" she spat at them.

"We need answers," Blaise said with a shrug.

"So you've just dispensed with the niceties?"

"I tried talking to the Baron," Blaise said, ignoring her question.

"Oh, did you? And what did Percival have to tell you?"

"Nothing," Blaise admitted. "Which is why we're here."

"Helena," Hermione said gently and the Grey Lady turned her attention to her. "Perhaps if we explained why we're interested in your mother's diadem, you might be more inclined to share what you know with us."

"Doubtful," Helena said. She crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. Hermione looked at Blaise who shrugged.

"We think someone has turned your mother's diadem into a horcrux," Hermione said.

"What?" Helena was flabbergasted. "He dared corrupt my mother's magnum opus?" She paced the confines of the circle in small angry steps. "How dare he," she muttered. "The nerve of him." Blaise made as if to say something, but Hermione put a hand on his arm to stop him. He looked at her questioningly and she shook her head ever so slightly. He nodded, showing that he understood. Instead they stood and watched as the Grey Lady became more and more incensed. When she finally said, "That motherfucker", Hermione decided it was time to interrupt.

"Who are you talking about?" she asked.

"The only person I ever talked to about my mother's diadem. Tom Riddle."

"And what did you tell him?"

"Everything!" Helena shrieked. "That I'd stolen it from my mother and run away to Albania. That with her health deteriorating, she had asked the Baron, a man who had long loved me, to find me so that we might reunite before she died. I told Riddle about how I had hidden the diadem in a hollow tree when I heard the Baron blundering through the forest after me. I'd never told anyone that before." Helena put her head in her hands and began to weep. "He was so flattering," she said between sobs. "He seemed to understand, to sympathize." She sank to her knees.

"I wouldn't be so hard on yourself," Hermione said kindly. "Tom Riddle has charmed many people in his life."

"But why would he do that?" Helena cried. "Why would he corrupt such an artefact?"

"Vanity," Hermione said at the same time as Blaise said,

"He's a dickhead." Helena gave a short laugh.

"A dickhead," she said. "Quite."

On Monday, the six of them staked a claim in one corner of the Slytherin common room - not that there were many other Slytherins staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas break to challenge them to a spot. In fact, the few Slytherins who were around took one look at the six of them and scarpered (helped on by glares from Draco and Pansy).

They spent the morning chatting idly and eating the scones that Dobby had brought them. None of them quite wanted to think about what they were going to attempt on Wednesday, because even though it would just be Draco and Harry carrying out the plan, the others were sure to be worried about them for the entire time they would be gone. And so they played lazy games of gobstones and exploding snap and pretended like it was a normal Christmas break.

However on Monday afternoon, Professor Snape interrupted the relaxed atmosphere when he informed them that he had completed the polyjuice potion that they had requested. This prompted them to relocate to the Room of Requirement so that they could go over the plan. Harry, Ron and Hermione went ahead to the Room while Pansy, Draco and Blaise went to collect the phials of polyjuice from Snape's office.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ron asked Harry once the door closed behind them. "Why do you have to go and not say, actually Pansy?" Harry sighed. They had gone over this so many times, he couldn't believe they were doing it again. He was surprised, then, when Hermione jumped in to defend his decision.

"Ron," she said. "Harry's the best of all of us at defensive magic. If there's anyone who can hold their own if things go wrong, it's Harry."

"Thank you, Hermione," Harry said. Ron looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but then he snapped his mouth shut. Before they had a chance to talk about anything else, the Slytherins appeared, levitating not a few phials of polyjuice potion, but an entire cauldron.

"Oh my," Hermione said. "What are we supposed to do with all of this?"

"Have fun?" Draco suggested. Pansy raised an eyebrow.

"Uh," Harry said. "Having had the strange experience of kissing myself-"

"-What?" This was Blaise.

"During my Ehwaz potion vision," Harry clarified. Blaise nodded, looking mollified. "It's not really one I want to experience again."

"That's fine," Draco said. "But I want to see what it would be like to kiss me."

"Are you actually suggesting I take polyjuice potion so that you can kiss yourself?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I thought that was understood."

"I don't know if this is vanity or insanity."

"Probably both," Pansy said. Draco turned and glared at her.

"No one else is curious?" Draco asked. The rest of them shook their heads. "Fine. We'll just let it sit there until Christmas Day then." He flounced down onto one of the chairs around the table and crossed his arms.

"Fine," Harry said. "Someone find me a glass." The Room obliged a moment later and a glass appeared with a small popping noise on the table. Hermione put her hands on her hips and looked at him disapprovingly. "What? This way we can see how long this particular batch lasts before it starts to wear off."

"Oh," Hermione said. "I suppose that's a fair point." She picked up the glass and ladled a measure of potion into it. "Though, I imagine since Snape brewed it, we might get close to the full twelve hours."

"In which case," Blaise said. "Should Draco take some too? It's not like two Dracos can go to dinner." Harry scowled as they all agreed that would be best. He walked around behind Draco and pulled a hair off of his head.

"Ow," Draco protested, so Harry leaned down and kissed the top of his head. Hermione procured a second glass and measured out a similar amount of potion into it. Harry added Draco's hair to one glass and a piece of his own to the other. They all watched as the potion with Draco's hair turned a pearly silver and the one with Harry's turned a clear, bright gold.

"That looks much more appetizing than the ones for Crabbe and Goyle," Ron said. "Crabbe tasted like bogeys." He made a disgusted face.

"That was information that I really didn't need to know," Pansy said.

"You're welcome," said Ron.

Harry picked up the silver potion and sniffed it. He wrinkled his nose and fervently hoped it would taste better than it smelled. But really, it couldn't be worse than the Goyle potion, could it? At least the texture looked better. He turned to Draco and held out his glass.

"Cheers." They clinked their glasses together and then drank them down in one.

Immediately, Harry's insides started to writhe and he doubled up. He had forgotten how unpleasant this experience was. He gasped as a burning sensation spread rapidly from his stomach to his extremities. He gritted his teeth and waited for it to pass. Then came what he quickly remembered was the worst part of the whole transformation as his skin began to bubble. At least this time his height and weight were staying mostly the same, though he watched as he grew about an inch while Draco shrank.

His shoes started to pinch his feet and his vision grew blurry. He reached up with hands that were now pale and slender and pulled his glasses off of his face, but this made it worse. Draco was more shortsighted than he'd let on. He put the glasses back on for the time being as without them he was almost entirely blind.

He looked over at Draco and saw himself squinting back at him.

"Blaise," he heard himself say. "Can you fetch my contact lens holder?" Blaise nodded once and made to leave the room, but the Room answered Draco's request before he could get very far, providing both a lens case and solution. Draco popped his contacts out and then looked up at Harry, still squinting.

"Oh, Merlin," he said as he drew close enough to Harry that he could see his face clearly. "See, this is why I never wear glasses."

Harry looked at his watch. It was now nine in the evening and he and Draco had been each other for over eight hours. Draco had, of course, taken the first opportunity he could to kiss Harry-Draco and Harry had just closed his eyes and pretended that it wasn't his face that had been moving in to kiss him. With his eyes closed, Harry decided it wasn't so bad.

They'd had dinner and were now spending time again in the Slytherin common room, waiting for the potion to wear off.

"Well," Ron said. "It's hardly a surprise that Snape would have made such a high quality polyjuice."

"That's true," Harry agreed. He was getting rather tired of being in Draco's body, or more accurately, he was ready to be back in his own. Because it was almost bedtime, and while kissing was one thing, he didn't think he could quite wrap his head around sleeping with himself. He hoped they would change back soon.

"Tomorrow I think we should do a final rundown," Hermione said.

"Really?" Ron protested. "It's Christmas Eve."

"Yes, and may I remind you, Weasley, that Harry and I will be risking our lives on Christmas Day."

"Yes, and we'll all be bloody worried about you," Ron snapped. "I'm just tired of thinking about it. I want it to be over already."

"We all do, Ron," Hermione said gently. "But I think we should go through it one last time."

"And then we can sneak a flask to dinner," Pansy said. "I promise." Harry was about to say that he didn't want to be hungover for their mission on Wednesday, but then he remembered Snape's hangover cure potion and so he didn't.

"We could even do presents on Christmas Eve," he suggested.

"Don't be silly, Harry," Ron said. "The house elves don't deliver them until Christmas morning."

"Are you saying we couldn't ask a particular house elf to bring them early?" Harry asked.

"Harry's got a point," Draco said. "There's no reason to wait until the morning. In some places, it's actually tradition to have presents the night before."

"That settles it then," Harry said. "Dobby!" The elf appeared a moment later. He was clutching a plate and a tea towel and was clearly part way through some washing up.

"What can Dobby help with?" the elf inquired. He absently rubbed the tea towel over the plate.

"Could we have our Christmas presents delivered on Christmas Eve?" Pansy asked when no one else began to speak.

"Of course! Dobby will arrange it. Is there anything else?"

"If you have any biscuits," Ron started to say before Hermione cut him off.

"No, thank you, Dobby. That will be all." Dobby bowed and disappeared again. "Honestly, Ron. You've just had dinner." Ron shrugged.

"Always room for biscuits," he muttered. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared around at them. "Oh, Harry. You're starting to turn back." Hermione checked her watch.

"That's eight hours and forty three minutes by my watch," she said. But Draco and Harry weren't listening to her. They were both staring at each other as their features started to meld.

"Oh Circe," Draco said. "I look terrible with dark hair."

"I dunno," Harry said. "I think I could pull off blond though."

"No, you couldn't," Ron said, grinning as he watched the pair of them. "This is much more fun when it's not me that it's happening to."

"You know," Pansy said. "This is probably an approximation of what their kids would look like." Harry's mouth fell open.

"What? That's a thing? That could happen?"

"Harry," Hermione said briskly. "We're wizards. Of course it can." Harry wanted to ask more questions, but Draco was looking at him with a small frown on his face, so he decided to save them until later. Plus, he was getting ahead of himself. Before they could even think about their future, they had work to do.

"Dobby," he called. The elf appeared again, this time holding a feather duster. "Do you have any biscuits?"

"Yes," Ron cried happily. "Biscuits!"