The Shrieking Shack had been transformed. Gone was the dust, gone were the broken pieces of furniture and the moldy drapes, and gone were any broken floorboards. Everything was clean and fixed and Harry was amazed at what a difference it made. It was actually a place he would voluntarily spend time in now. He wondered if they should turn it into their secret clubhouse. Then he realized that they weren't twelve anymore and really, they just used the Room of Requirement most of the time anyway.

Instead of furniture, there were several old desks, lined near one wall and covered in various bottles. Dobby and a reluctant Kreacher were going to be bar tending — Dobby would make fun and exciting drinks, while Kreacher would make more classic cocktails by mutual agreement. Seamus had set up his DJ equipment in another corner and was instructing another house elf on how to work it.

Harry and Draco were among the first few students there. Aside from Seamus and Ernie, the only other people there were Justin, Pansy and Ron.

"How did you know about that passage?" Justin asked as Harry came through the opening that lead to the tunnel.

"If I tell you," Harry said. "I won't seem nearly as cool and mysterious."

"He saw it on a map," Ron said. Harry crossed his arms and glared at his friend as Justin started laughing.

"Traitor," Harry said.

"Hey, you're already the Boy-Who-Lived. I have to bring you down to the same level as us plebs whenever I can." Harry harrumphed for a moment before smiling at Ron.

"Here," Draco said. He thrust a glass into Harry's hand. "I made you a scofflaw."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Harry looked up and saw Ernie grinning at them. He leaned against Draco for a moment, marveling in the fact that he could, even if just briefly, and Draco gave him a small smile. Then he moved away as more students began to appear from the tunnel.

Harry watched as they stepped through the opening, their eyes wide and excited. It was exciting, he supposed, coming to a new place. He didn't think it was nearly as exciting as the party in the Chamber of Secrets, but who was he to judge? This was at least perhaps a bit less scary. There were no skeletons here, after all.

...

"You know there are rooms upstairs too," Harry said to Draco later that night. He was perhaps three drinks in by now.

"Oh, I know," Draco said. "I'm pretty sure Justin and Seamus have barricaded themselves in one of them. And McLaggen might be with them too."

"Now there's a relationship I don't understand," Harry said.

"What? Justin and Seamus?"

"No," Harry said quickly. "Seamus and McLaggen. With the occasional Justin, I guess."

"I think McLaggen's an equal opportunity lover," Draco said and Harry snorted in amusement. "He'll get off with anyone."

"But Seamus does seem to have a strange sway over him," Harry said, thinking back to the Halloween party when Seamus had managed to distract McLaggen every time the seventh year seemed to be bothering someone.

"That's not really our concern, is it?" Draco asked, shrugging. Harry shook his head.

"I suppose not. Did you want to go see if one of those rooms is still free?" he asked instead.

"Do you think we could get away with it?" Draco looked around the room. Most people seemed involved in their conversations or their dancing.

"May I remind you what we did in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"We were invisible," Draco protested and Harry smirked. "That was different."

"There's also a dark tunnel," Harry said.

"No."

"Or our dorms. If everyone's here, no one will be there." Draco made a face to indicate he did not want to do that. "Or we could just stay here in this corner and keep our hands off of each other." Draco sighed.

"How many people know about us now?" Draco asked. Now it was Harry's turn to screw up his face, this time in concentration.

"Ron, Hermione," Harry began to count them off on his fingers. "Seamus, Dean, Neville — so all of the Gryffindor boys — Blaise, Pansy, Ernie, Justin, Colin." He stopped. He thought that was everyone and said as much. Draco looked around the room.

"That's still fewer people who know than don't," he mused.

"Are you saying you want more people to know?" Harry asked. Draco sighed.

"I don't know." He put his back to the wall and slid down it until he was sitting with his knees up in front of himself. Harry slid down next to him. "I'm just so tired of the charade. I want people to know you're mine."

"You and me both," Harry said. He resisted reaching out and taking Draco's hand. Barely. His hand twitched with the effort of keeping it still.

"But I also think this might be the alcohol talking," Draco said, screwing up his face. "Either way, it's not a decision we should make tipsy." Harry groaned.

"I hate it when you make sense."

"No, you don't."

"I hate it when you make sense, when I just want to ditch all that sense and kiss you until you're breathless in front of everyone," Harry clarified.

"Fair point."

"I want everyone to know that I love you," Harry said. Draco turned his face to look at Harry and nudged Harry's knee briefly with his.

"Soon," he said and gave Harry a small smile.

"Ugh," Harry moaned. "Fuck Voldemort." Draco's smile turned into an amused smirk.

"Mm," he said. "Quite."

…

"This is a bad idea," Draco said. He was mostly translucent thanks to the disillusionment charm he'd put on himself. Harry could see the dirt of the tunnel wall through his forehead.

"Most of our ideas are bad ones," Harry said, leaning forward to kiss him again. "This doesn't seem half as bad as some of the others. It's dark and we're mostly invisible."

"But not entirely invisible," Draco pointed out and then gasped as Harry finally managed to work a hand down the front of his trousers.

"I don't hear you telling me to stop," Harry whispered. He pressed himself up against Draco and took Draco's erection in his hand.

"No, don't stop," Draco said against Harry's neck. Harry nodded and began to pump his hand up and down as Draco mouthed at Harry's collarbone. "Oh, Harry," he moaned. His breath was hot against Harry's skin and it sent shivers of desire down his spine.

"So you do want this?" Harry asked, squeezing gently and making Draco gasp.

"Fuck yes, I do." Draco's hands clutched at Harry as Harry used his spare hand to undo Draco's trousers properly. "I want you, Harry. I always want you." Harry leaned in and nipped at Draco's earlobe before kissing his way down Draco's neck, all the while the hand on Draco's cock kept up its rhythm.

He could tell that Draco was getting closer by the way that his breathing had sped up and it sent a thrill of excitement through him. He kept up his pace, all the while kissing every inch of Draco's skin he could reach through his unbuttoned collar. When Harry felt Draco was almost there, he let go. Instead, he quickly pulled Draco's trousers down and dropped to his knees before him.

"This is a very bad idea," Draco said in a small, shaky voice, looking down at Harry but he didn't stop him. Harry ignored his words, instead leaning forward and taking Draco into his mouth. And then it didn't take long. Harry had bobbed his head maybe four times when he felt Draco shudder and go weak in the knees, his breathing ragged as he tried hard to stay quiet. Harry swallowed it all down and then slowly stood up.

"Was it a good bad idea?" Harry whispered into Draco's neck through more gentle kisses.

"Wasn't the worst idea," Draco says begrudgingly. He reached down and pulled up his trousers. "Only because no one caught us."

"I think you enjoyed the thrill."

"I certainly enjoyed something," Draco said, smirking.

"I'm just paying you back for the Chamber of Secrets." Harry shrugged. He was rather sure the effect of his shrug was lessened by the fact that he was difficult to see but that was alright.

"Though, really, Harry, if anyone else finds out about us..."

"They're going to eventually," Harry said. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Draco's waist. "And I can't wait until they do."

"But not before—"

"—Don't worry. I won't say anything about us until after we kill him."

"Mm," Draco said, pulling out his wand and taking off their disillusionment charms. "That somewhat dampens the mood." Harry let him go, rolling his eyes as he did.

"I love you too," he said. Draco leaned forward and pecked Harry on the lips.

"No more of that now," he said. "It's time to go back to the party." Harry sighed but followed Draco back up the tunnel.

…

"You need to work on your subtlety, Harry," Ernie said to him as he was standing by the bar waiting for Dobby to make him a Blood and Sand. "Anyone paying any sort of attention to the two of you would have noticed you both leaving and then coming back to the party looking rather hot under the collar. Do I even want to know what was going on in that tunnel? I seem to recall you two talking about—"

"—Nothing like that Ernie," Harry said quickly. Ernie raised his eyebrows.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing," Harry said, shaking his head vehemently. "Nothing at all." But he couldn't stop the smile that crossed his face.

"If you say so," Ernie said, eyes sparkling.

"I definitely say so."

"Then I definitely believe you," Ernie said with a wink and it was all Harry could do not to bury his face in his hands. Instead he took the drink Dobby was holding out to him and sloped over to where Hermione and Blaise were chatting with Neville.

…

"The Whomping Willow is such an interesting specimen," Neville said. "How did you know that it would freeze when you touched that knot in the tree?"

"My cat showed me," Hermione said.

"Crookshanks?"

"The one and same."

"But how? And why?" Neville screwed up his face in confusion and stared at Hermione.

"Sirius Black showed Crookshanks and then he showed me," she said.

"You lot never have simple answers to anything, do you?" Neville asked and Hermione laughed.

"No, I guess we don't," she said. "Sorry." Neville threw up his hands.

"I'm going to go hang out with Ernie now," he said and stalked away, leaving Harry, Ron and Blaise to stare after him.

…

"You know," Ron said to Pansy and Seamus (who had rejoined the party wearing what looked like Justin's shirt and Cormac's trousers judging by the way they hung off of his hips). "We could hide the younger years in here during the battle."

"Battle?" Seamus asked. A look of alarm crossed his face.

"Ah, shit," Ron said. "I forgot you didn't know. Well, I might as well come out and say it as Harry's bound to bring it up in a session one of these days anyway." He paused and took a breath. Seamus was frowning at him, which he took as a sign he should keep on talking. "We're planning on luring Voldemort and his Death Eaters to Hogwarts to force an end to this war." Seamus blinked at him.

"I'm sorry, I must be drunk," the irishman said. "Because I thought you just said you were going to lure Voldemort to Hogwarts."

"That is what I said," Ron said, nodding even as Pansy slapped a hand to her forehead. Seamus stared at them.

"But either way, Ron, I'm not sure all the lower years would fit in here," Pansy said, ignoring Seamus's stare.

"But surely it would be easier to extend this interior than to build a permanent elevator into the Chamber."

"Oh Merlin," Seamus said. "You've lost me." Pansy made as if to explain, but Seamus stopped her. "This is a party. I'm going to go act like it's a party and drink until I can't remember that we even had this conversation." He headed off in the direction of the bar but was accosted partway there by Justin who was seemingly wearing Cormac's shirt and Seamus's trousers.

"Neither of them are wearing what they came in," Pansy said, pointing at the pair. "Are they?" Ron shook his head. "So I want to know: why are we?"

"Uh."

"Come on," she said. "Let's change that." She took his hand and led him upstairs and Ron was certainly not going to complain about that.

…

The next day, all in all, the sixth years decided that the Shrieking Shack party had been a success. They'd laughed and drank and danced all their concerns away, even if just for a night. Their main complaint, however, had been how long it had taken to get back to the castle once the party wrapped up. So it seemed unlikely that further parties would be held there, though at least they'd given it a go.

"It was a very long tunnel," Blaise said at breakfast the following morning. "I could have done without the tunnel." There was a general muttering of agreement to this statement. They we were all gathered at the Slytherin table for breakfast. Harry had insisted that he wanted to sit next to Draco that morning, rumors be damned, so he was squashed in between Draco and Blaise, with Ron, Pansy and Hermione opposite them.

"And then the walk across the grounds," Ron said. "I would have preferred to not have to go outside."

"Speak for yourself," Pansy said. "At least you had trousers on. I was freezing in my skirt."

"I gave you my jumper," Ron pointed out.

"Yes, and it didn't cover my legs," Pansy said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"I heard Neville fell asleep curled up under the Whomping Willow," Harry said. "Is that true?"

"By the looks of him," Blaise said, craning his neck to see over the top of Harry. "Yes. He has twigs in his hair."

"That could just be Neville though," Ron said.

"He's also still wearing last night's clothes," Blaise said. Hermione put a concerned hand up to her mouth. "He looks perfectly fine aside from that. He's got a giant grin on his face."

"He's also at the Hufflepuff table," Hermione said, turning around to look. "So that might have something to do with it."

"All I know," Ron said. "Is that he didn't come back to Gryffindor tower last night."

"Oh, don't tell me you're going to tease him about this," Draco said, smirking at Ron. "Say it isn't so, Weaselby."

"'Course not," Ron said, winking back. "We definitely won't give him a hard time about where he was last night."

"What's his girlfriend's name again?" Pansy asked. Harry and Ron looked at each other, matching panic in their eyes.

"Claudia," Draco said, not looking up from the piece of toast he was now buttering.

"Mm," Pansy said. "I think she's in my Charms class." Harry was still not entirely sure who she was, but it didn't matter if he knew who she was, only that Neville did.

"Hermione," Draco said, changing the subject. "Can you check over my arithmancy equations later?"

"Oh no," Ron said. "Does this mean we're going to the library again?"

"Ron," Hermione said. "It's Sunday. Of course we're going to the library." Ron slumped down onto Pansy's shoulder but his girlfriend just rolled her eyes at him.

"You'll live," she said comfortingly. "It's only homework." Ron sighed but nodded because she was right. It was just homework. At least for now it wasn't possibly hundreds of Death Eaters pouring into the school. But they had a plan for that. And really, he thought, it was a jolly good one.