Tonight, my dream found us sat atop the manor's roof beneath a starry sky. It was a place I used to come when I'd sneak out my window at night, and when I looked at Harry, his wide eyes were cast skyward. I could almost see the reflection of the cosmos in them.

"Wow. Where are we?"

"The manor. To this day, I don't know if either of my parents ever knew I used to come up here. It was as much of an escape as I could manage without actually running away."

"I'm jealous. My aunt and uncle put bars on my windows once they'd finally upgraded me from a cupboard to a bedroom."

He crossed his legs and leaned over the edge at our back courtyard.

"That's mad. My own cowardice kept me home, but I've no doubt my father would've imagined some kind of boundary spell had I ever tried to leave."

"Oh, god. I don't even want to picture my aunt and uncle using magic." He shuddered. "I can guarantee the Torture Curse would be one of their favorites."

"Sounds about right." I leaned back on my palms as a question wandered into my mind. "Have you…?" What am I asking?

"Ever used an Unforgivable?" I winced as he cast me a sideways glance. "Once. After I watched Bellatrix kill Sirius, I… Ran her down and tortured her."

"Jesus," formed on my lips with my next exhale as I sat up to watch him. He'd cast his eyes down into his lap and was fidgeting with his hands.

"And who should show up to encourage me but good ol' Tom." A mirthless chuckle coughed out of his throat before he swallowed. "He… He almost sounded proud of me…"

"I-I'm sorry I asked, it's hard for me to keep my thought filter up when we're in my head."

"It's no worries. You can ask me anything you like."

Now there's an idea.

"Then… Will you tell me what was troubling you before we fell asleep?"

Curiously, I watched his face redden as a frown knotted his brow.

"That's, er…" He coughed once and glanced at me, passing a hand over his mouth. "It's… Not something I'm sure I should say."

"Well, that's not fair. I say loads in my dreams I shouldn't say."

I frowned at his grimace, but neither of us spoke as he seemed to wrestle with himself. My curiosity increased by the second. When he finally spoke, he quietly addressed his hands in his lap.

"I'm… Scared. Scared in a way I've never been." This wasn't quite an answer, so I didn't reply as he turned an embarrassed flush my way. "I've… Never fallen in love with anyone before."

Oh…

My heart lept into my throat as he cast his face away again, and I was stunned silent for a few moments.

"Harry…" I scooted closer to him as he ran a hand through his hair and exhaled shakily.

"I-I told you I probably shouldn't say it…" He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs, burying his face between them. "I feel so fucking stupid," he muttered.

"Harry," I reiterated, still searching for the right words to say. One of my folded legs nestled behind him as I wrapped my arms around his torso. He tucked his head further between his knees as I pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "I… Don't really know what to say, but you… You're the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me."

He's falling in love… With me? My arms tightened around him.

"I-I know it's scary, but… Well, I'm not going anywhere. Honestly, I'm thrilled to know it's not just me… Feeling… This way…"

My own words trailed off as I realized what I'd said. His head lifted, but just as he was craning his neck behind him at me, I buried my own face against his back.

"Wait, you…?" His knees opened as he suddenly seemed to relax.

"Yes! The feeling is mutual, okay?"

My cheeks flamed as he shifted in my arms, which I finally loosened around him. I still couldn't look at him, but found I wouldn't have to as he threw himself over me, sending us both back onto the roof. His face pressed into my chest as I lay frozen in shock.

"Thank fucking god," he breathed.

Despite the humiliating blush on my face, I chuckled and wrapped my arms back around him. The millions of stars in the sky seemed to pulse with light as a smile came to rest on my lips.

What a strange life…

We lay like that for what seemed like an eternity, when suddenly I had an idea.

"Hey, I wanna show you something."

Harry lifted a still slightly pink, but much more curious expression up off my chest as I moved to get up. Following suit, I led him back into the manor through my bedroom window. I'd intended to exit the building altogether, but Harry paused in my room.

I glanced back at him to see his eyes taking in every detail of his surroundings with intense curiosity. Suddenly, my blush was back as I followed his gaze.

"What?"

He twisted at the waist to see where we'd come in through.

"Nothing. Just… Being in your bedroom…" As his eyes lighted on my bed, he turned a mischievous smile toward me. "And if I had to guess…"

Dropping my hand, he went to my bedside table.

"No, don't-!"

He pulled open the drawer there, and I prayed to anyone who might be listening that he wouldn't find…

"Ah HA!" I groaned as he withdrew my old newspaper clippings and whipped around to wave them triumphantly. "Sheesh, you weren't lying. How old are these?"

As he flipped through them, I lunged forward to rip them from his hands.

"Honestly!"

I hadn't intentionally placed them there in my dream. The memory of my father's Incendia seemed to tingle my nose with the smell of smoke, but I carefully held them to me, knowing they were long gone.

"Just how long have you actually had the hots for me?" He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at me, a smug grin settling on his lips. My eyes rolled dramatically as I placed the clippings onto my bed and took his hand.

"Come on, you pretentious Messiah."

"Ooh, Messiah! That's one I haven't heard in a long time," he chuckled teasingly as I dragged him from my room. "So, where are we going?" His gait finally matched mine as we walked, hand-in-hand, through the halls of the manor.

"Our summer home. We only visited a few times when I was young, but there's something there I think you'd like."

"Oh? And where is it?"

"Iceland."

"Iceland? How are we going to get there?"

I sighed and stopped.

"I'm not really sure how this works, but since it's a dream, I should be able to…" Closing my eyes, I focused on conjuring an image of said summer home. A warm breeze greeted my skin as my eyes reopened, and we were suddenly there, standing down the path that led to the front steps.

"Holy shit," Harry commented.

Our eyes adjusted to the bright, midday sun as another warm, summer breeze whipped around us. I inhaled the familiar scent with a smile as I invited him up toward the house.

"That was the weirdest Apparation I've ever been a part of. You should've seen it, the entire manor like, systematically disassembled and then we were here."

"Only in dreams, eh?"

We chuckled together as we ascended the steps up onto the porch. Harry took another moment to take in the scenery before the door opened before us.

"Wow," was the only word he could seem to find.

I was eager to show him one specific feature of this house, but forced myself to patiently allow him to explore.

"Bloody hell, when you said summer home, I was imagining a cabin in the woods. Somehow I'd forgotten you're fucking loaded."

A scoff broke on my lips as I leaned against the doorframe that led further into the house.

"Blood isn't the only thing Malfoys keep in the family. Come on, this isn't what I wanted to show you."

Curiously, Harry followed me as I turned down the hallway behind myself, and deeper. Eventually, we came to a little hatch in the floor, which I lifted with some effort. I stepped down the spiral staircase beneath, but glanced back up at Harry to see an uncertain expression on his face.

"It's not that bad, you know." Holding out my hand to him, I gently coaxed him down the stairs with me. His hand gripped mine tightly as we descended into the basement. Several ensconced torches illuminated the room from the walls, but this makeshift study/office still wasn't what I wanted to show him. Grinning back at Harry's increasingly hesitant expression, I led him to a bookshelf that, once the password slipped from my lips, slid aside to reveal a dark hallway.

"Draco…"

"Lumos." My wand illuminated the way before us as I invited him in. "Just trust me, okay?"

Carefully, he let me walk him down the hallway, where the flooring changed to dirt. The ground sloped downward, and Harry's hand tightened in mine.

"Where the hell are you taking me?"

"We're nearly there. I promise it's worth it."

He withdrew his own wand, and I chuckled at the notion that he felt the need to arm himself. He's with me! What kind of situation does he think I'd put him in?

Finally, the tunnel we'd been traversing opened into an enormous, underground cave. Harry stood beside me, peering into the darkness as I tossed my Lumos into the air, illuminated the entirety of the cave. His cautious expression relaxed into one of shock, and a satisfied grin crept into mine.

His eyes raked over the vaulted ceiling, encrusted with glittering gems, before finally dropping to take in the vast underground lake that dominated the room.

"Well?" I asked as I backed up toward the water's edge, my eyes never leaving his face. "What do you think?"

"Wow," he commented again. "It's… Amazing. Is it manmade?"

"Naturally occurring. The tunnel we came down used to open out to the ocean a few miles from here, but when the house was built, they collapsed the rest of the tunnel so we could have it for ourselves."

Fond memories of swimming in this lake surfaced, and suddenly both Harry and I were in swim trunks. He gave a yelp that I laughed at, as he looked down at himself.

"Come on. This water's close enough to a vein from a nearby thermal vent that it's warm enough to swim in."

Instead of waiting for Harry, I turned and sprinted into the lake. A gleeful giggle slipped through my lips just before I dove toward the deepest center of the water. It felt amazing, even in my dream. The warm water was smooth against my skin, and I made a mental note to bring Harry here for real one day. Once I'd emerged from the surface, I pushed my hair back out of my face and saw him wading up to his waist in the water. He was still cautiously feeling the floor with every step, but a smile began to bloom on his face.

"This is brilliant!"

The surface rose to his chest as he continued toward me, and I chuckled.

"Worth the walk?"

"Definitely."

His head disappeared under the water briefly, and when he lifted back up, his glasses were nowhere to be found.

"Ah, fuck…" He slicked his hair back out of his eyes as he began to search the immediate area with his hands. However, before he could find them, confusion knotted his brow. "Wait… That's weird." He blinked up at me as I swam towards him. "I can see."

The floor of the lake rose to greet my feet as I continued approaching him with a shrug.

"Thank my subconscious, I guess?"

He rubbed his eyes as I closed the distance between us, and opened them back up at me. From this close, I could see all the gemstones reflecting light into those deep, green pools, and my lips were suddenly on his. He pressed himself against me as our kiss deepened, and the ground seemed to give way beneath us. Our lips remained connected, though, once we'd submerged and realized we could still breathe.

Thank you, dream physics.

Weightlessness enveloped us as my hands held his face, and I could've stayed like this, blissfully asleep and in Harry's arms, when the thought this is what falling in love feels like crossed my mind. This thought, however, must've elicited something in my subconscious because those very words echoed around us in the water. My lips pulled a centimetre away from Harry's as my cheeks warmed. His emerald eyes blinked up at me as his flush mimicked mine.

"And you're… Sure you're okay with this?"

"I mean… I'm just as terrified as you, if that answers your question."

Harry's arms tightened around me as he tucked his head under my chin. I held him wordlessly as we drifted through the warm emptiness.

It's not so much falling as it is slowly sinking into a bottomless, warm bath. There's still the fear of the unknown beneath us, but… It's not unpleasant.

In far too deep now to worry if it's a good idea or not... I'm tumbling head over heels for Harry James Potter.