A pale peach was creeping into the sky when I opened my eyes. Draco's evenly breathing chest was pressed to my back, with one arm slung over my waist. In the brief moments before he joined me in consciousness, I snuggled back into him, cherishing the warmth and comfort. Whether it was this movement or nature, he stirred, groaning against the back of my neck.
"Morning," I commented as he stretched his pale limbs over me.
"Mmmorning," came his lazy reply, and he pressed his lips to the side of my neck. A flash of pain reminded me of the now-worsened welt he'd dealt my skin.
As he rolled onto his back, I took advantage of the bed and stretched my own limbs. My elbow barely collided with his brow, and I suddenly flipped over.
"Ow," he groaned as he clasped his eye with one hand.
"Oh, my god, I'm so sorry." My fingers instinctively pried his hand away from his eye. "Let me look at it."
"'S fine," he assured me as he blinked up at me. Upon further inspection, it did seem like he was fine, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry," I repeated as I pressed a kiss to the brow in question.
"You barely bumped into me. What time is it?"
Twisting back toward the fireplace, I saw we had about five minutes to get to breakfast.
"Shit, we need to get up."
Another groan sounded in Draco's throat as I threw the blankets back and went to one of the trunks I'd predesigned against the wall.
"No worries, though. I've got our robes right here."
I withdrew his Slytherin robes and tossed them back onto the bed as he sat up, yawning.
"How are you this awake already?"
I made the "I don't know" sound before realizing I did know why.
"Guess I just got a fantastic night's sleep."
Withdrawing my own robes, I returned to the side of the bed. Draco blinked up at me, a bleary smile spreading across his face. How is anyone this adorable immediately after waking up?
He surprised me suddenly by reaching over and seizing my wrist. A yelp escaped me as he pulled me back down onto the bed and expertly flipped me over to straddle me.
"You little-"
"Little?" My cheeks flamed as his eyes turned mischievous. "I'm many things, but little?"
He leaned down to press his lips against mine, and my heart thudded in my chest. No, no, don't get swept up in this, we have things to do. Push him off. I only managed to wriggle beneath him as he flattened himself on top of me. A gasp cut off our kiss as his pelvis pressed against mine.
"D-Draco, we really hhhhhhave to go…" My sentence was nearly lost as he subtly rutted against me.
"Oh, we will. I just want to tease you a little before we go…" His knees pushed mine apart as he wedged himself between them. A whimper escaped my lips as I reopened my drooping eyes to see his intrigued observation of my face.
"You're… A git…"
He chuckled.
"And you're…" He pressed one more kiss to my lips. "So fucking hot."
I swallowed at his intense expression, but with a glance downward, he finally lifted himself off me with a sigh and stood facing the bed.
"Right. Now we can go."
We did end up being late to breakfast, but it was worth the entertainment of watching Harry frantically dress himself, cast his bodily cloaking spell, and try to work off his erection, all the while casting me scathing looks. By ten minutes in to breakfast, we were strolling into the Great Hall, hand-in-hand.
The morning attendees were all sleepily forcing food down as we approached. With a clear of his throat, Harry addressed the group.
"Morning." The muttered responses were underwhelming, but Hermione took one glance at us and snickered into her porridge.
"So… Everybody ready for the Herbology presentation?"
Seamus lifted a smirk, as if he was about to make some snide comment, but suddenly blanched.
"Your, erm… Ties are switched."
A glance between Harry's Slytherin tie and my Gryffindor one confirmed as much.
"Ah, well, you see…" Harry started to explain, but I interrupted him with a snort.
"It's hard to tell them apart in the dark," I casually commented as I lifted his collar and removed my tie, doing the same to myself. A long silence stretched across the table as Harry froze, blushing furiously, but allowing me to don his tie onto its rightful neck, and doing up my own. The entertainment continues...
The next sound was Ron choking on his mouthful, followed swiftly by Hermione's cackle. Harry remained frozen solid as I calmly resumed eating.
"Oh, god, I'm gonna be sick… Ow!" Seamus reached down for his ankle, and I had to assume Hermione'd kicked him. This seemed to bring Harry's presence of mind back as he cast her a sideways glance. She was happily spooning porridge into her mouth.
"We… Walked all the way here…" He directed this observation toward me, which I returned with a teasing grin.
"Dearie me, the entire castle will've realized I'm shagging the Chosen One. Whatever are we to do?"
Harry slammed his forehead down onto the table with a groan. Hermione only snickered, and I was surprised to hear Neville, of all people, stifle a chuckle.
"Why do I even bother? The cloaking charm, the sneaking around, the late night rendezvous…" He muttered to himself as he lifted his arms to fold around his head, shoving away his untouched plate.
"Oh, relax. Eat your breakfast, Potions starts soon."
"We're gonna get in so much trouble… But the Headmistress only has herself to blame, after all, I mean… It's her fault any of this is even happening…" He continued under his breath, but nonetheless, I perceived. He must've predicted my eye roll as he suddenly straightened. The red of his cheeks hadn't diminished in the slightest as he shoved an apple into his mouth, leaning into his free hand and sighing dramatically.
Honestly, at this point, I'd be surprised if he kept his love bite concealed. Still, people might wonder if I'm abusing him. It did look quite brutal once we'd woken up.
The rest of breakfast passed in silence as Seamus attempted to finish his meal (he eventually gave up), Harry aggressively consumed an apple and a piece of toast, Hermione seemed to struggle to contain her laughter, Ron studiously shoveled his normal portions into his face, and Neville fought to keep a grin off his face. It was oddly warm, albeit a bit awkward. I found it didn't bother me one bit.
Eventually, though, it was time to go to class. I was so accustomed to arriving early, it was a strange experience to follow the general flow of students to our respective classrooms. Harry fidgeted anxiously all the way to class, even though his hand was twined tightly in mine.
"You worry too much," I commented as we slid into our seats.
"It's hard to tell them apart in the dark? It wasn't even dark! Why even say that?"
His agitation was endearing, but at the same time, worry clutched my heart. Did I go too far? I decided to shrug.
"No point beating around the bush at this point. They would've found out sooner or later."
The petulant pout he gave me eased my worry slightly as he huffed.
"Git," he uttered as he withdrew his textbook and notes. I followed suit as Slughorn began class, but my heart was still in knots several minutes into his lecture, so I gestured for our note-passing Horcrux journal page. Once it was placed on my desk, my quill was immediately on its surface.
'Sorry' was all I'd come up with, in all that time.
Harry had rolled his eyes before taking the page back, penning his reply hastily.
'It's not that I really care, I just' His quill paused as he frowned. His previous message nearly disappeared before he continued again. 'My love life has always been a major topic of gossip in school, even in the Prophet.' My eyes scanned his words quickly before they were replaced with the following text: 'I don't like everyone knowing my intimate life.'
'Celebrity life isn't all it's cracked up to be then?'
'Not at all. You know the Prophet ran a full story on me and Hermione in fourth year?'
'You and her? Skeeter must've been desperate.'
'Everyone is, for any scrap of news on my comings and goings. I hate the spotlight.'
As his message faded before me, my guilt solidified. Our ties being switched was neither of our faults, but I had no idea this was so important to him. I glanced over at his aggravated expression, suddenly finding a new kind of sympathy for him. I'd always thought he craved the limelight, which is why he went out of his way to perform those great deeds from such a young age. If he wasn't doing it for attention, like I most certainly would've, then…
He must actually just have been a good person from the start.
This paradigm shift sent me reeling as my quill hesitated over the page. It wasn't even quite a paradigm shift, though. I'd all but worshipped him as a child, but when I'd actually started going to school with him, he'd seemed like an arrogant prick. He's still an arrogant prick, but…
'I hope you don't regret anything, because I don't.'
The swiftness with which his quill came down to reply to me was encouraging, but I still anxiously awaited his response.
'No, of course not. I just wish people didn't care.'
Slughorn called out a page number just then, and we both strived to look engaged as we flipped to said page. The context for the lecture was lost on me, and I assumed for Harry, too, but our conversation seemed to die naturally at this point as we both turned our attention to the lesson. An emotion I couldn't name festered in my chest, but neither of us wrote back for the remainder of the class.