Alright, here we go with the long chapter I was promising. Everything is
worked out, finally and someone is very happy, someone is very sad. Okay
without further adieu, here we go with chapter 22!!!
Ron searched for almost five minutes before he came across Hermione. She was still searching for Harry and had just finished talking to a bunch of Gryffindor first years and got negative replies when Ron found her.
"Hermione, you have to come, to the common room. Harry's there." Ron was a bit out of breath after his high speed jaunt through the halls.
"Does that not figure, we leave the common room and that's where he ends up. Come on, let's go." The two of them retraced Ron's steps and found their way back. Just before they entered, Hermione pulled Ron aside.
"Does he know, Ron? About Malfoy?"
"Yes, he already knows. Malfoy told Harry himself."
"That bastard. That heartless bastard. This is a new low, even for a Slytherin. Of all the things to mess with, it has to be the one thing that Harry loves most. Damn him." She opened the door and stepped through, leaving Ron to follow behind her and absorb her last comment. He winced unknowingly.
"That used to be me, I think," he said so softly that it might have just been in his head. He stepped into the room a few paces behind Hermione.
She took in the scene; Harry in a chair sunk way down, Dennis in the neighboring chair, watching Harry like a hawk. He was trying to talk to Harry but seemed to be having little success. Hermione stormed over to him and planted both her hands on her hips and began to lay into him.
"Harry? Harry! Why are you just sitting there?"
"Huh, what are you talking about Hermione?"
"Will you wake up already?"
"What do you mean, Hermione?"
"You love him, right?"
"Who, Colin?"
"No, the bloody Chudley Cannon mascot. Yes, Colin. You love him, right?"
"Yes. Of course I do."
"Then why in the holy hell are you just sitting in that chair while Malfoy is out there trying to do who knows what. Are you just going to sit there?"
"I don't know Hermione, maybe it would be best if I just left him alone." Hermione looked at the Boy Who Lived in utter disbelief. She glanced at Ron, he was standing about halfway between the door and the chair. Dennis was looking between her and Harry like a spectator at a tennis match.
"What?! Now see here, Harry Potter, you stop all this passive- aggressive, depressive bullshit right now." She was nearly yelling as the finished that blurb. Harry was completely shocked. A little of his daze seemed to have left him.
"I will not sit here while you feel sorry for yourself."
"Hermione-" Harry tried to speak but she didn't let him get another word out.
"I've been through, well, we *all* have been through way too much drama so far this year to let you write Colin off this bloody quick." Her face was so close to his now that she could have leaned an inch forward and licked his nose, though why she'd want to do that is beyond this author. "Are you listening to me?"
"Huh, yeah, I'm listening."
"Okay, then are you hearing me?"
"What?" uh oh, wrong thing to say he instantly realized.
"Harry, get out of that chair right now. Get out and go to him."
"I don't know where he is." Harry put his head down again and sank back into the chair. Hermione reached down and grabbed him by the front of his robes and picked him up just off his toes like he was a doll.
Whispering in his ear, she said, "Harry, you have the Marauder's Map, I suggest you use it." She set him down and straightened the front of his robes, as they were a bit rumpled for some reason.
Harry looked at her like she had a second nose for a second and smiled at her and said "Thanks." He hopped up the steps with a spring in his step again.
As he made the way to the top, Dennis finally remembered to breathe. He'd been watching in awe as Hermione bit into Harry like a rabid dog. "Hermione, what'd you say to him at the end?"
"I told him that he'd better get up or I'd get mad." yeah, she lied, but she could have told Dennis that spaghetti made a nice hairpiece and he'd believe her.
"Wow!" was all he replied. He looked to Ron and said the same to him. Ron grinned back.
Harry went into his trunk and dug out the blank piece of parchment that was the Marauder's Map from the very bottom. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said, waving his wand over the parchment. It filled with hundreds of dots, all going different directions. Where was Colin? "There's Seamus and Neville off in a secret passage doing who knows what. It's a good thing that this thing doesn't give details," he thought. Where are you? Finally he found Colin's dot and was happy for a split second until he realized that there was a second dot with Colin's and the name on it said Draco Malfoy.
They were headed away from the rest of the students, down to the dungeons instead of to the Great Hall. His heart sank. "Oh no, I'm too late!" he thought.
Hermione and Dennis were on the way up the stairs at that time, Hermione having decided that Harry was taking too long and might have backed out again. She opened the door and saw his frowning face. He seemed very likely to slip back into his former mood again.
"What is it Harry? Where's Colin?" she asked.
"He's, he's with Draco." he set the parchment aside.
"Oh no you don't," she thought. "Harry Potter, I thought we already had this talk not five minutes ago. What's changed now?"
"It's too late. He's already with him."
"Are you mad, Harry? I hope you aren't planning on sitting here while your boyfriend walks into Draco Malfoy's house."
"I hurt him badly, Hermione, and the worst thing is that I didn't even know that I did it. Don't you think that if you truly love someone, you'd know if you do something like that?"
"Harry, you screwed up. It happens. Oh well. If you truly love someone, you go and try to patch things up, put them right. That old expression about letting something go and if it comes back it's true love, well, that's all crap. Total crap. Love isn't perfect. It never has been, and it never will be." she surveyed his face, looking for a sign. "Now you go and claim what's yours, Harry."
He looked at her and it seemed that he was getting back his zest. "Hermione," he started to say, but she interrupted him again. He noticed that his stone was blazing heat again as she started to speak.
"Harry, not another word. Go." Harry looked like Harry of old again. He hopped off his bed and gave her a big hug.
"Oh my, he's hot, it's like hugging a furnace," she thought. "You're so hot, Harry," she told him.
"Thanks, Hermione, but I'm taken." He grinned at her and said "I'll tell you about it later. He bounded out the door, stopping to ruffle Dennis' hair and then nearly bowl Ron over as he entered the room.
His stone was glowing again, he could really feel it, warmer than ever before. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his face as he headed through the corridors to the dungeons.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Now to Draco ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Feelings? Whatever. He is just a game piece, a toy. You don't have feelings for a toy," Draco thought to himself as he made his way from the Divination tower. "Really?" a voice called from somewhere very deep inside him. He shook his head and tried to dismiss the voice. He could not do so completely.
In an effort to outrace the voice, he plunged headlong down the hallways and looked a bit like Hermes. He ran blindly and leapt down nearly an entire flight of steps. Okay, he didn't plan on doing it, but it still looked good. He was going so fast that his foot missed the second step and he simply jumped instead of falling down fourteen stone steps. He had hang time a la Michael Jordan. He barely landed on his feet and narrowly missed landing on a young Hufflepuff. "Sorry," he said quickly. She watched him fly to the front doors, not sure if she was impressed or irritated.
He covered the distance to Hagrid's cabin in under a minute, not bad for a boy who's idea of exercise was having Crabbe and Goyle beat on someone.
"If that old bat was lying to me," he thought. "What'll you do? Tell your father you were looking for a boy because you love him?" that voice spoke up again. "Will you please shut the hell up?" he said aloud. He rounded the cabin and saw Colin perched on the roof of some horrible creature's pen. He skidded to a stop in front of the pen, pin wheeling his arms for balance in the wet grass. He lost his balance and plunged into a nice pile of muddy liquid near the pen face first.
"Oh, that had better be water," he fumed out loud. A few scraping sounds came from the roof, followed by Colin's face appearing over the edge a few seconds later.
"Draco? Is that you? Are you alright? What are you doing here?"
"I was hoping," Draco said, pulling himself to his knees and wiping the back of a hand across his eyes, "that we could talk." Draco surveyed the mud on his robes and found it to be quite extensive.
"Draco, I don't know if there is anything to talk about."
"Colin, I'm sorry if I came on a bit strong earlier. I don't know what happened. I was just going to talk to you, and well, you know what happened instead." Draco was damned if he was going to give up that easily, especially now that he was covered in mud. "And since you care," that voice added again. Colin looked at him with his big eyes and silently told Draco to go on.
"First off, I want to apologize for doing that earlier. I pushed myself on you and I had no right to do so. I'm sorry."
"Well, it was hardly non-consensual, Draco," Colin said.
"SCORE!!" Draco's mind yelled.
"Yeah, that might be, but I still pressed you into it. I'm sorry. So can we talk about things, slower this time?"
"I don't know. It just felt wrong."
"Well then, allow me this. Tell me that you felt nothing, nothing at all, and I'll walk away and never bother you again. Can you do that, Colin?"
Draco watched as Colin's gears turned on that one. He was obviously searching his feelings hard. "No, I can't tell you that, Draco. I did feel something."
"Well then, will you hear me out and talk for a while? You owe me that, my young Gryffindor." Draco had just put all his cards on the table and called.
Colin was torn to the core. On one hand, he desperately wanted to go with Draco, but on the other, he still had Harry in his heart. He certainly did feel something earlier, raw power, not soft love like with Harry. Both were very different, but both were very intoxicating. "Okay, we can talk," he finally decided.
"Goooooooaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!" Draco's mind yelled like a Mexican soccer announcer. The dinner bell was ringing somewhere behind them, adding to the din in Draco's mind. Right now, dinner was the last thing in either boy's mind. "Good," he smiled. "Can we do it somewhere else, like maybe somewhere I could change out of these nasty clothes?"
Colin climbed down from the roof and got a little unnecessary but nice help from Draco. "Sure. Lead the way."
As they were walking off, Draco said, "Colin, please tell me that this is watery mud and not anything else."
"No, it's not."
"I didn't think so."
"Do you want to know what it is then?"
"No, definitely not." They walked up to the castle doors and waded upstream against the current of hungry students.
Draco recited the password "Gryffindors Suck" and the door opened. Colin looked a bit upset but decided to not mention it now.
(A/N: I think that in every fic I've ever read the password to Slytherin's common room is 'Gryffindors Suck'. I can't break tradition, can I?)
Draco held the door open as Colin went in first. The Slytherin common room was everything that the Gryffindors wasn't. Colin's seemed warm and homey, while this seemed almost Spartan. The chairs looked uncomfortable to even be near, much less sit on. Everything was polished stone- the floors, the walls, ceiling. All black, of course. A large mirror adorned one wall, in front of it was a table with an assortment of bottles and glasses and mugs.
Draco evidently caught Colin's stares and commented, "Sorry it isn't as nice as yours and all, my young Gryffindor, but it really isn't quite as bad as it looks." Colin looked around again, trying to believe Draco but failing in that endeavor.
"If you say so, Draco, if you say so." he stepped over to a chair and pushed on the padding. To his surprise it yielded a bit more than he expected. "Okay, maybe you're right."
Draco smiled warmly at him and spoke again, "I'll tell you what, I strongly need to take a shower and wash off whatever filth I fell into, so while I do that, you can relax and make yourself comfortable."
"Alright. You do stink more than a little, you know."
"Alas, I thought that was you, Colin," Draco said laughing with him. "Help yourself to any of the beverages on the table by the mirror. Do be careful, though. Some of them are a little stronger than the pumpkin juice that you might be used to, if you know what I mean."
"Gotcha, now go get that shower, Draco." Draco walked around the corner, already starting to take off his filthy robes. Colin took a few more glances around the room and walked over to the marble table. There were quite a variety of bottles there, most of which he'd never seen before. "What's this one? Spiced cider? I like cider," he thought. He poured a glass and set the bottle back on the table. Sip. Gag. "Spiced with what? Gasoline?" At the same time, it was good. Warming, just a little. It seemed to take the chill off that this room possessed.
In the shower, Draco's mind was wheeling like a dervish. It was all down to this moment. All the cards were on the table. He was playing for keeps. Those and tons more clichés swam through his already clouded mind. "You don't want to lose on more levels than you'll admit, you know," that pesky voice that spoke earlier added again. "You're right, I don't want to lose. I won't lose. I won't lose to Potter," he told the shower stall. "You don't want to lose *him* to Potter most of all, do you?" the voice asked again. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said as he shut the water off. He stepped out and grabbed a towel and dried vigorously, perhaps trying to shake that pesky voice out of his head. He wrapped the towel around him and made his way up to his dorm room. He pulled on a pair of black jeans and grabbed a shirt off the rack. He started to pull it on, but smiled a half grin and didn't do so just yet. Instead he waited until he was stepping into the common room before slipping it on, giving Colin a glimpse of Draco's small but nicely shaped midsection.
"Wow! Nice," Colin thought to himself and very nearly voiced to Draco. His glass was now nearly empty and he felt a little light-headed.
Draco glanced to the table and noticed the bottle of cider that was out of place. "Oh, yeah, this is getting easier by the minute," he thought to himself. He picked up the bottle and another glass and walked over to where Colin was still standing. "You can sit, you know. They don't bite, well, except for the one over there." he pointed to a chair in the corner. "One of the seventh years hexed it. We've not bothered to un- hex it though."
"Oh, sure," Colin said, sounding if sitting was the best idea on the planet. Draco poured himself a glass of the cider and offered more to Colin.
"I bet you don't have things like this in Gryffindor tower, do you?"
"No, we don't. too bad though, I like it."
"Me too. It's good stuff, huh?" The two of them exchanged idle banter for a good ten minutes, Draco barely sipping from his glass, and refilling Colin's glass twice. Talk eventually turned to more serious subjects once Draco steered it that way. He could sense that Colin was getting drunk and that it was time to make his play.
"So Colin, what exactly did you feel today?" Draco asked.
"Live wires and electricity. What about you?"
"About the same. It was pretty strong, wasn't it?"
"It was nearly mind blowing. It was so intense," Colin thought, but not quite right.
"It was. I lost my breath for a few seconds." Draco was scooting closer, moving in to close the deal. "So, my young Gryffindor, my young, beautiful Gryffindor, do you want to do it again?"
Colin's expression went completely blank for a moment, leaving Draco hanging on every breath. "Yes, Draco, I do, with all my heart," he said taking a deep breath.
Draco nearly jumped off the couch in his excitement, his mind screaming "yes!!!" and his heart racing skyward.
"But I can't," he finished. Draco's heart crashed back to earth in a pile of ash.
"Excuse me?" Draco asked, completely stunned.
"Draco, I just can't. It's just not right. No matter what, Harry still owns my heart and I can't change that. Harry and I have love, passion, and caring. What you and I had was simply lust, nothing more.
"Oh hell no," Draco thought. He couldn't lose. "Even if you never feel the same way ever, ever again? You'd forgo everything else?"
"Yes," was all Colin replied.
"You lie," Draco snapped.
"No I don't. The lust would replace the love for a time, then it would begin to poison me, eat me away. I can't do that, not to myself, not to Harry."
Draco was speechless. Not a witty remark, not a mean thought, nothing at all crossed his mind. He looked in utter disbelief. He felt like someone who'd bet on the Rams in the Superbowl, only to see New England kick a last second field goal and steal away a victory. His mind was still wide empty when the common room door burst open.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Back in Gryffindor Tower ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hermione was studying the Marauder's map on Harry's bed as Dennis and Ron came to join her.
"Hermione, what is that?" Dennis asked her.
"You have to promise to keep it an utter secret first, alright?"
"Sure, I promise," he squealed. It seemed like mischief, so Dennis was in.
"Well," Ron said, "it's a magical map that shows every single being in Hogwarts, living or dead."
"Everyone? Even Dumbledore?"
"Yes, everyone," Hermione answered.
"That's crazy! Where'd it come from?"
"My brothers gave it to Harry two years ago when he couldn't go to Hogsmeade legally.
"That's bloody awesome!" Dennis traced his finger along the path that the dot labeled Harry Potter was taking. The dot made its way to the dungeons and raced past the Slytherin door and then turned back around and stopped.
"Well, here we go, all or nothing," Ron said. Hermione and Dennis nodded in agreement. Ron's feelings were very twisted at this point. He desperately wanted Harry to be happy even if it wasn't with him, but at the same time he was *extremely* jealous of Colin. The dot entered the Slytherin room with Draco's and Colin's dot. Ron took a deep breath and waited. Dennis and Hermione were talking back and forth rapidly, but he was focused only on the three dots, ignoring all else.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Back to Harry and the Slytherin Door ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry flew to the dungeons as fast as he possibly could. He was going so fast that he ran right by the entrance and barely noticed. It had been a while since he'd been down this way, but he recognized his error and reversed course.
"Oh great. What's the password?" he said aloud.
"Sure, as if I'll tell the likes of you," the knight in the picture answered.
"Oh sod off and let me think." he paced back and forth for a moment. "If I were a Slytherin, what would my password be? Of course!!"
"Gryffindors Suck!" he exclaimed. The door swung open.
Harry charged in and saw Draco and Colin sitting very close together on a couch with glasses of something in their hands. "I'm too late," he thought. He looked between the two of them for a handful of very heavy seconds, then his emotions spilled out.
"Colin, I'm so sorry for what happened earlier today. I never meant to hurt you in any way. I just got caught up in the moment." Harry was crying freely now, and his stone was throwing heat like a furnace. Colin looked as if he were about to speak, but Harry waved him silent. "Please, hear me out. Whatever your choice is, hear me out," he begged. The other two looked at him in silence.
"Colin, I don't even know where to begin. Ever since I was at your house this summer, I felt as if I'd found something that was missing. I didn't know what it was at first, but it was you. You completed me. I've never been this happy with anyone before." he saw a question in Colin's mind before it was even fully formed. "You and Ron are both dearly important to me, but in different ways. I'd trust Ron with my life any day of the week. But you, Colin, I'd trust with my heart forever." he looked for any sign in Colin's face but saw nothing. He continued on.
"I've heard that love is when you look into someone's eyes and the rest of the world disappears. (see A/N at end) That is the way I feel with you. I look into your eyes and can hardly tear myself away. I see you smile and I get a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach. You laugh and I don't know how I was ever without you. You touch me and I melt." he paused and took a breath. "I'd cross the highest mountains, swim the deepest ocean, all to see you again. Just to hold you one more time I'd give anything, everything." he looked Colin in the eyes and felt the most wonderful feelings in the world. Colin looked away to Draco and Harry mistook the look he saw there.
"Colin," Harry implored, seeming to lose hope, "I love you now and I always will. You'll always have my heart, no matter what happens. I just want you to know that. As long as you're happy, I'll be happy." he turned to leave, certain that Colin was staying with Draco.
Harry had taken no more than a half dozen steps when a pair of arms encircled his waist and a head buried itself in his side. "I love you Harry," Colin said, his voice muffled by Harry's robes. "I always will." Harry stopped in mid step and hugged him back in an unbreakable embrace. He kissed the top of Colin's head and looked over to Draco.
Draco looked absolutely broken. He was wiping a few tears of his own away; real ones, not crocodile tears. "Good show, Potter. Take him. You deserve him." Draco's voice broke while telling Harry he deserved Colin. He started walking back toward the dorms when he turned back to the two who had just started making their way out.
"Potter, one more thing. Before you arrived, he chose you. Not me. You. I just thought you should know." Draco could barely get the words out. He turned back around and began slowly walking to his room.
Harry stood for a moment, contemplating what had just occurred. He kissed Colin's crown again and they left the dungeons with arms around waists.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In Gryffindor Tower ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It seemed like hours had passed since Harry had stepped into the Slytherin common room. When the three dots were all together, all of Hermione's and Dennis' chatter stopped. Not a sound could be heard, except for heartbeats. They watched. They waited. When the dots labeled Harry and Colin merged, they erupted in cheers. Well, two cheered a lot louder than the other. I'll let you guess who on that one. Hermione and Dennis danced while Ron leaned against the bed and ran a hand back through his hair.
So, how'd you like my first stab at real romance? I tried to make it as gripping as possible, but as much as I love to read romance, I can't write it. All in all, this is by far my favorite and I think well written chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, too.
The A/N for Harry's line--that came from a wonderful story by Hikari no Tenshi called 'Harry Potter and the Bard's Song.' it is said by Seamus to Dean and I just love it. Give that story a read. You'll love it, I guarantee it.
One more thing before I sign off for now. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my Colin. You know who you are. You complete me. I love you now and forever. Always.
Thank you,
energy
Ron searched for almost five minutes before he came across Hermione. She was still searching for Harry and had just finished talking to a bunch of Gryffindor first years and got negative replies when Ron found her.
"Hermione, you have to come, to the common room. Harry's there." Ron was a bit out of breath after his high speed jaunt through the halls.
"Does that not figure, we leave the common room and that's where he ends up. Come on, let's go." The two of them retraced Ron's steps and found their way back. Just before they entered, Hermione pulled Ron aside.
"Does he know, Ron? About Malfoy?"
"Yes, he already knows. Malfoy told Harry himself."
"That bastard. That heartless bastard. This is a new low, even for a Slytherin. Of all the things to mess with, it has to be the one thing that Harry loves most. Damn him." She opened the door and stepped through, leaving Ron to follow behind her and absorb her last comment. He winced unknowingly.
"That used to be me, I think," he said so softly that it might have just been in his head. He stepped into the room a few paces behind Hermione.
She took in the scene; Harry in a chair sunk way down, Dennis in the neighboring chair, watching Harry like a hawk. He was trying to talk to Harry but seemed to be having little success. Hermione stormed over to him and planted both her hands on her hips and began to lay into him.
"Harry? Harry! Why are you just sitting there?"
"Huh, what are you talking about Hermione?"
"Will you wake up already?"
"What do you mean, Hermione?"
"You love him, right?"
"Who, Colin?"
"No, the bloody Chudley Cannon mascot. Yes, Colin. You love him, right?"
"Yes. Of course I do."
"Then why in the holy hell are you just sitting in that chair while Malfoy is out there trying to do who knows what. Are you just going to sit there?"
"I don't know Hermione, maybe it would be best if I just left him alone." Hermione looked at the Boy Who Lived in utter disbelief. She glanced at Ron, he was standing about halfway between the door and the chair. Dennis was looking between her and Harry like a spectator at a tennis match.
"What?! Now see here, Harry Potter, you stop all this passive- aggressive, depressive bullshit right now." She was nearly yelling as the finished that blurb. Harry was completely shocked. A little of his daze seemed to have left him.
"I will not sit here while you feel sorry for yourself."
"Hermione-" Harry tried to speak but she didn't let him get another word out.
"I've been through, well, we *all* have been through way too much drama so far this year to let you write Colin off this bloody quick." Her face was so close to his now that she could have leaned an inch forward and licked his nose, though why she'd want to do that is beyond this author. "Are you listening to me?"
"Huh, yeah, I'm listening."
"Okay, then are you hearing me?"
"What?" uh oh, wrong thing to say he instantly realized.
"Harry, get out of that chair right now. Get out and go to him."
"I don't know where he is." Harry put his head down again and sank back into the chair. Hermione reached down and grabbed him by the front of his robes and picked him up just off his toes like he was a doll.
Whispering in his ear, she said, "Harry, you have the Marauder's Map, I suggest you use it." She set him down and straightened the front of his robes, as they were a bit rumpled for some reason.
Harry looked at her like she had a second nose for a second and smiled at her and said "Thanks." He hopped up the steps with a spring in his step again.
As he made the way to the top, Dennis finally remembered to breathe. He'd been watching in awe as Hermione bit into Harry like a rabid dog. "Hermione, what'd you say to him at the end?"
"I told him that he'd better get up or I'd get mad." yeah, she lied, but she could have told Dennis that spaghetti made a nice hairpiece and he'd believe her.
"Wow!" was all he replied. He looked to Ron and said the same to him. Ron grinned back.
Harry went into his trunk and dug out the blank piece of parchment that was the Marauder's Map from the very bottom. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said, waving his wand over the parchment. It filled with hundreds of dots, all going different directions. Where was Colin? "There's Seamus and Neville off in a secret passage doing who knows what. It's a good thing that this thing doesn't give details," he thought. Where are you? Finally he found Colin's dot and was happy for a split second until he realized that there was a second dot with Colin's and the name on it said Draco Malfoy.
They were headed away from the rest of the students, down to the dungeons instead of to the Great Hall. His heart sank. "Oh no, I'm too late!" he thought.
Hermione and Dennis were on the way up the stairs at that time, Hermione having decided that Harry was taking too long and might have backed out again. She opened the door and saw his frowning face. He seemed very likely to slip back into his former mood again.
"What is it Harry? Where's Colin?" she asked.
"He's, he's with Draco." he set the parchment aside.
"Oh no you don't," she thought. "Harry Potter, I thought we already had this talk not five minutes ago. What's changed now?"
"It's too late. He's already with him."
"Are you mad, Harry? I hope you aren't planning on sitting here while your boyfriend walks into Draco Malfoy's house."
"I hurt him badly, Hermione, and the worst thing is that I didn't even know that I did it. Don't you think that if you truly love someone, you'd know if you do something like that?"
"Harry, you screwed up. It happens. Oh well. If you truly love someone, you go and try to patch things up, put them right. That old expression about letting something go and if it comes back it's true love, well, that's all crap. Total crap. Love isn't perfect. It never has been, and it never will be." she surveyed his face, looking for a sign. "Now you go and claim what's yours, Harry."
He looked at her and it seemed that he was getting back his zest. "Hermione," he started to say, but she interrupted him again. He noticed that his stone was blazing heat again as she started to speak.
"Harry, not another word. Go." Harry looked like Harry of old again. He hopped off his bed and gave her a big hug.
"Oh my, he's hot, it's like hugging a furnace," she thought. "You're so hot, Harry," she told him.
"Thanks, Hermione, but I'm taken." He grinned at her and said "I'll tell you about it later. He bounded out the door, stopping to ruffle Dennis' hair and then nearly bowl Ron over as he entered the room.
His stone was glowing again, he could really feel it, warmer than ever before. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his face as he headed through the corridors to the dungeons.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Now to Draco ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Feelings? Whatever. He is just a game piece, a toy. You don't have feelings for a toy," Draco thought to himself as he made his way from the Divination tower. "Really?" a voice called from somewhere very deep inside him. He shook his head and tried to dismiss the voice. He could not do so completely.
In an effort to outrace the voice, he plunged headlong down the hallways and looked a bit like Hermes. He ran blindly and leapt down nearly an entire flight of steps. Okay, he didn't plan on doing it, but it still looked good. He was going so fast that his foot missed the second step and he simply jumped instead of falling down fourteen stone steps. He had hang time a la Michael Jordan. He barely landed on his feet and narrowly missed landing on a young Hufflepuff. "Sorry," he said quickly. She watched him fly to the front doors, not sure if she was impressed or irritated.
He covered the distance to Hagrid's cabin in under a minute, not bad for a boy who's idea of exercise was having Crabbe and Goyle beat on someone.
"If that old bat was lying to me," he thought. "What'll you do? Tell your father you were looking for a boy because you love him?" that voice spoke up again. "Will you please shut the hell up?" he said aloud. He rounded the cabin and saw Colin perched on the roof of some horrible creature's pen. He skidded to a stop in front of the pen, pin wheeling his arms for balance in the wet grass. He lost his balance and plunged into a nice pile of muddy liquid near the pen face first.
"Oh, that had better be water," he fumed out loud. A few scraping sounds came from the roof, followed by Colin's face appearing over the edge a few seconds later.
"Draco? Is that you? Are you alright? What are you doing here?"
"I was hoping," Draco said, pulling himself to his knees and wiping the back of a hand across his eyes, "that we could talk." Draco surveyed the mud on his robes and found it to be quite extensive.
"Draco, I don't know if there is anything to talk about."
"Colin, I'm sorry if I came on a bit strong earlier. I don't know what happened. I was just going to talk to you, and well, you know what happened instead." Draco was damned if he was going to give up that easily, especially now that he was covered in mud. "And since you care," that voice added again. Colin looked at him with his big eyes and silently told Draco to go on.
"First off, I want to apologize for doing that earlier. I pushed myself on you and I had no right to do so. I'm sorry."
"Well, it was hardly non-consensual, Draco," Colin said.
"SCORE!!" Draco's mind yelled.
"Yeah, that might be, but I still pressed you into it. I'm sorry. So can we talk about things, slower this time?"
"I don't know. It just felt wrong."
"Well then, allow me this. Tell me that you felt nothing, nothing at all, and I'll walk away and never bother you again. Can you do that, Colin?"
Draco watched as Colin's gears turned on that one. He was obviously searching his feelings hard. "No, I can't tell you that, Draco. I did feel something."
"Well then, will you hear me out and talk for a while? You owe me that, my young Gryffindor." Draco had just put all his cards on the table and called.
Colin was torn to the core. On one hand, he desperately wanted to go with Draco, but on the other, he still had Harry in his heart. He certainly did feel something earlier, raw power, not soft love like with Harry. Both were very different, but both were very intoxicating. "Okay, we can talk," he finally decided.
"Goooooooaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!" Draco's mind yelled like a Mexican soccer announcer. The dinner bell was ringing somewhere behind them, adding to the din in Draco's mind. Right now, dinner was the last thing in either boy's mind. "Good," he smiled. "Can we do it somewhere else, like maybe somewhere I could change out of these nasty clothes?"
Colin climbed down from the roof and got a little unnecessary but nice help from Draco. "Sure. Lead the way."
As they were walking off, Draco said, "Colin, please tell me that this is watery mud and not anything else."
"No, it's not."
"I didn't think so."
"Do you want to know what it is then?"
"No, definitely not." They walked up to the castle doors and waded upstream against the current of hungry students.
Draco recited the password "Gryffindors Suck" and the door opened. Colin looked a bit upset but decided to not mention it now.
(A/N: I think that in every fic I've ever read the password to Slytherin's common room is 'Gryffindors Suck'. I can't break tradition, can I?)
Draco held the door open as Colin went in first. The Slytherin common room was everything that the Gryffindors wasn't. Colin's seemed warm and homey, while this seemed almost Spartan. The chairs looked uncomfortable to even be near, much less sit on. Everything was polished stone- the floors, the walls, ceiling. All black, of course. A large mirror adorned one wall, in front of it was a table with an assortment of bottles and glasses and mugs.
Draco evidently caught Colin's stares and commented, "Sorry it isn't as nice as yours and all, my young Gryffindor, but it really isn't quite as bad as it looks." Colin looked around again, trying to believe Draco but failing in that endeavor.
"If you say so, Draco, if you say so." he stepped over to a chair and pushed on the padding. To his surprise it yielded a bit more than he expected. "Okay, maybe you're right."
Draco smiled warmly at him and spoke again, "I'll tell you what, I strongly need to take a shower and wash off whatever filth I fell into, so while I do that, you can relax and make yourself comfortable."
"Alright. You do stink more than a little, you know."
"Alas, I thought that was you, Colin," Draco said laughing with him. "Help yourself to any of the beverages on the table by the mirror. Do be careful, though. Some of them are a little stronger than the pumpkin juice that you might be used to, if you know what I mean."
"Gotcha, now go get that shower, Draco." Draco walked around the corner, already starting to take off his filthy robes. Colin took a few more glances around the room and walked over to the marble table. There were quite a variety of bottles there, most of which he'd never seen before. "What's this one? Spiced cider? I like cider," he thought. He poured a glass and set the bottle back on the table. Sip. Gag. "Spiced with what? Gasoline?" At the same time, it was good. Warming, just a little. It seemed to take the chill off that this room possessed.
In the shower, Draco's mind was wheeling like a dervish. It was all down to this moment. All the cards were on the table. He was playing for keeps. Those and tons more clichés swam through his already clouded mind. "You don't want to lose on more levels than you'll admit, you know," that pesky voice that spoke earlier added again. "You're right, I don't want to lose. I won't lose. I won't lose to Potter," he told the shower stall. "You don't want to lose *him* to Potter most of all, do you?" the voice asked again. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said as he shut the water off. He stepped out and grabbed a towel and dried vigorously, perhaps trying to shake that pesky voice out of his head. He wrapped the towel around him and made his way up to his dorm room. He pulled on a pair of black jeans and grabbed a shirt off the rack. He started to pull it on, but smiled a half grin and didn't do so just yet. Instead he waited until he was stepping into the common room before slipping it on, giving Colin a glimpse of Draco's small but nicely shaped midsection.
"Wow! Nice," Colin thought to himself and very nearly voiced to Draco. His glass was now nearly empty and he felt a little light-headed.
Draco glanced to the table and noticed the bottle of cider that was out of place. "Oh, yeah, this is getting easier by the minute," he thought to himself. He picked up the bottle and another glass and walked over to where Colin was still standing. "You can sit, you know. They don't bite, well, except for the one over there." he pointed to a chair in the corner. "One of the seventh years hexed it. We've not bothered to un- hex it though."
"Oh, sure," Colin said, sounding if sitting was the best idea on the planet. Draco poured himself a glass of the cider and offered more to Colin.
"I bet you don't have things like this in Gryffindor tower, do you?"
"No, we don't. too bad though, I like it."
"Me too. It's good stuff, huh?" The two of them exchanged idle banter for a good ten minutes, Draco barely sipping from his glass, and refilling Colin's glass twice. Talk eventually turned to more serious subjects once Draco steered it that way. He could sense that Colin was getting drunk and that it was time to make his play.
"So Colin, what exactly did you feel today?" Draco asked.
"Live wires and electricity. What about you?"
"About the same. It was pretty strong, wasn't it?"
"It was nearly mind blowing. It was so intense," Colin thought, but not quite right.
"It was. I lost my breath for a few seconds." Draco was scooting closer, moving in to close the deal. "So, my young Gryffindor, my young, beautiful Gryffindor, do you want to do it again?"
Colin's expression went completely blank for a moment, leaving Draco hanging on every breath. "Yes, Draco, I do, with all my heart," he said taking a deep breath.
Draco nearly jumped off the couch in his excitement, his mind screaming "yes!!!" and his heart racing skyward.
"But I can't," he finished. Draco's heart crashed back to earth in a pile of ash.
"Excuse me?" Draco asked, completely stunned.
"Draco, I just can't. It's just not right. No matter what, Harry still owns my heart and I can't change that. Harry and I have love, passion, and caring. What you and I had was simply lust, nothing more.
"Oh hell no," Draco thought. He couldn't lose. "Even if you never feel the same way ever, ever again? You'd forgo everything else?"
"Yes," was all Colin replied.
"You lie," Draco snapped.
"No I don't. The lust would replace the love for a time, then it would begin to poison me, eat me away. I can't do that, not to myself, not to Harry."
Draco was speechless. Not a witty remark, not a mean thought, nothing at all crossed his mind. He looked in utter disbelief. He felt like someone who'd bet on the Rams in the Superbowl, only to see New England kick a last second field goal and steal away a victory. His mind was still wide empty when the common room door burst open.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Back in Gryffindor Tower ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hermione was studying the Marauder's map on Harry's bed as Dennis and Ron came to join her.
"Hermione, what is that?" Dennis asked her.
"You have to promise to keep it an utter secret first, alright?"
"Sure, I promise," he squealed. It seemed like mischief, so Dennis was in.
"Well," Ron said, "it's a magical map that shows every single being in Hogwarts, living or dead."
"Everyone? Even Dumbledore?"
"Yes, everyone," Hermione answered.
"That's crazy! Where'd it come from?"
"My brothers gave it to Harry two years ago when he couldn't go to Hogsmeade legally.
"That's bloody awesome!" Dennis traced his finger along the path that the dot labeled Harry Potter was taking. The dot made its way to the dungeons and raced past the Slytherin door and then turned back around and stopped.
"Well, here we go, all or nothing," Ron said. Hermione and Dennis nodded in agreement. Ron's feelings were very twisted at this point. He desperately wanted Harry to be happy even if it wasn't with him, but at the same time he was *extremely* jealous of Colin. The dot entered the Slytherin room with Draco's and Colin's dot. Ron took a deep breath and waited. Dennis and Hermione were talking back and forth rapidly, but he was focused only on the three dots, ignoring all else.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Back to Harry and the Slytherin Door ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry flew to the dungeons as fast as he possibly could. He was going so fast that he ran right by the entrance and barely noticed. It had been a while since he'd been down this way, but he recognized his error and reversed course.
"Oh great. What's the password?" he said aloud.
"Sure, as if I'll tell the likes of you," the knight in the picture answered.
"Oh sod off and let me think." he paced back and forth for a moment. "If I were a Slytherin, what would my password be? Of course!!"
"Gryffindors Suck!" he exclaimed. The door swung open.
Harry charged in and saw Draco and Colin sitting very close together on a couch with glasses of something in their hands. "I'm too late," he thought. He looked between the two of them for a handful of very heavy seconds, then his emotions spilled out.
"Colin, I'm so sorry for what happened earlier today. I never meant to hurt you in any way. I just got caught up in the moment." Harry was crying freely now, and his stone was throwing heat like a furnace. Colin looked as if he were about to speak, but Harry waved him silent. "Please, hear me out. Whatever your choice is, hear me out," he begged. The other two looked at him in silence.
"Colin, I don't even know where to begin. Ever since I was at your house this summer, I felt as if I'd found something that was missing. I didn't know what it was at first, but it was you. You completed me. I've never been this happy with anyone before." he saw a question in Colin's mind before it was even fully formed. "You and Ron are both dearly important to me, but in different ways. I'd trust Ron with my life any day of the week. But you, Colin, I'd trust with my heart forever." he looked for any sign in Colin's face but saw nothing. He continued on.
"I've heard that love is when you look into someone's eyes and the rest of the world disappears. (see A/N at end) That is the way I feel with you. I look into your eyes and can hardly tear myself away. I see you smile and I get a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach. You laugh and I don't know how I was ever without you. You touch me and I melt." he paused and took a breath. "I'd cross the highest mountains, swim the deepest ocean, all to see you again. Just to hold you one more time I'd give anything, everything." he looked Colin in the eyes and felt the most wonderful feelings in the world. Colin looked away to Draco and Harry mistook the look he saw there.
"Colin," Harry implored, seeming to lose hope, "I love you now and I always will. You'll always have my heart, no matter what happens. I just want you to know that. As long as you're happy, I'll be happy." he turned to leave, certain that Colin was staying with Draco.
Harry had taken no more than a half dozen steps when a pair of arms encircled his waist and a head buried itself in his side. "I love you Harry," Colin said, his voice muffled by Harry's robes. "I always will." Harry stopped in mid step and hugged him back in an unbreakable embrace. He kissed the top of Colin's head and looked over to Draco.
Draco looked absolutely broken. He was wiping a few tears of his own away; real ones, not crocodile tears. "Good show, Potter. Take him. You deserve him." Draco's voice broke while telling Harry he deserved Colin. He started walking back toward the dorms when he turned back to the two who had just started making their way out.
"Potter, one more thing. Before you arrived, he chose you. Not me. You. I just thought you should know." Draco could barely get the words out. He turned back around and began slowly walking to his room.
Harry stood for a moment, contemplating what had just occurred. He kissed Colin's crown again and they left the dungeons with arms around waists.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In Gryffindor Tower ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It seemed like hours had passed since Harry had stepped into the Slytherin common room. When the three dots were all together, all of Hermione's and Dennis' chatter stopped. Not a sound could be heard, except for heartbeats. They watched. They waited. When the dots labeled Harry and Colin merged, they erupted in cheers. Well, two cheered a lot louder than the other. I'll let you guess who on that one. Hermione and Dennis danced while Ron leaned against the bed and ran a hand back through his hair.
So, how'd you like my first stab at real romance? I tried to make it as gripping as possible, but as much as I love to read romance, I can't write it. All in all, this is by far my favorite and I think well written chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, too.
The A/N for Harry's line--that came from a wonderful story by Hikari no Tenshi called 'Harry Potter and the Bard's Song.' it is said by Seamus to Dean and I just love it. Give that story a read. You'll love it, I guarantee it.
One more thing before I sign off for now. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my Colin. You know who you are. You complete me. I love you now and forever. Always.
Thank you,
energy