The Fine Art of Falling
Chapter 3: Secrets known and kept
Harry was dreading the next time he saw Draco. He felt like now he had admitted his attraction, it would be obvious to everyone else, as if there was some visable sign saying 'I'm attracted to Draco Malfoy' on his back.
Ben was no help, he kept dropping hints, and teasing Harry whenever they were alone about Draco. "I think you and he would make a really nice couple" he said once, almost causing Harry to hit him. The stern looks Harry kept shooting Ben to stop him saying anything gained him some puzled looks of his own from Ron.
Unfortunately for Harry, Draco walked past them after dinner, and couldn't resist the chance to say something nasty. He was about to say something, when Ben butted in.
"Do you fancy Harry, Draco?"
"What?" Harry couldn't believe it. Draco actually blushed, and quickly walked away, not even denying it. Harry instinctually looked around, but most people had already gone, and only Ron and Hermione had heard what Ben had said.
"What was all that about?" asked Ron, and it was Harry's turn to blush. He shot a furious look in Ben's direction, who responded with raised eyebrows, and an I-told-you-so grin.
"We'll tell you when we get back to the common room said Ben, as Harry was too flustered to talk. "We'd better find somewhere where no-one can overhear us, though, I don't think Harry would be very pleased if they did."
When they got back to the common room it was mostly empty, so they went to the corner, and Ben told them in low voices about Harry's crush on Draco. Harry refused to say anything, but when he realised his friends weren't condemning him, they were just surprised, he relaxed, and admitted that yes, he did feel something for Draco.
"I told Harry that I thought Draco felt the same way about him" said Ben. "That's why I said what I did this evening. I wanted to prove my suspicion right. I think it worked, don't you?"
"I don't know, he could just have been confused" said Hermione, "why do you feel that way about Draco Malfoy anyway, Harry? When has he ever even been nice to you?"
"He hasn't, Herm, I really don't know why I feel like this either. I can't explain it, it just happened. Believe me, I wish it was anyone else."
"Well, it's not like we can do anything about it. You fall for who you fall for, and that's it." said Ben, philosophically. "We might as well help Harry out."
Hermione reluctantly agreed, and Ron didn't say anything, because he didn't want to loose Harry's frindship over this although he really couldn't understand it. He hated Draco Malfoy, and didn't see how anyone could feel anything different. He trusted Harry, though, so he decided to think it over later. They all decided that there was nothing that they could do about any of it then, and that they might as well sleep on it, and see what ideas the morning brought.
What they didn't know was that Draco would beat them to it.
**
After breakfast the next morning they were all in a hurry to get to their lessons. Ron and Harry were going to Divination, and they knew from experience how long it took to get to the classroom, so they thought they'd start early. That meant they hadn't had time to have another meeting as to what they were going to do, but thoughts of Draco's face the day before were taking up Harry's mind, and he didn't realise that he had fallen behind Ron and the others, and he was alone in the coridoor.
Draco Malfoy, however, did realise that Harry was alone, or almost alone except for him. He decided that this would be the best time to confront Harry about what Ben had said the day before, when neither of them had their friends around to embarrass them, or to be embarrassed in front of.
Draco strode up to Harry, and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him around. "What on earth was your friend talking about yesterday, Potter?"
"You seemed to understand it very well then, Draco, and I didn't see you complaining at the time."
"Yes, well, maybe I was just too shocked about the thought of ever fancying you, Potter."
Harry had had enough. He didn't want to argue this one "Yes, well, maybe you were, or maybe you do have a secret crush on me, we'll probably never know, because you don't seem to be able to tell the truth if you life depends on it. You know what? If you weren't so bloody attractive, I would have given up bothering to even hate you years ago. You don't even seem to be able to tell yourself the truth."
"You want to know the truth? The truth is that yes, I do fancy you, Harry Potter, but I know I could never be good enough for the Boy who Lived, so I didn't even bother trying to tell you. Like you said, you hate me anyway, so it'd just give you more amuntion. Well, there you have it. Happy now?"
Harry stood looking at him in shock. It was a few minutes before he collected his scattered thoughts enough to say, "Yes, Draco, I am happy. And no, I don't hate you. If you must know, I feel the same way about you."
Draco stared at him for a long hile, then his lips curved into his familiar smirk. "We are idiots, aren't we."
Harry couldn't help but reply with a smile of his own "Yes, we are." then he was called suddenly back to where they were "Oh no, I'm going to be late for class. I hate to call attention to myself in Divination, I get enough predictions of doom already. Look, Draco, I'm sorry about this, but we've really got to talk about it. Do you want to meet by the Quiddich pitches this evening?"
"Sure. I expect I'll be able to get away after dinner. I'll see you then."
"Yeah, see you. Thanks Draco."
"No problem." They walked away, both pausing to look back, and catching each other doing the same. Harry gave Draco a nod, and then turned his back for a final time, and headed determinedly off to his classroom. Draco shook his head amazedly, and then did the same.
**
Ron caught Harry's grin and improved, if slightly incredulous, mood, but couldn't ask about it in case they were both caught by one of Professor Trelawny's more alret moods. By the time the class had ended (and Harry's death had been predicted three times, once by fire and twice by drowning) Ron was desperate to know what had happened. Harry wouldn't tell him after class either because of all the people around them. He was finding it quite nice to have a secret to keep, and he wanted to keep Draco's words to himself for a while.
Their Defense Against the Dark Arts class this year was exciting as usual, and Ron was too distracted by the class to think about it too much. Stll, Harry found it hard to drag his thoughts into the lesson, they kept being distracted by images of Draco, or niggling doubts. What if Harry was lying to him, just to set him up for some sort of humiliation later on? It wouldn't be unlike the Draco he knew to do that. Then again, he had seemed sincere.
Ron had to elbow Harry in the stomach to bring him back to the class, and luckily he did so just before their homework was set, so Harry had some idea what it was. He had missed most of the lesson, though, so he'd have to get Ron to tell him about what they had done. He needed to sort this out first, though, otherwise he wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else.
"OK, Harry, you have to tell me what's going on. You were so out of it that lesson that I even saw Malfoy staring at you. You know, Ben might be right about that, he looked a bit worried. He might have just been thinking up some more insulting things to say. So, what's up?"
"I'll tell you after lunch when the others are here" said Harry, sighing to think of the rest of the day that he had ahead of him. He reall couldn't be bothered with school this morning. He didn't think Madam Pomfrey would believe that he wasn't feeling well, so he supposed that he'd have to go to lessons.
That was the bad thing about school. Not that there were, as Ron could tell you, too many good things about school, but having to go to lesson when you didn't feel like it was one of the worst things. Harry usually didn't mind lessons. He just saw them as a kind of payment for being in this place which was heaven compared to the Dursleys'. Even being in Potions was better than being there. Well, most of the time.
Today, though, lessons seemed to be dragging on longer than usual. The clock had slowed down, or decided to put twice as many seconds in every minute it seemed, because things were going so slowly.
The thought of Draco sitting in lesson with him was a form of torture that had to be illegal in most Europen countries. He wanted to look at him, to stare at him and try and see what he was thinking, whether he meant it, whether he was staring back. He couldn't of course, because the teachers would notice, and worse than that, everyone else would notice and ask him about it. He couldn't have thought up a good excuse for staring at Draco Malfoy even if his brain hadn't been turned to mush by recent events.
Lunch that day was as nice as usual, but none of them were inclined to linger over it, because they realised that something had happened from Harry and Ron's manners. Ron was looking impatient and glancing often at Harry, wheras Harry himself was staring off into space with a pensive look on his face. Ben tried without success to break him out of his mood, but he wasn't any more sucessful than Ron in getting answers. "I'll tell you after lunch" was all he would say.
Hermione was sitting further down, talking to her roommates, so she wasn't involved in the conversations, short as they wetre, but that didn't stop her seeing Harry's absent look, or Ron and Ben's increasing frustration. She even declined an invitation to study in the library with Nicole, as she wanted to know what was going on as much as the others. Her curiosity was only stimulated further by the looks she saw Draco Malfoy giving Harry during lunch. Harry didn't catch many of them, but that didn't stop him spending a while staring at Draco too, looking as if he was trying to work out a problem, but the solution was evading him.