By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13 (up to "second base" explicit, beyond that implied)
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing Harry, Draco, Snape, and co. from J.K. Rowling, and I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done.
Warning: This will be a slash story (Harry/Draco) eventually, though romantically-slashy, rather than erotically-slashy. Hence the PG-13 rating.
In honor of Plumeria's birthday, I give you the first occurrence of Harry with butterflies in his stomach over Draco (he also gets goosebumps, but that's due to something entirely different), *plus* an extra bonus innuendo from Ron ::vbeg::
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Harry ran. He ran as if his life depended on it. He ran until his lungs hurt.
Finally, he collapsed, panting, against the wall in the corridor outside the Great Hall. His head was spinning with the implications of the conversation he overheard between Snape and Draco. I've got to get out of here. He headed out the front door of the castle and across the grounds towards Hagrid's hut, where Hagrid was just walking out the front door.
"Hi, Hagrid!" He called to his friend.
"Good morning, Harry!" Hagrid responded. "Here to see if you can get an advance peek at this afternoon's lesson?"
Truthfully, Harry had completely forgotten that Hagrid had promised a "mystery tour" of sorts for this year's Care of Magical Creatures class, but thought this might be a good diversion from the troubling thoughts that were plaguing him. "Sure. What've you got coming up?"
"Oh, no you don't." Hagrid smiled. "You'll just have to wait and be surprised with everyone else." His eyes twinkled.
Hagrid went on about his duties. First, he and Harry fed the giant squid, then they walked the perimeter of the lake to find any dead fish that washed up on shore, which Hagrid and Harry then threw to the ewer-plants that bounded the rose garden. Harry had developed a pretty good aim over the years, and could get a carp in on the first try over ninety percent of the time.
"So," Hagrid said as they washed the fish scales from their hands. "What brings you out to see me?"
"Just wanted to spend some time with a friend." Harry responded, but Hagrid's question brought all of Harry's concerns crashing down around him again.
The half-giant smiled gently and said, "Harry, this is Hagrid you're talking to. I've known you for six years, and one thing I know is that when you're worried about something, it's written all over your face. So what is it?"
"Have you heard any . . . rumors about Draco Malfoy?"
"Rumors? What kind of rumors?"
"About what he was up to that kept him from coming back from term break on the Hogwarts Express with the rest of us."
Hagrid's eyes narrowed. "Whatt'er you gettin' at, Harry?"
Harry sighed. "I'm not sure. But I had a dream about Draco . . . And when I woke up, my scar was hurting."
The half-giant sat down heavily on the stone balustrade that lined one of the walkways. "What kinda dream?"
"It was just like something that happened between me and Malfoy at the end of sixth year, only . . . it ended with Malfoy walking towards Voldemort, instead of into the hallway."
"And then your scar hurt?"
Harry nodded. "Yes. And then something happened today." He paused. "I overheard Snape and Malfoy talking."
"Overheard?" Hagrid asked with humor.
"Well, all right, I was eavesdropping. But that doesn't change what I heard."
"What did you hear?"
"Snape congratulated Malfoy on his eighteenth birthday, then he said something about the significance of his own eighteenth birthday. And then he asked to see Malfoy's arm."
"His arm?" Hagrid ran his hand over his chin consideringly. "I could think of any number of things that could mean, you know, Harry. But now I've got a question for you. Why do you care?"
"Don't you think I should care that he might be up to something, particularly with the number of Dark wizards I've upset in the past few years?"
"Of course you should care about that. Let's put it this way. Would you be surprised if he was actually doing something evil?"
Truthfully, Harry wasn't certain. He knew that Draco certainly talked big, but as for whether he'd actually *do* anything . . ."I'm not sure. I guess not. Maybe."
"How about this. Do you trust him?"
Harry snorted. "Not bloody likely."
"So even if he was going to do something evil, he wouldn't be able to get at you when your guard's down and be able to hurt you, could he?"
"I guess not."
"Well then, I'm gonna ask you again. Why do you care?"
"I don't know." Harry finally sighed.
By then it was time for lunch, and so Harry and Hagrid walked up to the castle, but parted ways at the Great Hall, where Hagrid went to eat with the faculty and Harry headed for the Gryffindor table.
"Hey, Harry. Trying to get the inside scoop on what we're doing in Care of Magical Creatures today?" Ron greeted him when he saw Harry part ways with Hagrid.
Harry laughed. "No. And even if I was, Hagrid's not telling." He decided to discuss his concerns with his two best friends. "I've had something on my mind lately."
Ron asked, "What?" and Hermione leaned forward to hear Harry's answer.
Harry sighed. "I need your help. Can either of you think of any way to get a look under Draco's sleeve?"
"Under his sleeve?" Hermione asked.
"You wanna get into Draco's robes?" Ron teased.
Harry sighed impatiently. "I need to see if there's any. . . markings on his left forearm. I eavesdropped on Snape asking to see his arm. And all I can think of is that it could mean bad things for me. I just have to know for certain."
Hermione shook her head. "I guess we could come up with something. A gravity-reduction charm to make his sleeve float upward?"
"Pity weather-working's been banned. A good stiff wind . . ." Ron's voice faded, leaving Harry to wonder if he was thinking of a gentle breeze blowing Draco's sleeve up, or fantasizing about knocking the Slytherin over with a gale-force wind.
"Maybe," Hermione grinned, "you could just bump into him and knock him over, and pull his sleeve up as he falls."
Ron looked his girlfriend up and down with approval. "I like the way you think, lady." He kissed her.
Harry sighed. Figured they'd come up with a plan like that. But then, he had to admit, sometimes the direct approach was the best way.
Soon afterward, Neville and Ginny arrived, and Neville was positively beaming.
"Herbology went well?" Hermione asked.
Neville nodded. "Sprout asked about the uses of poplar trees, and not even any of the Ravenclaws knew that they were once used for flying potions, back before flying potions were banned." He grinned.
"She really seemed to miss you on Tuesday," Hermione informed him. "You always used to know the answers when no-one else did. I'll bet she's glad she didn't lose you completely."
After lunch, the seventh-year Gryffindors walked outside for their Care of Magical Creatures class. All of the students were abuzz with anticipation, wondering what Hagrid had planned for them.
At least, all of them besides Harry were. He was too concerned with trying to figure out how to nonchalantly bump into Draco. Or should I go ahead and make it look intentional? Might be fun to play the same, 'Oops, did I do that?' game that Draco and his buddies play with me. Harry glanced over at Draco, his mouth dry, his palms moist, and his stomach tied in knots. Amazing how your mouth gets dry just as your palms start to sweat. I wonder if we have auxiliary salivary glands on our palms that kick in when we're nervous. He realized he was babbling. Well, might as well get it over with.
He took his first step toward his nemesis, but was halted in his tracks by a looming shadow and the sound of huge wings overhead. He looked up, and saw the sun blotted out by the . . . largest . . . dragon he had ever seen.
Now, it's easy to say that *any* dragon is the largest dragon you've ever seen when you live in England, where they've been outlawed for generations, but Harry had, in fact seen five dragons in his first six years at Hogwarts - the first had been Norbert, a hatchling that Hagrid had been raising during Harry's first year. Then, during Harry's fourth year, he'd been the unexpected fourth competitor in the Triwizard Tournament. The first task of the tournament had been to get an egg away from a dragon, and Hagrid had shown him all four dragons, not just the one he had competed against. And those dragons had been big, but this dragon. Was. Enormous.
It was difficult to make out any details, backlit as the dragon was by the early-afternoon sun, but when it came for a landing, all of the Gryffindors, and most of the Slytherins, gave a gasp of pure awe.
The dragon was the purest, blackest, black. At first, Harry thought it was a Hungarian Horntail again, but Hermione was the first to recognize the dragon for what it, or rather, he, was. "It's Norbert!" She whispered to her friends.
"What's a Norbert?" Neville asked.
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked guiltily at him. "He's a dragon we knew in first year. Hagrid . . . found the egg, and after he'd hatched, we helped him get in touch with Charlie so we could get him safely out of the country."
Neville gave the other three Gryffindors his usual there was a *lot* going on that I didn't know about look and simply said, "Oh."
Hagrid was beaming as Charlie Weasley climbed down from the saddle that had been slung over Norbert's back.
"Charlie!" He said as he hugged the former Hogwarts student, who had made a career working with dragons in Romania, "So glad you could make it!"
Charlie grinned at Hagrid, then turned to address the assembled students. "Hi. I'm Charlie Weasley, and this, if I needed to tell anyone, is a dragon." He swept his arm upwards towards Norbert.
"His name is Norbert," 'See?' Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry, "and his breed is the Norwegian Ridgeback. Now, normally the Norwegian Ridgeback is not used to carry passengers because of the *ridge* on his *back,* but we had a special saddle made so that I could bring him here to visit you.
"Truthfully, we don't normally keep Norwegian Ridgebacks at our facility in Romania, since they are normally *extremely* aggressive. Norbert, however is rather special. You see, he was hand-raised by humans."
The sounds of amazement going through the assembled students raised goosebumps on Harry's skin. He shared a secret smile at his friends, who knew the 'humans' who had raised Norbert.
"And having been hand-raised by humans, Norbert is one of the most human-socialized dragons we've ever had at our facility.
"Now, if you'll all come forward, one at a time, I'll show you how to touch a dragon properly, and then we can spend some time talking about their care, feeding and habits. Some of my co-workers will be bringing some less-sociable dragons on Friday, as well, so you can see how the behavior differs between socialized and feral dragons."
The Gryffindors and most of the Slytherins soon lined up for the chance, but Harry noticed that Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Draco held back. "What's the matter?" He called out to the quartet. "Afraid of the dragon?"
"I'll show you who's afraid." Crabbe said as he advanced on Harry.
"Crabbe. Don't." Draco's simple order stopped Crabbe in his tracks.
Harry blinked twice. That was odd. Crabbe usually puts up some sort of argument. Crabbe's, Goyle's and Malfoy's fathers were followers of Voldemort. Perhaps Draco's become one as well. They'd be especially obedient then, wouldn't they?
"Yep. You're afraid." Harry baited the four Slytherins flapping his arms and making a chicken noise.
Harry's voice carried beautifully, because once they realized that Harry and Draco were about to face off, the rest of their class had gone utterly silent, waiting for Draco's response.
"Fine. You think we're afraid? We'll show you. Show 'em." And that simply, the other three got obediently into line to touch the dragon. Harry noticed that left Draco alone. Completely unprotected.
His heart beating a mile a minute, Harry stepped out of line, and advanced, as calmly as he could, on Draco. Draco didn't notice; his attention was entirely focused on Norbert, as if he expected the Norwegian Ridgeback to explode, or scoop him up in one taloned claw and eat him.
Harry knew then what his best chance was if he could wait until Norbert made a noise or sudden movement, knocking Draco over would be easy. He sidled over to Draco and waited.
He didn't need to wait long, though, for one of the Gryffindors accidentally hit a ticklish spot, and Norbert threw his head back in a tremendous yell.
Draco flinched, and Harry reached out and gently nudged him. Draco lost his balance easily, and as he fell, he looked up at Harry, terror in the depths of his silver eyes.
And when he saw that profound fear in Draco's eyes, Harry could no more have grabbed his sleeve than he could have kicked him. Instead, he did what came naturally. He held out a hand. "Here, let me help you up."
The fear in his eyes faded, to be replaced by anger, while Draco's face flushed in humiliation. "I don't need your help." Draco snarled, shoving Harry's hand away roughly.
This time it was Harry's turn to blush, when he looked up from Draco and saw every seventh year Slytherin and Gryffindor watching them. It's like we're some kind of spectacle or something. He thought.
Once he saw that Draco was standing, Harry, face still burning, walked back towards Ron, Hermione and Neville for the rest of the class.
Word that there was a dragon on campus -- a socialized one that people could actually touch! - had spread like wildfire on campus. Every student on campus came by "for a few minutes before class." But soon it became obvious that, with every student on campus outside, they weren't going to be having a second afternoon period on that particular Wednesday.