Title: Sign, Symbol, Token, Chapter 18
By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13 (up to "second base" explicit, beyond that implied)
Disclaimer: All characters in this chapter belong to J.K. Rowling
Warning: This is a slash story (Harry/Draco), though romantically-slashy, rather
than erotically-slashy. Hence the PG-13 rating.
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The next morning, Draco and Harry put their plan into action. Harry sat at the Gryffindor table, surreptitiously watching Draco talking to Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. If he was right, Draco should be telling them about his father's note right . . . . Now!
As expected Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy gasped in shock. {Draco must have just told them that he has to befriend me.}
Draco dropped his knife on the floor and leaned over to pick it up.
"Well, it's showtime." He whispered to Ginny.
"Good luck." She whispered back.
Harry stood, picking up his books and assignment for Herbology, and began to walk towards the door of the Great Hall, taking a path that went as close as possible to the Slytherin table. As if there were an "x" marked on the floor, at the pre-arranged place, Draco collided with Harry, knocking the Gryffindor over and sending his class materials scattering across the floor.
"Watch where you're going, Malfoy!" Harry snarled as he started struggling to his feet.
"Sorry, Potter." Draco said in a tone somewhere between tense and cordial.
As Harry stood, Draco picked up his Herbology textbook and handed it to him. Harry took the book with a markedly bad humor.
Harry squatted down and picked up his other materials. All of them, that is, except for his homework scroll. Harry walked away from Draco without another word.
As Harry moved on, he glanced back to make sure that Draco had retrieved Harry's homework scroll and taken it back to the Slytherin table.
He kept count of the steps of their plan as he walked out to the greenhouses. Sure enough, as he rounded the corner of the castle and could see the greenhouses in the distance, he heard Draco yelling, "Potter! Hold on a second!"
Harry sighed as he slowed to a stop. "What is it now, Malfoy?"
"You missed this when you picked up your other things." Draco said reasonably.
"And what'd you do to it?" Harry asked mistrustfully. Several Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs on their way to the greenhouses slowed to listen to their exchange.
"Nothing. Not a thing. I swear."
"Right, Malfoy. I intend to check this over as soon as I get down to the greenhouse to make sure you didn't sabotage it or blot out words or anything."
"Well, in that case," the group of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had grown larger by now, "you might want to re-check your spelling of the botanical name for the larch. It's l-a-r-i-*x*, not l-a-r-i-s."
Harry ground his teeth together. "Whatever."
"Don't ever say that I never tried to help you." Draco shrugged nonchalantly, turned and headed off to his next class.
Harry bite the inside of his mouth to keep from smirking as he walked the rest of the way to the greenhouses. Their plan had worked remarkably well. He could hear the other Herbology students speculating about their exchange.
"Did you see that? Draco Malfoy just did something to help Harry Potter."
"Guess what just happened! Harry Potter blew off Draco Malfoy!"
And so on. It was all working far better than they'd planned.
At lunch, the first thing Neville said to Harry was "I hear Malfoy's trying to make amends with you."
Feeling a little bad about doing it, Harry kept the pretense going. "He's up to something. I wouldn't trust Draco Malfoy as far as I can throw him."
"That's too bad. Madam Pomfrey tells me that when he was in hospital a couple of months back, he wasn't all that bad. Pity if you reject a true offer of friendship over things that are all in the past now."
Harry quailed at this, but one glance at Ginny gave him back his strength. "It'll be a cold day before I'll ever trust Draco Malfoy."
They met in the Astronomy Tower as usual that night, but a light snow had just begun to fall, and Draco was agitating to go outside.
"No, Draco. What part of 'secret' don't you understand?"
"Harry. It's 2:00 in the morning. There's no moon, and it's overcast besides, so no-one will see us. We all but have Dumbledore's approval to go wherever we want whenever we want. Why stay hidden on a beautiful night like this?"
"And what if we run into Filch out there? You know that Dumbledore would never tell him just to let us go. Would you be willing to risk a Filch detention *and* have our relationship revealed just to go romping in the snow?"
"Since when were *you* ever the voice of reason? Sneaking out at night to send dragon hatchlings to Romania. Wearing your invisibility cloak to go into Hogsmeade while a killer's after you."
Harry began regretting having told Draco so many of his secrets. "It was only one dragon hatchling. And Sirius wasn't after me at all. He wanted Wormtail."
"Harry, do you think that the Dark Lord's gonna send Death Eaters here on a moment's notice to kill us if we go outside or something?"
"No. Of course not -- "
"Great! Then let's go!" And without allowing Harry any argument, Draco grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him out into the snow.
It was the kind of night that would convince even the most hardened Muggle of the existence of magic. The fact that Harry and Draco were wizards, and in love, made it only that much more magical. Silently, they ran hand-in-hand, the falling snow swirling around them, until they were far away from where anyone, except possibly the real Mad-Eye Moody, could see them. Then Harry stopped Draco and pulled him in for a kiss.
Their lips massaged each other's gently at first, then with increasing intensity. Draco quickly flicked his tongue along the inner edge of Harry's lips, making the young Gryffindor moan softly in his throat, as snow collected in their eyelashes.
Finally, they broke apart. "You have snow in your hair." Draco grinned at Harry.
Harry reached up and ruffled Draco's hair, sending a spray of snow in all directions. "So did you." He grinned.
"Hello, there!" Harry heard Hagrid's booming voice.
"It's Hagrid!" Harry's eyes widened as he looked at Draco, then glanced around fruitlessly for somewhere for one, or possibly both, of them to hide.
By then, it was too late. "Harry? Malfoy?" Hagrid asked once he could focus on their faces. "I've been hearing some unusual rumors about you two."
Harry's heart leapt into his throat. "Rumors?"
"Yep. That *you*," he looked at Draco, "have been offering friendship to Harry, here, and that *you*," he looked at Harry, "have been rejecting it."
Harry briefly considered picking a fight with Draco, but reconsidered when Hagrid said, "I'm glad to see that the two of you have worked out your differences."
"What?" Harry asked, genuinely surprised.
But before Hagrid could answer, Draco said, "I guess Dumbledore's belief in second chances has rubbed off?"
Hagrid smiled. "I guess it has."
"I'll try to deserve it." Draco said sincerely.
"Just don't hurt him." Hagrid indicated Harry.
"I won't."
Hagrid directed this to Harry. "And if you're hiding your relationship because you're afraid no-one will understand . . ."
"We aren't." Harry assured him. "We're doing it because of Voldemort. Please don't say anything to anyone."
Hagrid ruffled Harry's hair. "I won't say a word. But you two'd probably better get back to your rooms." And with that, the half-giant stalked off into the forest.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that." Harry said to Draco.
"But Hagrid's right, you know."
"About what?"
"We'd better get back to the school. I think the sun's starting to come up."
They walked as close to the school as they dared, then shared one last kiss before splitting up and heading into the building separately.