In Continuation Part 3 - From Here On In

"Are you alright, Draco?" Goyle queried, staring from under dark eyebrows.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Draco countered.

"Well," Goyle continued slowly, "We heard you'd been knocked off your broom by Weasley, and that you fell," his eyes widened, "A hundred metres and landed on the ground."

"No shit, moron, I landed on the ceiling," snapped Draco, irritated.

"There's a ceiling on the Quidditch pitch?" Crabbe asked, looking amazed.

Draco stifled a growl and stomped off towards the dorms. He was stopped by Crabbe adding, "Shall we beat Weasley up?"

"No!" Draco shouted, over his shoulder. "Don't touch him!" If my goons harmed Weasley, Harry would never forgive me.

* * * * * * *

Hermione sat next to Harry on a couch in a corner of the common room. "Harry, what's happening between you and Malfoy?"

Harry said, without looking at her, "I thought you liked him."

"I do. But… you really like him."

Harry looked in bewilderment. "Like as in like how?"

"Like, like, oh… like want him in bed sort of like."

"I'll thank you to remember I've had him in bed." A pause. "And don't spread that around. People will misunderstand."

Hermione nodded solemnly. "So, there's nothing with you and Malfoy?"

"Nothing," Harry agreed flatly, wondering if Hermione had been put up to the question by Ron. A week after Draco had been knocked off his broom, and still his two best friends were creeping around as if they expected any moment to find him and Draco getting it on in a broom closet.

Ron came down and challenged Harry to Exploding Snap. (Harry won) He retired to bed, and fell asleep.

* * * * * * *

"Harry," Draco said.

Harry looked up from the books he was poring over in the library. For some reason it was deserted. Even Madam Pince had abandoned her post.

"What do you want, Malfoy? If I give it to you, will you go away?" Harry asked tiredly, rubbing his aching forehead.

Draco's eyes gleamed. "Well, for a start you can call me by my first name."

Harry looked around automatically. Draco smiled, cunningly. "There's no one here, Harry. No-one except the two of us."

"All right… Draco. What do you want?"

Draco moved so he was behind Harry, placing his hands on Harry's temples and massaging gently. "Push the seat back a little, Harry."

Without knowing why he was doing so, Harry obeyed.

"Perfect," Draco gave a wry chuckle and lowered himself onto Harry's lap. "Now kiss me."

Harry blindly reached for the silver-haired boy, pulled their faces together…

Harry jerked awake at the sound of his name. Ron stood over him, blurred because he wasn't wearing his glasses. "Get up, we've lessons," Ron wheedled.

Harry sighed, put his glasses on, and slouched towards the bathroom.

* * * * * * *

Sometime in the following week

"Potter, why are you staring at me?"

"Am I?"

Snape, in a fit of vindictiveness, had rearranged everyone's seating. Harry, Ron and Hermione were as far away from each other as was possible in the cramped dungeons, but Harry has mysteriously ended up two seats away from Draco.

"No, I said that for no reason at all because I enjoy talking to you so much," Draco snapped, lacing his words with sarcasm.

"I'm touched, but I don't…" Harry was cut off by Snape. "That will be ten points from Gryffindor, Potter."

Harry bared his teeth at Draco, who mouthed, "Not my fault you were so loud." Harry stuck his middle finger up at him.

Snape commented smoothly, "Twenty points from Gryffindor, and after class you can stay back and wash cauldrons."

Harry bit his tongue in fury. He wrote, "I am going to kill you, Malfoy" on the corner of the page of his Potions textbook, tore it out, and hurled it ferociously across the aisle.

"Another twenty points. There will be no passing of notes in my class."

Harry exploded. He stood up, slammed his bag onto the table and shouted, "I've had it! You, you, unfair, biased, you piece of…"

Draco stood up, took four quick steps to Harry's side and clamped his hand over his mouth. "You're going to get yourself expelled, Harry," he hissed into Harry's ear. "Think about it."

Harry shook him off angrily and glared at Snape, who was looking so venomous that I really have to say: Ah, if looks could kill…

Snape merely said, "Class dismissed. Potter, you stay behind."

There was an immediate scuffle as people crammed books into bags and headed for the door. Draco cast Harry a sympathetic look and left. Snape turned to Harry. "Potter…"

* * * * * * *

Draco stood in the corridor, uncertain, waiting for the last of the class to filter away into other parts of the castle. Crabbe and Goyle waited obediently. "Go," he commanded, flicking his hands for emphasis. "I need to talk to Professor Snape."

They looked at each other, shrugged, and lumbered off down the dark corridor. Draco gave them thirty seconds, then opened the door and passed back into the classroom.

* * * * * * *

Snape was bellowing, "You piece of shit, you have no respect for me or the class I teach! You delight in causing mayhem and distraction! Well, no more! For now, I am forbidding you to ever set foot in this classroom again, and tomorrow we go to see the Headmaster! If you were in my house I'd make sure…" Then, noticing his favoured pupil, changed his tone abruptly and said, "Yes, Malfoy, what do you want?"

Draco cleared his throat. "Sir I wanted to say it's not all Potter's fault because I was talking to him first and I insulted him so naturally he was angry and had to retaliate." He said all of this very fast, going pale as he did.

Snape rounded on him. "And what do you mean by that?"

Draco said defiantly, gathering his courage, "Well, I said he was a bastard orphan, and that he was a piece of scum. And he…"

"I know what he did, Master Malfoy, and that does not excuse him in the least."

"But sir…"

"You may leave, Malfoy."

"But…"

"Leave!"

Draco stood his ground. "Sir, with all due respect, you are being unfair. If you'd open your eyes, you'd see offenses are not one-sided as you'd prefer them to be."

Snape looked apopolectic. "And is that your opinion, Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"So you agree with Potter that I am a biased, slimy scum whose hair looks like it hasn't been washed in centuries?"

Too far to back out now… "Yes."

"Well." This came out in a hiss. "We will discuss this matter further at another time. Both of you may go."

* * * * * * *

"Malfoy, do you realise what you've just done?" They were walking away from the Potions dungeon, still within the corridor but feeling better the further they went.

"No. I'm still in shock. I can't believe I said all that." A pause. "And I call you Harry, why don't you call me Draco?"

Harry didn't reply to that (remembering his dream) but instead stated, "We are so screwed."

"Why?"

"Because Snape's going to Dumbledore, and try his damnedest to expel us. You heard him, 'If you were in my house…', he's tried before, and never managed to."

Draco stopped in his tracks. "Fuck!" he exclaimed, and carried on muttering it like a mantra.

"What?" asked Harry. He looked at the silver-haired boy, who was trembling. "Draco, are you all right?"

"No!" Draco almost screamed. "I'm in Slytherin, remember? Snape can expel me! And if I get kicked out of Hogwarts, I'll have nowhere to go, sure as hell I can't go home, and anywhere else Lord Fucking Voldemort will find me, and he'll kill me, or worse, and, and, he'll kill my mother, and everyone I care about, like you guys, and, and…" he broke down, shaking visibly now.

"Whoa," Harry said, also worried but trying to be soothing. "Calm down. Nothing like that's going to happen."

"Says you!"

"Chill, Mal… Draco. And listen, thanks for stopping me from saying anything in class earlier."

"Welcome." Draco said miserably, and sat down in the middle of the corridor, resting his head on his knees. "I can't believe this is happening to me. I'm going to get kicked out of school because I helped you."

"Don't say that like it's a bad thing, Draco." Said Harry reproachingly. He knelt down beside the slight, pale boy, who took no notice. "You did a brave thing," Harry added. "I admire you for that."

Draco said, "Tit for fucking tat. I wish you'd never helped me, Harry. I wish I'd died this summer."

"Don't say that!" Harry's defense was instinctive.

Draco was rocking backwards and forwards, chanting, "Oh shit. Shit. I am screwed!"

Right. Drastic measures calls for drastic times, Harry thought. Wait… wasn't it the other way around? Oh, who cares. Here goes. He shuffled forward on his knees, saying, "Actually, I don't believe that's true."

"What?" Draco moaned, lifting his head and squinting sideways at Harry in the half-light.

"I don't think you've been screwed."

It took Draco a half-second to comprehend this. "Harry, you perverted person, you know what I meant," he said, but he was half-laughing and traces of his old self were coming back.

"Well, now we're on the topic, have you ever kissed a girl?" Harry prodded, leaning sideways and tucking his knees under him. This brought him closer to Draco, who drew back slightly.

"Yeah, couple," he said uncertainly. "You know, my father takes, I mean, took, me to parties and such, and all his friends' children who were my age seemed to be girls."

Silence as Harry digested this new and unwelcome information.

"You?"

"Yeah," replied Harry, chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip. "Once, with Cho Chang, at the beginning of this year. She just dragged me into a classroom and started swallowing my face."

"And?" Draco grinned mischievously. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Too bad," said Draco, sounding genuinely disappointed on Harry's behalf, but smiling a little.

"I didn't like it."

Draco stopped smiling, which Harry thought was a pity, because he looked so young and cute when he smiled. I could just eat him up, Harry thought. He looks so delicious. He cut off the thought abruptly, realising what kind of mental images he was conjuring up.

"Why not?" teased Draco, gently. "Too fiery for you?"

Harry thought dreamily, His voice is so smooth, like velvet. How come I never noticed any of these things before? Why does it take a dim corridor, aloneness, and some sort of crisis? Or maybe it was this summer when it started. Well, probably.

"Helloooo… anyone home? I asked you a question."

He's so pale, yet his lips are so… Harry stopped that thought before it began. What's wrong with me? I can't find Malfoy attractive! Draco. Draco. His name is Draco.

"Are you alive?" Draco was craning his neck, trying to see if Harry's eyes were open. His hair fell forward over his eyes.

"Harry?"

Harry snapped back into focus. "Draco."

Draco sat up, relieved. "Fuck, I was beginning to think you'd gone into a coma or something." He sounded mildly annoyed. "Have you been listening to a word I'm saying?"

Harry paid no attention. He leaned forwards, placed one hand behind Draco's ear and the other on the back of Draco's neck, and put his lips on Draco's.

Draco tensed. He moaned deep in his throat and put both hands firmly on Harry's chest, who responded by kissing him harder. Harry received a sudden shock when Draco shoved him rudely away.

They sat back from each other, breathing hard. Draco demanded, "What the fuck are you doing, Harry?"

Harry, irritated by the rejection, said, "What did it look like?"

"Not what it fucking looked like, what it fucking was. I thought you weren't gay, Harry."

Harry licked his lips. "Now, did I ever actually say that?"

"Several times," Draco snapped.

"Maybe I changed my mind."

Draco seemed to think about this, then, "Why me?" he said plaintively.

"Why not you?"

"You don't even like me!" Draco whined.

"You're my friend," Harry explained gently, leaning forward and patting Draco gently on the hand. "What you did for me just now, it touched my heart. I know that sounds sappy. It did, really."

Draco jerked away as if Harry had burnt him. "But… no!" as Harry moved forward, be backed against the wall and wagged a finger like a kindergarten teacher admonishing a toddler. "No! Even if I am your friend, which I said I couldn't be, it's not right, you don't go around Frenching your friends, even if, especially if they're male!" His voice rose higher as he babbled.

"But you're always flirting, and I thought you were, you know…"

"I can't be gay!" Draco wailed, heading for general incoherence. "It's wrong, and unnatural, and my father said that if he ever caught me with a guy he would flay me to within an inch of my life and it's not right and this can't be happening to me!" The last came out as a shriek. Harry started forward and locked a hand over Draco's mouth, a mirror image of the scene in Potions.

"Shut up! Snape's just down the corridor!"

Draco shut up, but in the fresh silence the ominous sounds of the door opening and footsteps coming their way were even louder.

Without pausing to consider, Draco and Harry scrambled to their feet and bolted the remaining length down the aisle. The turned up the stairs and pelted in the general direction of the towers.

When they finally collapsed outside a portrait, it demanded the password crossly, in a deep male voice. Harry looked up. A haughty Duke, with neatly trimmed beard, dressed in full regalia, peered back. "Who are you?" he bellowed. "I haven't seen either of you before."

"Um," replied Harry. "We're, um, lost."

Draco was getting slowly to his feet. "Where are we?"

"Ravenclaw territory," boomed the portrait. "Give the password or beat it."

"We'll leave," said Draco smoothly. "Harry?"

The two boys, both a youthful fifteen years old, walked in silent accord back the way they came, with the eyes of the Ravenclaw Duke watching them wistfully.

==================================

Reader responses:

S. Maldiva --- Well, you're right. I'm working on it, but I'm also trying not to bring in yet another crisis too soon.

Ambrosius --- You got your wish!

Berkeley Halperin --- Thanks. I was wondering…

rachel --- Yes it was. I left out the disclaimer, didn't I. Well, [Disclaimer: Draco's empty space quote comes from Animorphs] maybe Draco reads Animorphs too! And since you're an Animorph fan, I have another fic called Year of the Nothlit. *g* shameless advertising.

Laura --- One word: Thanks.