~ Chapter Eight : The Morning After ~
Harry was lying quietly in his bed with the curtains pulled tightly around the sides. He was pretending to be asleep until the other guys left the room, apart from Draco that is. He knew it was after 9am because he had changed back. He was absentmindedly rubbing his left wrist. The mark was still there of course. It felt so strange to glance down and see it there, a big black blemish on his skin.
Eventually the other two, Justin and Seamus started moving about but they were careful to be quiet.
"Harry and Draco must have got back late, we went to bed at 1am and they weren't here then. Wonder what they were doing?" Harry heard Seamus mutter.
"They've been thick as thieves lately though, haven't they. You almost wouldn't believe that they'd ever been enemies," Justin commented lightly.
"I don't know about that, they had a hell of a blow up the other day in the common room. Weren't you here then?" Seamus replied.
"Hiya lads," Harry heard Fred enter the room, without knocking as usual.
"Hey, keep it down, Harry and Draco are still asleep," Justin hissed at him. Thanks Justin, Harry thought with a smile.
"Sorry," Fred whispered loudly before teasing them. "Hey, I've got some juicy gossip for you."
"What is it?" Seamus replied, eagerly.
"George and I were out late last night and guess who we saw skipping through Hogwarts hand in hand – Michael Abbot and Alex Bones!" Fred crowed.
"What?" Seamus and Justin yelped. Harry bit back a groan. This rumour was going to travel right through the school. Could it get any worse?
"You know, I always suspected that Michael, but Alex, I never would have guessed," Justin said thoughtfully.
"Anyway, are you guys ready? Want to go get some breakfast?" Seamus said.
"What about those two?" Fred asked.
"Ah, leave them. They got in late too," Seamus said, his voice getting fainter as they apparently left the room.
Harry sighed with relief as the bedroom door closed. He nearly jumped a mile when his curtains started opening but it was just Draco slipping into his bed beside him.
Draco smiled shyly as he slipped between the covers. "Hi. I thought you might be awake by now and thought I'd come visit you."
"Uh, hi. Did you hear what Fred just said?" Harry asked, offering Draco a small smile.
"Yeah. But there's nothing we can do about that," Draco said practically. "How are you feeling today?"
"What do you mean? I feel fine, no side effects," Harry replied, a bit baffled.
"I don't mean the potion," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "I mean, about what happened last night."
"Oh…uh…I guess I'm okay with it. I mean, I like being close to you," Harry replied, thinking that Draco must have been talking about them holding hands.
"Actually I was talking about being initiated," Draco replied, he grinned as Harry blushed. "But it's good to know how you feel about that."
Draco snuggled over closer to Harry. "So this would be okay, then?"
Harry made a face. "Don't tease me."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Draco replied, sounding terribly sorry as he snuggled closer. "Better?"
"No," Harry growled as he reached out and pulled Draco's body hard against his. "This is better."
Harry and Draco stared deeply into each other's eyes for a long moment. Then Draco licked his lips and Harry's eyes were drawn down to watch the blonde's tongue snake out over his lips. Time seemed to slow down as Harry dragged his eyes back up to meet Draco's. Their heads moved slowly closer together and finally their lips touched and deepened into a kiss that seemed to liberate both of them. Harry's arms tightened around Draco and they kissed for what seemed an eternity.
They pulled back slightly and Draco managed to extricate one of his arms to wrap around Harry.
"Last summer," Draco said lightly. "If anyone had told you that you would be lying here snogging me, would you have believed them, or would you have hexed them on the spot?"
Harry grinned. "You know I would have hexed them on the spot just the same as you would have."
Draco tried to grin back but Harry could tell it was forced.
"What? You aren't saying that you…that you had feelings for me, I mean that you have feelings for me?" Harry's voice trailed off as he tried to read Draco's expression which had suddenly become extremely guarded.
Draco extricated himself from Harry's arms and left the bed. He returned to his side of the room and started to get dressed.
"Draco?" Harry asked as he opened the curtains surrounding his bed. The blonde boy refused to talk to him.
Harry shrugged and started to get dressed too. Finally the silence became too much for him.
"Look, I'm sorry okay. No, I have never had feelings for you before. I may have thought you were cute but that's as far as it went. You have to understand that before we spent so much time together, the only things I knew about you were that you hated muggles and muggle-borns, you wanted to be a Death Eater just like your father and that you were the most arrogant little shit I'd ever met. But I can say this, you definitely got under my skin. Actually, you still do, only now it's in a good way."
Draco glanced up at Harry, a big smirk on his face.
"You bastard!" Harry exclaimed as he realised that Draco had been faking it.
Draco started laughing. "I got you good. Come on, let's go down to breakfast before we miss it."
The two of them were walking through the deserted hallways, both being careful not to raise their left arms. Not that there was any particular reason to raise their left arm as they walked down a corridor but they were going through different situations where it might be a problem, and quite a few which wouldn't but were fun to talk about.
"And remember," Harry cautioned Draco with a wicked grin. "Never, ever reach up to touch Snape's hair with your left hand, always use your right."
"Mmhmm," Draco agreed, obviously not listening to Harry's hilarious joke. He then started speaking in a very macho I-don't-want-to-admit-this-and-I'll-deny-it-publicly kind of way. "Listen, about what you said when I was pretending to ignore you earlier. Well, I just wanted you to know that I would have hexed someone too. And you've been getting under my skin too, in the good way."
Harry would have replied to this somewhat garbled speech but they had arrived at the Great Hall.
Great Hall
Harry and Draco sat down at the far end of the Slytherin table, away from the teacher's table. They helped themselves to some breakfast and were eating and chatting about the latest broomstick, the Galaxy.
Suddenly a dark shadow fell over them. Harry glanced up warily.
Ron and Hermione were bearing down on them with equally dark looks on their faces.
"Where were you?" Ron said in a low, angry tone.
"When?" Harry asked, looking confused.
"Last night," Hermione said pointedly. "We were supposed to meet in the library after dinner to study. Remember?"
Harry sighed. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I had something important to take care of."
"What could be more important than studying?" Hermione asked shrilly.
"Look, give him a break," Draco cut in.
Ron shot him a furious look. "You keep out of it. You're a bad influence. Tell me you didn't blow us off for him again Harry."
Hermione, remembering her discussion with Ginny about the golden sparks, placed her hand warningly on his arm. She didn't want Ron to insult Draco so much that Harry would feel like he would lose his best friend if he pursued a relationship with the blonde boy.
The discussion came to a grinding halt as they became aware of shrieks from the other end of the room. A man was striding down the Hall towards them and they could hear shrieks of "Oh my god, Sirius Black" from all over the hall.
Harry broke into a grin. There could only be one reason why Sirius would waltz into the Great Hall like that. He stood up and as Sirius got closer, he threw his arms around his godfather.
"You're really free?" he asked as they pulled apart.
Sirius returned his grin. "Yep. Thanks to you and Draco."
"What?" Hermione asked, her face frozen with shock.
"But I have to say, I was not impressed to hear what you had to do to get Wormtail here," Sirius continued, trying to sound stern but it didn't really work as he couldn't keep the ecstatic smile off his face.
"Sit down with us, have some breakfast," Harry said, waving Sirius into the empty seat opposite him and Draco. The rest of the crowd in the Great Hall had gone back to their meals as it became apparent that Sirius Black was no danger to anyone.
Harry glanced up at Ron and Hermione, who were still standing there staring at them. "Ron, Hermione. This is where I was last night when I was supposed to be studying with you. I'm sorry I forgot that I was supposed to meet you but I think you'll agree that this was big enough to make me forget. I'll tell you about it later."
They both nodded to him and wandered back to their own tables. They still seemed a bit dazed by the whole thing.
"So does this mean I can live with you now?" Harry asked Sirius eagerly as Draco stared down at his eggs.
"Sure. I'll have to sort out my house. It was closed up when… well, you know. But it will be done by Christmas," Sirius said happily, helping himself to some bacon.
Harry glanced at Draco. The blonde boy was delicately nibbling on a corner of some toast, trying to look uninterested in the conversation. Harry returned his gaze to his godfather. "How big is your house?"
"Uh, pretty big. Three bedrooms, living room, bathroom, kitchen, you know, a normal house. Not too far from Remus's which is good," Sirius answered in a thoughtful tone.
"Would it be okay…I mean, I would understand if it's not…but uh," Harry stumbled, not sure if he should ask.
"Spit it out, Harry," Sirius said with an indulgent grin.
"Alright, would it be okay if Draco lived with us?" Harry asked with hopeful eyes. Draco's head snapped up but he stayed silent.
"Of course he can," Sirius said enthusiastically. "I'd be honoured to have two heroes living with me."
Harry and Draco grinned at each other.
Sirius continued eating his bacon and scrambled eggs but his expression turned pensive. "Harry, would you…" Sirius waved his fork in the direction of Harry's arm. "Would you show me?"
Harry's happy expression died but he pulled up his sleeve.
Sirius stared at it sadly. "I'm sorry that you had to do that to gain my freedom. I suppose you have a matching one," he said to Draco.
Draco nodded mutely and pulled up his sleeve for a second.
"Do the Ministry know?" Harry asked, suddenly realising that if Sirius was free then they would have to be involved in the process.
Sirius nodded. "Yeah, Dumbledore told them. It's better that they know now and that they know why you had to join, otherwise, if they discovered it some other way you could end up in Azkaban."
Both Harry and Draco looked horrified. Neither of them had even thought of that. Harry brushed his thigh against Draco's under the table in a show of silent support. Draco pushed back slightly and they both took comfort from the reassuring pressure. The possible implications of their actions were starting to dawn on them.
"So how long have you two been friends?" Sirius asked while buttering a piece of toast. "Last I heard, you two were bitter enemies."
"Well, we kind of got to know each other better since we we've been in the same house," Harry replied sheepishly. Now that they were friends, their old rivalry seemed a bit silly – even if they did sometimes slip back into the old pattern of behaviour.
TBC