*~*~*~*~*
The next few weeks passed in much the same routine. The Gryffindors had to struggle
through an abundance of classes that they were forced to share with the dreaded Slytherins; Harry's
included Potions, as usual, History of Magic and Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts. Hermione,
it seemed, had stuck to her promise never to bring up the subject of Harry's sexuality again but had
appeared to be sorely tempted to mention something. She had a habit of catching him whenever he
checked out another guy.
*~*~*
"Harry, Quidditch games start soon," Ron ran into the Common Room, panting. He handed
Harry a note that he seemed to have torn from the notice board in the Entrance Hall.
Harry skimmed the list quickly. Gryffindor's first game was a few weeks away yet, which left
them plenty of time to practice. "I'll call a practice for tomorrow evening then. We need to discuss
tactics for the first match."
That night, as usual, Harry found himself unable to sleep. He climbed out of bed and pulled
some jeans on over the boxers he had been wearing, and felt strangely compelled to make a late night
visit to the Astronomy Tower. As Harry neared the room he was headed for, shivering in the cold night
air, he began to miss the Marauders' Map that was buried at the bottom of his trunk back in Gryffindor
Tower as there was still a danger that Filch would catch him even wearing his father's Invisibility
Cloak. He entered the small room at the top of the tower, slipped off the cloak and stood in front of the
large window, watching a Muggle plane flash across the clear night sky.
"Potter," a voice drawled from behind him. Harry spun around and his eyes fixed on those of
another boy. His breath caught in his throat and the memory of the dream from his birthday came
flooding back to him with all the gaps filled in.
"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" The other boy stood slowly and both pairs of eyes
checked out the other presence as if seeing each other for the first time. Harry's heart skipped a beat
and he began to form a vague plan of running off and feeding himself to the Giant Squid. Malfoy,
however, approached Harry slowly and hesitated before leaning in and attaching his mouth to the other
boy's. Harry froze momentarily before leaning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around his partner,
pulling the blond further towards him. Draco responded by tangling his own hands in Harry's hair and
the two lost themselves in the moment that both young men wanted to be caught in forever. Yet the
inevitable happened and the two were forced to break apart taking in huge gulps of air.
I just kissed Malfoy?! Harry marvelled to himself, confused.
"Oh, congratulations Potter. Three cheers for that revelation."
"What?? What revelation? I didn't say anything."
"Yes you did."
"No you didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No I…don't you think I would know if I had said something?"
"Whatever you…" Malfoy gasped as Harry grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him into
another, more controlled kiss.
"See you tomorrow," Draco suggested immediately after the moment came to a close,
blushing an attractive shade of pink, and promptly left the room, leaving a dazed Harry standing alone,
face flushed, in the middle of the floor.
*~*~*~*~*
The following morning, Harry woke earlier than was usual despite the extraordinarily late
night from an encore of what he had dubbed 'The Dream'. He showered and dressed quickly and sat in
the common room staring into the empty fireplace debating what had happened the night before. He
deduced that it would be a while before anyone else emerged from their beauty sleep since it was
Sunday morning and this gave him plenty of time to mull over what he might feel for Draco.
"Harry?" Hermione sat heavily on the sofa next to him. "Anyone home?" She waved her
hand in front of his face, breaking the good stare he had just got going.
"Hmmm?" He looked at her, startled. He hadn't even noticed her enter the room. "What are
you doing up so early?" He glanced at his father's watch fixed around his own left wrist.
"I always get up this early on a Sunday. It's a good time to think over stuff. It's so peaceful
in here on a Sunday. Also, staying in bed too long gives me a headache," she shrugged. "Hey, it's the
first duelling class today. I hope it goes better than that class we had in second year."
Harry was grateful for the distraction. Hermione was giving him those funny, sympathetic
looks again that were becoming more and more frequent and they made him feel extremely
uncomfortable. "I'm looking forward to it," he input. "I can finally try out some of those hexes I
learnt over the summer."
"I hope I don't have to partner you," she laughed. The couple talked for a while longer
waiting to see if Ron would emerge from his slumber anytime soon. This was, however, deemed an
unlikely occurrence and the pair made their way down to breakfast.
Hermione and Harry were the only two Gryffindors in the Great Hall, which wasn't surprising
considering the early hour. There was a small huddle of third year Ravenclaws and a pair of timid first
year Hufflepuffs. Harry helped himself to a plate of waffles and smothered them with maple syrup.
Hermione carefully prepared her usual bowl of cereal and banana, and Harry was just pouring them
each a glass of orange juice when his attention was drawn to the door. Malfoy glanced over at the
Gryffindor table and blushed magenta before retreating to his own deserted table alone. Hermione was
chattering away to Harry about the last Transfiguration class and Harry took the opportunity to have a
good gawp. He is *hot*, thought Harry without any warning, and he too blushed slightly. He couldn't
believe what had happened the night before but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to repeat the
performance.
"So, you see, you can transfigure a ferret into an apple but not the other way around."
"Right," Harry input vaguely. He had no idea what Hermione had been talking about for the
last few minutes.
*~*~*~*~*
The day passed slowly and Harry found himself looking forward to the duelling club that
evening. He, Ron and Hermione had managed to persuade Professor Flitwick to host the meeting, and
they were desperate for it to go well. Eventually it was five o'clock and all the sixth and seventh year
Gryffindors left their various games of gobstones, wizard's chess and exploding snap to attend the
Great Hall. It had been decided that only sixth and seventh years should be involved in the club, as
Professor Flitwick was not prepared to risk an encore of the last, unsuccessful duelling club.
"Duelling is a difficult skill to master," Professor Flitwick began. "You must be quick
thinking, have perfect timing and superb hand eye coordination to succeed. The idea is to force your
opponent to drop their wand, or indispose them such that they are unable to continue with the match. I
will choose two of you at random to duel each other. This way I can assess the skills each of you
possess." He held a box up to the class and smiled. "The first contestants will be…" Flitwick tapped
the box with his wand and two names appeared in the air above. "Finnegan and Crabbe.
Seamus climbed onto the stage and shook hands with Crabbe. He prepared himself into the
standard duelling position and bowed at Crabbe who followed suit.
"Go," Flitwick called out loudly. In no time at all, Crabbe's wand was in his opponents grasp.
"And the winner is Finnegan!" There were cheers from the all the Gryffindors in the crowd but a
number of boos from the Slytherins. Seamus bowed dramatically over and over again as he left the
stage, and was hit on the back as he pushed his way through the crowd. Over the next hour, most of the
group endured their first duels too. Ron won his duel against Goyle who had resorted to an original,
hands-on approached – in his rush to offer Ron a fist sandwich he had abandoned his wand on the floor
- and Hermione quickly emerged victorious from her own duel against Hannah Abbot.
"And the final pair is…Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy." Harry paled.
"Good luck Harry," voted Ron. "You can beat that bastard."
Harry however wasn't so confident. He approached the staged and him and Malfoy faced
each other solemnly. The enemies bowed and the audience waited with bated breath to see who would
cast the first spell.
"Petrificus Totalus," Draco shouted.
"Helado Brumo," Harry bellowed in response. Each one of them easily dodged the other's
spell and shot back a new hex.
"Tarantallegra."
"Resbaladiso."
"Torpe indolente"
"Nevada nevasca."
The spells they aimed became more and more lethal and soon there were so many spells flying
through the air that the audience could no longer keep track of who cast which hex.
"Expelliarmus," they yelled at the same time. The other spells flying around the air dissipated
as a red light shot out of the end of Harry's wand joining in mid-air with the identical light from
Draco's wand. Harry nearly shat himself as that night in the graveyard after the Triwizard finale came
flooding back to him.
The join between the two beams of light glowed a bright white and grew and grew until, as
suddenly as it had appeared, the light exploded and Harry and Draco were throw backwards with as
much force as if a troll had hurled them. There was a resounding thump as they hit the ground, out
cold.
*~*~*~*~*
Harry woke up in the hospital wing with an incredibly sore spot on the back of his head to the
sound of a heated argument going on in the adjacent corridor.
"Why can't we see him?" he heard Hermione ask.
"They both need their rest," Madame Pomfrey insisted. "You can see Harry this evening."
Harry heard his friends grumble angrily and listened to the two sets of footsteps retreat.
"You're awake then boys," commented Madame Pomfrey. Harry sat himself up and
immediately fell back onto the pillows, his head pounding.
"What happened?" Malfoy asked.
"I have no idea," she told them. "Professor Dumbledore will be here later on to speak to you
about it. Until then, you are to stay in your beds and rest." She rubbed some salve into the bumps on
the back of their heads and left the small room. Harry looked around it. They were staying in one of
the rooms off from the main infirmary, and there were a couple of empty beds along the opposite wall.
"Do you remember anything Ha…erm, Potter?" Draco asked civilly.
Harry shuddered. "What kind of wand core do you have Malfoy?"
"Dragon's heartstring of course."
"Hmm."
"Well, seriously, what did you expect?"
"I dunno," he said. "It's just…never mind." The vision of his parents' shadows ran through
his head once more as they were when they emerged from Voldemort's wand.
Draco went pale and stared at Harry.
"What? Have I got something on my face?" Harry blushed deep scarlet and wiped his mouth.
"No, no, your face looks great!"
*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Sorry, the ending's a bit crap. I thought you'd rather read this though as it is while I work
separately on the next chapter.
Of course Draco's wand is Dragon's heart string. Seriously, what else could it possibly be?!
And, in response to one of the reviews for chapter 6, Draco means both dragon and snake in Latin. In
most languages other than English they have the same word meaning both. :-D
The next few weeks passed in much the same routine. The Gryffindors had to struggle
through an abundance of classes that they were forced to share with the dreaded Slytherins; Harry's
included Potions, as usual, History of Magic and Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts. Hermione,
it seemed, had stuck to her promise never to bring up the subject of Harry's sexuality again but had
appeared to be sorely tempted to mention something. She had a habit of catching him whenever he
checked out another guy.
*~*~*
"Harry, Quidditch games start soon," Ron ran into the Common Room, panting. He handed
Harry a note that he seemed to have torn from the notice board in the Entrance Hall.
Harry skimmed the list quickly. Gryffindor's first game was a few weeks away yet, which left
them plenty of time to practice. "I'll call a practice for tomorrow evening then. We need to discuss
tactics for the first match."
That night, as usual, Harry found himself unable to sleep. He climbed out of bed and pulled
some jeans on over the boxers he had been wearing, and felt strangely compelled to make a late night
visit to the Astronomy Tower. As Harry neared the room he was headed for, shivering in the cold night
air, he began to miss the Marauders' Map that was buried at the bottom of his trunk back in Gryffindor
Tower as there was still a danger that Filch would catch him even wearing his father's Invisibility
Cloak. He entered the small room at the top of the tower, slipped off the cloak and stood in front of the
large window, watching a Muggle plane flash across the clear night sky.
"Potter," a voice drawled from behind him. Harry spun around and his eyes fixed on those of
another boy. His breath caught in his throat and the memory of the dream from his birthday came
flooding back to him with all the gaps filled in.
"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" The other boy stood slowly and both pairs of eyes
checked out the other presence as if seeing each other for the first time. Harry's heart skipped a beat
and he began to form a vague plan of running off and feeding himself to the Giant Squid. Malfoy,
however, approached Harry slowly and hesitated before leaning in and attaching his mouth to the other
boy's. Harry froze momentarily before leaning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around his partner,
pulling the blond further towards him. Draco responded by tangling his own hands in Harry's hair and
the two lost themselves in the moment that both young men wanted to be caught in forever. Yet the
inevitable happened and the two were forced to break apart taking in huge gulps of air.
I just kissed Malfoy?! Harry marvelled to himself, confused.
"Oh, congratulations Potter. Three cheers for that revelation."
"What?? What revelation? I didn't say anything."
"Yes you did."
"No you didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No I…don't you think I would know if I had said something?"
"Whatever you…" Malfoy gasped as Harry grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him into
another, more controlled kiss.
"See you tomorrow," Draco suggested immediately after the moment came to a close,
blushing an attractive shade of pink, and promptly left the room, leaving a dazed Harry standing alone,
face flushed, in the middle of the floor.
*~*~*~*~*
The following morning, Harry woke earlier than was usual despite the extraordinarily late
night from an encore of what he had dubbed 'The Dream'. He showered and dressed quickly and sat in
the common room staring into the empty fireplace debating what had happened the night before. He
deduced that it would be a while before anyone else emerged from their beauty sleep since it was
Sunday morning and this gave him plenty of time to mull over what he might feel for Draco.
"Harry?" Hermione sat heavily on the sofa next to him. "Anyone home?" She waved her
hand in front of his face, breaking the good stare he had just got going.
"Hmmm?" He looked at her, startled. He hadn't even noticed her enter the room. "What are
you doing up so early?" He glanced at his father's watch fixed around his own left wrist.
"I always get up this early on a Sunday. It's a good time to think over stuff. It's so peaceful
in here on a Sunday. Also, staying in bed too long gives me a headache," she shrugged. "Hey, it's the
first duelling class today. I hope it goes better than that class we had in second year."
Harry was grateful for the distraction. Hermione was giving him those funny, sympathetic
looks again that were becoming more and more frequent and they made him feel extremely
uncomfortable. "I'm looking forward to it," he input. "I can finally try out some of those hexes I
learnt over the summer."
"I hope I don't have to partner you," she laughed. The couple talked for a while longer
waiting to see if Ron would emerge from his slumber anytime soon. This was, however, deemed an
unlikely occurrence and the pair made their way down to breakfast.
Hermione and Harry were the only two Gryffindors in the Great Hall, which wasn't surprising
considering the early hour. There was a small huddle of third year Ravenclaws and a pair of timid first
year Hufflepuffs. Harry helped himself to a plate of waffles and smothered them with maple syrup.
Hermione carefully prepared her usual bowl of cereal and banana, and Harry was just pouring them
each a glass of orange juice when his attention was drawn to the door. Malfoy glanced over at the
Gryffindor table and blushed magenta before retreating to his own deserted table alone. Hermione was
chattering away to Harry about the last Transfiguration class and Harry took the opportunity to have a
good gawp. He is *hot*, thought Harry without any warning, and he too blushed slightly. He couldn't
believe what had happened the night before but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to repeat the
performance.
"So, you see, you can transfigure a ferret into an apple but not the other way around."
"Right," Harry input vaguely. He had no idea what Hermione had been talking about for the
last few minutes.
*~*~*~*~*
The day passed slowly and Harry found himself looking forward to the duelling club that
evening. He, Ron and Hermione had managed to persuade Professor Flitwick to host the meeting, and
they were desperate for it to go well. Eventually it was five o'clock and all the sixth and seventh year
Gryffindors left their various games of gobstones, wizard's chess and exploding snap to attend the
Great Hall. It had been decided that only sixth and seventh years should be involved in the club, as
Professor Flitwick was not prepared to risk an encore of the last, unsuccessful duelling club.
"Duelling is a difficult skill to master," Professor Flitwick began. "You must be quick
thinking, have perfect timing and superb hand eye coordination to succeed. The idea is to force your
opponent to drop their wand, or indispose them such that they are unable to continue with the match. I
will choose two of you at random to duel each other. This way I can assess the skills each of you
possess." He held a box up to the class and smiled. "The first contestants will be…" Flitwick tapped
the box with his wand and two names appeared in the air above. "Finnegan and Crabbe.
Seamus climbed onto the stage and shook hands with Crabbe. He prepared himself into the
standard duelling position and bowed at Crabbe who followed suit.
"Go," Flitwick called out loudly. In no time at all, Crabbe's wand was in his opponents grasp.
"And the winner is Finnegan!" There were cheers from the all the Gryffindors in the crowd but a
number of boos from the Slytherins. Seamus bowed dramatically over and over again as he left the
stage, and was hit on the back as he pushed his way through the crowd. Over the next hour, most of the
group endured their first duels too. Ron won his duel against Goyle who had resorted to an original,
hands-on approached – in his rush to offer Ron a fist sandwich he had abandoned his wand on the floor
- and Hermione quickly emerged victorious from her own duel against Hannah Abbot.
"And the final pair is…Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy." Harry paled.
"Good luck Harry," voted Ron. "You can beat that bastard."
Harry however wasn't so confident. He approached the staged and him and Malfoy faced
each other solemnly. The enemies bowed and the audience waited with bated breath to see who would
cast the first spell.
"Petrificus Totalus," Draco shouted.
"Helado Brumo," Harry bellowed in response. Each one of them easily dodged the other's
spell and shot back a new hex.
"Tarantallegra."
"Resbaladiso."
"Torpe indolente"
"Nevada nevasca."
The spells they aimed became more and more lethal and soon there were so many spells flying
through the air that the audience could no longer keep track of who cast which hex.
"Expelliarmus," they yelled at the same time. The other spells flying around the air dissipated
as a red light shot out of the end of Harry's wand joining in mid-air with the identical light from
Draco's wand. Harry nearly shat himself as that night in the graveyard after the Triwizard finale came
flooding back to him.
The join between the two beams of light glowed a bright white and grew and grew until, as
suddenly as it had appeared, the light exploded and Harry and Draco were throw backwards with as
much force as if a troll had hurled them. There was a resounding thump as they hit the ground, out
cold.
*~*~*~*~*
Harry woke up in the hospital wing with an incredibly sore spot on the back of his head to the
sound of a heated argument going on in the adjacent corridor.
"Why can't we see him?" he heard Hermione ask.
"They both need their rest," Madame Pomfrey insisted. "You can see Harry this evening."
Harry heard his friends grumble angrily and listened to the two sets of footsteps retreat.
"You're awake then boys," commented Madame Pomfrey. Harry sat himself up and
immediately fell back onto the pillows, his head pounding.
"What happened?" Malfoy asked.
"I have no idea," she told them. "Professor Dumbledore will be here later on to speak to you
about it. Until then, you are to stay in your beds and rest." She rubbed some salve into the bumps on
the back of their heads and left the small room. Harry looked around it. They were staying in one of
the rooms off from the main infirmary, and there were a couple of empty beds along the opposite wall.
"Do you remember anything Ha…erm, Potter?" Draco asked civilly.
Harry shuddered. "What kind of wand core do you have Malfoy?"
"Dragon's heartstring of course."
"Hmm."
"Well, seriously, what did you expect?"
"I dunno," he said. "It's just…never mind." The vision of his parents' shadows ran through
his head once more as they were when they emerged from Voldemort's wand.
Draco went pale and stared at Harry.
"What? Have I got something on my face?" Harry blushed deep scarlet and wiped his mouth.
"No, no, your face looks great!"
*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Sorry, the ending's a bit crap. I thought you'd rather read this though as it is while I work
separately on the next chapter.
Of course Draco's wand is Dragon's heart string. Seriously, what else could it possibly be?!
And, in response to one of the reviews for chapter 6, Draco means both dragon and snake in Latin. In
most languages other than English they have the same word meaning both. :-D