Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters *sigh.*
A.N I'll update again in the next few days if I get 7 reviews!
In the boys' dorm, Harry was fuming. He had not taken Seamus' revelation at dinner very well.
"What the hell are you thinking!" he yelled.
"What's your problem Harry. It's because I'm dating a guy isn't it? Godo Harry, you're such a homophobe!" Seamus yelled back hysterically.
"It's not because you're dating a guy," Harry interrupted, "it's because you're dating THAT guy!!"
"How dare you make that…" he was interrupted by Dean opening the door.
"Would you guy's please keep your voices down?" he asked "Or would you prefer the entire school overheard this argument?"
As Dean left, Seamus continued in a significantly lower voice "How dare you make that judgement. You don't even know him."
"I know him well enough." Harry said bitterly.
"You don't know him at all!" Seamus was on the verge of tears. How could Harry be so insensitive? "I thought you'd be mature enough to see past your emotions, but apparently not. He's not like everybody thinks," Seamus pleaded. "If he didn't have so many people expecting so much from him, he wouldn't have to pretend to be so cold and distant."
Harry shook his head. //You really do believe that, don't you?// he thought sadly //Malfoy had better watch himself. If he hurts Seamus I won't be the only person after his head on a platter.// Aloud he said "Look, I don't want to fight anymore. Just promise me you'll be careful. I don't want you to get hurt, okay?"
Seamus just nodded and Harry left the room.
As Harry closed the door behind him, Seamus threw himself on his bed. "Oh Harry," he sighed, tears coursing down his cheeks, "What you don't realise is that the prejudices of you and our other house mates are hurting me more than Draco ever could. Just because he's a Slytherin, just because he's a Malfoy, it doesn't mean he's out to hurt me. I love him, and whenever you insult him, it hurts me. If only I could make you understand."
The tears flowed, and that, combined with the emotional exhaustion from all the times he'd had to defend his boyfriend since dinner, sent him into a deep sleep.
**************************
Meanwhile, in the dungeons, things weren't going any better for Draco.
"You disgust me!" Blaise fumed. You're dating a MALE GRYFFINDOR!! Could you possibly sink any lower?" he asked rhetorically. "What would your father do if he found out?" His tirade had continued like this for 20 minutes, and Draco had long since tired of it.
"Well we'll soon find out, won't we?" Draco exploded "By now at least a half-a-dozen of you must have sent letters to my father informing him of what happened this evening. I suppose I was expecting too much to hope that my house mates would stand by me."
With that Draco rose and left the common room. Every word of what he had just said was true, and by God, the truth hurt.
Draco entered the dorm and collapsed onto his bed. "I'll be fine," he muttered to himself, "as long as father doesn't take me out of school. If I have to live with people who can't accept me for who I am, I will, but I can't do it without Seamus. I need him."
Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. This whole situation was giving him a headache.
"Well there's no way we're going to keep this from his father now." Snape informed the headmaster. "And there's no way Lucius is going to allow his son to remain at any school that allows him to have anything other than a purely platonic relationship with another boy. And even this friendship can only come from another pureblood Slytherin."
"Yes." Dumbledore agreed. "But there is nothing we can do to stop him withdrawing Draco from Hogwarts, and if he is taken out of the Order's sight, there is nothing stopping Lucius from turning his son into a Deatheater, using 'Whatever means necessary'."
"Draco may be strong when he needs to be, but he could never resist Lucius if he decided to provide his son with 'home-tutoring.' This is such a mess, what are we going to do Albus?" the potionsmaster asked.
"We wait," he replied, "and see what Lucius does next."
It was the 5th such letter he had received that evening. Not only was his son gay, but he was flaunting it in front of his schoolmates.
Lucius Malfoy couldn't decide which was worst, that his son was having a relationship with another boy, or that his son was having a relationship with a Mudblood Gryffindor. The combination of the two was a concept so vile, that he felt physically ill just thinking about it.
Just then Narcissa entered the study. "Have you seen this?" he demanded as he threw the offending letter at his wife. "That son of yours is a filthy fag!!!"
He's your son too!" Narcissa snapped. She had received similar letters and wasn't having an apoplectic over them like her husband was. But then again, she had been doing the exact opposite to her husband for years, just to rile him.
Lucius ignored his wife's comment. "I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow to sort out this mess. If that interfering, senile, old fool can't keep that mudblood away from my son, I will take him out of that school."
Narcissa was determined to have her son remain at Hogwarts.
