Romeo and.... Julius?
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and all related characters and locations are the property of JK Rowling, her agents etc. I'm just borrowing them though I dearly wish I didn't have to give Draco back. The plot belongs to the bard eternal - William Shakespeare. I've borrowed quite heavily from the text of Romeo and Juliet for this, but as some of the words have been changed I haven't put the excerpts in italics. Sorry. I know several of you will look at this in horror but it's really for my own pleasure, so....
Warnings: This is Slash fiction, m/m love etc. Don't like, don't read. Also Snape is rather OOC, sorry it was necessary.
Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir.
That fair for which love groaned for and would die,
With tender (?) Draco matched, is now not fair.
Now Harry is beloved and loves again,
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And he steal loves sweet bait from fearful hooks
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breath such vows as lovers use to swear,
And he as much in love, his means much less
To meet his new beloved anywhere.
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet.
Scene 4 - Pledges in Haste
In the corridors outside the Slytherin common room The Gryffindors had realised Harry was missing. The had tried searching around but to no avail - Harry was no where to be found. "Harry! Harry! Where are you mate?" Ron kept peering into corners and calling for his best friend, confused as to why he would have left them.
"He's gone home to bed, Ron! And that's where we should be going!" Hermione was firmly convinced that Harry had taken the sensible option.
"No. He's still here - he was coming behind us." Dean shook his head, knowing that Harry couldn't be far. "Call for him Ron, Seamus. Hopefully he'll hear!"
Ron went off calling his friends name again, but Seamus had that twinkle in his eye that suggested the Irish-man was up to something. "Harry! Madman! Passion! Lover!" Seamus was grinning and Hermione looked at him in horror "He hears not, he stirs not, I must conjure him!" he took out his wand and waved it around a few times "I conjure you by Cho's bright eyes, by her high forehead and scarlet lip..."
Dean clamped a hand over his mouth "Seamus that's dangerous! And Harry will be really mad with you if he does hear you!"
Seamus pushed Dean's hand from his mouth and put his wand away "Oh he won't be angry with me - after all we all *know* it's Cho he's been moping over!"
Ron reappeared around the corner "I can't find him, 'Mione. And I don't want Snape to catch us down here. Harry won't be found if he doesn't want to be, let's go back."
"Harry goodnight! I'll to my dorm room these dungeons are too damp for me!" ever irrepressible Seamus gave one last wave to the dungeons and started off towards Gryffindor tower. Rolling their eyes the other followed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry, hiding in the open door to the Slytherin common room, frowned after his friends "They jest at scars that never felt a wound." he muttered to himself before retreating back as Millicent came to shut the door.
Moments later the common room was deserted and Harry, still hidden under his invisibility cloak, sat down one a leather chair to think. Suddenly a beam of light shone down as one of the doors to the dorms was opened. "Soft, what light through yonder doorway breaks?"
A silhouette appeared in the doorway, and started to move down into the darkened common room. The shadow pulled his wand out, and muttered "lumos". In the faint glow from the wand Draco's face was revealed. Harry caught his breath "It is my Draco! O, it is my love!"
Unaware that there was anyone else in the room Draco walked over to a couch and sat down, draping himself on the green lather as elegantly as ever - an image only enhanced by the silk pyjamas he was wearing. "Ay me."
"He speaks! O speak again bright angel!" Harry was whispering to himself. Obviously the events of last year had disturbed him more than people knew - he was actually starting to *think* in poetry.
Draco was still unaware that he had company. He sighed and rested one cheek on his fist. "Oh Harry, Harry, why do you have to be a Gryffindor!? Deny your house, and refuse you name!" the blond was obviously upset that Harry was a *Potter* and a Gryffindor "Or if you will not, be sworn my love and I'll no longer be a Malfoy!
Harry drew a muffled breath - Draco must be serious if he was talking of renouncing his family name! "Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" he asked himself.
Draco didn't give him much chance to speak, as he continued to muse out loud "It's only your house that is my enemy! For Voldemort's grudge is nothing to me! And what is Gryffindor? What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet!" Draco gave another unhappy sigh and shifted on the couch "Harry leave your house. And for your house - which is no part of you - take all of me!"
That was the last straw. Now certain that the other boy felt as he did Harry threw off his invisibility cloak and stood up "I'll take you at your word! Call me your love and from this day forth I never will be Harry!"
Draco visibly jumped, and his hand tightened on that wand he was holding. His grey eyes searched the room but were unable to spot Harry in the darkness "Who is that? Eavesdropping on me, Blaise?" his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Harry sighed "I don't know how to tell you for my name is hateful to you."
Draco's face slowly split into a genuine smile - making him much more handsome than did his accustomed sneer - and his eyes focused on the shadows Harry's voice was coming from "I know well that voice!" he declared "Are you not Harry Potter? A Gryffindor?" It was obvious from he smile that Draco knew *exactly* who he was talking to.
"Neither if either you dislike."
"How did you get here?" Draco asked in a low, urgent, voice "We cleared the common room out and you can't know the password!" he paused "My housemates would kill you if they find you here!"
"Love will find a way." Harry said cryptically, he didn't want to mention his invisibility cloak in the middle of the Slytherin dorms! "And because of my love your housemates do not scare me!"
"I would not for the world they saw you here!" Draco countered, worry now tinting his eyes.
"I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes." Harry informed him
Draco seemed a little confused, and so moved on. "You know that night hides me, also, or you would see me blushing, Harry, for the things you've heard me say tonight!" he said, slightly accusingly. Harry's breath caught as he heard Draco call him by his given name, but the other boy continued "Do you love me? I know you will say yes, and I will take your word now Harry. Yet if you swear..." Draco's voice caught at what he was saying "If you love me say it in faith."
Harry's face was wreathed in the biggest of smiled as he stepped into the light of Draco's wand "If my hearts dear love..." he began.
Stepping forwards Draco silenced him with a finger on his lips "No Harry, don't swear. While I find joy in you I have no joy in this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. Too like the lightning that ceases to be ere one can say it lightens! Good night, my love." he drew away and turned back to his dorm.
"Will you leave me so unsatisfied?" the words were out of Harry's mouth before he could stop them.
Draco whipped back around with the speed of a striking snake "What satisfaction can you have tonight?" the words came out rather harshly, and Harry seemed to quail.
"The exchange of your love's faithful vow for mine." he said quietly, determined now to make Draco his in the eyes of the world.
Draco's face softened, and he walked back to Harry, cupping the Gryffindor's face with one hand. "I gave you mine before you ever asked for it." he said softly.
"DRACO!" Blaise's voice boomed out of the open dorm.
The silver haired boy looked up quickly "I'm coming!" he called out, then added to Harry in a soft voice "Stay a little, I will come again!" the he hurried back into his dorm.
Seconds later he re-emerged. "Three words, Harry, then goodnight indeed. If you truly desire marriage as you say you do send me word tomorrow by one I'll send to you. Say where and what time we'll perform the rite and I'll follow you through the gates of hell and back!"
"DRACO! HURRY UP!" Blaise called again.
"I'm Coming, I'm Coming!" Draco replied huffily. "A thousand times good night, dear Gryffindor." this last was said in a much quieter voice.
The Slytherin had started back, and Harry was about to cover himself with the invisibility cloak when Draco suddenly turned "Psst, Harry, what time tomorrow shall I send to you?"
"By nine, before first lesson."
"I will not fail, tis twenty years till then! Oh Harry I have forgotten why I called you back!" he had a rather silly smile on his face that, to Harry, seemed to wipe away the memory of everything the name 'Malfoy' had meant to him.
"Let me stand here till you remember it..."
"I shall forget with you standing here!" Draco told him "Harry, it's almost morning, you should go."
"Then goodnight, goodnight. Parting is such sweet sorrow I'll say goodnight til it be morrow."
Harry blew a kiss to Draco, who gave him a very odd look in return. "Goodnight, Harry." with that the Slytherin had disappeared back into his dorm.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry did not, of course, return to his dorms. He was high on his love for Draco and felt no need for sleep... so he went to find Snape who he knew would be preparing his lessons for the day. The relationship between Harry and Snape was... odd. The large numbers of detentions that Harry had been given with Snape in the five years he'd been at Hogwarts had forced the two to spend a lot of time together. And spending time together changes people, for better or worse. So it was that Harry had developed a strange kind of respect for the PotionsMaster, who in turn had developed an odd kind of fondness for Harry. A fondness that showed itself in the giving of detentions and taking of points it was true, but nonetheless Harry turned to Severus for advice. So it was that, as dawn was tinting the sky, Harry found himself in the potions classroom. "Goodmorning, Severus!" he called out, knocking and walking in.
"Ahh, Mr Potter. You must be sorely troubled by something to get up this early to come and see me. Or if not so then here I hit it right, our Harry has not seen his bed tonight!" Snape looked up from the ingredients he was sorting out for the first years he was to teach that morning.
"The last is true, professor. The sweeter rest was mine."
"I hope not against school rules! Were you with Cho?"
"With Cho, Sev? No! I have forgotten that name - and that names's woe!" Harry was wreathed in smiles as he sat down on one of the desks.
"Then where have you been?" Snape raised a single dark eyebrow.
"I'll tell you before you ask me again!" Harry said, laughing "I have been partying with my foe - at which party I fell in love, as did another, and with you we shall find our release!"
Snape grunted, and frowned "Speak plainly, Potter. I haven't time for riddles."
"Very well. I'll tell you plain that my heart is set on Malfoy's son Draco - as is his on me. This spoken and decided we ask you to marry us. Where, when and how we met I will explain later, but please consent to marry us today!"
"Blessed Merlin what a change is this!" Snape abandoned his ingredients to looks directly at Harry "Is Cho that you loved so dear so soon forsaken? Young men's love really does lie in their eyes and not their hearts!" The Potions master walked around his desk and approached Harry "I remember the tears you cried for Cho! Are they so soon forgotten?"
"You told me off often enough for loving Cho!"
"Doting, Potter, not loving." Snape corrected.
"Professor chide me not! He I love now loves me in kind! Cho did not, and she I could never have!"
"Oh she knew well you love was read by rote where you could not spell!" He sighed "But come, Harry. In one respect I will assist you, for this bonding could prove the catalyst that brings Hogwarts together once again."
"Wonderful!" Harry jumped off of the table and started for the door "I must go or I'll miss breakfast - I'll see you later!" Not looking where he was going Harry tripped over a chair.
Snape suppressed a laugh "Wisely and slow, Potter, they stumble that run fast!"