Chapter Seven – to find out what love can mean

What happened next was simple enough. They all ate breakfast.

More precisely, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco all ate breakfast and tried to not notice the whole school staring at them. They were actually pretty successful.

They were successful, that was, until Draco's ex-crony Crabbe snuck up behind him and quite predictably botched the curse he was going to attempt, causing all the benches in the hall to disappear quite suddenly. That turned out to be nearly impossible to ignore.

"Holy…"

"What the…"

"Oh my…"

Mild chaos and naughty words threatened, but were mostly quelled by Dumbledore's quick retreival of the benches. Professor McGonagall, in her turn, made a quick and gruff removal of Crabbe.

Draco looked bewildered, like he'd been grabbed and shaken by a small mouse. "I never thought he'd have the guts to try something like that."

Harry shot him an apologetic look, not knowing what to say.

Ron looked bitter and much more on Draco's side than he'd previously been. "That was completely uncalled for!"

"Yeah, well, Crabbe is not the most… open-minded of people." Draco winced. "Not that I haven't been guilty of prejudice myself. But I'm sorry for it." He shot a pleading look at Hermione.

"No problem," she grudgingly forgave, not meeting his eyes. Then she grinned and looked straight at him. "I remember paying you back for it, though."

Draco rubbed his cheek tenderly in remembrance. "Ah, yes. The good old days." He smiled at the nostalgia of it.

"The days when you were a bad boy instead of a doe-eyed loverboy?" teased a little voice in the back of Draco's head. He began to hiss at it, but stopped when everyone looked at him strangely.

Harry seemed to know what he was thinking. "Don't worry," he whispered at Draco's ear, "you're a very bad little loverboy!"

Draco grinned. Ridiculous flattery never failed to make a bad day better.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry, Ron and Hermoine retreated to the Gryffindor common room later that night with the pretense that they were working on homework. In reality, the only thing any of them wanted to talk about was Harry and Draco's relationship – the same thing the rest of the school was discussing.

"Your thoughts, Hermione?" asked Harry.

"I don't think this is going to work out," she said.

Harry looked betrayed. "Why not?!"

"It's not you I doubt, Harry," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "It's the rest of the school. You already know some of them don't like it. And you should know how ostracizative they can be."

"Ostra what?" muttered Ron.

"Rude, I think," muttered back Harry, before responding to Hermione. "I don't care what the rest of the school thinks at this point. Half of them are idiots, and the other half are smart enough to not be a problem."

"But you acknowledge that the idiots are a problem."

"I didn't say that!"

"But it's true. Idiots have caused most of the trouble throughout history."

Not even Ron could think of an argument against Hermione this time.

"All right, Ron," sighed Harry, "what are you thinking?"

Ron hesitated before answering. "I told you before, Harry, that I didn't like him. I still don't like him. But if you do, I will make an effort to be nice. Please just don't make me hang out with him more than I have to."

Harry grinned at that. "You don't have to hang out with him at all. And don't worry, I won't forget to hang out with you. He may be a boyfriend, but you're a best friend, and that counts for more."

Harry, though smiling, ended the day with a vague feeling of apprehension about Hermione's predictions. He had to remind himself as he fell asleep that if he could handle Voldemort, he should certainly be able to handle his peers. Besides, what could they possibly do to him?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It turned out that no one attempted to do anything to him. Draco, however, didn't have it so easy.

The blue-haired couple attracted more than twice as much attention as they had separately on their first day of school. A spiky-haired, lightning-scarred wonderboy and his arrogant rebel bitch of a lover could not be ignored, whether they were loved or hated.

The bulk of the Slytherins chose the latter path.

Draco refused to tell Harry exactly about how his housemates took to the affair, and Harry let it go. He knew from past experience that Draco was perfectly capable of holding his own. But the fact remained that after the rumours were confirmed, Draco never looked as if he'd gotten enough sleep.

It wasn't until a week later that Draco was approached by Professor Snape. An abrupt "come to my office" was all he uttered before turning on his heel and marching off. Draco looked quizzically after him and followed.

Snape got straight to the point. "This was extremely stupid of you." He waved his wand and a piece of paper slammed onto the desk in front of Draco.

Draco craned his neck, trying to see what he had apparently been so stupid to write. It was nothing he recognised.

"Don't pretend you don't know what it is," demanded Snape. "I heard you weeks ago talking about blackmail. Now it happens, and thanks to your stupidity, it didn't take me two minutes to think of you and match this handwriting to yours."

Draco started to protest that it wasn't his handwriting at all when he looked at the paper again, and realised with a sinking heart that it was. He was sure that it had not been written by his hand, but by looking at it, no one else would ever be able to tell.

"Well, aren't you going to whine and protest?" snapped Snape bitterly.

"May I read the letter first, sir?" said Draco meekly.

Snape rolled his eyes and gestured detestingly at the piece of paper. Draco picked it up and began to read to himself.

"Snape

I know what you have been doing against the Dark Lord. If you do not stop right now and if you do not leave 100 Galleons in a bag under the couch in the Slytherin common room, I will tell him and I will be rewarded for it.

I have lots to gain from this. You have lots to lose. You should return to the Lord and give me my money and not make him have to kill you or else.

You-Don't-Know-Who"

Draco set the letter down, scoffing. "There's no way I would write a blackmail letter that bad," he said. "And honestly, man, think about it. Why the hell would I need money from you?"

Snape glowered. "You are a disgrace to Slytherin already. There's no telling what you could end up doing now. And from the quality of this attempt, you're not going to get very far. I doubt You-Know-Who," this he said in a voice dripping with distaste, "would have believed you anyway. As it is, you are now prohibited from leaving school grounds, ESPECIALLY with that Potter boy. Your parents should be ashamed of you."

Draco's jaw dropped open. "Do you HONESTLY think I did this? This is crap! I couldn't have done this badly if I tried."

"I don't care about your writing skills! Face it, boy, you've been caught." Snape grabbed Draco by the shoulder of his robes and started to haul him to Dumbledore's office.

They passed Harry and Ron in the hall.

"Harry! Ron!" yelled Draco. "I didn't do it!"

Harry and Ron gawked in surprise as Professor Snape pulled a struggling Draco down the hall, swearing at the frantic boy and trying to resist using a bit of a curse. They started to follow them, but were stopped in their tracks by a glare from Snape.

"What has he got himself into now?" said Ron gloomily.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry, despite all his worried pacing throughout the length of the school, didn't see Draco again until the next day. Leaving breakfast early – he couldn't possibly be that hungry when his boyfrined was missing - he spotted Draco leaning against the wall in the entrance hall, sulking. Harry started towards him determined to find out what was going on, his dread growing as he noted Draco's apparel.

"Damnit, Dray. Why aren't you wearing your uniform?"

Draco looked up quickly, his eyes widening. "Harry! Listen to me. I've been framed for blackmailing Snape with this horribly written letter, I swear I didn't do it. You know that. They're suspending me. You've got to help me. You've got to prove I didn't do it, even Dumbledore doesn't believe me. And even if my father believes me, he wants to get me away from you."

Harry was suddenly very annoyed, perhaps by the painful knot of dread that was forming in his stomach. "What, am I the designated super... helper... outer... around here? What makes you think I can save you? And what makes you so sure I believe you, anyway? You don't give me a lot of reasons." He clenched his fist and tried not to punch the stone wall out of frustration.

Draco looked like he was going to cry and knew it, and quickly looked around to make sure nobody else was around. He pulled Harry into a corner and whispered in his ear. "You have to believe me, I know I've given you reason not to before, but not now. Now I love you. You know that, you have to. I won't lie to you."

Harry suddenly realised that he couldn't help believing Draco. Even if he knew it was a lie, he would rearrange his reality to believe it. His lips acted on their own as he whispered, "I love you too." He wrapped his arms around Draco protectively. "And I'll do whatever I can to keep you here. I'm sorry, I'm just finally scared." He held Draco for a moment before pulling away and kissing him on the forehead. "I don't know how long it will take me to find out who did it, but I won't stop until I do. I can hear your father coming, good luck. I'll see you later, love." He turned and ran up the stairs, followed by Draco's voice echoing a quiet "I love you," before Lucius shoved open Hogwart's heavy wooden door to claim his son.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next few days seemed like an eternity for Harry as he listened intently to every conversation he encountered, being able to discover no better way to find out people's relationships to Draco. Hermione tried to help him by teaching him a superhearing spell, but he still fell asleep with his head buzzing from the difficulty of looking terminally uninterested in other people's lives.

Also painful were some of the things he overheard about Draco. Harry had known that Draco's life hadn't always been pure – all those rumours couldn't have been spun out of nothing – but he really didn't want to know the specifics. When he couldn't take it anymore, he just stared at the wall and tried to only hear key phrases. Unfortunately, the key phrases he picked up were not "framed for blackmail" or "conspiracy," but "last year's final party" and "good sex" and the occasional stinging slander.

Harry was beginning to give up on that approach and go back to Gryffindor Tower, where he was supposed to be, when he was caught.

"Well, if it isn't the former golden boy of the wizarding world," sneered Crabbe. "I suppose you're looking for another victim to get kicked out of school?"

Harry's mouth dropped in amazement. "You're saying that I got Draco kicked out? That's a lie if I've ever heard one, and I've heard many. Most of them at least more creative than yours. You know I didn't do it, and I bet you know who did."

Crabbe's face twisted in anger as his fist flew towards Harry's head. Harry ducked, and instead of his head, Crabbe ended up with his hand smashed against a stone wall and gasping in pain. He doubled over, clutching his hand and turning red.

"Come on, weren't you taught that violence isn't the answer?" Harry was struck by a sudden idea as he held up his hands to shield himself from another advance from Crabbe. "Alright, I'm just joking, I don't think you could have possibly written a good blackmail letter anyway. I'm not blaming you."

Crabbe turned redder. "Are you saying I can't write?"

"Oh, no. That's not what I'm saying at all. I just don't think you'd risk your neck to do it. You seem like you like to stay on the safe side, that's all." Harry blinked innocently, hiding his satisfaction as the hue of Crabbe rapidly approached lava.

Crabbe exploded abruptly. "How dare you! You're just like him, I swear. Both of you just traipse around, thinking it's your right to do whatever you want. Fine, I did it. It worked, didn't it? He's gone. And you can't prove I did it, so you can't do anything about it. And soon you'll be gone too, and I'm glad you'll know exactly who got rid of you." He grinned triumphantly.

Harry looked suddenly downcast at the mention that he couldn't prove Crabbe's innocence, and, having reached an apparent dead end, almost started to cry. Crabbe, still smirking like a crazed gorilla, stalked away around the corner, no longer afraid of Harry.

Harry's expression changed once Crabbe was gone, and he set off in a different direction – this time towards Dumbledore's office.