Chapter 5 Thanks to those who reviewed.

Thanks to DeceptiveIrony for the great beta work. The story would be so bad without you!

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The next morning at breakfast Harry couldn't keep his eyes off Draco. Every move the blonde made drove Harry crazy.

"Harry" Ron whispered into his friend's ear, "Put your eyes back in their sockets, and Merlin's beard - stop drooling!"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise I was." Harry said sheepishly, putting his tongue back in his mouth.

"Don't worry Harry, we understand. We went through the same thing. Only I saw Ron's drool. You are lucky enough to have your partner across the room." Hermione said casually while munching on some toast. Ron's ears turned a deep shade of brick red as he tried to hide himself in his breakfast.

"Draco! Why didn't you owl me over the holidays?" Pansy simpered into Draco's ear while running her hands possessively over his arm.

"Because I was busy." Draco replied smoothly, making Pansy's supposedly- becoming pout fall into a sincere scowl.

"I know you had Potter over to stay, but you couldn't spare 5 minutes to owl your girlfriend." Pansy whined again. At this Draco choked on the bacon he was eating; he had completely forgotten that he had been going out with the girl.

'Well that complicates things,' Draco thought wryly. "Yeah, sorry about that Pansy," he muttered as Pansy flung her arms around his neck.

"Oh don't worry darling. You can make it up to me." She purred seductively.

Without replying Draco stood up and left the hall, leaving Pansy to be dragged, rather unceremoniously to the stone floor. He caught Harry's eye before leaving the hall and knew immediately that Harry had seen the conversation over at the Slytherin table. It hurt to see the confusion in pain in the boy's eyes; he would have to end things with Pansy soon, very soon.

Potions was Harry's first class, just his luck, it was with the Slytherins. He thought that when he came back to school it would be better. He had even dared to hope that he would enjoy his classes with the Slytherins because Draco was in them, but after breakfast he was dreading it. He had seen the display between Pansy and Draco, he had heard the words. They made him want to cry.

He couldn't believe that Draco had a girlfriend and a boyfriend, who would Draco pick? Was Draco going to abandon him for Pansy? Personally, he thought that that would be the best choice; after all, Pansy was so much more like Draco, and more importantly she was a girl.

"Harry?"

Harry turned to see Hermione and Ron looking at him with the sibling-like concern he'd grown so accustomed to. Frankly, he was surprised they even cared. "Yeah?"

"We saw what happened at breakfast, we just want to say that we're here for you." Ron said consolingly, this surprised Harry a little but he was glad that Ron was being so cool about the relationship despite his disapproval.

Before Harry could reply to the heartfelt support, Draco showed up, flanked by the rest of the Slytherin group as per the usual.

"Oh Potter" Pansy shrieked insultingly. "What was it like staying with a great family like the Malfoy's, were you not jealous of them being a family while you were just the unwanted house guest?"

"He wasn't unwanted Pansy. He was a wonderful house guest." Draco drawled reproachfully, enjoying the mortified look on Pansy's face.

"Really? I thought that he would have been awful." Pansy asked, shocked that Draco was defending the Gryffindor and embarrassed for having been caught without backup.

"Well he still seems to like you, mate. Look he is defending you." Ron whispered unnecessarily, pointing to the Slytherins from under the table.

Harry had indeed noticed that Draco had stood up for him, to his girlfriend no less. He briefly wondered if Draco didn't want Pansy after all. But his hope was quickly replaced by crushing grief as Pansy wrapped her arms around Draco.

Harry turned away and so missed Draco as he irritably shoved her off, but Ron and Hermione didn't. Both prefects turned around behind Harry with identical grins on their faces.

Potions didn't go too badly that day for Draco, not that he had expected it to go badly, but it was always a plus when he got points for his house. He had noticed rather bitterly that Harry was completely ignoring him; the Gryffindor didn't even acknowledge him when they'd been partnered together. He had on several occasions told Pansy to take a running jump, but the girl never seemed to get the message and with every encounter, Harry seemed even more glum.

After Dinner that day, Harry decided to take a walk to clear his head. He couldn't believe his luck; for the whole holiday, life had been great. Now Draco had a girlfriend, not only that, but Harry knew that it would be better for Draco to be with Pansy. He had thought about it all day, he and Draco hadn't gone far so it would be easy to forget. But even as the notion occurred, Harry knew that was impossible to forget, he didn't know how but he had fallen for the blonde. He had fallen hard.

Harry wasn't concentrating and so he didn't see the person he smashed into. As he recovered from his ungainly fall by propping himself up on his elbows, he glared at the person he'd bumped into and his heart stuck in his throat. Draco Malfoy was above him, leaning over him with his trademark smirk.

"Hello, Harry."

"Draco."

All traces of amusement left Draco's face and his face became deadly serious. "Can we talk?"

"About what?" Harry asked bitterly, knowing too well what Draco wanted to talk about. Draco was going to break up with him

"You know what, let's go out to the grounds." Draco grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him out. As they walked out towards the lake, Draco often sneaked a glance at Harry but always looked away when Harry turned his head.

"Look," Harry said finally, as soon as the two reached the edge of the lake. He wanted the confrontation over as soon as possible. "I'm okay with you going out with Pansy, you two suit each other. I mean she is a girl and all, it would be much better."

"Draco looked at Harry for a long, curious moment, then burst out laughing. "You think I want Pansy.? God, I could never want her! Even if I wasn't completely infatuated with you ," Draco panted between laughter. As his mirth subsided, he looked at Harry, honesty clear in his grey eyes, "Seriously, I want you. I have been trying to get rid of her all day. I can't believe you thought I wanted her."

Draco moved forward and pulled Harry into a hug. At first Harry just stood there, happily stunned, but within a few seconds he felt the need to hold Draco; he would never understand it. How could his biggest rival make him feel the way he was?

Draco pulled back and studied Harry's Face. "Do you forgive me now?" He asked softly.

Harry leaned in and stole a quick kiss from Draco, "Yes, but what are you gonna do about Pansy? It's not fair to hurt her"

"Simple, I'll dump her." Draco said cheerfully. Harry sent a quick glare his way, she was a cruel person, but not even she deserved to be treated like trash.

"Ok, I'll be nice about it." Draco replied playfully, while pulling Harry into another warm kiss.

Having spent a great night with Harry, Draco wandered back to the dungeons to find Pansy. She was waiting for him in the common room lounging on a couch, but when she saw him she launched herself at him and as per the usual, Draco fought her off.

"Pansy, I have some bad news."

"What is it darling?" Pansy asked, faking concern.

"You're dumped." He said simply, then walked away leaving Pansy to her hysterics. Draco walked up to his dorm and fell into bed, again falling into dreams about the delectable Harry.

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