A/N Thanks to everyone that
has reviewed this story so far and especially to those people who have put it
on their favourites list – it makes my day.
Moonshadow, Escagirl,
Yeah81,Cat Samwise, Eternal Haven, Padfootsgirl,Shadow Maxwell-Yuy, J (sorry
you didn't like the crotch squeezing) TicTac, Liz, Lady Malfoy, Hermonie,
Lillah, Sarah and Maggie
I hope you enjoy this
chapter, if you do please review.
As usual all I own is the
plot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following day, Harry had
barely seen Draco except to exchange a small smile in the Great Hall at
mealtimes and he found himself missing the smaller boys company just a little.
Wednesday morning came
around and Harry remembered his promise to Draco, he had said he would send him
an owl before his father came to collect him for his mother's funeral.
He had awoken early and
hurried to the Owlery to find Hedwig, so she could take a note to Draco.
He wasn't sure what to write
in the end he settled on:
Draco,
I just wanted you to know that I will be thinking
of you today and that you can talk to me anytime you want when you get back. I
know today will be really difficult for you but I will do anything I can to
help.
See you when you get back
Harry
He attached the letter to
Hedwig's leg and she flew off.
Later at the breakfast table
Harry saw Hedwig soar in through the window and land on his plate. She seemed
to be carrying a reply from Draco, which Harry hadn't expected.
Harry,
Thanks for your letter,
it meant a lot to me.
I'll talk to you when I get back.
Draco
After Harry had read the
note, he looked over at the Slytherin table, caught Draco's eye and smiled.
Draco smiled back.
Harry was particularly preoccupied
that day; he couldn't stop thinking about Draco, hoping that he was okay. He
wandered from class to class in a daze, which even Ron noticed.
"He'll be all right, you
know." Hermione said, trying to reassure Harry but he hardly seemed to notice that
she was speaking.
"What? Oh yeah right, I
know." Hermione couldn't help smiling just a little, Harry was a very loyal
friend, she knew that but he seemed inordinately concerned about someone he had
only just become friends with.
It didn't really matter what
Hermione or anyone else said, Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to relax
until Draco was safely back at the school.
He didn't sleep well that
night; he couldn't stop thinking about Draco.
At breakfast the next
morning he scanned the room anxiously looking for a flash of silver blonde hair
but Draco was nowhere to be seen.
Just then the post owls
arrived and Harry looked up to see Hedwig swooping down to him with a letter,
he opened it hurriedly.
Dear Harry,
The funeral
went okay I suppose, actually it was absolutely horrible but I expected that so
it wasn't exactly a surprise.
I will be back at school tomorrow; Father wants me to stay here today. I
would rather be at school actually.
I just wanted to let you know that I am okay and that I am looking
forward to talking to you when I get back.
Love
Draco
Harry was quite surprised by
the letter from Draco, but he couldn't help feeling pleased. He looked up to
see Ron, Hermione and Ginny all smiling at him.
"Good news Harry?" Hermione
asked, smiling. Harry didn't reply he just smiled and returned to eating his
porridge. He wondered why Draco's father wanted him to stay at home now rather
than having collected him earlier but maybe he was more upset about his wife's
death than he had realised at first.
The day passed reasonably
uneventfully except that in Transfiguration, Neville somehow managed to turn
Lavender Brown's hair bright green with large pink spots. She was still
shrieking about it later that evening in the common room and Neville was hiding
in the boy's dormitory afraid that she might try to hex him.
Ginny approached the chair
where Harry was sitting attempting to prepare his star chart for astronomy.
"Hi Harry, how's your day been,
I heard about Lavender's hair, it must have been pretty funny?"
"Oh hi Ginny, it's been okay
I suppose, I got a letter from Draco this morning, he'll be back at school
tomorrow." He took the letter out of his pocket, unfolded it and handed it to
Ginny. She read it wordlessly, raising her eyebrows slightly at Draco's use of
the word love.
"You're getting on quite
well then?" She inquired.
"Yeah pretty well I suppose,
but its still early days, he might get fed up of being nice and revert back to
his old nature."
"Well it's good that you're
giving him the benefit of the doubt though, not many people would have bothered
after all he's done to you in the past."
"Yeah well he doesn't really
have any real friends and I know what that's like, after all I didn't have
friends until I came to Hogwarts, Dudley and his gang prevented that." Harry
scowled a little but then smiled at Ginny. "It's really nice of you to put up
with me rambling on all the time. You know that if you ever want to talk me
about anything." But Ginny stopped him by kissing him softly before pulling
away.
"I know we agreed remember?
The only problem I have is trying to get this absolutely gorgeous bloke to
sleep with me."
"I shouldn't expect that he
would be too difficult to persuade." He said winking suggestively, Ginny hit
him playfully and Harry started to tickle her. Ginny started to giggle as Harry
tickled her into submission.
"Will you put my sister
down, you don't know where she's been!" Ron said jokingly, he and Hermione had
come over to see what all the noise was about.
"Sorry, sorry." Harry held
up his hands in mock surrender and Ron grinned.
The rest of the evening
passed pleasantly, Harry eventually managed to finish his star chart and then
he, Ron, Hermione and Ginny held an exploding snap tournament with Ginny
emerging victorious overall.
Harry finally went to bed at around midnight and fell asleep
almost immediately. He awoke with a start at about 3am; he sat up in bed and
noticed that he was sweating heavily. He tried to remember the dream he'd been
having but the details were hazy, it had been something to with Draco but it
was not the sort of dream he usually had about Draco, for one thing he (Harry)
wasn't in it and his usual dreams definitely featured him with Draco. 'I hope
Draco is really all right' he thought to before trying to get back to sleep,
after a few moments of lying awake worrying about Draco, he decided that he
wasn't going to be able to sleep and got out of bed.
The common room was
completely dark and deserted. Harry sat in one of the armchairs by the embers
of the fire; he lit his wand and used the light to flick vaguely through Flying
with the Cannons, which he'd brought to distract him from thoughts about
Draco. Eventually Harry fell asleep in the armchair, the book dangling from his
fingers, his glasses perched askew on his nose.
Harry sat in the Great Hall
at breakfast the next day, absent-mindedly pouring pumpkin juice rather than
milk into his porridge.
"Urgh!" He threw his spoon
back into the bowl and pushed it aside, reaching instead for a piece of toast
and the pot of marmalade.
"Potions today, wonder what
we'll be making." Hermione was chattering at his side and Harry was
half-listening to her words. If they had potions then he would be able to see how
Draco was today.
"Harry, I think you might
have enough marmalade on that now." He looked up, Hermione was pointing to the
slice of toast he was spreading, it now had a layer of marmalade about two
inches thick on top of it.
"Yeah you might be right."
He put down the knife and attempted to eat his overloaded toast.
"You look tired, didn't you
sleep last night?" Hermione asked, him peering at his face closely.
"Not very well, no." Harry
admitted and both Ron and Hermione looked concerned.
"I just had a bad dream, I
think, nothing to worry about though." He added hastily, seeing the expressions
on their faces.
"Your scar isn't hurting is
it?" Ron inquired but Harry shook his head.
"No it's fine, in fact I
can't even remember what the dream was about, don't worry! We'd better get a
move on we'll be late for potions." He got to his feet as he spoke.
"That's got to be a first,
you worrying about being late for potions." Ron laughed.
"I just don't want to give Snape
an excuse to deduct any more points from Gryffindor." Ron didn't look convinced
but he didn't say anything and they began to walk towards the dungeons.
When they arrived Harry saw
that like last lesson, Draco was sitting alone away from the other Slytherin's,
he still looked tired but seemed he smiled as Harry entered and indicated that
Harry could sit with him if he wanted to. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione who
nodded and he sat down. At once, whispers started all over the classroom,
especially amongst the Slytherin's; in fact some of them didn't trouble to keep
their voices down, luckily at that moment Snape entered the room and all the
conversations halted abruptly. (Harry had never felt more pleased to see Snape
in his life)
"Ah Mr Malfoy, you're back
with us, I wonder if I might have a word with you at the end of the lesson."
Snape eyed Draco curiously and rather than sneering at Harry he seemed to be
avoiding his eye.
The potions lesson
progressed smoothly, Harry and Draco were paired as were Ron and Hermione,
Snape seemed to be quite a good mood and didn't criticise the Gryffindor's as
much as usual. Harry didn't really talk to Draco much during the lesson. He had
asked how he was and Draco had shrugged before saying that he would talk to him
at lunch.
The bell rang and as
everyone got up to leave, Draco asked Harry to wait for him while he talked to
Snape.
A few moments later, Draco
emerged from the classroom looking a bit puzzled but reasonably happy.
"Let's go and grab some
sandwiches and head out to the lake." He suggested and Harry agreed.
They sat in silence for a
few minutes eating the sandwiches and looking at the scenery, finally Harry
spoke.
"So what did Snape want?"
Draco raised his eyebrows.
"He wanted to know how
things had gone at the funeral, asked me if I was okay, you know the usual.
He's been really kind actually, he said he would have come but he and my father
fell out a few years back and he thought it might not be a good idea." Harry
thought he knew exactly why Snape and Lucius Malfoy might have fallen out but
he didn't vocalise his thoughts.
"Thanks for your owls."
Draco smiled and said.
"Well I didn't have much to
do when I was at home, father had friends and associates around most of the
time and he didn't want me there, so I was just alone in my room."
"Oh so you were just bored
then?" Harry grinned.
"Yeah pretty much." Draco
smirked but then smiled, "plus I wanted to write to you, I kind of missed you."
He looked away as he spoke, his face puce.
"Well I suppose I sort of
missed you too, especially this." Harry leant forward and kissed Draco softly,
then he remembered it was broad daylight and in full view of anyone who
happened to be passing and pulled away. Draco sighed and tried to resume the
kiss but Harry pointed out that they could be seen and Draco nodded resignedly.
"I think we need to have one
of our midnight rendezvous, I can't remember the last time we went this long
without one."
"You know, I think you're
right, it has been kind of frustrating."
"You've always got Ginny to
help you relieve your frustrations." Draco pointed out but Harry shook his
head.
"We haven't you know, done
it yet." Harry looked a bit sheepish and Draco smirked.
"You haven't why not? I
would have thought she would be up for it."
"It's not that, it just
hasn't felt right, I mean it's different with us, we both knew the score
from the beginning it was just sex but it will be different with Ginny, I mean
she told me she loves me, I don't want to hurt her." Harry stopped speaking, he
couldn't believe that he was having a heart-to-heart with Draco Malfoy of all
people, but Draco was turning out to be good listener.
"Why would you hurt her?
It's not as if you don't care about her is it?"
"Yeah I know but well it's
kind of complicated." Harry looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Would this be something to
do with us?"
"Yeah well it is an unusual
situation, she says she doesn't mind about you and me but." He trailed off;
Draco was looking at him intently.
"What do you think?" He
asked. Harry shrugged.
"I don't know, I don't want
to stop meeting you but I suppose we should really. We both knew we would
eventually maybe the next time should be the last time."
"I don't see why, Ginny
hasn't asked you to stop has she?"
"No but"
"No buts Harry, I don't want
to stop, in fact I not going to! I don't mind sharing you but I'm not going to
give you up completely, besides where else would I get such good sex?" Harry
reddened at this but looked pleased. Draco was relieved that Harry didn't seem
to have noticed the edge to his voice, the note of desperation that lingered
there. He knew that if he and Harry stopped meeting, he wouldn't get the
physical contact that he so badly needed. It had stopped being simply about sex
for Draco; he needed Harry's touch, Harry's warmth. Somewhere along the way he
had fallen in love with Harry! Just like Snape had thought he would.
Meanwhile Harry was thinking
about what Draco had just said, he knew that the sex they had was good but he
was surprised at Draco's vehemence that they should continue to meet. He
chanced a look at Draco's eyes and saw that where there had once been lust and
longing there was definitely a hint of something more, he knew that look too,
it was the one Ginny had in her eyes when she looked at him. Then he realised,
Draco was in love with him!
"Draco I" He began but Draco
stopped him.
"You know don't you?" Harry
nodded.
"I'd better go." Draco said, standing up and before Harry had a chance to stop him he was running across the grass back to the castle.