A/N : Once more I have to
thank all the kind people who take the time to review this fic it really does
mean a lot to me to read your kind words and it gives me the motivation to post
more chapters.
So thanks to: Hades,
Brightstar, Shadow Maxwell-Yuy, mara, Eternal Haven, Yaoi Fan on Sugar high
& the Insane Hyper 3-yr-old, Cat Samwise (good suggestion but the chapter
was already written – it can't be that straightforward – sorry), Supergirl
(thanks for reviewing nearly every chapter), slashy B*tch and *Wolf's Cry*
I love you all and I hope
you enjoy reading the next chapter.
Anyway on with the show.
~~~~~~~~~
Harry stayed where he was,
unsure whether to tell Draco to come back or leave him be. He didn't know how
he felt, okay so having two people in love with you is hardly the worst problem
in the world – but it is still confusing – particularly when you fancy them
both madly and care about them as well. Draco clearly had very little love in
his life, his mother had just died and his father was a death eater – one of
Voldemort's right-hand men, hardly a great source of love and affection. Harry
was reluctant to tell Draco that he didn't love him either, not just because he
knew it would hurt him but because he wasn't sure if that was true – maybe he
was falling for Draco. He thought back to the morning in the shower with Ginny
and remembered how he had been unable to get Draco out of his head even with a
naked Ginny is his arms – bloody hell – he thought. – Maybe I'm in love with
him too!
Then he realised that love
was perhaps too strong a term for what he felt for Draco at the moment but he knew
that the wanted their 'relationship' to be about more than just sex, Draco's
presence, his touch - made him a feel something he didn't feel when he was with
anyone else – even Ginny. That didn't mean he didn't feel strongly about Ginny
too – he was so confused.
He and Draco had only just
begun to be friends and already things were complicated by their existing
physical relationship. However, Harry knew that the new feelings he was
experiencing towards Draco did not stem merely from their sexual relationship –
otherwise he would have experienced them before now. It was almost as if their
decision to become friends had triggered some hitherto unknown feelings and
brought them to the surface.
It seemed as though he and
Draco could not be simply friends, the emotions they both seemed to be
experiencing were much rawer, much deeper than friendship (even close
friendship) Had they had gone from hate to love? Without anything else in
between. Maybe it was just the nature of their relationship, they did not seem
capable of merely liking or disliking each other – it had to be extremes of
emotion – love and hate.
He wandered aimlessly back
to the castle, half remembering that he had lessons to attend, it was
Transfiguration that afternoon, a double lesson – he would talk to Draco after
dinner – that's if he worked out what to say to him.
He passed Ginny in the
corridors as he made his way to the Transfiguration classroom, she smiled at
him but he barely nodded in return, his mind was too full of Draco – what would
he say, Draco needed him, he realised – Harry was the only source of love and
support he received, how could he be the one to take that away?
The afternoon's lessons
passed in a blur, Professor McGonagall deducted house points when Harry, not
concentrating on his task managed to set fire to the back of Parvati Patil's
robes when he was supposed to be turning a rat into a rabbit.
He almost ran to the Great
Hall when the bell rang, with Ron and Hermione hurrying along behind him.
He spotted Draco, sitting alone
at the Slytherin table, he looked paler than usual, but his eyes were bloodshot
and it looked like he might have been crying.
"Harry?" Hermione said
uncertainly, Harry turned to face her but he was clearly distracted.
"What?"
"Well I just wondered, did
something happen this afternoon, you know when you had lunch outside with Mal,
I mean Draco?" She looked almost nervous as she spoke, Harry wasn't sure what
to tell her and Ron.
"No nothing happened, we
were just talking and well he's still really upset about his mum and
everything, I think he decided he wanted some time on his own." He wished that
he could have told Ron and Hermione the truth, but they didn't even know that
he fancied boys for Merlin's sake. Ron had enough trouble dealing with the idea
of him and Ginny together, without adding his illicit meetings with Draco into
the mix. However, he got the distinct impression that Hermione had guessed
there was something going on, she really was too clever for her own good!
"You know that you can always
talk to us, if anything is bothering you, don't you?" She said and Harry smiled
at her gratefully, he knew he was very lucky to have such good friends and he
hated lying to them, he would tell them truth eventually but it was a matter of
finding the right time.
Ginny came and sat down next
to Hermione, she hardly even looked at Harry, he realised that he had probably
upset her by his reaction when she had smiled at him earlier. (I'd better make
it up to her – I don't want to upset anyone else today)
He lent over and whispered.
"I'm sorry about earlier, I was a bit distracted." She nodded but didn't say
anything, Harry wasn't sure if she had forgiven him or not.
He looked over at the
Slytherin table and saw that Draco appeared to be deep in conversation with
Pansy Parkinson, Harry couldn't help feeling a pang of jealously but on closer
inspection he could see that Draco wasn't so much having a conversation with
Pansy as being talked at by Pansy. He had an extremely bored expression on his
pale face and was nodding occasionally as she chattered on and on.
"What do you want to do this
evening, Harry?" Harry looked up and saw that Ron was speaking to him.
"What, oh right um, do we
have much work to do?"
"Harry it's Friday night, we
don't have to work on Friday night, how about we sneak into Hogsmeade to visit
Fred and George at the shop and sink a few butterbeers, you can even ask Draco
if he wants to come if you want."
Harry couldn't believe Ron
was actually suggesting they spend time with Draco, his heart gave a huge leap
and he grinned at his friend.
"That's really nice of you
Ron, it might be just what Draco needs." Plus he thought that it would give he
and Draco the opportunity to spend some time together without the pressure of
having to discuss their situation. Harry thought that this might well help
clear his head.
Harry saw Draco get to his
feet and as he made to leave the Great Hall, Harry hurried to catch up with him
in the entrance hall.
"Hey Draco!" Draco turned to
face Harry, surprised.
"What do you want?" He said
his voice devoid of emotion, but his expression betraying his feelings. Harry
moved towards him, stopping just far enough away to avoid arousing undue
suspicion regarding the nature of their relationship amongst passers by.
"What
are you doing tonight?" Draco raised an eyebrow, surprised at the direct
question; he and Harry usually arranged their assignations via their owls. He
shrugged.
"Do you want to come into
Hogsmeade with me? Ron, Hermione and Ginny are coming too, we were going to
visit Fred and George and have a few butterbeers."
"I'd better not, Ron won't
be pleased and I don't suppose Fred and George will be over the moon either."
Draco looked disheartened and made to move away. Harry stopped him.
"Actually Ron was the one
who suggested that I invite you, he wants to make the effort really!" At this
Draco smiled, not his usual smirk but a real smile.
"But what about earlier?" He
asked. It was Harry's turn to shrug.
"I thought it would give us
the chance to have a fun time together with friends without having to discuss
the situation, call it thinking time if you like." He looked hopeful. Draco
considered the idea for a few moments before nodding.
"Yeah I'll come, I'm not
sure how we're going to sneak out without the teacher's spotting us though."
"Don't worry about that,
you'll see later on." He grinned broadly at Draco.
"Meet us on the third floor
corridor, next to that statue of the one-eyed witch, do you know where I mean?"
"Ye-esss." Draco said
uncertainly. "Why there?"
"You'll see." Harry looked
around to check no one was watching and kissed Draco quickly before dashing off
up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.
For a few moments Draco
stood there, transfixed but eventually he shook himself and waked slowly towards
the Slytherin common room.
Later that evening, Harry,
Ron, Hermione and Ginny all the left the common room carrying bags all of which
had books poking out of the top, on the pretext of visiting the library but
instead of heading in that direction they made their way to the third floor.
Draco was waiting for them
to arrive pacing up and down looking agitated.
"There you are." He
exclaimed sounding relieved when they finally arrived.
"I thought you weren't
coming." He had almost kissed Harry when he had arrived but fortunately he had
remembered that Ron and Hermione did not know the full nature of their
relationship and stopped himself just in time.
"Let's go shall we, I owled
Fred and George earlier and they'll be expecting us."
Harry was pulling what looked
like an old bit of parchment out of his pocket; he tapped it with his wand and
muttered something before peering at it closely.
Suddenly he grabbed both
Ginny and Draco and pulled them together with Ron and Hermione into a nearby
classroom before shutting the door before motioning to them all to keep quiet.
"Look Snape." He hissed,
indicating a tiny dot on the parchment, which Draco could now see was a map of
the school.
They stood silently together
watching the map closely to see where Snape was heading. He actually paused
right outside the door of the room they were in but evidently decided that
there was no one around, much to their collective relief.
"Phew!" Ron let out a long
sigh, once Snape was sufficiently far away not to hear them.
"Come on lets go." Once they
were back next to the one-eyed witch, Draco watched amazed as Harry took out
his wand again and tapped the witch's hump, muttering 'dissendium.' The hump
opened and they all climbed inside one after another, sliding down the stone
slide until they reached the passageway that led to the Honeydukes cellar. They
walked along the passage for quite some time before finally reaching the cellar
and quietly creeping into the store and out into Hogsmeade.
They made their way to Fred and
George's shop and were greeted by the twins at the door; they grinned at their
Harry, Hermione and their siblings but eyed Draco with undisguised suspicion
before admitting him.
Once inside Fred and
George's flat, the group could relax for a while and enjoy their drinks. The
atmosphere remained tense and strained for the first few minutes but they soon
relaxed as the conversation turned to Quidditch and everyone began to debate
enthusiastically about the fortunes of the Chudley Cannon's, the Weasley's favourite
Quidditch team. Draco turned out to be very knowledgeable about the Cannons
which was another point in his favour and the animosity between his family and
the Weasley's was temporarily laid aside much to Harry's relief. He didn't say
much but listened contentedly as Draco and George discussed the strategy
employed by the team's coach during the previous season. However, when the
topic switched to the school Quidditch cup the atmosphere became tense again,
Draco was only non-Gryffindor or former Gryffindor present but he managed to
avoid a potentially explosive situation by hastily changing the subject to Fred
and George's shop, complimenting them on some of their inventions. They asked
him if would like to be the guinea pig for one of their newer inventions and
with a not a little trepidation and a nod from Harry he agreed a little less
than enthusiastically.
"It's not too dangerous is
it?" Ginny asked. Draco smiled at her gratefully, he had wanted to know the
same thing but was reluctant to ask for fear of mocking from Fred and George.
"No of course not, it's just
a harmless joke." Fred said, winking at his twin in what could only be
described as an alarming way.
Draco braced himself for the
worst but looked up relieved, when he realised that Fred and George were only
offering him another butterbeer (at least that's what he thought it was) he
took the bottle and gulped some of it down, almost immediately he looked down
at his hands and noticed they had turned blue, then they changed to green, then
red, then purple. He looked at the others in the room they were all laughing
uncontrollably as they watched him change into all the colours of the rainbow.
"Rainbow butterbeer, our
newest invention." Fred chuckled. "You'll change back to your normal colour soon,
once you've been through all the colours of the rainbow three times." Draco
managed a grin, although it looked a little strained. George clapped him on the
back, also chuckling.
"You know Malfoy, Draco
you're not as bad as I thought, a pretty good sport actually." Draco smiled
happily and Harry gave him a thumbs up.
"Thanks." He said
uncertainly. "Do you have anymore real butterbeer?" Ron handed him
another bottle and Draco eyed it suspiciously before taking a swig, this time it
did turn out to be normal much to Draco's relief.
The rest of the evening
passed pleasantly enough, with Draco telling them stories about the other
Slytherin's and their weird habits, Fred and George were delighted to hear
about Crabbe and Goyle sleeping with their fluffy pink teddy bears and being
afraid of the dark, whilst Hermione was particularly amused when Draco told her
about Pansy Parkinson's passion for Mills and Boon romance novels.
All too soon, the group
realised that they would have to make their way back to the castle and after
saying goodbye to Fred and George they started their journey.
To their collective relief,
they managed to get safely back into the castle without being caught and after
hastily bidding Draco goodnight; the Gryffindor's made their way to their
common room. Harry let the others go ahead of him and ran to catch up with
Draco.
"Hey Drac, wait." He called
after the blonde boy who stopped and turned to face him.
"Thanks."
"What for?"
"Well you obviously tried
really hard this evening and everyone seemed impressed."
"It wasn't that hard really,
I mean they are good people once you get to know them much nicer than the
Slytherin's, they actually listen when you speak, instead of just waiting for
you to stop speaking so they can talk instead."
"Well I was really pleased
you were there." Harry said blushing furiously.
"You were?" Draco said
smiling.
"Yes, do you really want to
go to bed yet?" Harry winked and it was now Draco's turn to blush.
"Won't the others wonder
what you are doing?"
"I suppose so, I'll just
tell them that we got caught by Filch or something."
"Very devious, maybe you
should have been in Slytherin, except that you are too nice for Slytherin
really."
"Well what are we waiting
for?" The two of them made their way to the nearest empty classroom and locked
the door magically.
Once inside, Draco grabbed
Harry and started to kiss him with furious passion. Harry's hands were busy
undoing Draco's robes as he kissed back fervently.
Their lovemaking was much
more tender than it had previously been. They spent time kissing and touching
and afterwards they held each other, for the first time ever.
So what do you think?
Chapter 8 coming up right
away.