No slash this chapter, my lovlies. :( I promise you next chapter, which I can probably get up soon if I'm not such a lazyass. :D

Chapter Two: Not So Rigid, this Time, Please

Curt: We set out to change the world... ended up just changing ourselves.
Arthur: What's wrong with that?
Curt: Nothing...if you don't look at the world. -- Velvet Goldmine

-

"Alright Mr Malfoy, Mr Potter. That is quite enough!"

Harry had almost forgotten there were other people in the room which made McGonagall's outburst a sharp jolted back to reality. He'd felt like he and Malfoy were the only people there and the taste of that was quite addictive, the Gryffindor decided. Malfoy lowered his wand slowly, his eyes were unreadable but something said to Harry, taunted him restlessly with the tuneless verse; Malfoy won, Malfoy won, Malfoy won!

Ron said with disbelief, "Aren't you going to do anything? Malfoy tried to kill Harry!"

"I should give all four of you detention for disrupting my class," she said shortly, looking down at her notes unsatisfied. "You and Mr Finnegan do not run Mr Potter's life, may I add. And, Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy next time, please play your games elsewhere. There is no time for it in my classroom." Right on cue after her closing sentence the bell rang. "There is no homework for today. Dismissed."

The class filed out but Harry hung back. It was a game, wasn't it? The game had been played for more than five years now and he was hooked. The thrill of the chase, didn't they call it? Of course, Harry was certainly not going to admit he was intoxicated by anyone. But what was it then, that always managed to draw them together? Its like dancing with the devil in disguise when you'd already watched him put on his costume.

But then again, he was used to his life hanging in the balance.

Anyway. Ron would be waiting for him outside when he noticed he wasn't there, and now Harry wasn't sure why he was still here. A stupor, he supposed, but refused to note a reason for it.

Originally he'd planned to ask McGonagall if he could just switch partners but now after the commotion and still being paired with Malfoy it seemed pointless. McGonagall noticed him stood behind his desk in personal debate so she decided to help him out.

She said, "Potter I have no sympathy just because the alphabet works against you. Now, if you don't mind I have to fill in a review for the Minister of how well the lesson went. Or," she added and the corner of her thin lips tipped up though she tried to stop it, "how well it didn't."

Harry stood there dumbly with an equally dumb impression of a fish out of water. McGonagall took no more notice of him as she summed up the lesson with colourful adjectives such as 'disastrous' and 'catastrophic'. He left wondering whether Seamus and Ron were making a big deal out of nothing. All he did was put a wand at your throat, his Sarcastic Voice of Mind said. Gryffindors, eh? So melodramatic. After all, it was only after he heard he was partnering you. Wonder what he'll do when he actually has to work with you!

Ron met him in the dimly lit corridor and they headed past suits of armour towards the Great Hall. "Bloody bastard!" the fiery redhead snarled. "He tried to bloody kill you and he got off with a slapped wrist!"

Harry said wearily, "You don't know he was going to kill me."

"Doesn't she know pairing you two up is like trying to kiss a bludger? She's off her nut!"

"Maybe she's still mad about that late essay."

When explained to Hermione, she said; "Oh, you two and your theories! Don't be ridiculous. I would have thought it was obvious, personally."

Harry shot a glance at Ron. The redhead was sitting next to Hermione on the opposite side of the table but it didn't seem to make any different to being able to read her thoughts whether you were almost on top of each other or a million miles away. Ron shrugged and said after he swallowed his food, "actually, McGonagall was giving Harry the eye."

"That's because she was telling you all to trust each other!" said Hermione hopelessly. "It could have been a warning. Or did you two turn up late? No, from what Harry has told us, McGonagall is hoping whatever could go wrong, will go wrong. What is more disastrous than trying to get Harry and Malfoy to trust each other?" Ron made rather loud noises of agreement at that, to which Harry said nothing. "It's the perfect lesson destroyer if you ask me."

"Why?"

Nobody was listening to their conversation. Mostly they were just howling with outrage at being paired with Slytherin ("Slytherin! Of all the other houses, Slytherin!") or otherwise fighting over the mashed potatoes.

Harry said, "Are you trying to say McGonagall's a…" he glanced around, "A You-Know-What? You remember what happened the last time we accused a teacher of that!"

"No Harry! God, no! She's not trying to ruin the lessons because she wants us to be unprepared for the war completely, most likely she feels they're worthless skills. One, because Cornelius Fudge agrees with them, and two, we're just teaching them to You-Know-What in training anyway!"

Ron and Harry chorused, "Yeah."

Ron spooned some more mashed potatoes on his plate thoughtfully (he'd managed to seize the bowl although now his knuckles were aching). "So, McGonagall's a Deatheater?"

His announcement caused quite a ruckus. Lucky for him there was so much of an uproar nobody could really remember who said it first. Although those that might have known may have conveniently forgotten because of their loyalty to Ron Weasley. Wink, wink.

-

Thursday morning they entered the transfiguration to find all the desks had been moved and the classroom was empty. Far from the truth was Seamus howls of "We've been robbed!" but instead McGonagall instructed them to sit on the floor and explained to them about starting of with "trust activities".

First they were to fall and let their partners catch them. (Seamus wasn't laughing now. His partner was Crabbe.) After they had practised and she had watched until satisfied, they could move on to supporting each other (Seamus went a few shades paler) and then finally, bandaging.

Draco and Harry stood awkwardly in the corner of the room. McGonagall barked at them to get working.

"Go on then, Potter," he drawled and held his arms out rather limply. "Fall, then."

"Why don't you?" Harry mirrored the pathetic support pose Draco had adopted.

The didn't notice McGonagall stride over until she said, "One of you must fall."

Harry and Draco both looked at her, "He will drop me, stupid." emphasized by their withering expressions.

"Don't give me those looks. Malfoy, fall into Potter's arms."

"What."

"You can "what" me until the end of the lesson, Mr Malfoy, but you two are going to start putting your trust in each other whether you like it or not. I did not make up these… lessons... but I have to teach them. Now you will fall and Potter will catch you, understand?"

Swearing under his breath, Malfoy fell back into Harry's arms but McGonagall wasn't impressed. She said, "Do it again. This time without putting your foot back for support or what's the point of having Potter catch you?"

They tried it about four or five times, each time Malfoy held rigid, putting his foot back, not trusting Harry to catch. No one could blame him, what with their history, however, McGonagall kept pushing.

"And again."

Still, no result.

"I'm not going to drop you!" Harry snapped after they tried it a couple more times. "Just relax!"

Malfoy wasn't heavy at all. But then again he was a seeker and they were usually lightweights, but nonetheless Harry's arms were getting tired. Even so, when you thought about it; giving yourself up defencelessly to your worst enemy was kind of a fools errand. But it still frustrated Harry to no end.

"Well you do it then!"

"Fine!"

He did it. McGonagall brought him down. She said, "Not so rigid, this time, please."

Harry stared at her. "I just did it!" Honestly, he didn't want to go back in Malfoy's arms. It gave him a strange almost unpleasant but-not-quite feeling he was afraid he might feel again. And recognise it for what it was.

"Again, please, Mr Potter."

Harry stood with his back to Malfoy and made his body forget all the tension at McGonagall's command. He forgot he hated Malfoy and believed in him like he hadn't believed since the first day they met. He stopped worrying and was just falling into his enemies arms. He knew why this was a trust exercise, alright. If Malfoy decided to move away, he could seriously injure himself.

Malfoy caught him under the arms. He looked down at Potter who was noticeable a few shades paler, his head resting against Malfoy's rising chest.

"You look as if you though I'd drop you."

-

Hermione was in a considerably bad mood when they met her at break time. She said, "They're teaching us to be nurses Nurses can you believe? Talk about sexism! Lavender tried to bandage my leg up and she put so many knots in it she cut off the circulation!" she took a long drag of air. "I can see why the teachers don't believe in it!"

They were walking the Hogwart's grounds among the autumn leaves. Their robes were pulled tight around them, hands buried deep inside their pockets against the cold weather and breath billowing out in front of them like fog coming back to claw at their faces.

"Yeah," said Harry glumly and half-heartedly agreed with her. To tell the truth, he was in deep thought about the look Malfoy was giving him as he looked down at him while Harry's breath slowed and the butterflies in his stomach fluttered away. He was sure the Slytherin Prince felt the electricity too--but maybe he hadn't. Thing were just so agonisingly unsure… The ambiguity was killing him. "Malfoy and I had to do the three trust exercise and we didn't get past the first one."

Hermione laughed. "Well it is Malfoy, isn't it? You're never going to trust him."

Harry didn't point out that he had trusted Malfoy. He'd let himself go and Malfoy had been there to catch him. Of course, just catching Harry when he was instructed wasn't enough to erase five years of relentless torture, but it was something to wonder about.

Back in the real world, Ron was bragging about completing all three exercises. He and Dean had not passed with flying colours, but he had been careful to miss that detail out. What did it matter how bad he performed? He'd beaten Harry for once!

"Its not fair," Hermione sighed. "You get to do all the interesting stuff. Well," she raised her eyebrows. "Ron has fun and you're put through hell, but I'm sure it can't be that bad. It is only three hours a week, after all. Is it that bad, Harry?"

So many answers rushed into his head all at once. Really, what was he supposed to say?

"God, it was so bad I could kill myself."

"I'd rather work with Snape."

"Well, falling into Malfoy's arms is quite nice, actually."

"Now I can see why he has half the school pining after him."

"You think I'm just falling into Malfoy? Try falling for him!"

Where the hell did that come from? He tried to shake the feeling, but inside of panicking, he felt a feeling of amusement creep up after his earlier shock. Could they tell what he was thinking? he wondered, and smiled crookedly at thought that they maybe could. It looked more like a grimace.

Ron had never won any awards for being observant but Hermione had been nominated. "Harry," she said. "Are you alright? There's no colour left in you. Do you need Madame Pomfrey?"

Ron said, "He probably forgot to do Snape's essay."

"Yeah, yeah." Harry resisted the urge to back away from them and go sort his head out. How could he find falling for Malfoy amusing of all things? "Just… potions. Snape, you know… Course I'm okay."

Instead of sprinted towards the castle, he swallowed and walked along in silent contemplation with Hermione and Ron and tried to reason introduce some reason into his thoughts. Harry insisted that just because the Slytherin himself had had a string of female and male relationships in the past, didn't mean he was attracted to every guy that fell into his arms! And it certainly didn't mean that he was even capable for falling for the Golden Boy, Gryffindor Hero.

A chill wind lifted their hair and swayed them off course. Harry shivered and pulled his robes closer, but the other two carried on talking. Almost bickering but not quite.

And anyway, he debated, even he if was attracted to Malfoy - hypothetically speaking, of course, Ron and Hermione would probably go crazy. Not that there was anything wrong with swinging that way, he backtracked hastily, in case Seamus could read minds as well. That boy was notoriously bisexual and probably felt the same way about Malfoy as Harry did.

Stop it.

His thoughts strayed back to their last lesson and he wondered how long Malfoy had held him without saying another word after his wisecrack. Annoyance stabbed at him. Why should he care that Malfoy had the nicest eyes he'd ever seen, anyway? He'd noticed that the day Malfoy had put his wand at Harry's neck, and the Gryffindor had found out what it felt like to be close to the Slytherin Prince and it tipped his own world out of balance. And he hadn't even touched him. Harry resented him for it.

He touched the place on his throat like he could feel the tip of Malfoy's want burning ownership on it. Harry shook his head, a wry smile forming on his lips. If he managed some self-control, things might not actually turn out as bleak as they seemed at first thought. This gave Harry some hope. Yes, it was going to be okay. As long as he didn't act on anything. Right.

Hermione's voice floated in his head. "It is only three hours a week, after all."

But three hours a week really was along time.

...