Chapter FiveFacing the Consequences
Harry woke late the next morning. He was slightly confused when he felt a warm body next to his but he soon remembered the previous night. He smiled blissfully, before rolling around to face Draco. He gave a slight start when he realised that the other boy was awake and looking at him. Then he smiled and raised an eyebrow, silently saying 'you're up early'.
"I'm always awake early," Draco said simply, knowing what Harry had meant.
"How long have you been awake?" Harry asked.
"About two hours, I think."
"What have you been doing?" Harry wondered why the boy hadn't woken him.
"I've been watching you sleep… and …thinking."
"About?"
"How happy and how lucky I am to have you," Draco leaned in to kiss Harry softly. "I love you," he whispered.
"I'm the lucky one," Harry said, "You are perfect. I love you, now and forever."
Suddenly Draco hugged Harry tightly, and Harry was surprised to see tears on his lover's cheeks. "What's wrong, love?" Harry soothed Draco, stroking his hair.
"Don't ever leave me. Now that I've got you, I can never go back. Never," Draco sobbed.
"Shhh, love, you know I'll never leave you. I love you too much to spend even one day without seeing you. I can't imagine how I'm going to get through an hour without seeing you." Harry said, snuggling closer to Draco and kissing his tears. Draco ran his hands through Harry's hair, and pulled him in for a kiss. It was needy, and more insistent than the last. Harry pulled away reluctantly when he heard Draco's stomach give a loud rumble.
"You hungry, love?" Harry asked, laughing.
"Yeah, but I could just as easily stay in bed with you," Draco said seductively.
"I feel the same, but we missed dinner at the ball last night, remember? We only ever had half a dance," Harry said, cheekily.
"Yeah, but it was worth missing dinner," Draco replied, just as cheekily. Harry smiled.
"Come on, love," Harry coaxed, "let's go have some breakfast." He wrapped a sheet around his waist and said "wait here, I'll get your stuff," before pulling the curtains open just enough to step out.
"WOOOOH!" Seamus called, as Harry emerged looking extremely happy about something. Seamus looked Harry up and down once, then shouted:
"HARRY GOT SHAGGED!" Harry winced, glancing back to the bed. He was glad to see the curtains were shut tightly.
Dean, Ron and Neville ran into the room from the bathrooms in varying states: Ron was in a towel, dripping, Neville was fully dressed but was holding his toothbrush and Dean was in his pajama pants but no top.
"So? Who was it, Harry?" Seamus urged, "Was it Cho? Ugh, o, you don't like her anymore, do you? Hmmm, let's see…surely not Lavender or Parvati?"
Harry stared at the ground, wishing he could be swallowed by it.
"Wait, I know!" Said Dean, as if it was the most obvious thing.
"I head a rumour last night-" Harry's stomach plummeted.
"MALFOY!" Dean screeched and the four of them burst into hysterics. Harry, however, remained staring at the ground, blushing furiously. When the boys had calmed down enough to look at Harry, they stopped laughing abruptly.
"Harry…" Seamus began, "that rumour wasn't true, was it?" Harry nodded meekly.
Ron screamed and fainted. Neville ran to help him.
Dean and Seamus seemed wholly undisturbed. "So, Harry… what's it like shagging the enemy? Exiting?" Dean asked.
Harry mumbled something incomprehensible.
"What? Didn't catch that, Harry." Seamus said, clearly amused.
"He's not the enemy," Harry repeated, still staring at the ground.
"How so?" Dean asked, slightly shocked.
Harry decided that since they were being civil he could relax a bit, at least until Ron came around.
"Uhh…" He said, reaching for Draco's and his clothes, which were scattered everywhere, "just give me a minute…"
"Hold up, he's not still here, is he, Harry?" Seamus asked, incredulously.
Harry didn't answer. Instead, he pulled his curtains aside just enough for him to slip through. He handed Draco his clothes silently, sat on the bed, and began to dress. When they were both finished, Draco leaned over and gave Harry a reassuring hug.
"Do you want me to come out to support you?" Draco asked, kissing his neck.
"Only if you want to. I guess we have to face them sooner or later," Harry sighed. Draco decided that Harry needed a cheer up – and a reminder that he would always be here. He kissed Harry gently and lovingly, making Harry whimper softly.
"Just remember that I love you," Draco said firmly, standing up and throwing aside the curtains in a way that made him look much braver than he felt.
Seamus and Dean catcalled, Neville looked at Draco, terrified, and turned back to Ron. Harry looked at Ron, and was horrified to notice that his eyelids were fluttering. He gripped Draco's hand, terrified.
Ron opened his eyes and sat up. He looked confused, then he looked at Harry and Draco and shouted.
"Harry! How could you! After everything he's done to us! And how could you not even tell me or Hermione! You didn't even bother to tell us you were gay!" Ron paused to take a breath, but Harry was feeling stronger after feeling Draco wrap his arms around Harry from behind. He yelled back, before Ron could start up again.
"I might have told you if you had been around for me to tell you, instead off sneaking off every second to be with Hermione! I haven't had a chance to tell you! How is it that you could even care, you've hardly spoken to me all week!" Harry knew that this was not entirely true, but he was willing to bet that Ron would feel guilty all the same. Ron began to squirm.
"Harry, I'm sorry, it's just… Are you sure? I mean, he's a Malfoy! He's been our enemy for years! How can you just put that behind you for one night of… of… you know." Ron was trying hard to be reasonable. Harry appreciated it.
"It wasn't like that, Ron. Try to understand. I'm in love with him. I will be forever. I don't know how I know, but I can just tell. When I look into his eyes, it's like… there's no one else around, and nothing else matters to me. He's the one, Ron. Please…you have to accept that. I don't want to lose our friendship over this," Harry begged.
Ron crumbled, thinking: Damn it! Those puppy eyes work every time.
"Alright… I can accept it, but only because you're my best friend. I don't know if I'll ever be able to be friends with Malfoy though."
"May I talk now?" Draco enquired politely. Ron, stunned, just nodded. Was Malfoy being civil to him?
"I… uh, well, first of all, everything that Harry just said applies to me to. I will always love him more than anything else in this world, or the next. And… I feel I need to explain myself… you see…" He trailed off, wondering where to begin.
"Let me, love," Harry said gently, sensing that Draco was getting slightly emotional. Draco nodded, sinking into a chair and closing his eyes.
"He's been pretending to hate us since second year," Harry said bluntly. "Initially he only hated us because of his father's influence, and once he grew up enough not to accept everything his father said, he discovered that he didn't hate us after all. But he had to pretend because… because…" Harry choked, unable to say the words. He felt his eyes filling with tears. The Gryffindors looked at him, stunned into silence, but Draco got up from his chair and hugged Harry from behind, murmuring into his ear and kissing the back of his neck. Harry turned around and buried his face in Draco's shoulder, sobbing, "you tell them, I….can't,"
"My father used Cruciatus on me," Draco said flatly, "I had to pretend to want everything that he wanted to avoid him using it on me. But now I can be whoever I want, because he's in Azkaban, thanks to Harry." He kissed the top of Harry's head. Harry looked up at him, eyes wet with tears, and smiled lovingly at him. Draco's throat tightened; so did his pants. Harry's eyes widened as he felt the bulge, then he had a sexy smirk on his face.
"Uhh… I'm gonna have a shower," Harry said, and left, but not before giving a rather obvious pointed look to Draco.
"Me too," said Draco hastily, following Harry to the showers.
Dean and Seamus sniggered, while Neville lookd awkward and Ron looked slightly disgusted, but otherwise accepting. He had seen enough proof that Harry was happy and that was really all that mattered.
"Oh, gods, Harry, you're amazing, do you know that?" Draco panted as Harry turned off the taps and grabbed two towels, chucking one to Draco.
"If you say so," Harry agreed, loving the effect he seemed to have on his lover.
Draco sighed, putting his clothes back on slowly before turning to Harry. "I'd better get back to Slytherin and talk to Blaise before he's against me like everyone else."
"Good luck," Harry kissed Draco softly. Draco felt a stirring in his groin and pushed Harry away, playfully.
"None of that," he laughed, "or we'll be here the whole day. You can make me get hard just from looking at you," Draco said, "so you can imagine the effect kissing me will have." Draco gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek, and then left, whistling.
Harry smiled, and continued to dress.
Harry spent most of Sunday day-dreaming about Draco. He talked a lot with Ron and Herimone, explaining everything, and was relieved that neither of them seemed to want to give up their friendship. He was surprised, but also pleased, that they grudgingly agreed to give Draco a chance at friendship.
"Thank you both so much," Harry said, "it will mean so much to him, and because of that, it means a lot to me."
Towards the end of the day, however, he realised he needed to do some homework, having neglected it on Friday night. Although there was no potions (a first, and Harry still could not understand the kindness Snape suddenly seemed to possess), he still had Transfiguration, Charms and Divination. He quickly wrote about how he was going to die once a day for the coming week (even going so far as to say that he would be involved in a 'freak gasoline fight accident' and subsequently would be blown up – something he had seen in a muggle movie one day when the Dursleys left him home alone) for Divination, then wrote his Transfiguration and Charms essays. By the time he was finished, it was very late and he was very hungry (having missed dinner in order to finish his homework). He decided to sneak down to the kitchens to get something to eat. He didn't bother with his invisibility cloak, believing, that it was too late for teachers to be prowling the corridors.
He was wrong.
"Potter!" Snape said, walking up to him in the corridor. Harry prepared himself to attempt to argue his way out of a detention, but when he opened his mouth, Snape began to babble.
'Thank goodness I found you, I've been looking for you for an hour, that blasted knight Sir Cadogan led me all over the school when I asked him where Gryffindor Tower was!"
"Professor, what's wrong?" Harry interrupted.
"It's Draco," Harry's heart clenched, "He's been attacked." Snape said grimly.
"Is he ok?" Harry asked, his heart beating wildly, "Where is he?"
"Hospital Wing. Come, he'll live, Potter, come on," Snape coaxed, trying to lead Harry down the corridor, which was poroving difficult as Harry had frozen when Snape had said "he'll live".
"Th-th-that bad?" He gasped, finally allowing himself to be led to the hospital wing.
Harry broke into tears when he saw Draco lying in the hospital wing. His lip was split, he had two black eyes, and numerous shallow cuts on his face, as well as a large bandage on his left arm, which Harry could only assume meant he had a deep gash down it. Snape led him to a chair right next to Draco's bed, and sat down on the other side of the bed. Harry cried for a long time. Draco looked so helpless and it broke Harry's heart. Finally, he drifted into an uneasy sleep. He woke with a start, realising that Draco was awake. He was in large amounts of pain, Harry could tell that much, and Harry broke into fresh sets of tears when Draco rasped, "water," in a scratchy voice. Harry poured him a glass of water, and helped him to sit up. He held the glass to Draco's mouth so that he could drink.
The pain from attempting to do too much caught up with Draco, and he collapsed back into the pillows.
Harry picked up a damp cloth from the bedside table and mopped Draco's face with it, before pressing a very tender and soft kiss to his forehead, which seemed largely undamaged. He sank back into his chair and watched Draco sleep.
"It was Crabbe and Goyle, under the instruction of Parkinson," Snape spat bitterly. Harry looked up at him, mildly surprised to find that he was still there. "I found him in the dungeons. He's not the only one. Zabini yelled at them when they told him what they'd done to Draco and they bashed him too." Snape nodded his head in the direction of the bed behind Harry. Blaise Zabini was lying there, looking just as battered as Draco.
"Professor…they can't stay in Slytherin," Harry began.
"No, they cannot. I have spoken to Professor Dumbledore, they will be resorted once they are fully recovered." Harry felt somewhat relieved on hearing this.
"You should go back to bed, Harry, I'll watch him," Snape said gently.
"No… I'll be alright, I'll sleep here." Harry yawned and closed his eyes.