Chapter Eleven: Tension
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated and/or non-associated things that I don't own do not belong to me. Perhaps it was redundant, but it certainly beats my English substitute, whose comment "Partners is definitely sufficient enough" led me to lose all respect I may have had for her. Anyone who uses the phrase "sufficient enough" should be shot (not necessarily lethal except in the case of the repeat offender. As far as I am concerned, the breed of people who perpetually mix up 'lose' and 'loose' belong in the same category). Moving along, they belong to their respective owners, who are not I. My writing, sarcasm, witty remarks, not-so-witty remarks, comments, ideas, and other creative property, however, do belong to me, and anyone caught filching them without permission will be sentenced to the same fate as those select few for whom loosing their lives is not sufficient enough. (So I didn't feel like coming up with something new. Bite me.)
Author's Note: So I finally got my arse in gear. Again. Class is back in session, and I have been deluged with assignments for months. Having reached a point where my grades no longer justify the stress level I imposed upon myself, I have decided to take a break, and so here I am.
I spent even more time trying to figure out what horrendous fic error 'abd' stood for so I could go to fix it. I came up with several possibilities: "Aargh! Bad Grammar!", "Abdicate, Blundering GM!", "Any Bored Groupie..." (possibly meaning 'not particularly good, as any fan could write it'), and "Attack Bastard Goddess". After painstakingly guessing myself hoarse, I realised it was a typo, and that instead of these telling acronymic reproofs, the chapter was merely 'bad', with no other distinguishing qualities. A generic sort of bad, then? I went through and checked the grammar. The most heinous faults that I could find were this: that I had allowed a chapter to pass relatively angst-free (oh no! The fluff!) and also that I had sacrificed some character to my perception of the Humor Gods. I hold that my writing is infinitely better than the generic drivel one may obtain of many other authors, and if it isn't perfect, I am only human. I actually rather liked the chapter, so any shall remain in the 'pending' folder until I feel like making sweeping global changes to the fic (and by that, I mean that I will polish it with a worn-out sock until it gleams like Draco's hair plus his wonted amount of gel, as per Movies One and Two). However, I will promise that the 'pet chapter' urge will probably not come around on the guitar for another several chapters.
However, the chapters will be short until I catch the groove of writing this again.
The first snow of the year was falling as Harry stepped out of the castly. Hagrid had owled him to ask him over for tea on the first day of Christmas break. In the letter, Hagrid had written something about how Harry had been "so caught up in that bloke that yeh've forgotten yer ol' frien's".
He had left Draco asleep. Sick of the constant stigma attatched to his presence in his dorm, Harry had moved into Draco's dorm, which every Slytherin except for Draco and a first-year who hadn't yet gotten on Snape's good side had shunned in favor of family and home.
It made Harry wonder whether the Slytherins actually liked living with evil Death Eater parents.
Lost in thought, Harry failed to notice the tall, gangly redhead until he had wandered smack into him.
"Ron!" Harry exclaimed, startled.
Ron looked up. "Ha- Potter."
"Er," said Harry, not quite sure what to make of that.
Ron reached out, touched the choker that had graced Harry's throat for a month and a half. "You haven't cast off the scum."
Harry stared.
"You know he is scum. You know what he's said."
Harry remained silent.
"Or do you not want to own up to it? Does it not matter if he's the refuse of the earth if you're getting expensive gifts and fucked on a regular basis?"
That jarred Harry's tongue from its stunned state. "It's not like that!"
"Then why wasn't I a good enough friend for you?" For a moment Harry thought that Ron's tone was hurt, but... "No, you want to get flowers from your Slytherin fuck-buddy! Is that what you wanted from me? Chocolate and sex?" Ron, 6'7 at his full height, towered more than a foot over Harry.
Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Ron crushed his lips over Harry's. Ron's tongue alternated a vicious assault on Harry's mouth with his teeth, biting and plundering and bruising.
Harry recovered from the shock and punched Ron in the gut. Ron curled over, flabbergasted, and then retaliated with an angry shout.
In short order, two boys wandering peacefully among serene snowflakes had turned into a full-bore two-person brawl, complete with bar stools (Harry had pulled his wand to conjure some sort of weapon, and it had refused to work for anything else).
It didn't stop until Hagrid poked his head out of his hut to see what the commotion was. "What do you two think yer doin'?" he bellowed.
Harry dropped his barstool on Ron's head sheepishly and looked up through what looked like it would become a promising black eye. "Sorry, Hagrid."
Ron pushed the barstool away with the broken leg he was using, and then hurled the leg into the forest, watching its trajectory moodily.
"I asked yeh here for tea, not for beatin' the livin' daylights out of each other! Now, you two come in here, and I'll get yeh patched up."
Both boys followed Hagrid into his hut. Ron's nose was bleeeding, and Harry was favoring his left leg as he walked.
"Now, I want to hear what's gotten into both of yeh, one at a time, and slowly. Harry, you'll go first, on account of I'm not making yer friend talk through a bloody nose." Hagrid occupied himself with a large kettle and a tray of his omnipresent rock cakes.
Harry took a deep breath. "I started having these dreams about Draco Malfoy after Halloween, and Ron decided that I'd pledged my life to him."
"Yeah, well, you're the one who's attracted to our worst enemy! The only one who's worse than Malfoy is You-Know-Who!"
"I didn't choose him, Ron! It just sort of happened!"
"Things "just sort of happen" to you a lot, don't they?"
"Yes, Ron, they do! I'm Harry Potter! It makes me a convenient target for people to throw things at!"
"It also makes them love you! It's always about The Great Harry Potter, isn't it?"
"So you think I wanted my parents to die so I could have people ogle me?"
"No." Ron said after a brief silence. "But-- Malfoy is... unimaginable. Why'd you do it?"
"I hadn't even called a truce with him when you started avoiding me! No one was going to help me repel his advances, so I got to find out the hard way that he's not that bad!"
Ron was quiet. "Yeah... I guess you're right."
Harry nodded.
"So, will you stop seeing Malfoy if I start talking with you again?"
Harry considered this. "No," he said. "I wouldn't."
"He's still Malfoy!"
"No, he really isn't," Harry said thoughtfully. "I mean, he's not a Gryffindor, but he's not the evil bastard that you're making him out to be."
"I'll think about it." Ron stood up, leaving his full mug of tea on the table. "See you, Harry."
Harry stayed and made small talk with Hagrid before excusing himself. It was almost lunchtime, and he wanted to wake Draco up for it.
-----
When Harry got back to the dorm, it was a mess. The blankets were strewn on the floor, the rubbish bin was half-full of used Kleenex, and Draco was sitting in the middle of it all, looking rumpled. Even his prized hair, which usually ranged from impeccable to artfully tousled, was completely dishevelled, and it looked like he had been crying.
"Are you all right?" Harry asked, unsure of how to deal with a Draco that wasn't full of smirk.
"Malfoys don't cry," Draco told him, biting the words off so that the consanants snapped back off the stone dungeon wall into Harry's face as if he were being flicked with so many quills.
"Er," said Harry. "I'm... sorry?"
"You should be sorry!" hissed Draco. "It's all your fault!"
"What?"
"I saw you and Weasley kissing this morning! I thought that I'd managed to foster some semblance of taste in you, Potter! It doesn't matter that maybe I'm beginning to love you, oh no, you're completely content using me. It must be because I'm only a Slytherin, and you, the Great Harry Potter, are entitled to have a pet Slytherin in addition to a real lover because of your gracious Gryffindorism! Well, it doesn't work like that, Harry. Nobody uses a Malfoy."
"Draco, it's not like th--"
Draco, uninterested in hearing Harry out, pounced the latter roughly.
When Harry protested, Draco grinned feverishly. "Isn't this what you want, what you get from your precious Ronniekins?" He stopped to leave a trail of bruised marks where he'd sucked too hard on Harry's next. "Well, if this is what you want, you're going to get it from ME. You're MINE, Harry Potter, and you're not going to get away from me whether you like it or not!" Harry stared, entranced and almost turned on by this display of jealousy and possessiveness. Even as Draco spat furious jabs at him, tears glistened in the blonde's eyes. "No Weasley is EVER going to take what is MINE from me!"
In spite of himself, Harry started responding to it. As Draco moved to rip off his t-shirt, his fingernails scraped against Harry and Harry moaned at the contact. He crumpled under the furious-- there was no other word-- assault on his body as the Draco fumbled at the rest of his clothing.
At this point, for the sake of the Laws of , I'm going to bring the lights down so as not to scar the small children who shouldn't be reading this in the first place.
The sounds of rustling and moaning permeated the air.
After a bit, Draco spoke. "I want to hear you beg."
Harry whimpered. "Please?"
"More. Say my name."
Harry's breathing caught and resumed, labored. The words tumbled off his lips, breathless. "Oh my god, Draco, please, give it to me; I love you, please, I'll do anything for you..."
The rustling abruptly stops. "What did you say?" asked Draco in a strangled voice.
"I'll do anything!"
"No, before that."
"I... love you?"
Draco makes a satisfied noise, and growls. The rustling starts again, and over it, one can hear him growl the possessive pronoun: "Mine."
The noises crescendo, and after a couple minutes, Harry screams Draco's name.
Having dispensed with the evil bit with s-x in it, we shall wait a moment for Harry and Draco to pull themselves together and then bring the lights back up.
They have tangled themselves together in Draco's silk sheets on the floor.
"God, that was unbelievable."
"See, I am a god. You don't need Weasley for anything." Draco has gotten his smirk back.
"He's just confused. I'm exhausted."
"We'll miss lunch." Draco yawns.
"We'll make dinner." Harry tugs on the sheet and maneuvers them onto the bed to sleep.
-----
Harry and Draco emerged from the Slytherin dorms exactly four minutes and thirty-seven seconds after the latest they could have made it to the Great Hall on time. Draco had regained his gloss coating and had managed to both scrounge unwrinkled clothing and make his hair shimmer with its customary sheen. Harry, on the other hand, had an impressive black eye that had bloomed into its full glory while he was asleep. He was covered in love bites, his robes diisplayed every indicator that he had slept in it except the large neon sign on them announcing the fact, and his hair had grown an interesting trident-shaped protrustion at the crown of his head.
They walked down the corridor in silence, throwing the uncharacteristic quiet of the Great Hall into an uncanny juxtaposition.
"I can't say I miss having the people around," Draco muttered under his breath as he crossed the floor to the table the few students and professors who had elected to stay huddled around.
"Severus, I cannot abide this sort of activity going on in my school!" Dumbledore was saying. "You love any excuse to get Potter in trouble, so why are you allowing him to stay in Slytherin? Surely you understand that the boys are too young and too busy to have romantic entanglements."
Snape gave Dumbledore an inscrutable look as Harry and Draco slid into thier seats. "It has been many years since either of us were young and in love, Headmaster. We can't baby the students forever."
Dumbledore's radioactive blue eyes swept the table and noted the new additions. A flick of his wand sent a pair of plates flying onto the table in front of Harry and Draco, and it was clear that the gesture marked the end of the converstaion.
Both boys ate quickly and left hastily.
"Well, Dumbledore is certainly nice!" Draco seethed.
"What was up with Snape? Was he defending us?" asked Harry.
"Indeed I was, Mr. Potter." Snape had swept into the corridor after them, startling them. "I once was young, you know."
"You were?" asked Harry.
Draco smacked Harry upside the head. "Of course he was, you nitwit!"
Snape cleared his throat. "Anyway, you two. I'm not doing this completely out of the goodness of my heart. You're going to need to do a couple things for me."
"Oh?" inquired Harry politely. "What?"
"Well, I had planned on using the vacation to make a rather complex potion, and I wanted you two to help me. An extra hand or two is always invaluable to this one. Also... I was once young. Don't let it get around that that makes me soft"
-
Oooh, what's going on with Snape? Now I'm interested!
I'm sorry if I've muffed the dialects. I hate doing it-- you'll notice Seamus never gets an accent-- but when Hagrid talks, it's just wrong not to make the attempt. So, I've given it a shot, and if anyone has any tips, I'd be more than happy to go back and fix it. Also, I thought about doing Ron With Bloody Nose, but I have no idea how to do it properly.
Thank-yous!
starlollie: yes, the chapter was cute! That was my intention.
SexySlytherinChick: I fix specific errors better than general ones, and examples help. See above. Sorry if I got a bit too defensive.
Tygrressatheart: Try Brazil for the plant. They're supposed to have loads of undiscovered lifeforms, there's got to be one similar to the one I described. Thank you and everyone else for pointing out my Naming-Ginny error-- I read enough fanfiction that I think I know things are canon that aren't, and it was someone else's mistake that I copied. However, I didn't actually say that her name was Virginia (just implied the hell out of it), and I think I can do the immoral Author Squeeze out of this one on a technicality. It was a mistake, and now I know. (Imagine it being said like it is on Bill Nye the Science Guy.)
Purity-in-Black: Yes, someone did mention it. It is a lovely name that never occured to me, because it never occured to me that maybe JK names characters funny things. Goddess, I feel stupid sometimes.
Sierra Potter-Malfoy: bows humbly I suppose this doesn't count as 'soon', but, if you'll excuse the trite expression, better late than never. I will finish this, darn it!
Klover P: Gred and Forge are too close to pair up with anyone else. Murr.