Draco woke early the next morning, rested and eager to see Harry again. He sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and glanced at the clock. It was 6:00 am – way to early to expect Harry to be awake. Damn. For a moment, he considered going back to bed, but decided he was too restless to sleep.

Instead, he got climbed out of bed, shivering a little as the cold morning air hit his skin. With an irritated sigh, he walked over to the window, firmly closing it.

Why the fuck can't anyone remember to close the damned window before going to bed?

He wouldn't have minded it as much, except that it got cold this high up during the night. And Draco really hated waking up cold. He changed quickly into his robes, taking advantage of the opportunity to delay his friends seeing him naked just a little longer. Then he paused in front of his mirror, muttering a few quick spells to straighten and tidy his hair and conceal his pimples and the slight circles under his eyes. Then he went down to the common room. A gust of warm air hit him the moment he left his room. Damn, he had to get them to remember to shut that window.

He was the only one in the common room this early, and after the chill of his dormitory, the common room was uncomfortably hot. So after a few minutes he went outside, found his broom, and took to the air.

He loved flying, absolutely loved it. He loved the feeling of freedom and power that surged through his veins when he was in the air, loved the knowledge that the only thing between him and a long plummet to his death was a skinny stick of wood.

He flew high over the castle, soaring upwards – higher, higher, higher, until the air thinned around him and he dropped into a dive, straight towards the ground, leveling out over the Forbidden Forest. He flew over the Hogwarts grounds until his cheeks and fingers were numb with cold. By that time, it was almost 8:00 and breakfast was undoubtedly well underway.

He dropped his broom off in the broomshed and entered the castle – just in time to meet Harry and his friends as they descended the stairs to the Entrance Hall. Draco couldn't have planned this better if he had tried. Harry spotted him the moment he entered and whatever he had been saying to Ron died on his lips. For a moment, he just stared at Draco, his lips parted with lust. His friends followed his gaze, tensing when they saw what had caught Harry's attention. Then a grin spread over Harry's face and he ran down the remaining stairs, catching Draco in a warm embrace, which Draco returned with a laugh. His lips easily found Harry's and they kissed passionately before Harry stepped back, catching his breath and grinning.

"You're in a good mood," Draco commented, his arms resting easily around Harry's waist.

"Mmm," Harry replied, his eyes half-lidded with pleasure.

Draco almost laughed at Harry's expression, especially when Harry nipped at his nose, his friends apparently forgotten. Draco loved it when Harry did that. At first, he had found Harry's fascination with his nose somewhat strange, but there was something just so cute, so sweet and innocent about it.

A soft "ahem" brought them both back to the present and Harry turned around to face his friends, his arm still around Draco's waist.

"Are we going to go eat breakfast, or are you two just going to make out for the next hour?" Hermione asked. She seemed in better humor than Draco had ever seen her in, which wasn't really saying much. But it was still a good sign and Harry seemed much more relaxed than the previous night.

"I don't know," Harry said with a grin. "The second one sounds pretty tempting."

Hermione rolled her eyes and Ron shook his head, saying, "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to go eat something."

Hermione and the other Gryffindors followed Ron into the Great Hall and Draco turned back to Harry. "I take it your friends believe you now?" Harry nodded, smiling, and kissed Draco briefly in the lips. "Wait for me here after breakfast, okay?" Harry nodded again and Draco pulled away from him and entered the Great Hall, his usual icy mask settling comfortably over his face.




Draco lay restlessly on his bed. It was well past midnight and he still cold get to sleep. He couldn't think of anything but when he'd next see Harry, and the thought of having to wait another eight hours until the breakfast seemed an unbearably long time. He was half-tempted to just get out of bed and find a way to get into Harry's dormitory. At the very least, he could pass the time trying to figure out how to manage it.

And honestly, that frightened him. It frightened him to realize that the thought of waiting a few hours to see Harry again seemed almost unbearable. He had hoped it would become easier to be away from Harry after coming out to the school, and in a way it was. He didn't have to worry about people finding out anymore, and it was easier to see Harry now that everything was out in the open. But that didn't change the fact that he couldn't stand being away from Harry for more than a few minutes without feeling like he was going to go crazy. And that scared him.

The realization that he needed to be with Harry that much made him feel lost and out of control. And Draco hated feeling out of control. It amazed and appalled him to think about just how possessive of Harry he was becoming. Every time he caught anyone else even looking at Harry, he'd feel a surge of possessive jealousy. And the thought that Harry was right now sleeping in a room with four other boys made Draco want to run off and make sure none of them were so much as thinking about Harry.

It had occurred to Draco that perhaps they should try spending some time apart, get a little distance so they could remember who they really were. But then he remembered trying to stay away from Harry before, in their attempt to keep their relationship a secret, and realized that that wouldn't work. Which scared him. In fact, their whole relationship frightened him more than he was willing to admit.

How had he allowed anyone to gain that much control over him? And what would he do if Harry ever found another boyfriend? Dear gods, now that was a scary thought. And it shouldn't be. He should be able to just get over Harry and move on with his life, but the mere thought of loosing Harry made him want to hold the boy as close as he could.

And then there was Blaise and the other Slytherins to deal with, not to mention his parents and the media…

Draco swallowed, wondering if maybe this relationship was just too much work, too much stress for him to deal with. If he could just back out now, dump Harry and walk away, before it was too late and he lost himself entirely… but it already was too late.

He wasn't sure when it had happened, but at some point long before the incident in potions class that had started all of this he had stopped being able imagine a life without Harry. And he knew for a fact that they couldn't go back to being enemies.

Damn, this wasn't getting him anywhere. With a sigh, Draco hauled himself out of bed, pulling on his robes over his pajamas. He considered going through with his thoughts of breaking into Harry's dormitory, but decided against it. Instead he went down to the common room and seated himself in front of the fire still burning merrily away.

He curled up in the chair and lost himself in his book. At first he wasn't really paying attention – his thoughts kept drifting back to Harry – but eventually he became sufficiently absorbed in the book to stop thinking about Harry, if only for a few minutes. When the words began to blur before his eyes, he closed the book and drifted off into a sleep where he dreamed that he was with Harry.

A/N: I don't really know where I'm going with this in the immediat future, but I've already planned several scenes that take place ages in the future, which is sort of irritating... so I guess I've just got to keep writing : P
Kashiaga: Thanks for reading and sticking with my stories : )
Stars-n-moons91: I'll keep thinking about it... it is an interesting idea and I'll see if I can write it when I have some (more) spare time. And I thought I'd reviewed your story... guess I forgot to Sorry ....goes off to fix that.....