Harry picked at his meal, trying hard not to glance over at Draco. When he had woken up that morning, he had been expecting to find that his friends had rethought their easy acceptance of his relationship with Draco, or at least staring at him and generally making a big deal out of it. But if anything, his friends seemed to have forgotten about the whole thing, beyond making a point of turning away from him as they changed.
When he had come downstairs and met Hermione, she had given him an odd look before almost visibly redirecting her attention at Ron, asking him if he had had trouble with their transfiguration homework. Instead of rolling his eyes as he normally would have, Ron had responded by pulling out his homework and asking her to look it over. And when she had then launched into a detailed critique of his work, explaining each and every mistake he had made in almost painful detail, not only had Ron not told her to shut up, he had listened attentively to her explanations. It had taken Harry a few moments to figure out what was going on, but when he did he had almost laughed – whether out of relief that his friends still apparently cared about him, amusement at their uncertainty as to how to treat him, or simply the sheer absurdity of their current conversation, he wasn't sure.
After a few minutes, he had gotten tired of their pointed attempt to avoid discussing his relationship with Draco and had rather bluntly broken into their conversation, saying, "You could always just ask me about Draco. I really don't mind."
Ron and Hermione had given him startled looks and then Hermione had flushed. When it became apparent that Hermione wasn't going to say anything, Ron had sighed, saying, "Alright then. How the hell did you get together with Malfoy of all people?"
Harry winced. He supposed he should have seen that one coming. "It's a long story. Basically… well, you remember that time in potions when Snape made me stay after to help Draco make a new potion after Crabbe knocked over his cauldron? Well, Draco had me test the potion before handing it in and apparently it hadn't come out right because… well…" Harry could feel his ears burning. Dear god, this was going to sound so corny. Because it had shown him what he truly wanted and that was Draco? He swallowed, trying to think of a better way to say it and didn't come up with much. "…err… well we're not sure exactly what it did, but that night I got a letter from Draco asking me to meet him and I did and… right." Harry's face felt so hot now that it he was surprised his robes hadn't caught fire.
Ron looked slightly confused, but Hermione looked quite interested. "Do you know what you did wrong? In making the potion, I mean."
"Uh… Draco said something about adding too many jobberknoll feathers…"
Hermione nodded. "Hmmm… we were making the self-discovery potion that day, right?"
Harry nodded and Ron gave her an irritated look. "How do you remember these things?"
But Hermione was already lost in thought. She had been thoughtfully silent as they walked down to breakfast, but that was hardly unusual and Ron seemed to be acting normally again. All in all, Harry had been in a very good mood when he they had descended the stairs to the Entrance Hall and spotted Draco just coming in.
And the sight of Draco had, quite simply, made his day. He had looked amazingly beautiful – pale skin flushed pink from the cold air outside, eyes sparkling with exhilaration from his presumed flight, platinum blond hair mussed from the wind… In the past month, Harry had learned a lot about Draco, including that he loved to go flying first thing in the morning. And Harry had decided that Draco looked the best just after he had been flying. He looked so happy, so innocent and alive – like nothing in the world could possibly be wrong.
Harry hadn't been able to suppress the grin that spread over his face and without thinking about it he had ran down the stairs, wrapping his arms around Draco. Draco had laughed – really laughed, without any of his usual sarcasm or mockery – and hugged him back.
Hermione had brought him back to the real world, asking if they were going to eat or just make out all morning. And Harry had been relaxed enough to grin and tell her that making out with Draco all morning didn't sound like such a bad idea.
Now Harry was willing breakfast to be over as soon as possible so that he could be with Draco again. Finally, he gave up and glanced over at Draco. He had intended for it to be a quick, casual glance, but Draco met his eye, giving him an intense, heated, possessive gaze that made Harry flush. Draco had smiled at him, making Harry's breath catch in his throat before turning back to his conversation with Marcus Flint. Harry turned back to his breakfast, his entire body flooded with heat.
Hermione had left breakfast early, saying that she wanted to look at something in the library, and a few minutes later Harry had given up trying to eat and left the Great Hall. He had only had to wait in the Entrance Hall for a few minutes before Draco had come, slipping his arms around Harry's waist and briefly kissing his lips.
"You want to go outside or something?" Draco asked softly. Harry nodded and Draco took his hand, leading him outside.
Since they had about a half an hour before class, they decided to go flying. Not wanting to waste time going to get their own broomsticks, they decided to just use the school's brooms. It wasn't like they were going to be doing any fancy flying or anything.
Harry had forgotten just how low quality the school's brooms actually were, but after a few seconds in the air he got used to it.
"So," Draco called over the roar of air in their ears. "Where all did that hippogriff take you?"
Harry laughed. He had used his invisibility cloak to visit Draco in the hospital wing the night after the hippogriff 'attacked' him and Draco had made him promise to show him where all the hippogriff had taken him. Now Harry happily retraced his path with Draco following close on his tail.
A/N: Sorry about getting the last chapter of the other story mixed up with this... stupid me.
Anyways, here's the next little bit of this story... (I'm so smart)