Harry's feet slipped across the rocks, wet from the mid November rain. He was purposely later in avoidance of a torrential downpour and was fairly certain that Draco would also be late for fear of damage to his hair. When he reached the edge of the rocks Harry cast a quick drying charm over his favored spot, drying an extra area for Draco.

He stuffed his wand back into his robes, bringing out his cigarettes as he searched the pockets of his jeans with his other hand for his lighter. He took one out the pack and crushed it back inside his robes. Harry flipped open the lighter but it merely gave a dissonant scrape, sending off a few sparks. He frowned, pulling his finger down the roller and sending more sparks into the air. Still no flame lit and Harry brought the lighter up to his ear. He shook it, expecting to hear nothing but could clearly make out the sound of liquid swishing around inside.

"Is it talking back yet Potter?" Harry heard the drawl from behind him and rolled his eyes.

"Very witty Malfoy." He replied, voice a little altered by the cigarette he was fighting to keep between his lips. Harry tried the lighter again, this time a small flame emerging from the tip. He made a noise of triumph and brought it to the cigarette, lighting it and inhaling.

"I dried you a patch of rock by the way." Harry told the blond as he took his cigarette from his mouth and exhaled. Draco lowered himself gracefully down next to Harry.

"Gods Potter, if this 'patch of rock' were any smaller I'd be on your knee. Unless, of course, that was the plan." Harry didn't need to look round to see the smirk across the pale face of the Slytherin.

"Damn, you weren't meant to figure it out so quickly." He said mockingly before taking another drag. Harry blew the smoke out slowly towards the overcast sky, Draco's silver eyes following its path as it curved upwards.

Harry placed his elbows on his knees, leaning forwards and staring down into the black depths of the lake.

"I was thinking." Harry said in wondering voice as he took another drag of tobacco.

"You didn't do any permanent damage did you?" Draco took Harry's pause for inhalation as a chance for a quick insult. Harry blew the smoke out, deliberately angling it towards Draco just a little. The blond coughed over dramatically, swatting away the smoke with his hand.

"You really are on a roll tonight Draco, what's next? Going to call me a Gryffindork?" Harry flicked off some ash and watched as it floated slowly to the waters surface.

"No I feel myself past such petty insults." Harry snorted, fighting back a laugh. Draco simply stared indignantly at him.

"What I was thinking, was that you never told me what it was that made you realize that you like other than boys ...other than being forced to as a result of the lack of decent Slytherin females."

Harry took a long drag, tossing the just over half smoked cigarette into the lake. He exhaled as he leant back.

"Only you, Potter, could think of that almost two months later." Draco leant back as well, shoulder brushing with Harry's.

"What can I say," Harry said turning to look at Draco "I'm a little slow, could be all those blows to the head over the years ...many of which from your fist might I add."

Draco laughed and turned to Harry. They were so close to each other that as Draco did so, the ends of his blond hair skimmed across Harry's face causing him to screw up his nose as he rapidly shook his head.

"Well I'd say I was sorry but I would be lying and of course you know how much we Slytherins detest lying." Harry tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

"Sure they do Malfoy." Draco continued his pseudo-innocent expression "I thought we had already discussed the fact that you could never look innocent?" Draco frowned at him, expression softening as he sighed.

"You can't blame a guy for trying, I'll just have to settle for being evilly sexy." Harry shook his head disparagingly.

"Bloody narcissist." Harry's eyes met Draco's and the blond smirked fiendishly at him.

"Yes but narcissism never looked so good." Draco brought up his hand to tuck some strands of hair behind his ear.

"Well Draco, I won't argue with that." Harry's sarcastic tone belied the truth he saw in the statement. "Now will you tell me or not?" Draco looked confused for a moment until it dawned on him what Harry meant.

"Oh yes that," he sat forward again "well the summer after fifth year, mother sent me to our house in France while she dealt with trying to get father out of prison..." Draco drifted off and Harry wondered if he'd walked into painful territory.

He sat up bringing himself in line with Draco. Unconsciously, Harry let his hand drop onto Draco's and leaned in closer to the blond.

"Are you ok?" He asked softly. Draco took in a sharp breath as he pulled himself out of his revere.

"Yeah I'm fine ...where was I?" Harry moved his hand back to his own thigh, taking his face from Draco's ear. "Oh, that's right. Well like I said I was in France, not even staying with relatives. It was just me and some house elves in an old chateaux. I wasn't alone too long though."

He turned back to look at Harry, another smirk on his face.

"I met a guy, just a little older than me, in the town one day. Turned out he lived in another chateaux not far from mine. He was from some old, pureblooded Parisian family that had moved away from the city."

Harry nodded along intently, watching the way that Draco's eyes lit up as he recollected his memory.

"I knew nearly instantly that I found him attractive ...willingly accepting his tongue in my mouth definitely confirmed it for me."

Harry found an unpleasant urge to hex this French wizard building in the back of his mind. Although he felt it made much more sense to be jealous of a wizard as opposed to pieces of chocolate or the strawberries he had witnessed Draco lovingly eating that morning.

"During sixth year me and Blaise fooled around a lot, so did me and ...some Ravenclaw, I can't remember his name."

Harry wasn't exactly sure what to say in response to the Slytherin so he sat silent as Draco turned his focus away and gazed out across the lake.

"For someone so insistent on my answering," Draco's voice drawled, breaking the silence eventually "you are being very quiet, it is most unlike you ...oh I know what the problem is." He sat back again, propping himself up on his elbows.

"You're disappointed." Harry turned and looked down at Draco "one of the factors of your realisation was my well-toned ass but you didn't feature into mine at all."

Harry looked back round across the black water, feeling Draco shift beside him as he sat up.

"Don't take it personally Potter, I'm sure there are lots of guys who go for the sweet, innocent albeit smoking, self-harming hero type." Harry groaned and dropped his head into his hand, elbows digging into his thighs.

"Must just be something about the messy, dark hair," Draco laced is fingers through Harry's hair and tousled in playfully. Harry preceded to look up glaring. "And that cute, innocent little face." The blond ran the back of his fingers down Harry's cheek before pinching it. Harry screwed up his face and batted Draco off.

"Then there is the crowning glory," his hand cupped around Harry's cheek, forcing him to meet his gaze "the eyes."

Harry chose to roll said eyes for the innumerable time that night.

"It's always the eyes, what is so great about my eyes?"

Draco titled his head, staring at the things in question. Harry watched Draco's whole expression soften, lips pouting slightly as his tongue flicked out briefly to moisten his lips.

"They're just so..." Draco's blond eyebrows furrowed slightly in the middle as he searched for the correct word "...green."

"All that thought and you come up with 'green'?" Draco seemed to snap from his day dream and pulled his hand and face away.

"What did you want me to say? That they were sparkling in the subtle glow of the castle lights?"

Harry laughed and ran his hands through his hair. He could feel the first signs of drizzle upon his face.

"No, that would have been a little too cheesy. I probably would have thought you had been possessed or struck with some bizarre curse." Draco laughed as he stood up, reaching his hand down to ruffle Harry's hair again.

Harry threw his hand up, connecting with Draco's hip. The Slytherin turned to aim a light kick at Harry's side. Unfortunately for Draco, the heel of the foot he was standing on came into contact with a conglomeration of moss that was out with the effects of Harry's drying charm.

He slipped forward and all Harry could do was shut his eyes and turn away to protect himself from the splash. To Draco's credit he didn't squeal, although he did not have much time to react before he dropped into the lake.

Harry was fighting back uncontrollable laughter when it occurred to him that it was the middle of November and the lake would be absolutely freezing.

"Bugger!" Harry muttered as he scrambled onto his knees and leant forward off the rocks to peer into the water. He searched for a telltale head of blond hair, panic steadily building until a very disgruntled, shivering, wet Draco emerged from the dark depths.

Harry reached his hand out and it was gripped by a very slippery, cold one. He dragged Draco to the rocks, assisting the Slytherin to haul himself back up. Draco flopped onto the rocks, his breathing shallow and teeth chattering. Harry helped him sit up.

"See, I thought you'd switched to Hufflepuff. Did no one tell you that badgers don't swim so well?" Draco tried to glare as best he could, which for once wasn't very.

"V-v-very f-f-unny." He managed to say. Harry smiled softly at him and stood, carefully, pulling Draco up with him. Harry rubbed his hands up and down the blondes shoulders.

"Take off those wet robes before you get pneumonia." Harry began to unfasten the clip of his own robes.

"What a-a-re you d-d-d-doing?" Draco asked him.

"You can wear mine till we get up to the castle." He replied as he pulled the black robes off of his shoulders. The night air was cold, even through his jumper and t-shirt but he could withstand it for at least the journey back up.

Draco mumbled something that loosely translated from his shivers sounded like 'bloody Gryffindors' but Harry noticed he didn't protest as Harry unclipped the top of his robes.

Harry pulled off the sodden garment, wrapping his own robes around the blondes shoulders.

"I d-don't need s-s-saving Potter." Draco huffed indignantly as he turned and started walking away, conspicuously clutching on tightly to Harry's robes.

"I think the fish you disturbed in the lake would beg to differ. Wait, I'll walk you back up." Draco tossed his hair, water flicking from the soaked strands but stood and waited none the less.

The pair walked across the rocks and up the path towards the entrance hall, gravel crunching beneath their feet. As they walked through the tall doorway into the stone hall Draco paused, eyes screwing shut. Harry was about to ask him what was wrong when he sneezed.

If it had been a normal sneeze Harry probably would have said 'Bless you' or at the least said nothing. However Draco's sneeze sounded more like one that would be heard from a young child or fluffy animal, not the Evil Prince of Slytherin.

"Oh gods, that was too cute." Harry couldn't stop himself and was well aware he would be hexed for saying it but couldn't help himself. Draco stepped up to him, bringing them face to face.

"I am not c-c-ute." Draco glared, partly at Harry and partly at his inability to talk without shivering. Harry smiled and Draco's glare lowered in intensity. He dropped the wet robes to the floor and brought his hands to Draco's shoulders and rubbed them again.

"Are you okay? I mean you did fall in freezing water." Draco tutted at him.

"Honestly I'm f-f-fine Potter." Harry's smile widened, face tilting as he took his the way Draco's blond hair was plastered to his head and the way occasional droplets of water ran down his temple. Draco gave a quiet snort of self-condescending amusement.

"Well if you're sure?" Draco gave a small nod. Harry ran his hands up and over Draco's shoulders, pulling him in against him. He felt the blond tense up in the embrace but within moments Draco's body relaxed. Harry's face was pressed into the cold, dampness of Draco's hair but he didn't seem to bother. He felt Draco's arms wrap loosely around his waist.

They lingered in the embrace for little over a minute before breaking apart and taking a moment to stare at one another.

"Good night Draco." Harry said, voice significantly more quiet than it had to be.

"Good night Harry." Draco replied, his voice equally as hushed. The Slytherin turned and headed down the passage that led to the dungeons, hands pulling Harry's robes tight around him.

When Draco had disappeared out of sight Harry sighed and bent down to pick up the wet mass of robe. He turned and slowly ascended the stair case, hand idly trailing up the banister, a rather unfocused expression in his eyes and the feel of Draco's arms around his waist.