A/N: Short chapter, but better than nothing...I hope. The longest Draco-Harry encounter yet, for those of you who have been bugging me about it...
The Java Hut was bustling with high school students on their lunch break, fanatically busy. The small parking lot was completely full, and Hermione ended up parking across the street, in the lot of a general store.
Harry got out of the Jeep and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. He lit a cigarette and danced about for warmth as Hermione locked the car and checked the doors.
"Cold, cold, bloody fucking WONDERFUL COLD!" he shrieked at no one in particular. "Hermione! Lend me your body heat!" Rolling her eyes, she did as she was told and they hurried across the street in a huddled, giggling mass.
No one was sitting outside, having preferred the delicious, crowded warmth of the indoors.
Stubbornly, Harry sat on the utterly freezing wrought iron chair before him.
"Harry! It's nearly twenty degrees outside! Come on, let's go in!" Hermione gasped.
"No, I want to finish my cigarette. Go ahead inside, and I'll be in, in but a minute, love." For a moment, Hermione weighed the odds—a roomful of people who either didn't know her or actively disliked her…or frostbite. The warmth radiating from the Java Hut won out, however, and with a quick nod to Harry, she darted inside.
Chuckling, ignoring the bitter numbness his bruises screamed at him about in the cold, Harry took another drag, perhaps revealing in the pain just a little.
Harry was never at his best alone, and now his mind turned to darker things.
To last night's beating.
Vernon had been upset because Harry had put all of the pictures on the mantle, and none on the end tables in the foyer. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
"Boy!" he had roared, face redder than usual. "What did I tell you, huh? What did I tell you? I told you to put the pictures in the hallway and the mantle! Can't you follow even the simplest of directions, you worthless freak!?"
"You told me nothing of the sort!" Harry had retorted unwisely; his mouth always made it worse for him.
Wham! Vernon's fist sent Harry spinning into the wall. A picture frame he'd carefully hung up earlier fell and shattered. Lying on the floor, trembling with rage and terror, he found himself staring at an old photograph of Dudley's fat, pink, two year old face.
Somehow, having to look at that picture as his uncle punished him made it all the worse.
"Why the long face, Potter? Did Granger abandon you already?"
Harry was jerked out of the memory by Draco Malfoy's drawling voice.
Regaining his composure quickly, he turned to offer the object of his mild obsession a charming grin, secretly pleased that Malfoy was not in the company of his friends.
"Fancy meeting you here, Malfoy," he said cheerfully, ignoring the jibe.
Malfoy sneered. "Sitting out here, alone in the cold, looking forlorn and pathetic—" he began in another attempt to break through Harry's infallible good mood, but Harry interrupted him.
"Please, have a seat," he offered, gesturing to the empty chair across from him. Malfoy looked at him with wide eyes, and glanced around as if for help. No one was outside. The chiming of Christmas music drifted through the glass windows of the coffee shop behind them. Harry waited, a small, dare-you-to-do-it smile tugging at his mouth.
Draco Malfoy looked around nervously, and then back at the strange creature awaiting his answer, smiling at him teasingly.
The unspoken challenge was what compelled him; a Malfoy never turned down a dare. Trademark smirk firmly in place, he pulled out a chair and took a seat across from Potter, noting with satisfaction the surprise that flickered briefly across the other boy's face. Another emotion quickly followed, one that Draco rarely saw directed towards him: happiness.
"Stop that," he snapped irritably before he could stop himself.
"Stop what?" Potter asked, confused.
"Stop…grinning." Draco winced at how foolish it sounded out loud.
Potter raised one pierced eyebrow but didn't question it. He arranged his features into an alluring pout. "Better?" he asked, obviously fighting to keep the smile from returning.
The first time Draco Malfoy ever met Harry Potter, he'd decided almost immediately that he couldn't stand him. He was too pleasant, too happy, and it clashed with the dark clothing, make up, and…and the bottled fury that lurked just beneath the surface, the insensible, cold rage that he had glimpsed momentarily that day.
But now Draco found himself disliking Potter for another reason all together.
He hated Potter because he was beautiful. He hated how engaging that fucking grin was; he hated how sexy the pout was. Ha hated the way his eyes seemed to glow in the dismal winter weather, glittering and hopeful and somehow haunted. He hated the boy's long, slender fingers as they brought the cigarette up for another drag.
He hated that he had been thinking about those fingers, those hands, for three days straight. Dreaming about what it would be like to feel Potter's skin against his, soft and nearly painfully electric.
"What is wrong with you, Potter?" he said aloud, glaring. "I'd almost say you're flirting with me. What're you, some kinda fag?"
His voice betrayed none of his inner turmoil. In fact, Draco had been struggling with his sexuality for years, ever since he'd joined the soccer team in his freshman year and met Oliver Wood, the coach. He couldn't take his eyes off of Oliver—the way his ass moved in silky soccer shorts, the powerful muscles in his arms and chest, the sweat that beaded on his face after a particularly strenuous workout. Hoping to put an end to what he considered to be sinful thoughts, he'd snatched up a girlfriend, and had kept a steady stream of them throughout his attendance at Stonewall. Pansy, the latest one, was a giggling, pug-faced cheerleader with a lot of curves and not a lot of intelligence.
Potter leaned forward, pout gone and smiling reigning once more. "In England," he said conversationally, not in the least offended as far as Draco could tell, "a fag is a cigarette." He lit another one. "And I'm not a cigarette, as you can plainly see."
There was a silence as Draco processed this. "You're an idiot," he said finally. A gorgeous idiot, his mind added, and he smacked himself mentally.
Potter shrugged, unperturbed. "That may be," he agreed amicably. "So, I hear Snape despises everyone but you. Why is that?"
The abrupt change in subject startled Draco, and instead of the jeering retort he would have normally dished out, he found himself replying civilly. "He's my uncle. He has to like me."
"My uncle doesn't. Do you actually enjoy his company? He seems like such a prat."
"He's okay, outside of school. Your uncle doesn't what?"
"Like me." A flash of darkness slid across the surface of Potter's emerald gaze and retreated quickly. Draco shivered. "Where are your friends?"
Draco suddenly realized that he was having a real conversation with the hated boy who had stirred such wrongful feelings deep within him, and sought to remedy the problem quickly. "What's it to you, Potter?" he said meanly.
Potter's eyes narrowed a little. "Will you stop doing that? The whole stuck-up git act is pretty captivating at first, but really, I'm trying to get to know you a little better. You run hot and cold, Malfoy. Make up your mind. Will you put aside whatever barrier you've decided to construct long enough for us to have a nice conversation, or will you blast me with bitter insults at every turn? Well? I'm waiting."
"I…I…what?"
Oh, how Draco despised this boy! Why was it so easy for Potter to take every witty thing he said and use it to his own means to make him look like an utter jackass? Why was it that only he could make him speechless?
"Captivating?" he finally asked.
"Huh?"
"You said the way I acted was captivating," Draco repeated. It was impossible to tell if the flush on Potter's cheeks was from the cold or mild embarrassment, but he felt instinctually that he now had the upper hand.
About damn time.
He reclined in his chair, smirking. "I think I was right about you, Potter," he mused, watching him carefully. "I think," and here he paused dramatically, "that you are a fag."
Draco was, to say the least, surprised when Potter burst out laughing, clapping his hands with amusement. "Well, duh!" he managed to gasp out, clutching his side. "Oy, you bloody Americans! So damn oblivious, the lot of you!" Another peal of muffled giggles escaped him.
Draco scowled. "So you are?"
"Gay? Well, yeah, isn't it obvious? You said so yourself, I've been flirting with you every chance I get." Potter watched him with amusement as he sputtered indignantly.
"What? I'm not queer, Potter!"
The other boy shrugged. "Suit yourself, Malfoy. But homosexual or not, I'll give you one thing: You're the most stunningly, mind-blowingly gorgeous bloke I've ever had the privilege of laying eyes on. And if you ever decide to bat for the home team, here's my number."
Potter shoved a piece of paper into Draco's hand and strolled inside, grinning that infernal grin.
Furious, face flaming, Draco stood up, knocking his chair over, and began to stalk to his car. Fucking asshole, he thought angrily, fucking fag! What a creep!
…what a hot creep…
"No!" he shouted out loud. A passing woman in a ridiculous fur hat gave him an odd glance, which he ignored. He saw a trash can and strode towards it with die-hard intent.
But his hand hovered over the bin, fingers clenched viciously around the scrap of paper. After a long, silent debate with himself, he put it in his coat pocket, grimacing.
Just in case, he assured himself, he ever wanted to torment Potter.
Response for the Reviews:
magic-shield: At least you got around to reading it, eh? Thanks!
LJMharry: You liked them both? Phew, I'm glad. Personally, I'm not too fond of The Golden Boy Image. Thanks, and merry Christmas to you too!
Hawkenten: Don't worry, Harry will get progressively more wild. Thanks!
HPDM-Slash-Rocks: A lot more HD interaction here. Thank you for reviewing!
Bibilein: Here it is, just for you! Lol. Enjoy.
HitTheFloor04: ...It's 36 degrees outside? Humid? Pssh. Lol. Yeah, Draco's all American Eagle-ish, and unfortunately, Pansy is his girlfriend...not for long, though!
ZombieGurl98: Thank you.
All American19: Thank you, thank you, and thank you! I try. Been a bit hectic around here, lately...
catseyes348: Thank you, I love punk Harry fics, myself.
ladyraebef: Oh, I love how my hair came out! It's so short, sort of shaved on the sides and longer up top...the shortest I've ever had it. Thank you for the review.
Sezza Ridka: Thanks for the review, and for squashing my self-doubt.
randompancake: I do that too with my original stories, but I'll try to keep it up because of these wonderful reviews; thanks!
driven to insanity: Ron is such a loser sometimes in the books. I thought he needed a little pizzaz, you know? Thanks!
medusa-oblangada: That's a really good idea. I'll try to work it in somewhere. Maybe I should stick her in band or something. Thank you!
Night: Would you like me to email the story to you?
Dea Puella: I purposely never mentioned where they were, because personally, I have no freaking clue. If you could suggest somewhere I'll shove it in; but I don't think I even named the town. I actually really love the cold weather. Thanks for the review!
Slash-lover: An angel...I like that. In black ink, curled in on himself, maybe? I'm looking for an excuse to make Harry take his shirt off, so I can display the tattoo, and maybe some nipple piercings, heehee.
Kuramalovergirl15: Draco gets with Harry, Hermione makes new friends, and Ron gets with Hermione. Yep. You betcha.
Flame-OF-Ciara: Well, thanks. I liked this chapter a little bit more than the last...
Chesire Cat666: Thank you so much!
bthatcher2002: Thanks, here it is.
addmoose2004: Well, here's another chapter set in the school day...I guess the whole thing will be three chapters long, arrrg. Thanks!
Hannah Abby: I wanted to spark Ron's jealousy with Harry's casual affection towards Hermione. Merry Christmas to you, too, and thanks!
Lo26: Thank you! Please keep reading, cha?
theTigersFire: Ahh, I love embarrassing Draco! Thanks.
doxie: Heehee, yeah.
Mistress Vamp: No Ron in this chappie, sorry. Thank you for the review!
Dragon Smile: I'm glad you like it, even if it isn't usually your thing. Thanks!
mah-angel-frum-heaven: Hey, thanks!
Angels Whisper: I hope you like this chapter as much as you did the last...
drarrysev: Another great idea! Wow, I'm really going to have to cram all of this in, lol. Thanks for the tip and the review!
Crystal Moon Dragon: Sorry this one is so much shorter. And yes, Pansy IS Draco's girlfriend, for now.
iced-forest: A well-rounded story? Thank you! I like how awkward they are around each other, thought it would make them more personable.
zoomaphonethepirate: You certainly aren't annoying; I adore rambling reviews. So thank you!
fudgebaby: Glad you liked it, and thanks!
simone: You betcha! I tried not tp make Harry too extreme--glad I pulled it off. Thank you for reviewing.
ura-hd: You, too! And thanks!
oracale: Love that you're loving it.
Rit-Globe: Heehee, my mom makes me wrap the presents that she's bought for me. Enjoy this as well, and try to keep your rear parked firmly in your chair. Thank you!
lita-2003: Thanks!
Raven's Light: And they're going to be here for another two weeks! I can barely stand to think about it. Thank you for reviewing; let's chat again, cha?
Hippy FlowerVoldies Kid: Wow, I'm on both lists? I'm so honored! Thank you so much!
A/N: Hoooooly crap, that's it. Jeez. Thank you all for reviewing, like I've said a million times. I appreciate it SO much. Happy Holidays. Christmas tomorrow--y'all excited? I know I am.