Chapter 9: Where do you come up with your insults?

Harry crept up to the side of Draco's bed, hand lifted up to cover his face and breathing shallowly. He opened the curtain of the bed, knowing full well that Draco was sleeping while he was taking his ritual morning shower. He whipped the curtains open and jumped on the bed, fully expecting the lump under him to be Draco. Instead, he met a lump of a pillow. Harry swiveled around looking for Draco. He did not expect someone to latch on to him and push him, face first, into the bed and proceed to tickle him.

"Whaaaahhhaaaa," Harry shrieked. Between his chuckles he finally managed to call, "Truce! Truce!"

Draco jumped off of him and stuck out his tongue. "Winner! I'm always winner of the tickle game!" He pumped his fist in the air in triumph.

Harry rolled his eyes and crawled off the bed so that he could pick up his school bag. They had already skipped breakfast in order to sleep in later. He opened up their bedroom door and peered out checking to make sure Pansy wasn't there to yell at them..

He wondered vaguely why the two of them did not share a dorm room with all the other boys. He also wondered why he had a cot to sleep on instead of a four poster bed like the other boys. Just before leaving the room he decided to add that question to his list of 'questions from Harry Potter's mysterious past'.

Harry walked beside Draco quietly. They had Magical History first. Even Harry frowned- the man was just plain boring. True, Harry liked history, but he did not like listening to the monotone the boring old ghost had affected. He sat down next to Draco in the back of the room and sighed as he rested his head on his hand, already expecting a boring day.

"Today, Class, we will learn about Zondias and the war he fought and ended himself." After the first sentence all Harry could hear was blah, blah, blah. Even Hermione, the smartest one in the class, was only hearing the blah, blah, blah part and missing the information. Eventually Harry turned to his head to the side and stared at Draco as he zoned out.

Draco turned to face him when he felt his stare and immediately began a staring contest. He pulled a face and waited for Harry to do the same. They kept staring. Harry wiggled his eyebrows. Draco retaliated by jabbing his arm out to make him flinch. The staring contest continued.

"Blah, blah, blah…Mr. Potter, what year was this?" Binns had just noticed that everyone but Potter and Malfoy were asleep.

Harry did not look away from his staring contest with Draco. "1502." He said confident that his answer was correct.

"Very good, Mr. Potter. Five points to Slytherin!" The slight animation in his voice was enough to wake up several students.

Draco raised his eyebrow, he was impressed.

Harry understood his question and shrugged his shoulder. "We read about it awhile ago. I just put two and two together."

Draco glared. "You are sure it wasn't just a wild guess?"

Harry continued staring but nodded his head. "No guess. We read it already."

They resumed their staring contest. They were both starting to feel the need to blink. The burn behind their eyelids was beginning to make them tear up a bit.

"Harry?" Hermione yelled. He jumped and closed his eyes.

"WINNEERRR!" Draco drawled triumphantly.

Harry seethed. He had just been about to win too. Now Draco was up by two games. He whirled around and glared at Hermione.

"What?" He snapped, pissed off and not caring whether she knew or not.

Hermione did not even flinch. "Nothing!" She snickered and turned back to the lesson.

Harry glared at her, mumbling something about stupid Gryffindors always ruining his fun. Draco was still doing his little happy smile and the occasional little happy dance. It irritated Harry to the point where he could not help but cast a little jelly legs jinx to help with the dance a bit. He rolled his eyes at the exuberant Draco and smiled angelically before adding, "Until next time?"

SSS

Harry, Draco, and Hermione walked to the Great Hall together. They had finished their classes and were on their way to lunch. Harry and Hermione were deep in a conversation about something they had learned about in class and Draco was feeling just a tad neglected and was thinking about complaining when he thought better of it.

'At the end of the day it is always me that he comes to, not them!' He said to himself.

Harry was so engrossed in the conversation that he did not notice he had walked over to the Gryffindor table with Hermione. He stopped and blinked before saying, "Hey, I'll be right back, ok? That is if you don't mind me sitting here with you." He was just a little hesitant.

Hermione smiled brilliantly. She was happy that Harry was once again giving her a chance to better their friendship.

"Sure. I don't mind. I don't think anyone else will care either." Harry nodded and made his way back over to the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Draco, I'm going to sit with Hermione at the Gryffindor table and finish our discussion, all right?" He did not think that he needed to ask his permission but he felt that he should explain to his best friend what he was doing.

Draco's reaction was more than Harry expected. The blond immediately began fuming that there was no way in hell was he should be sitting there.

"NO!" Draco demanded, not caring that he was giving his friend no choice.

"Slytherins do not sit with Gryffindorks! It is just wrong."

Harry looked at him like he was crazy. "I can sit wherever I want to." Harry whispered, not wanting to cause a scene.

Draco looked up and shrugged his shoulders. "No." He said again.

Harry put up a silencing spell. "Look, you! All I want to do is sit there and talk while I eat. What the hell is your problem?"

Draco stood up and glared at him. "I said no! What part of the word NO don't you understand: The N or the O?"

"I can sit where I like. You aren't my boss!" Harry repeated as he clutched the edge of the table.

By now they had attracted the attention of the whole hall and everyone was staring at them. The silencing spell ensured that no one could hear what was going on, but everyone knew that the two boys were angry. Really Angry!. And a Potter/ Malfoy fight has not been seen in over a year. The whole hall held their breath.

Draco loomed over Harry and gritted his teeth. " I said fucking NO you can't sit there, Potter!" He knew he was being stupid and unreasonable but he could not quit now.

Hearing his last name uttered with such contempt felt like a blow in his stomach. "Malfoy, you can't just order people around." Harry said gritting his teeth.

"Fucking sit down now and I will forget whatever it was you just said." Draco mentally flinched as he realized he sounded like his father, but he could not back down from this clash of wills; it was too important.

"Hell no! Why don't you go fuck yourself, Ferret-Face?" Harry hissed angrily.

Draco's eyes flashed angrily. "Fuck off, yourself, Scar head." He huffed.

'This feels familiar.' Harry thought to himself as he felt feelings of hate bubble up inside which he knew he did not feel for Draco. The pain of the foreign emotion burned his stomach like acid. He loved Draco, Draco was his best friend, still, there was no way in hell he was going to let Draco bully him around.

"I can fucking sit where I want to! I'm also tired of dealing with shit from you, so sit your petit aristocratic arse down and eat your lunch." Harry said turning around.

Seething mad, Draco grabbed Harry and jerked him around. "Do you expect me to take that? Do you?" Draco roared.

Both boys were feeling the urge to fight. They were just squaring off to start exchanging blows when Pansy entered the hall. One look at her angry face made them both whimper in fear and back down. Harry dropped the silencing spell as he started inching back behind Draco.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Now quit before I hang both of you up by your knickers from the Quidditch hoops." Both boys nodded and lowered their heads in shame. Draco slumped into his seat.

Harry watched both Pansy and Draco uncertainly for a few seconds before turning to go back to the Gryffindor table. He heard Draco whisper to him that if he sat at that table he had better not expect Draco to be his friend when he came back. Harry shot him an affronted look and stomped over to the offending table.

"What the hell were you two fighting about?" Pansy demanded.

Draco was slightly ashamed of himself and didn't really want to talk to her. Her glare convinced him otherwise. "I didn't want him to sit there," Draco said pointing to the Gryffindor table.

"He came up with the most interesting insults though, he called me Ferret Face. Personally, I don't think I look like a ferret." Draco said rubbing his face.

Pansy choked on her food but didn't comment. "Well whatever you said, it didn't work" She added.

"On the contrary- he isn't sitting, Luv. He is standing." Draco said snickering. He was strangely pleased to see Harry standing at the corner of the back table, eating a sandwich and talking to Hermione. Harry was definitely a Slytherin: always finding a loophole in the rules.

SSS

They both felt the tension in the room as they tried getting ready for bed. Harry put on his green boxers that said, "Property of Slytherin." Draco wore his black silk pj pants that had the Slytherin crest embroidered on them. They both looked at the bed then at each other. Draco's glare was enough to make Harry sigh- they had come to the inevitable. Neither boy would apologize because they were both too proud to.

Harry went to the unused cot. Feeling dread in his body he slowly climbed in. Already he was missing the heat that was always there in his right. Three hours later he was still awake, sniffling because he was so miserable and couldn't bear being in the cold bed alone.

Draco was tossing and turning, unable to sleep either. Their bed seemed too big and cold without Harry in it. He knew Harry was still awake because he could hear the quiet wounded little sounds that his best friend was trying so hard to hide from him. He finally sat up and threw his hands up in the air.

He shrieked, "RAWR! I can't stand this anymore." He jerked open the curtain and glared at Harry. "Shut up and go to sleep, Potter!"

Harry flinched at the use of his last name. It hurt coming from Draco's mouth like that. All of a sudden he was just a little boy again who was too tired to fight.

"I can't." He hiccupped before folding his arms across his skinny little chest and turning his face to the wall so that Draco couldn't see the tears.

Harry fought his tears for several minutes before losing the battle.

"Look," he said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sat there. All they talked about was 'are the Slytherins treating me right' and then they started to call us a bunch of names. I should of listened to you. But you made me so mad that I had to do it."

Draco smiled in his pillow.

'He knows who his real friends are and they are in Slytherin.' He thought. 'Harry knows that I wouldn't make fun of anyone unless they deserve it.' He added.

"Good. I am glad that you know you were wrong." He mentally flinched again thinking that he really needed to work on not channeling his father so much. He let the heavy pause swell for about a minute then snapped,

"What the hell are you waiting for? It's cold in this bed and I can't sleep without you here."

Harry snapped out of his misery and cautiously slid out of his covers. He walked slowly over to the right side of the bed but jumped in when he saw Draco jerk the covers up for him.

He felt the cold lift from his bones when Draco's arm snaked across his chest and pulled him close. Since he was too young to really understand the fine line between friendship and love Harry didn't worry about the kiss Draco pressed to his forehead since most children still exchange friendly kisses at the age of eleven and twelve if they are close.

SSS

"DAMM THEM! DAMM THEM TO HELL!" Voldemort's ex-pet screamed in a fit of pique as he trashed the room he usually slept in.

"How dare they kill my lord, my love? I will kill them and revive him with their blood. Snape will never suspect that I would try to steal his soul. Never!" The irate pet strode back and forth in the room, laughing hysterically and planning.

"Tomorrow I shall get them. Tomorrow!",

SSS

Even though Harry felt safe and comfortable in Draco's arms, he could not manage to sleep. He felt something was amiss. Finally, when the anxiety was at a level he was almost ready to wake Draco and confide in him, he heard the cloak strike twelve. His body began to feel like it was on fire, his skin crawling, and his hair felt like it was being ripped from his head. Then he forgot all about his own altered appearance as he watched the changes Draco was sleeping through.

Harry knew that he was now twelve and Draco was thirteen. Draco must have grown about five inches. It was weird looking at the physical changes in both of them. It had been too much too fast and he was confused and disoriented. Then he felt something bubble up in his stomach as he looked at the thirteen year old Draco. He didn't understand these new emotions but he felt the urge to learn over and kiss his lips.

Draco's mouth tasted like mint tooth paste and tears. No the tears were from his face. Then the thought struck Harry that he had just kissed Draco. He could not believe his nerve and gasped in surprise as he raised his hand to cover his lips.

He was about to bolt from the bed when the arms that were around him tightened and Harry felt Draco pulling him back down into the bed so that he could put his chin on Harry's head. He quietly moaned in pleasure as the other boy's shallow soft breathing once again ruffled his hair and lulled him to sleep.

I know it's so short, but it had to be done, I solemnly swear that it will be longer next chapter.

SUPER BETA solemnly swears she will not let this wicked author corrupt these two little boys before they are both comfortable with puberty…

Andi: ( glares at beta..) I'm not corrupting them…. not yet at least …..

( muhuhuahahahah!)

Now would anyone like to guess who is the Pet is? Come on you guys, I know you want to guess!

Super Beta says that it is probably Minerva after one too many sips of Scotland's finest.