Author: Keikokin

Title: Dealing

Winner of The Silver Snitch Lion meets serpent award

Rating: PG13

Warning: Fluff

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

When the pressures of the world are becoming too much,
Harry takes a walk around the lake. He isn't the only
one. Challenge from Silver was lightly snowing outside Hogwarts. But, Harry Potter was seething with emotions and could not spare a thought for the cold. He had all these bottled up
feelings to keep him warm. Walking resolutely toward
the lake, the voices in the head kept him company.

/Why do we always have to fight with each other? Isn't
he sick of it? I'm sick of it. Every day since we
arrived, we have fought. /

Looking around, Harry saw he was alone. He sighed and
figured he could talk out loud. He failed to notice
the slip of a green robe as it took cover behind a
tree.

"Why? Just tell me why. I just don't understand.
Every single day we go through this nonsense. You
would think in the winter before we graduate we could
stop! I mean, we have a bunch of stuff in common! We
both love Quidditch; Neither of us can stand our
friends or having people tell us what to do! Ugh."

Draco left his cover from behind the tree and began to
walk the other way around the lake, but Harry hadn't
noticed. Before long, Draco was talking to himself as
well.

"Maybe I don't want to fight either. You think of that
just once? Can we even break this habit? Speaking of
which, where the hell are my cigarettes? Ah."

Draco lit up and inhaled the fumes, taking comfort in
the familiar taste.

He failed to see Harry lighting up on the other side
of the lake as well. Harry started to walk around the
lake once again, while talking to himself.

"It's torture. It hurts so much to fight like this
for so long. I don't want to have to worry about
running into him after we graduate because he might
hex me. But, what kind of fool am I to even care?"

He shook his head in a mirror image to the blond
across the lake from him.
Draco sighed as he began to talk to himself again.

"It's not that I don't like the guy. He seems okay
deep down."

Draco looked over at Harry and let his eyes roam over
the figure of the Gryffindor Seeker.

"Damn, he's got a sweet body on him. I bet he's good
in bed. But he's probably as straight as an arrow,
damn it. Maybe that's why I fight him; because I know
I can't have him."

The Slytherin laughed out loud as he saw Harry smoking
a fag too. Harry heard it and looked around and
nodded in Draco's direction. The blond stared at him
and waved.

"OH great what is he doing out here? Shite, can the
guy get any closer to perfection? That hair of his
against the snow is just so damn hot. Shite. He's so
not gay. He has probably bedded half the women
in the school. Oh man, I bet he's a great shag
though."

Harry shook his head and mindlessly continued to walk.
Draco smiled as he saw Harry headed in his direction
again. He had thought when the Gryffindor noticed his
presence he would leave.

"I wonder if I should try to make things right between
us before we graduate. Damn, it is going to suck to
go back to that Manor…alone. Even my own stupid
parents had to get caught and locked up. And what did they do it for,
some idiot that Potter killed with one stroke of his
wand? I should thank him, really; what awful parents.
I would have been better off an orphan, like him."

Draco began to walk again. Harry glanced up and saw
how close he was getting to the Slytherin, and began to
feel very insecure about his choice of direction.

"Maybe away from the school we can have one
conversation without fighting. I need to get in touch
with reality. The next thing you know I'll be
wondering if he is thinking about me. But he seems
okay, deep down. I've seen him with other people, when
he doesn't think anyone is looking. I remember seeing
him help a first year that got lost trying to find
potions. So, which is the real Draco Malfoy; the one
who is an absolute git, or the one who helps little
first years? Does anyone else see this, or is it just
me?"

Harry walked over to a tree and watched Draco as he
drew closer. He laughed softly. Draco seemed to be
talking to himself as well.

"Why am I so consumed by this? What does it matter if
we don't become friends or even talk before we
graduate? Maybe it's because he has me being nice to
first years, or thinking about running my fingers
through his hair. Or, is it because when I play
against him it excites me as like nothing else?"

Harry caught the last few words of Draco's monologue,
and his ears perked up.

"As like nothing else?" Harry asked, softly breaking into
Draco's thoughts.

"Oh, hello," Draco looked down and flicked his butt
away.

Harry flicked his to join Draco's.

"You going to answer my question, or are we going to
have another fight?"

"Ok, but if we have a question and answer session it
will be honest answers or no answers at all, deal?"

"OK. So answer."

"Yes, as like nothing else."

"Were you talking about playing against me excites you
as like nothing else?"

"Yes."

Harry went quiet and then said.

"It's the same for me. You are the best damn Seeker I
have to go against."

"So how come I never see you dating anyone? I mean
the famous Harry Potter; the girls must be throwing
themselves at you."

"Yeah, they did for a long time until I came out last
year."

"What?"

"Didn't you know? I thought Slytherin House would
have been the first to figure me out."

"So now you have guys throwing themselves at you
instead?"

"Not that interest me."

"So I saw that big spread on you in Witch Weekly, the
Wizarding Worlds most eligible bachelor; pretty
impressive. I bet you had loads of dates after that."

"None, actually, but, word got out about me being gay
around the same time."

Harry went quiet for a second then began again.

"This is pretty sad; both of us getting more turned on
by Quidditch than anything else."

"Yeah, if we weren't fighting all the time, maybe we'd
be dating by now."

"Do you think we could stop fighting, Draco?"

"I'd sure like to Harry."

"So would I, Draco, so would I. Deal?"

"Deal, Harry."

"Man, at this rate we could be dating by graduation,
Draco."

"Or even sooner, Harry."

"Well, if we did that, at least we have our own rooms
this year."

"True."

"I have an invisibility cloak too."

"So do I, back at the Manor."

"I've heard that place is something else. I'd like to
see it sometime."

"I'll take you over the Winter Holiday to see it if
you'd like."

"Deal, Draco."

"Hmm, this is rather nice getting to talk to you
without all the fighting."

"Well, no more fighting was our first deal."

"And the second was taking you to the Manor for the
holidays."

"What should our third be?"

"To go out with each other, Harry?"

"Deal. Starting when, Draco?"

"Now," and Draco swept Harry into his embrace and
kissed him like a man dying of hunger. It was
passionate, needy and desperate.

Harry's kisses were, in turn, voracious. He seemed to writhe with hidden
depths of desire for the blond man who was holding him
so tightly, pinned to the tree at his back. When Draco
ended the kiss and began to kiss along Harry's jaw
line he chuckled, as Harry gasped out one word.

"Deal."