Crossing the Line: by GiddyGirl15
Disclaimer: I am J. K. Rowling and I am wasting my precious time on writing a romance novel that involves two of my own characters and their being gay together. Please sue.
(For those of you who didn't catch the above sarcasm, no I'm not J. K. Rowling and no, I don't own Harry Potter. Sue me if you must, but don't expect more than pocket-lint.)
Warning: Slash. Male on male relations. Harry/Draco. Yeah. Don't like? Don't read.
Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, everyone…I had some stuff to attend to when I got back from camp. Better late than never, right? Anyway, here it is, chapter six. Thank you all so much for the amazing reviews! Um, I guess that's it, so on with the show! Please read and review!
Chapter Six: Forgive and Forget
Draco had done a lot of thinking since the previous day's meeting with Dumbledore. While at first he was completely dead-set against the idea of a Hogwarts Order, after careful consideration he actually found himself warming up to the idea. In this case, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks. There were actually a lot of advantages to it: he would have the opportunity to learn how to protect himself from all the crazy psycho- people out to destroy him, he would actually get to take part in the destruction of Voldemort and all his twisted minions, get to feel all noble and aristocratic after doing so, not to mention the fact that I'll get to watch Potter get all heroic and riled up and sweaty and – um, right, no, that one's definitely in the category of bad things about it. Yup, definitely. Bad. Very bad. Yeah. Actually, the only real flaw he could come up with in this brilliant plan was that he would have to spend exuberant amounts of time with the three people he hated most in the entire school. Well, four, if you count Dumbledore. More like three. Because he didn't hate Potter. No. He just rather disliked the fact that he was so damn famous, and so fucking noble about being so damn famous. He was a fucking celebrity! It just wasn't fair…he was a celebrity, he had great friends, amazing wizard skills, brilliant flying skills, a really nice arse, and – stop that! When it all came down to it, jealousy was the only thing that stood in the way of their friendship.
That, and the fact that Draco's father wanted Harry dead. Minor setback there. It would give "meet the parents" a whole new meaning. Draco sighed.
Down in the Great Hall, Draco cautiously made his way over to the Gryffindor table to discuss the Order plans with : shudder : the Golden Trio. Putting on his most winning smile, he walked over and attempted to keep things civil between him and his former arch rivals. "Morning sunshines! And how are we today?" Draco tried very, very hard not to laugh out loud at the identical looks of utter stupefaction on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces. "Well," he continued. "I guess we're not morning people, are we?" Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry just looked slightly confused. Ron stuffed his face with a strawberry crepe. "I just thought we might want to discuss some, er, stuff this morning, if you catch my drift," he said brightly. "I thought it best we get started A.S.A.P., you know?"
"Er, right," said Hermione, uncertainly. "Well, we thought it might be a good idea to begin with recruiting," she began. "We need to make sure we keep this on the down-low so that Voldemort doesn't find out what we're up to. Malfoy, that's where you come in."
"Me?"
"Yeah," Harry spoke up. "Being who you are, you've probably got the best idea out of all of us about who is a Death Eater and who isn't. You can make sure that only people supporting the Light side are informed of the plan."
"But what if someone leaks the information? What if they turn sides?" Ron asked pointedly.
"I agree with the Weasel," said Draco, earning him a glare from Ron at his use of that not-so-flattering nickname. Draco ignored it. "Even having previously been in the 'in crowd' of the sanity-challenged-people club, it's hard to tell who's supporting who these days."
"Veritaserum," said Hermione promptly.
"What?" asked Harry, confused.
"Veritaserum," Hermione repeated. "We'll slip Veritaserum into the person's tea or pumpkin juice or something, and then we'll ask them who they advocate!"
"Good thinking, 'Mione," said Harry appreciatively. "Drac – er – Malfoy, can you be in charge of collecting a couple bottles of the potion from Snape?"
"Yeah, I guess," said Draco, promptly shaking off the near slip of his first name.
"Great," said Harry, rubbing his hands together. "Then let's go ahead and meet tonight after classes in the Gryffindor common room to discuss – "
"Wait!" protested Draco. "Why can't it be in the Slytherin dorms? I don't want to be spending all my time with bloody Gryffindors!" This comment was greeted by a trio of eye rolls.
"Fine, we'll meet in the library then," said Harry, and everyone nodded in agreement.
Meeting adjourned.
Later that same day…
Hermione sat alone in the library, just thinking. No books. No discussion groups. Just her and her in-depth contemplation. She had thought a lot about Malfoy ever since the previous night, when his diary had revealed some not so glamorous things about his seemingly immaculate life. It made him human almost, to have suffered like that, in a way that Hermione had never thought possible in what she believed to be a worthless, slimy, self-centered shit-face of a human being. She hadn't ever felt such a powerful feeling of remorse toward anything or anyone in her entire life. It was no wonder that Malfoy always acted so malicious and cruel…he had a devil of a father and a cold, distant, currently dead mother, his only friends were his dimwitted bodyguards, and he was born into a name that immediately struck fear into the nation; it was no wonder the kid was a bit funny in the head! Never once was he shown compassion or love from another human being. Never once did he know what it felt like to cry on a friend's shoulder.
Hermione had never felt worse about anything in her entire life. She sighed. Right then and there she forgave him for all past cruelties. It seemed sudden, but she finally knew that the only way to help him was to forgive and forget. As much as she hated to admit it, she was wrong about Malfoy, and she was wrong in the way she treated him. There was no sense in continuing on as mortal enemies…especially now that they were on the same side. No. Now was the time to heed the Sorting Hat's warnings…they had to stand together and fight side-by-side, which meant befriending old enemies.
Now, she thought to herself. If I could only convince Harry and Ron to do the same.
Hermione figured the best place to start in convincing her boys was to talk to Harry. Him being the oh so wonderful world-saving superhero full of compassion, honesty, truth, and all things noble, she guessed he would be the quickest to learn to look past Draco Malfoy's sneer. However, she also knew of Harry's notorious obstinate streak and, from experience, was well aware of the fact that he was not easily swayed once his mind was made up. Therefore, Hermione knew that she needed to lay down her cards right in order to make Harry get past the "civil" actions and come to actually trust and befriend Draco Malfoy.
She had rehearsed the speech thoroughly, going through all the main points and ensuring that she got everything down. She began treading back to the Gryffindor common room to talk to Harry when a noise diverted her attention to a nearby, seemingly abandoned corridor. Muffled voices could be heard resonating off the stone. Curious, Hermione peered around the corner to see a very disheveled Harry and purely disgruntled Draco apparently having a very intense argument about something. She sighed inwardly, and made to step out into the open to break it up.
However……just as she stepped out behind the stone wall, she saw something she would never have believed had she not seen it with her own two eyes: Having reached an angry lull in the heated conversation, Harry and Draco seemed to have just settled for breathing heavily and glaring menacingly into each other's eyes. They were barely a foot apart. When, all of a sudden, the emotion in the eyes of one Harry Potter altered completely from anger and malice to a whole different sort of look altogether. Without warning, he closed the foot-wide gap in between them and planted a firm kiss on Draco's lips. And as if that wasn't shocking enough, Draco returned it. With just as much heated desire as Harry did.
WHAT THE -- !
A/N: W00t for slash! YAY! So what on earth was happening in that little scuttle between our little lovebirds-to-be there that made things turn so…erm…kissy? Find out in next week's flashback chapter! I guess Harry won't need too much convincing after all. Sorry Hermione, I know you worked on that speech special…save it for Ron, yeah? I'm sorry this chapter was so short, but it just ended itself there. Not to mention the fact that I had major, major writer's block through the whole thing so it's definitely not my best work. Urgh. I swear that the next chapter coming is going to be posted way early and it's going to be so much better than this one. Promise. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading and reviewing (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Again, sorry about the delay! Love you all…review, review, review!
P.S. I realize that this story has been really slow in the get-going and the establishing of all the relationships, but I just felt that it needed the foundation, you know? Anyway, now that I've at least laid out the soil for relationships to blossom a bit, I'm pretty sure that things will start rolling from here. So thanks for hanging in there!