Chapter 2 Reactions
In the boy's dorm, Harry was fuming. He had not taken Seamus' revelation at dinner very well. He'd felt betrayed.
"What the hell are you thinking?" he yelled at the top of his voice. He could not believe that this situation would have occurred.
"What's your problem Harry? Why can't you just be happy for me? It's because I'm dating a guy isn't it. Jeez Harry, you're such a homophobe!"
"It's not because you are dating another guy" Harry interrupted his defensive tirade "It's because you're dating THAT guy! How could you do that? I thought you had more sense than that!"
"How dare you make that…" Seamus was interrupted by Dean opening the door.
"Would you boys please keep your voices down," he requested "or would you prefer the entire school to hear you fighting?" As Dean left, Seamus continued in a significantly lower tone. "How dare you make that judgement about him." Seamus almost whispered "You don't even know him."
"I know him well enough." Harry said bitterly.
"You don't know him at all!" Seamus was on the verge of hysteria. How could Harry be so insensitive? "I thought you would be mature enough to see past your emotions and preconceptions, but apparently your not. He's not like everyone thinks." Seamus pleaded "if he didn't have so many people expecting him to be and act a particular way, he wouldn't have to pretend to be so cruel and distant." Seamus could see it was futile. No matter what he said, Harry was not prepared to believe any different of Draco.
Harry shook his head. /You really believe that, don't you/ Hethought to himself. /Malfoy had better watch himself. If he hurts Seamus I won't be the only one after his head./ Aloud he said "Look, I don't want to fight anymore. I won't try and stop you seeing Malfoy, but I won't approve of your relationship either. Just promise me that you'll be careful. I don't want to see you get hurt. Okay?" Seamus just nodded, tired of fighting, and Harry left the room. As Harry closed the door behind him, Seamus threw himself onto the bed.
"Oh Harry," he sighed, a headache building from the stress he was under "what you don't realise is that with the attitude I am receiving from you and the other housemates, you're going to end up hurting me more than Draco ever could. I love him and you don't seem to realise that. I only wish I could make you understand." His headache was worsening. That combined with the emotional exhaustion brought on from trying to defend his boyfriend sent the young Gryffindor into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, in the dungeons, things weren't going much better for Draco.
"You disgust me!" Blaise fumed "You're dating a MALE GRYFFINDOR! Could you possibly sink any lower!" he demanded rhetorically "What would your father do if he found out?" Blaise's tirade had continued like this for about twenty minutes, and Draco had long since tired of it.
"Well we'll soon fine out won't we?" Draco interrupted "By now at least half a dozen of you must have sent letters to my father informing him of what has happened this evening. Not that it's any of your business what I do and who I choose to spend my time with." With that he rose and left the Slytherin common room. He knew he'd been expecting too much to hope that his housemates would be supportive. Draco doubted that even Seamus' housemates would be able to accept the situation and they were much more open-minded than the Slytherin's tended to be. He hated knowing that the people who were supposed to be the most important to him could not accept him unless he pretended to be who they wanted him to be. Draco entered his dorm and collapsed onto his bed. /I'll be fine/ he thought /as long as father doesn't pull me out of school. If I have to live with people who can't love me for who I am then I want to do it with Seamus. I don't think I can cope with what my father would demand of me if he removes me from Hogwarts./ he sighed wearily and closed his eyes, drifting of into an exhausted sleep.
Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. This whole situation was giving him a headache. "Well there's no way we're going to be able to keep this from his father." Snape informed the headmaster. "And there is no way Lucius Malfoy is going to allow his son to remain at a school which allows him to have anything other than a purely platonic relationship with another boy. Even that he would demand only come from a Slytherin."
"Yes." Dumbledore agreed. "There is nothing we can do to prevent Lucius from removing his son from this school if that's what he chooses. We have to convincing him that he doesn't need to remove Draco. If young Malfoy is removed from the sight of the Order, there is nothing stopping Lucius turning his son into a Death Eater, using whatever means necessary."
"Draco may be strong when he needs to be, but he could never resist Lucius if he decided to provide his son with 'home tutoring.' This is such a mess. What are we going to do Albus?" The Potions master asked.
"We wait." He replied "and see what Lucius does next." Snape was not happy with this option, but he did not argue.
It was the fifth such letter he'd received that evening. Not only was his son gay, by he was flaunting it in front of his schoolmates. Lucius thought it was bad enough that his son was having a 'relationship' with another boy. He'd never imagined that it could be worse. No, his son was such a disappointment. Not only was he gay, he was dating a mudblood Gryffindor. Lucius felt that the combination of the two was a concept so vile that he felt physically ill just thinking about it. At that moment Narcissa entered her husbands study.
"Have you seen this?" Lucius demanded as he threw one of the letters at his wife. "That son of yours is a filthy fag!" He turned and stormed over towards the window and stared into the blackness of the night.
"He's your son too!" Narcissa snapped. She had received similar letters and was not having an apoplectic fit like her husband was. Then again, she had always made a point of doing and behaving the opposite way to her husband, even if this was only to rile him. Lucius ignored his wife's comment. "I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow to sort out this mess. If that interfering, senile old fool can't keep that mudblood away from my son I will take him out of that school." Narcissa smiled to herself. If that was what he wanted, then Narcissa was determined to have Draco remain at Hogwarts.
