Disclaimer: Anything that you recognise does not belong to me; it belongs to the very talented J.K. Rowling. Lucky her! I am doing this purely to see if I can, I am not making any money off of this what so ever. Unlucky me!

Also, I have read a lot of stories on this site, so if anything is familiar, it is not on purpose… Could you simply take it as an homage?

Finally, during a herbology class half way through the first term, Draco snapped. Professor Sprout had assigned the class the task of repotting adolescent Mandrakes, and it required their full attention as the Mandrakes were typical teenagers; surly, hell bent on being potted in pots next to their friends and trying to attack any Mandrake they thought was not of their social standing. Draco was not having such a good run in herbology as Harry was in this class too, and after weeks of being neglected, his veela side was clamouring for the attention of his mate. It was all Draco could do to keep his magneticism under control, as it was his eyes strayed far too often to Harry's side of the green house for his liking.

It was halfway though the lesson, just before they had to put on their earmuffs, that trouble started.

"Draco, pass me a pot would you?" Vincent grunted,

He was getting ready to pull his mandrake, and as Draco looked up to pass him the pot Vince signalled to Draco 'YOU'RE STARING'. Draco cursed under his breath, this was not good, he had told his friends that Harry was his mate and told them to warn him when he was acting out of character. He thought he'd been doing pretty well the last few weeks, avoiding Harry and his friends turned out to be pretty easy, they stuck to a very predictable routine if one took time to learn it, breakfast-class-lunch-class-dinner-library-after class activity-bed. The activities were things such as quidditch, DA or remedial potions, which Draco really didn't understand, he'd seen Harry in that class and he was almost as good as he was and that was saying a lot, he was top of the class in Potions. Looking up again he saw that a girl from Hufflepuff was talking to Harry; some girl was flirting with his mate! Draco could feel anger rise up in his chest, how dare that girl try and steal Harry away from him, his silver eyes flashed dangerously. Suddenly the air in the greenhouse shifted and the girl from Hufflepuff gave a shriek of surprise as she felt something knock into her and send her flying across the greenhouse.

Watching the girl slide across the floor gave Draco a deep feeling of contentment and with a small, almost indiscernible, smile on his face he continued on with his work, not noticing that apart from Crabbe and Goyle he was the only one doing so. A bushy haired girl eyed him curiously as she bent to give poor Elouise a hand up.

Hermione pulled Harry aside that night as they were studying in the library

"Harry, are you free for one of our chats tonight? I have something I need to tell you" she whispered

Harry and Hermione had fallen into the habit of stealing away every now and again and having little 'chats' about their lives, their worries and their secrets. No-one really knew about them, Ron always assumed that they were doing extra study so he left them alone, which was good for Hermione as she had been having more than friendly feelings for Ron for more than a year and they were one of the main topics in these chats.

"Yeah, have you got developments you want to report?" Harry asked, looking over the top of his advanced transfigurations book.

"I'll tell you later"

"So, you know how I told you that Ron kissed me during the summer holidays? Well, he did it again! And he said that he really liked me AND he wants to take me to coffee and Madame Puddlefoots next Hogsmeade weekend" Hermione shrieked in an excited whisper

Harry shut, locked and warded the History of Magic classroom door.

"Wow Hermione! Progress! The Plan is working!" Harry said laughingly.

The Plan was nothing more than Hermione touching Ron more than usual, smiling at him for no real reason and that was about it. For such a quick thinker Hermione had no real knowledge about hooking guys and the Plan had become a bit of a joke between Hermione and Harry, although Hermione swore she would right a book about hooking guys with the Plan if she got Ron. And Harry had no illusions that she wouldn't if her Plan worked.

"Oh I hope so Harry, I really like him, and I think he really likes me! He just needs a little bit of encouragement."

Harry knew that Ron did have feelings for their bushy haired friend, but had been sworn to secrecy and could do nothing more than strenuously encourage both sides of the couple to make their moves. Because of this, Harry just smiled and mumbled vague comments whenever Hermione said things like that.

The two friends sat against the wall of the classroom chatting well into the night about what Hermione could wear, what they cold talk about and where Hermione and Ron could go after the coffee shop. After a while Hermione broached a question that had been weighing on her mind for a while

"Harry, do you have feelings for anyone?"

Harry thought for a while before answering in a thoughtful voice

"It's kind of hard to, you know Mi? Whether I like it or not, I am The Boy Who Lived and there will always be people who want to be with me because of that. I guess I am wary of falling for someone, just in case they, instead of returning my feelings, just pretend to, if only for the chance of being seen as the girlfriend or boyfriend of Harry Potter. I also worry about the possibility of having a relationship with someone, and being really happy and having them turn into a target for Voldemort as a result of knowing me. I worry enough about you, Ron and the rest of the Weasley's as it is, I don't think I could handle the stress of worrying for another person as well."

"Do yo think you will ever fall in love?"

"I'd like to. I don't think there is anything in this world better than being loved just for being you. I would love to be loved just for being Harry. Not for what I can do for people, not for what I own, just for being me. And I would love to love someone just for being them. But at the moment, I don't think that is very possible, not with his Dark Lordship looming over everyone's head, and me being the only one who can kill him."

Hermione and Ron had been told of the prophecy last year, and though they thought it was a horrible burden for their friend to carry they had vowed to support him and be there for him in every way possible.

"Harry, do you like boys or girls?" Hermione asked curiously, noticing that he had said boyfriend or girlfriend of Harry Potter

"I don't really know, Mione. I reckon anyone who would like me for being me could be worth a second look, but why would anyone like me for me? I am just some freak whose main goal in life is to kill someone"

At the mention of the word 'freak' Hermione's heart became heavy with sadness for her best friend. It made her so upset with the world that someone as nice and as sweet and as genuine as Harry would doubt that he would ever be loved. She wished that she could have ten minutes of unsupervised time with the Dursley's to show them just how angry she was that they had emotionally scarred their nephew for goodness knows how long. She also knew that she would have to get in a very long line to teach the Dursley's a lesson, and that heading up that line would be Professor Dumbledore, Mrs Weasley, Professor McGonagall and Remus Lupin to name a few, hell, she wouldn't be surprised if Sirius managed to come back from the afterlife to throw in his two cents. Giving Harry a big hug, she smiled a big bright (false) smile

"Come on, its late, we should be in bed, we have a charms test first thing in the morning!

The next morning Draco decided to try a little experiment, his father had tutored him extensively in controlling his gift of attracting people and he decided to try it out on Harry, just to see what would happen. After charms, which they had together, Draco followed Harry out of the classroom as he wandered out with his friends and, seeing his opening as Harry stooped to tie his shoes, Draco sped up and 'tripped' over Harry. Bing sent sprawling across the hallway with Draco on top of him did not make Harry to happy and he glared up at the blonde haired Slytherin

"What's your problem Malfoy, why can't you watch…"

Harry had started off indignant, but trailed of as the most amazing sensation swept over him, it felt as if he was enveloped in a warm blanket, that there were no problems in his world, he also felt an overwhelming desire to get closer to Draco. As he was endeavouring to do this his mind ground to a halt, Draco? He was attracted to MALFOY? Wrenching his mind away from the wonderful sensations assaulting his body, Harry shoved Draco off of him

"Just, watch where you're going Malfoy" Harry said, walking off after his friends and trying not to look back in confusion.