Draco POV

"Goodbye, Father. Love you, Mum," I said with a hug. I was starting my 6th year at The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year I am quite glad to be going back to school. Summer had been a bloody bore. We had spent it flitting about all over Europe visiting every single family member still alive. I had had quite enough of cheek kissing and cheek pinking from various aunts and uncles. And to think I have so many pratty cousins! Maybe my parents are both adopted? Oh, well. At least I was back on the Hogwarts Express.

Speaking of which, where were those bloody Slytherins? I had looked in half the compartments and had yet to find them. As I was looking into yet another compartment, someone ran into me. "Sorry," I started. "Oh, erm, hey, Potter." He raised an eyebrow at me. (I didn't know why-not exactly anyway-I wasn't being hostile)

"Harry, over here!" I heard a voice call from behind me. It was Granger. She gave me a "Go ahead, say something rude," look, but I just gave her a sweet smile. Looking at me like I had caught some deadly disease she asked, "Coming, Harry?"

"Um, yeah. Excuse me, Malfoy, but I need by."

"Of course," I said as I stepped aside to let him by, giving him an innocent smile. He just looked at me for a moment as if concerned for my health, then rushed past me.

"My didn't he get tall over the summer? And cute," I thought to myself. "And I think his eyes have gotten greener." I caught myself smiling again. "Now wait a minute. What am I doing? I mean, I know I outgrew hating Potter sometime last year, but liking him? No way."

Now, I had figured out when I was fourteen that I was gay, and there had been 1 or 2 rumors about me last year I hadn't exactly denied. So even though I hadn't "come out", there were probably very few people (in my house at least) that would be surprised when I do. But still, Potter? Cute? I sighed. I would think about it later, after I found those bloody Slytherins!

Well, I finally did and told them about my exquisitely boring summer and they told me about theirs. Fortunately, no one else had a very good vacation, either!

In the Great Hall a huge feast was going on. The first years had made it across the lake alive, the sorting had sang another stupid song, and Slytherin house got 12 new students.

So far it had been a great night as long as I didn't think too hard on why I had been nice to Potter. Every time I did, Id catch my gaze heading in his direction. We made eye contact a couple of times, but both quickly looked away. I managed to not think about Harry, er, Potter, for a while and was rewarded for my efforts by getting to listen to Crabbe and Goyle's latest plans on the prank they were going to play on Mrs. Norris, Filth's cat. As stimulating as that conversation was, I felt my thoughts drifting back to Potter. He was looking at me again. A warm feeling grew in my stomach and my chest tightened. I smiled shyly at him. His eyes widened for a moment and he looked away. Ah, well.

Dumbledore stood up to announce the end of dinner and wish us luck for the year. As Dumbledore finished speaking, and I was getting ready to leave, my eyes locked once more on Potter's. They really were lovely eyes. This time when his eyes met mine, I smiled broadly and winked at him. His eyes got very wide, stayed wide, and his mouth dropped. This only made my smile broaden.

"Hey, Draco Who are you smiling at?" asked Blaise.

"Hm? Oh, nobody," I said and rushed down to the dorms.

Back in my room I thought about what had happened at dinner. And, well, on the train, too. I strongly suspected I had a crush on Potter. Why else would I have (Oh, God!) winked at him? There was no other explanation. Oh, well. There were worse people to have crushed on. Like Longbottom, yuck! Ok, I could handle this. I have a crush on Potter. This doesn't mean anything's changed, right?

Harry POV

He was doing it again. Looking at me, that is. I mean, sure, he normally would send me one or two evil glares or sneers at meal time, but this wasn't like that. He was just…looking at me. I was making me uncomfortable, so I kept looking away. The meal was almost over and Dumbledore was about to dismiss us, so I glanced at Malfoy one more time. What was I doing? What did I care if he was looking at me? Oh, my God. He was looking at me. He was even smiling at me a little, it was kind of cute. Hold on! WTF? Cute! My eyes got real big and I looked away again. Fortunately Dumbledore started talking so I was able to resist the temptation to look at Malfoy again. But I couldn't resist the urge to stop thinking about him. Why was he smiling at me? I mean, I had heard some rumors about him last year, but still. Even if they were true, he would like me. We'd been enemies too long. Hadn't we? Why did I care? And why did I think his smile was cute? I didn't like guys that way! Ok, so I had had some pretty vivid dreams. Didn't mean anything. Did it? As Dumbledore dismissed us, I turned to leave and made contact with those eyes again. (omg, those eyes) when all of the sudden, he winked at me! Draco Malfoy winked at me, Harry Potter! He had to be up to something! There was no way he'd be looking at me like that if he didn't have something up his sleeve. He didn't really like me. And besides, I didn't want him to. I think.

Draco POV

I was looking at this years schedule in my dorm. Double Potions first thing in the morning with, you guessed it, Gryffindors. And Care of Magical Creatures with them again after lunch. Was the world trying to throw us together?

Not that I minded, exactly. I just wasn't sure what I was going to do with this crush I had on Harry, er, Potter. Did I go back to normal, treating him like crap and trying to show him up at every chance? I didn't like that option too well because that pretty much ruled out any shot to ever kiss him. I wanted to kiss him? sigh I guess if I was going to have a crush, I might as well do it all the way. Ok, I wanted to kiss Har..er Pott..er screw it, Harry. I wanted to kiss Harry.

Then did I just totally blow his mind by waltzing into class and openly and blatantly flirting with him? Well, no, that wouldn't work, either. He is entirely too sensitive and would probably run away. That wouldn't help my desire to kiss him, either. Plus he might not think I'm for real. For real? Did I just think that? Aack! Too many things to think about for one day!

No, I'd have to take the careful approach. I'd have to be nice to him (that couldn't be too hard, could it? I hadn't been too bad on the train). I'd have to prove to him I was sincere before he'd ever talk to me without trying to hex me or beat me up. sigh I could do this. All you have to do is be nice to Harry, Draco.

Harry POV

Miraculously I made it to Potions early. Probably because I had spent my whole night thinking about Malfoy. NOT thinking about Malfoy, just thinking.

Two hours before breakfast, I couldn't stand it anymore. I got up, showered, got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall. Thankfully he wasn't there. In fact, nobody else was there yet.

After breakfast I ran back to my dorm and was headed down to the dungeons for class. Maybe Snape would cut me some slack today since I showed up on time. snort Not likely. I was about 15 minutes early and had expected to be the first one there. But as I walked into the room I saw the back of a shockingly blond head of hair sitting at the front of the classroom. Malfoy. I set my stuff down and sighed as I slipped into my seat. Malfoy looked over at me and asked, "Sleep well last night?"

"No, I didn't!" I snapped at him. "In fact I hardly slept all night!" No thanks to him, either.

"Oh. Well. Sorry to hear that," he said, a sad smile coming to his face. Wow, that smile was cute, too.

I laughed. "Yeah, right. Like you care about my sleeping habits."

A blush came to his cheeks. "Well, not exactly. But I am sorry to hear you didn't sleep well last night." He fixed his silver-grey eyes on him and all I could do was stare back. Fortunately Ron and Hermione came in right then and I was able to break away from his gaze.

"Yeah, sure. You're real concerned about me," I said, sending him a snarl. He just got a sheepish look on his face and went back to reading his book.

"Hey, Harry. Where were you at breakfast?" ask Hermione.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep last night and headed down early," I answered. Most of the class had filed in now and Snape stepped out of his office.

"All right class, the potion you are making today is a difficult on, but shouldn't be too much for you, now that you've all received your O.W.L.s I'll guess we'll see, won't we?" he asked with a snarl in my and Neville's direction.

I looked at Malfoy to see what his response was to Snape's usual goading. I was surprised to find him looking straight ahead with an almost blank expression on his face. Was Malfoy sick? He certainly had been acting odd lately.

"Directions are on the board, " Snape said with a click of his arm, pulling out of my thoughts.

Class went relatively quickly. I don't think I messed up my potion too bad, at least I didn't get a zero for the day. As I was packing my things up I sent a glare in Malfoy's direction. I had had enough of his niceness for a while.

Draco POV

This being nice thing was going to be harder than I though. I tried to just ignore him though lunch and Car of Magical Creatures with moderate success. I only caught myself looking at him about a dozen times the rest of the day. Harry, on the other hand, was doing an excellent job of ignoring me. The couple of times I did catch him looking at me, it was more of a glare than a casual glance. Oh, well. This was only the first day of school. I had time.

Harry POV

I do not like Draco. I do not like Draco, I do not like…wait a minute. Draco? I had been doing that more and more lately, calling him Draco in my head, that is. That insufferable little prat kept ignoring me or being nice. I wasn't sure what to make of it. And I kept thinking about him. More and more as the week went on. About how startling his eyes could be when he gazed across the Great Hall to look at me. How breathtaking he looked when his hair fell across his face. How sexy it was when he chewed on his bottom lip when concentrating on making his potion exactly right. Damn it! I do not like Draco. "Arg!"

"Harry, are you alright? Asked Ron from across the library table.

Did I just say that out loud? "Um, just frustrated with this charms homework. Number four is brutal," I replied. Fortunately it happened to be my charms book I had in front of me. I hadn't looked at it before I answered. And there was no way I could continue pretending to concentrate.

"Ron, I'm heading back to the common room," I informed him as I packed up my stuff.

"Oh, all right. I'm gonna stay here a bit longer. I haven't even touched McGonagall's transfiguration homework," he said, mumbling the last part to himself. I chuckled and headed out of the library.

"Hello, Harry." I heard a voice say. I had been starring at my feet, so I hadn't seen anyone. I looked up and all I saw were those eyes like cold steel. But they didn't look cold tonight, they almost looked on fire. But not from anger. It looked more like…Passion?

"Um, hey, Malfoy," I muttered at him. He just kept looking at me and didn't say anything else so I made to leave.

"Harry, wait.," he called.

How cute, he looked nervous. I wondered why. I looked him in the eye. "Yes?"

"Well, I-I just wanted to apologize for being such a prat all these years. I'm sorry," he spit out.

I couldn't believe my ears. "You're…sorry?" I asked, giving him a questioning look.

"Yes," he replied. "I'm sorry. It started out because you didn't want to be my friend, and then pride took over, and then everyone expected us to be enemies…" He trailed off for a moment. "I don't want to fight with you anymore. I understand it may be too late for us to be friends, but I don't want to fight with you anymore." He looked at me hopefully.

"Oh, well, then I'm sorry, too." Did I just apologize to Malfoy?

His eyes got wide and he asked, "For what?"

I sighed, "For being an insufferable prat back.."

Now he was smiling at me. "Really?"

I wanted to sigh again, but held it in. "Yes, really. And you're probably right. It's probably too late for us to be friends, but I'd like to stop fighting." I smiled at him.

His grin grew to double the size it had been and he threw his arms around me. "Great! Um, see you later Harry!"

He released me, spun around and ran off (I'm assuming) back to his common room. Which was where I needed to get so I could think about why my skin was tingling where Draco had hugged me.

Draco POV

He didn't want to fight anymore! And he smiled at me! And I hugged him! Ok, I didn't know why I had done that. Well, after a week of ineffectually trying to ignore him, I hadn't been able to stand it anymore and had gotten caught up in the moment. I only hoped I hadn't scared him with that hug. That was the last thing I wanted!

I didn't have any classes with Gryffindors the next day, so I only saw Harry briefly at lunch and dinner. All day long I felt like I had been floating on a cloud. Crabbe and Goyle even asked if I had met a girl or something, they had never seen me so happy. I told them not hardly and left it at that.

I still felt happy and almost giddy when I entered the Great Hall for dinner. I saw Harry already sitting with his friends, so I flashed him a big smile and headed towards the Slytherin table. He started to blush and smiled sheepishly back at me. Granger and Weasley saw who he was smiling at and both turned to him with shocked expressions on their faces. I winced. I certainly didn't want to get him in trouble with his friends, even if those friends were Weasley and Granger.

The rest of the meal Granger kept alternating between whispering to Harry and looking at me with a curious and puzzled expression on her face. And if looks could kill, I would nave been dead several times over from the looks Weasley was sending me. Harry was just starring at his plate moving food around with his fork.

I finally couldn't keep looking at him like that and got up and went back to my common room. A minute or two after I had plopped down on the couch, I heard someone else enter the room.

"Hey, Draco," they said. I looked up.

"Oh, hey, Pansy,"

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" She asked. I really wasn't in the mood for Pansy, but sighed and said, "sure, why not?"

She sat down on the other end of the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest. We sat there in silence for a few minutes before Pansy asked, "You like him, don't you? Potter, I mean."

I looked at her in shock. What are you talking about? Why would I like him?

She chuckled. "I'm not sure why you like him, but you do." She smiled. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"You promise?" I ask. "I just don't want it getting back to him and then him being mad at me for 'tricking' him."

"Of course I won't say anything," she said, smiling again. "You're my best friend, Draco, and I just want you to be happy. Blaise will feel the same as I do."

"You're not going to tell him!" I shouted, getting nervous again. "No, of course not. I'm just letting you know where you're friends stand. Blaise and I talked about you being gay and I know he'll be ok with it. Even if it is Potter you like," she said with a wink. "But I'll let you tell him yourself."

I let out the breath I had (apparently) been holding in. "Thanks, Pansy. I appreciate it. You can be real decent sometimes."

She gave me a hug and said, "Yeah, well, don't let it get out."

Harry POV

Dinner had been horrible. Draco came in and had smiled at me on the way to the Slytherin table. I had grinned broadly back at him, like a fool. Hermione saw me and asked, "Who are you smiling at? Oh."

Ron had also seen. "Why are you smiling at a nimrod like him? You don't like him or something, do you?" Ron looked fit to kill.

"No, of course not," I told him. "But we have called a truce of sorts."

"WHAT!" shrieked Ron.

"Keep it down!" shushed Hermione.

"It's got to be a trick," continued Ron. "He wants to get you in his confidences and then pull the biggest prank on you ever!"

I had to admit the thought had crossed my mind. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?" asked Ron.

"Oh, just leave him alone," snapped Hermione.

So Ron spent the rest of dinner shooting evil looks at Draco, I moved food around on my plate and Hermione kept whispering things like "It's ok," and "I think it's great," and "He'll get over it," in my ear.

After dinner I rushed through the common room and up to the dormitory. Ron, thankfully, stayed in the common room talking to Dean and Seamus. Hermione, on the other hand, followed me up the stairs to my room.

"It's not just the truce, is it Harry? You like him, don't you?"

I spun around. "What are you talking about? Why would you think I like him? We have a truce, nothing more!"

"Oh," she said, looking a little embarrassed. "I just thought with the way you've been looking at him lately and he certainly had a look in his eye whenever he looks at you…" she trailed off.

"You think he's been looking at me in a certain way? Really?" I wasn't sure how to process this information yet.

"Yeah, Harry, he has. And you know it's ok if you do like him. I won't get mad."

I let out a big sigh and sat on the edge of my bed. "Thanks, Hermione. Because I'm afraid I might like him."

Hermione cam and sat on the bed next to me. "You're not sure, though?"

"Well," I answered "I can't stop thinking about him, whenever I think about him I feel sick to my stomach, and whenever I see him I have to remind myself to breath."

"Yep," Hermione laughed. "You like him alright."

"But I don't like guys. At least I never have before."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," she said, and smiled at me encouragingly.

Draco POV

I still felt bad about how dinner had gone. I really hadn't meant to get him in trouble with his friends. I decided I needed to send him an owl, so I quickly scrawled him a note.

Harry,

Sorry about dinner. How are they handling it?

Draco

I threw on my dad's old invisibility cloak and rushed out to the owlrey. My owl saw me right away and flew down to land on my arm. "Take this to Harry Potter, in Gryffindor Tower," I told her after I had attached the message to her leg.

I rushed back to my rooms, wondering if I'd get an owl tonight or not. I didn't have to wait long, within five minutes Parsima landed on the pillow next to me and lifted her let. There was a message!

I quickly took off the message and unrolled it.

Draco,

I suppose I could forgive you this one time. (yea!) I ended up talking with Hermione and told her we were…well, we're not fighting anymore. She seems glad. I think she's tired of the bickering, too. Ron, well we won't talk about Ron. Thanks for being concerned, though.

Harry

I was elated! He wasn't mad at me, and he had called me Draco! The only thing that could have made me happier would have been if he had said we were friends and friends and not just "not fighting." It was time to step up the Malfoy charm.

The next morning at breakfast Harry and I kept stealing glances at each other. I tried to keep my smiles small and friendly, but it was really hard to do when I felt like my mouth was going to explode into a big, goofy grin at any second. Plus he looked so damn cute when he blushed, which he was doing an awful lot of today. Which was kind of weird. Blushing wasn't something Harry normally did a lot of, at least not when I was looking at him. What reason did he have to blush that much?

In potions that morning I looked over at him and said, "Morning, Harry."

He smiled back and said, "Good morning, Draco."

He had called me Draco again! My name sounded so good on his lips. I couldn't help it, I grinned so big you could probably count my teeth. Harry blushed and looked back toward the front.

The next few weeks went about the same. I'd tell him hello every morning, he'd say hello back, the occasional 2-minute conversation in the hall. But I needed more. I wanted to be able to talk to him, hang out with him, be his friend.

Then one night I got an owl.

A/N: Well? What do you think? Let me know. I already have Ch 2 written, but it needs to be typed, and since it's longer than this one, it's going to take a while! But not too long, I promise!

Also, I need beta readers, please! Leave a review with your email in it and I'll get back with you.