XO'MagickMoon'OX
A/N: …I AM SOOOOO SORRY! OMG, I haven't updated this in AGES! I apologize. I seem to be lacking motivation lately, as far as this story goes. But, thanks to Faith Moon and Jade Sun, I finally got off my lazy ass and wrote this chapter. I'm VERY SORRY for the shortness of it, but I'm trying to get back into this story, seeing so I haven't worked on it for so long. Once I get back into it, all the good stuff e'll start happening, and if anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them!
All right, well, to recap: Yuugi, Ryou, Malik, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Blaise, and Draco were rescued from the Forbidden Forest by Ron's dad's enchanted car—random, huh?—and brought back to the school. Harry was immediately whisked away to the Hospital Wing for treatment of his unicorn-induced wound, and awoke that night to see none other than Draco sitting beside his bed. A love confession ensues, and Draco kisses Harry—and… Harry kisses back? O.O.
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Draco fell back into his chair and stared dazedly at Harry, who was struggling to sit up in his hospital bed. Harry looked away abashedly.
Draco said, "You know you just—"
"I know."
"With me—"
"I know."
"And you…you…"
"I KNOW! Jesus, Malfoy. Stop making such a big deal out of it."
Draco's eyes widened. "Stop making a big…Potter! God, do you know how long I've wanted to do that?"
Harry started, turning to look at the blonde. "Uh…"
"Since the day I bloody met you, you git!"
Emerald eyes widened behind round lenses, blinking numbly.
Draco recoiled, the darkness of the room hiding his blush. "Well…okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration…but…!" The Slytherin stood and began pacing in front of his chair.
Harry was slowly beginning to put the pieces together in his head. "Well, then…why…why have we been enemies…all this time?"
Silver narrowed into an icy glare. "Don't you remember? I offered to be your friend and you turned me down!"
Harry was silent for a moment before he said, "Are you…serious?" A grin broke out across his face, followed soon by uncontrollable laughter.
"What's so goddamn funny?" Draco snapped, pausing in his nervous pacing to stare at the hysterical raven-haired boy.
Harry's laughter quelled to quiet giggles as he caught the scowl on Draco's face. "It's just…all this time…you were holding a grudge!"
"It wasn't only that!" the other growled. "It really hurt me when you turned down my friendship. I was eleven years old; I didn't know what I was feeling! I didn't know I would grow up to…to fall in love with you!"
Harry's smile melted at that, and he watched Draco curiously. "You… You really…"
"Love you?"
Harry nodded tentatively and looked down at his lap. The next thing he knew, however, there was a hand on his chin, slender fingers coaxing his gaze upwards. Then there was a pair of warm lips against his own and a lithe form pressing him into the bed, being wary of his healing wound. Harry slid down against the pillows, allowing Draco to recapture his lips again and again in a series of searing kisses, his tongue probing its way into the Gryffindor's mouth and painstakingly tasting it. Harry sighed at whatever chance he got, sincerely enjoying the attention the blonde was giving him. He had the fleeting sensation of just pushing the last piece of a puzzle into place, completing a jigsaw of a beautiful, beautiful picture.
Finally, feeling lightheaded, he forced Draco away. Draco propped his elbows on either side of the raven-haired boy, looking down at Harry. Harry smiled amusedly. Draco looked really…cute, with the faint blush staining his cheeks and the bridge of aristocratic nose. But combine flushed and breathless and just the slightest bit hungry-looking, and Harry would amend himself and say that the blonde was downright sexy. That was one thought the Gryffindor used to be sure would never cross his mind, not even if Voldemort were holding him at wand-point and ordering him to proclaim that Draco Malfoy was the sexiest sexy being to ever grace the Earth. Harry laughed at his wandering, completely ridiculous thoughts and reached up to brush a skewed lock of blonde hair out of Draco's face, eliciting a small smile from the Slytherin.
Draco collapsed beside the other, draping an arm across Harry's chest and nuzzling his nose against the curve between neck and shoulder. All was quiet and still, and Harry idly noticed that the shadows had shifted a little with, presumably, the progression of the moon through the night sky.
Then, he spoke. "So, what do we do now?"
He felt Draco shrug. "I don't know. I don't want to worry about it right now."
Harry chuckled. "What about dinner?"
"'M not hungry," Draco grumbled. Just then, his stomach growled in protest. Draco scowled. "It's lying," he said, reiterating, "'m not hungry."
"Whatever, Malfoy."
"Draco."
Harry blinked. "Pardon?"
"My name. It's not 'Malfoy', from now on."
"…Right." Harry smiled. "Well then, you should know that my name from now on isn't 'Potter'."
"Yeah, I know. ……Harry?" The name felt awkward on his tongue.
"Hm?"
"What are we going to do?"
"I thought you didn't want to worry about it now."
"Well, now I want to worry about it."
This time, Draco felt Harry shrug. "I…don't know. I guess we should just…keep everything quiet for now…and work things out…between us before we go and…tell…erm…people…" he said uneasily, the thought of people finding out greatly disturbing him. What would they think? What would they say? It wasn't only that the two were longtime enemies that would probably bother people, but they were both guys, too, and he was sure that there would be people that—
"Harry."
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
"Then go eat, you idiot."
"But I don't want to leave you…" I mean really, I finally—finally!—have you. After all these bloody years… I don't want to go yet… I don't want to go ever… I want to stay here…with you… Draco closed his eyes, sighing.
"Draco…" Harry said, a note of warning in his voice. "Go on, you need to eat, and I need to rest."
Draco muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, but nonetheless rose from the bed and stood beside it. For a moment, he looked down at the raven-haired boy admiringly, with a vague sense of incredulity gracing his pretty features.
"I still can't believe it…" he murmured.
"Believe…what…?"
"That…" Draco sighed, finding himself unable to voice his feelings. How, exactly, did one explain a half-decade of longing suddenly disrupted by a strange sense of fulfillment? How did one describe that sensation, that sensation of being complete, yet terribly afraid that it was all some extraordinary, skewed dream?
The blonde shook his head, and instead leaned down and pressed a parting kiss to Harry's mouth, deciding that the soft, supple lips beneath his own were no fantasy. They were totally and completely real. Harry…liked him back. There was a chance for them. As Draco pulled away, he schooled his expression into one of composed contentment, and only after departing to the corridor did he let out a repressed breath and hold his hands above his head. His small smile grew into a grin, which rumbled with soft laughter, which erupted into full-blown hysterics as he jumped, and then ran down the empty corridor, letting his feet do what his heart was feeling: freedom, energy, bliss, all released from the stone wall that had been constructed around his heart for the past five or so years.
Harry listened to Draco's laughter recede down the hallway and smiled. Hermione would never let him hear the end of this.
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"A-choo!"
Bakura winced as Ryou sneezed…again. "Yadonushi, I think you have a cold."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Ryou answered with the faintest hint of sarcasm, flopping back down against his pillows and pulling the covers up to his chin, resolutely turning his back to the spirit. Bakura sighed, frowning. He briefly remembered the days when Ryou wouldn't dare use such a tone with him, and felt a certain longing for those days. Not because he preferred the way Ryou used to be over the subtly changed Ryou now, but because back then Bakura had been oblivious to his emotions. He had been oblivious to his feelings, and therein impervious to the heartache that accompanied them. Things weren't so simple now. Bakura sighed again.
"I'm going for a walk," he announced.
"Have fun," came the dry reply. Bakura set his jaw as he departed (literally) through the door, drifting down the spiral staircase and to the common room, where he left from to wander the corridors.
He found himself drifting, both mentally and physically (despite his obvious lack of physical form). Glancing up as he felt an almost imperceptible chill waft through his spectral body, he met the cold, uninviting face of the Potions' room door. Deciding this was a good a place as any to brood, he phased through the metal, only to walk…or float…in on none other than Professors Snape and Dumbledore. They were leaning over a cauldron, each seemingly deep in thought, exchanging a word or two every other moment.
Odd, Bakura thought. "What are these old geezers doing here, and so late, at that?" he said aloud, though no one present could hear him.
Or so he thought.
"You're one to talk about age, being over one thousand years old."
Bakura spun, seeing Atemu behind him. "Wh-What are you…?" he sputtered.
"…Doing here?" Atemu offered. Bakura nodded. "Looking for you. You've seemed rather out of sorts since we arrived back at the school. I hate to admit it, but you're starting to worry me."
Bakura bit his lip, averting his gaze. "It's just…it's hard…" he said. "Ryou's…very unhappy with me."
"When is he not?"
"But it's never been like this. I really feel…horrible about it all. It was all my fault, after all."
"No arguments here."
"Thanks for the support, friend," Bakura deadpanned.
Atemu shrugged. "Any time."
Bakura growled. Then, he said, "He's sick."
"Who?"
"Ryou. He has a cold."
"Well, who wouldn't after an escapade like what he just went through? I'm surprised he's the only one who's fallen ill."
Bakura nodded.
"…so if we add angelica and some balm of Gilead, we should be able to exorcise and manifest—"
Dumbledore held up his hand to silence the Potions Master. The wise old wizard nodded wordlessly and whispered, "I don't think we're alone."
Snape's stony eyes swept through the seemingly empty chamber and nodded, continuing to silently add ingredients to the bubbling cauldron. Atemu and Bakura exchanged wondering glances.
"I have the feeling we're not welcome," Atemu murmured.
"Same here. Let's go. I want to see if Ryou might need anything, anyway."
The spirits departed without another word. Bakura slipped into Ryou's room and, seeing him curled up on his bed beside Malik—both apparently asleep—sighed and slipped silently into the Ring, which was hanging around the white-haired boy's neck. He never took it off.
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Tuesday morning rolled around. The eight students were feeling a little out of it. Ryou was still bedridden with a terrible cold, Harry was almost completely healed, and everyone else was just exhausted. This didn't keep Hermione out of class, though, and she pulled Ron and Yuugi along with her. Malik needed no force to get him to attend, but his mind wasn't able to focus properly on his work, what with Ryou sick and all. Draco and Blaise, though Blaise protested wholeheartedly, went to class. It wasn't much of an issue for Draco, though; nothing could dampen his spirits.
"C'mon, Zabini! Jesus, you're slow." Draco was practically skipping down the hallway to Potions, thoroughly disturbing his friends.
"Someone OD'd on Happy Potion," Pansy drawled. Crabbe and Goyle snickered, but Blaise gripped Draco's wrist and pulled the blonde to the side outside of the Potions room.
"What the bloody hell has gotten into you?" he hissed. "You get shagged last night, or what?"
Draco held his finger up to his lips, grinning like an idiot. "Shhhh, it's a secret." And then, he giggled. Blaise gaped. Draco Malfoy was giggling.
"It's Potter, isn't it." It wasn't a question. Blaise then knew for sure what was wrong with his friend as Draco flushed happily. "What happened?"
"He lik—"
Blaise clamped his hand over Draco's mouth, looking around nervously. "Not so loud, you moron!"
Draco nodded, dropping his voice several (hundred) decibels. "He likes me!" Draco whispered.
Blaise froze. "Come again?"
"He likes me back!" Draco repeated, even quieter this time, his smile never faltering.
"Are you serious?" Blaise couldn't help but grin. "That's wonderful!"
"Isn't it?" Draco spread his arms and spun in a lazy circle.
"Who else knows?" Blaise asked.
Draco turned back to his friend. "No one, and we want to keep it that way, for now."
The brunette nodded dutifully. "Of course."
"Malfoy! Zabini!" Pansy called. "Get your arses over here!" The students were filing into class.
The boys joined the group. Blaise scanned the crowd, saying, "Speaking of Potter, where is the git?"
"Still recovering," Draco replied.
"Ah, I see."
"Come on, Ron! I swear, you are going to be the death of me."
A very flustered Hermione stumbled into class just as Snape shut the doors, Ron and Yuugi in tow. Hermione glanced over at Blaise and Draco as she passed, and the three traded almost imperceptible smiles of greeting. Yes, things would be very different from now on, and the future looked…bright, for once.
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A/N: Well? Review, and fuel my motivation! I need ENCOURAGEMENT! I need SUGGESTIONS! REVIEW! Or pay the piper and wait another two months for the next update. –sighs- I really hope I find my motivation again; I really like this story, and can't wait to get to the good parts!
TBC
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