His mother was waiting up for them.
"Mum?" He hesitated.
"I only wanted to talk with Draco, Harry. Nothing more, I promise," she said hastily as she approached them.
Harry almost refused and pulled Draco upstairs with, he was so furious with how she had been treating Draco. But, no, she was his mother; Harry could trust her not to try hurt him. He hoped. /It'll be ok, Arris... I believe her./
Harry nodded and left them there, after glancing back once.
The second Harry was gone she started on him with a single question. "What are you intentions towards my son, Draco... I want you to tell me right now." And she looked him straight in the eye as she said it; not something a lot of people did.
Draco was quiet for a moment. "I don't know how to answer you without incriminating myself."
She walked closer to the young vampire until she was only a foot away. "I already don't like you, Malfoy. I want to like you for Harry's sake, but you're not making it easy for me."
"But I haven't don-"
Lily didn't let him finish. "There's just something about you... I don't know what it is. I'll even say I don't care, only if you can say that it won't hurt my son. Say that my son will not be hurt. If you can say, that I'll try."
/I don't know if I can promise that.../ "I promise that I won't hurt your son." At least he hoped that he could keep that promise; he failed the last time...
But Lily seemed to accept that and left. She had some things to think about.
hr
By the time Draco arrived at Harry's door, he wasn't feeling better. He hoped that it was simply Harry's mother that he was feeling...
Slowly he pushed the door open; Harry was still awake, though he had the covers pulled high in an attempted to sleep.
"Draco?" Harry turned his head to face him. "What are..." He went quiet when Draco placed his fingers to his lips.
"Shh..." Silently he stripped himself and eased into the bed next to Harry, who immediately wound his arms tightly around the other boys body and buried his head under Draco's chin. "Let's just sleep Harry." Soon after Harry had found the sleep that had been so elusive before.
Draco held on for dear life to him for the rest of the night. Nothing would happen to Harry this time...
hr
Things didn't change much for the next week or so and before anyone knew it, and as much as Harry loathed to admit it, it was time to go back to school.
Draco hated that he couldn't go with him, and expressed himself openly.
"I know that you don't like it Draco, but I have to go. I need to graduate and the sooner I do the better for the both of us."
"But you don't need to graduate, Harry. I can take care of you from now on." He held Harry close as if to try and prove it to him.
"I know you can, but, Draco, I want to graduate." he leaned up to kiss the lips above his own. "I want to be there with my friends when they graduate; I want to be able to share that moment with them."
"Then I'm going to be there, as well. I understand that I can't be there with you during class, but otherwise I will be there." Harry simply nodded; there was no point in arguing with him.
"Breakfast!" Lily yelled up for them.
True to her word, Harry's mother had left them alone for the most part. She didn't even say anything when it became apparent that Draco's room had been completely vacated, as Draco refused to sleep away from Harry after the night they had talked.
They left the room hand-in-hand.
hr
"So... you're coming with us?" Ron asked as Draco walked to school with them. Draco hadn't come near his house after he had that run in with Ron's brothers; he still didn't know what had happened and Fred and George assured him that they hadn't done anything. For once, Ron believed them.
"Yes, he's coming." Harry kept firm grasp on Draco's hand; everyone else be damned. He didn't know when he started feeling that way, but he felt he had to stay close to Draco. Draco had been to same way; he barely left Harry alone long enough to make a trek to the bathroom.
He expected for Ron to say something further, but surprisingly, he didn't.
The school day went about how he thought it would. Everyone ignored him as usual; he wasn't exactly in with the popular crowd. Classes were the same as usual, his home-economics, teacher, Professor Snape, was as surly as usual; Ron once told him that he suspected that the reason for the older man's attitude was that Headmistress McGonagall refused to hire him to teach chemistry. Harry often still wondered why the professor still worked there. They all would be happier with him gone...
Lunch came around and for once Harry was happy that the main lunch area was outside, this way Draco could join them without one of the teachers noticing. During the cold seasons most students took to one of the smaller cafeterias scattered in the school.
Quickly they sat at one of the edge tables, Ron's plate laden with food, and Hermione with a sandwich; Harry hadn't grabbed anything, instead, waiting for them. Draco was soon sitting with them, Harry had to keep himself from jumping into Draco's arms. he hadn't thought that being away from him would have been so hard; Harry nearly felt like he couldn't breath by the time lunch came around, the longing to be with Draco was so great. Would it be like this all the time?
As Harry felt himself being pulled onto Draco's lap, he was even more glad that they had sat away from the main group. Hermione and Ron seemed to both have taken up the "grin and bear it" routine and kept eating and talking. He had just been about to lay his head on Draco's shoulder and go to sleep when it seemed his luck had run out. Dudley and his two minions, Crabbe and Goyle, had decided to pay them a visit.
"So my mother was right. She wasn't sure if you really dared to return," his cousin taunted.
"Fuck off and leave us alone, Dudley," was the first thing out of his mouth, shocking both him and his cousin. Harry guessed that finally knowing that his own cousin had tried to violate him affected Harry.
Still stunned, Dudley's face quickly heated up and he forced himself. Fear gripped Harry as the mammoth of a human charged at him; Ron and Hermione, who had abandoned their lunches in the chaos, were to busy trying to keep Crabbe and Goyle from joining their "leader".
It turned out that Harry's fear of his cousin was unwarranted, because as soon as the behemoth was anywhere close to them Harry found himself seated on the bench and Draco straddling his cousin with his head bent close to Dudley's face. Once Harry calmed down he crawled off the seat to get a closer look. He knew that he probably should have been disgusted when figured out that Draco had clamped down onto the fatty tissue under the Dudley's chin. Harry could see his cousins face change to terrified as he realized what was happening to him. Harry glanced up to see if anyone else had noticed, but no, the students were focused on the fist-fight that had erupted between Ron and Crabbe and hadn't noticed what was going on behind the table.
/Draco, you need to stop. someone is sure to notice us at some point./ After a few more seconds of Harry's prodding he finally pulled away; Harry watched as his lover sat up slightly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, connected his eyes to Dudley's scared ones. After a moment Dudley appeared to faint and Draco used Dudley's shirt to wipe the remaining blood away.
/Let's get out of here, Arris?/ Draco suggested. Harry agreed and grabbed his hand to pulled him away from the mass of students.
/What about Dudley?/ Harry asked as the ran for the fence guarding the school.
/He won't remember a thing. Let him explain where the blood came from.../ Once over the fence Draco grabbed Harry into a kiss intense enough that Harry knew his lips would be bruised by the time they parted. Harry panted and held onto Draco's shoulders to keep himself up.
They stayed like that for several minutes before Harry spoke. /Draco, I want to do it tonight. I want to have sex with you.../ Harry thought as he clung to Draco.
/I want to also.../ The timing felt right; they had done just about every sexual act that they could think of, but they had yet to cross that line. It simply never felt like time... Draco kissed him again before Harry once again grabbed for his hand and continued away from the school before they could run into the truancy police.
hr