A/N: I'm not even gonna apologize for taking so long. Okay I will. SORRY! There.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: I changed the last chapter from just being an author's note to being an actual chapter so if you don't read it… you'll be skipping a whole chapter.
Thank you to…
Fiyren-Valkyrie- I'm glad you think it's a good idea! Thanks.
Fefs- Okay, you can have a Draco plushie, a Bill plushie, and Fred and George plushies! You're too kind, really… As for Harry's make-up, it's not like a drag queen. I'm not sure how Good Charlotte does their make-up but if it's anything like how girls normally do theirs then yeah… it's like that. Tehe.
driven to insanity- They are cute… Gorsh, Harry/Draco forever!
Ashes of Stars- I'm so glad that you like it. Lol, we have the same name. Thanks for the review!
DanishGirl- You are too smart. Seriously, I was considering it, and since you left that review, I'd say yes.
Kittygurl14- Aww, thank you. Hope you like this chapter too!
Tink- I hope that this chapter fulfills your craving. I REALLY appreciated your review. I dunno… something about people pointing out what's good in it just… feels happy inside of me! I'll get Draco to give you smoochie-smoochies. Harry might be mad though! I dunno where they are right now….
HPfreakout- Sorry I made you wait so long. I'm actually feeling kinda bad about it. Thanks for the review though! I'm glad you like Ron.
The Lady Morgaine- YAY! You like me, you really like me! You, actually, were the one who made me update. So house points to you! Go punk rock! I'm so happy that you like how I'm putting the slash in! sob…
If you weren't mentioned, it's because I mentioned you in the previous chapter. Grrr… it's confusing, but it's cuz I screwed things up.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter NOT MINE!
Harry showed up early for school the next day, feeling slightly silly in eye-liner, a pair of ripped pants held up by his new belt, and a white button up-shirt that had huge slashes down the front and back. Beneath it he wore a black shirt and he just prayed that he wouldn't get dress-coded.
"Yes!" Harry heard behind him as he walked towards his locker. He spun around to see a very happy looking Ron. His shirt had blue paint on the front that read, 'Dickies' and his gray pants were covered in patches. "One down, another five and a half or so billion to go!"
"What on earth are you talking about, Ronald?" Asked an irritated-looking Hermione who had just walked up next to him. She took one look at Harry and said, "Oh."
"Let me guess, the Subhumans did it for you?" Ron asked vaguely. "I knew some guy that did the same thing when he heard the Subhumans."
"Err….I don't actually remember," Harry diverted his attention to Hermione, who's lips were pursed, and whispered, "What's eating her?"
"She's upset because I told her it was stupid to invite a bunch of her animal activist friends to the party and"
"Conforming with the non-conformists, I see," a certain unwelcome voice cut in.
Harry looked into the eyes of Draco Malfoy, resisting any attraction that he had and any feeling that he got looking into the malicious silver orbs. "Could you please leave, Malfoy? I really don't feel like conversing with you right now."
"Are you still wearing that make-up, Potter?" Draco said, ignoring the last comment. He had Crabbe and Goyle with him and they were snickering stupidly, "Don't you care what people think?"
"Not you, I don't," Harry lied, shifting his gaze to the lockers to their left.
As if on cue, Blaise Zabini joined them in their little circle saying loudly, "Oh look, it's the queer."
"If you're basing your opinions upon stereotypes alone then you better take a closer look at Malfoy, there. He seems to be the one who does his hair so nicely everyday and primps himself up," Hermione retorted before walking away, with Ron and Harry following her.
The remainder of the day was quite uneventful. Both French and History were boring, as anticipated, and Philosophy was just weird. Lunch was fun because Harry and Ron asked a bunch of people to go to the party and a lot of people seemed really interested in it. Harry suspected that there were going to be a few more people than he had initially anticipated. Just before the end of lunch, Ron brought up the music again, asking him which bands he liked best.
"Erm, I liked Conflict and Crass a lot and of course Vice Squad. I dunno, it was just some of the lyrics were really…powerful. They were all very good, but y'know, I liked some better than others."
"You're so crusty! I love it, I've been needing a crust-loving friend for a long time," Ron's face lit up.
Harry stared at him in confusion, and then said quietly, "Crusty?"
"It's like punk that discusses a lot of political and more worldly stuff. Anti-war, environmental sometimes. Good music."
Harry nodded in understanding as the bell rang and he headed to hell, or Chemistry in a more depressing word.
The class was all right all together. He didn't get yelled at, though Professor Snape did give him a number of nasty glances throughout the period. Draco Malfoy seemed to be less interested in disturbing Harry since their confrontation earlier that day. He was a bit curious as to why it bothered him so much.
When he got home however, Harry was once again brought to suspicion that there was something he was unaware of that he possibly should have been. He was talking with Remus and Sirius during dinner when he remembered to tell them about how he was trying out for the Lacrosse team.
"I'll be coming home late on Friday, I've got Lacrosse tryouts."
Both Remus and Sirius, at the same time, asked loudly, "You're trying out for Lacrosse?"
Harry looked up from his split pea soup, expecting to see happy faces but instead saw two very serious and worried expressions. "What?" He asked. "You didn't expect me to? I did it at my old school…"
Remus found himself, smiled, and said almost genuinely, "That's wonderful Harry, I'm sure you'll make the team."
Sirius smiled too, eating a bit more quickly. Harry wanted to say something to them, tell them that he was tired of them hiding things from him, that he was sick of all the secrets. But for some reason, Harry felt that he didn't want to know. He had so much to think about at the moment and there just wasn't room for anything else. And it wasn't just that. Harry didn't want to be a hypocrite and pretend that there weren't things he was hiding from them.
He changed the subject and dinner ended on an awkward note. As Harry was leaving, he heard Remus whisper to Sirius, "We should have expected that."
Thursday passed quickly with Home Ec., English, Math Excel, and PE (where Harry had still not yet bought his clothes). Malfoy had still not said anything to Harry. He knew that he should have been relieved, but he felt as though he wanted the attention—even if it was negative.
He went over to Ron's house after school to get everything in order for the party that they had decided would be the next day. They were going to go over to Harry's after he tried out for the team to set everything up.
When Friday arrived, every class seemed to drag by slowly. In French they got a seating chart and, much to both Harry and the pug-faced girl, Pansy Parkinson's, dislike, they were seated next to each other. Harry slept through History, and in Philosophy, Harry had gotten the distinct impression that Professor Trelawny really thought herself some sort of oracle. During lunch Harry noticed that a lot of people seemed to be talking about his party. He was flattered that so many people wanted to go. Why hadn't he ever thrown a party before?
"Crap, there's gonna be so many people going…" Ron groaned into his hands.
"I thought you wanted a lot of people," Hermione said, slightly confused.
"Yeah, but I don't want a bunch of oaf-y dunder-heads to be there, and I'm sure Harry doesn't either."
Not sure who Ron was talking about, Harry nodded his head. He had been staring out to the other end of lunch area, where the sun shone brightly onto the head of a certain blonde beneath the tree.
Chemistry arrived again and he met up with Neville to walk there together. They were in the classroom just before the late bell rang and they both received angry looks from Snape.
"We will be doing a lab on Tuesday and I would like to use today to go over the safety rules and lab regulations with you. I will not go over them again any time this year so I suggest you take notes or memorize them word for word. Any 'mistakes' this year and you will be out of this class faster than you can say 'Health Science'. And that is where you will be if you choose to not take this course seriously…"
It was the same speech he had given the first day of school, only with a few alterations. Snape then ran through all the rules and then gave them the instructions for Tuesday. For the most part, Harry wrote what Snape was saying but he tended to loose concentration in that class. He wouldn't have been so distracted however, if it hadn't been for the fact that right after that class he was trying out for the lacrosse team, and later that night he would have most of the Seniors and quite a few Juniors at his house. That, mixed with the knowledge that he was being watched at that very moment by Draco Malfoy.
Finally, the bell rang and as everyone filed out of the class, Snape called over their voices, "And I'll be assigning lab partners on Tuesday as well." Everyone groaned and Harry prayed he would get paired up with Neville.
After stopping by his locker to retrieve his practice clothes, he headed over to the boys' locker room, which he had yet to use. He dressed quickly as he had always felt uncomfortable getting dressed around other guys. It was stupid, he was the one that was gay. He was supposed to enjoy that kind of thing, right? He just always felt afraid that people would find out and feel weird around him, act weird around him. It had happened before. At his previous school, someone had just started a rumor about him being gay, and after that nobody on the team wanted to talk to him and he was avoided in the locker rooms.
Out on the lacrosse field, about twenty other guys were wearing PE clothes or old lacrosse uniforms. They all looked a bit nervous and a few were stretching. Harry sat on the ground and stretched his arms and legs. When he stood back up and refocused his attention, he found that there was a tall man with a strong chest but a large belly standing in front of them all. Behind him were five people dressed in the school's lacrosse uniform who Harry supposed were on the team already. Instead of concentrating on them however, Harry watched the man who he thought was the coach, as he paced in front of the potential team members.
"Alright, you guys, I'm Ludovic Bagman the Lacrosse coach here. Some of you may have seen me on campus," he smiled and nodded to the students. "If you make the team, go ahead and call me Coach Ludo. Now, I see that there are quite a lot of you out here today but we'll only be taking nine of you. As you can see we already have five members that we kept from last year but we still need two attackmen, one goalie, three midfielders, and three defensemen.
"I'm sure you guys are eager to show us what ya got, so I'll explain to you how this is gonna work. I'm gonna split you up into two teams, throw in a couple of these guys from the team, and you guys will just keep changing positions as you play each other. As far as judging goes, we'll just watch and see which position you're best at and at the end of the day your names will be posted in front of the office in you made it. The team captain, Draco and I will be the only people making the decision on whether or not you made the team. Get some equipment and we'll get started!"
Harry stood, staring at the group of people who were already on the team. Sure enough, right there in the middle of them, was Draco Malfoy himself, smirking like the King of Everything. He looked Harry straight in the eyes and sneered, clearly just as displeased with Harry's presence.
Attempting to ignore Malfoy, Harry picked up a crosse (lacrosse stick) and went to the group that Coach Ludo directed him to. The scrimmage began with Harry as an attackman, moving around the goal and getting the ball passed the goalie for his team quite a few times. As he played he focused on the game and felt his body loosen up and his senses become sharper. He was aware of everything that was going on and he knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. The lacrosse field was where Harry knew he could always find himself and feel like he was who he was meant to be. Even when he played goalie, which he wasn't good at, he felt like he was in the right place. He played defenseman well for the third quarter and finally, in the last quarter Harry was permitted to show them all just how much talent he had.
He took the position of a midfielder and as soon as the coach blew his whistle he was flying around the field, taking possession of the ball, scoring, maneuvering around players, racing the game itself. He couldn't feel the sweat on his skin or the ground beneath his feel or the bodies around him. But he could feel a pair of eyes on him. Harry didn't know why, he didn't even realize he was doing it, but he slowed down in the middle of the field with the ball in his crosse and looked absent-mindedly to the person that the eyes belonged to. Draco Malfoy did not look away; he did not sneer or smirk, or even frown. In fact, it seemed as though he was looking at Harry in wonder. Harry stopped completely, looking back at him and then—
WHAM!
A member of the other team ran straight into his chest. He fell to the ground, but quickly recovered as he got up and continued the game, as if nothing had happened, as if there had never been that incredibly intense moment.
The quarter ended soon after, however, and everyone got off the field to get some water, wiping sweat from their foreheads. Harry alone remained on the field, bent over to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat from the back of his neck and walked around a bit, stretching his arms in front of his chest. He finally walked to where the coach was. It seemed the other students were walking towards the office, where one of the students who was already on the team was taping the list of new members up. Harry went to retrieve his bag and water bottle and then made to walk the same way. Before he could however, he was stopped by Bagman's voice.
"Potter, right?"
"Er… yeah. That's me." Harry turned around to face him.
"You played excellent today. You're definitely a midfielder, " he smiled jubilantly, "You lost yourself for a moment out there but fixed things quickly. You'll be quite an asset to the team."
"You mean I made it?"
"Yeah, for sure. I'd be crazy not to put you on the team. You definitely have the speed and agility for a midfielder." He glanced at Draco who was packing away his things into a red sports bag, "Draco, come 'ere."
Draco walked over with his gaze somewhere to the left and when he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Coach Ludo he looked up at Harry and sneered his patented sneer.
"Mr. Potter here is gonna play midfielder for us this year. You saw him out there, he was great."
"Hmm, I'm gonna go home Coach."
"Ah, alright Draco, I'll see you on Monday. And Mr. Potter, I'll see you there as well. Everyday after school, and you can drop your PE period."
Harry nodded and bid him good-bye. He chose not to change back into his regular clothes and instead walked home in what he was wearing. Elated, Harry's walk home was shorter than usual. How happy would Sirius and Remus be when they found out? Pretty happy, Harry reasoned.
Ron and Hermione had already arrived at his house when he got there. They were seated in the living room, Hermione talking to Remus and Ron talking to Sirius. They didn't notice Harry's arrival until he finally spoke up, "Thanks for telling me that git was team captain." Every head turned at this sarcastic remark.
"Ahh… Harry," Ron looked at the floor, and then looked back up to him, "Shit, I wanted to!"
"It's alright… I can deal with it."
"So you made the team?" Ron asked.
"Yeah!"
Everyone seemed very happy at this, even Remus and Sirius, though their happiness looked strained. They discussed the try-out for a bit, Harry telling them everything. Everything that didn't have something to do with Malfoy. After about a half-hour, Sirius and Remus excused themselves and told Harry they would be back by midnight, whether or not the party was over. They were going to go shopping, have dinner, and then go see a movie to stay out of the way.
After Remus and Sirius's departure Ron, Hermione and Harry laid out the food they had previously bought, the beer that Ron had gotten from Bill, the beer that Harry had gotten from Sirius, and the PETA flyers that Hermione had gotten from her animal activist group. They put away anything that could break and they set up Harry's stereo in the living room with a bunch of Ron and Harry's CDs. They locked Remus's room but left the rest open and cleaned up anything that wasn't already clean. It was seven o' clock when the doorbell rang for the first time.
A/N: Harry and Draco are asleep. And I should be too, but I wanted to finish this up. Shorter chapter, I know. Leave me reviews so that I update faster. PLEASE, I NEED THEM!