Ch. 2

Awkard Situation—Times Three

A few hours later, Draco Malfoy turned Harry out from the Room, leaving the raven-haired boy to wander confused, yet delightfully sated back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry found himself trying to untangle and unearth all sorts feelings and thoughts he didn't even realize he had been suppressing.

A deep, scratchy, greasy voice came from the darkness of the corridor causing Harry to jump back, stumbling over his own feet.

"Potter."

Regaining his balance, Harry looked up to see Snape peering down his long, hooked nose at him with a strange look that made his usually dark black eyes seem brighter.

"It's not safe to be wandering the hallways alone—especially someone of your," Snape licked his lips as they curled into a predatory-like grin, "stature."

"Stop!" A shrill voice yelled out near them. Snape and Harry both looked around startled. A young woman in a portrait on the wall next to Snape was shaking her head vigorously.

"That is just not right! It is so wrong!" the women stared menacingly at Snape.

"But…" Snape stammered.

"No! That is absolutely, positively disgusting. We will not be going there."

"But…" Snape tried again.

"I said No Way. I will not allow any Snarry in my castle."

Snape arched his eyebrow and put on his best come-hither look, which made the woman in the portrait grimace. "But some find me," he tossed his greasy hair and let a sly smile play on his lips, "enticing."

"Ugh! That is because they made a movie and cast your character to a surprising attractive sixty year old man, you git. If you read the book, you know you are not even remotely portrayed as attractive. Let's see here…" she picked up a book from the table she was sitting next to in the portrait and cleared her throat before reading straight from a page. "And I quote, '…a teacher with greasy black hair, a hook nose, and sallow skin.' Then…" she paused as she flipped through a few pages before finding what she was looking for. "Ah, and here. 'His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.' You see?" she looked pointedly at the Potions master and slammed the book shut in a manner that reminded Harry quite a bit of Hermione.

"Okay, okay. You proved your point," Snape grumbled and then added under his breath, "Cow." Sighing quite loudly and dramatically, he forced his expression to change to the dark and hateful one he usually gave Harry. Turning back to the boy he gave his best greasy sneer and growled, "Off to your common room, Potter. Or else it will be detention…" Snape paused a moment as naughty and nasty thoughts clouded his mind.

"Severus!" the woman warned.

"Argh! Get out of my sight, Potter!" Snape pointed Harry away from him before turning and sweeping off down the hall.

"Go on now. Before he comes back…" the woman said to Harry, urgently.

Without a word Harry hurried very quickly back to the common room, slowly coming to the conclusion that he was going completely mental. As he stepped through the portrait hole, he hoped he could just sneak up into bed to be alone with the thoughts bouncing around in his head.

Avoiding even a glance into the quiet room, Harry took quick strides towards the stairs leading to the boys' dorms. He hadn't even gotten one leg up to begin to climb the stairs when a hand touched his shoulder and a sweet voice said,

"Hello Harry. Can we talk?"

Harry turned to face Ginny Weasley. "Oh. Hi, Ginny. Actually I'm a bit tired. Do you think it can wait until tomorrow?"

"Harry, I really want you to know how much I like you…" Batting her eyes and pursing her lips, she took a step closer and ran a finger slowly down his arm.

"Er, well, under normal canon circumstances this would be great—but recent, erm, events have lead me to realize I want other, uh, things…"

"Come off it, Harry!" Ginny grasped his robes and pulled him down for a short, sweet kiss. She pulled back quickly, sputtering and wiping her mouth.

"Ugh! Rich, pureblood…and Slytherin! Gross!" she gagged and pulled faces.

"I'm sorry, Ginny," Harry said as sincerely as he could.

Ginny tossed her head and frowned at him before turning on her heel. Harry began his ascent up the stairs when he heard Ginny call after him,

"I knew there was something about you, Harry, but really—him? Ugh!"

Harry turned to respond but she had already disappeared up to the girls' dorm. Shaking his head he climbed the stairs sluggishly.

Thankfully all the boys were asleep, or at least pretending to be. The curtains on Ron's bed were drawn, as they had been since the new term started. Harry gazed at the closed curtains as he changed into his nightclothes and felt something fluttering and stirring about inside his chest and stomach, but dismissed it as the remaining sting from his encounter with Malfoy. He shook his head and climbed into bed. As he reached over to draw his own curtains, (Ron wasn't the only who could play that game), he spied some strange looking parchment poking out from under Ron's bed. Leaning forward for a closer look, Harry saw that it wasn't so strange to him because it was bright white copy paper, although it did look a bit crumpled and soiled.

"Where the hell did Ron get access to a computer?" Harry mumbled to himself as he pulled the rope to let the curtains down.

He meant to ponder it a little longer, but his mind produced a sudden memory of Malfoy and it distracted him back to other types of thoughts that put him to sleep with a slight smile on his face.

SSGWSSGWSSGWSSGW

Harry woke up in the best mood he had been in since the end of last term. He was looking forward to seeing Ron that morning and spending time with him at breakfast. Poking his head out of the bed draperies, he looked over at his mate's bed with a large smile. The smile quickly turned into a defeated frown when his eyes fell upon Ron's empty bed.

Sighing, Harry trudged himself out of bed and got dressed with the small hope that Ron would be waiting in the common room for him. When he reached the end of the stairs a cheery voice greeted him.

"Good morning, Harry!"

"Oh. 'Morning, Hermione," Harry said, looking around anxiously. "Where's Ron?"

"Oh, um, he had to do some studying this morning. He'll see you at practice," Hermione avoided his eyes.

"Studying? Ron?" Harry snorted and raised an eyebrow. Realizing that the action was threatening memories of the night before to creep in his mind, he quickly blinked it away.

"Yeah, well, I bugged him enough. He had to finish Snape's essay or he'd be toast." Hermione bit her lip too busy trying to collect her thoughts to notice Harry's involuntary shudder at the Professor's name. "Um, speaking of toast—I'm starving! Let's go eat!" She took his arm and steered him down to the Great Hall.

They walked in silence, although Hermione kept opening her mouth like she was about to ask Harry something but then quickly changed her mind. After a few times of this, Harry rolled his eyes and asked,

"What's on your mind, Hermione?"

Hermione jolted beside him, looking like an animal caught in the high beams of an eighteen-wheeler. "Oh, erm…"

"Hiya, Harry!" Colin Creevey bounded over to them flashing Harry a big smile. Harry was more than grateful that he didn't flash the large camera that hung around his neck at him.

"Hi, Colin," Hermione replied, smiling at the boy, obviously relieved to have a distraction from Harry's questioning.

"Hey, Hermione," Colin said, turning to her, but still glancing sideways at Harry with adoring eyes. "Ginny really needs to talk to you. Can you meet her for breakfast?"

"Oh, uh, sure, Colin. Thanks. Sorry, Harry. I'll see you later." She looked anything but sorry—in fact it looked like she couldn't wait to get away fast enough.

"It's okay, I'll keep you company, Harry," Colin said cheerily, following the older boy to the table.

"Brilliant," Harry muttered, glancing back to see Hermione and Ginny together at the far end of the table with their heads pressed together. A quick glance up and down the table revealed that Ron was not present either. Sighing, he sat down and began to pile sausages, bacon and toast on his plate. Colin slid in close next to him.

They sat in silence for a while and Harry became aware that Colin was sitting so close to him that their knees kept knocking. Trying to be discreet, Harry shifted in his seat to move a bit away, only to have Colin do the same so they were touching again.

Harry chewed on a piece of bacon trying to assess the situation and what to do about it without seeming too rude. Given the last night's events, Harry briefly thought maybe it was all just his imagination running wild.

"Harry," Colin suddenly said in a soft whisper, just loud enough for Harry to hear. "I was wondering if you could help me with a project I'm working on."

For a moment Harry just gaped at Colin who was staring adoringly at him as he fingered the camera around his neck. "Wh…What?" Harry finally stammered, having a very abrupt urge to jump up and run out of the hall.

"See, I need a figure—a model if you will," Colin batted his lashes almost as skillfully as Ginny had the night before and scooted even closer to Harry, the younger boy's leg practically on top of his. "To pose for some pictures."

"Pose for pictures?" Harry was aware that his voice had gone up an octave and his face and neck were beginning to get warm; but he was too stunned by the strange look in Colin's eyes to back away.

"Yes, Harry," Colin's voice was low and husky. "Nude poses." He licked his lips and grinned at Harry with his clown-like mouth that suddenly reminded Harry of the Joker in the Batman comics he used to sneak from Dudley's room.

"What?" the raven-haired boy hissed, wondering why his body was sending off those kinds of signals, opposite of what his mind was screaming at him, and quickly urged them away.

"Of course," Colin slid his hand up Harry's thigh, "If it will make you more comfortable, I can be nude, too." He squeezed the thigh teasingly.

Harry moved so hastily, he fell off the bench while trying to stand up. He scooted backwards on the floor when Colin held out his hand to help him up.

"Er, no…Are you…What…No—No!" Harry shook his head as he struggled to get up.

"But Harry, I thought…" Colin's Joker-like grin faded slowly.

"I…I'm sorry, Colin, but…" Harry finally got to his feet. "I've got to go…Quidditch, yeah, I have Quidditch…" Harry began to edge away as Colin made to stand up. "Oh, Merlin!" Harry turned and fled out of the hall.

"But it's art!" Colin called after the messy black hair blurring past students as they entered and exited the hall. Shaking his head, Colin turned to sit back down only to run into a tall blond boy in green robes and a sneer on his face.

"Better luck next time," Malfoy drawled and walked away, leaving the younger boy to glower hatefully after him.

More to follow…

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