Chapter Seven: Class and Closet Choices

Five hours later, Harry returned to the Gryffindor dorm room hauling bags and bags of more clothes than he could ever possibly wear in his lifetime. As he began hanging up is new shirts in the wardrobe, Ron walked in and shook his head at him.

"How did I ever think you were straight?" he asked, eying the fine clothing. "Is that silk?"

"Well, I generally don't enjoy shopping any more than you do, but Draco and Pansy made it a lot of fun."

"Pansy? As in Parkinson?" Bloody hell, you really are a lost cause."

"They're not so bad, Ron, trust me. So what did you do today?"

"Well, since I didn't figure I wouldn't be seeing you for awhile, I asked Hermione to go to Hogsmeade with me. I'm so glad Dumbledore decided to let us go out to the village more often this year."

Harry nearly dropped the shirt he was holding. "Did you ask Hermione to go with you as a friend or as a date?"

Ron's face matched his hair as he muttered, "As a date."

Harry cheered and gave his best mate a hug. "It's about bloody time."

"Shut up."

After a short discussion, Draco decided that he wanted his and Harry's relationship to remain quiet for right now. He wasn't quite ready for the uproar it would cause. So, Monday morning, Draco and Harry ate breakfast in the Great Hall as always, pretending that nothing had changed between them. Harry sat in his usual place, facing away from Draco, but he could almost swear that he felt Draco's eyes on him the entire time. He must have imagined it though, because when he looked around, Draco was scanning a page of the Daily Prophet with a bored look on his face.

What Harry didn't know was that Draco stared at the same page of the paper from the moment Harry slunk in, sleepy-eyed and disheveled, to the time that he got up and left, and he never read a single word.

Once he was done with breakfast, Harry cheerfully gathered his books. It was only after Ron shot him an odd look that Harry realized that he was actually looking forward to double Potions because it would mean double Draco. Good lord, that boy really had messed with his brain.

The trio of Gryffindors descended the stairs to the dungeons, and Harry's heart skipped a beat as he saw a single, blond-headed figure leaning next to the door of Snape's classroom. As Harry approached, Draco pushed off the wall and walked to meet him until they were standing toe-to-toe.

"Potter," Draco drawled, his customary arrogance in place. Only Harry saw the glint of amusement in those cool, silver eyes.

"Malfoy," Harry replied in an equally disgusted tone, fighting the giddy smile that strongly wanted to spread itself across his face. "Get your slimy Slytherin arse out of my way. I'm trying to get to class."

Draco leaned forward, his face barely inches from Harry's. "Make me, Potter."

Losing the fight with his smile, Harry glanced around to make sure that no one but Ron and Hermione were around, then whispered "I'd rather... convince you." Then he leaned in the rest of the way and planted a heated kiss on Draco's soft lips. He pulled back after a moment and chuckled at the look on his boyfriend's face. Taking advantage of his momentary shock, Harry ducked around him to get through the door. His friends followed soon after, Hermione struggling not to giggle and Ron looking torn between amusement and nausea. Snape glowered at them from the front of the classroom.

"Potter, Weasely, Granger. Sit down. Ten points from Gryffindor—each—for tardiness." Draco walked in a good three minutes after them, composure regained, and Snape didn't say a word. The rest of the class had already assembled the ingredients for the day's potion, so Snape silently set the small vials on Draco's desk, causing all but one of the Gryffindors to scowl at the unfairness.

While Snape's back was turned, Harry sent his boyfriend a saucy wink, which Draco pointedly ignored, though Harry thought he saw the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. Unfortunately, he hadn't been quick enough.

"Something in your eye, Potter?"

"Yes sir. Pixie dust," Harry said, holding up the sparkling vial and forcing his face blank. "Dreadful stuff, you know."

----------------------

Harry wasn't feeling quite so smug a couple of hours later.

"Listen up," Professor Tonks said from the front of the classroom, waving her arms to get the students' attention. "It's time to reveal your first project for this year," she announced, seeming cheerfully oblivious to the groaning of the class. "You each will be researching a Dark Spell—besides the three Unforgivables of course, everyone already knows about them—a Dark wizard, or a famous battle between the Dark and the Light. You will compile your information into a presentation that you will share with the class one week from now." More groans. "You will each have a turn to teach your classmates what you've learned through a lecture as well as stuff like three-dimensional models and other creative junk, and I need a bibliography. Here's a list of plausible topics," she said, and with a wave of her wand the front chalkboard revealed several dozen choices scribbled on it in Tonk's spiky handwriting. "Once you decide, come up and tell me which topic you've chosen. Only one person per topic, so the faster you choose the more likely you are to get what you want." With much grumbling, the class got up and peered at the list.

"This will be so much fun!"

"All right, Hermione," Harry said, smiling at his excited friend. "Can you give me a brief overview of the stuff I might be interested in? I haven't heard of any of this stuff."

"Yeah, please Hermione?" Ron wheedled. Hermione tried to look disapproving and failed miserably.

"Oh, all right. Ron, I think you would enjoy researching the Battle of Yeti Pass. Wizarding generals developed all sorts of magical warfare and battle strategies that only you would understand."

"Awesome," Ron said, then dashed off to where Tonks was standing to put his name on the list.

"Just a second, Hermione," Harry said, when she began explaining some of the other topics to him. "I have an idea." He made his way through the mob of students surrounding his favorite teacher. "Hey, Tonks, I have a topic suggestion that isn't on the board" he said quietly in her ear.

"Hold on a moment," Tonks told the other students. "What's your idea, Harry?" "Could I do Riddle?"

The pink-haired professor looked surprised, then considered it for a moment.

"Actually, I think that would be a great idea. It would be good if we could teach these hooligans some practical information about him, and you'd definitely be the best one to do it—but it wouldn't be fair to the others. You wouldn't have to research it at all."

"Exactly," Harry said with a wide grin and Tonks gave him a Look.

"I tell you what, if you prepare a bit and do a presentation on You-Know-Who as well as whichever one you do for your project grade I'll give you a handful of extra credit and house points, what do you think?"

Harry grimaced. "Well, I was hoping to get out of most of the work, not end up with more, but I see your point. Sure, I'll do two. I don't know what else I'll choose though."

"Hmmm." She looked over the list on the board. The topics that had already been taken had magically crossed off. "I think you'll find the Parvulus Curse interesting."

"All right. Thanks, Professor."

------------------------

After dinner that night, instead of hanging out with Draco like he very much wanted to do, Harry dragged his tired arse to the library with Ron and Hermione. He thought bleakly of the other Gryffindors happily chatting in front of the fire as they put off their projects until the last couple of days before it was due. Those people didn't have Hermione Granger as a best friend. Harry sighed and touched his wand to the magical card catalog. Instantly, several shelves shot open and Harry caught the cards that flew into the air. He read the book titles on a few of them, but when he got to the third one, he blushed and hastily shoved it back. Apparently the card catalog had gotten mixed messages about what Harry needed. He couldn't believe the library actually had books about that. He carefully read over the rest, but it looked like that card had been the only one to get confused. He collected a few of the books and sat down at a table near the back, next to Ron. Harry glanced at Ron's stack.

"You only found one book?"

"Well, one at a time you know," Ron said lazily, then broke of in a groan. Harry turned around and smiled at the sight of Hermione buried under a stack of books nearly as tall as she was.

"Here Ron," she said, handing him the top half after she set it down. "You forgot a few."

"Thanks Hermione," Ron said, fighting to sound thankful while Harry battled laugher.

After half an hour of research and note taking, Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione kept glancing at each other when they thought that the other one wasn't looking. Harry smiled to himself, then turned to Hermione. "Maybe you and Ron should take a break. You've both gotten a lot done." Ron shot a hopeful glance at his girlfriend. She hesitated for a moment, then, oddly, glanced back over her shoulder and then looked at Harry before smiling a knowing smile.

"Yeah, you're right. Come on Ron, let's... rest." Looking like a little boy on Christmas, Ron bounced happily after his girlfriend out of the library. Harry doubted they even made it past the first nook they came to. He turned back to his books, determined to get as much done as possible, when he was aware of someone else sitting down next to him.

--------------------

Draco, bored and lonely, meandered in the direction of the library shortly after dinner. He had hoped to spend some time with Harry tonight, but Hermione was making him work on the DADA project. He told himself he wasn't going down to the library to see Harry—he had his own DADA project to work on, after all. Which explains why he never even glanced at the card catalog as he passed it. He spotted his boyfriend right away, and he headed towards the opposite end of the library so that he could come around from behind the bookshelves without Harry seeing him. He finally picked himself a spot where he had a good view of the stunning raven-haired boy, and pretended to study the titles on the spines of the books. He tried to duck out of sight when Granger passed by him but, despite the ridiculous number of books in her arms, Draco could have almost sworn that she'd sent him an amused look.

He decided he might as well get started on his thing if he was going to be in the library anyway, so he walked over and tapped his wand on the big filing cabinet. He caught the cards one by one, and used a copying spell to transfer the information from the cards to a piece of parchment. His hand was on automatic—his brain still fantasizing about green eyes and lightning-shaped scars—and it wasn't until two cards later that he noticed that one of the entries couldn't possibly be right. How the hell had he gotten a hold of that one? Though he might want to take a look at that book sometime. It sounded fascinating.

Refusing to allow himself to blush, he erased the entry quickly and finished up. He took a look at the shelve positions of his books and tried to figure out which one would be closest to Harry. Screw that, he thought as he realized that every single one of his books were located on shelves that were nowhere near Harry's table. He went back to where he had been standing before. He thought he saw Granger glance back at him, and he hurriedly grabbed a book, opened it, and skimmed his finger down a non-existent index page with a look of serious concentration. His silver-gray eyes followed Granger's bushy hair as she left the library, her freckle-faced boyfriend close behind. His heart started beating faster. Harry was alone...

He had just re-shelved his random book and turned back to Harry's table when he noticed that Harry had company. Well, that didn't last long, he grumbled to himself. Seated next to him was a very pretty girl with curly black hair. He couldn't tell which House she was from—he couldn't see her crest from here—but he didn't think she was a Gryffindor and he knew she wasn't Slytherin. He crept closer, trying to hear their conversation.

"Hey, Harry," she said in a musical voice, looking very nervous.

Harry looked at her for a second before saying "Um... hi."

"DoyouthinkyouwouldmaybegotoHogsmeadewithmethenexttimeDumbledoreletsusgo?"

"Um... what was that?" Harry asked, but Draco, fists clenching, had understood her perfectly.

She took a deep breath, and then repeated "Do you think you would maybe want to go to Hogsmeade with me? I think we're having another Hogsmeade weekend in two weeks."

"Oh," Harry said, stunned and blushing deeply. "Look, I really appreciate you asking; no one has ever asked me on a date before. It's just that... I can't. I'm sorry."

Draco knew it was killing him not to give her the real reason. His heart had clenched when Harry had admitted that no one had ever asked him out and, dammit, he was right. Some boyfriend Draco was turning out to boy.

"Oh," the girl said softly, pretty blue eyes filling with tears. "No, it's okay. See you later." And then she was gone. Draco watched his sensitive, empathetic boyfriend bury his face in his hands. He knew he was feeling like shit for hurting the girl. He could only watch for a minute before he flew to Harry's side and threw his arms around his shoulders, making him nearly leap out of his chair.

"Draco!" he gasped, glancing around to see who might have noticed. Fortunately, it was nearly curfew, so the library had cleared out. He twisted around to see his boyfriend's face, then frowned. "Draco? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? What are you sorry for?"

"I want to tell. I want to tell everyone. I want to yell out that yes, Harry Potter is my boyfriend and I'm the luckiest guy on Earth."

Harry was stunned. "Wow." He opened his mouth to say something else, floundered for a minute, then just repeated, "Wow." He seemed to get a hold of himself then, at least enough to say, "That touches me deeply. But what made you change your mind?"

"Well, first, I have to keep away from you, and you know what? That really sucks. I couldn't unglue my eyes from you the entire time we ate breakfast. And then you had to go and kiss me. That really didn't help the whole not-thinking-about-you thing. Second, I nearly flew into a very unseemly rage when I saw that girl flirting with you. And then I would have lost what little dignity I have left, and that would make me grumpy. And last, I could see that you really, really wanted to tell her the truth—tell her that you were taken—so that you wouldn't hurt her. But you didn't. For me."

"Are you sure, Draco?"

"I'm positive," the blond said firmly. Harry beamed at him.

"Awesome. But we have to come up with a really interesting way to come out of the closet."

"I think we can manage."