Please note: This story contains slash, it's my first attempt at writing any so be gentle.
Dangerous Secrets
Prologue
Sometimes, the softest of gestures can mean more than most could truthfully imagine. The lightest of touches, the most miniscule of embraces can sometimes set ones heart reeling into an unknown and wondrous ambiance of want and desire. No matter how hard they may try to prevent it.
It had begun the first day of term at the beginning of sixth year, an unspoken truce between once bitter enemies, neither wanting to carry to burden of their animosity into these new and harsh times. The forces of dark and light had come into open war just that June and everyone, from the most important to the most insignificant and overlooked of the magical world, was forced to openly choose and support one side or the other. Very few remained neutral, and those who dared to were often the first targets of the darkness. But, there were some, a very rare few, who had shocked the world with their choices.
One of those was the son of the Dark Lord's finest follower, a boy who had once reveled in the idea of following each of his father's careful footsteps with pride. When Draco Malfoy showed his allegiance to the light it was front page news. He quickly became one of the most high profile targets of Lord Voldemort, third on the Dark Lords personal hit list behind such illustrious and devout light wizards as Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. And it was his enmity with that same Harry Potter that he left behind along with his childhood.
Potter himself had been more than willing to "bury the hatchet" as it is put. When he returned from his summer holidays at the beginning of his sixth year, still grieving over the death of his godfather, and harsher from long nights of horrible nightmares and visions, he had wanted nothing more than to fall into the background of Hogwarts' life and slowly drift away in his numbness. It didn't happen that way though, as it never seemed to. Harry was pulled, sometimes literally, out of the shadows and into extra training with his teachers and forced into a position of leadership by his peers.
Slowly his eyes had begun to lose the life they had once exuded in such great abundance in his youth, in his innocence. It quickly became apparent that Harry was slipping away, but no one knew quite how to stop it.
It was toward the middle of his second term in sixth year that Hermione Granger, one of Harry's closest friends, noticed something rather odd. For some reason, whenever Harry glanced out over the Great Hall at meals, which was quite often in his quiet introspection, his eyes would rest on Draco Malfoy longer than anyone else. Hermione could see, in those few seconds, a shadow of the old Harry, for a fraction of a moment that light would return to his eyes again, that spark that has once made the green so vibrant it was almost blinding in its intensity. It both puzzled and pleased her. Puzzled, because she could not fathom a reason why looking at Draco Malfoy would elicit such a reaction from him, and pleased, because he wasn't completely gone, not if his eyes could still shine like that.
It always took Harry a moment to realize his lapse in concentration and look away. He seemed to skip over the implications of his desire to watch Draco, at least it seemed that way. On the inside however, Harry was quite diligently examining why exactly he had that urge. He didn't fool himself into thinking it meant nothing, for it was only in those moments of his day that life seemed to have any real meaning, any importance.
He had once fought it, these desires that were now completely built up within him, but now he embraced them. And when Hermione's watchful gaze turned elsewhere he allowed himself to close his eyes and moan silently with his pent up frustration. Yes, he embraced these emotions, but that didn't mean he allowed himself to act on them, or show them for that matter, other then his brief lapses in concentration. Which, much to his continued annoyance, where happening more frequently then before. He knew what he wanted, and at first he had been disgusted in himself for it… but now it had gone on too long, he was too used to these emotions. He knew it was true, true that he kept a secret from his friends that could shatter their tight bonds.
Harry Potter kept many secrets from his friends, but none as dangerous as falling for Draco Malfoy, none as deadly.
(A/N: The first chapter is almost completely written right now but I'm working out a few plot difficulties so it might be a little while before it gets posted but I'll do my best.
Let me know what you think of this so far… is it worth continuing?)