Chapter 23

Disclaimer: Harry Potter etc still belongs to JK Rowling, plot still belongs to me.

A/N: Thanks for caring, dear people who are still reading this. It's comforting to have this fic, which I can just update from my backlog of chapters; I don't have time to write updates for my others!

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It took a while for Harry and Draco to realise they were not alone. Hermione and Ron remained stock still, staring in shock. Eventually, Hermione gave a loud, fake cough. Harry and Draco sprang apart, their expressions of shock quickly replaced by looks of horror. The same thought was running through both their heads: 'We're stuffed'.

After about five seconds of awkward, emotionally charged silence, Harry tried to speak.

"I… ah, we… um…" I said he tried to speak, I never said he managed what could be recognised as intelligible human communication.

At this moment, Hermione managed the first full sentence. She turned to Ron. "OK, you owe me five galleons – I TOLD you he was gay!"

Harry found his voice at last. "Excuse me?"

Hermione turned to look at him. "Well, let's face it Harry, you've never really tried to hide it – I could tell from the day we met that you were gay."

"What!" Harry still couldn't take this in.

Hermione sighed. "You've been admiring yourself in every shiny surface you've passed since the start of term. You take great pride in your appearance. You say the most effeminate things sometimes. And lastly, ever since you met HIM-" she gestured to Draco "-it's been Malfoy this, Malfoy that. And you told me you loved someone, who you kept referring to as 'a person' rather than 'a girl' or 'her'."

Ron's face was a picture. He was staring at his girlfriend, clearly amazed by her detective powers.

Harry, however, was not paying any attention to this. He was too wrapped up in his own mortification. As the new silence progressed, though, he became a little concerned about Ron. Why wasn't he saying anything? Was he going to go totally nuts? He chanced a look at Draco, who looked just as terrified as he did.

"You know," Ron said suddenly, "this isn't such a bad thing. Malfoy, I do hope we can overcome our differences…"

Draco looked a little disconcerted by this. His fears were quickly founded, as at the very next moment, Ron whipped out his wand and threw a curse at him. Draco suddenly found himself on the floor.

Harry did not stand for this. He drew his own wand and hexed Ron right back. Hermione caught the now unconscious Ron as he fell, looking a little peeved. "He did deserve that," she remarked. She quickly performed a charm to make Ron lighter, then did the spell to make them both invisible again. She then exited, levitating Ron with her wand. "Sorry about that, Malfoy," she said over her shoulder as she left.

As soon as they were alone again, Harry dropped to his knees beside Draco.

"What did he do?" He asked.

"I'm not quite sure," Draco replied, groaning as he tried to drag himself into a sitting position. "I guess I deserved it though."

"No! You didn't do anything. Ron overreacted." Harry told him, as he helped him sit up.

Draco laughed, but he quickly stopped, clutching his ribs. "Crap, that hurts. What was that curse?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know." Then his face brightened. "I remember this charm Hermione taught me…" He gave his wand a complex flick. A ribbon of sliver light appeared in the air, and twisted itself into words. Harry read them and frowned. "So this is the curse he used. I think I remember this one." A look of intense concentration flitted over his face. He muttered the counter-curse and pointed his wand at Draco.

"That's much better," Draco breathed. "Thanks, Harry."

"Well, it was my friend that cursed you…"

"I'll understand if you want to finish this right now," Draco said, suddenly deadly serious. "It'll be hell for you if your friends really hate the idea of you and me…"

"Of course I don't want to finish with you!" Harry answered in surprise. "I'd rather have two best friends who hate the idea of us than not be with you!"

Draco smiled. "I love you, Harry."

"I love you too." How easily the words came! It felt so natural to say them now, even though he had not been expecting this.

Draco was still quite weak from the effects of the curse, so Harry helped him over to one of the sofas (not the one with the gravitational field) and they sat down. Draco rested his head on Harry's shoulder. They did not speak any more, and soon they both fell asleep where they sat. And so it was that they spent the night together.

When Harry woke, it was Monday morning, and dawn was just beginning to break. He felt a weight on his right shoulder, and he wondered where he was. After a few minutes, the answer swam into his half-asleep brain. He was in the Room of Requirement, on a sofa, with Draco asleep beside him. He opened his eyes fully, but did not move for fear of waking the sleeping blond.

After he had woken completely, Harry whispered: "Draco." Draco stirred slightly. "Draco." It took a few more tries, but eventually Draco woke up.

"Morning Harry," he murmured as he opened his eyes. "What time is it?"

Harry looked at his watch. "It's 6.30. We should go now. People will wonder where we are."

Draco lifted his head and sat up with a cat-like yawn. "I guess you're right."

A minute later, the two of them left the Room of Requirement under Harry's Invisibility Cloak. They went in the direction of the Slytherin dormitories, and Draco slipped out from under the cloak just in front of the portrait hole.

"See you later then," Harry whispered. Draco squeezed his hand in response, and climbed through the portrait hole. Harry headed off to Gryffindor tower, and crept into his dormitory before the others woke up. He then managed to convince Ron that he had spent the night in the dormitory. Ron did not seem to want to discuss the night's events, which suited Harry just fine.

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Author's Note: I think this chapter lost momentum about halfway through. Hope I carried it off though. Give me feedback on the mushiness level and I can work out where to go from here.

A/N2: The end's ripped off from an original story of mine, if I remember rightly. Please review, chaps!

Note: If you like this, try Master Of Puppets, a new fic which is exclusively on my LiveJournal at present. The link is in my profile.