- Harry -

Harry was confused.

Two weeks had passed since the sorting ceremony, since he'd seen the exchange between Draco and Charlie. Their connection to each other ran deep, of that he was certain. 'Family friends' didn't look at each other that way, like the other was their sole reason for existing. It was like they could read each other's minds. Harry wanted to know, he wanted to understand. The look he'd seen on Malfoy's face on the train was entirely the opposite of what he'd seen at the sorting ceremony. He was just so confused.

And what was more confusing, was Malfoy's complete change of behaviour since Romanov had arrived. He hadn't bullied anyone once, or not that Harry had witnessed. He was barely even rude. It was just like nobody existed outside of their world together. Romanov had obviously been accepted well into the Slytherin 7th year group of friends, but Harry could see that the two cared about nobody but each other. He mentioned this to Ron and Hermione one night and Ron smirked.

"You think they're shagging don't you?" Ron asked, with a raised eyebrow and Harry blushed furiously.

"That's not what I'm saying!" Harry argued hotly, feeling flustered.

"They are both very attractive" Hermione admitted.

"Excuse me?" Ron turned to her, his face going green.

"They're nothing in comparison to you Ronald" Hermione reassured him with a smile. "But I'm just saying, it's understandable if Harry is... curious about two good looking boys and their obvious 'deep connection'" Hermione used air quotes, quoting Harry.

"It's not that" Harry blushed, wishing he hadn't brought it up.

"Mate, we're all totally cool with you being gay, but if you're going to profess your undying love for Malfoy, I think we might have an issue" Ron fake vomited.

Harry rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. "Why did I bother?" he muttered and the other two laughed.

"Whatever the connection is between them" Hermione mediated honestly. "It's obviously made Malfoy happy to the point where he's not awful to everyone. So I think we can all count that as a win"

"Yeah I don't care who's shagging who if it shuts Malfoy up" Ron agreed wholeheartedly. "But can we talk about something else now?"

"I can't believe there's no new leads with the missing person case" Harry changed the subject quickly. They had been updated a few times by the Aurors but leads were either a dead end or there was nothing new. It wasn't looking good for Felix Kemp. They had been given other cases to help with, ones that definitely gave them good experience in questioning or looking for leads but the missing person case bothered Harry. An unsolved mystery as his first case had gotten to him.

But as much as it got to him, he couldn't take his mind off Malfoy and Romanov. Were they a couple? Malfoy had never publicly come out as gay, in fact it was most definitely frowned upon by purebloods so maybe they were keeping it a secret. It bothered Harry even more then, that even as a pureblood, Malfoy was still managing to have a better gay love life than Harry was.

Harry was still watching them both in Potions as they sat next to each other, almost too close to be platonic. He watched them closely, noticing mannerisms that Harry knew Malfoy had, and how Charlie had them too. The way they leaned gracefully in their seats, the signature Malfoy smirk, the raised eyebrow, the elegant drumming of the fingers when Malfoy was bored or impatient. Charlie had them all too, but Harry could see they were less refined, less natural. But he knew for a fact that you didn't pick mannerisms up like that without spending a lot of time with someone. They were lying about just knowing each other vaguely through their families, and that just made Harry more confused and curious.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear as Snape read out everyone's names and the partners they would have up until Christmas. It was only when Ron gave him a hard nudge in the ribs that he looked up.

"Wake up mate, Snape just paired you with Malfoy, good luck" Ron grimaced, and went and sat with Pansy, who gave him a disdainful sneer, and Hermione, with a curious expression, sat down in Malfoy's vacated seat next to Romanov. Malfoy sat down next to Harry and gave him an eye roll but nothing more than that.

Harry raised his eyebrows. If that was the worst he was going to get then maybe this wasn't going to be too bad after all.

Half an hour later.

Sadly, that wasn't the worst he got.

"Scar-head, are you even counting?"

"Yes I'm counting Malfoy" Harry gritted out as he stirred.

"Doesn't look like there's anything going in your head"

"Well I am counting so shut it"

"You've done too many, idiot" Draco snapped as the potion went from the correct pink to an incorrect purple.

Harry stopped stirring and slammed his hand down. "If I've done too many it's because you wouldn't shut up and let me concentrate!"

"You need to concentrate to count to ten?" Malfoy sneered. "What are you, three years old?"

Harry growled angrily and picked up a vial of something nasty looking and threw it at Malfoy, who dodged just in time, and it landed in Neville's potion, which promptly exploded, covering Neville and Theodore Nott in a thick goo.

Draco laughed and Harry felt a rush of guilt.

"Shit Neville, I'm so sorry!"

"Mr Longbottom and Mr Nott, go to the Hospital Wing" Snape drawled from the front of the class, cleaning up the goo with a lazy wave of his wand.

"Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy, detention tonight" Snape continued.

"What? Professor I didn't do anything!" Malfoy exclaimed.

"Don't argue Mr Malfoy" Snape said dangerously and Draco merely narrowed his eyes and huffed indignantly. Harry smirked, for once Snape was actually playing fair.

Harry and Draco were both given detentions for 7pm, instructed to come and clean out all the old cauldrons by hand. Draco rolled his eyes and stormed out, pushing past Harry angrily.

Harry sighed, great, 2 hours alone with Malfoy, what could possibly go wrong?

Harry trudged back to the Gryffindor Common Room after class and before his detention, having had a quick bite of dinner. He slumped down beside Ron and Hermione.

"What a joke, having to spend time with Malfoy" Harry grumbled.

"At least he gave Malfoy detention too" Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah, but I'm probably going to end up wishing I was there on my own" Harry sighed.

"What was the new guy like to work with?" Ron asked Hermione, and Harry perked up a little with interest.

"He was fine actually" Hermione said, seeming pleasantly surprised. "He was quite friendly, though I was worried he was a little too distracted and might make mistakes, but he was actually quite competent"

"Distracted by what?" Harry asked curiously.

"He was watching you and Malfoy a lot" Hermione told him and then smirked a little. "Maybe he was jealous of your flirting"

"Our what?" Harry spluttered.

"Oh Harry I was joking" Hermione laughed, as did Ron. "But you might be right about him and Malfoy being together"

Harry glanced at the clock. "Shit I've got to go, I'll see you later"

"Good luck mate" Ron grimaced.

Harry got to detention and Malfoy was already there, lounging elegantly against the wall. Harry mentally braced himself for the next 2 hours.

"Malfoy" he greeted coldly.

"Potter" Malfoy replied in an equally cold voice.

Snape arrived and let them in, leaving on a warning on the amount of detentions that would follow if there was any fights. He took their wands and left them to it.

The two boys walked in and Harry groaned at the sight of the stacks of dirty cauldrons.

"Listen, Malfoy" Harry sighed. "Can we just get through this without fighting or arguing?"

Malfoy rolled his eyes and walked forward, picking up a couple of cauldrons and placing them on a table, before going back and doing the same again, until he had a stack to start working on, and picked up cleaning supplies from the store cupboard. Harry raised an eyebrow as he got to work without complaint, and slowly followed suit.

"Wow" Harry commented dryly. "I didn't actually think you'd do any of the work"

Malfoy scoffed. "I have better ways to spend my evenings, so the sooner we're done here the better"

Harry blushed a little as he thought about what, or who, he would rather be spending his evening with.

"Oh I'm sorry Malfoy, did you have big plans for the night?" Harry asked, unable to help his curiosity.

"Do I need to? I'd rather be out having an evening stroll with Filch and his cat than here scrubbing cauldrons with you" Malfoy retorted.

Harry couldn't help but smirk as he pictured that, and then wrinkled his nose. "Would you?" he asked with a hint of amusement.

Malfoy looked up at him, surprised by the amusement. He thought about it, then wrinkled his nose as well. "Actually no, I take that one back"

"Incredible" Harry smirked. "I'm not last on your list of people to spend time with"

Malfoy gave a soft snort and moved onto his second cauldron, while Harry still struggled with his first, and they worked in silence. A not entirely uncomfortable silence, which Harry was surprised by. Harry was still struggling on his first cauldron when Malfoy put down his fourth, and Harry sighed and set it aside for the end, moving onto the next one which was just as tough.

Malfoy looked up at him as he set down his own fifth spotlessly clean cauldron, then disappeared into the store cupboard.

Harry was scrubbing harshly, annoyed that he was sweating and aching, while Malfoy was looking as gracefully flawless as always, when a pale, elegant hand put a vial of clear liquid, a cloth and gloves down on the table in front of Harry.

Harry peered at it curiously then looked up at Malfoy, who had walked back to his own table.

"Put some on the cloth, it'll make it a lot easier" Malfoy commented simply, not looking at Harry but starting on the next cauldron. "But wear the gloves or you'll burn your hands"

Harry stared at him for a second, weighing up whether to trust him. Malfoy looked up too and almost looked a little hurt as he noticed Harry watching him suspiciously. He turned back to his own cauldron without a word.

Harry decided to give it a go, it wasn't as though he was making progress anyway. He pulled the gloves on and then poured some of the liquid on the cloth and wiped the inside of the cauldron. The thick burnt black goo at the bottom of the cauldron came off easily, leaving the cauldron looking brand new. Harry raised his eyebrows at the fact that Malfoy had helped him, and not only helped, but made sure he didn't burn his hands.

Harry finished that cauldron and set it aside.

"Thanks Malfoy" he spoke eventually, and Malfoy stopped what he was doing to stare at him in shock, clearly not having expected Harry to thank him. He didn't reply but just nodded and got back on with his cleaning, starting on his third pile.

But Harry didn't want them to go back to silence. It was their last year at Hogwarts, what if they could put everything behind them? No, he argued with himself, don't get all sentimental and forgiving just because he did one nice thing and because he's possibly gay and you're curious about it. That doesn't excuse his behaviour for the past six years.

But imagine the steps forward you could take if he wasn't being an arse all year, he argued back.

"What's going on with your face Potter?" Malfoy asked, sounding amused.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked heatedly.

"You look like you're having a full-on argument with yourself" Malfoy smirked.

"It's nothing" Harry grumbled and Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

"If you're debating whether I'm suddenly a great person because I helped you, then I'll save you the argument and say no, I did it so I wouldn't have to do any more detentions, and because you barely managed to clean one cauldron and I'm not doing all of them for you" Malfoy smirked again. But his eyes held an amusement that wasn't cold or condescending.

Harry stared at him in shock. "Are you a legillimens?"

Malfoy laughed, an actual amused laugh, not a mocking or cruel laugh. "Shit, maybe I am. I can't believe I was right" he chuckled as he started on another cauldron.

Harry almost smiled, and then caught himself, remembering who it was. "You normally would just leave me to do all the work though. I mean at the rate you're going we're going to be done in the next ten minutes, and then we'll have a whole half hour to wait for Snape"

Malfoy paused and looked at the small pile of cauldrons left to do, realising Harry was right and suddenly feeling self-conscious for some reason.

"Well I don't want to give our school Aurors a reason to put me and my family in Azkaban" Draco bit out, and Harry realised he must have struck a nerve.

"As much as I would love to have a nice quiet life without you or your dad, I think I would need a better reason than you not helping me in detention" Harry told him, rolling his eyes at the 180 degree mood swing.

"Yeah, okay, like you couldn't just make one up" Malfoy scoffed, and Harry watched him carefully, seeing how tense his face was, how he shook a little as he scrubbed unnecessarily harshly at the cauldron, and Harry realised with shock that he was actually worried about it. Was that why he hadn't been causing any problems so far this year, ever since Ron had threatened him on the train? Was that the turning point, and not that Charlie just made him deliriously happy and in love?

"I wouldn't do that, none of us would. Ron wasn't being serious about it" Harry frowned.

"Well we're only a couple weeks into the school year Potter" Malfoy snorted derisively. "We'll see how long that lasts"

"Unless you actually did something criminal enough to deserve it Malfoy, we wouldn't. I don't care how much I've ever disliked you, you don't belong in Azkaban" Harry rolled his eyes.

Malfoy opened his mouth to argue.

"Stop being dramatic" Harry smirked. "It's almost like you're trying to convince me to arrest you"

Malfoy stared at him for a second, studying him for signs of lies, then seemed to relax just minutely.

"What's criminal, is how slowly you clean cauldrons" Malfoy replied, getting the topic back onto comfortable ground, and Harry almost smiled again.

They finished the last few cauldrons up and looked at the clock. Half an hour left.

"Now what?" Malfoy asked.

"I guess we just wait" Harry shrugged, and they both took a seat. Malfoy starting his usual soft drum of his fingers on the desk, and it made Harry think of him and Romanov.

"What's it like having a new student in Slytherin?" Harry asked and Malfoy raised an eyebrow at Harry making conversation.

"It's fine" Malfoy answered, and Harry could tell his guard had gone up immediately. How interesting.

"You seemed shocked to see him on the train" Harry commented casually.

"I didn't know he was transferring" was all the emotionless reply he got.

"How do you know him?"

"Family friend"

"A good friend?" Harry asked curiously.

Malfoy didn't reply, just glared at Harry.

Harry shrugged. "You seem to know each other well is all, considering he's all the way in Durmstrang"

"His family live near us, he'd come back for summer and Christmas" was the controlled reply.

"Oh, nice" Harry said awkwardly, and Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"What's with all the questions, Potter?"

"I'm just curious, we've never had a transfer before, isn't it odd to transfer in your last year?" Harry asked.

Malfoy gave a one shoulder shrug. "Doesn't really matter, the grades apply everywhere"

"Did he say why he transferred?" Harry pushed.

"He wanted to be closer to home, somewhere less cold and boring, try something new" Draco rattled off casually, raising a calculating eyebrow.

Try something new huh? Harry thought. Like a new relationship? Is that why he'd moved here? Is that why Draco was scared on the train? In case the secret got out?

"Fair enough" Harry said.

"You're taking your Auror role seriously, huh?" Malfoy asked him with a slight smirk, clearly changing the subject.

"Yeah I guess so" Harry snorted.

"Must be nice to have your career sorted already" The blonde commented with a tinge of jealousy.

"I've still got to get the grades and pass the training" Harry told him. "But yeah, I couldn't turn the opportunity down"

"You'll be good at it" Malfoy said quietly, not looking at him, and Harry stared at him in shock. Had Malfoy just... complimented him?

"Thanks" Harry said quietly in return.

There was a long silence and Harry looked at the clock. Five minutes until Snape was due back. He might never get another opportunity for this.

"Malfoy?"

Malfoy looked up at him.

"This is our last year at Hogwarts"

"Oh really?" Malfoy asked sarcastically.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Can we just... call a truce for this year?"

Malfoy looked at him in bemusement. "Seriously?"

"Yes" Harry nodded. "I don't want to fight you any more. There's no reason for it. I think we could have been good friends... if things were different"

Malfoy snorted a laugh. "Like if you had accepted my offer of being my friend? Yeah, that might have done the trick"

"Oh come on! That was six years ago, and you were an arse" Harry argued with a smirk.

"Still... It was rude" Malfoy bit back with a hint of a smile.

Harry stood up and walked over to him, holding out his hand, like Draco Malfoy had done six years ago to him.

"Truce?" Harry asked, feeling slightly nervous.

Draco watched him with narrowed eyes, looking from Harry to his hand and back again. Trying to work out if it was a joke. Eventually he stood up and took Harry's hand, silver eyes locking with green.

"Truce" he responded.

- Draco -

He felt it as soon as he touched Harry's hand, the spark that he felt in his heart every time the Gryffindor turned his attention to him, the reason why he would constantly pick fights, and insult him, to feel the jolt of electricity that made him feel alive.

Was a truce a good idea? What if they just became nothing? What if all they had was their fighting?

Snape came to let them out, his eyebrows raising at the lack of arguing and the perfectly cleaned cauldrons, but didn't say a word, just handed back their wands and let them go.

Draco couldn't shake the feeling of Harry's hand in his as he went back to the Slytherin Common Room. He walked straight upstairs after saying hi to his friends, saying he was going to wash and change after cleaning cauldrons, but the more he thought about talking to Harry, his strong hand holding Draco's, the more he could feel a slight tent start to form in his trousers. He bit his lip and climbed into his bed quickly, pulling the curtains shut. He would get this out the way and then everything would be normal. He didn't like Potter like that, it was just their rivalry that got him horny, and the confusion of feelings. It was safe to imagine Harry, because nothing could ever happen, right?

Draco unbuttoned his trousers quickly, pushing his boxers out the way, lifting his t-shirt up a little and took a hold of his already throbbing erection, remembering the intense green eyes and the electricity he felt shaking his hand. He imagined that hand elsewhere on his body, those lips on his, as he started to stroke his erection, his other hand gripping onto the bed sheets as he picked up the pace, imagining that the two of them had spent that last free thirty minutes in an entirely more productive way in the Potions store cupboard. He imagined Harry moaning his name, him moaning Harry's as they rutted together and stroked each other, bringing each other to the brink -

"Sorry to intrude"

Draco let out a yelp as his eyes flew open and he quickly covered himself, holding his trousers up over his groin.

Charlie smirked, leaning against his bed post. "Thinking about one Harry Potter are we? Must have been one hell of a detention together"

"Can you leave?" Draco snapped, his face flushing.

"Oh relax, it's not as if we haven't caught each other wanking before" Charlie rolled his eyes with a grin. "You might want to act like a wizard though, and silence your bed if you're going to moan out your man's name"

Draco's jaw dropped open and he went bright red, he hadn't realised he had moaned out loud.

"Oh don't worry, nobody else was here. It was just me getting the show" Charlie waved it off.

Draco used his hand not holding his trousers up to give Charlie a shove. "Okay, got it, now fuck off and let me finish" he snarled.

"Sure, I'll leave you both to it" Charlie smirked gleefully as he headed out the room.

"And he's not my man!" Draco hissed at him as the door shut and he heard Charlie laugh.

Draco groaned in frustration and pulled his curtain shut again, this time silencing it, before wrapping his hand back around his still pulsing cock, moving his hand up and down quickly, back in the store cupboard with Harry as they rutted against each other, hands wrapped in each other's hair. Harry was kissing his neck. I love you, Harry breathed into his ear, and Draco arched with a loud moan, shouting Harry's name as he came hard, his hand squeezing his cock, cum spurting from the tip, over his hand, onto his abdomen.

Draco panted and gasped, catching his breath and riding out his orgasm. His hands unclenching from his penis and the bed sheets. Then his eyes flew open. I love you?

What. The. Fuck.