"Is that...?"
"It can't be."
"With Krum?"
Everyone gasped as Hermione Granger swept onto the dance floor with Viktor Krum on her arm, looking resplendent in robes of periwinkle blue, smiling serenely. Draco gaped at her open- mouthed, unable to conjure any of his usual retorts or insults at the girl. Pansy scowled and elbowed him hard in the ribs.
"Close your mouth you idiot!" she hissed. "You look like a buffoon!"
Draco quickly shut his mouth but his eyes still followed Hermione everywhere she moved across the dance floor. Greg, however, took no notice. He stood with Vince at the back of the expectant crowd, deep in conversation about their favourite Quidditch teams' infamous rivalry.
"Gregory Cotton is going to kick your arse this season," promised Vince. "The Wasps have no chance with him on the team."
"Bullshit," laughed Greg. "Granted, Cotton's good. But the rest of the team is a shambles. This is the Arrows' year, I'm telling you."
"I'll be impressed if they manage to beat the Cannons," teased Vince. Greg punched his arm.
"You take that back!"
"Make me!" grinned Vince and the two proceeded to scuffle and laugh in silence, although nobody took notice as all eyes were upon the Triwizard Champions dancing in the centre of the Great Hall.
"Get a room you two," drawled Draco and Pansy sniggered. Greg and Vince quickly stepped away from each other, blushing. Draco sighed, "This isn't much of a party now, is it? Not like the ones my father hosts at the Manor. They're much more impressive than this quaint gathering."
"What we need to do is spice things up a bit," winked Pansy. Draco smirked.
"What we need is a proper drink to liven things up a bit, wouldn't you agree?" he gave a mischievous grin and pulled a small silver hip flask from the inside of his robes, "Firewhisky anyone?"
"I'll be taking that, thank Mr. Malfoy," came a silky voice. Draco winced as Professor Snape appeared over his shoulder and snatched the flask from his grasp. He gave Draco a bemused look, "Any more shenanigans like this and I will be forced to deduct House points. Carry on."
Snape tucked the flask into his robes and swept across the dance floor towards Professor Dumbledore. Pansy patted Draco's arm sympathetically, "Tough luck, Draco."
Draco smirked and shook his head, "Not to worry, I knew he'd be on the look-out for alcohol, thought it was better to humour him. Thankfully that one was a decoy."
He pulled a second, identical hip flask from his robes and proceeded to top up their goblets with a dram of Firewhisky. The rest of the evening went better than Greg could have hoped – the food was great, he didn't have to worry about showcasing his terrible dancing because neither he nor Vince liked to dance anyway, instead spending the evening chatting and laughing amongst themselves and with Draco. Even Pansy was being more amicable, although that may have just been the effects of the Firewhisky. Then when the Weird Sisters entered the stage, everyone screamed and rushed forward. Vince instinctively grabbed Greg by the hand and dragged him to his feet.
"Come on, we've got to see this!" he yelled, grinning broadly. Greg smiled back sheepishly, weaving through the throngs of students to get as close to the stage as possible, never wanting to relinquish his hold on Vince's hand. When they got as close to the stage as they could, they spent the rest of the evening singing, jumping and laughing together, Greg all too aware each time Vince's arm or waist brushed against his own.
When the Ball came to a close, naturally everyone disregarded the midnight curfew and dispersed amongst the castle's many secret corridors, hosted parties in the common rooms and disappeared into the castle grounds with their partners and friends to continue their evening. Greg and Vince had a few more drinks at the after- party in the Slytherin common room, and when Vince said he was getting tired, Greg followed him upstairs to the boy's dormitory.
Not surprisingly, they were the first two to go into the dormitory – Blaise and Theo were Merlin- knows -where with their dates, and they had gladly left Draco and Pansy wrapped up in each other's arms in a far corner of the common room. Greg smiled as he listened to Vince chatting animatedly, stripping out of his heavy dress robes, strutting about the room barefooted and with his shirt untucked, still buzzing from the night's events. It wasn't very often he saw Vince like this – totally at ease, smiling and happy. He was so serious most of the time, Greg hadn't noticed before how much Vince's smile seemed to light up his entire face. A dangerous combination of Firewhisky, good food and good music had Greg flying high on feelings of elation he rarely felt. Throw Vince into the mix, it was intoxicating. Vince paused in front of Greg with a contented expression on his face.
"I had a really great night Greg," he said quietly. "Thanks for coming with me. You're right, it wouldn't have been as much fun with anyone else."
Vince had taken a step closer to Greg and he was all too aware of just how close they were now. Vince, a few inches taller, seemed to loom over him, but his expression wasn't threatening, it was…nervous. Expectant. Vince reached out and brushed his hand against Greg's elbow and something seemed to snap inside of him - it was impossible for Greg to ignore his feelings any longer, so overwhelming in their strength he thought surely he would drown if he didn't say or do something about it. He stared at Vince's lips for a moment, then throwing caution to the wind he leaned forward and kissed him. It was a moment before Vince's brain caught up with what was happening, and even then he wasn't sure how to respond. He stood rooted to the spot, unresponsive, his lips stiff against Greg's surprisingly soft ones pressed against his own, but he wasn't pushing him away either. All of his focus was on the rough stubble of Greg's chin brushing against his own, and the warmth of his breath against his lips.
When Greg's lips finally pulled away, Vince felt like the air had been sucked from his lungs. He touched his lips, still tingling and damp, uncertain of what he should say or do. Greg took a step back and bowed his head to avoid Vince's gaze, his cheeks flushed scarlet. He could tell from Vince's unresponsiveness that it had been the wrong thing to do, but he was surprised he hadn't been punched in the face yet. It would surely come any second after Vince's brain finally processed what Greg had just done.
Greg jerked a little in fright as he felt Vince's hand slide around the back of his neck, pulling him closer. His heart was hammering so hard in his chest now he was sure that Vince could hear it. The only other sound in the room was their shaky breaths. He closed his eyes, still half-anticipating the first strike, then gasped when he felt Vince's tongue sweep tentatively across his lips. Without thinking he opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, taking a step closer so that their chests pressed against one another, he could feel Vince's heart was pounding just as hard as his own.
Greg had heard a lot about kissing girls from the other boys – if Draco wasn't complaining about Potter he was talking about the many merits of 'getting off with fit birds'. Despite Draco's high praises, Greg hadn't thought it sounded particularly pleasant – he'd pulled a face at the thought of someone else's saliva in his mouth, balked at the idea of what he thought would be too much tongue and teeth. But this wasn't unpleasant at all. In fact it felt rather nice. Vince's kiss felt soft and warm, his tongue like hot velvet pressing against his own.
Greg slowly wrapped his arms around Vince's waist, still afraid that Vince would realise what the hell he was doing and jump away from him at any moment, but as he rested his hands at the bottom of his back and pulled him a little closer Vince sighed contentedly, his hot breath tickling Greg's lips. The sound made Greg shiver with excitement, he felt lightheaded with nervousness and excitation, his whole body hardwired to every little movement and noise Vince was making. Vince had one hand placed firmly against Greg's hip and the other tentatively playing with the hair on the back of his neck, the caress of his fingers sending little jolts of electricity across his flush skin. Greg lowered his hands a little towards Vince's arse and Vince groaned with approval—
CLICK.
The dormitory door creaked open and Pansy Parkinson's voice spilled through from the corridor into the bedroom. Draco popped his head through the door and surveyed the room to see if it was free and froze when his eyes fell upon his friends. He had stopped so abruptly that Pansy had crashed into Draco's back and grumbled, "Oi! What's the hold-up? Are you going to show me a good time or not?"
Vince and Greg quickly broke their kiss and jumped away from each other, but it was too late. Draco stared at them both with an unreadable expression. A long, fragile silence followed as the three friends stared at each other; Greg looking increasingly panicked, Vince angry and Draco with a calculating expression. Draco pulled out his wand and Vince instinctively reached for his own, but Draco was too quick.
"Accio tie," he shouted, and his school tie flew out of his top drawer and into his outstretched palm. He looked at his friends and shook his head.
"If you want to ensure privacy you need to put this on the door handle!" he gave them an incredulous look then muttered, "Amateurs," before closing the door behind him and securing the tie to the door handle.
"I'm sorry, my dear, but this room is currently occupied," he declared. Pansy's eyes widened.
"Ooh, who's got lucky?"
"You have," said Draco promised, silkily slipping his hand around her waist. "Come on, I know a couple secret passageways we can check out."
Vince let out a long sigh of relief and sank onto the edge of his bed, head in his hands.
"Fucking hell," he muttered. "What are we doing?"
"I don't know," said Greg weakly. "Sorry."
"No," Vince shook his head. "I'm sorry. I…I've been wanting to do that a lot. For a while now. But feeling like this, it scares the shit out of me. I don't know what's going on in my own head at the moment."
The words tumbled out of his mouth as he spoke into his hands, afraid to look at Greg. Greg felt stunned, "You…you've felt like this for a while?"
"I don't know!" cried Vince defensively. "I think so…I'm not sure. Everything in my head just feels jumbled up right now. I don't know what I'm doing."
Greg thought back to Vince's behaviour the past few days – avoiding looking at him and talking to him, the way he had acted during the dance class – Vince's awkwardness suddenly made perfect sense. He wasn't angry at Greg for the way he felt…he felt the same way. Greg wanted to laugh in relief but thought better of it, certain that Vince would definitely punch him if he did that.
Instead he took a tentative step towards Vince, "I don't really know what I'm doing either. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm doing most of the time – I'm crap at all my subjects, I feel awkward talking to anyone apart from you and Draco, and my home life isn't much to shout about either. But…I'm happy, you know? And…I'm happy with you. I know I'm not the smartest person, but I figure anything that makes you happy can't be a bad thing, can it?"
Vince listened carefully, his face set in his familiar frown of concentration. Greg held his breath and waited, afraid to speak any more, to move, even to think. After what seemed like an eternity, Vince raised a hand towards Greg, "C'mere."
Greg approached the bed slowly and unsteadily, his heart pounding painfully in his chest now. Vince grabbed him by the sleeve of his robes and pulled him down to sit next to him on the edge of the bed.
"Do it again," Vince half demanded, half pleaded. Still a little uncertain Greg leaned forward, his lips ghosting Vince's, trying to gauge his reaction. Vince made his feelings clear when this time he closed the distance, closing his eyes and pressing their lips together. Greg felt like he was somersaulting off of the edge of a cliff, every uncertainty and fear melted away as he kissed Vince back harder. Greg didn't know what this was or what it meant, but right there and then he didn't care. Whatever it was, it made him happy. Whatever happened, Vince would be there.