DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Sadly.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

A big thanks to everyone who has stuck with this hugs

I'm feeling inspired guys, I've already started chapter ten and I'm working on Draco's Detour too, for those who care!

Enjoy…

Chapter Nine

Friday 10th January

(One week later)

It had been a week since his conversation with Ron, and Seamus knew his friend had been watching him closely all week. While he couldn't work out Ron's motives, he knew his concern was real, and he appreciated his friend backing off and giving him time to work through his problems.

He had been quieter this week than ever before, spending most of his time watching Blaise and, more specifically, watching Blaise with Harry. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but the more he watched them, the more he was convinced that, while there was fondness, there was no love. Harry clearly enjoyed the attentions of the Slytherin, and was a different person in his presence, but his eyes didn't follow Blaise round the room as Ron's followed Hermione. Equally, while Blasie would tease and flirt with Harry, they rarely seemed to have any private time, or showed any desire to be alone together as Dean and Ginny did.

Seamus also knew, without a doubt, that he would regret it for a very long time if he did not take the chance of telling Blaise how he felt. His friendship with Harry was important to him but he was no self-sacrificing Hufflepuff who would forgo his own happiness to for a friend whose relationship wasn't looking as sound as everyone thought it was. And yes, his reasoning may not be the best ever, but it was enough to convince him to act.

The Gryffindor common room was surprisingly empty on the evening that Seamus decided to act. The majority of the house were scattered about the castle, or in the Great Hall, enjoying the evenings entertainment, and only Ron was in the common room when Seamus went downstairs, having spent nearly an hour agonising about his outfit before deciding that Blaise either liked him or not, and his shirt wasn't going to have much of an effect on the decision.

"Seamus," Ron greeted him as he appeared in the common room, "keep me company while I wait for Hermione? I finally prised her away from her books but at this rate the show will have finished before we get there."

"Sorry mate, I've got to go." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and confessing, "I'm going to look for Blaise." Ron's eyebrows shot up and Seamus suddenly felt terrible. "I guess I shouldn't have told you that, I don't want to cause any problems between you and Harry."

"Seamus, you're my friend too mate, and I think you're being very brave. Why now?"

"I told myself I'd give it a week, a week to see if I really want him, a week to watch him and Harry together, a week to see if he meant more to me than my friendship with Harry."

"And you decided he was?"

"I realised I would regret it for th- for a very long time."

"Then you've made the right decision, no one can fault you for that."

Seamus stared, stupefied – he had half expected Ron to try to stop him, to warn Harry, to do something other than just sit there and watch him steal Harry's boyfriend.

After a moment he turned away from Ron and headed out of the common room, not hearing Ron's quiet 'good luck'.

Draco Malfoy was headed towards the Gryffindor common room, still not quite able to believe that this most unlikely of places had become his sanctuary, become somewhere he would seek out when he felt he was going to go completely crazy.

Nor, he reflected wryly as he passed a serious looking Seamus Finnegan with a quick hello, could he quite believe that he was actually seeking out the company of Ron Weasley.

It may be self-pity talking, but he had had an awful couple of weeks. Christmas had been depressing – Hogwarts had been packed and he was stuck spending the holidays with the teaming masses rather than with…huh. In truth he wasn't sure who he would have spent Christmas with, but he would rather have had it be his choice than something dictated by the weather and Dumbledore.

So instead of do something he wanted to do – even if it was just moping around the manor trying to comfort his mother – he was instead stuck in what suddenly seemed an overcrowded school, a school, moreover, where which ever way he turned he was confronted with happy, smiling couples, kissing and flirting in a way that only seemed to happen over the holidays.

And to add insult to injury, the happiest of all the happy couples seemed to be Blaise and Harry.

He had finally abandoned his self-delusion of choice and was willing to concede that he may be a little jealous of the couple, and had even come so far as to admit that he was jealous of Blaise, not because of him. Every time he saw them he was reminded of something he and Harry had done. When Blaise and Harry ate together in the Great Hall he was reminded of the time Harry had convinced the house elves to send food up to his room and they spent two days in bed, just talking, watching TV and having sex. When he saw Blaise and Harry studying together in the common room, curled up on the sofa closest to the fire he ended up drifting of into a memory of the evening he and Harry had spent having sex on that very same sofa. Everything they did seemed to remind him of something that had seemed so unimportant at the time, and on more than one occasion he'd caught himself wondering if Harry confided in Blaise the way he used to confide in Draco, wondering if Blaise now knew all Harry's hopes and fears, his plans for the future and his worries over the volatility of his powers.

Only the tiniest bit jealous of course.

The truth was, however, that he'd gotten used to being the centre of Harry's attention, one way or the other, and now he found himself on the outside he was realising how much he missed it. For nearly seven years Harry had been the first person he looked for in the morning, and the last person he thought of at night.

If it wasn't so painful he'd laugh at himself for missing something that had, on occasion, irritated the hell out of him. When they had been enemies he had felt the judgement and criticism of those green eyes as they watched his every move, and when they had become something more he had often feared the constant scrutiny meant that Harry was turning their liaisons into something more than they were.

Now that was all gone, and instead he had the open conversations and easy banter with Harry that all his friends could lay claim to, but he never felt those eyes watching him, never looked up to see the playful gaze and satisfied smile that meant Harry was remembering something that had happened the night before. And he missed it.

Malfoy's don't give in to self pity, he chastised himself as he opened the door to the Gryffindor common room with the new inane password that was yet another example of Gryffindor simplicity, a simplicity that, God help him, he almost found endearing.

"Evening Ron," he greeted the rooms only occupant, who turned round, startled out of his musings.

"Draco," the redhead smiled, "come, sit, save me. 'Mione claims she's gone to get changed but I suspect she's up there sneaking the next chapter of her book."

"How long have you been waiting Ron?"

"Nearly half an hour."

"You mug," Draco chuckled, "she never takes this long, she won't be down for ages – why don't you hurry her up or something, be a man."

"I'm not that fussed to be honest, I'm actually enjoying the quiet-"

"A rare thing up here," Draco interjected.

"Indeed," Ron smiled, "it's given me a chance to think a few things through."

"Another rare thing," Ron smiled, but Draco could see that he had something on his mind. "What's up?"

"I offered someone some advice, some pretty major advice. I stand by it, but someone else could be about to get hurt."

"Intriguing," Draco didn't want to push: even with his short experience he knew that it was rare that the redhead became introspective and it wasn't fair to push in where he wasn't wanted. "Chess?"

Ron's grateful smile showed him that he'd made the right move, and they quickly set up the chess board, easy banter relieving any non-chess-related tension.

Seamus had first gone down to the Great Hall to see if Blaise and Harry were with everyone else, watching whatever entertainment had been arranged for the evening. After spending ten minutes scanning the crowd it was clear that neither boy was in attendance, so Seamus began wandering around the castle with no real plan, looking for either boy in the hallways and classrooms of the castle.

After wandering around for nearly half an hour, Seamus felt the doubts creeping up on him. It was a momentously stupid plan, when you think about it. What was he going to do, walk up to Harry and Blaise and interrupt some private moment so he could declare himself. 'Excuse me Harry, can you stop kissing Blaise so I can tell him I love him.' That'd go down so well. Or, of course, he could go with something a little more dramatic, marching in and kissing Blaise like he'd never kissed anyone before. A dramatic statement of intent if ever there was one. Huh, maybe this could wait another day…

"This isn't working." It was Harry's voice, Harry's voice coming from Lupin's old classroom. Seamus crept closer and saw both boys sitting side by side on one of the big windowsills, clearly wrapped up in whatever they were talking about. And he had never heard Harry sound so defeated – maybe they were breaking up.

"Harry…"

"No, Blaise. Ron, for some inexplicable reason, seems to hate you, nothing is going the way it should and the situation is killing me. I knew this was wrong when we started but I was so swept up by everything you were saying that I allowed myself to hope it could work." Harry let out a bitter laugh at this and Seamus' heart went out to his rival. "I'm an idiot, I should have been happy with what we had, sneaking around at night, should have settled sex in old classrooms and stolen kisses. I had no business changing the system just because I fell in love."

'And I have no business being here,' Seamus thought to himself, heart sinking with the realisation. Sadly he turned away from the classroom, and fled the scene, hurt and anger welling up in his chest. There was feeling there after all, feelings so powerful that they reduced the Boy Who Lived to a shadow of himself, despairing of love.

And they'd had sex. A lot of sex, by the sounds of it. This wasn't something new, rather it was something that had been going on for a long time, something that they'd bought out in the open because Harry wanted the world to know he was in love, probably wanted the world to know his chose life partner.

Ron and Draco were on their third game of chess when Seamus walked into the common room and flung himself desolately down onto the sofa nearest the fire, morosely watching the flames flicker in the hearth. Exchanging a brief glance with Draco, Ron turned to Seamus, a concerned look on his face.

"How did it go?"

"I found them, they were in Lupin's old classroom," at the mention of Harry's favourite haunt Draco dropped all pretence of not listening and fixed his attention on Seamus.

"And did you tell him?"

"I was going to…they've had sex, Ron, they're serious about each other."

"You mean you walked in on them…?" Ron began, only to be interrupted by Draco.

"Walked in on who?"

"Harry and Blaise. And no I didn't walk in on them, not in that way. They were just talking, Harry was really upset about how things were turning out and saying he should have left things how they were. I couldn't go in there interrupt them, it wouldn't have been right."

"What's going on?" Draco knew he sounded both confused and suspicious, but the Malfoy in him was just glad he didn't sound hopeful as well.

"Seamus was looking for Blaise to…"

"Ask him out," Seamus finished, looking defiantly at Draco.

"And you encouraged this?"

"Yes," Ron replied curtly, his manner stopping any further questions dead, and anyway Draco had more important things to consider.

"Why do you think they're sleeping together, what did they say, exactly?" Draco tried not to sound too eager as he questioned Seamus.

"Harry said something about knowing that it was wrong for them to be seeing each other and that he should have stuck with sneaking around at night, that he shouldn't have changed things just because he fell in love."

"And he said it like that?" At Seamus' confused expression he elaborated, "he didn't use Blaise's name?"

"No, just like I said it. Why?"

But Draco wasn't listening, he was sitting back in his chair, an wry expression on his face. "That sneaky little bastard."

"What?"

"I don't know what he's been playing at, or why, but I have the distinct impression that Mr Potter has been taking us all for a ride."

"For God's sake Malfoy, spit it out."

"Oh, it's just that I know for a fact that it wasn't Blaise that Harry was talking about when he mentioned sneaking around at night and having sex in old classrooms…"

"I never said that," Seamus interrupted.

"You didn't need to. As I was saying, I know for a fact that it wasn't Blaise that he was meeting, because up until a couple of months ago Harry Potter was sleeping with me, which throws up something of a question mark over what you actually overheard."

The two Gryffindors stared at Draco in silence, amazed more by the fact that he had told them what happened than by the events themselves.

"So you were the one who helped him through the war and Sirius' death and everything?"

"Um," Draco demurred and Ron was amused to see he was almost embarrassed, "well I don't know about that, but we were…you know, since the start of sixth year and up until this whole thing with Blaise started."

"And you're saying what, that I got the wrong end of the stick or something?"

"I'm saying that it sounds very much like…"

"Like Harry was trying to make you jealous," Ron cut through Draco's stalling and laid things out as he saw them, "and I'll be amazed if Blaise wasn't also trying to sound you out as well Seamus."

"So this thing between them was what, some sort of plot to make us jealous?" Seamus asked incredulously, torn between hope and disbelief.

"Yeah," Draco was almost at the point of finding it amusing, 'God help me,' he thought to himself, 'I'm finding it endearing.' "Bloody Gryffindors, I've said it before and I'll say it again – you can't plan for toffee. We Slytherins, however, are well known for our cunning plans."

"Do tell," Seamus leaned forward, intrigued despite himself.

"What say you and I get a little closer and give them a taste of their own medicine," he smiled a soft, sexy smile, running a finger suggestively across Seamus' thigh as he spoke and the Irish boy grinned evilly in return, ready to accede to the plan only to be interrupted by a voice from the foot of the stairs.

"Or you could grow up."

END CHAPTER NINE

Well, what did you think? Nearly there now chaps, only a chapter or so to go.