By the following morning, confusion was beginning to set in. The rest of the school was just now fully realising that Draco Malfoy had been seen the previous night at the Gryffindor table with someone who was supposedly his enemy. The confusion only grew when Harry and Draco walked into the Great Hall for breakfast together, talking animatedly about something or another.
In fact, the shock was so huge that Pansy Parkinson believed legitimately for a moment that she was hallucinating. Searching around for some sign that she wasn't, she glanced over at Crabbe and Goyle, who were scratching their heads stupidly, and sighed; these two scratching their heads was nothing out of the ordinary. Instead, she turned to Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott who were whispering confusedly to one another.
"What the fuck?" So that answers that. She most certainly was not hallucinating. With this, she burst into tears, realising now that if Draco were hanging out with Gryffindors, she would never chance at dating him, as her parents simply would not allow it.
Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were not at all oblivious to the confused stares of their classmates. Rather, they simply ignored the open mouths and sat down, assuming they'd allow the others to be confused until someone asked what the bloody hell was going on.
The first person to do so was in fact a member of Gryffindor house itself. Dean Thomas stared, open-mouthed for a moment before exclaiming, rather rudely,
"What the fuck are you doing here, Malfoy?" Malfoy blushed but did not respond, allowing Harry to do so for him.
"Oh, right." Said Harry, as though he'd simply forgotten that the Gryffindors would be unfamiliar of this union, though in reality he'd really been waiting eagerly for a confused question. "Draco and I are dating now." Harry smirked at the reactions he'd caused. He'd made the statement as casually as though he'd been giving the weather, and as if there we absolutely nothing out of the ordinary over this statement.
"What?!" The rest of the table chorused together. Neville looked pale. Ron and Hermione, having received this shock the night before simply laughed along with Harry. Suddenly Harry's expression became serious and he glared out at all of them.
"Any of you have a problem with that?" The underlying threat to his words generally elicited the searched approval from his housemates, who had all known he was gay, except one. Seamus Finnegan, Dean's boyfriend, who had previously been known for disagreeing with Harry and not backing down, was not intimidated at all.
"I don't like him." He said coolly. "Surely, you could have chosen better." Harry glared at the Irishman as the rest of the table looked disbelievingly at the two of them.
"Yes, well too bad Seamus. Because I chose Draco. And you better damn well not upset him or it will be my foot up your arse, understand?" Seamus glared and looked over a Dean for at backup, who was not nearly as hot-headed or as brave as his boyfriend, and he made it quite clear that he was NOT going to agree with Seamus on such a matter.
"Fine." He glowered. "But that doesn't mean I like him." Draco Malfoy at this point was feeling rather disliked. Though it was only one true disapproval, he felt as though the entire table had told him to leave. Lacking confidence, the boy was beginning to feel as though he'd fucked up his chanced at happiness by being such an arse in the previous years. To Draco's credit, however, he did not cry as he had when originally faced with Ronald Weasley's shun. He simply chewed his lower lip and did not speak.
It was, in fact, not the Gryffindors' reactions that he had been dreading.
By the end of breakfast, the entire school was buzzing with the news. Still, however, it had not gotten into the heads of the other students that the two were dating and were not merely friends. People were craning their necks, walking into suits of armour and going out of their way to see Harry and Draco who were resolutely ignoring this all. However, when a first year Slytherin asked Harry if he was "fag", the resulting growl from the blonde caused the small boy to squeak and run away.
Harry, realising that their classmates still did not comprehend the situation, boldly grabbed his boyfriend's hand and squeezed it tightly. After all, Harry was used to such attention, being the Boy Who Lived and all.
Draco, on the other hand, was not. By the end of the day, the attention was beginning to get to him. Don't get him wrong, he was happy to have their relationship in the open, but he was exhausted. He'd gotten nothing but jeers from his housemates, and he was now terrified of returning to the common room that night.
By the time dinner came around, all the students (other than the Slytherins) had grown tired of staring and pointing and, besides the occasional whisper, left the two alone. Draco Malfoy, though, was now by this point paranoid, and both physically and emotionally drained. Harry Potter noticed his boyfriend merely pushing his food around on his plate, and eating nothing at all.
"Are you alright?" The black haired boy narrowed his eyes in worry, wondering what was going on. Draco just shrugged.
"It's been a hell of a day." He mumbled. The thought of going back to his own common room that night, in the dark, with the only group (aside from Seamus) who disagreed with his choice in boyfriends, was more than he could handle. The nauseous feeling in his stomach was preventing him from eating.
Harry frowned, thinking this over for a moment. He, after all, had not been bothered by excess attention since the third year, and it took him a minute or two to realise that Draco would be affected by such. He placed a hand on the blonde boy's shoulder.
"It gets easier. By the end of the week, they'll be busy talking about something else." Draco just bit on his lower lip and nodded. Harry didn't understand. He knew the Slytherins.
And they wouldn't want... someone like him... in their dorm.
Unfortunately, for him though, Harry refused to comprehend the concept of homophobia, and thus insisted that Draco sleep in his own dorm that night.
"Harry, please." He'd begged outside house entrance later that night. "I can't..."
"Draco..." Harry said softly, "You can't spend the whole year on the couch in the Gryffindor common room. You've got to face it sometime. Better now than later.
Draco shook his head and Harry nearly backed down when he spotted tears in the boy's eyes. Determined, though, he held his ground. The Slytherins could not possibly be all that bad. After all, out of all of Slytherin, odds were one of them was gay. Draco was overreacting. He was sure if it.
"Dray..." He pleaded softly. "Please don't cry..."
Pouting, and realising that crying wasn't going to get him his way, Draco wiped at his eyes.
"You're strong enough for this." Harry said, sounding sure of himself. "I know you are."
Harry didn't realise, but his statement made more of an effect on Draco as he'd intended. Malfoy was now determined not to let Harry down.
"Fine." He mumbled. He would have to be strong. If he wasn't... well... maybe Harry wouldn't want him anymore. Harry smiled at him as his heart sank.
"Goodnight, baby." Harry then gave him a quick kiss.
"Goodnight." Draco's reply was shaky.
As Harry walked away, he ignored the nervous feeling the pit of his stomach. He was beginning to have second thoughts on leaving Draco alone with the Slytherins. He shook it off though, deciding that he would be fine.
The moment Draco walked into the Slytherin common room, he shrank into himself. He almost turned around and ran back out to Harry, but he reminded himself that Harry wanted him to be strong, and it was the fear that he wouldn't want him anymore if he was pathetic that pushed him to open the door of his dorm room.
"Hey, faggot." Those were the first words he heard upon entering. Biting back the tears and keeping his head held high, he moved to his four-poster, only to discover that his candle had gone missing.
Theodore Nott noticed where Draco was looking and laughed.
"What are you going to do without the candle, pansy boy?" He asked. Draco glared.
"Fuck off, Nott." He snapped.
"Ooo," the boy jeered. "Not a very proper princess, I see. You're a disgrace to the Slytherin house, Malfoy." Draco was shocked. Appalled. Until today, he and Theodore had gotten along relatively well. He was taken about and more than a little hurt that someone who he had previously thought to be a friend would treat him like this.
Crabbe and Goyle weren't intelligent enough to make any sort of rude remark other than to laugh at Nott's comment, and though Blaise, who was sitting in the corner, looked a little uncomfortable and slightly sympathetic at the sight of Draco's upset expression, he remained silent, allowing Nott to continue.
"I take that as a compliment." Draco mumbled.
"Don't." Theodore demanded. "I wouldn't ever compliment a fag." Despite his reputation, Draco was really not much of a fighter. In fact, he had earned that reputation by his behaviour of intimidation tactics over the years, and with that gone, he had no way of fighting back.
"I'm going to bed." Nott said, with a suspicious glance at Draco, as though he might molest him in his sleep.
"Me too." Blaise agreed, though looking worriedly at Draco, but still, saying nothing to his defense.
Before Draco knew it, the lights were off. Placing a quick, well timed silencing charm on his four-poster, he groped under his pillow for the lion, only to discover that that was missing too. The tears started to spill over, but Draco was crying for more than one reason this time.
He was crying because he was scared.
He was crying because someone was supposed to be his friend was treating him like he didn't deserve to live.
He was crying because he couldn't understand what was wrong with him.
He was crying because Harry wasn't there to make it better.
With the safety of the silencing charm, Draco allowed the tears to run down his cheeks and the sobs to wrack his body. He was terrified.
And he knew that the moment he fell asleep, if he ever did, all he'd get were nightmares of that night.
But despite all this, he wouldn't tell Harry in the morning.
Because Harry wanted him to be strong.
He'd just cry until the tears ran out, and get through the next day pretending that everything was okay.
Draco Malfoy did not get much sleep that night.
Thank you guys for all the requests. This chapter is a little short, but I promised a new chappie by Friday if you asked for one, so here it is. (PS. I know it's not Friday NOW but the doc manager wouldn't let me upload) I will continue to continue with this story as long as it's wanted, so please REVIEW. I love hearing input and you were all so willing to answer to my continuation questioning.
Lovingly, and with high regards,
xForeversEndx. e