Disclaimer: If you know it, I do not own it.
Slughorn Throws a Party and Tom Runs Away
A few days after their last Dueling Club meeting, Draco was seated in the library with Hermione and Harry, who was reading the book they were to have read for Charms the next morning as if his life depended on it. Hermione was flipping through her Potions book, comparing it Draco's.
"Snape is really a genius. How did I not realize he wasn't following the textbook when he was our professor?" she muttered, writing down a few of the suggestions he had in the margins of her own book. "Oh, Harry, be careful what you drink."
Harry's head snapped up. "Huh?"
"I overheard Romilda Vane. Sounds like she's getting desperate," Hermione went on, shutting Draco's Potions book as well as her own. She pushed the books away and grabbed her Arithmancy textbook. "She's claiming to have ordered a love potion from Fred and George."
Harry's green eye went wide. "What? Why didn't you confiscate it?"
Hermione snorted, rolling out her Arithmancy essay. "She didn't have the potion on her in the loo. She was simply discussing tactics with a few other girls."
"I thought anything bought at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was banned?"
"Has anyone ever paid any attention to whatever is banned?" Hermione huffed.
"I thought owls were being searched?"
"They are," Draco answered for Hermione, who looked as if she was getting to an important bit of her essay. He idly flipped the pages of the Half-Prince's book. "The twins send them disguised as perfumes and cough potions. It's part of their Owl Order Service."
Harry made a pitiful noise and threw his head on the table. Hermione tutted.
"Just ask Tom and be done."
"Tom?" Harry asked, raising his head, eyes wild and wide.
Hermione tutted again, shaking her head, sending her bushy hair flying. Draco loved when she did this because he got a whiff of her shampoo.
"Of course you could ask someone else," Hermione blithely went on, not paying attention to her friend's silent freak out.
"Why wouldn't Flich's scanner thingy pick up on the potions? I mean, love potions are dangerous," Harry said, his voice getting higher with each word.
"They're not Dark Magic or Dark objects," Draco pointed out. "Something like a love potion or something in the wrong bottle wouldn't register."
Harry's eyes darted left and right as he jerked his head from side to side.
"Just ask Tom," Hermione repeated. "You can go as friends."
"What else would we go as?" Harry asked, looking honestly bewildered.
Hermione stopped what she was writing and stared at Harry as if he was the densest person on the globe.
Draco snickered, causing Harry to cast him a confused glance.
"Harry, you are an idiot," Hermione proclaimed, slamming her book shut. "Library is closing shortly. Draco, hide that book or Madam Pince is going to have a fit."
Draco quickly closed the Half-Prince's book just in time, as Madam Pince came swooping in to kick them out. The trio packed up their belongings and headed out. Hermione bade them good night, giving Draco a peck on the cheek before he headed off up to Ravenclaw Tower. Harry and Draco walked in silence until Harry asked, "You both think Tom likes me, don't you?"
"We both think you like him as well, Harry. While I do not want to tell you how you feel, I do believe you harbor stronger feelings for Tom."
"What? No. That's…no. He's just my mate."
Draco flipped his hair out of his eyes and gave Harry a look. Harry scratched his head, then messed up his own hair.
"Harry, you no longer have to share a bed with Tom, yet more often than not, he's in your bed when I wake up."
"He is not," Harry said, turning six shades of red. "Baubles."
Draco startled. They had reached the Fat Lady.
"Same to you," the Fat Lady said with a roguish grin as she swung the door open to admit them.
"Hi, Harry!" Romilda Vane greeted the moment Harry had climbed through. "Fancy a gillywater?"
Draco snorted as Harry quickly declined and escaped, though not before Vane had thrust a package of Chocolate Cauldrons into his hands. She smugly smiled and flounced off back to her friends, who all looked ten kinds of jealous. Shaking his head, Draco headed up to the dormitory. He did so quietly and caught Harry standing next to his bed, staring at Tom's sleeping face. Tom was sleeping (oddly) in his own bed. Draco remained in the doorway, watching Harry's back till Harry sagged and turned to his own bed, getting in and tightly shutting the curtains. Shaking his head, Draco made his way into the dormitory fully and got ready for bed.
When Draco woke the next morning, early in order to finish his homework while drinking his morning coffee, he noted that Harry was not in his own bed, but in Tom's, though on top of the covers rather than under them. Closing Tom's curtains tightly where Harry had left them open, Draco turned and headed for the Great Hall.
While Draco was by no means a morning person, since starting to date Hermione, he got up early most mornings to join her at the Ravenclaw table for coffee and homework before breakfast was served. It seemed to be a tradition among the upper years, as there were people scattered at all the House tables, save Griffyndor.
"So, did Harry finally admit his feelings?" Hermione asked without looking up.
"I don't think so, but he did give into the need to share a bed with Tom after trying to fight it," Draco said as he sat down. "I don't think Harry's really in touch with his emotions."
"No, I doubt it. He represses with the best of them. Why does he always end up sharing with Tom?"
Draco shrugged. "Habit? Though, last night he seemed to make up his mind he wasn't going to do it any longer, as he got into his own bed, even though only I was missing when we arrived to last night."
"Really, the others all went to bed early?"
Draco nodded, pouring himself an extra large mug of coffee.
"Who'd Harry ask last time?" Hermione asked, biting her lip as she continued her Arithmancy essay.
"No idea," Draco reminded her. "While I did gate crash, I didn't stay nor did I pay any attention to what was going on."
"I'm sorry," Hermione sighed, looking up at him with her big chocolate eyes.
Draco shrugged, getting out his own essay to work on. They fell into silence and continued working till breakfast was served. Hermione continued to read throughout the meal, but Draco took a break to have a bewildering conversation with Luna, which left him completely befuddled on what they'd spent the past half hour speaking about.
"He'll never ask him."
Draco leapt out of his skin as Luna materialized behind him as he left Transfiguration.
"Oh! Did you dye your eyebrows for the holidays?" Luna inquired eagerly.
"What? Oh, no," Draco said, wondering where Harry and Tom had gone. Hermione had raced out of the classroom as soon as McGonagall dismissed them, mostly because Brown and Patil were giggling at whatever she'd transfigured on her face and she likely wanted to put herself right without an audience.
"Oh, too bad. It's very festive," Luna said.
"Er, thanks."
"How have you been?"
"Fine. We spoke this morning," Draco reminded the girl.
"Oh, yes, but you were very confused by our conversation. Do you understand now?"
"No. I'm sorry."
"That's fine," Luna said dreamily. "But, he'll never ask him."
"I know."
Luna sighed. "He will ask me. He won't mean to, but he will. The dust told me. Best be off to find him."
Luna skipped off, leaving Draco blinking dumbly at her back till her blond hair whipped around the corner and out of sight.
Later, when he saw Harry in the Common Room, he wasn't all that surprised when Harry told him he'd asked Luna to go with him.
"As friends," he quickly added, glancing at Tom, who was busy writing an essay.
"I know," Tom proclaimed as if he was announcing the winners of a Quidditch match. "It's all over school because Peeves witnessed you asking."
Tom was writing at breakneck speed, neatly as ever.
"It just kind of popped out," Harry defended, looking hurt by Tom's reaction. "But, at least I've got someone to go with and those other girls will leave me be."
Tom snorted, waving his wand to dry the ink. He rolled up the parchment with a snap.
"What? Yes, they will," Harry insisted, jutting his chin out.
"No, they won't," Tom darkly muttered. "I'll see you at dinner."
And off he flounced.
"What's up with him?"
Draco let his head fall onto the table and let out a loud, long groan.
"I did it."
Draco looked up in surprise when Ginny plopped down next to him on the bench after Quidditch practice.
"Did what?"
"I asked Tom to go with me to Slughorn's party," Ginny announced merrily.
Draco blinked. "Pardon me?"
"He was so nettled that Harry failed to ask him, I asked him so he could go. Dean didn't want to go anyhow. Slughorn's fawning makes him uncomfortable. He seemed fine with me asking Tom as a ploy to get him and Harry alone in a…festive setting."
Draco snorted, "They're that obvious? I figured it was only Hermione and myself who saw it."
Ginny snorted, shaking her head as she removed her wrist guards. "I'm pretty sure the entire world knows, other than Harry. I'm sure Tom's admitted it to himself."
"You don't even like Tom," Draco pointed out.
"He likes Harry," Ginny shrugged, removing the shin guards and lobbing them into her locker. "I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, being a closet romantic and all. Shh, don't tell my brothers. It'll totally disgust them and they'll mock me for the rest of my life."
Draco shook his head. "Dean's really okay with it?"
"Yeah. I told him what I was doing and he knows Tom gives me the creeps. Mostly because I am sure Tom gives everyone other than Harry the creeps."
Draco bowed his head in agreement, removing his own wrist guards and placing them in his locker. He stood up and pulled his Quidditch robes over his head.
"Well, Slughorn's party shall be interesting, shan't it?"
Ginny grinned. "Of course. Maybe I'll bring some fireworks?"
The night of the party, Draco and Harry arrived in the Entrance Hall at eight o'clock sharp. There were a number of girls lurking about, quite a few staring resentfully at Luna and Hermione as the pair of boys approached them. Luna was wearing a set of spangled silver robes that were attracting attention from the girls who were giggling rudely, not that Luna noticed. Hermione, though, looked gorgeous. She was dressed in dark blue dress robes that had a bit of sparkle to them and accented her figure— somehow. Hermione smiled as Draco neared.
"I'm glad I took fashion advice from Addy," Hermione said, smiling Draco's smile for him. "I like your reaction."
Draco nodded, unsure he could speak.
"Uh, hi. Shall we go?" Harry asked awkwardly, pulling on the too short cuffs of his dress robes.
"Oh, yes!" Luna happily said. "Where is the party?"
"Slughorn's office," Harry said, looking self-conscious as he tried to figure out if he should offer his arm or not to Luna.
Luna solved this by skipping off in the direction of Slughorn's office. Draco offered his arm to Hermione, who slipped her arm through his, moved close and gave him a whiff of the perfume she'd worn for the night. It was something different, dark and exotic.
He loved it.
"Did you hear there was supposed to be a vampire there?" Harry asked, trying to keep up with the skipping Luna while at the same time stay with Draco and Hermione.
Luna turned, smiling as she skipped backwards. "Rufus Scrimgeour?"
"I— what?" Harry asked, disconcerted. "You mean the Minister of Magic?"
"Yes, he's a vampire," Luna stated matter-of-factly. "Father wrote a very long article about it when Scrimgeour first took over from Fudge, but he was forced not to publish by somebody from the Ministry. Obviously, they didn't want the truth out."
Harry gave Draco and Hermione a questioning look. Hermione shook her head and Draco shrugged. While he didn't think Scrimgeour was a vampire, he wasn't going to argue with Luna who usually agreed with whatever strange views her father took. They were nearing Slughorn's office, which was not located in the dank, dark dungeons like Snape's. Slughorn preferred an office on the third floor and it was currently filled with laughter, music, and loud conversation— things that would never sound in the dungeons where Snape lurked.
Slughron's office, when they entered, Draco noted was larger than usual. The ceiling and walls had been draped in emerald, crimson, and gold hangings making the room appear as if it were a large tent. The room itself was crowded and stuffy, bathed in a red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the center of the ceiling. There were actual fairies fluttering around in the lamp, each a brilliant speck of light. In a corner there were musicians playing mandolins, while the haze of pipe smoke was thick over a group of several old warlocks who were in deep conversations. There were a number of House Elves negotiating their way through the forest of knees with heavy sliver platters of food held over their heads so they looked like moving tables of food.
"Harry, m'boy!" boomed Slughorn the moment Harry crossed the threshold. "Come in! Come in! So many people I'd like you to meet!"
Slughorn, who was wearing a tasseled velvet hat to match his much too small smoking jacket, grabbed Harry and whisked him off, though not before Harry had seized Luna's hand. Hermione shook her head and grabbed two red drinks off one of the passing trays, handing it to Draco. She took a sip and made an appreciative noise, so Draco took a sip. Whatever it was, was way too sweet for him.
"Let's see if we can find Ginny and Tom," Hermione suggested.
They wove their way through the crowd, Hermione greeting a few adults she'd clearly met at various Slug Club meetings, till they found Tom brooding moodily by the window, which someone had opened in hopes of cooling the crowded room down. The chilly air was thick and strong around Tom, as if he himself was issuing the cold.
"Good evening, Tom," Hermione greeted, dragging Draco behind her. "You look handsome."
Tom looked down at Hermione. He did not look pleased by the compliment. His blue eyes scanned Hermione.
"You look beautiful," he stated plainly. "Though, I am sure you know this and your date told you."
"I thought you were supposed to be charming," Draco drawled.
Hermione elbowed him in the ribs as she asked, "Where's Ginny?"
"Hiding from McLaggen," Tom said, sounding bored and turning his gaze back to glaring at the crowd of merry makers.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"McLaggen is under the assumption that since Ginny brought me, she's a free agent from Thomas."
"He's a brute," Draco agreed, trading the sugar drink for a goblet of mead as it passed. Mead was much more his thing.
Tom made a noise of agreement.
"I don't know why I agreed to come to this thing," Tom muttered. "I hated them before, I hate them now."
"You're kind of a misanthrope at heart, huh?" Hermione teased.
Tom quirked one corner of his mouth up and nodded. "That I am."
Hermione dropped Draco's hand, reached out, and grabbed Tom's, squeezing it gently.
"I hate being a teenager," he whispered furiously.
"Me too," Draco agreed, knocking back his mead.
The three fell silence, Hermione and Draco both drinking their respective drinks and Tom brooding between them. After a quarter hour, there was an interruption caused by Nott gate crashing. Snape vanished with Nott, and Harry shortly after. Luna drifted over to where they stood, smiling vaguely.
"Harry's gone to investigate what Nott is really up to," Luna supplied. "Hello, Tom. You look lovely. Are those green robes?"
She bent very closely and ran a finger along Tom's arm, which he allowed with a look of slight confusion on his face.
"They are green! How lovely," she praised. "This party is nice. I've never really been to one, well, save the ball fourth year. Did you go to that?"
She was looking at Tom, knowing full well Draco and Hermione were there, Draco being Luna's date.
"No. We went home that holiday."
"Oh, yes. Atlanta went home with a flimsily excuse her father wanted her there," Luna said. "Why did you go home?"
"To do a handwriting spell to find out who had entered Harry in the tournament," Tom supplied without missing a beat.
"Oh! I've heard of that spell. You and your friend invented it, did you not?"
Tom nodded.
"It worked," Luna proclaimed, clapping her hands. "Brilliant. This is so much more fun."
"Then what?" Hermione asked.
"Than last time. Also, I've got friends much more earlier. Oh! I must continue my conversation with Professor Trelawney. I don't have her this year."
Luna flounced off, leaving Hermione gaping.
"And that is why Harry believes she's Time," Tom mused, cocking his head to the side.
"Miss Granger! There you are!" Slughorn boomed, bustling over to their corner of the party. He froze for a moment when he spotted Tom, but chose to approch. "I have someone I'd love to introduce you to! Who is you're date?"
He glanced between Tom, who Hermione was standing next to, and Draco, who he looked like he hoped was Hermione's date.
"Draco," Hermione said, moving and taking Draco's hand.
"Lovely! Good pair!" Slughorn proclaimed. "Follow me! Follow me!"
Hermione squeezed Draco's hand and dragged him off to socialize.
Tom was about to leave when Harry stumbled into him. After righting Boy Wonder, he studied him carefully.
"What did you hear?" he asked.
"Snape made an Unbreakable Vow," Harry whispered. "He met with Nott's aunt, who I guess raised him or something, I don't know, but it's his aunt Voldemort his holding hostage, I guess. But, Snape made an Unbreakable Vow. So, it's going to happen just like before when Nott fails. Is it weird I'm glad someone made Snape take an Unbreakable Vow for Nott?"
Tom squeezed Harry's shoulder, warmth flooding him as he softly smiled down at the smaller boy.
"No. Not at all. It's part of your compassion, or you being human, as you oft to tell me," Tom said, letting go before he touched Harry for too long. It was hard to tell these days was passed as casual and what was more intimate, especially with Harry who had always been hands on with Tom.
Harry took a step closer. "Nott said he wasn't alone, that he wasn't working alone. That he had all the help he needed. I mean, he said he had Crabbe and Goyle? I can't imagine they'd be much help, so he must have someone else."
Tom took a step backwards, towards the open window letting in the winter air. He ought to be freezing, but in fact he felt overly warm. Likely due to the crowded room.
Harry followed, not seeming to notice the chilly breeze ruffling his hair, which he hadn't bothered to style when he'd donned his dress robes— which were a little small in the arm and chest and about three inches too short. Likely hadn't bought new ones since he'd gotten the first pair fourth year.
"I mean, they didn't even pass their DADA OWL, so they have to retake it this year. Honestly," Harry scoffed, moving till he was standing right next to Tom, pressing into his side.
If he was doing this without notice or on purpose, Tom wasn't sure. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He should never have let Ginny Weasley talk him into this.
"I wonder if Draco was such a snot nose brat," Harry pondered, leaning into Tom.
Tom was sure Harry didn't realize he what he was doing.
"He was speaking like a spoilt brat to Snape. I'm honestly amazed the man didn't hex him or something," Harry went on. "Aren't you cold?"
"Yes. I'd rather be cold and breathe fresh air."
"Why'd you come if you were just going to hang out by the window all night?"
"I don't know."
"Oh." Harry was quiet for a moment before he added, "I didn't think you'd want to come. If I'd known, I'd ask you, but then Luna wouldn't have been able to come and she looks like she's enjoying herself."
Tom scanned the room and easily found Luna dancing in the center of the room, the other patrons giving her large berth as she twirled around, waving her arms above her head. Tom smiled, watching the free spirit be herself in a room full of people hindered by society norms.
"It's fine, Harry. I'm glad you requested Luna's presence," Tom said honestly.
Harry folded his arms across his chest and shivered. Tom shook his head and grabbed him by the shoulders, moving him to stand in front of him, so Tom's body blocked most of the wintery chill.
"Tom?"
"Yes?"
Tom looked down at Harry to find him scratching his forehead, near where the scar was located. Tom furrowed his brow.
"Does your scar hurt?"
"What? No. I mean, it's even fading a little, but no. I was…thinking."
"Don't hurt yourself then," Tom drawled.
Harry huffed, folding his arms across his chest once more. He glanced around, green eyes darting back and forth before he leaned in closer and whispered, "Do you like me?"
Tom wanted to scream, tear his hair out, then stomp on his heart to make it stop beating out of rhythm.
"Of course, now excuse me."
Tom fled like the coward he was.