Yay! Slash in this chapter! Enjoy!
North Star of the World
Chapter 5
"Alright, then," Harry said, his arm slung around Draco's shoulder and pulling their heads close together. "How about that girl?" They were sitting in Peter's Pub, again. Over the past two days, Harry had harassed Draco about going through with his promise, and today, he'd finally dragged him – quite unwillingly – into the pub to find an easily accessible girl.
"Too thin," was Draco's quick reply.
"Too thin? Too fat, I'll take. Too tall, I'll take. But 'too thin'! Now I know yeh've jus' been making excuses this whole time!"
Draco tried to explain himself, but was quickly cut off.
"No! I'm bloody hurt." The brunette slapped his hand to his chest and made a – though Draco would never admit it – quite adorably hurt puppy face.
The blonde scoffed at him, thinking it to be another one of Harry's very many overdramatic acts, but when silence persisted, he began to second-guess himself. It was quite an unexpected turn of events for Harry to actually be hurt by something he'd said.
Should he apologize?
However, Harry soon opened his mouth, and Draco had to stop himself from strangling the other boy. "I mean, if you were at least a better liar, I'd appreciate the level of your talent, but this! I mean, Draco, come on. This is just insulting!"
"It's complicated!" the frustrated blonde complained.
"No, it's not," the brunette said easily, swatting at the air in front of him to further emphasize the lack of difficulty in the process. "Just pick one! It's really not that big a deal! But fer the love of God, Draco, pick one soon. Please. I have to be back at my wagon in an bit to get ready for the king. I don't think he'll still want to see my performance once I'm seventy-five!"
"Uh…So…are you nervous?
"Draco!"
"Alright, alright."
"Yeh can't jus' try tuh change the subject and think I'll fall for it!"
"Fine, ok-"
"I mean, I wasn't born this morning!"
"I know! Listen,-"
"And even though I may not look it, I'm a pretty damn smart bastard, if I do say so, myself!"
"I get it. I picked-"
"Just rambling on about other stuff isn't going to make me forget-"
"For the love of God! THAT one!"
"Which one?" Harry asked, suddenly brightening up and swiveling his head about like a curious owl; his voice bouncing into a tone of excitement. "Oh! The one with melons fer breasts? Nice choi-"
"No, you stupid dolt!" Draco hissed with a blush, kicking the other boy's shin and eliciting a pained yelp. "That one."
Not wanting to choose the wrong girl again (and still rubbing his soon-to-be bruise), Harry pressed his index finger against Draco's pointed one and stretched an invisible line directly forward, leading the way to a timid-looking, mousy brunette. "That one?... Are you sure?"
"Mmhmm!" Draco nodded, his voice high and nervous.
"Well…alright," Harry agreed with only a slight grimace, glad the blonde had finally picked someone. When several minutes went by without any movement, however, Harry's patience ran out, and he forcefully pushed Draco off the stool. "Do it, already, yeh pathetic excuse fer a man!"
"Hey!" But one glare from Harry doused out any other arguments from the blonde. "Alright, alright. I'm going."
Harry watched with an agonized look upon his face as the other teen began the painstakingly slow walk in the direction of the brunette girl. This was going to take a very long time. One step… two steps… three st-four, five, sixseveneigthni-. A brilliant smile had quickly spread across the young merchant's lips at the sudden speed Draco picked up.
But it was quickly slapped off by the blonde's sudden halt. Draco's body tensed up for a moment, before suddenly swiveling a swift 180 degrees and racing back to his seat on Harry's right.
"Wow, Draco. That's the fastest I've ever seen any guy do it." The brunette said, taking a swig of beer. "Did yeh remember to pull out before you came? Yeh don't want a pregnant girl on your hands, that's for sure."
In the meantime, Draco had jammed his hands into his hair and slammed both elbows to rest against the pub's counter. "I can't do it!" he snarled out, embarrassed and angry for humiliating himself in front of Harry.
"Whuss the big deal, Draco? They're not gonna turn you down! I dunno if you realize this, but you're not exactly the most hideous bloke on the face o' the earth."
"It's not that."
"Then what? Draco, you could get any girl in here. Honest." Harry said, clapping a comforting hand against Draco's shoulder. He had to swallow thickly, forcing himself to ignore the pleasurable prickle he felt where Harry's thumb met the base of his neck.
"It's just that… I'm not exactly… experienced."
"Well, I know that! That's the whole point o' this thing! To get you experienced! You've done all the steps leadin' up to the big bang. Now yeh've just gotta stick it in 'er!" Harry exclaimed, motioning with his fist as he shoved it roughly in the air.
Sidestepping Harry's never-ending vulgarity with a quiet – though still very disgusted – "ugh", Draco explained. "But I haven't."
"Haven't what?"
"…"
"You have kissed before, haven't you?"
"Of course!" Draco exclaimed, quickly looking away.
Green eyes narrowing, Harry asked, "How many times?"
"ngsss," came the curtly grunted reply.
"nngggsss…" Harry repeated, stretching out the sound. "iiingsss…iiiaaannnggsssss…Aaan…gus?" Draco could only stare, slightly frightened at the astonishing level of stupidity with which Harry seemed to enjoy attacking him each time they met.
To Draco's great relief, however, a few more minutes of failed attempts brought the brunette to a stop. "Alright, I'm sorry, but I give up. What did you say?"
Taking a deep breath, Draco replied, "Once. I've only ever kissed a girl once."
"Oh," was all Harry could say for a moment. Then, trying to raise Draco's spirits, he asked, "Well, was it a good kiss?"
Draco shrugged. "It was just a quick little peck. I was six, and-"
"Woah, woah, woah! Wait! Yeh've only ever kissed once, and it was a baby kiss when you were six?"
"Don't you dare make fun of me," the blonde said with a glare.
"Calm down. I'm not gonna make of you. I'm just… flabbergasted."
"Flabba…?"
"Never mind that. You need to get kissed."
"I already told you, I'm not rea-"
"Of course you're not ready! Do you think I'd let you go out there and make of goddamned fool of yourself?" Draco simply raised a brow, warily. "The thing is, Draco, usually, yeh get practice through er… trial and error ("I heard that from a customer, once," Harry explained at the other teen's confused look). You try kissing one way with one girl, and if it dun't turn out so good, you try another way, and so on until you learn how to kiss jus' right.
"The problem with you, though, is that you're, what? 16? 17? That's too old to be practicing and messing up with girls. You were supposed to have practiced when you were younger so that yeh'd be prepared by now."
"So… what? You're telling me that I'm completely screwed, now?" Draco asked bitterly.
"What I'm saying, is that you can't try kissing any girls."
"So what am I supposed to do? Just go around the rest of my life and never kiss anyone!" He exclaimed, sounding angry and desperate.
"…not exactly."
"Wha…?"
"Follow me." And with that, the brunette took a firm grip of Draco's wrist and led him outside the pub.
"Where are you taking me, now?" The blonde half whined, half grumbled, dreading whatever crazy new idea the insane boy had come up with.
"You'll see. I found it when I was lookin' around the town a few days ago."
A few more minutes of dragging later brought them to a dank-looking, grey shed whose doors were slightly open. "That's Mr. Scarborrough's shed! We can't just go in there!"
"'course we can. They don't use it much. In fact, they're hardly ever in there." Harry said with an affirming nod.
"What do we need to go in there for, anyway?" Draco nervously complained, pulling against Harry's tug towards the shed. "I mean, what are we going to do? Can't we just do it out he-angh!" With one great pull, Harry and Draco fell through the slit between the doors, and onto a hay-scattered floor. Looking around, Draco saw mounds of hay to the sides and back of the shed. "If we get caught, I'm saying you kidnapped and forced me here."
"Deal!" Harry said, grinning. He then stood up and gave Draco a helping hand up. "Come on, then. Let's go behind some stacks or something – in case that guy actually does come in. You're not gonna want him to see what we're doing."
"Why? What are we doing? Harry, answer me!" But the merchant simply kept walking until he found a square-like patch of flooring, entirely surrounded by hay, save for a strip off to the left, where he and Draco could squeeze in through. "Harry!"
"Alright," Harry began, slipping into the square and taking a seat, cross-legged. Slowly, Draco began to do the same. "Yeh dun't wanna give a girl a practice kiss because she'll just go 'round and tell all her friends about it…. But … if you kissed a guy-"
"Oh no!" Draco exclaimed, shooting up into a standing position, immediately.
"Wait-"
"Harry, there's no way!" He suddenly felt painfully hot, and he became uncomfortably aware of his too-fast breathing.
"You do want to impress the girl, don't you?" When he received a cautious nod in response, he continued. "Well, I'm experienced, and you're not. So it only makes sense to practice with me, right?"
But it didn't make sense at all – not to Draco. Had this been any other boy, he would have been completely repulsed. He'd have left by now; he never would've even let Harry finish his explanations. But this wasn't any other boy, and a part of him was curious. A part of him wanted to… practice.
Hesitantly, he eased himself back into a sitting position directly in front of Harry.
"Ok."
"Good," Harry grinned.
Draco bit his lip nervously. "So… how do we do this?"
"Well, do you want me to explain it to you first, or do you jus' wanna go for it and figure it out from there?"
"I… I don't know." Draco's voice had suddenly become much quieter.
"Well, I'll tell you a little, then. You sort of…. Er…. Hmm… I've never explained this to anyone, before." Tapping a finger against his lips, Harry decided to start from a different angle. "I think it doesn't really matter since I'm going to be playing the bloke – which is what you want to learn how to do. So I'll just start, and you can sort of… learn from whatever I do. Sound alright?"
"Mmhmm."
Draco didn't know whether to close his eyes or not. He didn't know if he should sit still or move forward. He didn't know if he should take in a deep breath before the kiss or simply keep breathing normally, but before he could think of another thing he wasn't sure about, Harry had taken a gentle, yet firm grip of the blonde's chin.
With one last grin, he gave Draco a wink and pressed their lips together. The blonde's eyes went wide, and he saw the brunette's lids droop shut. He couldn't breath. He wouldn't. It was all too strange. The simple touching of lips was too little. He wanted – to his confusion – to be closer; he wanted Harry to rest his hand about the back of his neck, and he wanted to wrap his arms around Harry's waist, but this was just supposed to be a kiss; just supposed to be a platonic practice for real kisses.
And so, he couldn't move; he wouldn't even breathe.
All too soon, Harry was pulling away, and Draco almost launched forward to grab him back, but a foreign moistness stilled him. Harry's tongue traced Draco's upper lip enticingly, and the blonde froze.
Harry let out a small chuckle at Draco's seeming refusal to let him in, before sharply biting down on the blonde's lower lip. Grinning, the brunette slipped his tongue in at the boy's gasp, gently nudging Draco's own, shy tongue and, as if stunned, the blonde came back to life with a fire.
Reciprocating Harry's nudge, Draco began kissing back eagerly. Forgetting his attempts to allow only their lips to touch, he darted his hand up and grabbed several locks of raven hair between his fingers.
He didn't notice Harry's eyes spring open in surprise.
Reluctantly pulling back for a gasp of breath, Draco dove back into the kiss, tangling his tongue with Harry's and frantically nipping at the merchant's lips. But when he pulled back for another gasp of breath, the brunette pulled away.
Blinking quickly, the blonde stopped himself from diving forward, again.
"Woah! Someone definitely likes kissing," Harry laughed, flushed and slightly out of breath.
Blushing a dangerous shade of red, Draco's eyes fell to the floor.
"You were good, though!" Harry said, giving his friend an amicable prod with his elbow. "A little slow at first, but still! A very promising young pupil!"
"What are you, now? A schoolteacher?" Draco mumbled, still staring at the floor.
"Christ, Draco. Don't be so embarrassed!"
"I'm not embarrassed," came the haughty retort. With a laugh, Harry stood up.
"I've gotta get going – for the whole king thing, remember? But we can practice some more, if you like. Maybe later tonight? After I get back?"
Draco finally looked up. Did he want to do this again?
He nodded once.
"Alright. I'll meet you here, then. At half past ten." And with that, Harry slipped through the hay and out past the shed doors, leaving Draco to sit alone with his thoughts.
AN: Ok! I know! I know! It should have been a romantic kiss! Draco shouldn't have been such a klutz, only to have Harry laugh mid-kiss, but my muse wouldn't let me slip into total mushiness! I wanted to! Really! But my muse! I swear! It's a very evil muse:P Anyway, I don't like the beginning too much, though that could just be because I read it about a million times, but I think the ending was pretty alright. Hope this was enough slash to hold you down for a little longer.
If you want more slash in the next chapter, review!
xoxo Spideria xoxo