Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe, J. K. Rowling is the brains behind it all.

Thanks for your patience guys, the past few months have been crazy for me. New job, new house, new car, new boyfriend. But here we are finally. I promise to try and keep up with this regularly. I still have big plans for this story. xxxxx

Boyfriend

Chapter 4: Moving Day

It was the 30th of August and the Potter House was in complete disarray, Harry and Hermione were to leave for Hogwarts that afternoon. It had been about 6 weeks since Harry had accepted the position of DADA professor and it had been a whirlwind of meetings and course planning up until now. Resigning from the Ministry hadn't been fun. He had been reamed out by his boss and six of his bosses, but he had been steady in his decision to leave.

Walking out of that office for good was the best feeling in the world. He was leaving behind a world of blood and violence. Ron of course hadn't been too happy that his partner was leaving him in the dust but when Harry had explained his reasoning he had had to concede that in the long run, it was probably the better option for him.

Hermione of course had loved it. After she had found out at a meeting the staff had been having she had just about attacked Harry when she arrived home, nearly deafening him with her high pitched squeal.

Harry grinned as he shoved a pile of t-shirts into his trunk; packing wasn't so hard for him. He tended not to attach himself to many personal objects. Unlike Hermione who seemed to completely divest her room of all her belongings into magically enlarged trunks.

Last week he had taken his bike up to Hogwarts where it was waiting for him. Hagrid had just about teared up when he had seen it again.

"Harryyyyy!" Hermione's panicked voice roared up the stairwell and Harry grinned as her ran down the stairs towards her room. This was the third time today she apparently had a life-changing crisis. He stopped outside her door and stared in amazement. It was empty. Well except for the bed. Hermione was standing next to a pile of trunks, a humungous pile. She looked at him helplessly and gestured towards the mountain of her belongings.

"I have too much stuff." She whined.

"Ha ha you're such a girl Mione. How are you going to get all this to Hogwarts? One at a time? It'll take you forever." He smiled at her and flicked his hair out of his eyes. She stood there with drooped shoulders, her long hair draped over her face. He laughed and hugged her with one arm.

"It'll be alright, we'll just shrink it down as much as we can. Then surely they'll all fit in a bag? Remember your magic Hermione." Harry smiled as she brightened.

"Oh right, magic. Oops." She laughed and set about shrinking her stuff and Harry left the room, shaking his head as he climbed the stairs back up to his room. Ron was at work and wouldn't be home in time to see them off, so they had had a few farewell drinks last night. Ron would continue to live in the house while they were away. Harry didn't imagine it would stay clean very long.

A couple of hours later, one of which Harry had spent waiting for Hermione, they were all set to leave. The two of them gathered in the lounge with their belongings. Harry glanced at his watch, Snape had scheduled their arrivals so that people didn't all arrive at once with their worldly possessions. At 2 o'clock he smiled at Hermione.

"Ok, here I go, into the world of responsibility." He grabbed his trunk and a handful of floo powder and jumped into the flames.

"Hogwarts, Headmaster's office."

Draco stood admiring his quarters, hands on hips. In the last hour he had managed to turn the completely boring set of rooms into something that he could live in without completely cringing. All teachers lived off a corridor only accessible from the teachers lounge. Only Severus had rooms away from everyone else, branching off from the Headmaster's office. Draco assumed all the rooms were the same, a sitting room near the door, then leading into the bedroom with an en suite off that. What had originally been a brown sofa and one bookshelf in front of the fireplace was now a large black velvet wing-backed armchair and a deep seated leather sofa. On either side of the marble fireplace were two mahogany bookshelves stretching up to ceiling height, already covered in a selection of novels, potions and historical tomes. Above the fire place was a landscape of Malfoy Mansion, the only sign that it was a magical painting was the changing sky and forest.

He walked into the bedroom where a large four-poster bed was covered in a navy blue duvet and a multitude of big fluffy pillows. He was going to be comfortable when he slept, no matter how feminine it looked. He was gay after all, and it's not like anyone was going to be in here.

He sighed and sat on the end of the bed, tucking is hair behind his ear. He hadn't sex in weeks, no make that months, and he felt like any extra time he had was now spent wanking; usually to images of Harry.

Yep that hadn't gone away. He was still attracted to that… man.

He had caught glimpses of him in public or at the Loony, each time looking absolutely gorgeous. Each time Draco had seen him he had taken mental images of his ass, or his arms and used them to create fantasies for his own sick pleasure.

Oh well, now he was tucked away at Hogwarts where he didn't have to the venture into the wizarding world again until next year. Harry could just fade away into a distant memory. Maybe he would meet some nice, hot wizard up in Hogsmeade and forget all about Harry-nice-ass-Potter.

It was about then that his stomach rumbled. Draco got up and checked his hair in the mirror. He had just opened the door when he heard a familiar voice.

"Hermione! Hurry up! Which one is numberrrr… seven." A deep voice that sounded oh so familiar. A voice that sent shivers down Draco's spine.

"I dunno Harry, maybe the door with a '7" on it." Draco edged open the door a little to see Harry's back directly in front of his. It was then that Draco realized that his was room number eight. Which meant that Harry was living directly across the hall from him. Which meant that he was going to be the first thing that Draco saw every morning.

He closed the door quietly, his stomach still rumbling and leant against it.

Fuck.

Harry stepped out of the fireplace, and shook ash out of his hair.

"I think you need to clean your fireplace Potter." Harry grinned at the headmaster who was sitting at his desk, looking completely relaxed in a pair of black slacks and black shirt.

"Apparently so, wait till Hermione comes through. I'll never hear the end of how I ruined her hair." Snape snorted and picked up a leaf of parchment, walking around his desk towards Harry.

"Ok well here's a list of all the passwords you need to know as well as your room and classroom assignments. Though I'm quite sure that you know where the Defence rooms are."

"How could I forget?" Harry grinned and took the paper. He looked down at the parchment, and was amazed at the sheer amount of passwords needed to access parts of the castle. Down the bottom it listed his room as "No. 7." He looked up at Snape.

"Are rooms not off the offices?" Snape laughed.

"That's what you thought all these years? I thought with the map in your possesion you would have worked it out. The teachers quarters are off the Staff Lounge." Harry smiled sheepishly at Snape before jumping out of the way as a grayish looking Hermione fell out of the floo.

"Harry!" He ran out of the room laughing, there was no way he was going to let Hermione catch him. He wandered down the hall, reliving his memories a little as he went along. He had reached the main stairwell and sat there for a few minutes before he heard a huffing Hermione behind him. They walked down to the ground floor, trunks floating behind them. Once they reached the entrance hall, Hermione lead the way into the left wing hallway, off of which the staff room was located.

Harry looked around; he'd never really been down here before. No need to, it only accessed the Hufflepuff common room and the staff room, and apparently the quarters as well. Hermione opened the door to the staff room; Harry hadn't been here either. His meetings were always held in the Headmaster's office.

He knew immediately that he would like teaching here. It felt like a home rather than a workplace. It was like being back at school again, without the homework. And it would be he who would get to dole out the punishments now. Harry grinned wickedly and shrugged off his leather jacket.

Hermione headed to the end of the room and opened a door, next to which was a wardrobe. Harry eyed it up and remembered Lupin telling him about a Boggart which came from the wardrobe in the teachers lounge. They headed through the door, well Harry did while Hermione stopped to talk to a painting in the room that had welcomed her back.

Harry stood in a wood-paneled hallway with fire lit torches lining the walls that had doors at regular intervals all down the hallway. Harry walked down the hall, yelling behind him to Hermione.

"Hermione! Hurry up! Which one is numberrrr… seven." He laughed at her response, as he came to stand in front of his doorway. The door was plain, marked with a gold plaque engraved with a number 7.

Sensing movement behind him, he turned to stare at a closed door. Shrugging his shoulders he moved forward and pushed open the door.

Well, plain was one word to describe the room that was in front of him. A moldy looking sofa and a decrepit looking bookshelf inhabited the room. It was a decent size, but rather bare. He turned to look at Hermione who laughed when she poked her head in the door.

"Looks like Bellamy, your predecessor, took all the good stuff with him when Snape fired him. Still, mine was empty when I got here. A few good spells will fix this." Harry turned to look at her, despair written all over his face.

"I hate to think what's in the bedroom." Hermione laughed again and Harry turned to stare at the dark doorway leading to the bedroom.

"Well I'm down in 16 if you need anything." She patted him on the back and shut the door behind her as she left. Right, Harry thought, time to decorate.

Two hours later, a sweaty Harry collapsed on his new couch. It was a light taupe color and was an L-shaped couch situated in front of the fireplace. There was an array of white and red cushions on the couch and the white armchair that was to the left of the couch. The entire room had bookshelves running around the walls at three feet high with photos and candles on top of the shelves. A television created to work in Hogwarts sat in the corner. Luckily he had thought to order that a few weeks ago so he wouldn't have to go without movies.

The bedroom, which just had a mattress on the ground when he had arrived, now had a king size bed with the usual white duvet and gigantic pillows. There was a black blanket on the end of the bed. There was a wardrobe behind the door that now held his many jeans and t-shirts; he also had his formal black robes with black velvet trim which were to be his everyday robes as a professor. Hermione had also made him buy proper shirts and slacks, but he doubted he would wear them. There was also no way he was going to wear some pansy black shoes, his boots were not leaving his feet.

The bathroom had the classic big tub but also had a fantastic shower, which he planned to try out in just a moment. He went to his door and peeked out into the hallway, he had heard some movement earlier as the rest of the professors moved into their rooms. The majority of them were here when he was a pupil and only had to unpack and not decorate. Just as he was closing the door again, he noticed someone coming in through the entrance. Someone who was tall, thin and blonde. Someone who had a laden plate of food and was munching on a chicken leg when they stopped in their tracks when they saw Harry.

"Malfoy! What the fuck are you doing here?!"

Hermione stumbled through the fireplace and into Snape's office, grey ash falling off her in spades.

"Harry!" She saw his back as he ran out of the room laughing and groaned as she set about shaking all the ash and soot off herself.

"I hope you're going to clean that up Miss Granger." Snape's voice wafted across the room and into her ear like a sultry whisper. She shivered at the sound of it. She had dressed up a little today. Normally she'd be in shorts and a singlet, but today she'd worn a sundress, that was a little tighter than she'd normally wear. It was a soft pink that clung to her breasts and hugged her waist before falling loosely to mid-thigh. She'd also worn brown sandal wedges that enhanced the shape of her legs.

Secretly she hoped Snape's look would linger a little longer than usual, that his eyes would darken in lust. Apparently though, it didn't make a difference what she wore, his eyes still slid away from her, indifferent.

Hermione sighed and picked up her suitcase, she was about to head out of the office when Snape piped up behind her.

"Hermione, you forgot your paperwork." She paused in the doorway, her back to him. She set her suitcase down again and spun on her heel. She walked back towards Snape's desk where he was sitting with an arm outstretched and parchment clutched in his hand. She breathed out slowly as she walked towards him, how did he look so good always in black. Today his hair was tied back, but there were a few loose strands that had fallen down to frame his face.

He was looking down at his desk, writing something, when she stood in front of him. She reached out to grab the parchment, when he looked up at her. His dark eyes pierced hers and she couldn't breathe until he looked away. She then took the parchment out of his hand.

She was turning to leave, when his hand grasped her wrist. She turned to look back at him.

"You have ash on your face." He stated bluntly. Hermione blushed and wiped her hand over her cheeks and forehead.

"No… oh hang on." Snape stepped out from behind his desk and stood in front of her. He towered over her, his throat at eye level. He lightly gripped her chin with one hand and wiped his thumb down the side of her nose. He showed her his ash smeared thumb and released her chin. He took a step back, and Hermione felt her body follow unconsciously.

It was when she saw his eyes widen a little that she realized that she now stood at an uncomfortably close distance to him. She swallowed hard. Shit.

She looked up at him, and he sneered down at her.

"Miss Granger, what do you think you're doing?" He put his hands on her shoulders to push her away. Hermione's hands came up and grasped his wrists. What am I doing!? She thought.

"My name is Hermione." She said quietly. Snape's narrowed his eyes.

"I know what your name is." He said softly, his hands tightening on her shoulders, where she held them in place.

"Say it,"

"Excuse me?" He said sharply.

"Say my name, treat me like an adult for once in your life." She ignored the fact that he hadn't been the slightest bit degrading or mean since she had become a professor.

"Miss Granger… Hermione, can you ple…" He was cut off when Hermione, grasped the front of his shirt and stood on her toes to plant her lips softly on his. Her mind was screaming at her, her thoughts running a mile a minute through her head. Yet she was oddly clear about what she was doing.

Snape's hands slid around her shoulders and pulled her body against his as his lips softened against hers. She sighed slid her other arm around his waist. It was then he must have realized what he was doing and his hands slid back to her shoulders and pushed her away.

Hermione stumbled back, and her hand came up to her lips. She stared at him in shock, just as he stared at her much in the same way. He leant against the desk, his hands clutching at the sides as if to keep him from falling.

Hermione turned and ran from the room, grabbing her suitcase as she left.

What had she done?

Draco paused mid-chew, he looked down the hallway to see an incredulous Harry standing in front of his room in a pair of black track pants and a white wife beater. It was the first time he had really seen that Harry was quite toned, his muscles on glorious display. Not to mention his messy hair in complete disarray.

He became aware that he was gaping, after swallowing his current mouthful of chicken. He plastered his usual sneer back on his face.

"Potter, I might ask you the same thing. What business do you have teaching?" He walked towards his room, carefully balancing his full plate of food. When he stood in front of Harry, he gulped. How was he going to handle this for a whole year?

Pining after a straight guy. Brilliant.

He backed towards his door as Harry glared at him. Harry then turned and retreated into his room and slammed the door behind him.

Oh Thank Merlin! Draco thought and opened the door to his room. It was when he sat on the couch and had set the food on the coffee table that he groaned aloud. This year was going to suck. He knew it.

Harry leant against the back of his door after he had shut it. Draco was going to be here all year. Just when he thought that he could get away from all that.

It didn't help that he looked amazing, even with his face stuffed full of food. The ways his slate grey eyes had stared him down made him shiver. He groaned and let his head fall back and thump against the door. How was he going to handle living across the hall from him?

End of chapter 4.