Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter and co. belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 3

Harry woke the following morning feeling dazed and uneasy. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened to him last night, it was like he'd totally lost his senses. He replayed everything in his mind over again and for the first time he admitted to himself that perhaps the fantasies he'd so freely allowed himself to have were not as harmless as he thought. Harry began to wonder if the butterflies and giddiness he felt when he thought about Malfoy were real or if he had just allowed himself too many sexual fantasies with boys and it was like Hermione always said, if you tell yourself something enough, even if it's not true, eventually you start to believe it. As Harry made his way down to breakfast that morning, he told himself he was being ridiculous and he didn't like Malfoy like that at all. But the moment he stepped into the Great Hall he glanced towards the Slytherin table looking for a pair of blue-grey eyes that he hoped would be looking for him in return and he knew it wasn't true. Those eyes were not at breakfast that morning, which once Harry thought about it, wasn't surprising given Malfoy's injuries. Harry was distracted for most of the day, arguing with himself about whether or not he really liked Draco Malfoy, how bad a thing liking him might actually be, and whether or not he would keep his promise of visiting again, despite Malfoy's instructions to stay away.

When it came time, Harry knew there was no question about whether or not he would go; he decided that he would clean and dress (as in replace the bandages) Malfoy's broken body and tell him that he didn't like him like that despite what had happened the night before. Late that night Harry snuck into the Slytherin common room and made his way to Draco's dorm room; the door was shut. Harry stood there in front of the door and pressed his hand upon it. It would be so easy to just turn the door knob and walk in; Draco was just on the other side. He stood there touching the door for several minutes before deciding he couldn't stand there all night; he would try again later. He repeated this the next night (just to tell Malfoy the kiss had been a mistake, of course!) and when he found the door shut, he told himself he wouldn't come again. Every night for next few days he would go off to bed as normal and spend half an hour trying to talk himself out of visiting Draco, each time he was unsuccessful. He would creep down to the dungeons, only to be faced with another heartbreaking rejection – the closed door. The day Malfoy came back to class was the day Harry quit visiting Slytherin House.

On Thursday that week, for the first time, Draco Malfoy was at breakfast. Ron was the first to notice. "Well, well, look whose back. Guess he's feeling better. What a shame!" he said, smirking at Harry and Hermione.

"Yes," Hermione acknowledged, "he will make Potions that little bit more unpleasant this morning."

It was just over a week since Harry had seen Malfoy and his sudden reappearance left him speechless. "Yeah," Harry said weakly.

Hermione, who had been tuning in on Harry's increasing mood swings over the last week, touched him on the shoulder so he would see her give him another 'Are you sure you're okay?' look. Harry smiled weakly at her, hoping he was saying 'Sure, I'm fine,' but knowing she knew he actually meant, 'Not really, but I don't want to talk about it.'

Harry sat through breakfast barely eating anything, trying to decide whether he should look over at the Slytherin table. In the end, Malfoy made the decision for him. It seemed a first year Hufflepuff was arriving for breakfast and got too close to Malfoy and his cronies. The small boy was pushed into Malfoy by Crabbe, who was snickering as he watched Malfoy overreact; flinging his arms into the air as he verbally abused the small Hufflepuff for knocking into him. Hearing the shouting, Harry instinctively looked across the room straight into the eyes he had looked for every morning this week. Draco Malfoy was staring and smirking back at him; it was then Harry realized that the performance was all for him. He felt sick. He stormed out of the Great Hall to seek refuge in the boys' bathroom for 15 minutes before he would have to face Malfoy again in Potions. In the bathroom, Harry breathed deeply and told himself he was fine. By the time he walked into Potions no one had a clue about just how close Harry Potter had come to falling apart.

Potions class progressed as usual, Harry worked with Ron reading the instructions from his potions book carefully and ignoring Malfoy. Snape paid Malfoy special attention, giving him loud compliments and professing loudly how glad he was to have Malfoy back just to know that not everyone was incompetent. For once Malfoy didn't play it up. When Snape dismissed the class Harry left the room quickly, knowing Malfoy would still be slow on his feet, and managed to avoid him.

After lunch they had Transfiguration with the sixth year Ravenclaws and Harry relaxed knowing he wouldn't have to face Malfoy again until dinner time. The class paired up to practice changing something big into something small and vise versa; the change in matter of the objects was difficult to master, so naturally Hermione had already managed to achieve it. The class was odd numbered and Harry, Ron and Hermione were the first to volunteer for a group of three, to which Professor McGonagall agreed. However, much to Harry's dismay, a few minutes into the class Malfoy entered with a note from Professor Snape. In short, the note explained that Malfoy had been called away on family business over the last week and please could he join this class for a catch up lesson.

"Very well, Mr Malfoy," McGonagall agreed. "Why are you late?"

"I was with Professor Snape going over what I missed in Potions," Malfoy replied. In truth, Malfoy had left before the others during lunch; it just took him that much longer to climb the stairs to class without popping any stitches.

"Yes, alright," McGonagall said. She looked over at Harry and called him over. "Potter! You'll pair up with Mr Malfoy today please."

Malfoy smirked at this announcement, he was pleased.

"But Professor!" Harry exclaimed, as he rushed to her desk, "We've already started the class and surely you'll be teaching Malfoy what we did last week! He'll have this lesson tomorrow won't he?"

"This is what we did last week, Potter! Weren't you paying attention?"

Harry cringed. She was right; they did do this last week. McGonagall leaned in close to Harry and whispered, "Look, I know you two don't get along, but frankly you can manage him better than the others. He is too intimidating and manipulative for anyone else. I'm sorry."

Harry sighed as he conceded. He walked back to his desk next to Ron and Hermione to grab his books before moving to the back of the room to sit with Malfoy. Professor McGonagall went over the mechanics of the spell one more time before they were permitted to find a separate space in the room to practice. Malfoy immediately moved to a corner of the room far from anyone else and Harry had no choice but to follow.

"Did you miss me?" he whispered, as soon as they were alone.

"Where's the gobstone?" Harry asked, ignoring Malfoy's question. "We're supposed to change it into a school desk. I kind of managed to do it last week but it was only half as big as it was supposed to be."

"Harry, we need to talk," Malfoy whispered, taking a step towards him.

Harry had had a speech planned for Malfoy; he'd been working on it all week. He would talk about how that was a weird day with unusual circumstances, he didn't mean for anything to happen, it didn't mean anything and he was sure Malfoy agreed. But most of all Harry wanted to make sure Malfoy knew he wasn't gay (not totally anyway, but he wouldn't tell Malfoy that) and to warn him that he knew Malfoy kissed him back so if 'Harry Potter is gay' rumors started to circulate, they would be quickly followed by 'Draco Malfoy is gay' rumors. Unfortunately, this well thought out speech disappeared from his mind as the nausea he felt wash over him this morning after Malfoy's little show came rushing back.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry whispered fiercely. "What you did this morning was sick! Don't think I don't know why you did it! Nothing happened last week, remember? We aren't friends. Just give me the fucking gobstone!"

Malfoy could tell Harry was too hurt and angry to be reasoned with quietly in class so he gave in. He handed over the gobstone and they practiced changing it into a desk. Harry did much worse today than last week; he couldn't concentrate with Malfoy so close to him. Much to Harry's frustration, Malfoy managed a perfect transfiguration, with the desk, arguably, just a little undersized. When McGonagall dismissed the class, Harry tried to leave as quickly as he had left Potions. Unfortunately, he was not quick enough and Malfoy grabbed him to whisper, "This isn't over" into his ear rather ardently. Harry felt his confusion all over again as Malfoy seemed to pull him left and right, and back and forth, until he was so dizzy he barely knew which way was up.

The sixth year Gryffindors had free study time after Transfiguration so Harry walked rather quickly to the library to throw himself into his Charms essay and forget all about Draco Malfoy. Ron went to the common room to play chess with Seamus, and Hermione followed Harry to the library determined to find out what was wrong.

"Hey Harry!" Hermione called out, "slow down!"

Harry turned to see Hermione jogging up behind him, "do you mind if I study with you?" she asked.

"No, I don't mind."

"Hey, stop for a second," she said as she grabbed his arm. "Can we talk?"

"Look, I have to study, I can't." Harry could guess what she wanted to talk about.

"I know, me too! It's just a have a quick problem I need to run by you."

Harry relaxed when he realized she wasn't going to quiz him about his weird behaviour and agreed to talk to her.

"Great," Hermione said as she pulled him into an empty classroom. Harry dropped his books onto a nearby desk.

"What's up?" he asked her, glad to have something else to think about.

Hermione made sure she positioned herself between Harry and the door before she began. "I have this friend," she explained, "and he's been acting really weird recently. He's distancing himself from everyone and he seems really depressed, I don't know what to do."

Harry had already started backing away from her as he realized what she was doing. "No," he said, "I'm not doing this, Hermione."

"Harry, I just want to help!"

"No, I'm leaving."

"Harry!" she shouted, stepping right into him and grabbing his arms, "I love you, you know. You can talk to me, I won't even tell Ron. What's going on?"

"Nothing! I'm just losing my mind that's all! He's playing games with me and I don't know what to believe…" Harry's voiced trailed off. Hermione didn't say anything; she was hoping he would just continue. Instead he picked up his books in anger and threw them hard across the room; papers flew everywhere and his heavy Transfiguration textbook hit the corner of another desk with a thud, the hard cover tearing off and sliding across the floor. Tears of frustration and confusion spilled down his cheeks as he explained everything to Hermione. He told her about kissing Malfoy and liking it and about Malfoy's request that he didn't return again and Harry's decision to ignore him. Harry told her how he felt drawn to Malfoy, like he couldn't help going to his room night after night even though he knew he wouldn't be allowed in – it was like just being there was enough, even though it hurt him more each time he went and found the door closed. He felt like some sick stalker visiting Slytherin dorms over and over. He explained how confused he'd been feeling about his near obsession with Malfoy; thinking about him all the time, wanting to touch him, to smell him. He described how even though he knew how sick it was that Malfoy had bullied that kid just for him to watch, he was still driven to distraction by his close proximity in Transfiguration. Harry was deeply ashamed; Malfoy was an asshole and Harry felt like her was losing his mind.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed softly when Harry was finished. Not knowing what else to say, she just held him. He wasn't crying anymore but he didn't break off the hug; they sat this way for at least 20 minutes, just thinking and hugging. No one disturbed them.

"We better go to dinner," Harry said at last.

As they entered Harry knew Malfoy was watching him, he could tell by Hermione's firm glare at the Slytherin table and protective arm on his back. Harry didn't look over. She began helping him to avoid Malfoy; constantly placing herself between them like his guard. She managed to keep them apart for at least two weeks until they finally faced each other in a very public confrontation in the Great Hall.

A/N: Tried not to make Harry sound like a freaky stalker boy, but wanted to get across the intense feelings he had for Malfoy (and the confusion and distress these feelings were causing him). I felt like if Harry was at least aware his behaviour was stalkerish it wouldn't seem so bad. (lol notice when Harry and Draco are on bad terms he's 'Malfoy' when they aren't he's 'Draco'). Let me know how I did, but don't be too harsh if you think I pulled it off badly.