DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. Just my plot.

"What about Helen Deegan? You know, that girl in Hufflepuff?"

"Ginny!"

"Sorry! For goodness sakes, I'm just trying to help you." They were sitting in the common room by the fire and were talking about quidditch when Ginny steered the conversation back to setting him up.

"But I don't want you to. I appreciate it, Gin, I do, but I don't want to be set up."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Harry, you're lonely. Everyone can see that. I'm just trying to help. Why are you turning down every girl I mention? I must have given you the names of over half the girls in school!"

"Because I don't want girls!" he blurted out.

It took them both a moment to realize what Harry had just said. Harry looked scared out of his mind. He hadn't meant for that to slip.

"Oh… ohhhhhhh."

"Nono! That wasn't – you weren't supposed to –"

"Harry."

"I wasn't – that's not true, Ginny, I like girls – I wasn't supposed to say that –"

"HARRY!"

"WHAT?!"

Ginny had slapped her right hand over Harry's mouth to be sure he wouldn't say anything else. "I - don't - care." She took her hand back.

"But I… what?"

"I don't care," she repeated.

"You don't?

"No! Why would I? So you like guys… no wonder. It makes so much sense, now. Oooh, now I can set you up with… YES!" She squealed as Harry looked at her with an incredulous expression. "What about Colin?" Harry screwed up his face and Ginny giggled. "Okay, that's a no."

"Ginny, I like girls –"

"Oh stop trying to hide it, you already admitted to it."

"Listen to me. I like girls, too."

"Even if you're bi, you don't have to keep trying to defend yourself. Even if you were fully gay, it wouldn't matter to me." Harry was so incredibly shocked at her reaction that he was silent. "Harry, I don't know how it is in he muggle world but in this world, it's not a sin for people to like others of the same gender. I definitely don't care."

"My feelings for you… were genuine… and Cho…"

"Okay, and? Your feelings for me were confused with feelings of love for a sister/friend and my feelings for you were a young girl's infatuation with a famous guy. Then you became my best friend. We didn't work out, and we weren't supposed to. Neither did you and Cho… well, mostly because Cho is a whiny little cunt, but hey… not all girls are rainbows and ponies and fun…"

"Ginny!"

"What? She is!"

Harry snorted, as he was trying to hold back a laugh. This made Ginny snicker, and before they knew it, the two of them were laughing hysterically. This was what Ron and Hermione walked in on.

"Just what is so funny?" Hermione asked, secretly very glad that her best friend and brother-figure was laughing again.

Both Ginny and Harry stumbled over their words, and burst into fresh laughter. Ron rolled his eyes and grinned. He really wanted Ginny and Harry to become a couple. At least they were friends… and Ron thought that maybe there might still be hope. Maybe.

'What is wrong with me?'

Draco was sitting on his bed after doing a little work in the common room with Blaise and Pansy, waiting a bit before going to the seventh floor. His drapes were closed and he was sitting cross-legged with his back against the headboard. His eyes were staring at his hands but he wasn't seeing them; his mind was focused on Potter, and wondered why he kept thinking about him. Why he didn't feel hatred when he thought about him. Why he got hard when he fell on him. To be honest with himself, he never truly hated him. He did used to feel aggravation whenever he saw him, he used to not like him, and he still feels frustration with him, but now... it's like everything changed. He wanted to see him, wanted to be around him, even just to look at him.

What made it worse is that Potter got sheepish when he looked at him, ran into him, and touched his hand, got hard when Draco fell on him... and it both scared and confused him. Potter, gay? Or maybe he was bi; he did date the Weaslette and Chang. He never would have guessed. Then again, he was pretty sure that Potter wasn't into men. He was probably just flustered from feeling uncomfortable around Draco. And he probably got hard because of the position they fell in. Erections happened for no reason sometimes, and they were near impossible to control. Yeah, that was it. He never would have guessed about himself, either. The only thing keeping him from being disgusted with himself was Theo. Theo was gay and he loved life. He had many lovers, even more friends, and a smile on more than he did not.

Draco felt heat in his stomach just from thinking about being that close to Potter. 'Fuck.' He didn't want to be gay. That made him weird, different. He feared he would lose his status among the Slytherins. Hell, even among the rest of the school. Being gay wasn't taboo but there were still a lot of people who thought it was weird and/or disgusting. 'They don't have to know.' But it would get out, eventually. Secrets always did, here. He sighed heavily. The weight of this new information, or rather, realization, was a bit much. 'I should have known sooner... I've never felt anything for any of the girls I banged. I even had to think of jacking myself off to keep it up. God, I'm a fucking fag.'

He tried to think about something exciting to distract his mind, and the image that popped into his head was him grinding against Potter.

'Fuck my life.'

On the other side of the castle, Harry was also in his bed, with his drapes also closed, cross-legged and thinking. 'It has to be because he's up to something. Mione's right; I'm obsessed with the fact that he's sneaking around at night. Prefect my ass.'

He stared down at the Marauder's Map. Malfoy was in his dorm. He had been disappearing from it on a weekly basis. Harry was baffled; how can you disappear from the map? From Hogwarts? He knew the prefect routes from Ron and Hermione, so he knew that Malfoy didn't always keep to them. He was using his status to do something and Harry wanted, needed, to figure it out.

'Yeah... obsessed with catching him.'

After Katy Bell was cursed and sent to St. Mungo's, he just knew it was Malfoy who had given her the necklace. Especially when she came back. He saw how scared Malfoy looked when he saw her; that's why Harry ran after him. But he seemed so harmless the two times they sat together in potions, and when he was crying in the bathroom before he saw Harry and attacked him. So vulnerable. And when he thought of the cuts on Malfoy's arm in the infirmary... he shuddered. Yeah, he could be up to something, but he most definitely didn't want any part in it. Why else would he cut his own arm? Harry had thought that they might have been from a cat or an owl but the lines were too straight, too perfect. His heart fell again. It always did when he thought about this.

He threw on his invisibility cloak, grabbed the map, and left. "Lumos."

It was after hours, but Harry had taken to nightly strolls around the castle – with his invisibility cloak, of course. He would take the marauders' map with him and whenever he saw an unfriendly dot near him, he would throw the cloak on and that would be that.

Tonight, at one point, he slacked off on looking at the map because he was lost in thought, and did not see who was down the corridor he was turning into. When he caught sight of the object of his thoughts doing prefect rounds, Harry's heart leapt in his chest and his clothes started to feel too hot.

"Potter, Potter… out and about after hours, are you?"

"I suppose you're going to give a detention or take away points, as you were so oft to do earlier in the year," Harry shot at him.

Draco feigned an affronted look, then examined his nails. "My my, aren't we touchy?"

"You're one to talk. You seem to like touching me, running into me all the time." At this, they both flushed a little.

"You bumped into me outside of Defense," Draco shot back, his body growing hot at remembering how he held the 'Golden Boy' to steady himself. "Or do you only mention situations that suit your argument instead of the whole story? Everyone knows you love stories, especially the ones about you."

"Shut up!" Harry snapped. Draco almost took a step back in shock because of the fury in Harry's words. However, they also made him want to pin Harry against the wall; he found Harry very sexy when riled. "I am not fond of attention! I hate it when they write those horrible, false stories about me in the Prophet!" Harry was beyond furious. He thought Malfoy could change, but he was completely wrong.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Oh do calm down, Potter, I was only kidding. Don't get your panties in a twist." And then he pressed his body against Harry's, pushed him up against the wall, and kissed him. He needed to test the waters somehow.

Harry's eyes flew wide open, and he was sure the blonde was able to feel just how excited he was. Draco Malfoy was kissing him. He closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss. When Draco felt Harry kiss him back, his heart soared. He pushed himself harder against Harry's body and heard him let out a soft moan. Draco grinned and pulled back slightly so he could look at Harry.

"I had to test that," he said breathlessly. "I didn't know you were gay."

"I like girls, too," Harry replied with what would have been a defensive tone if he wasn't equally breathless. "Just not as much." This comment, however, caused Draco to push against Harry more in a protective sort of way that screamed 'mine.' Harry closed his eyes and his head went back against the wall, his mouth ajar in ecstasy. His pants were now uncomfortably tight. He left his neck exposed and Draco took advantage of this opportunity. He leaned forward and gently, but with a bit of force, bit the nape of Harry's neck where it met his shoulder, causing the shorter boy to gasp. He lowered his head to look at Draco with heavy eyelids. "This… this is wrong," he said.

Draco kissed him again, grazing and nibbling Harry's bottom lip with his teeth. Harry shuddered. "Still think it's wrong?" Draco asked seductively.

He grazed his knuckles up and down Harry's left side, going dangerously close to Harry's erection. Harry whimpered. "Yes." But he reached up with his right hand to pull the blonde's head towards him and kissed him.

Draco closed his eyes and slipped his tongue into Harry's mouth. It had been long overdue. He shifted his hips so that his erection rubbed against Harry's, eliciting a surprised gasp from him.

Harry, with his eyes hooded and glassy, decided that he should do something since Draco was initiating everything.

Then Harry paused. What if Draco was just doing this to make fun of him? He pushed Draco away, and the taller boy looked surprised – maybe even a little hurt, but Harry decided not to think about that. "Wait, what are you playing at, Malfoy?"

"I'm not playing at anything! What's your problem?"

"We hate each other. We have for years. Why are you all of sudden being nice? What do you want from me? You obviously want something or you wouldn't have changed so suddenly. Is this another scheme to torture me? Isn't your life perfect enough already? Why do you have to always be a thorn in my side? Mocking me and testing my limits!"

Draco sneered. He should have known Potter would be like this. He should have known the 'Golden Boy' would reject him. He was so angry.

"How do you know what I want? How do you know what the fuck my life is like? You have no idea about what I've been through, what I'm going through. I'm not trying to fuck up your perfect little life, Potter! I'm trying to make my own better with this, whatever it is, but since you obviously don't give a flying fuck, I'll just leave you alone. But as I go, might I remind you that you nearly killed me last week? Murder, Potter. How does that sound? Murder on Potter's perfect record."

"I didn't mean to do that to you! I ran and got Snape for you! I even visited you, you bastard. But maybe I should've just let you die." Harry was taken aback at the look in Draco Malfoy's eyes. They changed from anger to hurt, betrayal, and sadness in less than a second.

"Yeah, maybe you should have." He sounded so defeated. He turned and walked away but when was about to turn the corner, Harry stopped him.

"Wait! Malfoy – Draco, stop!" He ran up to Draco, who turned to look at Harry, surprised that he had used his first name. "I… I'm sorry, okay, I just… don't trust people easily. And I'm sorry for hurting you, I really am. I…" but Harry didn't know what else to say. Draco continued to stare at him with his eyes full of sadness and pain, Harry didn't know what to say, so he kissed him.

Draco's chest filled with a funny feeling, replacing the overwhelming emotional pain Potter had caused him. Harry gently backed him into the wall and continued to kiss him.

"I'm sorry," Harry repeated.

"Potter, shut up." He pressed his lips firmly against the shorter boys' and flipped their positions so that he was the one pressing Harry into the wall, again, which Harry did not mind at all. He, however, remembered that Draco had been doing everything so his hands roamed to the blonde's lower back and held him steady while he pressed his hips harder against Draco's. The blonde went rigid as an electric charge coursed through him and he lost his breath. His eyes nearly rolled back.

"H-holy shit…"

Harry smiled, pleased with himself for being able to get a response like that out of Draco, who seemed to be the more dominant one. Harry was quite shy, so this was very forward of him. Draco liked that, though; he thought that Harry's shyness was endearing, but when he stepped outside of it, it was unbelievably erotic.

Draco nudged Harry's head to the right with his face to expose his neck, then leaned forward. He bit Harry harder than before, but not enough to cause pain. Harry gasped and gripped Draco's shoulders. As wonderful as it felt to do things to him, the noises Harry made and the reactions he had to Draco's ministrations are what sent the blonde over the edge. He pressed their hips together again and began a slow rhythm. They held each other tightly as Harry began moving with Draco. Their rhythm grew steadily faster, their grips on each other stronger, and their breathing harder until Draco let out a muffled cry into Harry's shoulder. Harry followed not long after.

As their heavy breathing slowed and their heart rates calmed, Draco turned his head and placed a kiss on Harry's neck, then his lips, and let their foreheads rest on each other's.

Please review and tell me what you thought. :)