Jekyll would like to introduce her new co-writer.

Jaclyn waves.

Jekyll was happily surprised when she found out how great her new partner in crime could write.

Jaclyn blushes.

Jekyll has to add that there will be a church built in Jaclyn's honour.

Jaclyn pretends to be modest, but really enjoys the spotlight

Jekyll is very humbled and would like to start the story.

Jaclyn wishes to know what you readers think of it very badly.

Jekyll likewise.

Jaclyn also wants to thank aznMi for beta-reading.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'

The new associates Jaclyn & Jekyll,
who are bouncing all over the place in excitement,
present with much buoyancy

THE PHOTO
Chapter 8

He was staring at him again.

Harry's eye twitched ever so slightly as he tried to ignore the prickling sensation in the back of his neck.

That is it! I'm never going to sit down with my back to the Slytherin table ever again!

Harry entertained the idea of turning around and sending a vicious glare-of-death towards Malfoy, but he disregarded the idea as it would lose its effect the moment he turned his back to the blonde git again. Malfoy could be pulling odd faces or making crude hand movements and saying rotten things behind his back! Harry would rather sit face to face with the other boy, that way he, at least, could make it into a staring contest.

Harry took a sip from his juice and tried to calm down, but was unsuccessful as he could still feel the prickling sensation.

Can't he just stop doing that?

The Gryffindor wished he could just jump up and yell at the blonde to go stare at his boyfriend instead of at him. But such an act would only bring him in trouble, knowing how Malfoy was good at come-backs and he had also heard that Zabini had cursed a Ravenclaw for badmouthing Malfoy.

He stood up, told Hermione and Ron that he would meet them in class, and made a quick exit, feeling the blonde Slytherin's eyes on him until he was out of sight. It didn't matter; he would kick the prat's ass at Quidditch in a few days!

Draco was lost in his own world as he stared thoughtfully at Potter. He rearranged the food on his plate with his fork distractedly while his other hand kept his head up. The blond boy was trying to figure out why, why had he taken that photo. He was supposed to hate Potter. No, he did hate Potter.

Right?

The Slytherin let out a frustrated sigh as he contemplated. This was far too confusing and aggravating. Of course, it was possible he held some sort of feelings for his dark-haired nemesis.

No!

The thought alone was preposterous, insane, and sickening all at once. There was absolutely no way Draco felt anything other then hate for the Gryffindor brat. This whole situation was his fault in the first place. It was Potter's picture after all that caused this, and now he was stuck being the 'property' of Blaise Zabini.

Ugh, there has to be a reason though…

Draco stole the boy's picture for crying out loud! People don't just steal their so-called enemies' photos. It was obvious that there was something that made him do it. He just couldn't figure out what...

He was suddenly pulled out of his musing by a sweaty hand clasping his. Draco's head jerked and he saw Zabini smiling widely at him.

"What's on your mind, sugar?" he asked with a grin, leaning in too close for comfort.

"Nothing," Draco muttered, not in the mood for the Slytherin's attention. Actually, he was never in the mood for it.

"Aw, my baby looks worn out," the boy commented in a mocking voice.

He then reached up to caress the blonde's face. Draco instinctively flinched at the contact but forced himself to remain still at the harsh look from Zabini. He wanted those disgusting, clammy paws off him. Now!

His inner turmoil was not heard, however, as the fellow Slytherin moved in for a hungry kiss. It felt like the boy was trying to devour his entire mouth. He just sat stiffly, waiting for Zabini to lay off.

Suddenly, Blaise pulled back. "Kiss me back, love," he commanded angrily, keeping close to Draco's face.

Disgusting, the blond thought as he was forced to kiss the revolting boy next to him. He moved his lips hesitantly, refusing to even consider making his tongue leave the contours of his mouth. The blond let out a quiet, relieved sigh when Zabini finally pulled away from him.

"Come on, sugar, we don't want to be late for class," he said, holding onto Draco's robe to lift him up.

He grabbed Malfoy's hand and led him to their next class. There was nothing the blond could do but follow Zabini and allow his hand to be held.

Harry leaned heavily against a wall with crossed arms. He was currently watching wearily as his best friends and other students roamed the corridor in search of clues toward the mysterious theft of that photo.

He saw someone laying out cards and asking them, the cards, questions. Ron was in a discussion with a Ravenclaw and waving his arms about wildly. Hermione threw revealing spells around and everyone else was busy with some sort of task to find out what happened to Dean's picture.

Yes, Harry referred to it as Dean's picture while everyone else called it his. Sure, he was the object in the picture, but he had told the boy that that would be all he would want to do with it. Pose for it and that was it. The dark skinned Gryffindor had been adamant about Harry being the subject of his project and had finally, after much begging and manipulation, gotten the Golden Boy to agree to it.

Harry, annoyed at all of it, shook his head and pushed himself away from the wall. He had no idea why people were making such a big deal of it. It was just a sodding picture.

"Harry, where are you going?"

"Out."

"But what about-"

Harry ignored them and made a quick exit, leaving his best friend to shrug his shoulders and continue his discussion with the Ravenclaw.

Harry wanted to get away from all of it. Only one solution came to mind; Quidditch.

He stalked purposefully towards the Quidditch pitch, only to find it was booked for practice by the Hufflepuff team. He stood for a long moment at the sidelines, observing how the players went about their routine practice and watching interestedly as two Seekers chased a snitch. It was obvious that one of the Seekers was training the other and Harry was about to walk to the raised stands to watch them when a Bludger came for his head. A quick flashback from second year made him pull a face at the remembrance, and he quickly jumped to the side. A Beater landed in front of him.

"You alright, Potter?" he asked as he reached out a hand, which Harry grabbed to pull himself up from the ground.

"Yeah, I'm alright, Peterson."

"Serves you right for spying on us," the Hufflepuff said with a large grin. "Did you manage to learn something new?"

Harry wiped some grass off his arm. "Nah, only that our Gryffindor team has nothing to worry about." He grinned cheekily as the other looked mock offended. "I mean it," Harry continued. "If your Seeker doesn't get any better-"

"Nathan is training her."

"Yeah, but Nathaniel is a chaser, not a seeker."

"Are you up to it then?"

"What? Train a Hufflepuff? My team would kill me!"

"… so you're doing it?"

"Hell yeah!" Harry grinned broadly, his previous irritation gone as well as the troubling thoughts about the photo, and he quickly grabbed his wand to 'accio' his broom.

Meanwhile, Peterson whistled for Nathaniel, making the dark haired boy fly down. "What is it?"

Peterson put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry's gonna help you train Denalra."

"But he's a Gryffindor!"

"He's also a seeker."

Peterson and Nathaniel simply stared at each other for a long moment, clearly in some sort of power struggle, which Harry watched amusedly, but finally Nathaniel sighed and looked away.

"Fine." He mounted his broom again and flew up, closely followed by Harry.

"She's the reserve seeker, right?" he asked Nathaniel as he flew for a moment next to the Chaser.

"Yeah, with Summerby gone, she's our only one."

Harry flew past him to greet the girl. "Hello, I'm Harry." He introduced himself. The girl blushed slightly but grabbed his hand in a surprisingly firm grip.

"Hi, I'm Serina Denalra."

"Well Serina, I'm going to help you become a better seeker so I have a good rival in our match. Granted, it's months away, but you'll need it."

"I'm not that bad…" the girl muttered.

"No, you're not, but you still need improvement. So for the first practice, we'll just forget about the snitch. Just trail after me and try to keep up, halfway we'll switch and then you'll try to shake me off. Ready?"

The girl was about to answer in affirmative but he had already taken off and she sped determinedly after him.

Finally, Draco thought with a sigh of relief. There was no Zabini in sight and he could relax. The blonde boy had finally escaped the clutches of his tormentor. Draco was currently walking toward the Quidditch field, where he'd be able to be alone for at least a moment.

Unfortunately, he spotted Potter flying around the pitch with the Hufflepuffs. This revelation dampened Draco's spirits quite a bit. He refused to let that stop him, however, as he continued to make his way discreetly up the stands. Draco sat down and leaned his head back as he closed his eyes. He forbade himself from looking at the dark-haired boy flying high above the pitch.

Don't you dare look at Potter.

Draco was interrupted, however, from his thoughts when someone suddenly sat next to him. His eyes opened immediately and he jumped slightly. However, the Slytherin boy relaxed when he saw it was Dani.

"Hey, Dray," she said with a huge grin.

"Leave it to you to ruin my alone time," he replied, smiling despite everything.

"Well," Dani huffed, "excuse me for caring."

Draco laughed lightly as he leaned back again. "Why are you really here?"

"And I thought you trusted me." She pouted, knowing exactly how adorable she looked.

"Why don't you just cut to the chase?" he insisted, with a raised eyebrow.

Dani sighed. "I just wanted to know how your lover boy is doing," she admitted.

"Lover boy?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. Suddenly, just to make his life even harder, the first name that came to his mind was Harry Potter. And Draco had been trying to forget about his odd feelings for the dark-haired teen.

The older girl's brow furrowed as she watched her friend. "Yeah, I want all the details of you and Blaise."

Oh.

"Well, there are no details, nothing to tell," he replied, looking away but not toward the field.

"Oh, come on," she sighed, nudging Draco with her elbow. "How far have you two gone, anyway?"

"Kissing," he said quickly, "just kissing."

Thank Merlin.

"Is he a good kisser, at least? You can't date a bad kisser, that's just wrong," she commented with a grin.

No. "Sure," Draco replied, forcing a smile that ended up looking more like a grimace. He's disgusting.

"Good," Dani smiled. "I think we should leave now, though, the Hufflepuffs don't look too happy that you're sitting here."

Draco's lips actually formed a real smile at her words. "Guess you're right, it's not like they have anything I'd steal. They really should be worried more about you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, pretending to be offending.

"Nothing," he grinned, standing up and walking off the stands.

"Not so fast, buddy, you're not leaving me."

And soon the pair was walking away from the Quidditch field together. Draco hadn't felt this good since before the whole ordeal. He was walking next to his best friend, and had actually refrained from staring at Potter.

It was only ten minutes though.

Stupid voice of reason was trying to ruin his mood. It didn't matter how long, Draco didn't care about that. In this moment life was good, in these few minutes Draco was free from all the problems that were caused by Potter and Zabini.

That is until he saw Blaise waiting at the school's entrance, a smirk on his face. The moment was gone; back to reality.

'Mischief managed'.