Author's Notes: Phew! This one took me a while.

1. It's a WIP, and shall probably remain so for some time. School will prevent me from updating at all often. It sucks. I know. Sorry for the waiting fans.

2. This has some pretty graphic male-on-male sex. I will not remove it. If you don't like it, pay attention to the warnings next time. If you still feel the need to flame due to the hot'n'heavy scene(s), I will be forced to ask if you also ignore street signs and your mother's warnings that you'll put your eye out with that thing! (heh... 'thing'...)

3. This story will be predominately Top!Harry. Some people read nothing else, some hate it. Just thought I'd let you know ahead of time.

4. REVEIW. Honestly. It takes about 10 seconds to click the button, write "I liked it" and hit submit. It makes my day.

Fighting Educational Decree Number Thirty-Five

The February weather made the castle as cold as Dementor breath as Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Actually, he suspected that it was so cold because Umbridge had put a Binding spell on the school's warming charms – keeping Hogwarts this abysmally frigid put a damper on any rebellious spirit. As he entered the Hall, he scanned the Gryffindor table until he saw the platinum blond boy with his head bent over a piece of toast. He grinned. It was the first of the month, and on all odd-numbered days, Draco ate with Harry at the Gryffindor table. They ate with the Slytherins on even days.

Harry glanced at the Slytherin table. When Draco sat with his house, it was for show only. Since they had gotten together four months back, most of the Slytherins had snubbed the blond with a determination usually associated with Gryffindors. Harry also knew that they were potentially dangerous – many of the Pureblood Slytherins were Deatheaters in training, and members of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad. If (when his subconscious corrected) Voldemort ordered them to harm Draco for his traitorous actions, they would have the power to do so with little to no consequence.

He could see that Zabini, Nott, and other Slytherin sixth years were whispering fugitively and glancing at Draco. Harry narrowed his eyes at them, wondering what they were plotting. He looked around for clues to their behavior– it was still early in the morning, and the Hall was nearly empty as most of the students liked to sleep in on Saturdays. So did the teachers, apparently, as only Umbridge was seated. In all her toad-like malignance, she was sitting in a throne at her Headmistress' place at the table, watching him smugly, eyes glittering with malice, taunting him.

Dumbledore had disappeared over the summer, and even the Order didn't know where he was – Harry felt the loss wrench like a knife in his stomach as he remembered, and broke his gaze from Umbridge to look at Draco, refusing to think about how Fudge, his mind half-gone with madness and paranoia, had allowed her to systematically take over the school. Draco looked up and waved him over enthusiastically, tossing Harry a smile that made the knife disappear as he felt a warm smile spread over his own face.

Draco. He was the one who made this school year possible – the one who could talk Harry down from reckless decision after reckless decision, who sacrificed his relationship with his father and broke his commitment to becoming a Deatheater, who loved him beyond reason. He was gorgeous and snarky and clever and funny and never failed to pull reactions from Harry.

Harry strode over, Umbridge and Slytherin plots forgotten, to stand behind the blond, grinning down at Draco like he was Christmas come early.

Draco chuckled. "Morning. Sit down and eat, Harry, you look ridiculous smiling like that."

Harry sat, but the smile remained. "Breakfast can wait – I see something far more appetizing." He attempted to purr. Draco quirked his eyebrows at Harry's cheesy line, but his lips curved into a slow, sensuous smile – way to sexy for this early in the morning, Harry thought dazedly – and slid his hand around the back of Harry's neck to draw him in for a kiss. Harry closed his eyes, already able to taste the blond's sweet breath, when a pair of hands grabbed his arm and yanked him away from Draco with such force that his shoulder was nearly ripped out of its socket.

"OUCH, what the hell – Hermione?"

His bushy-haired friend clung to the arm she had just pulled, breathing as though she had just sprinted a long distance.

"Can we help you, Granger?" Draco sounded highly miffed at the interruption of their would-be kiss.

"Harry… Draco… sorry… need to… show you!" Hermione panted, releasing Harry's arm to bend over and clamp her hands on her knees, still catching her breath. A few moments and a glass of water later, she said in a low voice, "Harry, look at Umbridge."

Harry and Draco both looked over at the hag, and were startled to find that she had dropped her fat, indulged smile and was glaring daggers at the group, lip curling in fury. Angry disappointment was clear on her face. A glance over to the Slytherins showed that they were also displeased with whatever had just happened. Draco turned back to Hermione.

"Granger, what are we missing here?"

She shook her head and led them out of the hall. Draco tried to grab Harry's hand to keep up, but she slapped his wrist before they could make contact. He seethed at her, but waited until they were in a corridor to hiss, "GRANGER, would you kindly explain what the BLOODY FUCK is going on!"

"You'll see in a moment." Hermione said darkly. They rounded a corner until they came to the stretch of wall where Umbridge hung her decrees. "She's posted a new one."

A small crowd was cluttered around the newest proclamation, but they became quiet and parted silently as Harry, Draco, and Hermione approached.

"Merlin, please, no." Harry breathed as he read;

By Order of
the Headmistress of Hogwarts

All romantic relations deemed Unnatural by the Headmistress are to end, effective immediately. Unnatural relationships include, but are not limited to, the following;

Werewolf and Human
Veela and Human
Centaur and Human
Mermaid and Human
Male and Male
Female and Female
Three or More Partners

Any student found to be participating in these Aberrations of Nature will be expelled from Hogwarts immediately and placed under house arrest for eight months by the Ministry of Magic.

The above in accordance with Educational Decree Number Thirty-five

Signed,

Dolores Umbridge

Headmistress of Hogwarts

"You see?" Hermione's voice sounded hollow. "That's why I had to stop you – she was hoping that you two would do something that would constitute having a romantic relationship before you heard about the decree– then you'd be expelled. Harry, you'd have to go to the Dursleys, and Draco would have to go back to his parents. You'd be under their control completely – the Ministry would even place a Tracker on you so if you escaped, they both could follow you anywhere in the world, even locations made Undetectable."

Harry's jaw worked like a beached fish, but all that came out was, "But…but…"

"Harry?" Draco's voice sounded impossibly small. Harry took one look at his broken expression and pulled him against him in a fierce embrace. He felt hot tears sting his neck where Draco had buried his head, and he knew that Draco cried very rarely. For his part, he kept imagining Draco being locked in the Manor for eight months. The two had hardly been apart since they became boyfriends – eight months separated may as well be forever. Not only that, they both realized that eight months was more than enough time for Lucius Malfoy to break his son of his 'infatuation' with Harry, one way or another.

Draco was making a high-pitched sound that came with his every exhale as he hyperventilated. Harry's ears were ringing and he felt rather faint. Oh God, they had come so close in the Hall, if Hermione had been a half second later, Draco would be gone forever. Harry clutched Draco closer at the thought, as if keeping an invisible force from snatching him away. Fuck, they needed to get out of there, to be somewhere private where they could just… just deal with this.

"Come on." Harry muttered as soothingly as he could. He lead Draco into the Room of Requirement, which fashioned itself after his dormitory, but with only one large bed dominating the room and a fireplace. As soon as the door was closed, Harry wanted to hold Draco, but first something else had to be taken care of – he pulled out the spelled Galleon Hermione had made for him and called a DA meeting for 5:00 that evening.

That done, he crawled onto the replica of his bed to where Draco had curled up on his side. As he went to spoon behind his boyfriend, Draco shifted with a muttered, "Wait…" He pushed Harry onto his back and laid down directly on top of him, tangling their legs and resting his head on his chest, his ear to Harry's heart. Harry remembered when Draco had told him, more than half asleep at the time, that when he listened to Harry's heartbeat, it was like his life fell into line with that rhythm. Draco didn't even remember saying that when he had awakened, and Harry didn't remind him, but he had never forgotten – he had known he loved Draco in that moment.

They lay like that for some time. Draco's eyes were closed, his near-silent tears absorbing into Harry's shirt as Harry's hands ran soothing paths up and down his back. Draco's weight was comforting on his body – it gave him a sense of purpose, a tangible reminder that his place was with Draco.

"So what should we do?" Harry asked quietly. His arms wrapped around Draco and he wanted more than anything to close his eyes and go back to sleep, to wake up and find that this past hour was a dream.

"We have to make a choice." Draco sighed, his breath huffing lightly against the wet of Harry's shirt.

"What choices do we have?"

Draco looked up at Harry from his chest. His face was extra pale and his eyes were red, but he was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. "If we decide to keep being lovers, even in secret, we could be caught. If that happened, my father would dedicate his every waking moment to making me stop loving you. He would fail… and then he would settle for me never seeing you again. He would use my friends as leverage, maybe even Weasley and Granger, if he could get to them. He might sign me into a marriage contract to some Pureblood bint. Or he could just Imperiurse me into signing my free will, magical rights, and right to live over to him once I turn seventeen."

Harry took a deep breath and crushed Draco to his chest. "He would do that? To his own son?"

Draco's expression was morose, his voice a bit sad. "To him I am a Malfoy first, his son last."

"Well then… maybe we should just stop."

"Stop what?" Draco sounded genuinely confused.

"Stop us. I mean, its four months until school ends. We could stop being a couple for that long, couldn't we? "

Draco's breathing hitched, his eyes widening in horror and filling with tears. "You want to break up with me?"

"No! God no, Draco, I never want to leave you!" Harry sat up and cradled Draco in his lap, tucking the blond head under his chin and rocking them back and forth. It unnerved him to see Draco cry so much. Draco was now sobbing openly and brokenly against Harry's throat, which was completely out of character, as Harry murmured a litany of apologies and held him tight, saying, "I'm sorry, so sorry, don't cry, I won't leave you, we're together, I'm sorry, I'll never leave, so sorry, don't cry."

Eventually, Draco's crying petered out, leaving him to take shaky breaths against Harry's very damp neck. "Sorry, Harry." He said softly. "I just keep doing that today."

"Don't apologize, love. You have every right. I'm really, really sorry I said that. I won't again."

Draco shrugged half heartedly in Harry's arms. "I feel like I waited so long for us to happen. It's just that the thought of losing you, after everything's changed for me so much… I freak out."

"Shh. No freaking out. You aren't going to lose me."

"Okay." Draco suddenly smiled wryly, if a bit weakly, up at him. "And as if we could keep our hands off each other for four months. We'd have to set up a permanent Protego."

"Yeah," Harry smirked back. "We'd end up staging fights in public just to get our hands on each other." Draco coughed very suspiciously at that. Harry drew back a bit to look at him full-on. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?"

"Tell me."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're lying – you have your lying face on."

"I do not have a lying face!"

"Yes you do. Your face goes all expressionless and cold when you're lying. What are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything."

"Draco, don't you love me?"

"Hey! That's not going to work, Potter. I own the guilt trip."

"Are you sure? Because you say that you love me, and then you lie to me. That doesn't sound like love to me, Draco." Harry started to draw away, his voice sad. Draco wrapped his arms around Harry's neck to stay close.

"Stop! You're being ridiculous. You don't even know what I'm-"

"No, Draco, I don't know, because you won't tell me. Why won't you tell me? Did I do something wrong? What is it?"

To himself, Harry thought that his persuasion techniques were getting better. His voice was the perfect combination of confusion, fear, and accusation, while he drew his eyebrows slightly up and together in the middle while his lower lip quivered pitifully. His inner Slytherin was pretty damn sure that this expression could melt just about anybody except the Dursleys, Voldemort, and Snape. Once, he would have included Draco in that list, but as it turned out, Draco was the most susceptible – it was a discovery he had put to good use.

Draco broke. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It's just that I… usedtogetinfightswithyou... becauseyouwouldgrabmeand... andpinmeanditwouldbereallyhot."

Harry stared. "Draco Malfoy, did you just say that you used to get in fights with me because I'd grab you and pin you, in order to hit you, may I add, and you thought that was hot?"

"Er. Yes."

"And you would provoke said fights by insulting my friends or my parents or me?"

"Well I didn't actually say that, but I suppose-"

"And we would get in trouble and lose house points and get bloody detention, making me miss Quidditch practice and forcing me to stay up obscenely late to finish my homework?"

"…yeah. But it's not my fault! Up through third year, I just... did it to get you to pay attention to me." At the look on Harry's face, he hurried on, saying, "It's like if you weren't mad at me, I was beneath your notice! And then during fourth year, after I made those badges, you slammed me up against that tree for a moment, and bloody hell it just felt so good. I didn't understand it and that's why I tried to hex you with your back turned, and then a few months later I finally figured it out and you still hated me, so I didn't know what else to do!"

Harry stared. "And it didn't occur to you that I would notice you in a good way if you started acting nice until a year and a half later?"

"Hey, it wasn't easy, okay!" Draco snapped hotly. "Imagine you were in love with your nemesis who hated you and had brought down your father's master, and he was always doing these stupid, reckless things, and you were constantly afraid that he was going to die without ever knowing that you cared about him!"

Harry's arms were around Draco again, and looked into those gorgeous grey eyes "Well, you never have to worry about that again."

Draco pouted. "You still do stupid, reckless things."

Harry smirked. "I'm a Gryffindor. It's a required trait. And if I'm not mistaken, love, you like my recklessness."

"Not when it threatens your life!"

Harry shook his head. They had had this conversation ten times, and Draco still couldn't let the subject pass without an argument. "We aren't talking about this now. We still need to discuss how we're going to handle the decree."

Draco frowned slightly and motioned that they should lie down again. He lay on his back, and Harry stretched onto his side so he was pressed alongside the blond, leaning his head onto the hand he had propped up on his elbow.

"Why is it that whenever we're together, we just forget everything else?" Draco asked quietly.

"I don't know." Harry replied honestly. "I forgot Umbridge and the decree even existed for a minute."

Draco sighed. "Right. Well, we definitely aren't going to break up, right?"

"No, we are not. How about… we stay 'together', but don't do anything like kissing or shagging or holding hands, even when we think we're alone? We can still be around each other, but we'll just have to control ourselves for a few months."

Draco frowned. "That wouldn't work. Look at what you're doing." He glanced pointedly down his body. Harry looked as well, only to see his hand tracing lightly on Draco's clothed stomach. When had he started doing that? "We've never had much self control when it comes to each other, Harry. And besides," he looked up at the Gryffindor. "Even if we could control ourselves, I wouldn't want that anyway. If I couldn't have all of you, it would kill me."

Harry smiled softly and rubbed their noses together in an Eskimo kiss. "Okay." He said simply. They were silent for a minute. Finally, Harry ventured, "Maybe if we left now and started looking for Horcruxes, or stayed at Grimmauld Place or something, she won't have the chance to expel us and put us under house arrest."

Draco sighed tiredly. "We've already been over this, Harry."

"But that was then, and this is now! Say we do stay, and we get caught! Forget about what would happen to you if you were locked up with your dad… a lot of people can die in eight months, Draco. If I'm under house arrest, there won't be anything I can do to stop Voldemort. This is about more than just us – a lot of people out there are counting on me."

"And what if we do leave?" Draco demanded angrily. "The worst they can do is lock us up for a little while if they catch us in here. If we leave and something happens, like we're attacked by Deatheaters, we're fucked! If we don't Apparate, we're dead, and if we do Apparate, the Ministry will be on us in minutes, and we'll face years in Azkaban. Consider how much good you'll be the Wizarding world while you're in there, Harry. How long do you think you'd survive, between your severe reaction to Dementors and the number of people the Dark Lord could have kill you? How long do you think a traitor like me would last? A day? Two?"

Harry tensed at the idea of Draco in Azkaban. Merlin, but that possibility was just too real for too many reasons. Draco could have loved a pretty Pureblood girl who would make his life easy, but instead he had to go for Harry, who could do nothing but complicate things and endanger him. And if Draco was willing to give up everything his life was built on for Harry, how could he deny him anything?

With that in mind, Harry rolled over until he lay on top of Draco, supporting most of his weight with his forearms and legs. He let his forehead lean against Draco's and closed his eyes tiredly. "You're right. I don't like it, but you're right. We'll stay here. We'll stay together. But Draco, we're going to have to be very careful. Lives depend on it, and not just our own."

"Yes," Draco agreed. He wound his arms around Harry's neck as he continued, "We have to take every precaution. Your Gryffindors will protect us while we're in the common room and dormitory, but even then, they could be infiltrated. Remember how you told me that you and Weasley posed as Crabbe and Goyle in the second year? I'm sure Umbridge would be more than happy to supply her Squad with Polyjuice. Even if she doesn't, Creevy could be snapping pictures and catch one of us accidentally, or something like that. We could sneak around, but that carries an even greater risk because anyone could happen by and see us, or follow us, but we can use your invisibility cloak and that fantastic map of yours to make sure we are really alone. Okay?" Draco interspersed each sentence with a kiss to Harry's face, along his brow, cheekbones, jaw, and nose. Harry could feel the promise that came with each kiss, a vow that everything was going to be alright.

Harry captured Draco's lips and kissed his approval of the plan into his mouth, while Draco responded with those small, delicious sounds that made Harry crazy for him. The kisses grew heated and hungry on the bed, their tongues doing a wet battle while their limbs entwined and their bodies writhed. This - this was important – this was them proving that the insanity was worthwhile.

"Mmph." Harry groaned against Draco's lips. "Wanna fuck." His blunt words were belied by the dexterous movements of his fingers and tongue.

Draco hissed as Harry settled his hips more firmly against his groin by moving between his legs. "Oh yes."

Harry sat back so he was kneeling on the bed, Draco lying under him. Draco whined slightly at the loss of contact, but when he saw Harry began to yank off his tie and shirt, he immediately followed suit. Once they were both nude Harry fairly dove back onto Draco, who keened at the flesh on flesh contact, a sound that went straight to Harry's cock.

Draco broke the kiss to whisper "Want you", before latching back on to those incredible lips with a barely contained, desperate moan. Harry backed off and looked at Draco. Merlin help him, but the Slytherin looked like raw sex. His legs were spread, the inner thighs reddened from clenching around Harry. His cock was completely hard, leaking fluid onto his taunt stomach, and his mouth was open and wet as he panted hot, gasping breaths while looking up at Harry through the mussed hair that had flopped into one of his eyes.

Harry smiled mischievously at the wanton boy. Draco barely had time to ask "What?" before his back was pressed up against the high headboard of the bed. Harry kept Draco's body raised off the bed by kneeling and pressing his body against every inch of the pale, flawless skin that could be reached and the legs Draco had instinctively locked around his waist. Harry's hands fastened Draco's wrists to the wood as securely as iron fetters and dipped his head to run biting kisses up the smooth neck to Draco's ear, where he whispered huskily, "So you like it when I pin you, Malfoy?"

Draco arched into Harry and moaned loudly, half-shouting, "Oh fuck yes."

Harry made quick work of preparation – Draco was whimpering hotly in his ear as Harry wandlessly conjured lube and pressed one, two, three fingers into Draco. When the blond was squirming breathlessly between Harry's body and the smooth wood, Harry slowly knelt a bit farther up and allowed Draco to slide down the headboard just a little until the Slytherin was slowly impaled on his prick. When he was fully sheathed inside the so tight so hot blond, Harry paused for a second, just long enough to allow Draco to adjust. He thrust a little, to test how this new position would work, when he heard it.

"Oh." The tiny, soft noise issued from Draco's throat. Harry pulled his head back enough to look at Draco's face, and it was nearly his undoing. The pale cheeks were flushed, the grey eyes looking dazed in bliss, and the sweet pink mouth hanging slightly open to breathe deeply and heavily. Draco's eyes finally focused on his, and he whispered, oh so softly, "More."

Harry thrust again, and yet another time, each plunge into the blond's arse wringing a breathy "Oh" from Draco's lungs. The harder the thrust, the louder the "Oh" became until Draco was fairly screaming the word as Harry pounded him into the headboard, grunting and moaning and leaning his forehead into Draco's neck, closing his eyes, ignoring the way his thighs burned and his arms trembled on the Slytherin's hips and focusing on making Draco yell louder, higher, more desperately. Draco's hands scrambled for purchase on the Gryffindor's sweaty back as he got the fucking of a lifetime, feeling so completely full of Harry, just so abso-fucking-lutely filled to the brim as his muscles began to cramp and his back slid on the sweat-slicked wood with his cock bouncing hard and leaking between them as a stream of half-coherent words were simply fucked out of his mouth, screaming, "Oh! Oh! Oh, H-Harry, Oh! Yeh-yes! Oh! Oh! OH!" Draco's body spasmed in orgasm, his come shooting high as he went rigid and shuddered against Harry. His arse clenched nearly unbearably tight around Harry's cock, who came so hard he nearly collapsed right then and there, holding Draco's body up against the headboard as his body shook and trembled.

Finally, their releases were spent, but their muscles remained locked in place. As gently as he could, Harry tried to lower them to the mattress, but they fell the last half of the way, landing uncomfortably with Draco sprawled on top. He carefully untangled his legs from around Harry, allowing the boy's softening dick to slip out of his hole, and rolled to lie on his back next to Harry, who moved to rest his head on Draco's shoulder as they struggled to catch their breath.

"That was…" Harry panted.

"Incredible." Draco finished for him. "Who knew sex like that even existed?"

"Oh God." Harry moaned. "Oh Merlin, that was so good. I mean, God! We need to have upright sex more often!"

Draco chuckled sleepily. "Shhhh," He murmured, "Sleep now."

"Mmmm," Harry agreed. But he was getting cold, now that their sweaty bodies were cooling. He felt a blanket covering them, provided by the Room. He smiled and tucked an arm around Draco's waist. When things like that amazing sex, their post-coital lethargy, and the utter peace he felt existed between them, between two boys, how could they lose it to someone who claimed it was wrong?