What is your secret?

By Star Mirage

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling.
Dedication: To you, my dear friend, Unfading (aka D)! Ever if this fiction turned to be a slash one, I hope you will not kill me for that : ) And thank you for your priceless help with my clumsy grammar.
Also I dedicate this chapter to all those readers who sent me their reviews. I was very happy to receive them.

Part 7. In the real life

Sundays were the most favourite time for Harry. There was no need to hurry up to the lessons. You could spend your time as you wish, and not as the time-table prescribed you to do. And the most wonderful thing about Sundays was that you could sleep as mush as you wish.

Since last night Harry returned to the dormitory only at down, he permitted himself to sleep longer. By the time he came down to the Great Hall, most students had already finished their breakfast and dispersed to their own business. Even Hermione and Ron finished their meal, and went away. According to Hermione, she went to the library 'to do homework'.

'Only Hermione can think about homework ever since the Sunday's morning,' Harry thought with a slight surprise. But when Ron said that he 'has to write a letter to his mother and brothers' and dashed after Hermione, Harry's smile become wry.

'Ha! Homework… letter… I bet that they are in some empty classroom, snogging.'

His best friends knew that Harry felt uneasy about their open display of feelings, and that was why they tried not to demonstrate those feelings in his presence. Well, although they didn't stop their kissing sessions, at least they stopped doing that in front of him.

Therefore Harry, being left to his breakfast in blessing loneliness, with pleasure savoured a toast with strawberry jam.

It was good that professor Spout had in her greenhouses some normal plants like strawberry, and not only the magic ones, which move, yell or bite you every time you pass by them. A strawberry jam quickly gained popularity among students of Hogwarts. And not only among of younger population of the castle. Harry cast a look at the High Table. A few jars of jam were collected around of professor Dumbledore's plate, depriving other professors of a possibility to taste the dessert. But Harry thought that not all professors felt aggrieved at that fact. He shifted his look to professor Snape. It was rumoured that the Slytherin dean could not stand any sweet stuff.

'I'm sure that he even tea drinks with salt and pepper,' Harry thought maliciously. 'And that's why he is so wicked and sour.'

'Here you are, Harry. Good morning!'

Harry almost choked with his toast, startled as his best friend's little sister flopped down onto the bench beside him.

'Hi, Ginny,' he replied. Fortunately for the girl, and certainly thanks to Hermione's help, there were no traces of yesterday's events on Ginny's face. Her round face still was generously covered with freckles, but the enormous 'black eye' that appeared on Ginny's face last night as a result of her close 'acquaintance' with Hermione's book, vanished away.

While Harry was pondering how tactfully to ask her about in what way Hermione removed that bruise, the girl took the unfinished toast from Harry's hands and, slowly licking off a jam, smiled to the dumbfound boy.

'Yesterday, we were cut off at the most interesting place,' Ginny purred, putting her free hand on Harry's knee. 'Let's go to Hogsmeade today. Only you and me, and no one else. We'll drink some butterbeer…' Ginny's hand mover several inches higher along the boy's leg, and the girl's voice became deep and sultry, '…and will do something interesting.'

Harry, red with embarrassment, hastily jumped out from the table, almost tipping over his unfinished tea.

'Sorry, Ginny,' he babbled. 'I am busy… Eh… I have… Eh… I have a meeting with professor Dumbledore today… And after that I have a lesson with professor Snape… And then I promised to Hermione that we'll do homework together… So I'll be busy the whole day. Excuse me.'

In panic, Harry cowardly left the Great Hall. Whatever you may say, but to fight dragons was much easier than to deal with girls, especially with such importunate and bothersome as Ginny.

xOxOx

Panting, Harry fell down on his bed. He was so abashed with Ginny's behaviour that he ran nonstop from the very Great Hall to his dormitory. Everything that he said to the girl about his busy schedule was a lie. There was neither meeting with professor Dumbledore nor professor Snape's lesson in Harry's plans today.

After catching his breath and calming down, Harry remembered about the magazine that he took away from the Malfoy-phantom last night. Harry looked around and found that only Seamus was present in the room. The Irishman was lying on his bed and was reading (judging from non-moving pictures) some muggle newspaper. Knowing Seamus' curious character, Harry did not take the risk to open his magazine in the roommate's presence. Therefore, Harry furtively took out the magazine from under his pillow and pushed it into his pocket.

Earlier, on his way to the Gryffindor Tower, Harry noticed that there was no rain outside. Since that was the first sunny day after the sequence of exhausting rains, a decision came really quickly. Slipping on a mantle, Harry decided to go for a walk to the lake. There, all alone, he would be able to study thoroughly this very interesting magazine.

'From cover to cover', promised Harry to himself, silently leaving the room.

xOxOx

'Draco, darling, would you like that egg?'

'No, Pansy.'

'Then maybe that salad?'

'No.'

'May be you want that sausage?'

'No.'

'Then some porridge?'

'Shut up, Pansy. I'm not hungry.'

Draco understood that he was running out of patience. A little longer and he would curse that stupid bitch. Her nonstop excursion into all dishes seen on the table didn't add him an appetite at all. Quite the contrary, that small piece of toast that he was nibbling stuck in his throat.

Unable to get a good sleep because of his frequent nightmares, and therefore irritated and angry, Draco dreamed about one thing only - to be left alone. Unfortunately, Pansy was not going to let him be.

'Draco, darling, you are so moody, ever since the morning.' She prattled, leaning over his side. 'You have to eat something to keep your beauty unfading.'

Draco rolled his eyes.

'What I need for my beauty, Pancy, is to be left alone. That, and a good long sleep.'

'A sleep?' The Slytherin girl raised her eyebrows. 'What were you doing last night, darling, if you could not have your beauty sleep?'

Draco waited till Pansy took a sip of her pumpkin juice, and then answered.

'I was fucking some bloke in the Astronomical Tower. All night long, actually. See you later, dear.

Seeing as scandalized Pansy spilled the juice all over herself, Draco smiled with satisfaction and left the Great Hall.

xOxOx

Harry was sitting near the lake, taking shelter from the eddy wind behind a pile of big rocks. Those rocks hid him not only from the wind, but from anybody's view, whoever would look from the castle towards the lake. Comfortably sitting on a stone heated by sun, Harry opened the magazine.

As before, it evoked very confused feelings in him.

+Flashback+

The phantom turned the magazine, showing it to Harry. There, on the cover, was a winking boy, dressed in the very tight trousers and an almost transparent shirt. That boy was none other than Draco Malfoy.

Harry's eyes went wide. 'Is that you?' he could utter almost breathlessly.

The phantom nodded proudly.

'Really?'

The phantom nodded again.

'You're kidding!' Harry was shocked. He sat in unoccupied armchair, still staring at the periodical.

The phantom smirked slyly. He swung the magazine to himself, turned over a few pages and, pleased with himself, again showed the magazine to the Gryffindor. What Harry saw there had deprived him of speech for several minutes. With goggling eyes, he slipped down from the armchair and, pointing his finger at the new photo in the magazine, could only dumbly open and close his mouth.

There, over the whole page his own figure stood out. His own nude figure that was. Harry-on-the-photo had been taking a shower, soaping his hairs and happily singing something. With his eyes closed, he was unaware that someone took the picture of him.

Crawling closer, Harry could see that, fortunately, only his top half had been clearly visible on the photo, and below the waist, his body was covered with puff of steam. Still that was no help. Scandalized, Harry could only mumble, poking with his finger in the magazine.

'Merlin! Who and when managed to take that photo?' he uttered at last. Fury helped him to collect his thoughts, little by little cleaning his mind from the shocked state. 'If those were brothers Creevey, I'll kill them with my own hands!'

Infuriated, Harry leaped to his feet and began to pace before the fireplace back and forth. Unconsciously he took out his magic wand and started to swing it around, unaware that it began to sparkle as a Christmas sparkler.

Satisfied, the phantom leaned on the back of his armchair and with a smile watched the Gryffindore's 'I'm very mad' performance.

'I'll kill those brothers Creevey!' muttered Harry under his breath. 'I'll kill them, I swear! No, at first, I'll curse them till the next Sunday, and after that I'll give them to professor Spout's carnivorous plants. Yes! But… But what if that photo was taken by somebody else? How should I find them? Anyway, I'll kill that bastard, whoever it was who did that to me!'

Suddenly the Gryffindor abruptly stopped, struck with a new thought. His eyes become wide with horror. 'What if that photo is not the only one? If there are other ones with naked me on them… On which I'm totally naked… Whaaaa!! What I have to do?'

Harry angrily turned to the phantom. After seeing the annoying magazine – the source of his bad mood - in Malfoy's hands, he snatched it away.

'I forbid you to look at this!' He shouted at the phantom.

The blonde phantom pouted, indignant with the Gryffindor. He folded his arms over his chest, and in an emphatic manner turned away. Although that didn't prevent him from stealthily watching as the Gryffindor put the periodical into his pocket.

+End of Flashback+

xOxOx

Some motion, caught by Harry's peripheral sight, distracted him from reading of magazine. He raised his head to see what that was.

Wrapped in a warm autumn cloak, none other than Draco Malfoy was approaching the lake. Leisurely, the blond walked up to the edge of water, stood there a few minutes, looking intently into cold grey of the lake, then sighed heavily, and made his way to the nearest trees. He looked around, absolutely unaware about his nemesis, hidden not so far behind some big rocks. Noticing nobody, Draco took out his magic wand.

With interest, Harry watched what Malfoy would do next. But the latter just pronounced some spell, which apparently dried out soil and grass around the chosen place, because after his manipulation with the magic wand, the Slytherin not-so-elegantly flopped down on now dry grass.

Harry snorted ironically. 'Does Malfoy have a bad day today, if he behaves so… hm… ungracefully?' Intrigued, Harry ever forgot about the magazine that he had been reading several minutes ago. Now, carefully peeking out from behind the stones, he watched the notorious Slytherin.

In the meantime, the blond settled himself into the shadow of a big tree that was growing close to the water.

Malfoy indeed was in a bad mood, because after adjusting his cloak and stretching out his legs, he just was sitting there for some time, sulking and unhappily looking before himself. Then, obviously thinking about nothing cheerful, Malfoy, without getting up, picked up a few pebbles lying nearby and began to toss them into water. Pretty soon he became bored with that occupation, because the blond sighed heavily again, then tightly wrapped himself in the warm cloak. After that he closed his eyes with apparent intention to have a nap.

In disbelief, Harry watched as the Slytherin's breath became slow and deep.

'Did he really fall asleep?' he thought, staring as a light breeze played with Malfoy's platinum hairs. A snob look disappeared from the Slytherin's face, replaced by a peaceful expression. Harry thought that at time like this the blond looked more like a normal guy than a blockhead with a superiority complex, whom, in Harry's opinion, Malfoy usually was. To see his Hogwart's rival so defenseless was very unusual. But if you think about that, it was the first time when he saw Malfoy asleep.

Puzzled, Harry scratched the nose.

That peacefully sleeping boy bore a strong resemblance to the phantom from the Secret room. He had the same aura of calmness and conciliation… The same little smile that often had been lighting up the phantom's face, and that just now touched the Мalfoy's lips. The same childish dissatisfaction which the phantom demonstrated, when Harry took the magazine from him, and which also flashed across the sleeping blonde's face…

Whatever you may say, but it was much more pleasant to look at the sleeping Slytherin than at the awake one. As if falling asleep, Malfoy threw off the false mask he had been wearing, and revealed his true nature. He looked peaceful, open to emotions, defenseless, and very much attractive...

Harry hemmed ironically, surprised where his own thoughts led him to. With ears burning with embarrassment, he turned back to his magazine. Seeing the playfully winking Slytherin in his translucent shirt on the cover, Harry blushed yet more. He hastily turned over pages of magazine in search of the article that he had been reading before Malfoy's arrival. Finding it, Harry sighed in relief. At least it would possibly occupy his mind with something other than Malfoy.

Still, ever after that thought, Harry glanced at the blond... And froze.

From the lake a thick tentacle was sliding towards the sleeping guy.

'A giant squid,' Harry understood with horror.

Blindly groping for a road, the tentacle quickly found its prey. Twining round the blonde's ankle, the squid abruptly pulled the unsuspecting boy into the lake. A second - and Malfoy disappeared under water.

Without thinking twice about his own actions, Harry dashed after the monster and its prey. While running, he snatched out his magic wand and jumped into the lake.

TBC.

Thank you for reading! Please, don't kill me for leaving this chapter hanging at that very tense point. I just want you to take a long breath, because the story would become more intensive and intricate. Well, and more "slash-romantic". (Sorry, D!) :)

Review, please!

© Star Mirage