AN: Sorry this is late. I am a lazy bum.

Chapter Thirteen: Harry Potter and the Kiss

Harry Potter perused the tack board on his wall with his arms crossed and biting his lip. His glasses slid down his nose, but he let them pinch his skin without caring. Draco refused to respond to his owls, even when the newest Hogwarts Howler had just been released with Harry's name plastered all over it in a way he had never imagined it would be. This was even worse than when the Prophet accused him of lying when Voldemort had returned. He knew that he had, though, and he also knew, thanks to the propechy, that the Dark Lord was after his life. Dumbledore's words rang in his ears as he tacked up the Howler under his other clippings: Neither can reign while the other skates. He would have to beat Voldemort. Harry sighed.

Daily Prophet: Sirius Black Disappeared

Daily Prophet: Sirius Black Disappeared,

Again

Hogwarts Howler: Harry Potter, Cheater, Puts His Name in Goblet

The Quibbler: Interview with Harry Potter

Harry Tells All After Merpeople Encounter

Daily Prophet: Harry Potters Wins Triwizard Cup

The Quibbler: Remembering Cedric Diggory

The Quibbler: Voldemort Awakens from Coma

Hogwarts Howler: Hot French Girls Leave

Dumbledore's Army: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Cormac McLaggen, Dean Thomas, Colin Creevey, Dennis Creevy, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, Lavendor Brown, Neville Longbottom, Nigel Wolpert, Parvati Patil, Romilda Vane, Seamus Finnigan, Anthony Goldstein, Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, Marietta Edgecombe, Michael Corner, Padma Patil, Terry Boot, Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbot, Jason Flinch-Fletchley, Susan Bones, Zacharias Smith, Luca Caruso, Alice Tolipan

The Quibbler: Dumbledore's Army Wins Skate Against Hate Competition

Hogwarts Howler: Harry and Cho? Sitting in the... Room of Requirement?

Daily Prophet: Lucius Malfoy Arrested, Others

And the newest addition: Harry Potter Gay? with a picture of Harry and Draco lacing up their skates before a Gryffindor/Slytherin race, both of them in pursuit of the Roller Derby cup.

Besides rumors about his sexuality, Harry had to deal with the news from Dumbledore and figure out what it all meant. Sixth year would bring more skating competitions and new classes to prepare him for training as an auror, but he would also have to focus on preparing to beat one of the best roller skaters who also happened to be the darkest wizard since Grindewald.

Harry put away his box of thumb tacks and admired his bulletin board and the accomplishments it stood for. Although, he was not sure if he could call being gay an accomplishment. It was just a thing. He had pretty much always known, but he had known for sure once the pubescent hormones started kicking in. And then he met Draco. That had him convinced.

The kiss with Cho had been nice although she was crying and flirting with admirers had a certain playfulness to it, but what he had with Draco was real, even though the other boy may not have known it.

The blonde one was one of the few people Harry could be himself around and he was certainly with the person that he spent the most time with. Harry read through the article and laughed at its naivete:

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have always

been friends since Harry showed up at the Malfoy's

roller rink before their first year, but our sources

tell us that there may be something more to the boys'

lingering looks nowadays. Their teammates maintain

that the boys are not interested in each other. They are

simply together frequently because they are both such good

skaters. This school year saw the victory of Gryffindor

over Slytherin yet again in the derby cup, but the boys were

seen after the race, smiling and acting as if everything was

fine between them. Cynics say that both heartthrobs are straight,

but the pictures coupled with eyewitnesses proves that the boys

are more than friends, and we have to wonder, if they act like

this in public, what are they like 'behind-the scenes'?

Harry had long ago decided that his love for Draco would remain unrequited. His Apollo was destined to marry a pureblood princess, maybe Parkinson, and carry on the family name, and Draco seemed alright with that. At least, he didn't talk about it all, so Harry had to assume that no news was good news on that front.

He let Hedwig out of her cage and started polishing the wheels on his skates that had been bought with the winnings from the Triwizard Tournament: dark red leather with golden amber wheels to match his house colors. Hedwig pecked at the window with her foot just as someone popped into the room via apparation.

"Harry!"

The boy rolled over in his bed, dropping his skates to sit up and address his guest. "Hello, Draco, how are-"

"Have you seen the newest Hogwarts Howler? This is bloody insane! If my father were not in...well, this is bloody upsetting! How dare they spread such rumors about us? I mean, they said it themselves, we're just friends. Just friends!"

Harry pulled on his skates and reached out for Draco's hand to pull himself up to standing. "I think that you need to go skating."

Draco shrugged and muttered, "I haven't been skating since school got out. I closed down the rink to the public since my father's..." He didn't need to say it, Harry knew. "The others were upset that they were out of a job, but they just ended up running back to their trust funds, so they'll be okay, but I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"You're going to skate," Harry assured him as they apparated illegally back to the roller rink. Draco launched into some warm up laps, but Harry just swiveled back and forth in the middle of the dusty rink. "How's your mom?"

Draco shrugged, in the middle of his third lap. "She's alright. She's out with Aunt Bellatrix...right now. I'm sorry about Sirius, Harry."

Harry wiped the tears out of his eyes that sprung forth every time someone mentioned his late godfather's name.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. Let's just skate."

With one last jerk of his sleeve, Harry pushed out of the inner circle and inadvertently right into Draco's waiting arms.

"I am sorry."

Harry started at his love's embrace and attempted to skate backwards out of the awkward encounter but Draco only let him get so far before he held him tight by the elbows and muttered, "The rumors that hurt the most are the ones that contain your deepest secrets. They're a stab in the dark by whoever starts them, but to you, they've cracked the code to your personal safe. Do you understand?"

The Boy Who Lived stared at his skates, nodding yes.

"Do you see how what I'm saying relates to that last issue of the Howler?"

The black-haired boy barely had time to mutter, "Oh, Merlin," before Draco's lips were on his in a slow testing of the waters, pulling away to gauge Harry's reaction before being caught back in the kiss. Harry pushed him backwards until they fall against the edge of the rink with hands exploring hem lines faster than their tongues could move. Draco dug his hands into Harry's back pockets as the other boy tasted both of their tears mixing together. He pulled away.

Draco dragged the back of his hand across his face to interrupt the tears that fell there and whispered, "I'm sorry." He removed his other hand from his love's pocket and slide to the side where they were not within touching distance. "Ever since I heard about you and Cho, I got really jealous. I didn't know what was going on. You were flirting with all these girls and living it up, so I thought I could never have you. I thought you were straight." He laughed through the tears at the notion. "But skating with you was so magnificent, even when it was when we raced against each other. I enjoyed that. And then the Howler came out. Now what are we going to do? Can we really let those git writers be right?"

Harry leaned back on his skates to slide away from the temptation of avoiding this conversation. "We can't let anyone know. It would destroy your reputation, and I don't know how Ron would react to me... I haven't heard from him since the Howler. We'll probably have a good laugh about it later."

Draco nodded with tears still sticking to his cheeks as he reached out a hand for one last kiss before whispering a requited, "I love you."

AN: Too sudden? Not enough build up? Always open to suggestions. I usually take them into consideration, trust me.