Note: I am so terribly sorry for how long it took to get this chapter up! I had a paper due for class and then had a rather disasterous doctor's visit that left me not wanting to do much of anything yesterday. Do accept my apologies.

Reviews: Thanks so much to all of you who have reviewed and/or favorited my story! I'm overwhelmed at the number of subscribers I have gotten for this story. To Viva Drarry who I could not send a reply to: Draco is indeed lucky to have someone like Snape to look out for him! I really wanted to include him in this story because I wanted to explore what would come out of his having to support a relationship between his godson, whom he really does care for, and Harry, who he has promised to protect, but has difficulties liking.

When Draco reached the Entrance Hall he paused, suddenly aware that he did not actually know where to find Harry. He considered for a moment waiting until after dinner to talk to the other boy since there was only an hour or so before the meal, but Draco was rather afraid he might chicken out if he did not confront Harry now. He turned on the spot he was standing and looked back and forth a few times from the staircase to the door leading out onto the school grounds.

Frustrated, Draco sighed and sat down on a stone bench near the side of the hall. He could think only of three logical places where Harry might be at the moment: the Gryffindor common room, where Draco was not allowed to be, the library, where Draco had no intention of showing his face after the other night's incidence with Madame Pince, or Hagrid's hut. This last choice seemed the least likely, but Draco had often seen Harry, flanked by his two friends, head out to visit the gamekeeper before dinner. Concluding that the first two options were out of the question, Draco stood up and exited the castle in the direction of the gamekeeper's house.

Draco began to jog down the path towards the hut. He knew this was a long shot, but he was certain that if he did not confront Harry now he probably not have the guts to do so later. When he reached the hut he was slightly winded and so paused for a moment or two to catch his breath before pounding on the oversized door with the side of his right fist.

Before moving his fist away from the door, Draco could hear loud shuffling from inside. A chair scraped across the floor and footsteps pounded towards the door. Soon enough Draco found himself looking up at a giant of a man.

"I need to speak to Potter. Is he here?"

"What der ya want?" Hagrid was shocked at finding this particular student at his door and seemed to not have heard the question.

"Just tell me if he is here or not, you great oaf!" Draco yelled.

"Yea, but we're havin' tea…" Hagrid finally answered, obviously not keen at the idea of letting a Malfoy into his home.

"Oh, move aside!" Draco slipped through the gap between the half-giant and the door frame and stumbled into the center of the one-room hut. He had never been inside the hut before, though he had been guilty on occasions of peeking through the side windows when he was younger.

The Gryffindor trio seated at a massive table in one corner of the room all looked surprised, though at varying degrees. Ron seemed the most shocked of the three as he had still not been filled in on Harry's secret. His mouth was open in an unattractive sort of way that looked as if he were preparing to make a particularly nasty comment at the Slytherin. Malfoy beat him to the punch.

"Shut your mouth, Weasley. It's unbecoming." Malfoy sneered at the red head before turning to Harry. "Potter, I need a word with you."

"Now?" Though Harry wasn't quite as shocked at Ron at seeing Malfoy before them, he was a little surprised that the Slytherin had braved talking to him here in front of the others.

"Alone," was all Malfoy replied.

"Yeah, alright," Harry agreed and stood up from the table to follow the blonde to the door.

"Harry…" Hermione tried to warn from behind him, but Harry waved her warning away.

"Sorry for leaving early, Hagrid. The cakes were delicious," Harry lied and followed Malfoy out the door.

The pair walked towards the Forbidden Forest in silence for some time before the blonde finally stopped near the edge of the forest and checked to make sure they were out of sight of Hagrid's hut.

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked concerned, eyeing the forest to the right of them nervously. Draco followed Harry's gaze for a moment before explaining himself.

"Severus received a letter from my father this morning."

"Severus?"

"Professor Snape," Draco corrected.

"You call him Severus?"

Draco waved off the question impatiently. "My father informed Professor Snape that he is willing to apologize to me if Severus…Professor Snape can assure him that his previous informant was a liar."

Harry pondered the statement for a second trying to understand what Draco meant. "Did he say who told him about you?"

"Pansy…" Draco hesitated to say.

"But how did she know?" Harry was curious to know.

Draco sighed, shoved his hands into his pockets, and launched into the story. "Pansy came to me about a year ago saying that her parents had been encouraging her to get to know me better. See, Potter, I am from one of the richer pure blood families, so she wasn't the first to approach me, but she was less annoying than the rest and I figured it would be easier to hide my…defects…if I had a girlfriend to show off. I did not know how persistent she would be on sleeping with me, though. Of course I wasn't interested, but she would not give up! About a month ago I snapped and let it slip I was gay."

"And you didn't suspect her when you got your father's letter?" Harry asked, still confused.

"Pansy is not the most pleasant of girls, but she is not cruel. She would have known what telling my father would mean. I never once thought she would tell, but apparently I gave her more credit than she was due." Draco stared into the forest as he felt a pang of guilt run through him. Pansy had been fond of him and he had never given much thought to how his less-than-tactful confession must have hurt her.

Harry left Draco in silence until curiosity got the better of him. "So, what did you tell Snape?"

"Oh, he had already guessed the truth," Draco shrugged and turned back to face Harry. "But he agreed to lie to Father for me."

"But that's great!" Harry was disappointed, but could not pretend this wasn't best for the other boy.

Draco frowned and prodded a nearby dirt clod with the toe of his shoe. "I told him not to."

"What?"

"Harry…" Draco tripped over his words, "I can't go back to how things were. It's too late for that. I…I want to be with you."

Harry felt his face grow hot and wondered for a second whether he might have misheard. He gave a nervous cough and pointedly looked away from Draco, not sure exactly what to say. There kiss the other night had been unexpected and not thought through. This conversation was different. Silent or not, though, Harry could not help the smile stealing onto his face.

"I know this seems rushed and out of character," Draco hurried to continue, "but I wanted you to hear this from me first and to give you the chance to bail out before Severus talks to you tomorrow."

"What?" The smile disappeared.

"Professor Snape, I mean…"

"No, I know who you mean. I meant why would he want to talk to me about this? And what do you mean 'bail out?'"

"I just meant…you see, Harry, there is a fair amount of danger involved if anyone were to discover that we're…that we might be together. More danger for me than for you, though. Severus will explain in full tomorrow if you're willing to hear him out. He insisted that he debrief you on the risks and will probably also insist on threatening your life should you do anything to get me hurt. That is why I want to give you the choice to forget about this whole thing now. Particularly if you don't feel the same way about me…"

"Snape knows about us?" Harry couldn't decide how angry he was that Snape, of all people, knew his secret.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I let it slip when he confronted me about the letter."

"You seem to let this 'slip' a lot!" Harry snapped and immediately regretted doing so. "I'm sorry, that was mean of me."

Draco felt his heart skip a beat and regretted ever coming to talk to the other boy. Harry could see Draco's crestfallen expression and hurried to cheer him up.

"This is all just a lot to take in! These past few days have felt more like an odd dream than anything else. I really do want to be with you Draco…"

"But?" Draco dreaded the answer.

"But I am afraid you're rushing into this. We haven't exactly been on the friendliest of terms in the past and if being with me really is going to put you in danger, I wonder if it is smart for you to trust me."

"Of course I'm rushing into this!" Draco nearly yelled. "But I want this; I want you. You know better than anyone that my life does not have much to ride on. My life is in danger either way and I would rather face it with you than alone. Of that I am sure."

Harry could feel the smile returning to his face. He reached forward and took Draco's hand in his own causing the Slytherin to smile back at him.

"You have so much to live for, Draco. But if you are sure that you want to put up with me on a daily basis, then I will happily go along this."

"Thank you," Draco's voice cracked – damn the tears!

"But promise me one thing. I want you to give this whole thing some thought tonight. You gave me the chance to bail and I want to return the favor."

'But…" Draco tried to protest, but was cut off.

"Promise me. I will wait for your answer, and if you decide you want to go through with this then I will go with you to see Snape and put up with as many threats as he feels necessary to make against me.

"I promise." Draco hesitated a moment then closed the distance between him and the other boy. He wrapped his arms around Harry and pulled him into a hug. He was positive that he would not change his mind overnight, but he knew it was worth it this once to humor Harry.

Note: Right-o. I wanted to include the next bit of the story into this chapter, but I'm so brain dead at the moment. I didn't want to postpone updating any longer so I just went ahead and posted this bit. In case you're confused, the danger that Draco is in will be explained in the next chapter. So no worries, you didn't miss anything crucial. I'll try and get the next chapter up real soon =) Please review! ~TJ