CHAPTER 65

Please review this chapter in particular, I know this makes me sound terribly needy but the thing is this is the first time I'm attempting to write romantic fiction so I'm a little awkward about it, I don't want it to sound too pretentious so if this is a little over the top, stop me please!

Dear Mr. Potter,

This letter might seem like a bit of a surprise to you coming from me, so let me clear things up a little. I am writing to tell you about your wand Harry, which had me very much interested during the weighing of the wands ceremony.

After coming back to my shop I did a little research about the nature of wands but found nothing similar until I came across a very interesting book about 'Soul Wands'.

Let me explain it in more detail, your wand Harry, has the typical markings of one of the rarest wands in the Wizarding world! When the core of a wand completely binds itself to its owner, it becomes a 'Soul Wand.'

In other words, should your wand ever be lost to you or should you be defeated in a duel, your wand will take a little time but will gradually return to you on its own. It can never become another's! Even a single touch by an outsider will make it react negatively!

I wish to study more about it and would be very grateful to you if you could bring it by the shop sometime in the future.

Thanking you,

Mr Ollivander.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning Draco behaved perfectly normal again, as if the strange incident in the makeshift room had not happened at all and he hung out with Harry just as he normally would have on any other day.

It was during the evening on that day however that something happened that triggered off a string of incidents that made Harry almost end up losing Draco completely!

Going back to his room after leisurely eating dinner he saw aghast that the drapes around his bed had been slashed to bits, his books lay in pieces on the floor and there was ugly writing scrawled all over the walls in very abusive language.

Shocked, Harry ran downstairs to ask someone if they knew what had happened and was blocked by a disgusted looking Zacharias Smith and a couple of other boys from his house.

"Um…Smith, could you tell me what happened upstairs to all my stuff?" Harry asked worriedly, looking at all of them for some kind of response.

When Smith didn't answer him, Harry walked up to him to place a hand on his shoulder when the boy overreacted to his touch, warding him off as if he carried a disease. "Stay away from me you fag!" The smaller boy said and glared at him angrily.

"Wha…?" Harry asked dumbfounded. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh please!" Smith scoffed "Don't pretend otherwise. The Triwizard tournament was a real eye-opener yesterday!"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, we know you're gay now, meaning we know that Draco is your boyfriend!" He spat out with vehemence.

"What!" Harry exclaimed, turning red from embarrassment and anger, not believing a word that he was hearing.

"Shit! We've been living with you all these years without knowing" Zacharias said, looking horrified at the thought of it "Sick!"

Harry's anger rose to a boiling point and he walked over to the boy almost towering over him and he said in low and deadly voice "If you don't shut the hell up right now Smith, I'm going to rip that mouth of yours right off your face!" he said, his face inches away from the smaller, now trembling boy.

"If anyone spreads these unfounded rumors around school anymore, I swear I'll hurt you myself" Harry ground out and walked away from the gaping group of housemates.

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Things did not settle down as Harry hoped they would. He found himself being secretly ridiculed everywhere he went. Not by everyone of course, but just a few select students who seemed to have a problem with him. He did not take their insults sitting down, no, he gave as much as he got but did it discreetly so as not to call more attention to him and Draco. The biggest downside to all of this was that Draco had stopped speaking to him again.

After the first few days, Harry had had enough and had sought Draco out asking him if everything was alright when Draco said "Just leave me alone!" before walking away from him quickly.

After two weeks of continuous drama, Harry decided to stop fighting and let the others think whatever they wanted to of him, he was really past caring.

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It had been a cloudy evening when he saw Draco flying solo in the sky. Nearly a month had passed in complete silence between them. Thinking that maybe Draco was finally over with whatever issue he'd had with him, Harry ran down to the Quidditch field to try talk to him once again.

When he reached it, he realized that Draco had already dismounted and was packing up his gear. Walking over to him Harry stood silently for a minute behind him, watching as he put away his gloves carefully into a bag on the ground.

Clearing his throat and startling Draco, he waited till the other boy was facing him. "What is your problem?" He asked him, unable to hide the betrayal in his voice "Why the hell have you been avoiding me?"

Harry now taking a closer look at Draco's face found that he did not look too good; there was a dullness in his eyes that had never been there before.

"Why Dray?" Harry asked, his voice becoming soft and pained.

Suddenly, he felt a few drops of water splash down on his face and looking up he realized it had started to rain. Turning to face Draco who had looked away from him, Harry approached him warily inch by inch until they were standing pretty close to one another.

The rain had started to fall at a greater speed now and they were getting thoroughly soaked under the torrent. Draco finally looked up at Harry and with defiance in his voice he said so softly that Harry had to strain himself to hear it "I'm not gay!"

Before Harry could respond to that outburst, Draco grabbed his bag and left him standing alone.

Harry found himself unable to move, still thinking about the fear that he had seen lurking underneath all that defiance in Draco's grey eyes and he wondered what it had meant.

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Slowly trudging up the staircase to head to his dorm, Harry was suddenly accosted by Ginny who took one look at him and came to stand beside him immediately.

"You do not look good as a wet puppy dog, why so miserable?" She asked and placed a drying spell over him.

"Nothing…just…frustrated I guess" Harry said, trying to shrug off her words with as much nonchalance as he could muster up in that moment.

"Sit!" Ginny ordered him, leaving no room for further argument in her voice and so Harry sat down on the steps waiting for the third degree.

Opening the flap of her bag Ginny held it under his nose and smiled slyly at him. Harry peered into the bag and choked when he saw what was in it "Wow, I didn't expect this from you Gin!" He said laughing softly.

"It's not for me alone, a couple of my friends and I wanted to try it since Fred and George keep harping about it. So I 'borrowed' a couple from their large stash!"

"Crap Ginny there are at least twenty chocolate cauldrons in there! That my dear friend is not a small stash."

"Whatever! Want one?"

"Absolutely!" Harry said, and ripped the paper off one of the sinful chocolates which was loaded with the finest Firewhiskey.

"So, you were about to tell me about what was bothering you?" Ginny asked clutching her throat as the Firewhiskey burned a trail down it. "Ugh! This stuff is poisonous" she said and swallowed the rest with difficulty.

"Ah! There are too many things bothering me right now Gin; sure you want to hear me whine?"

"Most definitely, since it is a rare sight."

"Well I'm frustrated about Darren depreciating me all the time for one. It sucks that he doesn't think me worthy of being by his side" Harry said, reaching for his second chocolate.

"Actually I myself was thinking that he's become a bit of an ass" Ginny said, looking down the side of the staircase.

"What happened at the Triwizard Tournament Gin? Are you and Darren…"

"What? No! Professor McGonagall said that they needed someone to play the part of a victim for him and since he knows me they thought it was okay."

"Ah!"

"Next complaint!"

"Your brother!"

"Ron?"

"The one and only!"

"Stupid git, I told him to lay off you or I was going to rearrange his face for him!"

"How?"

"My famous Bat Bogey Hex of course!"

"Riiiight!"

"Harry...can I say something?" Ginny said, getting serious all of a sudden.

"Sure?" Harry said looking puzzled at her.

"Um…all of the stuff you've said just now has been happening for months now right?"

"Yeah…"

"But you've not really reacted that much to it all this time. Something tells me that something happened today that really got to you. I want to know what happened. Only if you're willing to tell me of course." She said quickly.

Harry grabbed two cauldron cakes and stuffed them into his mouth nervously, "Nohin hahen!"

"Eh?"

Swallowing he said "Nothing happened" clearly.

"Harry…" Ginny growled.

"Ugh! Fine! Draco happened, okay! He's been avoiding me this entire month and it feels bad" he said sighing, and unable to stop himself he reached for the chocolate bag again, starting to feel a bit woozy.

"I tried talking to him today Gin, and the only thing he said to me was 'I'm not gay,' like that solved everything, and let me tell you" Harry said his voice slurring a bit "He doesn't look happy either!"

"Harry…don't you feel angry about this entire mess? Don't you want to beat up Smith too? I do, I feel like stomping on him!"

"Gin you want to know a secret?" Harry asked, plucking a chocolate right off of her fingers and popping into his mouth. "I have never felt attracted to anyone in my life, girl or boy! I… I've been so busy doing other stuff you know?"

"But after this incident happened, I started to think about what everyone was sayin' and I thought 'So what?' So what if they thought I was gay, I'd be gay with Dray right? And you know what? I was strangely totally okay with it! I think I might have even liked him for a loooooong time now without realizing it!"

Ginny laughed and said "Finally!"

"You…you knew?"

"Harry I know you're friends and that you're totally different people but when you're together it's like you're in sync with each and it feels right."

Harry bowed his head and reached for one more chocolate when Ginny swatted his hand away "That's enough for one night" she said and put all the wrappers into her bag and packed it up.

Getting up, she pulled Harry up with her with difficulty and headed towards his tower. There was no way that he was going to be able to make it there on his own tonight!

Walking down the corridor Ginny held on to his arm while he swayed dangerously and prayed that no one would see him when suddenly they saw Zacharias Smith walk towards them!

Harry spotted him and shook off Ginny's hand and ran wonkily towards him while Smith stared at him as if uncertain of what to do, rooted to the ground.

"Smith!" Harry shouted out and stood close to him peering down at his scared face.

"You're the one who said I was gay, you even told the entire school that I was gay when clearly I was not" Harry said lurching towards him, "You know what i'm going to do now you little sneak?" Harry asked him making Zacharias take a step back, "I'm going to show you gay" he said and threw his arms out, enveloping him in a big hug!

Expecting to get hit, Zacharias Smith was cringing inside and waiting for the first blow to fall when Harry hugged him instead, making him blanch in surprise.

"What the hell! Get off me Potter!" He said struggling to break free from Harry's vice like grip.

"But I want to prove you right, Zachy Baby!" He said and burst out laughing and letting go of the bewildered boy "If you're going to try to tell me who I am, then your going to have the bear the consequences" he said and held his arms open again for the second time, when Zacharias Smith fled the corridor in a flash! Ginny watched Harry laugh starting to laugh herself and soon they almost became hysterical with Harry literally rolling on the floor clutching his sides.

"What the hell are two doing?"

Looking up from the floor, Harry saw Draco standing over them smiling slightly, "Drayyyyyyyy!" Harry said and tried getting up but seemed to have lost all control over his motor power, "Dray I told him, I told Smith to bugger off!" He said and smiled happily to himself.

Grinning, Draco lifted Ginny up and steadied her "I'm fine Draco, Harry is the one who ate one too many cauldron chocolates!"

"Ah! That explains this then" he said pointing at Harry.

"What are you doing here Draco?"

"I came apologize to this nut here, I…I gave him hell this evening and I wanted to beg for forgiveness."

"Draco...Harry's also been having it rough you know? They've been breaking his stuff and tearing his books but he's been keeping quiet about it for your sake!"

"I…I know Gin"

"Then why?"

"Because maybe if I keep telling myself I'm not gay, that I don't like Harry that way, maybe then it'll all go away!" he said looking away embarrassed about his outburst.

"Oh Draco! The two of you need to talk."

"I know, but not just yet Ginny, I need more time."

"He'll give it you you know, as much time as you want."

"I know" Draco whispered.

"Right, I'll leave then, I don't want to be caught hanging around after curfew, see you later Draco and get your act together for god sakes man!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After she left, Draco pulled Harry up and held him under his arm dragging him towards the Slytherin tower after placing a disillusionment spell and silencing charm on him.

Avoiding his friends in the common room, he made it safely into his own room and unceremoniously dumped Harry on top of his bed sitting down heavily at the edge of it him-self completely wiped out.

After removing the charms he had placed on Harry he began untying his shoelaces when he felt Harry drape himself over his back holding him down in his bent position due to his dead weight.

"Ha…Harry! Get off me! I'm going to die, seriously!" He said and tried to push him off.

"Dray, are you angry with me? Is that why you won't talk to me?" Harry suddenly asked softly, with his face pressed into his back.

"N…no Harry I'm just afraid."

"I told you the last year itself that I don't like you ignoring me, it feels wrong somehow."

"I'm sorry" Draco said and concentrated on the flames inside the furnace.

"Is it so wrong?" Harry asked, moving up slightly his mouth now nearly at Draco's ear.

"What?"

"Us?" Harry breathed into his ear and Draco's own breath caught in his throat, and he felt a single current pass down the length of his body at the close proximity.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he gently pushed Harry off of him and said "You're drunk Potter, go to sleep, we'll talk some other time when you're sober" he said and straightened Harry over his bed tucking him under his covers and turning off the light.