Disclaimer would be here.

Last night made Harry forget all about the Slytherin problem. Until he walked into breakfast.

He walked into the Great Hall and almost ran into a Slytherin pair. The girl stepped away and eyed him, while the boy seemed to jump away like Harry was on fire. The boy sent him a glare and basically shoved the girl out the door, to get away from Harry.

Harry stood there staring after the pair. He had never got that sort of reaction before. Sure, glaring was normal, but the distaste to even stand in the same area as him? That never happened.

Harry made his way over to his table. His friends looked just as confused as he was. The rest of the day wasn't any better. Everywhere he turned what were once whispers behind hands were now nasty smiles and glares. Harry was terrified he was going to get jumped!

He made it to dinner without running into any trouble, but that uneasy bubble just wouldn't pop. Finally he just didn't feel like he could take it anymore. He had been thinking for a while, how he could figure out what they were saying, and had only come up with one idea. Ask Draco.

He kept a smiling façade and a calm conversation going with his friends. It was probably nothing but a stupid rumor someone was starting around anyway. No need to worry them about it.

When he saw Draco leave the Great Hall with a group of Slytherins, Harry slowly got up to follow, giving a quick excuse to his confused friends.

He almost lost the group when he exited the Great Hall, but was able to gauge where they were going by a burst of cackles to his right. He was just wondering to himself how he could separate Draco from the others when he heard –

"…Harry…"

Freezing, Harry felt his heart speed up. They were talking about him? He inched closer to the corner, trying to keep himself as quiet as possible.

"- so sorry for you Draco!" a girl crooned, "Having to work with Harry Potter is bad enough. But the fact that he might be…" She burst into giggles. A couple of the other Slytherins chuckled as well.

"That he might be what?" Draco asked, in a bored tone. Harry could just see the expression on his face right now, that look that said, 'You're boring me. Become funnier or go away.'

"Well there has been some discussion going around," a calm voice purred. Harry was sure this guy was in his Charms class somewhere. "and finally an agreement is reached. We're sure that Harry Potter is-"

"Gay!" the girl jumped in basically shouting the words. The group snickered harshly.

Harry felt like he had just breathed in frigid air. It made him gasp for breath as his heart roared at the freezing temperature.

"Minestrene told me that she saw Harry checking out Rugher. You know, the idiot with the black hair who everyone thinks is a selkie?* Well apparently those two were making eyes at each other during Potions!"

A male voice chimed in now, "I heard that someone saw him snogging in the library. They don't know who he was kissing, but whoever it was they were definitely male."

"And how do they know that?" Draco asked, his voice as calm and cool as if he were asking about the weather.

"They were making all this noise grunting at each other!" The girl giggled out. "I can't believe it! So disgusting!"

A harsh burst of laughter filled the air at her comment. Harry pushed himself closer to the wall, hoping futilely it would protect him from further attack.

"Hey Draco. You're his Potion's partner, right? Were you with him in the library?" A soft hush filled the air.

"I guess you really are as stupid as you look, Jackson," Draco drawled out, his voice frigid. "I don't know what the Saintly Potter does in his free time. Directly after meeting in the library, I go back to the dorm to wash the scent of mudbloods off before it becomes a permanent stink."

Harry braced his back against the brick wall as he heard the laughter that followed this comment. Each hissing noise they made dropped into his stomach.

"Not that I would put it past Potter to have a fling with a guy, " Draco continued unrelenting. "I mean look what's surrounding him. His best choice are men anyways." Harry could just picture the smirk that was gracing Draco's face as he said this. It was that look he got whenever he told Harry a story that he thought was hilarious. "Who would want to go out with any of those ugly wretches that call themselves girls!" The laughter came louder with each snide remark Draco made. "And even with men, look what he has to settle with. Blood traitors and Weasleys."

"Aren't the Weasleys blood traitors anyways?" A snickering voice asked,

"The Weasleys get their own section, it gives the other blood traitors some pride," was Draco's reply. A howl of laughter erupted from the hidden Slytherins.

"I hope he didn't try to hit on you!" A screechy girl's voice cut in.

"Ugh. He wouldn't dare," Draco growled. There was a slight pause as the laughter abated. A breath before the storm. "But you know, now that I think of it, he did always like to sit close to me, and this one time I saw him checking out my face. It was disgusting, but I was worried if I said anything on it he would try to jump me." This set off an entirely new set of laughter.

Every word seemed to dig into Harry's chest. Yesterday he had been sitting their laughing at those jokes, grinning at some insult Draco had come up for a Hufflepuff, or listening to some sick distorted story about a Ravenclaw. And now he was on the cutting block… he should have been ready for this.

"Yeah, I bet the Chosen One was thrilled to have me as his partner. I bet he was just waiting for the perfect chance to get with a real man. What a whore. He would go with just anyone, wouldn't he?"

But more than those guilty memories of laughing, there were thoughts of how Draco's hand felt against his back, how his lips held such firmness and heat. Those were the ones that were haunting Harry's mind now. How he had felt so at ease in that bastard's hold.

"Oh God! He is so shallow!"

"Pathetic! Bet he thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he's Harry Potter!"

"I can't believe he would come onto a guy!"

On and on the comments came, filling the air like smog. And Draco was the conductor, egging them on when they seemed to be almost finished, directing them to attack Harry's looks, attitudes, study habits, even the way he was dressed.

"He acts like such a teacher's pet! I bet he sleeps for his grades!"

"But it doesn't work with the female teachers. Or Professor Snape."

" Or does it-"

"Do you want to die?!"

"But that's why he's so good in Defense Against the Dark Arts! Professor Lockhart would sleep with anything!"

"Even with a poor orphan boy!"

"Oh, Draco! Speaking of Professor Lockhart there's this thing you have to see! I found it when I was walking around one of the towers. I bet you'll think it's hilarious," A sharp screechy girl voice broke in. There was some shuffling as the Slytherin group started its way towards their common room.

"Hilarious? I'll be the judge of that," Draco drawled as they slowly disappeared down the hallway, leaving nothing but a broken boy.

Harry's legs finally give away, letting him slide down to the ground with a hiss of clothing. He couldn't seem to focus on anything. A sigh escaped from his mouth somehow working it's way past his painfully clogged throat.

He sat there for a few minutes, staring into space before he ambled to his feet and made his way back to his room. He lay on his bed, turned on his side, turning the conversation over and over in his head.

Ron came in about an hour later, but he thought that Harry was asleep. So he left him to his silent musings, not even realizing that something was wrong.

The next day was an odd mix of silence and perception. It seemed hard to hear anything above this strange roaring sensation in his ears. It drowned his friends' voices in a rush of water. But what he lost in hearing he gained in sight. All the colors seemed clear and bright. All the objects stood out from each other in almost painful clarity.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermoine's voice weaved its way through the torrent that was happening inside Harry's mind.

Harry's head moved robotically to stare at his friend. 'Relax, relax.' "Yeah, everything's fine. Why?" A smile forced it's way onto his cheeks. 'Don't worry them. This is nothing.'

The smile must have looked better than it felt since Hermoine just shook her head and returned to her food. Breakfast was finished without any other awkward questions.

They were walking to the Charms when Harry saw him standing in the corridor with his two goons on either side. Harry sized him up as they walked by. He looked like he did every other day. His head was held high as he smirked at the crowd of other wizards.

Harry forced his eyes away as they got closer, but he couldn't stop the feeling that slipped into his veins. The roaring in his ears intensified, and his stomach felt like it turned to ice.

Charms, Transfiguration, and A History of Magic flowed by in teachers' voices and scratching quills. But with each passing moment, Harry felt more and more withdrawn from the world. He gazed at his teachers as his mind focused on other matters. His emotions were swamping everything, making it harder and harder to keep a calm face on the outside. It reached the point where Harry could only shut down how he was feeling to stop any response.

Potions came much faster than any other day, and with it the speeches.

"Today will be the first group of speeches so let's have…" Snape pretended to think over who should go first. "Draco Malfoy… and Harry Potter."

His name forced Harry's mind to resurface from the depths of his drowned thinking. He clambered to his feet and grabbed the paper his speech was written on. He slowly approached the front where Draco was already standing. Harry was careful not to look at the other boy.

"You may begin," Snape drawled out from his place in the classroom.

Draco started, stating facts in a precise clear voice. Each word that slipped out of his mouth seemed to breath frost on Harry's chest. He felt like it was hard to breath with all the ice that coated his throat.

But just as suddenly as the ice formed, the heat from his stomach melted it, making Harry clench his jaw. His hands tightened into tight fists on his note paper.

"Now I will turn it over to… my partner." Draco finished. Harry could hear the sneer in the air, and knew how Draco smirked without even looking over. He could hear the answering snickers from the watching Slytherins.

Harry knew him so well. Two years of being bitter enemies had never shown him nearly as much of the other boy that one week of being closer than friends had. Likes, Dislikes, Reactions, Humor. All of these were engrained into Harry's mind. He probably knew the boy better than any other Slytherin.

Harry forced his eyes to focus on the page in front of him, but as soon as he began, his mind slid back into its dark hole, looking the mess of emotions that littered the floor.

"Speak louder, Potter. No one in the room can hear you."

The words brought Harry's mind back to the present where they analyzed the order, made the proper adjustments in the vocal center, and returned to their previous occupation of mulling over the Slytherin group's conversation. It didn't even notice how Snape's eyebrows rose at the complete lack of reaction, or the cautionary look that Draco sent from the corner of his eye. All outside stimuli were ignored in favor for looking over the pain in its chest.

The presentations after his were a blur as Harry sat in his desk, looking straight ahead. His inattention caused the class to end quickly, and he rose to grab his books, Ron already standing by his side, talking about some group or other who did "bloody horribly".

"Potter, come here," Snape ordered from the front of the class just as Harry finished gathering his books.

Ron shot Harry a look of sympathy that he didn't see as Harry approached the front of the classroom.

"Your report was simply horrid." Snape started off, keeping his eyes firmly on Harry's face. "It didn't seem like you studied at all. I want you to redo it."

Harry's mind glanced through a list of secured responses choosing one at random before returning to its numb state from too much emotion. Or was it from trying to stop those emotions from coming to the forefront.

"Of course, sir. I'll have it by tomorrow."

The shock that went through the Potion's master was only displayed by a small narrowing of the eyes. Snape turned his attention to focus on the papers on his desk.

Thinking it was a dismissal, Harry turned to leave, only to be called by a simple sentence. "House teachers are supposed to help their students if anything is… unsettling them."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir," Harry responded mechanically, the subtle hint being completely ignored.

Snape kept an eye on the boy as he left the emptied room with his friends.

As Harry left the dungeon he couldn't stop himself from glancing around, hoping to see Draco somewhere.

'Of course he's not there,' a quiet part of his mind whispered as he noticed the emptied hallways. Even with that understanding, the regret still burned in his diaphragm as Harry told Ron that Snape "didn't really want anything".

*A selkie is a mythical seal being who takes the shape of a human to seduce other humans. I heard that in human form they are usually black haired with blue eyes. You can find more on Wikipedia if you want.

Ah… I can't just leave the two with a happily ever after! No. Angst must be instigated.