All right!

The next day found Harry cornering Theo in a hallway between classes when the other had tried avoiding Harry all morning.

"What is going on?" Harry hissed at him. "You're avoiding me."

"And?" Theo snarled back.

"Why?"

"Can't figure it out on your own?" Theo asked angrily. "Need me to work that out for you too?"

Harry shoved the taller boy hard against a wall, eyes flaming up. "What the hell, Theo? And you were complaining about me having angst?"

Theo's eyes seemed to light with fury. "Can't help it, can you, Potter? Have to sneak about? Can't realize how much worry you cause others? Can't realize the danger you put yourself in?"

Harry took a step back. "I was fine. Snape caught me."

"Brilliant." Theo rubbed at the back of his neck, but pulled it away with a jerk. It was then Harry saw the red streaks along his friend's throat.

"You ran into the Marauders." Harry gaped, stepping forward with his hand reaching for his friend's wounds, but Theo wrenched away. "Theo..."

"It's nothing." Theo spat. "Don't worry about it, Potter."

"Stop calling me "Potter!" We're friends, Theo!"

Theo gave an exasperated huff and shifted on his feet. "We shouldn't be friends."

Harry's mouth dropped. "Why?"

"Because..." Theo hesitated and finally pulled something from his bag and shoved it in front of Harry. It was a Rita Skeeter article that went into detail about Harry's argument with Sirius, with even more lies added to it to make it seem all the more dramatic, and then it went on to describe Theodore and Harry's non-existent romantic relationship.

Theodore, one of the brightest of the students at Hogwarts, seems to have fallen for the "Hero Charm" of the youngest champion, no doubt in hopes of increasing his own popularity.

Harry's face was burning and his body began to quiver. A glare came to his eyes as he aimed them at Theodore. "You're going to let her lies..."

"If I continue to be friends with you, Harry, it's going to make you look very bad." Theodore explained. "She's already put in that it's likely you're using your skill at potions to seduce me or perhaps a Confundus Charm as she "quotes" several people claiming you're one of the smartest in our year."

"I am one of the smartest in our year." Harry defended himself.

"Yes...after myself and Granger and Justin Finch-Fletchley and Michael Corner and Hannah Abbot and Padma Patil and that Ravenclaw girl...Lisa? And..."

"All right, fine." Harry interrupted, waving his hand. "But Granger is good at everything while all the others you've mentioned are only good at certain things like Finch-Fl...whatever and Abbot are only really good at Herbology while Corner is only good at Potions and Patil and Lisa are both much better at Charms than any of their other classes. You and I, on the other hand, are good at just about everything."

Theo smirked. "Well, I am good at everything. You do all right."

"I do more than all right!" Harry argued, giving his friend a scowl. "Way more than all right! I'd say you and I and Granger are the top three students."

"I'd say I am at the top and you're like...eighth or ninth..."

Harry hit his friend lightly. "You're so mean."

"Only speak the truth."

"You're a frequent liar." Harry corrected. "Now...can we go back to being friends?"

Theo glanced around and finally stated, "Harry, it's a bad idea. People will think..."

"Does it sound like I care what people think?"

"I do." Theo stated.

"It's that Pure-..."

"Shut up, Harry." Theo cut in, glaring at the other boy. "It's not something you'd understand...ever."

Face warm again, Harry fixed a stare at a beetle crawling on the sill of the window. He felt Theodore move past him, but he didn't give pursuit. All of this drama was mounting up and he didn't know what to do. He was official done with it. All he wanted was everything to go back to the way they were before terrible journalists started spreading lies about him and coming between his friends and before he was entered into a life-endangering Tournament.

"All I want is my friend back!" Harry didn't realize until this sentence finished that he had been shouting his thoughts at Theodore's back. They were in an empty corridor, most everyone else in class. "Why can't I have that, huh? Why are you ditching me? Why are you acting like such a coward?"

Theodore spun around, scowling at Harry as if he'd been called a "Mudblood" instead. "Don't you dare call me that, Potter! Don't you ever call me that!"

"Isn't that what you are?" Harry yelled back. "A coward? Running away because you can't stand the humiliation!"

Theodore came walking back in long strides that took him seconds to reach the other. Harry felt the burning pain of the punch to his nose like dragon fire grazing his face. He fell hard onto the stone floor, but quickly looked back up to see Theo snarling down at him.

"I am NOT a coward, Potter!"

"You are!" Harry argued. "You're running away from being friends with me because you're afraid!"

Theodore kicked him this time, but Harry caught his foot and twisted it until the other fell to the ground. There was a struggle as they wrestled, but, though Theodore was taller than Harry, Harry was stronger and managed to pin him down.

"What are you afraid of, Theo?" Harry straddled the other Slytherin and, gripping Theo's wrists, shoved them hard to the floor. "Afraid of humiliation? Afraid of shame? What? What are you afraid of?"

"It's my bloody father, you idiot Potter!" Theo yelped finally, eyes glossy and cheeks red. "Now will you get off of me!"

"No." Harry pressed down harder on Theo's wrists. "What about your father? He doesn't like you liking blokes?"

"He could care less about that." Theo writhed for a moment and then scowled at Harry as if the other was the source of all his pain. "For the most part, about me too."

"I thought he didn't care what you do."

"I just said 'for the most part', Potter! Use your ears! He just doesn't like you."

"He doesn't like me? Why?"

"Don't know." Theo struggled some more. "Doesn't talk to me much. Just enough to speak his mind. Don't ask questions. You know the rules, Potter. Don't ask questions. Don't talk about what they don't want to hear about. Right? Isn't that how it works?"

Harry recalled living at the Dursleys and how he wasn't supposed to ask questions or talk about magic, something they didn't want to hear about. His stomach lurched and he let go of Theodore, but didn't move off of him.

"And you're going to base it off of him? It's your life."

"Is his life until I'm seventeen." Theodore corrected. "As long as I live under his roof, I'm his property."

Harry shook his head. "It's not like that."

"I'm not you, Potter." Theo hissed. "I'm not going to risk my neck for a couple extra freedoms."

"He wouldn't..."

"You don't know what he would or wouldn't do."

Harry slumped, feeling abruptly hopeless. If Theodore risked getting hurt because of him...if Theodore's father would do something to Harry because they were in a relationship more than being friends...if Theodore did get hurt because of him...Harry would never forgive himself.

"Can you get off now?"

Sliding off of Theodore, Harry sat there on the cold stone floor and did his best to mask his features. Theo sat up, rubbing the small of his back, and glanced over at Harry.

"You're nose is bleeding." Theodore pulled out a handkerchief from his robes. "Here."

"I'm sorry." Harry took the hankie and pressed it to his nose where he could feel warm blood running. "If I had known it was like that...Theo...you know I'd understand, right?"

Theodore's face wore its bored facade again. "I guess."

"If I had known, I'd have let you..." Harry choked for a second on a lump in his throat. "It's just...I...and this is selfish, but...I don't want to be alone, Theo. I spent two and a half years alone and you've been my friend and I don't want to lose you."

The other Slytherin's cool guise dropped for a second, revealing how much hearing that made him sad. "I know...I...feel the same."

Harry nodded, understanding that Theodore really did know how Harry felt.

"We've missed class." Theodore groaned, standing. "Come on. Let's just...go."

Harry followed Theodore, brushing off the beetle that had most likely managed to crawl onto the other's shoulder while they were squabbling on the floor. They reached their favorite abandoned classroom and spelled the door after they'd shut it.

"Have you thought up any evasive plans once you're in the water?" Theodore asked as he took a seat on a desk. "There are Grindylows and Merpeople, though I doubt the latter will be a problem. The Grindylows could pose a threat...and I have no idea how the squid will react to seeing you."

"Can I kiss you?"

Theodore's eyes flew up from the book he had opened to stare at Harry in disbelief. "No."

"Why not?" Harry asked, even as his gut squirmed. He hadn't meant to ask the question, but the rejection was worse.

"Because..." Theo was blushing. "We're not dating."

"Can't we?"

"Sure." The Slytherin boy replied quickly. "But we're not kissing until we've dated. Is wrong."

"All right." Harry sat down on the floor. "About this dating."

"Can't we focus on getting you through the tasks...alive?"

"But I want to know how this dating is going to work? Neither one of us is going to want to go to Madam Puddifoot's."

Theo snorted. "We'll do what people do when they date, Harry. We'll go places we both want to go and hang out and chat."

"That sounds like what we already do."

"Doesn't it?" Theo smiled mischievously. "Now, about that task..."

Yay! :D