BlueAutumn12 - thank you! Updates are (usually) weekly, but I tell ya it doesn't seem long enough when you're writing!

It's funny how I used to call Chosen Two a temporary title, but honestly now I couldn't imagine calling this story anything else. Except maybe "how dense can Harry be?" but then I can't help loving that about him.

-YDHP-

"I have to tell you something."

His muscles were still shaking with the nightmare, watching Weasley crumple beneath the cruciatus curse.

"I told every one of you not to interfere, didn't I?"

Stammering through the torture tremors, Ron nodded.

"I-I-I didn't. I o-only went a-a-after P-p-potter. You want the v-vampire."

"Crucio!"

He held the curse longer, almost too long before letting up. Karkaroff was nearby, watching dispassionately as his student was tortured.

"The vampire is the key. He has survived thus far... My test of him is successful thus far. Leave he and the Krum boy be Karkaroff, we wouldn't want it slipping out that you entered the boy into the tournament now would we?"

"You never said it was just to test him, I must confess I hoped it would be the end of him. You understand, I must maintain the air of expectation on my own champion."

Karkaroff was a coward, through and through, but years of dealing only with irritating teenagers meant he was more sure of himself than he had a right to be. Voldemort raised his wand, concentrating the torture curse next on the headmaster.

"Uh, ok. What?"

Part of Harry wanted to say he was jealous and hated seeing Vlad with Krum, but he couldn't summon the venom needed - Vlad was already handing him the potion he kept specifically for Harry's cruciatus dreams.

"I know why you were put in the tournament."

"I'm gonna assume you had a dream about it, not that you've been hoarding information since before I almost got eaten by a dragon?"

Feeling the pain reliever work through his weak, shaky muscles, Harry nodded. He was being mostly truthful - he had only had one questionable dream before he really understood it all.

"Karkaroff entered your name, thinking it was to get you out of the way. But Voldemort wanted you tested."

"Tested? Tested for what?"

"No clue. He didn't" Harry couldn't help stopping to yawn "say. I just wanted to tell you in case I forgot."

Harry made to leave, but Vlad grabbed his wrist and looked at him in confusion.

"You always stay when you have a nightmare."

"I don't think your boyfriend would appreciate it."

Vlad's brow creased further, as though Harry had spoken a foreign language. In the wand light, Vlad looked even younger, softer and something about it twisted in Harry's stomach.

"Anyone who tells me I can't take care of my best friend isn't worth my time. If you want to stay, stay."

Feeling his body cry out for sleep loud enough to drown out the rational part of his brain, Harry could only nod and shift to lie down. Vlad shifted around a little himself, then his breathing evened out as he drifted off and sleep overcame Harry too.

When he woke, Vlad was silently watching him sleep with much-too-alert eyes for the early hour he could feel in his tired muscles. He was staring quite intently at his eyes, Harry noticed, the gaze eerily penetrating through him.

"What?"

Merlin, his voice was rough this early.

"Nothing... I just noticed your eyes are always snakey when you first wake up. Might be something to consider for any potential relationships in the future, because otherwise it might be a surprise."

For a brief, heart-stopping instant, Harry had a thought of how Vlad already knew, and he wouldn't have to hide if it were him. Then he mentally shook himself and moved from his sleep-creeping position with his head and arm across Vlad's chest. Vlad held out his hand, the tempus charm creating a floating representation of the time.

"Barely six. You can go back to sleep if you like, but nobody else is awake yet."

"How do you know?"

Vlad grinned, tapping the top of his ear.

"Vampire remember. You up or not?"

"Mmm. Not really, but I'm a little hungry so I think early breakfast it is."

Vlad chuckled, leaving first to be certain they wouldn't be caught before sliding the curtain aside for Harry to follow. Draco was dead to the world - the full moon was close, he got exhausted easily for a few days, but then became restless and tense the last day or two either side of the full. However, between the wolfsbane potion Ingrid brewed, the regiment of healing afterward and a relentless patient support from his girlfriend, Draco was currently unscathed from his monthly transformations thus yet - the only mark he bore was his bite scar that resisted all healing attempts.

The content, relaxed snake coiled inside Harry's chest reared and hissed when Harry saw Viktor Krum was awake and in the Great Hall too, and he smiled at Vlad like he was the world... he had to stop being jealous, Vlad deserved someone who saw him like that. He should want that for his best friend. Scratch that, Harry did want that for Vlad. Now the bat was out of the bag, as Vlad called it after that news article, they were at least not bothering trying to dissuade the story.

"Good morning."

"It is now I've seen you."

Vlad flushed, and Harry tried to suppress a groan at the 'line' the Bulgarian had just used.

"Were you always this cheesy and I only just noticed?"

"Perhaps you bring it out in me."

For a guy who usually looked like he had chewed a sour lemon, Krum lit up like a Christmas tree when Vlad smiled at him, looking relaxed and genuinely happy to see the vampire. Luckily for the angry snake roiling jealously in Harry's chest, Krum only gave Vlad a hug before they seperated for breakfast - Vlad to Gryffindor, his boyfriend to Slytherin. Where he sat every day, protecting Ingrid from having that slimy redhead and had done since day one... his jealousy was tinged with shame then, Viktor Krum had done nothing wrong.

The most friendly face at the Gryffindor table this early in the day was George Giles, currently pouring strawberry jam and chilli sauce onto her almost-Harry-potion-sized waffles.

"I'm used to seeing Vlad at this time occasionally, but not you unless its Quidditch and there's no Quidditch this year. So. What are you doing up mister Potter?"

Somehow, answering with "I was asleep on top of Vlad and woke up when he did" didn't quite seem like an appropriate answer. Harry shrugged, pulling the full tray of breakfast meats nearer to pile his plate and feed his basilisk-sped-growth some more.

"I wake up this early sometimes, but I silence my bedcurtains so I never heard Vlad get up before. Forgot last night."

Chewing some of her spicy-strawberry abomination, George tilted her head in confusion.

"Why would you silence curtains? Do they talk to you?"

"No, but you have no idea how loud Seamus snores. It's been standard practice since first year."

"Bella talks in her sleep. This morning it was random foodstuffs, she started with apples and was chatting about donuts by the time I left." She stopped to take a swig of tea, wiping her mouth hastily before turning to Vlad. "So, do I get the early bird gossip on your beau or not?"

"My bow?"

"B-e-a-u. Means boyfriend. That big Bulgarian making eyes at you from across the hall. Matthew is so jealous, because he knows you aren't that in to Quidditch so you won't be getting all the details of how he flies so well and stuff."

Vlad shrugged, chewing his hot sauce covered omelette - a considerably more normal meal choice than George had in front of her.

"Matthew could talk to him himself. Viktor doesn't mind talking about Quidditch... hell, he could talk about it for days, but mostly he just wants to be treated like a person. That's why he sits with Ingrid, she's refreshingly uninterested in his celebrity status apparently."

"And a great way to get info on you before he made a move I bet. Oh, don't look at me like that, no way did you go and make the first move."

Vlad practically scowled, but Harry absolutely agreed with George's approximation of Vlad's character.

"The only thing he said Ingrid told him about me is that I'm a dweeb. And that I like pumpkin juice, but anybody could have told him that."

George chuckled, moving on to some concoction involving sausages and crushed raspberries... Harry dropped his eyes to his own plate, biting viciously at some black pudding as he listened to Vlad talk about the boyfriend Harry had no valid reason to dislike. He didn't own Vlad, had zero entitlement to dictate who he dated. It was just tough to face amongst his ever-confusing feelings that kept shifting back and forth like a ship on turbulent waters.

"Speak of the devil and she shall appear."

Ingrid - with the usual assortment of Slytherin boys following her around - arrived to breakfast, giving a short nod of acknowledgement to her little brother before taking her usual seat opposite the world famous seeker. Some of the novelty had apparently faded, as Vlad mostly got to eat in peace for the morning.

What nobody was expecting was the post.

Vampires generally repelled owls, as proved by Hedwig who spent most of her time visiting Hermione these days to avoid Vlad. So it spoke to the sheer volume of people who had sent mail both to Vlad and his new boyfriend - dozens of owls, multiple bright red envelopes that Vlad quickly pulled out of the table and verbally cast a silencing charm over them.

"Howlers. Leave them, they'll shout about something then set themselves on fire."

Vlad nodded when George and her friends asked if they could help, and breakfast became a highly amusing exchange of reading letters ranting at Vlad for daring to steal the attentions of the seeker after cheating his way into the tournament to begin with. The howlers detonated themselves after a few minutes vibrating against the silencing charms, then became nothing but little piles of smouldering ash.

"How do you silence a howler? I thought the whole point was they resisted that charm."

"They do, the trick is to silence around them so the sound escapes, but is blocked. Plus most people panic, trying to get away with it before anyone hears."

"I don't know if I'm offended or not. You got more letters than I did."

Vlad twisted to find the subject of said letters behind them, smiling in amusement as they ploughed through it. Harry spotted Vlad checking Ingrid hadn't been left unattended with a quick glance before engaging his boyfriend in conversation.

"True, but I bank on your letters being friendlier and offers to replace me."

"Perhaps. Your sister set light to them as they vere in the vay of the food she vanted."

"Sounds like Ingrid. You could have lost an offer from the man of your dreams."

Viktor chuckled, wrapping an arm around Vlad that Harry had a momentary desire to break.

"Actually, most vere from females hoping to 'convert' me. It vas quite peculiar."

Every eye in the Great Hall was on the two, including glares from Karkaroff that made Harry want to poke out his eyes with Samael's teeth. When Weasley got up with his usual bodyguards, Harry wondered how they had crept off the grounds with nobody noticing - there were supposedly security charms on the gates to prevent students just vanishing.

Though as Rita Skeeter had broken into the school after being banned... and then there were the Weasley twins trips to raid sweet shops, Vlad and Ingrid's daytrips to Hogsmeade simply because Ingrid enjoyed breaking the rules, maybe that security was implied more than reality.

"I gotta go, some of us actually have classes to take."

"Indeed. I vill see you later."

"Unless you get swept away by more romantic offerings. Come on Harry, we've got Potions."

A tiny, vindictive part of Harry was happy Vlad had to leave his boyfriend to go with Harry - even if it was for a Potions class. He didn't quite enjoy watching Viktor smile and squeeze Vlad's hand all that much, even as he reminded himself he was supposed to be happy for his friend. It was much easier to calm himself when it was just he and Vlad again.

"What do the students from the other schools do all day?"

"Uh, they have some daily assigned study time so they don't fall behind before their end of year exams, they're free to sign out and go to Hogsmeade and obviously they can explore Hogwarts. Viktor has to work on his egg too. We agreed not to talk about the tournament, though I doubt anybody believes us about that."

Harry believed him, purely because he trusted Vlad not to be using Krum for the Triwizard Tournament as many suspected - Vlad just wanted to get the thing done with, he wasn't interested in winning. Spying a noticeboard with a flyer about the Yule Ball, Harry grit his teeth.

Not only were they stuck in a full school for Christmas instead of the calm, no-hiding Malfoy Manor, he would have to watch Vlad and Krum together. He considered leaving for Malfoy Manor anyway, but Vlad would be hurt - they had spent every Christmas together since first year. He couldn't just abandon Vlad because he was jealous, much as it sounded appealing to not see them together.

Vlad hated publicity and everything it stood for at that moment, when a huge mountain of hate mail filled the Gryffindor table that morning. It just solidified that damn newspaper article, and Vlad now heavily suspected a repeat performance when he and Viktor inevitably broke up - first he was to blame for 'stealing' him, and would undoubtedly be vilified for 'breaking his heart' afterwards.

All in all, it was immensely relieving to escape to Potions with Harry, who seemed unsure whether to be angry on Vlad's behalf about the post that morning. Vlad wasn't offended by the actual mail itself, just the excessive attention garnered by a news article that should by right have never have been written - Rita Skeeter shouldn't have had any knowledge of Vlad and Viktor being out that night.

"Cease your gossiping, the only relationships that matter in my classroom are the ones between ingredients! Now, let's begin on these elemental potions. Oh, I do enjoy making these."

Moonshine was utterly bonkers, but Vlad liked how he had zero time for nonsense like gossip without losing his zeal and sparky excitement for his work. There was a surge of nostalgia for the elemental potions, remembering how they had been a 'challenge' down below the trap door first year. Before he knew Harry was his mate, before all the complications and when they were just best friends.

Now... now Hermione was shooting them a knowing grin across the workdesk opposite as they remembered the chaotic circumstances in which they first encountered these potions, and Harry was beautiful and perfect and it made Vlad ache inside.

"Observe."

Using a large glass tank, and a small pipette to dispense minute amounts, Professor Moonshine demonstrated how each of the potions worked, then set them dissecting the potions themselves - what ingredients gave the volcanic lava it's heat, it's consistency? What determined how powerful a quake?

Automatically, Vlad picked out likely candidates for the lava potion as they were known for their exothermic reactivity, or natural heat tendencies like capsicum. Harry was the one to spot the more explosively reactive ingredients in the earthquake potions, and Vlad felt his heart skip a little at his happy smile.

"Well, we've always made a good team."

"Mhmm."

Feeling the subtle brush off like a knife to his gut, Vlad tried to push aside the upset and focus on ice potions. Professor Moonshine asked him to stay behind, which won him multiple confused looks but Vlad had no clearer an idea why than anybody else.

"Did I do something wrong professor?"

"What? Oh no, of course not. Madam Pomfrey already warned young Mister Malfoy, and now I'm warning you that our double lesson next week will include studying" he leaned closer, looking even more ravaged with his scarred, uneven skin up close to whisper dramatically "transylvanian wolfsbane. It's your choice whether to defer to your tablemate or to skip the class altogether."

"Is Draco skipping?"

"He must. You may be alright simply avoiding touching it, but the proximity alone could give him cold sweats! Oh, I fear the symptoms could out him!"

Moonshine waved a flamboyant hand, then pressed it to his chest as he exclaimed concerns. Nodding to himself as he considered it, Vlad knew it would be less suspicious if it was construed to be intentional.

"Alright, I'll let Harry know he's working with Hermione that class. Maybe you could say you assigned me and Draco to something else that day, so it's not suspicious?"

"Yes. Yes. I could do that! Very well, off with you to your next class."

Bemused as the professor shooed him away with a hand missing a slice on one side, Vlad left to find Hermione and Draco waiting for him.

"Was that what I think it was about?"

"If you mean our special project next week, which means Hermione and Harry need to pair up, yep."

Draco nodded, and Hermione's expression said she already knew all about it - possibly with her psychic teacher knowledge.

"Harry left to go see Hagrid, because he reckoned you would be spending your free periods with the Bulgarian bon bon. Ok, he said your boyfriend, but that's the funniest thing Rita Skeeter ever said."

Draco mistook Vlad's scowl for what he referred to Viktor as, and Vlad realised by the sudden enlightened look on Hermione's face that she knew there was more than just what met the eye in his and Viktor's relationship.

"You need to go see Madam Pomfrey for your potion. Vlad can walk me out to Hagrids, since it's by the ship."

Neither boy was about to argue with her, so they seperated at the main doors to head out for break. November chill meant it was only sparsely populated outside, most in the warmth of the Great Hall or their common rooms.

"I didn't click until just now, but please tell me you aren't leading him on?"

Vlad was torn between guilt and indignation at that - he wasn't, but that didn't make the situation right.

"No. The whole thing was his idea, I swear. He thinks" Vlad stopped, casting a privacy charm lest any nearby students were eavesdropping "he thinks Harry just needs to realise his own feelings about me. I think he's mad, but he insisted."

Hermione rolled her eyes, sighing before giving Vlad a hug.

"Boys!"

"Careful, or there'll be stories about a torrid love affair between us next."

"I think Draco will believe me when I say it's all lies. He never has to know!"

They both burst out laughing as they made it to Hagrid's hut, where Hagrid waved at them to come in. Vlad deliberated - he did want to go talk to Viktor about Harry, but the hut was warm, inviting and he enjoyed seeing Hagrid - and Harry would be there.

Except it also contained Cedric Diggory, who greeted him perfectly cordially.

"Oh look, it's the one I intend to steal from 'Bulgarian bon bon Viktor Krum'. How are you Vlad?"

"Don't tell everyone!"

Vlad managed to continue the joke, though he was twisting inside as Harry picked right back up on his obviously interrupted conversation with Cedric about the fire crabs Hagrid had hatched that week for the third years taking Care Of Magical Creatures. He couldn't keep watching, but if he left Harry might see it as Vlad ditching him for Viktor. Which was bad. Sighing, he accepted the bucket of tea Hagrid offered him and sank into the chair nearest the fire.

"At least you can tell which end of a fire crab is which straight away! With the skrewts it takes a few weeks guess work or serious burns."

"Ah, they aren' tha' bad!"

Hagrid defended his bizarre 'pets' that were becoming more lethal every week as the males stingers started to develop. Vlad was about to judge him, then remembered he had helped Harry smuggle a basilisk into Hogwarts... Maybe he shouldn't judge.

"Are you and Krum going to the Yule Ball together?"

"Well, yeah. Sorry Cedric, missed your shot."

"Damnit. I was just wondering, because four champions but it'll only be three couples. I still have to find a date... maybe I'll ask Fleur and make a bigger splash."

Vlad shook his head, trying to balance his mug while Fang tried to place his huge head in Vlad's lap.

"She's going with Roger Davies. Told me when I hid in the- I mean saw her in the library yesterday."

"Curses, foiled again. Harry, how about it?"

Vlad was glad he had the excuse of Fang when he dropped his cup in shock, Hermione not stunned inarticulate as she cleaned up the ceramic and liquid mess across the floor and Vlad's leg.

"Yeah, alright then."

-YDHP-

Shorter than last chapter but it's bridging, I guess?