"Checkmate," Draco said with a laugh. He looked across the table at Harry and gave him a smug look. "You'll never win, you know, so we might as well stop." The blonde took out his wand, conjuring his wizard chess set back to his dorm room.

With a half pout, Harry rolled his eyes. "Says you, Draco. Your set knows you better, so they mind you more. Otherwise, I would have won," he defended. "I have played this game often with Ron."

Raising to the bait, Draco stood up. "Oh yeah, then bring it. Go get the Wes... go get Ron's set then."

With a laugh, Harry flicked his wand. When the old, tarnished set was on the table, he started to command his team, watching gleefully as Draco's team insulted him and told him his skills were very horrible. When Harry won, he smirked at the blonde, "told you so."

"Shut up blonde git, it said, I've never been more insulted in my life," Draco grumbled. "You do know that move is only ever made by level one players or the completely daff? Are you blind? No, not that move," Draco rambled off, counting how many times Ron's set had bad-mouthed him.

"I swear Ron must have cursed his set to bad mouth any Slytherin," he declared.

"Nope," Harry laughed, "Ron let Pansy and Hermione play it, and I quote, "That is not a very wise move, pretty girl." was said to Pansy."

"It's still saying stuff against her skill!"

"It called her pretty," Harry snorted.

"Whatever, why were they hanging out?"

"Girl stuff," Harry answered, "apparently since there's a truce, it's quite all right to gossip together about cute boys. I'm sure there was makeup involved."

Draco shuddered. "I do not want to know." He glared down at Ron's set, mouth falling open when one of the pieces actually flipped him off and then crossed its arms. "If Ron asks why his set is missing, make up some story," he went on, pulling out his wand, delighting when the pieces started to scramble around and beg forgiveness.

Harry laughed, jumping up to stop Draco before he could do too much damage. Draco tried to move away from Harry, determined to act his revenge, but the brunette wrapped his arms around him from behind and stole his wand, effectively making Draco freeze. His cheeks turned rosy pink.

The chess pieces started to snicker, whispering to each other, though it was as if they were being loud on purpose, making bets on which boy was the "girl" in the relationship. Apparently, wizard chest sets were full of stereotypes.

"Ignore them," Harry whispered into Draco's ear. "It's not true what they're saying, after all, right?" Harry teased.

Draco stiffened in Harry's arms. "Of course not!" He exclaimed.

Taking pity on him, Harry conjured the set away, though he didn't back away from Draco.

"Hm," Harry murmured, delighting that Draco hadn't pushed him away yet.

"Harry, you do realize you're holding me in the middle of The Great Hall, right?" Draco pointed out, shakingly.

"Am I?" Harry asked.

"You are, would you mind letting go?"

"You could just push me away," Harry responded.

Draco shivered, though he couldn't move.

"Something a bit queer about this scene," someone from behind Harry and Draco snorted.

"Very odd, but I think it's sweet," another voice added.

"I can't believe I'm seeing this," a third voice said, sounding as if they were shuddering, though none of the voices sounded overly disgusted, just amused to find Harry and Draco in such a scene where anyone could walk by and see them.

Harry didn't let go of Draco, though the blonde had become rigid in his arms, still not able to pull away it seemed. The brunette turned his head, finding Theodore, Hermione, and Ron standing behind them. What was more strange to Harry was that Theodore was with his best friends.

"Oy, Harry why are you molesting Mal-" Seamus started to say as he and Dean walked up to the group. He grunted when Dean elbowed him in the stomach. "I mean Draco, God. Why are you molesting Draco?" Seamus finished, sending his friend a glare. Some people took this truce way too seriously.

Seeming to come back to reality, Draco jumped away from Harry, his face matching Ron's hair. "He is NOT molesting me, you... you... whatever your first name is! He was showing... he was teaching me about..." He fished around for something that would explain this away. "Muggle sports! Yes, he was showing me how to play soccerbat."

"Baseball," Harry corrected.

"I meant baseball. Now go away, I'm learning here!" Draco demanded, glaring at everyone with the best glare he could give.

"Soccerbat," Seamus snickered as Dean started to drag the Irish boy away. "Can you imagine, soccerbat, ha ha..."

"Shush," Dean scolded. Nobody quite understood Seamus's obsession with Muggle soccer.

Draco blushed as he watched Seamus and Dean's backs. He turned his head back to Harry, his dignity firmly back in place. "Now, if you don't mind, finish telling me about this baseball," the blonde demanded.

Theodore, Hermione, and Ron were still hanging around, jumping in despite of themselves when Draco said, "Go now," in a loud bark. They took the hint and left.

"Course," Harry chuckled. He was quite amused. He grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him out of The Great Hall. They ended up in the room of requirement. Harry laughed when he saw the room was huge. There was a soccer field, a baseball field, and a basketball court, plus more Muggle sports equipment than Harry had ever seen in his whole life.

"What is all this?" Draco demanded, glancing around, with a look of distaste.

"This Draco, is Muggle sports. You seemed very interested in it," Harry answered.

"Which one is for soccerbat?" Draco asked, curious despite himself.

"There isn't," Harry laughed, "you remember Seamus's reaction? Well, yeah, there is no such thing. There is soccer, baseball, and basketball, of course, there are many Muggle sports, and each country has its own favorite sport."

"Hn.." Draco muttered, already bored.

"This is a soccer ball," Harry said. He picked up a white ball. He wouldn't pretend to know the rules of this game; that was Seamus's area. "The ball is on the ground, each team is trying to kick it into the other team's goal," Harry explained.

"Why in Salazar's name would you want to do that?" Draco asked. He took the strange ball from Harry and slowly started to examine it. He picked at the skin wrapped around the ball, curious as it seemed quite different from what was used on Quaffle balls."

"Because that's how the game is played."

"Never again am I going to say you were teaching me about Muggle sports!" Draco groaned as he fell to the grass. The room of requirement baffled him. It was amazing how real it made things seem. "I didn't think Muggle sports would be so... sporty!"

Harry chuckled at the warn out Slytherin. He hadn't expected Draco to go along with actually learning how to play the games.

"It was fun," Harry said. "This is the first time I've played them, too. I've only ever watched them on TV."

"You were good," Draco complimented, "you must be a natural or something at sports."

Harry blushed.

"What's VT?"

"T. V. Television." Harry corrected. How in the world could he explain what that was? Draco's upbringing must have been very old fashioned if he didn't even have a TV. Ron's family had one.

"It's like... how paintings have moving people in them, TV is like this box, and it has moving people in them that create a show." Harry knew how lame that sounded, but he had never been told to explain something like this before.

At Draco's blank look, Harry sighed. He closed his eyes and thought hard about what he knew about the TV. His eyes flew open when Draco let out a shout.

"That's a Telly! TV, Television," Harry said, pointing at the big screen TV that was now next to Draco.

"Hit the on switch," Harry instructed.

'Thank you room of requirement!' Harry swore the room chuckled.

"It almost squashed me!" Draco accused. "That black box is evil." He hesitantly hit the on button.

"But I want to be in the show!" A redheaded woman whined.

"Lucy!" A man scolded.

"Wahhhh Ricky!"

Harry held his middle, trying not to burst at the seams as he laughed. Draco with his eyes wide was pushing the "next" button.

"Tommy, let's go on an adventure!" A pair of twins started to jump up and down.

A little redhead panicked. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Oh, come on, Chuckie."

Draco blinked rapidly.

"It's a cartoon," Harry explained.

"Talking babies?"

"You've seen stranger."

"Yeah," Draco hit next.

"I'm gonna be a mighty king, enemies beware!" A young lion sang.

Draco hit off. "Muggles. Are. Weird." He couldn't hide his curiosity, though. "Talking babies, talking animals, adults crying about... whatever..."

"Oh, you've seen nothing," Harry smirked. "Like porn, or horror movies."

"Porn?"

"Sex shows!" Harry shouted.

"Pervert!"

"I didn't say I watched them."

"VT is kind of ace," Draco admitted. He flipped it on again, changing the channels until it was on something that seemed interesting. Harry couldn't suppress a giggle. He was a little mortified at the sound, though when Draco ignored it, so did he. He sat down next to Draco and raised an eyebrow. Of all things, Draco was watching a musical.

"It's TV," Harry whispered into Draco's ear. "A big form of Muggle entertainment."

"Why are they singing about hair?" Draco whispered as if the people on TV could hear them.

"I'm not sure," Harry answered. "I didn't get to watch too much TV."

"Why?"

"Oh... I just didn't," Harry said mysteriously.

"So... the whole issue is she's oversized and the preppy girls don't want her to be in the program. She's a very good dancer, though," Draco said. His face was glued to the TV practically.

"Oh, they got her in, look at that, ACE, she's showing them up, isn't she? Wow, the boy just showed everyone size does not matter! He kissed her in front of everyone. Look at that other girl, I think she wants to pull hair out. Whoa, the mother can sing and dance, too, everyone can dance, and sing. It's like the whole town knows how to move. Weird. Is that mother a man in a dress? Ace! Oh, that mom fainted when her daughter kissed that black man. This show seems strange on the service level, but it hit a lot of issues, didn't it?"

"Draco you amaze me sometimes," Harry chuckled.

Draco blushed, "Why?"

"You just do."

"They are very racist in this show," Draco murmured, eyes widening as the show concluded. "The little black girl won the contest! That will show everyone. It kinda reminds me pureblood and muggleborn prejudice."

"Yeah..."

"But... they're all people. We're all people. Why can't everyone see that?" Draco muttered, subconsciously rubbing his upper arm. Harry frowned, knowing he was thinking about the Dark Mark that was almost forced on him.

"I don't know," Harry said. He stood up, and grabbed Draco's arm, pulling the boy up. "Just don't think about it so much..."

"Well, I have to, currently I have nowhere to return when the term is over." Draco turned away from Harry.

"Y-you don't?"

"My parents are dead, and now anyone who could have taken me in wants me dead and will kill me on sight for V-Voldemort. Others would be too scared to take me in because Voldemort might go after them."

"You've got to talk to Dumbledore. He'll find someone."

"Who'd want a Death Eater's kid? Keeping me would be a huge risk."

Harry sighed. "Someone has to take you. You can't just go back to Malfoy Manor."

"Mn... So what do you suggest? Maybe the Weasley Manor?" He asked cruelly.

"Draco..."

Draco's face fell. "I- sorry. I just... I mostly forgot all about it when that dream happened and we started to... not fight."

"Dumbledore won't let you go into a trap, and you have a whole term before you even have to start worrying about somewhere to stay. Have a little faith, Draco. This all might seem surreal, but it's happening. We're growing up and getting along, the school is entertaining a truce, and deep down, some of them like it! Stranger things have happened."

Harry leaned forward and put his arms around him, chancing it. "Even if it's not the kind of love you want, someone does love you, so don't forget about that."

Draco blushed, tensing in Harry's arms.

It took Draco a few moments, though he ended up putting his arms around Harry. His eyes squeezed shut, Draco hung onto Harry in a way he had never held another person before. Not even his parents.

"Mn...I'm not used to this kind of, well... love, you know? It's kind of weird that you'd love me after everything, yeah, but anyway... nevertheless... What I mean is... Bugger it, thank you, Harry." Draco's cheeks burned vivid pink.

Harry could feel Draco's heat pouring from every inch of his body.

"You're welcome... there's something I want to say right now, but I fear you'll hit me."

"What, Harry?"

"Just that... God, you're adorable sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" Draco teased. It seemed his mood was lifting, and Harry felt his stomach flip flop, knowing that was a little bit because of him.

"Yep. Sometimes."

In a much better mood, Draco pushed Harry away, though not in a mean way. "You're still weird, got it?"

The brunette nodded. "Yes, sir!" He saluted the other, though Draco didn't get it. Draco just rolled his eyes at Harry's silly behavior.

"I got to piss," Draco groaned. "We've been in here forever."

"Well, we should see what time it is, huh?"

Draco cast a tempus.

"Is it really that time?" Harry gasped.

"Potions in ten minutes!" Draco groaned.

Harry quickly cast Scourgify on himself, and then did the same for Draco. "Too bad we can't aparate," Harry groaned, as he and Draco left the room of requirement and rushed the long way to the dungeons.

"Tell me about it," Draco agreed.

"If we're late, what will we say?"

"We..." Draco snorted, "we'll say that you were teaching me about VT... I mean TV and muggle sports."

"In an honest mood today, or do you just want to confuse everyone?"

"Mind games are boss," Draco replied.

"Are boss? You're picking up Ron slang."

"GOD, Don't say that."

With one minute to spare, Harry and Draco stumbled into the Potion room. All eyes turned to them, giving the boys shocked looks, as both boys were breathing very hard, and their clothes were wrinkled, very unlike Draco to look unkempt. Draco shot everyone a look that clearly said "keep your mouth shut". Harry just rolled his eyes, acting as if nothing was unusual about their rushed entrance.

"Glad to see you boys decided to join us," Snape sneered. Same old Snape.

Harry looked up at Snape and grinned. "Thank you, Professor," he said as he and Draco took a table together. The other unusual thing it seemed to Harry and Draco was that the Slytherin and Gryffindors were mixed around for once.

"Hn..." Draco muttered to himself. Inwardly, he smiled.

His house took his threat to heart it seemed.

"Strange seating arrangements," Harry whispered to Draco.

"Agreed."

Hermione was sitting with Pansy. There was still some tension between them, but they were whispering and looking around at cute guys. Gossiping, no doubt. Ron was looking quite shocked to be sitting next to Blaise, who didn't seem to care who he was sitting by. Neville was sitting by Theodore, looking very uncomfortable. Harry snorted. It probably didn't help that Theodore kept whispering in Neville's ear and touching him in flirtatious ways. Harry almost died when he saw that Crabbe was sitting by Dean and Goyle was next to Dean.

"Strange indeed," Harry murmured.