Careful Who You're Caught With - Part 2
Title: Careful Who You’re Caught With
Category: Harry Potter
Genre: Humor/Romance/Slash
Rating: PG-13 to R
Pairing: H/D
Disclaimer: It’s JKR’s, and she’d best hurry up with that next book!
Summary: A Christmas present from the Weasley twins, two D.A. parties, several fights, and of course, mistletoe! This holiday season is shaping up to be slightly better than 5th year's, even if the person Harry'll be kissing isn't who he expected.
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Draco burst out into a callous laughter, while Harry’s eyes began to widen and his face paled.
“Oh, please!” Malfoy cried, reaching for the mistletoe. “If you honestly expect me to-”
“No, Malfoy, don’t!” Harry tried to warn, but the boy was already grabbing at the sprig. He immediately yanked his hand away, yelping and shaking it out, before glaring at the Gryffindors.
“What the fuck was that?!” he cried, still shaking his burned hand. Harry swore, hands digging into his hair as he turned to meet Ron’s wide-eyed stare.
“R-Ron! Is…is that…?” Ron nodded slowly as Hermione looked on helplessly. “Oh, bloody hell!”
“Seamus and I were commenting on how ironic it was that everyone was walking single-file in and out of the door. I think most people spotted it beforehand,” the red-headed boy explained weakly.
“Shit!” Harry exclaimed. “Shit, shit, fuck, wanker, bugger, SHIT!” Hermione giggled and Harry shot her a glare.
“Would someone mind explaining to me just what the hell is going on?” Malfoy asked angrily. Harry ignored him, thrusting his hands out to the side, only to find them blocked from going too far. And the harder he pushed, the more the invisible wall seemed to push back, until his arms were nearly completely bent at the elbow. He quickly stopped shoving, face paling further. He heard a gasp of mixed shock and horror, and looked up to find Malfoy curiously reaching out to see what Harry had been feeling for. “What-what is this?!”
“My brothers…” Ron started to explain, but trailed off helplessly, as if that was all the explanation needed. And really, it was.
“Oh, bloody fuck!” Malfoy groaned.
“They sent Harry and Ron an early Christmas present,” Hermione explained further. “One of their latest holiday products. It’s…you have to kiss the person you’re caught under it with. Um, as far as we know, there’s no other way out…”
“You might as well do it, Harry,” Ron said, trying his best not to sound disgusted. “Knowing Fred and George, there isn’t another way out.”
“NO!” Harry and Draco shouted at the same time. Malfoy backed himself as far against the doorway as he could, but strangely found himself being pushed forward until his feet were nearly touching Harry’s. He glance bewilderedly over his shoulder, startled to find that he was now leaning against…nothing. Or something, rather, but it was invisible, apparently.
“Stop it! Malfoy, stop pushing!” Harry cried, and the blonde relaxed a bit.
“What’s it doing?” he asked frantically.
“I don’t know! The more you push, the smaller the…the enclosure gets! So just…don’t!” The blonde let out a slow breath.
“I feel claustrophobic…” he muttered, eyes wide as he glanced around as if looking for a way out.
“What- Malfoy, you can’t even tell we’re trapped!”
“I can feel it!” the blonde snapped, and Harry rolled his eyes. The two boys stood quietly for a few minutes, arms crossed in similar postures as they tried to figure out what to do. Then suddenly they felt like they were shoved forward and both flew off balance, landing against each other in a tangle of arms. “What was that?” Malfoy asked quickly, sounding panicked. Harry straightened up, dropping his hold on Malfoy, only to discover that they were now even closer together. When they both leaned against their respective ‘wall,’ their feet were now next to each other, one of Harry’s in between Draco’s and vice versa.
“Um, I guess there’s a sort of…time limit, as well,” Hermione spoke up, though she appeared to be holding back a laugh.
“It’s not funny, Hermione!”
“Right, sorry.” She immediately schooled her face into a blank expression, but her eyes were dancing in amusement. Harry thought she and Ron looked as if they were watching a movie or something.
“You could try to help, you know,” he said petulantly.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, mate,” Ron answered.
“Well think of something!” Malfoy demanded. They all quieted down again, though there really wasn’t anything they could think of doing. As luck would have, though, they could suddenly hear footsteps and voices coming from down the hall.
“Harry, Ron! Are you guys still in here?” Ginny was calling, and suddenly she turned the corner, followed by-
“Oh, thank God,” Harry sighed.
-Fred and George.
“Harry, I forgot to tell you all! These two gits owled today and said they were going to visit tonight for Christmas, since we weren’t going home. I found them in the common room showing off their stuff to the first and second years and- Malfoy!” Ginny halted right outside of the room, finally spotting the blonde, and her brothers pulled up behind her. “What are you doing here?”
“Ask the twin prats, why don’t you?” Malfoy replied sullenly, crossing his arms and scowling.
“Harry, mate!” Fred cried, slapping the boy on the back before slinging an arm around his shoulder. “How goes it?”
“Horrible,” the green-eyed boy replied, before he did a double-take on Fred’s arm. “Wait, you can touch me?”
“Should I not be able to?”
“Oy, Fred, look,” George interrupted, grinning widely as he pointed up. Ginny gasped and Fred burst out into laughter like Malfoy first had.
“Oh, that’s priceless!” he cried, bent at the waist from laughing so hard.
“Fred, George, this is not something to laugh about!” Ron exclaimed, and the twins looked up, finally spotting their brother in the room.
“Ronniekins!” Fred greeted, bounding past Harry into the room.
“This is serious, Fred, stop it!” Ron growled, pushing off his brother’s advances. Hermione grinned.
“Hello Fred, George,” she said happily. “Maybe you can help us out here.”
“’Fraid not,” George answered, also stepping past the trapped boys. Harry and Draco shared a confused glance, before they were suddenly shoved closer together again.
“Ahh,” Harry said nervously, attempting to slow his breathing and wondering if he should just stop all together. With every breath they took their chests bumped against each other, and Harry was almost positive he could hear the other boy’s frantically beating heart. He watched, almost mesmerized, as Draco’s cheeks turned a light pink. Fred’s voice interrupted his concentration.
“I expect it’ll do that one more time,” he was saying, “before it stops. ‘Course by then you’ll be shoved so close together there wouldn’t be any room to push you closer anyway.” He was rewarded with horrified looks. “Oh, and outside people can walk through the barrier. It’s only the two trapped who can’t get through it. Gin, come on in!” The red-headed girl shrugged at Harry, and slipped past, taking a seat on the couch next to Ron.
“Would…would you just explain the whole thing?” Harry asked desperately. “Why can’t you help us?”
“Because there’s only one way out, and I’m pretty sure you know what it is,” George answered.
“Well explain the mistletoe, anyway,” Hermione said, looking interested.
“Simple, really. We warned you for a reason, you know,” said Fred.
“Yeah, obviously you get stuck with the other person, no matter who it is,” George added.
“The only way out of the, eh, force field, we’ll call it, is to kiss.”
“If you wait too long, the ‘box’ you’re in gets smaller and smaller.”
“And if you try to resist the barrier too much, it also gets smaller.”
“You can’t move the mistletoe to try to get out of it, either.” Fred and George glanced at each other, before grinning. “Oh, and there’s one more thing.”
“The longer you wait…” Fred started to say.
“The longer you have to kiss,” George finished, and a shocked silence in the room.
“We…but…ah…b-but Ron and Hermione-!”
“No, Harry, remember,” Hermione spoke quickly. “Ron and I kissed for…well, for a semi-long time.”
“But Seamus-”
“Kissed Dean right away,” Ron said. “Didn’t put up any fuss at all, did he?”
“Great, I’m trapped with the boy-from-a-house-of-queers,” Malfoy muttered. But he looked distinctly uncomfortable, pressed as far against his boundary as he could be without causing it to push back.
“Oh, bugger off, Malfoy,” Harry snapped.
“Oh believe me, I’d be glad to, Potter, but in case you haven’t noticed,” Draco gestured around them, “I can’t!”
“Well, as amusing as this is,” George cut in, as he stood up and stretched, “I didn’t come all this way to watch Harry snog Malfoy, so I think we should really leave them be.”
“Right,” Fred grinned, also standing. “Besides, at this point they’ll be at it for so long, you’d think they were newlyweds.” Harry groaned, head falling back against the barrier. Malfoy, if possible, paled even further.
“Sorry, mate,” Ron said, following his brothers, “But I really don’t want to watch.” Ginny and Hermione nodded, giving Harry sympathetic smiles as they slipped past him through the door.
“No, wait, you…you can’t just leave me with him!” Harry cried. Draco just looked like he was in pain. Ron shrugged.
“Um…well, don’t bother waking me up to tell me about it,” he said, smirking lightly. “Somehow I think this will be even less exciting than last year’s.” With that, the Weasleys and Hermione disappeared down the hall, Harry’s wide eyes following them. What followed were even more minutes of uncomfortable silence, before Malfoy sighed heavily.
“Look, Potter-” He was prevented from saying anything else because it was at that moment that the walls decided to do their final shove. Both boys let out a rush of air as their chests slammed together, and Harry braced his arms on the wall behind Malfoy while the blonde’s hands landed awkwardly on Harry’s hips. Startled, their eyes met and went wide.
Harry felt like he was having trouble breathing, and while he told himself it was because of the pressure against his chest from Malfoy, he wasn’t exactly sure if that was the entire truth. It was suddenly unbearably hot in their small enclosure, and Harry’s hands unconsciously fell onto Malfoy’s shoulders. He’d never been so intimately close to anyone before, and just the feel of another body so close to his own was causing him to react in ways that left him feeling dizzy, hot, and confused. He drew in a shuddering breath, eyes still locked in Malfoy’s mercury gaze, and vainly tried to move his hips backwards and out of contact with the other boy’s.
Draco was drawing in quick, gasping breaths, his hands tightening on Harry’s waist when he felt him try to move away. Not exactly sure what he was doing or what he was even trying to accomplish, he pulled Harry back towards himself, and both boys gasped when their hips ground together. Malfoy moaned, eyes sliding half-closed, and Harry’s let his head fall onto the blonde’s shoulder.
“Malfoy,” he said breathlessly. The boy responded by pushing Harry as well as he could against his half of the wall, and his arms wrapped completely around Harry’s waist. The green-eyed boy’s head fell back against the wall again, eyes also sliding half-closed. Slowly, almost nervously, he too wrapped his arms completely around Draco’s neck, and thrust his hips forward slightly. Malfoy grunted.
“Potter,” he returned hoarsely. “What say we get this thing over with?” Harry nodded quickly before he could change his mind and leaned forward to gently meet Draco’s lips.
This kiss was drastically different than the one he had shared with Cho a year ago in this exact same spot. For one thing it wasn’t wet since Draco wasn’t crying, and Harry was immensely grateful for that. The feel of the blonde against him was also different, from the hard, sharp angles of his chest down to the different hardness he could feel pressed against his own. Malfoy’s lips were surprisingly soft, though, causing Harry to vaguely wonder if his own were. Then all thoughts flew from his head when Draco gently ran his hands up Harry’s sides, and he gasped slightly.
Draco quickly took advantage of that, running his tongue along Harry’s bottom lip before slipping it into his mouth and intertwining their tongues. Now, this, Harry was new to. His eyes flew open when he hadn’t even realized that they’d been closed, and he groaned, nearly melting into the other boy. Their kiss deepened, mouths clashing together, and Draco’s hands were now caressing Harry’s jaw.
Harry was the one to break it off, but only because he needed air to breathe, and he and Draco leaned their foreheads against each other, breathing deeply.
Neither noticed the mistletoe falling softly to the floor.
“Breath through your nose,” Draco instructed softly, and he felt Harry nod in response. The green-eyed boy reached up and removed his glasses, before clutching his arms around Draco’s neck again and leaning in to resume their kissing.
It was more energized the second time around, mouths meeting eagerly and tongues swirling around each other and sucking gently. Draco managed to work his hands up under the shirt Harry was wearing, and was caressing the hot skin he felt there. Harry hooked a leg around Draco’s knee in response, trying to pull the other boy as close as possible to himself. The problem with this, however, was that the barrier around them had disappeared when the mistletoe fell. So when Harry tried to lean back, there wasn’t anything there to support him. Both boys’ eyes shot open, mouths ripping apart as they tumbled to the floor, landing inside the Room of Requirement. They only paused in shock for a few seconds, panting, with Harry’s shirt pushed halfway up his chest, before their mouth crashed together again.
Harry was arching up into the blonde above him when it finally hit him that they were free and really didn’t need to be kissing anymore. It took a few more seconds for his body to catch up with the hazy thought process of his mind, and Harry stilled before shoving Draco off of him.
“What the-?! Oh…right,” the Slytherin mumbled. He let out a huge sigh and rested his hands on his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. Harry followed suit with the sigh, absently putting his glasses back on crookedly before tucking his hands behind his head. They remained like this for a few, surprisingly comfortable, minutes of silence. Eventually, Harry pushed himself up off the ground, blushing when he remembered he had to straighten out his shirt. He attempted to smooth out his mussed up hair, but gave up on that pretty quickly, ignoring Draco’s piercing stare following his every move.
“Well,” Harry said, glancing around anxiously. “Er…Happy Christmas, then, Mal-…Draco? Erm, Malfoy. Happy Christmas, Malfoy.” Quickly he began walking out of the room, pausing only slightly when he heard Draco respond.
“Same to you, Potter,” the blonde was saying. Harry turned and met his stare briefly, lips quirking up into a slight grin, before he left the room completely.
* * *
The following days passed slowly and lazily, spent doing homework in their cozy common room or having snowball fights on the Quidditch pitch. Ron, true to his word, had nearly acted as if the whole incident with Malfoy had never evened happened. Hermione, however, seemed determined to drag every detail out of Harry, and Ginny helped. And despite Ron’s claims, Harry was sure he’d been listening while pretending not to.
Not that Harry had told them the exact truth of what had happened. In fact, he’d pretty much made up an entire story about how the whole thing had nearly turned into another fight between the two boys. He’d added claims about his tongue nearly being bit off, while he was sure he’d split Malfoy’s bottom lip with the harshness of their kiss. It was all very elaborate, told without being able to look into his friends eyes and there was a constant blush on his cheeks.
That was perhaps the reason that Hermione had eyed him doubtfully throughout the whole thing.
Harry hadn’t spoken to Malfoy at all since that night. They’d seen each other at mealtimes, but were blatantly ignoring each other. Even when they happened to pass in the halls, they didn’t even look twice at the other boy. Harry was beginning to wonder if they’d ever even fight again. Then he wondered how he’d be able to hold down any reactions if they did fight, because he was nearly certain he wouldn’t be able to handle that slim body on top of his again, rolling around and…
He promptly blushed, ignoring Ron’s questioning glance. It was New Year’s Eve, so they were once again enjoying a celebratory feast in the Great Hall. After that, for lack of other things to do, the D.A. was once again holding another party in the Room of Requirement that night. Harry had checked every inch of the room eariler to make sure there was no mistletoe hanging about.
Early in the evening Harry mingled about again. It was probably nearing 11:30 when he began to get bored. He’d retired to one of the couches, nursing a butterbeer, and feeling oddly glum. Glancing around the room, he noticed the different cliques of friends. For the most part, it was Ravenclaws huddled with Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs giggling with Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors talking with-
Oh. That’s what it was.
Harry glanced around the room again, and once he was sure that no one was paying attention to him, he slipped out the door into the slightly cooler corridor. He felt like he needed to- no…he wanted to do something, but it required a quick detour first. Practically jogging down the hall, Harry made his way to Gryffindor tower quickly, grabbed the Marauder’s Map, and headed back out into the hall. He’d hoped that his target was somewhere he’d actually be able to get to, so he was relieved to find Draco Malfoy’s name wandering around the Astronomy Tower.
By the time Harry had climbed the numerous staircases, checking every so often to make sure Malfoy hadn’t left, he was positive it was almost midnight. Panting from rushing so much, he leaned against the wall outside of the room Malfoy was in, trying to catch his breath. Slowly, he squared his shoulders, knocked gently against the slightly open door, and peered into the room.
“Malfoy?” he called softly, looking around the darkened room. There were a few lit candles hanging in the air, casting a soft glow on the room. Harry spotted the Slytherin sitting at one of the open windows, cheeks red from the cold wind brushing against them. He glanced up, looking slightly surprised to see anyone there.
“Potter?” he asked, almost warily, “What are you doing here?” Harry didn’t really have an answer to that, so he hovered awkwardly in the doorway instead, shoving the Marauder’s Map into one of his pockets.
“I…well, I got bored,” the Gryffindor replied.
“You, bored?” Malfoy raised an eyebrow, sounding incredulous. “I didn’t think it was possible for you to get bored, surrounded by your numerous friends as you normally are. Don’t tell me your precious D.A. isn’t having some sort of party tonight,” he continued sarcastically. Harry flushed.
“Actually they were, that’s where I just came from-” He stopped quickly, when Malfoy’s face darkened. Apparently he hadn’t actually known there was a party going on. “Uh…I mean…well, they were… But…but I left, because I was bored… And-and I came looking for you instead.”
“You mean you didn’t just stumble upon me accidentally?” the blonde asked darkly.
“No!” Harry insisted. “I…well, I guess I wanted to…to see if you wanted to come. To the party. I…you can bring Pansy…or someone else, uh, Zabini? Blaise? Is that his name?” He trailed off helplessly, watching as an amused smirk appeared on Malfoy’s face.
“Blaise went home for the holidays, and Pansy wouldn’t step foot in a room filled with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, even if you paid her to,” he said, still amused. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that you want me to join your friends at that party, do you?”
“Well…”
“You’re allowed to come into the room, you know, I don’t own it,” Malfoy said lightly, turning back to look at the snow-covered grounds. More snow had fallen since dinner, so there was an untouched blanket of white glistening under the moonlight. Harry stepped warily up to the blonde, leaning against the window beside him. They stared into the night in silence for a few minutes, and Harry reveled in just being able to relax in peace for once, though it felt strange that he could be like this with Malfoy of all people.
“I don’t understand you this year, Malfoy,” he said eventually, glancing at the blonde out of the corner of his eye. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
“And you understood me in previous years?”
“Yes. Well, no, maybe not, but I understood where you stood with me. I knew how you would act around me, I knew how I would act around you… It was a constant thing in my life, something I could actually rely on, something I knew would never change…though maybe that’s not exactly how I thought about it at the time.” Harry paused, before continuing in a rush. “You were there before Voldemort, before Ron and Hermione, before Sirius and Dumbledore and Remus. You were the second person I met from the wizarding world and if you hadn’t reminded me painfully of my cousin, maybe things would have been different…but the fact is they weren’t. And yet somehow you wormed your way into my life and made yourself an important part of it. You’re a right prat, don’t get me wrong,” he said lightly, finally turning to face the other boy only to find that Draco’d been staring at him the whole time. “But somehow I knew you would always be around, being your stupid prat self. Sirius…Sirius died, Remus I don’t get to see much, and Dumbledore I barely even trust anymore. Hagrid’s still gone with the gi-…well, Hagrid’s gone.” Harry sighed.
“Touching, Potter, really, but-”
“Shut up, I’m not done,” Harry snapped, He took a deep before continuing again. “And then this year…I don’t know what happened, or maybe it’s because your father was…gone all summer, but you changed. I already had Ron and Hermione acting weird around me because of Sirius, not to mention they keep spending more and more time together though they can’t admit they like each other, and when they finally do I’ll really become the third wheel… I wasn’t expecting you to change how you acted around me too, and that threw me for a loop. And the fights…well, the fights I actually enjoyed, but it’s just not the same!” The Gryffindor looked desperately at his attentive audience. “You don’t hate me anymore! You haven’t called Hermione a Mudblood in ages, you really just tease me now, more than anything, and I don’t understand where it’s coming from!” Draco stared at Harry impassively for a minute before turning to look out the window.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he said at length, quietly.
“Just tell me why!” Harry demanded. Draco sighed, fingers clenching around the window seal, turning his knuckles white.
“There’s nothing to say! I do still hate you, I don’t know where you got that-”
“No you don’t!”
“Look, Potter, if I say I hate you, then I do!” Malfoy growled, facing the boy again.
“No,” Harry shook his head stubbornly. “I know you don’t.”
“FINE!” Draco burst out, chest heaving. “Fine! What do you want to hear? Do you want me to tell you that I never really hated you in the first place? That I was just…angry the whole time?! I hated that you chose Weasley over me! I hated that you became friends with stupid muggleborns like Granger, and that you went off gallivanting about through your little adventures, never once giving me the time of day! I was never good enough for you! No matter what I did, you wouldn’t look at me with anything other than that…that loathing look, like I was a bug you only wanted to step on so I would finally be out of your way. In everything, Quidditch, friends, classes, family even, you always had to make it known that what you had was better than what I had.” Malfoy paused here, still breathing heavily while Harry watched, wide-eyed. “I hated that part of you, that part that never, even from day one, took the time to find out if there was more to me than what you assumed there was. I hated that no matter what I did, you would always consider me beneath you.” He looked away, before saying softly, “I never hated you.”
Harry was speechless. He took a few minutes to gather up his scattered thoughts, trying to form a coherent response. “Malfoy…you…well what was I supposed to think?!” he finally cried, drawing the other boy’s eyes back to meet his. “You certainly never attempted to show me that there was…more to you! First year you turned us into McGonagall, second year there was the whole Heir of Slytherin thing, third year you tried to get Hagrid sacked, fourth year you made up all sorts of ridiculous stories about me, and should I even get started on all the crap you pulled last year? And that’s not even half of all the shit you’ve done!” Draco frowned, crossing his arms.
“And you expect me to believe that you considered me important, after all that?” he asked flatly.
“Yes!” Harry said exasperatedly. “Because I knew you’d always be like that! I knew you wouldn’t suddenly declare your love for me or something! You were the one constant thing that I could count on not changing. …Even if you were an annoying constant.”
Draco smirked. “I was a bit of a brat, wasn’t I?”
“Yes,” Harry answered, smiling slightly. “See, and then there’s this year, and this right now,” he gestured between the two of them, “and I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”
“Well…I was pissed at you for getting my father thrown in jail,” Draco started to explain. “When he escaped…I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I half thought he’d come home and things would continue as they normally had.” Here he let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, right. So now he’s been in hiding for nearly five months, and my mother’s also missing, and somewhere along the line I realized that…that I didn’t want to live like that.” He glanced at Harry, eyes narrowing. “I’m not stupid, you know. I’m second in our class, right behind Granger-“
“You’re tied with Terry Boot, actually, according to Hermione.” Draco shot him a glare, and he blinked, grinning. “Sorry, continue.” Draco sighed.
“Well, tied or whatever, I’m still second. I’m smart. The Dark Lord’s a hypocritical psychopath…did you know he’s a half-blood himself?” At Harry’s nod, he continued. “I have plans for after school. I want to have a job, a place of my own, a wife-…a family… You can’t have that when you’re a Death Eater. I’d be living in a gutter somewhere, trying to make sure no one would ever find me. Who wants to live in hiding? And…the whole muggleborn thing…I still think they’re a danger to our kind, and I don’t think they should be admitted to our world, but I’m not about to go out and kill them all. Fact is, the wizarding world is getting smaller and smaller, and people like Granger are, as much as I hate to admit, a necessity for our kind to keep going.”
“When did you realize that?” Harry asked curiously.
“Second year, really, when my father was berating me for letting her have higher scores than I did and I realized that she was actually just good at what she was doing. Not that I didn’t absolutely hate her even more for that, mind you.”
“That long, huh?”
“Yeah.” There was another silence, interrupted by the sounds of cheers coming from around the castle. Far off in the distance, the sky lit up periodically with what Harry guessed were fireworks.
“I guess that’s the turn of the New Year,” Harry commented, laughing a little. Draco ‘hmmed’ in agreement.
“So, any resolutions for yourself this year, Potter?” he asked.
“Nothing specific,” Harry answered. “I guess things will really be different from now on, though. I don’t know if I’ll be able to fight with you anymore.”
“Whoa now, Potter, I never said I was switching sides or joining the Order or anything of that nonsense. And we’re certainly not going to be friends, by any means.”
“Right, Malfoy,” Harry replied, chuckling. But then what the Slytherin had said caught up with him. “Wait, how do you know about the Order?!” he asked, shocked. Draco blinked, cheeks going pink.
“Oh…well, I might have…um…already discussed things with Dumbledore.” At Harry’s stare he added, “A while ago, actually.” Harry continued to stare. “Back in October, now that I think about it. Of course, I talked to Professor Snape first.” Now Harry’s jaw dropped open.
“And no one thought to tell me this??” he cried. Draco shrugged.
“I guess not,” he replied innocently. Harry sighed in exasperation.
“Malfoy, can we start over?” he asked, and the blonde looked at him in confusion.
“How do you mean?”
Harry thrust his hand forward, looking into Draco’s eyes.
“Hello, my name’s Harry Potter,” he said easily. Draco blinked, eying him warily and glancing down at his hand. Images flashed through his head, old memories of meeting this small, scared looking boy in Madam Malkin’s robe shop, of the sheer hurt he’d felt when his hand had been rejected, of years of jealousy and anger and longing for something that he still didn’t quite understand. He was so tempted to walk out right then, just so Potter would know how it felt. But…
Slowly, he reached out and took the other boy’s hand, gripping it warmly and tightly in his own.
“Draco Malfoy,” he said slowly, smiling slightly. “Pleasure to meet you.” Harry grinned, pumping his hand up and down.
“I think you and I will get along just fine…Draco.” The blonde burst out laughing, and Harry was almost positive it was the first time he’d ever heard the warm, cheerful sound. It sent shivers down his spine.
“Oh boy, does that sound weird…” Draco said, grinning. It made his entire face light up, and Harry could only stare at him in awe. “…Harry.”
“I like you calling me that,” Harry said softly, still in awe. Draco’s grin softened.
“I like being able to call you that,” he replied. They stared at each other for minute, before Harry opened his mouth to say something. Before he could get any words out, though, Draco reached out and cupped his face in his hands and pulled him forward. Their lips met softly at first, Harry's eyes going wide, before he gave in and took the initiative, pulling Draco deeper into the kiss and wrapping his arms around the slim boy’s waist as their tongues wrapped around each other.
Draco pulled back for a brief second, cheeks flushed in the dim light. "This alright?" he panted, eyes half shut and gazing at Harry.
Harry stared at him for another moment, before a grin split across his face and he pulled Draco back towards himself. "What do you think?" he murmured, and then kissed Draco again before he could answer.
Around them, people cheered and partied the New Year in, but Harry and Draco were oblivious to their celebrating, too busy exploring each other instead.
The End!
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And that's my Christmas fic! I hope it didn’t seem too rushed. Anyhoo, no more taking time off from Starts With a Spin. Hope you enjoyed it!
*~Maxine~*
And that's it! Happy Holidays, everyone!
Category: Harry Potter
Genre: Humor/Romance/Slash
Rating: PG-13 to R
Pairing: H/D
Disclaimer: It’s JKR’s, and she’d best hurry up with that next book!
Summary: A Christmas present from the Weasley twins, two D.A. parties, several fights, and of course, mistletoe! This holiday season is shaping up to be slightly better than 5th year's, even if the person Harry'll be kissing isn't who he expected.
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Draco burst out into a callous laughter, while Harry’s eyes began to widen and his face paled.
“Oh, please!” Malfoy cried, reaching for the mistletoe. “If you honestly expect me to-”
“No, Malfoy, don’t!” Harry tried to warn, but the boy was already grabbing at the sprig. He immediately yanked his hand away, yelping and shaking it out, before glaring at the Gryffindors.
“What the fuck was that?!” he cried, still shaking his burned hand. Harry swore, hands digging into his hair as he turned to meet Ron’s wide-eyed stare.
“R-Ron! Is…is that…?” Ron nodded slowly as Hermione looked on helplessly. “Oh, bloody hell!”
“Seamus and I were commenting on how ironic it was that everyone was walking single-file in and out of the door. I think most people spotted it beforehand,” the red-headed boy explained weakly.
“Shit!” Harry exclaimed. “Shit, shit, fuck, wanker, bugger, SHIT!” Hermione giggled and Harry shot her a glare.
“Would someone mind explaining to me just what the hell is going on?” Malfoy asked angrily. Harry ignored him, thrusting his hands out to the side, only to find them blocked from going too far. And the harder he pushed, the more the invisible wall seemed to push back, until his arms were nearly completely bent at the elbow. He quickly stopped shoving, face paling further. He heard a gasp of mixed shock and horror, and looked up to find Malfoy curiously reaching out to see what Harry had been feeling for. “What-what is this?!”
“My brothers…” Ron started to explain, but trailed off helplessly, as if that was all the explanation needed. And really, it was.
“Oh, bloody fuck!” Malfoy groaned.
“They sent Harry and Ron an early Christmas present,” Hermione explained further. “One of their latest holiday products. It’s…you have to kiss the person you’re caught under it with. Um, as far as we know, there’s no other way out…”
“You might as well do it, Harry,” Ron said, trying his best not to sound disgusted. “Knowing Fred and George, there isn’t another way out.”
“NO!” Harry and Draco shouted at the same time. Malfoy backed himself as far against the doorway as he could, but strangely found himself being pushed forward until his feet were nearly touching Harry’s. He glance bewilderedly over his shoulder, startled to find that he was now leaning against…nothing. Or something, rather, but it was invisible, apparently.
“Stop it! Malfoy, stop pushing!” Harry cried, and the blonde relaxed a bit.
“What’s it doing?” he asked frantically.
“I don’t know! The more you push, the smaller the…the enclosure gets! So just…don’t!” The blonde let out a slow breath.
“I feel claustrophobic…” he muttered, eyes wide as he glanced around as if looking for a way out.
“What- Malfoy, you can’t even tell we’re trapped!”
“I can feel it!” the blonde snapped, and Harry rolled his eyes. The two boys stood quietly for a few minutes, arms crossed in similar postures as they tried to figure out what to do. Then suddenly they felt like they were shoved forward and both flew off balance, landing against each other in a tangle of arms. “What was that?” Malfoy asked quickly, sounding panicked. Harry straightened up, dropping his hold on Malfoy, only to discover that they were now even closer together. When they both leaned against their respective ‘wall,’ their feet were now next to each other, one of Harry’s in between Draco’s and vice versa.
“Um, I guess there’s a sort of…time limit, as well,” Hermione spoke up, though she appeared to be holding back a laugh.
“It’s not funny, Hermione!”
“Right, sorry.” She immediately schooled her face into a blank expression, but her eyes were dancing in amusement. Harry thought she and Ron looked as if they were watching a movie or something.
“You could try to help, you know,” he said petulantly.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, mate,” Ron answered.
“Well think of something!” Malfoy demanded. They all quieted down again, though there really wasn’t anything they could think of doing. As luck would have, though, they could suddenly hear footsteps and voices coming from down the hall.
“Harry, Ron! Are you guys still in here?” Ginny was calling, and suddenly she turned the corner, followed by-
“Oh, thank God,” Harry sighed.
-Fred and George.
“Harry, I forgot to tell you all! These two gits owled today and said they were going to visit tonight for Christmas, since we weren’t going home. I found them in the common room showing off their stuff to the first and second years and- Malfoy!” Ginny halted right outside of the room, finally spotting the blonde, and her brothers pulled up behind her. “What are you doing here?”
“Ask the twin prats, why don’t you?” Malfoy replied sullenly, crossing his arms and scowling.
“Harry, mate!” Fred cried, slapping the boy on the back before slinging an arm around his shoulder. “How goes it?”
“Horrible,” the green-eyed boy replied, before he did a double-take on Fred’s arm. “Wait, you can touch me?”
“Should I not be able to?”
“Oy, Fred, look,” George interrupted, grinning widely as he pointed up. Ginny gasped and Fred burst out into laughter like Malfoy first had.
“Oh, that’s priceless!” he cried, bent at the waist from laughing so hard.
“Fred, George, this is not something to laugh about!” Ron exclaimed, and the twins looked up, finally spotting their brother in the room.
“Ronniekins!” Fred greeted, bounding past Harry into the room.
“This is serious, Fred, stop it!” Ron growled, pushing off his brother’s advances. Hermione grinned.
“Hello Fred, George,” she said happily. “Maybe you can help us out here.”
“’Fraid not,” George answered, also stepping past the trapped boys. Harry and Draco shared a confused glance, before they were suddenly shoved closer together again.
“Ahh,” Harry said nervously, attempting to slow his breathing and wondering if he should just stop all together. With every breath they took their chests bumped against each other, and Harry was almost positive he could hear the other boy’s frantically beating heart. He watched, almost mesmerized, as Draco’s cheeks turned a light pink. Fred’s voice interrupted his concentration.
“I expect it’ll do that one more time,” he was saying, “before it stops. ‘Course by then you’ll be shoved so close together there wouldn’t be any room to push you closer anyway.” He was rewarded with horrified looks. “Oh, and outside people can walk through the barrier. It’s only the two trapped who can’t get through it. Gin, come on in!” The red-headed girl shrugged at Harry, and slipped past, taking a seat on the couch next to Ron.
“Would…would you just explain the whole thing?” Harry asked desperately. “Why can’t you help us?”
“Because there’s only one way out, and I’m pretty sure you know what it is,” George answered.
“Well explain the mistletoe, anyway,” Hermione said, looking interested.
“Simple, really. We warned you for a reason, you know,” said Fred.
“Yeah, obviously you get stuck with the other person, no matter who it is,” George added.
“The only way out of the, eh, force field, we’ll call it, is to kiss.”
“If you wait too long, the ‘box’ you’re in gets smaller and smaller.”
“And if you try to resist the barrier too much, it also gets smaller.”
“You can’t move the mistletoe to try to get out of it, either.” Fred and George glanced at each other, before grinning. “Oh, and there’s one more thing.”
“The longer you wait…” Fred started to say.
“The longer you have to kiss,” George finished, and a shocked silence in the room.
“We…but…ah…b-but Ron and Hermione-!”
“No, Harry, remember,” Hermione spoke quickly. “Ron and I kissed for…well, for a semi-long time.”
“But Seamus-”
“Kissed Dean right away,” Ron said. “Didn’t put up any fuss at all, did he?”
“Great, I’m trapped with the boy-from-a-house-of-queers,” Malfoy muttered. But he looked distinctly uncomfortable, pressed as far against his boundary as he could be without causing it to push back.
“Oh, bugger off, Malfoy,” Harry snapped.
“Oh believe me, I’d be glad to, Potter, but in case you haven’t noticed,” Draco gestured around them, “I can’t!”
“Well, as amusing as this is,” George cut in, as he stood up and stretched, “I didn’t come all this way to watch Harry snog Malfoy, so I think we should really leave them be.”
“Right,” Fred grinned, also standing. “Besides, at this point they’ll be at it for so long, you’d think they were newlyweds.” Harry groaned, head falling back against the barrier. Malfoy, if possible, paled even further.
“Sorry, mate,” Ron said, following his brothers, “But I really don’t want to watch.” Ginny and Hermione nodded, giving Harry sympathetic smiles as they slipped past him through the door.
“No, wait, you…you can’t just leave me with him!” Harry cried. Draco just looked like he was in pain. Ron shrugged.
“Um…well, don’t bother waking me up to tell me about it,” he said, smirking lightly. “Somehow I think this will be even less exciting than last year’s.” With that, the Weasleys and Hermione disappeared down the hall, Harry’s wide eyes following them. What followed were even more minutes of uncomfortable silence, before Malfoy sighed heavily.
“Look, Potter-” He was prevented from saying anything else because it was at that moment that the walls decided to do their final shove. Both boys let out a rush of air as their chests slammed together, and Harry braced his arms on the wall behind Malfoy while the blonde’s hands landed awkwardly on Harry’s hips. Startled, their eyes met and went wide.
Harry felt like he was having trouble breathing, and while he told himself it was because of the pressure against his chest from Malfoy, he wasn’t exactly sure if that was the entire truth. It was suddenly unbearably hot in their small enclosure, and Harry’s hands unconsciously fell onto Malfoy’s shoulders. He’d never been so intimately close to anyone before, and just the feel of another body so close to his own was causing him to react in ways that left him feeling dizzy, hot, and confused. He drew in a shuddering breath, eyes still locked in Malfoy’s mercury gaze, and vainly tried to move his hips backwards and out of contact with the other boy’s.
Draco was drawing in quick, gasping breaths, his hands tightening on Harry’s waist when he felt him try to move away. Not exactly sure what he was doing or what he was even trying to accomplish, he pulled Harry back towards himself, and both boys gasped when their hips ground together. Malfoy moaned, eyes sliding half-closed, and Harry’s let his head fall onto the blonde’s shoulder.
“Malfoy,” he said breathlessly. The boy responded by pushing Harry as well as he could against his half of the wall, and his arms wrapped completely around Harry’s waist. The green-eyed boy’s head fell back against the wall again, eyes also sliding half-closed. Slowly, almost nervously, he too wrapped his arms completely around Draco’s neck, and thrust his hips forward slightly. Malfoy grunted.
“Potter,” he returned hoarsely. “What say we get this thing over with?” Harry nodded quickly before he could change his mind and leaned forward to gently meet Draco’s lips.
This kiss was drastically different than the one he had shared with Cho a year ago in this exact same spot. For one thing it wasn’t wet since Draco wasn’t crying, and Harry was immensely grateful for that. The feel of the blonde against him was also different, from the hard, sharp angles of his chest down to the different hardness he could feel pressed against his own. Malfoy’s lips were surprisingly soft, though, causing Harry to vaguely wonder if his own were. Then all thoughts flew from his head when Draco gently ran his hands up Harry’s sides, and he gasped slightly.
Draco quickly took advantage of that, running his tongue along Harry’s bottom lip before slipping it into his mouth and intertwining their tongues. Now, this, Harry was new to. His eyes flew open when he hadn’t even realized that they’d been closed, and he groaned, nearly melting into the other boy. Their kiss deepened, mouths clashing together, and Draco’s hands were now caressing Harry’s jaw.
Harry was the one to break it off, but only because he needed air to breathe, and he and Draco leaned their foreheads against each other, breathing deeply.
Neither noticed the mistletoe falling softly to the floor.
“Breath through your nose,” Draco instructed softly, and he felt Harry nod in response. The green-eyed boy reached up and removed his glasses, before clutching his arms around Draco’s neck again and leaning in to resume their kissing.
It was more energized the second time around, mouths meeting eagerly and tongues swirling around each other and sucking gently. Draco managed to work his hands up under the shirt Harry was wearing, and was caressing the hot skin he felt there. Harry hooked a leg around Draco’s knee in response, trying to pull the other boy as close as possible to himself. The problem with this, however, was that the barrier around them had disappeared when the mistletoe fell. So when Harry tried to lean back, there wasn’t anything there to support him. Both boys’ eyes shot open, mouths ripping apart as they tumbled to the floor, landing inside the Room of Requirement. They only paused in shock for a few seconds, panting, with Harry’s shirt pushed halfway up his chest, before their mouth crashed together again.
Harry was arching up into the blonde above him when it finally hit him that they were free and really didn’t need to be kissing anymore. It took a few more seconds for his body to catch up with the hazy thought process of his mind, and Harry stilled before shoving Draco off of him.
“What the-?! Oh…right,” the Slytherin mumbled. He let out a huge sigh and rested his hands on his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. Harry followed suit with the sigh, absently putting his glasses back on crookedly before tucking his hands behind his head. They remained like this for a few, surprisingly comfortable, minutes of silence. Eventually, Harry pushed himself up off the ground, blushing when he remembered he had to straighten out his shirt. He attempted to smooth out his mussed up hair, but gave up on that pretty quickly, ignoring Draco’s piercing stare following his every move.
“Well,” Harry said, glancing around anxiously. “Er…Happy Christmas, then, Mal-…Draco? Erm, Malfoy. Happy Christmas, Malfoy.” Quickly he began walking out of the room, pausing only slightly when he heard Draco respond.
“Same to you, Potter,” the blonde was saying. Harry turned and met his stare briefly, lips quirking up into a slight grin, before he left the room completely.
* * *
The following days passed slowly and lazily, spent doing homework in their cozy common room or having snowball fights on the Quidditch pitch. Ron, true to his word, had nearly acted as if the whole incident with Malfoy had never evened happened. Hermione, however, seemed determined to drag every detail out of Harry, and Ginny helped. And despite Ron’s claims, Harry was sure he’d been listening while pretending not to.
Not that Harry had told them the exact truth of what had happened. In fact, he’d pretty much made up an entire story about how the whole thing had nearly turned into another fight between the two boys. He’d added claims about his tongue nearly being bit off, while he was sure he’d split Malfoy’s bottom lip with the harshness of their kiss. It was all very elaborate, told without being able to look into his friends eyes and there was a constant blush on his cheeks.
That was perhaps the reason that Hermione had eyed him doubtfully throughout the whole thing.
Harry hadn’t spoken to Malfoy at all since that night. They’d seen each other at mealtimes, but were blatantly ignoring each other. Even when they happened to pass in the halls, they didn’t even look twice at the other boy. Harry was beginning to wonder if they’d ever even fight again. Then he wondered how he’d be able to hold down any reactions if they did fight, because he was nearly certain he wouldn’t be able to handle that slim body on top of his again, rolling around and…
He promptly blushed, ignoring Ron’s questioning glance. It was New Year’s Eve, so they were once again enjoying a celebratory feast in the Great Hall. After that, for lack of other things to do, the D.A. was once again holding another party in the Room of Requirement that night. Harry had checked every inch of the room eariler to make sure there was no mistletoe hanging about.
Early in the evening Harry mingled about again. It was probably nearing 11:30 when he began to get bored. He’d retired to one of the couches, nursing a butterbeer, and feeling oddly glum. Glancing around the room, he noticed the different cliques of friends. For the most part, it was Ravenclaws huddled with Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs giggling with Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors talking with-
Oh. That’s what it was.
Harry glanced around the room again, and once he was sure that no one was paying attention to him, he slipped out the door into the slightly cooler corridor. He felt like he needed to- no…he wanted to do something, but it required a quick detour first. Practically jogging down the hall, Harry made his way to Gryffindor tower quickly, grabbed the Marauder’s Map, and headed back out into the hall. He’d hoped that his target was somewhere he’d actually be able to get to, so he was relieved to find Draco Malfoy’s name wandering around the Astronomy Tower.
By the time Harry had climbed the numerous staircases, checking every so often to make sure Malfoy hadn’t left, he was positive it was almost midnight. Panting from rushing so much, he leaned against the wall outside of the room Malfoy was in, trying to catch his breath. Slowly, he squared his shoulders, knocked gently against the slightly open door, and peered into the room.
“Malfoy?” he called softly, looking around the darkened room. There were a few lit candles hanging in the air, casting a soft glow on the room. Harry spotted the Slytherin sitting at one of the open windows, cheeks red from the cold wind brushing against them. He glanced up, looking slightly surprised to see anyone there.
“Potter?” he asked, almost warily, “What are you doing here?” Harry didn’t really have an answer to that, so he hovered awkwardly in the doorway instead, shoving the Marauder’s Map into one of his pockets.
“I…well, I got bored,” the Gryffindor replied.
“You, bored?” Malfoy raised an eyebrow, sounding incredulous. “I didn’t think it was possible for you to get bored, surrounded by your numerous friends as you normally are. Don’t tell me your precious D.A. isn’t having some sort of party tonight,” he continued sarcastically. Harry flushed.
“Actually they were, that’s where I just came from-” He stopped quickly, when Malfoy’s face darkened. Apparently he hadn’t actually known there was a party going on. “Uh…I mean…well, they were… But…but I left, because I was bored… And-and I came looking for you instead.”
“You mean you didn’t just stumble upon me accidentally?” the blonde asked darkly.
“No!” Harry insisted. “I…well, I guess I wanted to…to see if you wanted to come. To the party. I…you can bring Pansy…or someone else, uh, Zabini? Blaise? Is that his name?” He trailed off helplessly, watching as an amused smirk appeared on Malfoy’s face.
“Blaise went home for the holidays, and Pansy wouldn’t step foot in a room filled with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, even if you paid her to,” he said, still amused. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that you want me to join your friends at that party, do you?”
“Well…”
“You’re allowed to come into the room, you know, I don’t own it,” Malfoy said lightly, turning back to look at the snow-covered grounds. More snow had fallen since dinner, so there was an untouched blanket of white glistening under the moonlight. Harry stepped warily up to the blonde, leaning against the window beside him. They stared into the night in silence for a few minutes, and Harry reveled in just being able to relax in peace for once, though it felt strange that he could be like this with Malfoy of all people.
“I don’t understand you this year, Malfoy,” he said eventually, glancing at the blonde out of the corner of his eye. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
“And you understood me in previous years?”
“Yes. Well, no, maybe not, but I understood where you stood with me. I knew how you would act around me, I knew how I would act around you… It was a constant thing in my life, something I could actually rely on, something I knew would never change…though maybe that’s not exactly how I thought about it at the time.” Harry paused, before continuing in a rush. “You were there before Voldemort, before Ron and Hermione, before Sirius and Dumbledore and Remus. You were the second person I met from the wizarding world and if you hadn’t reminded me painfully of my cousin, maybe things would have been different…but the fact is they weren’t. And yet somehow you wormed your way into my life and made yourself an important part of it. You’re a right prat, don’t get me wrong,” he said lightly, finally turning to face the other boy only to find that Draco’d been staring at him the whole time. “But somehow I knew you would always be around, being your stupid prat self. Sirius…Sirius died, Remus I don’t get to see much, and Dumbledore I barely even trust anymore. Hagrid’s still gone with the gi-…well, Hagrid’s gone.” Harry sighed.
“Touching, Potter, really, but-”
“Shut up, I’m not done,” Harry snapped, He took a deep before continuing again. “And then this year…I don’t know what happened, or maybe it’s because your father was…gone all summer, but you changed. I already had Ron and Hermione acting weird around me because of Sirius, not to mention they keep spending more and more time together though they can’t admit they like each other, and when they finally do I’ll really become the third wheel… I wasn’t expecting you to change how you acted around me too, and that threw me for a loop. And the fights…well, the fights I actually enjoyed, but it’s just not the same!” The Gryffindor looked desperately at his attentive audience. “You don’t hate me anymore! You haven’t called Hermione a Mudblood in ages, you really just tease me now, more than anything, and I don’t understand where it’s coming from!” Draco stared at Harry impassively for a minute before turning to look out the window.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he said at length, quietly.
“Just tell me why!” Harry demanded. Draco sighed, fingers clenching around the window seal, turning his knuckles white.
“There’s nothing to say! I do still hate you, I don’t know where you got that-”
“No you don’t!”
“Look, Potter, if I say I hate you, then I do!” Malfoy growled, facing the boy again.
“No,” Harry shook his head stubbornly. “I know you don’t.”
“FINE!” Draco burst out, chest heaving. “Fine! What do you want to hear? Do you want me to tell you that I never really hated you in the first place? That I was just…angry the whole time?! I hated that you chose Weasley over me! I hated that you became friends with stupid muggleborns like Granger, and that you went off gallivanting about through your little adventures, never once giving me the time of day! I was never good enough for you! No matter what I did, you wouldn’t look at me with anything other than that…that loathing look, like I was a bug you only wanted to step on so I would finally be out of your way. In everything, Quidditch, friends, classes, family even, you always had to make it known that what you had was better than what I had.” Malfoy paused here, still breathing heavily while Harry watched, wide-eyed. “I hated that part of you, that part that never, even from day one, took the time to find out if there was more to me than what you assumed there was. I hated that no matter what I did, you would always consider me beneath you.” He looked away, before saying softly, “I never hated you.”
Harry was speechless. He took a few minutes to gather up his scattered thoughts, trying to form a coherent response. “Malfoy…you…well what was I supposed to think?!” he finally cried, drawing the other boy’s eyes back to meet his. “You certainly never attempted to show me that there was…more to you! First year you turned us into McGonagall, second year there was the whole Heir of Slytherin thing, third year you tried to get Hagrid sacked, fourth year you made up all sorts of ridiculous stories about me, and should I even get started on all the crap you pulled last year? And that’s not even half of all the shit you’ve done!” Draco frowned, crossing his arms.
“And you expect me to believe that you considered me important, after all that?” he asked flatly.
“Yes!” Harry said exasperatedly. “Because I knew you’d always be like that! I knew you wouldn’t suddenly declare your love for me or something! You were the one constant thing that I could count on not changing. …Even if you were an annoying constant.”
Draco smirked. “I was a bit of a brat, wasn’t I?”
“Yes,” Harry answered, smiling slightly. “See, and then there’s this year, and this right now,” he gestured between the two of them, “and I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”
“Well…I was pissed at you for getting my father thrown in jail,” Draco started to explain. “When he escaped…I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I half thought he’d come home and things would continue as they normally had.” Here he let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, right. So now he’s been in hiding for nearly five months, and my mother’s also missing, and somewhere along the line I realized that…that I didn’t want to live like that.” He glanced at Harry, eyes narrowing. “I’m not stupid, you know. I’m second in our class, right behind Granger-“
“You’re tied with Terry Boot, actually, according to Hermione.” Draco shot him a glare, and he blinked, grinning. “Sorry, continue.” Draco sighed.
“Well, tied or whatever, I’m still second. I’m smart. The Dark Lord’s a hypocritical psychopath…did you know he’s a half-blood himself?” At Harry’s nod, he continued. “I have plans for after school. I want to have a job, a place of my own, a wife-…a family… You can’t have that when you’re a Death Eater. I’d be living in a gutter somewhere, trying to make sure no one would ever find me. Who wants to live in hiding? And…the whole muggleborn thing…I still think they’re a danger to our kind, and I don’t think they should be admitted to our world, but I’m not about to go out and kill them all. Fact is, the wizarding world is getting smaller and smaller, and people like Granger are, as much as I hate to admit, a necessity for our kind to keep going.”
“When did you realize that?” Harry asked curiously.
“Second year, really, when my father was berating me for letting her have higher scores than I did and I realized that she was actually just good at what she was doing. Not that I didn’t absolutely hate her even more for that, mind you.”
“That long, huh?”
“Yeah.” There was another silence, interrupted by the sounds of cheers coming from around the castle. Far off in the distance, the sky lit up periodically with what Harry guessed were fireworks.
“I guess that’s the turn of the New Year,” Harry commented, laughing a little. Draco ‘hmmed’ in agreement.
“So, any resolutions for yourself this year, Potter?” he asked.
“Nothing specific,” Harry answered. “I guess things will really be different from now on, though. I don’t know if I’ll be able to fight with you anymore.”
“Whoa now, Potter, I never said I was switching sides or joining the Order or anything of that nonsense. And we’re certainly not going to be friends, by any means.”
“Right, Malfoy,” Harry replied, chuckling. But then what the Slytherin had said caught up with him. “Wait, how do you know about the Order?!” he asked, shocked. Draco blinked, cheeks going pink.
“Oh…well, I might have…um…already discussed things with Dumbledore.” At Harry’s stare he added, “A while ago, actually.” Harry continued to stare. “Back in October, now that I think about it. Of course, I talked to Professor Snape first.” Now Harry’s jaw dropped open.
“And no one thought to tell me this??” he cried. Draco shrugged.
“I guess not,” he replied innocently. Harry sighed in exasperation.
“Malfoy, can we start over?” he asked, and the blonde looked at him in confusion.
“How do you mean?”
Harry thrust his hand forward, looking into Draco’s eyes.
“Hello, my name’s Harry Potter,” he said easily. Draco blinked, eying him warily and glancing down at his hand. Images flashed through his head, old memories of meeting this small, scared looking boy in Madam Malkin’s robe shop, of the sheer hurt he’d felt when his hand had been rejected, of years of jealousy and anger and longing for something that he still didn’t quite understand. He was so tempted to walk out right then, just so Potter would know how it felt. But…
Slowly, he reached out and took the other boy’s hand, gripping it warmly and tightly in his own.
“Draco Malfoy,” he said slowly, smiling slightly. “Pleasure to meet you.” Harry grinned, pumping his hand up and down.
“I think you and I will get along just fine…Draco.” The blonde burst out laughing, and Harry was almost positive it was the first time he’d ever heard the warm, cheerful sound. It sent shivers down his spine.
“Oh boy, does that sound weird…” Draco said, grinning. It made his entire face light up, and Harry could only stare at him in awe. “…Harry.”
“I like you calling me that,” Harry said softly, still in awe. Draco’s grin softened.
“I like being able to call you that,” he replied. They stared at each other for minute, before Harry opened his mouth to say something. Before he could get any words out, though, Draco reached out and cupped his face in his hands and pulled him forward. Their lips met softly at first, Harry's eyes going wide, before he gave in and took the initiative, pulling Draco deeper into the kiss and wrapping his arms around the slim boy’s waist as their tongues wrapped around each other.
Draco pulled back for a brief second, cheeks flushed in the dim light. "This alright?" he panted, eyes half shut and gazing at Harry.
Harry stared at him for another moment, before a grin split across his face and he pulled Draco back towards himself. "What do you think?" he murmured, and then kissed Draco again before he could answer.
Around them, people cheered and partied the New Year in, but Harry and Draco were oblivious to their celebrating, too busy exploring each other instead.
The End!
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And that's my Christmas fic! I hope it didn’t seem too rushed. Anyhoo, no more taking time off from Starts With a Spin. Hope you enjoyed it!
*~Maxine~*
And that's it! Happy Holidays, everyone!