FIC: To be oneself (PG-13)
Title: To be oneself
House Category: Gryffindor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Author: aylarah_scale
Rating: PG-13
(Highlight to View) Warning(s): None.
Note: AU-ish from book 5.
Summary: It's Harry's final school ball and he's been roped into finding a date. When the person he wants to ask is non other than super-Slytherin Draco Malfoy, how on earth is he meant to get him to agree to a date?
"Will you shut up already?"
"Oh honestly Ron, just because you got a clue this year and asked me as soon as it was announced doesn't mean Harry's done the same! He's running out of time and I really think..."
Trying to block out the sound of his two friends bickering, Harry sighed and shifted the pile of books under his head that he was using as a pillow. They'd been going on like this for the last ten minutes, and he was starting to get a headache. The topic of discussion was the Yule ball, which for some reason Professor Dumbledore had decided was going to be held again this year. So lo and behold, it was going to take place on Saturday. Today was Monday, and Harry still hadn't asked anyone to go with him. He didn't really see much of a problem with this - the last time he was at a ball, the dancing was terrible and he spent most of his time talking to Ron rather than his date. He didn't see why he couldn't just go stag, since it would save a lot of bother and embarrassment, and he didn't think the night would turn out any different than it did in fourth year.
Hermione, on the other hand, took a rather different view of things. Since Ron had heeded her advice to ask her first next time, she was going to personally make sure Ron's night went in a completely different direction to his last ball. He was not going to be sitting talking to Harry the entire night on Saturday, oh no. Hermione wanted to enjoy her final school ball, so was determined that he would dance at least half of the time. Harry was going to need someone to keep him company. A date was a must.
"...and that's why. Harry are you even listening to me?" Hermione's voice pierced through the fog that had descended upon Harry's brain, and he sat up, shaking his head slightly to clear it.
Hermione sighed. "I didn't think so."
"I was listening," Harry protested. "To most of it anyway. You think I should get a date so that you and Ron can spend the night dancing and with each other et cetera. I understand."
"Not so that we can, because we're going to." Hermione corrected.
"Bloody hell Hermione, the man said he understands!" Ron exclaimed, exasperated. "If he doesn't want a date, he doesn't want a date. Whoever he'd ask would probably think he's interested in more than just a date to the ball anyway, and obviously there's no one Harry wants that way."
"Well..." Harry started, before realising that talking was probably a fairly stupid thing to do.
"Well?" Hermione asked, eyes widening. "You mean there is someone?"
"No?" Harry turned the word into a question, hoping that his friends would let his slight slip-up pass by.
No such luck.
"Harry James Potter, I do believe you're keeping secrets" Hermione grinned, casting a glance down the library to make sure Madam Pince was occupied and wouldn't tell them to be quiet.
"How come you didn't tell me?" Ron asked, slightly affronted.
"It's sort of... complicated." Harry said softly, "And I'm not entirely sure how you're going to react."
Ron paled. "It's not 'Mione is it?"
Harry gave him a very flat look. "Of course it's not Hermione. No offence." He added the last bit to the girl in question.
Ron gulped, looking paler still. "It's not... me?" The last bit came out a whisper.
"Yes Ron, I've decided I'm truly, madly and passionately in love with you." Harry deadpanned, whilst Hermione snorted. "It's not you. The fact that I'm not sure how you're going to react and the 'it's complicated' are because of their house, amidst a number of other things."
Hermione pursed her lips and cast a quick glance in Ron's direction. "So it's a Slytherin then?"
"Maybe," he mumbled, looking down and playing with the corner of one of the books he'd been resting his head on. "I'm not going to ask them anyway so it doesn't really matter."
"Of course it matters!" Hermione said, taking over the role of inquisitor completely as Ron seemed to be stuck getting his head around the person's house ("A... a ... a Slyth... Slyther... Slytherin?"). "We want you to be happy, and if you're happy with a Slytherin, well I suppose they're not all evil little cockroaches like some we know."
Harry grimaced. "Well see, about those evil little cockroaches... they've not really been all that bad this year have they?"
"Well if you mean people like Malfoy and his gang then -" Hermione started, but was interrupted by Harry's voice, quiet but firm.
"What if I mean Malfoy?"
"Malfoy?" Ron's voice startled Harry - he'd not realised his friend had become coherent again yet. "You like Malfoy?"
"Shush, there are other people in here!" Harry looked up to see the expressions on his friends' faces, expecting horror and disgust. All he could see though was shock on Ron's, and slight bemusement on Hermione's. "Why aren't you horrified?"
"Oh I'm horrified all right," Ron said, shuddering slightly, "The thought of wanting to see that git's speckled arse, enough to turn anyone's stomach."
"It's not speckled," Harry said, before realising yet again that he should learn to keep his mouth shut. "How I know that is not important," he added, before Ron could say anything else.
"I'm not horrified Harry, it makes sense in some weird Professor-Trelawney-would-love-this sort of way." Hermione had shaken off her bemusement it seemed, and was now looking rather pensive. Harry sighed, glad he still had his friends with him, closed his eyes and settled his head back onto the books to go back to his nap.
"Now all you need to do is ask him to the ball."
Harry's eyes flew open.
"Hermione, you must be kidding me."
"I most certainly am not. You need a date. You no longer have the excuse that you can't ask anyone because you don't want them to think you're interested in more than just a dance partner, because you are interested in Draco as more than just a dance partner."
Ron looked at the girl incredulously. "Since when has he been Draco?"
Hermione gave him a withering look. "Since he's going to be Harry's date and we'll probably end up seeing him a lot more in future."
"Hermione I can't ask him. He'd never say yes, I'll just look like a fool!"
Ron snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "You are a fool."
"Of course you can ask him Harry, he has been giving you some interesting looks recently." Hermione started packing the books on the table into her backpack, dislodging Harry's head from it's resting place and causing it to fall to the table with a thump.
"Define 'interesting looks'." Harry said, rubbing his head gingerly and sitting up straight.
"Interesting as in he's not quite sure how he feels about you anymore. He definitely no longer hates you."
Ron shook his head. "How do you know these things from a single look?" He asked, slightly disbelievingly. "For all you know, he could have eaten something that didn't agree with him and been thinking about that."
"Oh Ron, teaspoon again! And it's not just a single look - it's been building all year, I'm sure of it."
"Ok," said Harry, as they stood up and headed out of the library. "Let's say hypothetically that I'm going to ask him. How would I go about doing that?"
The three pondered the question as they headed towards the great hall for dinner, none able to come up with a suitable answer.
"I have no idea mate," Ron said finally, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. "I've never wanted to ask a Slytherin on a date before."
"Harry's asking a Slytherin out?" An Irish lilt greeted them, as Seamus Finnigan shifted to make room for Hermione.
Ron nodded, mouth already filled with a chicken leg.
"Well then, best thing would to approach the situation in a Hufflepuff-like manner. Everyone knows the 'Puffs are people you just can't say no to if they pluck up the nerve to ask you out. I think it's the whole kindness, loyal puppy-like quality they have."
"You think so?" Harry asked, slightly more interested in the whole thing despite the fact that it was a stupid idea that he absolutely wasn't going to go ahead with and wasn't considering, not at all. Not even possibly. Well maybe just a teeny bit.
"It's a sure thing. In fact, just act like a Huffie and they'll be asking you out. Can't fail, you mark my words."
The next day, despite spending all night thinking about how asking Draco Malfoy out was the most stupid thing that he could ever do, Harry was actually considering it. It was their last ball after all; pretty much his last chance to see if anything could happen between the two of them. If he was rejected, well, there were only a few months left of school. Draco might tell everyone and embarrass him horribly, but at least everyone wouldn't hate him and think he was trying to kill people again. He would get through it.
So when potions class with Slytherin came around, he decided to put Seamus' idea into practice. They had been put in pairs earlier in the month for a fairly long project, each Gryffindor paired with a Slytherin. As fates (or Snape) would have it, Harry's partner for this potion was Draco, a fact that neither of them had relished to start with. Lately a kind of truce had developed between them though, and Harry was no longer finding potions to be extremely unbearable.
"Ok, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff" Harry muttered as he approached the desk he'd been sharing with the other boy for the last few weeks.
"What are you muttering about Potter?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Harry as if he'd lost his mind.
"Nothing," Harry said, making sure to give a big smile in a Huff-like manor as he did so.
Draco gave him a very strange look, before shaking his head and turning to his potions book.
For the entire lesson, Harry went out of his way to be nice and kind, tried to act like the perfect Hufflepuff, and even threw in a few compliments, but all it served to do was make Draco look at him stranger and stranger, until at one point he raised his hand to suggest to Professor Snape that "I think Potter should go to the hospital wing sir, I think he's been hit with something."
Harry's head hit the desk with a thump and he gave up acting like a Hufflepuff.
On Wednesday, Neville Longbottom approached Harry over breakfast and told him that if he wanted to go out with a Slytherin ("Does everyone know now!?") then he should act like a Ravenclaw. It was why Neville had started dating Luna after all - who could fail to be impressed with their knowledge and abilities?
But Harry didn't do too well acting like a Ravenclaw. Oh he tried, but looking back on it, walking up to Draco in the middle of the entrance hall and asking, "Did you know that pigs can have thirty minute orgasms?" had to be one of the most stupid things he had ever done in his entire life. It wasn't his fault after all that in his nervousness all factual information managed to escape his brain! Ron had burst into laughter and Draco had gone slightly red and walked off quickly, muttering something about mentally ill lions. After getting over the initial shock that he had actually just done that, Harry barricaded himself in his room for the rest of the day and hid under the covers.
Thursday came and Harry was getting desperate enough to actually try Ron's suggestion that the only way to get a Slytherin to go out with you was to act like one of them and trick them into asking you out. Hermione added that "Tricking someone isn't actually one of their house traits you know, Slytherins are all about ambition and cunning. You need to be cunning."
Luckily Harry didn't have to try acting Slytherin-ish in public like he did the day before, as their second potions lesson of the week was in the afternoon. As Draco was chopping up ingredients for the next stage of their potion, Harry attempted to be cool and aloof. He tried sneering at a few people, earning more than a few odd looks and unhappy stares, before Draco turned and snapped.
"What the hell is wrong with you Potter?"
Harry shifted slightly and tried to look down his nose at the other boy. "Wouldn't you like to know." He tried to be mysterious, he really did.
"Yes I bloody well would Potter, you've been acting strange all week."
Harry had to hold back a grin. "Well why don't you take me somewhere and we'll find out." 'There we go,' he thought, 'now he has to ask me out.'
"You know what Potter, I think I will."
Harry was not amused when he found himself in the hospital wing being checked for curses.
On Friday, Harry was fed up. Despite everyone's advice, Draco was no closer to asking him out and was starting to think he was mentally unstable. There was only one more day until the ball and despite his protests earlier on in the week, he had been looking forward to going with Draco if he had the chance. But he was also realising something else - acting like a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin was all very well if you were a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin, but he wasn't, and if Draco only liked him when he was acting different, well then it wasn't worth the bother.
So it being the last day he could ask him before the ball, Harry decided to just act like himself. He was a Gryffindor, and if Draco didn't like that, well then that was that. He just wouldn't have a date for the dance. It wasn't until dinner that he actually saw the other boy though - he entered the hall just as Draco was leaving through a door in the other wall. It was now or never, he had to use every ounce of Gryffindor bravery and courage that he could to stop his only chance at a date from getting away.
"DRACO." He shouted, causing all heads to turn in his direction. Draco paused mid-step. He swallowed nervously. "Will you go to the ball with me?"
Draco turned around with a strange look on his face. After a moment's hesitation, he answered.
"Yes."
House Category: Gryffindor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Author: aylarah_scale
Rating: PG-13
(Highlight to View) Warning(s): None.
Note: AU-ish from book 5.
Summary: It's Harry's final school ball and he's been roped into finding a date. When the person he wants to ask is non other than super-Slytherin Draco Malfoy, how on earth is he meant to get him to agree to a date?
"Will you shut up already?"
"Oh honestly Ron, just because you got a clue this year and asked me as soon as it was announced doesn't mean Harry's done the same! He's running out of time and I really think..."
Trying to block out the sound of his two friends bickering, Harry sighed and shifted the pile of books under his head that he was using as a pillow. They'd been going on like this for the last ten minutes, and he was starting to get a headache. The topic of discussion was the Yule ball, which for some reason Professor Dumbledore had decided was going to be held again this year. So lo and behold, it was going to take place on Saturday. Today was Monday, and Harry still hadn't asked anyone to go with him. He didn't really see much of a problem with this - the last time he was at a ball, the dancing was terrible and he spent most of his time talking to Ron rather than his date. He didn't see why he couldn't just go stag, since it would save a lot of bother and embarrassment, and he didn't think the night would turn out any different than it did in fourth year.
Hermione, on the other hand, took a rather different view of things. Since Ron had heeded her advice to ask her first next time, she was going to personally make sure Ron's night went in a completely different direction to his last ball. He was not going to be sitting talking to Harry the entire night on Saturday, oh no. Hermione wanted to enjoy her final school ball, so was determined that he would dance at least half of the time. Harry was going to need someone to keep him company. A date was a must.
"...and that's why. Harry are you even listening to me?" Hermione's voice pierced through the fog that had descended upon Harry's brain, and he sat up, shaking his head slightly to clear it.
Hermione sighed. "I didn't think so."
"I was listening," Harry protested. "To most of it anyway. You think I should get a date so that you and Ron can spend the night dancing and with each other et cetera. I understand."
"Not so that we can, because we're going to." Hermione corrected.
"Bloody hell Hermione, the man said he understands!" Ron exclaimed, exasperated. "If he doesn't want a date, he doesn't want a date. Whoever he'd ask would probably think he's interested in more than just a date to the ball anyway, and obviously there's no one Harry wants that way."
"Well..." Harry started, before realising that talking was probably a fairly stupid thing to do.
"Well?" Hermione asked, eyes widening. "You mean there is someone?"
"No?" Harry turned the word into a question, hoping that his friends would let his slight slip-up pass by.
No such luck.
"Harry James Potter, I do believe you're keeping secrets" Hermione grinned, casting a glance down the library to make sure Madam Pince was occupied and wouldn't tell them to be quiet.
"How come you didn't tell me?" Ron asked, slightly affronted.
"It's sort of... complicated." Harry said softly, "And I'm not entirely sure how you're going to react."
Ron paled. "It's not 'Mione is it?"
Harry gave him a very flat look. "Of course it's not Hermione. No offence." He added the last bit to the girl in question.
Ron gulped, looking paler still. "It's not... me?" The last bit came out a whisper.
"Yes Ron, I've decided I'm truly, madly and passionately in love with you." Harry deadpanned, whilst Hermione snorted. "It's not you. The fact that I'm not sure how you're going to react and the 'it's complicated' are because of their house, amidst a number of other things."
Hermione pursed her lips and cast a quick glance in Ron's direction. "So it's a Slytherin then?"
"Maybe," he mumbled, looking down and playing with the corner of one of the books he'd been resting his head on. "I'm not going to ask them anyway so it doesn't really matter."
"Of course it matters!" Hermione said, taking over the role of inquisitor completely as Ron seemed to be stuck getting his head around the person's house ("A... a ... a Slyth... Slyther... Slytherin?"). "We want you to be happy, and if you're happy with a Slytherin, well I suppose they're not all evil little cockroaches like some we know."
Harry grimaced. "Well see, about those evil little cockroaches... they've not really been all that bad this year have they?"
"Well if you mean people like Malfoy and his gang then -" Hermione started, but was interrupted by Harry's voice, quiet but firm.
"What if I mean Malfoy?"
"Malfoy?" Ron's voice startled Harry - he'd not realised his friend had become coherent again yet. "You like Malfoy?"
"Shush, there are other people in here!" Harry looked up to see the expressions on his friends' faces, expecting horror and disgust. All he could see though was shock on Ron's, and slight bemusement on Hermione's. "Why aren't you horrified?"
"Oh I'm horrified all right," Ron said, shuddering slightly, "The thought of wanting to see that git's speckled arse, enough to turn anyone's stomach."
"It's not speckled," Harry said, before realising yet again that he should learn to keep his mouth shut. "How I know that is not important," he added, before Ron could say anything else.
"I'm not horrified Harry, it makes sense in some weird Professor-Trelawney-would-love-this sort of way." Hermione had shaken off her bemusement it seemed, and was now looking rather pensive. Harry sighed, glad he still had his friends with him, closed his eyes and settled his head back onto the books to go back to his nap.
"Now all you need to do is ask him to the ball."
Harry's eyes flew open.
"Hermione, you must be kidding me."
"I most certainly am not. You need a date. You no longer have the excuse that you can't ask anyone because you don't want them to think you're interested in more than just a dance partner, because you are interested in Draco as more than just a dance partner."
Ron looked at the girl incredulously. "Since when has he been Draco?"
Hermione gave him a withering look. "Since he's going to be Harry's date and we'll probably end up seeing him a lot more in future."
"Hermione I can't ask him. He'd never say yes, I'll just look like a fool!"
Ron snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "You are a fool."
"Of course you can ask him Harry, he has been giving you some interesting looks recently." Hermione started packing the books on the table into her backpack, dislodging Harry's head from it's resting place and causing it to fall to the table with a thump.
"Define 'interesting looks'." Harry said, rubbing his head gingerly and sitting up straight.
"Interesting as in he's not quite sure how he feels about you anymore. He definitely no longer hates you."
Ron shook his head. "How do you know these things from a single look?" He asked, slightly disbelievingly. "For all you know, he could have eaten something that didn't agree with him and been thinking about that."
"Oh Ron, teaspoon again! And it's not just a single look - it's been building all year, I'm sure of it."
"Ok," said Harry, as they stood up and headed out of the library. "Let's say hypothetically that I'm going to ask him. How would I go about doing that?"
The three pondered the question as they headed towards the great hall for dinner, none able to come up with a suitable answer.
"I have no idea mate," Ron said finally, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. "I've never wanted to ask a Slytherin on a date before."
"Harry's asking a Slytherin out?" An Irish lilt greeted them, as Seamus Finnigan shifted to make room for Hermione.
Ron nodded, mouth already filled with a chicken leg.
"Well then, best thing would to approach the situation in a Hufflepuff-like manner. Everyone knows the 'Puffs are people you just can't say no to if they pluck up the nerve to ask you out. I think it's the whole kindness, loyal puppy-like quality they have."
"You think so?" Harry asked, slightly more interested in the whole thing despite the fact that it was a stupid idea that he absolutely wasn't going to go ahead with and wasn't considering, not at all. Not even possibly. Well maybe just a teeny bit.
"It's a sure thing. In fact, just act like a Huffie and they'll be asking you out. Can't fail, you mark my words."
The next day, despite spending all night thinking about how asking Draco Malfoy out was the most stupid thing that he could ever do, Harry was actually considering it. It was their last ball after all; pretty much his last chance to see if anything could happen between the two of them. If he was rejected, well, there were only a few months left of school. Draco might tell everyone and embarrass him horribly, but at least everyone wouldn't hate him and think he was trying to kill people again. He would get through it.
So when potions class with Slytherin came around, he decided to put Seamus' idea into practice. They had been put in pairs earlier in the month for a fairly long project, each Gryffindor paired with a Slytherin. As fates (or Snape) would have it, Harry's partner for this potion was Draco, a fact that neither of them had relished to start with. Lately a kind of truce had developed between them though, and Harry was no longer finding potions to be extremely unbearable.
"Ok, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff" Harry muttered as he approached the desk he'd been sharing with the other boy for the last few weeks.
"What are you muttering about Potter?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Harry as if he'd lost his mind.
"Nothing," Harry said, making sure to give a big smile in a Huff-like manor as he did so.
Draco gave him a very strange look, before shaking his head and turning to his potions book.
For the entire lesson, Harry went out of his way to be nice and kind, tried to act like the perfect Hufflepuff, and even threw in a few compliments, but all it served to do was make Draco look at him stranger and stranger, until at one point he raised his hand to suggest to Professor Snape that "I think Potter should go to the hospital wing sir, I think he's been hit with something."
Harry's head hit the desk with a thump and he gave up acting like a Hufflepuff.
On Wednesday, Neville Longbottom approached Harry over breakfast and told him that if he wanted to go out with a Slytherin ("Does everyone know now!?") then he should act like a Ravenclaw. It was why Neville had started dating Luna after all - who could fail to be impressed with their knowledge and abilities?
But Harry didn't do too well acting like a Ravenclaw. Oh he tried, but looking back on it, walking up to Draco in the middle of the entrance hall and asking, "Did you know that pigs can have thirty minute orgasms?" had to be one of the most stupid things he had ever done in his entire life. It wasn't his fault after all that in his nervousness all factual information managed to escape his brain! Ron had burst into laughter and Draco had gone slightly red and walked off quickly, muttering something about mentally ill lions. After getting over the initial shock that he had actually just done that, Harry barricaded himself in his room for the rest of the day and hid under the covers.
Thursday came and Harry was getting desperate enough to actually try Ron's suggestion that the only way to get a Slytherin to go out with you was to act like one of them and trick them into asking you out. Hermione added that "Tricking someone isn't actually one of their house traits you know, Slytherins are all about ambition and cunning. You need to be cunning."
Luckily Harry didn't have to try acting Slytherin-ish in public like he did the day before, as their second potions lesson of the week was in the afternoon. As Draco was chopping up ingredients for the next stage of their potion, Harry attempted to be cool and aloof. He tried sneering at a few people, earning more than a few odd looks and unhappy stares, before Draco turned and snapped.
"What the hell is wrong with you Potter?"
Harry shifted slightly and tried to look down his nose at the other boy. "Wouldn't you like to know." He tried to be mysterious, he really did.
"Yes I bloody well would Potter, you've been acting strange all week."
Harry had to hold back a grin. "Well why don't you take me somewhere and we'll find out." 'There we go,' he thought, 'now he has to ask me out.'
"You know what Potter, I think I will."
Harry was not amused when he found himself in the hospital wing being checked for curses.
On Friday, Harry was fed up. Despite everyone's advice, Draco was no closer to asking him out and was starting to think he was mentally unstable. There was only one more day until the ball and despite his protests earlier on in the week, he had been looking forward to going with Draco if he had the chance. But he was also realising something else - acting like a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin was all very well if you were a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin, but he wasn't, and if Draco only liked him when he was acting different, well then it wasn't worth the bother.
So it being the last day he could ask him before the ball, Harry decided to just act like himself. He was a Gryffindor, and if Draco didn't like that, well then that was that. He just wouldn't have a date for the dance. It wasn't until dinner that he actually saw the other boy though - he entered the hall just as Draco was leaving through a door in the other wall. It was now or never, he had to use every ounce of Gryffindor bravery and courage that he could to stop his only chance at a date from getting away.
"DRACO." He shouted, causing all heads to turn in his direction. Draco paused mid-step. He swallowed nervously. "Will you go to the ball with me?"
Draco turned around with a strange look on his face. After a moment's hesitation, he answered.
"Yes."