Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harry's eyes caught a blur of platinum blonde running out of the Great Hall. It was him, he thought, I was right. Unconsciously, he'd started running after the other boy, trying to step as lightly as possible. Where were they headed? Where could Malfoy possibly go on the second-

Harry stood behind the closed doors of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He wanted to barge in, to curse Malfoy for what he'd done to Katie. Just as he was about to do so, he heard something that made his hand freeze on the door.

Sobs. 

No, he chided himself, don't pity him.

But still, it changed something. Showed that Malfoy was... human. Harry was awakened from his musings as he heard a crash and the sound of shattering glass come from the bathroom and finally barged in there.

It was quite a sight. Draco Malfoy, pale as a corpse, was slouching over one of the sinks in the bathroom. The shards of what hadn't been glass, but a mirror, lay across the floor, and drops of blood dripped down onto a particularly large shard from Malfoy's right knuckle.

Upon noticing his intruder, Malfoy quickly turned to face the door and raised his wand in his bloodied hand, but Harry acted first.

"Expelliarmus!" He couldn't believe himself. He'd followed Malfoy in here, thinking about using the worst spells he could muster up on the blonde, but a single moment seemed to have changed his mind without his permission.

Draco looked at him now, eyes full of... Harry couldn't read what he saw in those gray eyes at first. It wasn't hatred, not anger, not even the disdain he was so used to. It was something he never expected to see in Draco Malfoy's eyes- despair.

Malfoy did attempt to pull himself together and regain his usual demeanour, but that was hard to do when his face was a blotchy mess and he had to keep sniffing to stop snot from running down his face. 

"What do you want, Potter?"

"It was you"

"You're going to have to be more specific than that" but the slight tremble in his voice gave him away

"You gave Katie the necklace"

"Not really"

"Stop lying!" Harry raised his wand. Draco backed off a step.

"I didn't give it to her. I did, however, make someone else do it." He said as nonchalantly as possible. Harry's eyes widened at the sudden confession.

"Do you have a death wish?" Green eyes searched grey for answers as he raised his wand once again, and saw fear.

"Better you than him" Draco shuddered with the last word.

Realisation dawned on Harry

"He's forcing you to-" but Draco cut him off, seemingly involuntarily. He seemed to have just... snapped. As he yelled, he continuously picked up shards of mirror and threw them at Harry, who put up a shield charm just in time. Draco didn't seem to care about his cut up hands, nor did he care that his efforts to stab Harry were futile. He just kept crying, throwing and screaming.

"No shit, Sherlock! You think I want to be like this? Can't sleep, can't eat, can't do anything! Do you think I want to spend my second to last year of school as practically a ghost? I don't! I want to stress about grades and quidditch and cute boys, not about MY MOTHER'S FUCKING LIFE!" he stopped to take a deep breath. He wasn't crying anymore.

"Do you think I want to be branded like a filthy cow?" He rolled up his left sleeve so fast and hard that his fingernails left a trail of red in his pale skin, leading up to... the dark mark.

"I don't want any of this" the blonde had tears in his eyes again as his voice shook.

"I don't want to be a murderer"

They just stood there, for a long moment, and looked into each other's eyes. That is, untill, Harry broke the silence. 

"You're still bleeding."

"You still have my wand" Draco raised an eyebrow.

Instead of throwing it back to him like expected, Harry walked over, raised his own wand and used it to clean and heal the cuts on the blonde's palms and knuckles. After he was done, he looked up. 

"What if there was a way out? Would you take it?"

Draco looked sad

"There is no way out. There is no escaping him. I'll either succeed and become the monster slave he wants, or I'll fail in which case I can't imagine what he'll do to me or mom"

"Voldemort is not a god. He's a powerful wizard, yes, but he's not hard to con. Truthfully, he's just a bitter, overpowered old dude who never got over his puberty or daddy issues!" Draco looked at Harry in surprise. Not even Dumbledore would dare to speak in such a way about the Dark Lord. But Harry continued.

"I met his youth through his diary in our second year. His real name's Tom, but he changed it because it was his muggle father's who abandoned his mom while she was pregnant. Dick move, but she had been feeding him love potion- so no one's in the right there." Draco still didn't seem to have any words.

"I'm telling you this, so that you see. He's only human. He's defiable, even defeatable. If you want a way out, we can manage something as the order. They'll manage to get your mom out too. Dumbledore's pretty smart."

"Are you... sure-"

"Of Course I'm sure Draco, for fucks sake, Dumbledore taught Vo-"

"Are you sure they'll help me? Us?" Draco blurted out. Somehow, although he was unprepared for the question, Harry knew exactly what to say.

"Help, will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." Another silent but charged moment passed, and finally Draco gave a slight nod. Harry grabbed the taller boy by the arm and yanked him towards the Headmaster's office.

Thankfully, the password for the Gargoyle was unchanged from his last visit there so he managed to drag a faintly struggling- and visibly sweating- Draco up to the office without much trouble and banged on the door, likely harder than anyone had done in centuries.

"Yes?" Dumbledore sounded surprised and, slightly irritated. At the moment, Harry didn't care. He barged in, dragging Draco behind him.

"Professor! I need to-"

"Mr. Potter, I believe I've already told you to leave the business with Mr. Malfoy alone? Why is it that you continue to feel the need to disregard my words on the subject?" Dumbledore's voice wasn't higher than normal, but he did seem a little angry to be bothered by this. Just then, Draco spoke in a small, but still distinct voice.

"I've come toaskforyourhelp" he said, swallowing the words. When no one moved after a second, he sighed, looked up to meet Dumbledore's eyes and said, louder "I need your help?" 

Dumbledore dived into his mind, and Draco let him. He let him see everything, but the one, small detail that it was the Headmaster himself that he'd been trying to kill.

"Lovely to see you've decided to stop your feeble attempts to kill me, Mr. Malfoy." The Headmaster smiled at the expressions of shock on each boys' face. 

"Oh, I've known longer than you have- Voldemort told Severus first. But, alas, it must be he, who kills me."

"You want to be killed by the Dark Lord?!" Draco asked in surprise.

Dumbledore pretended not to hear him and changed the subject.

"Now, Mr. Malfoy, what exactly do you need my help with?"

Chapter Text

The plan was quite simple. Snape had carried down the message to Narcissa- it was somewhere along the "Draco's going to turn on the Dark Lord openly so you go along with the plan or die" lines, and worked splendidly despite it's crudeness. They would open the floo line in the headmaster's room for a few minutes and connect to the fireplace at Narcissa's room in the Malfoy Manor. They'd do it during the night, since Narcissa usually went to her room rather early and didn't leave it until breakfast. She usually didn't sleep more than a few hours, couldn't in her family's current predicament, but no one else knew that. None of them would be suspicious until morning, which would be far too late. 

Fools.

Exactly at a quarter to midnight, Severus' head popped out of the flames in her lit fireplace which she had been watching intently for the past half hour. He tried to survey the room, but had a limited visual field at the moment.

"No one's here, Severus" Narcissa said as she snapped her fingers intently, and a house elf popped out of thin air, giving her a suitcase. 

"Thank you Milly, and remember: all elves will leave the premises by the time I usually have breakfast. When the others realise what I've done, they'll come after you lot." And with that, the woman slipped into the flames, and left the place she'd called home for the past 20 years without a second glance.

"Mother!" Draco practically threw himself on his mother. He'd been so worried about this night that he hadn't slept in days and he'd made his nails bleed with his persistent biting.

Narcissa smiled for the first time in months as she hugged her son, and gave him a kiss at the top of his head, which he'd usually skin her for- but right now he was thankful for it.

"Thank you" Narcissa addressed the two men in the room."For helping us"

"Don't even mention it, Mrs.Malfoy. But now that we're on the subject, let me give you more details about the plan. I fear Severus may have been... selective about the information he gave you" one side of Snape's lips quirked up slightly.

"You could say that"

"Tonight, you will be taken to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and remain hidden there. This address is under the fidelius charm, so I will now give you a piece of paper with the address for you to be able to enter. This, is me putting a lot of trust in you. I hope you won't attempt to disappoint me." Dumbledore addressed his old pupil.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Professor. This gives my son the chance at a better life, and as a mother, I will do everything that does so." 

Dumbledore smiled softly as he passed her the paper, on which he'd scribbled the address of Grimmauld Place, as unlike his usual writing as possible. The less people know who the secret keeper is, the better.

A few moments later, Narcissa silently passed the note back to the Headmaster, and turned to her son.

"I'm so proud of you, dragon." She hugged him tight "I'll see you soon. And be careful"

"I will '' he replied, his voice a little less than stable for his liking. When Narcissa actually left alongside Snape and he was left alone with the Headmaster, the blonde quickly looked away to hide the redness of his eyes. He thanked Dumbledore once again and quickly ran out of the room, towards the familiar second floor bathroom. He needed to splash himself with some cold water before going to the dorms as he didn't particularly feel like being judged right then. Being back there, and seeing a tiny shard of mirror caught in a crevice of the strange sink assortment, he recalled the events of the previous night. Alright then, he thought to himself, better thank Potter. For Merlin's sake, what was going on with his life? Draco Malfoy didn't thank anyone other than his mother, and he most definitely did not thank Harry bloody Potter. He sighed for likely the thousandth time that night as he dragged his feet towards the dungeons. 

The next morning, Draco woke up extremely early and decided to have breakfast in the kitchens instead of the Great Hall. He was hell bent on avoiding Potter for as long as humanly possible - how the fuck did you thank someone you've hated for the past 5 years again? He shook his head to clear his mind as he tickled the pear to get into the kitchens. 

Roughly 8 floors above, Harry Potter sat in his four poster, watching the Marauder's Map intently. He assumed Narcissa was out safely since Draco was still roaming around school, and he really wanted to know how they'd gotten her out- Dumbledore had refused to share the plan with him. At least, that's what he kept telling himself as he quickly dressed and shot out of the portrait hole. 

He was curious about a plan, and not at all worried about Malfoy. No sir, that would be ridiculous.

When the doors to the kitchens opened, Draco jumped so high in his seat that upon falling back, he was sure he'd bruised his ass. That wasn't the biggest of his concerns as the person who he'd been trying to avoid in the first place walked into the room, (pretending to be) surprised by the sight of the blonde already there.

"Mornin'" Harry greeted Draco as he sat across from him.

"Good morning" 

As Harry ordered some breakfast from the elves, they didn't address each other again. They kept their silence for a while of eating too- Draco was almost completely finished with his food when he finally mustered the courage to say

"Thank you!" He cursed the slight crack of his voice as Harry's emerald eyes turned to fix on him.

"For what?"

"You know, um... taking me to Dumbledore and... stuff" Draco couldn't meet the other boys' gaze. Why did he have to get so flustered again? And why was it so hard to speak all of a sudden?

"Uh, no problem." Harry shrugged. "I assume the plan worked?"

"Yeah they relocated mum last night." 

So they kept talking, at first about what the order had arranged for Narcissa and Draco. However, as time wore on, the conversation became more and more casual and before they knew it, the breakfast above them had ended and it was time for classes.

Chapter Text

Harry groaned into his pillow once again. Sleep seemed to be determined to evade him tonight, as it had often done in the past few weeks. This is completely normal, he reminded himself. You've been obsessed with what an evil git Malfoy had been for years, it's only natural that this makes you lose some sleep. And you are definitely, DEFINITELY, not spending these sleepless nights wondering how his slender fingers would feel against your skin. Nope. He continued to tell himself that, as he finally drifted to a mercifully dreamless sleep.

Down at the dungeons, Draco wasn't so lucky. 

"Did you think that you can betray the Dark Lord like that without consequences? Did you think, at all, about what this means for US!?" His old... friend, he guessed they'd been friends, waved his wand to Draco's face. If only his own wand hadn't been out of reach. Or only if he hadn't been sleeping a few minutes ago. 

"Vincent, I -" he was cut short by a wand being shown practically into his neck.

"Don't call me Vincent, Malfoy. You knew perfectly well that if you betrayed him, he'd want me. And you know which side I'm on in this war"

Draco had known that but he didn't think admitting this now would help him. 

"I should thank you for this opportunity, Malfoy, I really should. And to show my gratitude, how about I start by hexing you into a pile of-'' he had been abruptly cut off by a large hand grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him away. Draco took advantage of the moment and took his wand from his dresser, but realized he likely wouldn't need it. The hand that had reached out to Vincent's collar belonged to Greg. 

"Stop that, Vince"

"He betrayed us"

"No, he betrayed the Dark Lord. Not us. He's our friend" Crabbe's face turned malicious with this remark.

"I'm on the Dark Lord's side, Greg. Don't tell me you've turned over to Potter like him" he spat the last word while gesturing at Draco.

"I don't care about the war Vince, I care about my friends."

"That's Crabbe to you" the other boy said coldly and left for his own bed. Over the years, Crabbe had gotten better with words and such, but Greg was the one who'd kept getting stronger. Crabbe clearly didn't want to fight them right now, because he'd lose.

"Thanks" Draco said, eyes stinging with unshed tears. 

"Friends stick up for each other?" Greg said with a shrug before going back to his own bed.

Draco sighed deeply once again as he sank into his bed. Right. At least he still had Greg. Pitifully, he was practically grieving for the sleep Vince- Crabbe had cost him. Tonight had been one of the few ones without pain in the past few weeks. After realizing his betrayal, the Dark Lord had taken to torturing him through his Dark Mark, especially at night. He kept calling for Draco, reminding him- he was not free. He'd never be free until Voldemort was dead. 

When he'd last spoken to his mother through the headmaster's fireplace, he'd told her all this. She'd listened carefully, and when he ended, her eyes had met his, filled with determination.

"Then Voldemort will have to die" she'd said, almost in a whisper. Draco thought about that moment. He thought about it a lot. Maybe he should offer Potter his help, or something, his mother had added. Potter must be planning the Dark Lord's death.

Potter was an issue of his own right. He kept... looking at Draco. Fine, this was hardly a crime but when his eyes met the piercing green ones of Potter, Draco got this jolt of feeling in his stomach. That wasn't good. It was definitely not good. Maybe sleep deprivation was driving him insane or something? 

If only he could get any sleep... that wasn't going to happen with his mark hurting more and more every time 'his master' called for him. Maybe if he wasn't such a sleep deprived mess he would be useful. But this thought in itself created a paradox so he let it go. 

Dragging themselves to double potions the following morning was a painful endeavour for both boys. Ofcourse, Draco's mood continued to decline as Slughorn ignored his impressive potion and went on to monologue about how great Potter's was. Draco startled when he looked at said potion, as it was actually perfect. That's odd, he thought to himself as he bottled up his own potion, Potter was never any good at potions before. He was glancing at the golden trio's table, where Granger was attempting to petrify Potter with a glare, as he walked to Slughorn's desk to leave his sample. Just then, he realized that the pain-free evening he spent a mere hours ago was the silence before the storm as a pain, worse than any and everything he'd felt so far in his entire life throbbed in his forearm. His vision became blurry, and he was trembling... and the pain kept increasing. He started biting his lip to draw his attention away from the pain on his forearm to no avail. If it went on like this he'd start crying, and he would not be able to survive the teasing that'd follow. He managed to place his vial on the desk, noticing that the pain had somewhat numbed. Maybe he'd given up?

The Dark Lord didn't give up.

A severe, burning sensation jolted from his mark and he heard a yell of pain- his own. He desperately tried to walk towards the door, but-

Crap! was all that came to Harry as he turned to the source of the yell of pain and saw Malfoy's face contorted in pain for a few seconds before the blonde fell to the ground. And suddenly, he was kneeling over Malfoy, trying to see what was wrong. He grabbed the other boy's forearm in an attempt to take his pulse, and noticed that it was burning hot. His whole forearm was.

The Mark. It suddenly dawned on him.

"Is he alright?" Slughorn had finally managed to drag his fat ass up to the front of the class.

"Don't think so. I'll take him to the Hospital Wing '' Harry said automatically and scooped Malfoy up. He was surprisingly light. Too light. 

Harry didn't even notice the murmurs and surprised looks thrown his way as he marched out of the class, carrying Draco Malfoy bridal style. He was too busy trying to decide where to go. The Hospital Wing was the obvious choice, but he doubted that Madame Pomofrey knew anything about Dark Mark related fainting. Thus, he decided that Snape's office was the better option.

He pounded on the door with his foot, and heard Snape approach the door. Thank Merlin he happened to have a free period.

"Potter what is the meani-'' he cut himself off as he noticed Draco.

"Come in, quickly"

Harry marched into the office, and lay Draco down on the sofa Snape indicated. 

"He passed out during Potions. Just before that he yelled out as if he was in pain, and it seems to be coming from, you know.." 

Snape quickly rolled up Draco's sleeve and his eyes went wide as Harry gasped. The skin beneath and around the mark had become terribly red and the swollen mark was throbbing visibly. 

Harry stood in silence, eyes transfixed at Draco's forearm, as Snape quickly took out a purplish paste and rubbed it on the inflamed skin. Then he took out a botion from his desk drawer and forced it down the boy's throat. 

"Good thing you brought him to me, Potter." Snape said, which sadly would have been one of the nicest things he'd said to Harry if it weren't for the alarming tone of contempt and anger in his voice. 

"He should have came to me before it got this bad" Snape added in a whisper, mostly to himself. Then he turned back to Harry.

"You should go to your classes Potter. I'll-"

"NO!" Don't shout, Harry chided himself "I mean... I can't leave him like this, Professor. I'll catch up with my classes"

Snape's eyes narrowed, but he didn't throw Harry out. He told him to watch Malfoy's condition as he made a potion that would help prevent the pain. Harry didn't ask him how he knew to do that. He didn't want to know if Snape had gone through this too, that would make it so much harder to hate the greasy git, which was already becoming an issue.

Instead, he sat next to the couch and just watched Draco. His mark was no longer swollen and throbbing, but the redness was still there. His chest was rising and falling slowly, which made his sharp jaw move slightly up and down. Harry's eyes slowly traveled up Draco's face, taking in the bite marks on his lips and the unreasonably perfect nose... His cheekbones were so sharp-

Pull yourself together! He had to remind himself, and went back to watching the Mark, not letting his eyes move from the spot. Finally, he saw the redness receding, quite suddenly at that, and notified Snape. 

"He must have stopped" the Professor provided and Harry saw this as his only chance to ask some questions that had been bothering him.

"How can Voldemort do this?" 

"Refusing the Dark Lord's call is painful, Potter. And over the years, he's found a way to make it excruciating in order to torture those who betray him" the contempt and rage was back in Snape's voice now. "Thankfully I've come up with a potion that prevents the pain- or at least lessens it."

"Why?" Harry asked without thinking

"Why do you think, Potter? Did you think being a spy was a walk in the park?"

"Sorry, Professor." 

Harry stood there awkwardly for a few moments as Snape went back to work on the potion, but a noise coming from the sitting area soon drew his attention. 

"What -cough- happened?" Draco asked, propping himself up on his elbows. 

"This is not good. This is so not good." 

"I agree Draco. You should have come to me much sooner tha-'' but Draco cut Snape off. 

"Not that! How am I supposed to explain what happened?"

"You could tell them it was my fault if you want?" Harry suggested.

"But you're the one who, umm , helped me out" Was Malfoy blushing?

"Yeah, I'm remorseful like that" Harry shrugged and offered a faint smile. 

"I don't care what you tell people or do. Mr. Potter, now that you see that he's fine, please leave Mr. Malfoy and I alone. We have a lot to talk about and you have more classes." Harry didn't protest- it had gotten really awkward in the office. As he reached the door, Draco called out after him. 

"Potter?"

"Yeah?"

Draco gulped and Harry was once again left to wonder if he saw a blush or not. Whatever it was, it was cute.

"Thank you"

Harry smiled widely at this.

"Anytime, Draco" 

This time, he was sure of the blush he'd seen on the blonde's face right before he turned away and sprinted out of the office.

Chapter Text

Draco didn't have to explain anything about his 'incident' in Potions when he went back to the Slytherin common room later that night. He was met by a far too tight hug from Pansy, who was "just devastated" to hear about the poison someone had put in his breakfast

"... honestly, will they never stop with this shit? I hope that useless headmaster does something about this- we need to find out who it was!"

"I'm fine, Pans. Just a little tired" Draco slipped out of her embrace and went off to his dorm room. He really was tired, and either because of Snape's potions or because Voldemort was taking a break for some other evil scheme, he didn't feel any pain at the moment. However, he couldn't seem to fall asleep. 

"Anytime, Draco"

He groaned into his pillow and turned to his other side. That bastard and his stupid beautiful smile and niceness. Stop thinking about him! He scolded himself internally, You're only going to get hurt. 

But he'd called him Draco. Since when were they on a first name basis? And he'd carried him all the way up to Snape's office, and refused to leave until he was okay and made up and spread a cover story and-

Get your shit together Draco. He's Potter. He's nice. Don't read into it. 

And he tried, really. But he couldn't help the smile that was etched on his lips as he kept thinking of how Harry's emerald eyes had shone as he'd smiled at him. He tossed and turned until finally, he was lulled into sleep by Greg's faint snores.

The following week was... strange. After Harry's story about Draco being poisoned was milked by the student body- which only took like a day or so- people started wondering how Harry had known what had happened. This led to the circulation of how he'd carried Draco out of potions and hadn't returned for hours. Most people had shrugged this off, Harry was the designated savior of Hogwarts- he did this stuff for everyone. However, people had started to notice that the pair was acting very odd ever since. They went out of their ways to greet each other in the halls and were caught smiling at each other across the room at the Great Hall. The other members of the 6th year Potions class witnessed some interactions that looked suspiciously like flirting. Ofcourse, the gossip didn't reach the two boys. No one wanted to be the first one to bring it up to either of them. Except, their close friends had, obviously, already brought it up. 

"Harry please let me take you to the Hospital Wing!" Ron said for the billionth time as the Golden Trio sat across the fireplace in the nearly empty common room. 

"There's nothing wrong with me, Ron. I just like him."

"He's Malfoy! He's a git and you've hated him for the past five and a half years!"

"And now he's not so bad and I don't hate him. Really, he's nice."

"He's Malfoy"

"Yes, Malfoy, who turned against Voldemort and joined our side. Who pays for that choice by constant pain. Seriously mate, people change"

"I'll believe it when I see it"

"Fine. Plus, I don't understand why you're this nervous about the whole thing. It's not like we're dating or anything. I don't even know if he likes me. Fuck, I don't even know if he likes guys"

Hermione finally gave up trying to focus on her homework and looked up at her two friends

"Okay, we're having this conversation one last time, and then we're finishing our homework. Ron, get over it. If Dumbledore and Harry say that he's changed, he's changed. Harry, stop being an idiot. Anyone with eyes can see that you two like each other. You should ask him out. Now, homework!"

They spent the rest of the night silently working on their homework, though Harry found it exceptionally hard to concentrate.

"So, what's up with you and Potter?" Blaise Zabini asked as he sat down at the empty armchair that Crabbe used to frequent.

"What! Nothi- since when do the two of us talk about these things again?" Draco answered while Greg looked Zabini up and down.

"Since now. Spill it Malfoy, everyone can see that something's up"

"Nothing is up! Just because we're not actively after each other's blood doesn't mean I like him." 

Blaise lifted an eyebrow

"Whatever you say, mate. Just so you know, he seems to be into you just as much. Do what you will with that information." Blaise got back up and left for the dormitory, leaving behind a confused Greg and flustered Draco.

"So... what will you do?" Greg finally asked. He already knew Draco liked Potter, but only because Draco had said so. 

"I don't know. Sometimes it feels like he might be right- like he really does like me back. But he could just be trying to befriend me. Maybe he pities me. I don't know... I'm too involved to tell."

So a week passed. And another one. By the third week it was so obvious that they were trying to flirt with each other at any chance they got, that even the Professors had noticed. Every time, they arrived to Potions lectures at least ten minutes early- just to run into each other and talk. They made a point of making snarkily toned remarks at each other that were actually compliments, and the class was feeling the second hand embarrassment hard. These comments inducluded the classics "It's good to see that you sucked at this class for five just to spite Snape. And here I thought you lacked brains and talent." and "Careful with that, Malfoy. You don't want to scar that pretty face of yours with acid"

It was enough. 

They had to start dating, or someone was going to punch them. Most likely Ron. Possibly Professor Snape.

"Ooh, there's a Hogsmead trip this weekend!" Hermione pointed out the announcement.

"Finally! I've been dying to get some butterbeer!" Ron joined in.

"Harry, why don't you ask Malfoy to go with you?"

That deflated Ron right back. And made Harry feel extremely anxious

"What!"

"You like him. He likes you. Amd seriously, you're both really bad and obvious with the flirting. Just go out already and put an end to our misery, will you?"

The next day, Harry caught up with Malfoy after breakfast.

"Hey!"

The blonde turned back instanty

"Hi" Why does your voice always creak when you're talking to Potter!

"Um.. So... There's a trip to Hogsmead this weekend. And I was wondering if... You know, if you don't already have plans... If you'd lime to hang out? The two of us?"

DID HE JUST ASK ME OUT

"Sure, I'd like that"

Chapter Text

Draco looked at the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair once again, for what must've been like the thousandth time. Blaise chuckled across the dorm room.

"Your hair's fine, mate, let it go already" he said "Or you'll be late for your date" he ended with a wink.

"I'm not even sure it's a date! He asked if I wanted to 'hang out'. What the fuck does that mean! Are we going to hang out as friends? Or is it a date? Or will he just spend ten minutes 'hanging out' with me and then run off to his friends?" 

Greg sighed.

"Draco, this is the 50th time you've freaked out this morning. On the 51st, I am going to punch you." The large boy raised his hand to his temple, rubbing it "I'm getting a headache." 

"Sorry, Greg" Draco spared one last look at his reflection, which made Blaise throw a pillow to his head. He couldn't help but chuckle as he dodged it.

"Alright I'm going!" 

"Just shut up about your hair" Ron finally yelled at Harry. "Yes, it's messy- it has been since the day I met you and yes, it probably always will be! It doesn't matter!" He calmed himself

"Malfoy's not going to bail on your date because your hair's messy- it was even worse when he agreed to it."

"Well what if he didn't! I panicked Ron, I asked him to 'hang out'- what if he doesn't think it's a date? What if I-"

"Look mate, I'm not listening to this crap again. Just go on your date with Draco fucking Malfoy, shoot your shot and be glad I haven't cursed your hair off- 'cause you've syfficiently tempted me to do it in the past hour"

Draco- despite all the time he'd spent trying to fix non existent problems in his appearance- arrived at the front doors of the castle a few minutes before they'd agreed to meet. He was happy to see that Potter was there already- alone. And was it him or did Potter's hair look like he attempted to tame it? 

"Hello" he said as he approached the brunette.

"Oh, hi" Potter looked him up and down -Wait, Potter did what now?- "You look great."

"Ehm... You t-too"

I loathe myself, even Draco's inner dialogue was exasperated.

They walked to Hogsmead, making small talk along the way. Draco was very aware of how Potter's hand rubbed against his as they walked. 

"So... Where are we going?" He asked

"I was thinking we could go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink? I can't imagine you'd prefer the Hog's Head" 

"Why not Potter? I thought it was well known that I prefer dingy pubs where the dirty glasses are even more dangerous than the sketchy company."

"The Three Broomsticks it is." Harry chuckled. 

Draco had joined him, when his face suddenly fell and he stopped dead in his tracks. How stupid was he to forget that he'd put the fucking imperius on Madame Rosmerta and only lifted it mere weeks ago. He couldn't go back there- he couldn't face her.

"Is something wrong?" Harry's brows were furrowed.

"Yeah- I mean, no. Just, on second thought, I would prefer the Hog's Head. That way we can get something stronger than Butterbeer for a change, huh?"

That's how they ended up in the dingy old pub, sitting at the small table on the furthest corner of it and drinking Firewhiskey- this wasn't the kind of place where the bartender cared about your age- or even your species.

"So-" Draco looked bewildered, and he could feel the warmth of his cheeks courtesy of the alcohol "You're telling me that you and Weasley snuck into our common room!"

"Shhh. Not so loud" Potter was also rather flushed. "But yes. We pretended to be Crabbe and Goyle- and kinda intorragated you" they locked eyes for a second and both burst out laughing.

"You know that we've been telling our first years that no one but Slytherin's have set foot in there in centuries, right? And-" he stopped to laugh again, was it the Firewhiskey or was this just hilarious ( looking back on it, it was the Firewhiskey) "And it's only been 4 years."

"Yeah," Harry nodded, but then he straightened up as if suddenly remembering something.

"By the way, I haven't seen Crabbe around lately- is he-" 

"He no longer associates with me." Draco cut him off. There was no trace of his laughter left now. "I s'ppose he'll be getting his own 'tattoo' this summer" the blonde drowned his glass "He can't wait, you see."

"Sorry I brought it up."

"'Tis okay, really. I've still got Greg- always liked him better anyway- plus I've been hanging out with Zabini lately and he seems like a nice lad"

Harry nodded in acknowledgement "That's good to hear. You want another round?" He was holding up his own empty glass. 

"Yeah, sure" 

Draco was not proud of how long his gaze lingered on Potter's arse as the latter went off to the bar to refill their drinks. Neither would he ever admit it. To anyone. 

"Apparently, this is our last round" Harry said as he passed Draco his drink "The bartender says we've had plenty."

"He may habe a point, you know" Draco said, speech a little slurred, as his hand automatically shot forward to graze Harry's now very pink cheeks "You're flushed like hell"

Harry let out a breath that he'd automatically held onto. "Y-yeah, I mean- so are you"

Draco seemed to realize what he'd just done suddenly and let his hand fall. Then he took his glass and seemed very interested in how the amber liquid looked as he swirled it.

"Draco, we- we're something like friends now, right?"

Draco's grey eyes seemed like a storm, the depth of which was endless as he met Harry's emerald ones.

"Yeah, Potter. Something like friends" he sounded disappointed, but Harry was too nervous to notice.

"Well, first- please stop calling me Potter all the time. Also... well- I told my friends this quite recently and..." Draco raised an eyebrow, and Harry sighed, lowering his eyes to his own drink.

"I'm bi" he hadn't looked up from his drink, so he missed the twinkle in Draco's eyes.

"Oh"

"I- I mean, I don't want things to be weird, I just thought you should know."

"Well, Harry, if we're on the subject, you might want to know that I'm gay."

"Oh" Harry mirrored Draco's previous response. When he looked up to meet Draco's eyes, they both smiled softly at each other. Then Draco's eyes drifted to his clock.

"Shit, it's almost time to get back."

"It is?"

"Yeah," Draco grinned at Harry and raised his half full glass "Should we shot these?"

"We should not have done that," Harry said as the two boys who were holding onto each other's shoulders for support swayed, walking up to the castle.

"Come oonn!" Draco said, a little too loudly, "It was fun"

"It really was." Harry said thoughtfully, and then stopped on his track, almost making the two of them fall over.

"Draco, I really had a great time today- and, umm- I don't know if you realized this, but it was supposed to be a date."

"I-it was?" The world was spinning. It really was a date!

"Yeah" Harry looked at him expectantly.

"Well, I had a great time as well" Draco's face was burning even worse now, and it had nothing to do with firewhiskey. 

"So..." the blonde took a deep breath and summoned his courage. He asked you out, now it's your turn. "Would you like to do it again? I mean not exactly this but- you know... Another date?"

"Definitely" Harry was grinning widely. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment which could have lasted a few seconds or minutes- it was really hard to tell while this drunk and hyped up on adrenaline. Then they started walking towards the castle, and mostly stayed silent. However, it was a comfortable silence that had fallen over them as they watched the scenery of the path from the town to the school, as if seeing it clearly for the very first time. 

Halfway through the path, Harry softly intertwined their fingers, and they were both thankful for the falling darkness and the excuse of drunkenness to hide their blushes behind.