chapter nine

                                    

                                          
The back of Draco's head shone. Harry stared at it from the back of the classroom as professor slughorn spoke. He was present in the classroom, but his mind was not. His mind was with Draco - together in the room of requirement.
                          
He wished he knew what Draco wanted, but instead he was given confusion. It was not only Draco that gave him confusion, it was also himself. He had never - until that year- thought of Draco as sexually attractive. Sure he had always been attractive, but not like this. He had not once thought of what Draco would look like no clothing, it had been more of a stare-at-him-from-across-the-room-because-he's-nice-to-look-at kind of thing.
                          
But things had changed, Ron had brought him into a realization that he did love him, or he wanted him. Love was probably too strong of a word to be used like that. Now the only problem was Draco. Draco was both the solution and the problem. All he needed was confirmation from him that he did like him back, of course it could go the opposite and he could tell him no.
                          
Hermione kept telling him that there was no way Draco didn't like him back, he had his doubts but he most certainly wanted to believe her.
                          
After class was over he left for Defense against the dark art, another class in which he spent the time thinking about Draco, this time however, he was not as fortunate, Snape caught him not paying any attention and ridiculed him in front of the whole class, making him answer questions that they had never even gone over in class, ever.
                          
so once he had gotten them all wrong and Hermione had been called on to announce the correct answers, class had ended and the three of them were making their way down to the great hall for lunch. 
                          
Ron and Hermione bickered and he told them he was going to the bathroom, just so he could get away from them. They fought like an old married couple more than all of the old married couples that he knew of.
                          
He stood in front of the bathroom door for awhile, releasing some emotion through sighs. 
                          
He began to turn back the other way when his face was all of a sudden covered. He reacted immediately, punching the air in front of him with such a great force he almost fell over. But something- or someone- caught him. 
                          
He let out a grunt of frustration before gaining his balance once more. The sack that covered his face smelled like hair spray, and felt prickly like sandpaper. 
                          
He was dragged down the hallway, a firm hand on the inside of his elbow. His feet followed and his heart pounded as he was dragged into an unknown tribulation. 
                          
He heard a door open and he was shoved to the ground. He landed before he was able to get his arms under him, leaving the center of his chest with the full impact of the fall. He grunted at the pain but stayed on the ground. 
                          
"Go, I'll take care of him." He heard Draco say. At that, the pound of footsteps echoed the halls until silence fell around them.
                          
So this was how Draco was going to take revenge? 
                          
"Get up, Potter." 
                          
"You don't don't have to yell" Harry said getting his arms underneath him and pushing himself to his feet.
                          
Draco came close, "I know, I just want to make sure Crabbe and goyle get the memo that I'm about to hurt you."
                          
"What?" Harry had almost stopped breathing. He wasn't there to hurt him?
                          
"Pansy wanted to get revenge, I went along because 'I was mad', right? In the library, She found this spell for a curse made the victim temporarily blind. She thought that would be hilarious. I didn't want to curse you because - I'll never admit this out loud but - I'm not actually mad at you. So I told her I didn't want to do it where teacher could see me and came up with the plan of putting a bag over your head and taking you to a closed classroom to curse you."
                          
Harry couldn't help but smile at the boy. He wasn't mad, or going to hurt him, maybe this could be a chance to start something.
                          
"So what now?" 
                          
"I uh, never actually thought of what to do once I got here. I'll make something up about how you fought back and almost killed me, or something."
                          
"Or you could curse me."
                          
Draco looked about the same as Harry felt, confused and partly scared. 
                          
"The whole point of this was to not curse you. I don't want to hurt you, or anybody."
                          
"In a way this is better because you've explained it to me, I won't get mad and seek revenge, I know what's coming." Harry explained. He wasn't sure what he was doing, letting Draco curse him but, it seemed better because he didn't actually want to do it. Well it made Harry feel better.
                          
"And pansy won't suspect anything because you went through with it" Harry added. This was the sentence that seemed to change his mind.
                          
"Okay, but remember I don't want to. You can't come back to me in the future and use it against me." Draco said. He pulled out his wand but did not raise it.
                          
"Well hurry this up, Ron is waiting for me."
                          
Draco took a step forward and put his hand on the side of Harry's face. "I don't want to do this." Were his last word before he put their lips together. 
                          
Maybe in the grand scheme of things, this would work for Harry. He could use this as a convincing factor to Draco to tell him the truth. 
                          
Draco released and when Harry looked up at his eyes, he was crying. He stood awkwardly, not knowing what to say or what to do. 
                          
He cleared his throat, "Draco?" He whispered. 
                          
"Sorry, I'm having problems this year. Pay no attention to me." He wiped his cheeks and gave a small smile.
                          
"You're all I pay attention to though." 
                          
Draco chuckled.
                          
"If you need to talk. I'm here." Harry wrapped his arms around him and he instantly put his face into his neck. 
                          
"We can never be together." Draco said in his neck.
                          
"We can try." 
                          
"It won't work." 
                          
Now Harry wanted to cry. He was right, his father, voldemort, the war, all factor that came between them in an impossible to beat barrier. But Harry wasn't just going to give in like that.
                          
"There's always a way. Just trust me and we can fight this." Harry said with more confidence than he had said anything before with.
                          
"No, because there's something I never told you." 
                          
"What is it?" The word, death eater, rang through his head.
                          
But he did not give an answer. Instead he raised his wand and shouted the curse, leaving an odd ringing sound in Harry's ears before the silence.