Chapter 9

                                    

                                          


                          
Later that night, when Harry lay in his bed, he thought about what Draco had said. Draco Malfoy was gay. He liked boys. Had he not heard it from Draco himself he would have never believed it. No one else knew, but he had told Harry. 
                          
Knowing this, Harry started to think about what he liked. I mean he knew he liked girls. Ginny for starters. He knew that he had liked Ginny, a lot. There was also that thing with Cho Chang in his fifth year. But the more he thought about it the more he started to suspect that maybe he liked boys as well. Before he had noticed Cho in year four, he had been interested in Cedric. At the time he had only though that he had been interested in him as a friend. Or as a rival on the Quidditch pitch perhaps. He was a really good quidditch player and Harry had been impressed with how good he played the first time he ever saw him fly. Then everything he did in the Triwizard's Tournament, and how they had helped each other. But now looking back, Harry realized that the first thing that had struck him about Cedric was that he had found him attractive. Really attractive. He had just ignored those thoughts because he hadn't realized that that could have been an option.
                          
But now hearing Draco talk about it, he realized that it had been there all along. He had just been too scared to consider it. The thought filled his head until long after midnight, and with it came a question about Draco himself. Or more specifically, his feelings for Draco. Harry knew that his relationship with Draco was different to all of his other friendships. He had just assumed that it was because of their history, but maybe it had something to do with what kind of feelings Harry had for the Slytherin. He hadn't been able to pin-point what was different, but now he felt like maybe it was because he hadn't had all of the pieces. 
                          
Was he attracted Draco? Harry quickly pushed the idea away. No! They were just friends. The only reason he was beginning to question this was because there was now a possibility for that to happen. Harry was only curious! Right? That had to be it.
                          
Harry shifted position and closed his eyes. He began feeling tired, and when sleep finally began to take him, the last though that drifted though his head was whether or not he should buy Draco a Christmas gift when they went to Hogsmeade in a few days.
                          
The following days went by as usual and Harry tried to push his thoughts about boys aside. When the day came for them to go to Hogsmeade, Harry woke early and quickly got dressed in his private clothes, before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Since Christmas break started, people had been sitting randomly along the four tables, no one really caring about sitting at their house table. As Harry walked into the room, he saw a few younger Ravenclaws sitting with their friend over at the Hufflepuff table and a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw buried deep in a book together at the end of Gryffindor table. The only house that still didn't really mix with the other tables were the Slytherins, who were still being excluded because of their history. Things were getting a bit better, but they were still not quite there yet. 
                          
Looking over, Harry saw Draco sitting alone with a slice of toast, reading the Daily Prophet. At once, Harry decided that it was about time to integrate the green house into the new table switching trend as well. With confident steps he walked over to where Draco sat, still absorbed with his paper, and sat down in front of him. As soon as Harry had sat down, wide grey eyes found his green. 
                          
"What are you doing?" Draco seemed shocked, a piece of toast halfway up to his mouth, forgotten.
                          
Harry almost laughed at the sight, but controlled himself in the last second. He simply smiled at Draco.
                          
"Having breakfast of course!" He mentioned to the box of cereal sitting next to Draco. "Mind passing that over? I'm starving!"
                          
Draco just looked at Harry for a few seconds, as if he was trying to figure out exactly was Harry was up to, before slowly reaching over and picking up the box, passing it over.