Chapter 19

                                    

                                          


                          
The first big reaction came from the Slytherin table. About ten minutes after the word began to spread, Pansy got up from her seat and stormed over to the Gryffindor table. Blaise quickly ran after her with a worried look on his face. As soon as Draco saw her coming, he let out a groan and hung his head low. Harry, getting overwhelmed with protective feelings, squared his shoulders and twisted around in his seat as to hide Draco behind him. Pansy had always said what she felt and she could often be cruel. Problem was that she was also one of Draco's closest friends. Harry knew that cruel words from a friend would break Draco in a way that would take months to heal. Pansy had apologized to Harry at the beginning of summer for her comment about turning him over at the beginning of the battle, blaming it on her fear. Despite this, Harry would still not think twice about jinxing her to the moon and back if it meant protecting Draco.
                          
When she reached their table, she sent daggers at Draco and Harry could feel him shrink down even further in his seat. Just as he was about to say something to her, she opened her mouth. 
                          
"Draco Lucius Malfoy! You absolute ass!" Her voice was shrill and her wand out in her hand. Harry gripped his own and got ready for any curses that might come flying. He could see the rest of his friends tense up and get ready too. He was just about to stand and face her when he felt Draco grab the back of his robes and pull him back. Harry snapped his head around and looked at Draco. Draco shook his head slightly, before looking up to face Pansy.
                          
"Draco Malfoy is gay. Did you all hear that? He. Is. Gay. See, I didn't know this. No! Of course, he didn't tell me this last year when I came to him. NOOOOO! Of course not! Why let your best friend know that they were not alone, huh? And then when you actually leave the fucking closet you don't even tell me. No, I have to hear it though a rumor that started at the Gryffindor table of all places... Fucking unbelievable!" 
                          
Harry had never heard the Great Hall so quiet before. You could drop a pin and everyone would hear it loud and clear. Every set of eyes in the room was jumping between Pansy and Draco. Around the Gryffindor table Harry could see people putting away their wands, no longer scared that Pansy would hurt Draco. He could even see a couple of students suppress giggles as they looked at Draco's beet red face and Pansy's pissed of look.
                          
"I'm sorry Pans... could we maybe take this conversation somewhere a bit more private." Draco's voice was low and pleading. There were almost tears in his eyes and Harry realized that Draco was embarrassed. Harry had never seen him embarrassed before and he knew that it took quite a lot before he was. Again, he felt himself wanting to protect Draco and hide him from the hundreds of eyes that were sizing him up at the moment. When Pansy gave a quick, angry nod, before turning around and walking out the room, Harry released a big breath of relief. 
                          
"Meet me at our spot." was all Draco said to Harry before he hurried out the Hall after his friend. As the back of Draco's robes disappeared from view, students turned back to their friends and their food. Chatter began again and Harry could hear his and Draco's name pop up more than once. He turned back in his seat so that he was facing the table again, his friends still quiet. He began playing with his food and tried to ignore his friends' eyes on him.
                          
"Well, I for one was not expecting that reaction to be honest." Ron's laugh rolled over the table and Harry couldn't stop the grin that took over his face. He looked up to find the Gryffindors around him laughing and smiling too.
                          
"Or that Pansy Parkinson was gay! That changes things." Parvati Patil had a cheeky smile on her lips and Harry was reminded that she had also come out a few years ago. Rumors had spread that maybe she and Lavender Brown had been a thing, but with the look she had on her face now, Harry wondered if maybe someone else had caught her interest.
                          
Laughter spread around the table and Harry felt himself relax completely. Seems like Pansy really had changed since the war. Many of the Slytherins in Harry's year had turned out to not be as terrible as they had made themselves out to me. The two houses still had many classes together, but fighting and bickering had almost completely stopped since the beginning of the year. The view of the green house had really changed and Harry was glad. The way the rest of the school viewed and treated them was probably one of the biggest reasons why so many of them had joined Voldemort. They never had a place at Hogwarts and they had never been accepted by the rest of the wizarding society. So, it wasn't too hard to understand the allure of Voldemort's promises of acceptance and fellowship.
                          
As the laughter died down and conversations began, Harry got roped into a conversation with Dean and Seamus. 
                          
"How come you never told us you were gay Harry?" 
                          
There was no accusation in Deans voice, only curiosity. Harry remembered now that Hermione had hinted that she thought that Dean was gay, and Harry figured that maybe he had similar questions to Pansy's', only with less anger. 
                          
"First up, I'm bi, so I do like girls too. But to be honest I didn't even realize that I liked boys too until like a week ago. Before then I thought that I was straight. Things change quickly sometimes." Both Dean and Seamus laughed at that. Harry laughed along with his two friends and after switching the subject over to Quidditch, the three spent the rest of dinner talking about this year's Gryffindor team.
                          
When dinner was over Harry made his way to the library to meet Draco. He didn't know for how long he and Pansy had needed to talk, but he figured that 45 minutes would have been enough. When he rounded that last bookshelf and entered their corner, he saw Draco standing by the window. His back was turned and his shoulders relaxed. Harry walked over and snuck his arms around his boyfriend's waist and rested his chin on Draco's shoulder. Draco turned his head and kissed Harry's nose before looking back out towards the lake. For a while they simply enjoyed each other's company. It had been a long day after all, and this was the first time that they had been able to relax.
                          
"How did it go with Pansy?" Harry's voice was soft and he twisted his head so that he now had his cheek resting on his shoulder, giving him a better view of Draco's face. The position forced him to stand on his toes, but it was worth it when he saw the smile that took over Draco's face.
                          
"She only hates me a little bit" A giggle escaped Draco and Harry found himself captivated with the sound. "But she did congratulate me on finally making my move on you" 
                          
Harry furrowed his eyebrows and gave his boyfriend a questioning look. Draco blushed slightly when he realized what he had said and fixated his gaze on the tree outside the window.
                          
"Well... I might have had a crush on you for a while... and Pansy has suspected for a while. I always told her that it was more of a friendship crush, but now she obviously knows better." Harry almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. In the middle of all that bickering and mean words, Draco had been crushing on him?
                          
"For how long?" It was a simple question, but despite this it took Draco almost a minute until he answered. And when he did, Harry's cheeks took on the same pink color as his boyfriends.
                          
"Fourth year...maybe the end of third..."
                          
"Wow. That's a long time ago. How did I not notice?"
                          
Draco let out a snort and turned around in Harry's arms so that they now stood face to face.
                          
"Harry, love. You are too oblivious for your own good. You know this. Otherwise you might have started to suspect after I literally climbed a tree only so that I could jump down gracefully as soon as you came around." Harry's eyes were wide and he was reminded of the moment that Draco was talking about. He let out a groan in embarrassment and hid his face in the front of Draco's robes. His boyfriends laugh brought a smile to his face despite the embarrassment. He looked up again when most of the color had left his face and he was met by a smiling Draco.
                          
"It might have taken a while, but I did figure it out eventually." Draco's smile grew softer at Harry's comment and he leaned in and kissed him. Draco's lips were soft and Harry could feel him smiling into the kiss. When he pulled away Harry felt like he was on the top of the world.
                          
"Thank God for that!"