Drarry Potions AU

Chapter Ten

Draco. . , I thought absently as I gently cleaned up the Slytherin's cut and hair---which he insisted he comb out without Harry's assistance. I like that. I like saying it. I like that he lets me say it. . .

"So, Potter, you said you wanted to talk about something?" Draco asked, jolting him from his thoughts. "Or was that all a ruse to get me to come here so you could ruin my hair?"

"The blood ruined it, Draco, not me," Harry protested. Draco raised his eyebrows, and Harry sighed. "Yeah, I did want to actually talk about something."

But then a student came back behind the shelves---a fourth year if Harry had to guess, or perhaps a taller third year, and so he had to pull Draco away, not bothering to grab the stuff he'd brought to fix Draco. (Except the comb, which Draco was still holding.)

The whole library had gotten busier, and there was no place secluded enough for them to talk in privacy.

So Harry did the logic thing and pulled Draco into a nearby secret passage he'd seen on the Marauder's Map.

It was narrow, meant for one person to travel through at a time, so it was a bit squished, but it would be secluded, and at that moment, it was all that Harry cared about.

"I'm guessing you don't know about the trick Parkinson pulled on you?" Harry started.

"What? No. Well, I had a guess---something I thought she did two days ago---but nothing happened. She hasn't told me anything."

"Really? Well, tell me what you know so that I know where to start."

"All I figure is that she slipped me some potion, because she was insistent on me drinking this cup of apple juice she'd gotten for me. I finally got fed up with her pestering, so I drank it, but nothing happened, so she probably just brewed it wrong."

"Oh, it was a potion all right," Harry muttered. "Draco . . . it was a love potion."

"WHAT?" he exclaimed, shocked and angry. "To fall in love with whom exactly?" he fumed.

Harry hesitated, hoping Draco wouldn't overreact and hurt him somehow, but he took a deep breath and told himself that he'd already decided to tell him---which was true---and so he did, blurting out in what felt like the worst possible moment, "Me."