your name on my wrist || drarry soulmates au

10 || I had hoped she wasn't paying attention

// For some reason I literally have nothing to say even though I went missing again so.. ayy hope you enjoy! I'm doing authors' notes in italics again lol. anyway. 

CW for this chapter: mild homophobia. //

Harry - September 6, 1998

Harry had a feeling it would come to this, so he waited to come downstairs for as long as possible Sunday morning. Breakfast in the Great Hall was open till 10 on weekends, but he really was getting hungry, so he slowly creeped down the staircase as to not draw attention to himself, but-

"Harry James Potter, are you avoiding me?" Hermione said in a shrill voice, suddenly appearing at the bottom of the stairs to the boys' dorms.

Harry sighed. "No, why would I be avoiding you?" he said, trying to keep his eyes averted while at the same time seem unsuspicious.

"Harry, we need to talk. Right now," Hermione rolled her eyes at his antics, grabbed his arm, and dragged him to one of the couches at the side of the common room. He plopped down and she sat down right next to him, eyes narrowed, and he tried not to look guilty.

"So... what is it?" he said.

"You should break up with Ginny. You obviously lied to her, you were in Hogsmeade with somebody else, and I know you don't like her anymore so it's not fair to her to keep her under a- a ruse! You're lying to her and yourself, it's not healthy!" Hermione said in one breath.

"I... okay. Yeah. I don't like her anymore but maybe I will, if we continue dating I'll have feelings for her again, and then I can ignore the fact that my s... everything else that's going on and live a happy life with Ginny and have kids and... I don't know, Hermione, I'm not ready to do that yet!" Harry said. He slumped back into his chair.

Hermione looked less angry at him now and instead looked concerned. "Harry... you know you can tell me anything, right? I don't ever want you to feel like I'm forcing you say anything that's not true or even anything at all, but you can trust me and I'm here for you, okay?"

Harry gave a sad half smile and nodded. "Thanks, 'Mione."

She sat and looked at him expectantly. He supposed there was no reason to not tell her, but despite the fact that he actually enjoyed his time with Draco yesterday and there was no reason to be ashamed of the fact that he was his soulmate, there was that little voice and the gross feeling he got whenever he thought of the judgement of everyone around him if they found out. He supposed it was a remnant of fifth year when everyone thought he was crazy.

He looked at Hermione's caring expression as she stared at him curiously, took a deep breath, and said, "Draco Malfoy is my soulmate." He stared at his shoes.

"Oh," Hermione said. "So that's what this is about. No Linda Lichen after all."

Harry took a chance to look up at Hermione and she didn't look disgusted or even at all judgmental. He gave a half laugh. "No. No clue if there's a Linda Lichen at all, really."

"I wondered why you hesitated before saying her name. Were you surprised, when you found out your soulmate wasn't a girl?" Hermione said bluntly.

"What? I mean... no, not really. More that he's Draco fucking Malfoy. Wait, 'Mione- you're not surprised he's a boy?" Harry said, confused.

She raised an eyebrow. "With the amount of ogling you gave Cedric in fourth year I'd be surprised if anyone didn't suspect you liked guys."

Harry spluttered. "I did not- I didn't ogle anyone, 'Mione, and anyway, I guess I've... liked girls too, you could have focused on me... ogling... Cho, or... Ginny..." Harry trailed off when he noticed Hermione shaking with silent laughter.