Two Sides of the Same Coin(DRARRY)

CHAPTER TWELVE

"To really know someone is to have loved and hated him in turn" - Marcel Jouhandeou

Slughorn was droning on in the front of the room. Usually, Draco would be captivated by the professor's discussion of fate-meddling concoctions (such as the Felix Felicis he lost to Potter sixth year), but today he couldn't muster the concentration. His pulse thrummed in his hand so that he couldn't hold his quill steady. His few attempts at notes had resulted in shaky sentence fragments that would probably be incoherent to him when reviewed.

Potter had come to class rumpled with recent sleep, softening even further at the edges when Slughorn started talking, and it was sabotaging Draco's focus. Draco glanced over at his partner, then quickly back. Right now Potter's head was slumped against his hand, pushing his cheek up in an endearingly childish manner. His mouth was soft in a dreamy sort of private smile.

In Draco's eyes, the sight was – not to put too fine a point on it – beautiful.

He counted to ten slowly and recited the twelve uses of dragon's blood before he let himself look again.

… & …

Harry felt Malfoy's eyes on him and smiled to himself. To be honest, the little jolts of adrenaline that accompanied his partner's periodic glances were the only thing keeping him awake at the moment. He'd been up with nightmares again for the better part of the middle of the night, and Slughorn's lecture was doing nothing to help.

The urge to look over at Malfoy had been tugging at him all class, but he'd been trying to resist. He wanted to see how often Malfoy's glances would come if he thought Harry oblivious to them, and the result was even better than Harry could have imagined – Malfoy's head turned almost every other minute.

Unless Harry was imagining it... There was a great power in wishful thinking, after all, and Harry was already drowsy – the perfect condition for daydreaming. His eyes slid toward Malfoy...

… and met Malfoy's gorgeous grey eyes, like polished granite, peering back at him. Harry's skin went warm with satisfaction. He hadn't been imagining it.

Malfoy immediately looked away, down at his parchment. But after a moment his head came back up and he met Harry's eyes again. This time neither of them looked away. They held their gaze steadily and wonderingly, without a trace of aggression.

Harry felt slightly winded. He hadn't thought a mere meeting of eyes could feel so intimate. He forgot he was in class, surrounded by his classmates (they weren't paying attention anyway, as most of them were asleep or soon to be). He wondered what Malfoy was seeing in his eyes. What he was thinking. What he was feeling. He wished he could ask.

After a minute, Malfoy blushed and bent his head toward his parchment. He didn't look up again, though Harry had every sense on overdrive in anticipation of it for the rest of the lesson.

The lingering memory of the connection made Harry warm all over. Its absence made him feel strangely lonely. He yearned for its revival.

… & …

The seeds were finally through being sorted. Tonight they were to organize the Potions cupboard.

"Sans magic," Slughorn specified sternly, before retreating to his office.

If Harry had spared any thought for it, he might've wondered why Slughorn spent so little time supervising students in detention for fighting, but his thoughts were too preoccupied with the hours of privacy allowed by the professor's neglect to wonder at it.

He kneeled down next to Malfoy on the floor of the Potions cupboard; they were starting from the bottom to work their way to the top. The room was only about four feet wide, which put them in closer proximity than they'd sustained in the last week since the corridor incident – maybe ever. They carefully kept as many inches as could fit between them clear, but even so Harry's whole consciousness was fixated on the awareness of Malfoy's body so near to his own. His skin tingled and tickled at every small draft of air moving in the space between them, at every brush of Malfoy's robes against his skin as they worked.