The castle seemed very quiet even for a Sunday. Everybody was clearly out in the sunny grounds, enjoying the end of their exams--O.W.L.s--and the prospect of a few days of term unhampered by revision or homework.
Harry walked slowly along the deserted corridors, lost in thought, peering out of windows as he went; he could see people messing around in the air over the Quidditch pitch and a couple of students swimming in the lake.
He was finding it hard to decide whether he wanted to be with people or not; whenever he was in company he wanted to get away and whenever he was alone he wanted company--especially the company of one irritatingly handsome blond boy... He thought he might go visit Hagrid, but pushed the idea away...
Harry had just descended the last marble step into the Entrance hall when Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle emerged from a door on the right that Harry knew led down to the Slytherin common room.
Harry stopped dead in his tracks; so did Malfoy and the others, an unbidden flush flooding his cheeks at the sight of the boy he was just thinking of. ("Speak of the devil, and he shall appear," they said. Harry had to admit, he was devilishly handsome.)
The only sounds were the shouts, laughter and splashes drifting through into the Hall from the grounds through the open front doors.
Malfoy glanced around--Harry knew he was checking for signs of teachers, also throwing narrowed glances at his cronies, as though annoyed--then looked back at Harry and said in a low, quiet and almost mischievous--amused?--tone, "You're dead, Potter."
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"Funny", he said, "you'd think I'd have stopped walking around..." His mouth twitched upwards at the glares sent from Goyle and Crabbe, but instead of seeing Draco's face contract in anger, Harry was sure he also saw him smile--if only slightly--, then he cocked his head silently towards the doors to them both, a scathing look in his eyes turning their silver into a storm sky grey.
He stepped closer to Harry as they walked away and leaned into his ear, "You're going to pay," Said Malfoy, in a tone barely louder than a whisper, and Harry could almost hear him chuckle. He contorted his face into a pretend mask of fear, mouthing 'help' mutely, before regaining his normal face and raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"I'm going to make you pay, Potter, if I know you took my wand without permission-"
Harry's digestive system seemed to have decided to start dancing tango with his heart and lungs at his proximity.
Malfoy's hair was slicked back and his skin smooth like velvet. For some reason Harry wanted to stroke it gently--as if it would break if he pressed too hard--and play with his hair until it was all disheveled, but he wouldn't be too happy about that, as he wasn't now... He held back an urge to whimper--in pain? What was happening to him-
"Potter, are you listening? Where did you hide it?--if you tell me that you do NOT know, I'll nick bloody veritaserum to make you talk, even if it meant getting detention--"
Of course, those were absolutely false accusations--for he hadn't set eyes on that gorgeous face for the past three weeks, even less seen his wand--and, he felt, rather empty threats for Malfoy on average.
Harry's instinct also told him that, if he were to tell the truth--("I don't know, honest.")--he'd be safe from any physical harm, although Draco was known more for his sharp tongue than his muscles.
"So, d'you know where it's hidden? It's been days since I bloody well couldn't attend Charms or Transfiguration--OR ANYTHING, come to that, so save me the humiliation and tell me." He said in a rather... Desperate tone, unusual and unfitting for him, Harry not noticing he has inched closer and was now looking down to his lips, too transfixed by Draco's own.
He took a breath and spoke, "I... Honestly don't know--but I know who might help... Help you find it. Ask Lee or Seamus, they might've found it and kept it for whatever reason of theirs." He had chuckled and stepped back, his body radiating heat, losing his breath and train of thought as he saw Malfoy edging closer still, saw him looking down still.
"Why are you afraid? Is the bunny running away from the hunter... So soon?"
Harry had finally realized his meaning, along with the meaning of his gaze and where it was looking at.
He blushed again and spots appeared, looking away at the doors, hoping nobody saw their exchange, and before he could turn to look at him again--in all his beauty--, something soft landed and pressed against his (rather spotty) cheek, withdrawing and morphing into a whispered 'thank you'.
Harry stood, frozen, hearing heels clicking against the floor, his footsteps dying away.
For the first time in Harry's life, his ears grew red like Ron's, as his brain finally reinstated control over his organs and tried desperately to make sense of what had just happened.
Draco Malfoy nice? To him? Did he actually just kiss him and actually had the bollocks to say thank you? Again, to him?
Harry wondered for a fleeting moment if he hallucinated it all, looking around him as though he just appeared in an unknown place.
He shook his head, chiding himself for going that far into his imaginings, but part of it was true, he suddenly knew, telling from the open mouths and bulging eyes of Malfoy's cronies--who had seen most of it and probably had expected Draco of getting physical with him--, but didn't know whether it was the kiss or the thanks--both a scandalous show of affection by Malfoy standards--but didn't either stop to ask and didn't dare meet Malfoy's piercing gaze, his heart now beating erratically as he tried to do something similar to breathing.
Heading for the beech tree at the edge of the lake, where he could see Hermione curled up against the trunk with a pile of books near her, Ron downing a few leftover Chocolate Frogs while talking animatedly.
Harry resigned himself and settled in front of them on the grass, but didn't speak a word of his strangely lovely encounter.
