Head over heels - Drarry (Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter)

Chapter 7

(A/N This chapter is dedicated to Gay_Drama_Queen because she had some really nice comments and is the reason this story is still going - thank you!!)

After several minutes of Harry silently sobbing into Hermione's robes, he finally had calmed down enough to turn his head, which was still in her lap, up towards the ceiling in order to look her in the eye. She looked down at him expectantly. "Harry" she began again, hesitantly, "are you gay?". He took a deep breath, and Hermione felt his body shudder, and knew he was fighting back the next round of crying. "I don't know, Hermione" he tried to sound calm and collected, but his voice cracked and tears welled up in his eyes once again, and she knew this wasn't the case. She took hold of his hand that was resting on his chest and squeezed it, "That's okay, Harry, there's nothing wrong with you." Deep down, he knew she was right, but he needed to take his time in accepting... whatever he was. He didn't respond, just lay there as Hermione kept talking. "You don't have to put a label on it, all that matters is that you accept yourself and that you are happy. It may not seem like it, but you're the same Harry you were yesterday or the day before, this is just a new step in your life. A new obstacle for you to overcome." Harry nodded and plastered on as big a smile as he could muster from his exhausted body. In the past few minutes, he had become sure that he wasn't straight, and he accepted it, the question was, could he ever love himself? Harry had never been so scared in his life.

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Draco had been so busy planning everything about Potter that his friends had begun to notice. "Dracoooooo" Pansy whined in her nasally, and very unattractive voice. For the past half hour she had been trying to get his attention, by any means possible. This included scorching his toes with magical fire, and trying to assault him with a huge green pillow. Unfortunately for him, his toes had nearly been burned off by the time he stopped day dreaming about Harry and realised Pansy's latest form of attention seeking. He finally turned to her and glared, but watched with mild amusement as her face transformed when she realised he'd taken notice of her. "Blaise and I were wondering if you wanted to practice a bit of Quidditch?" she said hopefully. Despite the fact that neither her nor Blaise were on the team, they both loved to play non-competitively and it was good practice for Draco. Having seen Pansy's face light up when he gave her attention, he decided it wouldn't do him any harm to go out with his friends and forget about Potter for a couple of hours.

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The next day, Harry sat in the common room on his own, watching the enchanted ball fire in the fire place. The flames jumped and danced around each other, seemingly not wanting to land on the cold stone below. It was then he had decided he would try his best to love himself, no matter how long it took, because there was nothing wrong with him. It was just another obstacle, as Hermione had put it, and he had gotten past enough of them to have the confidence that he could probably conquer this one too.

Soon it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts, which Harry realised with a grimace, they had with Slytherin. He caught Ron and Hermione on their way out the common room and they walked briskly towards the classroom, because Hermione was always afraid of being late. When they got there, they were surprised to see Professor Dumbledore in the front of the classroom waiting for them. Once they had all sat down, he cleared his throat and announced he would be taking the class because Lockhart was out for the day. Most of the girls sighed unhappily at this, however Harry thought he saw a shadow in the Professor's office in the corner of the room. He shook of the feeling that something weird was going on, and instead listened to what the headmaster was currently saying. "Today we will be practicing expelliarmus. It is a disarming spell, however if used too forcefully, it can cause your opponent to become unconscious. For this reason, I will be constructing walls to separate the room into smaller sections." With this he gestured for them all to stand back up again, and with a wave of his hand, the desks moved off to the side of the room, and with another flourish, tall grey walls spring up from the floor to create compartments. "The floor has been enchanted so if you are knocked down by your opponent, you will not be hurt. The purpose of this exercise it to be able to use expelliarmus as a disarming spell, but also, when needed, to be able to knock out your opponent. First, just focus on disarming please. You will be going in pairs - Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom, Miss Parkinson and Mr Weasely (at this Ron visibly paled and shrunk back), Miss Lovegood and Miss Patil" Harry tuned out until he got to "Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy. Each pair has a compartment, in order to enter, simply walk though the wall. I will know if you try any other spells Remember, disarming only." Harry stared open mouthed at Dumbledore, who glanced at Harry with a knowing look as a shadow of a content smile crossed his face before he turned away. Draco was already watching Harry, who was beginning to go red. Hermione walked past him on her way to duel with a nervous-looking Neville, and she gave him a little shove towards Malfoy. He stumbled and almost fell over but he composed himself and once he had rightened his robes he pointed towards a compartment close to them and Draco gave a little nod and walked through the wall with Harry following nervously.

The truth is, Dumbledore was feeling quite pleased with this. He had a bet with Minerva and being the headmaster, he had to win. When Dumbledore had asked Lockhart if he could teach a lesson, he had happily obliged, although not without pointing out that he was perfectly capable. Of course, Minerva was unaware that he was doing everything in his power to encourage the two boys to fall for each other, without using magic to manipulate their minds. He thought that might be taking it a little to far, and if Minerva found out, she might demand her money back. Instead, he paired them together in a small space for an hour or so. He smiled at his own brilliance and crossed his fingers behind his back - he just couldn't let Minerva have the satisfaction of beating him.

Harry walked into the small compartment, where it was quite dark, and could just make out Draco leaning against the wall opposite him with his arms crossed. Draco was quite nervous, as he was unprepared for this confrontation, but he would never let that show. Harry walked a couple of steps into the compartment, trying to avoid eye contact with Draco. Harry was ready to love himself, but he wasn't sure if he was okay with his blossoming feelings for a Slytherin of all people. Draco had noticed the lack of eye contact, and in a split second knew exactly what he needed to do about it. This step of the plan was a little more risky, but, Draco reasoned, if it worked out, it could be the first step to actually having something with Harry. With that, he pushed Harry back onto the wall he had just walked through, and pressed his body against Harry's with his hands on the wall on either side of Harry's head. Harry's gorgeous green eyes widened when Draco's face came closer to his own. Harry's breathing was loud and fast, echoing through the small room, and Draco smiled at him, knowing his actions were having the desired effect. Harry was trying to say something, and Draco thought he looked adorable - big green eyes, messy hair, all flustered and speechless. Draco spoke before Harry could get the words out, "I know you want me Potter" he whispered in his deep voice and Harry could feel the vibration of his words in their chests which were still forcefully pressed together. With that, Draco drew back slightly and put his hands on Harry's hips and slowly lowered them. Draco reached into Harry's back pocket and pulled out his wand, finding Harry's hand and placing the wand in it, his fingers lingering on Harry's cold skin. Then he drew back fully and smirked "Aren't we supposed to be dueling, Potter?"

Outside the compartment, fully aware of what had been going on, Albus Dumbledore uncrossed his fingers, because he knew he no longer needed any luck to win that bet, it was as good as over all ready.

(A/N I really loved writing this chapter because I like it when Dumbledore ships them - comment if you like that too!! I'm really pleased about how Draco has turned out :) I love him so much)