Thrill (Drarry)

5. Comfort Zones

 Being done with the Second Task was a huge relief to Harry. Dobby had given him Gillyweed last minute, making him able to breathe under water. The task was to get 'the thing he missed most' from the ground of the lake, protected by merpeople. For Harry, it was Ron.

And by saving not only him, but also Fleur Delacour's sister in the Great Lake, Harry even earned himself the first place next to Cedric.

Of course, it was a bit embarrassing afterwards. He should have known that by not saving Fleur's sister, Dumbledore would not have let her die there. But apparently, Harry had 'shown moral fibre' by staying with the captured until everyone was saved.

Most importantly though, the tournament would not go on until a few month. The last task was in June and until then, Harry had no Champion duties.

But there was still one thing that was bugging him. The article by Rita Skeeter. For one thing, she had made Hermione some homophobic bitch who was trying to 'turn them hetero', but not succeeding because of her 'lack of feminine appeal'.

But Hermione had assured them that she was above this nonsense. Harry had caught Ron looking at her 'lack of feminine appeal' a few times since they had read that comment.

What was bugging Harry way worse though, were the comments that were made about him and Ron. By now, everyone should have noticed that this was a huge lie, them being a couple. But either everyone had a huge blockage in their stupid brains, or they just found it funny to make kissing noises whenever they passed. Some even made comments that were openly homophobic, but those had decreased significantly since Dumbledore had made a resolute speech about how discrimination of any kind was not accepted in Hogwarts, as were the people who discriminated against anything or anyone.

Still, this thing was driving a wedge between Harry and Ron. Especially Ron seemed to be incredibly uncomfortable with the assumption of him being gay. That led to a weird distance between the two best friends.

Currently, Hermione was walking between them. She was listing all the things they still needed to do, like Potions homework, Transfiguration practice... Harry often blanked out when she did that. He was sure Ron did too.

Harry had never noticed how cute Malfoy was when he smiled. He had the urge to go over there to get Malfoy's attention off of Blaise Zabini and Parkinson and smile at him instead. Malfoy did a cute 'I-don't-know'-gesture with his arm and nodded along with whatever Parkinson was telling him. Harry really liked the way Malfoy focused on the person he was listening to.

"Ouch-", Harry was pulled out if his musings by a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Ron laughed. "Maybe if you would focus more on where you are going-" He was laughing too hard to finish his sentence.

"You wouldn't run into columns." Hermione finished his sentence, chuckling too. Harry just glared at them.

"I was focusing." Harry grumbled and stomped ahead.

"Yeah, on pretty faces." Hermione said.

Harry stopped abruptly, making her run into his back. "You think Malfoy's pretty?"

"So you admit focusing on him?" Hermione teased.

Harry turned around. "I don't-" Hermione had her arms crossed and she had this stupid knowing smirk on her face. "That's not- Ron..." He looked behind her at Ron, who looked like he was holding back a laugh. "No." Harry said. "Just no. I don't find him pretty. It's just fun to tease him, that's all. Got it?"

He looked from Ron to Hermione, who shared a look. "Okay." Hermione said, but it did not sound believable at all.

Harry let out a frustrated growl and turned away. There was more important stuff to focus on anyways. Like getting to the common room. And ignoring the fact that Malfoy was not sparing him a single glance.