Änglarna ger oss hopp och tro
sjunger om fred på vår jord
allt som Gud aldrig övergav
en stjärna lyser så klar
. . .
The angels give us hope and faith
singing about piece on earth
everything that God never abandoned
a star shine so bright.
Original title: "En stjerne skinner i natt" ("A star shines tonight"), Eyind Skeie and Tore W. Aas, Swedish translation; "En stjärna lyser så klar" ("A star shine so bright"), Ingela "Pling" Forsman
"What did she want?" Harry asked him as soon as the two of them sat down at the Slytherin table for dinner.
"She just wanted to thank me for saving her," Draco answered, "and tell me if I hurt you she will kill me." He smiled when the colour drained away from Harry's face. "But honestly I think she will have to stand in line, her older brother would be the first to plot my death if I ever hurt you, it's just a fact."
"That is supposed to be funny, and I suppose can see the joke in it, but I'm not laughing, Draco." Harry said dryly.
Draco felt a flutter in his stomach when Harry said his given name, and he felt like smiling like a fool.
"Oh, Draco now is it?" Pansy grinned from across the table, and Draco knew that he was never going to hear the end of this, in retribution for taunting her about Longbottom. "When did this happen?"
"Er..." Harry hesitated.
"When you were out snogging Longbottom," Draco said before Harry could say anything stupid. Pansy looked liked he'd just slapped her for a second, before turning red in both rage and embarrassment.
"You're such a bitch, Draco." Harry choked on his pumpkin juice and started coughing which turned into a loud laugh.
"What on earth does he find so funny?" Daphne scowled at Harry.
"Oh, great Merlin." Harry coughed before looking up, tears in his eyes from laughing or choking, or maybe both. "I'm never going to get tired of Pansy insulting Draco," he said still chuckling.
Pansy gaped at the Gryffindor in front of her, but Harry was oblivious that he had just used Pansy's given name.
"Well," Daphne said, obviously also noticing what Harry had said, "hope you wont ditch us as soon as the 13th is over with."
"Oh, I don't think so." Harry grinned, and Draco felt himself do the same, the two of them sharing a private joke. Under the table, he felt Harry bump his leg, and then let it stay there. Draco had no intention of moving away. It was oddly reassuring to have their legs together like that, touching so lightly from knee to hip. He thought about all that had happened the last 24 hours. He had gone to bed in Harry's dorm, woken up in Harry's arms, heard Harry telling him that he loved him... Snogged Harry in Neville Longbotton's bed... The dark had possessed Ginny Weasley and had almost broken him. He thought about saving Ginny Weasley, that same no-longer-possessed Ginny Weasley had threatened him and thanking had thanked him in the same conversation. Yesterday really had been a hell of a day.
And he still didn't know how to respond to Harry's confession. He had said that he loved him. Loved him. Draco was still trying to get that into his head, but it seemed so surreal, yet obvious. The way he sometimes caught Harry looking at him, in that kind of way, they way Harry seemed to want to touch Draco all the time but restrained himself. It was obvious now that he knew it was there, but maybe Harry was just allowing it to show now that he no longer had to hide his feelings.
"Should you really go into the bathroom alone?" Harry asked when he and Draco had stepped into the dorm. Ron had learned from yesterday and had rushed up to nab the bathroom first when Draco had happened to yawn while reading a book.
"What? Want to see me half naked that badly?" Draco smirked at Harry who blushed furiously.
"No, I just think that maybe something could happen..." he mumbled, looking away from Draco's amused face. He could be such a bastard at times, that Slytherin, and Harry had to question his sanity.
"So how is it gonna be, Staffan? Fancy getting to know my bathroom ritual?" Draco waggled his eyebrows.
"You're such a wanker," he snapped and dragged Draco into the bathroom with him, still worried about his safety, and with one backwards glance at Ron who was watching them with raised wide he closed the door.
"You really just had to say that didn't you?" Harry hissed through his teeth.
"Of course." Draco smiled ever so sweetly.
"Fuck you Malfoy."
"Oh really now?"
"Could you just shut up?" he pleaded.
"Make me." Draco's self-satisfied smirk was too much for Harry and he needed to wipe it off his face.
Naturally he yanked Draco forward and placed an open-mouth kiss on his lips, kissing him hard. Draco inhaled sharply, before kissing Harry aggressively back and pushed Harry up against the door with an audible "thunk", taking control of the kiss. Harry was not okay with that, even though it was raising his libido extraordinarily fast. His plan was to make Draco breathless.
He let his hands run all over Draco, under his shirt, and feel the smooth skin hidden under it. Draco gasped and Harry pushed away from the door, turning around and slamming Draco into it instead, never breaking their kiss. Draco moaned into Harry's mouth and the sound went straight to his cock. He felt Draco's hands pulling up Harry's shirt from his trousers, slipping under them and groping Harry's arse over his boxers and he gasped.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Ron shouted through the door and Harry pulled away a few inches.
"Yes, I'm fine Ron!" he replied, his voice cracking.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Draco's face was amused yet annoyed at the same time and Harry sighed and readjusted his trousers.
"Well, I did make you shut up," he offered with a smile.
"This isn't over, Potter. Now let me brush my teeth." Draco growled. And Harry resigned himself to being hard for the rest of the night?
Getting ready for bed with Draco in the same bathroom turned out to be harder than Harry had ever imagined. He got distracted all the time and caught himself staring at Draco when the blond brushed his teeth, flossed, or just happened to blush against Harry. And when Draco had changed clothes... Great Merlin, he had had to stare at the door, constantly telling himself that Ron was at the other side of it and would most definitely hear if Harry was ravishing Draco in the bathroom. In the end the two of them managed to get out of the bathroom without snogging the living daylight out of one another.
"Harry," Ron looked up as he opened the door, "can I talk to you?"
"Er, sure."
"In private." Ron looked pointedly at Draco.
"This may come as a surprise to you Weasley, but you are a wizard. So use a fucking Silencing Charm." Draco rolled his eyes at Ron before lying down in Neville's bed. Harry sat down on his own, facing Ron, and watched Ron cast a spell over them. He could still hear Draco move and pull up a book behind him and for a second he wondered if Ron had done the spell right.
"Draco Malfoy is a bouncing ferret fuck-face!" Ron roared and Harry turned around to stop Draco from killing his best mate. But Draco was lying under his covers, reading his book calmly as if he hadn't heard Ron at all.
"Guessed it worked." Ron put his wand back on the bedside table, grinning as Harry turned back to him.
"Guess so..."
"So Harry..." Ron began awkwardly, then looked away from Harry, "Er, about you and Malfoy..."
"What about me and Malfoy?" Harry raised an eyebrow, his stomach fluttering.
"You – you seem to get along," Ron said and Harry started to get where he was going with this conversation. "I just wanted to know, do you fancy him?" he blurted out.
He didn't know what to do, what to tell Ron and so on. Whatever was between him and Draco was so cut off from the rest of the world that he didn't know how to talk about it.
"I – I," he started saying, but the words died on his tongue. "Yeah, I do." he finally managed to get out.
"Oh," was all Ron said, still not looking at him. Harry's heart began to beat harder because he didn't know what to expect of Ron. He could be angry for all kinds of reasons, and when Ron still wasn't looking at him Harry felt panic spread through his veins.
"Don't expect me to be nice to him, though." Ron finally looked up and smiled at him. A little forced smile, but a smile nevertheless, and he knew that Ron was okay with it.
"I'll keep that in mind." He felt himself grin back in relief.
"Does he know?" (Ron whispered, as if Draco could still hear them.
"Know what?"
"That you, you know... like him..." Ron gestured with his hands a bit wildly.
"Oh, he most certainly knows that." Harry didn't know he was smirking a most Draco-like smirk at the moment.
Ron gasped. "You told him?"
"He asked me..."
"Harry," Ron looked extremely awkward once again, "what were you doing in the bathroom?"
"You really want to know?" Harry raised an eyebrow. Ron's mouth closed in a tight line."I don't think you do."
"Harry!"
"It's not like we were fucking or anything!"
"Oh my God! I can't believe you said that!" Ron had gone a bit green. Or maybe puce.
"I said we didn't!"
"But that means that you must have done something!" Ron said in a voice that promised utter doom.
"Yes! I was snogging the freaking breath out of him!"
"Merlin's balls, Harry!" Ron exclaimed and let his face fall into his hands, shaking his head. "I don't wanna know..."
"Well I did say that you wouldn't..." Harry offered half-heartedly.
"Okay, look," Ron looked up again, red as a tomato, "I'm okay with all this fancy-Malfoy-thing, just don't shove it in my face."
"Merlin!"
Harry and Ron turned to look at Draco, and for a split second Harry thought that he had heard their conversation. But Draco was looking with wide eyes at his book, then twisting a curl of his hair, scanning the blond lock in disbelief.
"Well," Ron said and Harry turned back to look at him, "I'm here for you mate. Just don't tell me stuff I don't want to know, alright?"
"Deal." Harry smiled (relieved to have gotten that conversation out of the way and be making it out still in possession of all his limbs and then they said goodnight and Ron took down his Silencing Charm. Draco also turned over and put his book away. After a short period of time Ron was snoring loudly and Harry was wide awake, staring at the ceiling.
"Draco?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah?" came an answer, even quieter.
"Are – are you going to sleep like that?"
"What the hell do you mean?" Draco's bewildered voice asked through the dark.
"I mean, you seemed to have nightmares even though we slept next to each other."
"Your point?"
"Well, maybe we should sleep in the same bed, I mean, it seemed to work yesterday." Harry wanted to die. He could not for the likes of him figure out why the hell he had said that. But the words had rolled off his tongue before he had even thought about it, and now he felt like slapping himself.
He heard Draco move in his bed, the duvet being kicked down to the foot of the bed and bare feet walking the couple steps to his bed.
"That was one of the lamest tricks to get me into bed with you, Potter," Draco said, looking down at Harry and his wand shining in his hand.
"Well it worked, didn't it?" Harry smirked and moved to make room for Draco. Gently, Draco lay down next to Harry under the covers, laying his wand at Harry's bedside table and then it was all dark again. Harry could feel Draco's warmth next to him, and he turned so that he was facing him, even though he could only see Draco's silhouette in the night.
"So what happens now?" Draco whispered.
"Now I reach out for you – " Harry answered and did just that, his heart beating fast against his chest as he touched Draco, "then I pull you close – " Draco was warm against Harry's chest and he felt Draco's hands sliding over his shoulders and through his hair, making Harry shiver, "and finally I kiss you good night." he said and then closed the last few inches between his and Draco's lips. Draco tasted like toothpaste and apples, and he kissed Harry back tenderly. There was nothing urgent about the kiss, it was slow and gentle, and Harry wrapped his arms around Draco possessively.
"Do you want to know what she said?" Draco asked after they had pulled away, only a few inches though.
"Who said what?" Harry was confused.
"Weasley. Or rather, the dark powers that had possessed her." Draco's voice was so small and hesitant, and Harry couldn't help but wonder why he'd even brought the whole thing up. But in some way, Harry couldn't help but feel warm bubbling inside of him. This obviously bothered Draco, yet he wanted to tell Harry about it.
"Only if you want to," Harry said gently.
"They – they say stuff, when they can reach me. In my dreams, or like that time in the corridor – " Harry winced at the mentioning of incident in the corridor, " – it's like they know my deepest fears. They say things like – like I'm not worthy of being loved, not of even being... alive, they bring forth my darkest memories," he mumbled. "And – and Weasley, though it wasn't really her, said things about how I got it all wrong. How you couldn't love me and – " his voice broke off and Harry cupped his cheek and looked at him through the little light that the stars outside the window had to offer.
"Don't believe that, Draco," he whispered reassuringly. "I'm sorry that I've let this happen for so long."
"You couldn't have known."
"But you shouldn't have had to go through that anyway. I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing to me!" Draco hissed, and then looked at Harry alarmed. "I – I, fuck it, I'm sorry. It's just that I can't help but to listen to that voice, I can't forget what it's telling me now that I remember it and – "
"Shut up, Draco." Harry cut him off. "There is no one here to tell you all that crap right now, so ignore it and try to sleep."
"Fine..."
"Good night Draco," Harry whispered and kissed Draco gently.
"Night Harry," Draco mumbled.