Harry walked or more truthfully, ran towards his next class. It was like this Monday would never end. As he stepped farther from Malfoy he could feel his heart flip over as it sank lower inside of him. Malfoy had almost kissed him. Albeit a joke, it had still almost happened. Not only that, but he had said something about Harry being what he smelt when he was able to catch a whiff of the practically illegal love potion.
Harry blushed as he thought about what Draco had said. Wait. More importantly was how he had said it. Malfoy had stuttered. Draco had a way of speaking even insults with an air of arrogance and social grace, but within a few moments he was basically a fool stumbling over his own words.
The thought of Malfoy failing at something almost made Harry pleased.
Almost.
Defense Against the Dark Arts had never been a longer class. Harry was sure of it. As he sat back in his chair, casting a spell so that he wouldn't topple out of it while leaning it on two legs, he thought about how to tell his friends what happened. They had basically accepted him as being...gay? Is that what he was? He had liked Ginny before and Cho as well. So what was he? Bi? Pans-? Harry wasn't even sure anymore. All he knew was that he felt the strong urge to both snog Malfoy and punch the git in his unfortunately handsome face.
Harry looked up from his thoughts, glad that Remus had been given his job back as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but his face paled as he realized that everyone was looking at him.
"Uh what?" He managed to squeak out while the rest of the class broke into a fit of giggles.
"I asked what kind of spell would be best to repel a Itim Luscus? Also known as black eyed beings," Remus spoke while looking at him expectantly. Harry shrugged before speaking.
"A repelling charm?" A few snickers were heard from the other Gryffindors. Hermione looked sympathetically at Harry before her own arm shot into the air.
"Hermione?" inquired Professor Lupin.
"Although Harry was on the right track, you would need more than just a repelling charm. Supposing that most Itim Luscus' travel either alone or in pairs, a wizard would need to cast either a binding charm or a silencing charm first before proceeding with both a repellant and a full body inferno." She looked quite pleased with herself as Lupin nodded at her answer.
"And why is that, Ms. Granger?"
"Because Black Eyed Beings tend to be lonely and homeless. They tend to wander and force themselves on anyone who will listen. They don't have a personality and can sometimes give off a feeling of fear-"
"Like Malfoy?" said Seamus through a yawn from the back of the class, causing the room to erupt into a fit of laughter before catching Lupin's stern face.
"But what makes them dangerous?" Remus asked, pressuring the class.
"Well Professor, what makes them the most dangerous is their ability to strike fear into anyone near them. Much like dementors they seem to feed on despair, but whereas dementors devours one's soul, black eyed beings take possession of one's entire body. At this point the person is considered dead and the black eyed being either discards or eats it's previous body. Not much is known about that..." She looked down as she finished as though the thought scared her a bit too much. Lupin nodded solemnly then smiled at the class.
"For the rest of class you will pair up and practice a plethora of body binding spells. A black eyed being can not be trapped the same way twice by the same wizard. Therefore you must always be prepared." Once Remus was done speaking he looked over at Harry. "May I have a moment?"
They walked out into the corridor and Harry began to find his shoelaces increasingly interesting. Remus looked at him lovingly.
"I heard something quite odd happened in potions this morning between you and Malfoy.Would you like to talk about it?" Harry was glad that he had someone like Remus to be there for him. Being that his entire family was dead, excluding the Dursleys, he was glad he had someone looking after him. Even so, this was not something he wanted to talk to his professor about, even if it was just Lupin.
"No sir, I'm alright." He avoided Remus' gaze as long as possible before he noticed that his professor was smiling at him. "You're beginning to scare me Professor." It looked as though Lupin was looking behind Harry before he turned around and left him in the corridor in order to dismiss the class a bit early. When Harry turned around Malfoy stood there with eyes as unreadable as ever and his poise recaptured in every stiff and alert movement.
"Potter." Harry looked over at the blonde and couldn't believe he had thought Malfoy could be able to show him any face other than this one of smug arrogance.
"Malfoy." He rolled his eyes and tried to stroll past the blonde before having his wrist grabbed and his entire body yanked back.
"I thought we were having a conversation here, Potter." He still had that smug look on his face.
"What gave you that idea?"
"I suppose it would be the way you're looking at me. It's sending chills down my spine." He spoke sarcastically, but Draco meant every word.
"Oh Merlin's beard, Malfoy. Will you stop this nonsense already! Do I have to apologize for finding you attractive now as well!?" Harry squeaked as he realized what he had said and snatched away from Malfoy before he had a chance to bore those gray orbs into him and his heated cheeks.
Draco was too stunned to speak.
The golden boy found him attractive? This had to be some sort of cruel joke.
As he heard Harry walk off he made his way to his last class of the day , Transfiguration. Which just happened to be one of his more annoying lessons. He rolled his eyes and made his way down the corridor and towards the stairs.
Draco was going to head to class. He really was, but somehow he found himself in one of the less populated parts of the library surrounded by books about love. He had a thought while on the way to Transfiguration. Was there a way to change your sense of attraction and therefore your ideal scent from Amortentia? After reading through 6 books almost as thick as A History of Magic and just as boring, he found nothing even close to being helpful until he began reading "Love: Potions, Parts, Poets, & Premise" which mentioned something along the lines of: "allowing the aroma of those that you love to surround you will help ensure that your love stays strong, true and pure."
Maybe that was the issue. It wasn't that Draco was in love with Harry, it's just that his scent was familiar and it had tricked his senses into creating a false love from memories and feelings of security. Malfoy rolled his eyes. He knew something was up. His heart had been beating too wildly when Potter was around. And even wilder when he thought of him. Potter was the same annoying Gryffindor he had been yesterday.
If this was first year or even fourth year Draco may have admitted that his feelings were real, but there was too much hanging in the balance for him to possibly accept that now. His father was a Death Eater and he was pretending to be one. Admitting his love for The-Boy-Who-Lived would not help him be a believable pawn for the Dark Lord, regardless how great Potter smelled up close. Or how fast Draco's heart beat when he thought of those emerald eyes and seemingly soft hair.
He left the books on the table and snapped his eyes open before sneaking away quickly to the dungeons, making a B-line towards the Slytherin dormitories. What he needed was a cold shower.
~~~~~~~~~
The next morning Harry woke up with a small smile on his face, and every idea why.
"Bloody hell, Harry," spoke Ron while trying to pull his pants up and looking over at a fully dressed Harry. "Someone is over-eager. We don't even have potions today, mate." Harry smiled wide.
"That's why I'm so excited!" Harry beamed at Ron. Although they had Charms, which wasn't much better than Transfiguration on most days, he would have a Malfoy free day (unless one of them purposely made it otherwise) and that was what please him the most. Ron looked confused.
"I thought you were into Malfoy now though..." Harry scrunched up his nose and shook his head.
"He's still as much of an insufferable git as he was before potions class yesterday." Ron nodded thoughtfully then quickly finished dressing before he and Harry rushed off to meet Hermione at breakfast.
Once they were in the Great Hall Harry noticed with great pleasure that Malfoy wasn't there yet. It was still pretty early, but since he was having such a great day so far he finished his food and rushed Ron and Hermione off to their first class, Charms. Hermione yanked her arm from Harry's grasp, causing him to stop and look back at her.
"Harry, what is going on with you? We have Charms this morning!" Harry nodded at her smiling. "You probably haven't even finished your essay, which is due today." The smile fell from his face but she continued. "So why in the name of Merlin are you trying so hard to get to class on time!?"
"Wow, Potter. Even the Mudblood has grown tired of your nonsense." Malfoy walked casually down the corridor being flanked by Crabbe and Goyle and waving a quick goodbye to Pansy and Zabini. He looked over Harry's shoulder in order to get a better view of Ron. "And what does the weasel think? Has Potter finally lost it?"
"Go hex yourself, Malfoy. This doesn't concern you," spit Ron while attempting to pull Harry and Hermione behind him.
"I forgot how much the Chosen One liked to make his friends fight his battles for him. It can't be that much fun on the sidelines, can it, Potter?"
"I wouldn't know. You should ask your Dark Lord, Voldemort. He doesn't seem to get his hands dirty. I mean, why should he? He has you lot to send off to Azkaban when things go wrong," as Harry spoke the color drained from Draco's face and both of their hearts tugged at the pain they inflicted on the other. He turned allowing Ron to pull him down the corridor towards Charms before he could fully survey the damage. He could conjure a quick essay once they got into the classroom if it was still early enough.
Hermione whined for a majority of the time it took for him to conjure up a believable Charms report. Harry wasn't listening, but he knew she was telling him to do better and make sure his work was done on time. He just nodded and made affirmation noises until he had finished his essay. He handed it to her to read over. She nodded, but insisted he fix some of his grammatical errors because the way she saw it he "wasn't that daft."
Once class was over they rushed to DADA. Which went by fairly quickly due to the fact that they were just continuing practice on body binding spells. When it was finally time for lunch Harry almost flew to the Great Hall which would have been perfectly fine if Malfoy hadn't been standing in the corridor waiting for him. Without noticing he ran head first into Malfoy's chest being he was a bit shorter than the blonde. Before he realized what he was doing, he had fists full of Malfoy's robes and was taking his time inhaling the boy's sweet aroma.
"You're going to make a scene, Potter." At the sound of Malfoy's voice Harry stepped back allowing both their hearts to catch up to being away from each other.
"Bloody hell, Malfoy!" Harry yelled.
"You ran into me, Potter. Watch where you're going." At that Malfoy made his leave, brushing past Harry headed in the direction of the dungeons.
"Skipping Lunch again, Malfoy?" called Hermione honestly concerned. The boys looked at her confused and insisted she tell them what was going on once they were seated in the Great Hall.
"He's been in the library a few times. He was researching some things about l-" she looked up from her homework and shook her head as the blood rushed to her cheeks. "He's been studying a lot. I've been trying to help him out." Ron choked on his mashed potatoes.
"And why the bloody hell would you do that for?!" He asked surprised, still coughing up potato.
"Because, Ronald, some students like to be prepared for their NEWTS...and he asked for help."
"The NEWTS are months away! Not to mention Malfoy wouldn't ask for help if his life depended on it. He's a bloody Malfoy!" Hermione's face paled just as Ron finished his sentence. When he turned around to see what had her so shaken, there stood Draco with his usual you-are-beneath-me-stare.
"You left this in the library, Granger," he spoke confidently while handing her a thick hardcover book. It looked ancient and it was covered in golden scrolls and a singular golden eye of Horus that stared out from the center of the cover. She nodded and smiled at him.
"Thanks, Malfoy. I'd been looking for it," she spoke sweetly to him as if he were some hurt puppy she had rescued. He nodded at her then walked to the other side of the Great Hall to take a seat at the Slytherin table. Once he was there he locked eyes with Harry.
Harry thought maybe his eyes were lying to him, because it looked as though Draco was biting his lip. And there was most definitely a blush settling across his face as he and Harry stared intently at one another. Draco's gaze dropped.
What was going on inside his head?
~~~~~~<~>~~~~~~~
This one is a bit of a longer chapter, I think. The length will vary depending on what's going on in the story, but this should be the usual length. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to vote, comment & share. Thanks so much for reading!
-- angel janeé xoxo