Madam Pomfrey had Harry spend the night in the hospital wing, just to be safe.
He wasn't sure he slept.
He spent a great deal of time staring at the ceiling, his mind on an endless loop of the kiss. Each time his mind played through it again, it focused on a different thing; the way Draco looked, then just his expressions and then just his eyes. The way he felt, the way the kiss felt, he remembered how he smelled.
He didn't remember smelling him at the time but he was certain it was fire whiskey, an aftershave or cologne that was a sharp mix of musk and evergreen, with a hint of something spiced, all of it so faint it was probably an exaggeration; he thought he remembered lemons, something citrus but he couldn't pinpoint where the idea had come from. He remembered the look Blaise and Pansy had given each other. He remembered how soft Draco's shirt felt against his fingertips.
He remembered the kiss. He remembered the kiss. He remembered the kiss.
His first kiss was with Draco Malfoy. His first kiss was at eighteen. He'd never been able to kiss anyone else, after trying hundreds of times and his first kiss was with Draco Malfoy.
He needed to go find Ron and Hermione. He needed to talk to them so badly he thought he might burst. He knew Madam Pomfrey would not be pleased but Harry left the hospital wing as soon as he thought he his friends wouldn't strangle him for waking them up.
Before he even realized it he was running back to the dorm. Bursting inside and startling the only person in the common room, Hermione. She was reading in front of the fire, looking no worse for wear considering the night before.
Her eyebrows shot up when she saw Harry, closing her book with a snap as she stood, "There you are! You disappeared after the party and no one knew where you were!"
Harry crossed the floor, talking between breaths, "McGonagall took me to the hospital wing but that's not important-"
"The hospital wing!" Hermione's eyes widened, "Are you alright?"
Harry reached out, gently desperately grasping Hermione's forearms with both hands, "I'm fine! Not important! Listen-"
Hermione's brow furrowed, "Harry-"
Harry was practically bouncing on his toes, "Listen, please, Mione- I kissed someone!"
Her brow furrowed further, "Harry... you kissed nearly everyone last night. Does Madam Pomfrey know you left?"
"I didn't-" Harry bit his lip briefly, "You know how I couldn't kiss Cho?"
"In fifth year? Harry, I'm worried-"
"The thing is-" Harry said quickly, talking over her all in a rush, "-I haven't been able to kiss anyone."
Hermione froze, her eyes widening slowly, "What?"
"Last night was the first time," Harry added, his voice dropping as the energy seemed to drain out of him. He realized he was still holding onto Hermione's arms and quickly let go, pull his hands back to his chest.
"You're sure?"
Harry nodded.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione asked a faint sadness in her tone.
Harry grimaced apologetically, "There was a lot going on. It wasn't... important."
"Well, it is now," Hermione huffed, shaking her head, "How many people have you tried to kiss?"
Harry shrugged one shoulder, "A hundred or two maybe? I wasn't exactly keeping count."
"Okay," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Well, I'm going to the library. There are three books I know of that I can start with. You're going to bed."
"What?" Harry asked in a surge of confusion, pushing his hand through his hair.
Hermione took him by the shoulder and pointed him at the dorm stairs, "You look awful. Go get a few hours rest, I'll wake you once I've finished my preliminary research."
Harry nodded as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. Just knowing that Hermione knew, that she was looking into it, took an enormous weight off his shoulders. He slipped into the boy dorm filled with the reassuring sound of a bunch of blokes snoring and grumbling and farting in their sleep. Harry didn't even bother pulling his curtains closed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Harry woke with a start as Hermione dropped herself and a pile of books on the end of his bed, "Wha-! Hermione?" He rubbed his eyes and then scrubbed his hair, blinding reaching up next to his pillow where he put his glasses and then sleepily sliding them on.
"It's nearly time for lunch so I thought I'd better wake you so you don't miss it and also to tell you what I've found," Hermione said all in a rush, already flipping open one of her books.
"Lunch?" Ron groaned from the next bed, shoving his blankets down and stretching.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes, lunch. You slept through breakfast."
Ron slowly sat up and looked around the empty dorm, "Harry slept through too," he pointed out.
Hermione shook her head, "Yes but Harry didn't sleep much last night so it doesn't count."
"Nothing wrong with a bit of a lie in, it is sunday after all," Ron muttered as he stood, stumbling over to Harry's bed and sitting down next to him, "Nightmares?" he asked.
Harry shook his head, feeling his cheeks start to get hot. With a few hours sleep and the morning light to separate him from what had happened the night before, the whole, not kissing anyone thing, seemed a bit silly and a lot more embarrassing.
"Harry says he's never kissed anyone, that he's been repelled from every person he's tried," Hermione said in her no-nonsense, academic tone.
"Wot? Like every-everyone?" Ron asked, his brow furrowed, "Even Ginny?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, even her. But last night-"
"It's surprisingly hard to find much research on magical signatures and how they interact," Hermione cut him off, "What I have found written about it makes it sound like a fun little side project the author just tinkered around with. The general impression I got is that your situation is very, very rare. So rare it's not mentioned at all. I've been thinking of looking into the medical books. Maybe's it's a magical medical condition of some sort..."
Ron yawned, "So it's like The Princess and Priestess then?"
"The what?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked up from her book in confusion, "What are you talking about, Ron?"
Ron looked from Hermione to Harry, "It's a fairy-story. Do muggles not have that one?"
"Guess not," Harry said, whose knowledge of children's stories was fairly limited thanks to the Dursleys.
Hermione shook her head, "I've never heard of it. What in the world does it have to do with Harry's predicament?"
"It's kind of the same thing, really," Ron said, his brow scrunching up in thought, "It's been ages but it goes kinda like: A long time ago there was a Princess of this kingdom and she was supposed to marry this other Prince bloke but on the day of their wedding, they couldn't kiss," He raised his hands, showing a gap between the two of a few inches, "and in their culture, the marriage couldn't happen if the kiss didn't happen. So the King arranges for more princes, and none of them can kiss her. So he calls in all the nobles, and none of them can kiss her either.
"And the King's so worried about his daughter not getting married and being alone for the rest of her life, he says anyone who can kiss her can have the Princess' hand in marriage. The whole kingdom gets flooded with people hoping to get lucky, lines going around the city, people camping for weeks to get a chance and over and over again, no one can kiss the Princess. She's really upset about all of this-"
"As she should be!" Hermione said, "Being treated like cattle. Doesn't she get any say in this?!"
Ron smiled lopsidedly, "Mione, let me finish. It was a long, long time ago and a fairy story. Anyway; she's upset and starts going to the temple every night to pray to their gods. At night only a single Priestess watches the temple and they start talking to one another, becoming friends. Until soon the Princess is coming to the temple to see the Priestess rather than pray and they're talking all night, every night.
"One day Princess realizes she's in love with the Priestess but since she can't kiss anyone they'll never be able to be together. She tells the Priestess she's going to kill herself because she's so unhappy and can't live without her. The Priestess begs her not to and tells her that she loves the Princess more than anyone in the world."
"She was going to kill herself?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"Fairy-stories," Ron said with a shrug as if that explained it all, "They decide to get married. Even if they can't kiss, they want to spend the rest of their lives together. The King agrees because he's never seen his daughter so happy before. They say their vows and then they kiss, as easy as anything because it's true love and they're perfect for each other, happily ever after, the end and all that guff."
Hermione looked sceptical, "And you think this story is about magical signatures and that the Princess' was so... different, it repelled everyone but the Priestess."
"Right and the Princess and Priestess were absolutely perfect for one another, that's why they could kiss. Every kid from a magic household knows the story. It's in pretty much every book collection of the old stories." Ron said, "Ginny really liked it when she was little. Bill too, always a bit of a romantic our Bill."
Hermione sighed, "It's not terrible for a fairy tale but it doesn't really help Harry."
"He just has to find his Priestess," Ron said and grinned in a mischievous way, "Shouldn't be too hard, the whole wizarding world would gladly kiss you now. Once they find out you're like the Princess, you'll be beating them off with sticks."
Harry couldn't look them in the eye. His whole face felt hot.
Was Draco Malfoy-?
"Only one person?" Harry asked faintly.
Hermione snorted, "Highly doubtful. It's a random magical signature, the chances of being highly compatible with only one person and incompatible with literally every single other person in the world is impossible. It's far more likely that he's either compatible with a few random people or with no one at all."
"Real helpful, Hermione," Ron said under his breath.
Hermione frowned and shoved his shoulder, "Oh, shut it, Ron. Besides, Harry said he kissed someone last night, that's how this whole thing started."
"Oh," Ron said and then grinned, elbowing Harry conspiratorially in the side, "Who is it, mate? They cute? Divine? Your perfect, soul-shattering love? The Priestess to your Princess?"
"Why am I the Princess in this scenario?" Harry asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled faintly.
"Just fits." Ron went on, "Did you get all shivery when you kissed them? Did it curl your toes? Butterflies in your stomach, heart racing, birds singing-"
Hermione interrupted him with a laugh, "Ron!"
Harry flushed, "...I mean, It was just for a second but- kinda, yeah."
"You wanna know too," Ron said to Hermione. He sniffed theatrically, "Our little boy's all grown up. His first proper romance."
Harry laughed weakly, feeling impossibly nervous about the question they were sure to ask.
"Just because Harry can kiss them doesn't mean he's going to like them," Hermione said.
"They practically have to." Ron said, "That's how it works!"
Hermione sniffed, unconvinced, "Sounds like another fairy tale to me."
Ron rolled his eyes and then leaned over to nudge Harry's shoulder, "Who is it then?"
"Erm, well..." Harry took a deep breath and blurted out, "DracoMalfoy."
Whatever Ron was going to say turned into a strangled wheeze in his throat.
"Oh," Hermione said faintly.
Ron stared unseeing into the distance with an expression of profound regret for everything he had said in the last ten minutes.
Hermione awkwardly cleared her throat, "That's- that's- certainly," she paused glancing up briefly, "I was going to say unexpected but considering Malfoy and your whole-" she vaguely waved a hand, "-relationship. I suppose... it's not that strange."
"It's not?" Harry said.
"Well," Hermione said carefully, "You saved his life, he saved yours... You stalked him for a year, he climbed a tree and made a hundred handmade 'Potter Stinks' badges to taunt you..."
"You called him you arch-enemy for ages," Ron said, "You had Voldemort trying to kill you and you called Malfoy your arch-enemy. When you were like twelve. No one has arch-enemies when they're twelve."
Harry said, "Rivals. I said rivals for sure-"
"Nah," Ron shook his head, "You said arch-enemies, mate. It's a bit barmy looking back on it."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked.
Harry's brow furrowed, "About what?"
"That you kissed him." Seeing Harry's expression Hermione quickly raised both hands and waved them placatingly, "You were both drunk and it was loud and crowded and it was Malfoy! It would be more strange not to check, wouldn't it?"
"I've spent my whole life, and a lot of it recently, not kissing people, I'm quite certain I can tell once I've actually managed it," Harry said a little sharply, "I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't sleep because of it."
Ron and Hermione glanced at each other pointedly.
Hermione cleared her throat and said, "The more important question here, is, how do you feel about him?"
"I don't know?" Harry said a bit helplessly, "He's quite good looking-"
Ron and Hermione exchanged another look.
"- but I haven't talked to him since the trials. He said 'Thank you' after it was all over and that was it!"
"You want to talk to him then?" Ron asked.
Harry scrubbed miserably at his hair, "I don't- Maybe? It's strange that we haven't isn't it? Every year I've been at school he's tracked me down as soon as we were on the train just to say something."
"and the one year he didn't you went to him," Ron said.
"Do you like him?" Hermione asked.
Harry groaned, "How am I supposed to know that?"
"Get to know him?" Ron suggested a little sarcastically, "You could try talking to him like a normal person for one. And flirting?" he grimaced, "No, never mind, you're rubbish that. No insults, o'course, no name calling, that goes for us as well I suppose, and no fights," he sighed, "I suppose I'll have to treasure the time one time I did get to punch the whiny little tit."
"You're being surprisingly supportive about all this, Ron," Hermione said with a furrow in her brow and a funny little smile.
Ron sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "You grew up with muggles, so I guess you don't know, but- it's like- a strong match between two people is really rare and when it happens it's meant to be- you can't just-" he gestured vaguely with open hands, "not. It's special. It's doubly more important if Malfoy's the only person Harry can even kiss."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "He's not the only one. The odds of that are ridiculous."
"So?" Ron shrugged, "What good is it going to do Harry if he can kiss a random wizard in the middle of china or a witch up in canada? He's found one here!"
Hermione frowned, "Yes, well, you might have a point."
"Thank you!" Ron said with a triumphant smile.
They all went quiet for a moment and then Harry laughed and said dryly, "Now that that's all sorted, everything else is just a piece of piss."
"In the end, it's up to you really," Hermione said.
Ron managed an uneven smile, "Sweep him off his feet, mate."