Stuck with Me

Harry would be lying if he said he didn't know. Or at least suspect. There's only so many times you can shower in a locker room with incredibly fit fellow Quidditch players without taking notice. At one point it got so bad he held off showering until everyone else finished so they they wouldn't notice his prick standing to attention. 

How could he not know? 

But it's not like he had much time to really think about it. He was too busy with just trying to survive a crazy man coming after him every year on top of all his school work and Quidditch, and that one year where he became a little too obsessed with Draco Malfoy. 

Malfoy was another issue altogether. Although they had only been back to school for a few weeks he could see the other man had changed, there was no doubt about it. Malfoy was no longer the stuck up, attention whore, arsehole that Harry knew him to be. No, this new Malfoy was quiet and reserved, he kept his head down he dind't try to draw attention to himself at all. 

There was a point the second day in that they had run straight into one another, Malfoy leaving their room, Harry just entering it coming from the shower down the hall, and they had collided. Malfoy just mumbled an apology and scurried past. It was weird. He was weird. 

And as the weeks progressed, he was aware he wasn't the only one who had noticed how much the blond had changed. He overheard a conversation between Justin Finch-Fletchley and Dean about it. Dean who spent a period of time in Malfoy's basement dungeon's, was agreeing that this new Malfoy wasn't too bad. Weird. 

But now he's just over 3 weeks back into school, and as much as he may want to ignore it, he simply can't. He's properly realised and now he can't stop.  He half wonders if he should talk to Hermione about it, but he also knows that once he does, it makes it real. And he wasn't sure he was ready for it to be real. At least for the moment, it was hit little secret. Which was difficult, it's impossible to keep secret's from his friends. They spent all days everyday together, they practically grew up in one another's pockets. And since the war it's been worse, unless Ron and 'mione were off for some alone time, the three of them were always within arms reach. 

Every time he was around them he tried to not think about it directly because he knew Hermione would be able to read his face like one of her books and know that something was wrong. that there was something he wasn't telling them. 

So he didn't think about it when they were around. But it was difficult, impossible even. How could he not be thinking about this one major thing at all times. Especially when they were pestering him about getting back together with Ginny. All he could tell them again and again was that too much had changed, that he had changed, and that it wasn't going to happen for them. 

"Harry?" Ron asked, and by the look on his face it wasn't the first time he called out his name. "You alright mate?"

" 'm fine sorry, what's up?" 

"We were just wondering if you had finished your potions essay, Professor Slughorn may be cutting you some slack on your assignments lately, but you still need to do them Harry. If for no other reason than the practice, writing these essays will help you with the experience and understanding." Hermione scolded. Since the war she had become a lot more chill, but there were still some things that she woulnd't let slide, and the fact that Harry had been slacking on his assignments so far was one of them. 

He just coulnd't understand the point in classes when he had fought a war. The three of them spent months and months on the run together, had gone through hell and back, seen so many people die; that doing 18 inches on the background and history of love potions seemed so pointless to him now. It's not like he was still planning on being an auror- not that he'd told his friends that either. This new post war Harry was really keeping some secrets huh. 

"I know 'mione, I know. I'll get on it tonight, it's not due until end of week anyways." 

Although she didn't believe him, not for a moment if the look on her face was any indication, she didn't say anything. And for that she was greatful. 

Ever since everything had gone down most of his professors have been letting him get away with handing things in late, or even not at all. This wasn't the first potions essay that Harry wasn't planning on turning in. 

When the trio had finished their breakfast they stood up and headed to their common room. It was a saturday and by Hermione's insistence the three of them were going to spend some time doing their homework. When they had arrived in the eighth year common room Harry was greatful to see it was mostly empty. He knew that more people would be joining in as they finished breakfast, but for now it was just them and they would be able to get the good seats by the fire, similar to the ones in Gryffindor tower. 

He understood why the Headmisress had separated the eighth year, giving them their own common room and bunching them together, but that didn't mean that he didn't miss the cozy red and oranges of Gryffindor. 

The eighth year common room was down the hallway that had been forbidden in their third year, only down the left rather than the right where Fluffy was being held. It gave the trio a bit of a panic when they realized where the Headmistress was leading the group. The common room was nice enough, it was in it's own small tower, you entered onto the second floor at a balcony that split left and right for the separate dormatory's, the balcony looked down to the common room below, a staircase that circled it's way down laid directly in front of the doors. It was a big open area, the roof slanting in until the tip of the roof. The common room itself was airy and inviting. There was a big fireplace with chairs across from it, big windows covering the wall above it stretching up past the balcony level. Beneath the balcony there was floor to ceiling bookshelves with tables and chairs for studying against it. To the left of that and the right of the fireplace laid a small kitchenette where they could make tea and was kept stocked with biscuits and crisps for them to snack on. 

The room was also full of a blend of the house colours, in a way that clashed but nobody actually seemed to mind. There were red couches and yellow pillows, blue chairs and green carpet. There were a few purple lamps just to add to the chaos. But overal it was a rather nice area. And it seemed to be doing  it's job and encouraging 'inter house unity' something the Headmistress had been pushing on them from the moment they stepped off the train. 

Headmistress McGonagall was determined to unite the houses in a way that had never been seen before. Although the inter house rivalry's were still accepted, who doens't love a competitive game of Quidditch, the Headmisress was working hard on making sure everyone got alone. She decided that this year all their classes would be mixed houses -although that was already the case for the eighth years as there wasn't enough of them to fill a full class by house, or even by year. The eighth years had been mixed in with some seventh year classes just because there weren't enough people. Hermione, Malfoy, and Nott were the only ones in their year taking Arithmancy so they had been combined with the seventh years. 

Another thing that the Headmistress had done was introduce a house swap friday every last friday of the month. Students were encouraged to swap robes and dress as another house, sitting at that houses table also if they so wished, not that the dedicated house tables had held too strong. There were many people making new friends in different houses thanks to their sharing classes, so it wasn't too uncommon to see students of different houses sitting at other tables, swap friday's or not. 

The only thing that the Headmistress chose to do that Harry simply did not understand was the rooming assignments. More specifically, his rooming assignment. Even more speficically, his and Malfoy's rooming assignment. McGonagall had decided to mix houses for their rooms as well, and for some reason she thought that putting Harry and Malfoy in the same room was a good idea. And although Harry could admit and agree Malfoy wasn't being a total prick this year, with what he had finally realized and was on the way to accepting about himself, he didn't want Malfoy to find out. And with the dreams that Harry kept having, the ones that had him waking up uncomfortable or worse, with sticky pants, he was running that risk nightly. There was a 50-50 chance that Harry would either have a naughty dream or a nightmare, and although he tried to cast a silencing charm each night, there's were still a few times when Ron would wake him up - the man never more than a few feet away at any given moment, thankfully the Headmisress understood this and had Ron in the room with them - and Harry would know his silencing charm had broken. At least to his credit, Malfoy never mentioned the nightmares - although he was always awake with Justin and Nott when Ron woke him up. 

It didn't take very long for both Ron and Harry to give up on doing schoolwork in favour of playing a game of chess. 'it's a saturday 'mione!'

"Pawn to D2" Ron spoke. It was something Harry loved about Ron, the way he spoke rather than moved the pieces the muggle way. Even after eight years in the wizarding world Harry still moved it by hand, some things you can't change about yourself. 

Harry responded with moving his pawn to E7 and Ron then moved his queen side knight to c3. The two went back and forth for a while making idle chatter. 

"I heard that Dean and Seamus were caught snogging in a corridor last night." Ron scandalized, his voice lowered so no one could overhear. Hermione glanced up in interest. 

"Is that so?" She asked. If there was one thing about Hermione, she was a horrible gossip but would never admit it. 

"Yeah. Isn't that gross?" oh.

"Ronald!" Hermione scolded.

"What! It's the truth. Two blokes kissing, bleh."

Hermione very quickly checked what page she was on before closing her book and smacking him against the head with it. Hard. Thank merlin she read hardback's. 

"Ow! Harry, tell her she's being ridiculous." He said while rubbing his hand against his head. 

Hermione quickly turned to him and gave him a severe look that would have Headmistress McGonagall proud, but then softened the look slightly when she saw his face. He didn't like that. 

"Mate, who cares if they fancy one another. We've been rooming with them since we were 11, frankly it seems like it was time." Because it was. Dean and Seamus had had something between them for ages, even Harry as oblivious as he was could see that. 

Ron made a face, like he coudln't believe it. "Exactly, they're our roommates and they're fags! We've been changing in front of them for years, probably perving!" 

Thankfully, Hermione had heard enough and she stood and grabbed her things quickly. "Come on Harry. I'm done listening to this." Harry grabbed his things too and followed Hermione quickly out of the common room. Leaving Ron sat alone with his unfinished game of chess in-front of him. 

Hermione was pissed. Although 'mione had a rather infamous temper, this was something bigger, angrier. 

"I can't believe he is so small minded! How can he think that it's wrong, if Molly knew he would be in so much trouble! Do you think I should write her? Like how can he be like this? Like is he going to start hating on Charlie now? You?! Harry I'm so sorry you shouldn't of had to hear that." 

Harry's steps slowed slightly, it took Hermione a moment to notice. "Harry?" 

"Why shouldn't I have heard that?" His voice smaller than he would've liked. 

Hermione walked back towards him, placing her hands on his arms. He had stopped moving now. "Oh, Harry." As if that had explained it all. "You're my best friend, you'll always be my best friend." 

He could feel his heart beat harder, was she saying what he thought he was saying? That she knew? "I-" 

She wrapped her arms around him tightly, to the point where it hurt a little to breathe. He didn't mind. "Harry my love, I know you're gay." 

oh. 

~~~

"How do you- I mean how did you find out I-" They were down on the lawn sitting by a tree near the black lake. Hermione figured it would be a good place where Ron wouldn't find them. 

"Oh Harry, I know you better than you know yourself sometimes. The way you looked at Cedric, the way you followed Malfoy around in sixth year. Your face when you met Charlie for the first time. We spent so much time just us in the tent, anybody else in the world would have taken the chance to look at me after getting out of the shower or changing or whatnot, it was 10 months in a tent no other people around. The only reason you wouldn't look was if you were blind or gay." 

He was speechless. She wasn't wrong, in fact she was super incredibly right. But he wasn't aware that she had been keeping tabs like that on him. But now he was more surprised with himself that he hadn't realised. 

"And you're okay with it? The being gay?"  He wished he sounded more confident, but Hermione's opinion mattered more to him than anyone else's. More than Molly Weasley. 

She reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing it tightly. Reassuringly. "Of course I don't mind Harry." 

The weight on his chest lessened majorly. He wasn't out of the woods yet. Hermione was just one person out of a million. But knowing that she was okay with it, Hermione, the woman who was practically a sibling to him, was okay with it. Was a relief. 

"I know why you're so worried about it, but Harry those who matter won't mind, and those who mind don't matter. He'll come around." She gave his hand one final squeeze before letting go.

" 'Mione I love you, and I love how hopeful you are, but you know Ron as well as I do. He's not going to change his mind on this." He gave her a sad smile. 

She let out a sigh but didn't respond, she knew he was right. 

The two let the conversation break off, just sitting there enjoying one another's company. Hermione reading her book - Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu- and Harry thinking, looking out at the water. By the time they got up the sun was low on the horizon, about an hour to setting, and they had missed lunch. 

They made their way back to the common room, thankfully Ron was nowhere to be seen. They went their separate ways to drop their things off in their rooms before meeting back up by the portrait hole to head down to the Great Hall. 

Dinner was already started when they walked in, Ron was sat at the Gryffindor table beside Neville and pointedly not looking at Dean and Seamus who were on the other side chatting. 

Ron made eye contact with the two and slid over to make room. 

"Let's sit with Ravenclaw today." Harry said, not waiting for Hermione's to start walking towards where Luna and Ginny were sat. "Do you mind some company?" 

"Of course not, you two are always welcome here." Luna smiled and shifted over to make room for Hermione, while Ginny did the same for Harry. 

"So what do we owe the pleasure?" Ginny asked, a curious glint behind her eyes. 

"Ron." Hermione grumbled. 

"Aaah, enough said he's been pissing me off my entire life. What did he do this time?" 

"He heard a rumour about two blokes we know who were caught snogging, and he had some... opinions." More grumbling. 

"Of course he did. I don't know why he's such a prick or where got it from." Ginny rolled her eyes. "So who's the blokes?" 

"Nice try Gin but we're not outing anybody." Harry laughed, and he ignored the way that Hermione looked at him. Ginny kicked him under the table but didn't press anymore. Harry was glad for that. 

"So i've been looking to the nature of Bowtruckles recently, I hear they're really good at unlocking locks, but I have this theory that gibberwits can help them breed that I wish to investigate." Luna said between bites of potatoes. 

Harry wasn't sure what the hell a gibberwit was but he wasn't going to tell Luna that. He just nodded along and helped himself to some carrots and peas. It was always like this with Luna, her and her definitely real creatures. 

Although they weren't the most unlikely group to be together, they were definitely getting some stares, mainly from the Gryffindor table who didn't understand why Harry wasn't sitting with them. Harry pointedly ignored them. 

From where he was sat- with this back to Gryffindor- he had a good view of Slytherin table. More specifically a certain Slytherin roommate of his. 

Malfoy was sat next to Parkinson, and across from Zabini, Nott, and Bulstrode. If Harry was being honest he was surprised to see so many Slytherin return this year, many of the other slytherin 'eighth' years decided to attend different schools or take their N.E.W.T.'s by mail. Harry personally didn't blame them. After everything that happened, the Slytherin's weren't exactly popular in school this year.

Harry didn't know how long he was staring at the Slytherin table, but he did realise when Malfoy's light eyes met his vibrant green. There was no malice on Malfoy's face, pure curiosity, Harry could feel his face heat up from being caught, but he didn't look away, instead he raised an eyebrow. Now it was Malfoy's turn to flush, his cheeks going slightly pink. Cute. 

The two sat there staring at one another for a few moments longer before Parkinson snapped in front of Malfoy's face and cause him to turn and look at her. From the look on his face he was annoyed. 

Harry took this as his victory and turned over to Ginny. "So do you think puddlemere are going to lose the game against the Cannons tomorrow?"

Ginny let out a laugh, "You're dumber than Ron if you think that Potter." 

Harry avoided their room for as long as he could, staying up with Hermione in the common room until 11 when she was officially falling asleep on her chair. She gave him an apologetic look and a final squeeze on the arm before dissapearing into the girls hallways. 

He made his way to his own room, pausing outside the door, taking a deep breath and walking in. he hoped that Ron would have gone asleep, or pretended to sleep to leave Harry alone. But of course, Ron never did know how to read a room. 

When he entered the room, he saw that Ron was sat on his bed, some parchment and a quill beside him that looked long abandoned. "Harry!" He perked up when he noticed the boy enter the room. Harry looked around the room and noticed that the rest of their roommates were in. Justin seemed to be asleep, but Malfoy and Nott were on their respective beds. Malfoy reading and Nott working on an assignment. 

"I don't want to speak to you right now." He walked over to his own bed and chucked off his trainers, then rifled through his wardrobe looking for suitable pyjamas. 

"Harry, don't be like that." He grabbed Harry's arm but Harry pulled it free. 

"Like what? Not a piece fo shit?" 

"Harry-" He grabbed whatever trousers were in front of him and walked out of the room to the washroom down the hall to piss, brush his teeth, and change. He took longer than necessary to brush his teeth, taking his time to get each and every tooth, flossing in between, and slashing the mouthwash around. By the time he finished he didn't have any more excuses. Sighing he went back to his room. 

This time when he entered Ron was sat on Harry's bed. Fucking fuck. "Get off." 

"No." 

He had to give his Slytherin roommates credit, if they were listening-no doubt they were listening- they weren't letting on. 

"Ron." His voice had an edge to it, one that caused Ron's eyes to widen slightly, but the idiot stood his ground. 

"No Harry, I'm not moving, we're talking about this. How can you be so okay with something so disgusting?!" 

"Because it's not disgusting! Who gives a shit who anybody fancies, frankly its concerning you're this invested! Whenever you get like this it's because you're jealous. Let me guess, you fancy Seamus?" Ron spluttered at that and went slightly green. 

"I'm not a fag." 

Although Harry didn't see it, Nott looked over to Malfoy, Malfoy looked up at Ron with a glint in his eye. Harry was too busy with the steam coming out of his ears. 

"Who the fuck cares if someone is gay or not? You disgust me." The brunnett spat. "Now get off my fucking bed before I throw you off." 

Ron said nothing for a moment before standing up. "Can't believe you're such a queer lover. I thought better of you." Harry had had enough. He couldn't help it. He punched Ron in the nose. Hard. "What the fuck!" 

Shaking his hand out he looked up at Ron, "What?" Feining ignorance. 

"YOU JUST FUCKING PUNCHED ME!" Ron shouted, hand clutching at his nose, looking around the room at their roommates. "Did none of you see this?" 

Malfoy looked up from his book, "See what?" 

"You can't be serious!" Ron growled. "Harry just fucking punched me." 

"I'm sure we would have noticed if he'd done that Weasley." Nott added, not even bother to look up from essay. Harry never thought he would feel so greatful to Slytherins, but merlin he owed these two a fruit basket or two. 

When he realised that he wasn't going to get the sympathy he wanted he turned back to Harry wand in hand and pointing it at him. "What the hell is your problem?!" 

Harry grabbed his own wand off his bed but didn't aim it at the man. He just wanted to be prepared. "You. You're my problem. I can't believe I wasted eight years being friends with a homophobic arsehole!" 

"Why do you even care so much! It's not like you're a poof!" Ron paused at the look on Harry's face. "Holy shit." 

"Ron." 

"HOLY SHIT! You're a fag aren't you. That's why you care so much! You're a pathetic little bumboy-" Ron was cut off by a body bind and muffalito. Harry looked over and saw Nott's wand in his hand. 

"Sorry I didn't do that sooner." 

"Thank you for doing it in general." His voice shook. He knew. Ron knew, and now his roommates knew -minus Justin who apparently could sleep though anything.

Nott ended the spells on Ron, and he stood up huffed and walked out of the room, nose still bleeding. 

Harry sat down on the edge of his bed, rubbed his hands down his face and let out a long 'fuck.' Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

Fuck. 

"Potter." Malfoy spoke up this time, his book open face down on his lap. When Harry didn't look up he called his name out again. "Potter." 

"hmm?" He didnt turn head, he didn't take his head out of his hands. 

"We're not going to tell anyone Potter." He heard the ruffling of blankets and bare feet on the ground. A moment later Malfoy was crouched in front of him, in a strange moment of kindness he put a hand on his knee. "Harry." 

He looked up at this. 

"We're not going to tell. I don't know about Weasley, but we're not going to tell." 

"Thank you. Malfoy. You too Nott." He said quietly. There were tears in the corner of his eye- Harry wasn't really a crier. "I'm just not ready to- tell people. And he was just being so awful and, fuck." Harry went to stand but Malfoy stood first and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "I need to go find Hermione." 

"I'll get her." The blond announced and walked out of the room before he could object. 

"I shouldn't tell you this, but he's gay." Nott spoke up. Harry turned, surprised. "He's gay and so you standing up to Weasley means a lot to him." 

"Oh." He didn't know what else to say.

A moment later Hermione came rushing into the room and bear hugged him, Malfoy walked in a moment later and closed the day and spelled it locked. 

"I can't believe he did that, Harry i'm so sorry! It's none of his business! Draco told me what happened." 

"I'm okay 'mione. I guess. I mean I started out today with no one knowing - to my knowledge - and now four people know, and Merlin who else once Ron starts blabbing." He could feel the panic in his chest start to swell now that everything has calmed down. The realisation sinking in that he's not going to be able to keep this quiet. 

Hermione, who always seemed to know everything read his mind, "I'm sure he's not going to say anything, I'm going to make sure of that." 

He nodded into her chin and she let go. "It'll be okay Harry. I promise." 

She gave him one last squeeze, she does that a lot he's realised, before leaving the room. 

Harry decided that it was time to go to bed