Harry approaches Draco in the middle courtyard “You wanted to speak to me?” He tried to sound not interested at all.
The blond boy glances up in surprise before remembering his manners and standing up. “Potter, yes, sit down.” He demands and Potter actually does as asked.
Draco sits back down next to the other boy, looking somehow conflicted. “I have something I need to discuss with you. It’s rather…urgent.” Harry let out a sigh, wanting to get this conversation over with. “Talk already Malfoy.”
The taller boy scowls and drums his fingers on the bench. He is clearly trying to choose his words carefully. “I…need a favour from you.” Harry found that extremely suspicious. Why would Draco Malfoy, who had pretty much everything he desired, need a favour from him. “What favour?”
Draco shifts on the bench and glares slightly. Asking Potter for a favour was humiliating. He had a deep frown on his face. “You know the Yule Ball is soon, right?”
Harry answers this with a slight nod, waiting for more details on this favour. The other boy takes a deep breath and steels himself to say the words, looking deeply uncomfortable in doing so. “Well…I know that you surely don’t have a partner to go with and I also have no one so how about we help each other?.” Harry squints at that. “Help with finding you a date?” The blond boy rolled his eyes.
Draco looks down and crosses his arms over his chest, looking very much like a pouting child. He doesn’t want to say the words out loud. “No, I need you to be my date.”
The chosen one’s emotions are all over the place. He’s surprised, confused but mostly angry. He is sick and tired of Draco’s pranks. “Very funny Malfoy.” Harry spits and then gets up to leave.
Before he can leave, the other boy actually grabs hold of his arm and stops him, almost as if begging him to hear him out further. “Damn it Potter! I’m serious! I really don’t have a date and I really need someone to go with! I know you don’t have a date either! Why can’t you just do this little favour for me? He almost looks desperate.
“You’re making fun of me!” The smaller boy exclaims. Draco grits his teeth in frustration. “I’m not making fun of you! I’m being serious. I need a date! You have no idea how humiliating this is for me okay? I don’t even want to ask you to do this, I’m just desperate! You don’t have anyone and I don’t have a date so why can’t you just say yes and be my date?!”
Harry yanks his arm free and runs, he may not be scared of dark wizards and prophecies and what not but he is scared of being mocked by Draco for not having a date for the Yule Ball.
The blond boy yells out after Potter but he’s already gone. His hands clenched into fists and he resists the urge to kick something or someone. “Damn it! Damn it!” He sits back down and rests his head in one hand, muttering to himself. “Why couldn’t he just say yes? He has no idea how humiliating this is!”
As if on cue, Pansy approaches him, looking rather smug after seeing Harry run as if being chased. “Looks like he rejected you.”
Draco scowls at her. “That’s an understatement. He ran away. He actually ran away like a little coward. I mean seriously? What’s so bad about going to the Yule Ball with me?”
The girl thinks for a moment. “Well how exactly did you ask him?” She has her suspicions.
The other glares at her and crosses his arms. “I…just told him that I’d asked him because I don’t have a partner and thought he might want to go with me since he has no plans and all. I don’t see why it’s so difficult for him to agree. I wouldn’t bother lying about this of all things. It was…humiliating enough to have to ask him!”
Pansy groans as if Draco just said the most stupid thing in the universe. “Have you considered that you asked rudely and that it seemed rather mocking? Also, maybe he has a date already.”
“He has no date for the ball, I had some students follow him around to find out. What should I do now?” Draco sighs defeated.
“Go ask again, ask nicely! Make it sound less mocking. Get him some flowers.” Pansy suggests the other.
Draco throws his head back and groans loudly at the thought. “You…you actually want me to do it again? After he turned around and ran away? Do you think he’s just going to change his mind if I ask him again?”
“You’re pathetic. Now go ask again!” Pansy pretty much forces him to go and stop sulking. “Alright! Alright! Whatever! I’ll get some damn flowers! I’m going to look so pathetic!”
After an hour of searching around the castle for flowers, he snatched some from the hospital wing, fresh orchids out of a vase. He dried their stems and rolled them into a daily prophet newspaper, trying to make it look like a bouquet.
Asking around for Potter has been easier, many students saw him sulking in the Great Hall and that’s where Draco is headed now, flowers in hand and ready.
Harry sulks in a corner in the Great Hall, waiting for dinner to begin. The blond boy makes his way into the hall, hiding a bouquet of flowers behind his back. He scans the room and sees Potter sitting in a corner looking like a kicked puppy. He sighs and approaches the sulky boy.
When he finally reaches him, he holds out the bouquet. It turned out to be a pretty arrangement of the orchids he tactically acquired. “Potter, you ran off before I could finish talking. I’m uh…I’m being serious. I want you as my date.”
Harry looks away, trying not to look at the pretty bouquet that was probably meant for a pretty slytherin girl. “Please Malfoy stop this! It’s really not funny!”
Draco lets out a frustrated sigh. He hates being this vulnerable and he hates that Potter isn’t taking him seriously. “I’m not making a joke, Potter! I really do need you to come to the Yule Ball with me.” His grips tighten slightly around the bouquet.
Some students stop and stare at the two. Draco looks around and tries to get rid of the onlookers. As he turns back to his potential date, said date is gone.
The taller boy looks around in surprise. He can’t believe he let Potter slip away during a brief moment of distraction. “Damn it Potter not again. Get back here!”
In the meantime Harry hides away in the Gryffindor common room, telling Hermione and Ron about Draco’s jokes. “Jokes like that aren’t funny, he’s such a rude slimy prick! Hermione squints her eyes a bit, thinking about everything that Harry said.
“Harry, could it be that he actually meant it? I mean he literally got you flowers. I don’t think he would do that if he were mocking you.” She suggested it to her friend.
The dark haired boy shook his head. “No way he means it. I mean we hate each other. Why would he ask me? I’m sure he was asked by many girls because he is so perfect and tall and has soft hair and all that!” Ron stops chewing on whatever he was eating and finally joins in. “Mate, you have a crush on him. I would never describe Draco like that.” He then continues to eat.
Harry splutters, his cheeks softly reddening. “Absolutely not! I’d rather eat a shoe!” And just like that Ron takes off his shoe and hands it to Harry who throws it back at him.
Hermione rolls her eyes at the two. “How about you just say yes, I mean one night won’t be the end of the world. Maybe you two get your shit together and we don’t have to deal with all the staring anymore.” She gets up and pushes Harry out of the common room, right into Draco who was about to break the entrance to the Gryffindor dorm. “Both of you get your shit together!” She warns and leaves the two be.
“Potter! Go to the Yule Ball with me!” Draco’s face is completely red as he shoves the bouquet of orchids into Harry’s arms. “It’s not a joke, I want you to be my date even though my father would explode!”
Harry this time, blushes as well, looking at the bouquet. “You’re not joking are you…why me? I’m sure you have a lot of choices.”
The tall blond sighs. “I could say the same about you. You’re Harry Potter, the chosen one. I was sure I had to duel students for you. I am obviously the best choice…I mean-” He groans softly. “Potter please, have I not humiliated myself enough?” The blond boy is still red as a tomato.
Harry chuckles softly as he watches Draco turn red. “I still don’t understand why me, but I’ll go with you if you’re being serious.”
The young Malfoy considers his next step and takes one of Harry’s hands in his. “It has to be you. All I wanted since year one was your…attention. I wanted to be friends and I guess now I want more…” Draco can’t look into the other boy’s eyes, too embarrassed of another rejection.*
The dark haired boy squeezes his hand softly. “I’m sorry I rejected your friendship when we first met and then rejecting your Yule Ball proposal, twice. If you really mean it, I’ll be happy to go with you and…and see where it leads us.” Harry was as red as the Gryffyndor house colours.
Those two stayed in the hallway for quite a while, holding hands and discussing their plans for the Yule Ball a bit, sometimes getting weird looks from the other students.
Draco couldn’t wait to tell his father about it. He can already imagine the frown and angry wrinkles on his father’s forehead. He chuckles to himself as he still holds Potter’s hands.