The Forbidden Forest
The Forbidden Forest looms around Harry and he closes his eyes in a weak attempt to shut it all out. Of course it's one of these dreams. It's been nearly a week since the last one, so Harry supposes it was only a matter of time, but still. He's been avoiding Draco in the real world like the plague since the last dream. He knows none of it is real, but there was still something entirely mortifying about confessing like that only to suddenly wake up, alone and in the dark. He's been out of sorts since then and he knows it's worrying Ron and Hermione, but he just can't seem to shake the whole thing just yet.
“Is this where you died, then?” Draco's voice suddenly cuts him out of his thoughts.
Harry blinks his eyes open and looks at the other boy, only for his heart to stutter in his chest. He looks away quickly, tries to make it look like he's just taking in their surroundings.
“No,” He finally answers Draco's question, “I dont… I dont think this is the spot. Honestly it's hard to tell, I'm pretty bad at navigating the forest.”
Draco smiles at that and the slight fluttering in Harry's chest makes him realize that he'd started looking at the other boy again at some point. He looks away as Draco says, “Didn't you and your little Golden Trio literally survive in the woods on the run for the better part of last year? I would've thought you an expert at navigating forests by now.”
Draco's voice is oddly light and teasing, Harry doesn't know what to make of it. “Believe it or not, the Forbidden Forest is a quite different experience than the Forest of Dean.”
“For some reason I was also under the impression that you lot spent quite a bit of time in this forest, far more than would be expected considering it is literally called the Forbidden Forest.”
“What can I say, Dumbledore had a flair for the dramatic and I have a terrible memory.”
“Now that I believe.”
Sometime during their back and forth they'd wandered their ways closer to one another. It's like there's something about the forest right now that's opposite what the boys bathroom was in the last dream. In there, the distance between them had seemed to yawn ever larger with each word spoken, like the words and distance between them held a presence in the room just as physical as Harry and Draco had been. But now, the forest almost seems to be pushing them together, the trees so thickly clumped that every movement one or the other boy makes is towards the other.
Harry takes a step away and turns his head to the sky. He really needs to get it together.
“Do you have any idea what you want to do when we leave here?” Draco suddenly asks, “Leave Hogwarts, I mean.”
Harry wasn't expecting the question at all. For a brief moment he isn't sure how to respond, his words get stuck in his throat. Should he lie? Brush the question off with something vague? His eyes meet Draco's again and there's something about the calmness on the other boy's face, like Harry could say anything right now and Draco would accept it. So, Harry finds himself telling the truth. “Everyone expects me to be an Auror, it's what Ron wants to do too, but now that the war is over… I don't know, I just don't really want to keep fighting.”
“You're quite good at it. Perhaps you could teach instead.”
Harry smiles at that. “That's what ‘Mione's been suggesting too.”
“But…” Draco leads him on, correctly sensing that there's more to Harry's thoughts than that.
“But, I think I want to experience life outside of Hogwarts. My entire life has been the Dursley's and here. I've visited a few other places, sure, but I still don't feel like I've really lived yet.”
Draco smiles idly at his words. “I've always wanted to tour Europe. When I was very young we spent a summer in France with some of my mum's distant relatives and I adored it. Lately I've been thinking that maybe when I graduate I'll go out there. France would only be the starting point of course, I would plan to go everywhere I possibly can, travel for as long as I want, only returning home once I'm satisfied and if I'm never satisfied, then maybe I just never come back at all. Of course, a solid percentage of the Malfoy family fortune has been given to the Ministry as reparations for our family's involvement in the war, so most of that is little more than a pipe dream, but-”
“You could sell potions for money.”
Draco blinks at him. “What?”
“Potions. I'm sure the Black family relatives over there would let you set up a little potions room or something while you're staying with them. Your potions are top notch, I reckon you could spend half the year in France selling potions and be able to take off the other half to travel about as you please.”
There's something complicated in Draco's eyes as the other boy stares at him intently. A few seconds pass like that and then Harry suddenly notices how close they're standing again, they're practically sharing breath. He blinks, looks away, starts to move back again when suddenly one of Draco's hands is at the back of his head, threading through his hair and pulling him closer until their lips smash together.
Kissing Draco is nothing like kissing Cho, whose kiss had been soft and light and sad. It is a bit like kissing Ginny though, the intensity is certainly there, but it's also so very different. With Ginny there had still been that expectation, she had kissed him like he was the savior and she was a worshiper. Draco doesn't kiss like that at all. Draco's kiss is demanding and insistent and exactly what Harry had thought he would kiss like.
He probably shouldn't be thinking at all right now about the other people he's kissed, but this is all just a dream anyway, so-
Just like that, reality comes slamming back into Harry and he forces himself away from Draco, who chases after his lips in a way that makes Harry want to scream or cry or something. They're both breathing heavily and Draco is looking at him with so much emotion that Harry squeezes his eyes shut and forces himself to breathe deeply.
He feels one of Draco's hands move to cup his cheek and then on his other cheek feels Draco's lips press softly before the other boy whispers, “Tomorrow. Once we're awake, I'm going to approach you and I'm going to tell you everything.”
Harry has a sort of nervous energy about him the next morning and he knows that Ron and Hermione have noticed. He can't help it though, his mind just keeps ringing with that kiss in the dream and Draco's words about talking to him today. But it was a dream. It was just a dream. Expecting anything today would be borderline crazy. Maybe he should take Hermione up on that suggestion to talk to one of the healers at St. Mungos…
The trio enters the Great Hall and Harry can't help but let his eyes find Draco where he sits with his friends. Don't do anything stupid, Harry tells himself as he forces his eyes away and follows Ron and Hermione to their normal seats. He doesn't get very far, however, before a familiar voice rises above the chatter of the hall.
“Harry!”
Harry looks up in shock to find Draco, standing now, and clearly making his way over. Draco Malfoy, the real Draco Malfoy, calling Harry by his first name in the Great Hall and coming over to talk to him. Maybe this is another dream? But they've always been alone in the dreams, so it would be weird that they're in the crowded Great Hall. And Harry distinctly remembers having just woken up from the last of the odd dreams not even an hour ago. Unless that was part of the dream? This doesn't feel like a dream, but then neither have any of the others-
Then Draco is there, standing right in front of him and grabbing his wrist, not harsh in any way, but firm and unwavering. “We need to talk.”
“Okay,” Harry manages to mutter as he finds himself being willingly dragged out of the hall and into one of the abandoned classrooms nearby on the first floor. All the while, he can't stop staring at Draco. How is this happening? Did their dreams actually get connected somehow? Or maybe he's actually minorly prophetic. That would explain why Dream Draco knew that Real Draco would come to talk to him today.
The door to the classroom closes behind them and Draco mutters some privacy spells before turning to look at Harry again.
“I told you.” Draco says it bluntly, but there's the slightest quiver in his voice. “I told you last night that today I would approach you and we would talk.”
“The dreams are real…” Draco nods and Harry finds himself laughing out of sheer shock. “How is this possible? How long have you known? Are you the one doing it?”
“I figured it out after the Astronomy Tower dream. You had said that stuff about my mother and I found it odd, so I wrote her about it and she confirmed your story. As for the other two questions, I honestly have little to no clue about what's causing it, but I dont think it's me.”
“So all of that has been real?”
A light blush graces Draco's pale cheeks. “Well, the environment is still entirely a dream, but you and I, it would seem, have been our true and proper selves, yes.”
“So, when I confessed that I've been falling for you?”
The blush gets stronger. “I panicked so bad I accidentally woke up.”
“And last night. When you kissed me?”
“I was afraid that this conversation today would go poorly.”
“Do you think it has?”
“I suppose not.”
“Does that mean that I can kiss you again?”
Draco's face is completely red now. “What are you asking for? Or do you just enjoy embarrassing me?”
“I'm asking because I'm still the only one who's actually confessed anything.”
Draco scoffs lightly, but his blush doesn't let up. “Yes, Harry Potter, you can kiss me.”
Harry grins and brings Draco in for a kiss, much softer and slower than the one they'd shared in the dream. They separate a few moments later and Draco swallows thickly.
“We're not going to keep this a secret.” Draco whispers.
“Good, I don't want to deal with secrets anyway.”
“There will be backlash.”
“Most of it will be directed at you, probably. Is that something you're okay with?”
“It's nothing I'm not used to. Will you be okay with being under that much scrutiny again?”
Harry shrugs. “I'm starting to realize my entire life will be lived under some form of scrutiny. I'm not about to let that stop me from living the way I want to.”
Draco nods, a small smile on his lips. “If we're as plain and upfront as possible it might give them a bit less fuel to run with.”
“I'll follow your lead on it.” They kiss again and this time Harry pulls back to add, “Also, we should probably figure out this whole dream thing. Not that I don't love getting to spend time with you in my dreams, but…”
“Agreed. Perhaps Headmistress McGonagall would know what is going on?”
“It couldn't hurt to ask.”
When they enter the great hall again, a few people take notice of their clasped hands and Draco makes a point to lean over and kiss Harry's cheek.
Whispers pick up around them, but Harry ignores them all as Draco mutters, “See you after class.”
As he goes to walk away, Harry tightens his grip on Draco's hand and pulls him close again, into a proper kiss this time. Gasps and whispers erupt and spread through the hall around them as more and more people start to take notice. Harry pulls back and smiles. “See you later.”