Chapter 9
"Draco!" He turned around in his footsteps while he heard the panicked voice. "Yes?" He came face to face with Harry, the poor guy was out of breath from trying to keep up with the long strides. "We should probably start our essay." Draco smirked and tilted his head to the side, noting the instant change in Harry behavior. He played with his fingers and looked at Draco's lips before casting his eyes down briefly. "Should we?" Harry nodded and looked back up. "We haven't even started, how can we possibly win if we haven't done anything yet?" Draco smiled an amused smile and hummed. "So clever," he started, seeing the blush spread over Harrys neck and cheeks. "I'm nearly finished, I was in the middle of looking up the antidote procedures actually." Harry frowned and looked at his hands while cleaning his glasses. "Oh..." "Not Good?" He looked up to look into the grey eyes of his former nemesis and shrugged. Was it a trust issue? Did he still think Harry would ruin their essay on purpose? Making him lose the bet in the process? That hurt, Harry really thought they'd become closer than that over these past weeks. Draco seemed to notice something was wrong so he stepped aside to let Harry walk into his dorm. "You can read through it if you want to, I just thought I'd do it alone as a thank you for waking me up yesterday. I know you're not fond of doing your homework." Harry chuckled awkwardly and nodded. "Yeah..." He rubbed his neck shyly and looked through the neatly written pages of parchment. "It looks good." "Not that I doubted that." He quickly added. Draco chuckled and leaned against the desk. Fuck that looked hot. Harry had to tear his eyes away from the godlike figure in front of him, and glue them to the parchment he was holding. "Now that you're here anyway, we could start brewing our potions tonight. I know you have quidditch practice, so maybe after? If you're not too tired that is." Harry would never be too tired to spend time alone with this man. Never. "I'll meet you in moaning Myrtles bathroom." It was only when Draco raised his eyebrow in confusion that Harry realized he wasn't talking to Hermione or Ron. He was talking to Draco, the person who kind of belonged to their group now, but hadn't been there before. "Oh, right. They must be using that space anyway. Do you know a place we could use?" Draco nodded and took the essay back from Harrys hands. "The Slytherin dungeons, there's a spare positions lab that's not been used since year three." Harry nodded and licked his lips to wet them. "Perfect, I don't know my way so I'll come here when I'm ready?" Draco agreed and showed him out shortly after that.
The war did change people, if not mentally, very much physically. Neville was the living proof of that. He'd gotten fit. Harry changed as well, he was more adulty? Draco couldn't pin point exactly what had changed, but it was a lot. Harry was attractive, and Draco could feel himself slowly drowning in those green eyes. "Draco?" And then there's that sweet voice. It's like a masculine voice that's dripping with honey. Sweet, low, sexy. Draco opened the door to Harry who seemed to have taken a quick shower. "Is it raining?" Harry frowns and looks down at himself. His clothes are dry, what is Draco on about? "Your hair." Harry feels the blush creeping up on his cheeks. He'd taken a shower right after practice and decided to leave his hair wet. He'd always gotten compliments about 'how sexy' that looked on him. It pained him to admit that he had kept it wet to try and make an impression on Draco, that maybe he'd fall for him. "I forgot to cast the charm." He awkwardly said, before casting a drying charm and running his hand through his hair. Draco looked at him with a raised eyebrow and hummed. The wet hair was a good look on him. "You keep doing that, your hair is already messy Potter. You don't need to make a mess out of it." Harry blushes and follows Draco down to the dungeons.
"So now we wait?" Harry asks. Draco hums and let's the concoction brew on the fire. "About ten minutes." Harry nods and sits down on a table. Draco starts cleaning up the stuff they don't need anymore while Harry watches bemusedly. "You do know you're a wizard right?" Draco looks up with a frown before Harry nods at the dirty erlenmeyer in his hands. Oh. Draco follows Harry's gaze and chuckles lowly. "My mother always made me clean by hand. 'So you don't become a lazy husband that doesn't know anything.' It's become a habit." Harry smiles while listening to the story. Draco must love his mother dearly, considering the way he talks about her. "She's not wrong. I'm sure Pansy would nag your ear off if you never clean up after yourself." Draco frowns and looks up at Harry. "Pansy?" Harry raises an eyebrow before he looks down at his hands. He shouldn't have said that. "Pansy and I aren't courting anymore." Harry looks up with a quickly, making a fast blush spread over his cheeks. "Oh, I thought your marriage had been arranged since birth?" Draco hums and washes his hands. He dries them off on his apron while walking back over to Harry and leaning against the table opposit him. "It was, we broke it Off after the war, father didn't like it at first but my mother... Well let's just say she's very persuasive if she wants to be." Harry smiles and listens intently. He loves it when Draco talks about his family, it doesn't happen often so when he does, he's all ears. "I can see you've gotten that trait from her then." Draco chuckled and nods. He's not wrong. "She wants her son to experience love, after years of being opressed and told what to do and who to be." Harry mentally ahws at the image of Narcissa persuading Lucius to let their son know love. "That's really sweet, Draco." He hums in agreement. "It is." Harry jumps a little at the sudden sound of a timer going off, making Draco chuckle. And fuck was that a pretty sound and sight to see. It's as if he totally lit up for the briefest of seconds. "Th Amortentia is ready." He takes the cauldron off the fire and stirs it counter clockwise for ten seconds before letting set. "Did we do it?" Draco looks up and breathes in deeply. "We did." A hint of Jasmine and musk fills his nose. Mixed with a bit of cinnamon and freshly cut grass. Who was that? "What do you smell, Potter?" Harry looks up with rosy cheeks and clears his throat in an attempt to come off as casual. "What?" Draco keeps his eyes on him and bites his lip subtly. "What do you smell?" "Oh, uhm spearmint... honey, a bit of that specific rainy forest scent... it's uh it's fresh." He says at the end, deciding that maybe it's not the best idea to tell him what specific things he can smell. So settling for 'fresh' sounded like a good idea in his head. "Fresh." Draco repeats with a little drawl. "Hmh." Harry nods. Fuck that was sexy. Fuck it smells good. "Do you smell anything?" Draco tsks and pours the potion into three vials. "Yes, though I can't pinpoint what exactly it is." Harry's eyes look up and Draco is sure that he saw a sparkle of hope in those pretty, green orbs. Okay fine, he'll give him a little more than that. "It's sweet." And the flicker of hope was gone. Why? Sweet is feminine. The voice in his head growls. He pulls his lip between his thumb and pointer finger while thinking on what else he can tell the boy in front of him. "But masculine." And there it was. Harry's heart nearly exploded, his eyes going wide and his stomach doing turns. "Oh, right." Draco decided to tease him a bit more, see just how far he could go with him. "What? Didn't think I could be into guys, Potter?" Harry stutters a quick response. "N-no, it's not that- well yes... but it's only a compliment? I think? I don't mean it to be an insult." He could hit himself in the head with a desk light like Dobby did some years ago... "I'm only joking." Draco says, voice a little softer than he intended. Well, he did notice how freaked out Harry was while trying not to insult him. Reassuring him that everything was fine seemed to be needed. In fact, the last couple of days Draco felt like Harry needed a lot of reassurance. "Oh, good. Can I know who it is?" Why on earth did he ask that? Why? He was perfectly fine with the newfound information. Draco liked guys. He had a chance, be it only one percent. Hell, he'd take half a percentage chance just to know that there actually was one. As tiny as it may be, it was real. It was there. "Are we best friends yet, Potter?" Draco muses while putting the vials away in his cloak. "Sorry, right. You're right. Let's go to bed- well our dorms I mean. We need sleep, it's a long day tomorrow." Draco chuckled and looks at Harry. How adorable. "Yes, we do need sleep. Clever cookie." Harry blushes and follows the long legged classmate back upstairs, to their dorms. "Good night Draco." "Good night Harry. Try not to dream about me will you?" He says with a wink before closing his door and hearing the smaller boy gasp. "Y-." But the answer got swallowed as Harry decided to go to his room and definitely dream about Draco Malfoy instead of trying to find an answer to that.
"Hold up-." He shot up out of bed in the middle of the night and started pacing around his room. "He winked. Draco never winks. Does he? I've never seen him wink before." He mumbles to himself, deciding it best to go and consult Hermione before he loses sleep over this, though he will anyway. He runs over to her room and whispers the password before entering and standing next to her side of the bed. "Hermione!" He whisper yells, making her jump up in a fright. "Harry! It's nearly eleven why are you in our dorm!" She sits up and rubs her eyes while he starts talking. "So we went to brew our potion, I told him what I could smell and he told me what he could smell and then-." "What did he say?" Harry frowns and looks at her. "That's not really the point here 'mione-." "What did he say." She repeats with a yawn. "Something sweet but masculine." She smirks and nods. That's all she needed to finish her mental puzzle. Draco liked Harry back. He always smells of sugar because of the cookies his aunt Petunia used to bake for her son. Sweet. "Okay..." He mumbles since there's no answer coming from her. "So then I told him I could smell spearmint and honey, and something fresh! And then we walked back upstairs, yada yada but then he said and I quote Good night Harry. Try not to dream about me will you?" Hermione gasps. "He said your name!" Harry frowns. What? Oh my, fuck he did! He did and he'd totally missed it! That bloody wink! "Yes but- oh my- That's not even point either!" Hermione frowns and taps her arm in impatience. "He winked!" Ron groans and puts his hands over his ears while Harry's voice grows louder and louder with excitement. "I'll have nightmares about Malfoy for sure now. Thank you mate." Harry blushes and let's his calf. "Sorry, Ron." Hermione lets out a little squeel and then looks at Harry. "This is great news!" Harry nods and scratches his head. "I know! But- but the fact that he said that, does that mean he knows that I'm in love with him?" "If he didn't already I'd say he's blind." Ron mumbles, making Harry blush. Was it really that obvious? "Well didn't you say he always has three spoons of honey with his tea?" Harry nods. He did, yes. He saw him do it once and then noticed he does it every time, using the spoon to dissolve it without making a sound. "And he always has spearmint with him, his breath is always fresh. I've seen him eat them in practically every class we have." Harry groans. "So he does know! Why am I such an idiot! "Well, Don't you think that's good? It's a weight off your shoulders isn't it? He knows so you can just be you without hiding it." "Hermione! This is awkward! I can't possibly be me ever again!" She rolls her eyes as Ron huffs. "If he knows, he probably was onto you before today anyway, so you just confirmed his suspicions. You've been acting like this since we befriended him, so what's wrong with just acting like this forever?" Hermione smiles while Harry gasps. "What?" Ron asks while rubbing his eyes and sitting up, deciding he won't be falling back asleep anytime soon anyway. "You said since we befriended him. You consider him your friend too!" Ron starts to stutter but Hermione tuts. "None of that, you said it." Ron huffs. "Fine, Yes. But don't tell him that. I can't stand him being nice to me yet." Harry chuckles and shakes his head. "Promise." Hermione nods and zips her lips with an invisible zipper when he looks at her. "Good. So now that he knows, you can be you and just be friends and it'll be much more fun because you don't have to blush anymore since he knows about your feelings, so why be embarassed about something he's not allowed to find out when he already found out." Harry nods and Hermione smiles proudly at her clever boyfriend. "Yeah, You're right I guess. Oh well, I'll go to bed now, I don't want to be a zombie tomorrow because I didn't sleep. Good night guys, thanks for the help!" He runs to his dorm and jumps on the bed. "Draco Malfoy knows I'm in love with him... fuck that's awkward. But good?"