Boys
Despite having been a Gryffindor for several days now, Harry manages to get lost on his way from Gryffindor Tower one morning and, despite forsaking breakfast to save time, arrives five minutes late to Divination.
Annoyed with himself and still a bit sleep-fuzzled, Harry instinctively hones in on a mop of platinum blonde hair bobbing about in a sea of autumn colours and makes a beeline for what he thinks of as his friends. It’s not until he’s slumped down on the pouffe next to Draco and Pansy only to receive outraged glares from the both of them, that Harry remembers where he is.
He curses silently and whips his head around, looking for another seat.
”What are you playing at, Potter?” Draco growls behind him.
”Oh relax”, Harry snaps. ”I made a mistake.”
Seeing no free seats anywhere else, Harry sighs in frustration. Ron gives him a small wave and mimes scooting over to share his pouffe with him, but Harry shakes his head. He might have been able to fit on a pouffe with Seamus, but Ron is even taller and ganglier than Draco and Harry doesn’t much fancy falling off and sprawling out on the floor in front of everyone.
Slumping in defeat, he angles himself towards the small table shared with the two glaring Slytherins and resigns himself for a particularly miserable Divinations lesson.
”Get. up.” Draco bites out and leans forward to pin Harry with a threathening look.
”No…” Harry says tiredly.
”What are you playing a—?”
Feeling his edges begin to fray with exasperation, Harry lets out an explosive sigh and exclaims, ”I’m not playing at anything, Draco! There are no other seats, okay? It’s not some conspiracy or ploy to get at you. I just simply have nowhere else to sit!”
When the thunderous scowls on the other two Slytherins’ faces morph into alarm and shock, Harry frowns and mentally repeats to himself what he just said. Draco. Oh, shit.
”Malfoy!” he blurts out hurriedly and then has to sit on his own hand to stomp out the impulse to smack himself in the face.
”You’ve gone off your rocker…” the blonde mumbles.
”I haven’t”, Harry bites out. ”I’m just not… Never mind. Just… Just ignore me, and I’ll”, he looks between the two of them. ”I’ll leave you alone, as well.”
Pansy lets out a small sniff and looks away, clearly happy to go with that plan. Draco, on the other hand, keeps blinking at him. Harry huffs, watching him impatiently. After a moment, the blonde’s mouth begins moving as well, but no sound actually come out of it.
”Oh for… it’s not the end of the world!” Harry hisses and angles his body slightly away from the table again.
He’d been so caught up in the whole interaction, that he’d completely missed Professor Trelawny’s instructions and jumps when a massive tome suddenly hits the table next to him with a loud thunk.
”Mister Potter and Mister Malfoy…” Professor Trelawny drones in her mistiest of voices. ”…Miss Parkinson and—”
”What?” Draco and Harry say in unison.
Harry shoots Draco an exasperated look, entirely unsurprised to see the blonde looking mortified.
”What’s that, my dears?” Professor Trelawny says, turning her massively magnified eyes on Harry.
”Nothing”, he mumbles.
”Not nothing”, Draco protests. ”Professor — I want to work with Pansy!”
”Oh…” the woman tinkles, echoed by the rattling of her many bangles as she moved her arm to point out a substitute for Harry, only to find none. ”Well, mister Potter can work with… Oh… Oh, well it would appear we are an uneven number today… Oh, that is a bad sign… That is a very bad sign… That is—”
”Hippogriff shit”, Harry mumbles under his breath.
”—the sign of impending misfortune, possibly even tragedy!”
Harry rolls his eyes.
”She’s usually right about these things”, Pansy murmurs.
”No, she is not.” He counters, fed up with this whole day.
”Want to bet…?”
”Oh well, if it’s written in the stars, it’s written in the stars. Nothing to be done about it now”, Professor Trelawny says in a heavy voice. ”Where was I? Oh yes, mister Potter… Well, the three of you can work together as a trio then, that’s fine…”
She gestures for Pansy, Draco and Harry to come together and her many bangles clink merrily from the movement. Harry scowls back at her, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Instead she sashays over to another table.
”I win…” Pansy murmurs.
”Whatever”, Harry grouses. ”Let’s just get it over with. What are we meant to be doing, anyway?”
”Anthropomancy”, Pansy says immediately and then gives him a fake smile. ”You go first.”
”Enough already, he’s right”, Draco mutters.
”Excuse me?” the girl says, her smile flickering out.
”Let’s just get it over with, like he said—!”
”I don’t appreciate your tone—”
”I don’t appreciate your face!”
Pansy lets out an exaggerated gasp, then rolls her eyes and pulls the Divination Textbook closer with a sniff.
”What’s wrong with you?” Draco demands suddenly and Harry blinks. ”Stop smiling like that, it’s creeping me out…”
”Oh… Sorry”, Harry mumbles.
He hadn’t even realised he was smiling, but he knows why. For a minute, he really felt like he was back in own world, watching his boyfriend and their friend’s snippy banter. That’s what it should feel like, he thinks longingly. The Gryffindors are awesome, but my friends are like my family. Draco is family. There is real history there, and I miss that.
”Now what’s wrong with his face…” Draco mutters.
”I don’t know, just ignore him”, Pansy says drily.
Harry looks over at them. He feels a twinge in his chest. They’re not them, he reminds himself. But he figures since Ron and Granger seem to be very similar to their versions of themselves from his world, then maybe Draco and Pansy are too.
Except, Seamus is quite different, he remembers then. And daddy is completely different… And Professor Snape… He slumps back with a sigh.
”I can’t”, Draco mutters. ”You know I have a soft spot for pathetic puppies and the like.”
Harry shoots him an unimpressed look, and catches the amused smirk on the boy’s face. As soon as the blonde realises Harry is looking, he contorts his face into a sneer Harry’s chest pinches again.
”Look…” he says and leans forward again. ”I’m not who you think I am.”
The two Slytherins still, their faces a pair of perfect masks and the very picture of nonchalance. But Harry knows better. Just under the surface, their wit and magic is simmering away. To hell with it, he thinks and leans even closer to them.
”I’m not from this world…” he murmurs quietly.
”See…” Draco squeaks. ”I told you, Pans. He’s lost his mind.”
”No”, she murmurs, squinting suspiciously at Harry. ”It’s a ruse. He’s having us on.”
”I’m not”, Harry implores. ”I’m from another world, a different version of this one. Somehow. I don’t know quite how it works and how I ended up here. All I know is… I am not the Harry Potter that you know.”
No-one says anything for the longest few seconds Harry has ever sat through. When it becomes clear that neither of the other two will say anything and the silence is becoming tense, Harry starts speaking again, just to keep it at bay.
”Where I’m from, I didn’t get raised by my mother’s muggle relatives and I didn’t get Sorted into Gryffindor. I… I’m friends with you…” he looks between the two of them. ”And Blaise and — oh, yeah, Seamus and I were Sorted into Sytherin — and we’re all friends — Daphne too —”
”Daphne?” Pansy frowns.
”Seamus? What, Finnegan?” Draco says. ”That’s ridiculous. He’s a half-blood, isn’t he?”
”What?” Harry looks from Pansy to Draco. ”I don’t know — I mean, yes”, he shakes his head a little. ”Yes, his mum’s a witch and his dad’s a muggle, I don’t know how he got Sorted into Slytherin, but he did. And so did I, well… I actually asked to be—”
”You what?” the other two say in unison.
”The Hat”, Harry clarifies. ”It asked me to choose—”
”I’ve heard that”, Pansy tells Draco. ”The Hat said he was half Slytherin, half Gryffindor and could go either way.”
”Yeah, I know”, Draco grouses. ”We’ve all heard that—”
”And I didn’t want to choose—” Harry continues.
”Yes, you did — you did — you chose Gryffindor”, Draco says, pointing an accusatory finger at Harry.
”In this world, yes. I’ve been told that. But I…” he puts his hand on his chest to somehow emphasize the point. ”I didn’t. I told the Hat that I didn’t want to choose, but then I also…”
He trails off, swallows the rest of the sentence.
Draco and Pansy frown, but he just shakes his head. If Draco is outraged about the idea of them sharing House, and a table, he thinks. He’s not likely to take to the idea of us being more than friends very well and if I tell him that I asked to be Sorted into Slytherin, just so I could be in the same House as him, he’ll probably implode.
”I think it could still tell”, he re-phrases himself. ”Where I really wanted to go… So it put me in Slytherin.”
”Where you really wanted to go…” Pansy repeats slowly, still squinting suspiciously at him.
”Yeah”, Harry shrugs.
”And why would you want to be Sorted into Slytherin?”
”It doesn’t matter”, Harry says quickly.
”Prove it”, Draco demands.
”What?” Harry frowns.
”Prove that you’re a Slytherin.”
”Fine…” Harry says with a shrug and then starts rattling off anything that he can think of that might serve as evidence, from their timetable to the location and interior decor of the Slytherin Common Room.
”Those are all things that you could find out—”
”Fine!” Harry huffs. ”If I wasn’t Sorted into Slytherin, would you ever have become friends with me?”
”What?”
”Just answer the question”, Harry demands. ”Would you, Draco Malfoy, be friends with someone who wasn’t in Slytherin?”
”No…” Draco frowns.
”And would you invite someone over to your house who wasn’t your friend?”
”What, no!”
”Well then”, Harry snaps, and then starts rattling off every detail about Malfoy Manor, and Draco’s bedroom in particular, that he can remember, until Draco starts hushing him aggressively. ”And I haven’t even mentioned the rose garden—”
”Okay, okay”, Draco hisses. ”Enough already!”
”The point is”, Harry continues seriously. ”And I’m not asking to be friends with you or anything, I’m just trying to prove to you that, where I’m from we are friends. So if you think I’m acting weird or out of character, then that’s why. I’m not…” he shakes his head again. ”I’m not going to be acting unfriendly towards you, unless you give me a reason to. Because I like you and… And anyway… Yeah.”
He trails off again lamely and looks down.
”No…” Pansy says slowly. ”There’s more… Something else you’re not telling us…”
Harry rolls his eyes, ”There’s a lot I’m not telling you. I didn’t think you wanted my whole life story…”
”Nice try”, she mutters. ”There is one specific thing that you are holding back… Something you don’t want to tell us. Something…” she smirks. ”About Draco…”
Harry feels himself pale and the girl’s smirk twitches with what Harry can only describe as evil in that moment.
”Am I right, or am I right…” she murmurs.
”It’s not important.”
”That means it is, but it’s private—”
Harry had forgotten how whip smart Pansy is, and how absolutely infuriating when she’s not on your side. He scowls at her, but she simply sits back still smirking calmly, looking very much like a cat that’s just stuffed itself on cream that wasn’t meant for it.
”Care to fill me in…?” Draco asks his friend with a wary frown.
”Hmm…” Pansy says, studying her nails idly. ”I don’t know that it’s my place…”
Harry can feel a cold sweat begin to break out along his hairline and curses himself silently. I should have just left it…
He’s saved by the bell, quite literally. And although he’s surprised that it’s been fifty minutes already and the lesson is over, Harry couldn’t be more grateful. He springs from crouched position on the pouffe and dives for the trapdoor, desperate to get out of the classroom and as far away from the North Tower as possible before Pansy shares her theory with Draco. Harry isn’t sure, but something tells him the blonde will not take too kindly to it.
”How did it go?” Granger asks him at lunch, looking a little too intrigued for Harry’s liking. ”Ron told me you sat with Malfoy and Parkinsson in Divination and that the three of you were so busy chatting you hardly did any work?”
”That doesn’t bother you?” Harry asks curiously, intrigued to discover yet another small but significant difference in this world. ”The Granger I know wouldn’t take too lightly to someone not paying attention in class—”
”Well, yes, but it’s Divination”, Granger says dismissively and Harry smiles. ”So tell me… How did it go?”
”I…” Harry frowns at her. ”I didn’t tell him. Not that. I just told them I wasn’t from here and so if I’m acting out of character it’s because I’m not used to being… You know, unfriendly… With them.”
Granger nods seriously, her eyes glittering.
”What?” Harry demands.
”Nothing!” She grins.
Harry rolls his eyes, ”I didn’t tell him that… I wouldn’t, I’m not going to… Actually, that reminds me. How common is it here?”
Granger frowns in question.
”You know, homosexuality”, Harry adds quietly, leaning a little closer to her for privacy.
”Oh!” she says, her eyebrows going up into her frizzy hair. ”Well… There is some debate about that. Some sources say that, amongst the general population, about ten per cent are either homo- or bisexual, but… that is based on one single study from the seventies that has since been criticised—”
”What?” Harry frowns. ”No I mean… Okay, great, that’s… Interesting, thank you. But I meant, how common is it to, I don’t know, see it — openly — like, how many gay couples do you know about?”
”Well, er… in my muggle Primary School, there was a girl who had two mums—”
”What?” Harry says again, getting more and more exasperated. ”No! I mean here, at Hogwarts!”
”Oh, Harry… There are none… That I know of, I should say! — So — I guess, that’s what you’re really asking, isn’t it? I’m sorry. I don’t know how people would react to two wizards or two witches being openly gay at Hogwarts, because as far as I know, no-one has tried coming out… I don’t really know of any famous wizards or witches that are gay either… It’s actually more common in the muggle world, as far as I’ve been able to tell. Which is a bit weird, because the magic world tends to be more progessive than the muggle world in a lot of areas, but… I don’t know why, I’m sorry…” she trails off and gives Harry a pinched smile.
He nods, and returns the smile briefly.
”It’s okay”, he says. ”It doesn’t matter. I don’t plan to stick around any longer than I have to and anyway… it’s not like it matters while I’m here either, because I’m not going to cheat on my boyfriend, am I?” he shrugs.
Granger smiles again and this time it looks less of a pained grimace and more of an actual smile.
”But it’s good to know, though”, Harry adds, nodding decisively. ”This means I should keep a low profile about that and… make sure Dra- I mean, Malfoy, doesn’t find out I fancy him…”
”Yeah, that’s probably a good idea”, Granger nods in agreement. ”Although, I’m sure he would be secretly pleased. It’s not like he hasn’t always fancied you… I mean, this world’s you…”
”Really?” Harry says, surprised. ”I thought they hated each other?”
”Well, yes”, Granger says and rolls her eyes. ”But that’s boys for you, isn’t it…”
Harry grins, and nods, ”Yeah… Boys…”