Shake things up
Harry follows Draco down to the dungeons, feeling an odd thrill at the familiarity. The blonde shoots him a sidelong look and tells him that he’s smiling again.
”Sorry”, Harry says with a shrug.
As soon as the wall rearranges itself to reveal the passageway to the Slytherin Common Room, they can hear music and excited voices.
”You should probably wait here”, Draco says.
Harry nods and hangs back as the blonde continues down the small tunnel leading the Common Room. He sees him pause at the mouth of it and lean forward to hiss something under his breath, before jerking his head to the side meaningfully.
A moment later, Pansy Parkinson joins him and he jerks his head again. She gives a small shrug and follows him into the passage without question. But when she spots Harry waiting for them at the end, she stops dead in her tracks and shoots a suspicious look between him and the blonde.
”Relax”, Draco says. ”He’s… Cool.”
Harry snorts in amusement and receives an unimpressed look in return.
”So it’s true then”, Pansy says drily.
”Seems like it”, Draco nods.
”And the other thing…?”
”No”, he says quickly, eyes glinting with meaning.
The girl nods as if to say message received, but the smirk she sends Harry’s way still says I’m onto you. Harry looks away quickly.
”We’re invited to a party”, Draco says, swiftly changing the topic. ”Apparently.”
”Well, yeah…” Pansy says slowly. ”I’ve just been dragged away from it—?”
”Another party.”
”What”, she says flatly. ”The Gryffindor party? Are you insane?”
”Possibly”, Draco mutters. ”But I’m told we’re allowed to… Shake things up?”
He shoots Harry a questioning look and Harry nods in agreement.
”Shake things up?” Pansy says doubtfully. ”At the Gryffindor party? I mean, we could cast an Earthquake Spell and it still wouldn’t even come close to a fun—”
”We’ll make an appearance, stir things up, and then come back here”, Draco rattles off quickly, clearly a familiar drill from offering terms countless of times before.
The girl gives him a thoughtful look, her eyes glittering slightly in the gloom.
”All right…” she says finally. ”It will take at least an hour for things to kick off properly here anyway, so I guess I can come and check it out…”
”Great”, Harry says, turning to leave again.
”Whoa, hang on…” Draco protests. ”I need to get changed first!”
Harry turns back around and gives him an incredulous look. It’s Friday night and the Slytherins had their last lesson before lunch. The blonde isn’t even wearing his school robes anymore. In fact, Harry gives the other boy’s outfit a once over. He’d thought he was already changed for the party, considering how nice he looks.
”It will only take a minute”, Draco says, already walking backwards towards the Common Room.
”Since when”, Pansy huffs.
”Fine, two minutes — I have an outfit picked out already”, Draco shouts over his shoulder and jogs away from them.
”You have one minute”, Pansy calls after him, then leans heavily against the wall with a soft sigh.
Somewhat true to his word, the blonde reappears within five minutes. Having been stood sharing an uncomfortably comfortable silence with Pansy Parkinson in a dimly lit passageway for the duration, Harry is too eager to get going to really pay any attention to the blonde’s new outfit, but simply leads the way back out into the dungeon corridors and across the castle.
It’s not until a somewhat frazzled-looking Granger latches onto him inside the Gryffindor Common Roo portrait hole, accusing him of abandonment and lies only to stop short and stare in shock at the portrait hole behind him, and Harry turns around to follow her gaze, that the true impact of the two dressed up Slytherins becomes apparent to him.
As Draco straightens up and turns to give the girl a hand, Harry remembers to close his mouth again with a snap. He lets his gaze trickle down the blonde boy’s body, amazed that anyone could squeeze such toned legs into trousers that tight.
”Harry”, Granger hisses next to him. ”What were you thinking!”
Pansy manages to get her second leg through the portrait hole and lands on the floor next to Draco, straightening up and whipping her hair away from her face with impatient hands.
”Trust the Gryffindors to set you a bloody athletic challenge before you can access the Common Room”, she says, her voice carrying loudly across the room despite the music playing.
Within seconds, every single Gryffindor has stopped whatever they were doing and turned to stare at the two Slytherins.
”WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE THEY DOING HERE?”
Harry swallows a groan and whips his arms out to catch a very red-faced Ron Weasley as he comes barrelling passed him. The two Slytherins simply raise their eyebrows as he snarls in their direction, hanging off Harry’s restraining arm and waving his own in some kind of threatening manner.
”It’s okay”, Harry huffs out, straining against the other boy’s pull.
Granger grabs a hold of the back of Ron’s shirt and gives it a hard yank, and he finally staggers back. Harry keeps his hands on his chest, just to be safe.
”We’re not here to fight”, Draco says in a long-suffering voice.
”The Hell you aren’t, ferret face!”
”We’re actually not…” Pansy drones, looking around in boredom. ”Don’t ask me why we are here though… You call this a party…”
”Behave”, Draco mutters under his breath and she gives him a subtle eyeroll. ”One hour.”
”Fine…” she sighs.
Ron bats Harry’s hands away from him and pins him with a furious look, pointing a finger over his shoulder in Draco’s direction.
”He needs to stay the Hell away from me”, he growls.
Harry inhales deeply, and nods. I’ll tackle him myself, if he tries to get close.
Ron throws the Slytherins another venomous look, then storms back to loveseat he’d been sharing with Lavender Brown and grumbles something. The girl immediately nods in agreement.
Harry turns to look at the Slytherins again, catching Draco’s eyeroll before he links his arm with Pansy’s and leads her over to the drinks table at the other end of the room.
Harry is momentarily distracted by Granger giving his arm an insistent pull and turns to look at her, half-listening as she hiss in his face about ideas.
”Relax”, he cuts her off and waves a dismissive hand at her. ”It’s a party. What can go wrong?”
She gives him an incredulous look and opens her mouth to retort, but is interrupted as the music suddenly changes and The Twisted Sisters is replaced by something that sounds muggle, possibly that muggle grunge band Seamus likes — although Harry can’t think how the Slytherins would have come across them in this world, where Seamus is Sorted into Gryffindor.
He and Granger both turn their faces to see Draco and Pansy, having unwittingly cleared a space in the middle of the modest dance floor in front of the fireplace, throw loose arms around each other and start moving lazily to the music.
Within moments, the other people on the dance floor has awkwardly slowed down to a stop and just stand there, watching the two of them with wide eyes, mouths slack and cheeks burning darkly. Harry can count at least three people with gleams of arousal in their eyes, but it’s impossible to know if they’re looking at Draco or Pansy, since the boy and girl are wrapped so tightly around one another at this point.
Harry lets his own gaze linger on their undulating forms, veering over to Draco and noticing how his arms are decidedly thicker than his own Draco’s, thicker, firmer, muscles flexed under the flimsy fabric of his shiny shirt… Quidditch, Harry thinks absent-mindedly. That would explain the legs as well. He lets his gaze travel down the other boy’s waist —
Granger’s elbow in his side makes Harry snap out of his trance and he quickly tears his eyes away again, turning his back to the dance floor with a blush.
”Low profile, remember?” Granger murmurs under her breath and he nods quickly, silently cursing himself for being so obvious.
He watches the girl’s gaze flicker over his shoulder and small frown form on her face. She emits a low grunt.
”What?” he murmurs worriedly.
She gives her head a tiny shake, ”I’m sure it’s fine…”
”What?” Harry insists.
Her gaze flickers back to meet his, ”They noticed.”
”They—?” Harry snaps his mouth shut again and straightens up quickly, his heart pounding in his chest.
”It’s okay”, Granger says hurriedly. ”They don’t seem upset, they’re still dancing! In fact…”
”What…” Harry mumbles, turning to look over at the two dancing Slytherins again and feels his mouth go dry at the sight.
”Well…” Granger mutters behind him. ”Correct me if I’m wrong, but… I think, now they’re really putting on a show.”
”Fucking Hell”, Harry chokes out quietly. ”Maybe this was a bad idea…”
As the song morphs into a new one, the two Slytherins stops moving and make their way over to where Harry and Granger are standing. Their skin is shimmering slightly with a thin layer of sweat, their hair sticking to the sides of their faces and their eyes are glittering with emotion. They still have their arms slung around each other as they stand catching their breaths, and for a second Harry wonders if maybe they actually are a couple in this world.
But no, he thinks then. Locking eyes with the blonde and receiving such a heated look that it sends a jolt straight to his groin. Harry ducks his head and tells himself sternly to pull it together, it’s not Draco.
When he looks up again, both Slytherins are watching him with matching grins. Then Pansy’s eyes slit over to Granger.
”Hey Granger…” she purrs, still grinning. ”Want to dance?”
Harry shoots Pansy an incredulous look. Since when—?
Granger stammers something unintelligible, causing the Slytherin girl’s grin to widen.
”Ohh you’ll be fine…” she purrs, disentangling herself from Draco and sneaking into Granger’s personal space. ”Just follow my lead.”
Before Harry really understands what happened and how, both girls have left his side and disappeared into the crowd. He feels a twinge of something that could be protectiveness as he scans it for a sign of frizzy hair, but tells himself that, if this past week has taught him anything, it’s that Hermione Granger is the toughest girl he’s ever met and not even Pansy, who is a close second, should be a match for her.
He’s suddenly aware of the familiar scent that is pure Draco, even if it’s partially concealed by a whiff of something artifical — not coconut, as it should be, Harry thinks, frowning.
”What’s wrong?” the blonde says, inching a little closer to him under the pretense of overpowering the volume of the music.
Honey?
”Potter?”
”What? Oh, nothing!” Harry says and gives the other boy quick smile.
”Should we get you a drink?” Draco says, raising en eyebrow delicately.
No, we really shouldn’t — probably — oh, sod it, ”Yeah. Defintiely.”
Draco favours him with a grin similar to the one Pansy had on her face as she lead a very bewildered Granger to the dance floor. Cat and canary springs to Harry’s mind, but he tries not to linger on it.
Draco snakes his hand into Harry’s and leads him through the crowd. Harry’s fingers tingle with the effort to not curl around the other hand and squeeze it. When they reach the drinks table, the blonde lets go of him again and gives him a brief look through his lashes, before turning away to mix various liquids together in two cups. Harry smiles his thanks when he turns back and hands one of the cups to him.
Draco keeps his eyes locked with his as he takes a sip. Then jerks his head to the side and leads the way over to the corner of the room and slightly away from everyone else. Harry’s stomach is twisting happily, but he keeps telling himself sternly not to get carried away, it’s not Draco, it’s not Draco, it’s not —
The blonde moves around him, smoothly manoeuvring them both so that Harry stands facing the party, with his back to the window. They sip their drinks and talk. It’s not exactly small talk, but Harry can’t help but notice that the blonde is skirting away from any and all topics of conversation that could be considered serious. However, he’s more than happy to avoid them all himself and keep things light, so he doesn’t draw attention to it.
He’s halfway through his drink when he becomes aware that Draco is slowly and coyly inching himself into his personal space, but can’t conjure up the presence of mind to actually do anything about it.
”The other Draco and you”, the blonde says suddenly, his eyes bright with some kind of intention that makes the bottom of Harry’s stomach drop. ”Pansy had this crazy idea… I told you that. You know, I was sure she was just having me on? Fucking with my head?… Well… Now I’m not so sure.”
Harry says nothing.
He’s suddenly very aware of the window sill cutting into the back of his thighs, and the wall pushing against his shoulder. Draco has literally got him backed into a corner. Well, as much as you can get a corner in a circular room anyway. He swallows thickly, trying to keep his face casual, but the drink Draco mixed for him is starting to kick in, he feels looser… fuzzier…
”I can see it in your eyes”, the blonde murmurs, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth still. ”That’s not a friendly look in your eyes right now, Potter…”
”Well”, Harry chokes out a little hoarsely, discretely clearing his throat and giving their surroundings a furtive glance to make sure no-one’s listening in. ”We’re not friends.”
”I know we aren’t…” Draco says, unfazed. ”But I can’t look that different from the Draco Malfoy you know, so…”
”Not that different, I suppose, no”, Harry mutters, still looking away, not so much to keep an eye on their surroundings anymore, but to avoid looking into those familiar silver eyes, and sips his drink.
”Well, correct me if I’m wrong… But when you were watching me and Pansy dance earlier, you really liked what you saw—”
”How do you know I wasn’t looking at her?” Harry counters, shooting him a challening look that does nothing to dim the smile on the other boy’s face.
”Because, Potter… She’s been feeling Granger up on the dance floor for the last twenty minutes and you haven’t looked over once…”
Ah, Harry thinks. Yeah, I can’t argue with that.
”Relax…” Draco says slowly, his smile morphing into a smirk. ”Your secret is safe with me.”
Finally, the blonde moves back a few paces and leans back against the opposite window frame. Harry can finally breathe properly again.
”The Potter from… Well, here”, Draco continues conversationally. ”He’s not… He’s not like that.”
”How do you know?” Harry counters. ”From what I’ve been told, that kind of thing isn’t as open in this world and I thought you two weren’t friends?”
”We’re not—”
”So why would he tell you, if he was?”
”That’s not…” Draco trails off, looking a bit frustrated and giving his head a shake. ”I’d still know!”
”How?” Harry demands. ”You think it’d be obvious? Could you tell I am?”
”He…” Draco seems to falter for a second, but then he shakes his head resolutely. ”He had a thing for Chang, everyone knows that. They even went on a date on Valentine’s Day.”
”Oh, well”, Harry says and shrugs. ”I don’t really know, I mean I’ve never even met him and you have, so you probably do know him better than me, but… As far as I can tell, things like that, like… I don’t know, like, fundamental things about people, seem to be the same”, he shrugs again. ”Just don’t tell Lupin I said that.”
Draco blinks in surprise, then nods seriously. Harry frowns a little in amusement. He figures it must be a big deal to the blonde that Harry would confide in him.
”But he can’t be…” Draco mumbles a moment later. ”I mean, for one thing, he clearly has a massive crush on Granger!”
”Ugh, really…” Harry says. ”I mean, she’s seriously clever and definitely my favourite Gryffindor now, but still…”
”Not that clever”, Draco mutters with a frown.
”Yes, she is”, Harry says with an eye-roll. ”You’re just jealous of her — see, not that different from my Draco!”
”I am not jealous of Granger!”
”That’s exactly what he always says too…” Harry mutters, lifting the cup to his lips to hide a twitch of amusement.
”Well—!”
”But when she got petrified by the basilisk in Second Year, the first thing he did was write home and tell his mother that he was top of all his classes”, Harry adds matter-of-factly, before taking a drink.
Draco snaps his mouth shut again with click. Harry snorts and chuckles.
”Knew it…” he murmurs and shakes his head fondly.
”That doesn’t prove anything.”
”Sure it doesn’t.”
Draco’s face contorts into a mock glare and then straightens up in determination and chugs the dregs of his drink.
”Come on”, he says. ”I’ve had enough of this snooze fest — the Slytherin party should be kicking off right about now. You can still bring your little pet muggle if you want—”
”Careful”, Harry intones.
Draco stares back, appraisingly. Then seems to come to a decision and gives him a single nod. Deal. Harry nods too and pushes off the wall.
”All right, let’s go then…”
Harry hadn’t expected Granger to actually say yes.
If he’s honest with himself, he thought he would invite her to come along as curtesy, the girl would decline, relieved for the excuse to retreat for the night with that book she mentioned, and then he, Draco and Pansy would go join the other Slytherins, just the three of them.
But when he finds the two girls, hidden away behind a sofa and giggling over their drinks, Granger’s eyes are round as saucers and her pupils blown wide, and when he mentions the Slytherin party, she nods so eagerly that her the frizz ball she calls a hairstyle bobs excitedly around her.
Harry shoots Pansy a suspicious look and receives an feigned innocent look in return.
”What did you do to her?” he demands.
”Just some firewhiskey, attention and… oh, yeah, possibly a teeny, tiny spell…”
”Spell?” Harry prompts sternly.
”Just a small pepper up type of spell, nothing that will cause her to completely forgo her modesty…” the Slytherin girl says silkily and bats her eye lashes at him.
”It’s already an improvement”, Draco comments drily next to Harry, slinging an arm casually over his shoulders and making his stomach do a flip. ”Come on, let’s go. I’m bored out of my skull…”
With varying degrees of difficulty, the four of them clamber out of the portrait hole and make their way back across the castle towards the dungeons.
Harry, feeling a surprisingly strong sense of loyalty and protectiveness towards Granger, stays close to her the whole time, making sure she’s okay and doesn’t trip over her feet.
But it appears Pansy had been telling the truth. The Gryffindor is clearly tipsy, her body language a lot looser than normal and her face open and happy, with unexpected ripples of giggles bursting out of her every so often. But other than that, she seems fine. Harry still sticks to her side, though. Just in case she gets worse, or someone tries to take advantage, he thinks.
Within moments of joining the festivities in the Slytherin Common Room, Harry’s world explodes into a whirlwind of colour and sensation. He figures either Draco or Pansy must have something to do with it, whether he’s been hit with a similar spell to the one still making Granger bounce around like an excited terrier, or if it’s simply something extra slipped into his drink.
He feels good though, he thinks. It’s nothing like that time Seamus got him drunk on firewhiskey, he can still think clearly and he’s still in complete control of all his limbs. Everything is just… heightened, he decides. Better.
He allows Draco to drag him into the music. Harry is sure there is an actual dance floor with actual people there as well, and that they’re two of them, but he’s not really aware of it that way. He’s just aware of the music burrowing into his chest and pumping up and down his veins, and Draco’s surprisingly strong, steady arms around him.
He leans into the embrace, swaying happily and closing his eyes. The unmistakable scent of Draco envelops him, making his skin thrum.
But there’s that one hint of something — flowers? honey? sunshine? — that reminds him, this is not actually Draco. And he clings to that to keep himself grounded. No matter how good as he feels right now, no matter how much he wants to get swept away… I can’t do that to Draco.
It’s the only thing that, when he feels strong fingers cups his face and a nose bump into his own, allows him to pull back. There is a flash of hurt in the silver eyes swimming in front of him and Harry feels a twinge of regret. The blonde lets his arms fall to his sides again, shaking the platinum blonde hair into his face. Hiding, Harry thinks. He steps forward again, reaching out.
Draco’s eyes twinkle uncertainly and his hand flinches away from Harry’s, but when Harry reaches for him a second time, he allows himself to be reigned in. Harry puts his arms around the other boy and sighs into the side of his neck.
”I’m sorry”, he mumbles, and it vibrates between them.
After a tense moment, he feels the other boy’s arms snake up and return the hug. They slowly begin moving together to the music again. It’s not the same as before, there is a definite tension between them now. But it’s better this way, Harry thinks. We’re like two friends dancing now.
That’s good, that’s better than he would have ever hoped for only a few hours ago. Now he knows the other boy had hoped for more, but Harry suspects he’s also happy with this, that it’s still a hundred times better than things have ever been between him and the Potter of this world.
When things start to get a little too frivilous at the party, Harry tells Draco he should probably get Granger back to Gryffindor Tower.
”Spell or no spell, I’m not sure she’d have any modesty left by tomorrow if we stay any longer…”
The blonde snorts, and nods. There is a wariness in his eyes now, but the air is still friendly between them.
”Last day”, he says. ”Technically.”
Harry nods, hesitating.
”Well this was fun”, Draco says and it sounds oddly official, polite.
”Yeah”, Harry agrees. ”It was… Hey, do you want to go for a fly tomorrow? Before the Feast?”
Draco says nothing for a full minute, just stares back at Harry with narrowed eyes as he mulls the question over and licks his lips thoughtfully.
”Probably not a good idea…” he says finally, a hint of regret in his eyes.
Harry nods, ”Yeah, you’re probably right. Well, I guess I’ll… See you around then.”
He finds Granger precariously balanced on the knee of a leering Sixth Year boy by the name of Pike, who shoots Harry a filthy look when he grabs the girl by the arms and pulls her away.
”Come on, Granger”, he says heartily. ”Time to go!”
”Oh — really — already — but —” the girl stumbling to find her footing on the floor next to him and blinks up at him owlishly.
”Yes, let’s go!” he says, spinning her around and steering her through the crowd.
”I don’t know what came over me…” she tells him in a hushed voiced the next morning over breakfast, leaning over her bowl of cereal and pinning him with a worried look. ”Do you think—?”
”Pansy mentioned some spell, but don’t worry”, Harry says quickly. ”It was just like a pepper up potion, the rest was just… firewhiskey and atmosphere… we just got a bit carried away, that’s all. It’s not a crime to have fun once in a while, Granger.”
”Don’t tell Ron”, she says in a choked voice.
”He was having plenty of fun himself last night”, Harry says and glances down the table to where Lavender Brown is sitting with the Gryffindor Patil sister, giggling into her pumpkin juice. ”I wouldn’t feel too bad if I were you…”
”I don’t feel bad…” Granger says, wringing her hands in a way that definitely contradicts her statement. ”I just don’t think… It would only stir up trouble, you know what he’s like.”
Harry nods in agreement, ”I won’t say anything. I just don’t think you should feel bad for letting yourself have a good time, that’s all—”
”Well”, Granger grumbles, scowling down at her cereal. ”One can have too much of a good thing as well…”
Harry smirks, ”If you say so, Granger… Good thing I pulled you out of there when I did, then. Or you definitely would have had too much—”
”Don’t”, the girl groans and he snickers.
”To be honest, I was surprised—”
”It was a momentary lapse of judgement, Harry, it won’t happen again”, she says in a rush and shoots him a stern look.
”I was just going to say…” Harry adds calmly, innocently. ”I was surprised… because for a minute there, it looked like you were really into Pan—”
”Shush you!” Granger hisses and lobs a soggy Pixie Puff at his face.
Harry spends the day in the library with Granger as promised, but neither of them is surprised when their research fails to yield any more answers.
When it’s almost time for the Feast, they make their way out of there again and Granger throws the library a forlorn look over her shoulder. Harry wonders if this is the first time that books have let her down.
”I’m sorry, Harry…” she murmurs. ”I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
”It’s fine, Granger, seriously”, Harry gives her sincere smile and knocks their shoulders together gently. ”Professor Snape is going to teach me Legilimency and Professor Dumbledore and Remus have been at the Department of Mysteries almost every day for a week now, figuring this out… Honestly, I’m not worried.”
”Yeah…” Granger says slowly. ”But… Yeah, no, you’re right.”
”What?”
”Nothing”, she shakes her head. ”You’re right. I’m sure they’ll let you stay here until it’s all figured out, I mean… How else is Professer Snape meant to teach you, right?”
Harry nods in agreement, although he hadn’t thought about that. Everyone is meant to leave the castle in the morning and he’s meant to go stay with some horrible muggle relatives of Lily Potter’s, but.
No, he thinks heartily. Granger is right. I’m sure Dumbledore will let me stay here.