One cool October evening in 1994, a familiar scene was unravelling in the Slytherin common room, which consisted of a ranting Draco Malfoy and a seriously frustrated Pansy Parkinson. As per usual, Draco was on a 'Potter rant' (as they had been christened by Crabbe and Goyle in second year) and was pacing in front of the Slytherin fire, much to Pansy's displeasure. She was sat on the sofa glaring at Draco, only her eyes moved as he paced back and forth. He'd been like this for four years, and it was safe to say that everyone had learned to tune out by now, apart from Pansy who had to listen and make comments in the right moments, so that Draco wouldn't explode at her too.
"Pansy are you even listening to me?" Draco snapped, his pacing stopped abruptly, and Pansy groaned internally.
"Of course Draco-" Pansy started her usual charade of pretending to care about every single thing that Potter did, but this time she had had enough. "You know what, I wasn't listening. I've had enough of your Potter rants Draco! Everyday it's Potter this, Potter that! And frankly, I'm sick of it! We get that you're bloody obsessed with the man, but for the love of Merlin that doesn't mean that the rest of us are." There were a few murmurs of agreement throughout the common room.
"I'll have you know, I am not obsessed with Potter." Draco snarled, his lip curling with frustration.
"Please." Pansy snorted in a very unladylike manner. "That's the funniest thing I've heard since the Snape prank of last Christmas."
"Really?" Draco folded his arms and planted himself on the sofa next to Pansy. "But plenty of funny things have happened since then... like when Potter's potion exploded last week and it was so bad that Snape had to evacuate half the class." At this Pansy sighed dramatically and put her head in her hand. "Not obsessed with Potter my ass."
This made Draco glare at her again. "I'm telling you I'm not obsessed with Potter!"
Pansy stood up quickly and turned to face Draco. "Fine, you're not obsessed with Potter, happy now?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously as though daring him to say yes. "Now I'm going for a walk, alone, as I can't stand another moment of the Potter rant today." With that Pansy stalked elegantly out of the room her cloak billowed behind her, and left behind a bewildered Draco Malfoy, who stood up himself, glared at the rest of his housemates and went to his dorm room.
With no destination in mind, Pansy wandered around the almost deserted corridors trying to gather her thoughts together. Her aim was to get Draco to end his 'Potter rants', or at the very least to stop being on the receiving end of them. She wondered whether Potter had similar kind of rants to his Gryffindor friends, the two boys did have a lot of tension running between them, this caused Pansy to smile to herself. She had a plan, but she just needed a certain muggleborn to put it into action. Quickly changing the direction in which she was going, Pansy made her way up to the Gryffindor common room, she was not quite sure on how she was going to get in yet, but she supposed she would have to figure that part out later. Ending 'Potter rants' was of utmost importance. When Pansy reached the Gryffindor portrait, who was giving her a rather disgruntled look, she stopped and looked up at it. They don't call her the fat lady for nothing. Pansy remarked as she inspected the portrait.
"You can't come in, you don't have a password." The fat lady said indignantly, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"I am well aware of that, I'll just have to wait for someone to stop by." Pansy replied in bored tone as she leant against the wall next to the entrance of the house. Nothing more was exchanged between the two and Pansy stood there in an uncomfortable silence, until she spotted a group of first years coming up the stairs. Finally. The group stopped and stared at her out of fear when they saw her next to the portrait. "It's rude to stare you know." Pansy simply stated.
"We're sorry." Spoke up a girl with curly, blonde hair. "We don't get your lot up here normally."
"That's because we have no reason to be up here, we'd rather not spend time near a garishly red house." Pansy waved her hand dismissively before continuing. "No matter, I'm here because I have a job for you."
"What kind of job?" The girl questioned.
"I need you to fetch me someone from inside since I can't go in." Pansy said.
"Who?" The girl stared at Pansy curiously.
"Hermione Granger." This caused the group to gasp, which Pansy found rather amusing, was it really that shocking that she would willingly talk to Granger? Thinking about, yes it probably was, but this was a dire situation after all. "Yes you heard me correctly, now go get her, otherwise I'll follow you into your grubby little common room."
The first years eyes widened dramatically at the thought that they would be to blame for a Slytherin getting into their house, so they nodded their heads enthusiastically and clambered through the portrait hole.
Inside the common room, Hermione was sat with Harry and Ron around a small table in the corner, she was studying as usual, whilst the boys were having a game of chess. The small girl with the blonde hair gulped nervously as the group made their way over to the table, disturbing Hermione when she was studying was never a good idea. "Hermione Granger." She squeaked running a hand through her curly hair.
Hermione looked up slowly to see who had said her name, her glare softened a bit when she saw how nervous the girl was, which made Hermione wonder what could be so important. "Hello Emily, what is it?" She asked kindly.
"There's a Slytherin girl outside who wants to talk to you." Emily replied quickly, her eyes darting towards the door.
"A Slytherin?" Hermione's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Did she say what she wanted?"
"No but it looked like it was important." Emily said.
"Hmm okay, I suppose I can see what she wants." Hermione shrugged
"You can't go see a Slytherin 'Mione." Harry started. "It could be a prank."
"Thank you for your concern Harry, but do you really think that I can't handle myself?" Hermione quipped in response.
"True, but still Malfoy could've put her up to it-" Harry was cut off quickly by Ron.
"No! We are not talking about Malfoy today Harry." He said waving his hands.
"What do you mean? I hardly ever talk about him." Harry asked.
"Are you being serious? Hermione tell me he's joking." Ron looked at her pleadingly.
"I don't think he's joking Ron." Hermione sighed. "Anyway, you two can continue your talk about Malfoy while I go see what this Slytherin wants." With that, Hermione stood up without saying another word, nodded at the first years and left the common room.
"I'm telling you Ron, it'll be Malfoy." Harry said. At this Ron groaned dramatically and put his head in his hands.
Pansy stopped leaning against the wall as she saw the portrait swing open, revealing an astonished Granger. "Parkinson?" Granger looked at her inquisitively, her mind tried to decipher what the Slytherin wanted but to no avail.
"Granger." Pansy nodded curtly.
"What do you want Parkinson?" Granger asked, she was on her guard, her eyes narrowed slightly.
"I need you to help me with something." Pansy said.
"And why would I help you?" Granger asked incredulously.
"Because I'm hoping that Potter is just as obsessed with Draco, as Draco is with him." Pansy smirked, sure that her plan would work.
"Wait Malfoy is obsessed with Harry too?" Granger repeated.
"Yes Granger, didn't you hear me the first time?" Pansy sighed. "No matter, I'm here because I am fed up with Draco's rantings about Potter, so I was hoping you might be able to help me put an end to them. So that we can stop both of them lusting over the other constantly."
"Lusting? I wouldn't quite call it that, but there is some tension." Granger agreed.
"Well I hope that together we can sort this tension once and for all." Pansy put out her hand to the other girl. "So what do you say Granger, are you in?"
"Call me Hermione, after all, we are going to be working together from now on." Hermione smiled and shook Pansy's hand firmly.
"Then call me Pansy." Pansy smirked. "Meet me in the library at 6pm tomorrow and we can start to plan."
"Perfect, it's time to free ourselves from two obsessive idiots." Hermione smiled back.
This time Pansy gave Hermione a real smile and started to walk down the stairs back to the dungeons, she stopped halfway down the first flight and called up to Hermione. "Look forward to working with you, Hermione." With that, Pansy walked away with more confidence in her strides than usual, her cloak flowed behind her and a smirk adorned her face.
=================
The next day at 6pm, Pansy and Hermione arrived promptly at the library to start planning, they received a few odd looks but were otherwise undisturbed as they found themselves a quiet corner to sit in. "So." Pansy began. "We need to find a way to force Potter and Draco to be together."
"Yes but I think we need to start small, Harry won't accept any feelings quickly so it could become explosive if they're just forced together." Hermione reasoned.
"Hmm, good point, Draco seems to be in denial as well." Pansy thought aloud. "But if they can't get it through their thick skulls within two months then I reckon we should go for the most extreme plan we can think of."
"Fine, we'll do that." Hermione nodded her head in approval.
"So we'll start small, this is extremely Hufflepuff of me to suggest... but what about love notes? We'll trick them into thinking it's from the other and that should spark some kind of interest." Pansy tried.
"Yes, that was rather Hufflepuff of you Pansy," Hermione laughed. "But not a bad plan, we'll do that continually throughout the first two weeks, then one every other day for the rest. I think we should start something else on Saturday, to slowly put them together, like oh I don't know tripping one of them over so they fall right into each other." She grinned.
"You should've been in Slytherin Hermione." Pansy smirked. "Lets write some notes now so that the first ones can be sent at breakfast tomorrow and that way we're prepared for a while. I trust you can mimic Potter's writing?"
"Of course, also it would be best if we didn't meet up too often otherwise people are going to start asking questions." Hermione said as she got some parchment and a quill out of her bag.
"My thoughts exactly, let's get to it then, I say we have an hour before we start to look suspicious." Pansy replied.
"Good, we should have plenty to send off by then." Hermione nodded.
They worked mostly in silence for the remaining hour, only breaking it to confer on what to write, so that by the end of it there were 30 letters for Draco and 30 letters for Harry. Pansy took the first two letters so that she could take them to the owlery to be delivered at breakfast.
"Good night Hermione, I look forward to breakfast." Pansy grinned mischievously.
"As do I, good night Pansy." Hermione smiled in response.
With that, each girl went off in their own direction with a small smile playing about their lips. Things were certainly about to get more interesting.
=================
When the post arrived the next morning, Harry was certainly surprised to see a school owl dropping a letter off for him, he never got letters, except from Sirius but he'd written yesterday, so who could this letter be from? The weight of the envelope gave away that it wasn't a long letter, more like it was a quick note or something of the sort. Slowly, Harry opened the letter and took out the small bit of parchment from inside, it was written in an elegant scrawl, one that was instantly recognisable to Harry... Draco Malfoy. Strange. Draco wouldn't normally send a letter, they usually waited until Fridays to catch up, unless something bad had happened. But the letter didn't contain news of any kind instead there was a just a horrifically cheesy one liner...
If you were a Dementor, I'd become a criminal just to get your kiss. DM
Harry sighed and shook his head, really? They'd kissed loads of times, pick up lines aren't going to pick up someone you're already dating. Shaking his head, Harry replaced his look of confusion with one of horror, he wasn't ready for people to know, not yet. Unfortunately for him, his friends were not oblivious to the letter he received.
"Who's the letter from Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Umm.. no one," Harry replied a little too quickly.
"Ooh mate, have you got yourself a love letter?" Ron teased lightly, the amusement playing on his face. Harry could feel his face grow red, at which Ron let out triumphant 'I knew it!'
Harry attempted to quieten the shouting redhead before the whole school knew, instead Ron had managed to grab the letter out of his hands and started to read it, his face grew red. "M-Malfoy?"
"Exactly, he's probably trying to mess with me that's why I didn't want everyone to know." Harry was also rather red.
"Unfortunate mate, thought you were getting an actual note, damn git." Fortunately for Harry, Ron was quick to catch on and breakfast carried on as if nothing had happened.
On the other side of the hall at the Slytherin table, a similar scene was unraveling. When a school owl had dropped a letter in front of Draco he had stared at it with distaste, letters were never a sign of good news unless they bore a package alongside them. Tentatively, Draco reached for the letter and immediately recognised the writing on the front, Harry's, this intrigued him, they never really sent each other letters. Draco regretted opening the letter immediately, as he knew a faint blush was dancing on his cheeks when he had read the contents.
Your smile is like expelliarmus, simple but disarming. HP
Was it possible for someone to be so sickly sweet? But seriously what was Harry doing sending him a note like this? Anyone could read it. Fortunately for Draco, Pansy was still ignoring him after the incident the other night, so the letter went completely undetected as he hid it in his robe pocket. Last night had been quite amusing for Draco, he couldn't quite believe everyone still believed he hated Harry and the look on Pansy's face had been priceless when he said he wasn't obsessed with Harry. Draco smirked to himself before he finished his breakfast and walked eloquently out of the Great Hall.
==================
The next time the two received notes, they were walking down a corridor when a small note fluttered into each of their hands. Harry opened his immediately curious to see what Draco had written this time, only to feel his face flare up with embarrassment once again, not just at what had been written but also at Ron's incessant laughter. Though Harry supposed it was a good thing that Ron found the idea of Draco ever liking him amusing, at least no one would catch on any time soon.
Did you just say Wingardium Leviosa? Because you've got me rising baby. DM
Harry quickly put the note out of sight before Ron could read it dramatically one more time, at least Hermione was on his side. She just kept telling Ron to shut up about it, though she was being strangely quiet about the whole situation...
Draco upon receiving his second note, was more discreet about it, he only opened it once he was out of sight of his friends. He couldn't afford to have people asking questions, especially not with extra students in the school, he did not want people to find out things through gossip.
You can have the portkey to my heart. HP
This second note was just as sickly as the first one, he was really going to have to talk to Harry about this. What did he think he was playing at? At least their next date was tomorrow, Draco smiled just thinking about it, it was hard not being able to interact with Harry properly all week. Fridays were the only days he ever got to be himself.
The notes just kept coming throughout the next couple of days, and it was safe to say that there was a lot of confusion on both sides. But the lack of outrage seemed like a step forward to Pansy and Hermione, who had shared multiple hidden smiles when they had passed each other in the corridors. As far as they knew, their plan was working perfectly, but they were as far from the truth as they could possibly get.
===================
Usually Harry did not get nervous about his dates with Draco, aside from the first one he was always rather excited for them. But after all the notes over the past two days, Harry was feeling worried, he didn't know how he could even bring up the situation. Maybe Draco would ask him if he enjoyed the notes, followed by the gorgeous smirk of his that always accompanied his sarcastic commentary. What Harry had not expected was for Draco to walk into the Room of Requirement holding a stack of parchment that was not all that different from his own.
"Harry, would you kindly explain to me what these are?" Draco said as he sat down next to Harry on the sofa, and put the notes in front of him.
"I was going to ask you the same question." Harry asked confused, pulling out his own pile of letters from his robe pocket.
"What? You mean you didn't send them?" Draco suddenly became very flustered. "But this is your handwriting."
"And these ones are in yours..." Harry said slowly. "Draco, you don't think someone knows and is trying to mess with us?" Harry's eyes widened slightly as he said this, he wasn't ready for everyone to know, not yet.
"If someone does know, a few threats and a nice curse can go a long way." Draco smiled thoughtfully, as though he was thinking of all the ways he could hex someone.
"Like that would help, who do you think it is?" Harry asked.
"I don't know..." Draco trailed off, before he suddenly blurted out. "Pansy!"
"What?" Spluttered Harry, "Parkinson knows?"
"Well, I don't think she knows, more like she's planning something." Draco smirked. "I may have pissed her off the other night with my 'Potter rant'."
"Draco... what happened?" Harry asked curiously.
"Well, the usual, I ranted, she pretended to listen, I called her out on it, and she snapped." Draco chuckled softly. "The look on her face was priceless when I told her that I wasn't obsessed with you."
Harry sighed and shook his head, of course Draco would find this amusing. "Then what happened?"
"She stormed out of the common room, said she needed some alone time, I don't know where she went." Draco shrugged.
"I think I do. A Slytherin came to talk to Hermione the other night and she refused to tell us anything. I'm betting that was Parkinson." Harry thought aloud.
"Pansy went to Granger for help? Merlin she must be serious." Draco pressed his fingers into his temple in slight frustration as he tried to figure it out.
"What do you think they're planning?" Harry asked, though he already knew that he didn't want the answer.
"I think our friends are trying to set us up." Draco said monotonously.
At this Harry gasped, his brain not being able to form a coherent thought. "Our friends are trying to what?"
"Set us up." Draco repeated, then a small smirk formed on his face.
"I know that look, how are we taking revenge?" Harry couldn't help but grin at Draco's look of mock offence.
"How dare you accuse me of such a thing." He gasped dramatically and clutched his chest in feigned horror.
"I just know you." Harry scooted over to Draco on the sofa, knocking most of the forged letters on the floor as he did. "Soo, what's the plan?" Harry smirked.
"We are going to ignore all of their attempts at trying to set us up." Draco stroked Harry's arm softly.
"And then what? They won't give up easily." Harry asked.
"And then, I was wondering if you'd be my date to the Yule Ball?" Draco linked Harry's fingers with his own and looked at him shyly through his hair.
"Yes." Harry grinned, which caused Draco to let out a breathe he hadn't known that he had been holding and smiled back at him. "Think you can handle my marvelous dancing skills?"
"Salazar save me from them." Laughed Draco. "I think there are going to be a few dancing lessons in your future Harry."
"I didn't know you were so good at Divination Draco, how did you manage to get such an accurate reading?" Harry said in mock surprise.
"You know me, I'm good at everything." Draco said with his best Malfoy voice.
"Cocky prat." Scolded Harry, and he ruffled Draco's hair in retaliation before running promptly across the room.
"Oh I am so going to get you for that one." Draco called as he leaped off the sofa himself and ran after the cackling black hair boy. It didn't take long for him to catch Harry, due to him being taller. As Draco grabbed him round the waist, he sent them both crashing to the floor in fits of laughter. "I told you I'd get you." Draco whispered into Harry's ear, his breath hot on the other boy's neck, which caused him to shudder.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Harry turned round so that he straddled Draco.
"And what's my reward for catching you?" Draco asked innocently, he fluttered his pale eyelashes at the black haired boy.
"This." Harry almost growled as he brought his lips crashing against Draco's, his hands held either side of his face. Draco laced his fingers in Harry's hair as he kissed back forcefully. All too soon Harry pulled away, which made Draco follow him up as he did so, both boys were panting, their cheeks flushed, lips bruised and pupils dilated.
"Wow." Breathed out both boys, as they got their breath back.
"I'm not going to be able to wait until the Yule Ball if you keep kissing me like that." Smirked Draco, his mind still a bit frazzled.
"But we have to if we want to win." Harry grinned, clearly thinking the same thing. "And we are going to win."
"Definitely." Draco agreed, he smiled up at his boyfriend and tucked a strand of black hair behind Harry's ear. "Definitely."
====================
Saturday. The day that part two of Pansy and Hermione's plan was being initiated, and both girls were fairly excited, hopefully this would start to get things moving.
Draco was surprised to see that Pansy was talking to him at breakfast that morning, as she had been ignoring him since Tuesday evening. "Miss me?" He smirked as she sat down beside him.
"I was under the impression that you were missing me, or were you too busy enjoying yourself with your invisible friends?" Pansy replied with a smirk of her own, her hand indicating the empty seats around them. Draco just rolled his eyes at her and started to butter another piece of toast. "Anyway, I was hoping that you'd come with me to the library, there's the potions homework and we usually do that together."
"Ah so that's why you're talking to me again." Grinned Draco as Pansy scowled. "You need my expertise to help you with your homework."
"Funny." She said sarcastically. "No I just didn't want you to mope around on your own again. You were a sight for sore eyes."
"A Malfoy doesn't do something as common as moping Pansy," Draco replied in a bored tone. "We prefer to sit alone in dark corners for the fun of it."
"Of course you do." Pansy just sighed, sarcasm as usual, not that she expected anything else. They continued to eat in a comfortable silence until Draco's first letter of the day arrived, at which he let out a disgruntled sigh - mainly for Pansy of course. "What is it Draco? Who's the letter from?" The girl asked innocently, a lie that Draco would have embarrassingly fallen for if he hadn't known what she was planning.
"None of your business." Draco said simply as he put the letter in his robe so that he could laugh at whatever horrifying thing had been written on it this time later.
"Are you not even going to open it?" Pansy continued, looking slightly put out.
"No. I already know who it's from so I don't think I'll waste my time." Draco just waved his hand nonchalantly. "Anyhow, I thought we were going to the library. Let's go get our things so we can get there before all the good seats are taken." Without even waiting for a reply, Draco stood up and then pulled Pansy to her feet after him. Unfortunately for Pansy, Draco was a fairly fast walker and she wasn't able to stall him much on the way to the dungeons and she felt like she was ahead of the timetable that she and Hermione had organised last night. They split ways as they went to their dormitories to fetch their bags, Pansy cast a quick tempus, which revealed that it was only 10:40, 20 minutes until they had to be at the library corridor entrance. The timing had to be perfect, otherwise everything would be messed up, it takes 13 minutes to get to the meeting point from the dungeons, so Pansy would have to stall slightly.
"Come on Pans!" It seemed as though Draco wasn't in a patient mood today, if he ever had one. "You were the one who wanted to go to the library! I could always just leave, it's not my potions grade that's at stake."
"Draco." Pansy called back a bit frustrated. "Could you wait one bloody moment for once. I'll be down in a minute." After a long dramatic sigh and a loud thwump as Draco sat on the leather sofa, he went quiet. Thank Merlin. Pansy thought gratefully as she finished gathering her things together and went back to the common room.
"At long last." Draco exclaimed upon her arrival. "Let's try not to waste any more time." Throwing a bag over his shoulder, Pansy and Draco left the common room and made their way towards the library.
As they reached the entrance to the library corridor, Potter, Weasley and Hermione were leaving the library. Potter and Weasley in front, with Hermione in tow, carrying about 4 books. When the other girl noticed Pansy and Draco, she gave a small nod and cast a nonverbal tripping jinx on Potter so that he stumbled right towards Draco. He crashed into Draco and sent them both to the floor with a pair of undignified screams.
"Potter." Growled Draco as he pushed Potter onto the floor. "Are you blind even with your glasses, or can you just unable to walk like a competent human being?"
"Well maybe you should stop getting in my way like usual." Potter retaliated, he fixed his glasses, which had gone crooked in the fall and glared at Draco.
"Me getting in the way of you? I think you'll find that you're the one who gets in my way." Draco returned the look and stood up brushing off any dust from his robes.
"Ooh I apologise for stopping your diabolical plans Malfoy." Replied Potter, as he also stood up brushing himself off. He turned to his companions and shook his head. "Come on, I don't want to deal with snakes today." With that, Potter stormed quickly out of the library corridor, where Pansy and Hermione shared a secret smile before also heading off in their separate directions.
As soon as the Golden Trio were out of sight, Draco rounded on Pansy. "What was that about?" He demanded, his eyes flashed dangerously.
"What was what about?" Pansy asked innocently. "It's not my fault Potter cannot walk properly. We've already wasted enough time because of him, let's not waste anymore." Without saying another word, Pansy grabbed Draco by the arm and dragged him into the library, so he just glared at the back of her head in silence instead.
======================
"Two weeks and absolutely nothing!" Exclaimed Hermione, her head dropped dramatically against the table they were sat at. "If it was possible, I'd say they were worse! Every night it's Malfoy this, Malfoy that... Oh Hermione, Malfoy is such a prick... Would he just fuck off and stop sending those damned notes already." Hermione said as she put on her best overly dramatic impression of Harry.
"Maybe you're just looking at it wrong." Pansy suggested, ignoring Hermione's glare as she did so. "Think about it, if they're talking about each other more, then that must mean that they're paying more attention to each other. I'd say the plan is working, they're just in stage one - denial."
"True." Agreed Hermione slowly, her head rested on her hand in concentration. "Then it must be time to move onto stage two - cooperation."
"I agree completely, do you reckon you'd be able to get some Gryffindors to help with this next phase?" Pansy asked curiously.
"I'm sure I could easily convince them, they're just as fed up as us. What do you want me to do?" Hermione asked, not having any idea where this was heading, it could be dangerous for more people to know, as it would be easier for Harry and Malfoy to find out.
Pansy grinned wickedly, then launched into a fully detailed plan of how phase two would pan out. "If we can get them on at least civil speaking terms, it should make the next stage a lot easier." Pansy finished, as she leaned back into her chair and watched Hermione take in all the new information.
"I think that might just work, let's just hope there aren't any explosions." Grinned Hermione. "I'll get the Gryffindors on board, if you can sort out the Slytherins."
"Good." Nodded Pansy, a small smirk plastered on her face, phase two was up and ready to go, she was sure this would work.
=======================
When the next potions lesson for Gryffindor and Slytherin came around, the two girls couldn't help but feel a little nervous, everyone had agreed to what they were planning, Pansy had even managed to get Daphne Greengrass to skip so that there was an even number of people, but now it was all down to Harry and Draco cooperating, which seemed to be an impossible task.
Professor Snape strode into the classroom as the lesson began, his cloak billowed dramatically out behind him as usual, the room immediately fell silent. "Today we will be brewing the Wit-Sharpening Potion, you will be working in partners and you will both be trying the potion at the end of the hour. However, I would advise that Longbottom and Finnegan do not work together, as the results would prove to be, quite catastrophic." Professor Snape, however, did not look as though he would be bothered if anything unfortunate did occur. "The instructions are on page 241, begin." Immediately the class began to scramble round looking for someone to work with, automatically Harry moved closer to Ron and Hermione, but it seemed as though he had been left out of that pairing.
"Sorry Harry." Hermione said sympathetically. "I worked with you last time, so its only fair if I work with Ron today."
"It's alright, I'll find someone else to work with." Harry glanced around the room, and his eyes rested on Neville for a moment.
"No, I think you'll find that I'm working with Longbottom today, Potter." Said the snide voice of Blaise Zabini from somewhere near Harry, who had started to make his way towards Neville. Out of surprise, Harry stopped and watched as Zabini went to ask Neville if they could work together, and perhaps what was even more surprising, was that Neville agreed. Harry saw Zabini smirk at back him triumphantly, whilst Neville gave him an apologetic smile, which Harry returned with what he hoped to be a reassuring one. He wasn't the only one who was surprised by this move, Professor Snape also watched the pair closely with his beady eyes.
"Draco, work with Potter." Announced the Professor suddenly, which caused Harry to quickly whip his head around and notice that Draco didn't have a partner either. He cursed Hermione inwardly, knowing that she was somehow behind this, at least his annoyance would be genuine for once. Draco's face also showed one of horror, though Harry suspected it was mostly feigned for Snape. "Yes I know it isn't ideal Draco, but Daphne Greengrass is not in lesson today, so let us hope that you do not get poisoned by Potter's abysmal brewing skills at the end of the lesson." Snape didn't say a word after that, and Harry knew he had no other choice, so he made his way over to Draco trying to look as annoyed as possible. This was a difficult task, however, when being given the chance to talk to your secret boyfriend in a way that was not an orchestrated argument.
"Malfoy." Harry nodded when he reached the table Draco was working at.
"Potter, I don't want my grade suffering because of you, so listen to everything I say." Sneered Draco, though his true message was clear to Harry, he too was glad that they were able to talk somewhat outside of the Room of Requirement.
"Fine. I'll prepare, you brew." Harry replied, as he struggled to remember to keep his jaw firmly clenched as though he was annoyed with this arrangement. Really he wanted to be able to talk with Draco, smile and enjoy the lesson like everyone else. It was in moments like these that Harry wished that he and Draco were out, so he willed himself to think about how it was not long until the Yule Ball and that everything would soon be okay.
"Go get the ingredients then Potter, I trust you're not so incompetent that you're unable to do that." Draco drawled as he read the instructions. "150 grams of Ginger Root, 200 millilitres of Armadillo Bile and 6 Scarab beetles. Go on Potter, we haven't got all day."
Harry scowled at Draco and went over to the storage cupboard to get the ingredients. As he did this, Draco shot Pansy an annoyed glare as she waited happily for Theo to get their ingredients. She just smiled sympathetically back at him, at which Draco scowled even further. When Barry returned he lumped the ingredients down on the desk.
"Have you never heard of being delicate, Potter?" Sneered Draco. "Or do you just want to screw up the potion before we've even begun?"
"Oh because you know all about me being delicate." Harry retorted before he could stop himself. This time Draco's glare was real as he stopped himself from laughing at Harry's comment. "Right of course you don't, since you do everything as though you're going to shatter into a million pieces." Harry finished, hoping that he had salvaged it.
"Better to be delicate than acting like a caged animal." At this both Harry and Draco shared a bewildered look of amusement before mentally cursing themselves. This was turning out to be more difficult than expected, so they didn't say another word and worked in silence for the rest of the lesson.
At the end of the hour, Harry was pleasantly surprised to see that their potion was perfect, potions he worked on never usual went well. He and Draco both took a small vial of the potion out of the cauldron and drank it. Immediately Harry began to feel the effects of the potion, his mind became clearer and it was much easier to focus on his charade of pretending to not like Draco. Though he couldn't stop himself from wishing that he could work with Draco every lesson. Unfortunately, that wish was granted by Snape when he came over to inspect the potion.
"Draco. Potter. You are to work together until the end of the year." He said unable to find a flaw with the potion. This announcement further reassured Harry that Snape could read minds.
"What?" Harry and Draco exclaimed in unison, then looked at each other and scowled.
"I can't work with him professor, you said it yourself, his potion skills are abysmal." Complained Draco.
"You're potion is still perfect Draco and Potter has done more work than ever so he will not be sitting with Weasley and Granger. So no complaints from either of you." Snape's beady eyes narrowed and he moved on to the next pair.
"Thanks a lot Potter. It was bad enough having to spend one lesson with you, let alone the whole year." Draco started as soon as Snape was out of earshot.
"Me? It's not my fault that Snape's an arse. You think I want this?" Retaliated Harry, as he gathered his things together.
"It's always your fault Potter. Snape wouldn't do this if you weren't such a miscreant." Draco glowered, as he vanished the containments of the cauldron.
"Yes, Harry Potter, The Boy Who Was At Fault, the Miscreant One." Harry replied with a thick layer of sarcasm, before he picked up his things and stormed over to the door where Ron and Hermione were waiting for him, not looking back at Draco once.
"Tough luck mate." Said Ron as they walked out of the dungeons.
"You don't say." Harry all but growled in response. "The whole fucking year!"
"Maybe it won't be so bad, Harry." Hermione said, in what was supposed to be a reassuring way, but Harry knew it was her fault.
"Oh yeah, a year of working with Malfoy in potions. It'll be a walk in the park I'm sure." Harry just got a sympathetic look from his friends, as they carried on to their next lesson.
However, a positive that came out of Harry and Draco working together in potions was that they could easily plan arguments. It was only basic things, such as Draco insulting Harry's potions skills, or one of them purposefully dropping something on the floor and blaming the other. They were enough to show Pansy and Hermione that they could not get along, but not too much to land themselves in multiple detentions, though the sudden loss of points in both the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses showed otherwise. At least 40 points were lost from the two houses every lesson, which included Snape's leniency towards Slytherins and discluded the inevitable point loss that Gryffindor suffered during potions lessons anyway. It had become so bad that Slytherin and Gryffindor had fallen into third and fourth place, much to the displeasure of their housemates.
"Mate." Ron started, after a particularly gruelling potions lesson. "I know Malfoy is a git and all, but cold you try and get along with him, we're in last place."
"I'll try and get along with him, if he stops being a git, as you so kindly pointed out. But I can't imagine that he will, plus it's normally him who starts it." Harry sighed, he did feel bad about losing so many points for Gryffindor, but it would make the girls think that they were winning if he and Draco were suddenly getting along.
"Just try, mate." Ron said softly, in a way that could easily guilt trip Harry into cooperating, he supposed that he could talk Draco into not losing so many points. It wouldn't be weird for them to minimize antagonizing each other when they had nearly ruined their houses' chances of winning the house cup, would it?
==========================
For the next few weeks, Harry and Draco had been forced into each other's company more than they ever had been before, it was almost as if the castle itself was forcing them together - except they knew that Pansy and Hermione were the ones behind it all. Draco had fallen into more trick steps, fake walls and Harry's body more times than he could remember, and it gradually made his mood more sour. This was evident in both the boys when they met up on Fridays, the whole ordeal showed them how much nicer it would be if they were out, but they had to stick with their plan now, they were in too deep to back out at this point. There were only three weeks until the Yule Ball, so they would soon be okay.
"Pansy." Hermione declared one evening, as they sat in their usual spot in the library. "I think we need to move onto the final stage of the plan, nothing is happening, so if this doesn't work, we will just have to admit defeat."
"As much as I hate to admit it, you might be right." Pansy said sadly. "They just aren't responding to anything we do, so maybe there isn't anything there after all."
"I know." Hermione sighed, she rested her hand softly on Pansy's arm. "I wanted this to work too. Let's just try this last thing and then we'll stop."
"Yeah." Pansy replied dejectedly, she looked at Hermione and smiled. "I think I have the perfect thing."
"Perfect." Hermione smiled in return.
===========================
"Is that mistletoe?" Ron asked one morning in early December, as he, Harry and Hermione made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I think it is." Harry replied as he inspected the plant that now grew from the high ceiling. "I've been seeing it all over the place this year."
"I wouldn't get too close if I were you Harry." Hermione cut in, she grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the plant. "I've heard that if you get too close to it, that it traps you and another person underneath it until you kiss." Immediately Harry stepped far away from the mistletoe, as did Ron, who was staring at it in distaste.
"Thanks for the warning." Ron said, as he watched the mistletoe grimly, as though its vines would extend and trap him there for all eternity.
"It isn't a violent plant you know." Laughed Hermione when she noticed his expression.
"Still seems like a pretty vile concept to me." Grunted Ron in response. "Let's go eat, I'd rather not be forced to kiss anyone today." At that Harry and Hermione chuckled, as Ron dragged them quickly towards the Great Hall, his face still strewn with displeasure.
For the next few days, Harry spent most of his free time narrowly escaping mistletoe and giggling fans, who tried to get him caught under it. The whole ordeal was very tiresome and Harry could not wait for it to be over. It seemed as though most people were aiming to do the same thing, however there had been a few unexpected victims of the mistletoe. Neville and Blaine Zabini had been getting along rather well after they had spent their first potions lesson together. It had become a common sight for the two to be seen together in corridors, but it was due to this that they had become trapped under a particularly large patch of mistletoe in the charms corridor. When it happened, onlookers gasped in surprise and stared at the pair. Beetroot red from blushing, it had been Neville who had kissed Blaise, who had returned it rather happily. Now the two of them were seen together even more, and more often than not they would walk together hands entwined. Ginny and Luna were also caught under it, after Luna had got too close when inspecting one of the plants to see if it was Nargle infested. This kiss had been short but sweet and the two girls had walked away with happy smiles on their faces. Though the victims had not all been so fortunate, Viktor Krum had been trapped many times by girls and boys alike, who had been all too happy to kiss the world famous quidditch star. Perhaps the most disturbing one was Crabbe and Goyle, which was bound to happen as they were careless idiots who rarely thought of anything other than food. For this particular encounter, students had not wanted to see the outcome and had moved away rather quickly, many of which were making gagging sounds. Dumbledore had refused to remove the mistletoe, as he had reassured the students that it was all in good fun and the perfect way to give the school some Christmas spirit.
It was a week after the mistletoe had first started to appear, Draco and Pansy were walking through the courtyard wrapped up in thick winter cloaks. The mistletoe had begun to spread like wildfire and there was only one entrance left to the courtyard that had no mistletoe on it. For all the other entrances, the students made their way in single file around it, despite the difficulties it created, Dumbledore still refused to remove it. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco noticed Harry sat alone in one of the mistletoe covered entrances, he did not have a cloak on and he was clearly shaking.
"Is that Potter?" Draco asked Pansy, pointing over to the shaking figure.
Pansy laughed. "I think it is, come on let's go over."
"I hardly think that's appro-" But Draco was cut off when Pansy grabbed his arm and pulled him over to where Harry was sat.
"What do you want?" Grumbled Harry through gritted teeth.
"To get through this entrance but it seems like you're blocking the path." Draco sneered down at him.
"Awfully sorry to be an inconvenience Malfoy." Harry spat back, his voice did not hold his usual fire. "I just really wanted to sit under this damn mistletoe."
"Potter, how were you dim enough to get caught under the mistletoe, in the courtyard, in the freezing cold, without a cloak?" Pansy sniped, amusement showing on her face.
"Hermione knocked me into it." Harry stated simply.
"And she just left you here? Both her and Weasley?" Draco asked incredulously, he had had more faith in Harry's friends than this.
"Yep." Harry grunted.
Suddenly Draco felt a snowball fly into his head, which knocked him a foot forwards, and straight under the mistletoe with Harry.
"What the actual fuck?" Draco exclaimed loudly. "Who the hell did that?" Draco glared around the empty courtyard for the culprit, but it remained just that, empty. Instead, Draco moved his glare to Pansy's amused face. "You." He growled.
"It wasn't me, it came from across the courtyard." She pointed out, an innocent expression played on her face.
"Fix it. Now." Draco did not stand down, as he positioned himself as close to Pansy as the mistletoe let him.
"Only you can fix it Draco." Smirked Pansy, her eyes flickered towards Harry, who was still on the floor staring at him in shock. "You know what to do."
"No. I will not be a part of your perverted games. I know what you've been trying to do." Pansy's eyes widened in horror, as the anger became more apparent in Draco's voice. "Setting me up with Potter? Really? I can handle the other things you've thrown at me. But forcing me to kiss my sworn enemy, that's low even for you."
"I-" Pansy stammered, automatically taking a few steps back.
"Leave. And take Granger with you." Draco ordered, his gaze landed on Hermione who was watching them from behind a wall.
"Hermione?" Harry said sadly. "You did this?" She stepped guiltily towards them, her head hung.
"You two leave and learn how to fix this, now." Draco spat, the two girls looked at him in shame. "And quickly, I don't want to be stuck here with Potter any longer than necessary." He said glancing at Harry, who was still shaking from the cold. "And get him a bloody cloak, I don't want to hear his incessant whining." They nodded quickly, and hurried out of the courtyard, whispering furiously together.
"This is bad." Harry said as soon as they were out of sight.
"I know." Sighed Draco, as he sat down next to Harry. "They better have a counterspell for this."
"I'm sure they do, it'll be them who set it up in the first place." Harry said.
"How did you end up here anyway?" Draco asked, suddenly remembering that Harry was here first.
"Well I was wandering through the courtyard with Ron and Hermione when I think I was confunded - that was probably a nonverbal spell from Hermione. So when we came to coming past this mistletoe, I walked straight under it." Harry sighed in annoyance. "I can't believe they went this far, well I can believe it, but still it's ridiculous. Imagine how bad it would be if we still hated each other."
"She confunded you, nonverbally?" Draco's voice was laced with respect, until he saw Harry's eyebrow arch. "Right, not the time to be impressed." But Harry just smiled at him instead, Draco could almost feel the pride radiating off him. "What?"
"Just never thought I'd see the day when you'd be impressed by Hermione." Harry said softly.
"You bring out the best in me." Draco replied, a faint blush stained his cheeks.
"I would kiss you right now if I could." Harry sighed as he brushed his fingers lightly over the back of Draco's hand.
"After the Yule Ball you can kiss me whenever you want." Draco smiled, he wanted to kiss Harry right now but he couldn't, the mistletoe would give them away.
"Whenever I want?" Harry smirked mischievously.
"I know that look Harry, am I going to regret my words?" Draco said, as he saw Harry's eyes glint with excitement.
"No, I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Harry said sweetly.
"Okay, I phrased that wrong, will other people regret me saying that?" Harry didn't reply, instead his smirk just increased. "I'll take that as a yes." He shook his head. "And where is Granger, she's only getting you a cloak, does she want you to freeze to death?"
"She'll be here in a minute, speaking of which, people can't see us getting along." Harry replied sadly, as he glanced around the courtyard to make sure no one was watching them.
"We should just ignore each other, like we do in potions." Draco said, he hated having to fight with Harry.
"I know, I hate to fight too." Harry looked at him sadly, reading his expression perfectly.
"Yeah." Draco replied, his voice trailed off and they sat in silence, stealing looks and at each other, both wanting to talk.
After about ten minutes, Hermione appeared with a thick cloak for Harry, Draco glared at her and then went back to staring in the opposite direction to where Harry was.
"Thanks Hermione." Harry muttered, as he caught the cloak and put it round himself.
"We'll get you out soon, Pansy has gone to the library to get the book we used." Hermione explained, looking at her feet as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
"Since when have you been on first name terms with Parkinson." Harry sneered.
"Obviously since they've been planning this bullcrap." Draco cut in before Hermione got the chance to say anything. Hermione glowered at him. "Go help Pansy find this book Granger."
"Actually, we decided to meet here once she'd found it." Hermione replied stalely.
"Great. It must be my lucky day." Draco groaned sarcastically. "Stuck with two bloody Gryffindors in the cold."
"Yeah because this situation is so ideal for all of us Malfoy." Harry replied.
"Well you both know how to end this faster, don't you." Hermione snapped, as she sat down on a nearby bench.
"Fuck you Granger. I wouldn't kiss him if my life depended on it." Draco snarled at her.
"Glad to know the feeling is mutual." Harry replied sarcastically.
"You're both making this situation a whole lot worse for yourselves." Hermione sighed.
"Oh so you would kiss Malfoy then if you were in this situation. Harry quipped.
"That's completely beside the point." Replied Hermione haughtily.
"Nope, that was my point. You wouldn't do it either." Harry grinned in victory, at which Draco just shook his head. It wasn't long until Pansy showed up carrying a large leather book and a grim expression.
"Took you long enough." Draco sniped as she approached, but his face soon changed to worry after seeing her expression. "What is it?" He stood up quickly, and Harry followers suit.
"Umm, well." Pansy stumbled over her words. "We created the mistletoe with you two in mind."
"Yes, I gathered that much." Draco replied impatiently, just wanting her to get to the point.
"It means that only you two can break it." Pansy finished in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.
"What?!" Both Harry and Draco exclaimed.
"And well since it's mistletoe, I'm sure you can guess how the spell is broken." Pansy continued.
"No fucking way am I kissing Malfoy." Harry stated clearly, glaring at Draco with a hint of worry in his eyes.
"You might not have a choice." Hermione interjected, speaking up for the first time, she had been reading through the book that Pansy had brought with her.
"What do you mean no choice?" Draco asked, unsure of whether he actually wanted the answer.
"I mean, Pansy and I may have underestimated the mistletoe. Here it says that the mistletoe will continue to spread until the deed is done." Hermione said as she looked back up at the boys. "Which means that unless you two break the spell, all of Hogwarts will be engulfed by mistletoe."
"What part of your small minds made you think that this was a good idea?" Draco glowered.
"We thought you would be more cooperative." Pansy admitted in a small voice, refusing to look Draco in the eye.
"In some twisted alternate universe." Scoffed Draco rolling his eyes.
However, with a shaky breath Harry said. "I'll do it." Which caused all three people to stare at him in shock.
"Potter have you gone mad?" Draco asked, waving a hand in front of Harry's eyes.
"No, I would just rather not be stuck here with you in a school that's overrun by mistletoe, these last few days have been torture." Harry replied, in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Fine." Draco growled, before he looked at the two girls who had stayed rather quiet during this discussion. "But you two, turn around." He said and waved his hand in a dismissive circle.
"For once we actually agree on something Malfoy." Harry said. "Turn around then." Grudgingly the two girls turned around and faced the opposite direction.
"Are you okay?" Draco mouthed to Harry silently, he nodded in response and walked towards Draco. He quickly glanced towards the two girls, who had listened and were still facing the other way, then Harry gently cupped Draco's face and kissed him softly. Draco held Harry's wrists as he returned the kiss, showing the other boy everything he was feeling, the worry, fear, love and want. He wanted this so badly and he had no idea how to survive the next couple of weeks. All too soon the boys broke away, they looked at each other with sad eyes, knowing that they were both thinking the same thing.
After a deep breath, Draco made a noise of disgust. "I'm never doing that again." He spat, as the two girls turned around, disappointment shown clearly on their faces. Tentatively, Draco stepped out from under the mistletoe that was already beginning to disappear, and began to walk away, without even a glance back.
"Draco where are you going?" Pansy called after him.
"Fuck off Pansy." Draco replied, not even looking at her, as he continued to walk away, for he feared that if he did turn around, that he would run straight back to Harry and never let go.
=================
After that day, the notes stopped, the mistletoe disappeared (to the relief of all the students), Draco and Harry pretended to avoid each other like the plague, and they both showed Hermione and Pansy how annoyed they were. Ron could not understand why his two best friends were fighting, they both refused to tell him what was happening and he had no idea what to do. He had tried to get them to talk to each other, but Hermione said that Harry would talk to her when he was ready, and Harry was clearly not ready yet. Harry knew that Hermione was sorry for what she had done, but if it had been anyone but Draco she had tried to set him up with, it would not have been right. He would talk to her before the Yule Ball, he didn't want to be ignoring her for long when he couldn't talk to Draco outside of the Room of Requirement either. About a week before the Yule Ball, Hermione was working alone in the corner of the common room when Harry sat down beside her.
"Hermione?" He asked slowly.
"Harry?" Hermione replied as she looked up, a small smile crept onto her face though it was mostly hidden by guilt. "I'm so sorry Harry I-"
"It's okay Hermione." Harry cut in shaking his head. "I don't really understand why you decided to do it, but you're my best friend so I know you thought it was for the best. I just really don't like him okay?" He laughed softly, a grin on his face. "Just don't try and set me up with anyone again."
"I won't. I swear." Hermione smiled at him sadly and gave him a small hug.
Ron had noticed this exchange between his best friends from across the common room, he watched them contently for a moment before he resumed his focus on the chess game he was having with Seamus. Even though he did not know what had happened, he was glad that the two of them had managed to sort it out.
However, it was a different case with Pansy and Draco, instead if giving Draco space like Hermione did, Pansy kept trying to talk to him, to apologise for what she had done. But Draco did not want to listen, he could not be seen giving into her incessant grovelling, as much as he missed her, he knew that he had to keep up appearances otherwise she would know something wasn't right. He would leave it a few more days before he responded to her pleading, he didn't want to lose her as a friend, as much as his father would hate for him to admit this, he cared about Pansy and he needed her. When Draco did finally take notice of her, her face lit up considerably and started to make a rambling apology, before Draco did something completely unexpected - he gave a soft chuckle and then proceeded to hug her. This made her stop talking immediately out of both shock and relief, though mainly shock, as she hugged him back. As Draco pulled away he put his serious face back on, and shook his head. "Potter, seriously?" he asked, all she replied with was a sheepish smile, so he just shook his head again in disbelief. "And you worked with Granger?"
"Don't look at me like that." She pouted. "I just thought she would know Potter the best, and she's really not all that bad." When Pansy realised what she said, she clapped her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened in disbelief. Draco just laughed at her, hardly believing what he had just heard. "Shut up Draco." She grumbled, after he had stopped laughing.
"What? Just never thought I'd see the day when you would get along with a Gryffindor." Draco smirked at the horror on her face. She just groaned, as she had realised that she was never going to hear the end of this.
==============
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat in a study session in the Great Hall under the watchful eyes of Serverus Snape, who was almost continuously hitting people round the back of their head if they spoke. Harry's eyes flickered over to Ron when a piece of parchment landed in front of him, it read 'If you don't hurry up all the good ones will be gone.' When Harry looked up, he saw that it had been from Fred Weasley.
"Who are you going with then?" Ron hissed at Fred from across the table. Fred winked at him and threw a piece of paper at Angelina Johnson.
"What?" She asked as she looked up from her work.
"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" Fred did this whilst he attempted to actions with it, but Angelina understood what he was saying, as she smiled at him.
"Yeah, okay." Angelina answered, she smiled at him again before she returned to her work.
"If we don't hurry up, we'll be the only ones in our year without dates." Ron said when he turned back to Harry.
"Um, I'm guessing now isn't the right time to tell you that I've already got someone." Harry replied, as he realised that he hadn't told either on or Hermione that he had a date for the Yule Ball.
"Who?" Both Ron and Hermione exclaimed immediately, which made Harry shush them before they attracted Snape's attention.
"It's, umm, a surprise." Harry stumbled, he felt his face growing hot, so he knew that he had gone red.
"..okay." Hermione answered slowly, her face strewn with curiosity but now knew better than to intrude on Harry's love life.
"Wait Hermione, you're a girl." Ron said as though it was a miraculous discovery.
"What a great observation Ron." Hermione replied shortly.
"Well, it's one thing for a guy to go alone, but for a girl its just sad-" Ron's reply was cut short, as he was hit over the back of his head by the book that Snape was carrying, who then also hit Harry on the head just for good measure.
"Well, then you be pleased to know that someone's already asked me." Hermione growled, before she picked up her book and marched over to Snape to hand it in. When she came back to pick up her belongings she angrily finished. "And I said yes." Hermione strutted furiously out of the Great Hall, which left both Harry and Ron staring after her in surprise.
"Alright then, by the end of the day I'm going to have a date." Ron stated, after he turned back to Harry, who was still staring at the entrance to the Great Hall curiously, as he wondered who was taking Hermione to the ball.
"Alright then." Harry said, drawing his attention back to Ron. "Good luck, I guess."
===============
It was the day of the Yule Ball, Draco nearly felt sick with nerves about what he was going to do later that day, this time tomorrow everyone would know and everything would be different. The only thought that kept his nerves together, was that it would be a change for the better, and what was even better, he had been promised kisses whenever he wanted. Draco took a deep breath as he finished styling his hair, he had decided to do it differently to what people usually saw. He hadn't put so much gel in it and slicked it back, instead he combed it to the right and applied minimal amounts of gel so that it would still be soft to the touch. Draco knew how much Harry liked to touch his hair, especially when it was soft, he wanted tonight to be perfect and he wanted Harry to be as happy as possible. He slipped into his pale grey dress robes and left the bathroom, after he had made sure that his mask was firmly back in place, so that no one would see his nerves, it was possibly going to be the last time he used the mask because after he was out, he had decided to show everyone who he really was, not who his father had tried to make him be. When he went down to the common room, he was met by Pansy's startled gasp, she was going with Theodore Nott but had decided to wait with him until he went to his date.
"Merlin's beard, Draco you look amazing." She gushed. "You have a very lucky date, I just wish I knew who they were. Though, I don't suppose you've seen Theo yet as you take hours to get ready, so you wouldn't know that I'm the luckiest date tonight. He looks absolutely stunning, just you wait."
"Actually I think I'm going to be the luckiest date tonight." Draco grinned happily, he didn't even care that his mask was already starting to fade away, he could not wait to see Harry.
"But you've not even seen your date yet." Pansy pointed out.
"I just know they're going to look perfect." Draco sighed, he sounded like a lovesick teenage girl. He ignored Pansy's look of confusion, but that quickly went away when Theo came back and the three of them made their way to the Great Hall. Draco could feel his heart as it thudded loudly in his chest, he was almost surprised that no one else could hear it. He bid farewell to Pansy and Theo before he made his way over to where he would be meeting Harry, as the champions and their dates would enter after everyone else had arrived. Draco waited nervously for a few minutes for Harry to arrive, but those nerves melted away instantly when he saw Harry walking towards him. His previous prediction had been right, Harry did look perfect; his long hair had been gelled into a neat mess, his green dress robes showed his body off perfectly and made his eyes look even more green than usual, but what made everything even more perfect was the grin on his face and how he looked happier than Draco had ever seen him. Before Draco could even say hello, a pair of lips crashed into his.
"Hi." Harry grinned against Draco's mouth, before he kissed him again.
"Hey." Draco replied when he regained his breath, he and Harry were so close that he could see every shade of green in his eyes. "You look stunning." Draco whispered against Harry's lips before he pulled away, though his hands were still round Harry's waist.
"So do you." Harry looked at him fondly. "You even did your hair just the way I like it."
"And you actually did something with your hair, I'm honoured that you would do something like that for me." Draco grinned as Harry stuck his tongue out at him.
"Let's go to McGonagall before she has a heart attack about me not being there." Harry wriggled from Draco's hug and linked their hands together, he made sure to give Draco's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"You ready?" Draco asked.
"Yeah." Harry said after a moments pause. "You?"
"Definitely." Draco squeezed Harry's hand in return and together they made their way to the trophy room where they would meet the other champions and their dates.
Harry and Draco were the last to arrive, which they had planned to be, and nearly burst out laughing when they saw the shocked looks on everyone's faces.
"Ah Mr Potter, you're here." McGonagall said as she hurried towards the two boys. "You and Mr Malfoy will go in last, please stand over there with the other students." She gave the two of them one final look of confusion before she went to tell Dumbledore that everyone was there.
"Did you see her face?" Harry wheezed when she had left the room, clutching his chest with his spare hand.
"If everyone reacts like that I'm not sure I'll last the whole night." Draco replied, as the laughter finally bubbled out along with Harry's.
"I know." Harry said breathlessly. "How am I supposed to take anything seriously if they all look at us like that?"
"I don't know." Draco was also having to catch his breath as they both calmed down, having completely forgotten that they had spectators. When Draco had finally regained comprehensible thoughts, he looked to see who the spectators actually were. Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, not surprising. Fleur Delacour and Roger Davis, an odd match Draco thought. But what was surprising was the last couple - Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger. From beside him, Draco heard a gasp of shock when Harry saw Viktor Krum's date. Harry had mentioned that Hermione wouldn't say who she was going with, so he must have been surprised. However, the look on Harry's face was nothing compared to the look on Hermione's.
"Hi Hermione." Harry grinned sheepishly, Draco felt Harry's hand tighten around his own, so he squeezed it in reassurance.
"I don't understand." Hermione said slowly. "I thought you hated each other. You were so angry at me and Pansy for setting you up."
"We've been together since April 'Mione." Harry said as though it cleared everything up.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Hermione asked.
"We weren't ready." Harry looked up at Draco and smiled, who returned it. "But we are now." Harry said still looking at Draco.
The conversation was interrupted by McGonagall clearing her throat. "We're ready for you now." The four couples quickly got into order, with Draco and Harry at the back behind Hermione and Viktor. She smiled excitedly at them before the doors opened and the group started towards the Great Hall. Draco nodded at Harry and smiled before they entered the hall. Draco could feel eyes on them from nearly everyone in the room, as they made their way down the steps and into the centre of the dance floor. He could picture Pansy's shocked face perfectly and wished that he could see it for it would surely be a memorable one.
"Ready?" Draco whispered as he placed his hand on Harry's waist, he would lead them since he was the better dancer.
"More than ever." Harry replied grinning, he rested his hand on Draco's shoulder and the music began. Draco lead them eloquently as they moved in sync with the music and each other. Their eyes were locked firmly together so that they forgot that they were in the centre of attention, it was just them and the music, dancing together, free at last.