Sweet dreams are made of these...
Harry is sitting with both Ron and Hermoine in the Gryffindor Common Room late one evening. It’s the first time the three of them have been sat together in almost six months, and it’s a weight off of Harry’s shoulders to have both his best friends on speaking terms again, but not even that is enough to distract him from the nagging worry over Dumbledores reaction if he should fail to get that memory form Slughorn yet again.
He starts flipping through the pages of his Potions book at random, which has become the norm for him whenever he’s at a loss, hoping to find a note written by the Prince that will offer him some inspiration as to how he’s supposed to get the memory, anything that will jog his imagination really.
”You won’t find anything in there”, Hermione says firmly, throwing the book an contemptuous look.
”Don’t start, Hermione”, Harry mutters. ”If it hadn’t been for the Prince, Ron wouldn’t be sitting here right now…”
”He would if you’d just listened to Snape in our first year”, Hermione counters.
Harry immediately feels his cheeks heat up at the mere mention of Severus and quickly glances over at Ron, who had unfortunately been there to witness the result of Harry’s latest dream about the former Potions Professor, as if the other boy would be able to tell and start teasing him about it. But of course Ron has no way of knowing, and probably would never even think to suspect, that Severus Snape had had the starring role in Harry’s good dream, or dreams plural, if Harry is honest with himself because it’s not like that was the first dream of that nature to have invaded his sleep. It was, however the first time that anyone had seen the effect those dreams had on Harry.
Harry ducks his head to hopefully hide the blush on his face and concentrates on the text book in front of him instead. Suddenly a single spell — Sectumsemptra! — scrawled above the words ”For enemies” catches Harry’s eyes. It’s not the first original spell that the Prince has made note of in the book, and the ones that Harry’s tried out so far have been really brilliant. He can’t wait to try this one out, but thinks it’s better to wait until Hermione isn’t around. But he folds the corner of the page so that he’ll be able to find it again later, well aware of Hermione’s disapproving glance out of the corner of his eye.
”I’m telling you, the stupid Prince isn’t going to be able to help you with this, Harry!” Hermione exclaims. ”There’s only one way to force someone to to do what you want, and that’s using the Imperius curse, which is illegal—”
”Yeah, I know that, thanks”, Harry snaps. ”Which is why I’m looking for something different. Dumbledore said Veritaserum won’t do it, but maybe there’s a spell or a potion…”
Hermione shakes her head wildly, her big frizzy hair jostling around her, ”You’re going about this the wrong way! Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. So clearly that must mean that you can persuade Slughorn in a way even Dumbledore can’t! So obviously it’s not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that—!”
A sudden loud crack interrupts her and she startles with a gasp as Kreacher the house-elf materialises in front of the three of them.
”Master is wanting regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give —”
Another loud crack rings through the hush in the mostly deserted Common Room and Dobby appears next to Kreacher on the rug, his tea-cosy hat slightly askew.
”Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!” he squeaks, throwing Kreacher a resentful look. ”And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!”
”Alright, alright”, Harry cuts in before the two house-elves start fighting again. ”What’s Malfoy been doing? Dobby, has he been going anywhere he shouldn’t?”
”Harry Potter, Sir, the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover… but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variaty of other students who keep watch for him while he enters —”
”The Room of Requirement!” Harry exclaims and smacks himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. ”That’s where he’s been! That’s why I couldn’t find him on the Map!”
On the one hand Harry feels ecstatic at this new development, on the other hand he also feels extremely stupid for not having figured it out sooner. But never mind, he thinks eagerly. At least now I know where Malfoy gets to, now I just have to find a way to get in there and catch him doing… whatever it is he’s doing when he’s in there!
”But what’s this about him going up there with ’a variaty of other students’?” Hermione says after the house-elves have Disapparated again. ”How many people are in on it? You wouldn’t think he’d trust lots of people to know what he’s doing…”
”Yeah, that is weird”, Harry mumbles, thinking back on the argument he’d overheard between Malfoy and Crabbe and how Malfoy wouldn’t even tell him and Goyle what he was up to… and now he’s suddenly telling all these… all these… ”Oh God, I’ve been stupid!”
”What?” Hermione says. ”What is it?”
”There hasn’t been a whole variaty of students keeping a lookout for him, it’s just Crabbe and Goyle, it’s been Crabbe and Goyle the whole time!”
”Polyjuice potion?” Hermione guesses.
”Slughorn had a whole cauldron of it that one lesson, Malfoy could easily have nicked some. It all fits!” Harry says excitedly before he jumps up and starts pacing in front of the fireplace. ”They’re stupid enough to to do what they’re told even if he won’t tell them what he’s up to… But he doesn’t want people to see them lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, because then it would be obvious that that’s where Malfoy was, so he’s had them disguise themselves as other students… those two girls I saw him with before the Hufflepuff match! That must have been them!”
”Do you mean to tell me that that little girl, whose scales I repaired —?” Hermione says in a hushed voice.
”Yeah, of course!” Harry exclaims as he remembers the incident. ”We were on the seventh floor at the time, weren’t we? Malfoy must have been inside the Room of Requirement at the time, and that little girl, that must have been Crabbe or Goyle… Maybe they dropped the scales to warn Malfoy not to come out or something? And there was that other time when a girl dropped the toad-spawn, remember Ron? God, we’ve been walking past him all this time and not realising it!”
*
Harry can’t sleep. Ron’s already snoring away over at the next four-poster, started doing the minute his head hit the pillow, but Harry can’t stop his thoughts from racing. He’s sure that if Malfoy could get into the Room of Requirement when the DA had used it for practise last year, then Harry would find a way to get in when he’s using it now… What could he use it for? A meeting place, a storeroom, a workshop?
Harry’s mind swirls and whirls, until finally sleep overtakes him and his thoughts turn into dreams… Malfoy turns into Slughorn who turns into Severus…
Severus dark eyes are glittering, the corners of his mouth twitch and his long, slender fingers reach out to brush against Harry’s cheek…
Harry lets himself fall forward and presses his face against the other man’s chest, the rough texture of those black robes scratches against Harry’s skin…
Strong arms envelop him and gently hug him closer, closer, closer
One hand travel up his neck, fingers nestling into Harry’s hair
Thin but soft lips brushing the scar on his forehead
A whisper of a breath, warm and tickling
Harry, that deep, silky voice rumbles all around him
Harry moans quietly and squirms in his sleep. The hand in his hair tightens to a fist and pulls his head back... The lips resting against his forehead travel down the side of his face and slip onto his mouth, slotting into place and gently sucking his lower lip in, wetting it with a teasing tongue tip
”Harry”
Harry gasps and the tongue delves in between his lips and it’s all wet and hot and he’s tingling all over, heat is pooling into his belly, into his groin
”Harry!”
Harry awakes with a gasp and scrambles to sitting. He blinks the sleep from his eyes and reaches for his glasses. When he’s pushed them onto his face, Ron’s teasing grin comes into focus and he groans, not again…
”You need a girlfriend, mate”, Ron says with a cheeky wink. ”You’re clearly frustrated…”
”Gee, I wonder why!” Harry snaps.
Ron simply snickers and throws his robes at his head, ”Let’s go! We’ll miss breakfast!”
”Besides I don’t even think I like girls”, Harry says and pulls the robes over his head.
The room goes deathly silent for a moment. Swallowing hard, Harry peers over at Ron. The redhead looks comically vacant, like he’s been stunned. But then blinks furiously and seems to shake off the intial shock. Harry holds his breath.
”Oh, right”, Ron says. ”Since when?”
Harry shrugs uncomfortably. He’s not even sure himself. He was really into Cho in fourth year, or he thought he was until they kissed anyway... but when he hadn’t felt anything in particular during the kiss, his crush started to cool off. At first he’d figured it was because she was crying at the time, but after that disaster of a date in Hogsmeade on Valentine’s Day, it was clear that he had no romantic feelings for the Ravenclaw whatsoever.
But it wasn’t like Harry had automatically started noticing attractive guys around him instead as soon as his crush on Cho ended. In fact, now that he thinks about it, he hasn’t really been attracted to any guys at all… well, except for… But Harry thinks it’s safest to save that revelation, not wanting to shock his best friend any more than necessary, so he just shrugs again and says, ”A year or so?”
Ron nods thoughtfully, then shrugs as well, ”Alright then. Cool. But hurry up already, will you? We’ll miss breakfast!”