Blood, Lust, and Bubbles

Harry pulled away for the first time since their lips had met and looked down. Draco took a step back, not yet noticing, and looked down as well. His eyes widened and he quickly looked back up, "Oh! Ummm... wow... uhhh.... I think I might have... well I need to... my rubber ducky!" he cried suddenly, "I left my rubber ducky in my bath robe! I gotta go."

He blindly grabbed a pile of clothes and ran out the door while Harry tried to explain to him that his bath robe was in fact, in the bathroom.

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The next morning Harry found the courage to approach Draco at the Slytherin table.

"Malfoy I need to uh... talk to you," he quickly changed his tone after receiving suspicious stares from the other people at the table, "Errr I mean I need to insult you over there... in the corner."

Draco's eyes widened but he didn't betray any other sign of surprise, "No Potter, I can't think up any witty replies at the moment."

"Come on, it's a really good one. And I'm sure you'll have no problem finding a lovely snarky comeback."

"Fine," Draco said through gritted teeth, "but it better be a really good one."

They quickly walked over to a corner of the room and began whispering heatedly, "Potter, I don't really want to talk about last night yet. I think it's best if we pretend it never happened," Draco hissed, looking around nervously.

"That's not what I wanted to talk about Malfoy. When you left last night you accidentally took my boxers with you."

"Can't you live without them? I think it might look a bit suspicious if somebody sees me handing you a pair of underwear!"

"But they're my favorite pair! And I don't have many to begin with," Harry whined.

"Alright... meet me in the bathroom after classes today. But make it quick."

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Harry walked nervously to the bathroom, trying to keep his cool. Draco wanted to pretend as if the previous night had never happened, but Harry knew that he didn't really mean it, he was just scared, they both were. He pushed open the door, and his heart immediately sank. There was Draco, in a position Harry had hoped never to see him in again.

"What happened, Malfoy?" He asked quietly, to draw the other boy's attention from his bleeding wrist.

Draco said nothing for the longest time, but simply stared at him with cold, shielded eyes. Finally, he spoke, so softly that Harry had to move closer to hear better, "Isn't this the way you like it, Potter? I play the victim, and you rescue me? Well go on then, save the day, heal me."

The pain in Harry's eyes moved Draco, but he would never let it show. Before he could say another word, Harry had turned and disappeared out the door, leaving his wound unhealed.

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"Harry, what's wrong? You haven't touched any of your food tonight," Ron asked in a worried tone.

Harry shook his head, not looking up from his plate, "Nothing, I'm just tired."

"Were you tired at lunch, too? Because you didn't eat anything then, either," Hermione added.

Harry sighed and looked up, not to either of his friends, but over to the Slytherin table where Draco sat, picking at his food. As if he could sense that he was being watched, he glanced up, and for a moment, they stared into each other's eyes. Harry was the first to break the connection, getting up and leaving the room.

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After a couple of days Harry stopped trying to talk to Draco, and if by chance they happened to meet in the bathroom, they would resume ignoring each other, no matter how much pain Draco was in, or how much Harry wanted to help him. Time seemed to crawl by slowly now for the two boys, and each day became as meaningless as the last. The tension between them did not, however, distract them from their duties as prefects.

"I'll see you guys later, I have to talk to McGonagall about scheduling another prefect's meeting," Harry said one day after class as he left Ron and Hermione outside the Common Room.

He walked to McGonagall's office to find that she was already in there with someone, a certain blond someone to be precise. She had failed to shut the door the whole way, and Harry peeked silently through the crack.

"Mr. Malfoy, as I was walking past your desk this afternoon, I thought I saw something that greatly disturbed me, but I sincerely hope that I was mistaken. Would you mind letting me see your wrist?"

"No," Draco said, holding his arm protectively at his side.

"Let me see it now," McGonagall replied impatiently.

Draco shook his head.

"Fine then. If you won't show me, I'll just leave Professor Dumbledore to deal with you. You'll be receiving an owl when he wants you in his office."

Draco got up angrily and left, only to find Harry just outside the door, leaning against the wall. "Eavesdropping now Potter? I thought that wasn't your style."

"You have to let me heal you," Harry replied as they began to walk down the corridor.

"I don't have to let you do anything."

"Look, if you go into Dumbledore's office and he sees those cuts, they're going to lock you up in a room with padded walls, and I know you don't want that."

"How do you know what I want and don't want?"

Harry turned angrily toward him and stopped, "Dammit Malfoy, just listen to me for once, will you? I've seen places like that, and it's not a pretty picture! They'll brake your spirit, soon you won't care at all anymore. Do you really want to throw your life away over some stupid pride or whatever the hell the reason is that you're doing this?"

Draco bit back another comeback and his heart softened as he tried not to look at the eyes of the other boy, who were at the moment filled to the brim with tears he was desperately trying not to let out. Grudgingly, he thrust his arm out and pulled up his sleeve, "Go on, then."

"Malfoy, I want you to promise me something," Harry said, as his wand wiped away all remnants of the pain through which Draco was suffering.

"I know what you're going to say, Potter, and I can't. You know I can't," Draco's voice sounded almost desperate now.

"Just hear me out. You don't want to be with me. Fine, I can deal with that. But what I can't bear to see is you hurting yourself like this," he softly traced the lines of the old scars with a finger, then looked up into Draco's clear grey eyes, which were softened by the words he'd said.

Harry could see a brief flash of pain run through his face, but he never said a word, not even when Draco turned and walked away in silence.

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The last Quidditch game of the season was, naturally, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Draco and Harry were doing a great job of avoiding each other up until the snitch appeared. They both lunged after it, side by side, so close to each other that they could feel the brush of one another's robes. They were so distracted that the snitch flew out of sight. Harry and Draco looked into each other's eyes for the first time in days and saw a reflection of pain and frustration

.

They both flew off in different directions, not being able to resist a random glance every now and then. Not concentrating on his surroundings proved to be too much for Harry, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left leg as a bludger smashed him off course. He fell off his broom, hitting his head on the goal post on his way down.

Harry woke up in the Hospital Wing that night to find the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Ron and Hermione crowded around his bed.

"Draco?" He mumbled sleepily, amidst gasps from the other people in the room.

"Harry... did you just say Draco?" Ron asked, sounding confused.

"I ... I meant Malfoy... this is Malfoy's fault... fucking bloody git."

Ron turned to the others, "I think he's a little delirious, maybe we should let him get some rest."

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On the way back to the Common Room, Ron and Hermione came across Draco.

"Nice going Malfoy, it's all your fault Harry's hurt," Ron growled as they passed each other.

Draco stopped and whirled around, looking surprised. "How is it my fault, Weasley?"

"Well, whatever you did to him must have been pretty bad, your name was the first thing he said when he woke up," Hermione answered, glaring at him.

"Well it was... it was his fault for not paying attention."

They shook their heads and walked away. Draco continued to his Common Room, deep in thought. He felt bad about Harry being hurt, but then he remembered what Hermione had said, 'your name was the first thing he said when he woke up'. That put a smile on his face, despite the bad day he was having. Without thinking, he found himself taking a couple of wrong turns, and soon ended up outside the door to the Hospital Wing. 'I'll just look in to see if he's okay. Hell, I'm here, why not?'

As quietly as he could, he pushed the door open, and slipped into the darkened room. Harry was asleep when he approached the bed. He watched him for awhile, his chest slowly rising and falling, and marveled at how beautiful he looked, lying there so peacefully. Finally he turned to leave, but a cold voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Not even going to say hello? Well that's rather rude of you."

Draco turned, walking back over to Harry's bed, "I just wanted to see if you were okay."

"What does it matter if I'm okay or not? It's none of your concern."

"It's just that... well, you've helped me before, and I thought I could help you."

"You, help me?" Harry laughed bitterly, "you can't even help yourself, I saw the cuts, even after you promised me you wouldn't."

Draco flinched, "I never promised you anything, you know that."

Harry folded his arms across his chest, "Why don't you just leave, before you cause both of us more pain."

After Draco was gone, Harry had some time to cool down and think about what he had said. Now he felt guilty, because in truth he had wanted to see Draco, and was glad that he had come. He quickly got out of bed and pulled on a robe, hoping to catch up to him. But when he skidded out into the hallway, he was already gone. It didn't matter, Harry knew where to find him all the same.

He was standing there, the way Harry had seen him so many times before, only there was something different. He trembled, clutching at either side of the sink, and looked down at the razor sitting there. Slowly he picked it up and examined it, before angrily throwing it to the ground with a clatter. He spun around when he heard the door close softly behind him. They gazed at each other a moment, Harry observing the tears streaming down his face.

"Harry, I'm sorry... I messed everything up, it's-"

With one swift movement Harry covered the space between them and pulled Draco into his arms, kissing him softly.

Draco resisted at first, shocked and surprised, but soon gave up and let his body relax against Harry's. Everything was going to be alright now, because all of a sudden nothing after tonight mattered to either of them.

Harry pulled back suddenly and grabbed Draco's arm, "Are you going to stop doing this now?" He indicated the scars.

Draco sighed and looked away, "You don't know how hard it is to just stop."

Harry gently tilted Draco's chin up, so that he was forced to look the other boy in the eyes, "You did it before."

"That was because I didn't have the time to, I was always with you."

Harry smirked seductively, "Well then I'll just have to make sure you're never alone."

Draco smiled, raising an eyebrow, "Stealing my trademark sexy smirk now, are we? Funny, I thought it would only work for me..." he lunged at Harry, knocking them both to the floor.

After another couple minutes of full-frontal snogging and rolling around, they came to a stop at the edge of the swimming pool sized bathtub. They both paused to look at it, then back at each other.

"Fancy finishing that bubble bath, Potter?"