Ring Me Anytime

"Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day and the Dance, you know, Harry."

Seamus Finnegan lay sprawled comfortably across Harry Potter’s bed in the Gryffindor dormitories during lunchtime, eating orange and raspberry flavored Chocolate Heartz with relish.

"Mm-hmm." Said Potter did not even look up from his reading, (One-hundred and One "Quiddich" Positions), which irritated Seamus to no end. Seamus sighed, ate another Heartz, and persisted.

"Valentine’s, you know. THE Tine’s. Also a very, very big deal!" He looked meaningfully at Harry, who didn’t even bother pretending to listen this time. He simply turned a page, humming softly to himself, not paying Seamus one speck of attention.

This was baaaad.

Seamus tossed his candy on the floor in disgust with his occasionally dumb boyfriend. He took a deep breath and said loudly, "IF YOU DON’T FUCKING ASK ME TO THE VALENTINE’S DANCE, THEN WE’RE THROUGH!!!"

That made Harry look up. He winced, set down his book carefully, and pulled his legs out from their position under Seamus’s.

He had totally forgotten about the bloody dance. Telling Seamus that though, of course, would be no good. "Seamus," he said soothingly, "I love you. You know that."

He shuddered in horrible anticipation of what he was going to say next. "And even though I was hoping against hope you would forgot about the dance- -" Seamus shot daggers at him, "—I would of course love to escort you to the ball, Cinderella. That is, if you’ll have me," he finished.

Seamus smiled happily, and moved to sit in Harry’s lap. Twining his and Harry’s fingers together, he said delightedly, "I accept."

He twisted around to face Harry. Right before their lips met, he whispered softly, "You’ll have to get me a gift, though, of course," he said, staring meaningfully into Harry’s jade eyes.

Dear God, Harry thought.

--------------

"And so Father told me I had better get Pansy to--" Draco was talking loudly to Crabbe and Goyle on as they made their way to supper.

Harry chose that moment to conveniently crash into a suit of armor. The hunk of metal actually reached out one rusty arm to push him forward roughly, sending him sprawling toward the group of Slytherins. He landed with an "Oooff!" on the hard stone floor at their feet.

The suit of armor chuckled hollowly.

Harry looked up into the three Slytherins’ angry faces. "Pardon me," he said innocently, attempting to stand, but he found himself being pushed back down by a designer dragon hide boot belonging to a certain Draco Malfoy. The blond male looked unpleasantly at Harry for a moment, before curling his lip in disdain and turning to his friends.

"Go on, boys," he told them.

They looked back at him dubiously, obviously wondering why they hadn’t been told to beat the crap out of Harry, but submitted and left, turning the next corner soon thereafter. Draco waited until they we were out of earshot before removing his foot from Harry’s back and allowing him to stand up.

Harry opened his mouth, but before he could utter a single sound, Draco had pulled him into the empty room they were standing near and shut the door. "What do you want, Potter?" he asked.

Harry’s voice, calm moments ago, now sounded almost hysterical. He wrung his hands exasperatedly.

"Drac, this is really bad! I totally forgot about the dance, and Seamus was really pissed, but he’s okay now, but the problem is, he expects me to get him a present! And I haven’t the slightest fucking clue what to get him!"

Draco actually snickered.

"What??" Harry demanded indignantly. This was a very big deal, and here was the only person he knew to go to for help laughing at his situation!

Draco stopped sputtering long enough to manage- "Have you always been this feminine, Potter, or did Finnegan do this to you?"

Harry glowered at him. "I don’t know, Drac," he said sarcastically. "We dated last term. Don’t you remember?"

Draco seemed unperturbed, however. "I guess not," he replied, shrugging gracefully. "But as for Finnegan… he wants jewelry, of course."

"He does?" Harry asked in surprise.

Draco nodded sagely. "’Course," he stated. "Silver, preferably. It will look good on his skin." He paused, and peered at Harry. "On yours, too, actually. You’ll look cute together. But then--" He stopped suddenly.

Loud voices could be heard right outside the door. Draco and Harry listened intently, and then Draco started visibly. "Shit, I have to go now, Potter." He flashed a sudden, genuine smile at Harry. "Gotta convince Pansy I really love her. She says she wants to break up, but that won’t do at all." He moved forward suddenly, and kissed his ex-boyfriend on the cheek. "Good luck with Finnegan, okay?" he said softly.

He moved swiftly out the door at Harry’s grin, and Harry could hear him begin to persuade Pansy to take him back in a loud voice that echoed through the halls.

Harry sighed profoundly. Well, at least he had made some progress.

Truly, quite a bit. He’d discovered what to get his materialistic lover for Valentine’s Day, the reason he had fallen in love with Draco in the first place (something Harry had wondered about for almost a year now), and that he would look good in silver.

Honestly.

Harry turned and left the bare room also, heading in the opposite direction of Draco. Seamus was worth skipping lunch for.

--------------

"Yeah, I like it, but you wouldn’t happen to have it in silver, would you?" Harry questioned for the fiftieth time.

It wasn’t incredibly difficult to sneak off Hogwarts grounds, and as Harry had been taught to Apparate last year at the climax of Voldemort’s reign, he had deemed the situation of Operation Seamus Present a dire emergency, and had sneaked into Diagon Alley for the afternoon.

He was currently sitting on a tall stool in Madame Markle’s Magical Accessories. He’d spent the last half our convincing Jerelle Markle that no, he did not want the special gold bracelets on sale for 10 galleons off. He wanted silver.

Finally, Jerelle gave in. "If Misteer Potter will wait here, I will bring out our finest silver jewelry," she said stiffly, walking to the storeroom behind the counter.

Harry fiddled with a loose thread on the thick tapestry covering the table for a moment before fingering a box of earrings that Jerelle had brought out earlier, incidentally containing both silver and gold ornaments. He hadn’t even looked at those, for the simple reason that Seamus’s ears were not pierced, and Harry wanted him to put whatever Harry ended up buying on right then.

Now, however, Harry picked up a thick silver hoop thoughtfully. There wasn’t a rule that said one could not get oneself a present while shopping for another, was there?

Harry looked up when Jerelle returned with a small ornamental box. "Hey, Jerelle?" he said.

"Yes?" She carefully set the box down on the counter in front of Harry and looked up at him.

He held up the hoop. "Do you pierce ears here?"

She actually smiled then. "Of course," she said simply. "Would you like it done?"

Harry gulped and nodded. "I think so, yeah. Just one ear though. At the top. My right one."

Jerelle nodded and reached over and under the counter to retrieve a long black needle. It was extremely sharp, and Harry sucked in his breath involuntarily.

"Calm, Misteer Potter. You will feel almost nothing."

Harry seriously doubted that but said nothing. He handed the hoop to the brunette, closed his eyes, and told himself the inevitable pain would be worth it.

Jerelle seemed to spend an inordinately long amount of time positioning the needle against his ear. Then-

Harry felt nothing for a moment, and then all the pain came rushing to him as Jerelle positioned the earring in his ear. He could hear her saying something softly, and the burning discomfort fled to almost nothing. He lifted his hand up gently to touch his new piercing.

Jerelle led him over to a full-length mirror in the corner. A tall, lean young man with black hair, striking green eyes and a silver earring in his right ear stared back at Harry. He wasn’t wearing his detested Hogwarts uniform, and he did indeed look very attractive.

Seamus’ll like this…

With a start, Harry realized he needed to buy Seamus’s present quickly, so he would have time to make his Divination lesson at 2:00. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he had a definite gift with that class.

Jerelle stood near him, looking pleased with her handiwork. "Misteer Potter is pleased, yes?" she asked when he looked over at her.

"Yeah, I am. Thanks," Harry responded, walking over to the counter once more and beginning to examine the contents of the box, Jerelle following.

There were silver bracelets, some more silver earrings, silver necklaces, silver anklets… none looked quite right though. Harry was about to seriously freak out when his hand touched something cold and shiny. It was smooth all the way around, so it wasn’t an earring; he pulled it out.

It was a lovely silver ring, with two hearts delicately intertwined engraved into it. This is perfect… Harry thought happily. He looked up at Jerelle. "I think I want this one," Harry stated, holding the ring lovingly.

"Excellent decision, Misteer Potter. Will that be all?"

Harry nodded. "Yes. How much?"

She looked carefully over her customer’s purchases. "Eight sickles for the piercing, a galleon for your earring. And another galleon for the ring."

"Splendid." Harry dug into his pockets. There was a definite upside to being orphaned young and rich. No parents, and loads of money.

--------------

The next evening, Harry stood uncomfortably in front of a mirror in the guys’ bathrooms. He wore green robes that perfectly matched his eyes and enhanced his slim figure. In his hand he held a small black box.

He reached up unconsciously to fiddle with the earring he’d so far managed to hide from Seamus. He wanted it to be a surprise, along with the Valentine’s present.

"HAR-RY! Come on!"

Harry started, quickly pocketed the box, and hurried out to meet his waiting friends. At the bottom of the stairs, in the Common Room, they all sat in a small circle.

Hermione was seated next to the Ravenclaw prefect Terry Boot, whom she had sneaked inside in a very un-Hermione like way. Ron sat with his arm around Lavender Brown, his current girlfriend. Parvati Patil cuddled comfortably in Dean Thomas’s lap. Ginny was nowhere to be found, presumably off with her girlfriend from Ravenclaw.

And Seamus… well, he looked nothing short of stunning. Black robes accentuated his pale skin and medium blonde hair, and a slender silver cord around his waist completed the outfit. Seamus grinned when he saw Harry, and stood. He walked over to him, and stood on tiptoes so they were eye level.

"You look gorgeous, Harry," Seamus hissed softly.

He tilted his head slightly, and their lips met for a moment before a cough from Ron broke them apart. He looked slightly embarrassed to interrupt them but looked at the clock and said, "Er, shall we get a move on? The feast is about to start."

"Hang on just a second." Harry fumbled in his pockets for the box while Seamus, Ron, and the rest watched expectantly. He opened the small container, turned so the others could not see the contents, and took out the ring. Hiding it in his hand, he reached for Seamus’s left ring finger.

Harry slipped the ring onto Seamus’s finger. It was a perfect fit, and a beautiful ring for a beautiful boy.

Seamus smiled delightedly at Harry, and his hand. "It’s perfect." He breathed. Realizing everyone else was staring at them, he held up his hand. Ron, Hermione, Dean, Lavender, Terry, and Parvati smiled.

"I love it, Seamus," Hermione said.

Seamus smiled happily and laced his right hand with Harry’s left. He reached up to adjust Harry’s earring, which Harry had totally forgotten about. "I want one too!" he said. Of course.

Harry pulled his boyfriend toward the portrait hole. All of their friends followed, talking cheerfully. He glanced at Seamus who smiled at him. They were almost in the Great Hall when Harry said, "Love you."

"Love you, too."

And from then on, Harry realized that dances really weren’t so bad after all.