True to your heart

Chapter thirteen: Lovers meeting on the Quidditch pitch

Harry couldn't sleep at all that night; it was becoming almost a nightly thing for him. He was excited because he would get his own room, but he was also very disappointed about leaving the other boys that he had known for over half his life. The clock on his bedside table read, 1:00, only ten more hours until Professor McGonagall came to show him to his new room.

Of course, having his own room had hundreds of possibilities for Harry. He could make it just as cozy as he liked, and have pictures of whomever he wanted, on his dresser. Draco included, which of course wasn't something you could have out when you shared a room with Seamus Finnigan, who was Hogwarts resident gossip machine. Harry strongly believed he could give Rita Skeeter a run for her money, if Seamus ever got wind of Harry and Draco's relationship, it would reach the front page of the daily prophet faster than one could say, 'Wingardium Leviosa.'

Harry turned over restlessly, trying, in vain, to get comfortable. When Harry told the other boys about his 'moving out' of Gryffindor tower they were stunned. Exactly as Draco had predicted, they began questioning him like there was no tomorrow. ("What? Why?" "Dumbledore can't do that, you can't just go.") Most of the questions and protests coming from Ron, Hermione seemed to have figured out that it wasn't safe for Harry to stay in Gryffindor tower any more, so she didn't say too much. Once Ron had finally calmed down Harry explained why he needed to have his own room. He left out why he really had and wanted to have his own room, obviously.

Harry looked at the clock again, 1:05. "For crying out loud," he muttered under his breath. He was restless and apparently, he wasn't going to get any sleep at all tonight.

"Screw this!" He threw his covers off of him, and grabbed his jeans, which were lying over a chair, in exactly the same place he had thrown them before climbing into bed last night. Quietly, Harry opened his trunk, grabbed the invisibility cloak and his Firebolt, before grabbing his wand and tiptoeing out of the door.

Filch was nowhere in sight, so he quickly walked through the corridors. He figured Filch might be in bed or something, but there was always the risk of running into Peeves, which was probably worse, especially at one o'clock in the morning.

Once on the Quidditch pitch, Harry put his invisibility cloak on the floor near the spectator stands, he didn't like wearing any thing other that his jeans, a t-shirt and Quidditch robes when he was flying. After making sure his wand was firmly secured in his pocket, he kicked off from the ground. The icy wind whistled past him, making his cheeks go red and flushed. His adrenaline was pumping faster than ever before, as he dove, twisted and twirled. He never thought anything could make him feel so amazing, like he did when he flew.

After ten minutes of flying Harry was feeling hot and cold at the same time, so he decided to take a rest for a minute or two, before heading back in to try get some sleep, it's amazing how drowsy flying in the middle of the night, made you.

"What are you doing up so early?" someone said behind him.

Harry started, ready to grab his cloak and run, then Draco stepped out of the shadows.

"We really should stop meeting like this, in the middle of the night," Draco said, chuckling as he sat down next to Harry on the grass.

"Yeah we should, what are you doing up at half past one in the morning, shouldn't you be getting your beauty sleep?"

Draco looked slightly appalled, "Me? Needing beauty sleep? No. No, my dear, 'tis you who needs the beauty sleep."

Harry rolled his eyes at his boyfriend joking about; it was way too early to listen to him speaking like someone from Elizabeth the First's time. "What are you doing up at half past one in the morning?" Recently Harry had been getting the feeling Draco was deaf sometimes.

"First it's not half past one it's..." he looked at his watch, "twenty past." Harry rolled his eyes and punched him lightly in the arm. "And I suppose we're both here for the same reason..."

"Couldn't sleep," they both chorused.

The air was filled with a heavy silence for a few minutes, both Harry and Draco seemed to be in their own little worlds, neither of them acknowledging the others presence.

"I wonder why that keeps happening to us?" Harry wondered aloud. Draco looked at him as if he was going bonkers,

"Harry, you're not speaking sense," Draco told his boyfriend. "What keeps happening to us?"

Harry didn't answer at first, he seemed to be contemplating his answer, after a moment he had formed a half-intelligent answer in his mind, "I keep having restless nights and then I come out here to fly or go for a walk. And nearly everytime this happens I can almost guarantee that I'll run into the most gorgeous guy I have ever known. And then he claims he can't sleep, and we spend all night talking, and the next day I usually end up walking around looking like a fresh zombie," he finished, looking at Draco who chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"You said, 'the most gorgeous guy I have ever known,'" he told Harry, giggling and sounding like a young child who just heard his daddy tell his mummy she was beautiful.

"I meant it," Harry told him, then added, "Then when I leave him I end up running into you."

"That was a cheap shot," he replied, trying to sound appalled, something that was not possible so early in the morning, he just sounded adorably tired.

"I told you the old Harry was back," he reminded him. "But he can go if you want him to." He began to get up, when Draco grabbed him arm and pulled him back down before kissing him firmly but showing him how much he liked this Harry better than the other one. Just as Harry started to respond, Draco pulled back, causing a groan of disappointment to escape Harry's lips, which desperately wanted Draco's back on them.

"Don't you dare," he whispered. "Do you always talk about yourself in the third person?" he asked, planting another kiss on Harry's lips.

"Only when it's..." He paused for a moment before grabbing Draco's arm and looking at his watch. His had stopped years ago and he hadn't got around to buying a new one or getting the old one fixed, "Twenty-five past one in the morning. They had better be serving coffee tomorrow morning at breakfast," he said, yawning as he did.

"You don't need to go down to breakfast just to have a cup of coffee," Draco told him. "Are you forgetting that your boyfriend's Head Boy and can leave the school grounds whenever he wants, along with anyone else he decides to take?"

Harry pretended to look confused, as though he could have forgotten this piece of information. He hadn't told Draco but, Harry was proud of him, someone had to be, after all his father sure wasn't going to be proud of a son who disgraced his precious family name. "I'm not sure," he mumbled.

"Well I say, we skip dinner and go down into Hogsmeade, and have lunch and coffee there," Draco proposed.

"Sounds good to me. Just have to think of what to tell Ron and Hermione."

Draco shrugged, "Tell them that you decided to skip lunch in the main hall and have it in your room."

The invisible cloak of silence surrounded them again. 'This is the best part about there being an 'us',' Harry thought. 'We can sit here, not saying a word but still feel comfortable because we're with each other.'

"Did you get the list of the new Quidditch team?" Draco asked, breaking the silence. Harry nodded, but didn't say anything.

"So... who's your captain?" Draco asked, impatiently.

"The one and only Harry Potter." His face cracking into a cheesy grin. Draco squealed and hugged him tightly, "Baby, that's wicked."

"What about the Slytherins, who's going to be their captain?"

Draco suddenly stopped smiling and looked down at the ground, by the look on his face Harry thought that Draco hadn't been chosen for the position, even though he had been on the team longest. "Me," he whispered down at the ground.

"You don't seem too happy about it."

"I am, I've wanted this for years, but I have a feeling that the other Slytherins won't listen to me after what happened this summer," he admitted. That was the beauty of having someone like Harry to talk to, you could tell him anything without worrying about sounding stupid and him laughing at you. 'The ever-loyal Gryffindor,' he thought to himself.

Harry put an arm around his lover's shoulders. "They'll listen to you. They're all younger than you anyway; if they don't, threaten them with a few good hexes and curses. If that fails take the bat and knock a few Bludgers in their direction, that'll do the trick if nothing else will."

Draco looked at Harry out of the corner of his eye and chuckled. "That would probably work," he admitted, resting his head on Harry's shoulder and closing his eyes. "Or I could threaten to set my ravishing boyfriend on them all."

Harry lowered his head down so that it was lying on top of Draco's. "What would he do?" Harry waited a moment but Draco didn't answer him. "Dray?" Still no answer, "Dray? Have you fallen asleep on me?" When Draco didn't answer him again, Harry took it as a yes and prodded Draco with his index finger.

"What?" Draco asked groggily, not opening his eyes.

"We can't spend all night out here; you need to go back to bed. Come on, I'll walk you back to your dorm," Harry said, getting up and taking Draco's hand in his, pulling him up as well. Once they were both stood up Harry threw the cloak over both of them and they walked back up to the castle and Draco's dorm.

"Go get some sleep," Harry instructed him, when they got to Draco's dorm.

"Aren't you coming in?" Draco asked, looking at him with half closed eyes.

Harry shook his head, "I have to get back to the dorm." Draco pouted, sleepily. "Don't look at me like that, I promise you can sleep over at my place tomorrow."

Draco nodded, kissed Harry on the cheek and walked through the portrait hole and up to bed.

Harry felt like his head had just hit the pillow when his alarm clock went off at ten the next morning. Harry groaned and reached out into the darkness to turn it off, well is wasn't really darkness but to him it was, mainly because his eyes were still closed. Gingerly he opened his eyes, and groaned again when the light hit them.

Harry reached out for his glasses and slipped them on. The curtains, surrounding the other beds were already open and everyone was already awake.

'I hope my new classes start later than the normal ones do,' he thought to himself. Over the past seven years, Harry had discovered that he was definitely not a morning person.

"Morning sleepy head," someone with a very strong Irish accent said.

"Morning, Seamus!" Harry mumbled. "How can you be so chirpy first thing in the morning?"

Seamus looked at Harry questioningly, "Are you kidding me? Ten in the morning is hardly first thing."

"Is for me," Harry replied, reaching out to grab last night's jeans; there was just one problem... he couldn't find them. "Seamus? Have you seen my jeans?"

Seamus shook his head, "Nope, sorry mate," he finished gelling his hair, waved goodbye to Harry and was gone.

"Where are they?" Harry mumbled to himself, as he rummaged around under his bed.

"Where are what?" a different voice said, from the doorway.

"My jeans."

Ron walked over to Harry's bed to help him look for them, "Um Harry, why are you looking for your jeans?"

Harry tutted, "To wear them!"

"But Harry you're already wearing them," Ron said, pointing at Harry. Harry looked down and realized he was indeed wearing them; actually he was still wearing the same clothes he had on last night.

"Oops!" Harry murmured, feeling incredibly embarrassed; he hoped Ron hadn't noticed that these were the same clothes he was wearing the day before. But unfortunately he had. "Harry, aren't they the same clothes you had on yesterday? It looks like you slept in them."

"I must have done," Harry replied, hoping Ron would leave it at that.

"You snuck out of the dorm last night didn't you? I saw you at the Quidditch pitch." Harry stomach lurched, exactly what had Ron seen last night?

"Um... Yeah I guess. I couldn't sleep," he replied feebly, hoping that Ron had only seen that and not who joined him shortly afterwards.

"You were flying really well, then something caught my eye." Harry's heart had just settled back down when it came up into his throat again.

"Um... What was it?"

Ron didn't seem to notice Harry's odd behavior. "While you were flying I saw Malfoy." Harry felt like he was going to throw up, it was beginning to look like his and Draco's secret was out. "He was stood by the Quidditch stands watching you fly, he was probably trying to learn your technique off by heart."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief; maybe Ron hadn't seen anything at all.

"Probably, I bet he knows that's the only way he'll ever beat me in a Quidditch game, to copy the way I fly."

Ron nodded. "I couldn't see anything else after that though, 'cause he stepped in to the shadows. So I don't know if he went back into the castle or stayed out there."

Harry's heart was back to normal again. "Thanks for warning me Ron, I'll keep an eye out for him next time I go flying in the middle of the night."

As they had been talking they had managed to reach the great hall, Ron pushed the doors open and lead them to the table where Hermione was already sat waiting for them. "Morning guys," she said brightly as they sat down, either side of her.

"Morning," they both grumbled as they began to tuck into the food.

"Harry looks like you're not the only one who didn't get much sleep last night, look at Malfoy," Ron said, pointing over at the Slytherin table. Harry groaned; Ron just couldn't leave anything alone for two seconds.

At the end of the Slytherin table a very tired looking head boy ate his breakfast, alone as usual, but he was beginning to get used being an outcast in the eyes of his fellow Slytherins, not that he really cared either way.

"You're right Ron, he looks absolutely dreadful," Hermione remarked, as Harry began rapidly finishing his breakfast. "Harry, what's the rush?"

"It's nearly eleven. I have to go back to the dorm and meet Professor McGonagall," he told them, getting up. "I'll see you after dinner," he waved and them turned to go but Ron stopped him.

"What'd you mean after dinner? We'll see you then won't we?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I might stay in my room and get some sleep." Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Harry already knew what she was going to say. "Don't worry I'll get Dobby to send me some food up or something, I won't starve." Hermione closed her mouth and nodded in acceptance, Harry could have sworn she was getting more and more like a mother hen everyday. They watched as Harry waved goodbye again and left the great hall, nobody was paying attention as a certain blonde haired Slytherin left the room a second later.

Harry double-checked his dormitory to make sure he had all his belongings before carrying his trunk down the stairs to the common room, at the bottom of the stairs he found Professor McGonagall already waiting for him.

"Come along Potter, we don't have all day. I imagine you have somewhere or something to do this afternoon," the stern transfiguration teacher remarked dryly as she charmed Harry's trunk with a featherweight charm, similar to the one Draco had used before he turned up at Privet Drive.

Professor McGonagall led Harry out of the portrait hole and turned left, the opposite direction of the entrance hall. She led him up flights of stairs, down some others, across a balcony over looking the entrance and back down a flight of stairs. At the bottom of these stairs she turned left then right and left again before stopping in front of a portrait of a fat lady, similar to the one guarding Gryffindor Tower, in a blue dress.

"This is the entrance to your dormitory, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall told him. Then she addressed the portrait, "Eleanor, this is Mr. Potter." The lady in the portrait curtsied to Harry, who didn't feel up to bowing, so he just smiled. "Potter, you will need to set your password; just think of something no one will think of and tell Eleanor. She will remember it." She began to walk away from Harry and then she remembered something, "Potter, I suggest you don't write the password down on anything. I don't think I need to remind you of what happened last time a student was foolish enough to do so."

Harry smiled in memory, that was the night Sirius broke in and scared Gryffindor tower out of their heads.

"I won't," he paused. "Professor, is there a quicker way to get here instead of going up and down all those stairs?" he asked; he didn't really fancy walking all that way every morning.

Professor McGonagall gave one of her rare smiles, and then pointed right. "That takes you straight to the entrance hall." Then she left.

Harry stood staring after her for a few seconds, before turning to Eleanor, "Well... A password no one will think of? Hmm... how about Dragon?"

Eleanor nodded, and swung open allowing Harry access to his new dormitory. He didn't have a common room like the other houses, instead through the portrait there was a flight of stairs, which Harry climbed and at the top he found a door with the words 'Harry Potter's Room' written on. The room itself was actually the size of the Gryffindor common room, with a double four poster bed at one side, a large desk at the other and a few chairs and sofa scattered around the room. Harry set his trunk down at the foot of the bed and began unpacking his things.

"Not a bad room, of course it's not as good as mine," a voice said from the doorway. Harry jumped out his skin and spun around, to find himself face to face with his boyfriend. Harry just stared at Draco, mouth opening and closing. "Stop doing that, nobody wants to see your goldfish impression," Draco said, as he closed the door and sat down on the bed.

"How...how did you get in here?" Harry hadn't seen him to give him the password yet, so how did he know it?

Draco tapped his temple, "Head Boys know everything."

"You followed me?"

Draco laughed and shook his head, "No, no. I happened to have been going the same way you were and happened to have overheard what the password was. I like it by the way. Dragon, very original."

"So basically you followed me?"

Draco nodded his head. "I followed you," he admitted.

"I like this room. Although you'll have to be careful when you come in, someone might see you."

"There was no one around, the lady in the portrait gave me a bit of a funny look but apart from that no one saw. Why did McGonagall take you all that way when all you had to do was turn left in the entrance hall?" Draco asked.

"How did you know how to get here?"

Draco shook his head, "Honestly, Harry, you can be so dense sometimes; didn't you pay any attention to where you were?" Harry shook his head. "Your portrait is about ten feet away from mine."

Harry's eyes widened a considerable amount. "Why would Dumbledore give me a room so close to yours, if he knows we're together? Surely he must know that he'd never be able to keep us apart."

Draco shrugged and altered his position, so that he was lying on the bed flat on his stomach with his chin resting on his hands. "I bet he realized that even if he tried to keep us apart he wouldn't have succeeded, he knows that we always get what we want eventually and will stop at nothing to get it."

Harry leant down and kissed the top of Draco's head before continuing unpacking. "When are we going down into Hogsmeade?"

Draco looked at his watch, "Well it's nearly twelve now, and most cafés there don't open while then anyway, so when you've finished unpacking, we'll go. We might have to split up and meet each other off of the castle grounds so people don't get suspicious."

If anyone saw Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy going down into Hogsmeade, together, people would start to get suspicious and their whole secret would be out.

"You know what? All this lying and sneaking around is beginning to get on my nerves. I wish there was someway we could, at least, get along in public," Harry sulked.

"Maybe there is," Draco wondered aloud.

Harry looked at Draco. "What are you planning?" Draco looked at Harry with an innocent look on his face but his gorgeous blue eyes were sparkling mischievously.

"Nothing. What makes you think that?"

Harry threw a dirty look his direction. "Do you think I'm stupid?" Draco opened his mouth, but Harry held a hand up. "Don't answer that." He shut his mouth again, and just listened. "You've got that look on your face, last time that happened you ended up making my cousin fall head over heals in love with you."

Draco chuckled, remembering the look on Dudley's face when he told him Harry was the one he had fallen for, not him. "You're right, you know me better than I know myself. I am planning something, but I'm not sure if it'll work. I'll tell you it when I've worked it out, ok?"

"Fine, but if you're making me wait, it'd better be worth it," Harry said, closing the closet door and walking back over to the bed. Draco watched as Harry squatted down at the foot of the bed where his trunk had been, only five minutes ago.

"I promise it will definitely worth the wait, and if not..." Draco thought for a minute. "I suppose I could always make it up to you in other ways," he finished, shuffling up the bed closer to Harry and kissing him lightly on the lips.

Harry moaned softly against Draco's lips when his tongue ran over Harry's lips. "I hope it isn't worth the wait then," he whispered in a husky voice, when Draco pulled back. Draco smiled at him, a rare genuine smile. The kind that he only used when he was around Harry and when he could be his self, with no pretense.

"Are you ready yet?" he asked. Harry nodded. "Good, because I'm hungry."

Harry stood up and grabbed hold of Draco's hands, pulling him up off of the bed.

They were halfway to the door when Harry stopped, "Harry? What is it?"

"Hang on," Harry told him and walked over to the closet and rummaged around in it before pulling out a small backpack. "There, that's better."

Draco looked at him, "Harry? What's the bag for?" he thought it was pretty weird for Harry to take a bag down into Hogsmeade with them.

"It's got my invisibility cloak in it. Just in case," he paused. "Oh, and the Marauder's Map."

'The what map?' Draco thought to himself, but he felt too stupid to ask Harry aloud, so he didn't bother. However some of his confusion must have been evident on his face, because Harry started to explain all about the map and it's creators, on the way down to the front doors of the castle.

The school halls were empty as they walked through the castle, not something that happens everyday in a boarding school as big as Hogwarts. When Draco pushed the doors open they soon found out why, as soon as the doors opened they were defended by cheering. Draco quickly shut the doors, "There's a Quidditch match?"

"Obviously, who's playing?"

"Must be Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw because I don't remember hearing anything about it, which we would have if it were Gryffindor or Slytherin," Draco said. "How are we going to get out without being seen? We could use your invisibility cloak."

Harry looked thoughtful, "Maybe we don't have to. Follow me."

Harry turned around and led his very confused boyfriend back up the stairs and in the same direction they had just come from. Draco didn't say anything to Harry until they were halfway down the third floor corridor.

"Harry, why did we just come all the way up to the third floor, when the exit to the castle's down there?" he asked, pointing downwards.

"There's more than one exit." Harry replied simply as he pulled the Marauder's Map out from his bag. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Ink started spreading from the tip of his wand, twisting and turning on the page, like a thousand invisible hands working at once.

The map showed that Peeves, was on the top floor of the Astronomy Tower and Filch was going after him. Draco watched in silence, as Harry tapped the statue of the one-eyed witch they had stopped in front of, "Dissendium."

The statue's hump opened up, it was only a narrow opening, Harry had found it pretty easy to slid through when he was in third year, and thankfully his figure hadn't changed too much, he was still skinny but he wasn't scrawny anymore.

"Follow me," he whispered to Draco, who nodded, before climbing headfirst into the opening and sliding down a sort of stone slide. He landed at the bottom with a thud and before he had time to stand up and move out of the way, Draco came sliding down behind him and smacked into Harry's back.

Harry looked back over his shoulder at Draco who was laughing his head off. "The smallest things amuse you don't they?"

Draco was too busy laughing to answer Harry, who stood up and held his hand out to help Draco up. Harry hoisted him to his feet, grabbed the backpack and they set off down the long earthy passage way. After ten minutes they reached the end, and began to climb the stairs up to Honeydukes' Cellar. Harry groaned when he got about ten stairs up, he had forgotten how many stairs there were.

Eventually they came to the top and Harry stopped to prevent himself from banging his head on the trap door above him, he had stopped so suddenly that Draco hadn't realized and walked straight into him, he got knocked backwards and would have fallen all the way down if Harry hadn't reached out and grabbed his wrist in time.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked, when he straightened up.

"Yes, I'm such a loser. I can't even kill you properly, such an under achiever," he replied smirking.

Draco smacked him playfully in the stomach, "Shut up. Why'd you stop?"

Harry pointed upwards, "Trapdoor."

Draco looked impatient,

"Well... open it then."

Harry stayed silent for a minute before smiling, "It won't open... unless..." he trailed off.

"Unless what?"

Harry smile had now become more of a cheesy grin, "Unless you kiss me."

Draco was looking at him as if he had just grown horns or an extra head, or both. "What are you going on about?"

"Kiss me."

"Harry, can't it wait?" he asked looking around him. "This hardly my idea of a romantic place to make out."

Harry shook his head. "I don't care. Kiss me."

Draco sighed and pecked Harry on the cheek,

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

Draco frowned. "I was afraid you'd say that. Come here," he said, grabbing Harry's collar and pulling him closer and kissing him so passionately Harry felt like he was flying. "Satisfied?" Draco asked, breathless when they pulled apart.

Harry cheesy grin returned, and he nodded. 'Incredibly. Come on."

He said pushing the trap door open and going up into Honeydukes' cellar.