Not Your Everyday Love

It was the weekend after the funeral of Hermione's parents, and Harry was trying to fall asleep. He, however, just couldn't fall asleep for his mind could not stop dwelling on that day. It was two months, three weeks, and five days ago, and it was the day that the seventh years of 1997 graduated. That day will never leave Harry's mind because it has been imprinted permanently into his memory. It was the day everything changed for Harry Potter.

FLASHBACK:

Harry was walking towards Hermione and Lavender Brown who were chatting about the ceremony they had just gone through. They were now at a ball in the Great Hall, and everyone was dressed in their best dress robes. Harry of course was one of the best looking and best dressed wizards there, wearing his hair in a messy, but chic, way. His robes, charcoal grey in color, complimented his eyes so well; especially since he had his contacts in, and flattered his lean, slightly muscled body.

"Hermione! Lavender! You both look drop dead gorgeous! Just be glad you two are taken," Harry said with a wink and in a tone that was laced with the excitement of finally being pushed into the real world. He, being the bloody Boy-Who-Lived, had been in the real world for a long time now though.

Hermione, who was dressed in periwinkle blue dress robes and hair pulled up on top of her head into a mass of elegant curls, did indeed look marvelous. Lavender, well Lavender just always looked wonderful. Her pale pink dress robes definitely went well with her tanned skin and golden blonde hair, her looks rivaling that of Aphrodite herself.

"Oh Harry, we both know you're gay," Lavender said with a slight giggle and twirl of her hair. "Would you like to dance anyway?"

"Of course I would."

Harry and Lavender then made a small circuit around all their friends, but Harry was not watching Lavender as they danced. He definitely had his eye on a certain platinum blonde that looked absolutely ravishing this evening. The blonde, who just happened to be Draco Malfoy, was dressed in deep, deep blue dress robes that made his hair look even more like silver than normal. I'm glad he doesn't use gel in his hair anymore, Harry thought to himself. With good reason too, for Draco's chin length hair always looked better when it was down and surrounding his angular face.

"Harry, why don't you just goes over and talk to him?" Lavender suggested. "We all know you've been friends this year, albeit reluctantly at the beginning, and we can all sense the, ahem, sexual tension between you two..."

"What are you talking 'bout Lav? There is no tension between me and Draco. We're just friends, and besides, Ron would kill me if he thought we were together."

"If Ron's opinion mattered on that subject, then why are you ravaging his body with your eyes?"

"WHAT?! I am not ravaging his body with my eyes!"

"Who's not ravaging whose body with their eyes?" Draco said as he came over to the dancing friends.

"No one Draco, no one at all," Harry made a point to give Lavender a look that said loud and clear for her to SHUT UP!!!!

Of course Lavender didn't get the hint. "Oh nothing, just Harry denying his feelings."

Draco at this gave Harry a look of questioning. "Feelings? Harry doesn't have feelings Lav. You should know this by now." And with that, he winked at Lavender and just simply walked away.

Harry just shook his head at Lavender and walked away as well. He however was not headed towards Pansy Parkinson as Draco was, but was instead heading over to where Ron and Hermione were dancing quite closely.

"Ron, may I please cut in for a short time?" Harry asked.

"Sure mate; just don't step on her feet," Ron replied with a small chuckle.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione ventured as they started dancing around the room.

"You know what we were discussing the other day?" He asked with a shy smile.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I think you may just have been quite correct in your guess."

"You mean -"

"Yeah..." He said before she could finish her sentence and glancing at the blonde that had always caught his eye.

Their circuit took them all around the room, and Harry's eyes once again landed on the beautiful figure of Draco's body. "Harry, if you're going to watch him all evening, just go and ask him to dance."

"'Mione, I can't just go up to him! He doesn't even like me like that. We're just friends in his eyes! Besides, Ron would KILL me!!"

"Oh, it's just Ronald, and we all know he'll get over it sometime, it just may take awhile. And are you so sure about him thinking you're just friends? I've noticed him sneaking peeks at you all evening."

"I don't believe that. He was just checking to make sure every one was all right and his eyes happened to land on me. He is the former Head Boy after all."

"You are living a life of denial Harry James Potter. You know he has feelings for you as well as you for him."

Harry looked down and began to study the shoelaces on his shoes and said with slight hint of resignation coloring his voice, "Yeah... I know."

"Well go talk to him then!"

"Alright, alright. I will."

"NOW, silly! So I can dance with Ronald again," Hermione said with a small twinkle in her eye. At that moment, the former Head Girl greatly reminded Harry of Dumbledore, especially with her knowing everything that goes on in everyone's life.

Harry took a drink of butterbeer that he had picked up off the table he and his friends were sharing, and started to head towards Draco and some of his Slytherin friends. Pansy Parkinson, whom was intent to make Draco her husband one day, was pawing at him, and trying to seduce him into bed. This of course being done, knowing full well, that Draco did not like women in any way like that. Draco was glancing around, trying to see where Harry was, when all of a sudden, the raven haired Gryffindor approached him from behind.

"Would you, umm, like to dance, uh, with me?" Harry stammered out, obviously a nervous wreck.

Draco put on his best look of indifference, but his eyes belied his true emotion. "Sure, Potter why the hell not?"

A slow song by the Weird Sisters floated through the air as they approached the dance floor. A majority of the eyes in the room turned to them, seeing as they were the best looking couple on the floor. As they took each other into a close embrace, they started to sway to the music. Harry lifted his face up to meet the silvery grey eyes of the Slytherin, and was somewhat shocked to see a small glimmer of a hidden feeling in them. It is rare for a Malfoy to show any emotion, and for Harry to have seen any at all in Draco's eyes was indeed a shock. Harry on the other hand, could be read like a book, he always had been one to wear his sentiments on his sleeve.

They stared into each other's eyes and danced around the entire floor for so long, they didn't even realize that a faster paced song had come on. Hermione came up to them and tapped them on the shoulder to let them know the song was over, and then she silently went back over to Ron, who looked somewhat disgusted, and Neville to chat with them.

"Say Potter, why don't we go for a walk?" Draco inquired with a hopeful glance at the slightly taller man.

"Ok Draco, but not for too long, I'm quite knackered tonight."

"All right Potter, it won't take long at all."

"Please call me Harry, Draco," Harry said offhandedly as they strolled out of the Great Hall.

As they were exiting the Great Hall, Albus Dumbledore approached them to have a chat with the two boys. It was probably for some sort of last minute Order business that Draco had been working on, or so Harry thought, for he was a spy for the Order.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, how are you both doing this evening?" Questioned the headmaster with that tell-tale twinkle behind his half moon spectacles.

"Just fine Professor," both young men had replied.

"Mr. Malfoy, have you gotten any further in that project yet?"

"Yes, sir, and I am almost done with it. With Harry's help, I shall have it finished by the end of the evening," Draco answered the old professor.

'What? How am I supposed to help when this was Draco's assignment?' Harry thought to himself.

With a knowing smile, Dumbledore bid his farewell for the evening, and returned to the raucous Great Hall. The boys continued their venture down to the Entrance Hall, and out the front doors.

"Where are we heading Draco?" Harry asked impatiently.

"Just follow me and stop asking questions."

"All right."

They walked in silence for awhile 'til they came to a spot by the lake where they used to study for NEWT potions all year, and to avoid being seen as friends by Ron. Draco sat down, and patted the ground next to him to give Harry the hint that this is the spot in which he should sit. Harry plopped down with a sigh and was quite content just staring at the sky while sitting next to his crush. However content he was though, he just could not stop himself from asking. "What is this project you are still working on Draco? More importantly how am I supposed to help?"

"Harry, you are so naïve sometimes. It's not really a project," Draco replied aloofly.

"Is it an Order assignment?" Harry asked in a hushed tone, thinking he hit the mark this time.

"No."

"Then what the hell is it?" Harry asked dumbly.

"Must you always ask so many questions Potter?" remarked Draco in a slightly snide tone of voice.

"Well if I'm supposed to be able to help you, I need to know what it is that we're going to be working on. Especially since you said you'd have it finished by the end of this evening."

"Harry, just trust me on this. You will hopefully like the outcome of this little project."

"I guess I have no choice then, do I?"

"No, you don't," Draco said with a small chuckle.

"Well, let's get started on it then?"

"What do you think this little project is about Harry?"

"I don't know. I just assumed it was something about phoenixes," said Harry with him still thinking it was Order business.

"No, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with a Lion and a Snake though. How the Snake wants nothing more than to be with the Lion, and how oblivious the Lion can be sometimes."

"Draco..." Harry looked up to face Draco, not knowing how to reply.

"Yeah, Harry, you are that Lion, and I am that Snake."

"But, wha..." Harry was silenced by a rough, passionate kiss that landed him on his back. Draco, who had attacked Harry was now nibbling on Harry's delectably tan neck, and gained him a moan that was like music to his ears.

"Draco," Harry mumbled between ragged breaths. "What?"

Draco then stopped what he was doing, and looked into Harry's emerald eyes, "Don't you get it Harry? Don't you understand that ALL year I've had these feelings for you? I know I sent enough signals, subtle though they may have been, and you sent them right back, but with you being a bloody Gryffindor you were too dense to realize it! I've gotten to know the real you, and I found that I am absolutely in love with you! Merlin Harry! Can't you fucking understand?"

Harry had no idea what to say to all this, though it was true that he was sending signals to Draco, he was just too dense to receive the ones sent to him.

"Draco, I... I... I really care about you, and that's why I don't want to get into a relationship with you. You know we can't even have an open, proper relationship! Merlin, I never could get you out of my head when I tried to go to sleep, then I'd have dreams about you, and wake up and have a problem to deal with before all the other boys woke up! There honestly is nothing more that I want, than to be with you Draco, but it just can't happen."

"Can we at least have this one night?" Draco asked in an almost pleading tone. He looked into Harry's eyes again, and saw the lust that was behind them. He knew at that moment, that if ever anything was to happen, it was then and there.

Draco made his move on Harry, and Harry just let him because he wanted this just as much as Draco did, if not more, for he had been in love with the Slytherin Prince since the middle of sixth year. In a matter of minutes, both young men were in nothing but their boxers, fine robes and everything else was strewn across lawn around them. Their passionate kisses left trails on previously unmarked bodies, and their bodies rubbing together in a most delicious way. Their erections were aching as the friction and heat from the others body kept building up, they would need to pay attention to that very soon, or they would have quite a mess to clean up.

Amidst their moaning, kissing, petting, sucking, biting, and general loving of each other, a friendly group of Gryffindors decided to take a walk outside and had happened upon the spectacle of the two young men snogging each other senseless. Thank Merlin Ron was not with them, for the group just could not move on from the site they found.

Hermione, who was with the group that consisted of Lavender, Neville, Seamus, and Dean, decided that it was time for the boys, especially the Head Boy, to not be outside like this for they could have been caught by anyone.

"Ahem! Boys, if I do say so myself, you better take this back inside, or you could have some other unwanted company, which I might add could be quite dangerous. What could you two have been thinking?" Hermione admonished them as if she were able to take house points away again.

Both young men were up and half covered before she was even halfway through her small tirade. "Guys what the hell are you doing out here?" Harry asked as a huge blush crept up his cheeks. His friends however, just snickered and started walking back into the castle leaving the boys to themselves again.

"C'mon Draco, we should probably get back to the Great Hall," Harry interjected into the false sense of calm that had fallen on them as they dressed.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but we really need to discuss things," Draco said with a profound sigh.

"I know Draco, we will, it may take time though."

"Yeah, look Harry, I really do care for you, and please be careful until we can see each other again."

"And you too Draco, after all, you are the one living a forbidden life. Thank you, you know, for tonight, even if we didn't get to finish things."

"Yeah, let's just get back inside," Draco looked saddened though, his fair, aristocratic features falling into a small frown.

They walked in silence the entire way back to the Great Hall, and when they arrived they were greeted by yet another slow song. They decided to dance this last song, and dance they did. They communicated so much with their eyes while they were dancing, telling each other that they loved and admired the other, and that they would some how be together in the future, if only it were to be the near future. After the song, they parted ways and went back to their respective groups. That was the last Harry saw of Draco, and Draco of Harry.

END FLASHBACK

Harry woke with a start, silently berating himself for thinking about it again. He really wanted to be with Draco, but he didn't want anyone else he cared about to get hurt. That was his top priority, to not let anyone else get hurt on his account; he just could not have that happen, not again. Harry looked over at his clock and it read four thirty in the morning. He would have to be up in five more hours to go to the gym with Ron, since they start Auror training in three days. He made sure the alarm was set, took some low dosage dreamless sleep potion, and fell back to sleep straight away.

TBC...