Harry Potter and the Love of the Dragon

*~*~*~*~*

The following morning, Harry awoke from one of his usual dreams just as Ron's alarm went off. The two of them dressed without waking the rest of the dorm and waited in the common room for Hermione, wondering which lesson they would take first.

"Hiya!" Hermione bounded down the staircase leading from the girls' bedrooms and pulled Harry and Ron into a group hug. "Beautiful morning!" It was clear that Hermione was desperate to start classes, and assumed that her friends felt the same way. Ron grunted in reply; he was never a morning person, and today was no exception.

The three hurried to breakfast, stomachs growling hungrily, and took their usual seats at the table. Over the other side of the hall, a group of Sixth-Year Slytherins were laughing loudly, Malfoy included as Harry noted.

Hermione suddenly gasped and began giggling into her porridge. Ron and Harry exchanged uncomfortable looks and tried to ignore her; they were never any good at handling her increasingly frequent girly-moments. Hermione, however, had other ideas.

"Ouch," Harry moaned as she elbowed him firmly in the ribs. He followed her gaze across the room to the Ravenclaw table and noticed immediately what she was talking about.

"Look at that guy!" she exclaimed. "He is so fit."

'Isn't he?' agreed Harry privately, before anxiously quelling those unwanted thoughts. He wasn't in the mood for considering his sexuality today.

"Not particularly," Ron commented. "Not to me anyway. I prefer Lavender." He glanced down the table at his crush. She had been busy staring at him with Parvati Patil waving her hand in front of her eyes. Both Ron and Lavender looked away, blushing as red as the strawberry jam on their toast.

"Erm...no, me neither," Harry coughed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Oh, that's Lee Jordan's brother, Daniel. He's a seventh year prefect. Top of his class." Ron's eyes twinkled. He seemed to be thinking the same as Harry - Daniel and Hermione seemed like a match made in heaven!

"How did you know that," she quizzed Ron.

"I got introduced at the last Chudley Cannon's match. Lee was there with Fred and George. Daniel went along too."

Ron turned his head and resumed staring at Lavender who was now magically giving Parvati a French Manicure.

"Harry. Are you OK?" Hermione asked his, concerned.

"Yeah, sure, bright as a button. Ooh look, here's our new timetables."

"Thanks. Look, I need to talk to you later."

"Sure, whatever." Harry examined the his own piece of parchment. "Oh great. We have double potions first. With the Slytherins again. I think Snape actually enjoys watching the fireworks."

"Cool," input Ron, distracted. "Huh?. The Slytherins?" He had only just realised what his friends had been discussing. "Let's go get some decent places."

Hermione took one last look over at the Ravenclaw table, Ron's eyes flickered over to Lavender once more and they followed Harry out of the Great Hall and down to the dungeons.

*~*~*~*~*

The Potions class passed fairly uneventfully considering the circumstances. Hermione partnered herself with Neville in an effort to help him drag his grade up a couple of steps - he had passed his Potions OWL, but only just. She seemed to have succeeded partly at least - his new cauldron was still intact by the end of the lesson. Snape gleefully deducted a total of twenty points from Gryffindor over the course of two hours, and awarded the same to his own house. The Gryffindors hurried out of the dungeons as soon as possible and returned to their common room for the break before lunch began. Lavender struck up a conversation with Ron and Hermione dragged Harry up to the 6^th year girls room.

"They make a cute couple," commented Hermione. She sat on her bed and beckoned Harry to do the same.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked. He figured that it must be serious for her to bring him up here. It was breaking rules for boys to be in girls' bedrooms, and Hermione rarely broke any rule unless it was for an emergency.

"OK, straight to the point," she stalled. "Well, the thing is...I've noticed...I don't know how to put this."

"Just say it," Harry instructed, desperate to hear whatever it was she had to say.

"Right. Just say it. Harry...Harry, are you gay?" Hermione whispered quietly.

"WHAT?" Harry shouted loudly. "No I am not."

"It's OK. It's perfectly normal if you are. I mean...I didn't expect you to just come out and say it as such, so I thought..."

"What makes you think I am?" he asked her angrily. If he was completely honest with himself he knew she was right, but he was only just coming to terms with the idea of him fancying other guys himself; he was not ready to discuss it with Hermione or anyone else for that matter.

"Just stuff. I've been thinking about it for a while."

"Well I'm not. Satisfied?"

"OK, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. You do know you could talk to me about...stuff...though if you wanted to, right?"

"I don't."

"Right, sure. I'm sorry."

"That's OK, don't worry about it." Harry hugged Hermione warmly and they returned to the Common Room. It seemed as though she had not been completely happy with his defence, but Harry was thankful that she had left the issue alone for a while. However, he had a sneaky suspicion that he hadn't heard the end of it.

Harry tapped Ron's shoulder and he jumped slightly.

"Oh, hi Harry, Herm."

"Shall we have lunch?" suggested Hermione lightly.

"Sure." Ron said his goodbyes to Lavender, and she joined Parvati over the other side of the room. The two of them promptly launched into their usual giggling. "What were you to talking about?"

"Oh, nothing important. Hermione had some idea but she was wrong." Harry glared at Hermione.

"What idea?"

"Oh, it's nothing. So, I see that you and Lavender are getting on well," Hermione commented, changing the subject " They'll be talking about this for weeks. I won't get any sleep."

*~*~*~*~*

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully. By ten o'clock Ron, Hermione and Harry had completed their homework and were relaxing in Gryffindor Tower. Harry was considering what Hermione had brought up earlier, and was worried that other people might have noticed too. He resented the attraction he attracted just as the Boy Who Lived. What would reporters like Rita Skeeter say if they found out that he was a...a poof?! Let alone his friends. He cringed at the thought. He had been sharing a room with Ron, Seamus, Neville and Dean for six years; it would make them uncomfortable. He knew what Uncle Vernon thought of homosexuals - he remembered a time that they had driven past a couple of men holding hands. Uncle Vernon had screeched to a halt and yelled obscenities out of the window at them until they kissed and he pulled away as if he was in a gangster car chase. "I'm going to bed," Harry blurted, not enjoying this train of thought at all.

"Are you OK? It's only," Ron glanced at his watch, "half past ten."

"Just tired, it's been a long day."

"Sleep well then Harry," Hermione smiled at him.

Harry made his way up to the dormitory and undressed. He drew the curtains around himself and lay in the four poster bed trying to drift off into the land of nod. About an hour later he heard Ron come up to bed and listened to his breathing relax into sleep. It was still a while longer however before Harry managed to follow his best friend into his own dreamworld.