Toothbrush Induced Angst

Toothbrush Angst

By Jae

Harry stared glumly at the dingy grey tile wall. Dumbledore had insisted that Draco and Harry go underground with Sirius. Harry had managed to survive the summer in more or less one piece, but the latest scrape with Voldemort's underlings had even Dumbledore worried. Harry had been ecstatic when Hedwig delivered a letter saying that Sirius was stopping by to spend some quality time with Harry before autumn term started. Dumbledore had conveniently neglected to mention that Draco Malfoy would be coming along.

So that explained why Harry was sitting on a toilet seat in a backwater motel in the Midlands, waiting for Draco Malfoy to change into his pajamas. Harry had already changed into his white, blue-striped set, his clothes neatly folded in a pile.

Draco, dressed in white, green-striped pajamas, came in with two toothbrush boxes, waving them lazily in front of Harry.

"Here, Potter. I figured you'd be too busy saving the world to bother with a toothbrush. So I brought along two," Draco drawled.

Harry reached instinctively for the red one, but Draco snatched it away, shoving the green one at him.

"No, Potter. The red one is mine. Take the green one," Draco ordered, taking the red brush out of its box and rinsing it under the tap.

Harry snorted. "What happened to your House pride, Malfoy? Turning coat?"

Draco shrugged. "It's a bloody toothbrush, Potter. Besides, it matches your eyes."

Harry blinked at the toothbrush. It was a fairly vivid green. But what was Malfoy doing looking at his eyes? Harry shrugged his thoughts aside. It was just a toothbrush. Harry rinsed his toothbrush under the tap and fumbled for a moment. He forgot toothpaste too. Draco rolled his eyes and walked back into the main room, returning with a tube of toothpaste. Draco squirted some onto his toothbrush and handed the tube to Harry. Harry nodded curtly and added some toothpaste onto his own brush, and then placing the tube on the basin edge. Meanwhile, Draco dragged some toothpaste that had fallen off the edge back on top of the brush, licking his finger slowly. Harry watched the whole process, mesmerized. It was odd that someone who was as pale and colourless as Malfoy would have such a pink tongue. Draco arched an eyebrow at Harry and gave him a small smile.

"If you wait too long, your toothpaste is going to get all crusty, Potter." Draco calmly stuck his brush into his mouth and started brushing.

Harry blushed and banged the brush against his cheek before he managed to get it properly into his mouth. Harry brushed away and almost stopped. The bloody brush was moving. In directions his hand was most certainly -not- going. He glanced at the back of the box. Flexihandle tm indeed! Fine and all that the bloody thing had been designed to clean the hard to reach places, but it should not be flailing a fish out of water. It didn't help that Malfoy was standing close enough for Harry to feel the warmth of his thinly clad thigh. The heat and the movements of the toothbrush in his mouth set Harry's thoughts a whirl. This was Malfoy, after all! And a bloody toothbrush. That wiggled. In the most maddening manner.

He stared straight ahead into the mirror, too afraid to look at Draco. Well, no, that would be a bit dishonest. Harry was stealing the occasional furtive glance at Draco's reflection out of the corner of his eye. Draco smiled again. Potter was so transparent. Draco calmly brushed away, enjoying Potter's not so subtle squirming. Draco particularly liked this brand of toothbrush. Made cleaning a bit of an adventure. ProCare indeed. He particularly enjoyed the effect of the head of the toothbrush poking the insides of Potter's cheek. Draco smirked, struck with a wicked idea. He sped up his brushing, turning slightly to Harry, catching his eye in the mirror's reflection. Harry scowled darkly at Draco, well as close to scowling one could get while brushing one's teeth, and brushed faster, matching Draco's speed. The two of them turned back to the mirror, gradually brushing faster and faster.

Draco's calm, cat-eyed amusement infuriated Harry, egging him on. Harry wasn't sure why, but there was definitely a challenge. And Harry was never one to step down from a challenge. Harry twisted his brush to reach that particularly irritating spot, deep, deep, near his throat. Draco paused, leaning forward, his thigh carelessly brushing against Harry's knee, and spit into the basin. Harry almost choked on his toothbrush as he watched the white liquid dribble down Draco's chin. Draco lifted his head back up, continuing his vigorous brushing. Harry blushed and turned the other way quickly, but not quick enough to miss the twinkle in Draco's eyes.

Harry continued brushing, resisting the urge to spit, in spite of the growing pressure of the mixture of toothpaste froth and his spit in his mouth.

Draco smirked, taking his toothbrush out of his mouth. "Oh, come off it, Potter. You've got to spit it out at some point. That is unless, you swallow…."

Harry choked and leaned forward, spitting quickly.

"Your toothpaste. Bad form, Potter. You know that toothpaste gives you a tummy ache if you ingest too much," Draco sniggered, sticking his brush back into his mouth.

Harry glared at Draco and returned brushing his teeth. Draco turned on the tap, cupping his hand under the water and rinsed his mouth out several times. He swished the red brush under the water and placed it in the cup on the side with a flourish.

"Well, I'm off to bed now, Potter. Try not to dawdle too much," Draco said, drawling out his words more than usual. He even made walking to bed look like a bloody coronation parade.

Harry quickly rinsed his mouth and stuffed his own toothbrush into the cup. Draco's toothbrush, the red one, suddenly ducked its head away from Harry's green toothbrush. The green toothbrush was a straight, nearly erect, column. Harry smirked. Good to know the flexible handle was good for something. The red one kept inching away, but the green one was having none of that, moving closer and closer to the red one. Finally, the handle of the green one just barely grazed the red handle, and the red one nearly jumped out of the cup. Harry bit his lip. No need to have Malfoy running into the bathroom. The red toothbrush's head hung just a fraction of an inch lower. The green one rustled its bristles and rested its head upon the red toothbrush's head. Harry yawned. He must be tired if he was standing there watching the toothbrushes...snuggle for lack of a better word.  

Harry stiffly walked over to his bed. Harry picked up his clothes and walked into the now dark room. Malfoy had already turned off the lights and was lying in his bed, his back turned to Harry. Harry sighed as he turned over the bedclothes and crawled into his bed. This was going to be a long, long week.

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Malfoy left Harry alone the next few days. Malfoy had brought along his books for the upcoming year at Hogwarts and he was getting ahead on the assignments. Harry boggled. Harry had also brought along his books, knowing he wouldn't have time to go back to the cupboard before boarding the Hogwarts Express, but it was hard to believe that anyone besides Hermione, and the Ravenclaws, actually did work during the summer hols. But there lay Malfoy, flipping through his books as if it were a completely ordinary thing to be doing. Harry, being a bit more right in the head, wrote letters. He didn't know he even bothered. He couldn't say where he was, nor could he speak of his adventures this past summer. Dumbledore and Sirius had both expressly forbade Harry from telling anyone. And Sirius wouldn't let them send out Hedwig. It would ruin their cover. And it was only a few more days until school started. He could wait to speak with Ron and Hermione. Or he might not. Harry looked at Draco out of the corner of his eyes. He could feel his face growing hot and that only made his face grow even hotter. Damn Malfoy, damn him. Harry resisted the urge to crumple up his parchment and toss it at the offensive pale head.

Harry wondered if he had in fact hallucinated the whole toothbrush incident. Malfoy had only been baiting him. The prat would do anything to get a rise out of him. Harry frowned as he idly doodled on his parchment, letters forgotten. But this was certainly a new approach. Generally Malfoy employed sneaky, underhanded schemes or crude insults. Malfoy had managed to graduate to more witty retorts throughout the years. It wasn't hard to improve upon 'Gryffindor' and 'Mud-blood'. But the things he had said that other night. They weren't nice words, but they weren't quite mean either. They were simply confusing. Harry shuddered as he remembered Draco's body heat and the dribble of white fluid on Draco's chin. If Harry didn't know any better, he would think that Malfoy was flirting with him. And doing a good job of it. Harry frowned. Where had that thought come from? Harry blushed as he continued to sort through these jumbled emotions Malfoy provoked all the while sketching, not paying particular attention to what he was doing.

"Potter, what are you drawing?" Draco's amused voice drawled, his lips just barely grazing the top of Harry's ear.

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin, snatching away his parchment as he sat up and glared at Draco. "None of your business, Malfoy." Harry himself wasn't sure what he had been drawing, but given his train of thought, it likely wasn't something he'd want to show Malfoy. Harry blushed in spite of himself and sat on the parchment. "Haven't you got homework you should be doing?"

"Potter, I really should be asking you that question. You haven't touched your books once since we've got here. No wonder you do so poorly in Potions," Draco sneered.

Harry gave a sigh of relief. This was the Malfoy he knew and hated. He knew what to do with this Malfoy. " Sod off, Malfoy. Not everyone can be a swotty git, but you manage to pull it off. Cheers"

Draco smirked. "Seeing as who your friends are, I think you should talk, Potter." Draco sidled up to Harry, bringing his hand around Harry's back to rest on the bed, right next to Harry's leg.

"Hermione is not a git! Although I suppose she is a bit swotty, but Hermione is brilliant and nothing like you, Malfoy," Harry retorted, uncomfortably aware of Draco's hand. Which was moving underneath his thigh and inching forward to cup his… Harry scooted away quickly, before he could finish that thought.

"Malfoy," Harry roared, his face red from embarrassment and anger, "what the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Are you groping me?"

Draco blinked innocently as he dangled the parchment before Harry's face. "No, silly Potter, I'm retrieving your doodling. There's no need to be shy about it. If there's a budding artiste trapped within, share with the whole class, Potter." Draco bared his teeth in what Harry supposed was a smile as he flattened the parchment. Harry scrunched up his eyes. Better not to see the look of gloating on Malfoy's face.

Draco stared at the parchment for a moment. He turned it sidewise and stared some more. Then he tilted his head, still staring, not saying a word. Harry meanwhile had finally opened his eyes, waiting for Draco to speak. He tapped his toe impatiently as Draco continued to peer at the parchment. Harry, no longer able to wait, tore the parchment away from Draco. It looked like a slug. Or wait, no, a snail. It had a shell of sorts. It was supposed to look like Malfoy though! Harry bit his lip, trying not to laugh. Saved by his lack of drawing skills.

Draco meanwhile rolled around on the bed, his body shaking with laughter. "You, you, you, were hiding a a a a drawing of a snail from me?" Draco stopped speaking, his breath stolen away by his laughter. Harry crumpled the parchment and tossed it into a corner. Draco leaned back and lay across the bed, his hands behind his head. "You Gryffindors will get riled up over the silliest things. A bloody snail. Or a slug. Hard to tell which. I suppose the great Harry Potter will have to find another occupation. Saving the world. Being heroic. Failing Potions." Draco smirked. "Speaking of Potions, be a mate and toss me my book, Potter."

Harry made a face as he snatched up the Potions book and aimed for Draco's gut. Harry would toss him his bloody Potions book. Draco however had other ideas. He lazily hooked his foot around Harry's leg, causing Harry to come crashing on top of Draco in a graceless tangle of limbs. Harry noted that Malfoy smelled rather nice, a hint of musk and some other spice, the name eluding Harry's memory, bergamot perhaps, underneath the cheap soap the motel had kindly offered free of charge. Harry would have scrambled off Draco, but Draco had firmly locked Harry's legs with his own legs. 

"Malfoy, you really have gone mad. Let me go," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"And what if I'd rather not? What if I said I'd rather leave you where you are?" Draco taunted, wrapping an arm around Harry's torso. 

Harry stared at Draco, their mouths just moments apart. Harry leaned forward. He could feel Draco's warm breath against his lips. If Harry leaned in just a little bit more, their lips would be touching. And he would be kissing Malfoy. Kissing? Malfoy? Draco licked his lips and Harry could feel the warm wetness brush against his own mouth. Just a little closer. Their lips just barely touched. Harry froze. Draco looked him straight in the eye, daring him to move. Harry grumbled under his breath. Draco smirked.

"What's that, Potter? You'll have to speak up, I can't hear…."

 Harry clumsily aimed for Draco's mouth and managed to land quite squarely upon the corner of Draco's mouth. Draco shook his head, gently cradling the back of Harry's head.

"Potter, can't you do anything right?" Draco asked, sighing.

Harry was about to stammer a response, but Draco pulled away from him and shook Harry. "Come on, Harry, come on already." Harry struggled against Draco's grip.

"Harry, wake up! We're going to be late for Potions," Ron shouted, while shaking Harry from his shoulders. Harry cracked open an eyelid. Ron?

Ron let go of Harry, shaking his head in a fair imitation of Percy. He was dressed in his robes, ready for class, his rucksack lying at his feet. "Hermione went ahead of us. She's going to try to pester Snape with questions and buy us some time. Harry, really, Snape is going to have a fit if we're late again. He'll likely create some unheard of punishment for this. The third time this week!" Ron wrinkled his nose. "Now come on, get dressed already! I'll be in the common room." Ron stalked out of the room.

Harry stared at the wet stain on his bedclothes. He'd had the same dream again. Third time this week. Bloody hell.

Fin