Dragon Tamer

Dragon Tamer

Chapter 3: The Great Hall

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Needless to say, when Harry bounded up to the Gryffindor table, hand in hand with Draco Malfoy with a murderous Lucius Malfoy right behind them, the normal happy chatter came crashing to a halt, as every head at the table turned in their direction. Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Gryffindors eyed the trio warily. No way this could be good - but then why was Harry smiling?

Harry took advance of the silence, which had spread from the Gryffindor table throughout the Great Hall. He grinned cheerfully. "Great news, everyone! Draco and I can finally come out of the closet. Well, to be fair, Draco has been out of the closet and then some for awhile now -" at these words both Draco and Lucius closed their eyes, one in embarrassment and the other in anger - "but now Draco and I can tell the whole world that we're together!"

No one said a word. You could here a pin drop in the Great Hall. Quite used to being the center of attention, Harry was unfazed and continued, turning to address Ron and Hermione in a loud voice.

"Sorry I didn't tell you guys sooner, but we've been keen on keeping it a secret because of Draco's dad. Here we thought he wouldn't approve and it turns out we basically have Lucius Malfoy's blessing, isn't that wonderful?"

"I would hardly call it my blessing, Potter," Lucius spat. Indeed, the look on his face suggested something about as far away from a blessing as you can get. Completely without fear, and quite enjoying himself, Harry pressed on.

"Oh please, Lucius, you practically ordered Draco and I to stay together. Coming out right now at lunch was your idea, you absolutely insisted that we tell everyone!" Harry was desperately trying to keep from laughing at the twin looks of horror on the Malfoy faces. After all, he hadn't even had to lie.

The Great Hall was observing this transaction with wide-open eyes and not a few dropped jaws. The Malfoy heir and the Boy-Who-Lived? It couldn't be. The faces of the Gryffindors were rapidly moving from shocked to something resembling complete horror. Harry just grinned.

Ron and Hermione were among those looking the most horrified. Hermione opened her mouth to speak, and then Harry caught her eye. Almost imperceptively, he glanced over at Lucius Malfoy and then winked. Hermione took a good look at the raw fury on Lucius Malfoy's face - and grinned herself. She may not have understood exactly why Harry was pretending to be Malfoy's boyfriend, but she clearly understood that it was pissing Malfoy senior off. And that was something she was more than happy to do.

"Oh, Harry, I knew you had a secret lover! All that sneaking around, skiving off class, as if Ron and I wouldn't notice." And here she kicked Ron under the table, trying to will him to go along with it. "Especially all those times you returned to the common room covered with bites and scratches, telling us you had fallen off your broom - Draco must be positively feisty when you're alone together!"

Draco immediately blushed bright red, and a snicker ran through the Gryffindor table. Lucius was red too - from pure fury. Hermione snickered to herself. Take that, you arrogant bastard, she thought. Hermione had her own vendetta against the older Malfoy.

Ron was looking very, very confused. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times and looked at Hermione. She nodded just a little, and that was enough for Ron. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but he knew Hermione was a lot smarter and more perceptive that he was, and he trusted his girlfriend explicitly. If she was going along with this scam, then he would too.

And with pleasure. Ron Weasley's feelings toward the two Malfoys could not exactly be classified as "warm and fuzzy."

"Why, yes, Hermione, you're right, it does all make sense now. Harry and Malfoy, how could I have missed it? Harry, you dog, when I heard all those noises coming from your bed you told me it was a nightmare! I knew I heard someone screaming your name!"

At this, the Gryffindors burst out laughing, along with a good chunk of the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs. Draco and Lucius both turned, if possible, a deeper shade of red. Harry, of course, was thrilled. I love my friends, he thought to himself.

"Thanks Ron, Hermione, you guys are the best! I knew I could count on you to accept our relationship!"

Lucius turned to Draco, and spoke in a cold voice full of suppressed warnings. "Perhaps I made a mistake in thinking that I could accept this relationship."

Draco bit his lip in nervousness. He knew that if his dad changed his mind that the marriage would be back on faster that you could say Hungarian Horntail. He could live with being humiliated by the Gryffindors. He couldn't live with being married to Pansy. Damn it, Potter! He tried to reason with his dad.

"Look, dad, I know it's not what you expected, but really, I'm very happy with Harry. And at least he's from a good wizarding family, it's not like he's a mudblood -OW!" Draco yelped as Harry landed a hard smack on his arse.

"Draco Malfoy! What did I tell you about saying that word?" Now the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and not a few of the Slytherins were shaking with suppressed laughter. Draco dealt Harry a death glare - deal or no deal, Potter had almost crossed the line. Harry was unfazed, and just winked back at him.

Lucius was on the brink of exploding. Ron and Hermione saw this and decided to finish him off.

"Gosh, Draco, here all this time we thought you hated Harry and were trying to make him angry, when really, all your little stunts were just your way of flirting!"

"Actually, Hermione, I bet Malfoy was trying to make Harry angry. I bet the kinky little bastard was hoping Harry would give him a right proper spanking." At this, the Great Hall completely lost it, even Harry, and so did Lucius Malfoy. He grabbed Draco by the arm.

"Come Draco, I'm leaving. Walk me out." The two of them left the Great Hall amid peals of laughter, Draco sending the most evil looks he could muster at the Gryffindor Golden Trio. Harry sat down and joined his friends for lunch, wiping tears of mirth out of his eyes.

"Ron, that was brilliant!" Ron was grinning from ear to ear.

"Thanks, mate!" Then he spoke in a low voice. "Seriously, Harry, you are going to tell us what's going on, right?"

"Of course. Let's grab some food and go someplace private and talk." The three friends piled some sandwiches on plates and left the Great Hall, Harry waving goodbye cheerfully to all his surprised but still laughing friends.

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"Wow, so Malfoy's supposed to marry Pansy and he's using you for cover? That explains why he didn't kill you in the Great Hall today." Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting on desks in an unused classroom in the Charms corridor, and Ron was pondering the story Harry had just told them.

"But honestly, Harry, you have to pretend to date Malfoy for the rest of the year? Won't that be horrible?" Hermione had a worried look on her face. Harry opened his mouth to answer when a voice spoke from the doorway.

"Not half as horrible as what you lot did to me just now." It was Draco Malfoy, and by the look on his face, he was plenty pissed off. Harry blew him a kiss.

"Hey, lover."

"Shut it, Potter, I am extremely angry with you right now. What the hell was that stunt in the Great Hall?"

"Oh please, like you didn't deserve it for all the horrible things you've done to us. And what are you going to do? Break up with me over it? I doubt I'm that lucky." Harry had a point, and Draco knew it. Knew it and hated it. As long as he needed Harry as his cover, he was pretty much just going to have to deal with whatever the Gryffindor threw at him.

Draco scowled, but went in and joined the three in the room. He needed to talk with Potter, and he was a little curious about Ron and Hermione's quick response during lunch. "I have to ask, how did you two know to go along with scheme? There's no way on earth Harry could have told you about it."

"We didn't know what the scheme was until just now. All we knew was that Harry was pretending to go out with you and it was pissing your dad off. That was enough of a reason to go along with it," Hermione stated.

Draco was astounded. "You went along with Harry being my boyfriend and then had a field day humiliating me because it pissed off my dad?"

The Gryffindors nodded. "In a nutshell, yes. In case you haven't noticed, Malfoy, your dad is a nasty bastard." Ron wasn't mincing words.

Draco glared at them, but not really that hard. This wasn't really news to him. He took a deep breath. "Alright Potter, look, I really need you to go along with this. And we have to be convincing. Needless to say, the stunt in the Great Hall didn't fully convince my dad. Are you really going to go through with this?"

Harry pretended to be deep in thought. "Hmmm, Malfoy, I don't know."

"Oh, come on, Potter! I need this!"

Harry's eyes twinkled. "You forgot the magic word."

"What? What the hell are you on about? What magic word?" Ron looked confused too.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly. It's a muggle saying. He wants you to say please."

Draco looked horrified. "Malfoy's don't say please."

"My Malfoy says please." Harry's eyes were absolutely dancing with suppressed amusement.

Draco looked ready to kill, but closed his eyes and said, "Fine, Potter, have it your way. Please?"

Harry grinned. "All right. On one condition."

"And what's that, Potter?"

"You have to be nice to my friends. One single comment about mudbloods, weasels, or money, and we're through. Understand?"

Draco nodded his head, figuring that everything really could have been much worse. Then Draco smirked. "What about you, Potter? You're not in the deal. Are you saying I don't have to be nice to you?"

Harry grinned. "I can take anything you can throw at me, but you leave my friends out of this."

Despite himself, Draco almost grinned back. Harry was a one cocky bastard, but he had guts, and as much as Draco hated to admit it, he had to admire him for it. "One last thing, Potter, since we all have class right now. You and I need to get our story straight, because people are going to ask. Probably wouldn't hurt to know a couple things about each other either. We have to be convincing."

Harry nodded slowly. "How about we go to Hogsmeade together tomorrow? That was everyone can see us together, and we can get our story straight. Hell, I'll even buy you a drink."

Draco snorted but nodded his consent. He turned to go.

"Wait, Malfoy."

"What now?"

Harry was holding out the plate of sandwiches they had brought from the Great Hall. When Draco raised a pale blond eyebrow in question, Harry simply stated, "You missed lunch."

A million snide remarks sprang to Draco's mind, but when he looked at Harry's expression, which was open and without a trace of malice, he simply nodded and took one.

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That night in the Common Room, Harry successfully fended off curious questions from fellow Gryffindors, saying he would explain everything in due time but that right now he had homework. Ron and Hermione joined him upstairs.

"Really, mate, I don't see how you're possibly okay with this." Ron was speaking with Harry in a low voice while Hermione nodded emphatically along. "I mean, it's Malfoy, for Merlin's sake! And only the beginning of the year! How are you going to survive?"

Harry looked thoughtful. "You know, it's funny, but I really don't mind. You'd think I would, but I don't. The thing is, it's already my sixth year, and there's nobody here that I fancy in the slightest, so this relationship won't be ruining my chances with other people. I could care less what everyone thinks my sexual preference is, so that doesn't bother me either. Not only that, but Malfoy has to be nice to us now, which will be a definite improvement over the last few years we've been here."

Hermione looked unconvinced. "Are you sure about this, Harry? I mean, it's just like you to do something so nice and noble for your worst enemy. Are you sure Malfoy won't take advantage of you?"

"How can he? He needs me to protect him from this marriage. Besides, I think it's the other way around. I'm not sure I'll be able resist all the opportunities I'm going to have to take advantage of Malfoy. Like today. That was too much fun."

Ron nodded. "Good point, mate. Besides, maybe you can teach that snarky git some manners. My brother Charlie always said you'd make a good dragon tamer, and doesn't Draco mean 'dragon'? Maybe you can find a way to tame Malfoy."

"The famous Harry Potter, a dragon tamer? Trust Charlie to come up with something like that." Harry grinned. "Besides, you guys are overlooking the absolute best part of this deal."

"And what's that, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"That I get to spend my spare time staring at Malfoy. He may be an evil bastard, but he's absolutely gorgeous. He has got to be the hottest guy I've ever seen."

"HARRY!" Ron and Hermione looked faintly disgusted but smiled anyway, thinking Harry was joking with them.

He wasn't.

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