Time to Kill

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Time To Kill: Chapter Four

~Johnny Doggspitt~

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The Headmaster sighed at the two boys sitting across from him.

Oh, goody, Draco thought sarcastically. This should be good.

"You two should have come to me about this before," Dumbledore said gravely. "This is a most serious matter."

"We were going to see you about it tomorrow, sir," Harry said quickly.

"Tomorrow could have been too late!" He turned to Draco. "Did you ever consider that Voldemort might tire of your procrastination and just kill Harry himself?"

Draco's eyes went wide as the possibility occurred to him for the first time.

"And now the two of you are lovers." Dumbledore shook his head. "I don't think the two of you realize how ridiculous you're being!"

"Are you saying that we can't be together?" Harry asked, sounding alarmed.

Dumbledore sighed. "Under any other circumstances, I would be immensely happy for the both of you. But you are just endangering yourselves further by having a relationship. What if Voldemort found out?"

"We were keeping it a secret," Draco grumbled sulkily.

"You thought that keeping it a secret would keep Voldemort from finding out," Dumbledore said unbelievingly. The two boys shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. "How long have you been together?" Dumbledore sighed.

"Well...since today," Harry said quietly.

"Good. There's time to fix this. Mr. Malfoy, I would like to discuss something with Harry privately. You are free to go back to your dorm."

"Yes, sir," Draco said, wondering what on earth Dumbledore could be discussing with Harry.

He hurried down the moving staircase and waited for Harry by the gargoyle.

Harry stayed up in Dumbledore's office for what felt like an eternity, and Draco felt the affects of the potion wearing off. He was really going to be sore in the morning.

Finally, Harry emerged from the staircase. "Draco!" he exclaimed, looking surprised. "What are you still doing here?"

"Waiting for you!" Draco said irritably (he wasn't the sweetest person to be around when he was in pain). "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Draco, are you alright?"

Draco sighed, getting himself back under control. "I'm fine. The potion is just wearing off."

"The potion Snape gave you?"

Draco nodded. "It helps with the pain."

Harry reached out and stroked Draco's cheek. "Come on. I'll walk you down to Slytherin."

"Why?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Because it's obvious that you can't make it on your own."

Draco rolled his eyes. "You are absolutely smitten," he said, grinning and starting to limp off.

"I am not!" Harry whined.

"Yes, you are!"

Harry grabbed Draco's hand, pulling him around to face him. "Ok, maybe I am," he said, kissing him sweetly.

Draco quickly responded, and kissed him back smoothly. He reached his hand up, pulling Harry as close as possible. Deciding to take the next step, Draco pushed his tongue insistently into Harry's mouth. Harry responded gloriously, opening his mouth immediately and moaning.

"Good lord!" a voice exclaimed from behind them. "If I have to walk into you two making out again, I will personally see to it that you are not allowed to come within one-hundred feet of each other!"

Draco and Harry instantly broke apart and sent twin death glares at their potions master. "Duly noted, sir," Draco said angrily.

"Both of you, back to your respective dormitories! Now!"

Harry grumbled and kissed Draco softly before heading in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't understand you, Draco," Snape said exasperatedly as he escorted his student to the dungeons.

~*~

"Hey, Draco!" Blaise Zabini hailed him at breakfast the next day. "Where were you last night?"

"None of your business, Zabini," Draco grumbled.

"Alright, alright, no need to get defensive!" All the Slytherins knew that Draco was not a morning person, and they tended to stay clear of him, at least until after lunch.

Draco gazed around, vaguely noticing that Harry wasn't around. Suddenly, he noticed that Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione were all walking toward the Slytherin tables.

"Mr. Malfoy, I would like you to accompany us to my office," Dumbledore said cheerfully.

Draco stood, showing no sign of how confused he was. Sending his trademark Malfoy Death Glare at Weasley and Granger and followed Dumbledore up to his office.

When the headmaster and the three students all took their seats, Dumbledore slid a copy of the Daily Prophet across his desk toward them. "I would like for you three to read this, but don't get upset over it until I explain."

Hermione picked up the paper and her eyes went wide.

"You'll notice, I hope," Dumbledore continued, "that the date on it is tomorrow's date."

The paper was now passed on to Ron, who went very white and gulped. Finally, he passed it over to Draco. He stared at the front cover unbelievingly.

"You've got to be kidding!" he exclaimed, staring down at the paper.

The headline read:

Harry Potter Found Dead at Hogwarts!

"No, I am not kidding, Mr. Malfoy. Of course, Mr. Potter is not dead. He simply is going into hiding."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, and since we're on the subject of why, why is Malfoy here?" Ron asked bitterly.

"To answer both your questions at the same time, young Mr. Malfoy here has been forced to become a Death Eater, and his task was to kill Harry. Harry, being the noble Gryffindor that he is, approached me with the idea of staging his own death in order to save Draco from becoming a murderer."

"Why would he do that?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Well, one: because he's a Gryffindor," Draco drawled, rolling his eyes, "two: because he knows I don't want to kill him, and three: because we're sort of...never mind."

Hermione eyed him warily. "You're sort of what?"

"Nothing, Granger! It's not for me to tell you!" Draco replied grumpily.

"You're dating, aren't you?" Hermione asked, her eyes lit up.

Ron stared at her in horror. "Are you out of your bloody mind? Of course they're not dating!"

"Well, actually, Weasley, she's right. We are."

Ron looked at him with murder in his eyes. He stood up and made to walk toward Draco, but suddenly, he slammed back down into his chair. He looked around, apparently confused. He tried to get up again, but plopped back down before he could get half-way up.

A familiar chuckle came out of thin air. "Harry," Draco said with a smile, "take off the invisibility cloak!"

"No!" Harry's voice came from somewhere around Hermione.

Draco sighed exasperatedly. "Why not?"

"Because I'm upset with you, that's why not!" The voice now came from Fawkes' cage. "You promised you would keep it a secret!"

"But she guessed it!" Draco whined.

"You didn't have to tell them!" Harry argued.

"You mean it's true?" Ron asked incredulously. "You're actually..." he gulped, "Dating?"

A sigh came from behind Draco. "Yeah, we are."

Ron slowly opened and shut his mouth, but no sound came out.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and the attention shifted back to him. "Now, I am sure that I needn't tell you all that this must remain a secret. No one can know that Harry is still alive, nor can they know that Harry and Draco are - or rather, were, for our purposes - together."

Dumbledore continued talking, but Draco found it hard to concentrate. Harry had one arm wrapped around Draco's chest, and his other hand was running distractingly through his hair. It felt so nice that Draco started to fall asleep.

"Mr. Potter, would you kindly stop distracting Mr. Malfoy? This is most important for him to hear."

Harry instantly removed his hands, and Draco had to restrain himself from giving Dumbledore a very angry look.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, "Harry will still be around. He will go to classes as usual, but he will be invisible at all times. Again, I remind the three of you: you must tell no one about this! No matter how sad they seem, it is not worth Harry's life!"

"Of course not, sir!" Hermione agreed. Ron apparently had a bad case of lockjaw, but nodded his head.

"Very well, then. I suppose that's all you need to know. Now, you should all hurry down to class, as I believe that you have potions now."

Ron checked his watch and his eyes went wide. "We've only got one minute to get there!" he exclaimed.

As the four students headed quickly to the door, the headmaster called out to them. "Oh, and it would help if you, Ron and Hermione, would pretend as if you haven't seen Harry all day. Ask people if they've seen him.

"Yes, sir!" Hermione called back as they all ran out the door.

~*~

They arrived at Snape's classroom just as the bell rang. The potion's master had his back turned, but evidently knew they had come in late.

"Ten points from each Gryffindor who just walked through the door," he said, keeping his back to them. "And five points from Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy."

All the Gryffindors grumbled at the unfairness, but Snape continued writing on the board as though he weren't a favoring git.

Once the group of latecomers had taken their seats, Snape turned in his impressive, intimidating manner and fixed them with his 'Don't mess with me' glare. "Open your books to chapter forty-three and begin copying every single word in the entire chapter. I want it double-spaced and in small writing. Due in ten minutes. And I also expect you to take notes on the lecture I'm going to be giving while you copy."

Instantly, every book in the room flew open, including Draco's...but he hadn't touched it! Draco stared at it warily for a few seconds. Suddenly, there was a voice in his ear.

"Chill out, love, it's just me," Harry whispered, chuckling.

"Damn it, Harry!" Draco whispered back. "Don't do that!"

"Well, you weren't opening it fast enough!"

"I can open it by myself, thank you!"

"Mr. Malfoy, kindly stop talking to yourself and start copying," Snape growled.

Draco glared at the empty seat next to him and began writing down the words in his book.

"It's going to be weird, getting used to being invisible all day, every day," Harry whispered, apparently growing bored with Snape's talking.

Draco snorted softly. "It's going to be weird for me, getting used to an invisible boyfriend!" That got him thinking a bit. "You know, Harry, you didn't have to do this for me."

"Yes I did! I couldn't very well let you kill me and if you didn't kill me, you'd be killed!" He ran a hand up Draco's cheek. "And besides, it'll be fun! I can do anything I want to you, and the teachers won't know!"

Draco's eyes grew wide. "You wouldn't dare!"

He heard Harry chuckle a bit. "Of course I would!" he whispered close to Draco's ear. He started nibbling very teasingly on his earlobe.

"H-Harry, stop!" Draco protested feebly. He was sure Harry could sense that he didn't actually want him to stop, but it would be hard to explain himself if he started moaning for absolutely no reason, especially in the middle of potions class.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Snape's hard voice came from the front of the class. Immediately, Harry pulled his lips away from Draco. Unfortunately, Harry had Draco so distracted that Draco still wasn't fully able to focus. "Mr. Malfoy, I asked you a question!"

Draco suddenly snapped back. "Sorry sir, what was the question?"

Snape sighed exasperatedly. "You will stay after class, Mr. Malfoy," Snape commanded him. "And then we shall discuss how best to make sure that you pay attention."

"Yes, sir," Draco sighed.

After class, Draco stayed behind as he had been told. A brush against his arm told him that Harry was staying also.

Unfortunately, Snape had been expecting that. "Mr. Potter, I want the invisibility cloak off! Now!"

Harry emerged from thin air, scowling at his professor.

"Just because you have permission to remain invisible does not mean you have permission to distract my students during my class."

"How do you know-"

"Mr. Potter, did you honestly think that Professor Dumbledore would pull off this stunt without alerting the teachers?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably next to Draco.

Snape smirked. "Apparently so. Believe me, Potter, if you cause a distraction in my classroom, no matter how small, I will find a most appropriate punishment, make no mistake about that." He scowled down at his student. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." Harry grumbled.

"Good. You are dismissed."