Distractions

The tick of the clock was the only sound in the quiet room: tick ... tock. Tick ... tock. Tick ... tock.

With each tick, Harry rocked back on his rear chair legs; each tock brought him forward. Back ... forward. Back ... forward. Back ... forward.

"Would you stop?" said a voice filled with exasperation.

The chair legs hit the floor with a loud crack.

"Stop what?" Harry asked, turning to face his neighbor, a confused look on his face.

"Rocking back and forth!" Draco said, frustration creeping into his voice.

"Oh," Harry replied, slumping down in his chair a bit, long legs stretched out in front of him. "Sorry."

Draco rolled his eyes and resumed his reading. Doxycide, a black liquid, is usually administered by spray bottle....

Draco looked up again, this time distracted by a faint tap, tap, tap. He looked over at Harry and bit back a sigh; the dark-haired boy was currently alternating between running his quill through his fingers and tapping it three times on the table.

"Potter!" Draco said loudly.

The tapping stopped. "What?"

"Can't you just sit still? I'm trying to read this!" Draco gestured to his Potions book.

"Sorry," Harry said again, slumping even farther down in his chair.

Draco sighed and returned to his reading. Doxycide, a black liquid, is usually administered by spray bottle. Two sprays will knock out a Doxy for three hours, during which time they can safely be disposed of. It is not recommended to handle Doxys without the use of Doxycide....

Harry heaved a sigh and Draco turned his head once again to look at him. He was currently slouched down low in his chair. The only things that were keeping him from sliding out onto the stone floor were his feet, which were planted firmly on the ground between the legs of the chair sitting opposite him. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked every bit like a petulant child who wasn't getting his way.

"What is the problem now, Potter?" Draco asked, setting his quill down gently on the table and tilting his head.

Harry didn't answer for a moment, but the frown on his face deepened. Draco waited, and waited, and waited, until Harry finally exploded into a rant.

"Why the hell are we inside reading Potions when it's absolutely brilliant outside? We could be playing Quidditch, or walking around the lake, or, or, or...." He trailed off but gestured around wildly with his hands. "You're so ruddy boring sometimes, Draco!"

Draco regarded him with a rather amused expression. "I'm boring?"

Harry vigorously nodded. "Yes!"

"Oh, really?" Draco's look turned calculated, but Harry didn't seem to notice, as he'd begun rocking his chair back and forth again, this time so violently that Draco was sure he was going to tumble over backward and crack his head on the floor.

Finally the rocking stopped, and Harry stood up so fast that the chair upended and flew backwards into the wall. "I'm leaving, Draco. I'm not going to waste any more of my afternoon stuck inside this bloody library." He began to gather up his books, putting them into his bag in a rather haphazard manner.

"Potter, sit down," Draco said mildly.

"No," Harry said. "I'm finished with, with ... with all this!" He reached for his History of Magic textbook, but Draco stole it off the table before he could pick it up. "Malfoy, give that back." Harry's voice took on a dangerous tone, and Draco arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, I don't think I will. I think you should come and get it." Draco watched as Harry's eyes narrowed into slits. Draco was currently holding the book with his left hand, arm stretched out away from his body. Harry lunged for it, but Draco dropped the book to the floor and twisted his body in the chair so that Harry landed directly on top of him.

"Oomph, Malfoy, what the hell?" Harry asked, trying to get his arms untangled and his feet back underneath him.

"First of all, Potter, you should know that Malfoys are never boring." Harry looked up at him with a frown and tried to stand, but his foot slid on the floor as Draco pushed his own foot into Harry's shin. "Second of all, you're not going anywhere."

Harry managed to free one of his arms and pushed solidly on Draco's chest. "Yes I am. If you're just going to sit in here and study, I'm going to go somewhere else." He struggled for another moment to stand, then gave a sigh of defeat and slumped down into Draco's arms, which had come up to loosely rest on his back.

"Potter, really, if I'd known you were so averse to studying, I wouldn't have made us come in here at all. But you didn't even say anything."

Harry muttered something low that Draco didn't hear, trying once more to shift his position in the chair.

"What?" Draco asked, shifting his legs so that Harry was actually kneeling on the chair instead of practically falling off.

"I said I just wanted to spend time with you and it didn't really matter at first where!" He was still frowning and Draco tried unsuccessfully to hold back his laughter. "Oh, sure, just laugh, because of course Malfoys are never willing to sacrifice themselves in order to spend time with someone else." He started struggling again in earnest, but Draco simply tightened his hold on him until Harry was finally still again.

"Potter, you prat," Draco said softly, sliding one of his hands up to cup Harry's face. "Of course we are. In fact, I'm willing to give up my study time to go do something you want to do right now."

"Oh, don't do me any favors, Malfoy," Harry said, a tinge of anger still coloring his voice. He pushed once again on Draco's chest, this time managing to sit himself up straight on his knees.

"Oh, no, Potter, I wouldn't dream of it. In fact, I think it's going to be you doing favors for me." He raised his other hand, trapping Harry's face between his palms and raising himself away from the back of the chair so that they were only a few centimeters away from each other.

"Oh, is that so?" Harry murmured, eyes darting down to look at Draco's mouth, then skittering back up his face to his eyes.

Draco didn't answer, instead closing the distance between them with a kiss. At Harry's sigh of pleasure Draco realized Harry was right -- there were definitely better things to be doing than studying.

~*Fine*~