We All Burn Sometimes

Chapter 12: The End of a Beginning

"What happened to Finnegan? I heard something disastrous happened in Charms this morning... something to do with Longbottom."

Draco had turned and faced Harry. He had his arm around the blonde. The past fifteen minutes, they had just been lying like this, bodies curled, chest to back--a position Draco had jokingly called spoons. Harry thought Draco was asleep until he spoke.

"Oh, the Levitation Charm incident. Neville was supposed to lift Seamus a few feet from the ground but he must have said the spell wrong. He sent Seamus flying to the ceiling so fast he got knocked out and spent the rest of the day unconscious." Harry laughed, remembering. Neville had been terribly guilty about it and apologized to Seamus profusely when the other boy woke up. Seamus, used to his friend´s blunders, had resignedly forgiven him.

Draco snorted. "Flitwick should have known better than to let that almost-Squib perform the charm. Longbottom is a walking disaster."

"He´s not so bad. He just gets nervous sometimes when performing spells. But he´s really good in Herbology." Harry defended his house mate.

The other boy turned away, closing his eyes. "Whatever. Just try to avoid partnering him in the future."

Harry grinned. "Why, Draco... I didn´t know you cared."

"Hah! Don´t go all gooey on me, Potter. I just don´t want to spend the night alone while I´m horny just because you´re stuck in the hospital wing."

"Oh, c´mon, admit it. You´re worried about me."

"Shut up and go to sleep."

After a few minutes of silence...

"Draco?"

"Whaaaat? Honestly, Harry... I need my sleep, you know."

"Well if you want me to sleep then stop rubbing my thigh."

"What would you do if I won´t?" Draco taunted, his fingers traveling fleetingly over Harry´s skin.

"This."

In an instant, Harry had Draco pinned beneath him. The Slytherin didn´t even have time to squawk before Harry started nibbling his collarbone.

"Honestly! You are so annoying sometimes," Draco grumbled.

"You may think so, but you´re wand seems happy enough."

"Well your wand is being too-- Aaaahhh... don´t stop! There... there!"

Of course, Harry complied.

***

Harry shot up from the bed, gasping. He brushed the thin film of sweat from his forehead. He must have fallen asleep again. Lately, that´s all he seemed to do, aside from homework and classes. He checked the clock for the time. Drat! He missed dinner again.

Unconsciously, his hand traveled to his chest. Beneath his sweater, he could feel the jade pendant. It lay there, cool against his skin. Draco. He had dreamt of him again, their happier times together. He wondered where he was now, whether he missed Harry as much as he did.

As he thought of the Slytherin, a brown owl flew into his room through the open window, catching him by surprise. Automatically, he lifted his palm to catch the letter as the owl let go of it before flying out again. As the white paper gently swayed into his waiting hands, he saw his name written in bold strokes on the surface.

Nervously, he opened the envelope, his heart thudding erratically in his chest. After a few minutes, he laid the letter aside. Three hours to midnight. He had much to think about.

***

Midnight.

Draco drummed his fingers on the bed. Harry was officially thirty seconds late. Was he even coming? Draco had not received a reply so he supposed that the Gryffindor would either show up or not. As the minutes ticked away, what hope Draco felt for this meeting started to fizzle out painfully. Harry was not coming.

Heavily, Draco stood, preparing to leave. Just as he did, the door leading from the hallway entrance creaked open. After a second, he was face to face with Harry Potter.

The Gryffindor stood five feet away, waiting. He just looked at Draco, expecting him to talk first. Draco searched Harry´s face and found nothing there. The boy´s expression was unreadable and the dim lighting did little to help him. Draco cleared his throat and spoke.

"I´m not asking you to stay long, I just need a few minutes of your time. In fact, I don´t..."

Draco paused and took a deep breath. This was harder than he thought. As far as he remembered, he had never been at loss for words. This was definitely a first. But then, this was Harry. And Harry was different from the others. He looked down, refusing to look at Harry, fearing to see what he might discover.

"I just wanted to say I´m sorry. I´m sorry for lying to you the past weeks. You see, I´ve been lying to myself, too: pretending I still hated you. But I didn´t, really. I haven´t for a while now. I don´t know when it happened but somewhere along the way, I just... I fell for you, Harry. That´s why I was so mad afterwards, when you broke up with me. I still didn´t realize it at the time but I couldn´t... I can´t go back to the way I lived my life before because you aren´t there."

He paused again, longer this time. Harry was still silent. He had his answer. Draco felt a strange heat burn behind his eyes. He started to panic.

"Forget it. Just, I don´t know... forget what I said. I´m sorry for bothering you... It´s stupid of me to expect you to..."

He quickly turned away and headed for the door, dangerously close to tears. He had never felt so hurt and humiliated in his whole life. He had to leave before he broke down in front of the Gryffindor.

As he passed Harry, he felt the other boy grab his arm, stopping him.

"Draco, I´m sorry."

"You don´t have to patronize me, Potter." He tried to sneer and failed miserably. He was past that.

A strange smile played in Harry´s mouth. "I meant I´m sorry for breaking up with you."

Startled, Draco lifted his head and met Harry´s eyes. Confused, he wrinkled his forehead. What did he say?

"You were not the only one lying. I´ve been a hypocrite, too. Perhaps worse... I was such a coward I left you before you could leave me. Forgive me for underestimating you."

Draco´s ears buzzed. Was Harry apologizing to him? What did it mean?

"Draco, I love you."

If Harry wasn´t holding him, he might have fallen, insensate. That was the last thing he expected to hear. He had expected rejection, an apology maybe, Harry trying to turn him down easy being the nice Gryffindor that he is. But this... this was crazy!

"Are you serious?" he whispered hoarsely.

"What do you think?" Harry rolled his eyes and hugged him, laughing. "Draco, Draco... we have been idiots for too long."

A small smile played in Harry´s mouths as he faced Draco. "So, you wanna start over?"

Draco nodded dumbly, ecstatically holding Harry. He was smiling so hard he could just die from happiness. Harry loved him! HARRY LOVED HIM! Wow.

Backing away slightly, he looked into the boy´s green eyes and leaned closer. Before their lips met, Harry suddenly stopped him by placing a hand on his chest. Surprised, Draco stopped the kiss. As he took note of Harry´s troubled expression, he suddenly felt scared that he´d take everything back.

"What´s wrong?"

"Drac, what about her?"

"Her?"

"Her. Francesca. Your fiancée. What are you going to do about her?"

Confused, Draco stepped back. "But I don´t have a fiancée. Francesca isn´t my--" He stopped, and realization dawned. "You broke up with me because you thought that she was my fiancée?"

Harry nodded, now bewildered himself. If she wasn´t Draco´s girlfriend, then who was she?

Draco started laughing, softly at first then louder. It was absurd. It was beyond absurd. Harry thought that he, Draco Malfoy, was engaged to someone else. His laughter on the situation didn´t seem to amuse Harry so much. The Gryffindor stomped towards the bed and sat, pouting.

"It´s not funny. I thought you were marrying her."

Draco stopped laughing, wiping the tears from his eyes while gasping. What a mess! He had to clear this up.

"Harry, the ring was part of a set my family gave her on her sixteenth birthday. Yes, I slept with her before but that was a long time ago. It didn´t mean anything. You don´t have to worry about her anymore."

Slightly appeased, Harry lost the frown. But he was still pouting. "Well, you didn´t have to laugh so much about it. Even I make mistakes, too, you know."

Draco stopped chuckling. "Of course, you do. You´re a Gryffindor."

"What´s that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said."

"Why you conceited ferret!"

"Who are you calling ferret?" Draco jumped Harry and sent the two of them rolling across the floor.

Harry screamed in annoyance. "You are such a spoiled brat! Stupid!"

"Hah! You made me suffer for a week just because of a silly assumption. Who are you calling stupid?"

Afterwards, they couldn´t remember who punched who first but, soon, they both had bloody noses and were locked in a death grip on the floor. The fight might have taken a deadlier turn had not Harry accidentally (or maybe not) grabbed Draco´s ass in the heat of the moment. Incredibly turned on and eager for action, Draco started kissing him wildly and they made up soon afterwards--very noisily.

Later on, as they lay gasping on the floor, their robes scattered around. Harry brushed a lock of sweaty blond hair off Draco´s forehead. The Slytherin´s eyes were closed, and he was breathing softly, probably trying to cool down.

"Some make-up session, huh?" Harry chortled.

Draco grinned. "Yeah! We should fight more often. In fact, I´m going to do you again as soon as I recover my energy."

"Weakling!" Harry teased.

"Hey, you´re the regular wildcat so don´t blame me. Don´t worry, in a few minutes I´ll have you screaming my name."

"Not if I fuck you first."

Needless to say, both boys were thankful that the room was soundproof as they blatantly ignored the bed and started their activities (ahem) right there on the Slytherin floor.

***

At eight o´clock the next morning, the two giggling lovers sneaked off towards the Gryffindor dorms while everyone was eating breakfast. They had both woken up late and instead of joining the others in the Great Hall in their muddled state, Harry just led Draco down to the kitchens and, with the help of the ever-loyal Dobby, ate their meal in relative privacy. Afterwards, Harry said that he had to go back to his room and shower and Draco insisted on accompanying him.

"Are you sure it´ll be empty?" the blonde asked, cautiously looking left and right.

"Yes. Gryffindors would rather go to detention than miss a meal. C´mon, while the Fat Lady isn´t looking."

Feeling like children, they hurried to Harry´s room, Draco giggling slightly when Harry pecked him on the nose on the landing. Just before he pushed the door open, Harry noticed that it was ajar. There seemed to be someone in there. He motioned for Draco to be silent and they both leaned forward, listening.

"You are so wonderful." Sighs. "That was amazing."

"You `ave no idea how long I´ve dreamed ov doing that to you, my Ron," a deep masculine voice spoke.

Harry and Draco´s eyes widened. Ron! Ron here with a guy! What were they doing?

"I´ve waited for so long, too." Ron´s voice could be heard clearly. "Are you staying this time?"

"Yes. I plan to get a job here. Maybe in Hogvarts."

Draco was signaling frantically to Harry. He wanted to enter and take a peek on the mystery guy. Harry was still stunned. Ron´s mysterious pen pal was here in Hogwarts. In their room! God, he hoped they weren´t shagging. Draco kept on pulling his sleeves until Harry finally gave in and nodded.

"All right. Let´s just peek okay. Don´t let them see us!" he whispered.

So, carefully, the two squeezed their heads into the crack of the door. At the same moment, Ron and his lover started moaning at the same time. Harry and Draco only had time to see who the guy was before they both got the hell out of there.

Breathing hard form their sprint, they tried to catch their breath in the corridor.

"Did you see that?" Draco exclaimed, "It´s Weasel and, and..."

"Viktor Krum," Harry finished weakly. It would take a very long time for him to recover from the sight that met their eyes when they peeked.

For Ron and Krum had been in the middle of the act, their limbs intertwined and skin slick with sweat and sex.

"Shit! That was the most traumatic thing I´ve ever seen." Draco panted, putting an arm around Harry.

"If it´s so traumatic then what´s that sticking out?" Harry pointed down to his crotch.

Draco flushed. "Fine. It turned me on. But, hell... can you blame me? That was intense." He grabbed Harry´s hand and led him back to the dungeons. "C´mon, let´s just shower in our rooms. I´ll lend you some robes."

Smiling, Harry let himself be dragged off. He was feeling ridiculously happy. He was glad he and Draco were able to work everything out. Their relationship was just beginning and he was looking forward to every single day of it.

***