Misinformation

It's been my experience that many mistakes in life stem from being under- or misinformed. For years, Ron, Hermione and I have been getting into all sorts of trouble by leaping to conclusions before we knew the whole story.

In first year, we were absolutely positive that Snape was trying to murder me. I mean, we had "evidence" and everything. He tried to hex my broom, he was bullying other teachers, he had attempted to sneak past Fluffy, he was trying to resurrect Voldemort...or, so we thought. It never occurred to us that maybe there was another explanation for all of it. It certainly never occurred to us that all that time, he'd been trying to save my life instead of end it, and that Professor Quirrell was really the one to look out for. Why not? Because we didn't have enough information.

In third year, we were convinced that Sirius Black, the fiendish criminal, was coming back to kill me like he had annihilated those muggles so many years before. After all, if you see it in the Daily Prophet, it must be true. Once again, we were painfully wrong on all counts. Why? Because we had faulty information.

And now, in our fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we have come full circle. True to form, we placed too much stock in unreliable information. Just my luck, though, I was the only one really affected by this particular mix-up. And what a mix-up it was...

It all started one rainy Saturday afternoon in the Gryffindor common room. It had been drizzling all morning and a better part of the previous night, so none of us had much hope that the weather would let up anytime soon.

Hermione was in her element. She was curled up in an overstuffed armchair by the fireplace, holding a cup of hot earl grey tea in one hand and balancing her newest literary treasure, "Demon or Druggie? Vlad the Inhaler," with the other. Her nose was buried in the book, and she exuded a distinct air of "disturb me and die." Needless to say, we all left her alone.

Seamus and Dean had slunk off to "sulk" together after we had finally managed to convince them that, no, none of us wanted to go play a rousing match of Mud Quidditch - a rather suspicious sounding game that the duo had come up with, which involved a lot less clothing and a lot more bodily contact than was usually included in the sport.

Colin mercifully had a nasty head cold, which he had considerately passed on to Dennis, leaving them both bed-ridden and miserable for the entire weekend. Somehow or another, they had even lured Ginny into playing nursemaid for them, which I suspect had less to do with her kind, motherly nature than it did the incriminating photos they had of her kissing Malcolm Baddock behind greenhouse two.

Neville was unsuccessfully attempting to teach Trevor how to play wizard's chess. He'd eagerly taken to the idea that the toad was some sort of super-genius in disguise after Fred and George had secretly charmed it to croak out the British National Anthem the week before.

The twins had by now, of course, moved on to a new plot, and had disappeared up to their dormitory room to work out a few of the kinks in their newest Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products. Every now and then there would be a disturbingly loud bang or explosion, and dust would shake down from the ceiling to land in our hair. We all decided we were better off not knowing what, exactly, they were working on.

This left Lavender, Parvati, Ron and I sitting morosely in one corner of the common room. It seemed that the girls had, for once, run out of fascinating divination speculations to swap with each other, and they had foolishly joined us, of all people, in hopes of entertainment. Neither I nor Ron had any great conversation-starters in mind, though, and a dull silence pervaded until Lavender gasped in sudden remembrance.

"Oh!" she cried, her eyes lighting up in that semi-malicious way that they always did when she knew some wicked gossip. "Oh! Oh! Have you all heard?"

Parvati perked up immediately, enthusiastically leaning forward to hear the news. "What? Heard what?"

"About Malfoy."

This caught me and Ron's attention, and Lavender looked smugly gratified to have finally pulled us into the conversation. I, at least, made a manly attempt to look only mildly interested, but Ron leaned forward with almost as much eagerness as Parvati. "What about him?" he asked, grinning already.

"Well," she began, folding her hands primly in her lap and pausing dramatically to meet each of our gazes. "Everyone knows that Malfoy is scum, of course, but he's apparently even worse than we thought. Oh, sure, he's arrogant, and sarcastic, and spouts all that pureblood nonsense, but a lot of people do that."

Lavender was now fighting not to smile, and I sensed the climax of her performance. Giving up the ghost of indifference, I scooted in with the rest of them.

"The thing about Malfoy is that, on top of all of his other scummy traits, he's also..." We all took a deep breath... "Homophobic!" ...and let it out in a collective gasp.

Malfoy? Malfoy? That great ponce? He was homophobic? Well, I suppose it made sense, when you thought about it. He wasn't exactly the most open-minded person I knew, what with all his nasty mudblood comments. But, hating gay people?

I felt myself getting uncomfortably warm, and hoped no one noticed my blush in the dim common room light. All I needed was for the girls to find out that I was, in fact, a homosexual, and that would be the end. The apocalypse. Total destruction.

I hadn't told anybody yet, including Ron, Hermione, and even Sirius. I didn't expect them to hate me or anything, as Gryffindors are pretty acceptant of that sort of thing, but somehow I just wasn't comfortable talking about it. Maybe I was just waiting for the right moment.

The absolute last people I wanted to know, though, were Lavender and Parvati. If they found out, then it would be all over school before you could say The-Boy-Who-Loved-Other-Boys. That would be most unfortunate, especially considering the apparent views of a certain Slytherin. For my arch-nemesis to hate me even more than he already did, just because I was gay, well...let's just say that it wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

To make matters worse, I'd been noticing a few little things about Draco Malfoy in recent weeks. Little things like how infectious his laugh was, and how his silvery eyes just drew you in, and how his truly gorgeous blonde hair flipped so cutely just at the ends. And, worst of all, I'd noticed that he could actually be nice when he wanted to. Draco Malfoy. Nice. It was mind-boggling. Not to mention attractively endearing.

But, I was Harry Potter. I wasn't supposed to find Slytherins endearing, and especially not this Slytherin. Not this cruel, snobbish, homophobic Slytherin.

Good lord. I was screwed.

Correction. Now I was screwed. Bored teenage girls are Cruel Creatures Indeed, and thus, Lavender and Parvati were quick to stew up an oh-so-clever plan to torment Malfoy and alleviate their tedium. Unfortunately, they elected me as the central instigator of said plan, Ron eagerly encouraging their plotting.

Of course, I'm sure they had no idea that the little ruse hit a little close to home on my part. Er...probably. Being as they were still, in fact, bored teenage girls, I wouldn't quite put it past them to throw in a little Harry-harassment if the opportunity presented itself.

Point being, I soon found myself skulking aimlessly around in the dungeons, trying to "accidentally" bump into Slytherin's Silver Sovereign. My entire body was tense in worried anticipation, nerves jangling as I desperately hoped that, for once, I didn't have a run-in with Malfoy.

It didn't help my frame of mind that I could hear the girls' excited giggling and Ron's fiendish chuckling emanating from a spot some ten feet behind me. On top of being forced to take the lead role in this charade, Ron had helpfully feneagled me into lending the three of them my invisibility cloak so that they could witness the entire incident. Splendid.

I wandered about for the better part of an hour, and was just about to demand that we all return to the Gryffindor common room like logical human beings, when the horribly inevitable occurred. Draco Malfoy, King of All Things Slimy, rounded the corner.

Catching sight of me, and undoubtedly seizing eagerly onto the despairing expression gracing my face, Malfoy strutted belligerently over to where I had stopped in the middle of the hall. Crossing his arms imperiously over his chest and smirking in the way that he was wont to do, he practically crooned, "Well, well, well. What have we here? Harry Potter? In the dungeons?"

I stoically kept up my game face, regarding him as calmly as I could and replying, "Hallo, Malfoy."

His eyebrow quirked slightly at my lack of return fire, but he gave no other outward signs of surprise. Instead, Malfoy walked around me in a slow circle, staring at me speculatively. "So. Saint Potter. What might you unfortunately be doing in my territory?"

"Looking for you, actually."

That stopped him in his tracks. The torchlight glinted off of his delicate blonde hair as he stepped forward to peer suspiciously into my eyes, and I struggled to keep both focused and under control. "Looking...for me? How...quaint. And what could I possibly have that the high and mighty Harry Snotter wants?"

There it was. An opening if ever I saw one. If I didn't do this, Lavender and Parvati would have me drawn, quartered, and fed to the giant squid. I steeled myself, knowing that they and Ron were all watching, and took a deep breath.

Smiling charmingly, I leaned into Malfoy's personal space, and his eyes widened in alarm. "What do I want? That's simple." I moved closer. We were now only centimeters apart, and I could feel his breath coming in nervous spurts. And then, I said the one syllable that would turn my world upside down.

"You."

I closed the last small space between us, tentatively pressing my lips to his. They were even softer that I was expecting, and I didn't quite manage to suppress the hum of pleasure rumbling in my throat. In my mind, I imagined how the girls must be squealing to themselves under my cloak, Ron uncomfortably waiting for the conflict he'd come to see.

After a moment, I decided that this must have been enough to suitably scare Draco- - I simply couldn't call him Malfoy after that intimate moment - and began to pull back. I only made it a few centimeters before Draco grabbed me by the collar, gazing intensely at me.

"Potter," he said slowly. "What the hell was that?!"

Stay in character, I furiously reminded myself. Can't spill the beans yet.

"The truth is, Draco," I replied, and he looked startled at hearing me use his first name, "I'm quite in love with you. And, um...yeah."

There was a long pause. "You...love me?" Nodding, I waited for his explosion of panic and disgust. Any moment now...any moment... "Well, for God's sake, Harry, why didn't you say so sooner?"

And, instead of punching me in the face, he pulled me back to him to catch me up in another kiss. I squeaked in pleased surprise, wrapping my arms around his narrow waist. Somewhere in the background, I could distinctly make out the sound of my best friend gagging frantically. I ignored him, focusing on the truly lovely things Draco was doing with his tongue, until...

"What the FUCK?!" Ron shouted, yanking the invisibility cloak off of him and the girls. Draco and I jumped apart in surprise, watching as he turned indignantly to Lavender. "I thought you said he was homophobic, not homosexual!"

Lavender stared dazedly at Draco and I, licking her lips and clearing her throat a few times before faintly answering, "Er, that's what I was told...though, I suppose one oughtn't take anything George says at face value..."

"Yes, that generally goes without saying," Ron snapped irritably.

"Excuse me," Draco interrupted. His voice was colder than ice, but I couldn't help but notice that one of his hands had slipped down to hold me firmly and protectively around the waist. "Someone mind explaining what is going on? Where did you lot come from?"

"That's beside the point!" Ron cried. The way he kept waving his hands about reminded me of the giant squid, were it having some sort of seizure. "This didn't go right at all! You're supposed to fight Harry, not snog him!"

"I don't think I like the way you said 'supposed to.'"

Draco had now turned accusatory eyes on me, but I grabbed his arm before he could pull away. "Ah...here's the thing," I started, attempting a conciliatory smile. I think I looked a bit more sick than reassuring. "You see, Lavender had heard this rumor, right, and they wanted me to kind of, you know, give you a scare..." I was well aware of the fact that I was stuttering, but I'd been overtaken by an inexplicable sense of anxiety.

That's when it hit me. My attraction to Draco wasn't just the boy-he's-rather-good-looking physical type, the my-life-would-be-complete-if-he'd-just-look-at-me obsession type, or even the I-want-to-send-him-corny-love-poems-about-his-dimples crush type. It was, believe it or not, the real deal. When had I said that I was in love with him, I'd really meant it, even though I hadn't realized it at the time. There was a degree of unconscious sincerity in the phrase that I couldn't have faked even had I tried.

The object of my affection, however, was looking more suspicious by the moment. "Give me a scare? So, that's what this is about?" Draco's cheeks were uncharacteristically flushed, and with a start I realized that he was embarrassed. The untouchable, totally nonchalant Malfoy heir was distressed because he'd taken a chance and trusted someone, only to have it seemingly shoved back in his face.

He wrenched his arm from my grip and snarled at me with more rage than I'd ever heard from him, even in all our years of rivalry. "You utter bastard," he hissed, stormy gray eyes flashing with something that suspiciously resembled hurt. "Whatever happened to Gryffindor righteousness? You're all nothing but a bunch of fucking assholes. "

"Serves you right, you..." Ron began, but I speared him with a glare.

"Shut up, Ron," I snapped before turning back to the seething Slytherin in front of me. "Look, we didn't think that you'd actually care. How were we supposed to know that...that you..." I stopped. "Right. The point is, I didn't want to go along with this in the first place, because everything I said..." I grabbed Draco's collar and pulled him forward, undaunted by his pronounced scowl. "...was true."

Inspired by the distinctively movie-like drama of that simple statement, I kissed him again. It was even sweeter this time, as I channeled all of my feelings into that intimate contact. Draco resisted for a moment, pushing against me as if he thought this were another trick. Understandable, really. Soon, though, he gave in and was pushing against me with entirely different intent.

There was a vague thump behind me, and as Draco from I broke from our kiss, I discovered that Ron had fainted. Lavender and Parvati, on the other hand, looked absolutely thrilled. Their excited squeals echoed in the passageway, and I wouldn't have been surprised to hear glass shattering in the distance.

"My goodness," Draco panted, gazing at Ron's prone form. "If I'd known that was all it took to shut him up, I'd have tried it sooner." He smiled at me, and for once I didn't jump to Ron's defense.

Instead, I smiled back and said, "Tell me about it. Remind me to invite you up to Gryffindor Tower next time he gets going about the Chudley Cannons."

"The Cannons? Honestly." He glanced at me from the corner of his silver eyes, not-so-subtly slipping his hand into mine. "So. What happens now?"

"I suppose we live happily ever after. That's what all those princes and princesses always do, right? After they find true love and all that?"

"Alright, but on one condition." Draco smirked. "You're the princess."