The Dragon Games

The Dream

A field of men in black hooded cloaks, stretched out as far as the eye can see. Facing them, a group of wizards, hoodless, but there are a lot less of them than there are hooded cloaks. Bodies lay scattered about, all of them with contorted facial features of pure fright. The stench of death is almost unbearable, and so are the cries of pain.

Harry is among the hoodless crowd, and he's the one standing in front of them all. He has his wand in one hand, and a double-edged sword in the other.

The two armies are facing off again, waiting for the other to make a move. There is commotion coming from the other side of the field as a hooded figure makes its way to the front. The figure pushes aside the last of the hooded figures in its way so that it is face to face with Harry.

Harry reaches up and pulls off the figure's hood - it's Draco. He's smiling, but it's not a menacing smile.

Harry pulls away, a little shocked, and he feels a hand land on his shoulder. He looks up to see Dumbledore smiling down at him. Harry nods back and turns to Draco.

"Here," he says, and he hands Draco his sword.

Draco takes it and takes his place in line by Harry.

The hooded army is in an uproar and Voldemort is screaming something Harry doesn't understand. Voldemort advances on them. He rises up his wand, but Voldemort makes a gesture and Harry goes flying back into an old wall of a house.

Voldemort has his wand on Draco, and Draco is rising up the sword.

A whisper comes from inside the house.

"Harry, darling son, don't watch." It's a feminine whisper- the whisper of Harry's mother.

But he is still watching Draco. Voldemort is laughing and speaking to him in the language that Harry doesn't know, and Draco speaks back in the same language.

Draco looks over at him, his eyes shining with fear and an apology. Voldemort has taken Harry's sword away from Draco, and is raising it up.

"Harry!"

---

Harry jumped awake. He was sweating profusely, but feeling oddly cold. He closed his eyes. He had had that dream before, but Draco had never come forward before, and Voldemort had never tossed him off. He knew there was that house in the dream- the house that, if he wasn't mistaken, was Godric's Hollow, but he had never been that close to it before.

Who had screamed at the end of his dream? Was it Draco? His mum? He couldn't tell who the voice had belonged to.

He groaned again, feeling sick to his stomach. That dream was always unsettling, but this time it was more so. He glanced at his watch; it was five o'clock, Tuesday morning. He and Draco had missed all of their Monday classes because of the Games.

Draco, he thought. The last time he had been with him, they had kissed. After that, the rest was pretty much a blur of awkward talking. Draco was the first to leave the room yesterday, claiming he was exhausted. Harry was too, but he didn't know if he could get any sleep.

When he had come up to his room, he found that the letter from the Angel was gone. Draco must have taken it back because it wasn't important anymore.

Harry blinked a few times and pulled on his glasses. There was no way he was getting back to sleep.

---

Draco was lying in his bed. Everything that had happened in the last few hours was running through his head.

He had told Harry practically everything. He had told him about Dumbledore. That was one of the things he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, and yet he had done it.

But the thing nagging on his mind the most was that Harry Potter had kissed him. One unbelievable kiss that affirmed everything Draco had been worried about for a month. He was indeed attracted to Harry, and now he didn't have to worry about whether or not Harry had the same sort of feelings.

He closed his eyes in a blissful smile; he had never been so happy. He opened his eyes again and spotted the letter he had written to Harry as the Angel. That's when he remembered: Harry had interrupted him in the middle of one of the most important letters he had ever sat down to write; a letter to his father that explained how his plan was going to happen.

The letter was still sitting unfinished in the Room of Magic and Draco needed to get to it. He pushed his covers off himself and slipped on a pair of shoes. He rushed through the castle and into the room, shutting the door. The room was quiet and dark, so he lit a few candles and sat down to finish.

Everything had to be very specific. If he messed up even one line, if he let anything seem even a bit off, his father would suspect fowl play.

He finished the letter, signed it, and sealed it in an envelope. Just as he was finishing packing everything up, he heard the door open. He turned, expecting to see Harry, but instead came face to face with Pansy, who looked like she had been crying for quite a long time.

"Draco?" Her voice was small and soft.

"Pansy?" he asked, frowning. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to... to talk to you... before I left," Pansy sniffled.

"Left?" he asked.

"The Headmistress has felt it fit to kick Blaise, Millicent and me out of Hogwarts," she mumbled. "As of today, I am no longer a student at this school."

Pansy's voice was filled with disappointment, and Draco couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for her. After all, at a point in his life he had cared about her.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be." Pansy shrugged. "I should be apologizing to you."

He looked at her curiously; it wasn't like Pansy to do so.

"I told your father," she admitted, wiping a tear from her eye.

"What did you tell him?" he asked, controlling the anger that was beginning to rise in his voice.

"I told him that you and Potter were conversing a lot, and that you two seemed to be up to something," she said. "I was just mad at you, I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" Draco asked suspiciously.

Pansy gave a half smile as she wiped her face with the back of her hand. "You know me too well," she said. "I need a favor from you."

"Well you can forget it," he hissed. "I'm not doing you any more favors."

Her eyes flashed. "It has to do with Granger."

"I don't care if it has to do with the Minister of Magic! I'm not doing you anything," he snarled.

"Why? What has gotten into you?"

"It's called sensibility," Draco jibed. "You should look into it."

"This is sensible!" she croaked. "If I don't carry out our plans, I'm dead! Do you hear that, Draco? I'll be dead because you couldn't bother to help me."

"Then I hope it's a quick death," he sneered. "Now get out of here."

"You're going to pay for this, Draco Malfoy," she said under her breath. "I promise you, you're going to regret this."

Draco just gave her a tight-lipped smile; she let out a huff and stormed out of the room.

"Good riddance," he said after her.

Pansy didn't have much else left to do now. Without him as an inside source at Hogwarts, he very much doubted that they'd be able to attack Hermione at all.

Draco brought the letter to his dormitory to send with his eagle. It was now six o'clock, and no one was in the common room as he passed through. However, in the dormitory, he found Harry sitting on his bed.

"Morning," Draco said to him, stopping in his tracks. He watched him cautiously, having no idea how Harry was going to act, or what was going to happen with their relationship.

Harry looked up. "Hey. You're up early."

"So are you," he said.

He looked around for his eagle, but it was no where in sight. However, Harry's snowy owl was, happily chirping away inside her cage on top of the nightstand.

"Could I borrow your owl?" he asked. "I need to send a letter."

Harry paused for a moment. "Yeah, I just have to write a reply and she can take both."

"Thanks," he said as he watched Harry quickly grab a piece of parchment. "Who are you writing to?"

"Lupin," Harry muttered as he scribbled away. "Apparently I have to go home for the holiday."

"Home?" Draco said curiously. "To the Muggles?"

"No, I don't live with them anymore," Harry answered, shaking his head as he placed the parchment in an envelope. "I have my own house."

"Wow," he said, impressed.

"I have a question, Draco," Harry said, folding and sealing the envelope.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing for the holiday?" the former Gryffindor asked, looking at him curiously. He took Draco's letter and tied both envelopes to his owl, who immediately took off out the open window.

Draco was puzzled on why he wanted to know. "I have to see my father mid vacation, but other than that, nothing."

"Your father?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," he replied with a nod.

"Your father is awful, Draco," Harry said in a low voice.

"I know," he agreed. "But I have to, or he'll try to take a more affirmative action."

Harry frowned, clearly unsure what that meant.

"So why did you want to know what I was doing?" he pressed.

"Oh, I was thinking that maybe we'd be able to play this vacation without having to worry about classes and homework," Harry said.

"Sounds good to me," Draco said with a nod. But what really sounded good to him was spending more time with Harry.

"Good," Harry echoed, and then awkwardly looked down.

He paused awkwardly too. One of them was going to have to bring up the kiss or their relationship soon, or they'd never be able to have a decent conversation again.

Harry was the one who finally broke the silence.

"What happens now?"

"I-" Draco stared to say that he didn't know.

"Draco, I think I'm falling for you," Harry mumbled. He looked so innocent as he spoke that Draco couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" he asked, more sarcastic than he had intended it to be.

Harry suddenly looked very worried.

"Well, if you must hear it, I think I'm falling for you as well," he admitted.

Clearly relieved by that statement, Harry asked, "Are we...dating...or something?" Harry asked.

Draco furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Is that what he wanted? Yes, it was, but was that what Harry wanted? Could Harry take being ousted? Would he want his friends to know?

"Do you want to?" he countered.

"I-I dunno," Harry sighed. "Ron's definitely not going to approve of this."

For a moment, this statement made Draco a little irked. What did it matter what his friends thought? Then he remembered: this was Harry he was dealing with, and other people's feelings mattered.

"We can keep it quiet for a while," Draco suggested. "Until you're ready."

Harry didn't answer.

---

"Unless you want to go screaming and shouting it to the world, then be my guest," Draco said. "I'd do the same if I had anyone to scream it to."

Harry detected a little bit of loneliness at the end of Draco's statement.

"Let's keep it quiet for a while," Harry finally decided. "This vacation, I'll tell them."

By them, he meant Ron and Hermione, and if he waited for vacation, he had a week to come up with how to tell them.

Draco nodded; this seemed to be okay with him. "Sounds good. You don't want me to be with you while you do it, do you?" he asked, screwing up his face.

"Maybe," Harry sighed. "I don't know yet."

"Alright," Draco said, with a smile that made Harry melt. He could get used to this relationship thing.

Wow, he thought. I'm with Draco Malfoy. That was a thought he never believed he'd think in his life, let alone be glad for thinking it.

Harry heard Keifer stirring and pulling open his curtains. He looked at them as he yawned.

"Harry, Draco," he greeted. "You're actually here."

They weren't in their dormitory a lot, especially because neither of them could get much sleep.

"Yeah." Harry nodded.

"Actually, we were just leaving," Draco said dismissively.

We were? Harry thought.

"That's cool," Keifer said as he dragged himself to the bathroom.

"Breakfast?" Draco asked.

"Oh, sure," Harry said.

"Let me get dressed first. I'll meet you down there."

"Okay."

There was a small pause before Draco asked quickly, "Are we sitting together?"

"Um, sure," Harry said. It would be a beginning transition for Ron to see him with Draco first, before he sprang the news on him.

He made his way down to the Great Hall to find Ron sitting at the table reading a book and did a double take. There was tons of food laid out before his always-hungry friend, and yet he was reading a book.

"Homework?" Harry asked, sitting across from him.

"Sort of," Ron muttered, placing the book down before Harry could read the title. "You missed class yesterday."

"Oh, er, yeah, I did," he admitted. "I slept through most of the day."

"Oh," Ron said. "Did you visit Hermione?"

"Yeah. On Sunday."

"Madam Pomfrey said she was free to go today," Ron mused, grinning, "because she wouldn't stop nagging about missing class."

Harry smiled too. "She would."

"I know!" Ron laughed.

The two laughed as if they had been talking for months, as if both of them weren't hiding anything.

"So, is she coming to breakfast?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Ron replied.

Harry wanted to bring up Draco, tell Ron that he was going to be eating with them, but he couldn't figure out if he should call him Draco or Malfoy- the latter would freak him out less.

"So," Ron said after a moment. "How have you come along with getting information from Malfoy?"

That's one way to bring up the topic, Harry thought gladly.

"Actually, it's going fine," he said. "In fact, I'm having him eat with us, so I can discuss more with him."

"You invited him to breakfast?" Ron said, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's a good thing Hermione is going to be here or I'd refuse to let you, because I can't deal with that twit without her to hold me back," Ron said, grabbing a helping of toast to munch on. "You know, Ginny told me something funny the other day."

"Oh yeah?" Harry said, wondering what it was.

"She said you and Malfoy were in the library researching something. Is that true?" Ron asked.

"Yes," Harry replied, grabbing a piece of toast as well.

He didn't elaborate, and before Ron could ask anything more, Hermione came into the Hall. Ron quickly froze as she walked over.

"Hermione," he said. "How are you?"

Hermione grinned at Ron's awkwardness and sat down beside him.

"I'm feeling better." She smiled. "Morning, Harry."

"Morning, Hermione," he greeted warmly. "Madam Pomfrey found a counter spell?"

"Well, sort of," Hermione said. "She and Rosaria Snape came up with a nullifying potion for me."

"That Snape woman?" Ron protested loudly. "She trusted that fowl man's wife?"

"Ron, really. It's helped," Hermione said, trying to calm him.

"I still don't trust her," he growled.

"I know," she said, taking his hand underneath the table.

Harry smiled; these two had finally gotten their act together.

"Stop smiling, Harry!" Ron said, swatting at him. "I've got enough grief from Ginny cooing over us."

"It's just nice, that's all," he said, laughing.

Harry turned to see Draco coming towards them. He was only wearing his school uniform, but he still looked damn sexy.

"Morning," Harry told him.

Draco gave him a curious look, silently asking if he had told them. Harry shook his head quickly.

"Hey," Draco said, taking a seat next to Harry.

Hermione regarded him apprehensively.

"Malfoy, why are you..." She turned to Ron, believing she had missed something in the last few days.

Ron shrugged, giving Draco a slight glare.

"So," Ron said. "You're not being a slimy git like normal and hiding information from us, are you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Weasel-y," Draco corrected himself. Clearly calling Ginny Weasel that many times had gotten Draco to associate the name with the whole lot.

"You're an ass, Malfoy," Ron snapped.

"Yeah, well at least I-"

Harry nudged him in the ribs and Draco stopped short, pretending to have a bad cough.

Maybe this whole eating thing wasn't going to work. After all, Draco still didn't like his friends, and Ron still hated Draco.

"I have a question for you, Malfoy," Hermione said.

Draco cocked an eyebrow at her. "What's that, Granger?"

"Who in their right made let you back into Hogwarts?" Her voice was icy.

Harry stared at her, taken aback, as did the other two boys. This statement coming from Hermione was almost as bad as if Draco had called her a Mudblood.

"The Headmistress, if you must know," Draco said, his voice just as icy.

Hermione's face fell into complete and utter confusion, and Draco smirked. Harry then realized that Draco knew Hermione would figure out that Aiyana was Dumbledore.

"But why..." she said, frowning and pausing.

"Why indeed!" Ron said, disgruntled. "Aiyana must be pretty thick to not realize what a fucking creep you are, Malfoy."

The three looked down as Ron said this, and he got confused.

"Don't," Hermione said quickly. "Just drop it."

"I don't get it," he said.

"No shit, Weasley," Draco sneered. "For you to get it, you'd actually have to have some brains in that thick skull of yours."

"Alright," Harry said, quickly intervening. "Stop."

Draco grinned evilly at Ron who glared back.

"I actually have to go see Aiyana," Hermione said shortly. "She's going to tell me what happened to Pansy and what I can do now to protect myself."

"They got kicked out," Draco said, and their eyes all turned to him. "Pansy told me this morning," he continued. "They left today on the train."

"Oh." Hermione paused. "I see."

"I'm still going to escort you up there," Ron said quickly. "I don't trust him." He nodded his head at Draco, who just shrugged.

"Well, then we better go now," Hermione said. "I don't want to make you late for class."

Ron just smiled and they stood up.

"Harry, can I have a quick word?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded and started to stand.

Ron hung back by the table as Hermione led him off.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Harry, I know that Malfoy may not have been involved with Pansy's scheme, but he's still evil, and I don't know if I can handle being around him, or any of the Slytherins for that matter."

"Oh," Harry said, frowning. "I-I didn't know, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I know you're just trying to sort this Malfoy business out. I just wanted you to know that I just don't feel comfortable around him."

Harry nodded. "Alright. But I just want to warn you, he may be coming with us this vacation."

"He's what?"

"It'll only be for a short time."

"Erm, okay, Harry... But why-"

"Well, at least my mom's not a whore!" Harry heard Ron shout, and he and Hermione turned to see Draco and Ron fighting. They rushed over.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"He insulted my mum!" Ron yelled.

"He insulted me first!" Draco countered back.

"Oh, let's just go!" Hermione huffed, annoyed.

"Right," Ron said, giving Draco a stern glare. "You better watch it, Malfoy."

"Or you'll wh-" Draco stopped when he saw the look Harry was giving him.

When Ron and Hermione left, Harry smiled at him, shaking his head. "Can't you get along with anyone?"

"I can't get along with him." Draco sighed. "I'm sorry. I told myself I wouldn't do that so you'd be pleased, but clearly that didn't happen."

"It's okay." He shrugged. "It's just you, Draco."

"Yeah, you've got a point."

"Well... I should start heading to class."

"Hold on," Draco said, smiling mischievously. "Follow me."

Harry watched as Draco started to walk out of the Great Hall, and he followed him towards an empty hall. When they reached it, Draco turned back to him.

"That's better," he said.

He slid a hand through raven hair, causing Harry to become weak in the knees as he leaned in to kiss him. Draco closed his eyes and kissed him back as he was pushed up against the wall. After a moment, he pulled away, one hand still cupping Harry's face.

"You said something about getting to class?" he mumbled, not moving away.

"Yeah," Harry said, his breathing shallow.

Harry pulled Draco closer to him, kissing him again more fiercely. Finally, he pulled away.

"We really have to go," he laughed, as Draco tickled his neck with a kiss.

"Right," Draco said, moving away. "Class."

Harry straightened his robes and glasses, which had both gone slightly askew. He didn't want to leave for class; he wanted to stay with Draco in this hall for as long as he desired.

"So, you're still on for this vacation?" he asked.

"It's sounding more and more appealing every second," Draco said, grinning.

"Great," Harry smiled. "This vacation it is."