All's Fair

Chapter Fifteen

A beam of light shone directly into Harry's eyes, and he gave a groan as he pulled the bedcovers up over his face.

He groaned again upon discovering that the blankets in the hospital wing were the annoying thin kind that did not actually block out any light when you attempted to shield your face with them.

With what felt like a massive effort, Harry lifted his head to remove the pillow from under it, which he shoved over the top of the sheets covering his face. Darkness at last. He let his neck relax, and promptly bashed his head on the headboard. Hard.

He raised a hand to rub his painful head, and the pillow promptly dislodged itself from the top of his pile of covers, allowing the light to assault his eyes again.

"Ungh... oomph!" complained Harry as something heavy landed on the end of the bed and the resulting bounce from the mattress smashed his poor skull into the headboard once more.

The covers were wrenched away from his face and Harry howled in agony as his eyes were assaulted by the bright morning light.

"Who- Ron!" howled the Boy Who Felt Like He Was Dying, "it's the morning! Give me back my covers and let me die in peace."

"No rest for the wicked," replied Ron grimly, handing Harry his glasses.

Harry sighed as he put them on. "I know you're angry, but can't this wait until I'm thinking straight?"

"Harry, you're doing heavens know what with Malfoy! You clearly haven't been thinking straight -in any sense of the word- for quite a while!"

"Sorry," apologised Harry, not really sure what else to say.

"Bloody hell, is that the best you can do?"

"Um, yes. You did want to have this conversation now."

Harry quailed under the furious glare of his best friend. As Ron's face began to change colour, Harry sought franticly for something to calm the increasingly enraged boy down before it was too late and his remains had to be posted to the Dursleys in a matchbox. Not that it would bother them much.

'Draco's just too hot, Ron, I couldn't help it...' No, not good.

'He's not so bad when you get to know him?' No, I'm not even sure if I believe that.

'It just happened?'

"Ron..." started Harry.

"Don't 'Ron' me, you, you house traitor!"

"What?"

"Malfoy is not just a Slytherin, Harry. Malfoy is the Slytherin! And you, you just... how could you?"

Harry looked at Ron's face and was distressed to see not only anger but disappointment. And that was somehow infinitely worse.

"Ron-"

"Look, even after we all realised it wasn't going to be Ginny or any other girl at that, we all assumed you'd fine a nice guy to be with. Why couldn't it be someone normal, like Seamus?" Ron caught himself. "Well, maybe not like Seamus." Harry sniggered in spite of himself.

"R-"

"I'm not finished! I'm not going to stop you doing anything, mate," said Ron looking very much like he wanted to, "And I'll be here if- when he hurts you. If you're lucky, I won't even say 'I told you so' when he does. But please, Harry, think about it. Malfoy."

And Harry thought about it.

"Ron," he finally said. "I know it seems really stupid, but please give him a chance. He doesn't want to hurt me, or any of us- don't look at me like that!"

Ron snorted in disbelief.

"No, I'm serious. This whole prank thing- it's just a game, and he's playing the way anyone brought up the way he was would do. And we're giving as good as we're getting," added Harry, correctly guessing that this would make Ron feel better.

The red haired boy nodded, his chest swelling with pride. "Yeah, we really got them last time. Did you see Pansy-"

"And there's my last point," interrupted Harry. "Last night you were saying something about making Pansy your sex slave."

Ron blushed red to his roots. Which were also red. It was quite an interesting effect. "Um..."

"Not an issue, Ron. I've seen Hermione looking at Blaise, it's really nothing to be ashamed of. I mean yes, it's what they had wanted you both to do all along, but there's nothing wrong with that. We can just, I dunno..." Harry trailed off, hoping that Ron would finish his sentence.

"Start over?" prompted Ron, thinking that he had come to the conclusion of his own accord.

"Great idea! So the two of us, we're alright?"

"'Course!" cried Ron. "We always were!"

Harry smiled contentedly. "Now I suggest that we both go back to sleep. In ten minutes we'll be missing Potions, so we had better be out for the count if Madam Pomfrey comes to check on us."

"Good idea, mate. 'Night!"

Harry watched as Ron headed back to his bed and fell asleep instantly, smiling to himself at a job well done.

LINE BREAK

"Still in one piece, I see," commented Draco after making a point of looking Harry up and down.

Harry flushed. "Er, yes. Shouldn't I be? Is this another prank?" he looked wildly from side to side, then span around checking the corridor behind him. As he tried to turn back again at high speed, a flailing foot caught his robe and he felt himself toppling over.

Just as Harry gave up his fight for balance, he felt hands from behind him grasp him firmly around the waist and hold him upright until he was in control of his body again.

Well, sort of in control, Harry mused to himself as he felt soft lips on one of his earlobes. He gave a small leap upwards as he felt teeth tugging gently at it, "Draco!"

"What is it, Harry?" came the blond's voice from behind him. "Why so shy?"

"We're in standing in a..." Harry trailed off as Draco began to idly trace the shape of the muscles on his chest, "...corridor!"

"And?" asked Draco, apparently unable to understand why this was an issue.

"Dracooooo," cried Harry just as elegant hands slid under his shirt and found a nipple.

"Was that," queried Draco, "a 'ravish me now' kind of 'Dracooooo', or are you seriously asking me to stop?"

"I..." Harry gulped. "The first- no, second one. I think."

"You think," purred the other boy as he trailed his hands lower. "Do inform me when you're more certain."

Harry was saved from having to respond by the sound of footsteps further down the corridor. He gave a squeak of shock and jumped away from Draco, spinning to face the disappointed blond.

Draco scowled at the first year Hufflepuff (yes, that first year Hufflepuff), who sped up as she neared them, eventually breaking into a sprint as she headed down to the Great Hall for her lunch, shaking in utter terror.

"You know, I just remembered another reason why I didn't date Gryffindors," growled Draco. "You're all so damn uptight!"

"Uptight my arse!" cried Harry. Draco grabbed said arse in response. Harry yelped and batted his hands away.

"See?" said the exasperated youth.

"Look, we can do anything you want in private -well, possibly not anything, but you know what I mean. It's just that we're in the corridor! Don't you have any sense of decency?"

"Well... no. I'm a Slytherin, we get off on things like this," replied Draco frankly.

Harry blushed again.

"Am I at least allowed to kiss you before we go eat?"

Harry considered it then smiled, leaning forward to press his lips chastely to Draco's. Draco wrapped an arm around Harry's waist in response, pulling him closer as he crushed their lips together.

Yet more footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor, and Harry pulled away again.

"Oh for crying out loud!" yelled Draco. Harry looked apologetic. Draco finally sighed gustily. "Come on, let's go down to lunch."

Just outside the Great Hall, Draco stopped Harry. "Um..." he started.

"Yes?"

"If I pull a prank on you when we get into the Great Hall, are you going to hate me for it?"

Harry thought about it. "Depends what it is."

"Oh, I don't think you'll object too much," replied Draco with a smirk. "I was just warning you."

"Wh-"

"I'm hungry, let's go eat. You can go first," he added magnanimously, then threw open the doors to the hall and gave Harry a push through them.

"Dr-"

Draco took out his wand and muttered a quiet spell. There was a loud bang, a flash of light and a puff of smoke, leaving Harry thinking that it was just like a muggle 'magic trick'. Silence fell.

Harry touched his head. Everything that had been there a moment ago was still there, and there did not appear to be any new appendages.

As the doors of the Great Hall swung shut behind them, Harry felt a draft. He looked down. Then he looked up, rubbed his eyes, blinked a few times, then looked again.

Funny, he thought, that's what I thought I saw the first time.

That must mean that I really am standing in the middle of the Great Hall dressed as a cheerleader.

I'm never going to hear the end of this.

The outfit's kinda cool, though.

It was true- well, if you were into that kind of thing. Harry was decked out in his House colours, but certainly not in the usual format. Very short shorts, a T-shirt with the Hogwarts crest and, joy of all joys... red and gold pom-poms!

Harry was startled by a loud wolf-whistle from the Gryffindor table. Unsurprisingly, in was Seamus Finnigan. "Hey, Harry!" he yelled. "Looking good!"

Draco scowled at him, but the boy was completely oblivious. Harry gave his friends a wave, shaking his pom-poms enthusiastically.

"Harry..." growled Draco, "what are you doing?"

"Well you did dress me up like this, what did you expect?" grinned Harry, slightly embarrassed but extremely happy with his new outfit nonetheless.

"This, I suppose. Impressed?"

"Oh, very. I didn't know that such a spell existed!"

"Nor did I, but, well, Weasel gave me the idea and I couldn't resist having a look," Draco responded with a smile.

"Where, exactly, did you look?" queried Harry. "It's not the kind of thing you find in The Standard Book of Spells, is it?"

Draco blushed a bit. "No, you'd have to look in something along the lines of The Slytherin's Guide to Interesting Magic."

"The Slytherin's Guide to Interesting Magic?"

"Heh, yeah. Upside of being a Slytherin, Harry. We have all the most interesting reading material."

"I should have guessed. Anyway, I'm starving, so I'm heading off now. I'll speak to you later."

Draco nodded, and then they each made their way to their respective tables.

"Harry," sighed Hermione a minute later, "am I right in thinking that you're not particularly bothered about your attire?"

"Spot on," smiled Harry. "Pass the sausages."

Ron speared a sausage with his fork before handing the plate to Harry. "I suppose mentioning your little idea last night to Malfoy was just asking for it, really," he sighed.

"Yup."

Hermione, who had, of course, heard about everything from the boys that morning (her favourite bits were the little details that Harry was only too happy to supply- the ones that caused Ron to block his ears and hum loudly until their telling was finished), rolled her eyes.

"Oy, Harry," called Dean as he leant in to grab some baked beans (while some of the other Houses had relatively civilised tables, 'free for all' would have been a pleasant way of putting the Gryffindors' table manners), "what were you talking about with Malfoy?"

"I was telling him off for what he did to me. I mean seriously, dressing me as a cheerleader?"

"Oh. Alright then."

Hermione rolled her eyes again. On one hand, it was convenient that nobody on the table had seen through Harry's pretty pathetic excuse. On the other, it was pretty disturbing that nobody thought it at all strange that Harry and Draco had walked into the Great Hall together, and that not a single person had realised that Draco was currently aiming death glares at all the people looking at Harry and his new clothes with, well, interest.

Then she turned to look at Blaise, who was openly staring at her. She raised an eyebrow, then turned away. If things had been interesting before, the new dynamics of the game would take it to a whole new level.

The war was on.