Halloween Ball

There he was, coming out of the Charms classroom, surrounded by his usual group of fellow Gryffindors. I was on the floor below him, watching his every beautiful move. He spotted me, grinned, excused himself from Weasley and Granger, and came down the stairs to join me.

We walked out onto the Hogwarts grounds holding hands in silence. Younger students were laughing and talking and did not seem to notice The Boy Who Lived holding hands with a respectable boy from Slytherin house.

We sat down at our favorite tree near the Forbidden Forest. I brought his favorite candy (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans) and he happily chewed them.

"What's this all about, Draco?" he asked.

"What, I can't give the boy I love special treats every now and then?" I playfully responded. He giggled. "But seriously," I continued, "you know the Halloween Ball is coming up soon, and I wonder if you would be interested in unofficially coming with me."

Harry's smile disappeared and he said, "Draco, I don't think we should go public with our relationship just yet. What if important people find out? What if your father finds out? We're two gays in a straight society and by some we may not be looked upon with our usual respect." He knew he was hurting himself as well as me when he said this.

"Harry, you know I love you, and you love me, so why shouldn't we show our love to the rest of the school?" I pleaded with him.

"I can't, I just can't! If people find out I'm gay and they don't like it, I'm doomed in the wizarding society! I-I'm sorry." He gave me a long kiss and ran across the grounds and up the stone steps. I was furious with Harry for reacting like that. I expected him to be happy when he heard my invitation. I thought he would be proud for who he is and that there would be no question.

Later that night at dinner I searched for the familiar mop of black hair over at the Gryffindor table. I found Harry and he was already looking at me with a faintly sympathetic and sorry face. I glared at him and looked away and forced myself not to look at him for the rest of the meal.

The next day at Potions, Harry left a seat open next to him. We exchanged quick glances and I went to sit next to Pansy. Weasley and Granger felt bad for Harry and tried to verbally comfort him. I could feel him staring at me for the whole class. He was so sad that he put his scarabs in his concoction non-crushed, which resulted in a long lecture by Professor Snape and the deduction of ten points from Gryffindor. Even in Care of Magical Creatures with that oaf Hagrid he wasn't doing too well in class that morning.

A week later I decided to give him another chance. Well, mainly because the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin gamer was that day and I figured Harry would go easy on me if he was happy again. I stood at the bottom of the marble staircase and waited for him. He was walking down with Weasley talking about Quidditch tactics they wanted to use. I eyed him, he responded, and followed me down to the dungeons.

"Draco, I..."

"Shush, Harry, I know you're sorry. I understand that you have a famous name to protect, but I hope this doesn't affect our relationship."

"Actually, I'm not sorry. I was going to accept your lovely invitation. I thought about it and I don't care what people think. If they don't like me for who I am that's their problem," he said smiling.

"But that's not what you said last week! You were blabbing about how you have to protect your glorious name and all of that bullshit! You know you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

He circled his arms around my neck and leaned in for a beautiful kiss. "I'm positive, my love. I love you, and I'll go to the ends of the earth to make you happy." He kissed me again and, with linked arms, we playfully argued about the Quidditch match that we were playing that afternoon.

A few hours later we were up in the air at out Quidditch competition. I followed the tail of his Firebolt almost the whole time just to annoy him. He grinned at me and sped off in search of the snitch. I too was looking for the little winged ball that I never had the glory of catching in a match against Gryffindor. Minutes later I saw him at the Gryffindor goal posts taking a fifty-foot dive. He was too far away and I knew I couldn't beat him but I tried anyway. He caught it and did a victory lap through and around the goal posts while the Gryffindors clapped and happily shouted. He's so cute I thought I love when he's happy like that. Harry went off the field with the rest of the Gryffindors without a look back at me.

I was upset about the Slytherin failure and many fellow Slytherins dared to protest our loss. I said to everyone how dumb and ugly Harry Potter was but I didn't believe myself. I knew that he was a better flier than me, but once, just once, couldn't he let me win?

I met up with him at dinner and I congratulated him on the win, and he congratulated me by saying it was a tough game with lots of competition. Since the Halloween Ball was the next week we planned out where we would meet and what we would wear.

The next week in the Great Hall we met up. Weasley and Granger finally got together--I was wondering how many years it would take to get them together. I had a civil but laborious conversation with Weasley and Granger and then we made our way into the Great Hall with fingers entwined. Very few people were whispering about the two gay boys, nevertheless the opposing places they held in society. We sat down and chatted for a little while and then a slow dance came on. We both fidgeted because we both weren't sure if the other was ready for publicly dancing. The pressure must have been too much for him because he got up and asked that dumb Ginny Weasley to dance. She heard from her brother and her friend Granger that Harry and I were an item. However, she accepted Harry's dancing invitation. After a few minutes of watching the brother and sister dance for a while, I walked up to them.

"May I cut in?" I asked, with one eyebrow raised.

"Have fun, you two!" Weasley responded as she left us there on the dance floor.

"May I have this dance?" I asked, as a wild song came on.

He giggled and nodded and we started dancing like idiots. We danced for what seemed like the whole night, through fast and slow songs, and no one seemed to care.