Testing the Waters

Testing the Waters

"But Harry, if you're not gay, what else explains all of the--"

Harry was getting irritated. "So what if I am?" he demanded of Hermione.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly. Boys are so stupid. Look, I'm not saying that you are, just that maybe you should... test the waters a little bit. There are lots of nice boys at Hogwarts."

Ron snorted. "How is he supposed to go about doing it, Hermione? 'Hi, I need to find out if I'm gay before all my housemates go bonkers listening to Hermione go on and on about it, would you mind a snog or two?'"

Not surprisingly, Hermione was only half-listening. She had grabbed a piece if parchment and a quill and was making Harry a list of candidates for his experiment. "He doesn't have to worry about how... I can set it up for him, if he likes."

"Oh, for God's sake, will you quit it?" Harry snatched up the list and stalked off to his dormitory, hoping he would be left alone. A few moments later, he heard a shriek and the sound of Hermione slipping down the slide that used to be the stairs; in her preoccupation with Harry's sexual crisis, she had forgotten about the safety precaution to keep girls from entering the boys' dormitory. It was ironic, seeing as she was the one who had mimicked the spell from the girls' stairs in the first place, to prevent "inappropriate behaviour".

If all girls were as annoying as Hermione could be, Harry thought, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to be gay.

Harry fumed quietly on his bed for a while, before abruptly standing up and striding out of the room. He was resolved to grab the first male he saw and snog him senseless, if only to shut Hermione up. He passed quickly through the Gryffindor common room, noting with gratitude that Ron and Hermione had left. It would have been awkward if it had been Ron.

It was even more awkward when it was Draco Malfoy.

When Harry saw him, he stopped dead and took a private moment to curse whatever deities had placed Malfoy in that hallway at that moment, with... that look on his face. Didn't he go anywhere without the damn smirk to accessorize?

As Harry started forward, Malfoy opened his mouth to speak. Determined to get the 'test' over and done with, however, Harry grabbed him and pushed him against a nearby wall. Harry didn't really know what he was doing, but wasn't too concerned at the moment. It was just lips and teeth and somehow his hands had made their way to Malfoy's chest, but he hadn't kissed enough people to know if Malfoy was kissing back. In any case, he was shoved away quickly enough by a stricken-looking and flushed Malfoy.

Harry obediently stepped back, letting Malfoy shove him slightly, for good measure.

"What the hell is all this about, Potter?" he managed to choke out, visibly restraining himself from pummeling Harry into the ground.

Harry shrugged, unsure what to do now. "Proving a point to someone. Umm..." He looked at his feet and mumbled something about not mentioning anything to the rest of the school.

Malfoy lifted an eyebrow. He spoke slowly, as if talking to a child. "Why would I want to talk about it? Don't be so dense, Potter. Run along now, there's a good boy."

Harry mumbled the Gryffindor password and bolted back through the portrait into his common room, slamming the Fat Lady behind him.

"That was interesting," she said.

------

Harry decided not to tell Hermione that he had tested the proverbial waters. Over the next few days, she kept nagging at him and he kept ignoring her, until breakfast of the fourth day.

"Malfoy's been looking at you a lot the last couple days, Harry. Do you think he's planning something?" she said.

Harry's eyes snapped up from his beans and toast and drifted warily towards the Slytherin table, from which Malfoy was indeed staring intently back at him.

Harry was thinking of a response to Hermione, when the owls arrived with the mail. Hedwig flew down to land next to Harry's plate, ruffling her feathers and immediately tucking into the toast. Harry absently stroked Hedwig as he reached for the parchment tied to her leg. He read it quickly and shot Malfoy a suspicious look. He saw Malfoy go out, and waited a few minutes before giving a clumsy excuse for leaving the Great Hall.

He made his way towards the deserted entrance steps; Malfoy was already there.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry said, without pretext. "I've got Divination this morning and will more than likely be informed that I am going to be maimed by stealth mutant whales who are actually Voldemort's minions. I'd rather not deal with any of your shit at the mo."

Malfoy scoffed. "Stealth mutant whales? I hope that by 'stealth', you mean ' really really small', cos they'll have to live in a lake."

Harry turned to leave.

"I need to talk to you about what happened the other day."

Harry stopped. "I thought we agreed not to talk about it."

Malfoy made an exasperated noise under his breath. "You are such a dolt. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, but I need to. I've been thinking that--"

"Look, it didn't mean anything. I was proving a point, I told you that. One kiss doesn't change anything, Malfoy."

Malfoy threw his hands into the air. "Well, what about two?" He grabbed Harry by the shoulders, and slammed their mouths together. This time the kiss was long and angry, and when Harry tried to pull back, Malfoy dug his fingers into his shoulders harder and growled deep in his throat. Malfoy's tongue had just shown up, and Harry wasn't sure what to do, so he settled for simply being kissed, enjoying it while it lasted, but not kissing back. Malfoy eventually let go, and watched Harry expectantly.

"Glerk," said Harry. "Two might do it."

Malfoy smirked.

"Or three," Harry added, and kissed Malfoy again.

Harry didn't know very much about kissing, but he was sure that Malfoy kissed back this time.