Anonymous Letters

Finally it was the Christmas holidays; the majority of students went home, there were only a handful who stayed. Harry was dogged wherever he went by Ron and Hermione, only getting a moment alone when they had to attend to their duties, however they enlisted Ginny and Neville to keep an eye on him. They'd also confiscated his invisibility cloak and map. With his lack of freedom, Harry was beginning to go stir-crazy, realising how Sirius must feel at Grimauld Place. The only way he could communicate with Draco was by slipping letters in Crabbe and Goyles clothes when they bumped into each other. Draco would reply however he could without attracting Hermione and Ron's attention - hiding letters behind collumns outside the Gryffindor common room, sending an owl in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep, etc.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were on their way to Hogsmeade for the last time that year before term restarted in January, to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Harry, however, wasn't in the mood for shopping, especially not for presents for his 'friends', Hermione in particular. He knew Ron had no choice in making his life a misery; but aside from stopping him doing anything, Hermione had resorted to other ways of getting him to admit of his affair with Draco.

"I know you're still seeing him Harry, I saw you!"

Harry scoffed; "saw what? I only see him as much as you two! I told you, we called it off!"

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes, actually. Being my friends you're supposed to believe me!"

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ron staring at the floor as they walked, wanting to keep out of yet another argument. Harry knew Ron wanted to believe him - and he felt awful for deceiving his friend - but was pressured by Hermione to accuse him until he came clean.

"I still can't even believe you don't see what's wrong with it!"

Harry turned his attention back to Hermione; "wrong with what?"

"Going out with Malfoy!" She seethed 'Malfoy', as if it was a dirty word; "if I was going out with him, you'd be on at me! Trying to get us to break up!"

"Only because he wants to go out with him," Ron chipped in. Hermione glared.

"Now is not the time for jokes, Ronald!"

Ron sighed and went back to looking at the floor, not saying a word.

"I can't be bothered with you right now, Hermione. Just, leave me alone."

Harry stormed off ahead, leaving Ron in the company of an even angrier Hermione.

"Can you believe him? How he seems to think everything's fine, I don't know!"

Ron sighed and shrugged; "maybe, if you lay off he'd come clean - if he is still seeing Malfoy, that is."

"So you're on his side? You believe him, don't you!"

"I just, don't see why he'd lie to us."

"Why?"

" Because..."

"...Well?"

"...I don't know. I just don't think he would."

Hermione sighed angrily and walked off ahead. Kicking the snow in front of him, Ron continued on to Hogsmeade alone, planning to spend all afternoon in the Three Broomsticks. As he meandered through the snow, he took a detour round the back streets of Hogsmeade just in case he ran into Hermione on the main street and she began shouting at him again. Ever since the outing of Harry she'd been really awful to be around, but he had no choice to put up with her.

"Should have gone home for Christmas," he mumbled, kicking a big pile of snow; "bloody Hermione and her bloody conspiracies."

Harry, meanwhile, was waiting in a secluded part of the village, on the edge of the forest, getting colder by the second. He didn't think he'd have been able to get away from Hermione, but for some reason she didn't follow him, at least, he hoped not. Eventually, he spotted Malfoy sneaking over to him, keeping a watch for anyone who might be following.

"Come on," Draco whispered, grabbing Harry's hand and running off into the forest. Harry laughed and tried to keep up. After they'd ran far enough away from the village as they though necessary, Draco grabbed Harry and forced him against a tree.

"I fucking hate your friends," he mumbled, pulling his gloves off and dropping them by his feet. Harry smirked.

"Yeah, I know..."

With his now free hands, Draco began undoing the buttons of Harry's coat, before unzipping his hoody slipping his hands under his t-shirt, making Harry squirm at the coldness of his hands.

"Hands, cold," Harry gasped. Draco smirked.

"I know, I'm sorry..."

The two forced their lips together, not caring if they'd get stuck due to the cold. Harry entangled both sets of fingers in Draco's white-blonde hair, still surprised that it was amazingly soft. Draco, meanwhile, ran his cold hands all over Harry's warm torso, pulling him closer and softly scraping his nails down his back. After all his built-up frustration was released, Harry pulled away for a deep breath. As usual, Draco went straight for kissing down Harry's neck, his now warm lips burning Harry's cold skin.

Ron was sat alone in the Three Broomsticks, making his Butterbeer last as he only had the money for one. He was actually quite happy to be alone; no Hermione to rant on at him about how she thought Harry was lying, and no Harry to argue with Hermione. It was nice and quiet in the pub, no one spoke above a murmer, the only loud noise was the door slamming shut. As he neared finishing his drink, the door slamming shut drew his attention to who'd just walked in.

"Oh, bloody hell..."

He slid down in his seet, grabbing a copy of the Daily Prophet and holding it in front of his face. Luckily, Hermione didn't see him. Before ordering a drink she went to the toilet, which was Ron's opportunity for escape. He grabbed his bag and coats and ran out of the pub, not even waiting to put his coat on; he'd rather deal with the cold than Hermione.

"Bloody freezing!" he cursed, quickly trying to pull his coat on, whilst walking and carrying his bag on his arm. He finally managed to get both coats and his bag on, and shuffled on ahead, through the village. He walked up the main street, towards the Shrieking Shack before turning back on himself, walking away from the village, towards the edge of the forest. Walking slowly, he weaved around oddly placed houses and clumps of trees, before taking a well-deserved rest on a large rock. The forest was silent, so Ron was confused when after ten or so minutes he began to hear voices.

"It's the cold, I'm going mad. They've driven me to madness!" Ron moaned, pulling himself off the rock. He began walking back towards the village when he spotted the source of the voices. Hiding behing some trees, he watched Harry emerge from from the forest, holding someone's hand. Malfoy appeared behind him. Ron clamped his hands to his mouth to stop him making any kind of noise. He watched as his best friend and enemy twirled each other about, grope at each other and kiss. He felt physically sick, but was rooted to the spot, terrified of letting his presence known by moving or vomiting. Eventually, the two parted and went their separate ways, Harry towards Hogwarts, Draco towards the Shrieking Shack. When both were out of sight, Ron ran as quick as he could to find Hermione. Nearly falling several times, he finally made it to the Three Broomsticks. He burst in and ran straight over to Hermione.

"You were right! Hermione, you were completely right!"

Hermione looked at him blankly, baffled by his sudden presence, heavy breathing and nonsense.

"...What?"

"Harry! And thingy! I saw them! They were coming out of the forest! And they were... You know! They're still seeing each other!"

After getting over the initial shock, she narrowed her eyes; "I knew it! Right Ron, this calls for drastic measures. If they won't break up voluntarily, we'll have to do it for them."

"...What?"

Hermione pulled her bag onto the table and pulled out some parchment and a quill.

"What are you doing?"

"Writing a letter, Ronald."

Ron sighed and sat down; "how very British of you."

Hermione managed a smile; "just you wait."

It was the day before Christmas Eve, Harry and Draco had managed to get a moment alone. They went up to the astronomy tower to be out of the way, where no one would find them.

"So what did you get me for Christmas?" Draco asked, resting his head in Harry's lap. Harry smirked and ran his fingers through Draco's hair.

"You'll have to wait and see."

"It'd better be good."

"No, it's awful you'll hate it."

Draco smirked; "good."

"What have you gotten me?"

"You'll see."

"Tease."

"I try."

They smirked at each other and leant towards each other for a kiss.

"How long do you think we have?"

Harry shrugged; "no idea, they weren't around when I got up, haven't seen them since..."

Draco nodded and sat up properly; "they've probably got some elaborate plan, we should make the most of the time we have..."

Harry smirked and grabbed Draco, pulling him into a deep kiss; Draco pushed himself on top of him, forcing the two of them down. They rolled about, kissing passionately and rubbing up against each other, only pulling away when there was a loud screech behind them. An owl was perched on the railing with a letter in it's beak.

"It's father's owl," Draco said, jumping at it. He tore the letter open and read it intently, before screwing it up. Harry put his hand on Draco's leg.

"What is it?"

"He knows... Someone's told him."

Harry took the letter from Draco and skimmed over it:

Draco I recently recieved an anonymous letter about you, and what you've been up to at Hogwarts. It's come to my attention that you've been soliciting in homosexual activities, with none other than Harry Potter. Now I hope this is just a vicious rumour, but I've been promised another letter Christmas Day if this "relationship" continues. I'd better not receive this letter or else you'll find yourself out of that school quicker than you can say hinkypuff, and you'd better hope I don't get a hold of you. You'll be in serious trouble!
Father

Harry screwed up the letter; "I'm going to kill them..."

He pulled himself up, Draco looked up at him confoundedly.

"What?"

"Obviously it was Ron and Hermione, I can't believe they sunk so low..."

"Wait. Don't you think we should talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

Draco sighed and looked a the floor; "we should break up. Actually, break up. If they think for even a second that we're still seeing each other, they'll write to my father, and he'll... I don't even want to think about it."

Harry sighed too and knelt next to Draco; "I hate them so much."

They pulled each other into a tight hug, both shaking with a mixture of sadness and anger.

"I'll miss this," Harry sighed. Draco smiled meekly.

"Maybe in the future, when the war is over, if we're not dead, we could maybe, start again?"

"Maybe... I doubt it though."

Draco nodded; "and you wonder why I hate your friends."

Harry sighed; "I suppose we'll have to go our separate ways now... I'll see you around..."

"Come see me on Christmas at least, I want to know how you like your present."

"Ok."

They pulled each other into another tight hug, sharing a soft kiss, before leaving for their separate common rooms. When Harry got to Gryffindor common room, he stormed straight over to Hermione and Ron, not caring there were other people in the common room.

"How could you? What you did was just, evil! Well, I hope you're happy now!"

He threw the letter he still had a hold of at Hermione's feet and stormed off to the dorms. Hermione picked it up and read it before smirked.

"Looks like the plan worked."

Ron frowned; "Harry looks really... Upset."

"He'll get over it, come on."

She threw the letter on the fire and dragged Ron up to the boys dorms. Harry way lay face down on his bed, clutching the pillow over his head.

"Look, Harry, I know you're angry and upset right now, but you've got to understand, it was for your own good. It wouldn't have worked!"

Harry threw the pillow off his head and turned to face them; "you don't know that! You don't understand! We had something, we actually had a proper relationship! Just because he's who he is and I'm, well me, doesn't mean we can't be together!"

Ron sighed and sat on the edge of Harry's bed; "actually mate, the way I see it, we were saving you from heartbreak. You couldn't have snuck around forever, his father wouldn't have liked it one bit, and for all you know, and the way this war is going, he could, die! How would you deal with that!"

Hermione sat on the bed opposite Harry's; "I'll understand if you hate me, but, don't hate Ron, he had nothing to do with it."

Harry looked at Ron; "ok?"

Ron frowned; "but why Harry? Why lie to us? To me?"

"I felt really bad about that, but, we really like each other!"

"You'll get over it... You have to..."

Ron squeezed Harry's shoulder reassuringly.