Anonymous Letters

Last time: Harry pulled the curtains round his bed closed and conjured a light so he could read. He frantically ripped the envelope open, suddenly wavering the right to privacy, because it was Malfoy. The first thing he checked was it was actually from Malfoy; it was. He took in a deep breath and began to read...

* * * *

Dear Aleksander,
It's been really hard since I last spoke to you. It used to just be a couple of boys, but now it's nearly every boy I see. I say nearly because there are some guys here no one in their right mind would go near, like Crabbe, Goyle, and Weasley. And now to make things worse, there's one person I've been staring at more than I should be. You remember Harry Potter don't you? Saint Potter, saviour of the universe, my sworn enemy, and the one person I can't take my mind off.
I really need your help Aleks, if it were anyone else it probably wouldn't be so bad, but Potter! Have you had any problems?
Write back soon,
Draco.

Harry read, and re-read the letter several times, trying to find a sense of innocence. Nowhere in the letter did it say "I'm gay", but that was the only conclusion Harry could come to. That, and Harry was his new crush. He suddenly wished he hadn't read the letter, he really didn't want to know what he now did. But now he knew, and what was he to do?

The devil on his shoulder appealed to his sadistic side. "Pass it round, show everyone, it's what he'd do if the roles were reversed. Four years of torment will turn around and bite him in the arse... Or blackmail! Tell Draco you know, and if he doesn't do as you say, you'll out him..."

However, the Angel on his shoulder had a louder voice. "You're not that sort of person Harry, imagine if the roles WERE reversed. You wouldn't want anyone to know. You've told one person in deepest confidence, and suddenly the one person you don't want to know, knows. Draco's a human being, a swine, but he's still a human. But you can use this to your advantage. You can write to Draco, get your feelings across to him, instead of curling up in a ball of angst. This may even do wonders for your relationship."

Harry looked over the letter again. He remembered all the times he'd seen or run into Malfoy in the past week. He'd looked withdrawn, he hadn't sneered at Harry when they bumped into each other, he had no snappy comebacks to anything he said. He'd also been looking over at him a lot.

"It makes sense," Harry mumbled, slipping the letter back into the envelope. He knew he had to keep it to himself, it wouldn't be fair if he shared this, even just with Ron and Hermione; but he knew deep inside this wouldn't help himself with his own feelings. He hid the letter under his pillow and lay down, turning the lights off.

* * * *

The next morning, Draco wasn't feeling well. He sat at the Slytherin table, watching his corn flakes get soggy whilst his stomach lurched at the idea of eating anything. He looked up. Potter was sat directly opposite him on the other side of the Hall; he was also staring at him. Draco narrowed his eyes, planning to out-stare him. They both stared intensely at each other, people who noticed were a little worried they were going to dive over the tables and starting fighting. Draco eventually won; Longbottom hadn't noticed the glaring war and sat in front of Harry. Draco smirked to himself and pushed his bowl of cornflakes away from him, grabbing an apple, intending on eating it later. He got up from the table and stalked out of the Great Hall, only once glancing over at Potter; he was watching him walk out.

"What's his problem now?" he mumbled to himself, throwing his apple from hand to hand. He knew he'd been staring a Harry a lot more, but Harry had started staring back.

"Malfoy!"

Draco turned round, Crabbe and Goyle were lumbering towards him, hands full of food. Draco sighed and waited for them to get over to him.

"Yeah?"

"You off to Potions?"

"Obviously..."

They nodded and waited for him to carry on walking. He sighed and continued walking down to the dungeons, wondering what to do about Potter. It wasn't like he 'wanted' to like him, it was completely involuntary. Stupid Potter and his messy brown hair; stupid Potter and his athletic build. Stupid Malfoy for catching a glimpse of Potter half naked in the Quiddich changing rooms. It had been that, that cultivated Draco's attraction to Potter. The Slytherin and Gryffindor Quiddich teams were practising in close proximity; the Slytherin team had just finished a practice and were getting changed, meanwhile the Gryffindor team were also getting changed to go out to practice. Draco was walking through the changing rooms, looking for the captain when he noticed Potter, stood half naked talking to Weasley. He found himself staring for a minute or two, without being noticed, and since then hadn't been able to get the image out of his head.

Meanwhile, Harry was contemplating writing back to Malfoy, pretending to be Aleksander. The main problems were, the handwriting would be a lot different, and he didn't know how to write like English wasn't his first language. Hermione noticed how distant he looked.

"Harry, are you all right?"

Harry snapped back to reality; "yeah... Hey Hermione, you don't know any spells that can change your handwriting, so you can forge things..."

Hermione eyed him suspiciously; "why?"

"Just to cause a bit of trouble, you know... Maybe pretend to be Malfoy and write something that could ruin him..."

Hermione studied him for a couple of seconds; "I know one... It doesn't change the handwriting, so much as trick the reader into thinking it's from who it says it's from."

"Yeah! That's perfect!"

"Ok, the spell's 'subjectio furta'"

Harry nodded; "thanks... Oh, and, have you heard from Krum recently?"

"Sort of, why?"

"Just wondering..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and finished her breakfast. Harry went back into deep thought, wondering what he could write. He'd figured out Aleksander was one of the Bulgarians from last year, so his main problem was being able to write like one.

* * * *

That evening, Harry had managed to persuade Hermione in letting him read one of her letters from Krum, memorising how they wrote, and remembering how they talked. He rushed up to his room and grabbed his quill and notebook. After several drafts, he'd finally figured out what to write.

Dear Draco,
I remember Potter, you spoke about him a lot. Why do you like him suddenly? What changed? And you said you like lots of boys, so, is Potter really that different? It could just be crush, you will get over him.
I'm good. I have a friend you can write to as well, he is very good with problems, his name is Boris Petrov. Write to him, he has better advice.
Aleksander

He mused over it, wondering if Malfoy would take the bait, and write to Aleks' new friend. He decided to go and post it before he got second thoughts. He cast the spell Hermione had taught him and ran up to the owlry to give it to a random owl, one Malfoy wouldn't recognise. As he watched it fly away, he began getting seconds thoughts.

"Too late now," he muttered. He sighed and walked back down to the Gryffindor common room. He lay on his bed, thinking about Malfoy, whilst pretending to listen to Ron, Nevillle and Dean's conversation.

What if he doesn't take the bait? I can't pretend to be Aleksander forever!

What is he does take the bait? What will I say?

* * * *

Draco too, was lying on his bed, thinking deeply whilst not listening to conversations. However, he was thinking about the consequences of him coming out.

What would everyone say? 'Draco Malfoy', boy liker.

What would father say? He'd beat me and disown me...

He sighed loudly and rolled over, facing away from his friends. He couldn't stand their company at the moment, he wanted to be alone, all the time, He didn't want to go to lessons, or play Quiddich; he just wanted to lie in bed, and go nowhere until this phase had passed.

"Draco! A letter's come for you!"

Draco sat up; Pansy Parkinson - his on again, off again girlfriend - was waving an envelope about. She skipped over to him, sitting on the edge of the bed and passed it to him. She didn't however, let go. Instead, she gave him a seductive look and pursed her lips. Draco cringed and pecked her quickly on the lips, snatching the letter off her. He'd kissed Pansy many times before, but now it just felt wrong. He looked around and took the letter to the corner of the dorm-room to read it. He felt a little underwhelmed upon reading the letter; he expected more advice. But Aleksander probably knew what he was doing. He went back to his bed and grabbed his notebook and quill from his trunk and went back to the corner to write a reply. Also, desperate to get the situation solved, he took Aleks' only advice and wrote a letter to Boris. He felt somewhat embarrassed, writing down his feelings about Harry, and very wary about what he did write, in case anyone saw it. To Boris, he wrote a quick summary of what his problems were. He felt strangely relieved to write his feelings down, to get them off his chest, even if they were to a complete stranger. He read the letters over before going to give them to an owl. He got up and went to put his shoes on.

"Where are you going Draco?" Pansy asked, jumping up.

"Just going to post some letters."

"I'll come with you."

She attached herself to his arm. Grimacing, he managed to pull his arm from her grip.

"No Pansy, it's all right, I'll only be a few minutes."

"But the owlry is so far away, on the other side of the school!"

Draco smiled meekly; "I'm a big boy Pansy, I'll survive the walk, and you'll survive without me."

Pamsy sighed loudly and slumped down on his bed. Malfoy felt in his pocket that he still had the letter he'd received, to make sure no one got their hands on it, and went up to the owlry.

* * * *

The next morning, Harry wasn't feeling hungry; he felt uneasy about whether Malfoy had fallen for his attempt at being Aleksander. He picked at his cereal and watched for Malfoy to turn up. He eventually did. He looked a little perkier than he had done in recent days. When he caught Harry looking at him he didn't glare, or sneer, or look at all disgusted. He actually looked back at him as if they were old friends. Harry looked down at his bowl, feeling uneasy. Did he know? Was he planning something really evil? He suddenly became extremely hot and uncomfortable, afraid Malfoy had some sick, sadistic plan in mind. All his fears went away when the owls turned up, and the same messy brown one from the previous night dropped two letters onto his lap. Harry choked on his own spit, when he saw the elegant handwriting.

"He fell for it?"

Ron looked over; "who did what?"

Harry his the letters under his pullover; "nothing, ignore me... I've got to go."

He jumped up and ran out of the Great Hall, down corridors to an empty one and slumped against a wall, sliding down it; sitting cross-legged, looking at the envelopes. He decided to open the one to Aleksander first. He tore it open and unfolded the letter inside.

Dear Aleksander
My fascination with Potter started a couple of weeks ago. We were in the Quiddich changing rooms, he was getting dressed and I saw him. He has a really good body! And now I can't get him off my mind. And I don't think this one will just go like the others, the others came and went in a couple of days, Potter's been plaguing me for weeks! It doesn't help he keeps staring at me. Am I just seeing things?
Draco.

Harry looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember the time he and Draco shared the changing room. It then dawned at him, the only time they had, he was stood for ten minutes in just his boxers. He didn't understand Draco's attraction, but the two of them never did see eye-to-eye. He put the letter to Aleks at his side and picked up the one to Boris.

"Can't believe he fell for this," he mumbled, sliding his finger under the seal and pulling the letter out.

Boris,
I think Aleksander may have mentioned me, but if not, I'm Draco Malfoy, from Hogwarts, in England. Aleks mentioned you were good at helping people with their problems and put me on to you.
My problem is that I'm gay, and can't come out, and it's slowly killing me. I really want to come out to ease my mind, but no one will react well. My peers will ridicule me and probably do horrible things, and my father, well, he'd probably kill me. And to make things worse, I've started liking my biggest enemy. I used to hate him, now I can't stop thinking about him... What can I do?
Write back,
Draco

Harry rubbed his forehead, looking blankly at the letter. Hie views on Malfoy had changed drastically in just over a day. He knew by pretending to be 'Boris' he could get his feelings out to Draco, tell someone about his own struggles, and maybe even develop a relationship with Draco not based on hate. He stuffed the letters into his bag, pulled himself up, and set off to History of Magic.