Anonymous Letters

Draco ran his hand through his blonde hair and sighed, meandering up the corridors, thinking to himself. He'd managed to escape Pansy Parkinson, who'd recently become nearly obsessed with him. She always got 'obsessed' when she'd decided she wanted to go back out with him; she'd flirt in a less than subtle way, blatantly giving hints of wanting him to ask her out. However, at the beginning of the school year, he vowed to himself to never go back out with her. He couldn't stand her company, and only dated her to suppress his loneliness and sexual frustration. Now he was more frustrated than ever, but no girl could help him with it. As he wandered, he failed to look where he was going and bumped into someone, who also wasn't looking where they were going. He looked up and was met by the bright green eyes of Harry Potter. They both paused, a bit stunned they'd walked into each other before stepping to the side and walking around. Draco mumbled;

"watch where you're going."

Harry just nodded and looked at his feet, walking on. Draco walked on too, feeling awkward, with a slight butterfly feeling in his stomach.

Harry glanced back at Draco, having just come down from the owlry, posting the letters Draco was soon to receive. The biggest mystery throughout this ordeal, was why the owl continued to think he was Aleksander. He'd gotten it right for so long, and now suddenly it thought Harry was Draco's pen-pal. Not that he was really complaining, but it was extremely confusing.

The next morning, Harry finally had something else on his mind. He hadn't done his Potions essay and was scribbling furiously onto a piece of parchment what he could hear from Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville dictating things from their own essays. Hermione was busy shaking her head at the situation to help Harry with his essay. He paused for a second to have a gulp of his pumpkin juice at the same time the owls swooped into the Great Hall. He paused for another second to see if Malfoy got any letters; he did. Now he knew he'd never get his essay done, and was prepared to face the consequences. He put his quill down and sighed. Hermione looked at him urgently.

"Harry! You need to do the essay! Or else Snape will give you a detention!"

He help up his parchment; "really Hermione? He'd give me one for this rubbish! I'd rather look lazy than stupid."

Hermione rolled her eyes and shifted her gaze to the copy of the Daily Prophet and owl had just dropped in front of her. Harry looked back over to the Slytherin table, but it was missing a certain blonde haired boy. His eyes shot to the entrance, Malfoy was hurrying out of the Hall, clutching his letters in his hand. Harry knew he had to wait until Potions to see him.

However, the moment he got into Potions he wished he had done his essay, no matter how bad it would have been. Snape was in a foul mood; he stormed into the room, slamming the door shut and marched up to the top of the classroom, a horrifying scowl on his face.

"Everyone come up and give me your essays. Now. If you don't have them you can tell me why."

Everyone began rummaging through their things to get their essay and stood up to give it to Snape. Then, he did something no one was expecting. Blaise Zabini was the first to give Snape his essay. Snape pointed at the front desk at the left.

"Get your things, sit there."

Blaise nodded and went to move his things. Hermione was the second to hand in her essay. Snape ordered her to sit next to Blaise. Crabbe was the first to not have an essay. He was ordered to sit at the back table. Harry was worried what was going to happen. Clearly everyone who'd done the essay were sitting at the front, and those who hadn't would be sat at the back. He hoped someone else hadn't done their essay, so he wouldn't have to sit next to Crabbe. Luckily, Goyle hadn't either. Ron was seated next to Seamus Finnigan; Neville was next to Pansy Parkinson. Snape clearly didn't care who was sat next to who. Harry finally got up to Snape, and was ordered to sit at the back table in the middle. The last thing he expected was to have the Slytherin prefect, and Snape's favourite student sit next to him. Clearly, Snape was in no mood to have any favourites. Malfoy dumped his books on the desk and rest his head in his arms, looking away from Harry.

"Everyone who handed their essays in, turn to page two-hundred and seventy-two and do the potion in your new pairs. Those who didn't, do the essay you failed to complete in time, and stay behind after class. Now!"

Everyone jumped into action. Harry pulled his books towards him and took the lid off his bottle of ink. He'd just written the essay title when Malfoy started moving. He opened his notebook, the letters he'd recieved that morning slid out towards Harry. He glanced at them, Malfoy snatched them off the desk and stuffed them messily into his pocket. They both looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes before getting on with their work. Throughout the essay, all Harry could think about was how to get closer to Malfoy. He placed his text book on the edge of the desk, before "accidentally" knocking it off. He leant down to pick it up, also leaning towards Malfoy. His cheek rubbed on Malfoy's sleeve, Malfoy's scent rushing up his nostrils.

Draco noticed Potter was rubbing up against him, taking an unnaturally long time picking up his book. He was going to snap at him, tell him to hurry up, but he didn't want to. If anything he wanted him to rub up closer. He looked down at him, "struggling" to reach his books and inhaled. Potter had a 'just-out-of-the-shower' smell. Draco smirked, somewhat titillated by the raven-haired boy's clean smell. He was brought out of his daze by said boy head-butting him on his way back up. They both looked at each other in shock.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Potter eyed him confoundedly; "what am I doing? Why were you leaning over me?"

Draco paused, trying to think up a good enough lie; "...Just looking at what you've written."

He shrugged and shuffled over to his side of the desk, pretending Potter's work was of a very low standard. In return, Potter eyed him suspiciously.

"...Right?"

"Just drop it Potter."

Draco looked away so he couldn't even see the Gryffindor in the corner of his eye and tried to focus on his work.

At the end of the lesson, the four boys who hadn't done their essay stayed behind whilst their peers went for break. Snape marched over and snatched their essays from in front of them.

"You think this is acceptable? Detention tonight," he barked at Crabbe and Goyle. Harry sighed, his work appeared to be of a good enough standard to not merit him a detention.

"Can we go now, sir?" Malfoy asked. Snape glared.

"No! The four of you will do today's lesson in your break. Page two-seven-two, work in pairs, now!"

He eyed Harry and Malfoy suspiciously before going up to his desk. Harry and Malfoy also eyed each other suspiciously.

"You get the stuff, I'll set up the cauldron," Malfoy mumbled, loud enough for Harry to hear. He nodded and took his text-book to the shelves, picking out the necessary ingredients. The two of them managed to work quite harmoniously, not wanting to anger Snape further with their petty differences. Their only argument occurred when Harry went to put in an ingredient ahead of time, and Malfoy told him off.

"Just sit there Potter! I'm not having you fuck this up!" Malfoy sneered, pushing Harry towards his seat.

"Language Malfoy!" Snape reminded. Malfoy nodded and muttered; "sorry sir", before continuing. Harry sighed and sat down, watching Malfoy finish the potion, his chin resting in his hand. He managed to adopt a bored look to disguise the fact he was watching Malfoy quite intently. Small beads of sweat would develop on his forehead due to the heat of the fire, which Malfoy would wipe away with the sleeve of his shirt. His eyes were locked intensely on the brewing potion, only shifting to the text book and ingredients. The only time he took his eyes off anything potion related, was when there was a loud bang to their left. Crabbe and Goyle had gone wrong somewhere, and their cauldron had exploded. Snape growled.

"Idiots! Clean it up and leave! And be here at eight tonight! ...You two, carry on."

Harry sighed and went back to watching Malfoy, his new favourite past-time. Eventually they finished the potion, just before the bell went for their next lesson. Malfoy ladled some into a flask and put it on Snape's desk, before he and Harry ran out to their next lessons.

That evening, Draco finally got a moment to himself. He took his bag and owl up to the Astronomy Tower, to be alone. He pulled his letters out of his pocket and un-crumpled them, re-reading them to remind him of what they said.

Draco,
You're probably right, Potter sounds like more than just a teenage crush. If he's on your mind this much, you probably do like him, a lot. You could be reading too much into him looking at you. But he could be looking at you too. Do you know if he's straight? He could be gay too.
And don't worry, you may move on eventually.
Aleksander.

Draco sighed, thinking about what had been said. Potter, gay? Unlikely, he's Mr Perfect. Hero, good looking, popular, and certainly not gay! He fancied that Ravenclaw girl anyway, it was pretty obvious. He put Aleks' letter down and picked up Boris'

Draco,
Yes, Aleks did mention you, but told me nothing of you, only that you needed some help. If I'm honest I'm not the best 'agony aunt', but I'll give it a shot.
This problem with you being gay, are you sure it's a problem? Your friends would get over it eventually, it doesn't change who you are, you'll still be you, you'll just like boys instead of girls. I don't know what to do about your father though, that does sound like a real problem. Perhaps come out to him at a suitable time?
And now this crush... It's probably very strong because you used to hate him. The more you tell yourself it's wrong, the more right it feels. Just embrace it? Be proud of who you are! You never know, you could inspire some people to be proud of who they are. The amount of people at Hogwarts, there's bound to be at least one other gay person.
I hope to hear back, maybe you could help me with my own problems.
Boris.

Draco pulled his notebook onto his lap and skimmed over the letter once more. Boris seemed to be more helpful, it was if he knew exactly what he was going through. He wrote one last letter to Aleks, deciding to adopt a new Bulgarian agony aunt. Even if his advice was a bit stupid. Come out? Not bloody likely. He finally managed to write his replies and gave them to the owl. Whilst writing he'd decided upon a plan of action. Stalk Potter. After thinking about it, he hadn't seen him near that Cho Chang in a while, and he seemed to be a little distant, always in deep thought. He could maybe even find out what makes Potter tick, seducing him might not be that much of a problem. Malfoys were notorious for getting what they wanted.

He went back down to ground level Hogwarts, thinking about where Potter may be. He stalked up and down corridors, hoping to bump into him, for a chance to insult him or anger him. Anything to get his attention. He finally got what he wanted. Potter was slowly wandering down a corridor with Granger and Weasley.

"Well if it isn't Boy Wonder and his side-kicks."

The three of them turned round.

"Get lost Malfoy," Weasley replied. Draco laughed.

"Get lost? Is that it? Words never were your strong-point, were they Weaslebee."

"They are mine though! Why don't you find someone else to torment Malfoy, you'll find no satisfaction in annoying us, because we won't react," Granger said. Draco laughed again.

"Oh, but you have reacted Mudblood. What about you Scarhead? Nothing to say? Or are you too busy staring at me, as usual?"

Potter was staring at him. He shook his head, coming out of his daydream.

"I don't stare at you."

"Yeah you do, you do it all the time. You think I don't notice."

Draco walked closer to them; "you were doing it today in Potions. And you tried to stick your face in my lap... Something you want to tell everyone?"

Granger and Weasley looked at Potter suspiciously. Potter glared.

"I'm not gay, how dare you insinuate I am!"

Draco held his hands up in defence; "hey, I'm just making an observation. You think I don't notice when someone tries to smell me? You'd really like to kiss me wouldn't you."

Harry had nothing to say, his dream from the other night was coming true.

"Who would want to go near you, let alone kiss that disgusting mouth of yours?" Hermione replied, venomously. Malfoy smirked.

"More people would rather kiss me than touch you, with your filthy blood."

Hermione held Ron back who wanted to hit Malfoy. Malfoy just laughed.

"Really Potter, do you always let your friends fight your battles?"

Harry's eyes narrowed, after weeks of Malfoy almost avoiding him, it was as if he was deliberately trying to provoke him; "what do you want Malfoy? If this is just a plea for attention then you must be very lonely. Has Pansy found some other idiot to fawn over? Or are you not looking for female attention?"

Malfoy laughed, an unexpected reaction to Harry; "that's your comeback? I call you gay, so you call me gay? Well done Potter."

"What ever Malfoy, I'm not sticking around for you to get your kicks from, go find something else to do to fill your empty life."

Before he could reply, Harry grabbed Ron's arm and dragged him down the corridor. Malfoy sighed and watched the three Gryffindors walk away from him. The encounter hadn't be how he thought it'd be, he assumed he'd wind Potter up enough for him to pin him against the wall in anger, like he had done so many times before. Despite his odd fantasies, there was something about Potter than made Draco question some things. For example, his non-reaction to Draco asking if he wanted to kiss him. He didn't get nearly as angry as he should have done. The Slytherin scratched the back of his head and set off down to the dungeons, contemplating some new theories about Potter.