Anonymous Letters

Harry and Draco were lay, side by side staring up at the ceiling, not saying a word to each other. Harry sighed happily.

"We should stay here tonight."

Draco laughed; "well that's not happening! I'm prefect! I have stuff to do."

"So come back after."

Draco sighed and shrugged. Harry slid his hand to the right, finding Draco's hand. He entwined their fingers together, getting a fluttering feeling in his stomach. Draco's fingers curled around Harry's.

"I might," he eventually said. Harry smiled and gave Draco's hand a gentle squeeze. Neither had said anything to each other, but it seemed to be the consensus that this was the end of their rivalry, and the beginning of them, not as boyfriends, but certainly more than just friends.

"You know, you're a lot nicer when we're not fighting. You're usually a complete git."

Draco smirked; "and you're not? I'm actually a nice guy when you get to know me."

"Well, therein lies our problem."

"Exactly..."

They both sighed and played with each others' fingers; there was time for getting to know one another later. The silence was comfortable; the two boys didn't feel they had anything to say to one another, and were enjoying the inconsequential contact. If the chemistry between them was this strong with them just holding hands, what would it be like if they kissed? Or even went all the way? The same thought dawned on both of them; they both turned their heads to each other and looked into each others' eyes. Harry could feel his stomach doing flips; the incandescent orange/pink hue from the sunset outside lit up the room, turning the two of them a weird shade of pink. Draco suddenly let go of Harry's hand. He pulled himself up from the floor and went over to the railings, leaning on them, admiring the sunset. Harry pulled himself up, admiring the Slytherin's silhouette. He felt a sudden wave of confidence sweep over him, enough to make him sneak up behind Draco and slip his arms round his waist. Draco smiled and shuffled about, so he was more comfortable in the Gryffindor's arms. He rest his head back on his shoulder, all the while his intestines were tying themselves in knots, his body was tingling all over, and he was trying very hard to not shake. Harry rest his head on Draco's shoulder, feeling the same sensations. Draco's distinctive scent rushed up Harry's nostrils, making him smirk.

"You smell nice," he muttered. Draco laughed.

"Thank you... You smell like... Soap."

Harry smiled; "I shower daily."

"So do I..."

"Well, I don't have aftershave."

"You should get some."

"From where?"

Draco shrugged and looked up at Harry's face; "I don't know..."

Harry looked down at Draco and smiled.

"...You know, I should be going. I have things to do."

Harry frowned; "will you come back?"

Draco turned around and smirked; "you sound desperate, Potter."

Harry scowled; "sod off."

Draco laughed; "aww."

He wrapped his arms round his new lover's neck and pulled him into a warm hug. Startled at first, Harry sunk into it, burying his face into the blonde's neck. Once again, his insides felt funny. He;d never felt like this, and in the past hour there was more activity inside him than there'd ever been. Draco eventually pulled away.

"I'll be back, don't worry."

He wandered over to his things and picked them up, Harry watched him longingly.

"Bring some food?"

Draco chuckled; "I'll see what I can do."

"...Actually, I know one of the house elves, I'll sort it."

"Ok... And if I don't come back, have this."

Before Harry could so much as blink, Draco's lips were on his, in a soft but forceful kiss. Before he could react, they were gone. Draco backed away, smirking, leaving Harry rooted to the spot.

"I'll see you later."

He slunk off down the stairs, Harry was still stood by the railings, finding it hard to do anything with so much electricity rushing through his body. Finally, he was able to move without his body hurting; he slumped down against the wall, next to his pullover and sighed, knowing it would be at least two to three hours before Draco returned. This hadn't turned out to be such a good idea after all. He shuffled closer to the railing so he could see the sunset more clearly. He was in a sentimental mood, overjoyed Draco had actually kissed him, he wasn't even expecting him to agree to his company. But it had happened so quick, he was beginning to doubt it had happened. Lying down, he sighed, trying to remember how nice it had felt, how his insides had felt as it happened, and how it had rooted him to the spot. He closed his eyes, trying to picture it; one minute Draco was stood looking at him, with those sparkling grey eyes, and the next his nose was brushing against his, eyes closed, next to no space between them.

A loud squawking jerked Harry awake, scaring him half to death. He sat up, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. It was dawn, the sun had just made it past the horizon, a couple of crows were perched on the railing, still squawking. Harry sighed and pulled himself to his feet. Draco hadn't come back, Harry frowned and reached up to the ceiling, waiting to hear the click of his spine setting itself back in it's right place. Despite it being a school-day, he had a free period this morning, so ran no risk of missing lesson. He grabbed his pullover and tie, tutting when the marauders map fell on the floor, having forgotten it was there, and made his way down the stairs. When he got the common room he discovered it was earlier than he'd first thought. Only the "early birds" were up, which consisted of a couple of first years, the head boy, two second years, and unfortunately, Hermione.

"Harry! Where have you been?"

Harry scratched his neck awkwardly; "no where, really. Well, no where important."

"You haven't been back all night! Ron and I got back from duties and you weren't in bed, we went out looking for you!"

"I was up in the astronomy tower, I fell asleep."

Hermione flung her arms round him; "you're such an idiot Harry!"

He smiled meekly; "yeah, I know..."

"Now go and get ready!"

Harry sighed and shuffled off, mumbling to himself. Up in his dorm, his friends were just waking up; sat up in their beds, stretching, yawning and rubbing their eyes.

"Harry! Where've you been?" Neville asked. Ron shot to attention.

"Harry! Mate! What happened?"

Harry sighed and sat on his bed; "fell asleep in the astronomy tower."

"What were you doing up there?"

"Being alone..."

Ron nodded and looked down at his bed. Harry stood up and decided to get use of the bathroom before anyone else.

After getting ready, he and his two friends went to the Great Hall for breakfast. As he sat himself down, he looked up and down the Hall, but Draco was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry shrugged.

"I'm just, working through some things."

"Is it... Voldemort?"

Harry smirked; "I wish."

Hermione, Ron and Ginny looked at him suspiciously.

"You wish it was, you-know-who? What is wrong with you?" Ron asked.

"Just leave it, I'll tell you when I can."

Hermione reached over and held his wrist; "you can tell us anything, you know."

"I know, it's just, not the right time."

Hermione sighed; "ok."

She glanced up at Ron, and shared with him a concerned look. Harry ignored them, knowing once they parted they'd start gossiping. He dropped a couple of pieces of toast onto his plate and debated between which warm drink to treat himself to. Fortunately, enough people eventually turned up so a conversation could be had without him. He sat peeling the crust off his toast, stirring his tea so fast it created a small whirlpool in the middle of the cup, then suddenly stirring in the opposite direction, creating a small puddle of tea around the bottom of the cup. After he'd finished playing with his food, he played with a spoon lying on the table next to him. Hermione occasionally glanced over at Harry, tutting and rolling her eyes. Her two best friends were immature boys, one shoved food down his throat without swallowing or taking a break to breath, the other played with his food like a toddler. Harry noticed Hermione's eye-rolling and put his spoon down, resting his hands in his lap. He looked around the Hall once more for Draco, being unable to find him. Sighing, he got up.

"I'm going back to the common room, have fun in, whatever lessons you have."

Ron and Hermione said nothing, and just watched him walk out of the Hall. He scuffed his shoes on the stone as he wandered up the corridor, musing to himself about whether Draco was being genuine the previous night. Despite the loud noises echoing down the corridor from the Hall, Harry heard a quiet whispering.

"Psst! Potter!"

Harry spun round and looked for the source. He noticed a mess of blonde hair and a pair of grey eyes peering round the corner of a deep alcove. He looked up and down the corridor, to check no one was around, before joining the blonde in the alcove.

"Malfoy! Where were you last night?"

Draco shrugged; "sorry, Snape made me go back to bed."

"Why couldn't you have come after?"

Draco shrugged again, not saying anything. Harry sighed.

"Well, thanks, you know, for leaving me up there."

A smirk spread across Draco's face; "sorry, dear."

Harry scowled, not in the mood for Draco's sarcasm. Draco, however, was thoroughly amused. He lifted his hand to Harry's face and silpped a lock of his hair behind his ear. Harry's cheek tingled at Draco's touch, making him shiver, causing Draco's smirk to increase in size.

"I'll try to make it up to you..."

Harry couldn't suppress the grin that spread across his face; "how?"

Draco shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged; "I'll think of something, see you round..."

He winked and walked off quite quickly. Harry stuck his head round the corner of the alcove to watch him walk away until he turned a corner. Falling back on the wall, he sighed happily; murmuring "wow". After his heart-rate had gone back to normal, he carried on to the common room.

Draco sauntered into the Great Hall, now feeling much more confident than he had in a long while. As he walked down the centre of the Hall, between the Gryffindor and Slytherin table, Neville Longbottom was walking in the opposite direction, carrying a book and a glass of pumpkin juice. Draco smirked, knowing there was an "accident" waiting to happen. There was plenty of space for the two to go around each other with no hassle, but as they got within reach of each other, Draco made sure he thrust his shoulder into Neville's, making him stumble and spill his juice all over his book. He glanced back over his shoulder, smirking and watching Longbottom stumble into the table, hitting his knee on the bench and falling over. The surrounding Gryffindors jumped up to help him; the surrounding Slytherins stopped what they were doing to point and laugh. Draco slid in between Crabbe and Goyle, ignoring the grins from his friends.

"Nice one Draco," Blaise smirked. Draco nodded, waving his hand as if it was nothing.

"In a better mood now then? You haven't bullied the Gryffindors for ages," Flint said, in between shoving slices of toast into his mouth. Draco shrugged.

"There's more to life than bullying stupid Gryffindors, not matter how fun and satisfying it is."

Pansy Parkinson screwed her face up; "you've changed Draco. You're nothing like you used to be."

"...Whatever."

"But-"

"-Seriously Pansy, just leave me, alone!"

Pansy scoffed and stormed out of the Hall. Draco ignored the odd looks he was getting and tried to eat his breakfast in peace.

That evening, Harry and Ron were walking to the library to get help with their Potions essay from Hermione.

"He's been at it all day, taking little cheap shots at us. This morning he shoved Neville into the table, spilling juice all over his work."

Harry frowned; "after so long? He suddenly starts again?"

Ron nodded; "something's up with Malfoy. At least it's only little things. He called me ginger earlier, yeah, like I haven't noticed!"

Harry managed a smile; "he's an idiot."

"Ginger, loser, Irish! Guess who he called Irish!"

"Really? Just, Irish?"

"Yep, I think he's losing his edge..."

Harry wondered to himself why Draco was taking small shots at his friends all of a sudden, even if they were pathetic. As they turned the corner to go into the library they bumped into Malfoy, literally.

"Watch where you're walking, scarhead."

Harry rolled his eyes, desperately wanting to think of a comeback but unable to think up one just as childish. He and Ron went into the library to see Hermione scowling, her papers and books all over the place.

"You all right Hermione?" Ron asked.

"No! That sodding Malfoy just messed everything up!"

The two boys helped Hermione sort her things out and three got to work.

Draco shuffled through the corridors, musing to himself. He didn't want the Gryffindors to think he'd gone soft, and wanted to keep Harry on his toes. There was no way he was going to be won over that easily. He wanted to test him, to see if he truely wanted Draco for who he was - which included being slightly childish at times, bullying his friends. He could have been much more insulting, he could have even started a fight, but calling Weasley ginger and knocking Longbottom over was enough to not start a fight, but to basically, keep Potter on his toes. He thought about writing him another letter, being mean to him in person, and then keeping him sweet with letters. He couldn't just have a boyfriend/girlfriend, he had to mess them about to see how dedicated they are. And he wasn't really messing them about, he was just playing with their heads, treating them mean and then stopping them walking with unbelievable acts of sweetness. Draco grinned, having it all planned out.

That evening, Harry was lounging in the armchair by the fire whilst his friends chatted around him.

"All ready for Quiddich try-outs?" Ginny asked, sitting in the chair closest to him. Harry smiled meekly.

"Not at all. It's going to be hard. There's no way I can keep your brothers off the team, and then I could be accused of favouritism or something by everyone who wasn't picked... It's a load of shite."

Ginny laughed; "don't worry, we'll put 'em straight."

"I just hope no one actually accuses me of anything."

"Of course they will. People will be jealous they're not on the team and will say you didn't pick them because you prefer people who did get on the team, despite the fact they're better at Quiddich."

Harry nodded; "I hate... Everything."

Ginny smiled; "teenage angst."

Harry smiled too; "shouldn't you be full of angst? Being a teenage girl and all..."

Hermione overheard this and laughed along with Ginny.

"You really don't understand girls, do you."

Harry shrugged; "I don't really understand boys if I'm honest..."

"Harry, there's a letter for you."

Dean had just walked into the common room, holding a letter up in the air. Hermione reached it first and analysed the front.

"It's actually addressed to you, for once."

Harry snatched it off her before she opened it and analysed the front too.

"Same handwriting too, finally told him who you were?"

Harry shrugged; "something like that. What makes you think it's a boy I'm talking to anyway?"

Hermione shrugged; "just using 'him' as a general pronoun, I wasn't being gender-specific."

Harry rolled his eyes; "you always have an explanation, don't you."

"You could have had a rebuttal for what I said, but-"

"-I don't care Hermione. I'm going to read my letter in peace."

Hermione pulled a face at Harry as he hurried up to his dorm. He bounced onto his bed and tore the envelope open, eager to see what Draco had to say.

Potter
Last night was quite nice, I daren't say we do it again some time. Apologies for not coming back, I did want to. As for making it up to you, do you have anything in mind? Within reason of course... Meet me after your Quiddich try-outs by the Black Lake.
Malfoy x

Harry growled and shook the letter; "why do you call me Potter?"

He put the letter down on his lap and looked up at the ceiling, wondering if he should write back or wait until tomorrow. There was a knock at the door and Neville poked his head round.

"Harry, um, Ron wants to speak to you."

Harry nodded, shoved the letter in his pocket and went down to the common room.