Chapter 7

It was just Draco's luck. Harry's friends were surprisingly receptive to her apologies, but it seemed that even that fragile understanding couldn't last.

She considered skipping lunch, but it would have only meant that she would have postponed the inevitable. So she showed up, even when she realized that everyone at the table of the lions was staring at her - again.

She thought Hermione might tell Ginny, but it seemed like she told everyone, and Draco wasn't sure she'd be allowed to sit with them, but nobody said anything, and Potter wasn't seen anywhere to clear up what was going on.

"I hope it's still fine if I sit here?" Draco tried to make sure.

Silence. Until Harry appeared. Out of breath, and dropped down next to Draco, giving everyone else defiant looks.

"Maybe I should just settle to eat in the Kitchens from now on," Draco stood, but Potter grabbed her arm.

"I've told everyone we're dating," he said. "And I also invited anyone who had only unpleasant opinions about that to keep it to themselves."

As if all his friends staring at them as if they wanted to curse Draco out of their lives was any better.

"But we aren't dating," Draco couldn't believe it. Why would Potter lie about such a thing?

"It's okay. Now they know, and we can all move on," Harry said. Even kissed Draco's cheek before she could realize what he was going to do.

"A word in private, if you would?" Draco jumped to her feet and refrained from yelling Harry's ear off until they weren't overheard. "WHY would you do this?"

"Well, Hermione seemed convinced we were together, so I told her we were," Harry said. "It makes things easier."

"In what world does this make anything easier, for either of us?!" at that point, Draco wasn't sure Harry didn't suffer some brain damage during the last 24 hours or something, because it was a disaster, and he acted like it was good news.

"So when we finally get together for real, it will be nothing new," Harry shrugged. "That way, we can concentrate only on us, and not anyone else."

"Yeah, a solid plan," Draco ironically said. "EXCEPT we'll never date! I thought I was pretty clear about that last night."

"To be fair, you only said you weren't ready to date anyone yet. And I'm also secretly plotting to wear you down," Potter smiled at her shyly. "After all, as far as I know, that's what my father did with my mum."

"It's never going to happen!" Draco couldn't believe her ears. "And frankly I don't even know why you'd even suggest something like that!"

"Isn't it obvious? I think you're great."

"Uh-huh," Draco sarcastically nodded, struggling not to yell again. She didn't expect Harry to keep dancing on her nerves after they sort of buried the hatchet, but this might have been worse than when they were at each other's throats. "Based on what? A few hours we spent together when nobody got cursed, for once?"

"I think it goes further back than that. Not even just this school year either," Harry said. "You've always had my attention. I couldn't place it, but now I think it was attraction. For quite some time too. Even when you were acting like a self-entitled prick."

"I see what happened," Draco said. "You took too many magical sweets yesterday unsupervised, and your brain fried. Because even if you think you're attracted to me, there's no way you would consider chatting me up by calling me a self-entitled prick to my face, that's just common sense."

"AND, I think if it was that way for me, then it was the same way for you too," Potter went on, unfazed. "I understand that you need time, and I will be patient. But if you hadn't stormed out of class, I wanted to write back explaining why I decided I don't want you to friend-zone me, either. You should know my intentions. And my friends should know it too."

A couple of harsh insults came to Draco, but Harry seemed to think they were endearments, so she didn't use them.

"Well, I think you truly believe all that," she said instead. "But I also think you said you felt lost, and trying to pursue someone who is unattainable could be just a project to keep you busy. This way you don't have to consider what you should do with your life, now that the Dark Lord is gone. Because even if you never wanted fame, nor what came with it, you still had an established role to play, and now you don't."

She managed must have cut deep because Potter didn't look so hot for a minute, but she needed him to understand and she meant every word.

"Maybe you're right and we can't be friends," she also added, looking away. She wanted to leave Harry behind to give him some time to compose himself alone before returning to eat, but he stopped her from leaving.

"I might be a mess, but I'm also not wrong," he said. "And maybe you're so quick to dismiss me because you suffer from the I-just-want-to-be-normal disease just as much as I do."

"I came to the school as a witch. Nothing gets wilder than that."

"Nothing?" Harry asked. "Not even if you date someone famous?"

"As a Malfoy, I can handle some attention," Draco shook her head. "If I wanted to date you, I wouldn't let anyone stop me."

"Correction. You reveled in attention, but that was only in the past," Harry said. "When you had a mask on, it didn't matter what people said about you, because good or bad, it wasn't the real you. But now you're authentic and got almost mobbed for it right on your very first day, so you started to play it safe."

Maybe Draco could read Potter like a book, but it seemed the wizard could read her just as well. Maybe even noticing things Draco hasn't fully realized yet.

"For the record, if you don't want to be with me - ever - that's fine. I'll get over it. And maybe I shouldn't have lied about us," Harry quietly added. "But even as a casual acquaintance of yours, I'd prefer if you decided that because it was truly something you want, not because of fear."

Draco didn't know what to say, feeling eerily vulnerable of all a sudden, when Ginny Weasley found them.

"I just wanted to check you didn't kill each other but…" she turned to Draco with concern, asking Harry. "You made Malfoy cry? You've been dating for about 10 hours, and you already made her cry?"

"I'm not crying," Draco quickly assured her. "And I'm good. Really."

At least, she thought she would be, once she got away from Harry who was just the center of trouble for her, even when they weren't sworn enemies. And to Potter's credit, he left without another word, leaving Draco and Ginny in an awkward situation.

"You looked so miserable I thought you were. What did he say to you?" Ginny asked.

"I guess… nothing that was far from the truth," Draco managed to admit. "I was unprepared. Maybe you could do me a favor and tell everyone I wasn't hungry, so I decided to skip lunch after all?"

She also skipped her afternoon class, trying to stop her mind from playing back every word she said and Potter told her in return by picking up a fairly complicated book on Arithmancy.

Luckily, time passed unnoticed while she was fully immersed in it, and she felt better just a couple of chapters later. She even wanted to join the Gryffs for dinner but only noticed she was hungry when it was already too late.

That was when some forth-year Slytherin appeared saying that there was a commotion outside the Common Room, and Draco should come, and when she did, Hermione and Ginny stood there with a bunch of Slytherins, demanding they either let them in or call Draco to come out.

"What are you two doing?"

"We wanted to talk to you," Hermione said. "Can we come in?"

Draco could only glance at the other Slytherins who still vehemently demanded that they should leave.

"Maybe we could talk somewhere else?"

So that's why they ended up in an alcove some students used for snogging while the Gryffs kept looking at Draco as if she was on her deathbed, so she told them.

"Actually, we aren't dating. Harry lied. And I'm good, I only missed dinner because I didn't notice how late it got while I was reading."

"Harry told us he lied," Ginny said. "But…"

They exchanged a look with Granger, and Draco couldn't fathom what was up.

"He told you something awful, didn't he?" Hermione suggested.

"No, we were just talking," Draco reassured them.

"Look," Ginny said. "Just because he's a celebrated hero, you don't need to cover for him. If he said or did something…"

"No, I'm not, and he didn't," Draco said, but when she still got dubious looks, she got annoyed, on Harry's behalf. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your concern. But I don't appreciate how you're so quick to believe Harry would do something like that. In fact, he told me something deeply personal, and I was the one who used that against him, so maybe you should be comforting him."

"Usually it's not like him, but when it comes to you, all bets are off," Hermione said.

Granger's words reminded Draco of Harry and how he claimed that he was attracted to Draco much longer than Draco suggested, and even after Draco somehow convinced the two witches that she was okay, the thought of that, no matter how ridiculous, still lingered, keeping Draco from sleep.

So by the next morning, Draco was not only early to the table of the lions, but when Harry arrived (late), she also cleared her throat.

"Erm, so… I had been thinking about what you've said."

"Before you say anything, I have been thinking about what you've said," Harry interjected. "And you were right. And I should have stopped the conversation right there."

It was twice as embarrassing to discuss everything out on the open at the table, but since Harry's business was automatically every lion's business, Draco had to work with the cards they were dealt.

"No, I'm sorry to suggest you were a mess, when I'm not the one to talk," Draco said. "And I realized you were right and maybe I wasn't raised to try to fit in, but to hide anything that didn't fit certain expectations of me, and when pressured, I might just do the same, even now, just slightly different."

"I shouldn't have called you out on that," Harry said. "You've already changed so many things in your life, it's not up to me to suggest you're stuck just because some scars take longer time to heal. And I especially shouldn't have said it to further my agenda, so I'm sorry."

Draco was taken aback hearing that because if that was how Harry saw her, he saw more to Draco Malfoy than Draco herself.

"You only told me what I needed to hear, otherwise we could have spent a hundred or two years being friends when it's not what I want," Draco said.

"Message received," Harry must have thought Draco was telling him off because he turned back to the food he wasn't eating, so Draco had to quickly tell him otherwise.

"No, I mean, if it's you, I wouldn't mind if I could stop myself from constantly running away."

"Meaning?" Harry looked up wearily, but he kept eye contact, still listening, and that was all that mattered.

"More than friends?" Draco felt positively ridiculous when she held out a hand for Harry to shake, but she also had a plan.

"You can't be serious?" Harry quietly asked, but he took Draco's hand anyway, which Draco nefariously used to pull him close for a short kiss, but just lasting long enough for probably the whole Great Hall to see.

"I've changed my mind," she told Harry in a low whisper she hoped couldn't be overheard. "So if you don't mind messy, you know where to find me."

So yes, she had exceeded her quota of embarrassment for the month if not the entire year, when she stood to leave after that, but a certain Potter might have been in good shape to catch up with her right on the corridor.

"Did you mean that, or was it just to convince Hermione and Ginny I didn't hurt your feelings yesterday?"

"I meant it," Draco said. "Though I said no more running away, and my first reaction was just to do that, so I guess it's a work in progress."

She even blushed under Harry's sudden scrutinizing gaze, and how close he stood. And just thinking she thought pulling Harry to a kiss in front of so many people was a good idea, showing him that she could learn not to care if it came to it.

When Harry only continued to stand there, as if contemplating how to let her down, she could also see faults in her logic.

"I mean… I'm sorry. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore, and I definitely should have told you in private first."

"It doesn't matter, I'm used to that," Harry said. "I'm just trying to think what would happen if I kissed you now. Would it help to ground you, or in fact, you'd be running for the Forest, screaming."

"Fun fact: I don't know either," Draco said. But she didn't run, even when Harry stepped closer, and closer, only to… hug her instead.

"Fine, I chickened out," he told her, making her laugh.

"Or that's exactly what you would say if you only did it so I wouldn't," Draco knew.

But at that moment, something important had shifted.

Even if she wasn't sure they were a good match with Harry, because of their past, if not for how easily Harry initiated their first kiss while Draco was still cautious about dating, Merlin knew at least she wanted to try.

Even if their relationship would last only a day, two, or twenty, there was no force strong enough to keep them apart until they either got along just fine or failed spectacularly.