bloodwrites

Malfoy's taunts are less grating when he's alone. Harry doesn't stop to wonder where his usual cohorts are, only to be grateful. He can even pretend to ignore the flashing green glow of the POTTER STINKS badge pinned to Malfoy's robes.

Harry keeps walking, head down, as Malfoy's laughter echoes off the stone walls of the corridor behind him, and then cuts off sharply with a disappointed huff. Take that, Harry thinks, you unoriginal gorgeous prat, and then chides himself for his thoughts. Trying to hate someone you sort of have a crush on is bloody difficult.

“He's just trying to get your attention, you know.”

Harry's head jerks up. He doesn't know where Luna appeared from, though it's not entirely surprising he didn't notice her, the way he rushes around the castle these days with his eyes firmly on the floor in front of him. “Oh,” he says, his gaze falling on the necklace of shimmering dragon scales strung around Luna's neck. “That's nice. What?”

“Draco,” Luna says. “He wants you to notice him.”

“Rubbish,” Harry says. “Why—”

“I've got something for you. ” Luna pulls something out of her bag. It's a cylinder of smooth, dark wood, ancient and grimy from what might be centuries of handling. “Take a look.”

Harry turns it over in his hands. He's not at all sure what it might be, but there's an opening at one end, so he holds it to his eye.

“It'll show you a possible future,” Luna says. “One that'll solve your immediate problem, but you have to make it happen.”

Harry's gaze swoops down a long, dark tunnel, where tiny chips of metal, like iron pyrite, form into ever shifting geometric patterns. “I don't see anything,” he mutters, but as soon as the words are out of his mouth, figures form in the distance.

A familiar stone wall curves up over the heads of two boys, one blond, one dark. They're kissing. Their bodies are connected from shoulder to knee, and from the dark-haired boy's hand dangles a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles.

The shock of it pulls him out, a swift, sharp jerk, and he's left standing back in the corridor with Luna, trying not to throw up his lunch as she deftly retrieves the kaleidoscope before he drops it.

Harry blinks at Luna in disbelief. “Future? Malfoy…? What?”

“Only if you act on it,” Luna says. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

A thousand thoughts battle inside Harry's head, a thousand ways it could play out. He decides that he could hardly become more of a pariah at Hogwarts, and he can always plead temporary insanity if it goes badly. With a nod to Luna, he turns on his heel and tears down the hall.

Malfoy is still alone, dragging his feet. When he hears Harry's footsteps, he turns, and the blank look on his face morphs into a sudden and obvious terror.

Malfoy holds both his hands out in front of him as he backs away, in danger of stumbling, until he hits the wall behind him.

Harry drops his bag, scans the curved ceiling, and it's exactly the same, down to the odd-shaped stone above Malfoy's head. He slows to a walk, feels oddly predatory as he gets closer.

“No,” Malfoy begs, and he squeezes his eyes shut as though expecting a blow. “Please, I'm sorry, help—”

The rest of his pleas are just a muffled vibration against Harry's lips. Harry pulls back to gauge the reaction. Malfoy just blinks at him in surprise, and then says, “Oh.”

“If I'd known that's all it would take to shut you up, I would have done it a long time ago,” Harry says, as he takes off his glasses.

“Oh,” Malfoy repeats, and there's almost a kind of pleasure, a sort of warmth in it.

Harry lifts an eyebrow in question. As much as he wants to do it again, he's not about to go around kissing boys that don't want to be kissed, after all.

Malfoy, still wide-eyed, simply nods. “Mmmhmm.”

So Harry kisses him again. This time slower, softer, shutting his eyes and getting in close. Malfoy's body is accommodating, his lips are warm and damp. Harry opens them with his tongue, and he discovers that Malfoy's mouth tastes a lot like chocolate, and that his moans are sort of helpless and intoxicating and cause a happy, thrilling vibration to bubble up from deep in Harry's belly.

He pulls away when he can stand it no more, and he watches as Malfoy's eyes, sleepy and heavy-lidded, slowly open and blink at him.

“Was that all right?” Harry says, as adrenaline fades and fear threatens to close in on him.

“Oh, yes,” Malfoy says. “Although, I'm quite sure the entire school will choose to believe we've both been bewitched once this gets out.”

“I haven't bewitched you,” Harry says.

“I know that. I've been wanting you to do that for ages. I do hope it's going to happen again?”

It's Harry's turn to blink at Malfoy in surprise. Then he drags his gaze down to the still glowing badge pinned to Malfoy's chest. “One condition,” he says. “That goes.”

Malfoy carefully unpins it, and he drops it to the ground, where he proceeds to grind it into pieces with the heel of his shoe. “You've got a deal, Potter. Now pay up.”

He grabs Harry by the collar, and pulls him into another kiss. Harry grins against Malfoy's lips as he decides he's going to have to do something very nice for Luna, just as soon as he can concentrate well enough to think what she might like.

It's going to have to wait.

fin