Change My World

fingertips so gently on my skin
i\'m underwater
i feel the flood begin
fingertips so gently on my skin
you\'re taking over and over again
-- Delerium


Meeting up with Malfoy became much easier for the boy-who-had-the-right-toys: an invisibility cloak and the Marauder\'s Map. For the time being, Draco was still attending classes with the other students and retained the power of being a Prefect. Though he likely should have had the badge and honor stripped away for consorting with another student as he had been, Dumbledore decided that in order to keep Draco going to the classes as scheduled it would be a better idea for him to at least have some measure of power.

Snape argued that this plan exposed Draco to too many dangers. Dumbledore countered that he couldn\'t ask all of the teachers to come and tutor Draco privately. The potions master subsequently volunteered to do all of the tutoring in the evenings. \"Ah... but Mr. Malfoy will be rather busy in the evenings,\" stated Dumbledore.

\"Busy with what? Potter?\" hissed Snape bitterly.

\"By my wooly socks! That is not what I meant at all. However, should you catch them together in the evenings they shall be punished!\" Dumbledore exclaimed. \"But I meant that in lieu of being sent out of his room for detentions, that Mr. Malfoy shall be have the responsibility of extra course work and whatever research you and the other professors may wish done.\"

\"And Potter?\"

\"Has his own detentions, Severus. Mr. Malfoy has not been granted a room for his own personal Shangri La.\"

\"Still, Potter seems to have some sort of ability to make himself invisible,\" Snape pointed out.

\"Does he? I was not aware of this. However, I\'m afraid that if you do not see him then it will be most difficult to punish them. Perhaps if you could catch him while he was unseen...\" Dumbledore offered almost innocently, although the twinkle in his eyes made his meaning clear.

\"If he\'s invisible, how am I to-\"

\"Just keep an eye out. If you witness anything suspicious, then come and see me,\" quipped Dumbledore.

---

Harry only felt this way when Draco wasn\'t around. When the Slytherin was in front of him, everything else seemed to go away. But Harry spent most of the day away from him, which gave the Gryffindor loads of time to ponder what he\'d seen in Snape\'s mind and replay that awful, awkward hug. Did the other boy subtly return it? No, he seemed genuinely surprised with it. But he didn\'t exactly push him away did he? Then again, it was just a hug, right?

Just about the time Harry had talked himself out of believing that there was anything going on between Malfoy and the potions professor, Snape would take Draco aside to have a chat with him. Or he\'d just pat the boy on the back in the hall. Draco seemed somewhat thrown by this behavior but dismissed it as Snape wishing to be his mentor or father figure. Although it did bother the Slytherin a bit in that Snape was supposed to be pretending to detest him for being a traitor and instead he was more attentive than ever.

Nearly every night Harry would make his way to Draco\'s room with aid of the Marauder\'s Map and his invisibility cloak. There were a couple of nights where Ron\'s insomnia made it impossible to leave. Then there were a few nights where Snape, determined to catch Harry sneaking into Draco\'s room, had camped out in front of Draco\'s door. Harry never mentioned this to his lover. Telling the Slytherin about Snape\'s sitting there would cause more questions than Harry wanted to answer. Though the boy who lived wouldn\'t admit it, deep down he was afraid that if Draco were minutely aware of Snape\'s affections for him, that there was a chance that the blond would wish to pursue it. So Harry kept mum. Draco remained ignorant. Snape continued with his plans to turn Harry in to Dumbledore for visiting and endangering Draco, even though he had unknowingly been thwarted by a map made by his rivals decades before.

But tonight, tonight there was no Snape, and Harry had a special surprise for Draco. Winter had given way to spring; and though it was still rather bitterly cold at night, with the power of magic at his whim, Harry thought it was about time that he and Draco see what the rage about skinny-dipping was. While splashing around in the lake might be problematic, it still seemed to excite Harry. The idea of messing around under water very much appealed to the golden boy ever since his fourth year underwater trial. In order to make this happen, Harry had gone to great pains to acquire some gillyweed to enact his desire.

\"Harry, it\'s really fucking cold.\"

\"Well spotted. Look, the sooner you eat this, the sooner we\'ll get in the water and we\'ll be warmed up.\"

Draco gave Harry a warning glare for a moment as his nostrils flared in distaste at the wriggling gooey rat-tail looking plant that the Gryffindor held out to him. Or at least it looked like it was moving. Likely it was a trick of the light of the waning three quarter moon coupled with the imposing firelight glare of the castle behind them. Either way, it didn\'t look like something the paling Slytherin wanted to put into his mouth. \"You first.\"

\"Draco! I\'m not trying to poison you! I just want you to get settled into the water and then I\'ll hide our clothes under the cloak,\" Harry protested.

\"I can put the clothes under the cloak. I just want to see... doesn\'t it give you... fins and gills and make you all slimy? I mean, are we going to be equipped to...\" Draco gestured near his belt and then towards the softly lapping lake. Catching his glance was the lazy wave of a tentacle from the Giant Squid. Again Draco appeared to be balking. \"And that thing... what if it... gets too close...\"

Harry blew air out of his slightly chafed lips and rolled his eyes as he looked around at the clear night. It was beautiful out here, but freezing. He\'d had them come out in minimal clothing, just their pajamas so there wouldn\'t be much to hide. However the fuss Draco was making was likely to cause unwanted attention and they\'d have to go back before Harry got to enact his strange fantasy. \"Draco, it won\'t.\"

\"And the merpeople?\"

\"Asleep.\"

\"In mer-beds?\"

\"I guess?\"

\"With mer-sheets and mer-pillows?\"

\"Draco, don\'t be a mer-asshole. They have their own village and they\'re not terribly interested in what goes on outside of it unless we got too close. I know exactly where it is. It\'s fine.\"

Cracking a smile at this, Draco shifted uneasily as he wrapped his arms around himself. Prancing a bit against the cold, he looked longingly back at the warm castle, \"And the grindylows?\"

\"Third years can handle them. Besides, they live in the grass at the bottom of the lake and we will just easily avoid going that far down. We\'ll stay semi-near the surface. Now eat it,\" Harry said as he thrust the piece of gillyweed in Draco\'s face.

In response, Draco turned his head away with his nose up in the air like a spoilt child. \"Alright, but just an \'it won\'t\' doesn\'t fly with the squid. It\'s awfully friendly.\"

\"At least it\'s soft?\"

\"Excuse me?\"

\"Well, it might feel nice?\"

\"Ew Harry, you\'re a... freak!\" squalled Draco.

Harry raised his brows and smirked. \"Look, I\'m sure it\'s seen such things before. And if you just push its tentacles away it takes the hint. It\'s fine.\"

\"Where did it come from anyways?\" Draco asked as his teeth started to chatter uncontrollably.

\"I don\'t know, the squid\'s been there as long as-\"

\"Not the squid you bestial freak, I mean where did you get the gillyweed?\"

\"Oh. That. Well, I sent off for it. Owl-order. There was an ad in The Daily Prophet for Slug & Jigger\'s Apothecary. They made a mistake in ordering and their loss was my gain!\" Harry said, summarizing the point of the ad. \"Anyways, that\'s where I got the idea. Got it by owl post direct from Diagon Alley to me-\"

Draco held up his hand to indicate he\'d heard more than enough paraphrasing of ad copy. \"Fine, fine, if I eat it will you shut up about that ad?\" the shivering blond inquired. With great delight, Harry again foisted the jiggling grey mass to Draco\'s face. Closing his eyes, the boy opened his mouth and sucked in the squishy plant, giving Harry\'s fingers a quick and playful lick. It was every bit as foul as it looked and Draco\'s face reflected his repulsion just before he began to gag. After a moment, his breathing started to constrict. Harry was fast at work stripping his boyfriend. Naked, beginning to ooze slime and growing webbing between his digits, Draco was unceremoniously shoved into the chilly water.

After an agonizing moment of sheer terror where Draco thrashed and flailed at his inability to breathe and the sheer cutting frost of the blindingly black water, things began to resolve. Draco only a faint chill now as the water caressed his body. Movement was rather easy thanks to the webbing and he\'d just begun to start to swim around comfortably when his ankle was caught. Furiously, he whirled around, only to be met with the tepid warmth of another body that felt just as strange as it was familiar.

It was a small mercy that the water was as dark as it was. If Draco had seen Harry with gills and fins, he would\'ve balked. But as it was, their bodies were simply weightless and they slithered together slickly. The sensation was fascinating and so erotic, that Draco completely forgot the magical beasts that they were sharing this soup with.

Though he hadn\'t asked, Draco remembered from past lessons they had about an hour to play around. Although that was more than enough time to do what was on nearly any teen boy\'s mind, Harry was clearly ready to get things started. Draco felt the strangely webbed fingers slide over his length, smoothing the slick webbed skin over the head as the blonde\'s head fell back and his hair slowly wavered in the inky darkness of the water.

The boys could only see by the occasional chance flicker of light that sliced through the greenish water, lighting their skin with an unearthly marine glow. In particular, the pallor of Draco\'s porcelain skin and silvery hair caught at the light making him luminescent in the disrupted water. Draco happened to catch the refractions of the diffused moonlight glinting over Harry\'s transfigured mask-like glasses as the Gryffindor leaned in to press his lips against the other boy\'s. Prizing their lips apart, their tongues met warmly as their bodies weightlessly found familiar curves to cling to.

Keeping a watchful eye for where they were and where their activities may float them, Harry slid his fingers over the other boy\'s back as they embraced. Draco\'s legs wrapped around Harry\'s, his ankles hooked around the brunette\'s calves so that they wouldn\'t float apart, as his webbed hands slid adoringly over Harry\'s flexing cheeks as they continued their kiss. The benefit of gills meant that they didn\'t have to break the kiss to breathe, and they took full advantage of this as their hands slickly explored one another.

Despite the fact that it was clear that Harry was taking the lead in their encounters, Draco enjoyed testing his boundaries. After squeezing the heft of Harry\'s ass gently, he gently parted him. Cold water flashed over the heated ring of muscles, making Harry gurgle a yelp. Immediately Draco brushed his finger over the twitching bud and pressed a gelatinous finger into him. True to form, Harry\'s body went rigid and he shoved the hand away and bit a little too hard at Draco\'s tongue for his audacity. Inwardly, Draco snickered. He broke the kiss, and gave Harry a murky pout that the other boy couldn\'t see, but certainly felt.

Rolling his eyes behind his glassy mask, Harry copied Malfoy\'s lewd movements, parting him to the frigid caresses of the water. Draco\'s eyes opened to see nothing but sinisterly reflective mask before him and a mass of shadowy waving hair as Harry\'s fingers penetrated him. It was almost frightening to not be able to see Harry\'s eyes in the middle of this disorienting strangeness. The water was mysterious and icy and it held them weightlessly in its grasp. The warmth he was clinging to was nearly faceless due to the encompassing visor. As if Harry was a stranger, a random fiend that came out of the gloom who was now sliding his fingers in and out of the heat of his inner sanctum.

Sliding against Harry\'s hardening member, Draco likewise became aroused as he gave himself over to the hauntingly kinky suggestions. For a while, they kissed and stroked one another, trying to keep from the dangerous creatures that lurked just behind the thin veil of the gloomy depths. Draco leaned into slide his tongue over Harry\'s gills, exploring the new part of his lover. In return, Harry curled his fingers carefully inside of Draco; prodding him at the angle he knew would elicit a muffled gasp.

Carefully pulling his fingers out of the Slytherin, Harry placed an arm around Draco\'s waist as his other steadied himself till his erection found the give between his legs. Harry caressed the blonde\'s scrotum for a moment as he pulled his hand out from under Draco and pulled his hands back to the pale boy\'s waspish waist. With the gentle rocking of the subtle waves that their movements generated, Harry pressed himself into his lover. Weaving his arms and legs to entwine Harry in his grasp, Draco simply submitted to the unhurried tidal movements of the Gryffindor\'s body, pushing back with the same tender ease.

Their weightless embrace carried them with a moderate bobbing to the edge of the lake followed by a trail of fragments and bubbles. It was unavoidable that they would end up on a bank as Harry\'s thrusting always took them in the direction that he was facing. Harry had changed directions a few times to fight it, but realizing that their time was sadly running short, with a nod of agreement, Draco allowed himself to be pressed down against the sand and pebbles on the sloping ledge of the shore. With more leverage that comes with the steadying influence of gravity, Harry pressed harder and faster inside of Draco, their union eased by the protective slime coating provided by the Mediterranean plant.

The heat of Draco\'s insides sucked lovingly around the veined protrusion of Harry\'s length as he thrust deeply. The motion of their bodies colliding cased the water to splash and pound harder against the edge of the lake, unsettling the usual calm. The effects of the gillyweed were starting to wear off, causing the oxygen to slow in their gasping and shuddering bodies. Harry quickly grasped Draco\'s prick and he swirled and thrummed his silky fingers over it until he felt the hard pull at his groin and then warmth of his release. The pulsing and pulling of Draco\'s inner muscles milked Harry free of his own ejaculate. The brunette\'s head pounded from lack of oxygen as he came and he was still releasing into Draco when he grabbed up the other suffocating boy and swam them up to air.

Surfacing was hard on their lungs and they sputtered and choked for a few moments, then parted as they relearned how to breathe. Life outside of the water suddenly seemed unnecessarily harsh. Air was hard, movement was quick and it was horribly and bitterly arctic. \"Hypothermia!\" Draco croaked out as he started to shiver violently.

Deftly, Harry swam his way closer to where their clothes were laying; marked by a stick he\'d shoved into the ground. He felt around till he found what he was looking for and flourished his wand to cast a heating charm around Draco and then himself as he allowed them both a moment to warm up before standing up into the night air. \"Eat your hearts out Muggles. Too bad for them they can\'t warm the water around them, \" Draco observed.

\"Well, technically they can warm water in one way...\"

\"What way?\"

Harry gave a thought to informing Draco about public pools and why bathrooms were so under utilized, but decided that the son of a Death Eater was already disgusted enough by non-magic folk. \"Never mind, you don\'t want to know.\"

Shrugging, Draco slipped under the water to slick his hair back and then resurfaced looking rosy and content. \"That was... interesting. But I\'m ready for some dry land,\" he said as the last of the slime drifted back into the calm of the water and he started for the shore. Stopping on his way to gather Harry with him and to give him a long kiss, the boys stepped out of the lake together. Immediately Harry cast a drying charm and another heating charm in the air to give them a few moments to pull on their freshly uncovered clothing.

Hiding under the invisibility cloak together, the boys joked and quietly giggled about their underwater adventure. Draco related how not seeing Harry was almost spooky but still sexy while Harry explained how radiant Draco looked and how warm he felt inside of him, causing them both to blush a little as they walked. Once up to the castle, they went silent, communicating with looks and gestures as they headed back to Draco\'s room.

In front of the warded door, Draco stopped. The Gryffindor was still moving forward, prompting Draco\'s pale arm to shoot out in front of him as he pointed to the door and then lower at the crack of light that illuminated the stone floor. Grey eyes widened, Draco looked at Harry apprehensively. There were only four people who knew where in the castle he was and who could get through that door. Two of them were standing just outside of it. Draco was caught, unless something truly terribly was inside.

Not believing that the Dark Lord had invaded the school to wait up for Draco to get back, the Slytherin slipped out from under the cloak. With his tapered and elegant finger, Draco pointed down the corridor and gave a nod to indicate that Harry should go back to his dorms. There was no point to putting them both in trouble.

Harry took a few steps in that direction and then stopped. He wasn\'t really worried about being caught, what the Gryffindor was troubled with was whether it was Snape inside. No, he was sure it was Snape in the room waiting to talk to Draco. Why had Snape gone into his room that night? Out of suspicion Harry had stayed up on those nights where Snape was outside of Draco\'s room and never had the teacher entered the room. Why was tonight different? Had Snape finally decided to tell Draco how he felt? No, Harry wasn\'t going back to the dorms. Fuck that. If that greasy git thought Harry Potter would stand by while he put his pederastic paws on his boyfriend-

Potter\'s thoughts were interrupted by the soft incantation from Draco\'s irritated and puffy lips followed by the click of the door. Flying back to the spot behind Draco, Harry followed the boy closely, indelicately brushing the fabric of the cloak against the blond. Knowing that Harry was behind him, Draco\'s body tensed, but he plodded on, stepping into the brightness of his bedchambers to see Snape sitting awkwardly on his bed looking infuriated.

The good thing about being a Slytherin is that it often led to being a good liar. Being a good liar often led to being a decent actor. Forced to act as if there weren\'t an invisible boy behind you while you\'re trying to sort out why your mentor is in your room after you\'ve clearly broken the rules is a huge test of your acting and lying abilities. Still, Draco managed to make his hesitation at shutting the door seem somewhat theatrical but natural, giving Harry time to shuffle in quietly before he pressed the door closed. \"Professor, I\'m sorry. I know it was foolish and you\'ve all gone through great pains to-\"

\"Hush, Draco. Not another word. I must tell you something. It cannot wait another moment. Come, sit by me,\" Snape said as he patted the spot next to him.

Harry\'s nails bit hard into his palms as he fought the urge to rip off his cloak and scream at the sordid authority about being a pedophile and using his position and-

\"Professor? I... alright,\" Draco said quietly as he glanced fretfully around the room, not remembering a time when the older man had asked him to get quite so intimately close to him. The blond waif made his way to the bed and slipped next to the distressed older man.

The sight of his lover sitting so close to Snape enraged Harry and he could feel his face blossoming into a livid blush of hate. His hand stabbed into his pocket and he gripped his wand tightly as his other arm crossed over to grip his own bicep to hold his wand arm down.

\"Draco, I know this will come as a great shock to you. It was a great shock to me as well. No one planned on this happening, but now that it has...\" Snape said as he wrapped an arm around the bewildered Slytherin and squeezed him gently. Draco\'s heart pounded in terror for what the next words out of the potion\'s master\'s mouth might be as Harry stood in dumb shock at what he was witnessing. \"I regret to have to inform you that your father has escaped from Azkaban.\"