Inamorato

A/N: I read about something like this Great-Hall setup in a fic once...but I don't remember the name or author. It's not my idea, though...I'm just borrowing it! Enjoy! ~ FA

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Harry shook his head, standing stubbornly just inside the doors to the Great Hall. "We sat with the Gryffindors at dinner last night." Draco said, annoyed. "So we're spending breakfast with my house."

"But they don't like me!" Harry insisted, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "I don't want to sit with people who don't like me!"

"I did." Draco pointed out sharply. "You can't honestly say the Gryffindors were happy to have me sitting at their table last night, Harry. We said we'd split our meals between both houses and it's my turn!" He glared at the brunette; this was ridiculous! "You promised!"

Harry groaned. "Fine. But if anyone starts anything, we're switching tables." He waited until Draco nodded before holding out his hand for Draco to take. "Alright; lead me to my doom."

The blonde snickered, taking Harry's hand and tugging the still-reluctant boy over to sit at the Slytherin table. He sat beside Blaise, with Pansy across the table from them. Harry reluctantly slid into the bench beside Draco. "Hello, all. What have you been up to?" Draco asked his friends.

"You mean besides speculating on your behavior?" Blaise asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not too much. I started on my report for Arithmancy. Have you?" Harry snickered. "Something funny about what I just asked, Potter?" Blaise snapped.

"Um...yeah, just a bit." Harry replied nonchalantly. "See, Draco spent last night getting smashed, so he didn't really do much homework."

Pansy giggled from across the table. Harry smiled at the petite brunette girl, whose hair was still cut in it's perpetually short bob. "Draco Malfoy, smashed? You don't say, Potter." She smiled back, her full lips curving gently. "Well, that's something I'd have paid good money to see..."

Harry opened his mouth to reply and let out a muffled sound of annoyance when Draco's slender hand covered his mouth. "Not another word about last night, Potter." He growled, though his eyes were laughing.

"No one wants to hear about your night with Potter anyway, Drake." Harry watched as Draco's whole face froze, then arranged itself into a sneer.

"Theo." Draco inclined his head slightly to the other blonde boy. "How lovely to have you join us." His cold tone of voice and the hard look in his eyes was at direct odds with the informal nicknames they were using.

The other boy twisted his face up in disgust. "I'm hardly going to sit beside Potter here and have breakfast, like everything's just fine, now am I?" He raised one slim eyebrow and curled his lip. "What will your father say, Drake, when he hears of this?"

Draco's sneer never faltered, though Harry saw annoyance flash in his silver eyes. "I don't believe that's any of your business, Theo. What my father says is between he and I. Malfoy's don't go around airing personal business like common riffraff." Something in Draco's tone gave Harry the impression that he was imply that Theodore Nott and his family were the common riffraff he was referring to.

Nott apparently drew the same conclusion because his sneer dropped, turning into a look of pure hatred. f1 "You won't have the Malfoy name to hide behind when your family hears about this." He jerked his head in Harry's direction, implying that Harry was the 'this' he referred to. "We'll see how superior you feel then."

"Quite superior, I expect." Harry snapped, annoyed at the way he'd been referenced, as though he was something to be ashamed of. "Considering he'll be backed by the Potter name, and be Consort to The-Boy -Who-Lived." Harry didn't enjoy dropping his title normally, but he felt it was quite worth it at that moment. "Which is of far more credit than you could ever hope to attain!"

Harry stood up and flared his wings when Nott fingered his wand. "I don't think you want to do that." Harry hissed, his eyes narrowing. "I've dueled wizards far better than you and come out on top."

Nott glared, but then backed away. Harry waited until the other boy sat down at the far end of the table, then he grabbed Draco's hand. "Come on. We're going to my table."

"What?" Draco snapped his head around, staring at Harry in shock. "Why the bloody hell would we go to the Gryffindor table? We haven't eaten yet and I'm talking to my friends."

"Because you agreed that if any of your housemates started crap, we'd go back to mine." Harry explained, exasperated. "What the hell do you call what Nott just did? Playful banter? He tried to pull his wand on me!"

Draco groaned. "Come on, Harry! You're not seriously going to make me sit at your house table again, are you? Just because of Theo's temper?" He pouted a bit up at Harry. "Please can we stay?"

Harry set his mouth in a firm line to keep his lips from twitching up into a smile and said sternly. "You promised, Draco. We'll try again at dinner."

A few minutes later, a happy Harry Potter and a disgruntled Draco Malfoy were sitting with Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and Ginny at the Gryffindor table. "Where's Granger?" Draco asked, tilting his head to the side inquisitively.

"Don't want to talk about it." Harry muttered after sharing a look with Ron that Draco didn't understand. "So, Ron, you holding up okay?" The brunette looked at Ron in a concerned way.

"Yeah, mate. I'll be okay." Draco watched as the redheaded boy shrugged uncomfortably. "I come from an open family; I can't be with someone that close-minded. I mean, she's being so petty. I wouldn't have thought it, and it wasn't a pleasant realization, but I'm doing okay."

Harry nodded, then gave Draco a look that said he'd explain later when the blonde opened his mouth to ask questions. Suddenly from behind him was a shrill, female voice. "You know, Harry, I can't believe you would do this to us! You didn't even try sniffing me once!"

Draco and Harry turned as one, to see a red-faced Parvati Patel, flanked by a distressed looking Lavender Brown and a smug looking Hermione. Draco frowned...something wasn't quite right here. "Er...and why would I sniff you?" Harry asked, looking both puzzled and wary.

"Because if you can tell a potential mate by smell, you should at least have been fair about it!" The Indian girl fumed, her hands fisted at her sides. "What, no one else was worthy of checking out? You couldn't even bother a quick sniff of the rest of us? We aren't pretty enough or smart enough or wealthy enough for you?" Her dusky skin had a rosy tint to it, most likely from her ire, and her shrill voice was getting louder with each word. "You could at least have had the decency to smell those of us who were interested before settling for Malfoy!"

"Um...it doesn't quite work that way, Patel." Draco broke in, earning a disgusted look from all three girls. "Harry didn't CHOOSE to smell me. Just being in the same room was enough for him to realize I appealed to his inner-creature. If sitting a few seats away at the dinner table didn't make him want to jump you, then sniffing your wrist wouldn't make you smell any more appealing."

"Oh stuff it, Malfoy!" Lavender shot at him, her brown eyes flashing. "You're just trying to act superior because he chose you, but he obviously didn't know what he was doing. He didn't even fully explore all his options! Hermione said so, and everyone knows she's studied Peris ever since they found out Harry is one!"

Harry sighed, drawing everyone's attention. "And Hermione is also biased against Draco." He intoned softly, glaring at the girl in question as he spoke. "She knows very well that Draco's scent is unique and that very likely I will NEVER meet another person who appeals to me this way. She's just trying to get you two to get everyone riled up so I'll do what she wants and leave Draco."

He stood up, forcing the girls to step back, and flared his wings out dangerously. "It's not going to happen. So all of you need to just BACK OFF!" He glared around at the rest of the Great Hall. "I've chosen Draco and we're going to make our relationship work, so all of you need to just stop. Keep your thoughts and opinions on the matter to yourselves, because we aren't interested in hearing them."

Draco stood up and grabbed Harry's hand, reaching out with the other to stroke Harry's left wing gently. The soothing motion helped Harry calm down slightly and he lowered his wings, folding them close to his back. "Come on, Harry, we'll go get something to eat from the elves." Draco took a few steps and tugged Harry's hand gently. "Come on."

Harry nodded, glared around the room again, and then followed Draco out.

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Harry and Draco walked into the Great Hall, then froze, eyes wide. "Um, Harry..." Draco asked, confused. "Any clue what the hell is going on?"

Harry nodded. "Um...I'd guess Dumbledore is trying to make it easier on us."

He cautiously led Draco over to the small-ish round table sitting in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw house tables, about fifty feet from the Head Table. The two house tables had been shifted further away from each other. The round table had around fifteen chairs set around it and was as covered in food and drink as every other table in the room. Harry sat down, looking up at the Head Table for a reaction. Albus nodded slightly and Draco, seeing this, sat down beside Harry. It felt strange, but would be infinitely easier than sitting with either of their houses.

"Um, Harry..." The blonde asked again, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Who do you think all of these other chairs are for?"

Before Harry could answer, Albus Dumbledore stood up. He held up his hands for silence, then stated. "Due to some hostility from Harry and Draco's houses, I've given them their own table in neutral territory." Which explained why they were between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. "Their friends from any of the houses should feel free to join them at their table as often as they like, provided they are friendly. If anyone starts - or participates in - a fight, they will be banned permanently from sitting there. Enjoy your lunch!"

By the time Albus was seated again, Luna was sitting across from the boys. "Hello, Harry." She smiled in her vacant way at the both of them. "Nice to meet you, Malfoy. I'm Luna Lovegood."

"Hey, Luna." Harry smiled at the slightly off-beat girl. He quite enjoyed being around her - if nothing else, she was infinitely supportive and calm, no matter how strange things got. "Did you have a good summer holiday?"

She nodded absently, piling food on her plate and staring at Harry's wings. "I wonder if you molt." She said conversationally. Noticing Harry's confused look, she added. "You know...shed your feathers to grow new ones, the way that owls do. If you do, could I have one for a quill?"

Suddenly a soft, feminine voice said from behind them. "I'm sure if Harry molts, you'll be the first one he offers a feather to." Harry turned around and grinned widely. "Can we join you?"

"Of course, Ginny!" Harry enthused. She, Ron, and Neville all took seats around the table, spacing out a bit so it didn't seem quite so empty. "This is wonderful. Thanks for coming over."

"S'no pr'b'm'rry." Came the muffled reply from Ron as he began shoveling food into his mouth once more. Harry stifled a giggle at Draco's disgusted look. "Wha...?"

"Just struggling to speak Ron-ese." Harry replied, a wide grin still splitting his face.

His grin faltered a bit as Pansy and Blaise stepped into his line of vision. "Draco, darling." Pansy smiled, taking a seat between Neville and an empty chair, which Blaise sat in, leaving two empty spaces between him and Draco. "We figured if they could join you so quickly, so could we." She smiled pleasantly around at everyone. "I'm Pansy and this is Blaise and we're Draco's best friends, so I expect we'll be getting to know each other."

"Um..." Neville swallowed hard, staring wide-eyed at the pretty Slytherin girl beside him. "Aren't you angry that he's with Harry?"

"Oh, goodness, no!" Pansy smiled sweetly, fluttering her thick lashes flirtatiously at the clumsy boy. "I'd side with Draco over his parents - or mine, for that matter - any day! They tried to get us to marry, you know, but we just don't suit that way. More like a brother to me, though we'd have had gorgeous babies." She paused her rapid-fire speech long enough to take a deep breath, then continued. "And Blaise here...well, the Zambini's have always remained neutral, so it doesn't really matter a whit to his family what side Draco chooses to align with." Her grin turned cheeky, her eyes sparkling. "Quite handy, that. Isn't it?"

"Quite." This was from Ron, who was apparently determined to keep his promise to support Harry, no matter what he decided to do. "I know Malfoy's been a bit of an arse in the past, but really, I threw as many insults as he did and was actually faster to throw a hex or a punch, so really. I mean," He continued quickly when everyone at the table - including his little sister - stared at him oddly. "We're not kids anymore, right? And so long as he treats Harry alright and doesn't get any..." He frowned, then grinned mischievously. "Ugly tattoos...well, it's fine with me."

Draco smiled slightly at this. It was sort of pleasant to have his and Harry's friends united in their support of them. Well, not all of their friends, obviously...but still, this made him feel good. Obviously he was right about this being good for his reputation. Realizing Ron was looking at him expectantly, he finally grinned and shoved up both of his robe sleeves, baring his forearms. "No tattoos, Weasley." He drawled, holding out both of his arms. "And I've no intention of marring my gorgeous skin with them either. Never really did."

Harry grinned and kissed Draco's cheek, murmuring softly. "No interest in serving an insane fuckhead?"

Draco choked on the air he'd been breathing, having only a vague recollection of having said something to that effect last night during their second fight. Recovering, he murmured back. "Only if you're the insane fuckhead in question, Potter. Are you offering me a position serving you?"

"Maybe." Harry snickered at the leer Draco was attempting to stop from creeping onto his face. "So..." He said more loudly, to the table in general. "Who wants to come on Saturday to watch me try to fly?"

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A/N: YAY! Hope you liked it...please review. Remember, e-mail addies get you an alert when I update! ~ FA