Rejection and Acceptance

A few weeks after the Skeeter incident as Draco dubbed it, the hexing and general torturing of Ron was being toned down. As much as the Slytherins were having fun torturing the school’s newest scapegoat, it was beginning to become mundane and the Gryffindors were of the apparent belief he'd done his time. Well most of them anyway.

So with the fun of torturing of the red-head lessening, the Slytherin communal mind returned to where it was the night before the incident; finding the true bloodline of the man their parents followed and believed in. They decided it was time to confront the one who boasted of what he apparently knew, and they stood in groups in the Slytherin common room. Despite the differences of room arrangement, they still had a common room that had a large, cheery fire but unlike its Gryffindor counterpart, it was decorated in green and silver.

"Come on Harry you know we need to finish that potions assignment." Draco's voice was heard as he walked down the hall.

"Yes, but I'm hungry. Surely I can go to the Great Hall for a snack first." Harry's voice responded louder as he came closer.

"It will waste valuab..." Draco broke off as he stepped out of his room and into the Slytherin-filled room. Not that it was an unusual sight in the Slytherin common-room, but first thing on a Sunday morning, they were usually at breakfast or in bed, not hanging around in the common room.

Harry stepped past Draco and looked around in surprise. "What happened?" He asked.

"We decided it was time for proof of your slander." A seventh year announced as he stepped forward. Harry recognized him slightly as the guy from before the Incident.

"All right, the photograph?" Harry requested.

"Right here." The sixth year piped up, holding out a photograph with several people in it.

Harry grabbed the frame and looked it over quickly, yes there he was. "Alright, everyone see who he is?" Harry asked the room at large. A chorus to the negative was heard, and so Harry grabbed a quill and circled the young man in the photo who later turned into a murderer. He passed it around the room. Once he got the picture back he stood up.

"And to the library we go." He announced. The rest of the house stood up and followed. Harry and Draco led the house to the Library, faces gaped at them as they played follow-the-leader past the doors of the Great Hall. Once in the quiet Library, Harry quickly got the attention of Madam Pince. "Hello and how are you today?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Peachy keen. What are you all doing here? Not going to be too noisy I hope." Madam Pince glared at the house of Slytherins who were already fussing around.

"Of course not." Harry waved everyone discreetly to sit and be quiet. "We needed to see the pictures of the first years for the year... Umm... 1938 I do believe."

"Fine, but I want them back in perfect condition." Madam Pince frowned as she left for her office. When she came back, she held out several pictures. "You remember how to use them Mr. Potter?"

"I do, Madam Pince, thank you so much for your help." He smiled at her frowning face.

"Hmmph." She answered as she stalked away.

"Okay, we'll have to do this in groups. Seventh years, come to this table please." Harry requested moving to a table that was slightly larger than most.

"Now what? You have pictures of little kids, whoop." The disbelieving seventh year sneered at him.

"We all agree this man is Lord Vol... You-know-who?" Harry sighed as they all flinched.

"Yes, yes. Get on with it." The seventh year sighed.

Harry placed a blank sheet of paper over the frame with the encircled target. "Ostendo res redimio." On the blank sheet, a copy of the encircled man appeared, and from another sheet Harry drew out, a scared young boy was ushered to the front. "This is the man in that picture as a first year." Harry announced.

"We were all first-years once." The seventh year sneered again.

"This page," Harry continued, "has all the information about that wizard. Tom Marvolo Riddle, born of Tom Riddle and Merope Gaunt. Parents deceased, raised in a Muggle Orphanage since birth. Yada yada. Here, father, Tom Riddle, Muggle. Mother, Merope Gaunt, Son of Marvolo Gaunt, descendants of Salazar Slytherin."

"No way." The seventh year denied, grabbing the papers from his hand and reading the same information with his own eyes. Once he read through all the information, he passed it along. "Maybe it's not the same person." He tried to deny weakly.

"Everyone admitted it was." Harry pointed out logically.

"Maybe this lies." The seventh year snapped back.

"It can't. It has been charmed by the founders; no one has figured out how to trick it either." Harry answered. "Don't believe me? Read that book there." Harry pointed to a book the librarian had also discreetly passed him.

After going through the scenario with different reactions from each year, Harry was starving and slightly fed up. Plus it was lunch time and he had missed breakfast. He was the first Slytherin to finally reach the table in the Hall the whole day since all the Slytherins had missed both breakfast and half of lunch which was surprising to most
of the other students.

Harry stayed off by himself. He ate as quickly as he could so he could escape. He understood well that his house mates were shocked and had just had a cornerstone of their upbringing destroyed. However, it didn't much change his life and he was tired of hearing it all. He didn't want to think about it right now, he didn't want to talk about it until he was blue in the face and the subject was talked to death. It was truly very simple. Voldemort was a psychopath that wanted revenge on his father, and his father's type and wanted all muggles dead. On the way he wanted supreme power.

After Harry gulped down his quick meal, he jumped up from his seat and left to the outside of the castle. Some of the Slytherins had retreated to the Great Hall with Harry, like Draco who tried to coerce Harry into talking to him. When that was unsuccessful he just ate what he could and followed Harry outside.

"Harry!!" Draco called as Harry ran outside. It was a rather warm day for the middle of December, and it was soon to be the Christmas holidays.

Harry kept running towards the Quidditch pitch. He just wanted to be alone. Draco ran faster. He wasn't as good at long-distance running as Harry was, but he wasn't too bad at short distance and as long as he could catch up quickly he might catch the raven-haired boy. Otherwise, Harry would disappear and leave Draco in the dust.

With a quick tackle, Harry landed on the dirt with barely enough time to brace his arms for the impact. He'd lost his breath and Draco gave him no time to get it back as he slithered up his body and held him down panting.

"Damn it all to Merlin. You don't have to run from me!" Draco pouted.

"I just wanted to be alone." Harry gasped looking away.

Using just one finger, Draco turned Harry to face him again. "Don't run from me. Come to me with your problems. We can talk, or just sit... Or snog." Draco finished with a grin despite how serious he was.

"I just... I don't wanna talk about Tom anymore. I don't want to think about it or anything." Harry answered as he sat up and grabbed his knees in his arms.

"Alright. Why don't we go for a walk? I have something to ask you... About us." Draco admitted.

"You wanna marry me? Have my kids and dress in girl’s clothing?" Harry teased, sitting up straighter.

"Umm... Maybe someday, that might be a possibility but who says I have to be the female. Even though i dress nicely it doesn't mean I'll wear girl’s clothing." Draco shuddered in disgust.

"Come on, you'll look amazing in some little pink dress. Might even turn me on." Harry teased.

"I can turn you on without pink... Okay, but seriously, I want to ask... Okay, I feel so stupid asking this. So nerve wracking." Draco admitted.

"Come on, it's just me. You know you can talk to me." Harry answered as he twisted onto his back and laid his head on Draco's lap.

"Yes... I know... But I don't know how to... I don't want to sound... I'm just going to spit it out... Say it like it is... Not beat around the bush..." Draco trailed off into silence.

"Draco...." Harry spoke a soft warning.

"Willyougooutwithme?" Draco asked in a rush.

"Slower..."

Draco cleared his throat and stared at the pond. "Will you... go out with me?" He requested again.

"Really?" Harry asked his eyes shining up at the boy.


Draco glanced down at Harry and then away again. "Yes."

"Then... If you give me a kiss and I get to be the ‘boyfriend’ boyfriend..." Harry answered smiling at Draco.

Draco pulled him up and gave him a soft kiss. "But we're BOTH the 'boyfriend' boyfriend." Draco warned.

"Of course." Harry waved him off and gave him another kiss.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Colin wasn't exactly spying on the two of them... It's just that they had gotten out when he was taking pictures... again. At least this time, some good would come of it. Locking the door of the room he used to store his heavy camera at the top of the tower, Colin grabbed the picture he had snapped a while ago and now had finally finished getting it developed twice in a special potion.

He jogged out the door, carefully hiding the pictures in his bag. He didn't want to miss these guys, but he wanted to be able to talk to them as well. So he jogged as fast as he dared down the steps and narrowly missed falling into oblivion when he jumped the gap in the staircase instead of waiting for it to change again. He got outside as the two boys kissed and stood up again. "Harry! HARRY!!!" He called to the boy who was starting to walk away.

"Yeah?" Harry asked when he was closer.

"I have something for you guys... Just don't take it in a bad way okay?" Collin requested.

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked warily, picturing a gift of leather whips, handcuffs and bondage crap he'd once seen in his dad's 'special study'.

"Well, you know I’m into photography, right?" Collin asked.

"Erm, well yeah." Harry answered, barely refraining from rolling his eyes.

"Well I’ve been learning certain new techniques, and I’ve been spending like every spare moment up on the towers getting photographs of everything. Sometimes though, my finger snaps pictures before my brain realizes what the picture is OF." Collin hinted.

"You took a picture of us? Without our permission?" Draco snapped horrified at the lack of privacy.

"Well, you were out in the open and it was a bit of time ago." Collin muttered.

"What's wrong with you Creevey! Can't people get a break? Why didn't you just burn the bloody negative?"

"I did." Colin assured Draco trying to hide his fright. "I just printed out two copies for you two first. I thought you would maybe want them." He added holding out the items, one for each boy.

The boys grabbed the picture to look at how incriminating it was. Harry gasped. "This is... it's when... First..." He trailed off blankly looking up at Draco.

"Yeah." Draco nodded. Turning to look at the Creevey boy who was shaking in his boots he spoke again. "Listen, we'll forgive you this time because this was actually an important moment, but I don't want to ever find out you took another picture of me without my invitation. And for as long as me and Harry are dating those rules apply to him too."

"Alright." Colin agreed and turned to return to the castle.

"Colin." Harry called and waited for the other boy to turn around.

"Yeah?" Colin paused.

"Thanks." He said as he turned to smile at Draco.

"No problem. Sorry though." And he returned to the castle, leaving the boys in peace.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Fred and George knew the castle better than almost anyone who resided there. Filch was still looking for the many different hidden passageways and hideaways, but he hadn't found a quarter of them in the time they'd been there.

Thanks mostly to the marauders map, something they'd gotten years ago and had recently given to Harry so he could make his way to Hogsmeade, they had found and memorized almost all of them. However, a book they had found in the library recently told them the exact number of hidden passages that existed outside of the Headmasters office and challenged people to find them all in order to win a couple of prizes.

While the twins figured getting the prizes would have been awesome, they realized the book was written long ago and chances were low for them to be getting it. Finding the rest of the passageways would have to be enough.

They had about fifteen more to find. Unfortunately there were no clues in the book as to how many passages were on each level, but so far, there were about an even amount of passages on each floor except, there were none in the dungeons that the marauders map told them of. This gave them the idea that the marauders were most likely in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor and hence were unlikely to spend too much time learning how to navigate the dungeons.

Fred and George decided that there was only one way to get around this. They would go and talk to Draco and Harry and see what they
thought. Unfortunately, they didn't exactly know where the two boys were, but looking for them and sneaking up on them should prove to be fun. The two boys walked around to all of the known hangouts of either boy, but still could not find them.

"Okay, well they're not inside as far as we can tell." Fred announced.

"So he must be outside, however, where?" George pondered aloud.

"We can look by the lake..."

"The quidditch pitch..."

"Forbidden forest..." The boys looked at each other then burst into laughter.

"As much as Malfoy has changed."

"He's still terrified of the forest."

"Lake and."

"Pitch it is." The boys moved towards the doors in the Entrance hall just as they opened and the two boys they were seeking walked in through them.

"Harry!!" Fred called out.

"Draco!!" George chipped in.

The two boys in question looked at each other in question, before looking at the two who had called them.

"We need."

"To talk."

A.N. Sorry it took so long for this chapter, real-life and writer's block interfered. Here are cookies, brownies and cake to entice readers to forgive me and stay here.

Werewolf Mistress: Yes they kiss and people are pretty much only okay withit because they all hate Ron now and the only way to stay against him is to be okay with Harry/Draco... Oh and also the fact that there are a lot of people ready to kick the ass of anyone who speaks out against them. Sorry it took so long to write chapter 15 :(

aquarakaiba: Hey, I hope you still like and are reading this story. I feel really bad for having taken so long to update... Brownies to bribe you into not hunting me down?

Akira_Kushenada_Merquize: Hey, it's kind of generic but i'm glad you like my boys and I know there isn't much kissing in this one but I hope you still like it.

doxiesmom14: I'm glad you like the story and I hope at least 'Mione gets over it a bit... she's not very friendly with Ron or Ginny right now.

Heart Star: I was proud of the skillet :( I figured it wouldn't be too bad since it could be pretty easily healed at the nurse's office. Hope you liked chapter 15 :)

CrazyPedantic: Snape is very protective of Draco, and he's become protective of Harry because he's finding out how much Harry means to Draco. I am glad I did the snogging well ^^ Well yes, that was how I was trying to portray her. I don't like her much, lol.

nosyrosie16: Well, this is chapter 15, I hope you like it and a little new knowledge, there may be some strife in the future for the boys.

BleedingHearts: I am so happy everyone likes my kissing scene. I haven't done very many. I am very sorry to tell you there is unlikely to be any sex between my star players... However for the benefit of some of my awesome reviewers I may find an older pair to put a little sneak-peek on... heh heh. XD

thrnbrooke: More brownies for my being evil and having writers block and real-life interfere in writing this story. Hope it entices you to stay XD