A Series of Connecting the Dots

Authors Note: If you didn't read the authors note at the start of chapter one, please do so now or else you might get lost in the premise of this story....

This chapter was not written by me, it was written by Laurel (DreamingInColour) and can be found on her profile as well. I'm writing Draco's POV and she's doing Harry (heh, dirty) and we're alternating back and forth but wanted to be kind to our readers and post in both places so that you wouldn't need to switch back and forth... and who was it that called me the empress of Evil? lol. I can be thoughtful occasionally... I just don't make a habit of it. Many thanks to our faithful beta (Robert, Ragnarok45) who has worked on this story for both of us in order to provide and balanced and unbiased opinion!

Chapter 2 – Harry – My New Life

I’ve had to think about my life a lot in the last few hours, more than I ever have before. It’s always been too hard to think about my life, it’s always been easier just to live it. Hermione would say – and I would have to agree – that if I thought about things too hard, the whys and the what ifs, I would drive myself mad. Of course, I’m not sure she’ll be saying that to me anymore, I’m not sure she’ll be saying much of anything to me anymore. You see I fucked up my life pretty badly yesterday.

Quite apart from that though is that my so-called ‘friends’ have completely abandoned me. Yes, I made a mistake and I mean who the hell hasn’t made mistakes? But for people – two in particular – who have risked their lives with me and for me, you’d think they’d be a little more supportive even if they didn’t understand, even if they didn’t approve. Apparently not.

But here I am now walking the long path to Divination behind the one person I safely thought I would hate forever wondering what new possibilities he could open up for me. I think he is the key to my new life, my new future. But I’m jumping ahead of myself I think. Let me go back to the moment that has changed my whole life.

It was late last night and I had arranged to meet my secret boyfriend Mike Corner behind Greenhouse 3 – our usual spot. I remember having hot flushes as I made my way quietly through the castle under my invisibility cloak, I was already hard in anticipation of my meeting with Mike since I knew we were taking things ‘to a new level’. Tonight we were going to have full and proper sex. Mike and I had been together since mid-last year. I got to know him a little when he was dating Ginny and we started fooling around just kissing and touching every now and then – just experimenting, you know? – it didn’t mean anything. It was always several weeks between our meetings and months before we actually explored each other to orgasmic completion. I remember overhearing Ginny crying to Hermione near the end of last year about how she was going to break up with Mike soon because he was always distracted and never seemed interested in her physically or sexually. I felt my face burn the entire time and I knew her relationship had been ruined because of me.

After that I think I subconsciously wanted to make amends with her and I began to spend – now that I think about it – too much time with her, I began to pay too much attention to her and before I knew it I was in a relationship with her that I felt obligated to be a part of because of my ties to Ron and her family. In the meantime Mike had approached me at the start of this year and had stated – in no uncertain terms – that he wanted me in a way that made me shiver with pleasure. It was far too tempting to refuse, and my body desired him in a way that it had never desired Ginny. I yearned to be satisfied and knew that my satisfaction lay with him, so I did something I never ever thought I would do: I cheated. Several times. I cheated on Ginny so many times that it became normal in a sick sort of way.

Last night she caught me with him. Lucky for me she caught us in the first few seconds and I hadn’t had time to remove him from his clothes – she only caught us kissing. It doesn’t matter now anyway; the influence of her family and her brothers has turned the whole of Gryffindor House against me. People who would once have died for me will now not even acknowledge my presence. People I once considered family – people I thought I could rely on – are now taking pleasure in my pain.

Last night, upon my return to the common room after a very long walk and after Ginny had obviously announced to everyone the awkward position she caught me in, I was shunned and ignored. I thought it was just an initial reaction and things would blow over. I thought this until my encounter with Fred and George at breakfast. I had always found their easy nature and ability to lighten any situation appealing: even Slytherins are drawn to the Weasley twins in some way, so when they approached me at breakfast and Fred began caressing my leg I couldn’t hide my positive reaction. George’s hands soon joined Fred’s and I shivered under their combined touch. That was, of course, until Fred leaned in to tell me what a ‘good little faggot boy’ I was and that if they weren’t sure I was a ‘little gay slut’ and therefore teeming with disease they might even like to find out how well I sucked cock.

I didn’t stay to find out what else they had to say. I knew where I stood with them now.

I did think that perhaps my relationship with Ron and Hermione was salvageable despite their blatant ignoring of me at breakfast. My friendship with Ron had always been a little volatile so I knew it would take longer to mend bridges with him. Hermione, I was sure, would express her disapproval and disappointment, but I never thought she would actually abandon me.

Again, I was wrong.

I managed to catch her briefly before Potions class and the few words she said to me spoke volumes. We were no longer friends.

“You went too far this time Harry, I’ve stood by you before when you fought with Ron but I can’t this time. You should have known better,” she had said to me before walking away.

She wasn’t cold or angry: she was just sad. Her relationship with Ron had been a long time coming and it was only newly blossoming romantically; obviously she didn’t want to jeopardize that, not even for her best friend.

I wondered if, given time, she would ever want to be friends with me again. I wondered if I would want to be friends with her again.

I truly felt the extent of my loneliness in that Potions class when Snape instructed us to pair up to work on our potion for the day; I was unceremoniously left out in the cold to pair up with a Slytherin, something that had never happened before.

I glanced around the room where I eventually locked eyes with none other than Draco Malfoy, my school nemesis and the only other student without a partner.

Shit.

I had frozen in place hoping that the Gods might strike me down where I stood rather than have me pair up with Malfoy. My immediate thought was that this was the worst day of my life, but in the back of my mind I knew that wasn’t true: I’d had worse. Possibly this was the worst day I’d had in the last five years or so… maybe it wasn’t even that.

My life sucks.

He gestured for me to join him and finally I knew I couldn’t avoid it any longer and I complied. I gathered my belongings and made my way across the room, dragging my feet as I went, making it obvious I didn’t want to go. I purposely avoided looking to see who was watching me even when my chair scrapped loudly as I sat down.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Malfoy watching Snape who was smirking at our pairing, no doubt enjoying my ‘fall from Grace’. Even I had to admit I had fallen far. I didn’t like it, but Gryffindor House had made me their ‘Golden Boy’ – as Malfoy and his Slytherin buddies often reminded me – and I was now nothing to them. Snape was no doubt loving every minute. Bastard. I shot him a deathly glare so he knew I had caught him enjoying my pain; he didn’t even flinch.

I could feel Malfoy’s presence and I was just waiting for his tirade of ‘gay’ comments as I was sure he, along with the rest of the school, knew about what had happened. Ginny made sure of that. I’d heard ‘faggot’ coughs through every hall as I made my way to class.

I wondered what Mike was experiencing this morning. Same as me? Taunting and ridicule? I wondered if he would stand by me or if he would turn on me like everyone else had. I still didn’t know.

I moved my chair as far to the end of the desk as I could manage, seeking as much distance between myself and Malfoy as possible. My whole body was tense from stress and my now unknown future. Well, unknown to a certain extent. Friends or no friends, I was still destined to face that psychopath Voldemort. Friends or no friends, I was still expected to fight for their freedom: possibly die for their freedom. Ungrateful pricks. As much as I wanted to tell them all to fuck off, see how well they fared facing Voldemort without me, I knew I would never do that. I still needed my revenge for the murder of my parents. I would still face him; I would still fight him; I would still kill him, but now I would be doing it alone.

My shoulders slumped at this thought. Was facing Voldemort alone and coming out victorious even possible? Wasn’t that my biggest advantage over him? My friends, my family, my ability to love and be loved? Now where was I? Unloved and alone just like Voldemort himself… I was doomed.

“Let’s get this over with,” I grumbled in an attempt to prompt us both into starting to brew our potion – Draught of Living Death. I wondered off hand whether this was the potion Juliet took when she faked her own death; too bad it didn’t work out for her.

“So how did the Gryffindor mascot end up partnered with me?” Malfoy asked me, I could hear the amusement in his voice. I could tell he already knew the answer, the whole fucking school knew the answer.

He question made me relive the whole event again and I felt my sadness settle over me again. I still loved my friends. I would miss them terribly. Part of me knew I deserved this even though I was trying to convince myself that friends stick by friends no matter what.

“Sod off, Malfoy,” I replied.

Like this was any of his business, I bet he just wanted more details to later relay dramatically to his housemates while they all laughed at me.

He held up both his hands in surrender. “You injure me, Potter. I was only trying to be friendly,” he answered back.

Yeah right.

I turned to look at him so I could respond, which in hindsight was possibly my first mistake. Now, in my experience I’ve come to learn that Malfoy is essentially an idiot. He can mock and bully with a skill I have never seen before, not even in Dudley, but he’s always been, fundamentally, a whiny little brat whose mouth told lies all the time but whose body language always gave him away like a big neon sign that said ‘I’m lying right now, can you tell?’.

He didn’t look like he was lying now though, he looked sort of empathetic; not pitying or anything, but like he could understand how crap I must be feeling. If the dungeons had windows I would have literally rushed over to one to see if there were flying pigs outside because that would be the only time I would expect to see Malfoy expressing genuine empathy.

I was taken aback at his sincerity but I didn’t show it. I rolled my eyes before I responded; Malfoy might not have been pointing and laughing or kicking me when I was down, but I still wasn’t stupid enough to think that I could pour my heart out to him just because I had no one else. I’m sure he wasn’t stupid enough to expect it either, not that it stopped him from trying. “Not that it’s any of your business,” I replied, “but I’m sure you’re well aware of what’s going on with me: don’t be coy, Malfoy. It doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m not being coy, Potter,” he said. “Do you really expect the entire school to keep track of the great Harry Potter’s social interactions?”

Bingo. Right there. That was what he thought of me. I would have laughed if I wasn’t so pissed off. Laughed that Malfoy, who I expected more from, could be so easily categorized with the rest of the idiots who read my story, saw my pictures and thought they knew me. Everybody thought I basked in all the fame and attention those same people bestowed upon me. They all thought I bathed in it, that I soaked it in and was so obsessed with myself, just like everyone else seemed obsessed with me. Idiots, all of them. The only people who truly knew me had just thrown me away like yesterday’s news; I felt truly worthless.

“If you don’t keep track of such things, then why did you ask?” I retorted.

Moron, I thought spitefully.

He almost smiled. He almost looked impressed by my come back. “I merely observed that every Gryffindor in the class ignored you and left you to the wolves, so to speak,” he answered looking rather wolfish himself.

If I didn’t know any better I’d say he was flirting with me. I felt my insides bubble as I realized I was actually enjoying this conversation with Malfoy. Did I like him flirting with me? No. No way. But I decided to play along anyway.

“And I suppose in this scenario that you would be the wolf?”

“Undoubtedly,” he agreed and he sort of bowed at me as though he was formally meeting me for the first time. We’d known each other for six years but I think it was safe to say that this was one of our first proper conversations. “Could you ever think otherwise?” he asked smugly.

Hmm. Could I? Perhaps I could. I was actually enjoying this conversation. I was enjoying myself with Malfoy. Today had definitely been total shit, there was no denying it, but here I was actually being cheered up by none other than Draco Malfoy. Right now I would say anything was possible and so I threw caution to the wind. “I think I could be persuaded to think otherwise,” I answered. I looked away though; I didn’t want to see his reaction to my words. I was sure he knew I was gay and I was sure he would know I was practically flirting with him, not that I knew why I was flirting with him...

I think I shocked him with what I said because he didn’t reply immediately. This gave me time to think about him and why I was doing what I was doing, it gave me time to think about him in context with my current situation. Draco Malfoy was my school rival and my enemy: he was a rude, conceited pig of a boy who had been a total arse to me and my friends for the entire time I’d known him. Yet, here I was – sans friends – and I was actually enjoying myself in his company. Strange.

My first thought was that if I got together with Malfoy Ron might actually self-destruct and that was something I would pay to see at the moment. But I was still with Mike; besides I wasn’t even sure I could stomach getting together with Malfoy, I mean sure he was attractive – alright, more than attractive, the boy was heavenly looking – but I was a personality guy as much as a looks guy. I had to know the person I was with, to like who they were and while I could happily jerk off to pictures of Malfoy, actually being with him just to piss off Ron – as appealing as that was – probably would be much more difficult.

Although, as my mind ticked over, I started to realize the other appeal to Malfoy: his proximity to Voldemort. It was obvious I needed a new plan to defeat him. I was in this on my own, with no friends to back me, and I had already realized I needed a new game plan. Perhaps Malfoy himself wasn’t involved in Voldemort’s circle, but his father sure as hell was. Draco Malfoy was starting to look mighty shiny right now; he had this whole new appeal to him once I started to realize that I could use him to get to Voldemort. Just how I would do that I wasn’t sure, but it was an interesting development nonetheless.

“But I am the wolf, Potter. Don’t forget that,” he reminded me.

Yes, that’s right. He is the wolf and I mustn’t forget that. I would need to watch myself around him.

I had decided by that point that I was going to foster a relationship with Malfoy, whatever it might come to be, and I would let things play out however they did. I guess you could say I was going to encourage the mending of bridges between us.

This was going to be an interesting new chapter in the Harry Potter chronicles.

By the time all these thoughts had run through my head, I had gathered all of our ingredients and, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Malfoy talking to Snape while I was away. They both looked serious and they spoke in whispers: I wondered what they were talking about.

“What did he want?” I asked when I returned to our table, surprising even myself. The question came out so easily it sounded like something I would ask Ron, as though Malfoy was my friend and could have no reason as to keep anything from me.

“He just wanted to make sure I was going to make your day sufficiently miserable,” the other boy replied; his tone sounded like he was half teasing me. It sounded like something Snape would do, though.

“Is that your plan?” I asked him lightly.

He just shrugged noncommittally.

“Because if it is, you could do a better job,” I added, smirking at him.

He looked a bit surprised and I wondered myself what I was doing with him. It seemed my plan had gone from ‘fostering a relationship, whatever it might be’ to ‘seducing Malfoy’ without my permission or any conscious thought. It occurred to me that I had no idea what I was doing and I would need to think several things through and monitor myself with him very, very closely.

“He said something in there that was a little odd,” he said cautiously, as though he wanted me to confirm something. I was surprised he was giving me any details at all of their conversation, particularly since he seemed to gloss over the subject with his last comment. “He said you weren’t completely a Gryffindor. What in the world does that mean?”

I tried to keep it in but I couldn’t help myself as I laughed. I laughed not only at knowing Snape knew how close I came to being under his charge, but also I laughed with pleasure as Malfoy seemed to get his first glimpse into how complex my life is. I wondered if he knew how significant this moment was: the first time he was learning that I was not the shallow, attention-hungry, famous Golden Boy he thought I was.

“He would know about that,” I commented mysteriously.

“Know about what?” he asked me.

Oh yes, Malfoy was following me like a puppy just dying for information. He was as curious about me and this strange interaction we were having as I was.

I don’t know much about dating or flirting, but I was once in the room when Lavender and Parvati were talking to Hermione about ‘playing hard to get’ to entice Ron. I remember just sitting there smiling to myself knowing Ron was just too vague to understand ‘hard to get’, but Malfoy I think would respond nicely to a little ‘hard to get’. I wanted him to chase me. I needed him to think that whatever friendship we struck up was his idea, that it was his doing, and that I couldn’t possibly have an ulterior motive. I wasn’t very good at deception or lying; lucky for me neither was Malfoy. I would still need to be careful though.

I looked down, trying to appear nervous, as if the information I had was very juicy and I was reluctant for him to know. Unfortunately, Malfoy turned it around on me; something I wasn’t expecting.

“It’s okay, Potter,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me, it’s probably personal.”

Bugger. That wasn’t what I wanted at all. I wanted him to beg for the information. I wanted him to know that we were very nearly made room mates. I knew he would be impressed by my Slytherin qualities: it would pull me out of his Gryffindor stereotypes somewhat and put us on a more even playing field.

“It is a little personal, but…” I said trying to sound reluctant, although I knew it would do no good; he would be all smug thinking he’d won this round. In a way I guess he had won, just not in the way he thinks. “No real harm in you knowing I suppose. Do you remember the sorting?”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth I felt stupid and I could feel my face burning with embarrassment. Duh, Harry! Of course he remembers the sorting!

He nodded anyway and didn’t comment the way I thought he would. Malfoy was surprising me at every turn.

“Sorry, of course you remember being sorted. That was a stupid question,” I admitted. We both knew it; I might as well acknowledge it out loud. This would not be helping to put me on an even playing field with him. “Well, I was almost sorted into Slytherin.”

He looked surprised; exactly the reaction I was hoping for. “Almost? How do you almost get sorted into a house? The sorting hat always knows exactly where to put you,” he stated as though it couldn’t be any other way because that was how he experienced it.

I shrugged lightly. “I can only tell you what happened to me. The hat said I would be a great wizard and that Slytherin could help me along to achieve that greatness. I told it no, that I would rather be in any other house, and after giving me several chances to change my mind, it finally put me in Gryffindor.”

He looked scandalised. “That’s ridiculous, Potter. Why wouldn’t you listen to the Sorting Hat? You could have ruined your entire life by ignoring it,” he replied.

Oh-so-dramatic, Malfoy. You really need to work on that: it makes you look immature.

“I doubt it has ruined my entire life,” I said. Thinking about it again, though, I almost wished I was in Slytherin. Gryffindors were too loyal for their own good. If I was in Slytherin when this happened, I would have expected some people to ignore me, but not the whole house. “Or at least I would have said that yesterday,” I added with a grimace as I glanced at my fellow Gryffindors.

“What did you do anyhow?” he asked me.

I instantly got my back up about it, my usual reaction when it came to Malfoy and snapped, “You just assume it was something I did?” I instantly regretted it as I didn’t want to encourage either of us falling into old habits. Not when I was trying to get on his good side.

“It seemed the most plausible explanation since they’re all mad at you and you look guilty,” he answered easily with a genuine grin.

He surprised me again and this time I couldn’t hide it as I stumbled all over my words sounding like a lunatic. “Well it was me this time, though, usually it isn’t,” I said.

He just laughed. “Are you going to make me ask again? Or do I just need to ask one of the gossiping Slytherin girls for the dirt on your bad behaviour?”

Oh God, my mind was all jumbled up as it struggled to process this brand new, easy-going Malfoy I was witnessing. How could this boy be two completely different people? Warning bells sounded in my head at this thought and I wondered if he was better at deception than I thought.

Should I tell him?

Oh why not? The whole school knew anyway.

I sighed. “I cheated on Ginny.”

“Is that all?” was his easy reply. He confirmed my assumption that I would have been better off in Slytherin for this situation, although it was worrying that he was so indifferent to infidelity; yet another reason I needed to be careful around him: he could easily break my heart.

“Isn’t that enough?” I asked not hiding any of my disbelief at his easy attitude towards cheating.

“For your entire house to turn against you? Hardly. Even Slytherins are more loyal than that. I thought you were their poster child?” he replied.

Loyal? They are being loyal. Just not to me. I took a deep breath as I contemplated how to explain this to him. He really didn’t understand me or my life at all. “I’m only their hero when it suits them, and most of the time I’m just some freak who shares their common room.”

“Would you like for me to talk to them?” he asked.

He was offering but I knew he wouldn’t do it so I tried to call him on it.

“Yeah, would you?” I asked smiling innocently. He flinched at that, obviously certain I wouldn’t take him up on the offer and I couldn’t help but laugh. “I was kidding. I’m sure that would do about as much good as if I let them all fuck me.”

I knew that sounded crude but I wanted to push Malfoy into thinking of me in a completely different light. It worked; he dropped the knife he was using with a loud clatter. It was perfect; the look on his face was exactly what I wanted.

“Sorry. I forgot to tell you the other bit. They are also mad because I cheated on Ginny with a boy,” I said casually as though it didn’t matter to me and shouldn’t matter to him.

“I had no idea,” he told me truthfully.

“No one did except Mike,” I admitted.

Mike. Damn, I had only thought of him briefly today. Again I wondered how he was going with all this, he had been outed against his will just the same as me. Mike, however, had a family who would care a great deal, particularly his father; he was adamant about keeping our relationship under wraps.

“Mike?” Malfoy asked.

“Michael Corner, my boyfriend,” I told him casually, again trying to encourage him into easy acceptance. “Or at least he was until all this blew up, now I’m not so sure.”

That was true, for all I knew, Mike would deny everything and batten down the hatches until it all blew over. I couldn’t see him standing by me while we publically professed our love for one another. He wasn’t really that kind of person.

“I don’t know what to say, Potter. I thought I knew all the gay boys in Hogwarts, but I never suspected you or Corner,” he said sounding as though he knew intimately all the gay boys in Hogwarts.

“Are you… are you saying that you’re gay?” I asked stupidly, he had floored me again.

He smiled at me as though confirming it without words. Malfoy was GAY?! And not only gay but it looked as though he lived up to that sluttish reputation of his…

The look he gave me caught me a little off guard, especially as I was only just trying to pull my jaw up off the floor as it was. It was smug and almost predatory and I knew at once what he wanted; suddenly it all made sense… The ‘famous Harry Potter’… Oh yes that was definitely a notch Malfoy would want in his bed post: if only for something to brag about later. Heaven help me if he was to find out I was still a virgin.

I was going to have to play this carefully.

I smiled back broadly. “Well I guess we have more in common than I thought,” I mused.

“We just might,” he agreed still smiling at me like he already had me naked in his bed.

Not yet, Malfoy. Not yet.

By the end of the lesson it was obvious he wanted to add me to his most likely already very long list of conquests. He played coy, touching my hand while we stirred our potion together, and by the end he looked very pleased with himself as our potion turned the exact colour it needed to turn. I would have been pleased with myself too, had I conquered this bitch of a potion Snape set us; Malfoy, however, already knew he could do it, and was just smugly pleased he got to show off to me.

So here I am. Following Malfoy to Divination and still bewildered by the last few hours: the very significant decisions I’ve made; the lack of serious thought about what I’m doing or how I plan to pull it off. I have a lot to think about and basically no time to do it in.

I follow Malfoy all the way to Divination and we are paired together again for a basic tea leaf reading. Trelawney likes to pretend that there is more to it than what we learned in third year, but I know better: she’s just running out of material to teach us.

Malfoy and I drink our tea and attempt to read each others’ cups. I feel an invisible knife stab my heart as I realise, had things not gone badly with Ginny yesterday, I would be doing this with Ron and we would be making jokes about the whole process like always, predicting each others deaths in the most gruesome fashion possible.

After I finish my tea and pass the mostly-empty cup over to Malfoy, I stare into his globby left over tea leaves, trying to discern what the strange, blob-like shapes could possibly mean. Without warning, Trelawney comes over to us and snatches my cup from Malfoy’s hands. She looks over at me with that same pitying ‘you are going to die soon’ expression and gazes into my cup. I brace myself for the predictable response she always gives… the grim.

“Interesting,” she begins – that’s new. “This looks like a hangman’s noose on a tree branch which is the symbol for Judas and betrayal, but here you have a flying dove – the symbol for love – and a ring – the symbol for longevity or eternity. You have a very turbulent future ahead of you with those close to you, Mr Potter.”

My mouth falls open in shock about half way through and I haven’t yet managed to close it by the end of Trelawney’s little speech; even Malfoy has a confused look painted across his features.

“Do mine,” he requests of her, obviously thinking – like me – that the prediction she gave me didn’t sound ridiculous like the others she always handed out to random students.

Without missing a beat, she lifts the cup from my hands to read Malfoy’s leaves. “Well, Mr Malfoy, here you have flying phoenix which often symbolises new life – this can sometimes mean new love, a new baby, or rarely such a significant change in your current life that you create a new life for yourself. The only reason I mentioned the last one is that you have here a dragonfly which is the symbol for change and maturity. In essence, you will be doing a lot of growing up in the next few months Mr Malfoy.”

I raise my eyebrows at Malfoy across the table. Malfoy maturing and growing up? Yeah right! That’ll be the day!

… Although hadn’t I seen him do that very thing just today?

I don’t know what is going on; only that it looks as though both Malfoy and I are in for an uncertain and rocky future.

authors note: You can review here or on Laurel's version or both if you're feeling extra sugary!