Shades of Truth

Shades of Truth

Chapter 24

*****

“You look happy,” Draco sounded a bit surprised when Harry came home, kissing him warmly. “Things went well?”

“Yeah, I mean, he isn’t excited about it, but I think he understands how I feel.” Harry explained, scrubbing a hand through his hair and walking over to the couch to sit down with a great yawn. “I’m just glad he didn’t punch me as soon as he saw me.”

“And here I was, sure I’d have to persuade you not to leave me for his sake.” Draco draped himself over the weary man, a smile teasing at the corners of his mouth.

“As if I was going to.” Harry wrapped his arm around Draco’s shoulders and dropped a kiss on his forehead.

“I had an argument prepared.” Draco nuzzled his face against the side of Harry’s neck, giving the sensitive skin a series of small biting kisses. “Shame not to share it with you…”

“What…what kind of argument?” Harry could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks as Draco’s hand slithered under his robes and along his side, pausing as it reached the edge of his belt.

“I just thought…” Draco paused mid-sentence to suck at the side of Harry’s neck hungrily. “If I showed you what I can give you that you couldn’t get from Weasley, maybe you’d decide to keep me around.”

“Oh?” Harry attempted to sound casually intrigued, but that was rather difficult when his voice refused to keep steady. Draco had moved his fingers to the belt buckle, and he was slowly unfastening it.

“Yeah,” Draco tossed the belt across the room before unfastening Harry’s trousers slowly with one hand, pulling himself more fully into Harry’s lap with the other. “Want to see?”

“Um…” Harry wasn’t sure what to say, he was afraid if he said the wrong thing, Draco would stop whatever he was doing, and that was the last thing Harry wanted. Draco was kissing him fervently, which gave him a good excuse to just not say anything. His fingers itched to touch Draco’s skin, and he reached under the hem of Draco’s shirt, letting his hands travel over his sides and up his back, noting each ridge flesh stretched taut over ribs, the small bumps of his backbone, as well as the heat and texture of the skin. Draco had finally unzipped Harry and had given up on edging down his pants for the moment in favor of opening his outer robes and getting Harry’s shirt pulled over his head.

Having accomplished this, Draco moved his mouth to concentrate its attentions on Harry’s chest, and then he slid to the floor as he kissed his way over Harry’s stomach in circular paths. His fingers extended as he grabbed Harry’s hips rather roughly and then very suddenly pulled, causing him to lift up and allowing Draco to slide his pants and boxers down around his knees in one harsh motion.

Harry barely had time to gasp and to sit back before he felt a hot hand wrap around him. When Draco gave him the overly bright smile that Harry knew as his I’m-Scared-To-Do-This-But-Want-You-To-Think-I’m-Not look, he knew what was going to happen. They had spent a good amount of their time kissing and touching, but they were hesitant to try anything they did not feel confident they were experienced in, but Draco had apparently decided that it was time to start learning new things, so he bent his neck, nuzzled Harry’s erection, and kissed it rather wetly before licking the tip experimentally.

Harry heard an odd, keening moan, and only realized it was him making the noise after a while. Draco was licking every inch of his shaft, and he seemed perfectly content to continue doing this when he rather suddenly switched aims and slid his mouth slowly over the throbbing heat, taking as much as he could in, sucking gently as Harry felt quite sure he would die if Draco didn’t move or do something. Harry began twisting a bit, but then Draco gagged, and the blonde grabbed his hips and held him still, pulling back swiftly, and then slowly taking it in again, testing himself until he felt confident enough to move a bit faster, to press his lips down harder, and even move his tongue a bit.

It was the first time Harry had experienced oral sex, and so it took very little time before he felt heat pooling in his groin, and in a panic, he pushed at Draco, who didn’t take the hint very well and nearly choked when Harry came in his mouth. He pulled away and spat it all over the floor.

“Ew! That’s…that’s weird!” Draco leapt to his feet and ran to get some water. Harry, feeling vaguely guilty, vaguely insulted, but far too content to do anything about either of these twinges, sighed heavily and let his eyes close momentarily as he began to soften. “Why didn’t you warn me?” Draco came back in a huffy manner, looking mussed and beautiful with swollen lips and disheveled hair. “It was…so weird.”

“I tried to.” Harry shrugged slightly, “you kept going.”

“Ugh, she said it was salty, but that…was like…well, I don’t know.” Draco surveyed the scene, and then used Harry’s shirt to wipe up the mess. “I don’t know if I’ll get used to that. Ever.”

“What? Who?” Harry smiled sluggishly, not caring much about his shirt’s sad fate.

“Pansy. I visited with her.” Draco grumbled. “She told me about how…well, you know. But she should have warned me about the taste more than that. I bet mine doesn’t taste so…so…weird.”

“I could check.” Harry stood up with only some difficulty, his pants falling to his shoes. “Come on, then, I’ll do you.” He was only half-teasing.

“No, not in the mood now.” Draco frowned.

“Really?” Harry reached down and pulled up his pants.

“Nope, it was so traumatizing, I’ll never feel like that again.” Draco crossed his arms.

“Never?” Harry frowned sadly, and Draco attempted to keep a straight face.

“Oh, go on, then.” Draco sat down on the couch and primly lowered his pants. “I deserve some attention, after all that.”

----------

“But I just told him that looked very dashing, you know, made eyes,” Hermione demonstrated with a rather hilarious flutter of her lashes, “and that was enough to get him to agree. Honestly, why he’s so stubborn about buying new dress robes…”

“You know Ron hates buying things he thinks are unnecessary,” Harry shrugged. The two of them were strolling down Diagon Alley toward Madam Malkin’s. “He grew up without anything extra, and he has a hard time just spending money.”

“So did you, and so far you’re being much more compliant about this.” Hermione pointed out.

“Well, you weren’t there when I complained about it to Draco and he completely ripped apart my sense of style. It was rough.” Harry explained. “I’ve decided at this point that when it’s something I don’t care about, I should just go along with whatever he says.”

“Choose your battles, huh? That’s clever.” Hermione giggled. “Is everything going well, then?”

“Well, we haven’t quite been living together a month.” Harry told her, “So I know we’re still learning things about sharing a space and all that. There have been a few tiffs, you know, like he got upset that I gave him a separate bed at first, and then he blew up when I left his comb in the living room, and he makes me wear socks to bed if I got to sleep after him, and the other night, I got annoyed with him complaining about me having mayonnaise on my sandwich because he said it makes him want to be sick when he has to kiss me and I taste like that. Like I’m forcing him.” Harry chuckled slightly to show that he didn’t find any of this to be serious. “But even with the occasional stupid fight, I really love living with him. I can’t imagine what it would be like to sleep alone, and even with how much he complains, it’s kind of like Snape, who doesn’t usually mean anything by it, he’s just not sure how to say nice things because he’s out of practice. He’s just…I love him, and I even love when he pouts, though I’m sure that sounds weird.”

“You’re talking to the woman who actually wants to marry Ron Weasley.” Hermione laughed quietly. “You don’t have to tell me that sometimes, love makes us find odd things endearing.”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, smiling slightly.

“So it sounds like everything’s going well.” Hermione looked rather pleased. “That’s good to know.”

“Well…” Harry hesitated. He wasn’t sure he could comfortably discuss this with Hermione, but he figured that she was his best option. “There is one thing. But…I don’t know, I think it’s kind of…kind of private.”

“Oh,” Hermione smiled wickedly. “Those kinds of troubles.”

“I just…well, neither one of us really...so we don’t know…” Harry gave it up as far too embarrassing to proceed with and just shook his head.

“Yes, I can sympathize.” Hermione laughed, and Harry knew she was trying to make him feel comfortable, but it was oddly emasculating talking to anyone about his physical relationship with Draco. “It’s not like Ron or I had tons of experience before we got together. And to tell the truth, I was really worried that I’d be no good, and he’d leave me, and that would be that. Then I realized I was clearly worrying over nothing.”

“Why would you think it was nothing?” Harry asked, his voice cracking in distress. “Like, what if…I don’t know, what if it’s horrible?”

“Well, if you’re really in love, even if it was horrible, you wouldn’t stop loving each other because of that. And to tell you the truth, if neither of you have…done that before, it’s probably not going to be great the first time. But I’m sure you guys have already…well…”

“Done other things?” Harry felt his face go crimson as Hermione nodded sharply. “Yeah, we have.”

“So then you already know a bit, and you’ve gotten comfortable with that sort of thing. You have to just do it, you know? And even if it starts out awkward, it’ll get better.”

“But…I mean, how am I supposed to…” Harry couldn’t even bring himself to ask anything detailed about the mechanics, and he honestly wondered if any advice Hermione had could be applied to his own situation.

“Just…just take it slowly,” she squeezed his shoulder as they stopped just outside the robe shop. “And trust me, you’ll figure out what needs to be done.”

“Thanks.” Harry smiled sheepishly at her before they entered the shop.

“Welcome to—oh, it’s you.” Pansy Parkinson went from beaming in welcome to scowling in disdain in the space of a moment, and she seemed to still be deciding whether or not her clear displeasure with Harry should also extend to Hermione when she approached them with arms crossed over her chest.

“Pansy, hello!” Hermione smiled brightly as though there was no trouble at all. “Harry’s going to need a new set of dress robes for the wedding. Nothing too crazy, just a classic black, if you think that would suit him.”

“Oh, yes, in May, right?” Pansy decided that her girlish enthusiasm for discussing matrimony outweighed her anger at being subjected to serving Harry. “Is your dress ready yet? You’ll have to let me use my expert eye to inspect it.”

“I’ll be sure to bring it in.” Hermione promised. “Do you think you can whip something up for Harry?”

“To tell you the truth, there’s not a lot I can do with this.” Pansy made such a face of disgust that Harry pursed his lips in irritation as she turned back to Hermione, still only speaking to her. “I’ll do what I can to make him presentable. Just be sure you keep a close eye on your fiancé. Potter can’t control himself, you know.”

“Oh, Pansy,” Hermione smiled thinly. “I’m not worried about that. Ron’s not really his type, after all, if Draco’s anything to go by.”

“Look, Draco told me you two visited the other day.” Harry cut in, exasperated. “I thought you were okay with everything.”

“You purposefully deceived me!” Pansy huffed irritably. “You came to me, all nice and selfless, willing to do anything to help Draco and I be together again, or so I thought! You let everyone think you’re this perfect person, the Hero of the Wizarding World and all that rot, but you’re just out to help yourself!”

“But…” Harry was very confused. “But Draco said you were fine!”

“You idiot!” Pansy shook her head furiously. “Of course I’m not fine! Draco and I grew up together, and I’ve been ready to marry him since I knew what that was. He’s my one true love, and you’re buggering him silly! How can you expect me to be okay with that?”

“Oh, they haven’t done that bit yet.” Hermione assured the other girl, much to Harry’s mortification.

“Hermione!” Harry yelped.

“I know, I know, Draco told me all about it. Virgins.” Pansy rolled her eyes. “I just meant, you know, the spirit of the thing, not really the letter. Because after all, they will eventually, I’m sure.”

“Understood.” Hermione nodded sagely.

“Stop!” Harry shook his hands furiously as if he could ward off further discussion of his private relations.

“What? You haven’t, and you’d have to know if you were talking to me about it, he was probably talking to one of his friends.” Hermione shrugged. “Besides that, she has every right to be upset. Even you knew how she felt, and you didn’t bother to tell her that her reunion with Draco would be strictly platonic.”

“But…but that’s none of her business!” Harry sputtered. “What Draco and I do is between the two of us, and I’m not obligated to tell anyone else about it!”

“Harry, you’re a public figure.” Hermione told him patiently. “Your private life is always going to make the news. It hasn’t bothered you before because you haven’t had anything especially scandalous for the public to discuss, but it’s the truth. It may not be Ron’s business, either, but you didn’t want him to find out by reading it in the Prophet. Imagine how Pansy felt.”

“Well…okay, but it’s not like Draco every promised her anything.” Harry grumbled. “And I don’t see why she’s so mad at me. If anyone should have told her, it’s Draco.”

“I am mad at Draco.” Pansy cut in. “But it’s a lot easier being mad at you. Plus, this way, if you muck it all up, which you probably will, he’ll come to me for comfort.”

“You are such an opportunist.” Harry accused her, but she didn’t seem in the least perturbed by this.

“Hello? Slytherin.” She placed a hand on her chest as though introducing herself.

“Are all of you going to be like this?” Harry sighed heavily. “Angry at me, nice to Draco?”

“I don’t think so, but Blaise might be jealous.” Pansy advised him. “He’s had a thing for Draco since the fourth year. It’s supposed to be a secret, so don’t tell him I told you.” She pointed fiercely at them both. “But I’m mostly annoyed that I didn’t see this coming.”

“What?” Harry stared at her blankly.

“Well, you guys have been completely obsessed with each other since you met.” Pansy explained as she turned to look over her selection of fabrics, feeling each one for a moment before looking at the next. “Before he got in really deep with all that Death Eater business, everything he did or planned seemed to always be about you. And he was always talking about you. Maybe not in a nice way, but there you go. And you couldn’t just ignore him, either. Both of you just…got under each other’s skin.”

“That’s true.” Hermione agreed.

“By that logic, Draco’s also in love with you, and with Ron.” Harry told Hermione, who laughed at his conclusion.

“Harry, we were a different way to get to you.” Hermione told him after a moment. “And if you think about it, he had extra reasons to resent Ron and me. I’ve got muggle parents, and Ron’s family’s never gotten on well with the Malfoys. We were all on opposite sides, but he always focused on you. And how many times did you fixate on him? Remember sixth year? You spent more time trying to track down everything he did than you spent working on your special lessons with Dumbledore.”

“Well, that wasn’t…that was completely different.” Harry shook his head in exasperation.

“Now you see why I’m angry.” Pansy turned to Hermione, speaking almost as if Harry wasn’t present. “Years of devotion, toppled by Denial Boy here and his cute rear.”

“Yeah, it is pretty nice.” Hermione agreed, and Harry resigned himself to an afternoon of silent humiliation.

*****

To be Continued…