Cracked Angel

Ron and Hermione watched Harry carefully as he walked around cheerfully the next day. His moods seemed to change so fast that Ron was having trouble keeping up.

Hermione (of course) knew there was something going on. Harry's "all-of-a-sudden" good mood (or so Ron called it) had to have a reason behind it. This bushy haired girl was determined to find out what.

Harry sat at the Gryffindor table for breakfast eating his oatmeal happily and oblivious to what his best friends were thinking. He sighed to himself as he looked over at the Slytherin table. He smiled at the blonde sitting on the opposite side of the room and again concentrated on his morning meal.

The day went by quickly with little incident. The raven haired boy was too happy to listen to pay any attention to the snide remarks and rude motions coming from the Slytherins during Care of Magical Creatures, and managed to feed his tiglieo without many problems.

Only once did he zone out thinking about the night to come, and end up accidentally almost feeding his tiglieo his wand instead of a carrot. Luckily Hermione had been watching him closely all day and caught him before he made a huge mistake. He really didn't understand what it was that was getting him so excited to see the blonde but he really didn't want to think too much into it.

Eventually the day did end and Harry went to bed with everyone else. He waited to hear the snoring of Neville, the mumbling from dean, the moaning from Seamus (A/N: hehe), and the occasional shouting about Quiditch fouls from Ron. It didn't take too long and Harry snuck downstairs and sat down on the sofa, invisibility cloak and Marauder’s Map in his pockets.

Not until he plopped onto the overstuffed couch did he realize that someone else was in the room. Harry jumped, startled, as Hermione sat down next to him.

"Harry." She stated.

"Hermione." Harry's voice held a nervous quiver but his face betrayed no emotion.

"What are you doing out of bed at this time of night?"

Harry smiled wanly. "I could ask you the same question."

"Well. I had the most peculiar feeling that I would need to watch you tonight. You've been acting strange all day. Not until I realized that every time you began to stare off into space that you were looking in Draco Malfoy's general direction, did I realize what was happening. Harry, do you have a crush on Malfoy?"

Harry sputtered. "Of course not! I'm not even-"

Hermione's look cut him off. "I've known you were gay since last year Harry. You might as well not even deny that."

Harry huffed. "Okay, so maybe I'm gay. But just because I like boys does not mean that I fancy Draco."

The girl just smiled. "So it's Draco now."

A blush spread over the boy's already rosy cheeks. "We're... friends."

She raised an eyebrow. "Since when?"

"Well we called a truce last night when I ran into him in the hall. I'm supposed to meet him tonight. We're going to play a game of chess or something and just talk."

Hermione nodded. "Well I hope everything works out for you."

Harry hugged the bushy haired tightly. "Thanks Hermione."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So what's up with Dumbledore? Someone told me they saw you go into his office yesterday." Draco said as Harry was, once again, pelted with cards. Draco had decided to bring exploding snap cards instead of chess. "I never liked chess much." he had said.

"Dumbledore just wanted to talk to me about the... incident." Draco didn't press the matter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It went on like this for the next month. Harry and Draco grew more attached as the days went by and soon they were almost inseparable. They had begun to hang out together in public for about two weeks. Ron had had a fit but got over quickly enough with the help of Hermione of course. The only people who didn't seem happy about the new development were the Slytherins.

They continued to torment Harry and even began to start on Draco. Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and the others who had attacked Harry so many nights ago were especially bad. They began to corner Harry in the halls and grope him, whispering nasty things in his ear.

He never told anybody about these little assaults. He knew that if he did everyone would freak out, and he didn't think he could handle any more attention.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Potter!" Harry turned around and was immediately shoved up against the wall. He stared into Blaise Zabini's eyes defiantly as his face hovered a mere inches from his own.

He began to struggle but his hands were forced above his head. Blaise held them there with one hand and slowly slid the other down the front of Harry's trousers. Before he could unzip them, Harry freed one of his hands and punched the boy square in the nose.

"You little bugger!" But Harry was already half way down the corridor.

He stopped in a little alcove and adjusted his tussled clothes. He then continued on a much slower pace to meet Draco. He walked into the old charms classroom and spotted the blonde boy sitting on a desk.

"You're late." he said with a smirk.

Harry snorted. "Hermione and Ron tried to hold me up tonight. They want me to work on my Potions assignment with them." he said rather convincingly.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that's cheating?"

"No it's not! We all work together and get the answers equally-"

"You and Weasley look over Granger's shoulder when she's writing and get all the answers. Don't think I don't see you in the library."

Harry flushed slightly. "And like you've never cheated!"

The blonde puffed out his chest and lifted his head slightly. "For your information, I don't need to cheat. I know perfectly well what I am doing in class. And I finished that assignment two nights ago."

The dark haired boy just rolled his eyes.

After two games of exploding snap they left for their dorms.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So what do you and Draco talk about during your little meetings?"

Harry looked up from his parchment to Hermione. He looked at Ron and could tell they had already been discussing this. "Well, Quiditch, family life (Draco's), class, the war, all kinds of stuff. Why?"

"Oh no reason. I was just curious." Harry looked at her suspiciously but let it drop.

"So have you kissed?"

"Ron!"

Hermione stepped in. "I've seen the way you've been looking at each other."

"I am not having this conversation. I already told you guys: I do not like Draco Malfoy."

"That's real nice Potter. And here I thought we were friends." Harry turned around and came face to face with said Malfoy. Draco smirked. I just came to bring you back your map. You forgot it last night."

"Thanks."

Hermione watched in amusement while Harry and Draco stood looking at each other.

"Well I should be going."

"Yeah."

"See you."

Harry turned back to his grinning friends and ducked his head, finishing his breakfast in silence.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Life went on like this for a while. Spring was approaching quickly, and Harry began to feel more and more attracted to a certain Slytherin.

They sat out by the lake side by side just watching the giant squid. Finally Draco broke the silence.

"So... Harry I wanted to ask you a question. Blaise and everyone... they're… well… they're still here."

"Yeah..."

"Well I know for a fact that had you pressed charges they would have been expelled." Harry just nodded.

"So you didn't?"

"No."

"Why not? I mean what they did to you was totally unforgivable. They should all be in Azkaban right now."

"I can't go through with all of that. The publicity, not to mention the stress. I just want to leave it."

"But you can't!"

Harry looked at him. "Yes I can. It's easy. I just act like nothing happened." With that he stood up and walked back to the castle.

* * * * *

Seamus watched all of this from behind a near-by tree. He smirked and watched Harry walking. Yes things were going great.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Note: Alright... I can absolutely promise that Draco and Harry end up together eventually. I cannot promise however that this will get much better any time soon. If it's too much for you, don't read. For those of you who are willing to follow the journey of my Harry and his soon to be lover: Draco to an eventual happy ending welcome. Anyways... thanks to my reviewers. I'll have the next update up soon.

~WMW~