The Phoenix and The Dragon

Draco emerged from the bathroom, in no less then two hours from his entrance, wet and warm and in decidedly better spirits. Harry, who had been in the kitchen amassing a large quantity of breakfast food, saw the large cloud of steam billow down the stairs before he saw Malfoy. When he did he nearly dropped his jaw. Draco stood at the bottom of the stairs in nothing but a fluffy white bath towel and a smile. His hair was clean and glossy, his eyes were bright and clear, his skin was rosy from the heat of the water and he had an enormous jagged scar running the length of his chest and cutting across a small trail of thin blonde hair leading underneath the towel. Aside from being, in Molly Weasley’s words, a bit peaky, the only sustained injury Draco had acquired was from the savior himself. Harry cringed at the sight but quickly looked away so as not to upset the blond. Other then the scar Harry was shocked to find Malfoy looking rather…good. Actually he looked very good. Harry pushed the obscure thought from his mind as Malfoy advanced.

“Well what do we have here? My favorite Golden Boy slaving over a hot stove, all for me? You know Potter if you spoil me I may never leave.”

“In that case I’ll never cook you another meal again, not even Ready Brek.” Harry smirked as he set the bacon on the table.

“And since I can’t cook, unless you count giving orders to house elves, I will surely starve and you wouldn’t want that.”

“I wouldn’t?” Harry smiled well naturedly.

“No, you wouldn’t. And by the way I do not eat Ready Brek or Totally Oats or any other manner of instant breakfast cereal! As a good house wife you ought to know that.” Harry tilted his head as his new roommate huffed and plopped himself down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter and began buttering a piece of toast.

“Hmmm, I’ll write it down. But tell me then, Malfoy, how do you know you don’t like it if you’ve probably never had it?” Malfoy sneered and stabbed his knife into the jam.

“Potter, if I tried everything once just to see if I liked it I wouldn’t have time for the things I actually do like. And its always at the table during breakfast at Hogwarts, I did try it and I did NOT like it.”

Harry smiled showing all of his teeth.

“Oh, I never noticed it.”

“Don’t notice much do you?” In the small silence between his diatribe towards Harry and the brunette’s inevitable come-back Draco began to fill his plate with the bacon, fried eggs, sausage and hash browns that Harry had made from scratch. The come-back never came. Harry was too engrossed watching Draco shovel food into his mouth at a breakneck speed that could only be rivaled by Ron Weasley. Then, mid bite and without even looking up, he stopped. “It’s impolite to stare.” Harry, then realizing that he had been in fact staring, turned away to busy himself with cleaning up. When Draco finished he leaned back a little and smiled.

“Did you enjoy your breakfast ferret?”

“Why yes I did and I’ll let that last remark slide since you made said breakfast.”

“Er, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now I think I will go to bed and let you finish cleaning up.” Harry expected this so he just waved as the Slytherin made his way up the stairs. When he was finished fixing up the kitchen he checked the clock on the mantle. It was 9 o’clock almost on the head so he figured he’d get back to work on the horcruxs. He pulled out the now crumpled sheet of paper he had been writing on earlier and smoothed it out on the small table in front of him. Just as he was looking over the list he heard footsteps on the stairs. Thinking it was Malfoy he didn’t even turn around.

“Come back down for seconds Malfoy?” He called over his shoulder. “You’re too late, I’ve put everything away.”

“Who is Malfoy?” Harry stiffened at his Aunt Petunia’s voice. He spun around and she was standing a few paces behind him looking thoroughly disheveled in yesterday dress, no shoes and no make-up. “Well?” Harry thought the best action would be to lie and delay the inevitable.

“Malfoy is a boy I know from school who is here to help me in the war.” Damn. HE realized his little admission would raise a lot of questions so he decided a full explanation would be best.

“What?” Her voice was thick with sleep but sharp.

“Well Malfoy, Draco actually, is a boy who I am not really friends with but he’s on the run from Voldemort, the thing who killed my parents and he needed a place to stay and Dumbledore said he should stay here and well I guess he’s supposed to help me defeat Voldemort because his father was a Death Eater. Er, Death Eaters are like Voldemort’s, um, officers I guess. Anyway he, Draco’s dad, was in Voldemort’s inner circle.” He ran out of breath and before he could continue with his rambling his Aunt cut in, albeit quietly.

“Vol-de-mort,” she said his name slowly as if it was in another language, “he is the man who killed Lily, and your father?” Harry nodded. “And you are fighting him, correct? That is why you have to stay here, for protection.” She leaned against the wall, ducking her head and messaging the bridge of her nose.

“Yeah, how did you-”

“And this boy, this Draco, he will help you fight Voldemort?”

“Er, yeah I guess, I mean that’s the idea.”

“And Albus Dumbledore approved this?” She crinkled her nose in distaste but made no further movement.

“Well yes, although you should know that Dumbledore is dead.” He wondered if this revelation would prompt her to kick him and Draco out of the house but he figured he’d give it a shot because she seemed to be taking everything rather well. Then again that could be contributed to the after effects of the potion. She stood for a few seconds, digesting what she heard, and then looked back up to Harry and frowned just slightly.

“I’m sorry. Was it not his idea then to send us a dessert filled with some kind of sleeping potion?” Harry was flabbergasted to put it mildly.

“No, that was not his idea. That was Professor Snape’s idea…How do you know all this?”

“Dumbledore corresponded with me during your stay at Hogwarts. And the cupcakes, my sister taught me how to detect potions a long time ago. I haven’t forgotten the taste, though I noticed a little too late.”

“Oh.” He was stunned into silence. The savior of the wizarding world rendered totally immobile, without the use of magic, with a simple conversation. If he wasn’t in shock he would have laughed.

“Well then I guess there isn’t anything I can do is there? Be quiet and stay out of your uncle’s and Duddy’s way. Understand?”

“Uh, yes.” When she moved towards the coffee maker he went to slip out but on an after thought he stopped. “Thanks.”

“Hm.” She nodded slowly. When he was half way up the stairs he heard her shout. “Harry!”

“Yeah?” She was standing at the foot of the stairs with a large mug of the leftover coffee he had made for Malfoy.

“Do you have some sort of antidote for this particular potion?” She was smiling and he could not help but smile back.

“Just sleep I think.” His aunt nodded and headed back to the kitchen. That was odd. In fact his whole day from 4:00 that morning had been odd. Yet, he didn’t feel too worried about it. All in all he had made more progress then he thought he was going to make the entire day. He had acquired a new ally, if anyone could call a Malfoy an ally, and he seemed to be for the first time on good terms with his aunt. He figured odd progress was still progress.

When he returned to his room it was to the strangest sight he would see that day. Malfoy was curled up in his blankets sleeping soundly and looking every bit like an innocent child. Harry had never really watched anyone sleep before; he had had opportunities but had never been inclined. Now he stared unabashedly at his rival.

Draco’s long, white-blonde hair was spread out in a halo around his head and his face was completely relaxed, devoid of any marring smirk or sneer that Harry was used to. The blankets reached just above his waist and his chest lifted shallowly as he breathed, his pale skin was practically glowing from the sunlight filtering in through Harry’s bedroom window. Harry was momentarily awestruck. No wonder Malfoy had captured the attention of so many girls. Up until that morning he had spent little time with Malfoy when they were not arguing and seeing him like this, completely unguarded, Harry thought he looked beautiful. He also thought he must have lost his mind for the second time that day. He didn’t like boys. He liked girls, he had liked Ginny and Cho and, well that had been it but they were both girls. Granted they were masculine, Quidditch playing girls but still girls. He shook his head. Okay so he felt a little attracted to Malfoy, big deal, he was hormonal. These things happen. He decided it was nothing to get worked up about and besides Malfoy looked kind of feminine. What with the long, soft hair and the pale, alabaster skin and the long eyelashes and the full, pouty lips and the…

“Oh Merlin I have the hots for Malfoy!”

Harry’s hand flew to his mouth but he had already said it. Draco stirred a little in his sleep but other then that appeared to not have heard Harry’s accidental proclamation. He backed away slowly, bumping his legs against the chair in front of his desk. He sat down and stared in shock at the new object of his affection, Draco Malfoy, Ex-Death Eater and all around bastard. Damn! He had known this would be a bad idea, maybe he had not known about this aspect but it was still a bad idea. He couldn’t actually care for Draco that would be suicide. If it looked like the light was going to lose the war Draco would put him in the trick box. He’d sell him out in a heartbeat. No, Harry couldn’t do that. He could not be attracted to Draco Malfoy. And yet looking at Draco, peacefully sleeping in his bed, he was. Harry looked away from the sleeping boy to regain his composure and got up to stand next to the window.

You know it just figured that Malfoy would screw things up, he’d only been there for six hours and he was already turning Harry’s world upside down. It just figured. Well there was nothing he could do about it now. He would just ignore these feelings and hope upon hope that they went away when Draco did something characteristically nasty. And he would, Harry just knew he would. He would have to, right?