Funerals and Weddings

For disclaimer, summary, story codes and other information, please see the prologue.

**REPOSTING 8 DEC--CHAPTER WAS DELETED SOMEHOW!!**

Chapter the Forty-third: Impatience
9 January

Sitting in Arithmancy class, Draco watched the minute hand of the wall clock crawl ever-so-slowly around the face. Only six more minutes. This week had felt like one of the longest in his life. And it was only Wednesday! But at least he was finally going to be able to see Harry tonight.

He couldn’t believe how much he missed being with Harry. It had only been a few days, but Draco would have given a very large pile of gold for a moment just to kiss Harry. He and Harry hadn’t been able to find any free time to meet since Sunday due to conflicting Quidditch schedules and other assorted responsibilities—such as the welcome-back-to-school avalanche of homework the sixth-years had received. Tonight, however, they were meeting in the Room of Requirement at 11pm. It was that thought that had kept Draco from giving into his boredom, standing up and walking out of class early—he didn’t dare risk being assigned detention!

At long last, the class ended and Draco left as quickly as possible. He had a lot of homework to get done before eleven and he planned on getting started on it right away.

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Harry made his way back to the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Seamus and Dean. He was soooo glad that classes were over for the day at last. Of course, he still had loads of homework to slog through before he could meet Draco--finally! It had been a difficult week and he’d found it a lot harder than he had thought to not run over and kiss Draco every time he saw him. He couldn’t even be overly friendly—they were back to the reserved politeness they had established last term. At least in DADA they got to talk, but they’d had theory lessons this week and no one-on-one practise time so the talking was limited to how they planned to put the theories into action later on. No opportunities for much personal conversation—or personal contact.

Dumping his bag on his bed, he grabbed his Transfiguration materials and headed back to the common room to get some work done before dinner. Hermione spied him as he came down the stairs and waved him over to where she was sitting at a table.

“Hi, Harry,” she said, “how’s your day been?”

Yet another reason this week had been difficult for Harry: Hermione. She wasn’t behaving any differently but Harry felt as if he was acting a strange role whenever they were together because he knew now how she felt about Draco. It really bothered him.

“Long,” Harry replied, flopping into a seat. “Yours?”

“Busy!” she said, and immediately began going on about everything she’d done and had yet to do.

Harry listened with one ear as he opened his Transfiguration book. He’d just started an essay when Katie Bell entered with a few other seventh-year students.

“Hey Katie,” he called, waving.

She looked over, then walked toward where he and Hermione were sitting. “All right, Harry? Hermione?”

“Yeah, you?” Harry returned. Hermione smiled and nodded.

“Good,” Katie said, shrugging slightly. “Wish it were Friday, though.”

Harry grinned. “Yeah, me too. Is it just me or has this week felt like a month?”

“At least a month!” Katie exclaimed, laughing. “It’s always so hard to get back into school mode after a holiday, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think so,” Hermione said. “I find it refreshing to get back to work after the holidays—I’ve always got loads more energy then.”

Harry and Katie shared a look. Harry laughed. “Somehow, I think Ron would agree with us if he were here. He’s having a hard time getting his brain in gear this week as well—can you believe what he said to McGonagall today?”

Hermione sniffed. “What I can’t believe is that he didn’t remember the answer to her question—we revised inanimate-to-mammal Transfigurations over and over before Christmas!”

Harry grinned, then turned to Katie. “McGonagall asked Ron what would happen if he used a downward slashing movement of his wand when saying the incantation instead of the proper twisting motion. I think she caught him daydreaming because he looked at her rather blankly then said: ‘Well, it’ll explode, of course.’ The whole class burst out laughing and I think she thought Ron was being smart, because she kept him after class.”

Katie looked confused. “But why was his answer so funny? I mean, it’s obviously wrong—whatever you were trying to Transfigure would be cut in half, not explode—but why was it funny?”

“Because McGonagall had just told off Seamus for deliberately making Dean’s pillow explode all over the room instead of Transfiguring it into a apple, like he was supposed to,” Harry explained. He continued the story, mimicking McGonagall’s stern tone at times: “Then she’d given us all a rather long lecture about ‘having had quite enough of explosions’—seems her second-year class had almost wrecked her classroom this morning—and how she didn’t want ‘any more explosions or other shenanigans’ for the rest of the lesson. And then Ron goes and tells her ‘It’ll explode, of course!’ Seamus was crying he was laughing so hard!” Harry finished, snickering rather loudly just from retelling the story.

Katie was laughing as well. “Oh, good one! I wish I could have seen her face—I bet it was priceless!”

“Oh, it was,” Seamus said, joining the group. “Where’s ol’ Creevey with his camera when you need him, eh?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“C’mon, Hermione—you know it was funny,” Seamus said. “Lighten up.”

Just then the man of the moment entered the common room.

“Oy, Ron!” Seamus yelled. “Did McGonagall ‘explode’ after class?”

Ron grinned. “Nah, just the standard lecture. I’ve heard her give worse.”

Hermione frowned at her boyfriend and looked as though she were about to start in on one of her own lectures. Harry took this moment to catch Katie’s eye. “Hey, Katie,” he whispered, “can I talk to you a moment?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, rising.

“Uh, I’ll be back in a minute,” Harry said to the group.

Walking out of the common room together, Harry motioned Katie down the corridor towards the boys’ toilet. “Let me just make sure it’s clear, then we can talk in here.”

He ducked in, checked for feet under the stalls, then opened the door for Katie. Then he closed and locked it.

“Um, suppose someone wants to come in—what are we going to do?” Katie asked, leaning up against one of the sinks.

“Don’t worry—no one ever uses this one, it’s too close to the dormitory. And if someone does, you can hide in the stall ‘til they leave.”

“All right,” Katie said, shrugging. “So how are things with you and the sexy snake?”

Harry ran his fingers through his hair, making it more tousled than before. “Fine I guess—considering I haven’t been able to hardly talk to him all week! It’s making me crazy! I didn’t think being in a secret relationship would be so hard.”

“Yeah, I can imagine that it would really suck—especially since it’s new and you want to be together and touchy-feely all the time,” Katie sympathized. “Don’t you have any classes with him?”

“Yeah, Potions and DADA…but it’s not like Snape’s gonna let us chat and DADA’s been all theory so no opportunity for anything there, either. Hopefully we’ll get back to practical stuff in DADA soon—Draco and I are partners so we’ll at least be able to talk a little,” Harry said.

“What about outside of class?”

“We’re both pretty busy—we’ve both got Quidditch practise, and loads of homework--and he’s got prefect duties as well. But we’re getting together tonight come hell or high water—11pm in the Room of Requirement.” Harry looked excited.

Katie smiled. “Well, that’s good. I guess I don’t have to warn you about being careful. But don’t you both take mostly the same subjects? Could you ever get together to study? Especially DADA, since you’re partners. You could even study in public for that class.”

“Yeah,” Harry said thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought about that. And other subjects—we could study together privately. It would still be studying but at least we’d be together. Great idea, Katie—thanks!”

“That’s what I’m here for,” she smiled. “A friendly, confidential ear whenever you need one. And as your friend, I’ve been wondering—how are things with Hermione?”

Harry’s expression became gloomy. “As far as she’s concerned—fine. But every time I see her, I can’t stop thinking about her reaction to my being with Draco. It’s really bothering me. I have to really concentrate to act normal around her and that’s hard. There are times when I’d rather not be around her, but…”

“Yeah, you three are always together and it would be weird if you suddenly started avoiding her and Ron for no reason,” Katie finished for him. “Maybe you should pick a fight with her?”

Harry shrugged a shoulder. “I dunno. I’d probably have to fight with both of them or Ron would get caught in the middle and drive me bats trying to get me to “make it up” with Hermione. And even though I’m not exactly happy with her at the moment, I don’t really fancy the idea of saying something deliberately just to hurt her.”

Katie nodded. “True. Ah, well, just a thought. Maybe it would be better to come up with another reason to have to be away from her—I dunno, join a new club or pretend you need tutoring…”

“Tutoring!” Harry exclaimed. “That’s it! You’re a genius, Katie! Dumbledore told me he wanted me to improve my Occlumency skills. I took lessons with Snape last year but they didn’t go well at all, surprise, surprise. So Dumbledore suggested that Draco tutor me—he’s apparently quite good at it. Dumbledore said he’d arrange it with Marchbanks since it’s part of the DADA curriculum anyway. I’ll talk to Draco tonight about it, then we can ask Marchbanks about it in class on Monday.”

“Brilliant!” Katie responded enthusiastically. “A perfect, legitimate reason for you to be spending time away from Hermione and with Draco. And you’ll be doing what Dumbledore assigned you to do, so you’re really killing three birds with one stone! But I’m curious—why does Dumbledore want you to learn Occlumency?”

Harry explained for Katie about his scar and the connection it provided to Voldemort at times.

Katie shuddered. “Gods, Harry, no offence but I’m really glad I’m not you.”

Harry smiled wryly. “There are times I wish I wasn’t me either!”

They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Harry’s stomach growled, reminding them it was time for dinner.

“Guess we’d better go,” Katie said grinning. “We’ve been in here for at least a half-hour. You think anyone is going to wonder why we were gone so long?”

“Hmmm,” Harry said. “I dunno, but maybe we’d better come up with a ‘cover story’ just in case. Maybe something we can use repeatedly, so when we’d like to talk privately, we won’t have to come up with new excuses. Any ideas?”

“Quidditch?” Katie proposed. “No, that won’t work, because Ron would wonder what we were talking about that we couldn’t share with him. Hmmm…”

“Well, the tutoring idea was good the first time—maybe one of us could be tutoring the other?” Harry suggested. “You don’t happen to be brilliant at Potions, do you?”

Katie laughed. “Let me guess—your worst subject, most likely due to Snape! No, unfortunately, I’m not known for being particularly good at Potions. Hey—what about DADA? You’re the best at that and I’m taking my N.E.W.T. in it at the end of the year. You could be helping me get ready for the practical part.”

“But Katie, you do fine at defence,” Harry objected.

“I do fine—but you’re known to be brilliant at it and no one would question the fact that I wanted to improve my skills to get the best possible N.E.W.T. score. I think it would work,” she said.

Despite having led the DA last year, Harry was still a little embarrassed at being called “the best” at anything. But he agreed with Katie’s idea. “All right. We’ll use that. So tonight you were asking me for help and we were working out the details. How does that sound?”

“Excellent,” Katie said. “Now let’s go eat before dinner ends!”

After making sure the corridor was clear, Harry led Katie out of the toilet and they walked down to the Great Hall together, chatting amiably. Harry was really starting to feel good about his decision to trust Katie Bell—she had good ideas, was sympathetic and just fun to be with. A silver lining to the cloud of disappointment he’d suffered by losing Hermione as a confidant.

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Draco raced though his prefect duties and arrived at the Room of Requirement a little early. Harry arrived minutes after Draco had given the room his requirements and entered. The room appeared exactly as it had last Sunday.

Draco gave Harry just enough time to shut the door and ward the room before pouncing on him. He pressed Harry up against the door, his mouth claiming Harry’s in a bruising kiss. Harry didn’t object; he pulled Draco closer and released his pent-up desire by kissing Draco back with equal force. The kiss raged and Harry felt his blood heat. Clenching Draco’s arse, he ground his erection against Draco’s. The friction was delicious, but he needed more. Impatient, he dragged Draco to the floor and immediately began tearing off the blond’s clothes.

Draco moaned into his mouth as Harry’s fingers brushed against his cock. His own hands were busy with Harry’s jeans and he pushed them down when he finally got them open. When Harry began kissing his way down Draco’s chest, with the obvious intention of going down on him, Draco groaned and lifted Harry’s head.

“No,” he panted. “I want to taste you too. Sixty-nine.”

Harry grinned and licked his lips. He rearranged himself to lie on his side in the opposite direction as Draco. He moaned as he felt Draco’s mouth close around his erection and quickly engulfed Draco’s cock with his own mouth.

The sensation of sucking and being sucked at the same time was incredible. Harry swirled his tongue around Draco’s head and felt Draco’s tongue repeat the action on his own. Then Draco took as much of Harry as he could in his mouth and sucked hard as he slowly pulled upward. Harry echoed the action on Draco’s dick. They followed this pattern of give and take for a few minutes, until their arousal became too great to use their minds in such a conscious way; they were reduced to mindless licking and sucking and thrusting.

It had been too long for both of them and neither lasted long: Draco came first, thrusting his hips hard against Harry’s face. Luckily, Harry had noted the signs of Draco’s impending release and had pulled back, his hand moving quickly to grip Draco’s hip and still his convulsive movements while swallowing down all Draco offered. Draco’s lips had tightened around Harry’s shaft when he came and just held there for a moment; when the initial intensity of his orgasm had passed, Draco used those tight lips to apply the most suction possible and Harry was soon shooting his load down Draco’s throat.

Both lay limply for a few moments, then Draco turned himself around to bring his face to Harry’s. They kissed, tasting each other simultaneously. After a few moments of passionate kissing, Harry buried his face in Draco’s neck and just breathed.

“Merlin, Draco, what you do to me,” he said after taking a few deep breaths.

Harry could feel Draco chuckle. “The feeling’s mutual.”

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A/N: Sorry about the long delay in updating—had a bit of writer’s block with this chapter and the next. But I’ve worked it out. Hope it turned out ok and that you enjoy it!

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