Poppet

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta Laurel for her diligent work on this chapter. As with several of my stories, this one only has a couple chapters left to it. I only intended it to be a 5 chapter long short story and it will go 2 chapters over that, so yay!

Chapter 5 Some Kind of Sorcery

Draco’s feet echoed sharply against the stone floor as he fled the Great Hall and the prying eyes he left behind. It had cost him something to open up as he did in front of everyone, and more importantly to Harry, but he wasn’t sure just yet what the price would be. Surely it was against some cosmic law to try and woo the famous Harry Potter, but it wasn’t the first law Draco had broken and knowing himself as well as he did he was fairly certain it wouldn’t be the last one either.

All that was left to him now were the consequences of his actions.

He had hoped to at least leave the fray with Harry in tow, but the Gryffindor had been even more stubborn than Draco had anticipated, making persuading him to leave the security of the ball nearly impossible. It might not have made a difference to how the school would react, but at least he would have garnered some alone time with Harry instead of simply being the target of the lynch mob he was certain would be rounding the corner with torches and pitchforks.

He could have forced Harry to come with him of course, but that wasn’t really the point anymore. He wanted Harry to follow him of his own free will, he wanted to hear the boy whisper to him from inches away, he wanted to feel the pressure of those pouting lips, the silken texture of that obsidian hair and the shudder of release when Draco provided in person what he had only been able to accomplish so far through a ruddy doll.

He wanted Harry to want him.

Those dreams were dashed however, at least for now, and perhaps forever. Perhaps he revealed his hand too soon. Maybe he should have held back and continued to watch from a distance, giving Harry more time to become accustomed to the new yearnings fighting for control of his body. He wondered if he should have made sure that Harry was addicted to him before he told the Gryffindor his own feelings, but his mind was far too clouded with lust to think like a proper Malfoy. His father would be so disappointed, but then when wasn’t he?

Draco reached the top of the stairs leading to the Astronomy tower, one of his favorite places to hide from the world and think, and moved straight to the window ledge. He sat down letting his legs dangle over the wall as he watched the stars and tried to ignore the brisk cold wind that assaulted his face and hands.

The vistas from that point were magnificent, sprawling white grounds coated in glittering snow and the iced over lake so polished that it reflected a mirrored image of the starry sky stretched out before him. It was beautiful and it was nearly impossible to feel the pain of failure from that vantage point. No doubt it would return though, as it always did and as soon as it reared its ugly head Draco would cower before it and cause him to do something stupid once again.

Every poor choice he had ever made in life stemmed from wanting to succeed more than anything else, which tended to blot out his normally good judgment like a heavy cloud over the sun. He had recently come to realize however, that power, fame and popularity came easier when he didn’t work at it, though that revelation wouldn’t allow his brain to switch off and curb his Malfoy training as much as he would like.

In the end it was a long uphill battle to fight against his own bad deeds and try to create a new life for himself. It was high time he got to be who he wanted and live how he wanted, but at the moment the only thing he wanted was Harry, and Harry, it seemed, was the one thing he couldn’t have.

“Blast it, it’s cold out here,” came a quivering voice from the doorway and Draco froze solid, unable to believe his own ears.

“Harry?” he asked, finally turning around and squinting into the darkness behind him.

Sure enough, his unexpected visitor stepped into the light created by the moon and seemed to shimmer under the weight of it. Clad in emerald, silver and moonlight, Harry looked like a dream, his ebony curls falling haphazardly around his face and his eyes like polished jewels that stared back at Draco with cheeky rebellion that only a young lion could muster.

Adoration flooded Draco’s veins and he had to bite down hard on his tongue to keep his emotions in check. He’d been so busy trying to make sure that Harry became addicted to him, Draco didn’t stop to think of the effects that injecting himself with a frequent dose of Potter would do to his own willpower and Harry Potter, it seemed, would be a hard fixation to break.

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Harry surveyed the Astronomy tower quickly before making his presence known. When he first spotted Malfoy on the window ledge his heart gave a wild thump in his chest and he nearly lunged to keep the boy from jumping. He quickly realized however that his rival was merely staring out over the landscape and he chastised himself for thinking he could have such an effect on the blonde.

It was then that Harry noticed for the first time how blissfully angelic Draco could look. Just sitting there on the window ledge, his sharp profile in glowingly pale relief to the rich inky sky and the gold of his robes surrounding him in an otherworldly aura that left Harry slightly breathless. Harry could nearly imagine pristine white wings unfolding from the Slytherin’s back and Draco launching himself into the frigid night air.

“Blast it, it’s cold out here,” he muttered at last, rubbing his hands together against the chill. The robes Draco had chosen for him were stunning for sure, but they were also thin and drafty, making him shiver. A shiver of a different kind went through him when Draco finally turned around and met his gaze.

“Harry?” the other boy quizzed and Harry stepped into the light that came streaming through the window so that Draco would know it was indeed him.

A look of hunger flickered through his piercing gray eyes and Harry was mesmerized by it, wondering what could have shifted between them that would make Draco so suddenly appealing and vice versa. Surely Hell must have frozen over for Harry to be able to dwell on those pale pink lips and yearn to kiss them.

He shook his head violently, trying to clear away the indecent thoughts, but it made no difference because the thoughts refused to relent, and every time he looked at Draco he could feel the ghosting of his pale hands and lips against his body. “So, is this where you wanted to take me?” he asked at last, clearing his throat slightly so as not to come off as nervous as he was.

“Yes. How did you find me?” Draco asked, not climbing from the ledge but turning around so that he faced Harry instead of the snowy grounds surrounding Hogwarts.

“I have my ways,” he replied cryptically, knowing the Marauder’s map was tucked safely away in his robe pocket and that the less Draco knew of his tracking methods the better.

“Why did you come?” Draco asked, his eyes narrowed and scrutinizing as if he was suddenly suspicious of him, when clearly it was Harry who held the right to be wary.

Harry thought about it and in fact he had been thinking about it the whole journey up to the tower, but the explanation still eluded him. “Because you didn’t force me,” he answered at last, which was the closest he had come to a result in his circles of thought.

“I told you I wouldn’t,” Draco replied coolly, rolling his eyes slightly as if to indicate that thinking otherwise was simply preposterous.

“Clearly you expect a fountain of trust to miraculously spring from inside of me,” Harry muttered, shaking his head and thinking of just leaving. He didn’t know what he wanted exactly, but he certainly didn’t follow Draco so that they could argue.

“Very eloquent comeback. I didn’t know you had it in you,” Draco mused and Harry blushed. He hadn’t meant to embarrass himself so early on in the conversation.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Malfoy,” Harry replied, stalking up a bit closer to the window, but still remaining out of reach.

“But there’s a lot I do know,” he countered and shifted on the window ledge, causing Harry to wince slightly as it looked like he might fall.

“Would you get down, you’re making me nervous,” Harry chastised, growing very anxious from Draco’s precarious position.

Draco chuckled and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “If I fell, would you save me?” he asked in the barest of whispers.

“I doubt it,” Harry teased, but couldn’t hide his smile for long and when Draco scrutinized him further he folded under the weight of his gray gaze. “You know I would,” he replied at last. “It’s what I do.”

“So I’ve observed. Shall we test it?” Draco asked wickedly and stood on the ledge, letting his heels hover in thin air so that only the balls of his feet were still firmly planted on solid stone.

Harry leapt forward without a second thought and pulled Draco down. They lost their balance in the tussle and Draco fell forward, toppling them to the cold stone floor and putting his face a mere inches away from Harry’s. “I thought you were going to jump,” Harry whispered, recalling the sharp pain in his chest the first moment he saw Draco up in the tower window.

“I won’t deny your affect on me, Potter, but I assure you it’s not life threatening,” Draco replied, his eyes still locked on Harry’s.

“Good to hear. I’d rather not have your death on my conscience,” he replied levelly.

Harry was breathing heavily and he knew with their close proximity that Draco must be able to hear his heart racing. He could feel Draco inching closer and taste the tangy flavor of Draco’s breath on his own tongue. He wanted more than anything in that moment for Draco to kiss him. He wanted to know what it would feel like to have his lips pressed against the ones that hovered just above him, but he wasn’t brave enough to capture them himself.

“Are you doing this to me?” he whimpered, unable to understand how there might be a logical way for why he felt the way he did toward the malicious boy. He reasoned that there must be some outside force involved which was making him think such lurid thoughts about someone he hated as desperately as he did Malfoy.

“Am I doing what?” Draco asked curiously, his mouth formed into a half-smirk.

“Making me want to-“ he began, but stopped suddenly, afraid to say more in case it wasn’t Malfoy’s doing after all. But it had to be, there was no other explanation.

Draco’s smirk grew wider and he pressed himself more fully against Harry’s body, sending a shudder through the both of them. “What is it you want, Harry?” he asked, just a breathy whisper above Harry’s aching lips.

“I want to kiss you,” Harry whispered in response, as if his armored brain simply shut down and truths began pouring out of his mouth like a sieve. He wanted to take it back at once, as Draco began to smile a very wicked and triumphant smile. That smile seemed to pull him back to reality and his brain kicked back in just in time so that when the blonde dove to capture his lips, a quick turn of the head sent Draco crashing into his cheek instead.

Before Draco could recover from the mistake, Harry was pushing him away and scrambling to his feet, a roiling anger taking hold of him. “What the fuck are you doing to me, Malfoy?” he demanded.

“I’m not doing anything,” Draco replied, crossing his arms across his chest in haughty defiance. “I haven’t done anything to you since I left the dance.”

“Rubbish!” Harry shouted.

“It’s true,” Draco growled, sounding like a furious mountain cat.

“Then explain what this is,” he demanded once more and Draco’s face softened at his words.

“Isn’t it obvious that I fancy you, Harry?” Draco asked, taking a step closer to where Harry stood and it took all his determination not to step back.

“No, no that’s not obvious at all. You’ve only managed to humiliate me, ridicule me and make it impossible for me to talk to anyone,” Harry replied angrily.

“I can have you all to myself that way,” Draco purred in response, taking yet another step closer.

“Shove off, Malfoy. I’m not listening to your mind games. Just tell me what you’re doing or I’ll take it up with the headmistress,” Harry warned, hoping it might bring the Slytherin to his senses at last.

Draco’s eyes darkened into the likeness of molten pewter and he closed the gap between them in one last swift movement. “You don’t know me at all if you think I’d back down that easily,” he snarled. “I’ve nearly got you, Harry. You crave me, I can feel it and before I’m done you’ll be begging me to take you.”

The fair boy’s words fell over him like a seductive blanket, enveloping him in a warmth that quickly pooled in his groin. Although he didn’t get the chance to act on it and make an arse of himself yet again, because Draco spun and stormed away, taking that fiery passion out the door with him.

He would have called out to Draco, and beckoned him back, but he realized what he was doing only too soon and stopped himself. Harry wanted to simply curl up and hide from the lecherous feelings that were erupting inside of him. How could he want that? How could he yearn to do those things, feel those sensations with Draco Malfoy of all people? All he could think of was the other boy’s milky white skin hovering over his own and being able to taste the coppery flavor of his own blood as he bit into his bottom lip to keep from shouting out.

Harry collapsed to the floor in the very spot he stood and with his head in his hands tried to scrub away the vulgar thoughts and images that now commandeered his mind.

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A smug sense of victory floated over Draco as he made his way down to the Slytherin dorms. It had not gone as he might have expected it to, or even wanted it to, but a success of sorts had been won on top of the tower.

Harry had finally admitted his attraction to him and he was one step closer to possessing the wanton Gryffindor as his lover if not more. An obscene pleasure crept upon him as the words ‘he wants you’ filled his mind as if sung by a choir of angels on high.

Draco felt more toward the boy than just a need for carnal fulfillment, but clearly Harry’s lust was the way to get to him closer, a way to slowly break him down. He needed to ply the nervous boy with the kind of sexual attention Harry would find nowhere else and make him yearn for it, need it, just as he would any other basic necessity like food or water.

He needed to occupy every single thought the Gryffindor had from the first moment he woke up. His name needed to be constantly whispered against Harry’s skin making it impossible for the Gryffindor to concentrate.

It would take more than what he was already doing however, to bring about such a change in the provocative hero, and Draco wasn’t sure what more he could do without showing Harry what a lover’s touch could truly be. Harry wouldn’t let him get close enough for that.

It was in that moment that an idea struck him like the lightning bolt that graced his potential’s head. Perhaps it would take more than the more bawdy forms of exploration to get Harry to warm up to him. Perhaps the Golden Boy wished to be romanced, it seemed like a very Gryffindor thing to want after all, and if ever there was a reason to sink to lion sensibilities it was now.

For Harry he would try being less slither and more purr.

Authors Note: I'm sort of in love with the last line. lol. I rarely pat myself on the back, but I sort of can't help it. The sentence makes me giggle. So, and extra thanks goes out to all my patient readers. I have updates in beta right now for nearly all of my stories and though I'm way off of my normal schedule, I'm getting back to it. So I'll see all you Poppet readers again soon and wet dreams to all!