Blue Eyed Dragon

Authors Notes: Again, this is a re-post and this one is beta\'d! This is one of my favorite chapters. I don\'t know why. Enjoy it and please R&R!!

CHAPTER SIX

Draco paced the alley several times while waiting for Harry to show up. What if he doesn’t show? What if he stands me up?

“No,” Draco said firmly to himself.

“No what?” Sounded a familiar voice behind him. Draco jumped a bit but then smiled, slowly turning to face Harry.

There was an awkward silence between the two men; neither knowing if they should embrace the other like they really, really, wanted too. Neither certain if the man standing before him had a change of heart since their last encounter.

“Erm...Hi...” Harry finally said.

“Hi.”

Harry began to kick the dirt with the toe of his shoe as another couple of uncomfortable seconds passed between them.

“Should we...erm...go inside then?”

“Actually, I figured we’d just go back to the castle and snog...” Draco replied casually.

Harry’s face drained of all color before he caught onto the sarcasm in Draco’s voice.

“Yeah, that was what I’d first planned too,” he said, recovering quickly. “But then there was this big Weasley-family emergency and I just plain forgot to eat. So, now I’m starving and since we’ve come all the way to this cute little café, I figure we might as well eat first and then snog. That way we’ll at least have the energy to use up...”

Draco fought hard and lost the battle; he burst out laughing.

“You’re a riot, Potter,” he gasped out and then once his laughter subsided he said, “Thanks, Harry, I needed that. Come on let’s go eat. I’m starved!” He gently took Harry’s hand in his and led him into the café.

Harry and Draco entered the Blue Door Bistro hand-in-hand. Cute, Draco thought while surveying the quaint café. The small circular tables were adorned with plain dark green tablecloths. There were two chairs at each table, their cushions matching the table clothes. Two complete place settings were on top of the table-a dinner plate and salad plate that were both snow-white porcelain with a crimson swirl design outlined in silver. The sterling silver flatware against the green made Draco smile to himself-if he hadn’t known any better, he’d have thought Harry had planned the colors.

“May I help you?” asked the hostess. She’s pretty for a Muggle, thought Draco.

“I have reservations for Harry Potter,” Draco blinked. Harry had made reservations?

The woman (her name tag read “Audryonna”) smiled and said, “Certainly, Mr. Potter. Please follow me.” Audryonna took two menus from the side of the booth she was standing behind and led Harry and Draco to one of the small tables near the back of the room.

“Enjoy your meal, gentlemen!” Seconds after Audryonna had left them to look over their menus, another girl appeared.

“Hi there! I’m Maggie. I’ll be your waitress tonight. What can I get you gentlemen to drink?”

Seeing Draco hesitate, Harry quickly said, “We’ll take a couple of beers, Love.”

“Okay! I’ll be right back with those to take your order!”

As she hurried off, Draco said, “Thanks. I was about to order a butterbeer!”

Harry chuckled. “That wouldn’t have gone over too well. Can you imagine explaining to the Ministry why we had to modify a Muggle’s memory?”

“You’d get off easy, though. Or did you forget who the Minister is?”

“Just because Arthur Weasley is the Minister of Magic doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have matching cells in Azkaban!” Harry replied hotly.

“Hey-calm down! It was a joke!”

“All right, here you go guys!” Maggie had returned with two huge mugs of beer in her hands. “Have you decided what you’d like to eat?” she asked as she set a mug down in front of each wizard.

Harry ordered for both himself and Draco, handed the waitress the menus and smiled as she walked off towards the kitchen. “Why’d you kiss me the other night?” Draco looked at Harry-his eyes wide and his mouth was slightly hanging open with shock.

“I-I really don\'t know if you want the truth. It just...it just felt right, I guess. Like it was what was supposed to happen or something. Why’d you kiss back?”

“I wanted to,” Harry said simply.

“Huh?” Draco asked. He was surprised by Harry’s reply.

“I wanted to,” Harry repeated. “I’ve wanted to for, well, I don’t know how long really, but that isn’t the point. Look, Dray, I never understood how two people could hate each other so much-especially when both started out wanting to be friends. And to tell you the truth, I don’t know that I ever hated you as much as I hated what you believed and what you were taught. But I do know that strong feelings were always there and that sometime between seeing you before the war and seeing you as Potions Master at Hogwarts, those feelings either changed into some sort of lust and want or the feelings simply came-to-be or they evolved from feelings that were there before.”

Draco was speechless. He’d expected Harry to say, “I don’t know” like he had. The fact that Harry had admitted he’d wanted to kiss him (and apparently for sometime now) surprised Draco. Did he feel the same way about Harry? In the middle of contemplating that last question, Harry began to speak again.

“I didn’t say all that to surprise you. I just wanted to say it before I lost my nerve.”

“Lost your nerve? You’re a bloody Gryffindor!” Draco had said that with a little more emotion than he’d intended so he took a deep breath before starting his next sentence. “Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, is what I meant to say.”

“Yeah, but we’re still afraid of rejection and we’re still human, Draco.” Harry averted his eyes-it was the first time Harry had willingly expressed one of his weaknesses to Draco and it stung that he was being laughed at because of it.

As if on cue, Maggie showed up with their food. “Is there anything else I can get for you?”

“Not right now, Love. Thanks.”

“Okay then! Enjoy your meal!” Harry began to eat right away-he was desperate to avoid showing anymore of his feelings to Draco. After all, as Draco had pointed out not too long ago, he was supposed to be brave, have nerve. He then remembered his first year, silently praying he wouldn’t be sorted into Slytherin. Dumbledore had told him in his second year that the Sorting Hat had not sorted him into Slytherin because he’d asked it not to. But what if he hadn’t been thinking “...not Slytherin...”? Would the Sorting Hat still have put him into Gryffindor? Or would he have been Draco’s housemate?

Draco watched Harry carefully. He was pushing his food around on his plate with his fork while staring into space. What’s he thinking about? Draco studied Harry’s emerald eyes. They were glazed over-Harry was obviously deep inside his own thoughts.

Draco reached across the table and touched Harry’s hand softly. Harry jumped slightly. “Sorry,” said Draco. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I just got tired of wondering what was so interesting that it could keep your eyes and attention off of me for so long.”

“Flashbacks to Professor Binns’ classes.”

“Ah, well that explains it then. I mean, how can I compete with History of Magic classes?”

“Oh, you can’t.” replied Harry seriously. Then, after seeing Draco’s (adorably) shocked look, Harry grinned. “Come off it, Dray! If you really think that I’d say rubbish like that and mean it, then you’re off your rocker.”

“Well...I mean...Well, of course I knew you didn’t mean it!” Draco exclaimed as a pale pink color flooded his cheeks. Harry laughed.

“Sure ya did, Dray.”

The rest of the wizards’ dinner was pleasant. The men talked about their years at Hogwarts and their duels with each other.

About an hour later, Harry finally asked Maggie for their bill and while answering Draco’s overly eager questions, paid it.

As the men walked into the dark London streets, Draco asked, “What do you feel like doing now?”

Harry and Draco strolled through Muggle London hand-in-hand. “So what were you really thinking about earlier?” asked Draco.

Harry hesitated for a moment and then said, “I was thinking about why I wasn’t sorted into Slytherin our first year.” Draco stopped walking.

“What? You’re off your rocker! You’re a Gryffindor! I could have told you that when we met in Madam Malkin’s!”

Harry shook his head. “The Sorting Hat almost put me in Slytherin, though. It said I’d be great and that Slytherin would help me on my way to greatness.”

“So...I mean, why didn’t it then?”

“I asked it not to.”

“But the Sorting Hat doesn’t work that way!”

“Just after I got out of the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore told me that it’s not our actions that make us great, it’s our choices.” Harry laughed a little.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing’s funny, just ironic. Do you know you’re the first person I’ve told that to? I never even told Ron or ‘Mione.”

“Really? Why not?”

Harry shrugged then said, “They’d have thought I was nuts.”

“Yeah, I guess they would’ve. Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Sure.”

“Why’d you ask it not to? How’d you know you didn’t want to be in Slytherin?”

“Hagrid. When he came to get me from my aunt’s and uncle’s, he told me about Hogwarts-he said that every witch or wizard who’d gone bad had been in Slytherin. So I guess I was scared more than anything.”

Changing the subject, Draco said, “Lets pop over to Fortescue’s.”

“Yeah, all right. Erm, let’s head towards the park-it’s darker there so it’s less likely Muggles will see us Disapparate.”

***

Several heads turned as Harry and Draco walked into Fortescue’s holding hands. Feeling Harry start to pull away, Draco grasped his hand more tightly. “It’s okay,” Draco said softly, trying to reassure Harry.

They sat down at a small table in the middle of the ice cream parlor. “How?” asked Harry.

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘it’s okay’. How is it okay? How can you stand people staring at you like that?”

Draco shrugged. “What do I care what they think about me? When Lucius ‘trained’ me to ‘be and act like a Malfoy’, a big lesson was ignoring other people’s opinions of you because if they’re staring or saying stupid things, they’re just jealous of you. Beside, how can you not be used to it?”

“I never said I wasn’t used to it. I said I couldn’t stand it. I never could.”

“What? But what about all those times at school? The Chamber and the Tri-Wizard Tournament? I mean you always acted like all the attention didn’t bother you.”

“So what?” Harry replied coolly. He didn’t like where the conversation was heading.

“It-I don’t know. It just seemed so natural for you to accept all the attention but you were acting and you were really just ignoring it¼so why did everyone staring at us tonight bother you so much?”

Harry relaxed a bit. “I just got so used to no attention at all. When I killed Voldemort I didn’t sleep for six weeks because of all the media attention. But after that, up until tonight, I’ve been living an almost normal life. No one’s been trying to kill me and so I don’t have anyone to kill or defeat.”

“But you’re The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry.”

“And I always will be. I can’t change that I survived that night. But since I killed Voldemort, there’s no proverbial neon sign over my head flashing ‘Celebrity’ or ‘Boy-Who-Lived’. People, for once, aren’t swarming around me just to be able to say they ‘know’ Harry Potter.” Draco gave Harry a small smile. He never realized how much he took his privacy for granted.

Harry and Draco sat in the ice cream parlor until Madam Fortescue kicked them out.

As they walked through Diagon Alley Draco said, “Can we head back to the castle, Harry? I kind of need to ask you something but I can’t do it here.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco but nodded softly anyway. “Sure, Dray.”

***

Harry followed Draco to his sleeping quarters. As soon as Draco closed his door behind Harry, he quickly muttered several locking and silencing charms.

“Is everything okay, Draco? You’re worrying me...”

“Not really. The first night I came to your room to talk to you, I got a letter and then rushed out, remember?”

Harry nodded.

“The letter was from Minerva. Arthur Weasley owled her saying there was...are...there are rumors that Death Eaters are planning an attack on me.”

Harry gasped.

“I ran out because I needed to talk to Severus. He asked around and found out that they are the same Death Eaters who...” tears slid down Draco’s flushed cheeks. “...Who killed my dad. He told me that I should think about who’d make...” Draco paused. He never realized how hard it’d be to say. “I mean...he told me that I need to find a secret keeper,” he spat out, tears now falling in steady streams from his ice blue eyes.

Harry’s eyes widened. “Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me, Dray?”

Draco leaned up against the wall to brace himself and wrapped his arms around himself as he nodded, unable to actually speak the one simple word that he wanted to say more than anything. Harry walked across the room, took Draco in his arms and hugged him firmly.

“No worries, Love,” Harry whispered. Draco nodded and snaked his hands around Harry’s slim waist tightly.

“Thank you,” he muttered into Harry’s shoulder.

Harry softly led Draco to his bed and laid him down. As he pulled the covers over the blond wizard, Harry sat on the edge of the bed and said, “Get some sleep, Love. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Harry?” Draco said as he gently grabbed Harry’s arm to stop him from getting off the bed.

“Yeah, Love?”

“Sleep with me? Just sleep, Harry. Please?”

“Of course, Dray.” Harry said as he toed off his shoes, climbed under the covers and took Draco into his arms.

Harry lay awake while Draco slept in his arms for a long time. He thought about what Draco had asked him. Was he really willing to step back into that spotlight for Draco? Was he willing to risk his life for him? Draco snuggled closer to Harry and sighed contently. Harry smiled and said softly, “You always have an answer, Draco.” He wrapped his arms around the other man a little more tightly and fell asleep with a smile still on his face.


Author\'s Note II: A tease, I know. Sorry! R&R!