Dream Lover

Beta'd by my Snookems! Big thanks for everything! Also to Dracominx for the read through and suggestions.

Disclaimer: They're not mine, they belong to JKR.

Harry woke Friday morning, aching from the sense of loss he felt at having to leave Draco. They had simply held one another through their last dream, talking of inconsequential things, keeping their kisses and touches light and loving. Harry was startled to realise that he had enjoyed himself as much, if not more, in this last dream as he had in any of the dreams prior. The sex was absolutely bloody amazing, but the closeness they’d shared was…heaven.

He’d taken to going to bed early, setting a lovely meeting place in his mind before drifting off to sleep. Two nights ago had been the Prefect’s bath, and that dream still left his toes curling. The things Draco had done to him under the water… Harry shivered and became half-hard at the memory. With a groan, he got to his feet and went to wash up and prepare for the day ahead.

~*~

Draco rolled over in his comfortable, warm bed, pulling his pillow down to cuddle against before throwing it through his bed hangings with a growl. He wanted to wake up with Harry, not his bloody pillow! He settled back on the bed, arms spread out as he prepared himself mentally for the day ahead. It was getting harder and harder not to cast longing looks in Harry’s direction throughout the day, but he knew it was imperative that he maintain his cool demeanour. Too much was riding on his ability to maintain the same hateful relationship he’d always had with his green-eyed tormentor.

As he centred his mind and focused however, he was unable to block from his mind the details from the last several dreams. He was enjoying himself, very much so. He loved his private time with Harry, when it was just the two of them, and nothing and no one could intrude on them.

His lips tilted up at the corners as he recalled their long night together. He was able to admit to himself that he was falling in love. It would be glorious, if it weren’t so heartbreaking. He knew they would never be able to be together, at least not until the Dark Lord was defeated. If he could be defeated. Perhaps that was why he’d suddenly started feeling uneasy during their dreams, as if a malevolent presence were with them.

Putting those thoughts from his mind, Draco drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before rolling out of bed to start his morning routine.

~*~

Draco sat at breakfast, watching Harry smile and laugh with his friends, feeling a tiny twinge of jealousy that they were able to be with him, share his day, and he couldn’t. He was growing steadily more frustrated with the situation, but knew there was no other thing that could be done.

“What’s Potter up to now?” Blaise asked from over his right shoulder, sliding into his seat a few minutes late, as was his habit.

“What do you mean?” he asked coolly, turning his head to pin Blaise with a narrowed gaze.

“You’re sitting here looking at him like you would like nothing better than to kill him. I simply wondered what he’d done now.” Blaise shrugged and reached to help himself to a plate of kippers and eggs.

“He is alive and breathing. That is all the reason I need to hate him. He sits there, high and mighty, laughing with his Mudblood friends; he really needs to be taught a lesson.”

Blaise rolled his eyes, wondering not for the first time why Draco was so obsessed with making Potter’s life a living hell. “Draco, be careful. Dumbledore always has his eye on Potter. He protects him as if he were the crown jewels, you know?”

“Oh, but isn’t it fortunate that he’s always been a bit of a clumsy fool, then?” Draco asked as he casually flicked his wand in Harry’s direction, watching with a satisfied smirk as the food flew off Harry’s plate to splatter all over him, drenching his hair, face, and robes in porridge.

Draco snickered evilly before turning to Blaise, saying, “See what I mean?”

Blaise gave a smirk of his own as he pointed to Harry. “Ah, but it looks like we’re about to get company, Draco.”

~*~

Harry had been laughing at a story Seamus was telling when his breakfast of porridge and honey leapt out of his bowl and splattered all over him. It ran down his face and plopped onto his robes as well as under his collar to slither down his chest in a decidedly disgusting manner. From long years of habit, his eyes flew across the room to see Draco snickering at him, obviously the culprit of this sticky mess.

Ignoring his tablemate’s cries of alarm, he pushed himself to his feet and stomped across the Great Hall to where Draco sat smugly, arms crossed and eyebrows raised in challenge. Not even pausing in his stride, he grabbed Draco by the front of his robes and slammed him into the stone wall near where he’d been sitting. Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle leapt to their feet, their intent obviously to protect their friend. They backed down quickly when Harry shoved his wand into the blond’s throat, giving them a pointed look.

Hearing an ‘oomph’ come out of Draco, he gave a small, hard smile and Accio’d a pot of strawberry jam from the Slytherin table. Dipping his hand into the pot, he mashed the red concoction into Draco’s fair skin, rubbing it in good before upending the rest over the carefully combed hair.

Harry saw Professor Snape and McGonagall rushing toward them out of the corner of his eye, and hurried to complete his plan before they could stop him.

Canting his voice above the loudly buzzing students, he said, “Malfoy, I challenge you!”

Snape reached them as the words left his mouth, pulling him off Draco and growling something about ‘detention’ before Harry shook him off and pointed at Draco. “I am challenging Malfoy here and now, in the presence of our fellow students and all the staff.”

He turned to Snape and saw that McGonagall had finally joined them. “Since the Professors can’t or won’t do anything to stop these childish displays from the Slytherins, I challenge Malfoy to a Seeker’s Battle.”

Addressing Draco, he continued, “Just you and me, Malfoy. No Beaters, no Chasers, no Keepers. Just you, me, and the Snitch. First one to catch it wins. If I get it, the hostilities end. No more hexes, jinxes, insults, or threats from you or your housemates. For anyone. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. If you win,” he paused as he thought of what he could offer. “If you win, I’ll give you one thousand Galleons.”

Draco stepped away from the wall, fists clenched at his sides and eyes snapping angrily. “I accept your challenge, but not your reward. One thousand Galleons is a pittance. If I win, you give me five thousand Galleons and you have to do whatever I want. Harry Potter, my little slave. Yes, I like that thought.”

Harry snarled at Draco on the outside, while he was waging an internal battle not to throw the sexy young man to the ground and lick every bit of the jam off his face. “Five thousand Galleons? I think not. Two thousand Galleons. And no, I will not subject myself to you.”

Draco sneered at him as he taunted, “Where’s that Gryffindor bravery, Potter? Two thousand Galleons, fine. I’m sure you’ll have to scrape about for it at any rate. But I have money aplenty. I want you, to order around as I see fit. Come on, Potter, is it not worth it to protect your little Mudblood friends?”

They both ignored McGonagall’s gasp of “Mister Malfoy!”

Harry’s eyes narrowed and he said, “Fine, Malfoy. I will do one thing of your choosing. However,” he added, seeing the triumph flashing in the silvery grey eyes, “whatever you have me do cannot bring harm to anyone else. Not to mention the fact that I won’t harm myself. This includes any information you think I might have to give you which could potentially harm anyone. Are we clear?”

Draco thought for a minute, wiping ineffectually at the mess on his face, before he nodded once and said, “You have a deal, Potter. Shall we seal the bargain?” He held out his hand for the requisite handshake, which would seal their arrangement as a Wizarding Agreement. Neither would be able to welsh on the deal; they would be compelled by magic to complete their end of the bargain.

Harry grinned evilly before grabbing Draco’s hand and tugging him hard against him, giving him a smacking kiss, much to the delight of the watching students.

“Are we done here then, gentlemen?” Snape’s smooth voice interrupted. “You will have to plan your little competition around your detention schedule. You both have detention every night this coming week at seven o’clock, starting Monday. With me. I will not ruin my weekend with your childish displays. Go clean yourselves. If you are late to my class, you will receive another week of detention.”

Harry and Draco both nodded and were turning to leave as they heard McGonagall chime in with, “And fifty points each from Gryffindor and Slytherin for this ridiculous demonstration!”

Harry followed Draco out of the hall as the other students began talking excitedly amongst themselves. He caught several students placing wagers on the outcome of the match. He snorted inwardly. As if Draco could beat him. He had this competition tied up before it even started, though he would never say as much to his lover.

Draco walked into the boy’s washroom, right off the Great Hall, waiting for Harry to enter before throwing locking and silencing charms up. Taking a moment to check the room for other occupants, he swiftly grabbed Harry and jerked him into a stall. He seated him on the toilet and straddled his lap as he latched onto the perfect lips he’d been literally dying to taste all morning.

Harry gave in to the fiercely punishing kiss, softening immediately and opening his mouth for Draco’s invasion. Moaning deep in his throat, he twined his tongue with Draco’s, savouring the slight strawberry flavour, which had transferred from Draco’s lips to his mouth. Breaking away, he nibbled along Draco’s jawline, stopping to lick at the jam that had dried to a flaky finish on the smooth skin.

Draco keened softly, hips circling in a slow, rhythmic movement. He was nearly lost in the sensations Harry’s mouth and travelling hands were pulling from him.

“Better,” Harry rasped next to his ear, sending shivers down his spine. “It’s so much better when it’s real.”

Pulling free and standing shakily, Draco ripped his outer robes off, heedless to the rending of the garment. When his hands went to the buttons of his shirt, Harry stood and stopped him, pain gracing his eyes as he reminded him, “We can’t. We don’t have time to do this properly. As you keep reminding me, we have to keep up appearances, for your sake if nothing else. I can’t let anyone hurt you and I won’t place my needs before your safety.”

Draco, gasping and trembling with the force of his desire merely nodded. After casting a quick “Scourgify”, he hooked a leg behind Harry’s, taking them both to the floor. “Fine,” he said, latching onto Harry’s neck and speaking around a mouthful of flesh, “if we don’t have time to do it properly, we’ll do it improperly.” He lined up their groins, pushing his hips hard into Harry’s, frantic now.

Harry grabbed Draco’s hips, helping things along as he whispered into his lover’s ear, “Kiss me. I need to taste you again.”

Although they’d been meeting regularly in their dreams, they still longed for one another with a ferocity that was rarely experienced among normal couples. When they began kissing, eating at each other’s mouths, that longing heightened their passion to such a degree that within moments both teens were stiffening in climax. They continued to hold one another tightly, unwilling to let go, now that they were finally being given the opportunity to hold one another.

“I can’t stand this,” Draco whispered, that damnable knot in his throat again.

“I know, love,” Harry replied softly, placing small kisses along Draco’s neck, revelling in the scent and texture he discovered there.

Draco pulled back, feeling as if he were cutting off a body part as he pushed out of the circle of Harry’s arms and climbed to his feet. “We have to clean up and get to Potions. We’re already going to be late as it is, and I’m sure there was a queue of students waiting for this bathroom. I’ll have to come up with something to tell everyone.”

Harry nodded, stood, and cast a cleaning charm on them both, strong enough to leave their clothing clean though obviously wrinkled, and their skin gleaming as if they’d just dried off from a shower. He watched as Draco pulled his outer robes back on, his Malfoy persona settling once again over his features. The rip in Draco’s normally pristine clothing gave him an idea.

“There is one way to dispel any questions, Draco,” he said.

Draco looked at him, raising one eyebrow in question.

“Hit me.”

“No, Harry, I’m not going to hit you! I couldn’t do that. Merlin, I thought you knew me better by now.”

Harry sighed and smirked a bit before he offered, “I’ll hit you, too. In fact, I’ll hit you first if you want, that way you don’t feel so bad about hitting me.”

Draco’s eyes narrowed in irritation before his fist whipped out and landed unerringly on Harry’s strong jaw, snapping his head back and causing him to blink a few times at the pain from the blow.

“So much for not being able to do that, Malfoy,” he grouched, rotating his jaw to ensure it wasn’t hurt too badly.

With a sigh, he clenched his fist and said, “I’m sorry,” right before landing it right on Draco’s nose, causing it to bleed fairly profusely, but giving them a marvellous cover story.

Draco scowled at the force behind the blow, but reached over and ripped the shoulder of Harry’s collar and artfully mussed his own hair, deciding no one would be able to tell if he ruffled Harry’s.

“Well, we’ll pass inspection, at any rate. Off to Potions and an irate Snape.”

Harry drew a deep, steadying breath and nodded at Draco to lead the way.

~*~

After Potions, which Ron had not qualified for, Hermione pulled Harry with her up to the vacant common room, deciding it was high time for answers.

“All right, Harry. Spill it.”

Harry blinked at her, completely confused at her suddenly angry manner. What the hell had he done now?

Hermione sighed impatiently, crossed her arms, and started with the dreaded foot tapping. A foot tapping Hermione was a terrifying vision to behold.

“Okay, okay!” he cried, eyes widening in slight panic. Everything he’d done over the past several days—napping in History of Magic, surreptitiously copying her notes when she wasn’t looking, and spelling his quill to copy the homework answers for Flitwick’s Advanced Charms class—came tumbling out of his mouth.

Hermione’s eyes went wide as she heard his confessions and after he admitted to being the one to trip Blaise Zabini all the way UP the stairs to DADA, she finally stopped him with an upraised hand. “Not that. We’ll be having a discussion about all that later, I promise you, but now I want to know what is going on with you and Malfoy. And don’t try to deny that there’s something going on.”

Harry felt the blood drain from his face at his best friend’s words and he sat down heavily on the arm of a chair, a whisper of, “How did you know?” falling from his suddenly dry lips.

“Harry, it’s me. You can hide from most people, but not me. I know you far too well. Is he blackmailing you, or threatening you more than usual or something? Tell me, Harry. I can help you!”

Harry blinked again. Okay, so she didn’t know as much as he’d thought. With Hermione you could never really tell how her mind was working. But she was right about one thing. She could help him in ways that no one else possibly could.

“Hermione, I have something to tell you which might come as a bit of a shock.” He stopped and thought a minute before amending that to, “Well, actually three things.” He peeked at her and was confounded to see her smiling gently at him. “What?”

“If you’re going to tell me you’re gay, Harry, I know already.”

Harry blinked for a third time. Really, this was his standard reaction to Hermione when she was in one of her ‘discovery’ modes. “What makes you think I’m gay?” he asked, truly interested in her answer.

“Harry, I figured it out in fifth year. You didn’t react quite right to Cho, and then you never looked at another girl again. However, I have noticed you looking at Seamus, Justin, Blaise, Malfoy, and every other single male in our year, plus a few sixth years. Quite gentlemanly of you not to ogle the attached boys, by the way,” she added with a grin.

He smiled back at her, once again reminded of why he loved her so much. While she was quite pushy and even irritating on occasion, she truly had his best interests at heart and had never once judged him, for anything. He couldn’t even say that about Ron, much as he loved the redhead.

“So you know I’m gay. Well, that’s only part of what I have to tell you. Not only am I gay, but I’ve also been having dreams lately. Very vivid dreams.” He watched her face, waiting for her to make the connection. “Dreams about a certain blond we all know and love.” He watched as her eyes flared impossibly wide.

“Ohhhh, so that night…when was it? A week or so ago? That wasn’t, erm, a nightmare, was it?”

“No, not quite,” he said with a snort. “But I think I’ll spare you the lurid details, okay?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Please. Okay, so you’ve been having these dreams and they’re about Malfoy. I get that, but that’s not a good reason for you to attack him in the middle of the Great Hall this morning! What were you thinking, Harry?”

“Did you see what he did to me? He poured porridge on me!”

“It’s not the worst he’s done over the years, Harry. You said there were three things, and now I think you’d better tell me what the third is. I’m sure it has something to do with you throwing out that ridiculous challenge.”

“Well, Hermione, this is the part that’s going to be really difficult for you to believe. You might want to stop pacing and sit down.” He waited until she was comfortable on the sofa and lowered his voice a bit before blurting out, “He’s having the dreams, too.”

“Malfoy is dreaming about you?” Hermione asked, dumbfounded. “And he told you about it?”

“Erm, no, he’s having the exact same dreams I’m having; he’s in them, he’s experiencing them. These dreams, Hermione, they’re not like regular dreams. They’re real. If I scratch myself in the dream, I wake up with a scratch. That’s actually how I found out he was having the dreams, too. Remember when he was in the hospital wing last week? It was because of something that happened in one of our dreams.”

Hermione sat quietly, absorbing this new and startling information and trying to wrap her formidable intellect around it. A thought niggled at the back of her head. With all the single-minded determination she was known for, she pursued the thought until the words Morpheus Charm popped to the forefront of her mind.

“I don’t really know what’s going on, and to be honest, I don’t really care. But Hermione, no one can know about this, okay? I mean it. Too many people could be endangered if anyone found out about Draco and I, not least of which is Draco himself. I trust him with my life, and I can do no less than protect his.” Harry let his face reflect his seriousness at this edict. He trusted Hermione, but too much was riding on her silence.

Hermione nodded slowly and stood, wrapping Harry in her soft embrace. “I won’t tell anyone, Harry. Not even Ron. You don’t need any more targets painted on you. But do you mind if I look into this? Discreetly, of course. It sounds like a spell I’m familiar with, but it has obviously been manipulated a bit. I just need to go check some references in the library.”

Harry grinned, hugging her back. “I think you just want an excuse to go to the library.”

She pulled away from him, lips twitching as she tried to suppress her smile. “Of all the people in the world though Harry! Malfoy? Why him?! He’s such a git!”

“Well, for one, there’s his beautiful hair, all nice and straight and non-bushy,” he laughed, tugging on a lock of her frizzy brown hair in a teasing manner. “And he smells soooo good. Then there’s his excellent fashion sense.” He swept his arms wide to show his own rather too-large clothes. “He would never be caught in oversized hand me downs.”

Harry continued to poke fun at Hermione as they walked side by side down to the library, going into great detail about obvious inbreeding between dentists. Hermione’s delighted laughter could be heard ringing through the halls long after they passed.

~*~

“So, Draco,” Blaise said as they returned to the Great Hall for their lunch that afternoon. “What are you going to ask Potter to do when you win?”

Draco smirked at his friend, enjoying the loyal certainty that he would be the one to walk away holding the Snitch.

“Oh, I’ve given this a great deal of thought today, Blaise. There are so many wonderfully humiliating tasks I could have him perform, after all. I thought, I could have him wear a skirt and knickers to the next Hogsmeade weekend, but that’s so very juvenile and beneath me, don’t you think? Then I thought perhaps I could make him sit out the final game between Slytherin and Gryffindor, which would of course ensure that we win the House Cup. But really, how does that truly benefit me, personally? After much long, hard thought, I decided to use this opportunity to truly humiliate Potter so deeply and finally that he would never again be able to hold his head up in public.”

By this time, the whole of the seventh year Slytherins were hanging on his every word. He smiled maliciously as he allowed his lips to curl around his next words, “I’m going to make him beg me to fuck him. And then, I’m going to do it.”

~*~

Later that evening, as the rest of the student body was buzzing over the ‘Battle for the Snitch’ which had been scheduled to take place on the Quidditch pitch at ten o’clock the next morning, Hermione sat pouring over books in the library, hunting for information that might help Harry. In one obscure reference manual on soul mates, she found the connection she’d been missing.

With a gasp, she slammed the book shut and stuffed it into her bag, certain that she knew who the instigator of this strange situation was. There was only one person in the castle with the knowledge, ability, and utter lack of morals who would do such a thing, and she decided it was up to her to stop them before any more harm could be done.

TBC