A Different Alter

A look that could peel paint settled over Draco\'s features. A look that promised no good for the man standing next to him. Long, tapered fingers drummed idly on his ballooned stomach and his chronically swollen ankles propped on their own pillow. He was the picture of hostile pregnancy.
\"Bed rest?\" Quiet, low rumble that promised pain. Lots of pain. \"I have to be on bedrest?!\"
\"It\'s only until the baby comes, which could be any day now. Please don\'t get worked up it\'s not good for you or the baby.\" The other man pleaded. Ice blue eyes settled on the twitching nervous man.
\"This is all your fault, Potter.\"
\"Oi! I\'m not the one who thought it was okay to....you know....in the middle of a magic cavern, on an obsidian alter which we knew nothing about!\" Harry adjusted his glasses, trying not to blush.
Draco, despite himself, smirked. It never failed to amuse him that after years of doing it anywhere, in any position that Harry still couldn\'t say the word sex without blushing. A warm feeling started to rise in his chest and for a beat he let it come. Then ruthlessly, he pushed it down.
\"Didn\'t really hear you protesting. In fact, I seem to remember you told me repeatedly that I wasn\'t to stop. Ever.\"
\"Er. Yes. Well....it\'s just....that thing you do with your tongue.\" As usual, at the mention of the tongue trick, Harry\'s eyes went cross. It was the combined effort of remembering what it felt like and trying to figure out exactly how Draco did it....
\"Well, I can\'t bloody well do it now, so don\'t go getting all excited. Bed rest....Damn it all, Harry. What am I supposo doo do!\"
Harry bit his lip. That was the question that had been worrying him since the doctor had informed him that it was best if Draco wasn\'t too active until the time came. Draco did have the ability to sit for long periods of time, planning or thinking. He actually was, by nature, a very still person, but he could also be extremely contrary. If he thought that he was required to stay quiet and restive then he would do everything in his power to run about like a lunatic.
\"Ummm...well.....you could catch up on all that new research in....\"
The glare cut him off.
\"You better get thinking.\" A soft sigh, a thoughtful glance \"I\'ll give you a free one. Stop staring like a git and sit down.\" Harry sat, for lack of anything better to do, already dreading what the blonde might have settled on for entertainment. \"Tell me a story.\"
\"A what?\" He leaned forward to study the still cold expression, but he noticed a slight softening around the eyes. That was usually a good sign. Usually.
\"A story. A specific story. I want you tell me what happened the day we got locked in that closet. From the beginning to the end, no skimping on the good parts and leaving in all the things you\'ve been to afraid to tell me.\"
\"You know, I\'m fairly sure that I\'ve got a volume of fairy tales downstairs.\" Harry made a move to get up.
\"Sit down and start spilling. Need I remind you that we\'re here today because of you? Look at me! Giving up my boyish figure to bear your child. Honestly!\"
Harry sat. Harry sighed. Harry gathered his thoughts and began to speak,
\"Well, it was a nice enough day at the beginning, maybe a little cloudy, but it was one of those mornings when you could smell the storm coming. Can I sit on the bed? I think is the chair that used to be a mouse.\"
Silently, Draco shifted over, secretly enjoying the warmth at his side. He didn\'t even protest when Harry curled a protective arm over his large stomach.
\"You were saying?\"
\"Right. So I woke up that morning to the sun shining into the room and I could hear everything moving around the school as usual, but there was something...off. I had this strange feeling that something was off.....\"

(((Five Years Ago)))

Harry struggled his his robes, trying to shake off sleep. Something big was going to happen today, he could feel it in the pit of his stomach. He glanced over at Ron, but his red headed friend was still peacefully snoring away. It figured that in their last year, Ron had finagled a schedule that let him sleep nearly an hour later. Not that Harry minded the early mornings, but it was much harder to get up without listening to idle chatter.
He walked the quiet halls, listening to the rise and fall of his own step. Breakfast was laid out in the banquet hall, so he helped himself to some orange juice. His stomach wasn\'t encouraging food. Hermione was already seated, picking at a muffin, a red bound book spread open in front of her.
\"For pleasure or class?\" He asked, settling down on the bench next to her.
\"A little bit of both. It\'s research for Advanced Botany, but not necessary reading.\" She smiled distractedly. \"You know me, no stone left unturned.\"
\"What a droll metaphor, Granger. Another muggle expression?\" The sneering voice was so familiar that Harry barely winced. Draco stood over them, barely contained glee at having gotten off another one liner painted on his face.
\"Go tell it to someone who cares, Malfoy.\" Hermione bit off. \"Because we\'re not interested.\"
Draco snarled back something incompressible, turning his back on them and walking off, his robes billowing.
\"What was that all about?\" Harry wondered aloud. He moved to take a sip of his juice when Hermione\'s hand lashed out to grab his wrist.
\"Wait! I think Malfoy may have poisoned your drink! I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.\"
Setting the glass down carefully, Harry glanced over at his friend. She started intently at the glass and seemed to mutter something in Latin that sound suspiciously like \'revealus\'. The glass gurgled and before their eyes, a clears liquid rose to the surface of the juice. Hermione said something else and the clear liquid rose above the opaque juice and poured itself into a clean cup. Hermione carefully picked up the new glass, staring into it.
\"No smell...almost colorless. This was done by a master potions maker! It must have taken months to make.\"
\"Malfoy must have been planning this for a while. But why? I thought we\'d ended the feud. He barely even looks at me anymore.\"
\"Are you kidding? He stares at you all the time in Natural Remedies, I can see him out of the corner of my eye.\"
The truth was that Harry had noticed similar stares. Stares that seemed to be burning holes into his flesh. He played dumb, hoping to avoid a fight. Besides, he stared at Draco when the blonde wasn\'t paying attention. It felt like an even enough trade, but now Draco had broken the rules. Not Hogwart\'s rules, though the potion was a violation of school codes, but the rules of their silent game. They had traded their open brutal animosity for something different, something that Harry wasn\'t quite sure he understood.
\"Well, do you know what it is?\" He asked after she had stared at for a few more moments.
\"Well, I could be wrong, but I believe it\'s a lust potion, a temporary one. If you\'d drank al it, it, you would become obsessively lustful over someone for about a day.\"
\"Anyone at all or is it specific?\"
\"Whoever\'s hair he put in it, the little rat.\" She pulled a set of tweezers from inside her robe and fished out the hair that was suspended in the now viscous liquid. It wasn\'t very long, probably cut down for the potion. It was white blonde.
\"This could be anyone\'s.\" Hermione stared at it. \"The effects of the potion would have been pretty embarrassing for you, no matter who it was. What are we going to do?\"
\"Nothing.\"
\"What?\"
Harry looked at his oldest friend and weighed her. He wasn\'t sure if what he was about to say would upset her or make the situation worse, but he needed her on his side for the plan that was rapidly forming in his mind.
\"The hair is Draco\'s.\" He said, starting slowly. \"And I don\'t think he intended on embarrassing me. I think he was doing it to save himself embarrassment. I\'ve noticed....some tension between us that wasn\'t there before. He probably wanted to drug me into being with him for a short period of time, tricking me.\"
\"That\'s even worse!\" Her eyes went wide. \"That\'s practically rape!\"
\"Except that even without the lust spell, I don\'t think I\'d protest to much. Hermione, you can\'t say anything, but I\'m glad this happened. I\'m sorry I didn\'t say anything before, but I wasn\'t sure myself.\"
\"I don\'t understand.... \"E \"Ever since we\'ve gotten word of Vodlemort\'s return...I\'ve been afraid, horribly so.\" He paused trying to find the right words, the right phrases that would convince her, \"I know that terrible things are going to happen. Yet, everyone here is going on like there\'s nothing the matter, except for some stray rumors and these looks I get when people think I\'m not paying attention. Draco.... he's not really a part of it. Or he is, but so obvious that it doesn\'t really matter. One day we\'ll be on opposite sides of the battlefield and we both know it. I don\'t have to worry about letting him down or knowing that he might die trying to defend me. He\'s Malfoy.
\" None of that meant anything for a while. It just was. And then, he started giving me these looks, not like nasty stares, but long stares. So I started staring back, thinking he was just trying to be provocative. Now I can see though.... and I\'m glad of it because I think it was his way of giving me entry. An opening move.
\"I wasn\'t sure what to do about it or even if I was going to do anything at all. This way though.... he's opened himself up to revenge and getting wha wan wants at the same time. I\'m going to need your help.\"
\"Give me a moment, my head\'s reeling.\" Hermione was at her best when she was sorting through facts, true, but she never failed to give Harry her all when it came down to the nitty gritty gray areas of emotion. Her eyes closed. When she opened them again, she looked resolved. \"We\'re having a long conversation after this day is over, but for now, let\'s get down to planning.\"
\"I\'ve got one in mind. Simple as possible. I\'ll slip him a note during Natural Remedies, telling him to meet me in the supply closet. We won\'t be able to use magic because it\'s so volatile in there with all the different ingredients that we\'d be blasted to smithereens. Your job is simple. You have to lock the closet door and reopen it in four hours.\"
\"Somehow, there\'s a flaw in that plan.\"
\"Oh, for once in your life just go with it. Get washed away in the emotion.\"
\"Look who\'s talking, closeted man....\" She trailed off. \"Wow. That could be taken so many ways.\"
\"Will you do it?\"
\"Fine. But only under duress.\"
So during Natural Remedies when no one was looking, Harry flew his terse note over to Draco. It landed, gracefully, unfolding itself. He couldn\'t see his expression, but Harry was sure that Draco wasn\'t the least surprised at the proposed meeting in the supply closet after class.
Natural Remedies had never dragged on quite so long. It seemed that the endlessly droning voice of the guest lecturer would never end. Harry\'s head was a buzz, making plans and then destroying them. In the end he settled on direct. A warm feeling had settled in his stomach, flaring up occasionally when he felt a hot gaze on his backs, ts, this was a very good plan, indeed.
It took fifteen minutes of waiting discreetly outside the classroom to be sure it had emptied. Walking as if he had a purpose, Harry reentered the botanically scented room and headed straight for the back where the storage closet door was already ajar.
Gathering his courage, Harry pushed open the door. Draco was leaning coolly against a pile of boxes, his robe already discarded on them. He was the picture of after school casualness. Without thought, Harry reached out and grabbed the smirking blonde to him. A jolt of warmth and sweet lips pressed against The The fire of the kiss went straight to his groin. Draco was eager and responsive against him, arms wrapping possessively around him.
They continued on, breaking only forath.ath. Harry laid his hands on sharp hipbones, worming his way under a thick sweater and untucking the soft cotton undershirt from pressed pants, revealing a small patch of pale skin. He idly stroked this small bit of flesh, the first forbidden sight. When he was finally able to pull back a little, he was rewarded with the look of a totally undone Malfoy. Draco was panting, a flush in his cheeks and lips a deep red. His shirt was untucked and his usually perfect hair was mussed.
\"By the way,\" Harry put in mildly. \"Hermione wants to know exactly how you got it to be odorless. She was quite impressed.\"
A wild, fearful look flickered across the usual cool expression.
\"So you know then. Do your worst, Potter, I\'m sure I\'ll be suitably cowed.\"
\"Magic? In here? We\'d be blown to smithereens. \" Harry leaned back against the shelves, a very not innocent look on his face. Draco gulped audibly.
\"Potter....If I try to open that door t not now, will I find it locked?\"
\"Clever boy.\"
\"So you locked us in here. With no magic. Are you insane?\"
\"No. Just very very horny. Care to snog?\"
Draco blinked and Harry crowed internally. He had actually managed to completely shock the Prince of Poker Face. It seemed that Malfoy didn\'t know which way to look. This was apparently the last thing he\'d been expecting. Finally, Harry took pity on him.
\"I\'m going to kiss you now. If you\'re not interested then don\'t respond and I\'ll have Hermione let us out.\" Harry approached slowly as if dealing with a wild animal.
He lifted a hand to the smooth, stunned face and leaned forward. No reaction. He placed a gentle kiss on parted lips with no protest, so he pressed on. A tentative hand landed on his chest, parting his robe. All right! Audience participation! Harry slipped a hand under the shirt again, marveling at the feel of muscle under skin. Carefully, untucking the shirt as he went, Harry moved his hand until he reached the small of the back. He moved his calloused thumb in a rough circle, forcing a deep moan out of Malfoy. Pleased with the sound he continued and dipped his head to nip at the elegant neck, eliciting another moan. Good to know.
Draco wasn\'t sitting passively by. His hands were busy at the front of Harry\'s shirt, undoing buttons until he exposed the pale firm stomach of his archenemies. Long nimble fingers sought out sensitive patches of skin, ghosting over dark flat nipples until Harry pulled away from his neck to gasp.
That was when they both heard a very loud throat clearing, necks both snapping towards the door. Standing in the doorway was Professor Snape looking less then pleased.
\"Well.\" Snape began. \"This was a sight....I could have lived without seeing. Mr. Potter, please right yourself and go to lunch.\"
Faster then he thought possible, Harry buttoned up his shirt and pulled on his robe. He leaned forward and whispered a hurried, \'later\' at Draco and beat a hasty retreat, shivering as he passed Snape. He walked until he was out of direct sight of the Head of Slytherin and ducked behind a pillar to listen. He heard the rise and fall of Snape\'s deliberate tone.
\"...surprised at you, young Malfoy. Trysting in such a public place. I would have thought you learned better, especially with that particular young man.\"
Harry thought he picked up a mumbled voice saying something like an apology.
\"None of that. Don\'t humble yourself to get out of my bad graces, it doesn\'t become the Malfoy name. Straighten yourself up and go on your way. Don\'t let me catch you again.\"
Harry pressed harder against the pillar, listening to the fall of Snape\'s stately steps. The Head of Slytherin hadn\'t disapproved! In fact, Harry had almost sensed approval in the scolding tone. He rushed out before Draco could emerge, not wanting for the other boy to catch him eavesdropping. He wasn\'t quite sure what would happen next, except for the long talk that Hermione would undoubtedly want to have with him.