The Heat Is On!

DISCLAIMER: Warning! I make no claim to any property of J.K. Rowling's, and am in no way profiting by this. I do offer her my sincerest thanks for allowing us this garden of the mind in which we play. Further Warning! This story...and likely any I ever write…are dominated by gay themes and characters. That's how it is, if this in any way makes you uncomfortable...do not read further.


The Heat Is On! ……By Samayel


Harry mopped the sweat out of his eyes and hair. Who could have imagined heat like this in England? It was bloody unbearable! Practicing Quidditch in this heat was almost impossible, and they’d been forced to quit early just to avoid losing team members to heatstroke.

The showers were a brief source of relief, but one couldn’t use them forever. Harry donned his uniform robes and glasses and headed back out into the swelter. It was generally quite hot just as school started, but this year was a record setter, and the rest of Europe was suffering just as badly as England, if not worse. The fact that the torment was shared by everyone didn’t really make it less unpleasant, though.

He hadn’t slept properly all week, and even his normally modest classwork was beginning to suffer. Usually it was bloody Voldemort making it hard to get a decent night’s rest, then the weather had to step up to the plate and take over!

As the day ended and Harry made ready for bed, Ron stepped into their room looking refreshed and content, as well as damp. Harry eyed him suspiciously, wondering what the ginger goof had done to deal with the heat. Everyone else was making do with pathetic Cooling Charms that only lasted an hour or so at most, and then left one instantly sweltering as soon as they wore off. Harry usually woke up and used the spell every two hours. Now that he thought about it, Ron had slept pretty soundly the last few nights, and only seemed to suffer during the worst heat of the day.

Harry was only wearing his pajama bottoms for the sake of modesty, and even those felt like far too much. Watching Ron cheerfully ready himself for bed, seeming unbothered by the heat, was making Harry’s blood boil. His best mate was keeping a secret! That bastard! He had to be up to something, and Harry wanted answers at any cost…now!

“You shit! You absolute shit! You’re holding out on me and you know it! Spill! What’s you’re secret?!”

Ron looked at Harry in surprise, completely taken aback by the venom in Harry’s voice.

“It’s nothing…what are you on about? I think the heat is getting to you, mate. Just go take a shower and cool off, will you!”

Harry would have believed him, but for the tremor of uncertainty in Ron’s voice. Ron was a lousy liar, and even if he’d gotten better over the years, Harry wasn’t easily fooled.

Harry advanced on his chum, miserable from heat rashes and sick of the unending sticky swelter. He was fed up with the whole miserable process of surviving from shower to shower, and doubly fed up with having been left out of the loop by a friend.

“You’re lying through your teeth! I can tell. I know you, Ron Weasley, and I know when you’re bullshitting me! How fucking dare you have a way to cool off and not tell me! I thought we were mates! Are you a fucking Slytherin now? I’ve saved your bloody life! What the hell are you thinking?!”

Ron cracked under the sudden barrage and flopped onto his bed, face burning crimson with shame.

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry mate! Really! I was sworn to secrecy or I swear I’d have told you right away! I felt like crap about it all week, but you know I’d never break an oath on purpose.”

At least Ron looked properly guilt ridden now, and that mollified Harry’s outrage a little.

“Here’s a free clue on how to make it up to me, mate. Tell me what you’ve been doing. I’m already on to you, and if I track you, I’ll wind up knowing anyway. You know I will. It’s not really breaking an oath if you’ve been caught…especially by a friend you trust. I’ll let this go if you just tell me what you’ve been up to. Okay?”

Harry was still irritated, but the prospect of finally sleeping well and not waking every couple of hours guided him through his interrogation.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone else! Please. They’ll be furious if I spill this and word gets out. Swear it on your wand.”

Ron’s plaintive tone made Harry relent. Something really interesting was up. Who were these others? Harry picked up his wand.

“I swear I won’t reveal any secret you share with me, unless you give me leave to do so. How’s that?”

Ron sighed relief. “The other Prefects. We’re the only ones who know about this. It’s been a perk of Prefects for who knows how many centuries, and if it were anybody but you, mate, they’d have to torture it out of me.”

Harry listened raptly and nodded for Ron to go on.

“It’s the baths, Harry. The Prefect’s baths have a special spell on them, and it only activates if you have the password while you’re in the bath. It makes the temperature of the bath linger on you for hours afterwards. Better than any Cooling or Heating Charm ever cast. I take three baths a day, and so do all the other Prefects. If this got out, it would start a stampede. There’d be fistfights in the halls. It has to stay secret, or the Heads of House would close the Prefect baths down and stop anyone from using it. If you wanted to stay warm in winter, you’d say ‘Kill the chill’, but for this kind of weather, you say ‘Beat the heat’, and the magic kicks in and does the rest.”

Harry sat back on his bunk and whistled in amazement. This was better than he’d imagined. Harry grabbed his towel and cloak and made ready to leave. Ron threw in a final warning.

“I was last in the queue for the baths tonight, so the place is all yours now. Just don’t get caught! And if you need to use it during the day, check with me first and I’ll see when there’s an opening. If you make them fast and keep the cloak with you, no one will even know you’ve been there. Enjoy, mate.”

Harry smiled for the first time in days.

“Don’t worry. Thanks for telling me. I’ll keep the secret, and I forgive you for keeping it from me, mate. An oath is an oath, so it’s all good between us. If this works as good as you say, I may even owe you one!”

Harry swung the cloak over his head and slipped away, down the hall and stairs, out of the common room and into the tower halls. It was beastly hot under his cloak, but Harry had a mission and relief was soon to be in sight.

The Prefect’s baths were a welcome sight, and Harry slipped through the entrance with a muttered password and an eager grin. As he closed the door behind him with quiet caution, he peeled off the stifling cloak, hung it up, and turned the corner from the entryway, finally looking into the bathroom proper.

Draco Malfoy stood almost waist deep in the enormous pool, stark naked and gleaming in the rooms enchanted light. Harry wanted to reach for the cloak, and his mind screamed warnings while his eyes locked on Draco’s backside and refused to budge. He should leave, he should run, he should stop…stop looking at…

Draco was beautiful.

The backside of Draco Malfoy possessed no flaw. His blond hair was slicked back and reached to just below his shoulders. Lean muscles played beneath the surface of his back while he scrubbed his chest with a washcloth. His skin was like unmarred porcelain…like ivory…like something precious and beautiful that was meant to be handled with the greatest possible delicacy.

Following the graceful lines of Draco’s neck down the greyhound slender athleticism of his back, Harry ultimately found himself staring in awe at Draco’s arse. The word arse didn’t seem right. Neither did bum or seat or can. Everything he had ever heard in locker rooms fell short of honoring that magnificent sight.

It was as pale and smooth as the rest of Draco’s body, and as soft as it looked, it conveyed the impression of firmness and taut muscle at the same time. Harry was almost oblivious to the fact that his body was responding to what he was looking at, and he was very nearly unaware of the erection tenting his pajamas. He just didn’t care.

Then Draco lifted a leg onto one of the steps leading out of the bath, and Harry suppressed a whimper when he was given a clearer view while Draco washed his leg. Draco’s balls hung down, and just beneath them, the head of Draco’s penis dangled comfortably, obviously soft, and yet clearly visible nonetheless. Erect, it would have to be fairly impressive if it could be seen so easily from this direction.

Harry had come to the conclusion that he was bisexual more than a year ago, but Malfoy had never been part of that equation. Cho Chang was pretty. So was Ginny. And to Harry’s mind, so were Seamus and Oliver Wood. All he’d ever seen of Malfoy was a sneer or a scowl…until now.

The room felt unbearably hot. Harry was aware that sweat was trickling down his nose and tickling his lip, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. At the moment he was lucky he was still able to breathe.

Draco shifted again, this time scrubbing the other leg and foot with thoroughness. When Draco bent to scrub between his toes, his balls quickly canted the other way, and the head of his cock fell against the side of his inner thigh, still wonderfully visible. Draco’s back tensed for just a moment, and then he went back to his task, all the while with his bloody brilliant backside to Harry.

Harry finally snapped out of his trance when Draco wrung out the washcloth with a loud splash. Heart bursting in his chest, he slipped backwards quietly, one step at a time. It was only a couple of steps to the entryway and his cloak. He was almost there when the silence was broken.

“Don’t leave on my account, Potter.” Draco hadn’t turned around at all, and was scrubbing the back of his neck with the cloth, letting cool water drip down his back like a tiny waterfall. His voice was full of familiar irony and contempt.

Harry froze in his tracks, face burning with embarrassment. How long had Draco known he was watching? Had he seen the bulge in Harry’s pajamas? This was fucking humiliating! This could only get worse if half of Slytherin popped out of the walls and started throwing hexes at him. What a fucking disgrace!

Then Draco stood up and stepped out of the bath. Harry’s ability to breathe was suddenly interrupted, and his mind felt like a racecar trapped in first gear, screaming for freedom.

Without so much as a single trace of shame, Draco walked to the bench, his body dripping and glistening as he went, and picked up his towel. Facing Harry unselfconsciously, he rubbed himself dry in a thorough and businesslike fashion, paying Harry no mind whatsoever. When he dried his hair, the front of his entire body was displayed to Harry, and it was every bit as impressive as the back.

An incredibly slender waist, and hipbones that created an enviable V that Harry couldn’t stare at long enough. A tight, smooth stomach and nipples that came to tiny points. Shoulders that were broad despite the rest of his body’s lithe frame. All perfect.

Draco looked Harry in the eyes for the first time when he slid the towel down to dry his groin. Harry was painfully aware of the fact that Draco was rubbing the soft terrycloth of the towel against his private parts…and he was equally painfully aware of the fact that he was suddenly jealous…of the towel!

“Nothing wrong with staring, Potter. I’m well aware of the fact that I look damn good.”

Draco dropped the towel onto the bench and started by picking up his underclothes. Harry finally found his voice.

“I…I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to…”

“Stare at my bum while I was having a bath?” Draco supplied. “Nothing to be sorry for. I’m going to assume you weaseled the secret of this room out of your Gryffindor pals. Nothing too good for the Boy-Who-Lived. Just keep your mouth shut about it so our little comforts don’t end, and I won’t have to hex your bits off.” Draco gave a coy glance in the direction of Harry’s tented pajamas. “Even if it might take more than one hex to do it.” His smirk was genuine while he pulled on his slacks.

Harry relaxed a little as soon as Draco’s genitals were no longer bobbing about in front of him. “Deal. I…uh…I just…wanted to…”

“Take a bath in private, but the view was too nice to ignore? Why, thanks Potter. That’s sweet of you. Do me a favor, will you? I left my robe and coat on the far bench. My comb is in there, and I’m not leaving without finishing my hair. Be a good sport and bring it here, eh?”

Harry blushed, and he couldn’t have guessed why he would go along with anything asked for by Draco Malfoy, but he was too flustered and surprised by Draco’s pleasant, if sarcastic, demeanor to refuse. He picked up the robe and coat and brought them over while Draco buttoned his shirt.

Draco stared into a the mirror on the wall and withdrew a comb, then brushed his hair back neatly and threw on his coat.

“Thanks. Wouldn’t do to be seen on patrol with hair less tidy than yours now, would it? Enjoy the baths, Potter. Just don’t let me catch you out after hours. You keep our secrets, we’ll keep yours, right?”

Harry nodded numbly, ready to agree to anything to get Draco out of here and end the tension that was devouring him.

Draco slipped his robe on over his uniform and adjusted his badge, then strolled away in perfect calm. Harry sighed softly with relief, letting his breathing return to normal, hoping he could get on with a cool bath and a decent night’s sleep. He stared studiously at the mirror as Draco sauntered away. Draco turned just before he reached the entryway.

“Oh, and Potter…just to keep our schedules clear…I always use this room just before my rounds at ten. One other thing, too. It’s considered gauche to ‘have one off’ in the actual bath, so do what I do, and take care of it before you get in. We all have to share this room, so do keep it clean, will you?”

Every muscle in Harry’s body tensed at the mention of wanking. He couldn’t believe Malfoy had just announced that he wanked, in here, every night, at ten o’ clock! What the hell would motivate Draco to tell Harry anything so presumably personal?

The door closed with a muffled click. Harry suddenly had an epiphany. There was only one reason a Slytherin, particularly Malfoy, would divulge that much information!

Harry peeled off his pajama bottoms and set his wand and glasses on the bench. As he slipped into the water and felt the tepid water lap away at his exhaustion and soothe his stress, he smiled widely and whispered, “Beat the heat.”.

Magic tingled around his skin and a wonderful sense of pleasant coolness, rather like a late spring evening, suffused his entire body. He ducked his head beneath the water and surfaced feeling like a new man.

Harry leaned against the edge of the bath and grinned to himself. The weather would change soon enough, but he knew with uncanny certainty that this would still be the hottest year ever…all year long.

FIN