Okay for starters I'm extremely sorry for the delay in this story… beside having a freeking year and a million pass by… I have permanently neglected my stories… and its about time I get a move on even if it is a little bit at a time… hope that you will enjoy the new writing style I have picked up in my last year of high school… .
Also, I admit… the net talk hits head with a ruler That's gotta go… (what the hell was I thinking back then?)
Strings of the night
Chapter 7
Something different
It had been approximately a month since that particular night and Draco had been meeting up with Harry almost every day to learn his instrument as well as implement more style in his teachings.
His friends, or cronies he should say, never asked where he went at night and hardly spoke to him under the fear that they would be cursed for annoying their powerful and cunning friend. Instead, Crabbe and Goyle kept to themselves and used their bulky build to flank either side of Draco in order to make him appear important and protected.
Draco checked out his fingers as he sat, bored, in the Slytherin common room. The tips of his fingers had been worn from all the practise and no amount of protest to the Gryffindor would allow him to heal them.
"No, you can't heal them magically, otherwise you'll never get used to playing and they will hurt more. Stop being a bloody aristocrat and have some stamina!" Harry had grumbled on about Draco's girly habits causing them to finish their lesson early that day.
"I'm starting to understand why you have such calloused hands, Potter" the blonde had muttered when they had begun packing away the hand written notes, the green eyed wizard merely shot him a glance and sighed.
The image faded and Draco felt a finger tap him on the shoulder, he glared upwards at the perpetrator. Pansy grinned down at him and nodded her head over to the entrance of the common room.
"Someone's here to see you" she whispered into his ear, trying to pull his infamous smirk but somehow twisted it into some kind of grimace. Noone could pull of his smirk.
A suspicious look from Draco… he had never told anyone about his meetings with Potter and Pansy was definitely a person to steer clear of telling secrets to… unless one wanted the whole of the Slytherin house to know about it.
He ran his hands through his blonde hair once before getting up and striding over to the door.
There stood his mother, dressed elegantly in a velvet blue dress with elbow length gloves adorning her delicate fingers. Her hair was pulled back into curls which cascaded down her neck in an awe of sparkles… of course, this grand entrance made almost all mouths drop open and start drooling.
"Mother… what are you…?" Draco asked in surprise, her face was more gentle than the other times he had seen her with his father. She looked down lovingly at him and he nodded slightly before closing the door to the Slytherin common room amidst all the staring and muttering of "THAT'S Malfoy's MOTHER?"
"Draco dear… I'm not sure if the news has reached you yet, but your father…" she sighed for a bit, the flames along the corridors flickered, casting shadows upon her beautiful features. Draco felt a wave of coldness seeping through his blood as he waited for some sort of dire news based on the look in his mother's eyes.
A loud crash made both Malfoy's turn swiftly to the left, and the sight that met Draco's eyes made him blink in confusion. There was his father, dressed articulately in an elegant black dress robe holding his snake cane, which had somehow been altered so that the snake had no fangs and was smiling gleefully, and also blinking in confusion at having fell face down on the cold stone floor.
The young Slytherin had never seen his father stumble let alone fall face down in his entire life. The sight was almost bizarre if it wasn't for the fact that he still looked like the stern man who had power over almost anything.
Including Draco.
But what he did next… definitely made Draco think that someone was polyjuicing as his father.
His always stern face… broke out into a wide grin and he ran up to embrace the shocked boy, cooing and smiling. "Oh my dear boy, I haven't seen you since the dark ages! How have you been son? Are you still the homosexual I know you to be… now now don't give me that look, I know your preferences! What has been going on in your life… Narcissa, what is the matter with Draco?"
Draco had somehow turned to red stone at all the questions and such but he managed to hear his mother say "Your father has turned over a new leaf apparently… and the doctors say he should express kindness more often"
When his father had stopped hugging the life out of him, he felt a rather large pouch of coins being pressed into his hands, he looked up as inquisitively as possible considering the situation at his father who smiled warmly down at him… scaring the soul out of him in the process.
"This is just some spending money for you, I know it's a couple more days until you can go to Hogsmede and I hope it's enough for you to buy what you want" his father continued to babble while beaming back and forth at Narcissa and Draco "Your mother and I are going to a Wizard dance! And later on we are going to a romantic dinner… it's been a while hasn't it dear?"
Narcissa's eye's twinkled… and Draco's was still in disbelief.
"Well Draco dear, we will be heading off now… I hope you can understand… it really has been a while" His mother's smiling face made Draco give up, besides the fact that his father was acting like a loon, he was managing to spend time with his mother and make her happy. At least they weren't going around sprinkling Pixie Dust on people…
His parents turned the corner and just before Draco could re-enter the common room he heard them exclaim.
"Oh it's Harry Potter! My dear boy, I must apologise for the past… in fact, I am a whole new person now!" His father's voice had breached new levels of horror and Draco quickly rounded the corner upon hearing Potter's name. He saw his father shaking hands with a bewildered Potter "I hope that what we had in the past won't jeopardise a hopefully developing relationship with my son Draco… Ah in fact, let me fetch him and you boys can have a real meeting! Hang on a titch!"
This wasn't happening… Draco's jaw had permanently detached itself and currently begun its residence on the stony floors of the dungeons. He felt his father pull him forward and practically made him shake hands and for merlins sake HUG the damned Gryffindor.
"Next time you meet, you could probably do the European way of introduction and kiss each other on the cheek… apparently its very popular in the world and shows a great connection as friends!" the cheery voice of his father echoed through the corridors and the two boys, both wide eyed, watched as Draco's parents exited the castle.
"I…" Draco began but somehow couldn't finish his sentence due to waves of different emotions washing over his battered brain. Harry blinked a couple of times before saying.
"I… came to… sheets… um…" He pulled out some parchments out of his robes and handed them to the blonde boy. "And… well… did you want to get something to eat?"
Harry couldn't think of anything better to say except that.
Ten minutes later, they were both in the kitchen eating ice-cream, forgetting the incident involving the elder Malfoys. The fire burned weakly but as the air wasn't as cold as usual… they relished in the dying embers.
Draco swallowed the cold treat acceptingly, glad that it could at least cool down the burn in his cheeks, he sighed momentarily as he stared into the coal black logs.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to practise today but then I guess it slipped my mind" Harry said through a mouthful of ice-cream, his green eyes looked up into the silvery-grey ones. "You've actually gotten really good at playing… I'm surprised at the progress"
"Why? Because you think that I'd give up straight away under the command of a near sighted Gryffindor?" retorted Draco, picking up the cream soaked cherry and popping it into his mouth. Harry eyed the cherry for a moment before replying scathingly.
"No, because you are the prissiest prat I have ever met" He smirked 'that' smirk and licked the fudge off the spoon.
Draco shot him a dull look that said something along the lines of 'if you say that again… I will have to kill you'
Recently their arguments have turned out on a more playful note, despite the whole idea of rivalry and all… Draco had almost forgotten why they had disliked each other so much in the past but then he never dwelled too long on the topic.
In public, they basically acted the same as any other day, the formal greeting of the enemy's, then the pursuit of murder through pranks and elimination of house points… In private however, they were as civil as possible to one another and agreed to reduce the amount of insults thrown at one another to a minimum.
He particularly enjoyed the times they spent not talking… but attempted to play their music in union… he admitted that Potter was right in suggesting that they should play duets. The music was somehow magically soothing to the heart, even when it was in the wrong note… almost as if it spoke the words Draco felt about the green eyed boy sometimes.
They had continued their practise to make Harry a better kisser, but Draco used a doll for him instead, and it told them whether he was getting better or not based on the heat signal the doll had on its stomach. Draco didn't want to take any chances with his emotions on Potter anymore… their acknowledgement was to be purely professional from now on… he of course never told this to the boy but used the doll as an excuse to 'not wanting Gryffindor germs all over his pristine pureblood lips'
"By the way Malfoy, Are you really gay?" the Slytherin was pulled out of his thoughts and confronted with the inevitable question… he had really hoped that Potter hadn't heard what his father had said earlier on but then judging from the question… it was just his dumb luck.
"No comment" Draco said, leaving his empty bowl to his side and wrapping his robe around him tighter… if he didn't talk then Potter would get bored.
Fat chance…
"No comment means that you are" mocked the brunette "So tell me Malfoy… how long have you been gay for?… How does your father know too? Did you tell him or something?"
Draco definitely didn't expect to be bombarded with questions, and Potter, from the look on his gleeful face… wasn't about to stop.
"Can you please keep it down Potter, honestly… when you sneak around at night don't you know how to keep 'conspicuous' or do you not know the meaning of the word quiet?"
"We are in the kitchen, noone's going to find us, plus, the house elves aren't known to go tattle-telling to Professors"
The boy just wouldn't let up would he? Thought Draco as he eyed the exit… would it be better if he just answered the questions or left with the boy still beating against his back with all those questions?
Both of the options didn't seem very helpful in the Slytherin's mind… alright then… time to turn the tables but it may require something more… something he probably didn't have much control over but wanted so badly.
"What about you Potter? Why do desire to know?" With every word, Draco moved closer to the other, his grey eyes clouding over to form a lustful look "Could it be that you… really want something?"
"Yes…" The green eyed boy whispered, their faces were inches apart and he closed the gap between them by pulling the blonde forward and capturing his lips in a kiss. It was too long since their last kiss and Draco had just realised how much the other had improved.
His lips parted and their tongues met tentatively at first then passionately, Draco's fingers deftly undid Harry's shirt and slid it down along with his robe to expose the tanned skin. He moved his mouth to the collarbone and licked it, sending shivers up and down the Gryffindor's spine.
A clatter made the two boys freeze in that action. Dobby the house elf was trying as quietly as possible to collect up the bowls without being noticed but did so unsuccessfully and so began the tirade of apologies and such.
"Dobby is so sorry Mister Potter! Dobby wanted to clean up so Mister Potter and Mister Malfoy could be at peace!" His whimpering and crying in turn spoiled the mood but after reassuring the elf and sending him on his way, Draco looked up at Harry with a glint in his eye.
"Is that enough of an answer for you?"
He traced the mark on the collarbone, watching as Potter closed his eyes at the sensation. The blonde pressed another kiss to his lips and then buttoned up the boys shirt.
"We'll continue this some other time… I'm glad you have been practising Potter" Malfoy smirked charmingly.
Heh… so what do you think? Not much action I know… and it is pretty short but I hope that you guys can overlook that and give me a review or holler about how you think it is… is it worth continuing or not… eyes the review board hungrily
I decided I will update my stories after all the exams are finished however but I felt the need to give this one a little heads up Thanks!