A Very Thin Line
Part 1
Draco Malfoy always got what he wanted.
When he was three years old, he was the first child in the circle of family friends to have one of those pseudo-brooms that hover only a few feet above the ground. He made sure that he was the first to upgrade to a real broom – and that he was the best at flying on it. When he was eight he asked for a hawk. His mother preferred that he have an owl, or even a parrot; the next day his father took him to buy his hawk. When he entered Hogwarts he joined the quidditch team (his father bought him the best broomstick on the market). Now in his final year, his grades were next to flawless, he was as rich as he could hope to be, and he had a large crowd of Slytherin admirers hanging onto his every word. Draco Malfoy always got what he wanted.
Except for one thing. One specific thing with stunning emerald eyes and perpetually tousled ebony hair, that just happened to be sitting next to him in potions class, furiously grinding black beetle shells into a fine powder.
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"I can't believe Dean and Seamus think I've got something off on the side with you!" Ron's face was as red as his hair from the embarrassment of the suggestion. It wasn't his fault that while he and Harry had been searching for Neville's toad they'd gotten locked in that abandoned storage room on the second floor! "We're not gay! I'm not gay, you're not gay: we're not gay!"
Harry, who had followed his storming friend into the boy's dormitory, tried not to laugh at the fit Ron was busy building up. "Actually, I am."
That stopped Ron's indignant heterosexual rantings; his voice trailed off, his jaw hanging open slightly. His eyes widened comically. "What?"
"I'm gay." Ron immediately threw himself back into tripping over his words, this time about how it was a surprise, but he didn't mind, they could still be friends, and that's why the whole Cho Chang thing hadn't worked out… He abruptly halted his ramblings to ask, "Does Hermione know this?"
"Why do you think she's your girlfriend?" Harry winked, laughing when Ron threw a pillow at his head in retaliation.
"So…anyone in mind?" Ron tried to sound nonchalant. He only failed a little bit.
"There is this one guy…" 'If only he wasn't such an asshole. Oh, that reminds me…' He shouldered his bag and nodded to Ron. "Come on. We've got to get to potions or Snape'll go crazy."
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They actually made it to class on time, tumbling into the classroom just seconds before the bell rang. Of course, Snape felt he needed to be a horrendous git and paired Harry with none other than Draco Malfoy. He ignored the sympathetic glances from his fellow Gryffindors.
For Harry, whenever this happened, it was definitely a mixed blessing. While he got to admire those piercing ice blue eyes and that indescribably silky blonde hair, potions class was, more and more often, turning into an exercise of patience and self-control. What he wouldn't give to kiss those lips, just once! If only they didn't come attached to that attitude…
But, of course, they would. So Harry just sighed and concentrated on slicing up his ginseng root as evenly as possible, knowing that were he to attempt that particular action – however tempting – rejection was inevitable. They worked in silence, hearing only the bubbling of potent liquids and the sounds of knives and mortars and pestles being used.
On this particular day, everything seemed to be going all right. That is, until Malfoy had to go and shoot off his mouth. Oh, but what a perfect mouth…
"Hey Potter! I heard you recently came out of the closet," the Slytherin prodded as he added some newt's eyes to the cauldron.
Harry stiffened, pausing just as he was dumping his sliced ginseng into the now boiling mixture. "Yeah," he admitted. "What's it to you?" The raven-haired boy continued his motions, reaching for the ladle and stirring.
"Oh, absolutely nothing!" Malfoy smirked. "I was just wondering how all your fans are going to react when they find out the Boy-Who-Lived is a poof."
"Probably with a lot more surprise than when they find out that the head Deatheater's son is," Harry shot back nonchalantly as he continued to stir the potion.
The blonde dropped his spoonful of flobberworm mucous into the cauldron – spoon included – in his angry spin to face the Gryffindor. "Are you insinuating that I'm gay, Potter?" His eyes narrowed dangerously.
Harry turned towards Draco wearily. "If the hot pink high heels fit, Malfoy." Draco flushed. That was only that one time and it had been all Pansy's fault!
They went down in a flurry of arms and legs, both seventh-years giving punches and kicks as good as they got. And as suddenly as it had begun, the fight was over and the two boys were being hauled apart by a very pissed off Professor Snape.
"Potter, get back to your bench and grind up those black beetle shells! Malfoy, retrieve that spoon I saw you drop and then cut up the dried crickets. The two of you will serve detention in here tonight. Together. If you have another fight, you will have another detention, and so on, until you can both learn to get along."
Harry groaned and, as he picked up the mortar and pestle, he was pretty sure that, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Malfoy smile.
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Snape sighed, rolling his eyes internally. The things he did for his students…
Hey guys! I hope you like it so far. The ending should be posted in a few days. It's not going to be too long (I seem to be incapable of making my fics reach over a certain length…) but I just wanted to get this out there.
Oh, and if anyone's interested, in between tests and papers and labs (stupid university), I'm currently working on the above-mentioned story of Draco and the hot pink high heels. Should be fun. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get out, but I'll try my best to make it before eternity. Sound good?