Still in the muggle world…

Before Harry and Draco even sat down with their friends, they could tell something was wrong. Draco just knew that it had something to do with him and had Harry not held his hand in such a firm grip, he would have ran before he found out what it was. Instead, he was pulled reluctantly along behind Harry and forced to sit down.

"What happened?" Harry blurted as soon as they got there whilst he was taking in all the expressions on their faces. Pansy and Blaise looked a bit frighten and even Ron on a sympathetic look on his face for them.

"Draco, Blaise and Pansy… are in the school play." Hermione said nervously. "Well, it's more of a musical really." She had difficultly explaining to them exactly what a musical was, but she knew that Harry would understand. The wizarding world was not that different from the muggle world, but more the way the muggle world had been in the 1800's before the industrial revolution. When musicals started to become very popular in the muggle world, everything stayed almost the same in the wizarding world. They had their ballet, opera and plays, but they never mixed it as the muggles enjoyed to.

"Which musical is it?"

"Anything Goes." Harry shrugged his shoulders indicating that he had never seen it. Though he had never seen any musical so it didn't really surprise him. "They are doing the 1962 revival instead of the most recent one." When everyone including Harry gave her on odd look she finished. "It's the only version with the song 'Let's Misbehave' and apparently that a favorite among the choir."

"Please tell me they're background dancers…" then when seeing Draco's horrified look Harry changed it, "Or singers?"

"I wish I could." Hermione bit her lip and Harry thought he heard her groan. "Blaise is 'Moonlight Martin', so he only has two songs and one is a duet." Hermione tried to make that sound hopeful. At least none of them was 'Reno' who had seven songs on her own. "Pansy is Bonnie so she only has the one solo, but Draco is 'Billy Crocker.'"

"I know nothing about this play, but something tells me that's the male lead," Hermione nodded.

"Shame really, he would have fit 'Sir Evelyn Oakleigh' so well," she said almost to herself. Hermione knew they were more worried about singing and or having to dance. She, on the other hand, was worried about their acting skills or with Draco his lack there of.

"Are you going to tell them the worst part?" Ron spoke up, since the other two still seemed in shock and Harry knew Draco hoped that was the end of it.

"They do two plays a year here." After she thought about it, "Most schools do, but normally there is the big musical at the end of the year and Christmas one right before the Holidays."

"Since the war they had was a religious one, they are keeping all religious influences out of the school," Ron started to explain for her. "So this musical is going to take place right before Christmas."

"That's…" Harry stopped to think about what day it was and as he was calculating it when Pansy spoke.

"In a month," she whispered. "Why us? What did we ever do?" Seeing the disbelieving looks she got from all the Gryffindors and Harry opening his mouth to speak she continued, "Oh, don't answer that!"

"This isn't just happening to you, you know," Hermione scowled them and then cleared her throat. "So Harry? How are you at… football?" She tried to ask nonchalantly. Harry swallowed, closed his eyes and groaned. He half wanted to say they should give up and half wanted to be encouraging so that they didn't lose hope. There was no way they could do this, Draco couldn't act, Pansy couldn't sing and Harry definitely could not play football, someone was going to notice and they'd all be in the mental ward of some hospital by the end of the week.

"Bad?" Harry bit his lip as Ron paled.

"So much for you teaching me then," Ron said sheepishly.

"We need help." Hermione stated matter-of-factly, "I have an idea, but it involves telling someone our situation." She waited for them to erupt in disagreement with her, when it didn't happen she sighed in relief and continued. "There's someone that is both in the play and on the football team. He can help you all learn what you need, if we can make him believe us."

"Who is it?" Draco asked.

"Neville."

Neville at been starring at them for a solid five minutes as he worked out everything they had just told him. Hermione was on the verge of passing out from lack of air, since she could not seem to remember how to breath correctly. Neville looked back and forth between Draco and Harry then shook his head slightly.

"I knew there was something off with you," He finally said.

"So, you believe us," Hermione sighed in relief.

"I didn't say that." When Neville saw all their face become frightened he chuckled. "Calm down, I'm not going to tell anyone and yes I'll help you. I'm just not sure I believe you. I heard about your accident in Chemistry the other day."

"If you don't believe us then why would you help us?" Draco asked sullenly, he wasn't particularly fond of the idea that anyone thought he was touched in the head.

"Because, I would rather you not ruin the musical for the rest of us and I don't want to lose every game we play from here on out." Neville said as if that was the most obvious reason in the world, and that anyone would let six potentially crazy people go free, as long as they behaved themselves.

"Where do we start?" Harry asked.

"You said that you knew a little about football, so why don't you and Ron go out to the field and you catch him up on all that you know about it." Neville sighed and rubbed his forehead. "And practice. That is what you'll need to be doing everyday from now on. Ron's the goalie so you try to get the ball past him and Ron try to stop him." Then he nodded toward the Slytherins, "You three come with me, and hopefully one of the music rooms is open." They all got up and Harry turned toward Hermione.

"So what will you be doing?" He asked.

"Well, since you are going to be rather busy, it looks like everyone's homework." Ron raised his eyebrows at her. That was something she had always refused to do before, and then she was going to do it for all five of them? "I know, but you don't have time for it all. You better pay attention in class though I can't do your tests for you. I'll have to help you crash study before them." Then Hermione mumbled the rest to herself. "At least this next couple of weeks until you get your extracurricular activities down."

"Alright Ron this should be easy for you, its just like being the Keeper in Quidditch." Ron nodded hopefully as Harry kicked the ball to Ron's left just out of his reach. He missed it; of course, he was use to the broom doing all of his movement for him. Running and jumping had never been required just leaning towards the direction he wanted to go. "Just with out brooms… and look at least you only have one goal to defend. You also don't have to worry about bludgers."

"Right, mate," Ron shrugged.

"We can do this," Harry tried to assured both Ron and himself. "We just have to practice… a lot." He gulped and then missed the ball when Ron threw it back to him. Harry was use to the tiny ball that flew away from him not having balls come at him. He was a seeker not a chaser.

"You can play the piano?" Pansy seemed impressed that Neville had any talent what so ever.

"Yea, my grandmother said it was essential that I know how to play at least one instrument," he started to play the intro to the song she had to sing. "The piano was the only instrument she had to teach me." Blaise and Draco sat on the other side of the room reading their lines in the play out loud to each other. Neville had called it a 'read through' and said that they did not need to act any part of it out, but just get comfortable with the dialog. They had a practice on Tuesday and everyone else had at least the first act memorized.

Pansy started to sing and surprisingly to everyone, since she had never attempted to sing before in her life, she was not that bad. She was flat through most of it, but it was not the horrible high-pitched shrieking that they had expected. Blaise knew he had a good voice, but he didn't have a lot of practice. Draco hadn't sung since he was a child making up his own songs. His father scowled him telling him that it was servant's work to sing, much like everything else. Malfoy's paid others to entertain them; they did not get paid to entertain others. The argument that he was doing it for fun have never worked before and of course didn't work then.

Even if they did happen to all do well with the singing, it was still a lot to memorize in a month. They were all silently thankful to Hermione for doing their homework; if they had to concentrate on anything other than the musical they would never get it done on time. They were more openly thankful to Neville, he was the one that was walking them through it. He also turned out to be very patient. Exhausted did not even begin to cover how they felt by the end of the week.

Wizarding world.

"This will be good for you Harry," Ron started supportively. "It will show you what you can do without him." Hermione nodded her agreement.

"You've always had him there with you," she said. "Telling you what to do and how to act… how to dress." Hermione actually agreed with Draco on how Harry should dress and his clothes that day were a testament to why. He looked horrible and he did not even bother to brush his hair. In fact, she was sure that Harry didn't even know how to properly tie his tie, because Draco always did it for him.

"Yea, you might even be able to date girls." Harry made a disgusted face and Hermione turned to glare at Ron, who shrugged. He felt that was an appropriate thing to say. Draco was the only boy Harry had ever been interested in. He might not have even been gay, but Draco's possessive ways would never let Harry look anywhere else.

After hearing what the conversation was about, every Gryffindor near them was encouraging Harry. Though it hurt to hear his boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend, called a spineless foul arrogant prat. He bit his tongue and didn't defend him. Then he found out about all the people that would love to date him, even a few boys. He never thought anyone ever noticed him, this was a different world, but things could not really be that different. They were the same people. The only difference was that they could all do magic.

They made it through the weekend without farther incidents. Mostly because they avoided each other, but on Monday they could no longer do that. Technically, they didn't have to go to classes, but everyone else was. Also, neither of them thought it would affect them as much as it did to see each other again. It was potions first thing on Monday morning and Draco was already there when Harry came in with his friends. He tried to take notes sure that his counter part would appreciate it when he got back, but he couldn't stop himself from glancing over his shoulder at Draco every few minutes. Draco was doing the same thing looking up constantly to stare at Harry. When their eyes did met they would quickly look away again. Once they were in the hallway Draco couldn't hold back any longer.

"Going to meet up with your little girlfriend?" He called at Harry's retreading back. "Or is it one of your fan boys?" Harry stopped and spun around immediately.

"Shut up!"

"What afraid everyone will find out and not love you anymore?" Draco was the one who cheated on him and he had the nerve to accuse Harry of sneaking off with people?

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Hermione grabbed his arm and started to pull him away.

"Oh, I think I do." Draco said but Ron and Hermione refused to let Harry respond and they left the hallway. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing beside Draco, but Pansy smirked at him while shaking her head. "What?" He asked her, but she didn't respond as they all followed her to their next class.

The idea of actually messing around with someone else became increasingly inviting for Harry. He'd never been with anyone other than Draco and hadn't ever even thought about it. Everything with Draco just sort of happened and it happened quickly. He had always been satisfied and had no reason to think to stray. Plus, Draco had always been exceedingly jealous of anyone that tried to take up any of Harry's time.

Ginny was there and more than willing, but Harry really couldn't bring himself to do that or anything really with her. Seamus as mentioned someone that was interested in Harry or rather a lot of someones, so he decided to bring it up with him. Which turned out to be a very embarrassing conversation for Harry, that'd he rather forget. Though it got him a date with a rather pretty Hufflepuff girl a year below him in school. He didn't even have to talk to her until they met up, because Seamus offered to do that part for him.

She had light blond hair, which instantly reminded him of Draco. She seemed sweet, but was so quiet they just ended up walking around the lake in an uncomfortable silence. Silence with Draco was never uncomfortable. Then he kept doing that. Comparing her to him in every way imaginable. It was completely pathetic really. He cursed himself for even thinking it was a good idea, when they finally agreed to go back to their separate houses. He offered to walk her to her door and she happily accepted. He could tell she thought things were going well between them. So when she stood expectantly outside of her common room door, he knew she wanted him to kiss her goodnight. He did. He was a very experienced kisser, but he wasn't going to push her too far. Besides some of his favorite times with Draco had been just the simpler touches. It was nothing to him though. The kiss made her flush and hold back a giggle, while he couldn't stop thinking about how much better it would have been if it was Draco instead of her.

No, it wouldn't work. He loved Draco no matter how much it hurt him what he did. In fact, Draco's jealous fits were something that Harry actually liked about him. It had always made him feel wanted. Draco would fight for him even though there really wasn't anyone there to fight. But, in 'the new world' things were so different, and Harry didn't understand why Draco would abandon him.

"Hermione?" Harry asked quietly, after he came back from his 'date' and they were mostly alone in the common room. "Why would he think I was with someone else?"

"You know how he gets, when you're not with him every second." She shrugged, "Like Ron said, this is good for you. To be on your own, he is way to controlling and you aren't his property. You have a right to talk to other people without him punishing you for it." Harry looked at her confused.

"Do you think that's what he was doing? Trying to punish me?" She gave him a forced smiled, but didn't respond other than that.

After Draco outburst in the hallway he spent all of his time avoiding or attempt to avoid anything that had to do with Harry. It turned out to insanely difficult because in this magical world, he was all everyone else ever seemed to want to talk about. In his house it was quite different than the rest of the school. In the hallways or anywhere for that matter he had to deal with people mooning over him or just gossiping about whom he was seeing then. Apparently, some Hufflepuff girl went on a date with him. But, in his house everyone would sit around and think of insulting things to say about him. Not constantly just like not everyone constantly gossiped, but it was like his mind was trained to pick up his name from one thousand feet a way. It seemed constant to him.

He sat in the Slytherin common room and pick up bits and pieces of conversation about how 'they were going to squash the pathetic loser in the next Quidditch match', or how the 'Hufflepuff girl' was most likely 'a mudblood' because he wasn't 'good enough' to associate with anything else. The worst part was when someone would remind them that 'they' weren't really from here and then they weren't attacking Harry's counter part any longer and would actually belittle his Harry.

"I can't believe that it's actually possible, but he's more pathetic than orginial," then the group laughed. Before Draco even realized what he was doing he was on his feet and across the room shouting at them.

"Shut up! You've never even met him. You don't know anything about him!" Once he had come to his senses he stormed out of the room and out of the castle. He decided it would be better if he spent more time not in a castle full of people that annoyed him, and he began to spend his afternoons doing just that.

When Harry stopped himself from thinking about Draco, he could have a really good time just hanging out with his friends and learning new things about the magical world. Everything was amazing from the way things just moved to the different foods that they ate. He ran into the Hufflepuff girl a couple days after their 'date' and officially broke it off with her. Not that there was anything really there to begin with, but he felt that he should say something. Harry didn't go looking for Draco, but he had stopped avoiding him. He wanted to talk to him, but not around everyone else and they were always around. It started to drive him mad. He was used to Draco's constant presence, but he usually got a break from everyone else.

Harry was surprised to see him alone outside the castle one afternoon, but he wasn't going to lose the opportunity to catch up with him and sort things out. Draco didn't even notice him coming and Harry didn't want to him the chance to run away before he was able to speak so he make sure to walk up slowly behind him. He had so many questions for the blond and debated about the one he should start with. What was Draco the least likely to be hostile about?

"I don't understand why you couldn't just come and tell me what was wrong." Draco jumped and spun quickly to face him obviously stunned by Harry's sudden appearance. "After how long have we been together, you couldn't trust me and just talk to me? Was I really that unimportant to you?" Draco was mad, but he wasn't yelling and Harry didn't know if that was a good thing or not. They just stood in the silence a while longer. "I'm surprised you don't have people swarming around you."

Draco scoffed. "They were driving me insane. You know how I like my private time."

"When were you ever alone? I was always there with you."

"You're different." Harry couldn't think of how to answer that. "You forgot about me…" Draco said it so quietly that Harry could barely hear it.

"What? When?"

"Our first morning at breakfast…" Draco sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I had spent the entire time missing you and couldn't wait to see you and you forgot about me."

"I didn't forget about you."

"Yes you did!" Harry took a step back.

"I didn't see you at first, there were so many people around me and asking me all sorts of questions. I couldn't keep up with everything at once." Harry started defensively, since it really wasn't his fault that he hadn't noticed Draco across the Great Hall. "And how does that make it okay for you to go snog Neville? You cheated on me!"

"It was an impulse! I was hurt and I wanted you to feel how I felt."

"Because I didn't run to you like some obedient little dog?" Harry fumed, "You have people around you all of the time, but I can't have a conversation with anyone else? What I have to give you constant attention or you go find it somewhere else?"

"Of course not, and its not about that." Draco walked over to stand in front of Harry, but didn't touch him.

"Well then explain it to me, because that's what it looks like to me."

"You're right I normally do have people 'around me all of the time', but despite how many of them there are 'asking me questions' I never forget about you." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Draco continued louder than before. "You are always right beside me, even if they ignore you or try to separate us I never let them. I notice you wherever you are in the room. You're the only person I even look for when I enter a room and if you're not there then my attention is on the door waiting for you to enter it." Draco had never said anything like that to him before. He had no idea that Draco paid that much attention to him. Everyone was always telling him or making comments about how Harry followed Draco around. He knew it wasn't the truth and that Draco wanted him there, but he never knew that it was that important to him that Harry be there. "The idea that you're an 'obedient little dog' in this relationship is ridiculous. I'm the only that can't stand to be without your attention, not the other way around."

"I'm sorry." Harry reached out and grabbed Draco's hand. "I'm really sorry, I never meant to hurt you." Draco nodded and let Harry pull him into an embrace. He buried his face into Harry's neck as Harry wrapped his arms around him.

"I'm sorry too," Draco whispered. "Only, I did mean to hurt you." He pulled back and away from Harry so that he could stand up straight again. "I hate this place."

"It's kind of nice," Harry tried to be optimistic. "I mean magic is really fun. I'd have been fun living here."

"Yes, but look what it did to us? We weren't even here a full day before it pulled us apart. There is so much hate here." Draco pointed out. "And I haven't gotten one letter from my parents since I've been here. They normally e-mail me every other day." Harry nodded, he had noticed that people in general were more hostile towards each other there, specifically towards the Slytherins. "In fact, I think this place needs us." Draco's tone suddenly changed to his upbeat manipulative one. He pulled Harry into a kiss which quickly turning into snogging, since it had been so long since they'd been able to do that.

"What are you planning?"

"I'm not sure yet, we need to everyone together though and see if they've noticed the same things we have."