The week of Midterms had Harry running himself ragged. Between work and studying and the actual exams themselves Harry was ready to fall down into a coma at any moment. The only thing that kept him going was counting the days until break. He had already called Molly to let her know that he would be a few days later than originally thought and thankfully she had been distracted enough at the time to not ask too many reasons as to why.

Harry still had two more exams to go and was studying in the back room of the book store when Gene came in for his shift.

"How many more you got?" Gene asked as he walked in. Harry held up two fingers in response. "Same here. Last one's on Friday and we're having a massive party in celebration afterwards. You in?"

"Definitely." Harry said, putting his book down for a moment. "I can't wait for all of this to be over."

"Me either. Oh and don't forget to bring the boy toy and his roommate with you." Gene said.

Harry cocked a smile and reached for his phone to send a quick text to Eric letting him know about the party. He received a quick reply and went back to studying, occasionally being rudely interrupted by frazzled looking student customers.

The text letting Eric know about Gene's party and a later follow up as to when they would meet up were just about all the communication the two had for the entirety of the Midterm exam schedule and Harry was actually a little anxious about seeing Eric again. Things had been going really well between them and he was afraid that the long time between them might put them on a setback to before they had begun dating. He really liked Eric especially now that he wasn't jumping up to run off every chance he got. The more he got to know him the more he liked him and he had to admit he was a bit afraid that Eric might run off again.

When Harry got back to his apartment the afternoon after his last final Ken was already gone. He had let Harry know that the moment his exams were over he was off on holiday with a few of his friends, and from the looks of the empty beer bottles in the kitchen Ken had not been exaggerating. Harry grabbed a full bottle for himself from the fridge went to his room to look for something to wear. If Harry was completely honest with himself he had been thinking about what he was going to wear for at least the past few days if not the entire last week. He had already picked out a pair of his slightly too tight jeans that he had noticed Eric looking at him a bit more in and a button down shirt Hermione had made him buy a while back that Eric hadn't seen him in yet, so thankfully that didn't take too long.

Eric's last exam was a few hours after Harry's and then Eric was going to come over to his a little while after that and they were going to have dinner and then head to Gene's. Harry was a decent cook but he had a few dishes up his sleeve that he had been told were bordering on amazing and he had decided to pull one out and cook for Eric since this was a special occasion. He was making a simple chicken and rice dish that Molly had taught him sometime before he left for university. He had started it when he received a text from Eric let him know that he was on his way over so that by the time Eric arrived the apartment would smell amazing and Eric might be the littlest bit impressed.

Harry felt his stomach flip when he heard a knock on his door. He threw the dish towel he was using for clean up over his shoulder and went to open the door. Eric looked more beautiful than the last time Harry had seen him, if that were even possible.

"Come on in" Harry said, stepping back and letting Eric in.

"Thanks, it smells great in here." Eric said entering the apartment.

"Let's just hope it tastes as good. Would you like a drink?"

"Good God yes." Eric said with a smile, following Harry into the kitchen.

Harry laughed and got a beer for each of them out of the fridge. "Last exam went well then I take it."

"If I never have to write another word on Torts again it will be too soon." Eric responded grabbing his beer from Harry and taking a swig, leaning back on the counter.

"Well thankfully, it's all over and now all you have to do is drink, eat and be merry."

Eric pushed himself off of the counter and took a step toward Harry, "Thank God." He said placing an arm around Harry's neck and pulling him in for a kiss. Harry immediately kissed back wrapping his own arm around Eric's waist.

They kissed vigorously until the oven timer blared to life. Harry pulled back smiling, placed his beer down on the counter and walked across the small area to the oven and turned the timer off. He pulled the towel off his shoulder and used it to pull the hot dish out of the oven.

"Mmm… Wow Harry, seriously, that smells amazing."

Harry just laughed a bit as he put the dish down and closed the oven. "Well if you can get some plates out of that cabinet over there I might just let you have some."

Eric got the plates and the two sat down at the table. Harry's plan to impress Eric seemed to be working as Eric didn't seem to be able to stop complimenting Harry's cooking. Harry wasn't exactly surprised that Eric was impressed, since Eric admittedly couldn't make much more than boxed mac and cheese and cold cereal, but still it was nice to see how much he liked it. After dinner they placed the dishes in the sink and went to sit on the couch. They started out just talking but the talking soon ended as they found their mouths otherwise occupied.

Harry loved the feel of Eric's mouth against his and how it felt to run his hands through Eric's hair. Harry would have been very happy to have stayed right where they were, continuing their current activities however when they parted momentarily to breathe he made the mistake of looking at the clock. Harry groaned "Ugh, we have to go."

"Mmm… now?" Eric asked, placing a few kisses down Harry's neck.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment. "Maybe not right now."

Eric laughed up against his neck and slowly pushed Harry away. "No, you're right we should go."

Harry felt a bit like kicking himself for having said anything as Eric got up off the couch, but followed the blonde boy out of his apartment.

Though they hadn't gotten to Gene's apartment much later than he had told them to, they still seemed to be one of the last few people to be joining. The party was going full blast when they showed up and they had to fight their way into the over-crowded apartment where the drinks were freely flowing. It didn't take long for Harry and Eric to have both been handed and down a few highly alcoholic cocktails and several shots each.

They were halfway through a game of beer pong with Jenny and some guy who had an equal chance of being a one of their classmates or one of the teenagers who lived in the area when they finally came across Gene as he was stumbling his way past the table with a very pretty and very drunk brunette.

"HARRY!" Gene yelled out as he ran, as best he could to drunkenly hug his friend, "and ERIC! I'm so glad you guys came! Have you gotten drinks yet?"

Harry laughed as he returned the sloppy hug, "Mate I don't think there's anyone here who hasn't had at least 10."

"SWEET! Oh, oh this is Becki" Gene said pointing to the pretty girl leaning slightly onto him. "Becki this is my best mate Harry and his boyfriend Eric."

"It's nice to meet you!" Harry yelled over the music, shaking the girl's hand.

Gene and Becki stayed to chat for a bit until Jenny and her new friend began pelting Harry and Eric with ping pong balls to get their game back on track.

When the game ended and Harry and Eric went to get more drinks that's when Harry started to notice the change in Eric's behavior. He wasn't getting through his drink as quickly as he was before, he quieter, and when they were pulled out onto the dance floor when Jenny found them again Eric sort of steered himself away from Harry. Eric still seemed to be having some fun, just, not with him. After their last drunken fiasco at Gene's Harry decided to stay quiet about it though, instead, making sure to distract himself as much as possible from what he was noticing, after all maybe he was just being drunkenly paranoid.

Eventually the party started winding down and Eric let Harry know he was getting tired, so they said goodbye to Gene who was somehow still standing and started walking home. A black or two from Gene's Harry was still holding onto the hope that his paranoia was because of his blood alcohol content but when he reached down to hold Eric's hand and it was quickly pulled away, he stopped in his tracks.

"Harry?" Eric asked when he realized Harry wasn't moving and stopped to turn and look at him. "What's up?"

"I don't know. You tell me." Harry said.

"What?"

"Don't do that. I'm not stupid Eric. You've been quiet all night, you barely spent any time with me at the party…"

"That's not true." Eric tried to interrupt.

"And you won't even hold my hand. Seriously Eric I'm starting to think we should never go to one of Gene's parties again because you may not have run away from me tonight but you sure as hell aren't here with me, so what's going on?" Harry was trying to keep himself from yelling, but he was seriously frustrated. After everything he went through with Eric, just to get him to admit they liked each other, he finally thought things were going well, but now, he didn't know what to think, and his alcohol clouded mind was not helping things.

"Nothing is going on." Eric said taking a step forward and trying to take Harry's hand. This time though it was Harry who pulled his hand away.

"Bullshit Eric." He saw Eric flinch at how loud his voice came out and took a breath. " Look. It's obvious that something is up, and I don't have the faintest idea as to what. I'm not a mind reader Eric so if something's going on you need to tell me about it. I can't guess"

Eric stopped looking at Harry. He was staring at the ground. Harry didn't know what to expect when Eric finally spoke but he had certainly never expected it to start with. "It's Gene." Harry's mind immediately filled in the rest of the sentence with 'he made a pass at me', and he began to see red, but the color dropped off suddenly as Eric continued to speak "he called me your boyfriend tonight and it freaked me out. Happy?"

Eric was looking back up at Harry now. He looked annoyed, questioning and honeslty a bit embarrassed. "What? Yes I mean, no, why..what?"

Eric rolled his eyes and let out a breath, crossing his arms in front of himself. "Earlier tonight when Gene introduced us to that girl, Beth or Tina or whatever her name was, he introduced me as your boyfriend, and it freaked me out. " Eric uncrossed his arms and ran one hand through his hair, "Jesus Harry you know I don't do any of this shit well, and we hadn't talked about it and you were just so casual about it all I just. I… yeah"

He didn't mean to really, but a small laugh escaped Harry's throat. He saw Eric start to turn and walk away and quickly grabbed his arm. "Wait, no, sorry, it's just, that's it really?"

Eric's whole face was red and he wouldn't look Harry in the eye. "Yeah."

"If it freaks you out then you don't have to be my boyfriend. I'll just tell Gene to shut up about it Okay? I just want to spend time with you, we don't have to be anything you don't want us to be. Alright?" Harry forced Eric to look him in the eye as he talked.

"Alright" Eric said quietly.

Harry really wanted to kiss Eric then, but he didn't want to throw the boy back into freak out mode immediately so he settled for just taking his hand off of Eric's arm and taking his hand instead. "Good, now come on, let's go home."

Harry's apartment complex was closer to Gene's so they reached his place first. When they reached the front door Harry finally gathered up the courage to kiss Eric again and was pleased to find Eric kissing back.

"You sure you don't want me to walk you back to your place?" Harry asked when they pulled apart.

Eric laughed. "Yeah I'm sure." There was a brief pause as Harry rummaged through his pockets for his keys. "Actually, do you think I might be able to come up for a bit?"

Harry's heart both sped up and stopped at the same time and his stomach dropped straight through the ground. Now Eric and Harry had done quite a bit of making out in the time they'd been together, and even fooled around a bit, but clothes had, for the most part, stayed on and at the end of the night they had each always gone back to their respective apartments. That is not to say that Harry hadn't asked Eric to stay over, Eric just never said yes, so to have Eric standing there asking to come up to his place at 2 in the morning threw Harry off balance, especially seeing as going to anyone's place at 2 am usually meant you were staying for more than just "a bit".

"It's just I think Jenny and her friend might need a bit more time to themselves, and since Ken is gone for break and everything…" Eric trailed off.

Harry was tongue tied. "I, um, uh… yeah, yeah sure." Harry's hand shook a bit as he opened the door and held it for Eric to walk through.

The elevator ride was silent and Harry could feel his hands sweating as he opened the door to his apartment. He quickly wiped them off on his jeans as Eric entered and he turned to close the door behind them. Harry suddenly remembered the last time he was this nervous. It was when he had tried to ask Cho Chang to the Yule Ball, and he had essentially just ended up screaming a line of gibberish at her. He really hopped he didn't do that again.

"Water?" Well it wasn't a string of words, but it was definitely louder than intended.

"Yes please." Eric said as he made himself comfortable at the kitchen table.

"Right" Harry mumbled to himself as he moved to get both of them some water, pouring his own glass a bit more full as his throat had suddenly gone dry.