Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts or anything else linked to the books. They all belong to J. K. Rowling. I'm just borrowing them to mess around with. Vincent and Damon both belong to me, I think…

Chapter 5

He read it silently, then put the paper down on the desk and glared at Flint.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" he whispered angrily. "Because if it is, it isn't very funny"

"Hell, I'm only showing you what I found" Flint grinned even more. "You must recognize Oliver's handwriting. But if you still don't believe me, why don't you just ask him? He wrote it, after all"

"Oliver?" Vincent turned and gave me a questioning look. "Did you really write this?"

I couldn't answer; I couldn't even look him in the face. But as I glanced down at the desk, I could feel myself blushing. Unfortunately, Flint noticed and decided to share my little secret with the rest of the class.

"Hey!" he called at the top of his voice. "Oliver isn't just a freak, he's a gay freak! And he's in love with Vincent!"

The whole class, including Professor Snape turned to look at me. Vincent chose that moment to jump to his feet and smash his fist into Flint's nose. Flint flew back, knocking over a table and a half full cauldron as he landed. The potion in the cauldron went over several students, who started screaming. I took a quick look around, but no one was looking at me. A group of Slytherins were gathered around Flint, who was loudly threatening Vincent with every curse under the sun. Snape was trying to get the students in order and reassure them that they would all be fine, but everyone was enjoying their one chance to run wild in Potion's class. Seeing my chance, I quietly slipped away. We still had half an hour left, but I couldn't stay in the class, not now that everyone knew. And I still didn't know how Vincent felt, or what he thought of me now that he knew my true feelings. I'd never felt so alone in my life.

I went to the boys' bathroom and locked myself in one of the toilets. Then I took my penknife from inside my robes and looked hard at it. I hadn't cut myself for quite a while; I hadn't felt the need to. However, now I simply had nothing to lose, at least not that I could see. Gritting my teeth, I dug the blade into the flesh on my arm, cutting deep enough to draw blood. Three times I did it, in three different places, until my arm felt numb and blood was flowing freely. As I put my knife away, I realised that my cheeks were wet with tears, tears I hadn't realised I had shed. I ran my arm under the cold tap and bandaged it up with an old piece of cloth I had found in my pocket. Then I splashed cold water on my face and went out into the empty corridor. Looking at my watch, I was amazed to discover that I had been in the bathroom for almost an hour, which meant that I had missed my second lesson, but since I hadn't been planning on going to any of my lessons anyway, it didn't really matter.

I decided that a walk might help me clear my head, so I slipped out of the main doors and began to walk around the grounds, keeping a eye open for any teachers or students. Madam Hooch was doing a flying lesson and so I was careful to keep away from that area, and also the greenhouse area, where I knew that Professor Sprout would be teaching. Instead I went round to the back of the school, where not many students ever actually go. It was quite cold so I sat down with my back against the school wall and wrapped my robe around me for warmth.

Don't ask me how, but I think I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I suddenly opened my eyes to find myself face to face with Vincent's wolf cub. I yelled in surprise and he backed away, whimpering. I rubbed my eyes and noticed that it was beginning to get dark.

"Sol-leks!" I heard Vincent call from somewhere in the distance. "Where are you boy? Come here!"

That damn wolf threw his head up and howled. A moment later, Vincent ran round the corner of the building. As Sol-leks ran to him, I stood up and he looked at me. From what I could see, he looked rather relieved to see me.

"Where have you been?" he asked. "I've been looking everywhere for you since this morning. I was worried, I thought maybe you'd…done something stupid after what happened"

"I'm alright" I gave him a hesitant smile. "I came out here for a while…to be alone. But I guess I fell asleep. I'm sorry for worrying you"

"It's all right" Vincent lowered his eyes and looked at the ground. "Oliver, I think…maybe we need to talk, don't you?"

"I guess so," I muttered. I knew that it was now or never. The moment I had been waiting months for, and the moment I had also been dreading. Vincent began to walk, still not looking at me. I fell into step beside him.

"Listen" I said. "Before you say anything, I want you to know that yes, I did write that diary entry you read this morning. And yes I do have feelings for you. I knew that you would never be interested in me, so that's why I stopped speaking to you. I thought that it was the best thing to do but it wasn't. And it made me realise that you're my best friend and I don't want that to ever change. I missed having you around and I know I hurt you, but I'm…"

"Oliver" Vincent interrupted my rambling. "It's all forgiven. I understand why you were ignoring me now and you don't need to apologize for anything. If you want to know, you aren't the only idiot around here. In fact, we've both been a right pair of idiots"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you liked me but you were to scared to tell me how you felt" Vincent said carefully, almost as if he was trying to figure it out himself. "At the same time, I liked you and I was trying to figure out how to tell you. Then your feelings got the better of you and you started to push me away. I was really confused then, cause I couldn't tell whether you liked me or not. So I got mad at you for a while and we very nearly stopped speaking completely"   

"Yeah it was something like that" I started to say, then realised what he had said and stopped. "You…you just said that you liked me too?" I asked in amazement. Vincent looked rather embarrassed.

"Yes, I did" he admitted. "It's just…with my father and all that, I've never really had a relationship before so I had no idea how to tell you that I liked you"

"So…where do we go from here?" I asked hesitantly, still afraid that I may have got the wrong idea about what he said. "Just best friends again?"

"I don't know" Vincent stepped closer to me and pulled me into his arms. "What do you think?"

We stood there looking at each other for what seemed almost like forever. Then Vincent tilted his head and gently brushed his lips against mine, obviously uncertain about exactly how I was going to react. My only response was to kiss him back harder.

Finally, desperately in need of a break, we drew apart and hugged, clinging to each other tightly. And it was then that I knew. No matter what happened, no matter what people did or said, everything would be all right. And Vincent knew it too, I could tell. As long as we loved each other, as long as we were together, nothing else mattered.