Hi! Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. Life got in the way. If anyone is still with me, here's a short one, just to get myself going again!

Chapter Five

"Yeah", Harry said tightly and nodded once. "I hear that's what you give people to show your appreciation." He placed the beautiful bouquet of wild flowers on the table in front of Draco and carefully manoeuvred himself onto the attached bench opposite him. "I picked them myself. I even hurt my hand a little."

Draco looked at the flowers, a mixture of blue, red and velvet, and felt a strange churning in his stomach, something like hunger and worry mixed with a little bit of excitement."That's -" Draco waved his hand, searching for a word good enough to describe what he was feeling right that moment and failing horribly. "Uh."

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly, though the corners of his mouth twitched upwards as if he was a little amused. "That's 'uh'?"

Draco chewed on his lower lip and tilted his head to the side. "Well, it's – you know –" He waved his hand again, hating himself for how incredibly ineloquent he apparently was. Where was his words?

"Look." Harry cleared his throat. "I can see you're not impressed, so I'll try to explain. I'm -" He hesitated, taking a breath. "Well... I just wanted an excuse to, you know, be stupid and sentimental."

Draco waited because he didn't know what else to do. The flowers seemed to glower at him, as if they were a small fire, their heat burning his face. Or he could just admit that he was blushing.

Harry sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Look", he said again. "I'm not trying to ask you to the ball or anything. I just, I have this thing I want to say and it's very, very, very awkward and stupid and I didn't know how to say it so I thought, hey, why not give him some flowers because what better way is there to initiate an awkward and stupid conversation?" Harry, impressively, said all this with one breath and Draco wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him because in what way was it necessary to use that many words to say so little? Where Draco lacked in ability to express himself, Harry seemed to have been blessed with too many words for his own good.

"I just, I wanted to tell you that I'm really happy that we are friends because it seems like you don't get it sometimes, how great you are, and you kind of withdraw from me and don't speak to me and it makes me really miss you and yeah – I just wanted to tell you that. That you are great. And I'm happy. And also sorry – for chasing you the other day." Harry pressed his lips together, as if shutting himself up, and then looked at Draco with wide, slightly hysterical, eyes.

Draco felt a wave of something – warmth? - wash over him and suddenly the corners of his mouth were twitching of their own will and he fought it because in no way did he want to smile at Harry now, but Harry caught on to the half-smile and his loopy grin made Draco's stomach twist.

In order to busy himself with something other than staring happily into Harry's eyes, Draco took the bouquet from the table and inspected it from every angle. "What kind of flowers are these?"

"I have no idea", Harry confessed. "I found them outside. Some of them are blue. I thought they'd match your eyes. Shit." Harry groaned suddenly, slamming his forehead into the table. "Cheesy. Sorry."

Draco shook his head. "You're a dork."

Harry smiled a little at that. "But you like me anyway?"

Draco returned the smile. "But I like you anyway."

.,.

Harry climbed through the Portrait and Hermione's head immediately snapped up. He glanced over at her and gave a quick thumbs up, grinning as her eyes lit up with excitement, before continuing to the Dorms.

"Yes!" Hermione pumped her fist in the air, making Ron, who had been dozing off at the sofa beside her, startle. "I told you, didn't I?" She reached over and tapped his leg eagerly. "Didn't I?"

"Told me what?" Ron asked sleepily. He'd been lounging on the couch for most of the day and even though he'd hardly moved at all, he felt exhausted – his sickness made him feel like an old man.

"Flowers, Ron. Flowers."

Ron closed his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know. You told me."