Untitled - A Drarry Romance

Chapter Three

Hi, Everyone. I know it's been a while and I'm sorry if you've been on tenterhooks waiting for a new installment. I had exams to study for and I just concluded them last week. I made this Chapter slightly longer than my previous ones to make up for lost time. I'm really pleased to see that I now have 150+ reads and 9 votes ^_^ I hope you like this too!

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Chapter Three

It started at breakfast the next day. As usual, the morning post came in and everyone was receiving letters and packages from home when a bunch of owls flew in at once and headed straight for Harry, dumping notes of parchment and little wrapped boxes one after the other into his lap.

"What in the name of Merlin ---" Ron exclaimed as one of the notes dropped into his plate. He unrolled it and scrunched up his nose as some flowery scent invaded his nose. "'Dear Harry,'" he read aloud "'I think you're absolutely amazing, would you go out with me?" It isn't even signed, how're you supposed to know who it's from?"

Harry had already read some of the other notes which were all similar to the one Ron had read. He looked over at the other tables and saw everyone was studiously concentrating on the breakfast, it was obvious some girls were trying hard not to giggle. At the Slytherin table, Malfoy was miming a person ducking things falling from above.

Hermione was suspiciously quiet throughout all this.

"Do you know anything about this?" Harry asked.

"I've got to arrange my schedule with Professor McGonagall before my first class," she said, hurriedly " See you guys later." And with that she rushed off. She definitely knew something.

"Excellent," Ron said. Harry turned to him and saw him looking very pleased with the Fanged Frisbee he'd uncovered from one of the packages. " I've always wanted one of these. It's nice to know there are perks of being friends with a teenage heart-throb." He looked up and saw Harry's expression. "Just kidding!"

They both left the Great Hall and went to arrange their schedules for the year. Harry had several encounters with pointing and whispering people. A bunch of fourth year Ravenclaw girls giggled as he walked past them and even a third year Gryffindor boy stared at him in a way that made Harry really uncomfortable.

What on earth was going on?

After they got their new schedules, Harry told Ron he needed to escape from everyone during their free hour so Ron went off to the Gryffindor Common Room with his Fanged Frisbee while Harry strode off in the opposite direction. Living quietly with Sirius during the Summer with only members of The Order popping in once in a while, Harry had almost been able to forget who he was and how everyone was very much interested in his latest confrontation with Voldemort and the news of the prophecy. They were all calling him The Chosen One, treating him with more awe than ever before. Last night, he'd been able to ignore the inquisitive stares but today, with this latest development, he just needed to get away.

He was just wondering if he should fetch his broomstick, take it outside and fly above the school grounds for a while - it never failed to clear his head - when he looked around and realized he was standing in the formerly forbidden third floor corridor. People still hardly wandered this way even though the whole reason it had been forbidden in the first place was gone. Even right now this section of the castle was completely deserted. Harry turned to head back to Gryffindor Tower when the door at the end of the corridor opened and someone walked out shutting the door behind him.

"You!" exclaimed Harry "What are you doing here?"

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Draco had never been more startled in his life. It was a mark of his self control that he hadn't jumped in the air. Harry Potter, the boy who despised him, was standing in the middle of the corridor looking suspiciously at him.

Draco fixed a cold look on his face and said, "I don't answer to you, Potter."

"You're up to something, Malfoy," said Harry " You usually are and I'll find out what it is."

Draco would have been hurt that Harry was quick to suspect him of some wrong doing if it wasn't usually true. However, today his suspicions were entirely wrong. Not that he had any intention of telling him that.

"Well I have better things to do than stand here and be interrogated by you," he said as contemptuously as possible as he walked past Harry. Draco waited till he'd gone down two corridors before his shoulders slumped in relief. He thought he'd handled that pretty well. He'd been so sure that no one came down that corridor, it was one of the reasons he'd chosen it as his sanctuary all these years. It was a good thing that he'd been cautious enough anyway to bewitch the door to only open if it was tickled down its middle in a zig-zag pattern and no one knew this except him. Draco smirked to himself. Let Harry go ahead and try to open the door, he never will.

He made his way to the stone wall that opened up into the Slytherin Common Room. He had thirty idle minutes before his first class. Near the fire place, sitting in a rough semi-circle were Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle. Draco dropped into the empty seat reserved for him between Pansy and Crabbe.

No one needed to ask where he'd been. They all knew even though they'd never been in there with him. None of them had any idea what he did in there and no one had tried to find out since Blaise's failed attempt.

"I overheard something of the most recent news going about the school this morning when you left the breakfast table," Pansy said. "Apparently there's this contest all over the school about which boy or girl could snag Harry as a boyfriend before the end of the term."

"Though why anyone would want date that oaf is beyond me," said Blaise derisively.

"But even you were commenting about how much his looks had changed over the holidays," Pansy said slyly.

"It was just an observation," Blaise said shortly, pressing his lips together.

"Boys?" asked Draco " I had no idea Potter swung that way."

"Well no one knows for sure. I doubt even he does either because except for last year the boy has been practically a eunuch as far as anyone knows."

"Oh, so you're keeping tabs on him now?" Blaise said then turning to Draco "And why're you so interested?"

Draco didn't answer thinking now would really be a good time for someone to change the subject. Then a rare moment occurred - Goyle spoke and just like that everyones attention shifted. The news that Potter might be interested in dating guys as well as girls was of great interest to him and he was afraid his excitement might have slipped through for a moment. He didn't know what he was going to do with the information. It wasn't like Harry would want him anyway. In fact he was pretty sure Harry would rather lie naked on a bed of coals in a desert during midday than ever want to go out with him and Draco wasn't ready for that kind of rejection.

What are you thinking? he scolded himself. You absolutely cannot think of him that way and you know why so stop.

But Draco was getting tired of the struggle against his feelings and even though he knew there was no way this was going to end well for him, his mind had already started formulating a plan.