Welcome to Hogwarts(Boyxboy)

Chapter 8

It wasn't like their relationship used to be. It wasn't all loving looks and careful touches. It wasn't perfect. But it was...better, Kurt thought.

They skipped the following week's Hogsmeade visit, choosing instead to spend the day together trying to reconnect, taking a long walk around the lake and talking about everything they'd been missing in each other's lives. It was nice laughing with Blaine again. It had been so often that they were bitter around each other that having a laid back conversation and simply...having fun with each other was depressingly uncommon.

"You remember when I wrote that?" Blaine said, pointing at the words carved into the old beech tree by the lake that Kurt had long considered their tree.

"Mhmm," Kurt said, smiling and touching the scored bark lightly.

Blaine wrapped his arms around his waist. "It's true," he said, reaching up to touch the spot where Kurt's diamond necklace sat against the hollow of his neck. "I'll love you until the day I die."

"I know," Kurt said, smiling and touching their foreheads together. "Me too."

Despite their long talks and time, however limited, together with their new understanding, Kurt still felt like there was something in between them, like a wall solidly blocking complete connection and he was driving himself mad trying to figure it out.

Tuesday morning, Kurt made his way to Double Potions with Blaine, Flint and Thad. They took their usual seats at one of the front tables, where Wes and David were already sitting. Thad settled on Flint's lap and Kurt gave him a look of mingled amusement and skepticism. Thad blushed but stayed where he was, Flint's arms snaking around him to hold him in place. Flint whispered something in Thad's ear and Thad giggled.

Kurt smiled, though again he felt a faint twinge of jealously. The two of them seemed to have no relationship problems beyond not sleeping in the same dorm room. It was a little upsetting to him given how perfect his relationship with Blaine had been the previous year; even over the summer when they weren't together he thought they were still closer than they were now.

He supposed it was true what they said, that all good things must come to an end...

But he didn't want it to end. He wanted to be with Blaine because he loved him. He knew he loved him and he knew Blaine loved him back. There was simply no explanation as to why this strange barrier suddenly existed. He knew it wasn't his dream about Leighton. Yes, it bothered him and worried him but, he'd come to accept the fact that he couldn't control himself in his dreams. He wasn't going to cheat on Blaine with Leighton so why should he read into it any beyond the fact that he was a teenage boy who happened to have an attractive straight friend?

The fact that it wasn't the dream causing it was even more annoying because he had no idea what it was. He supposed it must be the fact that they were both still trying to adjust to the drastic change in their relationship from the previous year. He just wanted things to be the way they used to be.

Sighing and pulling out his copy of Advanced Potion Making, he doodled absently on the corner of his parchment as they waited for Slughorn to arrive.

He heard the Potion Master's deep laugh from the corridor. "No trouble at all, my dear boy!"

Kurt looked up to see Slughorn waddling into the room, chortling and patting Leighton, who was walking next to him, on the arm jovially.

Kurt fidgeted in his seat, fixing his eyes firmly on his notes as Leighton and Slughorn walked past their table.

"Settle down, everyone, settle down," Slughorn said happily as he walked to his desk. "Leighton, m'boy, take whatever you need from the store room."