Friendly Competition

[14] Trying

Harry went straight to the greenhouses after classes the next day.

"So," he said, when he found Neville in a thankfully already otherwise empty greenhouse. "Suppose you were right. Maybe. What then?"

Neville looked up from the trowels he was putting away. "About what?"

"About...you know. Draco."

Neville raised his eyebrows, but then he smiled. "You fancy him?"

"I don't— Maybe!" Harry said defensively, his face flushing. "You don't have to say it like that. All I know is my heart did a little flippy over thing and...I dunno. I do like seeing him." He shot a sharp look at Neville. "But saying it like that makes it sound like a silly little schoolyard fling or something. I hate it. This is already undignified enough."

Neville snorted. "Has anything about you ever been dignified?"

Harry scowled. "I didn't say it had, but that doesn't mean I need to make it worse."

"Fair enough. Well, just ask him on a date, what else is there to it?"

"That's impossible!" Harry protested. "He's Draco!"

"So?" Neville said. "He fancies you too. I'm sure of it. You both give each other the same heart eyes — it's embarrassing to watch sometimes."

Harry flushed deeper red. "Of course we don't."

"You do," Neville teased. "Just do it. I'm sure he'll be thrilled."

"But—" Harry pressed his lips together tightly and folded his arms. He wasn't quite sure how to articulate his fears, or whether he even wanted to, for that matter. But if not now, then when? And how else was he to get Neville to understand how impossible this was for him?

"What about our past?" he finally asked. "What would people say? I mean, he's a former Death Eater, they'll be eager to put him under a magnifying glass, or say he must have done something to me to make me like him. And what would Ginny think? And we're both...men. What is she supposed to think about that? What is the Daily Prophet going to have to say about that? I just... I don't know. I don't know how you can feel so sure he's interested in me too either — what, just because he looks at me?"

Neville sighed. "I can't guarantee that some people won't do that, but I'm betting he's willing to take that risk. Do you imagine people have stopped being nasty to him just because the war's in the past? And you've certainly gone through periods of bad public opinion for your choices too, but it never stopped you doing it anyway.

"As for Ginny, why should she be anything but happy for you? She's the one who wanted the divorce, isn't she? And I've already told you, wizards don't care much about people being in queer relationships — I really don't think she'd give it a second thought. It's not like it would affect her anyway.

"And Harry." Neville put his hand on Harry's shoulder and looked directly into his eyes. "I'm telling you, Draco is as interested in you as you are him. He's not just looking at you, it's— it's the expression. And it's the way you talk about each other and act around each other, and it's hard to put into words or put your finger on exactly what little things make it so different from the way you two are with me, for instance, but it is, it really is."

Harry's shoulders slumped. "So I'm really just supposed to...blindly take that and somehow muster up the courage to ask him on a date?"

"Yep!" Neville said cheerfully. "Isn't that what you did with Ginny? You've just got to force yourself to Gryffindor through it and ask."