An Accidental Alliance

chapter 19

All awkwardness vanished until they returned to Hogwarts and Harry started up the stairs to his dorm, still talking and gesturing wildly about a Quidditch move he'd seen in the most recent magazine, trying to demonstrate three different players with only two hands.

"Harry?" Draco interrupted, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

Harry turned around. "Yeah?"

"Just out of curiosity, where are you going?" Draco asked.

Harry flushed slightly and dropped his hands. "Um, I'm not sure. I suppose I was going to my room. Is that wrong?"

"I'm not sure," Draco echoed. "What are your plans for this evening?"

Harry walked back down next to Draco. He hadn't been nervous or anxious, hadn't been thinking about anything past their date because he'd been to busy enjoying himself, and suddenly the reality of why they had been on the date in the first place came crashing down.

"Oh, um." Harry shuffled his feet and looked somewhere over Draco's right shoulder. "We could go someplace more private."

"Do you want to?" Draco asked, trying to catch Harry's eye. When that failed, he took his hand and squeezed gently. "Harry, we don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Our business arrangement has been nullified in favor of actually dating. What would you like?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said quietly. "I mean. I'm not used to dating. Especially not a guy. And, um, I'm-well, you know."

"A virgin, yes," Draco said with a smile. "But none of that relates to what you want to do now. Is our date over? Should I give you a goodnight kiss and send you on your way? Would you like to come down to my room and start the Chudley Cannons poster? Would you like to come down to my room and do something else entirely? Do you want to go to your room? Somewhere else?"

"Um, those are options," Harry replied coherently. "We could go to your room."

"Is that what you'd like?" Draco asked. "You don't sound very convinced."

"Yeah," Harry said firmly. "Yes, that's what I'd like."

"Okay then," Draco replied, leading them down to the dungeons. "Do you want to try out the new inks and quills?"

Harry spent a while considering. "No," he said, halfway down the stairs. "I don't want to draw."

Draco was holding back a smirk. "Have you decided anything beyond that?"

"Um, yes," Harry said suddenly. "Yeah, I'd like to, er."

"Er?" Draco asked. "Shall I 'er' you all night?"

Harry flushed. "Um. Yeah."

Draco laughed. "Sounds like a plan. You know you're going to have to walk through a common room filled with Slytherins with me, and then into my room and behind a concealment charm, right?"

"Oh," Harry said quietly. That hadn't occurred to him. "Er, yeah. My friends already know, yours might as well, too."

"You may be cursed on sight," Draco warned.

Harry squeezed his hand. "I'll survive."

Draco smiled and kissed his cheek. "Okay, then. Anguis."