Alteration (Book 3 of The Corruption Sequence)

Chapter 6. Breakfast for Two

Dumbledore had stayed and talked until the small hours of the morning, about which Harry was both feeling grateful and guilty. It had taken the headmaster a long time to convince him that letting his friends visit was a good idea, but he had eventually agreed. What was stranger, however, was that after he had made the decision he had gone to bed and actually fallen asleep.

Bacon was what eventually woke him, the smell of freshly cooked bacon; a scent proven to wake the dead. He rolled over and peered in the general direction of where Dobby had set up the table the previous day and there was a familiar blond figure standing next to it. Jeremy had standing instructions to let Draco in unless told specifically not to do so, making his presence not wholly surprising, except for the timing.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up," Draco said, picking up a slice of the bacon which had managed to pull Harry from sleep and chewing on it sexily.

Harry shook his head and sat up; if he was finding the way his lover was eating breakfast sexy, then there was little hope of Draco escaping unravished. It was not a demanding, rip-his-clothes-off-now, kind of feeling, but he definitely had the urge to worm his way under Draco's robes.

The urgency of the previous day was gone, almost as if the fact that he had unequivocally marked his companion as his lessened the pressure of his demanding libido, but he had the sneaking suspicion he would never be able to look at Draco without considering how best to get him naked.

Climbing out of bed he wandered over towards his Slytherin, gave Draco a rather absent kiss, mumbled a greeting, snagged a piece of bacon from the plate on the table and headed for the bathroom. It was only after he had put his head under the shower and started to clean his teeth that he had thought about the way Draco had appeared rather startled by his actions, but he didn't think about it too much.

However, he was expecting something similar to the words which greeted him as he walked back into the other room, "You're odd first thing in the morning."

"What did I do this time?" Harry asked, pretty sure he knew, but interested to see what Draco would say.

"Random shows of affection," Draco replied, as if the whole notion offended his sensibilities, "it is entirely bizarre behaviour."

"Well you'll have to forgive me," he said as he rummaged in his trunk, "I was not brought up with proper Slytherin manners and we Gryffindors are quite prone to forget ourselves."

It was strangely comforting to simply chat about nothing. For a few moments Harry managed to forget quite what a left turn his life had taken.

Then, as he was pulling on his clothes, his mind flicked to the impending visit today of Ron, Hermione and Neville. Nev had become quite a fixture in their lives since the end of the fifth year and, although Harry knew people still referred to them as the Gryffindor trio, these days Neville was in on most of their antics. No matter how much part of him missed all three, the thought of facing them rather squashed his mood.

"Who doused your fairy light?" Draco asked as Harry walked towards the breakfast table with a frown on his face.

"My friends are visiting today," he responded and sat down.

The table was laid for two with a range of food not quite as large as the dinner the previous night, but still very extensive. Harry tried to distract himself back on to more settling thoughts by filling his plate. By the time he had finished, he had enough protein to feed a Quidditch team. One elegant eyebrow raised under a neatly trimmed fringe was Draco's only comment about that, but Harry had to admit that maybe he had been a little over enthusiastic.