Shoulder Pillow

Chapter 2: The Word

 The front doors of Hogwarts Academy were truly extravagant. The doors to Draco's own family manor couldn't even compare, much to his chagrin. And the fact that he also happened to be standing next to Harry Potter may have played a part in how absolutely fantastic they were.

But seeing those doors also made Draco deflate inside. How am I supposed to make Harry like me, when who I am when I'm inside those doors is such an awful person? What if I've been horrible to his friends? What if I've said awful things about him that I just don't remember? Draco had so many things wandering through his head that he didn't even notice that Harry had started walking forward without him. Harry paused and looked back, seeming to notice that his blond wasn't there.

"You coming?" he called. Draco shook his head slightly and walked towards him. Their steps fell in sync as they walked into the entrance hall, where Harry stopped again and turned to Draco with what looked like hope in his eyes.

"So," he started, looking down at his hands for a moment, "since we haven't really seen each other around here, I doubt it'll magically start happening... so, do you want to, um, exchange numbers, or something?"

This was the most nervous that Draco had seen Harry since he'd met him, and the thought of that gave him somewhat of a confidence boost. Without a word, he took his cell out of his pocket and handed it to Harry with a new contact form open. Harry looked at Draco and smiled at him, that same small twist to his lips that melted Draco's confidence as if it were snow in the springtime sun. His face felt hot, and the slight brush of Harry's fingers against his when he took the phone made his chest feel as though it would burst open.

Oh, he would kill to feel those fingers against his face, his lips, to feel them brushing the skin on his waist, and-

"Here, I sent a text from your phone to mine so I have your number, too. Don't be a stranger, yeah?" Harry smiled at him again, every trace of nervousness gone, while Draco was still reeling from the thoughts he'd been having in his head. It was all he could do to nod and smile and wave and watch Harry walk away in the opposite direction of where Draco's dorm lay.

***

Harry flopped onto his four-poster bed in his dorm room. He smiled to himself, which seemed to catch the attention of one of his roommates, Ron.

"What're you grinning for, you big dope? I thought you absolutely dreaded the thought of coming back for the new semester?" Ron was sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed, sifting through a pile of sweets his mum must have made for him.

"I did, but I don't anymore," Harry stated, his eyes drifting closed and his lips spreading in an even wider smile.

Ron studied him closer, trying to dissect all the different parts of what Harry might have been thinking. "You met someone, didn't you?" Ron sighed loudly, the way Hermione did before she started a lecture, "Harry, we've done this before. If they don't go to school here, there's no way that it could work out. Do you not remember-"

"Of course I do, I'm not stupid Ron," Harry said, a snap to his voice that he rarely used, "but this time is different. He does go here. We both thought it was weird that we hadn't run into each other before, but he does go here."

Ron looked skeptical. "Who is it then? It's been a bit since you've gone after a guy. Wasn't the last one that Krum fellow who was only here for like a month?"

Harry's entire face screwed up. I really wish that he and Hermione would stop bringing that up. Honestly, it was one of the most humiliating things that Harry had ever endured. Krum had gone out with him, without realizing it was a date.