School Exchange (Drarry) ✓

Chapter 2

Harry stayed isolated for days afterward. The Hufflepuffs thought he was trying to take away their one opportunity of fame, the Ravenclaws siding with them and glaring at him every time they passed by. Half of the Gryffindors were looking at him weirdly, Slytherins with a look of amusement, disgust or skepticism. Harry wrote to Sirius about it, unable to bottle up his feelings any further, even though he knew it would worry his already mentally unstable godfather.

The other thing was Draco, who he still didn't know what to do about. Yes, it was a month since they met. And yes, he was dating someone else (the most famous seeker in Europe no less). Harry tried to block him out of his brain and think of him as a friend, but it didn't work that way. Even though Draco was upset with Krum for complaining about the now quad-wizard tournament, they came into the Great Hall daily holding hands and sitting together. Once Draco skipped breakfast because they argued last night- 'he keeps talking as if he already won'- but it seemed as if Krum apologise quickly as they were back together by dinner time.

Now, he and Ron were stuck in the library with Hermione, who told them to finish up their transfiguration homework and get started on revising for the history test next week. Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly bring himself to read anything, merely writing down whatever Hermione was rambling on about.

"Were you listening to me?" Hermione asked with furrowed brows. "What did I say about the goblin rebellion just now?"

"Erm... they're damaging to society?" Harry mumbled hopelessly.

"No! I was talking about the cultural differences between wizards and goblins which resulted in a clash of beliefs-" Harry nodded along while Ron just shrugged sympathetically at his mate. Hermione stopped mid-sentence. "-you okay?"

"Other than the fact that half the wizarding population thinks I'm a jerk for entering a tournament that would possibly kill me in 5 minutes, I'd say I'm doing great myself."

"Don't lie to me. Danger barely scares you and you're used to being the talk of the town." She snapped, crossing her arms, and then uncrossing them quickly while cooing, leaning over the desk to be inches away from him. "Is it about Draco?"

"No..."

"You're a horrible liar, did you know that?" She giggled loudly despite them being in a library. "Ronnie, I think our baby boy has grown up-!" Harry wants to scream in embarrassment, but Hermione sits back down again, serious this time. "But Draco is dating someone else."

"I know that."

"Oh, hence the trouble?" Hermione closed her books, both elbows propped up on the table to support her head. "Sometimes, maybe, it's just infatuation or admiration that'll leave in a couple more weeks. Maybe it's a phase." Harry opened his mouth to speak but she quickly added. "I meant Draco, not your sexuality."

"'Mione, I don't even know if I'm gay or something. It's just with Draco, things are a bit different around him, y'know? But I'm still so confused..."

"It's okay. You don't need to rush to fit in any of those categories. If you like someone, then you like someone. Nothing more than that." She smiled encouragingly, resting a hand on his.

"Spoken as a true love expert, one might expect at least some dating history on your end." Ron said with a mischievous smirk.

"As I'm sure such a professional like you would have more to comment on." Hermione retorted with an equally wide smile. Harry laughed, and they joined in in a matter of seconds.

***

"Him again! Always Harry, Harry, Harry!" Viktor lamented, kicking the foot of his bed angrily.

"You asked how my day was, and he's my friend. I'm worried about him, it's not like you don't know he's in a bad situation right now-"

"He's a liar, Dray. A cheater." He held Draco by his shoulders, desperate to communicate this across. When he was stressed about something, he always switched to Russian with swearing in Bulgarian in between. But Draco already knew what he had to say as he has been repeating like a broken record these past few weeks. "Our chances of winning just went down to 25%, my chance of winning. Consider 2 of them from the same school ganging up against us, it's even worse. He's out for it for the fame, Dray. It can't be good if he's around you. He's probably making use of you to get to me."

"But it's always about you, isn't it?" Draco asked. When he was upset, he spoke in English, the language he was more comfortable with and one that he knew Viktor could still understand. "You and the tournament. It's always above my interests."

"Fuck, baby, I'm trying to protect you." Viktor growled out, frustrated. He shook Draco's shoulders slightly when he spoke. "You have other friends, right? The pair from Slytherin, Blaise and Pansy?"

"Vik, you don't understand how happy I feel to actually be accepted." Draco said, standing his ground while being the softer of the two. "I was shunned for months after people realised I was gay in Durmstrang, people picked on me, called me disgusting things, and I couldn't even stand up for myself. It only stopped because we started dating and don't you know that to this day, people are sending me letters to threaten me, to tell me that I'm not good enough for you? That I'm worthless and worse than a pile of shit, that I'm a whore, a useless hole for you to fuck-"

"Tell me who they are, I'll kill them." Viktor interrupted assuringly.

"But that's what you always say." He said, his shoulders sagged in defeat. "You've read those letters. You know they're from that small group of friends you have, among that huge social circle of yours. And then your pride gets in the way and I'm not important to you again. You're not willing to give them up for me, but you want me to give Harry up for you?"

"Dray..."

"Let's not shout at each other tonight, okay?" Draco put gently, pushing Viktor's arms off him lightly, then promptly leaving, moving to his cabin, alone.