The Scent Of Malice | drarry

five | promiscuous boy

That night, Harry had his first dream about Malfoy since the incident.

It wasn't an erotic dream - more just an extension of Malfoy's real-life behaviours - but it still made Harry deeply uncomfortable, as he felt it signalled a deeper level of consciousness being accessed by the other boy.

"Even in my fucking sleep I can't escape you," he muttered, rubbing his exhausted eyes. "Are you going to torment me forever?"

The images of the dream flashed hauntingly over his eyelids; Malfoy, blood dripping from his nose, standing over Harry and laughing.

He shuddered. There was an anxious knot in his stomach and it tightened as he got himself ready for the day, as if his body was fighting for him to stay in his bed with the drapes shut, away from the rest of the school.

You can't do that, idiot, he told himself mentally. You have to hold your head high. Don't let them win.

But it was challenging. He'd begun skipping breakfast following Malfoy's dramatic episode with all the blood in the Great Hall, which had created an image that had clearly stuck with him pretty vividly. He couldn't risk another display like that any time soon.

The hardest blow, however, came when Oliver Wood cornered him as he was leaving Astronomy on his own, and asked him to "temporarily step down" from the position of Seeker on the Gryffindor team.

Harry had been expecting it of course, after his recent performance and the clear indication that he wouldn't be playing much better any time soon, but it still felt like a punch to the stomach.

He'd been so proud of that position and had been unchallenged on it for several years, yet now Malfoy had deprived him of even that with his cruelty.

"The youngest Weasley will be taking your place on the team - though emphasis is on 'for now', Potter. I'd like you back as soon as you're fit," Oliver warned him seriously. "Gin's good, but she isn't you. Sort your shit out, yeah?"

"I'm trying," Harry muttered, embarrassed. "It isn't exactly all my shit, is it?"

Oliver shrugged. "I don't know about that. I just know about Quidditch. I hope whoever's shit it is, it's sorted soon, though."

Harry sighed. "Ok, thanks, Oliver. You're just doing what you've got to do, I guess."

He turned to leave down the winding stairs of the tower, but was blocked by a familiar figure, who forced him back round the corner and out of sight of the classrooms.

"Did you literally just get kicked off the Quidditch team over this, Potter?" Draco asked, delighted. "Do you literally fancy me too much to play? That's disgusting!"

"You made me too miserable to play," Harry snapped, but he realised after he'd said the words that they might not be as cutting as he'd thought.

"And for the record, I don't fancy you. I don't know what happened in that class and I don't know what you heard, but whatever it was, it wasn't what it sounded like."

"So the most powerful love potion in the world was lying to you, was it? It's a fucking potion for Christ's sake, Potter, and it was made by Granger. It works. Get over yourself."

Harry scoffed. "Me, get over myself? What about you getting over me? Seriously, you get the tiny inkling that someone might want you and it goes straight to your head-"

"It isn't the 'inkling' that 'someone might' want me, Potter, it's evidence that you want me," Malfoy interrupted. "Evidence that you want me more than than anything else in the world, I might add. Of course that would interest me, given how you normally act towards me. It's just an excellent weapon in my armoury to use against the creature I despise most in the world."

He paused, running a pretty hand through his soft blonde hair and assessing the other boy almost flirtatiously. "It's hilarious that you think my interest in the situation is because it's the only time someone has been attracted to me, by the way."

"That's funny to you?"

"Oh yeah, terribly funny," replied Malfoy, inspecting his silver rings with an air of forced boredom. "What you don't understand, Potter, is that everyone is attracted to me. I've banged my way through half my house and half yours too, so be humble."

"So you're easy, then?" Harry sneered. "Just unbuckle your belt for anyone who looks at you, do you? Nice that you don't discriminate."

"Oh, but I do discriminate," Draco replied with a cruel smile. "Which is the main reason why you're never going to get it. You disgusting little Half-Blood."

"Wow, huge scandal, Draco Malfoy can't think of a better insult again than to comment on someone's blood status! The way he does in every fucking argument he ever has where he isn't winning!" Harry laughed coldly. "Pathetic."

"You shut your mouth, Potter, or I'll fuck that vile little ex-girlfriend of yours," Draco hissed, and he moved closer to force Harry to look up at him. "I'd have to do her from behind with the lights off, but I reckon I could do it if it would hurt you at all."

He paused, and a cruel smile played across his lips. "Suppose that's how she liked it anyway, isn't it?" he asked. "So she didn't have to remember it was you? I wouldn't blame her. God, the idea of having sex with you turns my stomach."

"So you've thought about it, then?" Harry responded.

"About as much as I've thought about fucking your dad's corpse."

Harry felt violently sick. "That was a horrendous thing to say and I hope you fucking regret it one day," he managed, valiantly fighting the urge to just lash out and cause some actual damage. "I hope you die, I really do. You're an evil piece of shit, Draco Malfoy."

Draco laughed again, and winked at Harry with a click of his tongue before walking away, leaving the other boy shuddering with rage.

"I wish I'd just fucking hit him when I had the chance," he seethed, feeling the anger radiate off his skin. "God, the things I'd do to that boy. He's going to regret what he's done today."

But Harry knew he wouldn't really do anything about it. He'd go to bed early, and feel shit and not tell his friends, and then wake up the next morning for another day of being walked all over by Malfoy.

"When did my life get so fucking fantastic?"

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a/n: i stayed up because i wanted to get this chapter done so hopefully you enjoy it!

draco is a dick. that's all i have to say before i sleep. ❤️

~ paradisedraco