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December 1991
“I don’t understand why we’re here,” Malfoy grumbled from his seat between Crabbe and Goyle.
Neither did Harry, if he was perfectly honest, even though Hermione was glaring at him reproachfully. I mean, sure , it might have to do with the fact that Harry and Malfoy had bodily fought each other in the entrance hall last week, landing in the giant Christmas tree Hagrid had put up and making it crash to the ground, making ornaments slitter all over the ground. Mrs Norris had still dug one up last night, people said.
But they had already been punished for that, hadn’t they? Harry could barely feel his fingers from all the polishing he’d done and the trophy room looked sparkly like it had never before.
“We’re here because Susan and Hannah here,” McGonagall said, waving to the two Hufflepuff students, who stood next to Sprout with an air of nervous determination, “had a brilliant idea, and I’d like them to announce it.”
Hannah stood up a little straighter at that and took a step forward. Susan followed hastily.
“We’re here because the students in our year have been talking -”
“ Who has been talking?” Malfoy injected, his eyes narrowing. “I want names.”
Snape hit him over the head, unimpressed. Hannah hesitated. Susan pushed on.
“We have been talking, and we unanimously decided that we are pretty sick of you two fighting all the time.”
Malfoy opened his mouth but Harry was faster. “Now that’s just unfair!” he called. “It’s not like it’s my fault that he always -”
“Mr Potter,” McGonagall interrupted him icily. “Your fellow students are telling you that they feel you are disrupting their school year. Now is not the time to point fingers at Mr Malfoy. Maybe do a bit of reflecting, for a change.”
“No need to look smug,” Snape added, glaring at Malfoy, whose smile quickly dropped. “Same goes for you.”
When the silence stretched and it was clear they weren’t going to interrupt again, Sprout smiled at Hannah and Susan encouragingly. Hannah continued, her voice a bit smaller than before.
“And - well, we thought it would be good to do a bit of inter-house bonding. It’s Christmas soon, and the teachers agreed to let us have a big sleepover in the Great Hall on the last day before the holidays. We can play games and have fun and forget that we are Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and Slytherins and Gryffindors for a while.”
Harry looked over at Malfoy. The other boy looked horrified at the suggestion.
“We think this is a brilliant idea for everyone to bond,” Sprout announced.
“And for you two to get over yourselves,” McGonagall added flatly.
“Exactly,” Snape agreed. “Because Minerva and I, frankly, don’t have the time and the patience for your shenanigans anymore. Figure it out.”
Malfoy and Harry’s eyes met. They shared a rare moment of commiseration over the fact that this was utter bullshit.
“So, it is decided,” Flitwick said, clapping his hands. “Perfect. I’ll tell the Ravenclaws.”
Malfoy sighed deeply. Harry groaned.
“I feel like the only lesson we are going to learn from this is to never let Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws plan an event,” Malfoy muttered from his seat on the sofa next to him.
Harry didn’t want to agree with him, but… well, it was hard not to. When they entered the Great Hall earlier, the house tables had been pushed to the side to make room for comfortable cushioned furniture. The problem was, though, that they had gone out of their way to assign name cards to every seat to make sure that no one sat next to a student from their house.
Harry knew immediately that they’d seated him next to Malfoy, of course. After all, this was a big plot to make them get along. And so, Harry was trying to awkwardly angle himself towards Ernie Macmillan on his other side to not touch Malfoy, but it was hard because there was no space on the couch. Malfoy looked back and forth between Michael Corner on one side and Harry on the other side with a face like the Christmas gods were punishing him.
“Okay, is everyone here? Everyone seated comfortably?” Padma Patil asked, looking into the round. “Perfect! Susan, Hannah, take it away!”
“Welcome to our first inter-house sleepover!” Hannah smiled brightly. “We hope we can make this an annual event. Fingers crossed.”
“We’d like to start with a little game!” Susan announced, holding up a purple balloon with writing all over it. “It’s called ‘Toss and Talk Ball’. You throw the balloon to someone and the person who catches it answers the question - or dare - closest to their right pointer finger.”
“We asked an older student to help us charm it, so the writing moves,” Su Li piped up. “Also, once a question is answered, it disappears and a new one pops up.”
“Smart,” Hermione said approvingly from next to her. Su smirked.
“What if we don’t want to answer a question?” Pansy Parkinson asked from next to Susan.
“Everyone can veto at any time,” Anthony Goldstein said. “The punishment is eating a Zonko’s candy and waiting to see what happens.”
Harry nodded. It seemed fair. Zonko’s candies would usually give you animal or household gadget traits for a couple of seconds, but didn’t do permanent damage. All they would do was give everyone a laugh.
“Right,” Hannah said. “Any more questions?”
“None you’d like to hear,” Malfoy muttered, under his breath. Nobody but Harry heard him.
“Okay,” Susan said, raising the balloon in her hands into the air. “I’ll throw!”
She cheerily threw it to Millicent Bulstrode, who glared her down as she caught it. Susan sunk back into her seat. Millicent sighed and looked at the question closest to her pointer finger.
“Do you have a secret or strange talent?” she read out loud. She frowned. “I can tell what weather it will be that day by the tone of my cat’s voice.”
“She actually can,” Daphne confirmed. “It’s freaky.”
“That’s so cool!” Megan Jones piped up excitedly from next to Crabbe. “My owl can sing Christmas melodies! I swear, animals are so smart!”
“They’re smarter than most humans,” Millicent said gravely. Then, she looked into the round.
“Oh, the rule is, you’re not allowed to throw the ball to someone from your house,” Terry Boot added. “Otherwise, it will quickly become boring.
Millicent huffed and blindly threw it towards the other side of the circle. Neville caught it with wide eyes.
“What’s your favourite food?” he read. “Um. I think pizza?”
A few people laughed at that answer. Even Harry had to smile. Seamus emphatically wondered why pizza wasn’t on the Hogwarts menu. Then, Neville tossed the balloon to Justin Finch-Fletchley.
“If you wrote a book, what would you name the main character and where would he go?” Justin bit his lip. “I think I’d name him ‘Mark’.”
“That’s so boring!” Ernie complained. A few people laughed.
“Shut it!” Justin grinned. “And Mark would go to Hogwarts because honestly, there’s plenty of adventure here.”
“Muggle-borns,” Pansy rolled her eyes. “No fantasy.”
“Be quiet,” Ron rolled his eyes.
“It’s true, though!” she called. “All the things you could write about and you choose your school?!”
“Pansy is a hobby novelist,” Tracy confided from next to Ron. “She doesn’t appreciate a lack of creativity.”
“I’ll murder you in your sleep, Tracey,” Pansy hissed. “ Creatively. ”
Justin snorted and threw the balloon at Mandy Brocklehurst.
“What is your favourite thing to do?” she read out loud. “Oh, I love to read autobiographies! It’s so interesting.”
She then threw the balloon to Harry, who almost dropped it. With some trepidation, he checked which question his right pointer finger covered.
“If you could change your name, would you want to and what name would you choose instead?”
Next to him, Malfoy snorted. Harry’s eyes narrowed.
“Actually, I would,” Harry snapped.
“Oh?” Malfoy mocked. “Why? I thought you enjoyed the way everyone worshipped the ground you walk on?”
“I don’t,” Harry ground out. “You are welcome to it, if you’re so jealous.”
“What would you change it to, then? Weasley?”
“That’s enough!” Ernie called from next to Harry. “No fighting!”
The two of them fell silent. Harry took a deep breath.
“Maybe I’d change it to ‘Evans’,” Harry shrugged. “It was my mother’s name.” He thrust the ball at Malfoy. “Here,” he grumbled. “Your turn.”
Malfoy rolled his eyes but took the ball. He glanced at the writing next to his right pointer finger.
“Cuddle into the person to your right for the rest of the night,” he read, before glowering at the ball. Then, he glared fiercely into the round. “Are you bloody kidding me?!” he snapped. “I’m not cuddling Potter!”
“Well,” Hannah said quietly. “You could forfeit.”
“What?” Harry taunted, though he wasn’t quite sure why . It wasn’t like he wanted to cuddle Malfoy. It was just that… taunting him came as second nature to him. “Scared, Malfoy?”
Malfoy’s eyes narrowed at him. “You wish, Potter,” he hissed.
And so, Harry ended up with Malfoy tugged firmly under his arm, his
soft
blond hair tickling Harry’s chin.
It was bloody warm weird.
Harry tried to focus on the game. He did. But it was a bit hard, with Malfoy all snuggled up against him.
When the game was finally declared over and done with and their classmates got to their feet to find a place with their sleeping bags, Malfoy didn’t move.
“Malfoy?” Harry asked. “Hey, Malfoy?”
But Malfoy didn’t react and with dawning horror, Harry realised that he’d fallen asleep.
“Just stay where you are, mate,” Michael grinned from next to Draco. “I’ll get you a blanket and you can have the couch.”
“I - what?” Harry asked, confused.
And so, Harry ended up spending the last night before the Christmas holidays with Draco Malfoy in his arms.
When they woke the next morning, they silently agreed to never speak of the incident again.
Their classmates' plan worked out, in a way, though. They stopped agonising each other, too bloody embarrassed to interact much at all.
December 1992
“Welcome to the second annual inter-house sleepover!” Hannah beamed into the round. “After last year’s huge success, we got the okay to organise another one this year, and we are so excited.”
Harry could see that they are. Harry, though, felt like he was sitting on hot coals, squeezed in next to Stephen Cornfoot and, predictably, Malfoy. Because of course . On his right, Malfoy was sitting very still. Harry wasn’t even sure he was breathing.
“This year’s game is called ‘Who Am I?’,” Susan announced. “A name from another student will be temporarily charmed onto your forehead and you will have to find out who you are through the aid of yes or no questions!”
“Everyone can ask one question per round,” Lisa Turpin added. “And we’ll spin a wand to decide whose turn it is. But the wand will know not to land on one person twice within one cycle.”
“Any questions?” Hannah asked. When there was only murmuring in response, Padma cast the spell that made their classmates' names in glowing letters appear on their foreheads. Harry saw ‘Zacharias Smith” on Ron’s forehead, and ‘Daphne Greengrass’ on Hermione’s. He glanced at Malfoy and started a bit when he saw his own name on the Slytherin’s forehead. Malfoy was still busy frowning at Crabbe (‘Lavender Brown’) before glancing at Harry. He smirked.
“Okay,” Susan called. “Let’s spin the wand.”
Harry forced himself to focus on the wand. He blinked when it came to rest pointing at him.
“Harry,” Susan smiled. “It’s your turn!”
Harry frowned. “Am I Draco Malfoy?” he blurted out. He could hear Malfoy laughing from next to him.
“No,” the others chuckled. “You are not, Harry.”
Harry grimaced. He spun the wand. It landed on Dean.
“Am I a boy or a girl?” he asked. His name was ‘Sally Smith’.
“A girl,” various people answered. Dean hummed and spun the wand. It landed on the Ravenclaw girl Morag Macdougal (‘Seamus Finnigan’).
“Does the name of my house start with a letter from the first half of the alphabet?” she asked. A few people just blinked at her still trying to understand the question. Harry was amongst them.
“Yes,” Su Li confirmed. Morag nodded, smiling.
It was then that Harry understood. Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, compared to Ravenclaw, Slytherin. Merlin, Ravenclaws.
The wand next landed on Oliver Rivers (‘Tracey Davis’), who wanted to know if he was from Hufflepuff. Goyle (‘Kevin Entwhistle’) wanted to know if he liked chocolate. Eloise Midgen (‘Ron Weasley’) asked if she was good at Potions.
“Merlin, this will take forever,” Malfoy sighed from next to Harry. Then he sat up straighter when the wand landed on him. “Um,” he frowned, glancing at Harry. “Do I wear glasses?”
“Yes,” came the answer from various corners.
“I’m you, am I not,” he rolled his eyes. “Be more cliché, really.”
A few chuckles, and Hannah said with a shy smile: “Well, I guess Draco wins?”
“Right,” Draco sighed, slumping back into the sofa. “I guess I’m free, then.”
It took Harry six more rounds to find out that he was actually ‘Millicent Bullstrode’. By the time he had finally gotten a clue, Malfoy had fallen asleep once more - on his shoulder.
“Really?!” Harry whined, trying to wriggle away from him. Malfoy did not wake, simply sleeping on.
“He sleeps like the dead,” Theodore Nott told him helpfully. “Good luck waking him.”
“You can have the sofa, if you want,” Stephen offered. “I’ll get you a blanket.”
Harry groaned and wondered how he get himself into this situation two years in a row.
December 1993
“I just want to say, this is sabotage,” Malfoy announced. “Everyone else gets shuffled, and Potter and I always end up next to each other!”
“Right!” Harry called. “It’s unfair!”
“Maybe we just like seeing you snuggle once a year,” Seamus grinned. “I don’t know about everyone else, but it really puts me in a Christmas mood.”
There was laughter from the round. Harry flushed. Malfoy glared.
“Right,” Susan said. “This year’s game is ‘Two Truths and One Lie’. Everyone writes down three sentences on a parchment. Two are true, one is a lie. The papers stay anonymous until they are read out. Then, we guess which is the lie. Then, the person reveals themselves to give us the answer.”
Millicent’s hand went up immediately. “Is there a spell that makes sure we write a truth at all?” she asked.
“Yes,” Padma rolled her eyes. “The parchments contain a lie-detector charm. If your writing doesn’t contain at least two truths, it will burst into flames.”
“How dramatic,” Millicent huffed, crossing her arms with a frown.
“Come on, guys!” Hannah smiled. “If you play properly, I promise it will be fun!”
Wayne Hopkins was already handing out the parchments. Harry took his with a sigh, staring at it.
“Lost for a truth, Potter?” Malfoy muttered from next to him. “How about ‘My hair is an insult to good taste,’ or ‘I have the knowledge of a kindergartener at Potions.’
“How about ‘I like to fall asleep on my arch-nemesis’ shoulder every year around Christmas,’ for your truth?” Harry shot back.
“Boys,” Lily Moon sighed from next to Draco. “Can you please stop bickering? You’re ruining the vibe.”
They fell silent with a huff. Harry chewed his lip before starting to write.
I have two siblings.
I have two best friends.
I have two pets.
When his parchments didn’t burst into flames, he decided it was good enough. He rolled it up and put it into the basket in the middle. He saw Malfoy was still writing at his side, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
When finally, everyone had handed in their parchments, Ernie Macmillan, who’d volunteered as the MC of the night, shuffled the parchment and drew out the first one.
“I hate Quidditch,” he read out loud, “I hate chocolate, I hate Potions.”
Some people laughed.
“This is impossible!” Theodore Nott complained. “It’s too random! It could be anyone!”
“But that’s the fun about it!” Oliver Rivers called. “It would be boring if it was too easy!”
“I think it’s Eloise,” Sally-Ann Perks said. “She loves chocolate, and she never cared much for Quidditch!”
“Nope,” Eloise Midgen smirked. “Not me.”
“I bet it’s Dean,” Seamus grinned. “He’s all about that Muggle sport of his.”
Everyone looked at Dean. He smirked and nodded. Some people started shouting in defence of Quidditch, making Dean’s grin only widen.
“This sport of yours just doesn’t make sense, sorry,” he shook his head. “I’ll stick to football.”
“Wait!” Justin called. “What was the lie, though?!”
“Chocolate, of course,” Ron rolled his eyes. “As if Dean would enjoy Snape’s torture!”
When eventually, the argument had cooled down, the next parchment was read out.
“My favourite subject is Divination, my favourite teacher is Professor Trelawney, I love to cook,” Ernie read.
“Okay, those first two have to be lies,” Hermione frowned.
“No,” Padma grinned. “I think this is my sister.”
Parvati just glared at her twin and Hermione in turn, making everyone laugh. “Trelawney is a great teacher, okay?!” she called defensively.
“Sure she is,” Padma rolled her eyes. “Ernie, take it away.”
Ernie drew out the next parchment, skimmed it and smirked. “Oh this one is interesting!” he called. “Listen: I am head over heels in love with my friend, I’m pretty sure he has the hots for someone else, though, because I hear that other boy's name in the common room about five hundred times a day.”
Everyone stared for a moment, taken aback.
“Is this not one statement?” Neville asked. “It’s all connected.
“No,” Lisa Turpin shook her head. “Technically, it’s three individual statements.”
“This was a Slytherin,” Anthony mused. “No one else would throw their friend under the bus like that.”
Everyone glanced at the Slytherins in the round. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were smirking, clearly amused. Malfoy was glaring. Daphne Greengrass had her hand in front of her mouth to hide her expression. Millicent’s expression was deadpan. Tracey Davis and Sophie Roper were whispering to each other, giggling. Pansy Parkinson looked far too innocent. Crabbe and Goyle looked just confused.
“Draco,” Blaise said cheerfully. “Do you have anything to say on the matter?”
“I hate you all,” he ground out.
Tracey snorted out a laugh.
“Don’t ever trust anything a Slytherin tells you,” Malfoy hissed at the others. “They’re all filthy liars!”
“Right,” Michael Corner said with raised eyebrows. “So, we can safely assume it’s not Malfoy.”
“I say it was Theodore,” Megan Jones said gamely.
“Nope,” Theo grinned.
“Millicent,” Seamus tried.
“Nah,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m not that suicidal.”
“Pansy,” Hermione said, watching the other girl curiously.
“Me?” Pansy asked in fake innocence. “Would I really?”
“Stop lying, Pans,” Blaise snorted. “We all know it was you.”
“See,” Malfoy grumbled from next to Harry. “All she does is lie. ”
“Funny,” Pansy smiled widely. “The paper didn’t burst into flames when I wrote down my ‘lies’, so they must have had some ‘truth’ to them.”
Malfoy went very pink.
“So, which one was the lie?” Zacharias Smith asked eagerly.
“The first,” she shrugged. “As if I’d be into Draco. Come on.”
“But then -”
“And that’s enough of that!” Malfoy said loudly, glaring Smith down. Harry tried hard not to think about the implications about what Pansy had meant. After all, he was not interested about Malfoy’s love life. At all. “Ernie, move it along!”
That year, when the game ended, Draco jumped up, grabbed himself a sleeping back and slept as far away from Harry as humanly possible.
Harry did not feel deprived. He did not.
December 1994
“Welcome to our fourth annual inter-house sleepover!” Hannah called. Various of their classmates cheered. Harry joined in, feeling much cheerier since his demands to be seated away from Malfoy this year had finally been heard. Now, he was sitting between Padma and Tracey.
“Due to popular demand, this year’s game will be ‘Spin the Wand’,” Susan announced. “The rules are easy: You spin the wand and kiss whoever the wand lands on. If either of you wants to forfeit, you eat a Zonko’s cracker.”
“How do we know the wand is not rigged?” Malfoy checked. Harry had to bite down on a smile.
“You can use your own wand, if you feel better,” Susan assured. Malfoy nodded.
“Alright,” Anthony said, putting his own wand into the middle. “I’ll spin once to determine who starts. The person it lands on spins again to see who they will kiss.” When he got various nods in response, he spun.
After a few turns, the wand landed on Ron. Harry couldn’t help but laugh as his friend turned the colour of his orange pyjamas. With obvious trepidation, he reached for the wand again and spun it once more.
It landed on Sally Smith, who flushed almost as dark as him. They shared a very awkward peck on the lips. Some people clapped.
Sally spun to determine the next person that would have to spin. The wand landed on Millicent. She sighed and spun the wand with the air of a martyr.
It landed on Hermione.
Harry waited for one of them to forfeit, but they didn’t. Instead, they shared a short kiss, and though Hermione seemed pragmatic about it, she looked flustered.
And so the game continued. Neville kissed Justin. Blaise kissed Padma. Hannah kissed Anthony. Ernie kissed Terry.
And then, the wand landed on Malfoy. Malfoy rolled his eyes and put his own wand in place of the previous one, spinning it. Harry watched, in horror, as it stopped on him.
Malfoy gaped as their classmates screamed and laughed.
“What the -” he muttered. “That was - not supposed to happen. I feel betrayed.”
“Do you forfeit, Malfoy?” Ron taunted. “Are you scared?” Harry really wished he wouldn’t.
Predictably, Malfoy’s eyes narrowed and he glared at Ron. “Shut up, Weaselbee,” he muttered before getting up and making his way towards Harry.
Harry could do nothing but sit there frozen as Malfoy grabbed him by the neck and pulled him in for a determined kiss. It was short and over before Harry even realised what was happening, but when Malfoy pulled away, his lips were tingling.
“There,” Malfoy huffed as he sat down between Lavender and Lisa Turpin again. “ Scared. Honestly.”
December 1995
“This year’s game is ‘Truth and Dare’!” Susan announced brightly.
Harry groaned. Su Li threw him a funny look from his right side. From his left, Blaise just smirked. “Scared of the dares and questions, Potter?” he muttered.
Harry didn’t reply because obviously.
The memory of kissing Draco Malfoy last year was still fresh in his mind, and worse, his classmates were still talking about it. He was sure to be dared something in relation to Malfoy or asked about him, and Harry really didn’t want that.
“We discussed Veritaserum for a while,” Padma said, “to keep everyone honest, but the teachers forbade it.”
“Thank Merlin,” Seamus muttered, looking alarmed.
“But we did settle on a lie-detector charm,” Stephen Cornfoot continued, holding up a marble. “You’ll hold that while you answer a question, and if it turns red, you are lying.”
“We’re so lucky to have you Ravenclaws thinking of all the details,” Pansy drawled.
“I know,” Padma smirked. “Now, let’s spin the wand to start!”
And so, Harry watched his own Nightmare Before Christmas unfold. Crabbe chose ‘Dare’ and was asked to hold his nose while singing the Hogwarts Song. Hermione was asked if she’d ever cheated on an exam (‘Of course not!!!’). Justin Finch-Fletchley was asked if his parents ever gave him the ‘bees and the birds’ talk (‘Yes, and it was traumatising.’). Seamus was dared to make up a rap. Nott was dared to braid Wayne Hopkin’s hair, who was surprisingly chill about it.
Then, slowly, the dares and questions started becoming less innocent, as Harry had feared. When Millicent was asked if she’d ever secretly made out with someone from another house, the answer was a dry: “Yes.” Ernie was asked to massage Blaise’s foot for ten minutes. Susan was asked who her first crush was (‘Credric Diggory’). Daphne was asked to rub Neville’s shoulder.
So, of course, when the wand landed on Harry, he knew that it could mean nothing good.
“Ohhh,” Seamus said, sitting up straight. “Yes. I’ve been waiting for this.”
Malfoy’s grey eyes met Harry’s, as if he, too, knew what was coming.
“Harry,” Anthony said, “we dare you to kiss Draco. For a whole minute, with tongue.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Draco grumbled, flushing.
“Well, you could always forfeit?” Pansy pointed out, her voice sweet.
Malfoy just glared at her, remaining silent.
And so, Harry made his way towards Malfoy. Susan moved aside to make space on the couch next to him so Harry could squeeze in. He looked at Malfoy for a moment, hesitating.
“Oh, just get it over with, Potter,” Malfoy huffed.
Harry rolled his eyes, reached out for Malfoy’s surprisingly smooth jaw and leaned in.
His lips were so soft. Harry was lost in their brush against his own for a few moments before the other boy dutifully parted them, dragging his tongue against Harry’s lower lip to deepen the kiss and fulfil the terms of their dare. Harry hastily complied, opening his lips to allow Malfoy entrance, and then their lips were touching, and Merlin, but his skin felt hot all over. Malfoy tasted like peppermint, fresh and addictive, and Harry found his fingers travelling into his soft hair, touching, pulling him close. Harry’s heart was racing out of control and it was hard to breathe and -
“Earth to Potter and Draco?” Blaise said, making Malfoy jerk back and Harry blink open in surprise. “I know you’re probably waiting all year to touch each other and all, but it’s been three minutes, and we’d like to continue.”
Malfoy cleared his throat, his skin flushed. His hair was adorably mussed from Harry’s hands.
“Right,” he said. “Let’s continue.”
And Harry had no choice but to go back to his seat, feeling a bit lost.
He barely took note of the game until the wand landed on Draco.
“Okay,” Ron said. “Malfoy, I dare you to spend the rest of the night in Harry’s arms, and that means until the morning!”
Harry blinked, gaping at his friend. Ron rolled his eyes. “Don’t look at me like that!” he called. “I’m doing you a favour, mate!”
And so, after a two-year break, Malfoy ended up snuggled back into Harry’s side.
“You are less pointy,” Harry muttered.
“And you are less skinny,” Malfoy shut back, but there was no heat in his voice.
Harry sighed. Malfoy’s hair was tickling his chin.
“We need new friends,” Malfoy muttered. “Ours are horrible.”
“Maybe they’re really doing us a favour,” Harry said softly. “I don’t know. I mean… I liked kissing you.”
Malfoy was silent for a long moment.
“You did?” he asked, his voice very quiet.
“Yeah,” Harry nodded. “A lot.”
Malfoy gulped. And then, he twisted in Harry’s arms until they were facing each other.
Draco’s lips were soft against Harry’s, and Harry melted into him. From somewhere, Seamus was shouting: “Hey, you were not dared to do that!” and Nott answering: “Leave them be, you pillock!”
Harry couldn’t care less. All that mattered were Malfoy’s lips against his.
December 1996
“What do you mean, you want to cancel the annual sleepover?!” Draco demanded angrily. “It’s a Hogwarts tradition!”
“It’s an event we did especially for your year, because fights between the houses, and namely between you and Mr Potter, were escalating,” Professor McGonagall reminded him. “Now, you seem to be getting along perfectly well and I don’t see a need to -”
“But it’s tradition!” Draco called. “You can’t give us something, let us get used to it and then take it away again!”
“You’re frankly getting too old to be left unsupervised for these sleepovers, Mr Malfoy,” Professor Snape injected, his voice deadpan. “We cannot, on good conscience, let a whole bunch of sixteen and seventeen-year-old kids sleep together in the Great Hall. If the parents -”
“We are at a boarding school, Professor,” Draco rolled his eyes. “I hate to break it to you, but we’re always sharing a room with sixteen or seventeen-year-olds. And no orgies have yet occurred. At least not as far as I have heard.”
“If you are so worried,” Padma interrupted, “you could ask some of the house elves to supervise?”
The professors sighed, exchanging looks of defeat.
“Fine,” McGonagall said. “But if we hear one word of any misbehaviour whatsoever -”
“Right,” Draco grinned, taking Harry’s hand. “Much obliged Professor.”
And with that, they both took off down the corridor to enjoy the rest of their free period (namely, to snog).
“I had no idea you were so attached to the inter-house sleepovers,” Harry teased his boyfriend.
“Well,” Draco shrugged, grinning. “They’re what brought us together, after all.”
“That’s surprisingly sweet, Draco.”
“Shut it,” Draco rolled his eyes before pushing him against a wall and covering Harry’s lips with his own. Harry smiled into the kiss and pulled Draco closer. Somewhere, a suit of armour was singing ‘Jingle Bells’ as a student walked by.