Chapter Text
They’ve been sneaking around for months now, and they’ve gotten pretty good at it, if Louis does say so himself, but they both know that their luck is bound to run out at some point.
What he doesn’t expect is for their luck to run out today.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and he’s got Harry pressed up against the back wall of a broom closet (some things are a cliché for a reason, after all), one hand in his hair and one hand crawling up the back of his rumpled school shirt.
When Ed opens the door (which apparently they’d forgotten to lock, shit), Louis is just glad that they both still have their trousers on. A few minutes later and Ed might have really gotten an eyeful.
“Merlin’s arse hairs,” Ed says, eyes wide.
“Um,” says Harry. “Hi, Ed.”
Louis pulls his hands back, and goes to step away from Harry, but Harry grabs his hand before he can move, twining their fingers together and grinning at Ed, who is hovering in the doorway like he hasn’t fully decided whether he should just shut the door and back away again.
“This is a surprise,” Ed says, gesturing at the two of them.
“Is it?” Louis asks, raising an eyebrow.
“No, not really,” Ed answers quickly, which makes them all laugh. “Are you guys together, now, then, or is this just limited to broom closets?”
Louis bites his tongue to stop himself from making the obvious definitely not in the closet joke.
“We’re boyfriends,” Harry says proudly. “I mean, secretly, but still.”
“Would you mind keeping this to yourself?” Louis asks. “That me and Harry are together, I mean. We will tell the others, I promise, but we just want to wait until we’re ready.”
“Sure,” Ed says. “Of course.” He mimes zipping his mouth shut.
“Thanks,” Harry says, squeezing Louis’ hand.
“Does anybody else know?”
“We told our parents over Christmas,” Louis says. “They did a terrible job of acting like they hadn’t been expecting the news for a while. I guess they figured it out long before either of us did.”
“Or we just weren’t being as subtle as we thought we were,” Harry adds.
“But nobody at Hogwarts knows yet,” Louis says. “We want to keep it to ourselves for a little longer.”
“You know Niall’s going to have a field day when he finds out, right?”
Louis laughs. “Yeah, mate, I reckon he will.”
“So when did this happen, then?” Ed asks. “How did this happen?”
Harry and Louis look at each other.
“Well,” Louis says. “It’s a long story.”
***
The first time that they’d kissed had been an accident.
Well, as much of an accident as it could have been when they’d both been dancing around each other for months, swapping shy smiles and blushing looks, but both of them too nervous to actually make a move.
Louis had never felt like more of a sham of a Gryffindor, but while he was always the first person to take up a dare and he wasn’t really scared of much, he still wasn’t brave enough to tell his best friend that he was in love with him. That was proper scary. Not Harry, Harry could never be scary, but Louis wasn’t sure that he would be able to handle it if Harry rejected him.
They had always been close, had been best friends right from the very start, and their friendship had only gotten more intense as the years went on. They spent holidays visiting at each others houses, and they spent so much time together at school that on one memorable occasion, they had been handed a birthday party invitation addressed to harryandlouis as if they were one person. (Louis still had that invitation, hidden at the bottom of his school trunk.) They had a pretty good circle of close friends, but Harry and Louis had always been on another level. “Kindred spirits,” Harry liked to say, which was apparently a reference to a muggle novel that he liked.
They’d grown up together from the age of eleven, and so they had seen each other through all kinds of highs and lows and awkward puberty situations. The bright side of this, Louis thinks, is that they’d never have to go through that embarrassing ritual where they brought their partner home to meet their parents, only for their mum to bring out the album of childhood photos as entertainment, because in all of Louis’ most embarrassing photos, Harry was standing right next to him, waving brightly and sporting an even more ridiculous haircut than him.
Louis had been the first person that Harry had come out to, back in fifth year, when he'd realised that he liked boys. He’d told Louis that he was the very first person that he wanted to tell, even before his mum or Gemma. Louis had given him a big hug, and told him that he was great, and then not even two months later he had come out to Harry as well.
Louis reckons that coming out is always a little bit scary, to crack your heart open and offer up your true self to someone, just hoping that they would still love and accept you when they got to know that new information about you. But he also thinks it was a little bit less terrifying to tell your best friend that you were gay when you knew that they would be supportive, and that they wouldn’t love you any less, considering that they were gay as well.
So it had been a little disheartening that following Louis’ big revelation, Harry had given him a hug, but then immediately disappeared for the whole afternoon, giving a flimsy excuse of having homework that he needed to get finished. Louis had just been starting to wonder if he’d scared Harry off, if he’d just ruined their friendship once and for all, when Harry had suddenly appeared, levitating a large box in front of him and grinning from ear to ear. He’d opened the box to reveal a huge rainbow cake, which Harry explained he had convinced the house elves to let him bake in the kitchens.
If Louis had had to hide his face in Harry’s shoulder to cover up the tears in this eyes, then Harry had been kind enough to pretend not to see them.
They’d taken the cake to share with the boys after dinner. Louis had grandly announced that he liked boys, and Harry had thrown a handful of confetti that he’d apparently been hiding in the pocket of his robes. Liam and Niall had applauded appropriately, and given Louis their congratulations.
“I always knew you two would get together,” Niall said, making Louis choke on a mouthful of cake.
“What?”
“You know,” Niall said, “you two have always been so close you’re practically living inside each others robe pockets, and you basically act like an old married couple anyway. I just figured you hadn’t worked out that you were in love with each other yet, and now you have, and we have cake, and it’s great!”
“What?” Louis screeched, making Liam cover his ears. “We’re not together.”
“You’re not?” Liam asked, lowering his hands.
“No!”
“He’s right,” Harry chimed in, wrapping his arm around Louis’ waist comfortingly. “We’re not dating.”
“You do realise the mixed messages you’re sending out, right?” Niall said, raising his eyebrows at the way they were cuddled up.
“Just because we’re best mates and we’re both gay doesn’t meet we’re automatically dating, you knob!”
“Sorry!” Niall said, raising his hands in apology. “That was shitty of me. I just thought that was what you were trying to tell us.”
“You would make a very cute couple,” Liam said, and Louis shoved Harry when he laughed. “Don’t encourage them, Harold.”
“It’s not our fault if you can’t see what’s right in front of you, Lou,” Niall said. “I can’t wait to say ‘I told you so’ when I make the best man speech at your wedding.”
“Fat chance,” Louis said, and then they had demolished the rest of the cake. Niall had dropped the subject, but Louis hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
It was weird, that two of his best friends were so sure that he and Harry were in love with each other. Sure, Harry was one of Louis’ favourite people in the whole world, and he loved him, but he wasn’t in love with him. He’d never really thought about Harry like that before, but over the next few months, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Every time they cuddled up on the sofa together, every time Harry saved him an extra helping of dessert or brought him cups of tea or sat by the window with the light glinting down on his hair just so, Louis kept thinking about it.
Neither he nor Harry had ever broached the subject, but he was pretty sure Harry had been thinking about it too. Something had changed that day, a tiny shift in their little HarryandLouis bubble. They started to be more delicate with each other, a little shier and more gentle in their motions. Louis would never admit it out loud, but with every passing day he was more and more sure that Niall had been right after all.
After several months of build up, the whole thing had come to a head over the previous summer. They usually spent as much of the holidays as they could trading off at each others houses, grateful that both of their mothers were always willing to adopt another teenage boy into their household for weeks at a time.
The summer in between their sixth and seventh years was no different. They’d spent the first few weeks at Louis’, filling up their time playing Quidditch in the back yard and letting Louis’ sisters practice painting their nails. When the weather had started to heat up a bit, they’d switched over to Harry’s house so they could take advantage of the pool.
The morning it had happened, they’d been lounging out by the side of the pool, which looked the same as it did every year, shiny blue tiles and slightly faded deck chairs sitting beside it. Harry didn’t look the same this year, though. He was wearing the same yellow swim trunks as always, sure, but he’d shot up about six inches since last summer, and so the shorts were tiny now, bordering on obscene, even, the hem resting high up on his thighs, which were shiny with sunscreen. Louis could barely tear his eyes away. He desperately wanted to kiss Harry, and he felt guilty for wanting it.
With months of pining behind him, Louis blamed the yellow shorts for being the final straw that broke the hippogriff’s back. Pining from afar was one thing, but pining when you spent all your time with the other person was downright unbearable. He hadn’t been able to hold it in anymore, as he was pretty sure he would literally explode if he was forced to spend one more second with Harry Styles without being able to kiss him.
And so Louis had decided he was going to do just that. He was going to kiss Harry. He had taken a deep breath, and he’d shuffled closer to where Harry was sprawled out on his own deck chair.
“Hey, Harry?”
“Yeah, Lou?” Harry had said, pulling his sunglasses up into his hair so he could look at him properly.
“Um,” Louis had started, and then Harry had leaned in and kissed him. Louis had been so shocked that he’d just sat there, frozen, as Harry pressed his lips against his. “Oi,” he’d said indignantly when Harry had pulled back.
“Oh,” Harry had said, looking stricken. “I, uh. I’m sorry, I - ”
“Wait, no,” Louis had said quickly, leaning in to kiss Harry, properly this time. “I want to kiss you, I promise. I want to kiss you all the time.” He kissed him again, leaning into it. “I was just - ” he had huffed out a breath. “I had just worked up the guts to finally kiss you, that’s all, and then you bloody beat me to it.”
“Sorry,” Harry had said, not looking sorry at all. “I couldn’t wait anymore.”
Louis was grinning so hard his cheeks were already starting to hurt. “Me either,” he had said. “I can’t believe you want to kiss me.”
“And you want to kiss me,” Harry had replied, leaning in to do just that.
“Merlin. Will you be my boyfriend? Please?”
Harry had laughed, entwining his fingers with Louis’. “Well, since you asked so nicely…”
“Shut up,” Louis had said, kissing him again. He wasn’t sure he would ever get sick of being allowed to do that. “I’m going to date you so hard, Haz, just you wait.”
“I can’t wait, boyfriend,” Harry had said, and Louis’ heart had skipped several beats.
They’d spent the rest of the day - the rest of the summer - kissing and going on dates (which involved them acting just like they normally did but with more kissing) and learning what being in a relationship with each other would actually be like.
After lots of discussion, they had both decided to keep their blossoming romance a secret, at least for the time being. They both remembered the comments the boys had made when Louis had come out, and if there was one thing Louis Tomlinson hated, it was having to hear someone say “I told you so.” Especially when that someone was Niall Horan. They didn’t want to give their friends the satisfaction, and they wanted to be able to enjoy their relationship in peace.
***
“So yeah,” Louis said. “It happened something like that.”
***
After the broom closet incident, they try to be a little more careful.
The fact that they barely have any free time anymore for covert snogging sessions helps, although Louis can’t say he’s very pleased with that development. Besides the ever-growing pile of homework their teachers are giving them to prepare them for their upcoming NEWTs, Harry is kept busy with an extra credit project he’s doing with the Herbology Club, and Louis has been scheduling extra Quidditch practices to make sure that his team is ready for the match against Ravenclaw that’s scheduled to take place in a week’s time.
They see each other at meal times, of course, and they all still hang out as a group most nights, but their alone time has been drastically reduced for the last few weeks. It’s gotten to the point where Louis is willingly spending time in the library, just so he can spend a little time sitting side by side with Harry as they both work on their individual projects.
They’ve barely managed to spend the night together at all lately, a combination of conflicting schedules and nosy dorm mates, and Louis is sick of spending every night tossing and turning, all alone in his four poster bed. He sleeps much better when he has Harry beside him, limbs tangled together under the covers, and his mood has definitely been suffering with his boyfriend’s absence.
***
Louis’ been face down on the desk for ten whole minutes before Liam finally cracks, presumably sick of Louis’ sporadic and very dramatic moaning.
He sighs, with all the airs of someone who has been dealing with Louis’ antics for going on seven years now, and he sets his quill down neatly next to his half-finished essay.
“What’s got your want in a knot, then?”
“Nothing,” says Louis, just to annoy Liam further.
Liam glares at him, eyebrows furrowed, and Louis huffs out a breath.
“I’m bored,” he says.
“Why don’t you work on your Charms essay, then?” Liam suggests, gesturing to the mostly blank piece of parchment sitting in front of him.
“I’m not bored enough to do that, Lima.”
“Of course,” Liam says, rolling his eyes. “Why don’t you go find Harry? He always seems to be able to entertain you.”
If only you knew, Louis thinks wryly.
“He’s busy,” he whines. “He ran off somewhere after breakfast.”
“Probably with his boyfriend, then,” Liam says. He crosses out something carefully in the middle of his essay.
Louis makes a grumbly noise, and puts his head back on the desk.
“Maybe you should get a boyfriend, too, Lou,” Liam says, and Louis gives him the finger.
“Seriously, though. How come you haven’t dated anyone in ages? Harry’s got his secret bloke, whoever he is, why don’t you go out and find someone nice too?”
“I’m fine,” Louis mumbles into the desk. “Thank you for your concern.”
He gives himself five more minutes of feeling sorry for himself, and then he picks up his quill and makes a begrudging start on his essay. If he can’t be with Harry, he can at least be productive.
***
Saturday afternoon finds Louis curled up on an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, cosy with a red and gold throw blanket covering his legs and wearing the knitted socks Liam had given him in their Secret Santa exchange - Liam was nothing if not a practical gift giver - and flicking through his battered copy of Quidditch Through the Ages for the thousandth time.
He was trying in vain to find some kind of new manoeuvre they could use to get an advantage in their match against Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaw team had two new beaters this year, a pair of fourth year brutish types, the kind that had shoulders so broad they looked like they might tip off their brooms given the slightest nudge. They weren’t particularly fast, and Louis was hoping to create a game plan that would give their own (quite speedy, if he did say so himself) team an edge. What Ravenclaw might lack in speed and technique, though, they made up for in strategy and planning, and so Louis was studying.
He’s scribbling a note to himself on a spare scrap of parchment when a shadow suddenly appears, blocking out his light and startling him, making him blot ink everywhere. Niall’s laughing at him, and Louis huffs, trying to siphon away the worst of the spill with his wand.
“Bit jumpy there,” Niall says.
“Well, if you weren’t always bloody sneaking up on me…”
“Nah, that’s half the fun,” Niall says. “Anyway, I have a question to ask you.”
“And what’s that?” Louis puts his ink and quill away, realising that he’s got going to get any more work done now.
“It’s about Harry’s boyfriend,” Niall says.
“Oh?” Louis says, trying to play it cool.
“Yeah, the other Niall and I were thinking, and - ”
“You’ve dragged the other Niall into this, too?”
Niall shrugs. “Yep. And we were thinking that he must be a Ravenclaw.”
“On what basis?” Louis laughs.
“Well, that’s the only house we don’t really have a lot of friends in. If he was disappearing with someone we knew, then surely we would notice.”
Louis is struggling to keep a straight face.
“Hmmm,” he says. “Yeah, I can see what you’re thinking.”
He can’t wait to tell Harry about this later.
“So, what with the Ravenclaw match coming up,” Niall continues, “I was wondering if you had any suspects.”
“No,” says Louis. “But I’ll keep an eye out.”
“Cool,” says Niall, and then there’s a thump from behind them. They both turn around just in time to watch as Harry comes stumbling through the portrait hole, carrying Zoe in his arms.
Niall gives Louis a meaningful look, which he ignores.
“Hi, Haz,” Louis says, already reaching out for Zoe. Harry laughs as he lets his cat down, watching as she immediately jumps onto Louis’ lap and starts rubbing her head against his jumper. “And hi to you too, little miss,” he says, rubbing behind her ears.
“Someone has a favourite,” Harry says.
“Oi,” Niall says. An empty chocolate frog wrapper hits Louis in the head a moment later.
“Aww,” Louis says, reaching over to pet Niall on the head. “You’re my favourite, too, Nialler.”
Niall grumbles under his breath, but he leans into Louis’ hand anyway.
Harry plops down on the carpet in front of the armchair, leaning back against Louis’ legs. “So what are you guys up to?” he asks. “Studying again?” He holds up Louis’ copy of Quidditch Through The Ages, which had been knocked to the ground with all the fuss.
“Mmmhm,” Louis says. “The eagles are going down.”
“Excellent,” Harry says.
Niall nods in agreement. “Yeah, I have five galleons on Gryffindor winning, so no pressure, Lou.”
***
They win the match, 170-60.
Louis makes sure he congratulates his team, praising them for all their hard work, and then while everyone is distracted making plans for their victory party, he ducks out of the locker room unseen. He hasn’t even bothered changing out of his Quidditch uniform, and now that the adrenaline rush is tapering off, he can feel the sweaty robes sticking unpleasantly to his skin. He’s sure that he doesn’t smell the best, either, but that won’t be a problem with what he has planned.
He finds Harry waiting for him behind the stands, right where he’d told him to meet him. Harry pulls him in right away, sweaty robes and all, and kisses him soundly.
“Congratulations,” he says. “Best captain ever.”
Louis snorts. “Don’t let Finley hear you say that, or he’ll have you kicked off the team for treason.”
“Eh,” Harry shrugs. “He’s not nearly as cute as you, so.”
“Is that right?”
“You’re just fishing for compliments, now,” Harry says, pressing a soft kiss on Louis’ jaw. “I know your game.”
“Guilty,” Louis says. “Now come on, I want to get out of these robes.”
“Ooh, now that’s a plan I can get behind.”
“Not like that, Styles, honestly, get your mind out of the gutter.”
Harry raises a single eyebrow at him.
“Okay, a little bit like that,” he says, making Harry cackle. “Let’s just go.”
He leads Harry quickly up into the castle and through the still-deserted hallways. They climb the stairs up to the fifth floor, and Louis is counting the doors carefully, because he’s only been here once before. They reach the statute of Boris the Bewildered, and Louis counts four doors to the left and then stops.
“This is it,” he says.
“The prefects’ bathroom?” Harry asks.
“Yep,” says Louis with a grin. “It is a stunning oversight on my part that we’ve never taken advantage of this room before. Got to make the most of my captaincy perks, and all that.”
“Oh yes,” says Harry seriously. “You know that I’m only with you for the bathroom privileges.”
Louis rolls his eyes.
“Is it true that the bath has hundreds of different taps?” Harry asks, looking excited at the prospect.
“Why don’t we go in so you can see for yourself?” Louis suggests. “Crystal clear,” he says, and the door opens.
He lets Harry enter the room first, so he can follow behind him and watch as he takes everything in.
“This is amazing,” Harry breathes, running his hand over the jewel encrusted taps.
“The best part is nobody else can come in here while we’re using it,” Louis says. “The room is designed to give us total privacy.”
“Privacy, huh? Whatever shall we do with that?”
“How about a bath, for starters?” Louis says, biting down on a grin. “Do you want to choose the taps?”
Harry nods, and Louis lets him go for it, moving around the edges of the bath and carefully considering each of his choices.
The bath fills very quickly, considering it’s basically a small swimming pool, and within minutes Louis has Harry tucked up against his side, clothes abandoned in a pile on the tiled floor. Harry’s already made friends with the mermaid in the stained glass window, who had flicked her tail and disappeared with a wink once Harry and Louis had gotten in the bath.
“Maybe I should get a mermaid tattoo,” Harry muses, holding up his arm to inspect it. “What do you think, Lou?”
“Sure, baby,” Louis says. “That would look nice.”
“This is so nice,” Harry says, dragging his fingers through a pile of cotton candy-scented foam.
Louis hums in agreement, leaving over to give Harry a kiss on the corner of his mouth. “I’ve missed you,” he whispers. “I’m so happy to be here with you right now.”
“In this ridiculously big magical bath,” Harry says.
“In this ridiculously big magical bath,” Louis agrees.
Harry smiles. “Love you, Lou.”
“I love you too,” he says, pulling one hand out of the water so he can grip Harry’s jaw and kiss him properly, tiny bubbles dripping down his neck.
Harry kisses him back enthusiastically for a while, and then pulls back. “When’s the next Hogsmeade weekend?” he asks.
“Um,” says Louis. His brain is a little foggy right now, but he sifts through his mental calendar. “Next weekend, actually, I think. Why?”
“Wanna come with me to get a new tattoo?”