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Harry stared for a long moment, torn between tearing his glasses off and simply tearing his eyes out because what he was seeing could not be real. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“The entirety of secondary wasn’t enough? Now I have to deal with you here, too?” Draco Malfoy was beside him, looking at the roommate listings for university freshmen. There, right at the very top of the list as if in a nightmare, were the names Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter.
“Absolutely not,” Harry said, finally managing to dredge up the last remaining bits of sanity he had. “I’d rather sleep outside in the grass.”
“I’d rather sleep on the roof of the building,” Draco scoffed, ever the one-upper, arms crossed tight over his slender chest. It was distracting for only a moment. Then his annoyance came back.
“You said you weren’t even going to this uni! You’re supposed to be in France right now!” Not that Harry cared. Or was supposed to know that.
“And you said that you were going to try out that Auror program they have going out in America! ” Draco screeched at him, probably only in tones dogs could hear. “What the hell are you even doing here?!”
Immediately a dozen responses formed and died in Harry’s throat ranging from Because that was too far away and I couldn’t handle the thought of leaving behind my friends and family and you for that long. to I know this was your backup plan and part of me hoped I could see you and figure out what the hell to do but I wasn’t expecting this to happen. He settled with a nice, safe, “I asked you first!”
“I’m older!”
“Ladies,” a voice crowed, and Harry groaned. Zabini. “Other people would like to see the listings, too, you know.”
Harry scoffed harshly, stepping aside and waving for Draco to follow, stupidly pleased when he actually did so. Even if he was still fussing. “Look. Roommates are allowed to request new or different roommates after the first semester.”
“So you mean we’re stuck with each other for the entire semester,” Draco huffed at him, though… Hm. Harry couldn’t help narrowing his eyes. He was doing that thing. That thing where he sidestepped everything because he couldn’t just say what he wanted.
“I…” If he wasn’t wrong, there actually was a way to get new roommates immediately, if both of them raised objections, but… An entire semester where Draco couldn’t run away at the end of the day. One where he could poke and prod and dig and discover a million things that he hadn’t been allowed to notice the first time around. “Yeah. ‘Fraid so.”
Draco huffed, and raised a big fuss like he always did when something didn’t really much actually bother him. “Bloody fantastic. Because that’s exactly how I wanted my semester to go. Stuck in a dormitory with star student and boy wonder, Harry fucking Potter. Bet the professors will be falling all over themselves for you on day one!”
Alright, there was a lot to unpack there when it came to traumatic childhoods, bad first meetings, and getting off on the wrong foot. The only thing Harry could think to stumble out though was, “You got better grades than me?”
“ That was because I didn’t expect to just be handed grades for existing. Surprised they didn’t name the bloody school after you, at that point.” Hm. Was a semester enough to even work through one of those problems?
“Careful. Keep throwing a fuss like that and the universe might stick us together for the entire year instead of just the semester.”
“You’re bluffing! They wouldn’t dare! ” He was yelling that, but at the same time, Harry had seen Draco when he was enraged and angry and wrathful. This was… not quite that. Interesting.
Harry put on a grin, strolling by Draco to their new room. “Keep up, Malfoy, since when do I ever bluff?” A semester with Draco as a roommate…
Harry supposed there were worse ways to start off university.