Chapter Text
“Harry?” Ginny calls again for the fourth time, this time reaching for Harry’s shoulder.
Harry looks like he just woke up from a bad dream and he probably might have because there was a girl in front of Draco.
Going for a hug, and no, it is not Parkinson—it is someone different, she has pure black hair and looks like she is wearing round glasses and that is all he can see from the side. Draco does not look like he is going to decline the hug offer and he looks like he is about to accept it—which should not affect Harry in any way, but it does.
“Harry what’s gotten into you?” Ginny says a little worried and this time Harry looks at her finally. Her eyes are full of worry, and she has a pitying expression on her face, maybe she knows, maybe she does not—but in both situations it is not fair to her.
“I’m sorry, uh what were we talking about?” he says, trying to smile and not look at Draco.
“Nothing really, I was asking if you would want to help me coach the new team for quidditch?”
Huh, coaching for quidditch did not sound bad, and plus it would take his attention away from Draco and Merlin knows he needs to do that right now— cause shit Draco’s hugging the girl.
“Harry?” Ginny frowns and lightly slaps Harry’s shoulder, “so are you going to do it with me?”
Harry rubs the shoulder that was hit and nods.
“Great, be out at the field at 4 tomorrow” And with that she leaves with Luna to the girl’s dormitory. He almost forgot that Luna was there beside them this whole time.
Now since Ginny had left, it was his queue to leave cause being alone in the common room with Draco and that girl is giving him major goosebumps.
And of course, Draco must meet his eyes when leaving, Harry does not want to make it look like he is avoiding eye contact and running away but how do you exactly do that without making it awkward and obvious?
You cannot. Simple. So, he is frozen there—eye to eye with Draco on the other side of the room, it is horrifying, the punch of feelings and realization that he will never be in the place of that girl, and that he is always going to hide himself because he fears everything.
These secrets are going to be the death of me.
No.
Things have finally changed, the war is over, everyone is finally starting to heal, and he does not want to change that with this or anything about himself. He has caused enough damage to think about himself right now. Maybe later, or never.
He realizes that he is still stuck in time staring at Draco, he thinks of looking away, but he waits—waits for Draco to look away first...but it does not happen, Draco has this expression on his face that Harry can’t quite read, but when has he ever read his expressions? When has he ever found out what happens inside Draco’s head cause never has, he ever tried—all those years of fighting and they never ever tried fixing it or try talking after the war.
Well, they did once but who was he kidding—that went away as fast as it came. Talked once and then woosh—gone with the wind. Never again.
But look at him now, having this intense feeling whenever he thinks about Draco—never felt like this for Ginny ever and 3 months ago he did not know why he was feeling this and what even it was but that one night he realized it—it was a smack on his face and heart.
3 Months Ago
The reopening ceremony of Hogwarts, that is when it all happened—that night everyone and anyone were invited. People of the war, people whose families were involved in the war and anyone who knew what Hogwarts was. This was a night of healing and letting go of the past, a night when they celebrated the complete rebuilding of the old school. Harry this certain night tried letting everything go too—enjoy and go with the flow but he just could not do it, it hurt too much to forget everything.
His friends and family looked okay though—which was enough for him, in fact they looked happy and seemed to be enjoying the Ball. Hogwarts had decided to host a Masquerade Ball for the opening—it gave the chance for people to interact with each other with anonymity, this was good if people wanted to make new friends without any past judgement. It was working too, because everyone was with someone, and no one was left out.
Except from him of course— maybe he should have left early that day before all that happened, if only he did.
He was in a corner of the hall gulping down fire whiskeys because he had nothing better to do and since no one knew who he was with the mask and all no one tried talking to him, he was being seen as the dark brooding person with a scowl in the corner, saying that reminded him of a certain someone who would definitely be doing this. That certain someone being Malfoy and speaking about Malfoy, he wondered if the other was even at the ball.
The ball had gone on hours without Harry ever looking for Draco—he was not sure he even wanted to look for him but nevertheless Fate always somehow did him dirty and now there was Draco stupid Malfoy standing in front of him with a girl locked in his arms drinking fire whiskey at the standing table with him. Draco was wearing a dark red suit and a black mask which absolutely looked gorgeous on him—not that Harry cared but Draco looked genuinely nice, but the girl on the other hand was….no comment.
Harry didn't know how he figured out that the person underneath the mask was Malfoy, actually no, it was obviously the hair and his eyes--who could forget those gorge-- no -- weird colored eyes.
Draco and the girl had been standing and drinking across Harry for 3 minutes already, they looked like they could not recognize him, which was good because he did not know how to get out of the situation, if that were to happen. But it was quite disrespectful, the whole point of this ceremony was to heal and make friends yet not one of them had taken the liberty to say hi or hello. But either way, Harry was glad they did not cause Draco would have realized that it was him.
But what Harry was not glad about was the fact that this random girl who did not seem to be from Hogwarts was chumming up with Draco—which if he was being honest; did affect him.
Her stupid giggles and laugh were pissing Harry off, and Draco seemingly wasn’t giving out that usual scowl—which was also one of the other things that were pissing him off. How could Draco sodding Malfoy look this good without a scowl on his face? When has he ever heard Draco laugh like this? To be fair, throughout their years of knowing each life had never given them a chance of getting to know each other genuinely but now that the war was over maybe he would want to start over. Maybe or maybe not.
He had things to think about and worry about but now all he could think about was Draco and this mystery girl—to be honest, it was obvious what their relationship seemed to be, but Harry did not want to go there because when has Draco ever dated someone before? Not that he knows about Draco that much…yeah scratch that, he does in fact know for sure that Malfoy has never dated anyone before—if Harry was guessing back then, then he had thought that Draco was interested in the other gender or not interested at all but today seemed to prove him wrong completely cause now Harry was staring and subconsciously scowling as the girl across the table kissed Draco on the lips. Now this was bad .
You know what they say, when you face your fears your body freezes and, your everything hurts—maybe he just made that up but that is what is happening at the moment; he’s feeling this stupid pang of hurt in his heart; like when you read something sad and you know it hurts bad—going back, his brain is definitely hurting and he has a headache, that’s probably because of the whiskey but the millions of thoughts of anger and somewhat betrayal keeps flooding his brain—and lastly his throat just gave up on him cause right now he’s definitely choking on the drink. And the two of them are looking at him now—fuck.
The girl rushes to his side of the table and offers a napkin and pats his back to help him, he did not know what to expect but at least he did not expect that.
“Are you okay?” She says with clear worry in her eyes and Harry completely feels bad for insulting her in his mind—forgive him.
“Yea thank you” he says before realizing that he was not supposed to talk—his eyes fly to Malfoy’s and Malfoy looks like he has already recognized who he is by that look on his face—well his covered face.
“Potter?” Malfoy says and then there’s Harry’s queue to leave and leaving is what he does; he walks away after saying thank you again, calm and composed but his brain rushing like a bullet train.
Harry thinks it is best to call for the night, so he meets up with his friends and bids them goodbyes and good nights before leaving to go to his dorm and sleep. He knows his body wants to sleep, but his brain will not let him sleep.
The way to his dorms is easier than he thought it was, Hogwarts had made the extra year staying students a whole new dormitory since they only kept dorms till 7 years, and since this was an extra year only a few of the students decided to stay—that being most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs leaving, which was surprising because Slytherins did not seem the type to stay. The school had supplied only 1 big dormitory for all the houses, there was a girl's dorm and a boy's dorm—no different houses and no different common rooms, you could imagine future chaos. But in a way it was good, it gave another chance to heal and make up and have Inter-house unity. Only time will tell how much this works though cause right now the school year has not started yet (time did tell how well it was working).
He made his way down to the dorm and to his surprise it was completely empty, this gave him the opportunity to have the common room to himself after taking a quick hot shower.
After his warm hot shower—which was not quick at all; he came down to the common room in his PJs, to his surprise and relief it had remained empty. He had decided to take the chair in front of the fireplace and had settled in with a book and his blanket, this was all he needed, nothing to think about and no one to be with.
Jinx,
That is until the common room door opened, Harry could hear it open but could not see since it was facing the other way, he had decided to squeeze himself into the chair to hide but that did not seem to work because he heard the person walking up to him. Great. Why cannot he ever be left alone—who is it even-
“Potter”
And of course, how can he ever not recognize that voice? Malfoy.
“Do you want something?” He tried asking normally.
“Nothing really, you weren’t out in the hall” He does not know what he wants but he does not want Draco to sound so calm, it does not suit him.
“Oh, uh yeah I was tired, so I came back” Great excuse, now please leave him alone.
“But you skipped dinner?”
“I’m not hungry”
“Yeah okay, but Um, here,” Draco said as he accio-ed a plate of dinner from the hall. “This is just some extra.” Draco held the plate forward waiting for Harry to take it from his hand.
Harry did not know what to say, it was a kind gesture, and maybe kind enough for Harry’s heart to know exactly what he was feeling at the moment, and he felt sick to his stomach. It was disgusting, feeling like this. It was not normal and what was suppressed a long time ago seemed to be coming back. And Draco Malfoy out of all people made him get these feelings.
“Are you going to take it, Potter?” Draco asked and Harry almost forgot that Malfoy was standing in front of him. Nevertheless, Harry took the plate from Draco’s hand and waited for the others to go away.
But he did not.
He did not go away, instead, he sat beside him on the other chair, crossing his legs and sitting elegantly. Fuck, he was so hot. But what was he supposed to do now? Talk? Make small chatter? Banter like always? Please just someone help him.
Harry was at loss to what he was supposed to do now, thankfully Draco was the first to start talking again, “You saw us there?” He asked, and Harry knew exactly what he was asking about. He nodded in reply as he knew his voice was to betray him if he were to speak. Draco stared at him variously, “Why didn’t you say anything? I mean, you were all alone in the corner without your friends”
So glad he noticed, Harry, deadpanned in his mind, but seriously, what was he supposed to say?
“You seemed busy” And the one thing he did not want to say was said, great going. Draco stared at him again, no, his eyes never left Harry and now it was getting extremely uncomfortable.
Draco nodded in agreement, “So you saw,” he said with a subtle frown, yes of course I saw, you were smooching in front of me! That is what he wanted to say but did not have the guts to, so he nodded again and acted like he was trying to eat. “She’s my friend,” he says, looking away this time. If he was going to lie then maybe he should have tried making it believable, what a jerk, Harry thought. And why was he even telling this to him? It was not his business to know who she was and what she was to him.
“But you were kissing her?” Harry was the kind of person who would consider doing something—or, in this case, not doing it—then go out and actually do the exact opposite of what he had been considering. Therefore, he was trying to avoid asking Draco about kissing in this situation but look at what he just ended up doing.
The question caught Draco off guard, he did not think that Potter was going to ask that, but he had a gut feeling that Potter did want to ask that. Why did Potter care? No, why did he care that Potter cared? Why did he dispose of that girl he was with the whole time just to follow Harry out of the ball and go all the way to the kitchen just to bring food for him?
Just because.
He really did not know why himself, maybe it was coming back, the feelings before the war that were meant to be suppressed. Was it that bad though? The war was over, his dad was in jail so he did not really have a say in who he loved and his mom—he was sure that his mom would support him no matter what. But Potter had Ginny.
So, now it was his time to move on, but clearly, Potter was not allowing him to.
“I’m sure you kiss--”
“Malfoy you do not kiss friends if that is what you were about to say” Draco closed his mouth shut and frowned, great. “You do not have to answer if you do not want to you know?” Draco nodded like he was agreeing to something, but he was sure he was dazing into Harry’s eyes, how could he not notice those glasses off from Potter’s face? And since when did Potter have such pretty eyes? “Malfoy?” Harry asked as he waved his hand in front of Draco’s face. “Should you not be downstairs?”
“Uh yes, I should be” Draco answered frowning, “but I don’t want to go,” good, the question was being dodged.
Harry smiled, Malfoy seemed like a lost puppy at that moment, “you can stay if you want”
“I’m sure you wanted some alone time Potter,” as much as Draco wanted to stay, he was sure that the awkwardness would eat them both up if he did so.
“Yeah, I guess I did, but I want to talk too”
“You want to talk?” Draco asked genuinely, “talk about what?”
Harry hesitated at first but what harm would Malfoy even do? And he sure as hell was not going to open up to his friends and family since he did not want to affect their happy time. “My feelings”
Draco sighed, “I should warn you that I’m no therapist Potter”
“Wow, thanks for reminding me, I had no idea” he deadpanned, and Draco laughed in return.
“Sorry, um, yeah you can talk to me I guess”
“I know the whole point of this event is to let go of the past, and everything is going all good and people seem to be letting go but...”
“it’s too soon to let go?” Draco asked and Potter wanted to kiss him, finally, someone understood him. Harry nodded in agreement, “I know it is, and sometimes I feel like it is unfair to people who have lost their lives in the war but that’s just how life is.” Draco was starting to sound like a preacher now, Harry smiled at that.
“Life is unfair,” Harry said with a sigh.
“Couldn’t agree more” Draco joined in with a sad sigh, thinking about how his family had been if not for you-know-who.
“And I don’t want to be here” Harry continued, “everything about Hogwarts just haunts me and reminds me of the past, it is suffocating and every time I go somewhere all I can think about is the dead people I saw that day.”
“I hear their voices,” Draco confessed too, “they yell at me, they cry, they tell me that I somehow could have stopped the war if it weren’t for my actions” Harry stared at Draco as his eyes watered up a little, they were both traumatized and no one knew anything about it other than each other.
“You could not have stopped it, you were not at fault, it was all the adults in our lives who had the responsibility for it, but in the end...”
“We ended up suffering for it,” Draco continued.
“Merlin, we both need to be out of this place,” Harry said as he nervously laughed, this whole conversation was a shaken can.
Draco nodded as he tried rubbing his watery eyes, “so why are you here? I know I have to be here, or I will be sent to Azkaban but you? You had a choice to leave and join the Aurors so why...?”
“Because I knew that if I were to join the Aurors and be away from the people I love then I would have gone crazy”
“Family really keeps you on your toes huh?”
Harry smiled, “I don’t know what I would do without them actually”
“Wish I could relate” Draco sighed as he dazed into the burning wood, he wondered if his dad ever thought about him in jail. Harry thought about it too, what Draco’s dad was doing, and he did feel guilty—not for that bastard’s sake, just for Draco’s sake. He didn’t know how it felt to have a father, but Draco did, he did but not anymore, and somewhere deep down he feels responsible for it, but he knows it’s not his fault, he can’t blame himself for the things he hasn’t influenced.
They sat in comfort with each other; the common room was visibly quiet except for the firewood burning in front of them, making it all warm and fuzzy—well maybe the fuzzy part was just Harry’s heart warning him about the internal chaos its going through. The same went for Draco, he felt it too—the comfort, the warmth, and most of all; his fast racing heart. He liked him.
I like him. Harry kept repeating in his mind, to make sure that this wasn’t a dream.
Draco already knew he liked Harry; kind of always has. And the ‘like’ he felt wasn’t in a savior kind of way—it was pure hell honestly. Add a bit of spark and bliss and that’s exactly what he felt for Harry stupid Potter. He knew that liking Harry Potter was going to get him in trouble, so he did what made sense—he bullied him and tried hating him. At the end of every day, he knew that it was getting him nowhere, why? Because Potter didn’t back down, didn’t accept his shit, and fired back, which Draco loved about him. Potter was brave and dumb, but that’s what he fell for. In the background of his journey of trying to lose feelings for Potter the war was starting to boil, and when the water reached the top; Draco felt helpless—he had no choice but to follow his family to the war, to the side he didn’t want to because Harry would never forgive him.
Funny thing, Harry forgave him. That’s what he told him that is.
“Am I forgiven?” He asked, he didn’t know what came over him, but he wanted to know for sure that he could move forward—he might never forgive himself, but he wants Potter to forgive him.
“For?” Potter turned to look at him with those pretty eyes.
“Everything I’ve done Potter.” He replied, his voice trying to be stable as much as possible.
“Malfoy…I’m…” He didn’t know what to say…he knows he had forgiven Malfoy a long time ago but...
That was enough for Draco to know that he wasn’t forgiven. Potter may say he’s forgiven him, but he didn’t deserve it—Potter knew that and so did he. He got up to leave Potter’s side.
“Malfoy stop, you know what I’m thinking…it’s not that you’re not forgiven, it’s just…. I think it’s too soon and I can’t forget the past.”
He turned to look at Potter, the other looked and sounded genuine and it made sense. It was too early for anything—too early for forgiveness, too early for letting go, and too early for a change. He nodded and sat back down slowly.
“Give me some more time Malfoy—and all you can do is wait for that.”
“And I can change” he replied to Potter, getting a small smile in return.
“Of course, you can, and to be honest—the fact that we’re talking like this just shows how much we’ve improved huh”
“Yeah” he replied with a smile, “now I think I should go sleep, I am a bit tired”
“Oh yeah, go ahead, have a good night,” Harry said, and Draco smiled and left. And that’s how Harry knew that he liked Malfoy.
And that damn smile of his. Merlin—it was gorgeous.
But after that talk, they didn’t talk again—like ever. He had thought that it was all a dream, but it felt too real. And the heart that raced every time Malfoy came close to him just was living proof that the night with Malfoy wasn’t faux. But snapping back to reality; Harry realized real soon that he and Malfoy were still having eye sex (Some evil side of his brain called this eye sex). He knew that it was time to look away and looking away was what he was going to do, until the girl stood in front of Malfoy, facing her back to him, and went on her tippy toes to peck Malfoy’s lips. And that is exactly what drove Harry to the top. Fuck he hated that girl.
He wasn’t counting or anything, but Malfoy had been with 3 girls in these past 3 months, and it was pissing Harry off. Merlin knows where he found those idiots but every time, he did he always bought them to the common room. This one especially had the nerves to commit to a lot of PDA with Malfoy whenever and wherever. He wanted to drag her out of here, but he couldn’t. All he could see was her pecking Draco for a second time. And the third, the fourth and the fifth Harry decided it was time to leave and commit murder or arson, so he left the room in a rush that didn’t go unnoticed by Malfoy.
This one was pretty annoying and maybe it was time to replace this one too. Draco thought, monthly.
A week had passed, a very long one; in which Harry did anything and everything to avoid Malfoy, but like everything it was inevitable. For starters, Malfoy and he shared a dorm—not a dorm as in whole, well that too but what he was saying was that he and Malfoy shared a room. It wasn’t just them both, it was him, Malfoy and Blaise, and Neville. It was horrifying at first, but the dorm groups had been picked in a way to favor inter-house unity; thus, the equal amount of Slytherins and Gryffindors. He didn’t know about him and Malfoy, but inter-house unity seemed to be working with Blaise and Neville as those 2 become horribly close. Ron said he had nightmares about these 2.
Secondly, he and Malfoy shared almost all classes cause surprise surprise Malfoy wanted to be an Auror too! Great. Ron was petrified in the beginning from finding out that he was going to be with Malfoy most of the time too but over time Ron put aside his past and started recovering from it. Harry was proud of that because that was progress and if one day, he and Malfoy were to become something—he would have his best mate by his side hopefully supporting him. Malfoy seemed uninterested in him so scratch the latter part. He and Malfoy were never going to be something.
So that’s that, and he just gave up on avoiding Malfoy because what’s the worst that can happen? And besides, Malfoy acted like he didn’t exist most of the time so that was helpful.
He took his time changing his clothes into his old Quidditch clothes in the small locker room, honestly, the school was so huge, yet the lockers were so small, and to top it all off; it stank very much. But here he still was, a week had passed since he had agreed to coach the younger years with Ginny like promised he had attended each of the coaching lessons. He didn’t want to though, he just remembered agreeing to it because he wanted to avoid Malfoy, and it kind of was working since the only time he did see Malfoy was when it was needed.
After changing he went out of the change rooms to join the others in the field, it seemed like Ginny was already explaining something and there seemed to be someone beside her, a bit taller and blonde, his heart started beating faster knowing damn well who that could be—nope he was not doing this, he will go back and call in sick-
“Oh, Harry come here!” Ginny called from the front and all the faces turned to look at him, he gave everyone a nervous smile trying his best to avoid Malfoy’s eyes, but a bit side glance made it sure that Malfoy was raising his eyebrows at him and making a face. And of course, he looks hot. Why the hell is he even here?
He walked past the group of juniors and stood beside Malfoy, then Ginny resumed talking, “today we have a special guest, and you guys probably know him but if you don’t then— “she turned to Malfoy, “Do you want to introduce yourself?”
Malfoy nodded and then started talking, this was probably the first time he’s heard his voice from this close, “I’m Draco Malfoy and from now I’ll be helping you guys in coaching until this year's quidditch season ends” then he stopped talking and looked back to Ginny.
Ginny gave out a small chuckle and resumed talking, “well that was very short and brief but yeah, he and Harry will be helping you guys and today's lesson will all be about flying. And just so you know, these two here have some very interesting history with Quidditch (and each other, she muttered) so make sure to learn from both of them!”
Everyone seemed a bit hesitant at first with Malfoy there but after Ginny and his genuine introduction, it didn’t seem that bad.
“My group comes with me, and the others go with Malfoy and Harry,” Ginny said before going to the other side of the field with her group, great, now he was stuck alone with Malfoy.
Their group had been off to take their brooms from where they had stored and during that time Harry was suffocating with the awkwardness, that is until Malfoy opened his mouth. “You don’t have to look so offended you know,” Malfoy said, looking at the sky. Harry didn’t know what the other meant, offended by what?
“Offended? Why?” Harry asked.
“I’m not trying to steal Ginny from you or anything, I just wanted to tell you that,” Malfoy said, and Harry almost burst out laughing, Merlin, what even?
“You know I don’t like her right?” Harry wanted to laugh but he also wanted to make sure that Malfoy knew that he and Ginny had been done ages ago and that he was single.
This time Malfoy turned away from the sky and looked at Harry with suspicious eyes, “what?”
“Yeah, me and Ginny broke up right after the war.”
“You did...?” Malfoy asked again, his voice a little unstable. Harry nodded in reply and before anything more could be said the kids came running back with their brooms and they had no choice but to start a lesson.
——
“Peter, you have to learn how to sit upright on your broom or how else will you fly!” Malfoy yelled halfway across the field, “and you Louis don’t go knocking Peter off the broom!” Malfoy seemed done and Harry was having a blast with how this all was working out, this was too funny.
“Potter! Move your ass and go separate them!”
“On it Sir” He yelled and gave a salute before flying towards the fighting boys, they reminded him of Malfoy and him.
“Hey, you two! I suggest you stop flirting with each other before Malfoy explodes on your asses” Harry said with a grin as both of the boys looked disgusted at what he had just spoken.
They shrieked at each other and flew away from each other, Harry turned to look at Malfoy who now was staring at him with sharp eyes. “It worked, I separated them!” Harry yelled with a grin, and he swore he saw Malfoy roll his eyes and smile.
Time went by as clouds formed up in the sky, it looked like it was about to rain so they all called it a day and decided to meet the day after tomorrow for another training session. It wasn’t bad as Harry thought it would be, he and Malfoy were civil, to say the least, and Malfoy seemed to be throwing signs at Harry, what else could those subtle smiles mean? Or maybe Harry was just a hopeless romantic idiot needing love.
After a little while, Ginny and Malfoy remained in the field after the rest had left to change, so Harry saw that and decided to approach them.
“Oh, Harry! I was just thanking Malfoy for joining us on today’s training, aren’t you glad he joined?” Ginny asked the last question in a tone he very well knew, she was definitely on to something.
“Err, yeah I mean he helped,” he said and then looked Malfoy in the eyes, “ a lot .”
Draco narrowed his eyes at that, “I mean I do think that I did more than you” he replied, and Harry knew exactly where this was going to lead, and so did Ginny.
“Okay guys, please be civil with each other.”
“We are” Harry and Malfoy said at the same time making Ginny laugh, “yeah civil indeed,” Ginny said before picking up her broom and starting to walk back to her locker room.
“Well since we’re out here already, wanna go for a fly?” Harry asked and Malfoy stopped walking, turning to look at Harry.
“You wanna fly with me?” He asked and Harry realized it sounded very cheesy, like asking someone on a date—which he wouldn’t mind asking but Malfoy seemed…hmm uninterested.
Harry nodded, “unless you don’t want to.”
“No no, um, sure let’s go fly,” Malfoy said, grabbing his broom and sitting on it, “last one to the tree is a loser Potter” Malfoy yelled and flew away.
“Wait what? Not fair! You got a head start” Harry yelled back as he started chasing Malfoy.
Malfoy turned back to look at him, “only losers complain Potter” he said with a laugh and Harry was sure he almost fell off his broom. Malfoy laughing at him made him feel something, and he wanted that something to happen once again.
“Are you going to catch up or not?” Malfoy yelled.
“Of course, I mean I am going to win,” Harry said smiling and then rushing up and passing Malfoy, “how about this loser?” Malfoy smiled and almost grinned, “well you’re about to hit a tree so I don’t know Potter”
“What?!” Harry turned his head, but it was too late to turn back; he crashed to the branches, lost control of his broom, and plummeted away from it. Malfoy jumped to Harry when he saw this, catching him in his broom before he struck the ground.
“Hey, maybe I can give you lessons on flying too”
Harry frowned, “Oh shut up, you distracted me”
“Oh? How so?”
Harry stopped for a moment to understand what was happening, nope, he was not doing this. “Just shut up”
“Fine, jeez”
After that failure of a flying session, they decided to head back to the change rooms, Harry was so glad to head back because he was a sweating mess, he never understood how Malfoy never sweat, so being who he was, he asked. “Why don’t you sweat, I mean we’ve been out in the hot for so long and I don’t see a single sweat on you”
Malfoy turned and laughed at him, “c'mon Potter, it’s obviously a cooling charm"
“Oh, I am so dumb”
“I don’t think I would call myself dumb if I were you”
Harry looked surprised, “Never expected you to ever compliment me”
“Yet here I am,” Malfoy said laughing and Harry felt that something again. He coughed and looked away as he realized he was staring for too long at Malfoy.
“By the way, I forgot to ask, how come you're helping Ginny with this?” Harry tried quickly changing the subject
“Well...let’s just say I own her something,” Malfoy said, trying a fake cough and walking faster, was Malfoy lying?
“I don’t believe you but okay"
"There's nothing to believe"
"Hm sure"
"What...? There really is nothing!"
"I didn't say that there was something"
"But you implied it"
"Okay Malfoy, sure"
"Prick," Malfoy said before running to the changing room"
"Are we playing tag now?" Harry yelled back to Malfoy.
"No! It's because you stink!" Malfoy yelled back, and Harry felt offended, "Excuse me! I bet you stink too under that cooling charm!"
"Sure Potter" Malfoy rolled his eyes, maybe this was working out as planned after all.