𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐎

Chapter 7

Chapter Warnings: Sexual content, mad UST, un-betaed

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Chapter 7: Sixteen (Going on Seventeen)

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"I said I'm seventeen, Harry."

Draco's quiet words echoed loudly in the sudden silence, their meaning drowning out even the soft drone of the television. Harry stared in shock. "You're seventeen?" he finally asked hoarsely.

Draco nodded.

Harry took a couple steps toward him. Draco's stomach did an excited little flip.

"You're an adult?"

"Yes."

Another step forward.

"Of Age? All this time?"

"Absolutely."

Harry was nearly close enough to touch him now. "But why did you tell me you were sixteen?"

"Because I was sixteen, that first day," Draco responded honestly. "But in my own time, it was the night before my birthday. So I turned seventeen the very next day."

Harry watched him warily. "So you're saying you've been seventeen since your second day here?"

Draco nodded again.

"But - but you let me treat you like a kid. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I couldn't tell you at first!"

"Why not?"

Caught in emotions, Draco's words were unplanned. "Because being only sixteen gave me protection."

"Protection?" Harry's eyes widened, and then he shrank away from Draco. "From me?" he asked, in a small voice that was incongruous with the tall, confident man. "You thought you needed protection from me?"

Draco immediately cursed his choice of words. "Only at first, Harry," he quickly said. "I was just sure that as long as you were convinced I was underage, you'd never touch me."

"But you thought that if I knew that you were actually seventeen that I'd pin you to the bed and have my wicked way with you."

Draco winced. When Harry put it like that…

Harry dropped down on the couch, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, his fingers quickly swallowed up by thick black hair. He looked dejected, like a puppy that had just been kicked but believed he deserved it.

"Listen, Harry -"

"I don't blame you, of course," Harry said lowly, not looking up. "I certainly terrified you out of your wits that first day. I can't blame you for still being afraid of me -"

With a huff Draco crossed over to Harry. He grabbed Harry by the wrists and yanked his hands away from his face, causing Harry to look up in surprise.

"I'm not afraid of you." He held Harry's wrists tightly in his hands, looking down at the older boy seriously. "I haven't been afraid of you for ages."

Harry rolled his eyes slightly and looked away. "You're just saying that to make me feel better," he said, a little gruffly. "It's okay. I'm a big boy. I can handle the truth. I nearly raped a sixteen year old; of course he's still afrai-"

Draco used his grip on Harry's arms to shake him slightly. "Shut up, Potter. One, you didn't even get my clothes off, and two, you didn't know. You have been a perfect gentleman ever since. In fact," and here Draco leaned down, until his face was only inches from Harry's, "you've been a little too much of a gentleman for my tastes."