Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter ten

Chapter Ten: Awkward Beginnings

Now, over Harry's years of existence, he had been in some very odd and, in some ways, disconcerting, situations. Let's start with First Year, shall we? All the people looking in shock at him when his name was called to be sorted; Snape asking him those questions at his first ever Potions class (yes, that wasn't the easiest of moments); seeing that the back of one of his teachers' head was in fact just the start of another head (that was definitely a mental image that he could live to a ripe old age without having, thank you very much!)... Then in Second Year... oh, start with the Whomping Willow problem; and then that meeting with Filch where both he and Ron thought they were going to be expelled; watching his arm bend back upon itself when a teacher had taken all of his bones away; all of Dobby's meetings/warnings; yup, no loss of strange situations in Second Year, and this time he didn't even include Voldemort in that list. Then Third Year rolled around and you had the dementor problems; and shall we say, animagi and other magical creature problems; the time turner bit; yes, that about sums it up nicely. Fourth Year brought the annoying bit about being picked for the Tri-Wizard tournament without entering; Rita Skeeter's issues (and we'll leave it at that) ; finding out that what should have been a show of good sportsmanship actually turned out to be a very nice way to kill innocent victims... Harry still hadn't gotten over that one. And then, last but not least, Fifth Year. And Harry's frazzled mind wasn't going to even start on that year.

But waiting outside a very large portrait of Medusa for the inhabitant inside the room to finally open the bloody door, was not a situation that he had encountered before; certainly not waiting for Draco Malfoy to open the door to his room so that they could kiss. Nope, never been in this situation before... Harry wondered if this fell in the "strange" category or the "slightly disturbing" category, and then vaguely wondered if he should create a new category of "reasons why I will need to see a shrink when I get older"... hmmm, no too many words... how about "slightly disturbing"? Yes, that worked really nicely.

So the first strange situation of Sixth Year was... well, it would have to have been the whole "Lucius Malfoy has feathers" bit. And then, finding that Dumbledoor wanted Harry to be okay if Draco Malfoy, of all people, wanted to pop in on a DA meeting (which thankfully had not occurred) would be next; then learning that he was Draco's intended... yeah that was a situation all right. And then the whole thing three days ago, which he really needed to get straightened out before he really lost his mind, would fall into the new "slightly disturbing category", Harry mused. And last, this situation. Come to think of it... once that portrait opened, a different "slightly disturbing" situation would be presented.

And open the portrait did, the Medusa gleefully ignoring the boy in front of her as she had been doing for the ten minutes since Harry had gotten here.

"Potter."

"Malfoy."

Neither of the two boys seemed to know what to say next, and of course neither wanted to admit it either. They most likely would have stood their indefinitely, if Draco's Veriae side hadn't been close to crowing gleefully about the wonderfulness of the whole thing.

"I guess you should come in, unless you want to kiss me in the hall," Draco remarked, moving away from the doorway so that the other boy could walk through.

Draco's room was very green, Harry noticed. Slytherin to the core, except Draco seemed to be under the impression that the Slytherin colors were green, silver, and black. The room really did look much like Harry would have expected the Slytherin dorm rooms to look like, having seen their Common Room.

"Sometime today, pack all your stuff so a house elf can bring it down," Draco muttered, trying to just get this over with. Then again... and Draco began to think, and do what Slytherins do best: plot cunning schemes. Sometimes Draco was so cunning he amazed even himself. Yes, he would enjoy this. Very much so.

"I hope my bed isn't so Slytherin," Harry muttered back, trying to find a way to be semi-polite as there really wasn't much of a choice in the matter and he knew it.

Draco nodded. "I can make the sheets black if you want." That hadn't been what Harry had meant, and they both knew it, but Draco had decided to just flow with the situation and enjoy freaking the living daylights out of Harry as he did so. Yes, it was decidedly fun to be a Slytherin. "So shall we do this or do you want to stand around all day?" Draco asked, watching for Harry's reaction. It wasn't what he had anticipated.

"Whatever. You're the one who needs to complete the bond, not me."

Draco raised an eyebrow. " Too true. So if you don't mind..." Draco closed the space between them before Harry's mind had the time to register that-one-Draco had agreed with Harry, and-two-Draco was actually going to do this. A forceful hand grabbed Harry's chin with and brought it up to meet his own, but the actual kiss was tender. Lips gliding over lips, silk on satin, breath mingling together for only a moment or two, and then Draco pulled away. The look on Harry's face, or more importantly, in Harry's eyes was worth it. The confusion. Had Draco had any doubts about how good he actually was at this, he wouldn't have any now. When he'd roughly began the kiss, Harry could have taken it. Two enemies that hated each other would not be expected to kiss in a gentle nature, but Draco had turned the tables and now the little Gryffindor didn't know exactly what to make of it. Perfect.

"By the way, the password's Gloria Draconis. You have to say it before she'll even look at you." And by "she" Draco meant the Medusa. She didn't like anyone who did like snakes, and therefore all of Draco's passwords had been rigged accordingly.

"'Glory to the Serpent'? How original," Harry scoffed, momentarily forgetting that the first ever password to the Gryffindor Common Room had been Caput Draconis, or 'Head of the Serpent'.

Draco waved it off; Harry would understand the attitude of Medusa soon enough. "Bring back my Potions homework when you come," he replied and watched Harry mentally groan in remembrance that the one class he had this afternoon was Potions. "It should be starting in five minutes, correct?" The question was soft, and yet snide at the same time.

"Whatever, Malfoy." And Harry forcefully strode from the room, leaving Draco half-grinning, half-smirking in his wake. Yes, being a Slytherin was so much fun.

Harry was decidedly happy when he finished Potions that afternoon and had time to think without worrying that Snape would deduct house points for thinking in class (which by now, Harry wouldn't put past him). And he finally let the thoughts which he'd been pushing back come to the surface as he found a comfortable nook in a somewhat deserted section of the library.

Draco Malfoy had kissed him today. Strange. Harry guessed he'd expected a bit more. Wasn't that kiss connecting the bond thing? So shouldn't it have been... somewhat special? But it had been just a kiss and had felt exactly like one. Now, Harry would be the first to admit that he was no expert in the field if one could call it that) of kissing. After all, his first, and regrettably only, kiss with someone who wasn't "family" was with Cho... and that had not been the most pleasant of things. Malfoy had obviously a bit more practice than Cho... scratch that, a whole lot more practice, as Malfoy had obviously known exactly what he was doing. And, surprisingly, with very pleasant, if unexpected, results. Which really was the root of the matter. Harry had enjoyed it... well, until reality came crashing down and he remembered that he was kissing Draco Malfoy which kind of took away some pleasant factors. But if he momentarily forgot that it had been Draco Malfoy kissing him, and just concentrated on how the kiss itself felt... he wouldn't mind doing it again, and maybe... a bit more often. Of course, being that it had been Draco Malfoy kissing him, Harry doubted very much that the experience would ever repeat itself, and he guessed that he shouldn't want it too... but still...

And with that Harry decided that he was over-analyzing way too much. He hated Draco Malfoy. Draco Malfoy hated Harry Potter. And that was that. So he was an adolescent and adolescents (along with most of the rest of the population) enjoy kissing when it's done well, so what? That did nothing to change the fact that Draco Malfoy hated Harry Potter and vice versa, and that fact would remain until the end of time itself.

And with that, Harry Potter had joined Draco Malfoy on the banks of Denial, but had been very careful to build his housing of choice on the opposite side of the river, away from Draco's manor because they wouldn't want to be neighbors... no not at all.