Alteration (Book 3 of The Corruption Sequence)

Chapter 1. Dark Mark

When Malfoy shifted as if to move off the bed, Harry's instinctive reaction was to tighten his loose embrace and not let his bed partner go. Surprisingly that caused Malfoy to laugh.

"I have to use the loo," he said and gently, but firmly moved Harry's arm.

It was another one of those moments when Harry was sharply aware that if he insisted in his position, his companion would have no choice but to conform. Yet, found himself letting Malfoy have his way, even though his reasoning in the situation had nothing to do with logic. Watching his lover climb off the bed and saunter towards the bathroom in all his naked glory gave Harry a nice view, but that wasn't why he let it happen either. It was almost as if Malfoy had a get out of jail free card, which the darker part of Harry found strangely disturbing and the human part couldn't quite understand.

"You should think about getting up as well," his companion said as he disappeared into the bathroom, "it is only lunch time after all."

At this, one little voice in his head told the world to go shove its rationality, another pointed out that during the day was a perfect time to be sleeping, and a third looked at the discarded books on the table and agreed that possibly Malfoy had a point. They had been lying around for a good half an hour since their rather satisfying tryst and Harry slowly stretched and climbed off the bed. The shirt he was still partially wearing was crumpled and a little on the sticky side, so he pulled it off and threw it at the basket in the corner.

He looked at the door of the bathroom and considered invading it as well since he wanted to be clean, but then turned and walked to the desk, leaving Malfoy to his ablutions alone. Picking up his trousers and his underwear he laid them over the back of the chair before aimlessly glancing at the book he had discarded when his companion arrived.

The illustration on the open page was of a banshee mid wail, forever caught crying her grief to the world. It was a mournful picture that filled him with a strange melancholy. They had briefly studied banshees last year in DADA. About the only thing that had been important at the time was to avoid the creatures and cast a silencing charm at the first opportunity if faced with one about to open her mouth.

Now he found that the creatures' fate to scream their pain was much more important to him. He ran a finger over the moving picture, wondering at how little the Wizarding world really understood about magical creatures. When he finally moved, he turned and found Malfoy watching him from the doorway of the bathroom. His Slytherin had a very contemplative expression on his face. Harry could not help wondering what was going through Malfoy's mind.

"I never thought of you as someone who would be comfortable naked," Malfoy said eventually and wandered further into the room, looking around for his clothes.

Harry glanced down at himself and realised that he hadn't actually been thinking about it at all. He had thought about putting his clothes back on because the air in the room was slightly less warm than was comfortable without activity, but he really wasn't bothered otherwise. It occurred to him that this was quite odd considering the fact that he had not wanted to look at himself in the mirror. However, he could not explain quite a lot of his mind at the moment, so he didn't see why this should be any different.

"I wasn't," he admitted, and walked towards the bathroom.

He was sure he would end up analysing what he was feeling sooner or later. It was in his nature to brood, but right then he didn't feel like it, he simply wanted to be clean. He wandered into the smaller room and set about his immediate task, letting his mind drift away from serious thoughts as he became absorbed in what he was doing. Malfoy's curiosity could wait until later.

It was only as he stepped out of the bathroom again, clean to his own satisfaction that his thoughts clicked back on. They were suddenly focused on only one thing. Malfoy was slowly pulling on his clothes and the glimpses of pale flesh in graceful motion high-jacked every sentient impulse in Harry's body. Motor function kicked back in after a moment and he discarded the towel he was using to dry himself off in favour of putting his fingers to better use on his lover.