I get a notification on my phone. New from Potterhead: My Life is a Mess. I immediately click the notification and plug my baby blue earbuds in. I'm the first like, as usual. Even though I'm in class, I've gotten all of my work done and it's free time. 

"Hullo, mates." His British accent hits my ears, and I'm surprised to see his usually casually messy style is messy in a stressed way. "I've not been so great lately, I'm really sorry for the lack of posting. A lot of things have just been happening in my family and in my life, but I promise that I'll get back to posting videos soon! Thanks you all for sticking with me! I'll see you later!"

He waves and blows a kiss to the camera and the screen goes black. I wonder what's been going on. I've been watching Harry for years, he started his channel when he was fourteen and now he's 19. He's a couple of years older than me, but I found him when he was at about 63 subscribers. He's done a few gaming videos, but most of his content is about supporting the LGBT community and mental health awareness.

I'd really love to meet him in person, but my parents would never allow me to fly all the way to England just to meet someone that I'm not even acquaintances with. It's not like we don't have the money for it, they just wouldn't fund it.

My phone buzzes again. New from Potterhead: Oh, I Almost Forgot! I frowned slightly. I wonder what it is. 

"Right, mates, you all are going to be excited about this." He begins, looking so much different from the video before. "I'm doing an art contest! You can make any form of art; traditional, digital, musical, etc. The one rule: it has to be something related to my channel! Anything that I've mentioned can be used. The winner gets an all-expenses-paid flight to here in England and you get to spend two weeks with me! Deadline is two weeks from today! You all are great, I lof!" He ends with his traditional outtro and makes a heart with his hands before the screen goes black.

I grin. An art contest? I could try and enter, but my art isn't very good. Still smiling, I pull my pastel-coloured sketchbook, pencils, and markers out of my bag and start doodling. I drew a lot of pictures of Harry in different positions, but I finally settled on one where he was in a sort of cross-legged position.

(credit to atalienart on Tumblr)

The bell rang. I looked up from my drawing and to my classmates getting up and heading to the lunchroom around me. Looking back down at my art, I shook my head slightly and sighed. It would have to do. Placing my sketchbook back into my bag, I stood up with a quiet grunt and followed the crowds of people through the hallways.

*     *     *

Sighing, I sat down at a table that held only a couple of people. Pansy Parkinson, my best friend since diapers, and Blaise Zabini, my best friend who moved here to Ohio when we were in junior high from some obscure town in Washington state.

I put my head down in my arms, waiting for one of my two friends to say something.

"Draco, what's up?" Pansy's voice asked from near me.

I looked up at her, grinning. "Absolutely everything, Pans. Everything at once."

"All I wanna be/ is everything at once." Blaise sang quietly from behind his book.

I grinned. "Jesus, Blaise, you have a song for every word I say."

He looked up at me and sang with a straight face, "Every word I say is true/This I promise you."

"Okay, now that's just scary," Pansy said, watching Blaise carefully. "But back to you, Draco. What the hell happened that got you so happy? Like, uncharacteristically happy."

"Harry's holding an art contest. The winner gets an all-expenses-paid trip to him in England for two weeks." I responded, my grin becoming wider.

"Ah, that explains it," Blaise commented, reading again. "I'm assuming that you've already done a drawing of him?"

I blushed slightly. "Well, yeah, but just to enter, it's not like I have a chance of winning or anything."

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Draco, you have every chance of winning. Have you seen how amazing your art is?"

"It's really not that good." I declined.

"Let me see the drawings." Pansy deadpanned, holding out her hand for my sketchbook.

She flipped it open to the page with my doodles of Harry and sighed.

"See, I told you it's not going to win," I muttered dejectedly.

My best friend sighed again and rolled her eyes, giving me my sketchbook back and saying, "Draco, I fail to see how you don't see how easily that will win."

"It's not very good! Everyone says so!"

"Oh my god, Draco, no one says that. You are amazing."

"Just to help yourself feel more confident, make a video that's a compilation of all of your drawings of the Potterhead crew," Blaise commented. "Post it on your insta. That'd help. Or something."

I sighed and slouched in my chair. "I guess I'll do that. Just for fun."

Pansy hugged me - I tried not to cringe at her chest touching me. Jesus, my gay ass. - and said, "Draco, do it just for you, okay?"

I nodded.

*    *    *

"Mr. Malfoy, I need you to hold still!" Vanessa said as she applied eyeliner.

"Sorry, I just wanna get this done and over with!" I retorted.

I was at a photo shoot for some bogus teen magazine that my parents made me model for. Apparently, I'm good looking, and the '#1 Bachelor of the Year' according to some obscure makeup 'zine. I really don't want to do this, but it makes my parents happy, so I suppose I do it for them. I really just want to get home so that I can upload the art compilation to my Instagram.

After about an hour of shooting me in aesthetically pleasing photos, I'm finally free. My family's personal driver picks me up and takes me to our mansion on the outskirts of town. I could've driven myself, but my parents insist on Daniel picking me up and taking me almost everywhere.

I get home and sprint up to my room, despite my parents' constant scolding of me running in the house. I drop my backpack against my bed and collapse atop the canopied oak bed. I've already taken pictures of a lot of my Potterhead crew drawings - I've drawn them a ton, so I didn't take all of them, just my favourite one or two of each person - so all that's left is to put them into a slideshow.

An hour or so later, I'm finally done. I post it on my Instagram, _pastel.boy.draws_, and set my phone down on the bedstand. I open up my computer and went onto my Wattpad account, -pastel_boy_writes-, and worked on writing my current story about a wizard named Karet who is in love with his Elvin comrade. Eliade is in love with Karet too, but he can't act on his feelings because of his religion, no matter how much he wants to. I'm still trying to figure out how to get them together, but I really love writing gay stories. My parents know that I'm gay and support me, but don't really like talking to them about it. It's awkward.

Karet's lesbian dwarf wingwoman Lioralay had just gotten him to confess to Eliade, but I didn't know how to push the story forward from there. I glanced around my room for a little bit, one hand idly tapping against the keys and the other twisting one of my pale pink flower earrings that I was wearing; my thinking and nervous habit.

"Draco, Dinner!" My mother calls from the bottom of the stairs.

"Alright, Mumma!" I yell back.

I check my phone quickly before going down and there are so many notifications from Instagram! My drawing compilation had over 2.5k likes and so many comments! My art Insta is a small account, only about seventy-five followers, so this is so many more than I'm used to! I set my phone back down on my nightstand and head down to the small table by the kitchen, the one we usually use for dinner because the dining room table is so formal.

I sit down across from my adopted little sister, Serenity. She's six years old with curly brown hair that reaches past her bottom and caramel-coloured eyes that sparkle. I love her to bits. She's bouncing anxiously in her seat.

"What're you so excited about, Serie?" I ask her with a smile.

"I wanna eat awready! Mumma's makin' her yummy lasagna!" She said with a toothless grin.

"Mmm, very yummy."

I could smell my mother's lasagna as she pulled it out of the oven with a flourish. My father sat down to my right as Mumma plated a serving for each of us and set them down on the table. She sat herself down and held her hands out to Serenity and me, saying, "Pray time."

I took her hand as she began. "We send our thanks and prayers to the great gods, watching from Olympus. Draco?"

"I pray to Lord Hephaestus and Lady Athena; please continue to bless my artistic abilities, thank you. Dad?"

"I pray to Lady Tyche; please continue to bless the good fortune of my business and my family, thank you for blessing me with my wonderful son and my beautiful daughter and my amazing wife. Serenity?"

"I pway to the Lady Calliope; please coninue to bess my dancin' an' singin' an' piano playin', tanky much. Mumma?"

"I pray to the Lady Athena; please continue to bless the tapestries that I make to help support my wonderful family, thank you."

We said in unison: "We will give our offerings to the gods so long as they continue to bless us."

We let go of each others' hands and dug into the meal that Mumma made for us, making small talk. After dinner, I went upstairs to my bedroom and finished the chapter of Forbidden; But Not Wholly and published it. Checking my clock, it was around 10:30 PM, so I got into my pajamas and brushed my teeth and crawled into bed, thinking about my artwork and Harry Potter.