The students in the hall gave a great cheer when Harry came in.

Harry did his best not to groan when he saw that he was going to sitting on the rather regal looking Headmistress' chair; moved in front of the teacher's table at the edge of the risers. As soon as he was sat Luna was back to putting the crown on his head, with four bobby pins of varying colours held in her mouth.

"This is ridiculous," Harry muttered.

"Perhaps," McGonagall said as she stood next to him. She raised her hand and room went mostly quiet aside from a few hushed whispers. "There are rules-" she said loudly, pausing briefly for the groans of dismay to pass, her mouth pressed in a tight smile entirely lacking in amusement. "You will form a single queue down the centre," she drew an invisible line down the middle of the hall between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. McGonagall had to pause again as the hall lurched in one great clattering mass towards the centre of the room like a contracting amoeba.

Harry breathed out a silent sigh, trying not to roll his eyes. He heard a similar exhalation from above him and glanced up, sharing a brief look with the Headmistress.

McGonagall clapped her hands, the sound unnaturally loud and bringing with it the silence of growing anticipation, "Next, you shall approach Mr Potter one at a time at which point you shall be allowed, to attempt-" she took a bracing breath, utterly seeded with distaste at the entire idea, "to kiss his cheek."

"His CHEEK?!" A single anguished cry arose above the general shouts of dismay. And through that noise, a very familiar laugh.

Harry scanned the room and quickly spotted the mop of red hair sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, Ron was laughing so hard he had to hold onto the table to keep himself up.

Harry pulled his wand out of his sleeve and hit Ron with a stinging hex, cutting the laugh short with a yelp of pain. Ron glared at him and Harry gave him a pointed look back.

McGonagall pointedly cleared her throat at him.

Harry muttered, "I wanted to give him the two-finger salute,"

"You are commended for your restraint," McGonagall said with amusement.

There was a slight tug on Harry's hair and he glanced up, watching Luna carefully placed another bobby pin. She still had four pins held in her mouth, although these ones were all pastel coloured.

McGonagall didn't wait for the hall to quiet on its own this time, drawing a sharp line over the crowd with her wand that culled all the sound in front of her, peoples mouths still moving in silence. "Thank you. If anyone attempts anything beyond a kiss on the cheek without Mr Potter's express consent on the matter, they will be given a week's detention and lose twenty house points, this extends from this point on through the remaining school year." She paused, sweeping over the assembled crowd to drive home her point before continuing, "Once you have attempted a kiss, you will move to the side here when Ms Weasley will stamp the back of your hand."

Ginny held up a large circular stamp the size of a galleon, dark purple with ink.

"This stamp shows that you have participated already and are not to get back in line for another try. The stamp ink is tied to Mr Potter's magical signature so should you attempt another kiss all of your skin will be coloured purple for quite a long time," McGonagall finished and ended the silencing spell.

"What if we bump into him by accident!" someone shouted.

"Mr Potter will certainly testify to such an accident and the ink will be removed at speed," McGonagall said.

There was a derisive snort and someone else muttered just loud enough to be heard, "This is bullshite."

"Then LEAVE!" Ginny snapped, "He's not a fucking prize, he's a person you ungrateful fu-"

"Ms Weasley," McGonagall cut her off sharply.

Ginny stepped back, "Sorry. For swearing, not for what I said."

McGonagall nodded in apparent acceptance.

Pansy rushed into the room, shoving through the line of people to the other side where she grabbed hold of Blaise by the front of his robes and hauled him to his feet, "Come on. I need you to do something."

Hermione had been only a few seconds behind but was held up by trying to slip through the line politely, "Parkinson! We're not done talking about this!"

Pansy let out a bark of a laugh, shoving back through higher up the line by the time Hermione had managed to finally get through, "I think we are, actually!"

Hermione spun round, pushing her way through without any of the politeness this time, "We're NOT."

"Is there a problem here?" McGonagall asked them.

"It's fine-""Everything's fine-" They both said, already out the door.

Ron looked after them, gave Harry an apologetic shrug, and followed Hermione out the door.

The great hall was uncomfortably quiet in the aftermath.

McGonagall gestured at the front of the line impatiently, "Come on then, I haven't got all night."

Harry fought down a yawn.

"That was the last one," Luna said quietly right by Harry's ear.

Harry jumped, picking his head up from where had he propped it on his hand and looking out at the Great Hall. The line was gone.

Luna gave him a smile and bounced down the risers, heading over to the Gryffindor table where Ginny was helping herself to a cup of tea and a few biscuits. The house elves must have brought them because there were tea services on every table along with trays of fresh biscuits. Great gobs of students still filled the room, eating and gossiping about who knows what. McGonagall had moved off to a far edge of the room, lecturing a pair of third years. At least for the moment, it seemed like Harry was being ignored.

Harry pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes. He hadn't meant to nearly fall asleep but, for all the pomp and pageantry, the whole ordeal had been boring as piss. He didn't even remember most of the kissing. The trepidation at first had quickly been replaced with annoyance and then boredom. With his head turned to present his cheek, all he saw of the other person was a shadowy silhouette. If he closed his eyes, there was nothing to stop him from pretending the whole thing was a strange dream.

"When I said you were giving up, I hardly thought this would be the result."

Harry quickly pulled his glasses back on.

Draco was walking along the top step of the riser, frowning irritably out at the students at the tables. He was wearing a pale grey sweater vest over a crisp white dress shirt with impeccably pressed black slacks as if he had just walked out of a posh advert rather than wallowing in the dungeons all day.

Harry sat up, relief flooding his voice, "Draco-"

"I mean really, this is just tacky in the extreme," Draco went on, stopping in front of Harry's chair, his back turned to him.

"It's not like that," Harry said quickly, "I talked to McGonagall about doing it before- before we last talked. It's just to get everyone to leave me alone."

"A good hex would have served you far better," Draco said.

Harry shook his head, sliding to the edge of the chair and reaching out, "I-"

"Of course you couldn't do that," Draco said a little bitterly.

Harry touched his arm, "Draco-"

"Pansy said I ought to come, seems a wasted trip to me," Draco said.

"Would you look at me?" Harry asked, tugging on Draco's forearm.

Draco did turn, pulling his arm away. He was frowning faintly, "I'd rather not."

Harry looked Draco over, relieved to see he was well and couldn't keep himself from smiling, "Yeah, well... Pansy told me about-"

"You shouldn't listen to her." Draco interrupted, "She's a liar."

"You don't even know what she told me," Harry said with faint disbelief.

"Nothing good, I'm certain," Draco said with a sniff, he looked Harry over critically and raised an eyebrow, "You look completely ridiculous."

Harry pulled at the ermine-trimmed cape but it didn't budge, "Wasn't my idea."

"I could have guessed that. You tend to err on the side of grubby rather than ostentatious," Draco said.

"I'm not grubby," Harry protested.

"No," Draco said, looking away, "You just dress that way."

Harry sighed, trying not to roll his eyes, "Draco. Pansy told me that you don't remember what happened at the party."

Draco's eyes narrowed, "That's what this is all about? I don't normally drink that much you know. I was just in a uniquely bad mood that night."

Harry's brow twitched, "She didn't tell you-?"

"About this horrible fiasco?" Draco gestured around the Great Hall with derision, "Of course she did. Pansy is a vicious gossip. Never tell her a secret unless you want half the wizarding world to know it by tea. All of the wizarding world, once she's working for that rag of a paper." He sneered at the lot of them, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"That's not what I meant," Harry said with mounting frustration.

Draco huffed at him, "I see now why she was so adamant I come here, to put an end to old aspirations once and for all."

"What in the world are you on about?" Harry asked.

"Well, I am at the front of the line," Draco shrugged and leaned down, his lips pressing to Harry's chaste, sudden and soft.

Draco jerked back, his eyes widening, "...you knew."

"I thought you knew," Harry said, "I thought you didn't want me."

He stared at Harry in disbelief, "Who in their right mind wouldn't want you."

"I-" Harry's words died in his throat.

Draco smiled like Harry had never seen before, he practically shone.

"You were courting me," Draco said.

Harry nodded.

Draco's gaze flicked up and he straightened, grabbing the crown from Harry's head. Despite all of Luna's efforts the crown pulled off his head easily with only a modicum of resistance from his rebellious hair. A few bobby pins plinked onto the floor as Draco took out his wand and vanished the royal cloak from Harry's shoulders.

"Much better," Draco said.

Harry stood, "Do you wanna get out of here?"

"First things first, Potter," Draco said, turning to the hall and tossing the crown into the air where it hung for a second before hitting the ground with a bouncing, rolling, metallic clatter that drew the eyes of everyone in the room. Draco's chin lifted and he said, "If I have could have your attention, you degenerates."

"You're not going to-"

Draco smirked, "I am." His fingers grazed Harry's cheek as he slipped a hand around the nape of Harry's neck, leaning in and kissing him with a trepidation not suggested by his confident words. Harry smiled, pressing his hand over Draco's, and kissed him back.

There was a click and a flash that Harry could see through his closed eyelids followed by a loud celebratory whoop.

Blaise looked up over his large wizarding camera, his eyebrows so high they were trying to merge with his hairline.

Pansy was beside him, "Did you get it? Did you get the photo?" she asked, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her as she bounced with unbridled glee. Ron, Hermione and Luna were with them, cheering loudly, Ginny was laughing, while the rest of the room stared open-mouthed.

Draco cleared his throat, raising his voice over the commotion, "If any of you lay a hand on Potter again, I'll break your face."

"He won't," Harry said, grabbing Draco's arm and pulling him down the risers.

"I will," Draco said.

"I'm afraid you'll have to settle for a weeks detention if anyone should try," McGonagall said with a warning tone in her voice, "There shall be no personal retributions of any kind. Not that you shall be needing any after that display."

"I'll say," Ron said, "Never do anything halfway, do you Malfoy?"

"We should celebrate!" Luna said.

Hermione nodded, "Oh, that'd be nice!"

"You all can do whatever you want, Potter and I have things to do," Draco said, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him to the door.

"We do?" Harry asked.

"A proper snog, for one," Draco said.

"Oh," Harry said with interest, picking up his pace.

Behind them, Pansy snorted, "Don't forget to get some groping in."

"Shut up, Pansy!" Draco yelled over his shoulder.

The noise died away as they stepped out into the hallway.

"I wouldn't be opposed to groping," Harry said.

Draco flushed, turning his head away so Harry couldn't see, "I'll take it into consideration."

And They Lived Happily Ever After*

~The End~

Notes:

* -in this case meaning a lot of pointless bickering, needless and petty arguments and a total willingness to break other peoples faces in spouts of unwarranted(since they can't even kiss other people) jealousy. They're very happy.

(See attached comment for link to wonderful art of Harry with his crown and 'throne' by beaniebbycrup on tumblr!)

♡Thank you ever so much to everyone who's read this entirely too long story, I love you all so much!! and super appreciate the support ♡ oh, and Draco was late because he was fussing over his appearance