That evening, after Hermione returned to her common room, she found Harry sitting in front of the fire, tears streaming down his face but his expression completely blank.

"Harry?" The girl asked, sitting next to him as the boy turned his head to look at her.

"Yes?" He spoke quietly, barely moving his lips at all, his whole posture seemed so languid and sluggish.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked again, worry bubbling and brewing inside her stomach.

"Am I?" The boy replied with a question, his eyes tired, his facial features droopy.

"What's wrong?" The bushy haired girl incquired, hoping her best friend would tell her. He turned his head to stare into the searing fire and dropped his chin onto his knees:

"Everything..."

Hermione frowned:

"Talk to me Harry..."

And he did. He did, never once flinching or looking back at her, but the girl didn't mind, she listened carefully:

"I encountered Malfoy today, in a bathroom, he looked so scared. I was crying because I was so upset with everything and it was getting the better of me. I asked him what hapenned and why he suddenly became so...withdrawn, but he had his hand clasped over his mouth the entire time, only once removing it to...apologise..and running out. He looked so terrified of something that it made me feel scared. I don't know Hermione, I don't know how I feel about him. I don't hate him, but...I'm not sure what I feel either...It's weird, it's foreign and I don't like it, it feels like danger, it feels like something I should fear."

Hermione sat quietly, allowing everything to sink in slowly and at it's own pace.

"I'm tired of being so helpless against him. I let him bully us for all these years, now I'm letting him waltz off unharmed and I'm letting myself be confused. What's wrong with me? Why him of all people? He's a Malfoy! He's a Malfoy and yet...he isn't. Not in my head at least. Not anymore. He's Draco now. Just Draco. I don't know why or how or when, but it hapenned and I hate it. I don't know what it means and I hate it. I hate him for this mess. I hate him and I don't at the same time. It sucks. Why can't I just be normal like everyone else?"

Harry was crying by now and Hermione had him enveloped in a hug, tears stinging her eyes too. Poor Harry..

"Harry I...I think I know...what's going on..." She whispered, her voice laced with worry and uncertainty, hesitant.

"What?" He asked, speaking slowly, tiredly.

"I think....I think you've...you've fallen in...l-love....with..with Malfoy.." Hermione bit out, tears streaming down her face too, she wished it wasn't so complicated, she wanted so badly for things to be easier. Harry turned to look at her silently.

He was quiet. So quiet. The girl observed him, not a twitch in his entire face, but his eyes, his eyes were giving it all away, as they often did.

He's known this. For a while now he's known, but his fear had pushed it so far that it prevented him from ever acknowledging it or even admitting it to himself. His heart knew what it wanted, but his mind knows what it feared.

It feared getting hurt.

It feared getting hurt so much, it surpressed any traces of anything that could hurt it.

But the truth always surfaced, no matter how much one supressed it. Always.

All of these emotions, all of this pain was so clearly visible in Harry's eyes, that made Hermione respect the untameable, mad power of love. Harry's eyes kept swimming and drowning in different layers and wavelengths of emotions and feelings that flooded his soul one after the other, his eyes draining them through tears.

Hermione sat silently, waiting for him to say anything, too scared to move or speak. Too paralysed. His silence was filled with strife.
Finally, Harry's lips moved to form an outline of a reply...

Hermione's eyes widened.

~

Draco walked towards his common room, unaware of anything else around him. He cried that evening and he still didn't understand what had hit him so hard to make him cry. What about Hermione's words was so powerful to have his mind lock in a breakdown?

A secret romance?

That's stupid.

It's true.

No.

Why do you think about him all the time then?

I don't.

Oh really?

Yes.

Picture this. A boy with green eyes.

Harry?

Ha! See?! You love him.

No, no, no!

Yes, yes, yes!

Draco's head was swelling with the conflict between his heart and his mind. The blonde had everything as clear as day in his heart but as foggy as a dark night in his mind. And that was causing problems. His head wasn't letting him realise something his heart already knew.

The audacity.

Draco scoffed while walking, fighting with himself over everything. Thin line between love and hate, truth is the best flirt, all of it popped up and around his head like the illusive snitch that he could never catch. Because Potter always did.

Draco scoffed again and thought back to all the Quidditch matches he's lost to Potter. He thought of everything, the way Harry looked so focused, his green eyes deepening with the desire to win, and how his hair would swish back in the wind and his scar would be visible on his forehead.

Well now it was clear why Draco never caught the snitch. He'd never been trying. He was always staring at Harry! That was a new.
The Slytherin was never aware how much of himself he projected onto Harry, how much he needed Harry in a way and how much he.....

He......

"I...." Draco spoke mid stride, trailing off, his mind still holding on to the curtain that shrouded his heart, but barely. An image of the gorgeous green eyes flashed inside his min and the curtain fell with a bang.

"I love him." The rest of the sentence snuggled into his voice, the voice he was slowly losing due to a closed, dry throat. He stopped walking, the temperature around him jumping to unbearably hot for a moment before crashing right down to frostbite cold.

He felt dizzy as everything unraveled inside his head. Draco looked around as a warm panic bombed his being making his skin sweat. Spinning. Everything was spinning.

Draco loved Harry Potter....

He loved him...

The boy was paralysed in his own realisation, his feet nailed to the stone floors.

It wasn't the potion.

It was never the potion.

His heart was beating so fast, it bruised from how hard it hit his ribcage and it gave him a choked pain, as if the wind had been knocked out of him. His head went into a frenzy, an overdrive, slowly tipping his balance.

Then it all went black.

~

The next morning Harry was exhausted from last night and walking through the corridors, when he found someone passed out. Upon closer inspection he realised it was actually Draco and his heart leapt to his throat with panic. No, not him!

Harry quickly knelt down, inspecting the passed out boy for injuries and lifting him up bridal style. The blonde was tall and lanky but he was light. Alarmingly light. Harry picked him up and held him tightly his heart beating frantically as he briskly walked to Madam Pomfrey's.

As soon as he'd arrived there, Draco was placed in a bed and tended to. Harry was worried out of his mind, hoping the blonde wasn't hurt, he couldn't take that.

Suddenly Ron burst through the doors of the hospital wing with a enraged expression on his face:

"Harry what the bloody hell mate?!"

Harry turned around to look at his furious friend:

"Wh--"

"WHY WOULD YOU HELP MALFOY?!"

Harry swallowed, shit.

"I couldn't just leave him out there Ron! What if he's hurt?!"

Ron looked exasparated:

"WHAT?! SINCE WHEN DOES IT MATTER IF MALFOY GOT HURT?!"

Harry rubbed his temples, the red head's screaming was cracking his skull:

"It matters to me Ron."

"WHY?!" Ron yelled, with bitter defeat in his eyes. Harry looked at him woefully:

"Because...because....b-because I...." The raven glanced back at the passed out blonde on the bed behind him, biting his lip. He sighed and turned back to Ron, who was tapping his foot on the floor.

"Well?" The boy bit but just as Harry was about to answer Madam Pomfrey was kicking them out:

"Now now, Mr. Malfoy needs rest and I will not have your screaming and ruckus here with a patient! Out with the both of you, out!"

The old woman pushed them out of the hospital wing forcefully and slammed the door behind them, the two stumbling to catch their balance after being shoved so hard. Harry wasted no time in walking briskly after he'd regained his footing, hoping to avoid having that conversation with Ron, but his red head friend followed closely behind.

"Harry! Harry wait!"

The raven could hear him yell but he couldn't stop, he sped up. He was in no mood to be having that kind of conversation with Ron right now. He had other things to worry about. Such as whether Draco would be okay or not.

Harry didn't know what hapenned to the blonde but he sure hoped it wasn't anything serious. Ron was still chasing him through the halls and Harry was beginning to get really annoyed.

"Ron leave me alone!" Harry yelled blindly behind him, almost running at this point, but the red head boy wasn't giving up:

"NO! YOU HAVEN'T ANSWERED MY QUESTION!"

The Chosen One groaned in frustration and started blindly taking turns through Hogwarts, not even aware of where he was going but he had the strong urge to get away from Ron. It wasn't nice, but he was in no mood to talk.

"HARRY STOP!" Ron Weasley screamed at the top of his lungs as they neared a staicase, but Harry began to run and Ron had had it. He tackled Harry and they both tumbled down the staircase in a mess of limbs.

As soon as they were at the landing, Ron was laying on top of Harry, groaning in pain as his muscles had hit every stair and it hurt like a bitch. Harry's glasses were cracked and he was huffing little puffs of air underneath Ron's weight.

"Get o-off me Ron.." Harry hissed, his head throbbing as well as the rest of his body. But Ron couldn't move yet, he was in too much pain, and he stayed put:

"I c-can't.." He told a very displeased Harry, in a strained voice while he was draped over his friend.

"You're an idiot Ron.." Harry stated, having caught his breath a little. Ron nodded although Harry couldn't see him.

"Maybe...but I did tell you to stop.."

Harry whined as he tried to push his stump of a friend off of him:

"Well I did give you a hint that I wasn't about to.."

Ron was mad and relaxed his body to the point of jello so Harry couldn't move him an inch.

"Answer my question and I'll get off you." Ron said with a smirk and Harry groaned in frustration from underneath him.

"Ron, please, just get off of me!" Harry pleaded, giving up fighting, realising Ron was too heavy to lift with hurting arms.

"Not until you tell me Harry. I'm your best friend I deserve to know!" Ron screeched, annoyed, what was it so bad that Harry couldn't tell him?! He'd been quiet and secretive and only talking with Hermione who was a goody-two-shoes and wouldn't tell anyone anything and Ron felt left out and useless.

Like he was a bad friend for not knowing, even though Harry wasn't telling him anything! Harry made one last attempt at pleading:

"Ron please...."

But the Weasley boy was determined to know what was hapenning:

"No Harry. You have to tell me."

Harry got fed up and snapped with a broken voice:

"Fine! It's because I love him Ron!"
------------------------------------------------------
A.N

Guys, I think I might cancel Nictu after this chapter, I'm just not sure if I can continue writing it...I just...I don't know, I'm not sure. I'll give it more thoughts because there's still a part of me that wants to continue writing it. Oh and please don't be mad at DemShipsAndDemBooks, nothing is her fault, the cAts situation has been resolved, and I don't want anyone blaming her for anything. Ok Jazzers? Ok. Well that's all and we'll see what happens, byeee :33!