Harry thought that maybe he could actually feel the change in atmosphere in the school when the late edition of the Prophet arrived. Dobby brought him a copy as soon as it arrived and he had read the front page article and the two other pages that went with it. He hated to admit it, but Rita had done a good job reporting the facts as well as giving a romantic edge to it; he was almost beginning to like the woman.

They had decided that for appearances sake, mostly for the Slytherins' benefit, Draco would make an appearance at dinner in the Great Hall. Harry didn't really like it, but Hermione and Ron had promised to keep an eye on him, so he had finally agreed. Given the information about Harry's premonition no one was getting on to school grounds without the headmaster knowing about it, so letting Draco out of his sight was only slightly traumatising.

At one point he was sure he had felt shock coming from Draco, but it was quickly followed by amusement, so he hadn't reacted. However, he was still on his feet and checking Draco over the moment his lover and his friends returned from dinner.

"Did you eat anything at all?" Draco asked, looking at the dishes that were still on Harry's table.

"No," Harry replied simply; he had been far more worried about other things to have been bothered with food.

Draco rolled his eyes, grabbed Harry's wand from Harry's back pocket and summoned Dobby.

"What can I be doing for you Master Draco, Sir?" Dobby asked cheerfully, as ever, delighted to be useful.

"I'm sorry, Dobby," Draco said to the house elf, "but Harry was too preoccupied to eat his meal, do you think you could find him a new helping of something please so that it's hot?"

"Of course, Master Draco, Sir," Dobby replied with a huge smile, and then vanished along with Harry's ignored dinner plates.

Harry narrowed his eyes at his lover, which it appeared, amused Hermione, Ron and Neville no end.

"I'm not hungry," Harry said in a pointed tone.

"Yes you are," Draco replied and gave him back his wand, "and you need the calories; Snape says your metabolism is still adjusting, which takes fuel, Harry."

Somehow he felt as if he had just been patted fondly on the head, although Draco did not lower himself to such displays.

"Sit, eat," Draco told him and pecked him on the cheek, "and we'll tell you what happened in the Great Hall."

"Oh, it was brilliant, Harry," Ron said enthusiastically and before he could object, Harry found himself being swept over to the table and seats and ensconced next to Draco on one of the sofas.

Sometimes Ron's version of brilliant left something to be desired, so Harry looked at Hermione and Draco for confirmation.

"It was demonstrative," was Draco's opinion on the matter and Hermione just smiled.

"Well someone tell me," he said, just a little exasperated.

"Pansy slapped Draco right across the face," Neville said and Harry lost whatever sense of humour he might have had.

"She what?" Harry all but growled, but Draco placed a hand on his leg and stopped him reacting any further.

Pansy had dared lay a hand on his Draco; he was very, very unhappy.

"She hits like the silly little girl she is," Draco told him calmly and patted his leg gently; "it didn't hurt and it was useful."

Harry was not overly mollified, in fact his hind brain was beginning to plan several possible nasty fates for Pugface Parkinson.

"How?" he asked, doing his very best to contain his temper.

"She was screaming all sorts of things," Hermione stepped in to explain; "about Draco being a traitor to Slytherin and a fool and leading her on all this time and, well, you can imagine what she was like when she got going."

"Draco was brilliant," Ron said and there was that word again and in conjunction with a Malfoy which Harry had never in a million years ever thought he would have heard from a Weasley; "he just stood there and let her rant."

Why there had been a spike of shock from Draco was now obvious, but Harry didn't quite understand the amusement. He looked to Draco for the answer.

"She dug her own hole," Draco said, giving him a rather pleased smile. "I just waited until she had finished and then asked her who had won. I think it made the point to the rest of my house very neatly. There should not be any trouble from that direction once I get my wand back. Some of them may bow to pressure from their parents until then, so I will still have to be careful, but most of them aren't stupid."

It was all very Slytherin and Harry wasn't sure whether to approve or be appalled; he settled for disgruntled at Pansy and proud of Draco.

"I still don't think you should let me anywhere near Pansy if you want her in one piece," he said, just as his new dinner appeared on the table.

That made Draco smile even wider.

"I may have quietly mentioned to her how upset you get if someone attacks me," Draco told him, clearly enjoying it; "I don't think I've ever seen someone go quite that pale."

Hermione laughed at that.

"I wondered what you said to her," Hermione commented as if it all finally made sense; "she didn't seem interested in staying for dinner after that."

"I suspect she's writing to her daddy to come and get her right now," was Draco's amused response.

Now that mental image did appeal to his darker nature and he finally smiled a darkly satisfied smile.

"You know," Neville said with a grin, "it is so creepy when you do that; makes me think of a spider with a fly."

Harry might have been worried or annoyed by that, if Nev hadn't added: "Going to be useful when we make a move on Fudge; he'll wet himself."

Draco picked up the plate of beef stew from the table and handed it to Harry with a no nonsense expression on his face. He took it, but he didn't start eating.

"So how did everyone else react?" he needed to know for his peace of mind.

"You could almost see the hearts in the eyes of the Hufflepuffs," Ron said with a laugh and Draco made a face.

"Hopeless romantics, every one of them," Draco said as if that was possibly one of the worst possible things they could be. "Mention true love and the lot of them lose what intelligence they ever had and end up with the I.Q. of a Puffleskin."

"You two will probably have half a ton of cute cards by the morning," Hermione said and was clearly amused by this.

The fact was, Harry didn't think his and Draco's relationship could ever be described as romantic given how it had started. Of course he wasn't on the outside looking in and he hadn't just read a made up story about how they had been together for months.

"The Ravenclaws seem to think the whole thing is being over romanticised, but, on the surface, all appear to believe it's for the best," Hermione explained and stole a carrot from his plate.

"And the Gryffindors?" he asked, a little nervous about his own house; they had some very strong views about Slytherins.

Hermione gave him a sympathetic smile for his worry.

"They're still digesting it," Neville told him, seemingly also realising his anxiety, "but no one is reacting badly. They just need time to think it all through and then they'll be fine; it's just Draco being Slytherin that's holding them back."

"Trust your house to choose this one time to actually think about something," was Draco's sardonic comment.

That managed to raise a small smile from Harry; it was rather ironic, but that news did make him feel better. He finally skewered a piece of beef with his fork and began to eat.

~*~

Even though the article had been printed in the Prophet, Harry was still on edge, he couldn't help it. He had let Draco go to breakfast and his lover would be going back to lessons, but that didn't mean his whole being wasn't focused on Draco. They were connected now, Harry could feel it, and when he was in such a heightened state of awareness he could sometimes sense things from Draco. The flash of distaste when Draco had found shell in his scrambled eggs had not been particularly useful, but it did at least give Harry something mundane on which to focus.

He really wasn't sure how he was going to get through the morning, he could barely sit still, so lessons were going to be difficult. It didn't help that it was Potions first and he was sure he was going to end up losing points for Gryffindor if he managed to stay in the lesson at all.

It was a shot of alarm that was not his own that had him rearing to his feet and sending his breakfast table crashing to the floor. Unlike the previous evening the shock he felt running through him from Draco did not morph into anything else and fear for his lover ripped at Harry's control. This time when he ran to the door he did not even try and call Jeremy; he knew the portrait would not let him out, so he went straight for his goal: escape.

He pushed against the door, feeling the magic pushing back at him, stopping him breaking through, but this time he was scared as well as angry. The premonition had affected him badly and he was still very much focused on his lover. It was partly a matter of survival; instinct drove him to protect his means of sustenance, and it was also possessiveness; instinct again forced him to keep what was his, but it was a whole bunch of very human emotions as well. It was those that pushed him over the edge and his magic flared, all the aspects coming together in their one need and it felt as if he was pushing through plastic rather than onto wood.

It was hard and it hurt as he pushed, but he was totally focused. The door melted around him, or he melted through the door, he wasn't quite sure which, but it felt as if bits of him were being dragged apart. Only as he came out the other side was there any relief, but he didn't have time to take notice of it. He was set on his task and that was all that mattered and he flowed from man to wolf, ripping through his clothes, without even thinking about it. Getting to Draco was the only thing on his mind.

Someone screamed as he ran past in one of the upper corridors; he thought it might have been Trelawny, but he wasn't really paying attention. He knew where Draco was without needing to pause and he simply ran, occasionally through things when necessary. Nothing and no one was going to stop him and he finally rounded a corner to see Draco standing against a wall with a group of Gryffindors in a semicircle around him. They were not too close and none of them were holding a wand, but Harry still didn't like it and he skidded to a halt, growling.

It was Dean who turned first and the boy's eyes went wide and he went to go for his wand.

"Don't move," Draco said very firmly and very quickly.

Harry swung his gaze to his lover, looking him over for any sign of damage.

Luckily for them the Gryffindors obeyed Draco's barked command and none of them did anything at all. Harry glared at them, adding another growl for good measure.

"Harry, enough," Draco said, voice not so much as quavering and he looked back at him straight away.

Being bossed around was not something Harry liked at all, but, as seemed to be the case now, Draco's peculiar relationship with him kicked in and he found his hackles slowly lowering. He was not happy, but it was beginning to become clear that the danger was no longer there and nothing but mostly calm feelings were coming from Draco.

"Come here," Draco said in a warm tone and held out his hand in a welcoming gesture.

With one more look at the assembled Gryffindors, Harry trotted over to Draco who let him sniff at his hand and then his body. There were no other fresh scents on Draco, confirming that Draco had not been manhandled, not like last time, which made Harry relax a little more.

"Satisfied that I'm okay?" Draco asked him once he had finished his inspection and he gave a snuffle of a reply.

Only at that point did he really begin to start thinking again and it occurred to him where he was and what he had just done to get there. He flowed back from wolf to man before his animal instincts could get the better of him, at which point he realised it was very chilly in most of Hogwarts when you were naked. Draco gave him an appreciative up and down before slipping off his outer robe and slipping it over Harry's shoulders.

"You were worried," Harry said, still under the influence of his instincts enough not to die of embarrassment.

"Well you'd be worried when confronted by a delegation of another house," Draco pointed out, letting Harry look him over yet again.

Harry couldn't help it, he really couldn't; the vision of Draco bloody, bruised and dead was still too clear in his mind.

"We only wanted to talk to him, Harry."

It was Seamus who had the courage to open his mouth first, but the Irish Gryffindor almost flinched back when Harry rounded his gaze onto him. He was feeling just about protective enough to enjoy that reaction rather than find it unsettling.

"I believe," Draco said, placing a hand on his arm and stroking gently, "they were being Gryffindors."

Harry frowned, he wasn't sure what that meant exactly.

"They wanted to know my intentions," Draco added and he still wasn't clear; "towards you," was the final clue he was given.

The light dawned and Harry finally caught up; he had thought the interview had been pretty plain and he was beginning to understand Draco's point about Gryffindors being dense.

"Everything in the Prophet was true," he said simply, looking at the others, finally letting the last of his fear for Draco go.