Draco's POV.

"I had a lovely time," Pansy gushes.

"Yeah, it was fun," I agree.

She looks up at me.

"I um.. well," she stutters before taking a step closer to me.

"Goodnight, Draco," she whispers, leaning her face towards mine.

She couldn't be, I mean she couldn't think that I.

She places her lips delicately on mine. After about three seconds of me standing there, shell- shocked, she pulls away.

"Pansy.. I told you tonight was just us hanging out as friends, and you were fine with that, right?"

"I really like you, Draco. And I was getting the vibe that you felt the same way," she answers.

"No.. no," I protest, " I don't think of you in that way, I'm not sure why, but.." I trail off, shrugging my shoulders.

"I think, you need to think long and hard about how you want people to perceive you. Dating a girl like me will put you on top. Remember that," she says before turning to waltz up the stairs.

'Think about it? What's she gonna do, my dad isn't even around to make me date her.'

                               ~△⃒⃘~

Harry's POV.

It walk into the great hall and am greeted by the delicious smell of food, and the not quite so appetizing stares of my peers.

Making my way towards my friends, I hear words like I haven't heard since Voldemort came back and everyone thought I was crazy.

I sit down slowly, taking in the faces of Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna.

"What's going on?" I whisper.

"We think it may be best that you see for yourself, mate," Ron suggests, handing me a Daily Prophet.

I turn it around to face me, and see, written in bold script on the front,

'The Boy who Lied."

With it is a picture of my face, and a 'see page 8' caption.

I look up at my friends again, and see distress written plainly across their faces.

I turn the pages slowly, counting the seconds that I don't know what's written on the pages.

'What could possibly be so earth- shatteringly shocking?' I ask myself.

The headline of page 8 reads, in clear block- lettering,
"The Golden Boy is Gay."

The air leaves my body, causing the words on the pages to spin and become almost illegible.

I take a deep breath, trying hard to calm myself, so I can finish reading the article.

"The wizarding world's Golden Boy is gay, and we don't just mean happy. An inside source recently disclosed that Harry Potter himself is doting on a certain Draco Malfoy.

So far, neither Mr. Potter, nor Mr. Malfoy have made any comment on the claim.

All we at the Daily Prophet are really wondering is, what about poor Ginny, his long time girlfriend?"

I blink slowly, trying to take it all in.

I only told one person, the one person not here.

Ginny.

I get up from my seat abruptly, kicking one of the benches in anger, only the hear the sound of jeering laughter follow me into the hall.

I open the doors, walk about a meter and bump smack dab into the exact person I'm looking for.

"Harry!" She says happily.

"What did you do?" I shriek.

"What'd ya mean? What's going on?" She questions.

I gape at her, wondering how she manages to be such a good actress about something like this.

"THIS!" I scream, shoving the prophet into her hands.

She reads, her face getting more and more concerned with every page she turns.

"Harry," she squeaks, "you have to know.. I mean I would never do this."

I shake my head at her lies, brushing past her on my way up the stairs to go hide out in my room.
            
                              ~△⃒⃘~

Draco's POV.

When I wake up, the whole world seems just a bit off.

It's felt like that for a while now.

When I reach the Slytherin common room, it's empty of anything unusual except for a few scattered newspapers lying haphazardly about.

I pick one up and glance at the headline. Looks to me like just the normal garbage about Potter, but I flip to the page in curiosity anyway.

What?

No way.

My father can not hear about this.

I hear footsteps behind me and look up when someone grabs my shoulder.

"Whatcha looking at Drakey Poo?"

I shudder at Pansy's nick name for me, but decide to hand her the paper so she can see for herself. But to my surprise, she doesn't even glance at it.

"Oh that. Yeah, I know all about that." She tells me.

"After you refused to kiss me back, I went outside by the courtyard to look at the stars.

I've heard it makes people feel better, or something.

Anyway, I just so happened to hear a snippet of conversation between Potter and future Mrs. Weasel that lead me to believe there was more than just your dislike keeping us apart."

Harry thinks I'm gay?

"You're lying," I state, willing it to be true.

"You date me, and we can clear all this up. The story, the rumors... everything.

It's an easy buy to believe you fell in love with your friend since childhood.

I know, you would never even consider dating Potter, but the rest of the world will believe anything they read.
So, it's up to you." She bargains.

I shake my head, wanting this awful feeling of being trapped to go away.

I decide to just leave her standing there in the common room.
I need to find Potter.

I run down the halls, searching everywhere for the boy with messy dark hair, glasses, and a lightning scar.

I finally decide that he must be hiding in the Gryffindor dormitories and quickly make my way there.

After a bit of bargaining with the Fat Lady, I get inside.

"Oh look! It's Malfoy. Here to comfort your boyfriend?" Some 7th year girl I've never spoken to taunts.

I just glare and run up the stairs, looking for Potter.

When I make it to the only 8th year room, I knock.

"What?" The muffled voice through the door questions sarcastically.

I decide to let myself in.

The second Potter spots me, he sits up on his bed, looking tense, hair more out of place than usual.

"Malfoy," he complains,
"you're adding fuel to the fire just by being here."

I roll my eyes. As if anyone would believe that garbage in the paper.

People don't believe it, do they?

I walk slowly, but purposefully towards him and sit on the corner of his bed.

"I just can't believe Ginny would do something like this," he moans in defeat.

Wait what? Why does he think this was the work of Weaselette?

"Ginny didn't do this," I reveal.

"Huh?" He asks.

"I.. um... Pansy was mad, because I didn't kiss her back," I start out,

"And so she went into the courtyard to get away, or something, I don't really know, and then well, she overheard something between you and Granger...

I don't know what she heard, but she thinks the reason I didn't kiss her back is because I'm gay.

Or.. maybe she thinks this rumor will make me date her or something.

Anyway, I guess since we've been spending a lot of time together.."

I don't finish my sentence, allowing him to connect the dots himself.

"Bloody hell," he whispers.

I nod slowly.

"Malfoy? Are you?" He asks.

"Am I what?" I scoff.

He looks at me with an expression I can't place.

"Are you.. ya know," he ventures.

"Gay?" I ask, startled by the question, "Merlin no, Harry. I just don't like Pansy. That's all," I try to convince him.

"Okay. Well alright then," he says, sounding sad for a reason I'm oblivious to.

He looks down at the ground.

"Something wrong, Potter," I ask, using my hand to make him turn his face towards me.

His eyes flicker between my eyes and my lips. He's blushing red.

I'm scared of the look in his eye, like he's about to do something.

The second he starts to lean in, the door bursts open and he jumps back.

"Merlin Harry!" A voice laced with a Irish accent laughs, "Sorry to interrupt whatever's going on. Next time you have company, maybe leave a note," He jokes.

Harry's face is crimson.

"I'll be going," I state awkwardly.

I quickly walk out of the Gryffindor dormitory.

'What was about to happen?' I wonder.

'What if we hadn't be interrupted?'

I blink, trying to clear my thoughts.

'Why is my heart beating so fast?'

                               ~△⃒⃘~
AN:
I'm getting like no reads lmao.
I don't really care though since I'm only writing this for my own entertainment.

Hope you enjoyed.
Some drama is about to go down!

Thanks for reading, my bugs.
-Chance 💐🐝⏰