Remus gave Severus a look that made Sirius want to vomit a little bit. "Ah, that sounds familiar," he sighed fondly.
"I don't recall you risking your neck nearly half as often as Potter does," Severus retorted evenly. Sirius snickered.
"Yeah, Draco will have to get a handle on that whole 'wanting to snog him every time he does something reckless' thing. He'll be found out in a week." Sirius loved his godson, but Harry's regard for his own personal safety was… not fantastic.
"They'll both have to be careful," Remus said, sobering up. The three of them shared an uneasy look. These were dangerous times for a Potter and a Malfoy to be dating. "We'll protect them the best we can," Sirius vowed, before grinning again. "Oh, Cissa will be thrilled! Harry's got four houses to his name, you don't get much more pureblood than that." Regardless of the muggle side of his family, that was a sort of status boost that even Lucius Malfoy wouldn't turn his nose up at. If not for the whole 'being Harry Potter' part, of course.
"Don't you dare tell Narcissa before Draco can," Remus scolded. "That's his news to share."
Sirius pouted, but nodded, knowing it wouldn't be fair on Draco to spoil that moment for him. He'd just eagerly await his cousin's owl once she heard the news. .-.-.
It was the worst thing in the world, being on cloud nine and not being able to tell anyone about it. The secret was filling Harry's chest, desperate to burst through his lungs and declare to the world that Draco Malfoy was his boyfriend. But he couldn't.
He did tell George, though. Which had the unintended result of also telling Fred, and Harry used the time to tell them the truth about Dumbledore, too. Both because they needed to know, and to distract them from the news that he was dating a Malfoy.
It sort-of worked. They were too busy being angry at Dumbledore and confused by their mother's actions to really say anything about his choice of boyfriend, but they got round to congratulating him eventually. In between some mild insults to Draco's father, which Harry couldn't really complain about. Draco's father was the worst.
Having two people at school know his secret was enough, sort-of. It had to be, for now.
Harry almost thought about telling Neville, but the other Gryffindor didn't even know that Harry liked boys, and every time he tried to bring it up the words got stuck in his throat. It was ridiculous; he knew Neville wasn't going to judge him. But he still couldn't bring himself to say it. It didn't help that Hermione had decided she wanted to be friends again, and was at his side almost every free moment he had.
Tugging his cloak tighter around himself, Harry surveyed the few remaining blast-ended skrewts that they had just failed to encourage to hibernate, somewhat wishing one of them would set something on fire. Not anything important, mind. But it was freezing outside, and warming charms could only do so much.
"Well, this does look like fun!" The overly-cheerful voice made Harry even colder.
His letter from Amelia Bones had arrived the weekend after the first task, as Susan had promised it would, introducing Harry to the lawyer that would be helping him take legal action against Rita Skeeter. He'd been assured that it was most definitely not legal to quote a minor who had denied being interviewed, and a warning had been sent to Ms Skeeter forthwith. Clearly she was looking for other angles. Harry was amazed the woman was even allowed in the castle.
To Harry's surprise, she didn't immediately come up to him. Instead she started talking to Hagrid about the skrewts, smirking delightedly as the man got more and more flustered. Harry watched with a feeling of impending dread; she was doing this because of him. She knew she wasn't supposed to talk to him, so she was going to start going for the people he cared about instead. That bitch.
"Oh, you're here, Harry. Hello, there!" she greeted far too innocently, before turning back to Hagrid and asking him more about the skrewts, eventually making arrangements to meet for a proper interview at the Three Broomsticks. Class ended, and Skeeter stayed by the hut as the rest of them trudged up towards the castle.
"She's going to twist everything he says," Hermione breathed, horrified. Harry grimaced. "You should've just given her that interview, Harry. She wouldn't be going anywhere near Hagrid then."
Harry stared at the girl, unable to believe what she'd just said. "Excuse me?"
"Well it's obvious the real story is you, and you're not giving her anything! So she's got to get her dirt elsewhere," Hermione said diplomatically.
"The article she did about me was bad enough without me giving her more fuel for the fire!" Harry argued. "She writes nothing but rubbish, and I don't need her dragging my name into her ridiculous lies. My reputation is bad enough as it is."
"Since when have you cared about your reputation?" Hermione's voice was sharp. "Surely, knowing what people think of you already, you should just let her write whatever she wants about you, to stop her writing awful things about anybody else. Clearly she's not going to stop looking for a story from you, she's just going to drag everyone else into the crossfire."
"What, so I should just throw myself under the bus?" Harry spat back. "That's easy for you to say, Hermione; you're not the one whose face is in the paper every bloody five minutes. You're not the one who has to deal with the public's opinion every time you so much as breathe!" He forced himself to try and calm down; if their argument got much louder, Skeeter would hear him, and then she'd really have a story.
"But I was in the paper," Hermione argued. "People think I'm your girlfriend now, because she started making up her own rubbish when you didn't give her anything!"
"And I'm sorry about that, I really am," Harry said earnestly. "But it isn't my fault, and for all we know she would've written that crap anyway. Besides, no one really thinks you're my girlfriend."
Hermione went red at that. "Some people do," she spat. "If you had any sort of consideration for others, you'd stop throwing a tantrum and just agree to an interview."
Harry rather thought that only one of them was throwing a tantrum at the minute, and it certainly wasn't him. Still, he merely shook his head, turning back towards the castle. It wasn't worth the argument.
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