Sometimes Harry would think, 'Wow this is the most miserable I've ever been', and then he would think back to all the other times he thought that and was somehow surprised to find out they had almost all been at Hogwarts.
Definitely not all of them, but most of them.
Certainly the fortnight after Halloween anyway.
Harry had carefully talked to Theo about it after Theo threatened to get Snape when he found Harry getting sick in the dorm loo for the sixth night in a row.
He didn't tell him he'd been taking muggle medicine for madness though, he said he was taking muggle medicine for allergies (something he knew Theo had as well because of all the cats in Hogwarts) and he quit taking it and then got sick. Theo swore to find out what was causing it and Harry made him take a Vow not to tell anyone else unless Harry directly gave him permission.
He liked Theo. Theo declared himself to be Harry's brother, which was brill because Harry had secretly always wanted a brother. But if Theo told Hermione she'd tell Snape and then Snape would know he wasn't taking his pills.
And he didn't want Theo telling anyone he was taking pills in the first place, even if Theo didn't know what they had really been for.
"It's called withdrawals," Theo whispered to him while he slowly smoothed Harry's fringe off his sweat plastered face one night when Harry was too sick to push him away. "It's what happens when you stop taking a medicine all at once."
"It feels like my brain is being shocked," Harry moaned. He'd been so sick that he scarcely cared how weak he looked. But if anyone didn't care, it would be Theo. Harry had seen Theo cry before, this really just made them even.
"Brain zaps," Theo said softly. "Maybe you should take the medicine again Harry. It's got to be better than this."
"No," Harry groaned before emptying his already empty stomach again.
So Harry was having withdrawals.
And they sucked.
But it would suck more if he died.
He had too much to do, and had already done too much, to die now because he couldn't take a potion.
Some days were better than others though. Days like when they were outside and the sun was peeking out behind the clouds and Harry could ignore Hagrid as he rambled about something in favor of playing with the rapidly growing Blast-Ended Skrewts. He felt fine in moments like this.
But then sometimes, like in Trewlaney's Divination classroom, he'd be hit with a wave of nausea so strong that he barely was able to duck to the back of the room and put up a silencing charm before getting sick in one of their Professor's teapots.
Worst of all was transfiguration and potions though.
McGonagall clearly thought he was upset about the tournament so she kept giving him 'encouraging pep talks' when all Harry wanted to do was find a blanket to warm away the sudden fevery shivers he'd gotten.
"You're a talented young man," McGonagall would say. "I think that the other champions should be looking out for you."
"Yes ma'am," Harry would repeat quickly, hoping to escape soon.
And Potions was the hardest to get through because Snape was smart. Too smart. Smart enough that getting through his class without setting off Snape's 'Potter is up to something' radar was a real challenge.
But Harry was smart too.
Harry washed away any trace of sweat on his face before he entered the classroom and put a cooling charm on himself for the duration. It was better to be cold than to be sweating in front of Snape. He had Draco do most of the prep work when Snape was inspecting their class and kept his trembling hands tucked away. He also chewed mint leaves Theo gave him to make sure he wasn't sick during those classes.
And Snape never noticed.
Snape even gave Harry a refill of his pills, thinking the old bottle was empty on the 18th like always.
If Harry wasn't so busy feeling miserable he was sure he'd be smug about it.
Today was one of the good days though. He only had morning classes, and he didn't meet with Snape and his friends for their private lesson for two more days and it was decent weather for mid-November.
Harry and his friends were outside playing poker with Viktor Krum.
"I do not understand this game," Krum groaned.
"That's because you're a seeker," Ron said. "You aren't used to doing strategy- you just find the snitch and fly after it."
"There's more to it than that!" Harry scowled. "It takes skill and talent."
"Vot he said," Krum nodded sagely.
"I think you're doing great," Luna said sweetly from her spot beside Harry. "Much better than Blaise is."
"I'm winning Lue," Blaise rolled his eyes.
"Not for long," Luna said happily.
"I can't believe you two are playing cards when the first task is less than a week away," Hermione frowned.
"How can they prepare for a task that's literally supposed to be a surprise?" Neville asked her logically.
"Ta Nev," Harry murmured. He was trying to focus on making sure that he and Krum didn't lose too terribly at cards, he still had six days to worry about not losing the task. He was also trying to subtly glance at Draco's loosely held cards when a nearby giggle caught his attention.
"What's he doing?" Ron asked curiously as his attention was caught by where his brothers were chatting with a couple silk robed girls from Beauxbatons.
"Dunno." Harry narrowed his eyes at the girls and scowled when one of them turned to look at him then rolled her own eyes with a small grin. "I'll be back."
"Am I coming?" Susan asked.
"No."
Harry put his hands in his jeans pockets and walked casually towards Fred, George, and the fucking giggling girls.
"Enjoying this beautiful weather Harrikins?" George grinned when Harry walked up to their group. Fred just nodded at him, much cooler than he usually does.
"Suppose so." Harry looked at the girls and glanced at them slowly from top to bottom before he smirked just slightly. "Harry," he said. "Harry Potter."
"Jean," one girl smiled prettily.
"Jules," the one who rolled her eyes at him now batted her eyelashes.
Harry didn't realize it until he was up close, but they were identical twins just like Fred and George.
And pretty.
Pretty identical twins who were batting their stupid eyelashes and smiling brightly.
"We were explaining British culture to them," Fred winked at the girls and Harry felt a sudden wave of annoyance.
"Yeah?" he said tightly, raising both his brows at Fred. "I thought you were busy with orders and couldn't hang out today?"
"We got done sooner than we thought-"
"-and it looked like you had plenty of people anyway," Fred finished his brothers sentence with a narrowed eyed glance towards where Harry's friends were sitting together beside the lake.
The two Beauxbatons girls 'Jean and Jules' glanced curiously between the boys.
"We can go, yes?" one of them said. "You are busy?"
"Yes."
"No."
Harry glared at Fred in real annoyance now and was surprised to see Fred was glaring back at him.
"Let's just go..." George linked his arms with either girl and the three of them quickly headed off towards the castle. Harry and Fred hardly noticed.
"What's your problem?" Fred asked him.
Not asked.
Demanded.
And Harry didn't have to answer to anyone.
"Who says I have a problem?" Harry snarled.
"I do," Fred said stubbornly. "You've been avoiding me for weeks, then you go and hang out with Viktor bloody Krum, and all of a sudden you come stomping over here all pissed at me."
"I was not avoiding you," Harry said hotly. "I was fuckin' sick, wasn't I? I'm still sick. And I invited you to play cards. You said you were busy but you clearly weren't too busy for 'Julie and Jeanie'."
"Jules and Jean," Fred corrected him which just made Harry scowl harder. "Why didn't you tell me you were sick?"
"Because it's my business, isn't it?"
"This is the problem! Everything isn't my business!" Fred exclaimed loudly, prompting Harry to put up a privacy shield as more than a few people turned to look at them. "You don't tell me you're sick and then I think you're done with me because you don't talk to me for days!"
"So you were going to hang out with Julie to make up for it? That's real fuckin' brill Fred, thanks."
Fred stared at Harry for a long moment until a smile slowly spread across his face.
"Are you jealous?"
"Of what? Fuckin' Julie? Nope," Harry curled his lip up with disdain. "I'm sure she's great, yeah? She seemed sooo interesting when she was batting her fuckin' eyelashes at me."
"You are!" Fred laughed and Harry debated for a second on hexing him. He didn't. Not yet. But he would. "You're hanging out with Mister Muscular International Seeker Who Wants to be Your BFF and you're jealous of a bird from Beauxbatons!"
"She's not just a 'bird'," Harry grit out through a tightly clenched jaw. "She was pretty and acting like a giggling, stupid, twit! And Krum is not muscular."
"You'd know," Fred spat, his laughter fading and his eyes hardening once again.
"What's that supposed to mean then?"
"Why's he always hanging around you? Huh?"
"Because we're friends, stupid," Harry sneered. "You know, like you and Julieeeee."
"I can't believe you're jealous of her," Fred laughed again.
"I'm going to hex you next time you laugh at me, fair warning." Harry wouldn't normally offer warnings, but, aside from right now, he normally liked Fred too, so apparently it was a day to try new things.
"I'm not laughing at you," Fred said even though his eyes still looked glittery with laughter. "Harry, I'm gay. Gay gay. Super gay. As in Jules could have stripped naked and threw herself on top of me and-"
"And I would have killed her, probably would have been a rather traumatic experience for you, yeah?" Harry gripped his knife and blinked back a haze of red just picturing it.
"Watching you kill her would be hotter than seeing her naked," Fred grinned. "Does that make you happy?"
"No," Harry said curtly, even though it did just a bit. "Why were you standing here talking to her if you wanted to talk to me?"
"Because you've been avoiding me like the dragon pox," Fred huffed, crossing his arms across his chest defensively. "I figured if you weren't talking to me anymore then I wasn't going to look pathetic and go chasing you down."
"I told you I've been sick," Harry said with only the tiniest amount of guilt twisting his stomach. He had been avoiding Fred. He didn't want Fred to know he was sick and think he was weak or pathetic.
"Now you tell me, but I bet your friends already knew, didn't they?"
"Only Lue, Susan, and Theo," Harry said. Theo found him in the bathroom getting sick, Susan saw him picking at his food and guessed, and Luna just kept bringing him hot cocoa just like Lupin's in the evenings so she must have just figured it out on her own. Theo was the only one he told about the pills though.
"How come they got to know you didn't feel good but I didn't?" Fred asked quietly. "I want you to trust me too."
"I do trust you," Harry said hesitantly. "It's just... it's different with you, isn't it?"
"How?" Fred leaned against the tree he was standing beside and looked steadily in to Harry's eyes. "What makes me different?"
Harry shrugged and scuffed his trainers in the grass while he tried to think of how to explain it.
"It doesn't matter if they see me when I'm weak," he said with an actual honest effort at explaining his thoughts. "They all know I'm not, don't they? Do you?"
"I think you're the strongest person I've ever met in my life and you make me feel weak by comparison," Fred said without hesitation.
"What?" Harry was startled by his easily spoken admission. "Why- why'd you say that?"
"Because it's true. Also while I'm being honest; I'm jealous of Krum. And I used to be jealous of Luna. But now I'm just jealous that she got to know you were sick and I didn't."
"Are you mad?" Harry asked slowly. Fred didn't look mad. But if he was upset about that many things then it would make sense if he was mad.
"No," Fred shook his head and kept calmly watching Harry. "I said I'm jealous, not angry."
"I..." Harry trailed off and furrowed his brows. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say."
"You don't have to say anything," Fred shrugged his shoulder casually. "It's my problem, not yours."
"Then why tell me?"
"Because we're in a relationship, at some point we have to start trusting each other with things."
"You don't trust me?" Harry asked. He tried to say it firmly, but it sounded too quiet.
"I trust you with my thoughts and ideas and my past, but not with my feelings."
Harry wasn't really sure why Fred would trust him with the big things, but not something as unimportant as feelings. Harry was terrible at dealing with peoples feelings though, it made his skin itch just to think about, so that was probably fair.
"I trust you with my thoughts," Harry protested feebly. He knew he didn't trust Fred with as much as Fred trusted him. He wanted to. He liked Fred. And being with Fred was brilliant, but... "You'd leave," Harry blurted out. "If I told you all those other things about me you'd leave. And... and I don't want you to."
It was a childish mistake to make, admitting to someone something you wanted. If Fred left before now, it would suck. But if he left after he knew Harry didn't want him to? That would be way worse.
"I wouldn't."
Harry took a half step backwards and shook his head.
"You don't even know the real me. You only know the good stuff, the stuff that people like about me."
"Take a chance Darlin," Fred said softly. "Let me prove myself. I want to know all the things about you that you think people won't like."
"I- I dunno," Harry flicked his eyes around the lawn quickly while he tried to think. "Are we going to breakup if I don't?"
"Of course not," Fred looked insulted. "Harry you don't have to tell me anything. I want you to, but not if you think you have to."
"Alright... well... maybe later, yeah?" Harry felt hot and wasn't sure if his hands were shaking from the pill withdrawal or because he felt so on edge right now.
Fred squinted at him for a moment before brightening and straightening up immediately.
"There's something I need to do, can I sit with you at dinner?"
"Er, alright then." Harry was caught off guard by Fred's sudden shift. But he was also relieved to be done with the conversation for now.
"I'll see you in a bit," Fred said happily before jogging away, popping Harry's privacy dome and leaving behind a startled and confused Harry.
"If you bring that twit to our table I'm going to tell Snape it's your fault I killed her!" Harry yelled across the courtyard, pleased when more than one student jumped at his declaration.
"What was that about?" Draco asked when Harry rejoined his friends.
"Harry was being jealous," Blaise snickered.
Harry sent a stinging hex at Blaise's exposed wrist. He gave Fred a warning, he wasn't going to extend that offer to everyone else.
"Who's winning?"
Harry had just pocketed one of his pills at dinner when the entrance doors burst open dramatically.
"Merlin save me," Theo groaned quietly when Fred strode in and walked straight to the Slytherin table before kneeling down beside where Harry had jumped to his feet when the doors burst open.
"Harry James Potter, light of my life, my northern star, the apple of my eye: will you, THE MOST BRILLIANT BOYFRIEND A BLOKE COULD ASK FOR, go on a date with me tomorrow night?"
"Oh my God," Hermione and Susan started giggling like mad while Harry turned a shocking shade of red as the rest of students in the Hall started catcalling and whistling at them.
"We're already dating, get up," Harry hissed.
"And happy couples never stop going on dates," Fred said loudly. "I've prepared a poem to help convince you though. Ahem, YOU ARE THE SEEKER OF MY-"
"God. Yes. Fuck. Shut up." Harry said quickly.
"WHOOP!"
Harry only barely resisted the urge to slam his head on the table when the Gryffindor's, most of whom hated Harry, but all of whom liked Fred, broke into loud applause. Harry glanced up at the Head Table and curled his lip up at Snape's dark eyed look of amusement.
Bastard.
"Was that truly necessary?" Theo asked Fred drily as he shoved him over and took his seat across from Harry.
"Harry thought I was interested in someone else, I figured I'd show the whole school at once that there's only one person for me."
"Romantic," Luna sighed.
Harry looked over at the Ravenclaw table and felt his embarrassment at Fred's antics recede as 'Jules' stabbed at her potatoes with more force than was necessary. He smiled brightly when she looked up at him and scowled.
Now that he knew what to look for, he didn't miss Fred's sly smirk when he asked Krum to pass him the rolls either though.
"You two are ridiculous," Ron waved his fork in their direction. Harry and Fred both shrugged.
"How'd you convince McGonagall to let us leave the school?" Harry asked Fred curiously when he met him in the Entrance Hall the next evening and began leading him to Hogsmeade by the hand.
"I didn't ask her, I asked Snape," Fred grinned.
"Snape gave us permission to go get dinner in Hogsmeade?" Harry asked.
"He traded me permission," Fred said.
Snape was a bastard, but he was also sneaky and clever.
"What'd you have to give up?"
"I offered a months worth of detentions, and he said 'absolutely not', so instead I'm not allowed to talk in his class for a month."
Harry laughed at that. Snape really worked hard to pretend like he hated Fred. But Harry figured if he really hated Fred that he'd just curse him and be done with it.
They walked in an easy silence, only broken occasionally by Fred's terrible jokes about their teachers and Harry's laughter.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked when they got to Hogsmeade and passed the Three Broomsticks.
"The barman at the Hogs Head owes me a favor," Fred said. "I'm gonna try and cash it in by ordering lager."
"You might as well be a Slytherin," Harry laughed at his antics.
"I almost was. But then the hat said I was more brash and bold than I was cunning so I became McGonagall's problem."
"Good thing," Harry said with mock-solemnity as Fred opened the door of a dingy little grey building for him. "Can you imagine Snape's face if we were both in Slytherin?"
"It fuels most of my dreams," Fred laughed. He wrapped an arm around Harry's waist and led him towards a booth in the back of the pub. "I'm gonna grab a couple menus, and drinks," he winked. "I'll be back."
Harry sat down in the booth and watched as Fred confidently strut up to the barkeep with a long grey beard and sharp ice blue eyes. It looked like they argued for a minute or two until the barkeep scowled and flicked a dirty towel at Fred before he turned and poured two glasses of lager.
"It's magic!" Fred announced happily when he got back to their table. "Abeforth is a good bloke, drives a hard bargain though."
"Cheers then," Harry laughed as Fred slid him one of the cold foamy drinks. "Ugh, fuck, that's disgusting Fred."
Fred laughed loudly and Harry felt some of his previous tension melting away at the sound. He didn't like to be constantly fighting with people he liked, and fighting with Fred yesterday and Snape a couple weeks ago was... not stressful necessarily. But he certainly didn't like it.
They placed their orders, and Harry insisted on paying, and then Harry told Fred about his run in with Bagman outside the Three Broomsticks.
"I told him he can pay me 600 Galleons at each of the tasks," Harry explained while they waited on their food. "So thats like 400 Galleons more than he owed you, yeah? That's what Sue said. But I told her she could have 200 of it since the interest was her idea."
"Then you should get the other 200 since you're the one doing the work," Fred said.
"Nah," Harry waved his hand. "I'll already get 300 from the tournament. I don't need it. You should use it."
"You get 1000," Fred rolled his eyes.
"No, I owe you 500 for not entering and Ron 200 for not entering."
"You're mad," Fred laughed, distracting Harry from the small chime that indicated someone entered the pub. "Absolutely-"
"Fred?"
Harry curled his fingers up into his robe sleeve and touched the edge of his knife as Fred's brother, Charlie, walked in the pub and made straight for their table.
"Charlie? What're you doing here?" Fred glanced at Harry, who had already cleared any emotion off his face and was watching the man closely as he approached them.
"Working," Charlie said, jerking his thumb behind him to where two other thickset men had settled at the bar counter. "Why are you drinking?"
"To stay hydrated," Harry drawled irritably. He didn't like Charlie, and he definitely didn't like him questioning Fred. Fred wasn't the one who was supposed to be in Romania.
Charlie glanced at Harry with surprise and Harry was further irritated to see that Charlie had the exact same shade of blue in his eyes that Fred had.
"Shouldn't you two be in school?" he asked Fred.
"Shouldn't you be in Romania?" Fred quipped back.
Charlee glanced at Harry again and then raised his brows at Fred.
"I'm working," he said slowly, putting unnecessary stress on his words.
"Go work somewhere else," Fred rolled his eyes. "We are on a date and you are ruining it."
"Oh Fred," Charlie's eyes lit up like Fred's do when he's about to cause someone to have a terrible day. "And miss one of the few opportunities I've ever gotten to embarrass one of my brothers on a date? Never! Scoot."
Harry felt the muscles in his back stiffen as Charlie shoved Fred over and sat next to him, across from Harry.
"Charlie you idiot, go away," Fred groaned while he shot an apologetic look at Harry.
"Or, I could tell Harry here about that time you had a whole fake wedding for you and the duck stuffed animal you used to carry around," Charlie grinned while he snagged Fred's drink.
Harry glanced between Fred and Charlie, unsure what he was supposed to do. On the one hand, Fred told Charlie to go away and he wasn't, so Harry could make him. On the other hand, if someone had cursed Theo then Harry would be pissed and he really didn't want to fight with Fred again.
"You married a duck?" he asked Fred instead, his lips twitching just from saying such a bizarre sentence.
"He did," Charlie slowly set his wand on the table and crossed his arms with a broad smile. "He called him Mister Duckingham."
Harry didn't want to laugh, he really didn't, but when Charlie quacked in Fred's face he couldn't hold it in.
Harry kept a close eye on Charlie through dinner; during which time Charlie and Fred seemed to be in a contest over who had the more embarrassing stories about the other. At some point they tried to team up and talk about Ron, but Harry shut that down quick.
"Ron's one of my best mates," he warned Charlie quietly. "And he's not here to defend himself, is he?"
Fred winked at him, but Charlie nodded approvingly.
After they finished eating, Fred excused himself to the loo and an uncomfortable silence fell between Harry and Charlie.
"You don't like me much, do you?" Charlie asked casually.
"Not really, no," Harry admitted with a shrug. Harry could probably drive his knife in Charlie's right shoulder before he could grab his wand so there wasn't any point in lying.
"But you like Bill, and George, and Ron."
"Percy too," Harry lied. He didn't really like Percy, but Percy didn't look like the kind of person who would kick an old drunk to death for no good reason.
"Hmm," Charlie eyed Harry thoughtfully. Harry held his gaze and lifted one brow in a silent challenge. "So what did I do to earn your dislike then?"
"You did just crash our date," Harry sneered lightly. "So it's not like you're working hard to gain my friendship, are you?"
Charlie chuckled for no good reason and sat up.
"I am working hard though," he said. "Did Fred or Ron tell you what I do for a living?"
"Dragon tamer, yeah?" Harry asked as he looked around Charlie to make sure nobody had blocked or locked the door. He wasn't sure if Charlie was trying to threaten him, but Harry was sure he was harder to kill than a dragon was.
"What are we talking about?" Fred asked brightly, walking back up to their table. "Besides how Charlie ruined our date and we should get going."
"I was telling Harry that I'm working," Charlie said.
"You look like you're drinking," Fred pointed out as he offered his hand to Harry. "But whatever helps you sleep at night."
"Merlin, you two are dense," Charlie groaned before finishing his drink in one long gulp. "I am working because I am a dragon tamerand Hogwarts needed four dragons to use in five days. Should I summon a quill and draw you a photo?"
Fred's jaw dropped and Harry's lips spread in to a slow but genuine smile.
"Dragons?" he breathed. "It's dragons we have to face?"
Harry and Fred stared in each other's eyes, Fred looked terrified, but Harry was excited.
This was going to be better than any troll, or basilisk, or Boggart.
"Sorry our date got ruined," Fred said quietly when they were laying alone in Harry's bed later that night.
"Did it?" Harry rolled on his side and raised his brows at Fred.
"Hanging out with my brother you don't like probably wasn't much of a good time," Fred said with a wry smile. "The dragons were really just the icing on the cake."
"I thought it was fine," Harry said. "I'm glad we went. Now I know what the task is, yeah?"
"That's true," Fred said. "I'm just being selfish. I had a whole plan you know."
"Yeah? What was that?"
Fred rolled on his side now too and traced a pattern on Harry's arm.
"I was going to ask you about a million questions and hope you would trust me with at least 10 answers, then I was going to tell you a secret in exchange."
Harry felt his muscles tense up and took a few deep breaths while he debated quickly.
"Alright," he said quietly. "10 questions."
"No," Fred smiled over at him, taking the sting out of his refusal. "I don't want you to because you think you have to. I was hoping I could... I dunno... romance you into trusting me?" Fred laughed quietly.
"I trust you," Harry said. "10 questions then you tell me your secret."
Fred stared in Harry's eyes for at least a minute, as if weighing whether or not he'd play.
"Are you nervous about the dragon?" he finally asked.
Harry thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.
"No."
"Gryffindor," Fred accused with an approving grin. "Oh yeah, speaking of which, why'd it take so long for you to be sorted?"
"We were talking about the different houses." Harry laughed when he remembered how long his sorting took. "He couldn't decide until I told him to pick a house or I was going to catch him on fire and he sent me to Slytherin."
Fred laughed too and kept tracing Harry's arm while he thought about his next question.
"How come you always wear long sleeve's?" Harry had gotten so relaxed by the simple first two questions that he was caught entirely off guard by the third.
"Uh..." Harry pulled his arm away from Fred and rolled to his stomach so he could tuck both arms beneath himself.
"Hey."
Harry stared hard at the bed hangings in front of him and glanced at Fred out of the corner of his eye.
"You can tell me anything," Fred said earnestly. "I'm not leaving. I swear."
Theo knows, he reasoned with himself. And Snape said I should trust people...
Not fuckin' stray dogs anymore. But... maybe Fred?
"Do you tell George stuff about me?" Harry asked.
"Do you mean, 'will I tell George what you say?' No. I won't," Fred said seriously. "But you don't have to answer either. You can pass. Or we can forget it and go to sleep right now."
Harry nearly gave in, but he didn't. This was Fred. If Fred wanted ten secrets, that wasn't that many really. Harry sat up and criss-crossed his legs beneath him. Fred laid on his side and watched as Harry rolled his sleeves up.
"I don't like people to see these and I can't use a glamour to cover them," Harry's heart was racing as he flipped his arms over and felt as if he might as well be naked for as bare as he felt right now as Fred looked at the thick white scars on his forearms.
"Can I touch them?"
"Is that question four?"
"It can be," Fred smiled slightly as he sat up and mimicked Harry's pose.
"No, they're disgusting." Harry pulled his sleeves back down. "Question five?"
"Hmmm..." Fred leaned back on his hands and looked up as he thought. "Why'd you pick Snape as your guardian?"
Harry released his breath at another easy question.
"He was the first person to ever like me. Plus he's a genius. And he's always helping me and never asks for anything in return."
"Plus he lets you do whatever you want," Fred grinned. "I'm sure that helps."
"No he doesn't," Harry tilted his head at that weird statement. "He's got rules and stuff."
"You're the only person I know whose parent lets them have their boyfriend stay the night." Fred wiggled his eyebrows around, drawing a laugh from Harry.
"That's because it's my house. Same reason Theo got to move in."
"Your house? Did you buy it? I thought it was Snapes?"
"That's question six," Harry said. "And nope. It used to be Snape's but he gave it to me when he became my guardian."
"Sneaky," Fred shook his head but he smiled too so Harry figured he wasn't mad. "Alright question seven, and don't laugh, but are you attracted to Krum?"
"Like... what? Like do I think he's good looking?" Harry asked. "No. He's not really my type, is he?"
"Only attracted to redheads then?" Fred teased, but Harry thought he looked pleased too.
"I don't... I don't know. I- I like your body too," Harry blushed furiously and if Fred had looked a little pleased before, it was nothing compared to his face now.
"I like your body too," Fred winked and Harry managed to turn an even darker shade of red.
"Next question?" Harry asked quickly.
"Alright... question eight..." Fred eyed Harry speculatively for a long enough that Harry was beginning to feel uneasy.
"I can guess where the scars on your arms came from. What about the ones on your back?"
Harry froze.
Fuck.
Harry's hands were frantically scrambling to find something to grip on to. And he probably would have told Fred to fuck off, but Fred shifted around and put both his hands under Harry's and watched patiently as Harry ran his thumbs over the back of Fred's hands.
'Freak... Worthless... Ungrateful...'
'...You have to decided which people you can trust and decide if they are worth sharing secrets with.'
Fred was worth it.
"My... my mums relatives didn't like me much," Harry admitted softly as he stared down at their now interlocked hands. "So... so that's where most of those came from."
Fred didn't say anything, which was good really, and Harry kept watching their hands so he missed the flash of rage in Fred's blue eyes.
"Do you want to be done?" Fred asked evenly. "I'll still tell you my secret."
"It's fine. Two more, yeah?"
"Yeah." Fred gripped Harry's hands tightly so he looked up at him and was relieved to see that he didn't look pitying or disgusted or anything.
"Did you kill Avery's Dad?"
Harry actually let out a soft huff of a laugh at that.
"Yeah," he said. "He hurt you and tried to kill Snape, didn't he?"
"My hero," Fred smiled. "It probably shouldn't be so hot how vicious you are, but it is."
"Shut up," Harry laughed. He didn't care if Fred thought it was hot. He was just happy it was a question where he didn't sound pathetic for answering. "Last one prat."
"Can I kiss you?"
"That's your last question?" Harry asked. "Not... not anything else?"
"Oh I have a million more questions for you some day," Fred said easily. "But I figured I'll wait until you see I'm sticking around and keeping your secrets to myself before I ask them."
Harry looked away from the deep blue of Fred's eyes at that. He felt a bit of some of his long held weight fade at the sincerity of Fred's words. It was stupid to make yourself vulnerable by telling people your secrets, but... but he thought it was maybe worth it just a little if Fred stuck around even knowing stuff about Harry that nobody else does.
"Yeah."
Fred leaned forward and Harry closed his eyes as he kissed him softly.
"I love you," Fred breathed against his mouth. "That's my secret."
The next morning Harry felt a little shy when he woke up next to Fred. He felt like something shifted between them last night and he wasn't sure how he felt about it yet.
"Breakfast or Snape first?" Fred asked cheerfully.
"Snape," Harry said, checking the time. "He's still in his office I'm sure. Let's go now, yeah?"
They walked through the empty corridors towards Snape's office.
"Enter," Snape called after Harry briskly knocked.
Harry tucked his hands in his pockets before he went in, ignoring Fred's curious look as he did it. He didn't want Snape to see his hands shaking, he'd guess it had something to do with the medicine and Harry wasn't going to die if he needed a potion after the first task. Especially now that he knew what the task was.
"It's me," Harry said once Fred nudged the door open. "Guess what?"
"What?" Snape sighed, probably guessing it was something mad.
Which was fair. Because it was.
"You know the task on the 24th?"
"Yes?" Snape drawled, fully focused on Harry then.
"It's dragons," Harry said.
Harry was pleased that he didn't even twitch when Snape summoned a pain reliever.
He'd expected that really.
"DRAGONS?!" Susan all but yelled in the library that same day. "You're facing a fully grown mother fucking dragon in just four days?!"
"Yup," Harry shrugged.
"We need a plan," Theo said. "And then a backup plan..."
"And a backup, backup plan," Mione added.
"Are you allowed to kill it?" Ron asked curiously.
"He can't kill it!" Draco scowled. "I bet those poor dragons are just miserable being used like this."
"I agree," Luna said sympathetically. "It's sad, isn't it?"
"It'll be sadder if Harry burns to a crisp though," Neville pointed out calmly.
Neville might be the quietest one in the group, but Harry thought Neville was also the calmest in a crisis which really made him invaluable. Because Harry and Susan certainly couldn't be counted on to keep a cool head most of the time.
"What are you going to do?" Blaise asked him seriously. "Dragons are impervious to most spells."
"I dunno," Harry tapped his pinky finger on the table while he thought about it. "Could try killing it I suppose."
"You are not killing it," Draco hissed.
"What did Snape say?" Theo asked shrewdly, accurately guessing that Harry already told him.
"He said he'd come up with some ideas before our meeting tomorrow," Harry said quietly. "So we'll see."
"Potter!"
Harry startled and spun around quickly. He cleared any fear off his face and put on his bored mask once he saw who had managed to sneak up on him.
"Professor Moody, what's up?" he asked evenly.
"Let's talk for a moment laddie," Moody growled.
Harry glanced quickly at his friends; Blaise raised a single brow in a silent question, but Harry shook his head slightly.
"Alright then." Harry grabbed his bag off the table and got to his feet. "Lead the way."
Moody probably wasn't going to try and kill him if he'd asked to talk to him in front of eight other witnesses. In fact, ever since Moody stuck up for him after his name was drawn Harry was pretty sure the man was reconsidering Harry's offer to be allies.
He figured he heard him talking about the dragons and was going to ask him how he found out. Harry would lie, of course, but that was probably it.
"Found out about the dragons then?" Moody asked once he'd led Harry to a private corner of the library.
"Might have," Harry said airily.
Moody chuckled and fixed both his eyes on Harry.
"Got a plan?" he asked.
Harry eyed Moody carefully at that. He didn't seem mad that Harry already knew about the dragons.
"Maybe," Harry said evasively. "Dragons are tricky though, aren't they?"
"Well, I'm not going to tell you how," said Moody gruffly. "I don't show favoritism, me. I'm just going to give you some good, general advice. And the first bit is — play to your strengths."
"I don't think I'm allowed to kill it," Harry said thoughtfully. "Are Unforgiveables allowed if it's not used on a human?"
"No Potter," Moody chuckled lowly. "Other strengths. Think."
Harry tried to concentrate. What else was he best at? Well, that was easy, really —
"Flying," he said slowly. "I'm good at magic and flying."
"That's right," said Moody, staring at him very hard, his magical eye barely moving at all. "You're a damn good flier from what I've heard."
Harry stuck his chin out proudly at that. It was nice that Moody had only been here a couple months and already heard Harry was a good flier.
"Come on, lad..." whispered Moody. "Put them together... it's not that difficult..."
Harry was good at magic and good at flying.
He didn't need to get past the dragon- just outfly it.
"What'd Moody want?" Susan asked when Harry rejoined his friends.
"I'm pretty sure he definitely wants to be in the gang," Harry grinned. "And I know how I'm going to get past the dragon."