Gossip Circle

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. Plot line is loosely based on the Gossipgirl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Because there’s way too much H/D action for only one person, this chapter is dedicated to everyone! XD (Lol, my inner Hufflepuff is showing.)

Harry sighed and ducked under the table to reach into his backpack and pull out the remaining books to add to his pile. Punishment, my ass.

While he was doing so, Draco took the liberty to explore the worn notebooks that were in a neat stack next to Harry’s books. A few of the pages were filled with random scribbles from the day’s lessons, but a majority of the papers were crammed with doodles. Draco was astounded. Harry had never told him he was good at Art. The blond flipped to a sketch titled Cedric in the top margin in Harry’s messy handwriting. Draco was mesmerized.

“Harry…” Draco started a bit unsure of himself.

“Yeah?” Harry’s voice was muffled, which meant he was still underneath the table; probably struggling with his books.

“Who’s Cedric?” Draco asked softly.

Harry nearly banged his head against the surface of the table. How does Draco know about Cedric? His eyes widened and he resisted the urge to kick himself.

His notebooks. Of course. They were sitting innocently next to his huge load of books. Harry bit his lip. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I say?

“Why do you ask?” Harry called out, still staying hidden under the table. Avoiding eye-contact was his top priority.

“You did a totally badass sketch of this Cedric person in your red notebook,” Draco said. “Your notes are dreadful, by the way.”

Harry silently breathed a sigh of relief, and then rolled his eyes. “Shut up, I hate taking notes.”

“I can see that,” Draco drawled unhelpfully as he continued to thumb through the other notebooks for sketches. Harry decided it was time to stop hiding, or at least sit up in his chair so that he could monitor anything bad that was sure to happen. So Harry slowly rose on his haunches to find Draco staring at his Cedric sketch. He seemed to be drawn to it.

Harry cleared his throat nervously to get Draco’s attention. The blond snapped his head up almost instantly, a light blush gracing his cheeks. Draco cleared his throat as well, “Err… sorry. Got distracted. You have amazing artwork, by the way.”

Harry smiled, his cheeks flushed, “Thanks? He’s a… friend.” Harry said rather uncertainly. Whether or not Draco noticed, Harry couldn’t tell, because Draco had not moved a muscle, but instead looked at the picture.

Um… my worst subject is Chemistry…” he trailed off, trying his best to change the topic. Draco looked pensive for a moment, before his mouth curled in a smirk.

“Well then… for starters, I think you should copy all of my Chemistry notes,” Draco stated casually.

“What?!” Harry almost fell out of his chair in surprise, but the dark glare he could feel on his back coming from Madam Pince was enough to stop him. He lowered his voice, “That’s not fair!”

“It’s punishment. Of course it’s not fair,” Draco smirked as Harry scowled at him before eventually pulling Draco’s notebook over to him so that he could start copying notes.

After his tutoring session with Harry, Draco ended up ringing Hermione on his cell-phone so that they could meet up for coffee and possibly discuss his Pansy problem. Currently, Draco was sitting on the set of stairs in front of the entrance to the Starbucks a few blocks from Hogwarts. While the blond was waiting for Hermione to join him, he recalled his studying sessions with Harry.

Harry was… interesting. In the two times they had met so far, Draco always felt that Harry was hiding something. Harry’s actions felt half-hearted at most. But Harry was always smiling, and this made Draco doubt himself in his evaluation of the dark-haired boy.

He must be a skilled actor, Draco mused while watching the flame from his Zippo flick on and off with a twitch of his thumb. Even I can’t hide anything that good.

Harry was definitely in the same good spirits that Draco was in, because there was a healthy exchange of snarky comments between the both of them that afternoon during their session. God dammit he’s so confusing!

Draco growled in frustration, and propped his elbows against the step behind him, searching the street for a sign of Hermione. When he finally saw her, she was stepping off a bus at the end of the street.

After a brief glance up and down the street, Hermione spotted Draco and made her way towards the blond, who was lighting a cigarette to calm his nerves.

“That’s an ugly habit, Draco,” Hermione said, her shadow covering Draco’s entire body.

“Come off it, you smoke too,” Draco rolled his eyes and blew smoke from his lips. “Thanks for the shade, by the way.”

“Not anymore. I quit at Westpoint. It was getting annoying to have to take cigarette breaks between classes.” Hermione confessed with a frown. “When did you pick up this habit anyway?”

“During my parent’s divorce. It was very stressful. Blaise let me have one when I wouldn’t shut up, apparently,” Draco snorted and tapped his cigarette so the ashes fell in a little pile on the ground. “Anyway, I’ll finish this up and we can head inside for coffee, yeah?”

Hermione hummed in her throat, “Sure, whatever. I really wish you would quit, Draco. It’s really not healthy.”

“Nag all you want. I’ll quit eventually.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and bent down to sit on the step below Draco, who protested at his loss of shade. “Oi! I was enjoying that!”

Hermione smirked, “Tough luck, Draco. You’ll live.” The steps were wide enough so that even Draco could lay flat on his back and still have a few feet left over. Hermione stuck her purse on the cement so that it rested against Draco’s leg, before leaning back on her hands so that she could look up at Draco comfortably.

Draco took another drag before speaking, “D’you get my e-mail?”

Hermione stared at him, “Depends on where you sent it.”

“I’m going to take that as a ‘no’, then,” Draco said. They were silent after that, and Draco opted to stare at the traffic, where car horns were blaring and people were yelling and cursing at each other to drive. Hermione was staring at Draco, waiting for him to elaborate on his e-mail message. When a minute passed with no reply from Draco, Hermione stepped in to make him talk.

“Well? You gonna tell me what was in that e-mail or what?” she demanded.

“I got an e-mail from Pansy,” Draco said instead.

“And?” Hermione raised her eye brow.

“She wants me to have sex with her Friday,” Draco replied sullenly. He shook the ash off the end of his cigarette again. It was already halfway gone.

“…I’m sorry,” and she was sorry. No one in their right mind should have to do anything sexual with that pug.

“I need to break up with her.”

Hermione snorted, “And here I thought you two would wind up married.”

Draco looked horrified, “Don’t even joke about those things, Hermione. I mean, it’s Pansy. No offence or anything.”

“None taken. She’s been a total bitch lately,” Hermione scowled.

“Hasn’t she always been?” Draco said.

“You have a point.” They were interrupted by the loud squealing of brakes and a series of shouts coming from the street in front of them.

“I e-mailed you to say that I was going to see you Friday,” Draco went on. He turned to face her. “At your old Beuxbatons’ e-mail. You should check, although it doesn’t really matter now.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “No I don’t suppose it does. I talked to Blaise the other day. He told me that you tutor someone named Harry Potter? Who’s that?”

Who’s that? Good Question. How would Draco even begin to describe Harry?

To stall for time, Draco inhaled his smoke again. “Well, he’s this guy in Gryffindor. You remember the house sorting bullshit at Hogwarts, yeah?” At Hermione's nod, Draco continued. “Snape assigned me to tutor him in Chemistry. I had a good time with him on Tuesday, and Blaise got all pissed off, or something.”

Hermione nodded again, “Blaise said it’s the happiest you’ve been since the divorce…” She trailed off, staring at the leaves that were blowing down the dirty pavement. She saw Draco’s head jerk up and down slightly in vague agreement. They sat in relative silence for a few minutes, Hermione watching the smoke billow in puffs from Draco lips, and Draco watching Hermione watching him. “So…”

“So,” Draco echoed.

“What’s he like?” Hermione quipped, smiling.

Draco looked at her out of the corner of his eye and saw the curve of her lip quirk up. To passers-by, it would’ve looked like she was smiling bigger, but Draco knew her better than that. She was smirking. Why, Draco did not know, but he was almost afraid to find out. Draco hummed slightly, before answering her.

“He’s nice, I guess,” Draco murmured.

“That’s it?” Hermione said incredulously.

“Yep.” No, of course not.

“Are you sure?” You’re lying to me, you blond idiot.

“Positive.” What, did you think I would tell the truth?

Hermione glared at Draco. While the underlying messages that had passed through their words had not gone unheard, Hermione was not dense. Draco may not have been meeting her eyes, but Hermione had been staring at the blond the entire time. There was definitely more to Harry than Draco had let on. A lot more. More parts of Harry that Draco actually liked.

“Well, that’s very helpful. What does he look like, then?” Hermione asked casually. She would get to the bottom of this.

Draco took an extended drag on his cigarette, annoying Hermione to no end. “He’s got black hair, kinda messy, and has green eyes and round glasses. And he has this weird scar on his forehead. Shaped like a lightning bolt,” Draco recalled absently. Hermione smiled wider as Draco stood up, stamping out the lit end of his cancer stick like a bug.

“He sounds interesting,” she said, pulling herself up to full height.

Draco shrugged, doing his best to appear indifferent. “I guess.”

They walked into the coffee shop together.

After he had parted ways with Draco, Harry lingered on the school campus to wait for Cedric. His hand was still throbbing from the amount of notes Draco had made him take before they left the Library. (“Honestly Potter, you need to make up for your horrible notes. This is the only solution I can think of.”) Currently, he was sitting on the edge of the decorative fountain in front of the entrance to the Academy, his hands swirling the bubbling liquid absentmindedly.

The phone in his pocket vibrated, and Harry pulled it out with wet fingers to check it. There was a new text message.

From: Cedric

I see you :)

5:23pm 10/13/08

Harry looked up to see his dirty-blond boyfriend striding over to him from across the street. He smiled widely and scooped up his bag before jumping off the edge of the fountain.

“Two times in one day. I’d never thought I’d be so lucky,” Harry teased when Cedric was standing in front of him. The dark-haired boy pulled him into a hug.

Cedric’s body shook with laughter against Harry’s own as he kissed him affectionately on the cheek.

“It’s just your day, today, isn’t it?” Cedric said when Harry pressed his face closer. They lingered on the campus for a few minutes in silence, enjoying each other’s presence. Harry breathed in the scent of his boyfriend in deep gulps of air and Cedric played with the messy tufts of Harry’s hair as he did so. When Harry was satisfied with resting his head in Cedric’s chest, he stepped back with a smile and looked up into Cedric’s face. Cedric smiled sweetly back, his face calm and loving.

In a repeat of this morning’s performance, they linked hands and Cedric guided Harry back to the intersection that he had came from.

“How about some coffee on me, eh? As payback for that delicious mono-infested croissant and hot cocoa you gave me this morning.”

Harry perked up, “Sure! Coffee sounds good, and maybe—”

Cedric laughed, “Whoa! Slow down there Harry! I’m not made of money. I’ll have you know, I’m a—”

“Poor college student, yes, yes, I know,” Harry waved his hand in a gesture that was purely Draco’s influence. They continued walking down the street with their hands clasped; the streets were busy enough that no one noticed. Most people were too involved in the traffic that was clogging the streets or minding their own business.

“So how was your day?” Harry chirped. It looked like he was bouncing on his heels.

“Pretty good actually. Classes weren’t that hard today, which was awesome. What about you?” Cedric said as they waited for the crossing signal to change.

“I had a wonderful day. I think that’s your fault though,” Harry laughed. They reached the opposite side of the street.

“My fault? What makes you think that?” Cedric asked.

“It was the kiss’s fault,” Harry said firmly.

“Kiss? The kiss this morning?” Cedric burst into laughter. “Oh, Harry. You’re so adorable.”

“Adorable enough to deserve another kiss?” Harry stopped in his tracks, which effectively caused Cedric to turn and face him, their hands still linked.

Cedric hummed in his throat, “Maybe…”

It had taken Draco and Hermione nearly fifteen minutes to receive their frappuccinos. Apparently the staff at Starbucks was training a new employee, which caused a stall in the line. They decided to sit back on the steps of the entrance to the coffee shop to enjoy their drinks rather than sit in the stuffy building.

Conversation between Hermione and Draco had stopped since they had stepped into the coffee shop, and Draco was sure that Hermione was eager to start questioning him about Harry again. The curly haired girl seemed very headstrong when it came to talking to Draco about the dark-haired boy.

Draco was observing the street while languidly sipping his coffee. He seemed to be enjoying every last drop. Hermione, on the other hand, had kept her mouth firmly attached to the end of her straw, and as a result her coffee was halfway gone.

There was something about the way Draco avoided talking about Harry that made Hermione wonder. As she sucked on her straw, she thought about the possible reasons for Draco’s behavior. When she could find none, Hermione removed her lips from the green plastic to question her blond companion. But Draco spoke first.

“Hey… is that…?” Draco tilted his head, and Hermione followed his line of vision to a black haired boy walking next to a taller, older looking blond. Hermione recognized the darker one instantly as Harry, but Draco seemed to be at lost for words.

“That’s Harry, isn’t it?” Hermione asked. Draco nodded; he was no longer drinking his coffee.

They stayed silent in favor for watching the pair across the street. Hermione wondered if Draco was torn between calling attention to himself or to simply watch Harry instead. They watched as Harry tilted his head back in laughter and his companion look confused, and then burst into laughter of his own.

Then Harry stopped, and it was then that both Hermione and Draco noticed they were holding hands. Draco said nothing and Hermione opted not to comment on it either. There was a brief pause before Harry’s blond friend leaned in to kiss Harry on the lips.

Hermione felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably. She looked at Draco out of the corner of her eye to gauge his reaction.

Draco felt something like anger rise like boiling water in his chest. The plastic cup crumpled like paper as Draco’s hands grasped it in a death grip. He couldn’t believe it.

AN/ As promised, a long chapter! OMFG DRAMAAAAA. o: Thanks for Totally-Out-Of-It for the inspiration on this chapter. :D Anyway

Enjoy!