The second day of school proceeded much like the first one. Draco and I woke up, he went into the shower while I snoozed a bit in bed, then I went in the shower while he waited for me, and then we walked together for breakfast. It was almost scary to think we'd been living together for two days, and already we had our morning routines, like an old married couple. Except we weren't old, and we were hardly married, and we couldn't possibly be called a couple yet, so uhm, what did that leave us with again? Never mind, it's not important, the point is, we had routines. And, of course, I expected the rest of my day to go on as usual as well. But, me being me, that wasn't about to happen. We had barely made it to breakfast, before something strange happened.
I was sitting at the Gryffindor table, minding my own, and Ron's and Hermione's, business as usual. We were discussing transfiguration, or rather, Hermione was telling Ron how he ought to be ashamed of himself for not doing this summer's transfiguration homework, while I was sitting quietly by the side, trying to look as small as possible and nibbling on some toast, as not to attract Hermione's attention, and with it, her wrath. As you might remember, I had tried to do my homework, I really had, but it got lost somewhere along the way, possibly at the bottom of my trunk somewhere. I was not quite sure how that happened, I remember clearly putting it next to Uncle Vernon's old socks and the sweaters from Mrs. Weasley I never used, but when I went to find it that morning, it was gone. I suspect one of the socks had somehow eaten it, but I knew that excuse would never go well over with Hermione. She believed in magic, she had no problems with fairies and she wouldn't even blink if she met a vampire on the street, yet the idea of a homework eating sock was apparently too hard for her to grasp. Typical.
Anyway, as I was doing my best hiding, without really hiding at all, I suddenly became aware of two people flopping down on each side of me. The intense smell of perfume told me one of them was Lavender. The other one I quickly deduced, by looking at her, to be Parvati. The two of them were sending me broad smiles, and Lavender patted my arm in an affectionate manner. I couldn't help it, I blinked. Twice.
"Erm, hello Lavender, Parvati." I looked between them, trying to figure out what in the world they wanted.
"Oh, Harry, how are you doing? Did you have a nice summer? You look a bit thin, did you get enough to eat? You know, growing boys need a lot of food, you really should eat more. Is that piece of toast all you're eating? Tsk tsk, that's not nearly enough. Here, have some bacon, it's supposed to be very good. Of course, I wouldn't know, I have to mind my figure you know, but really, it sure looks tasty. Eat some for me?" I could hardly follow what Lavender was saying, but somehow I understood that she was talking about food. The fact that she suddenly started loading things onto my plate made that quite clear. The fork that was raised to my lips with a piece of bacon on might also have given me a clue.
"Uhm, Lavender? What are you doing?" I looked at her and the astonishment must have been clearly written on my face, yet she just smiled sweetly and poked the fork closer to my face.
"Eat up, sweetie."
"Yes, really Harry, you're way too thin, you need to eat more." Parvati nodded, continuing where Lavender had left off with loading things to my plate.
I looked between the two of them once more, then over to Hermione and Ron, who were still bickering. "Hermione, your room mates are scaring me, make them stop!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby Harry, just eat the piece of bacon! And Ron, if I ever catch you –" I really wasn't all that interested in what Hermione had caught Ron doing this time, and since she wouldn't save me, I turned back to the two girls to fight my own battle for once.
"Girls," I said as nicely as I could without grimacing. "There's really no need for this, I've eaten more than enough, I promise!"
"That's what they all say," nodded Parvati. "And then they end up with anorexia and die of starvation."
"Honestly, it's so silly!" Lavender huffed. "The anorectic look is so last year!"
"Yeah, totally, I mean, I read in Witch Weekly that this year it's the hourglass figure we're after, so you had better eat, Harry." I blinked again. Really, if it wasn't bad enough that my face looked like a girl's, now I was supposed to eat until I looked like an hourglass? Over my dead body! And if truth be told, since I didn't have any breasts, I would probably look more like a pear anyway. Shuddering, I took a deep breath and pushed the hand with the fork away from my mouth.
"Lavender, I'm not getting anorexia, and I'm eating more than enough. I can take care of my self."
The blonde just lifted an eyebrow at me and stuffed the fork forcefully into my mouth. Then she proceeded to lift up my shirt and loudly count my ribs. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement. "– four, five, six, seven –"
"Fine, I give up, I get the point!" I slapped her hand away and pulled my shirt down while sending her my strongest glare. It was a horizontal glare, 8.7 in strength and with just a pinch of scowl in it, invented with situations such as this in mind. However, Lavender didn't seem to be fazed at all. I honestly considered having my glare checked by Madam Pomfrey. She was the third person to not be affected by my glare in less than a month, something had to be wrong.
"Open." Lavender ordered, and lifted the fork to my face again with another piece of bacon on it. Glowering, I opened my mouth and accepted the food. There was nothing else to be done, not only was she very persistent, I'm quite sure she could have forced me to eat if she had wished to. There was a deadly grip on that girl, much like a Blast-Ended Skrewt now that I think of it.
Just as I was about to accept my third bite, something caught Lavender by the hair and dragged her out of the chair. Looking closely, the thing highly resembled Draco. Except Draco never looked as dangerous as that, and his eyes weren't flashing, nor was his hair usually flying around his head without the help of some elemental power. Yes, I mean wind. Honestly.
The Draco clone thingy growled deep in its throat and leaned forward until its face was almost touching Lavenders. "My mate," it sneered, and that's when it hit me that it was in fact Draco, not some freaky clone as I had first assumed.
"Draco!" I exclaimed, but the minute those eyes left Lavender and landed on me, I started to regret ever having said anything. Gulping loudly, I tried to smile to calm down the enraged Veela, but it didn't seem to work. "Uhm, I was just, eh, wondering why you're trying to kill Lavender, but, er, don't mind me, just continue."
"Trying to save the slut, are you?" Draco's voice was deadly calm. "Don't think I didn't see the two of you, all cosy, her feeding you and touching your arm." He growled and let go of Lavender's hair. Slowly, but surely he came closer to where I was sitting, until he was looming over me, a dark, menacing figure. "You forget who you belong to, Potter." My last name was spit out as if some kind of profanity.
"It wasn't like that, Draco! She was just commenting on how I look a bit thin, and trying to get me to eat more." I prayed to Merlin he would believe me. I did not particularly wish to die at the age of sixteen.
"It's true, Malfoy," Hermione's voice sounded from across the table, where she was watching Draco with much interest. I would have bet anything at that moment that I knew what her next research project would be. "Harry's new looks have that effect on girls now, they wish to mother him."
Draco looked from Hermione to me and then back to Hermione, before resting at me. "Mother him?" His eyes had stopped flashing, and he looked decidedly amused. I figured now was as good a time as any to sulk a little. I had just folded my hands over my chest in a petulant manner, when something Draco had said earlier suddenly hit me with full force.
"Belong to? Belong to! I don't belong to anyone, Draco!"
Now Draco was laughing out loud. The nerve. "Yes, you do, Harry dearest, you belong to me. Me, and me alone, got it?"
Narrowing my eyes, I glared at him. "No, I don't get it, and I won't get it anytime soon if this is how it's going to be! You and I are not even a couple, and we won't be one either, until I think I'm ready to be, got it?"
I hadn't really thought before saying it, and now that I had, I almost regretted it. The look in Draco's eyes certainly made me feel a bit guilty. I knew I needed more time to get used to things, but that had maybe not been the best way to tell him. To tell you the truth, anger is never the best way to tell anyone anything. But now it was too late, and I could only watch as Draco nodded resignedly, his whole appearance speaking of dejection.
"I would never force myself on you, you know that, right?" he asked and I could only nod. "Of course I'll give you all the time you need." Then he kissed me on the cheek, and turned to walk away. I was left with the oddest feeling of sadness and remorse, and the condemning look Hermione sent me wasn't helping much either. I really needed to think about things.