Note: I am currently obsessed with stories that are actually plausible within the confines of Rowling's original text. Being the enormous story that it is, there are tons of holes (especially in the sixth book) to fit in stories of Draco and Harry. I've been experimenting with some character development, and I think this is my best work yet.

For all of you out there in TVLand who do not like the Draco/Harry pairing, I'm working on some other stuff. I hate multi-chaptered stories, as they always seem to suck the life out of me. I'll post some nice oneshots soon. Seeing as how I have exams coming up, I don't know how much time I can devote to writing.

Ok, enough blathering on, my apologies.

I think this is gonna remain untitled until I can expand on the story a little. As for the 187, I have no clue. Its just a number. Let me know what you think. Please?

Harry watched as Malfoy slept in his cot in the hospital wing. He felt absolutely horrid for what he had done to him. He had never intended to hurt him. But during their duel in Myrtle's bathroom, he had panicked when he heard him begin to cast the cruciatus curse.

Fear had ripped through his body as Draco Malfoy lay on the floor of the soaked bathroom, slowly bleeding to death. He had never been so grateful to see Professor Snape in his life. Sure, he hated Malfoy, but he never wished to harm anyone the way he had. Well, maybe one person. But could he even be considered human at this point?

A shiver ran through him as he watched the blonde's face. There was a faint pink line from his curse's cut on his face, a small reminder of the damage Harry had done. It would heal by morning, but until then it haunted him.

After Snape was finished with him, he had wandered up to the infirmary to apologize to Malfoy. He didn't know why, but that's where he had found himself, sitting in a chair next to the boy's bed, waiting for him to wake up.

Why am I still here? I could just wait until he wakes to come back. Why do I want to reach out and touch that scar? It would probably scare the hell out of him and he would hex me into oblivion. Why am I so worried about that scar ruining his beautiful face? Did I say beautiful? I mean perfect, no, flawless, no… fuck!

Before Harry realized, he had reached out and ran his thumb over the waxy pink scar. He allowed his palm to rest on Malfoy's cheek. It was smooth, and very warm. He stirred, and Harry drew his hand back. Draco's eyes fluttered open. Harry steeled himself for the cold glare and string of curses he was certain would be coming his way.

Instead, Malfoy's eyebrows merely knit in confusion over his gorgeous silver eyes. Fuck! Not again! He scrambled for words. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by the Hogwarts Express," Draco said simply. He pushed himself into a half sitting position. "You?"

"I feel terrible." Harry's eyes dropped to the ground. "I want to apologize. I know I shouldn't have used that curse if I didn't know what it did."

"Then why did you?" Draco's voice was cold again.

"I heard you yell the cruciatus and I panicked. It was the first thing that came to my mind. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Harry paused. When Draco said nothing, he chanced a look at his face. He didn't look angry. He was intent on what he was saying, curious. Maybe a little hurt, even. He continued. "I thought about it while I watched you sleep." Oh perfect, sound like a creeper. "I don't want to intentionally hurt anyone like I hurt you. Well, except for a select few." Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, Your father, and probably in that order. "So, I'm sorry?"

Draco snorted in amusement at his weak apology. "Well I guess I should apologize as well. It was out of place to use the cruciatus on you." He reached up and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "It's all that's been shoved down my throat for the last year. The three big ones. 'They're not unforgivable, they're necessary!'" Draco referred to the three most terrible dark curses one could use against another person. He groaned. "I'm so tired of this bullshit."

"When?" Harry asked, not sure how to finish his question.

"Last summer, Malfoy Manor became 'headquarters' if that's what you want to call it. Lucius thought it would help him get back on his good side. And to make up for where Lucius and my mother had failed him, I was charged with a mission." Draco pushed up the sleeve of his jumper to exposed Voldemort's dark mark tattooed to the creamy white skin of his forearm. Really? Why am I obsessing over his appearance right now? "I was officially initiated over Christmas."

Harry was silent for a moment. Seeing the tattoo had made it real somehow. It was personal now, Voldemort had one of his peers. He watched Malfoy's face for a moment. He was angry, sad, confused. "What is your-"

"I am forbidden to speak of it. Believe me if I could, I would tell everyone. I would scream at them to try and stop me. I don't want this." He was shaking, ever so slightly. Where was the cool, collected Malfoy heir he was used to? Harry guessed that Voldemort wanted to take that away from him, too. Nothing was normal anymore.

"We can go to Dumbledore, he can help. We can hide you, Draco. We can keep you safe until it's over." He started to reach out a hand towards the blonde again, but snatched it back. And why did I use his first name? I never do that?

"I have to do this. He's threatened to kill my mother. She's the one person I love more than anything. I can't choose between this and her."

"Maybe,"

"There are no maybes anymore, Potter. I wish there was a way out. Believe me, I do. But he's just too powerful." A lump formed in his throat that he couldn't swallow. He buried his face in his hands, as if to hide from Harry's sympathetic gaze. He would never live to see the day when he let Harry fucking Potter see him cry.

Before he knew what he was doing, Harry lifted himself from his chair and sat on Draco's bed. He pulled the Slytherin into a warm hug. "It's going to be okay, Draco. You're safe at Hogwarts. We'll go to Dumbledore tomorrow and try to figure something out." He sat back up to look him in the face. "We'll keep each other safe, for now."

Draco nodded slowly. "For now," He said.

"Why are you being… so… kind?" He didn't know what Harry was being, but it sure as hell was uncharacteristic of him. He was never kind or gentle or apologetic towards him. Never.

Harry smiled. "I don't know." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Somewhere between our fight in Myrtle's bathroom and watching you sleep, I realized I don't want to be your enemy anymore, Draco. This is ridiculous. We've let this school rivalry go on for too long. And something about your initiation has made this war just that much more personal. It's in my face now."

"I hate this." He said suddenly, the tears forcing their way to the surface. "I'm tired of it all. The fighting, the terror, the elitist bullshit of my father, all of it. I'm just so," Draco struggled for something appropriate. "done." He gave up, letting hot, angry tears spill down his perfect cheeks.

"I know how you feel. But like I said, we'll be safe here for now." Harry raised a hand to wipe the tears from Draco's cheek. "You don't have to pretend here. Here, you can be just another student. Not a death eater, not a Malfoy. Just, Draco."

He smiled at Harry's words. For the first time, he saw why he had been placed into Gryffindor. Harry had the biggest heart of anyone he knew. Hell, he even was kind to his enemies. "I'd like that." He said finally. "But I still have a reputation to uphold, you know. Even here."

"What are you trying to prove? And to whom?" Harry asked, his eyes sparkling knowingly, all too similar to Dumbledore's own blue ones.

"Everything. To everyone." Harry raised an eyebrow. "Ok, no one." He sighed heavily. "Ok, just me, really."

"Why?"

"I'm a Malfoy, Potter. I am supposed to be high class. I'm supposed to have perfect grades. I'm supposed to be beautiful, perfect, and flawless." He sighed again. He didn't feel like any of that right now. He was cracking under all this pressure. He was falling to pieces and he feared the Gryffindor knew it.

"Draco," Harry placed a gentle hand over his own. "You are all that, and more. None of that has to change." His emerald green eyes bored into Draco's, and he felt as if he were examining his soul. Which can't be true, Severus told me he's absolutely daft at occulumency. They were silent for some time, just thinking.

"Thank you, Harry." Draco finally said.

"For what?" He questioned. His eyes were soft, sympathetic. And so gorgeously green. Wait, what?

"For being so forgiving," Draco put a hand on the boy's chest. "You really do have a big heart." He felt the strong heart beat under his thin t-shirt. He felt warm, safe, real. He thought of his mother, and how comfortable and safe he felt in her arms. She was the one person who could make him feel special, loved, whole. His father had pushed him to be everything the Malfoy name stood for, to be flawless in every aspect of his life. Narcissa had taught him that it was okay to make mistakes, that he, Draco, was only a boy.

The conflict between his father's rhetoric and his mother's sympathy always tormented him. On the outside, he was his father's perfect son. He was heartless, cold. But inside, the part he kept locked away from even his best friends, where his mother had taught him was the real him, was a boy who longed for the love and attention of others. He was too afraid of being judged to let this boy out, so he kept him locked away, somewhere safe, somewhere no one would find. Not even Voldemort.

He suddenly had a thought. "How did you know where I was?" He asked. He knew for a fact that the boy wasn't following him, no one was in the halls when he entered that bathroom.

Harry thought quickly and decided on telling him the truth. He stood, and pulled the marauders' map out of his pocket. "Scoot over; I want to show you something." Draco obliged, and the raven haired boy lay next to him. He appeared to be holding just some old parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said to the page. It seemed to spring to life at his words. Ink blossomed onto the page, but Harry opened it before he was able to read it. Harry was silent for a moment, letting him stare at the page.

"It's a map." Draco stated.

"Yes. It shows everyone in the castle and what they're doing." Harry pointed to two black dots on the page, very close together. They read D. Malfoy and H. Potter. "We're in the infirmary. There's Madame Pomfrey in her office." He pointed to another dot, labeled P. Pomfrey.

"You can see anyone?"

"Well everyone that's out and about. The room of requirement is unchartable." Harry looked over at him with a slight look of deviousness. "I've seen you disappear into it quite a few times. I've never figured out what you've been up to, and that's why I've been obsessing over it."

Draco was shocked. He wasn't sure how to feel. Part of him wanted to be angry that Potter was intruding into his life. But another voice was flattered that Harry was interested in him, even if for completely different reasons. He tried to silence that voice, but it only yelled louder.

He chose the standard Malfoy reply. "I'm quite flattered, Potter." He mocked. "The famous Harry Potter, so busy being the boy-who-lived, chooses to spend his time following little ol' me?"

Harry chuckled. "I don't know what to make of you right now, Malfoy. First you try to torture me, then you apologize, and now you're mocking me?"

Draco sighed. "I don't know either. I actually wanted to ask you, since I'm supposed to quit this whole business of being a Malfoy, can I start with you? Can't I just be Draco around you?"

"Uh, sure?" Harry's eyes sparkled again. God, WHY? "I don't know what you mean though."

Instead of an explanation, Draco pressed a kiss to his lips. Shocked at first, Harry didn't move. But when he felt Draco's warm tongue slide over his bottom lip, asking for access to his mouth, he surrendered. He let the blonde explore his mouth, returning the massage of his tongue. Draco wrapped himself around Harry, and when they broke, He was straddling the shorter boy.

"What… the hell… was… that?" Harry was breathless. Whatever it was, it was amazing.

Draco looked sheepish. "I think you're beautiful?" He grimaced as Harry giggled. "You've got to cut me some slack here, I almost died today."

Harry couldn't stop giggling. "Ok, ok. I'm sorry." He finally said when the Slytherin gave him a death glare. "It's just so out of character. Truth is I think you're gorgeous too."

Draco joined him in his giggling.

"What a day we've had." He yawned, suddenly drained.

"I'm sorry." He moved them so he was lying on the bed again. "You need your rest. I'll let you get to it. We can talk about it tomorrow."

Draco held him tight as he made a move to get off the bed. "Stay with me here? I don't want this moment to end just yet."

"Sure," He said, settling back in with him. He gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Get some rest, beautiful. I'll keep you safe while you sleep."

Boy that was cute, if not incredibly cheesy. But Draco was far too tired to voice his opinion. Instead, he just returned the kiss before falling asleep.

Now that you've read, please review!!! Please? Don't make me beg. But you'd probably like that? Pervert.

Kidding! I hearts you!