Its Impossible To Exist In This World Without Losing A Piece Of Yourself. I Look At The Way That My Fingertips

It’s impossible to exist in this world without losing a piece of yourself. I look at the way that my fingertips press to your cheeks like butterfly kisses and wish I was better at this. Everyday a human looses 40,000 dead skin cells, each afloat like ashes drifting off into a winter breeze. I find solace in the fact that some of this confeti of DNA has found home on your cheekbones like buried treasure. You’ve spent all day studying genetics so I wonder if you can tell me how long this will last. The helixes of our DNA intertwined across skin like satin ribbons, silky to the touch and yet so slippery.

Boy with a Dragon Tattoo

Draco and Harry get drunk at a party. Banter and kissing ensues.

Read on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35128768

The only thing Draco remembers about his first day of eight year is Harry Potter's tattoos. Perhaps it is frivolous of him. Perhaps he should remember gasping for air at the top of the front staircase or the tunnel vision he got when he tried to enter the main hall. But all he remembers is how blank his mind had gone when he saw Harry for the first time. He remembers the three seconds before he coached his face blank when he had stared openly drinking in the sight before him. He remembers the ache in his chest as he watched wizard tattoos flit across the bare arms of the man before him. He remembered being stunned at how much someone could change. And most of all he remembers the way his breath had caught in his throat during dinner when he looked across the eight year table and saw a small tattooed Norwegian Ridgeback sleeping curled behind Harry's left ear.

Now Draco watches Harry from across the crowded common room. He’s tipsy enough that he can’t coach his face blank and he knows he needs to distract himself before he gets caught. He contemplates grabbing another drink from the makeshift bar in the corner of the room but quickly forgets as he continues to watch Harry.

He is standing, slotted between Theo and Neville. All three are laughing so hard they can’t talk. Draco watches as he stumbles, his glass tipping in his hand and spilling Hermione's carefully crafted lime green cocktail onto the already sticky floor. He rights himself by swinging his arm up around Theo’s shoulder and leaning in. Draco’s stomach fills with a heavy ache.

“You know he wouldn’t mind if you joined them” Pansy’s shrill voice pierces his thoughts.

“Shhh” Draco whispers hurriedly before he can think better of it and, hmm it seems like he has had more than enough to drink after all.

“You know this is pathetic don’t you Draco?” Pansy demands in a staccato hush.

Draco hangs his head playing with a loose thread of his lounge chair to avoid eye contact. “I know Pansy, we’ve been through this before.” he sighs dejectedly trying to look anywhere other than Potter.

Draco doesn’t know how to explain that ever since he glimpsed Harry across the room covered in tattoos five months ago he can’t stop watching him. He can’t stop overthinking the way his ink would look up close dancing over his olive skin. He can’t stop thinking about Harry’s broad hands or how his shoulders have filled out since the end of the war. He can’t stop thinking about how he has no chance at all because Harry would squish him like a bug under his heavy black boots if he could.

“Draco?” Pansy questions again.

Shit, He’s staring again. Like he said, he can’t help it.

“I need some fresh air, I'm going outside” He snaps a little too loudly. Pansy startles just enough for him to feel bad. As he stomps away he thinks he’ll probably need to apologize to her later and that's the problem isn’t it. He’s always been a little too loud and little too much for the people he loves. Draco pushes the wooden doors back heavily and steps into the icy January air. The eight year dormitory is fairly nice. The large common room and the balconies almost make up for the fact that he has to see Potter daily. He’s surprised he’s made it this long without doing something totally daft. It feels like he can’t get away from him.

Glancing out across the snow covered hills Draco muses that this obsession is probably a coping mechanism. He wishes he could be as pure and fresh as the snow around him. He wishes he could sleep at night or get through a full potions class without choking on the air in his throat and going to the bathroom to breath deep hands shaking as he struggles to remain calm. Fuck that Draco thinks, he’s young and drunk and if he wants to only think of the velvet ink that ropes across Potter’s beautiful skin he will. He’s always been selfish.

He’s always been selfish and so when soft footprints pad behind him and he swings around to find Potter a little too close to his face he steps forward instead of back and fumbles inside of his cloak producing a joint. His slender fingers extend towards Potter as he offers it “Fancy a smoke Potter?”

Harry looks taken aback. His lips part with shock and Draco almost has time to take back his offer before Harry responds “Sure mate” and proceeds to sit down against the wall sprawling his legs out in front of him.

Draco can’t quite believe that Harry has referred to him as a mate. Sure, they’re on better terms this year than they've ever been. The Gryffindors had made it their duty to take Slytherins under their wing about a month into school once the bullying started to get out of hand. Draco had always seen this as a truce formed in pity. Nothing close to friendship.

“Um Malfoy” Harry says, low and tentative.

“What?” Draco hopes his face hasn't given away his thoughts.

“Are you gonna join me?”

“What and get my clothes all dirty?” he responds coldly and out of habit before noticing the way Harry’s face has gone pale and serious.

“Sorry” He rushes out. “Of course I’ll sit”

Because of course he’d do anything for this dark haired boy with the dragon tattoo. Draco thinks if he hadn’t been so blinded by the expectations of his father maybe he would have noticed sooner. Or maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess to start with.

He sits his back pressing against the frigid building and tucks his legs underneath him. Harry turns towards him and their faces are inches away as he places the already burning joint into Draco’s cold hands. Draco watches the way the warm orange light reflects in the green of his eyes for just a second too long before ripping himself away and taking a deep drag of the pungent smoke. As he breathes out he feels his body relax almost immediately.

“ I didn’t know you smoked,” Harry muses, slurring his words slightly as he scotches a little closer to Draco.

“You know,” He continues conversationally, staring out into the snow. “Pansy practically pushed me out the door after you just now”

Fuck Draco thinks.

“Oh it’s not bad, you know she just wants to look out for you” Harry states, his tone is almost too mild.

Shit Draco realizes he’d just said fuck out-loud.

“You’re right, yeah, she’s looking out for me” And trying to get me laid Draco almost continues before remembering that he wants to get laid by said boy next to him and said boy hates his guts and said boy does not need to know Draco even finds him attractive in the slightest. Draco briskly runs his fingers through his hair. Settling back against the wooden wall he takes several deep breaths of cold air in an attempt to sober himself.

“Or she’s trying to get you laid” Harry speaks, green eyes focused on his wand as he twirls it between his fingers.

For a second Draco freezes convinced he’s accidentally spoken his thoughts aloud for a second time. As he struggles to think of an appropriate response the door beside him bangs open. Harry startles shifting even closer to Draco.

“How’s it going out here boys?” Pansy trills. Her dark curls are disheveled and behind her she's dragging Hermione by the cuff of her robes.

“We’ve brought refreshments!” She announces loudly smirking gesturing to the platter of lime green drinks that Hermione is levitating with her right hand.

“Um thanks?” Harry says quietly scratching the back of his neck with his hand.

“You know the polite thing to do would be to invite us to join you” Hermione huffs, Draco hears laughter in her tone.

Draco marvels at just how quickly Pansy has rubbed off on her. Just a few months ago Pansy and Hermione had been verbally sparring in the halls and now they were so close he occasionally felt possessive of Pansy. It was amazing how much a war could bend people, make them more flexible, more tired. Make them more likely to forgive each other.

“We’ll just have to invite ourselves ‘Mione, these one’s have the worst manners I’ve ever seen” Pansy announces, dropping down onto the floor beside Draco.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I always scored better than you in our etiquette classes” Draco shoots back. He’s not about to let Pansy get the upper hand on him even if he is tipsy and a little crossed.

“Draco, you have the most unreliable memory of any of us” Pansy retorts. “You had a meeting with Mcgonagall last week and you literally forgot to wear pants.”

“Pansy I was wearing robes, you make it sound like I showed up to her office naked!” Draco replies in annoyance refusing to acknowledge the way Potter's cheeks appear to be pinkening with a slight blush. What a loser embarrassed by a little bit of nudity.

“It doesn’t matter, it's still completely unprofessional” Pansy sniffs before she glances over at Granger and they both start giggling.

“You know what, I was distracted. I have many important things to keep track of and it's not my fault pants don’t sit high on that list.”

“Oh okay Draco, you keep telling yourself that” Pansy retorts.

“Whatever, I know you’re jealous of my time with Mcgonagall” Draco snips, putting his nose in the air and attempting his most cavalier look.

“Oh so jealous. I’m just craving court mandated monthly meetings.” Pansy laughs, glancing across to him.

Potter’s voice breaks through the flow of conversation “I didn’t know you had mandated meetings”

“Are you jealous too now Potter?” Draco questions, raising his eyebrow, “Seems like Mcgonagall has herself some rabid fans”

“I should think Potter can meet with Mcgonagall whenever he likes” Pansy pronounces.

“ Maybe so but I think the court mandated aspect might add some nice tension.You know I love some extra excitement” Harry winks across at Hermione.

“Oh yeah, you’ve made it clear you like a little power play” Hermione responds before falling back into her giggles

Draco finds himself momentarily stunned that Potter is so easy to joke with. And honestly a little curious about the power play Granger’s referred to. In his mind Harry’s either the Savior of the Wizarding World or a beautiful boy covered in tattoos. Even with their growing cordiality this year he hadn’t expected Potter to be fun and maybe interesting. Draco does his best to look uninterested, gazing out across the winter snow. He spaces out for a bit, only coming back to the conversation when he hears Harry’s voice drop to a more somber tone.

“I’ve been meaning to mention ‘Mione, I saw Ron leave the party earlier with Lavender. I don’t want to upset you but I thought you should know.”

Draco watches Hermione carefully across the circle. He has his own suspicions about the end of Granger's “Golden” relationship.

“Oh don’t worry about it Harry, I saw.” Hermione says looking completely unphazed. “It’s been a while and I want him to be happy.”

“Yes Harry don’t worry, Hermione’s gotten over Ron fairly quick.” Pansy pats Hermione’s hand.

When Draco fixes Pansy with his suspicious glare she grins back and winks at him. He’s always thought Pansy had no shame.

“Okay, if you say so.” Potter looks very confused.

Draco scoffs at his innocence.

“Well anyways, me and Pansy better be off. We have things to do” Hermione says breezily.

“Um alright” Potter looks shocked he hasn’t been invited off with them. Draco can’t believe he hasn’t caught on yet.

“Yes, so many deeply important activities to check off our list” Pansy rises off the ground shaking her robes out before offering Granger her arm and parading them back into the party. As the door slams shut she calls behind her “You to have fun out there boys!” then Draco and Harry are left in silence.

“Well that was a bit odd.” Harry’s voice breaks the quiet.

“Was it? I hadn’t noticed” Draco keeps his voice as bland as possible. He hadn’t really thought Potter was dumb before. What an interesting turn of events.

Potter seems momentarily lost in his thoughts but quickly breaks the silence “Well anyways look! They’ve left us drinks”

Of course they have, Draco thinks. Pansy always has a nefarious plan up her sleeve and Draco can see right through this one.

“Want one?”

“Sure.”

Potter passes him a bright green cocktail complete with a colorful umbrella. “Hermione went all out of these”

“I didn’t know Hermione knew how to make cocktails” Draco muses as he sips his drink.

“She bartended at a Muggle bar for a while last year while they rebuilt Hogwarts” Harry tells him. “I think she needed a bit of a break from magic and you make good money mixing drinks”

Draco wonders how different Muggle bars are from wizarding bars. He doesn’t ask Harry. He does his best to keep his face from looking too inquisitive.

“I would watch out though she makes her drinks pretty strong.”

Draco glances down at his hands and is surprised to find his glass is almost empty. He drains it and then looks contemplatively at the others resting on the tray. Even with Potter's warning he's feeling quite reckless tonight. He grabs for another.

“I really would wait a second if I were you, Malfoy.” Potter cautions.

“Worried you can’t keep up with me Potter?” Draco taunts as he sips from his new beverage.

“Oh is that a challenge?” Potter sloppily grins at him and Draco feels a heat ignite deep in his core. In that moment it feels like he’ll do anything to keep Potter smiling.

“I would challenge you at any opportunity Potter” He smirks, raising his glass again. “Want to bet I can finish this faster than you?”

“I don’t know. Do I get a prize for winning?”

“I do think whoever wins would deserve a prize” Draco says frowning when his attempt at aristocratic tone is slightly ruined by the slur in his speech.

“Okay, I can work with that” Harry says softly and then he winks at him. Harry winks at him. For a second Draco’s heart freezes in his chest.

“Alright now, don’t get too excited.” He pushes back at Harry, trying to understand the motivation of his wink.

“Why wouldn’t I get excited, I’m about to claim the prize.” Harry’s grin widens and he pushes his dark curls back exposing his tanned forehead.

“You ready Draco?”

“Obviously” Draco drawls attempting to look distinguished as he pushes his own hair back and grabs his drink.

“On the count of three. One, two, three”

Harry tips his drink down his throat chugging as fast as he can. Draco watches the way the moonlight reflects on his face and looks on as his throat undulates, gulping down the bright green liquid. In fact for the first couple seconds Draco finds himself transfixed by the dark haired boy in front of him. He wants to step closer to brush Harry’s dark hair off his cheeks. As he hesitates to do so he suddenly remembers that he is supposed to also be chugging his drink. In fact, Harry is halfway through his now and is eyeing Draco with quite a confused look on his face. Draco hurriedly lifts his glass to his lips and starts to chug as well.

As the two boys drink, Draco's eyes lock with Harry. Growing up the competition between them had always been exhilarating. Draco realizes he’s missed it since the end of the war. Though he doesn’t quite remember wanting to grab Harry’s neck and pull him into a bruising kiss every time they competed as kids. He assumes this must be a new feeling and tucks it into the back of his head for further inspection at a later date. A later date where he doesn’t have Harry two feet away from him gasping for breath as he sets down an empty glass on the balcony floor.

“Aha! I won, I’m victorious!” Harry yells, flinging himself into Draco’s arms.

At first Draco doesn’t know what to do with the heavy weight in his arms. Harry smells like cedar and cinnamon, his body heat burns against Draco's chest. Draco freezes for a second before following his instinct and wrapping his arms around Harry. They hold each other for a second until Draco gently pushes them apart.

“So, what prize would you like your majesty?” He questions as he folds his body into an elaborate bow. He quickly realizes he’s misjudged how drunk he is as he loses his footing and stumbles knocking into Harry's side.

“I told you you should have slowed down on the drinks” Harry admonishes wrapping his right arm around Draco to steady him.

“Oh and miss out on the fun? I could never do that.” Draco retorts petulantly. He leans into Harry's side craving the heat of his body against his. He longs to tangle his finger through the dark locks that curl along Harry's cheek bones and his hands twitch at his sides before he restrains himself. He compromises by swinging his left arm around Harry's hips. Harry shifts against him and he wonders if he overstepped for a second before he realizes that Harry is shifting towards him till they’re facing while their arms still drape across each other like vines.

“So,” Draco isn’t sure if he’s imagining it but he’s pretty sure Potter's gaze just flicked across his lips. “Tell me about your ideal prize, Potter.” He watches Harry's eyes as they darken and then flick nervously to the floor.

Harry licks his lips and then pauses nervously “To be honest I would love to hear what you would have picked as your prize Draco I need a bit of inspiration”

“ Oh fuck off, are you saying now you wish I had won?” Draco says argumentatively and removes his arm from around Harry’s waist so that he can shove him back away from him towards the wall. As she shoves Harry he grabs around Draco’s shoulders to keep from being pushed back and they both slam tipsily into the wall. Draco feels his entire body press up against Potter pining into the wall. Draco's head is squished in the gap between Harry’s head and his shoulder and Draco only just holds himself back from licking down the naked expanse of skin where Harry’s neck meets his shirt. Draco pulls his head further back so that he can make eye contact with Harry.

“Come on Harry, tell me your prize.” he says huskily, refusing to break eye contact with the boy in front of him.

Harry’s eyes are dark and as he struggles to gather his thoughts he squirms against Draco only making the heat in his core more intense.

“Kiss me” Harry breathes as he looks directly into the silver eyes in front of him.

Draco must be really drunk because what?! Did the infamous Harry Potter just ask to kiss him?

“You want me to kiss you?” He questions Harry. Refusing to believe the words that just came out of his mouth.

“What are you scared?” Harry gently taunts reaching out and caressing Draco’s cheek. Draco clenches his jaw to hold back a whimper. He can't comprehend the feeling of Potter's beautiful hands against his skin. They are warm and rough and everything he’s ever imagined.

“Scared? Never.” Draco bites back, leveling his gaze with the boy before him and leaning in. Their lips meet warm and suck him in like he’s drowning in an oil spill. Everything is dark and smooth and Draco finds he is incapable of pulling away. He feels Potter lick up in between his lips and their tongues trace each other leaving him gasping. Draco presses closer to Harry pinning him harder against the wall as he winds his hair through Harry’s wild curls. He tugs slightly and startles when Harry responds moaning into his mouth.

“Oh you like that Potter?” Draco teases, pulling away slightly to look into Harry’s eyes. Harry’s eyes are dark with lust and turn the spark in Draco's chest into a wildfire. He wants to rip Harry's clothes off right then and there. He craves the taste of Harry's skin against his tongue.

“Yeah I do Draco, come back. Keep kissing me.” Harry demands petulantly before wrapping his hards into the collar of Draco’s shirt and pulling him back in. Their bodies collide, sliding against each other and building up heat. Draco pushes his hand under Harry’s jumper and laughs as Harry jumps slightly at the cold of his hands before pulling him closer again. Their breaths grow rough and ragged as their bodies drag against each other quicker.

Suddenly Harry pulls back. “As much as I love this I don’t want Pansy coming back to check on us and getting an eyeful” he rushes. “Come up to my room.”

“Sounds like a plan for Potter.” Draco casts a rueful gaze across to him as he buttons his shirt back together and pulls Harry's robe closed across his jumper.

“Hurry up though I can’t wait all day”

“You know you’re very impatient.” Harry teases before grabbing his hand and pulling him quickly through the door back into the common room. Luckily it’s late enough by now and most everyone has disappeared in twos or threes back to their rooms or on drunken adventures. The couple of people left in the common room pay them no mind and Harry grabs Draco's hand dragging him into a darkened hallway.

“It’s this way, second door to the left.” He whispers slowly for a second and Draco takes the opportunity to press up against him from the back, feeling the curve of Harry's body against his as he once again drags his hands up Harry's sides.

Harry fumbles with his keys distracted as Draco presses hot kisses up his neck, mouthing and sucking until Harry gives up on the keys altogether pushing his body back into Draco. Then Draco pauses, bringing his mouth up to Harry’s ear he whispers “Come on Potter, get it together, open your door.”

His prompt is all Harry needs, he pulls his body up off of Draco and pushes his keys into the door swiftly unlocking it and letting them in.

A soon as the door swings shut behind them Harry’s hands come up to unclasp Draco's robes and swiftly unbutton his shirt. Harry’s hands are hot against Draco's cold skin and he feels himself melting into Potter at the contact. Draco maneuvers them closer to the bed and Harry falls back on it before reaching up and pulling Draco down on top of him. Their bodies meet hot and tangled and Harry pulls Draco’s shirt off in one go.

“Shit wait, Draco can you close the blinds?” Harry pants, voice husky.

“Yeah, here.” Draco twists his body reaching for the blinds and he hears Harry gasp beneath him. He immediately forgets about the blinds turning back to Harry “What is it? Did I hurt you?”

“No” Harry rushes. “Just what’s on your back?”

“Oh this little old thing? You can see it if you want” He pulls himself off of Harry and turns around. Harry gasps again and Draco grins as the moonlight reflects off of his back and Harry watches an inky Norwegian Ridgeback unfurl its wings across the expanse of Draco’s pale shoulders. “You never told me we matched,” Harry says, his voice awestruck as he gently turns Draco’s body and pulls him back onto the bed.

“You never asked,” Draco whispers, his lips tracing Harry’s neck along a similar outline of a smaller dragon.

Bonded

Harry/Draco, Pansy/Hermione

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35392933/chapters/88219483

Summary: Harry gets assigned the most boring Auror case in the world with the most horrible partner. Featuring a certain blonde nemesis, ancient magic bonds, a dragon, and a little too much Pansy/Hermione love (in Harry’s opinion).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 

He wakes up to Draco standing over him wide eyed in terror.

“You have to be okay Potter, I can't lose my job over you,” Draco rushes.

Harry blinks blurry-eyed and realizes that his head is pounding with a sharp piercing pain. When he puts a hand to his forehead it comes away sticky with blood.

“Uh what happened?” He manages dazedly staring at Draco’s blonde hair. When he wears it down like this it looks like a halo. In fact as the sun falls through the window and onto Draco’s face he looks like an angel.

“Has anyone ever told you your hair looks like a halo in the sunlight?” He asks blearily, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“Um no.” Draco looks distracted, touching his hair briefly before the panic returns to his eyes. “We fell onto my desk, your head hit the corner of the desk, it split your scar open, and then you blacked out. I’m sorry.” He rushes like he’s forcing it out “I get carried away when I haven’t slept enough.”

“Lack of sleep isn’t an excuse to shove people into desks.” Harry responds grouchily, secretly pleased at the apology.

“Well I didn’t start it, you punched me first.” Draco’s voice is haughty and Harry is certain if it didn’t hurt to keep his eyes open he would see Draco sticking his nose into the air and making a very aristocratic face.

“I only punched you because you were being an asshole.” Harry growls the pain in his head making it hard to think.

“I was simply stating the truth.” Draco says diplomatically, offering a hand to help Harry up. “But we can agree to disagree”

“Ugh you are insufferable.”

“Well you’re stuck with me so you’ll just have to suffer” Draco’s voice is markedly more cheerful. “Now how should we fix up your head?”

“You’re not doing anything to my head. I’m going home and having Hermione fix it because I trust her.” Harry says pointedly, glaring at Draco.

He steps out of the office and walks swiftly down the hall focusing firmly on the exit to the floos ignoring the entirety of the Auror Department as they stare quizzically at the blood dripping across his tanned skin.

~~~~~~~~~

Harry arrives home to find Hermione sitting at the dining table surrounded by notes and chatting animatedly to Pansy Parkinson.

“I’m sorry. I seem to have walked into some sort of horrific nightmare.” He says making a horrible face at Pansy mind reeling. “What are you doing in my house?”

“Oh dear,” Hermione says flatly without looking at him. “I must have forgot to tell you we’re working on a project together for work.”

“Yep we’re busy Potter, run along.” Pansy remarks coldly as she turns in her chair to look at him.

“Oh my god, what’s happened to your face!” At Pansy’s exclamation Hermione finally looks up and her gaze slides from calm and collected to frantic in a single instant.

“I thought Kingsley had given you a safe assignment for once!” She rushes towards him with her wand out. Repairing his injury with no warning she blindsides him with the stinging pain of his skin stitching together.

“Merlin's beard, Hermione. Give me a warning next time” He exclaims, clutching at his forehead.

“I would have thought Potter could handle a little bit of pain.” Pansy says smirking at him with cold eyes before suddenly freezing “Where’d you get that cut anyways, weren’t you with Draco? Is he okay?” Harry thinks he can see a bit of panic in her expression before she arranges it blank again. Interesting, maybe the Slytherins care a little more than they let off.

“He’s fine, don't worry. I just tripped”

“So you’re just as clumsy as you were in school then? Not surprised you didn’t grow up” Pansy remarks looking considerably more upbeat. She shoots Hermione a small smile and Harry is perplexed to see her smile back. He can’t believe this.

“Looks like a pretty bad fall.” Hermione says looking concerned again and Harry can see a telltale glimmer of suspicion behind her eyes.

“No really I slipped on a piece of paper and went down hard onto the marble floors” He winces to fully sell his story refusing to let slip that he’s fought with Malfoy. He doesn’t want to let Pansy gloat.

“I’ve been saying they should replace those floors for years.” Pansy whines. “They’d be disastrous in a high speed chase.”

“Oh? And how many high speed chases are taking place within the Ministry?” Harry scoffs, unable to restrain himself.

“You never know it could happen.” Hermione muses and Harry looks at her aghast. “I think it’s a good idea.” Harry can’t believe she’s siding with Pansy against him. Doesn’t she know they’re on opposite sides?

“Hermione, I think this could be helpful?” Pansy interjects as she offers Hermione a heavy leather tome pointing at the text inside.

Both of them turn back to their books and Harry stomps loudly out of the room to sulk until the room is free of Slytherins.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Three hours later Harry’s stomach is rumbling and he feels weak with hunger. He figures Pansy’s left by now but when he walks down the stairs he finds her curled up on the couch next to Hermione laughing as Theo describes a quidditch malfunction in colorful detail. The room goes silent when he sees Harry.

“Why are you still here?” Harry says glaringly at Pansy.

“Because I, unlike you, seem to have grown up and realized that some of the people I used to hate are actually really cool and smart and surprisingly witty.” Pansy says looking across at Hermione as Hermione's cheeks pinken into a light blush. “Now I’m sorry I tried to give you over to the Dark Lord one time 6 years ago but I was scared and ignorant and I really think you should have gotten over it by now.”

“Well I can’t get over it!” Harry erupts, stalking towards the kitchen.

“Fine! Have a miserable night while we hang out and enjoy ourselves if that's really what you want.” Pansy calls after him prissily.

Harry sulks in the kitchen for a while making a cold and disappointing sandwich. He sits stewing for a bit on the kitchen floor before stealing himself to walk back into the sitting room. When he arrives Neville and Ginny are perched on the other sofa so he settles himself on the ground leaning back against Ginny’s legs.

“I see you’ve returned Potter.” Says Pansy, reminding him of Draco as she sticks her nose up in the air. “That sandwich really does look horrible”

“I know” Defeated Harry picks at his sandwich hoping it’ll magically become delicious. “We don’t really have groceries this week I think someone” he looks pointedly at Theo “Forgot to put in the order.”

Theo holds his hands up “I said I was sorry, I have a horrible memory and no one reminded me.”

“Maybe write yourself a note or something. Theodore it’s not that hard.” Ginny smirks, hitting him lightly over the head with one of the auror case’s Harry’s left sitting around. He really shouldn’t do that, confidential information and all.

“Ugh I am starving” Theo speaks looking wistful.

“Bet you wish you'd remembered the groceries now.” Hermione responds demurely.

“What if we get takeout?” Pansy offers and its the most helpful thing Harry’s ever witnessed come out of her mouth. The room slowly becomes a circle of grins.

“Fantastic idea! What are we getting?” Theo’s face is awash with relief.

“Indian!” Harry and Pansy say at the exact same time before glaring at each other.

“My aunt owns a restaurant pretty close to here” Pansy offers. “I promise it’s very good.”

They end up ordering a vast amount of food from the restaurant. As they eat, Harry warms up to Pansy a bit. Sure, she has a cold cruel exterior much like Draco but once he realizes that most of the time her cutting remarks are meant to be funny he starts to enjoy chatting with her. They compare favorite dishes and Pansy tells him about visiting family in India during the summers of her youth. Harry knows little about India except that his dad’s family is from there and he starts to enjoy Pansy’s stories full of colorful characters and interesting experiences. It makes him want to travel more.

The meal wraps up quicker than he expected. The room becomes quiet as people get up and place their dishes in the kitchen wandering off to their respective activities. Pansy returns both her and Hermione’s plates to the kitchen before graciously thanking Hermione for having her and vanishing into the fireplace. Harry finds himself wondering when he’ll see her again.

“So what kind of project are you two working on?” Harry asks turns towards Hermione.

“It’s confidential obviously” Hermione responds, twirling her hair around a finger and staring off into the distance. “Pansy’s really changed hasn’t she?”

“I guess.” Harry says grudgingly watching as Hermione starts to smile.

“You’ll warm up to her in time. You already seemed to enjoy talking with her.”

“Ugh does that mean I’ll be seeing more of her?”

“You might be, '' Hermione smirks mysteriously, still watching the fireplace that Pansy had disappeared into.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Harry arrives at Draco’s office to see him frantically tearing the roof off of his cardboard model. He looks like he’s slept but his hair is disheveled like he’s been tearing at it.

“Um, are you alright?” Harry says cautiously, stepping into the room.

“Not in the slightest,” Draco says, looking harried and carrying on with his demolition.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Harry, do you know what it feels like to have to start from ground zero?” Draco asks conversationally, eyes darting back and forth across the room.

“I would think so, we did both go through a war and start over.” Harry says gently crouching at Draco’s side and looking worried.

“Well that’s nothing compared to this” Draco scoffs. “You want to know why Harry?The blueprints were wrong.” Draco is making an extremely devastated face.

Harry attempts to make his face calm and soothing “Um why is this such a big deal?” His voice comes out a bit high pitched as Draco fixes him with an icy glare.

“You don’t understand anything Potter.” Draco says dramatically, throwing ripped cardboard at the wall behind Harry's head. Harry flinches and moves himself out of danger.

“I must restart my masterpiece.” He gestures at the demolished building before him. “The Ministry has tunnels. Tunnels Potter.” He sounds a bit hysterical. Harry wonders how much caffeine he’s had this morning.

“Um alright, should we maybe check the tunnels for the pickpocket today?” Harry speaks in an attempt to cheer Draco up.

“Great idea.” Draco says, looking surprisingly cheerful. “Observing the tunnels will give me a better opportunity to recreate them properly in my model.” He sounds quite a bit more interested in finishing his model than catching the criminal and Harry can’t blame him. After all this is the most boring case ever.

“So where do the tunnels start?”

“Behind the statue in the lobby obviously.” Draco scoffs, picking a book and waving it in Harry’s direction. “It’s all laid out very clearly.”

Draco proceeds to show Harry the book which is not in fact laid out very clearly at all. There is a half page dedicated to a very small map of the tunnel system which has faded away in some places since the book is very old.

“This is not laid out very clearly,” Harry says glaring across at Draco. Draco’s eyes seem way more grey than they used to be in school he muses before realizing he’s been glaring a bit too long and looks quickly away.

“I was trying to make you more comfortable.” There is a toothy grin stretching across Draco’s face.

“Why would I need to be comfortable? And why are you smiling at me like that?” Harry says suddenly suspicious.

The grin drops off of Draco’s face and he looks sullenly down at the book. “I thought you might have reservations about exploring with a Death Eater.” He mumbles.

“Come off it Malfoy, you’ve had two entire days to kill me I would have thought you’d gotten it over with already”

“You’re right” Draco looks cheerfully into his eyes. “I’m really very impatient aren’t I? Let's get going then! As much as you’d like to, we can't sit around all day Potter '' He calls over his shoulder striding quickly out of the room.

Harry notices that his normally taunting tone has softened a bit to sound almost teasing. He grabs his cloak off the desks and runs out of the office to catch up with Draco in the hall.

When they reach the lobby it becomes increasingly clear that it will be difficult to slip behind the statute unnoticed. They stand around for a while looking for a break in the hustle and bustle around them. People start to look at them suspiciously and walk around them with a wide berth.

“Unfortunately it looks like we might have to stage an emergency to get everyone out of here.” Draco says grinning at Harry evilly.

“Shouldn’t there be a bunch of other entrances to the tunnels?”

“Well yes but the map wasn’t very clear about where they were” Draco looks shifty eyed.

“Hmm alright. I have an idea” Harry strides off back in the direction they came from and Draco scrambles to follow.

~~~~~~~~

They arrive back in the lobby wearing the invisibility cloak draped over them. Draco still hasn’t gotten over the unfairness of Harry having the cloak in the first place and is tiring himself out with a long rant about privileged people and power trips and how Dumbledore really wasn’t fit to run a school if he was going to favor students with dangerous artifacts.

Harry isn’t really listening. He’s distracted, pressed up so close to Draco’s body heat that he can feel it through his jumper. Draco smells fresh like lemongrass and fresh rain. Harry takes a deep breath and feels strangely comforted by the scent. He moves closer to Draco without realizing it until his hand brushes against Draco’s thigh and he stops mid sentence jerking his head up and staring into Harry’s eyes.

“Were you not listening to a single thing I said to Harry?” Draco asks but he stumbles over his words not quite managing the cold tone he usually aims for.

“Sorry not really, I was lost in thought.” Harry forces himself to move back a couple inches.

“Well you should really be paying attention on a mission. Really Potter this behavior is quite inappropriate.” This time Draco’s voice comes out normally, cold and cutting. Harry knows he should feel relieved but he feels his heart drop a bit in his chest.

“Here we are,” Draco gestures to a small button on the back of the marble statue. “After you Potter.”

Harry pushes the button and a panel slides back allowing them to squeeze through a narrow door shaped opening. Inside the tunnels are dark and cold. Harry can hear water dripping somewhere. He casts a luminos and waits for Draco to step through the opening behind him.

Draco joins him in the tunnel folding the cloak into a small square and crowding into Harry’s bodyspace to tuck it into the pocket of his auror robes. The warmth of his hand once again shocks Harry and he goes rigid for a second until Draco backs away.

“Well I’m not carrying your fancy magical object for you” Draco mumbles, refusing to meet Harry's eyes.

Harry stares at him baffled for a second and then starts walking down the hall.

They haven’t walked more than 20 feet from the entrance when a metal wall comes clanging out of the ceiling on either side of them, sealing them into the tunnel. Then their wands flicker, tips going dim.

“This is so bad.” Harry growls pushing at the walls trying to find a weak spot.

“So bad.” Draco echos looking guiltily at metal in front of them.

They try a couple of spells but they come out weaker than normal and the walls refuse to budge.

“The book did say there were some places where the tunnels were resistant to magic.” Draco admits avoiding eye contact.

“And you didn’t think to mention that BEFORE we entered the tunnels?” Harry asks, glaring directly into his eyes. Draco looks away.

“It didn’t seem like something that would interest you”

“WHY WOULD IT NOT INTEREST ME?” Harry explodes stepping up into Draco’s space.

“I mean you didn’t ask about it?” Draco says meekly, stepping back. Harry steps forward pining him between his body and the wall.

“HOW COULD I ASK ABOUT IT IF I DIDN’T KNOW IT EXISTED?” His rage gets the better of him and he reaches out twisting Draco’s cloak in his hand and pulling him in. “GODDAMMIT LOOK AT ME DRACO.”

When Draco finally meets his eyes Harry is unprepared. His gray eyes are dark and stormy and sear into Harry’s green gaze like burning embers. Harry breathes in Draco’s comforting scent and he can't stop his gaze from flicking across his lips. Suddenly he can’t decide if he wants to punch or kiss him. He freezes and steps back letting go of Draco’s robes.

“Sorry” He breathes shakily. “I might have overreacted a bit.”

“It’s alright” Draco steps forwards towards him and meets his eyes. Harry can’t stop his body from reacting with a flush of warmth. “I should have told you all the details. I was worried if it sounded dangerous you wouldn’t come.” he adds sheepishly dropping his gaze to the floor again.

“Malfoy, do you even know who you’re talking to?” Harry shoves at his shoulder lightly ignoring the rush of warmth that jolts up his arm.

“You’re right. Should have known a little danger wouldn’t scare you off.” Draco’s smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Now what’s your plan for getting us out of here?”

Harry pokes around at the doors a bit before slumping defeated against a wall. “I can’t find a weak spot. Someone’s going to have to come get us.”

“Ugh.” Draco groans. “So humiliating. The most capable student of our class defeated by a stupid tunnel.”

“Oh I’ve gotten stuck in lots of different places before.” Harry says cheerfully sitting down and leaning back against the wall.

“I meant myself.” Draco says haughtily, folding himself against the wall next to him.

“Oh”

“Can you cast a patronus and get us out of here?”

“I can try.”

Harry tries. A silvery cloud appears at the end of his wand before dispersing into the darkness. He tries again. This time the cloud is smaller.

He slumps back defeated and his shoulder falls against Draco’s. He can’t help himself, he leans in a little. Draco lets him.

“I can’t do it.” he says dejected.

“Okay let me think.”

They sit there for a long time staring into the dark in front of them. Harry, comforted by the warmth of Draco against him, starts to doze off.

He wakes about an hour later to Draco shaking his shoulder enthusiastically.

“Harry. Harry!” Harry realizes he’s slumped against Draco’s shoulder, his body curved around the blonde boy. He pulls himself back into a sitting position abruptly wiping his eyes and looking over at Draco’s face.

“Sorry I fell asleep.” He rushes, voice husky.

“Doesn’t matter,” Draco says distractedly. “I think I have a solution.”

“What is it?” Harry perks up, straightening his spine against the wall.

“You aren’t going to like it.”

“Why not?”

Draco signs. “I think if we combine our magic it’ll be enough to get through to someone in the ministry.”

“You can combine magic?”

“Yes I’ve read about it. I think we can do it. You’ll channel my magic and it’ll be enough for you to cast a patronus.”

“I’m in” Harry says without hesitation.

“Okay.” Draco sounds hesitant. He reaches for his boot, pulls out one of the carefully concealed blades and makes a long slice along his palm.

“Merlin's beard!” Harry exclaims eyes wide as he watches Draco’s blood drip onto the bricks below them. “What are you doing, are you crazy!?”

Draco looks at him with a serious gaze “Harry this is how we combine magic. When our blood mingles we can draw on each other's magic. I have to slice your palm too.”

Harry shakes his head, his eyes wide but when Draco reaches out he lifts his hand and places it in Dracos. “Go for it.” He steals himself for pain.

Draco narrows his eyes and draws the blade against Harry’s palm. The pain sears hot and radiates down his arm. Harry watches his blood drip through his fingers dazed before glancing up into the comfort of Draco’s eyes. Draco grabs his bleeding hand and presses it against his own. Their finders link together and the pain stops. Harry watches Draco’s eyes widen. Their hands start to heat and suddenly raw energy rams itself through Harry’s bloodstream and up his arm. Without even thinking Harry attempts a patronus and watches as a small silver dragon blooms from the tip of his wand.

“Do you usually cast a dragon?” Draco is looking at him, eyes wide and bewildered.

“No,”Harry responds, looking just as confused. “It must have something to do with our shared magic.”

“I guess,” Draco furrows his brow thinking about it for a while. “Well I guess all we do now is wait and hope he’s able to find Granger.” He gestures at the small dragon as it disappears through the metal wall.

Harry nods. Drained from his use of magic, he glances at Draco’s shoulder again wondering if he can get away with another nap.

“Oh go ahead Potter. Just like you get burnt out after only a bit of magic” Draco scoffs gesturing at his shoulder with his free hand, before rubbing his eyes and attempting to look highly alert.

His body sways in exhaustion slightly giving him away but Harry is too tired to taunt him and relaxes his head gratefully onto the warm shoulder next to him. As everything fades to dark. Harry feels Draco's head drop onto his. He hums slightly and curls into him.

The two men succumb to sleep. Bloody hands clasped between them they breathe in unison as the darkness of the tunnel closes in around them.

Louis loves his work. He loves the gentle buzz of the tattoo gun in his hand, the way it goes slightly warm after a long session and heats his hands like it's alive. He loves the adrenaline of piercing skin, the trust that comes with marking someone permanently. 

So, on Friday morning when he’s been open three hours and the shop is still completely empty he’s disappointed. Lately his work has developed quite a fan base and, though he’s often too humble to admit it, it's been a long time since the shop was empty on walk-in day. 

It must be the god awful weather he thinks, signing, as he looks out the long windows at the front of the shop. He watches as rain and sleet pour onto the empty streets outside. There isn’t a single person in sight. 

Dejected Louis moves back to the front desk. Situating his feet as close to the small space heater as he can get he leans over the tall wooden desk and goes back to work sketching a design he’s promised to one of next week’s clients. They'd requested an anchor and Louis had had to pretend to sneeze in order to keep them from noticing his eye roll.

 It’s just that anchors are so overdone he thinks, as he forces his pen down onto the paper in front of him. He attempts to draw with some of his original flair but it’s a little hard when he’s so frustrated in the piece in front of him. Recently he’s well enough off that he could have turned away a client like this but the man had said he was a friend of Stan’s dad and Louis had immediately felt too guilty to send him away. 

Louis furrows his brow and tries to keep his frustration from distracting him for his work. He’s finally getting to the groove when the bell on the front door tinkles. 

Louis flinches at the unexpected noise fumbling with his pen and almost dropping it. When he gets himself under control he looks up to see a tall man standing in the entryway of his shop. The man looks like he’s lost a fight with the storm, he’s dripping water onto the shiny wood floor beneath his feet and his coat looks soaked through. The hood of his coat is pulled up but it looks like it’s done little good because the strands of brownish hair peeking out are soaked through and cling to the stranger's forehead. His appearance is completely normal given the state of the weather outside yet something about him seems sort of… off. Louis can’t quite place it. 

“Welcome to Elysium! How can I help you?” Louis calls to  him using his best customer service voice. 

“Elysium?” The man asks as he moves towards the front desk. Louis looks up to meet his eyes before realizing that he can’t because the man is wearing dark sunglasses. Aha! So, that had been what seemed so weird about his appearance. Who wears sunglasses on a rainy day? Louis wonders, before coaching his face neutral.

Bonded

Bonded

Harry/Draco, Pansy/Hermione

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35392933/chapters/88219483

Summary: Harry gets assigned the most boring Auror case in the world with the most horrible partner. Featuring a certain blonde nemesis, ancient magic bonds, a dragon, and a little too much Pansy/Hermione love (in Harry’s opinion).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4 

Saturday morning Harry refuses to attend his magical testing at St Mungo’s. He sleeps in as late as possible. When the sunlight through his curtain finally forces him out of bed he jams on running clothes and runs for over an hour. Every time he catches a glimpse of blonde hair he’s convinced it’s Draco and the panic of it all makes him run faster and harder than ever.

When he returns he showers before sinking boneless back into bed. He reads a novel and fixes himself a sandwich for dinner bringing it back to his room to eat away from the prying eyes of his friends. As he scampers up the stairs he hears Neville in the sitting room ask Hermione in a hushed voice “What’s wrong with Harry?”

“Oh you know the usual.” He hears Hermione respond “He had an altercation with Malfoy at the pub. Now they’re both stewing over it.”

Harry rushes up the stairs before he can hear Neville's answer. He can’t believe Hermione’s got it so wrong obviously he’s not upset about Malfoy. He’s upset about the ancient magic bonding them.

He eats his sandwich in the silence of his room, stewing in rage that Hermione thinks Draco is strong enough to have this type of effect on him.

That night he dreams about Draco again.

~~~~~~~

Sunday follows the exact same pattern as the day before.

On Monday and Tuesday he calls out sick from work and goes on long hikes that last most of the day. He tells himself that he’s getting in touch with the natural world but deep down he knows that he’s doing it to avoid Hermione's wrath.

On Wednesday he wakes early to Hermione prodding him with her wand. She is dressed for work and her face is stern.

“Get up Harry. You can’t keep calling out of work. This is ridiculous. I know Draco hurt you but this is insane.” Harry grumbles and turns his face back into his pillows. Hermione casts an aguamenti charm spraying his face with ice cold water.

“Hey!” Harry yells in protest sitting up ramrod straight in bed.

“I’m just trying to help you get your life together.” Hermione huffs sitting down on the edge of his bed. “You need to get up and shower. We have a meeting at St Mungos in half an hour. I’ve done some research on your bond with Draco and I have some theories.”

“Ugh. Any theories that’ll erase Malfoy from my life forever?” Harry mumbles his heart icy at the thought of seeing Draco again.

“Nope.” Hermione responds primly pulling the covers off him. “But you’ll want to shower I assume, since Malfoy will be at the meeting.”

“If he’s there I’m not going.” Harry spits stubbornly refusing to roll out of bed.

“If you don’t stop acting like a child I’m sending Pansy up here and you know she’ll be a lot less nice about getting you out of bed.” Hermione threatens.

Harry would really rather not talk to Pansy. Especially since he’s only wearing a pair of boxers covered in flaming snitches that Theo had gotten him as a birthday gift.

“Fine, I’ll go shower.” He concedes pushing his body up out of bed and strolling to the bathroom door.

“Thank god.” Hermione signs. “I’ll see you downstairs in 15 minutes.”

Harry arrives downstairs in 20 minutes because he’s really quite a petty person and if Draco can walk out on him in a bar Draco can wait a couple extra minutes in the St Mungos waiting room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they arrive in the conference room at St Mungo's Pansy and Draco are already there. Draco is staring at the floor desolately and refuses to look up when Hermione greets him. He does mumble a small greeting back. Harry assumes it is only his pureblood manners talking.

Harry ignores Draco and sits down in the chair furthest away from him. He focuses on Hermione and the St Mungo's healer at the front of the room and forbids himself from even so much as glancing in Draco's direction.

About three minutes later he catches himself breaking his promise as he watches Draco shove limp blonde hair behind his ears. He notices the bruised skin under Draco's eyes and wonders if he hasn’t been sleeping well. Hermione clears her throat at the front of the room and he scrambles to look back at her, pretending he wasn’t watching Draco at all.

Hermione explains she’s done some research and found a similar case of ancient bond magic in an auror pair 20 years ago. She says that the paper she read detailed diagnostic charms to make sure that the bond magic is directed solely through the scar tissue like him and Draco had hypothesized

She directs them to stand next to each other and touch scars. Heat boils in Harry's stomach and he feels like there’s a magnet in his chest pulling him towards Draco but all the people in the room are distracting and Draco is still refusing to meet his eyes so this time he finds it easier to ignore the bond magic. He focuses intently on the floor in front of him and uses all his strength to keep from reaching for Draco with his other hand.

He’s focusing so hard that he loses track of how long they’ve been there. Hermione’s directing the St Mungo's healer through a series of diagnostic charms. Their wands work in tandem to pluck at multi-colored strings of magic and examine them before placing them back into the air.

At one point Harry notices Pansy hovering at the door and glaring at him and Draco as if daring them to try and leave.

Finally when Harry’s bones are aching and he’s started to realistically consider giving into the magnetism of Draco’s body Hermione announces that the diagnostics are done and they can drop hands.

Harry finds himself feeling a little disappointed. He ignores it.

Draco drops Harry's hand like he's been burned and quickly sits back down. Harry notices that he's breathing hard and his fingertips are trembling. Ha! He thinks, just like Draco, to be too weak to properly fight a bond.

Then Harry looks down at his own fingertips and realizes he’s trembling as well. He feels suddenly a hell of a lot less cocky and slouches in his chair praying Hermione will let them leave.

“Just as I thought!” Hermione announces happily. “The bond doesn’t affect either of you or your magic unless your scars are directly touching. So you should be able to go back to working normally.”

Harry watches as Draco’s face turns paper white. He turns to Harry and their eye contact is frantic, charged. Draco pushes himself up out of his chair and practically runs for the exit. Pansy follows.

Harry remains frozen in his chair.

“ I um. I thought that was going to be good news?” Hermione hesitantly says, walking over to Harry. “Why did Draco act like it was the end of the world?”

Harry gives in and explains the night at the bar. He tells her about the way the air feels charged when he and Draco touch, The way he can’t stop dreaming about Draco. He tells her he doesn’t know what to do. Tells her that if the bond doesn’t make them want each other than something else must and maybe to Draco that is the end of the world. Because a Death Eater and the Savior would never work out would it?

Hermione listens and nods and comforts him. She rubs his back as he tells her the hard parts and afterwards Harry finds himself feeling drained and empty but somehow relieved. Hermione convinces him to apparate home and they drink tea again. This time there’s a lot more talking and a lot less avoidant mumbling. Harry wishes he had confided in Hermione earlier but it’s such an embarrassing concept falling for one’s nemesis. He can’t believe that’s what he’s done.

Hermione tells him she’ll always be there for him and thanks him for opening up. Then she disappears upstairs. Harry is suspicious that she’s firecalling Pansy. But what can he do about it? He can’t quite tell her that she's not allowed to talk to her girlfriend.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day Harry goes to work. Mostly because Hermione explains that he’ll have to face Draco at some point. Also because she explains that if he doesn’t she’ll tell Kingsley about how many of his St Mungos appointments he’s missed this week.

He arrives at the office to find Draco’s called out sick. Kingsley assigns him to paperwork all day since Aurors can’t do field duty without a partner.

When he questions Kingsley about Draco’s illness. Kingsley says “He must have caught whatever you had earlier this week” and stares at him pointedly until Harry mumbles his agreement and flees the office.

He spends his day reading case files and accidentally drawing pictures of men with blonde hair in the margins. He spends half an hour digging through his desk to find whiteout to cover said drawings. He paces the floor, sticking his head into offices of his fellow Aurors and catching up. It’s a fine day but he finds himself searching for a flash of blonde hair around every corner.

The next day is much the same. Draco calls out sick again. Harry spends the whole day with his heart in his throat watching the hallway for him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Harry only goes to pub night that night because Hermione pinky promises him Draco won’t be in attendance.

Attempting to use multicolored cocktails to numb his internal turmoil he drinks himself into quite a state early in the night. Pansy and Hermione are so happy together it makes him sick and he’s too drunk to listen to the way Neville is lecturing Ginny and Theo on South African plants so he throws himself onto the dance floor and makes it a goal to dance with as many attractive people as possible. If Draco doesn’t want him that’s fine. He’s sure there are many others who do.

Harry’s correct. He dances with an assortment of pretty people. None of them make his skin sing like Draco does but he ignores it. The ebb and flow of bodies feels nice against him and he loses himself in the music. A tall blonde man appears in front of him and wraps his arms around Harry’s waist pulling him in. He smells like brown sugar and Harry’s body doesn’t feel like a live wire against his. It’s kind of a relief. He feels in control, unaffected. Harry leans in, pushes up against him, reveling in the slide of skin against his.

Suddenly the man releases him and vanishes into the crowd. Harry looks up confused and his eyes clash against steely grey ones.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” he growls, shoving Draco’s chest hard.

“I know.” Draco says looking just as frustrated as he pushes Harry’s arms away from him.

“This is all your fault Potter,'' he spits.

Then all at once he's leaning in and Harry can’t tell if he’s about to be shoved or kissed and he freezes. Their lips meet in a bruising kiss. Draco is biting Harry’s lip so hard it might bleed and he’s leaning into it. Their arms grapple pushing at each other until hands slide under shirts to meet warm sticky skin.

Harry spins on his heel and apparates them straight into his bedroom. Draco doesn’t even pause to look around; he's focused on mouthing at Harry’’s neck as he pushes his shirt up over his head.

They fall onto the bed in a tangle of limbs and heat. Draco touches him, harsh and angry. Harry responds, pushing back against him, craving more. They move in tandem. All hot breath and whispered words.

As their clothes come off and skin meets skin Harry watches as magic ricochets in bright flashes across the room. He watches in awe for a second before turning back to the lean pale body in front of him. He pulls him close and loses himself in an ocean of gray eyes and tender skin. He thinks he can never get enough of this.

~~~~~~~~

The next morning he wakes to an empty bed. The sheets are cold beside him and every trace of Draco has vanished from the room. It’s like he was never there.

A heavy ache rises in the pit of Harry’s stomach. He forces himself to ignore it.

He goes on a long run and naps until dinner. He forces himself downstairs to eat because he knows if he mopes too long everyone will get suspicious about the Malfoy situation all over again and he really doesn’t want them figuring out what's transpired in the last 24 hours.

He traipses down the stairs and slides into his seat at the table reveling for a second in the cheerful chatter of his friends and the clatter of silverware.

“Curry?” Ginny offers. “Pansy made it.”

“Sure,” Harry reaches for the large platter.

As he grasps it in his hands and starts to pull it closer to him Theo interrupts conversationally “So, Harry. Anything to say about Draco Malfoy sleeping over last night?”

The table immediately goes dead silent. Harry’s hands tighten on the porcelain platter a second too late and it falls to the floor. It shatters on impact and the loud noise makes everyone jump and reach for their wands. Curry spread out across the dining room floor and a bright yellow stain. It still looks delicious spread out across the floor and Harry’s so hungry he could cry. “No comment” He responds tightly casting spells to mend the palter and vanish the curry from the floor.

“There’s more curry in the kitchen, I'll just go grab it.” Pansy soothes rushing from the room.

“You can’t go all no comment on us.” Ginny whines. “When me and Luna hooked up last month you made me give you all the details.”

“That's totally different.” Harry scoffs, “You’d been obsessed with Luna for an entire year. There was a whole build up to it you couldn’t just stop giving us details.”

“Oh like you haven’t been obsessed with Draco for literally your entire time as a wizard.”

“That’s different. He’s my nemesis.”

“No. Voldemort was your nemesis and you still cared about Draco Malfoy ten times more than him.”

“I don’t CARE about Malfoy.” Harry explodes pushing back from the table.

“You must a little. You did sleep with him.” Hermione interrupts serenely from across the table.

Something sinks in Harry’s chest. He tries to channel the anger and hatred he’d felt towards Malfoy at school and he can’t quite reach it. Fine maybe he does care about the blonde git. But only a little. And there’s no way he’s admitting that to his friends.

“Yes.” Theo adds mildly. “You’d have to be insane to sleep with someone you actually adamantly hated.”

“Alright, alright.” Harry holds his hands over his head in defeat and watches as Pansy levitates a fresh curry out of the kitchen. “Maybe I don’t hate Malfoy as much as I used to. But that doesn’t change anything.”

“Ahh.” Pansy exclaims mysteriously. “I think it might.”

Harry ignores her and focuses on spooning his curry carefully onto his plate.

“So, how was the sex?” Ginny asks, always the brash one.

“I’m not talking about it.” Harry clenches his jaw and glares furiously down at his plate.

“Come on just a few details? Malfoy’s quite fit.” Neville chimes in grinning.

“No! It’s not important. It didn’t mean anything.” Harry thinks about how he’ll never touch Malfoy again and suddenly feels nauseous. “I’m feeling a little sick, I’m going up to lay down.” He shoves his chair into the table with a tad more force than necessary shaking the plates and cups and turns storming up the stairs to his room. As he disappears he hears Hermione say, “You really should be more gentle on him. I think he’s quite shocked about the outcome of things.”

Pansy responds, “Quite shocked? I have a hard time believing anyone is quite shocked. The tension has been building between them since the first year.”

Harry slams his bedroom door shut, shaking the walls. Pansy is so completely wrong. How could anyone have seen this coming. He doesn’t even like looking at Draco.

He thinks again about the delicate features of Draco's face. The hypnotic swirls of his ever changing eyes and okay maybe he’s wrong. Maybe he does like to look at Draco but that doesn’t MEAN anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry wakes up early the next morning. Mostly because Hermione is standing at the food of his bed yelling “Harry! Wake up you git. Kingsleys calling you in today.”

“Um. What?” Harry mumbles sleepily attempting to disappear under his pillows.

“You have to get up.” Hermione states, flat and impatient. “There’s a dragon loose in Scotland. It’s set a town on fire already. Kingsley's calling you and Malfoy in. You need to leave as soon as possible.”

“Ugh. That's so unfair. Why can’t someone else deal with it.”

“It’s actually completely fair because neither you or Draco did a single piece of work all last week.” Hermione says primly, throwing his Auror robes at him.

“I did some paperwork.” Harry tells her haughtily, rolling out of bed and pulling on his robes.

“Oh did you?” Hermione questions looking cheerful. “Or did you just doodle on the margins of case notes like you always do?”

“Fine.” Harry mumbles chagrined, “I didn’t do much last week but I was going through serious emotional strife.”

“I wouldn’t call wanting to fuck someone serious emotional strife.” Hermione says snidely ushering him out of his room.

“Pansy really is rubbing off on you.” Harry retorts.

Hermione directs him to the portkey sitting in the hallway and he places his hand on it. Immediately the walls start spinning around him.

When his stomach stops feeling like it’s being turned inside out he opens his eyes and finds himself standing at the top of a green grassy hill. Below him a village is burning. He turns to his right to find Draco watching him, a guarded look in his eyes.

“So, we have to stop the dragon.” Harry says by way of greeting.

“Yes.” Draco’s tone is clipped and he’s still watching Harry with suspicious eyes.

“Okay so if we use the bond we should be able to encapsulate it in a holding charm of some sort until Charlie gets here to collect it.” Harry says flatly, trying to act as normal as possible.

“I’m not using the stupid bond.” Draco spits at him childishly.

“Why not? This is what bond magic was originally used for.” Harry scratches the back of his neck feeling awkward.

“Because we don’t need the bond.” Draco’s face is twisting into a familiar grimace. “In fact I don’t even need you. Don’t know why Kingsley sent you out here, you're good for nothing.” He turns and starts to stride down the hill away from Harry.

If this had happened even a month ago Harry might have fallen for it but by now he’s studied Draco, seen him with less of a guard up. He recognizes that grimace from when they were children. Back then he thought Draco only looked like that when he was angry, when he wanted to hurt someone, but now Harry knows better.

He knows better and in a split second he’s caught up to Draco and grabbed his wrist twisting him back towards him.

“Is that really why you don’t want me here Draco?” He spits, voice hoarse and cracking. “Because to me it seems like you’re just scared.”

Draco’s eyes meet his wild and defiant. “Of course not Potter, how could I ever be afraid of you. You’re nothing to me.”

“Really?” Harry takes a step closer to Draco and thinks he can see his fingertips trembling. “Because it doesn’t feel like nothing.” He reaches up and caresses Draco’s cheek leaning in.

Then abruptly he’s airborne.

At first he thinks Draco’s hexed him but when he looks back and sees horror spilling across his face he realizes this couldn’t have been something Draco did. In fact Draco looks worried for him.

His body relaxes and he starts to feel relief. His brief sense of calm is quickly washed away when he looks down at his chest and realizes that he’s slowly being crushed in a large set of talons. He looks up to find he’s staring at the underbelly of a dragon.

Harry quickly casts a quick incareous binding the dragon talons around him. After all he doesn’t want to risk getting dropped onto the burning town below.

He watches as below Draco casts a patronus. He never knew Draco could cast a patronus but he guesses Draco wouldn’t have been allowed through Auror training without learning one. He watches as the silver cloud blooms out of the end of his wand and forms into a fawn. Harry thinks it looks weak and helpless standing there on it’s long spindly legs. He watches as Draco speaks to it, sending it for backup he assumes. He watches as it disappears into the mountains behind him.

It’s only after the patronus disappears that the importance of the fawn shocks him. He freezes silent in the hold of the dragon as he watches the sunlight glint off of blonde hair beneath him. Suddenly he’s certain of just how much Draco’s been lying about.

He feels a sharp jab of pain run through his chest and looks down to see the rough red talons closing even tighter on his body. The jagged edge of a claw catches on his shirt and presses down.

Harry watches as crimson red blossoms like a wine stair against his white shirt. The blood spreads quickly and he suddenly starts to feel dizzy with a combination of blood loss and the sight of scenery rushing past below him.

He twists looking below him for a glimpse of Draco. He catches a glimpse of red and black Auror robes to his left and watches Draco swiftly catch up to them on a broom. Draco yells something to him but it disappears into the wind. Harry tries to respond but his vision gets blurrier and blurrier and suddenly everything goes black.

~~~~~~~~~~

Harry wakes up in a hospital bed. He blinks his eyes slowly opening them. A gasp of relief to his left straddles him and as he swings his head to the side his gaze catches on a swatch of bright blonde hair.

“Draco?” He breathes quietly having a hard time believing his own eyes.

“Yes, It’s me.” Harry feels someone squeeze his hand. He looks down and watches as pale cool fingers wrap delicately around his tanned palm.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Oh no Harry didn’t mean to say that out loud. “The pain potions might be going to my head.” he adds quickly hoping to avoid scaring Draco away.

“No worries. I’m glad I could be here, you scared me.” Harry carefully watches Draco’s face and his expression seems genuine.

“I’m sorry Harry. I know I’ve been a right git about it but I do like you.” Draco looks sheepish and small. Harry can’t stop looking at him.

“That’s alright.” Harry responds nonchalantly. “I get it. It’s hard falling for your nemesis.”

“Who said I was falling for you?” Draco retorts, crossing his arms and making a face like he’s pretending not to care.

“I did.” Harry pulls Draco’s hand closer to him caressing it.

Draco falls silent letting Harry pull him closer. The room starts to get hazy again and Harry feels his meds pull him back to sleep.

When he wakes up the second time Draco is asleep next to him. The top half of his body is leaning off of his chair and onto the hospital bed. His golden locks spread halo-like against the pale green sheets. Harry cards his tan fingers through his glimmering hair and waits for Draco to wake up. Somehow he can just tell that Draco will never run from him again. Or at least if he does he'll always return.

Infiltrate the Slytherins

(Complete, words: 8.9k)

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson/Ginny Weasley

Summary: Ron & Blaise started a liquor business. Blaise moved in. Slytherins took over the sitting room. Harry didn't know how to feel about any of it.

Read on ao3

TW: drinking & implied cheating

Blaise Zabini moved in with them on a dark rainy night.

The day had started sunny with just a touch of clouds but by the afternoon there were storm warnings and the wind had started to pick up forebodingly. The rain had started by nightfall and Harry heard the first clap of thunder approximately fifteen minutes before Blaise’s knock sounded at the door.

Harry watched Ron carry one of Blaise’s dripping suitcases up the stairs of Grimmauld Place and thought about how fitting the weather is. After all, nothing good could come of a Zabini living under his roof.

“Can you help me with this one mate?” Ron yelled cheerfully from halfway up the stairs where he was pinning the suitcase to the wall and clearly struggling to keep it from slipping out of his grip.

Harry ran to assist him because no matter how cranky he was he couldn’t quite bring himself to not help Ron.

Of course, that’s what got him into this whole mess wasn’t it.

~~~~~~~~~

When Ron had quit auror training Harry had been disappointed but not surprised.

They’d all lost pieces of themselves in the war but Harry and Hermione knew that Ron had been affected the most. Not that they talked about it or anything but through sad shared glances it had become apparent that they had both realized it.

They watched the way auror training affected Ron. Harry was invigorated when he hunted down criminals. He’d return to the offices with flushed cheeks and bright eyes eager to start another chase. Hermione was fascinated with the mystery of it all, she’d lose herself in case notes flipping through them so quickly she often dropped them in her scramble to unwind the stories they held. But Ron withdrew. He’s come back from closed cases quiet with weary eyes. He started to have more nightmares and his temper got shorter and shorter.

In some ways Harry had been relieved when one night after about three glasses of wine Ron had looked across the table with a grimace and announced quietly, “I’m quitting.”

It had taken Harry longer than it should have to figure out what exactly Ron was referring to quitting and by the time he finally put it together Hermione was already across the table enveloping Ron in a tight hug. She whispered softly in his ear and when she pulled back there was a tentative smile pushing its way across Ron's face.

“Guess I’m going to have to find someone else to partner with after training finishes.” Harry exclaimed ruefully pulling Ron into his own long hug.

“I guess.” Ron responded by clapping him on the back and looking relieved.

Harry had sighed, asked Ron if he would be helping George at the joke shop now and thought that would be the end of things.

Of course it wasn’t.

If Harry wasn’t so busy with training he probably would have predicted that the joke shop wouldn’t hold Ron’s attention for long but he was pulling 12 hour scut shifts at the ministry. So, he didn’t even notice when Ron started meeting Blaise Zabini for coffee multiple times a week. In fact, he wasn’t even aware Ron had talked to Blaise since their time at Hogwarts.

Harry’s ignorance of Ron’s blossoming friendship with Blaise quickly came to an end over breakfast one Saturday.

“I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but I’ve sort of um been becoming friends with Blaise.” Ron had muttered as he buttered his toast. Harry watched as the tips of his ears turned a dark pinkish color.

“Friends with who?” He hadn’t really heard what Ron said. He was too focused making perfectly round pancakes on his brand new griddle.

“Blaise Zabini?” Ron was avoiding his eyes.

“What?” Harry asked again, unable to comprehend what Ron was telling him.

“I'm friends with Blaise Zabini.” Ron had exploded, meeting Harry’s eyes defiantly. “And we’re starting a firewhisky company.”

“What?!”

“Can you stop saying that?” Ron retorted. “It’s not that crazy. He’s a pretty cool person.”

Harry thought it was definitely that crazy. In fact, he later described this turn of events to Ginny, who was his new auror partner, as insane. They had decided that this was probably just a lapse of judgement on Ron’s part and that the idea would quickly fizzle out.

It had been quite shocking when, four months later, they received an invitation to the grand opening of Weasley & Zabini Liquors.

After that Blaise Zabini only continued to worm his way into Harry’s life. Harry often came home from his long shifts to find Blaise spread languidly across his sofa waxing poetic about the reception of the Weasley & Zabini brand and planning new liquor flavors with Ron. Harry found it highly annoying and it often took all of his strength to avoid kicking Blaise out of his house all together.

Now Blaise had moved in and it was all Ron’s fault.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I can’t thank you enough for letting me stay with you all for a bit.” Blaise said as he stepped over the threshold of the front door and used his wand to vanish the wetness from his clothes.

“Don’t worry about it mate, couldn’t leave you homeless now could we?” Ron offered him an easy smile and pulled him into a hug.

Harry scowled. He usually encouraged Hermione and Ron to act as if his house is their own but this was the one time he would have liked to feel like his property rights have been properly acknowledged.

“How are you Blaise? I heard about the fire from Ron. It must have been so frightening.” Hermione rushed to Zanibi’s side helping him with his robes.

“Oh don’t worry about me, us Zabini’s are very resilient.”

Harry watched as he winked across at Hermione. He found himself once again irritated by Zabini’s ability to flirt in any situation. He often wondered if Ron was bothered by the way Blaise constantly flirted with his girlfriend. When he had asked Ron about it he had shrugged and said Zabini flirted with everyone. It was true but the flirting still bothered Harry, he didn’t see why it wouldn't bother Ron too.

~~~~~~~~~

Living with Zabini turned out to be even more annoying than Harry had predicted. Blaise liked to swan around the house in a brocade dressing gown in the mornings and he drank breakfast tea constantly at all hours of the day. He never remembered to buy more tea and so Harry consistently had to go without tea in the mornings. One morning Harry had had enough.

“Blaise, I need you to stop drinking all of my tea.” He said tersely. He was standing on a stool and searching the highest kitchen cabinet blindly with his hand hoping he would magically encounter a fresh box of tea.

“I’m sorry I thought it was mine.” Blaise responded casually, continuing to read his newspaper.

“Why would it be your tea? This isn’t even your house!” Harry hissed back at him tipping precariously on his stool.

“Usually people try to make their house comfortable for their guests.” Blaise informed him with a waive of his hand. “They do that by stocking up on their favorite products and such. But I guess I forgot you were raised by heathens and wouldn’t know to do such a thing.”

Harry scoffed, pulling his hand out of the cabinet and giving up on his search. “Oh because your upbringing was so much better than mine.”

“At least I know how to treat my house guests.” Blaise responded haughtily.

“You're just lucky I’m even letting you stay here.” Harry growled back sitting down to eat his toast. He picked up his own newspaper and glowerd over it at Blaise.

Harry and Blaise were in the middle of what was shaping up to be a truly admirable glower-fest when Draco Malfoy walked into the kitchen.

Harry startled dramatically, almost dropping his newspaper.

“Well hello Potter!” Draco said cheerfully, helping himself to a sip of Blaise’s tea. “Fancy seeing you here”

“How did you get in here?” Harry retorted.

“Oh I spent the night.” Draco responded conversationally. “Blaise here just can’t get enough of my company.” He sidled over to Blaise draping his pale slender arm over Blaise's strong square shoulders and leaning in.

Harry's cheeks flamed. He wondered what sixth year Harry would think about the idea of Blaise and Draco sleeping together in one of his bedrooms. For some reason he didn't find himself as repulsed by the idea as he would have been at 16.

“Oh.” He said simply at loss for a better response. He focused back on his newspaper and studiously ignored the way Draco’s body curved against Blaise. He hadn’t expected Slytherins to be such a cuddly bunch. Somehow watching them made him feel lonely.

~~~~~~~~~

Living with Blaise ended up not being as completely terrible as he expected. Once Blaise stopped stealing his tea every morning Harry started to warm up to him more. Being cordial with Blaise was really quite easy because for the most part Harry barely saw him. Now that auror training was over he and Ginny were working tirelessly day and night to apprehend criminals and get promoted to the more interesting cases. Usually by the time he got home from his long shifts he barely had enough energy to mumble a quick hello to whatever Slytherins Blaise had invited over before excusing himself to his rooms and sleeping like the dead for as many hours as possible.

Whenever he did see the Slytherins he couldn’t quite keep himself from watching them. They all moved with a quick confidence that he found himself envious of and they never stopped touching each other. It seemed almost like they were unaware of the social expectation of physical space. Most often he came across them wrapped around each other like a litter of puppies sprawled across the large leather couch in his sitting room. The fire in the hearth would spill a golden glow over their skin; it made them look beautiful and a little uncanny. Harry noticed that Draco liked to card his hands through Pansy’s dark curls and that everyone was always asking Theo to give them back-rubs. Sometimes Hermione and Ron were even there relaxing in the warmth of the hearth. Harry never joined them.

Occasionally after walking through the sitting room and mumbling his hello’s Harry found himself lying awake wondering what it would be like to have Draco’s delicate pale fingertips palpate his scalp and straighten his dark curls. He wondered what it would be like for Theo to rub the tight knots out of his overworked back. He dismissed these thoughts to exhaustion induced insanity and focused on forcing himself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The careful pattern that Harry had established with the Slytherins was blown to smithereens the day Ginny got injured.

It wasn’t a big injury, just some dissolved bones in her left arm but St. Mungos had given her the rest of the day off to re-grow her bones. She’d promised the flat to Luna who planned to invite a date over later that night and so she had nowhere to go. It was only natural that Harry invited her back to her flat.

They arrived home to find the Slytherins sprawled out in the sitting room as usual, siping elven wine. Harry was quite suspicious that they had taken the wine from his cellar. As he walked through the room he was so busy wondering whether to say something about the wine that he didn’t notice that Ginny had plopped herself down on the carpet in front of the fireplace.

“Where are you going, Harry?” She yelled out, catching his attention.

“Oh I um, don’t usually hang out in the sitting room.” Harry responded awkwardly, shuffling back into the room.

“We’ve been wondering about that.” Blaise added casually. “What is it? Are you afraid we might corrupt you?”

“Of course not.” Harry replied flatly. Then he realized it might be hard to explain that he avoided the Slytherins because he found them so beautiful it was uncanny. “I mean um. Maybe?” He could tell Blaise didn’t believe him.

“Alright then Potter. How about you sit down with us? Come on. Face your fears.” Blaise’s tone was falsely jovial. Harry figured it was probably because he was acting weird. The problem was he didn’t know how to act normally around the Slytherins.

“Um okay.” He responded nervously, perching on the floor beside Ginny.

“So, how about sharing some of that wine you nicked from Harry’s cellars.” Ginny called across to the Slytherins grinning at them with her teeth bared.

Harry watched as Pansy casually reached over Blaise’s lap to retrieve the wine bottle. “Of course Ginny, you only had to ask.” She responded grinning back at her in a similarly aggressive manner.

“Thanks.” Ginny replied, her mouth softening a bit at the edges.

She gulped the dark red wine straight from the bottle before passing it over to Harry. He clasped the green bottle in his hands thinking about how strange it was to feel like an outsider in his own home. He traced the curve of the bottle with his tanned callused fingers and thought about all the soft golden fingertips it had felt that night. The thought of all those hands left him feeling inadequate.

Pulling the rim to his lips he tipped his head back and gulped several mouthfuls of the sticky sweet wine. When he finished he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and looked up directly into Draco’s beautiful grey eyes.

Ugh, he corrected himself, shaking his head to clear it. Not beautiful. Ugly eyes. Hard and cold like concrete.

“You alright Harry?” Draco sounded amused. He continued to pin Harry in his gaze.

“Oh I’m fine.” Harry attempted to make his voice sound smooth and confident like Draco’s always did. It didn’t work. He’d gotten some wine down his windpipe. He started coughing.

“Are you sure about that?” Draco was smirking at him.

“I’m sure.” He gasped for breath as tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.

“You don’t look very sure mate.” Theo commented from the closer side of the couch.

Harry tried to smile back at him in an assuring way but his smile came out as more of a grimace.

Then suddenly Theo was scooting off of the coach and onto the floor next to him. Harry felt a strong warm hand move to his shoulder blades and then Theo whispered “prohibere tussis.”

A warm rush filled Harry’s chest and suddenly he wasn’t choking anymore. “Where’d you learn that spell?” He questioned curiously leaning in a little to the warmth of Theo’s hand.

“Oh, Adrian’s always had asthma so it was an essential spell for all of us to learn.” Theo explained without removing his hand from Harry's back. Harry couldn’t quite bring himself to shrug it away.

After that the tension in the room started to dissipate. Ginny took Theo’s spot on the sofa and leaned into Pansy’s shoulder. Harry watched in shock as Pansy started to finger comb through Ginny’s shiny locks. As the firelight caught on her hair it glowed red against the golden skin around her.

Harry continued to drink wine from the bottle, the room around him started to go pleasantly blurry, the tension in his stomach dissipated. Blaise started to tell a long rambling story about one of his and Ron’s customers. Harry let himself laugh in all the right places. He started to lean into Theo’s side. Theo let him.

Harry wondered if it was really that easy to infiltrate the Slytherins. He wondered why he hadn’t tried doing it earlier.

Every once in a while he looked up and found grey eyes watching him, tracking his movements. When Draco had watched him like that in school it had made him feel uneasy and like he wanted to hit something. Now he found it just felt comforting. Probably because he’d gotten so used to it he mused, meeting Draco’s eyes directly and sending him a small smile.

Draco immediately dropped his head appearing to concentrate hard on the brown shag rug Harry perched on. Harry wondered what could be so important about a rug. Maybe Draco was trying to become an interior designer. A giggle caught in his throat. He looked up to see if Draco had noticed the sound and found him still focused intently on the floor. Suddenly Harry found himself wanting to be closer to Draco. So close that Draco couldn’t ignore him. Because who was Draco to ignore him anyways?

Harry forced himself away from the gentle warmth of Theo’s body and pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled little as he got used to the floaty fluidity of his drunken limbs before taking a couple steps over to the sofa. He plopped himself down on the floor again this time with his back leaning on the couch directly next to Draco’s long lean legs. Harry sighed relaxing into the comfortable backrest the furniture provided.

Suddenly he stiffened up as he realized the room had gone silent. As he looked around the room all eyes were pointed fixed on his position at Draco’s side. Harry felt intimidated again.

“Sorry. My back was just hurting sitting over there with nothing to lean on.” He clarified hurriedly.

“Oh his back was hurting.” Pansy snickered to Ginny. They laughed but no one else said anything. The room relaxed again into a blurry calmness.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After that night Harry and Ginny start to join the Slytherins in the sitting room more frequently. Harry’s favorite nights are when Hermione and Ron join too and the group becomes more rowdy. They start to learn more about each other. Harry learned about Adrian’s hopeless crush on a girl at work. He learned about the time in fifth year that Pansy had convinced Draco and Theo to smoke muggle weed with her and they had all pretended to be massively high until Blaise had showed up and explained they were actually smoking dried oregano. Draco had turned pink when Blaise told everyone. His cheeks lit up fiery against pale skin. When Harry thought about the story he remembered the blush staining Draco’s cheeks as the more poignant detail.

Eventually Harry accepted the Slytherins into the rest of his life as well. He found he enjoyed sharing breakfast with Blaise and Draco in the mornings when Draco stayed the night. Their constant cuddling grated on his nerves but they always helped him on his cross word puzzles which was great because Harry was unfortunately quite bad at them alone.

Harry oftentimes caught Draco staring at him, a strange intensity in the depths of his eyes. Sometimes Harry caught himself staring back. He figured it was just part of learning to live with the strangeness of it all. It was hard to move from enemies to friends.

Sometimes he found himself watching Draco, an unusual tension in his body as if he was waiting for Draco to spit an insult or throw a punch. Sometimes it felt like he almost wanted him to.

~~~~~~~~~~~

About three weeks after Harry joined the Slytherins for the first time he started to notice a shift in the dynamics of the sitting room. It started when Draco plopped down on the carpet next to him one night.

Harry was already at the blurry side of tipsy. He was watching the way the flames reflected in Blaises dark eyes when suddenly a foot prodded him sharply in the side.

Harry whipped his eyes over to where the foot had come from and met warm grey eyes.

“Um, Sorry.” Draco said softly, biting the corner of his lip. Harry couldn’t quite stop himself from watching the way the soft pink flesh rolled tightly against the gleam of his straight white teeth.

“No worries. You sitting with me tonight?” Harry asked a little breathless gesturing to the floor next to him.

“Yes, If you’ll have me. Those heathens over there finished our bottle 10 minutes ago. I barely got a single sip.” Draco’s tone was childish and petulant but Harry detected a trace of Slytherin humor under all the dramatic whining.

“I guess I can tolerate you over here.” Harry responded, winking over at Draco.

“If only our 15 year old selves could see us now, they’d never believe it.” Draco said conversationally, letting his knee rest against Harry’s. Harry felt a rush of warm flood his leg and rush to his core. He wanted to shift closer to Draco, to curl into him the way Blaise often did. He held himself back and reached for the wine bottle on the floor taking a dramatic swig.

“Hey, share that.” Draco poked Harry’s arm with a gentle finger impatiently waiting for him to finish drinking.

“Kind of a rude way to ask for some of my wine. Don’t think Narcissa would approve.” Harry raised his eyebrow at Draco before accidentally tracking his eyes down the length of his body.

“Eyes up here Potter.” Draco responded, his pale lips twisting into a smirk.

Harry felt blood rush to his cheeks. He hoped it was dark enough in the room that Draco wouldn’t be able to see. “I was looking on the floor for my wand.” He covered, quickly. “But don’t you wish I was looking at you. I know I'm very irresistible.”

This time it’s Draco’s time to get flustered. Harry watched as his grey eyes flicked away and focused hard on the floor. “I don’t know what you’re talking about” He stated prissily sticking his nose up into the air and making a pained expression. Harry assumed this was his attempt at looking lofty and aristocratic.

“Alright.” He said letting Draco off the hook. “Well do you want some of this wine?”

“Yes Potter. That’s what I’ve been asking for literally this entire time.” Draco huffed scooting closer to Harry in order to snatch the bottle from his hands.

Draco pulled the bottle toward him and Harry watched as large pale hands wrapped tightly around the dark glass neck. Draco’s lips came together at the bottle top and he tipped his head back closing his eyes tight. As he gulped the sweet liquid down, his throat undulated in the firelight. Harry couldn’t stop thinking about reaching one of his hands out and feeling the way it moved.

“You want some?” Draco said huskily, pushing the bottle into his hand.

“Yes.” Harry placed his lips over the ghost of Draco’s own. He kept his eyes open as he drank. He watched as Draco’s cheeks went pale and his pupils dilated. He finished drinking and set the bottle down on the carpet. He was about to turn back to Draco, continue to lose himself in Draco’s eyes when he looked back at the rest of the group and noticed Blaise watching them.

Blaise’s dark eyes were serious and sad. Harry wondered how long he’d been looking.

Suddenly his stomach felt guilty and nauseous. He stood up and left the room.

A few minutes later Ginny found him vomiting in the bathroom.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Harry woke early to find Draco sitting in the kitchen alone.

“Blaise is still asleep.” Draco told him flatly as he rubbed sleep out of the corners of his eyes. Harry gazed at Draco’s rubbled hair, at the bruised shadows under his eyes and wondered if he’d gotten any sleep at all.

“Okay, do you want coffee?” Harry said as he ripped his eyes away from Draco’s disheveled body and turned towards the kitchen shelves.

“You know what? I do want coffee Potter.” Draco stated, his gaze tracking Harry’s movements across the room. “But I’m tired of this house. Let’s go out. Find coffee in the real world.” His voice was dramatic and restless and Harry didn’t know how to say no to him.

“Alright.” He said and followed Draco out the door.

They walked quickly and in silence. Harry wracked his brain for things to say but couldn’t think of anything. His gaze kept catching on the way the cold brought pink into Draco’s cheeks. Harry hoped Draco didn’t notice.

They ended up at a muggle coffee shop a couple blocks from Grimmauld Place. When they stepped inside Harry was astonished to note the golden hued walls that rose high above their heads. The walls were covered in long glass windows and the cafe around them was full of a varied assortment of plush sofas and armchairs. In several corners Harry notices fireplaces burning cheerfully. Customers sipped their drinks and warmed their hands chatting to each other joyfully.

“Wow.” Harry glanced across at Draco noting the way the golden light fell across his features. “This place is great.”

“Have you not been here before?” Draco said as he moved toward the counter to order.

“Nope.” Harry responded following Draco.

“Well, you’ve definitely been missing out.” Draco turned to the shopkeeper and ordered for both of them. Harry wondered how Draco knew his coffee order.

They sat perched together on a sapphire blue sofa looking out the window and waiting for their drinks to be made. Once again it was silent.

“You know I can’t quite stop thinking you might punch me at any moment.” Harry blurted out before blushing dark red to the roots of his hair. “I mean that’s not what I meant. I just. I don’t know how to describe it.”

Draco saved him from his blundering. “It’s okay I know what you’re saying. The change feels so strange.”

“I almost miss it sometimes.” Harry said wistfully. “Sometimes the only stability in my life was that you hated me.”

“I never hated you.” Draco responded quickly.

Harry looked at him in shock. “What do you mean? Of course you did.”

“I didn’t.” Draco’s tone was adamant. “I was ignorant and scared mostly.” He stared at the window, refusing to meet Harry’s eyes. “Also jealous. But I never hated you. I think I thought I wanted what you had. Now I realize I was wrong. I can’t even imagine what you went through.”

Harry found that his mind was reeling. “Oh.”

“Anyways, I’m sorry for how I treated you Harry.” Draco laid his hand on Harry’s back. His touch felt electric. Harry leaned in.

“You already apologized to me right after the trials. You don’t have to do it again.” Harry told him softly. He prayed with every fiber of his being that Draco would keep his hand where he’d left it.

“Yes but that time didn’t matter.” Now it was Draco’s time to blush in embarrassment. “I mean it did matter obviously. But like we weren’t mates. Now it matters more.”

Harry found himself stuck on the word mates. He knew they’d been getting closer the last couple weeks but he couldn’t quite fathom the idea of Draco’s gentle tenor voice calling him mate. It felt so simple and yet at the same time completely incomprehensible.

“I forgave you the first time even if you think it mattered less.” Harry said, knocking his knee against Draco’s.

Draco refused to make eye contact with him and Harry watched as his pale cheeks went thinner and angrier. “What I did wasn’t forgivable.”

“It was.” Harry protested, “You were a child who wasn’t given a choice. You just said you were ignorant. Your parents kept you in the dark. They manipulated you. It wasn’t your fault.

Draco tried to draw his body away from him but Harry scooted down the coach against him refusing to give up the warm comfort of his body.

“Dumbledore gave me a chance to get out and I was too slow to take it.” Draco spat. His porcelain face was twisted in a grimace. Harry knew if he could look into his eyes they’d be hard and cold.

“I think you wanted to take it though.” He said gently

“How do you even know about this?!” Draco’s cheeks went paler that Harry could even imagine and his gaze whipped up. His eyes were dark and full, like storm clouds before the rain. Harry didn’t think he’d ever seen him this shocked.

“Oh. Um. I was there?” His voice turned up at the end like he was asking a question. Harry cursed himself for being so bad with emotional crises. “Under my invisibility cloak. I was there with Dumbledore. I watched it all happen.”

“Oh perfect so you watched me almost kill our headmaster, your hero. And now you’re here just forgiving me. Like it’s that easy.” He laughed maniacally.

“It is that easy.” Harry told him gently. “You were in an impossible situation. You did what you could. You realized it was wrong. You moved forward.” He placed his hand on Draco’s knee in what he hoped was a comforting manner. Draco flinched but didn’t move away. His body heat on Harry’s bare hand felt electric.

“You call making friends with Gryffindors and making the enzyme potions for a magic liquor company moving forward?” Draco scoffed. Harry noticed he was leaning into Harry’s body warmth. “I’ve barely done anything good! No heroic duties or lives saved or Order’s of Merlin.”

“That’s not what’s important.” Harry was baffled. “You’re funny and loyal and honest. You make good soup! Remember when you made that creamy carrot stew last week? We all loved it.”

“I can’t believe the Savior of the Wizarding World is sitting here with me right now telling me not to worry about being a literal Death Eater because now I’m clearly a good person since I make good soup.” Draco was laughing again but this time it was the kind of laughter that bubbled warm from the depths of your stomach. He turned towards Harry gasping for breath and suddenly Harry was laughing too.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Harry protested struggling to breath and wiping tears from his eyes. He tried to stop giggling but every time he and Draco looked at each other it sent them into another round of giggles.

“Um. Excuse me Sir?” A girl wearing an apron stared at them openly. Her face was twisted in a friendly expression but Harry could tell she was trying her hardest not to look at them like they were completely insane.

“I think you ordered these coffees?” She continued sounding very uncertain that Draco and Harry were even sane enough to have ordered the drinks in the first place.

“Oh yes. Those would be ours.” Draco attempted a polished tone but it came out sounding rather choked.

A wide grin was splitting his face and he was struggling to contain giggles. He grabbed the coffees in his broad pale hands and thanked the women. Then he gestured to the door “After you Harry.” In a whisper he added. “I think we’d better go before they decide to kick us out.”

As they walked to the door Harry became aware of just how loud they had been laughing. All the customers sitting in the cafe had turned and were watching them as they left the shop.

“I really didn’t think we were laughing that hard.” Harry grumbled to Draco as their feet finally crossed the threshold and they were deposited back onto the cold street.

“I agree. Customers must have been really bored to have been entertained by the likes of us.” Draco responded back. His face was still painted with a small smile. “ I mean a Death Eater and the Savior? Friends at last? Can’t get more boring than that.”

Harry glanced back at him grinning. He was glad he and Draco could talk about things like this. It made him feel warm from deep in his bones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next weekend when Harry returned from his shift at the Ministry he was stunned to find the sitting room empty.

He’d spent his whole shift chasing thieves with Ginny through the streets of London looking forward to relaxing in front of the fire drinking and watching the flames reflect on the beautiful faces around him.

He’d spent a lot of time thinking about one face in particular, reminding himself that said person was off limits, and making twisted terrible faces that resulted in Ginny repeatedly asking him if he’d been hit with a jinx of some kind. Now all that was for nothing because no one was home. The whole house was dark and empty.

Harry resigned himself to an evening without the Slytherins. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten so used to their company that he’d started to miss them. He found himself very glad Ginny had had “plans” tonight because he was certain he was making that terrible twisted face again.

He stopped by the kitchen and made himself a slapdash sandwich before grabbing a bottle of wine and quickly climbing the stairs to his room.

He settled at his desk and flipped open his laptop clicking on a Netflix show at random. It had been quite a feat installing the internet into Grimmauld Place but Hermione had assisted him and in the end it had been worth it. He knew for a fact that Blaise, Pansy and Ginny had quickly become addicted to watching the Great British Bake Off. It had been one of their primary bonding activities. He watched it with them sometimes and found himself heartily enjoying it.

He was halfway through his demolishment of his sandwich and was just opening his bottle of wine when a cool hand clasped his shoulder. Immediately his wartime reflexes kicked in and he jolted out of his chair drawing his wand. He had the figure pinned to the wall, wand at his throat before he properly looked at them. His gaze met soft grey eyes. He traced his eyes across pale skin and exposed throat before it properly sunk in that he was holding Draco at wand-point against the wall of his bedroom. As his body relaxed he felt warmth bloom in his stomach. Something about the way Draco looked vulnerable and spread out, completely at his mercy made his knees feel weak.

“So, you uh planning on letting me go anytime soon?” Draco asked with a wry grin.

Harry blushed and quickly stepped back stumbling a little over his own feet. This only made him blush more. “Sorry! Sorry! I don’t know what came over me.” “Your reflexes are astonishingly fast.” Draco seemed unperturbed by the whole ordeal.

“It’s no big deal.” He mumbled looking at the floor and wishing away the blush on his cheeks. “What are you doing here anyways? I thought everyone had gone out or something.” Harry couldn’t quite believe the good luck of Draco turning up. He hoped Draco didn’t notice how happy he was to have company.

“Oh. Well Pansy and Ginny have a date later. I’d assume Blaise is at Pansy’s helping her get ready and who knows where Theo and Aiden are. They’re quite unpredictable.” He waved his hand in the air nonchalantly and plopped down into one of Harry’s armchairs.

“What do you mean Ginny and Pansy have a date?!” Harry blustered. His face was screwed up into a look of intense confusion.

“I mean they’re going on a date.” Draco responded flatly looking vaguely confused himself. “I don’t know why you’re surprised?”

“What do you mean you don’t know why I’m surprised. Why would they go on a date?”

“Because they’re been flirting with each other for weeks now? Have you not seen them cuddle on the couch literally all the time? I think Ginny has kissed Pansy on the cheek in front of you multiple times now Potter.” Draco was looking at him like he completely dumb.

“I didn’t know that! I thought they were just friends!” Harry thought about the way Ginny had reverently talked about her blossoming friendship with Pansy during almost every case they had had the last two weeks. At least that made more sense now but still! How could Draco expect him to not be surprised?! It wasn’t like he was a mind reader. “It’s not like I’m a mind reader.”

“Oh that’s right Potter.” Draco said serenely. “I forgot you’re emotionally stunted.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well you seem to have difficulties reading other people's emotions. And now that I think about it you don’t really express your own emotions clearly.” His tone was softer and Harry could tell he was trying to be inoffensive. Harry was still a little offended.

“That’s not true.” He retorted, making a face back at Draco.

“Okay Potter, when was the last time you directly told someone how you felt.” Draco’s tone was a little more pointed now though it was clear that he was doing his best to be gentle.

“Last week I told Ron to stop sneaking alcohol into all of our drinks to test its flavor!”

“I don’t know if that counts Potter.”

“Ugh whatever.” Harry stuck out his tongue at Draco and focused on taking a swig out of his wine bottle.

“Hey, pass that over.” Draco scooted his chair closer and stretched out his arm reaching for the bottle. Harry extended it toward him and suppressed a shiver as their hands brushed. Draco’s hand was calm and cool. Harry wished he could keep his skin pressed against it.

~~~~~~~~~

After that the tension dissolves into a more comfortable atmosphere. Draco suggests they watch a film called twilight. They laugh together over the muggle depiction of vampires. Harry especially likes when the vampires run at supernatural speeds. It sends him into peels of laughter.

Halfway through the film they decided to play a drinking game which mainly consisted of gulping liquid every time something is unrealistically portrayed. Harry quickly found himself quite drunk. His body felt relaxed and he knew if he stood up he’d likely stumble.

“Harryyy.” Draco whined as the ending credits played. “This chair is so uncomfortable I can’t believe you haven’t replaced it.”

Harry was about to argue with him when he realized that his back had become increasingly stiff during the duration of the movie and now it almost pained him to lean back against the chair.

“You’re right?” He said, his tone ticking up at the end. It felt so funny to admit that Draco was right about something he immediately found himself lost in a flood of giggles. Draco looked at him confused at first until Harry explained, “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with you.”

Then Draco gave into it with him until they were both gasping for breath and Draco had slumped off his chair and collapsed onto the carpet.

“Even the ground is better than your hideous taste in furniture.” Draco proclaimed, grinning up at him. His smile was so radiant that Harry felt himself blinking and looking away. Something about the smile was so open and honest and it made Harry feel a bit raw inside.

“I didn’t even pick it out.” Harry struggled to respond. “I think it’s been here since the Black’s owned the place.” He flopped down joining Draco on the ground.

“Now what are we going to do? I left the wine way up there on the desk.” He turned to Draco with an expectant look in his eye.

“Oh so you want me to stand up and get it for you?” Draco raised his eye at him in challenge. “You may be the Savior of the Wizarding World but you have to deal with the consequences of your own mistakes. Anyways, I’ve just got comfortable down here. I can’t possibly stand up now.”

Harry made a horrible face at Draco and moved close enough to poke him in the arm a couple of times. “You’re going to have to deal with the consequences too mate, now neither of us have anything to drink.”

“You underestimate me yet again Harry.” Draco froze, his eyes went wide and shocked and Harry stared back at him carefully. “Merlin, I just called you Harry.” Draco said, sounding astounded. “Weird. What a turn of events.” He recovered himself and continued in a normal tone, “Anyways I have more tricks up my sleeve than you could ever imagine.” He reached inside the left arm of his sweater and pulled out his wand.

“What are you doing keeping your wand in your sleeve?!” Harry exclaimed loudly. “That’s like the worst place to keep it.”

“Never-mind that.” Draco told him, sticking his nose in the air. He waved his wand sloppily, almost hitting Harry in the face, “ Accio Wine!”

Harry had doubted the spell would work. After all, the sporadic movements of Draco’s wand are hardly convincing. So, when a wine bottle drifted through the crack of his bedroom door and came to rest gently in Draco’s hand his mouth dropped open in shock.

“Wow. I hate to say it but I’m a little impressed.” He looked at Draco with an approving gaze and realized that Draco’s cheeks had blushed a gentle pink. He watched as Draco uncorked the wine and took a deep drink.

“So, are you going to share that?” Harry asked, stretching his hand out towards Draco.

“Obviously not Harry. Your wine is up there far away.” Draco gestured at the desk grinning lazily before taking another large sip from his bottle.

Harry found his body buzzing with frustration and also a thrum of excitement. Before he could think about it he threw himself at Draco tackling him onto the floor.

The boys grappled frantically. Draco managed to wrap his arms around Harry, pinning his hands to his sides. Harry’s gaze was locked on the wine bottle. In a violent twisting movement he managed to free both his hands at once. He pushed against Draco’s chest as hard as he could, shoving him roughly into the ground. Draco’s back hit the floor in a loud smack and Harry clambered on top of him using his thighs to pin Draco’s legs together. Grinning maniacally Harry reached his hands towards the wine bottle in Draco’s left hand. In a quick movement Draco jerked the bottle away and Harry landed heavily, his hands bracketing Draco’s head.

At that moment their gazes locked. Suddenly Harry was no longer thinking about the bottle of wine.

Suddenly the only thing Harry could think about was the hot heat of Draco’s body beneath him and the depths of his grey eyes.

He froze watching Draco’s face. Draco’s gaze flickered, ghosting down across Harry’s lips and then back up to his eyes. Before Harry could stop himself he was leaning down. All at once their lips pressed together. The kiss felt like drowning in an oil spill. Dangerous like with one spark they would go up in flames. Harry lost himself in the warm brush of Draco’s lips against his. He shifted closer, draping his body over Draco trying to get as close to him as possible. Draco mirrored him, placing his cool broad hands on Harry’s waist and pulling him. Their bodies shifted against the floor in sync.

Crack

They both froze, pulling apart abruptly. Harry glanced over and saw that the glass bottle had fallen spilling dark red wine across the carpeted floor.

His head started to race and he slowly pushed himself back onto the floor away from Draco.

What had he been thinking? Draco and Blaise are clearly together. They slept together more nights a week than he and Draco even hung out. He liked Blaise. He would never want to hurt him. Yet there he was on the floor of his bedroom with a boy who clearly meant something to Blaise and suddenly he was so angry with himself and with Draco that he couldn't think straight.

“You need to leave.” He hissed glaring at Draco.

Draco turned paper white and scrambled to his feet. “Um. okay. Uh. Sorry.”

Harry sat rooted to the floor as he watched Draco stalk out of the room. The abandoned wine bottle sat next to him, the wine soaking slowly deeper into the carpet.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Harry woke feeling heavy and tired like he was recovering from a long illness. He grunted and opened his eyes. The sunlight shone bright through his curtains directly into his eyes momentarily blinding him. He immediately shut his eyes again. Why had he drank so much last night?

As he turned away from the window and buried his head under his pillows it hit him. His stomach recoiled in a hot flash of horror. He couldn’t believe he’d kissed Draco. He didn’t know how he’d ever look Blaise in the eye again. His stomach was tangled up in panicked knots and yet as he thought about the night before all he could think about was the look in Draco’s eyes when he had gazed at him in cold furry before stalking out of his room.

He laid there in a stupor hoping he could fall asleep again and forget the dreadful events of the night before. After many unsuccessful minutes he gave up and forced himself out of bed hauling the dead weight of his body into the shower.

As he showered he tried to think of solutions but everything felt so stressful and overwhelming that he found it hard to think straight. He decided he would have better solutions after he got some food into his body so he quickly finished up in the shower, jammed himself into some clothes and headed downstairs.

As soon as he arrived at the threshold of the kitchen he cursed himself. There staring straight into his shocked green eyes was Blaise.

“Um. Uh. Hi.” Harry struggled to speak. His body felt frozen. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten that Blaise might be in his kitchen.

“Hey?” Blaise’s face was twisted into an expression of extreme confusion. “There’s some extra food here if you want some. Um. If you don’t mind me asking. Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Er. No reason.” Harry tried to walk normally to the kitchen table.

“I think you’re also walking kinda weird?” Blaise’s tone raised at the end like a question.

Harry sat down at the table and wracked his brain for an acceptable answer for Blaise. In his panic he completely lost it and blurted out, “Look Blaise I’m so so so sorry but I kissed Draco last night.”

He waited frozen for Blaise to yell at him or punch him or cry or something terrible.

He’s taken completely off guard when Blaise lets out a confused chuckle,“Why are you sorry again?”

“Um. because aren’t you dating him? Or something?” Harry’s face blushed a dark red and he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

Blaise burst out into peels of laughter. “You thought we were dating?” He choked out. “Draco’s going to have a field day when I tell him!”

“You… aren’t dating?” Harry responded slowly, his mind a blur.

“We are not dating.” Blaise said flatly. He was looking at Harry like he was a bit slow.

“Are you at least hooking up?” Harry asked, feeling completely lost.

“I mean we have before but not for ages and ages.” Blaise said.

“But Draco stays the night all the time!” Harry felt exasperated.

“That doesn’t mean we’re dating or hooking up or anything other than friends.” Blaise said gently. He reaches across the table to hand Harry some food. “Neither of us sleep very well by ourselves after the war. It seemed like a good solution.”

“Oh.” Everything started to make sense. “So you aren’t mad I kissed Draco?”

“Not at all. In fact I’m quite pleased. Now Pansy owes me 20 galleons.” Blaise smiled across at him.

“You and Pansy had a bet going?” Harry asked. His mind was swimming with new information.

“Yep.” Blaise said, popping his p and sounding very proud of himself.

“Shoot. I have to talk to Draco.” Harry interrupted. His mind is playing a loop of the look on Draco’s face when he’d kicked him out of his room last night.

“Uh. oh. What’d you do?”

“I kicked him out after we kissed last night.” Harry felt utterly miserable. “I thought you two were dating.”

“Merlin’s beard, no wonder he was such a mess last night when I got home.” Blaise said, looking at him with wide eyes. “He’s still in bed. Refused to get up for breakfast. If I were you I’d go get the talk over with now.”

“Okay.” Harry responded quietly. His sadness and regret formed a heavy ball in the depths of his stomach. He hoped Draco could forgive him.

“Good luck.” Blaise said. He reached over and patted Harry gently on the back. Harry found himself leaning into the warmth of his hand.

Harry pulled himself away from the comfort of Blaise’s hand and trudged up the stairs to Blaise’s room and rapped on the door, “Draco,” he called gently through the wood. He waited a second but got no response. “Draco?” he called again, this time pushing open the door slowly. As the door opened he caught a glimpse of Draco’s face limp with sleep. His blonde curls are splayed across the pillow and his pale arms are sticking haphazardly out of the crumpled white sheets.

Harry finds his feet rooted to the ground. His gaze locked on the strip of sunlight that drifts through the open curtains and falls across Draco’s face. Draco looked like something out of a painting, all milky skin and tousled hair. Harry wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch him.

Instead he forced himself to stand stock-still. He counted his breaths, watched the sleepy rise and fall of Draco’s chest and tried to convince his body to turn away. To walk back downstairs to the kitchen.

His plans were blown to pieces when Draco started to stir. “Hmm?” he mumbled, turning towards Harry. His eyes were still closed.

“Um, Draco?” Harry called again. This time he pitched his tone as gently as possible. The lump in the depths of his stomach hoped that Draco wouldn’t wake up at all.

“Potter?” Draco’s eyes opened slightly showing skeptical slits of grey between his eyelashes.

“Um. Yes. It’s me.” Harry stepped over the threshold of the door and onto the light wood floor.

“Don’t know why you think you’re allowed in my room when you spent so much energy kicking me out of yours last night.” Draco mumbled.

“Well it’s not your room is it? It’s Blaises.” Harry retorted.

Then he cursed himself. He was there to apologize. Riling Draco up any further wasn’t in his best interest. “I mean sorry. I’m here to say sorry.”

“Oh is Potter sorry he doesn’t want me? Potter can’t handle the guilt of not wanting someone back?” Draco’s face was hidden in the pillows. His singsongy taunting made Harry’s heart ache.

“Draco, will you please just listen to me?” He took a step closer to the bed.

“ Why would I listen to you Potter? All I want is for you to leave.” His voice was weaker now. Harry thought it almost sounded like he was holding back tears.

“Because I do want you! I shouldn’t have kicked you out of my room. It was all a misunderstanding.” Harry was standing over Draco now. He watched his body for any flicker of movement hoping against hope that Draco would turn back towards him.

“Oh haha a misunderstanding.” Draco’s head was still buried and his words sounded borderline hysterical.

“I’m serious Draco! I thought you and Blaise were dating. I panicked.” Harry started as Draco let out a peel of maniacal laughter from under the blankets.

“Oh my god. There is no way you believed that. You’re pranking me.” Harry had to admit he’d never anticipated that convincing Draco he wanted him would be this hard.

“I’m not pranking you, you prat.” He was completely exasperated. “Will you just turn over and look at me at least?”

“Fine.” Draco huffed, flipping over in a tangle of sheets. “But you’re going to have to prove you’re not lying because quite frankly I don’t trust you.” His eyes opened in slits again and Harry felt his insides go all warm and mushy.

“Of course I’ll prove it to you.” He responded letting his lips curve up into a smirk.

He knelt down by the bedside and reached out caressing Draco’s cheek, pulling him in. This time their lips met cautiously in a gentle press of warmth. Draco reached up and intertwined his fingers into Harry’s dark curls pulling him closer. Harry breathed a small sign of relief against his lips and leaned in, pressing his fingertips along Draco’s chest, bending into his body warmth. Harry was just losing himself in the kiss when Draco paused, pulling away a bit.

“What are you still doing on the floor, come up here with me.” Draco demanded, a little breathless. Harry didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and practically dove into the pile of blankets next to Draco. Draco wrapped his long arms around Harry pulling him flush to his chest. Harry shivered as the hot heat of Draco’s body bloomed across his exposed skin. He moved closer and pushed their lips back together. They lost themselves in each other. Harry couldn't think of anything but Draco’s hot breath on his neck and the way his body moved under him. Being with Draco felt like making up for lost time, like grinning in the face of the war, like they couldn’t have been more inevitable.

~~~~~~~~

When Blaise found them later curled up in his bed asleep he chuckled ruefully, quietly eased the door shut and turned on his heel eager to collect his bets. He figured he’d stop at Pansy’s first. After all, he hadn't yet heard the details of her date with a certain pretty redhead.