Draco woke slowly, relishing the feel of sunlight on his bare skin. He never really enjoyed sleeping in longer than the sun, but all the physical labor had apparently changed his mind.
He then realized that he was supposed to be up and practicing spells already. Shortly after realizing this, Draco told his conscience to kindly shut up. He planned on sleeping in, damn it.
He put his head back on his fluffy pillow and drifted off into a doze. It wasn't often he treated himself like this, he always woke up early on so he could help his house elves do simple household chores. Currently he was cleaning out the entire West Wing, which had been neglected and closed off for the past two generations. Not even the elves were allowed to go in there and clean, so Draco had employed the help of the two elves he had kept, having donated the rest to less fortunate families, and was learning how to clean properly. The job was taking forever and he would wake up early in the morning and finish late at night every day. It irritated the elves that was for sure, but their orders were to help him clean at a human pace with minimal magic.
About twenty minutes later, the blond stretched and made a slight noise contentment as his muscles stretched. His whole countenance relaxed and his head rested on the pillow, the rest of his body was wrapped up inside of his covers in a makeshift cocoon. He was warm for once when he woke up, despite the too-large bed he slept in.
He then had to shut that stupid alarm up. Damn his wand-alarm! He shut it off and slowly sat up after stretching like a cat, his behind in the air and his arms out in front of him.
"You really should learn to get dressed when you know you have company coming over." Draco jumped.
"Potter! Sorry I didn't realize you'd be over today. Um...Lemme just..."
He cursed his body for blushing like a school-girl. Had he noticed? What would happen if he did? Would he think that Draco was gay? Not that it mattered if he knew, but Draco didn't want the whole world to know.
He needed to get a grip on himself. It didn't matter if Potter noticed he was embarrassed or not. Draco was sure that Harry would have been embarrassed if he was caught in the same situation.
He needed to learn not overreact as much.
Deciding that he needed a shower, that's exactly what Draco did. However, his warm water was laced with freezing cold after ten minutes and he quickly got the hint. Getting out, he placed a heating charm on his towel and dried off before getting dressed in an older pair of robes.
Originally he was just going to wear something he had bought in a muggle store, but chose against it. He wasn't so sure that it would be a good idea to wear anything in his closet that wasn't robes as it would just spell out 'hey I'm homosexual, come get some if you're a guy'. He wasn't ready for that with Potter yet.
He then went out to the kitchen to find his partner and was astonished to smell something in the oven. Not as surprisingly, it smelled delicious. His mouth watered.
"I'm making an apple dessert dish, would you like any?" Draco nodded.
"Good. I'm making coffee to go with it so just have a seat. It'll be done in a few minutes." Draco sat down, hardly able to wait for the delicious-smelling dish to be in front of him.
Before he knew it, he had a plate of ice cream and cinnamon apples on the counter, clearly meant for him. He dug in without thinking, without even realizing that this might have been a test from his Trainer from Hell.
He regretted that within thirty seconds.
Because within those thirty seconds, Draco's throat felt like fuzz and his stomach churned. His mind burned and his bones felt like lead. Not knowing what was happening, he gulped down the coffee Harry had put into his hands.
After he finished, he felt all the bad symptoms leave, he had a moment of clarity.
"Lesson learned." And that was the last thing he'd say consciously for quite some time.
Harry sat next to his blond partner and waited for him to wake up. He felt a little bad about having to poison his partner but it was a necessary lesson to learn. In his opinion, Malfoy had learned it better than Harry did.
Harry had to learn out on a job- thank God for the box of Bezoars that Ron had given him as a birthday gift earlier that same day. He only used a mild poison, strong enough to show its effects but not so strong as to let anything bad happen to him. He wanted Malfoy to learn his lesson, not become deformed. He even put the antidote in the drink.
So the least he could do was wait until he woke up. Instead of feeling sorry for the sleeping man, he thought about what he said before passing out. He had heard, with perfect clarity, that the lesson was learned. Good, so he was forgiven for poisoning his partner. That made him feel a little better about what he did, even with all of the shit he had been put through thanks to the Sleeping Beauty in front of him.
But they were only kids, for crying out loud. There wasn't any hate based off of fact. It was just a childhood argument that lasted for the better part of five years. It was always stupid things that they hated each other for. Harry hadn't decided to get to know him better and Draco had hated him because he hadn't gotten what he wanted. It was foolish, really.
When did he finally realize that he only wanted to live long enough to actually have a life? That arguments never solved anything when you could be at home with a spouse and a kid or two? He hated the arguing more and more as they grew older and found himself trying to find out more about Draco as time went on. He would make excuses to follow him when he was really looking for something that would make him see that Harry didn't want to fight anymore.
When he realized that that's all he wanted. He wanted a husband that would care for him and cherish him. He wanted a child that would send him letters from the other side of the house with their new owl they picked out for their birthday. He wanted a happy life, not one filled with fighting.
Of course, if anyone knew this, they'd go straight to the Prophet and divulge all of his secrets. And then his scary factor would go down the drain. Witches would swoon and wizards would try picking him up. No one would take him seriously, and then he'd be stuck with paperwork for the rest of his contract.
Good thing it only lasted for another year.
At this point, Harry realized his musings were headed down a dangerous path so he committed himself to reciting his life rules:
Never leave your wand.
Don't go anywhere without bezoars.
Always have a plan.
Don't underestimate your enemy.
And interrupting his rules, was a soft rustling. Harry paused and watched, looking for any sign of consciousness. Upon finding none, he recited until rule number twelve.
Never date a coworker.
He paused. The man in the office next to his was kinda cute. Light brown hair, dark brown eyes. Good build. Too bad he already had someone in his life. Harry liked the quiet ones. He never really dated, but he thought someone quiet would be good for him. He needed a quiet atmosphere after the War.
Did he have requirements for the people in his life? Yes. Quiet, but comfortably so. They have to keep him in check, so they had to have passion. And looks were always a plus. Other than that, he wasn't too picky. He knew he'd never get to know a guy long enough to marry him.
He'd just have to make do with small relationships and the occasional one-night stands. Just not on a work night. Rule number thirteen said so. The next time he heard the blond move, he saw that he was awake.
"Sorry but it was a necessary lesson. How are you feeling?" Malfoy nodded.
"Thirsty." Harry handed him a bottle of water and cracked it open with him watching and handed it over. Draco drank with hesitation at first and then more greedily when he realized that it wasn't tampered with. "Thanks."
"For?"
"I never would have thought about checking for poison. Thank you for teaching me before it killed me."
"No problem."
"What made you think of it?"
"It happened to me once." Harry hung his head in shame. He hated the fact that he had failed so spectacularly.
"Tell me."
"The biggest mistake in my career. I was at a widow's house questioning her. She offered me a drink and poisoned it when I wasn't looking. Thanks to a friend, I carried around a box of bezoars with me. It took me a month to recover fully." Harry could see the concern on Draco's face and waved it away.
"I don't want pity. I just want to make sure that you don't make the mistakes I made." Harry got up and started to leave the room. He turned in the doorframe. "And Malfoy? Be sure to be up tomorrow morning by nine. Preferably dressed." He laughed at the slight blush on the pale man's cheeks and flooed home.
He told his house elf to take the night off and proceeded to make dinner himself. Pizza sounded good, so he started mixing the dough. He had just tossed it up in the air for the fourth time when he heard the fireplace roar to life, signaling that someone was trying to fire-call. He answered it.
"Malfoy!"
"Potter. Can I...Can I come over?" Harry nodded and got up, letting the other wizard floo in.
"So what do I owe you the pleasure of, Malfoy?"
"I was lonely..." These words surprised him. Draco Malfoy, lonely?
"Well...You came at a good time. I was just making dinner."