When Harry awoke the next morning, he didn't want to move and kept his eyes shut for a moment. Family, food and sleep had worked miracles after the marathon, but better than all of that, he felt so content, for the first time in... well, since when? He couldn't remember. He absorbed the details of his surroundings with his other senses. He was too hot and his arm was dead and he was in a tangle of legs and a blanket. But Draco was breathing softly against his chest, still wrapped in the warmth of his dreams, his arm still flung across Harry's chest, and that was all that mattered.
Harry kissed the top of Draco's head, and whispered into his hair 'I'll be back soon', before gently slipping his arm out from beneath Draco, trying not to disturb him, though he was fairly certain Draco muttered a quiet 'K'. Harry eased himself off the sofa. He took a quick shower and pottered in the kitchen. When he returned to the sitting room, he was carrying two mugs of coffee and a plate piled with buttered toast.
'Malfoy,' he gently woke him. 'Malfoy. I've brought you some breakfast.' Harry was back in his leather trousers and a black work shirt.
A sleepy Draco raised his head and smiled at Harry, 'What time is it?'
'Seven-ish. What time do you need to be at work?'
Draco groaned, 'not until nine. That's at least another hour's sleep.' He gratefully accepted the coffee. 'Do you always get up so early?'
'I normally go for a run or a swim before work, but I thought I deserved a rest day or two!' Harry slid down onto the floor next to the sofa so he could lean against it.
'No shit!' Draco's hand went automatically to Harry's hair and he began twisting it between his fingers. It felt so right.
'I gather you're not a morning person then. You realise I'll be a fucking nightmare to live with, what with the early starts, the hours of training that I do, and then disappearing off for days on end with work, often with no notice, and I won't be able to contact you when I'm away.'
'I guess I'll have to cope with it. We'll see. I've never had to think about anyone else before but I get the feeling I might be a bit of a grumpy worrywart.'
'A worrywart!' Harry laughed. 'What the fuck is a "worrywart"?'
Draco flushed, 'it's my mother's expression.'
'Draco, it's not too late to back out of this.'
'You're not having second thoughts, are you?'
'Fuck no! I just want you to know what you're getting into. Being an Auror isn't the easiest, or safest, of jobs. There are certain security measures I need to take, and you will need to get on board with them. For instance, this house is perfect because it's always been hidden, you're a secret sharer in that now and I need to you to keep it this way. I can get a floo set up between here and St Mungo's for ease so that will help.' Harry paused. 'Draco?' He twisted round and took hold of Draco's hand and pushed up his sleeve to just above his watch. 'Draco, I want you to take that off.' He nodded towards the silver band that had once been part of a handcuff.
'Why?' Draco muttered.
'I told you before, I don't own you.'
Draco intertwined his fingers with Harry's, weaving then together. 'Surely it is more applicable now than ever?'
'No, especially now more than ever. You are your own person who I am in a relationship with, but we don't live in some archaic fucking Victorian era, you are not my property.'
'I am yours, though. In here,' he stabbed at his heart violently. 'And is it so different to you wearing my mother's ring? Hermione was right, I've foisted that on you, twice now...'
'The ring is a gift, from here.' Harry laid his hand over Draco's heart, countering the violent action of Draco thumping his chest. 'That,' he nodded at the band, 'is different, that was forced on you, the intent behind it was fucking cruel, it was about collateral, it was humiliation if you tried to trick me.'
'Then view the silver band in the same way as my ring. I like wearing it. It gives me comfort. If it helps you to neutralise your idea of ownership, wear my ring again,' as Harry's eyes widened, Draco added hurriedly, 'around your neck, like before. I mean, even I know that a marriage proposal on day two is too much.'
They both laughed. But Draco was serious, he sat up and slid the chain that was around his neck over his head and held it out for Harry.
'Please, Harry James Potter, take this as a symbol of our friendship, our future, and my love for you. Look after it, keep it for me until such a day that you either return it to me or wear it on your wedding finger.'
'You realise that sounded awfully like fucking wedding vows?'
'It wasn't meant to; it was just from my heart.'
'OK, I'll accept,' Harry held out his hand and Draco lowered the ring and chain into his palm. Harry clasped the chain around his neck and as the amethyst and emerald encrusted ring fell against his chest a shiver ran through his body. 'But I want you to make a compromise. Take the band off, I promise I'll give it back.'
Draco reached for his wand and muttered 'Cincinno revelare, clavis finge' over the band, a lock appeared and it snapped open at an invisible joint. The cuff hung loosely on Draco's wrist, sliding a few inches down his forearm. He passed it to Harry.
Harry slowly incanted a series of spells over the band, pausing between each part.
'Manicas epoximise. Sculpta D.L. Malfoy, 2005. Invortio. Reducio'.
The cuff snapped shut and bonded into a solid band, there was a brief flare of silver light from its surface before the metal twisted in on itself and the silver band shrunk.
Harry held it out to Draco, 'I believe your words went something similar to: Draco Lucius Malfoy, please will you take this as a symbol of our friendship, our future and my love for you. Please look after this ring and keep it for me until such time as you either return it to me or wear it on your wedding finger. Is that right?'
Draco nodded. 'I promise,' he whispered. He took the ring and turned it over in his hand, studying the small lettering that now ran around the inside, it read · H.J. Potter · D.L. Malfoy · 2005 ·
'It's beautiful.' He whispered.
'We need to find you a chain.'
'I can wear it on my right hand.'
Harry took the ring from Draco and holding his hand, slipped it onto the fourth finger of Draco's right hand, where Draco had previously worn his signet ring. Like Harry, Draco shivered as the ring was pushed into place. They both looked at each other, slightly surprised at an intuitive connection that seemed to bounce between them.
'Why do I get the feeling we've just cast a spell between us?' Harry said.
'I don't know, but suddenly everything feels very right.'
*****
Harry had walked straight from the Ministry to Purge and Dowse Ltd and at 5.45pm he was, once again, pacing up and down outside checking his watch every thirty seconds. Harry was still surprised at how nervous he felt, and when Draco pushed open the doors from St Mungo's, he looked the same. But as soon as they saw each other both men smiled, reassured by the presence of the other.
Draco took Harry up to his small student room on the top floor of the hospital building to wait while he got ready to go out. Harry was amused at the intrigue he aroused as they walked through the halls together. Some of Draco's fellow students were openly staring as the two men strolled along the dorm corridor.
Draco whispered into Harry's ear, 'I've never brought any guests up here. Let alone a man!' Draco snorted, 'Amend that, let alone the famous Harry Potter. And your work gear certainly draws attention...' Draco's breath on Harry's skin sent shivers of tingling through his body. Draco smirked, 'look at their faces! Ha! Look at your face! You're positively dripping sexuality.'
They stopped outside Room 519 and Harry leant against the wall as Draco searched in his pockets for the key to his door. Harry looked down at the corridor at the watching students, a wicked smile playing on his lips.
Harry leaned towards Draco. 'Then I'd best give them something to properly gossip about,' he uttered into the back of Draco's neck, his lips grazing Draco's skin. He could see the fine blond hairs on the back of Draco's neck shimmer as Goosebumps rose under the caress of his breath. He grabbed Draco's arm and twisted him round to face him as the door swung open. With one hand quickly slipping around Draco's waist to pull him against his body, the other running into his hair, Harry gave him a fervent kiss. Draco staggered backwards into his room, arching against Harry plaintively, moaning against his mouth, losing himself in the kiss.
Harry stopped short. He felt a sudden amalgamation of horror and anger at Draco's living quarters.
'Hey! I was enjoying that!' Draco protested.
'You're not staying here one second longer!'
'Why?'
'This isn't a home! Fuck! It's a cell!'
'Don't be so rude. It's perfectly fine.'
The room was clean, but it was empty, hollow. A shell of sanitary whiteness with a utilitarian metal single bed with empty white sheets, a small desk and chair, and a wardrobe. There were no pictures on the walls and the view from the thinly curtained window was over the back of the hospital onto the office buildings behind. Harry could hear the murmuring of students talking in the next room and there was music blasting from a room down the corridor.
'You've really lived here for the past six years?'
'Yes.' Draco's voice was quiet.
'That's it! Pack! You're coming home with me tonight and never coming back here.'
'But, Harry, it's too soon.'
'Really? I would suggest that it's not fucking soon enough. And this, this can't be good for your sanity.' Harry shrugged his coat off his shoulders and hung it on the back of the door, then, with utter conviction in what he was doing, he wrenched open the wardrobe door. There was an old suitcase on its top shelf, he pulled it down and opened it across the bed. 'You go and get ready, I'll do this.'
Draco protested but Harry pushed him out of the door with his sponge bag and towel. 'Shit! You can't even keep your toiletries out in the bathroom, six fucking years.' He pushed Draco down the corridor towards the shared bathroom.
Draco's possessions were pitifully few. There was nothing of sentimental value and they mainly consisted of second-hand books and notebooks. He opened one, it was filled with Draco's neat, curled handwriting, medical notes, potion ingredients, diagrams, and the like. Harry carefully flicked through the pages, fascinated. In between two pages a small card fell out, he caught it as it fluttered to the floor and as he turned it over, reading the details printed on each side, he pursed his lips; it was a pawn ticket from a broker in New Bond Street for, surprisingly, a muggle men's watch, an Omega Seamaster Diver 300m, and a signet ring with a black stone, a Black Cat's Eye Scapolite, rare, engraved with a 'M'. Harry studied it for a while, then came to a decision, Draco needed to claim his name back, but on his own terms. He pocketed the ticket and placed the notebook back in the pile he was packing. Harry carefully folded Draco's few clothes alongside the books. As he did, he became determined that, somehow, he would persuade Draco to come shopping at Blaise's with him.
When Draco returned fresh from a shower, he looked rather nervous. Harry pulled him to him, his blond hair was slick like wet silk, fine and threaded with beads of silver water at the tips like dew caught on Autumn cobwebs. Harry pushed back the stray fringe off his face that hung wetly in front of his eyes.
'Are you OK?'
'I feel a bit overwhelmed.'
'We'll make this work. It feels right. We'll be OK.'
'Does anything actually faze you?'
'Well. I faced worse things than the prospect of Draco Malfoy moving in with me.'
'I'm already feeling so reliant on you, Harry. This is exactly what I didn't want.'
'But just think about the sex!'
'Harry James Potter!' Draco thumped him on the arm.
'Ow! That hurt!'
'Really?'
'No.' Harry started to kiss Draco on his neck, just below his ear.
'How do you always manage to distract me? I'm trying to bring your memory back to a very specific conversation in which I explained about how I didn't want to ever rely on anyone again, whether financially or emotionally. I never want to feel that vulnerable again.'
Harry cupped Draco's face, holding his gaze. 'Listen, Draco. I don't see it like that. I want you in my life. We've fucked around with all this arch-enemy nonsense for too long. I don't think of you of being reliant on me. In fact, I think you ground me, I've noticed it amongst the turmoil of the last few months. Like I said yesterday, I need someone in my life who doesn't fall the famous Harry Potter shit, I need someone who's strong enough to deal with that. To me, you're one of the strongest people I know, I can't believe what you've done, lived with, overcome since I first met you. I admire you for it. So, if it means I can offer you something in return, then put up with my fucking knight-in-shining-armour Gryffindor masculinity until you've got this potion business sorted, accept it gratefully and walk away from that Malfoy pride. Take the piss, if it makes you feel better about it. But I have every confidence that you'll be back on your own two feet quicker than I can get that shirt off your back.'
Draco laughed, 'you have a one-track mind! But seriously, I don't how long the licensing business will take.'
'All the more reason not to faff around waiting. Doesn't matter. It will happen.'
'What if it doesn't?'
'Then we carry on as we are, I've more than enough to support us both on my job, let alone the small fortune that sits in Gringotts from both the Potters and Sirius. Stop doubting yourself. You heard what Jacob said, you've done the most exciting piece of research he's ever supervised. If Jacob endorses you and your potion still doesn't get approved, then I'll move out of Grimmauld Place and become a fucking hermit in Outer Mongolia!'
'You'd go insane without the press hounding you every second for an interview,' Draco teased.
'Quite! So it'd better fucking happen!'
'Jacob says I should hear quite soon, one way or another.'
'And does Jacob have any doubts?'
'No,' Draco whispered.
Harry hooked his finger under Draco's chin, 'we'll be fine.' He kissed Draco tenderly and, as he did, he inhaled deeply, drowning in the smell of Draco's freshly washed hair and his recently showered body. He closed his eyes against the desire welling up inside him.
'There's only one real problem.' Harry muttered.
'What?' Draco whispered against Harry's lips.
'How I control myself with you around all the time.' He pulled Draco into a bruising kiss that left his lips tingling with the rising heat from between them.
'Maybe we should unpack my stuff?'
'No fucking way...'
'I fear for my own virtue...' But Draco's words were contradicted by his fingers fumbling with Harry's shirt buttons.
*****
At 7.15pm they left St Mungo's, walking side by side, their arms brushing against each other. Draco's belongings were carefully packed, shrunk, and currently in one of Harry's large coat pockets. As they strolled down the road towards Old Portland Street, Draco suddenly laughed out loud.
'Are you OK?' Harry asked.
'Yes, I was just thinking about my final hour in my digs and my peers in the next room. Do you think they heard?'
'I doubt that even the silencing spell prevented the whole bloody corridor from hearing. You have a way of groaning that's positively indecent.'
'Oh! Is that a bad thing?'
'Sweet Merlin! No!' Harry shot out a hand that arrested Draco as he grabbed his wrist and twisted him towards him. 'It's the best thing in the world.' He kissed him gently on the lips.
'Harry! We're in the street!'
'I don't care!' but Harry acquiesced and they started to walk again in comfortable silence.
Harry suddenly smirked, 'Even if your fellow Healers had cotton-wool for ears, then our shower afterwards would have made things rather fucking obvious.'
Harry could tell Draco was blushing. 'Shit! I have to face them tomorrow!'
'I should think they'll be rather intimidated by you.'
'Why on earth...'
'...because you just fucked the famous Harry Potter. I believe we get classed as the ultimate power couple. You know, the Malfoy heir and the Chosen One!'
'Shut up!' but Draco took Harry's hand. 'Are you OK?'
'Never better. You?'
'I feel a bit ... well, different, but yes,' Draco smiled. 'I can't believe I waited so long...'
'And we were supposed to be taking things slowly.'
Draco tilted his head and gave Harry a lopsided grin, 'we barely made twenty-four hours! You're a very bad influence on me.'
Harry felt the light pulse of tingling desire rise from below his stomach.
'Stop it!' Draco exclaimed. 'You're so transparent!'
'Stop eye-fucking me then.'
'So now you notice! It's only taken you thirteen years!'
'You might learn soon that I'm quite oblivious to what happens around me unless you rub my face in it.'
'Is "rubbing your face in it" what you call the past hour then?'
'I'll call it whatever you want if it means we can do it again. Soon.' Harry's eyes glinted with desire.
When they reached the restaurant, Harry held open the door for Draco, relieved that this time they weren't confronted with light-up hearts, confetti and red roses.
Draco chose the same red wine, Harry chose his steak again. The waiter eyed them suspiciously, remembering them both from last time, but Harry and Draco didn't notice, they were too caught up in each other to care.
When the food came, there was a lull in the conversion and Harry took a deep breath. 'Draco, I need to ask you about Samson.'
'I've been waiting for this, debating what to say, whether to tell you or to ask you to wait. But I don't want to keep secrets from you. It was after our Valentine's fiasco: I got thinking about some things relating to the idea of the St Mungo's hospice and I wanted to find out some information from my parents, about the Manor. But I couldn't face going. I thought Samson was a good alternative you see, that way I could pretend it wasn't me going, I could detach myself from the past. And I believed it would be OK because I was never going to go in the Manor itself. Only things nearly got carried away. I actually enjoyed being with my father without the expectations of being a Malfoy or the connections to the Manor. I liked hearing him talk about Grandpa's roses. When you turned up I nearly had a fucking heart-attack, I knew you recognised me straight away. I wasn't sure how, but you obviously did.'
'That's the Auror training, I felt the Glamour's magic immediately, but I didn't need to undo the charm to know it was you. Your eyes, Draco. It's always your eyes. A Glamour can never disguise someone's eyes. I have no idea how your parents didn't realise it was you.'
'I guess they were too unsuspecting.'
'But your mother wasn't, that why she asked me to come over, she knew something was suspect but she couldn't place her finger on it.'
'Yes, maybe. And after I ended up at the Quidditch match with her I knew I had to back away quickly before things got even more complicated.'
Harry laughed.
'What?'
'She said I had an admirer in you.'
'Oh, fuck off! I can't bloody hide my feelings, can I?'
'Obviously fucking not. But we digress. What information were you after?'
'About the Manor. You see, it'll be mine one day, potentially now as mother and father have moved out. Its stood there, empty, and I don't want it. But,' Draco paused. 'Well, St Mungo's permanent patients need a hospice with a garden. And I was wondering if ... if it was possible for me to donate it to the fund.'
'Shit! Really?'
'I can't ever live there; I can't be associated with it. So, I got Bill involved, that's what he was updating me about yesterday. He's been looking into the property paperwork, the history, to make sure there's no codicil with Gringotts. The Goblins are always involved somehow, and they really are clever buggers. We think there might be a clause from way back, along the lines of if I officially renounce my name then they can take immediate possession, or if there's no Malfoy heir. So, if we, I mean, if I ever get married, I will have to remain a Malfoy.' Draco blushed at his assumption.
Harry smirked, 'we could always double-barrel Malfoy-Potter.'
'Shhh! Anyway, Bill's looking into it all. He thinks he's found a way round it, to do with the Old Hall, you've seen the ruin next to the Manor.'
Harry nodded.
'That's outright owned without Gringotts' involvement and there seems to be some legal loophole in the paperwork that the Manor's gardens and grounds, the land itself, belong to the Old Hall not the new building. It means that if the Old Hall is inhabited, then the Manor is worthless in value because it becomes a building without access, let alone gardens, unless I give permission. Meaning I could arrange with Gringotts that I will only allow access to the Manor if it's under the sole use of St Mungo's. If I can donate the building, the pot that you and Jacob have raised can go towards re-purposing the Manor. I don't know how to go about renovating the Old Hall, its barely a shell, and we think it's listed which means a severe restoration headache, but it might be the only option. Anyway, I await news from Bill and meanwhile we're looking at how to donate the building to St Mungo's. We're meeting up on Thursday. Then I need to break the news to my parents.'
'I can't believe you would do that.'
'What? Trick the Goblins.'
Harry snorted, 'No! That's typical Slytherin at play there. No, I mean give up your family home. And you took the piss out of me for doing "heroic shit", this beats anything I do, hands down. It's fucking amazing!'
'Why? I've said, I don't want it. But I might just be able to reconcile the past, and the Manor, if it works in opposite to what it currently represents for me. If it's a place of healing, then yes, I might even manage to inhabit the Old Hall, if it suits my life, and you know, if it's what my partner wants too.' Draco looked at Harry slightly coyly. 'It's all rather a lot to be planning my future life when I'm only just getting now sorted.'
'Draco. I will help you in any way I can. Forget about the future, that will come. We can assume I'm in it, that's what I'm planning, but even if I'm not, well, let's fucking get on with it.'
'I need the BHA to approve and licence my potion first, that done, then I get my own fortune in the bank, I can pay off the loan and look at the renovation. The bugger is, I can't hand over the Manor until the Old Hall is inhabitable and that's going to take time with the Ministry's listed building department, especially as I'll want to modernise it. I think your experience with renovating Grimmauld Place will be quite handy. Maybe your builders too.'
'Draco, the first thing you need to do is reconnect with your parents and let them know what you're planning.'
'Yes.' Draco paused. 'I don't know how to.' He fell silent again. 'I still haven't written.'
'Shit! Really? Maybe I just need to drag you over there this weekend, kicking and screaming. We could take Teddy; he seems to have a knack for charming the socks off anyone and your mother has already invited him up to see the gardens.'
'I don't know, Harry. It all seems a bit fast.'
'What? Faster than moving in with me on day two?'
'Harry...'
'Draco, we're not waiting another eight years for you to reach out to your parents. I shall send Narcissa an owl and tell her I'm coming with Teddy to show him the gardens. Then you can tag along...'
'I can't.'
'You can. I'll be with you.'
*****