Disclaimer: This story was written for fun. There is no profit involved.
...
There are a lot of people out there to whom my relationship with Draco doesn't make any sense. They don't understand how after years of being at each other's throats, we could possibly have ended up together. I don't always understand how it happened either, but I do know that what we have works. It is not the sort of relationship that I ever imagined myself in, but it seems that this is exactly what I need.
I never thought I would be interested in Draco, but that was before I got to know him. That was before he approached me at a ministry gala and asked me to dance. My first instinct was to refuse. I mean me and dancing? I had no desire to embarrass myself in front of everyone. But there was a certain hesitation in the way he asked me, a hint of vulnerability in his eyes that made me realise just how much it must have cost him to approach me in front of everyone and how insulting it would be, if I refused him.
Draco and I weren't exactly friends, but I had seen enough of him in the years after the war, to know that he had changed. He was no longer the arrogant brat that he used to be and he seemed to be working really hard to rebuild his name and to find a respectable place for himself in the wizarding world. Somehow, that made me happy. It made me glad that I had fought so hard to keep him out of Azkaban. So yeah. There was no way I was going to insult him by refusing to dance with him. I nodded. He held out his hand and I took it.
"I hope you know what you're getting into," I said. "I really cannot dance."
"I know," he said and then he raised my hand to his lips and kissed me softly. My stomach fluttered in response and I was thoroughly charmed.
"But I don't care," he continued. "I just want to dance with you."
"I don't want to embarrass myself."
That made him smile. "You'll be fine. I'll take care of you," he said.
And he did. He held me close and led me expertly in a dance that was surprisingly graceful despite my inability to figure out exactly how to move my feet. Every time I was about to make a mistake, he would squeeze my hand or my waist and gently guide me right. And every time I got something right he would smile as if he was pleased. I had never seen him smile like that. It made him look so young and handsome. It made him look happy. I realised with a start that in all the years that I had known him, I had never ever seen him look happy.
We didn't talk much as we danced, focussed as were on getting the dancing right. But it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It felt more like we weren't talking because there wasn't all that much that needed to be said. When Draco had led me to the dance floor, I had been acutely aware of all the people looking at us, but slowly that awareness receded, leaving just me and Draco, the music and the steps. And as I focused more on my partner and the music, my dancing improved. Draco smiled. I smiled back...and we carried on.
When the song ended, I found myself feeling strangely disappointed. Draco was about to step away when the next song started. He hesitated for a moment and that was enough. I tightened my hold on him and began to move. He raised his eyebrows, but he pulled me close and we were dancing again...By the end of that night, I was thoroughly smitten and determined to get to know him better. So I asked him out.
That was two years ago. We've been together since. Dating Draco was every bit as easy as dancing with him. For once I was not with someone who treated me like I was a hero. Every other guy that I had dated had been in awe of me, looking up to me, agreeing with everything I said and deferring to me all the time. I used to hate it.
Draco never treated me like a hero and nothing on earth would have induced him to agree with everything I said. He argued with me, he challenged me and he let me forget that I was Harry Potter. He made me feel like I was just another guy and yet, he somehow made sure to let me know how special I was to him.
And the best thing is that he likes to take care of me. He has a bit of a take-charge personality while I am more laid-back and easy going. We complement each other perfectly, because he gets to have control and make all the decisions, while I get to sit back and let someone else do all the work.
It is a welcome break from the rest of my life where I am Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world and Healer-in-charge of spell damage, constantly leading a team and making decisions, split second choices which can make a huge difference to the life and recovery of a patient. I mean, I love my job. But it is hard work and it is stressful to be the one responsible for everything all the time. So I genuinely appreciate the fact that Draco tends to make the decisions and to take care of the details of our life together.
It must have been about a year into our relationship when Draco announced that we were going to move in together.
"Fine by me," I said. I assumed that he would move in with me or that I would move in with him. But apparently, I was wrong.
"Neither of us has a nice enough place," he said and then he went house hunting.
Two months later, he found the perfect place, or so he said. And he was right. I took one look at the house and I fell in love with it. I loved the homely design, the open floor plan, the huge windows and the gorgeous view of the sea.
"It's exactly what I wanted," I said.
"I know," he said with a smirk. "Funnily enough, it is exactly what I wanted too."
He spent the next couple of months on that house, choosing colours and fabrics and furniture and what not. I happily left him to it. I don't know how he found the time and the energy to work on that house. I mean he works as hard as I do. Sure, he works from home, but running a successful potions business is hard work. I would have hired someone to do up that house for us, but Draco wanted to do it himself.
"It's going to be our home, Harry. It has to feel like us," he said.
Fine by me.
My friends think that I give Draco too much power. But that is simply not true. Draco doesn't try to control or manipulate me in any way. He just likes to take charge and he likes to take care of me. Now that is something that I've never experienced, not even as a child. To have someone do things for me and make all the important decisions so I don't have to worry about them...that's about as wonderful as it can get, in my opinion.
Sure there are times when we disagree. And sometimes, he pushes too much. I push back and we clash, but we sort it out, just like any other couple. But most of the time, it seems that Draco instinctively knows what I want and what I don't. When I'm ready for something and when I'm not.
Like the first time we had sex for example. We'd been fooling around for a couple of weeks, but we hadn't gone all the way or made it to a bed even. It must have been around a month into our relationship. We had just got back to my apartment after a lovely date in Muggle London. It was a night like many others before it and yet it was different. We knew it the moment we kissed. He stepped back and looked at me, his eyebrows raised in question.
I took a deep breath and nodded. He smiled and then he pulled me in for another kiss. He tipped my head back and dived right in and plundered my mouth, making me feel as if I was melting into a puddle of goo. Draco has a very talented tongue, let me tell you. I kissed back with everything I had and he moaned and rutted against me...he was so deliciously hard. I wanted him so badly, I thought I was going to explode.
I was by no means inexperienced when I met Draco, but no one has ever made me feel like he does. Every time we touch, it is so intense. It leaves my skin tingling and my body wanting in a way that I have never wanted anyone else. He pulled away after what felt like hours and we collapsed against each other, our faces flushed and our breathing ragged.
"Bed?" he said softly.
I nodded. We stumbled into my bed room and I wondered how on earth I was going to tell him that I'd never bottomed before, but that I really badly wanted to experience it now, that I wanted that with him. I tried; I stumbled over my words, blushing and embarrassingly inarticulate. He understood anyway. He caressed my cheek and looked right into my eyes.
"You'll be fine. I'll take care of you," he said and then he kissed me on my forehead.
Draco was wonderful that night. He was gentle and patient, tender and loving and totally focussed on making the entire experience a good one for me. He seemed to know exactly what to do, where to touch and how to move...he knew exactly how to drive me crazy, how to soothe me when it got a little painful and how to make me scream with pleasure.
It was the most mind blowing sex I'd ever had. But the best thing about it is how loved and cherished I felt at the end of it. I snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arms around me and held me like I was the most precious thing in the world. He didn't say the words that night, but I knew he loved me.
It's been two years now, since that fateful day at the ministry. Turns out, Draco had asked me to dance that night because Blaise had dared him to finally act on his feelings instead of continuing to moon over me. I like the idea that Draco was mooning over me. It makes me feel very special. I like being the focus of his attention, you see.
It's been a wonderful couple of years. One dance was all it was supposed to be and somehow it has turned into a shared life...a life that I cherish very much indeed. It doesn't matter whether anyone can understand it or not. I love Draco with everything that I am and I want to spend the rest of my life with him.
So tonight, I'm going to ask him to marry me. I'm sure he'll have a grand old time planning the wedding, fretting over all the choices, agonising over the guest list and making sure everything is perfect...and knowing him, it will be.