Choosing Freedom

*Author's Note: This story takes place after the seventh book. I hope you like it!*

Draco stared at the wood of the door as though hoping his gaze would cause it to melt into its frame and vanish. Then Draco wouldn't have to knock. Then he wouldn't have to do what he had come here for. Malfoys were skilled at many things, but apologizing was not one of them, and as Draco reluctantly raised a fist to rap on the door, he felt his Malfoy pride screaming at him from his very core. But it had to be done. He knocked gingerly and then stood, waiting awkwardly as he heard a bustling of noise from within the apartment before him. The lock clicked as it was undone and the door swung open to reveal a rather disgruntled looking Ronald Weasley. Ron froze when he saw Draco, brows knitting together in a frown and eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Bugger off, Malfoy." Ron growled, glaring fiercely at Draco.

"Where's Potter?" asked Draco, a little thrown by someone unexpected answering the door. Ron's glare didn't falter, "He's not here Malfoy, so why don't you sod off." Draco opened his mouth, about to spit out a nasty retort when he was interrupted by a call from behind Ron.

"Who's at the door, Ron?" asked a voice from within the apartment before Hermione popped up beside Ron, peering curiously over Ron's shoulder. A flash of surprise crossed Hermione's porcelain features before she collected herself as asked stiffly, "Malfoy? What are you doing here?"

Draco turned to Hermione, ignoring Ron's continued glare, and said curtly, "I came here to talk to Potter."

"And what the fuck makes you think Harry wants to talk to a wanker like you?" hissed Ron, knuckles turning white with the force of his angry grip on the edge of the door. Hermione laid a pacifying hand on Ron's arm, looking intently at Draco.

"Why do you need to talk to Harry?" she asked. Draco fidgeted awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. This sort of thing did not come naturally to Draco; he wasn't used to having to swallow his pride.

"I owe him an apology." he finally muttered, looking down and flushing slightly in embarrassment. Ron snorted derisively, scoffing at Draco's words, but Hermione hushed him with a gentle squeeze on his arm. She was looking calculatingly at Draco, and when Draco glanced up to meet her gaze, he caught an amused and knowing twinkle in the depths of her brown eyes.

"He's not here," Hermione said calmly, "but you can find him at Artrich's Bluff." Artich's Bluff Draco thought to himself before he nodded curtly, and, as an afterthought, reluctantly muttered a thank you. He then closed his eyes and spun on the spot, disapparating with a loud pop.

-XXXXXXXXXXX—

Harry lay staring up at the clouds as they made their way sluggishly across the blue expanse of sky above him. It felt so long since he'd been able to just sit back and watch the world go by without the weight of responsibility crushing his chest, making each breath heavy with worry and thoughts of his own fate. But now that final battle was nothing but a confused and muddled blur of fighting and fear in the back of Harry's memory, and he felt as light as those wisps of cloud drifting above him. He was finally free. He could finally do what he wanted, not what fate had laid out for him, or what others thought he should be doing. And right now, what Harry wanted was to just lie there and take in the feeling of being free.

The earth was damp beneath Harry, making it felt cool on his skin and he found that he didn't mind being covered in mud if it meant lying here like this. Blades of grass tickled Harry's cheek as they swayed in the light breeze, and a slow smile spread across Harry's lips. The quiet out here was so peaceful. It seemed like such a long time since things around him had really been quiet: no shouted curses, or cries of pain, just the soft rustle of the wind in the grass. He had missed it. The quiet Harry was appreciating was soon broken, however, by a loud pop and Harry groaned. He had come out here to be alone, why couldn't people just bloody leave him be? Well, whoever had just apparated here would have to just come over here if they wanted to talk to him, 'cause Harry would be damned if he was going to get up now, not when the sun felt so nice playing across his upturned face. A shadow fell across Harry's features as the person who had arrived leaned over his sprawling form.

"Nice to know our savior is putting himself to good work." came an all too familiar drawl, and Harry's eyes snapped open to see the angled features of Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy?" Harry spluttered in surprise as he stared up into Draco's grey eyes, "What are you doing here?" Draco was the last person Harry was expecting to see all the way out here. Clearly, Draco had sought out Harry's company, although why he would have done this evaded Harry completely. Draco smirked slightly at the stunned look on Harry's face, but the amused expression was soon wiped from Draco's face to be replaced with a nervous frown when he remembered why it was that he had come.

"I need to talk to you." he said quietly, uncomfortably averting his gaze from Harry's. Harry frowned, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He had never seen Draco nervous before, angry and malicious, yes, but he had never seen him looking this uncomfortable.

"Well," said Harry, trying to hide his apprehension by making his tone sound annoyed, "what do you have to say?" Draco fidgeted awkwardly, running his thumb nervously over his knuckles. He then inhaled sharply, shoving his shoulders back to stand up completely straight and composing himself. Draco made himself look straight into Harry's curious green stare as he said, "I owe you an apology Potter." Harry baulked, completely knocked off guard. Harry wasn't sure what he'd been expecting Draco to say, but an apology was definitely not it. He wasn't even sure sorry was in Draco's vocabulary.

"I made many bad choices during this war, well they weren't really my choices, they were more orders, others' assumptions about what I would choose that I had to follow, but I didn't disobey them, so I guess I have to take responsibility for them. I did a lot of things for my family that I regret now, that I even regretted at the time, and they ended up hurting you. And I'm sorry for that. I thought I had to, that I had no choice. Everyone had already decided for me what I was gonna do, and I, well, I thought I had to go along with it. I thought I had no choice, that it had been decided for me, but I realize now that I did have a choice. I could have left. I could have taken my family and run into hiding. Or at least, I probably could have. I could have taken mother at least, but father might not have come. He would have thought it weak. He would've been too bloody proud to consider running." Draco knew that he was beginning to ramble and shook his head slightly, forcing himself to get back to the subject at hand, "But anyway, my point is, I did things that caused people to be hurt, that caused people to be killed, and that hurt you. And for that I am sorry. I apologize, Potter." Draco made himself look straight into Harry's eyes, made himself face the entirety of his apology head on. This had to mean something, and he would not let himself hide from accepting responsibility for his actions by looking away at his own feet. He had to face Harry.

Harry sat frozen, staring in complete shock into Draco's determined gaze. He had no idea how to respond to this. It was so much to process, and it took Harry a moment before he was able to collect himself enough to form a reply, "I, um, thanks Malfoy. I never would have expected to hear that from you." The two sat there for a long, awkward moment before Draco finally asked, "Why did you come all the way out here? When I went to your apartment, Granger and the Weasel just told me I could find you here."

Harry smiled a little to himself, tilting his head back to look wistfully up into the sky again. "It's peaceful out here." he said softly, "I just needed to get away from it all for a bit, ya know? And it's nice out here. No one telling me what I should do, what I have to do." Draco smiled a sad little smile. He knew exactly why that would be appealing.

"No one telling you what to do." Draco murmured as he sat himself down beside Harry, ignoring his usual qualms about getting dirt on his expensive robes, "That sure sounds nice." The two sat in comfortable silence for a minute before Draco said quietly, "I was so scared. My whole family was telling me what I had to do, but I didn't want to do it. I was afraid. But then I had started it and even though I knew then that I wanted to stop, that it was too much, the time to turn back had long since passed. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had my family. If I failed or faltered he would kill them and me. I knew that. But I stilled caused people to die. My actions killed people. I didn't do it directly, but I enabled others to kill them. I let the deatheaters into the castle." Harry watched Draco calculatingly as he spoke. The bond boy was staring out across the field of gently swaying grass, his expression intent and frowning. His grey eyes, usually filled with anger, just looked sad, defeated.

"I know what you mean." Harry replied gently, empathy for Draco swelling within him. He had felt exactly the same way after the battle, until he had resigned himself to the fact that deaths could not have been avoided during the war and released himself of the responsibility. "People fought for me, trying to save me, to keep me from Voldemort. People died for me, too many people. I thought for the longest time that it was my fault. A part of me still feels guilty for their deaths. But Voldemort was the one who caused this whole thing. Without him, none of this would have happened. No one would have died. You just have to remember that." Draco turned to look at Harry, and he melted slightly at the compassion he saw in Harry's eyes, such intense, green eyes.

"I'm not saying you did nothing wrong," continued Harry, "but you did what you thought you had to do. You were trying to save your family, and you shouldn't blame yourself for that. We were both just caught up in something so much bigger than us, too big for any one person to deal with."

"But that's just it!" exclaimed Draco in frustration, angry with himself, "You dealt with it. You had to deal with this whole thing too, and you didn't crack."

"I had help." said Harry, "From my friends, from Dumbledore, even from Snape. I could never have done it on my own. And anyways, our situations were very different. I didn't have my whole family telling me to join Voldemort." Draco flinched at the name, but otherwise kept his eyes solidly locked on Harry. He chuckled slightly, a small smile gracing his lips.

"I guess you're right." He said, examining Harry's face for a second before smiling again, bigger this time, "You're not so bad Potter." Harry smiled back.

"You're not so bad yourself Malfoy." The two sat smiling contentedly at each other for a moment, before Harry sighed and got to his feet.

"Ugh." grimaced Draco as he observed Harry's dirt coated clothing from lying on the ground, "You're covered in mud Potter." Harry frowned, looking down at his own mud soaked figure for a second before a mischievous glint sparked in his eyes and he looked over at Draco. Draco's eyes widened in horror.

"You wouldn't-" he began, but was unable to finish that sentence as Harry pounced, shoving the squirming and screeching blond down into the mud Harry had just been lying in. Draco sat back up glowering intensely and coated in a slick film of dark mud while Harry laughed his arse off, clutching his sides from the force of his laughter.

"You prat." hissed Draco, glaring fiercely up at the cackling boy wonder. His usually perfect blond hair was sticking together in dark clumps and death shot from his eyes towards Harry. Harry's laughter finally subsided to slight giggles and he began walking towards the tent he had set up for himself here, gesturing for Draco to follow him, "Come on." he called after him, "I have a shower in here. You can use it to wash the mud off." Draco got to his feet and followed Harry into the tent, grumbling to himself about "damn wankers who think they can get away with anything they bloody well please."

Harry began peeling his mud soaked cloak off himself once he heard the water start in the bathroom. He had finished getting changed and was setting a kettle on the stove to make some tea when Draco emerged from the bathroom, dripping wet and with just a towel slung low around his hips.

"I'm feeling right knackered," complained Draco as he brushed his damp hair back from his face, "Do you realize how long it took me to get that mud out of my hair? I swear that stuff was magically bound to each bloody strand." Harry did not register a word of this, however. His attention was focused on a droplet of water sliding over the chiseled planes of Draco's pale chest. The brazen droplet slithered down over Draco's abdomen to skitter right next to a thin trail of fine blond hairs starting just beneath Draco's navel and disappearing into the white fluffy towel tied around Draco's hips. For some reason, Harry couldn't take his eyes off it.

"Oy, Potter! Are you listening to a word I'm saying?" asked Draco irritably. The prat was the reason he had needed to scrub mud out of his hair in the first place, he could at least have the decency to listen when Draco complained about it.

"Huh?" muttered Harry dazedly, as he stared at Draco's naked chest as though in a stupor. Draco smirked, taking a swaggering step towards the stunned Boy-Who-Lived.

"See something you like?" he drawled teasingly, dropping his voice to a husky purr as he brought himself mere inches away from the dazed Harry. Harry shook his head, trying to make himself snap out of it, but now Draco was right in front of him, so close he could smell the crisp scent of the soap he had used. And no matter how hard Harry tried, he couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the soft curve of Draco's lips as the blonde smirked confidently at him. And then Harry made a decision, and leaned forward, pressing his lips to the other boy's. Draco gasped slightly despite himself. He hadn't expected Harry to actually kiss him, he had just been teasing him, but there were Harry's lips, pressing hungrily against his own, and then Harry's tongue was swiping along the seam of Draco's lips and he didn't care anymore about what he had expected. Then hands were roaming over the slick skin of his back, sliding down the ridges of his spine to rest on the towel covered swell of his arse. Draco gasped when Harry gave it a playful squeeze and pulled back from the kiss to look in surprise at Harry.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Draco gasped, and Harry smirked, eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Making a choice for myself for once." he replied smoothly and kissed Draco again, smiling smugly when the blond moaned softly into the kiss. But Malfoys were never the kind to simply roll over and let others take control. Draco snarled slightly into the kiss, pressing Harry back until he slammed into the kitchen counter. He lightly nipped Harry's bottom lip, smirking to himself when the other boy gasped. Hands tugged demandingly at the bottom of Harry's shirt and in seconds it was being yanked over the boy's shaggy head to reveal a stretch of tanned skin and muscles well toned from hours of Quiditch practice. Like everything else between Draco and Harry had been, this was a competition: who could strip the other fastest, who could elicit the loudest moans from the other, who could make the other lose the most control, until the pair were gasping and writhing against each other, each clutching the other desperately to them as their hips ground needily against each other. Harry let out a low moan, feeling heat pooling rapidly behind his navel until it was too much and he was spilling his seed out onto Draco's exposed chest. Draco rutted against his a few more times before hot liquid splashed across Harry's stomach and the pair were left clutched in each other's arms and panting heavily.

Draco smiled slightly, leaning down to kiss the corner of Harry's lips affectionately, "Well, if that's the way you're gonna accept my apologies, maybe I should say I'm sorry more often." Harry laughed, smiling happily up into Draco's grey eyes.

"Why yes, yes I think you should." He felt so free at that moment. He had no idea where this would lead his relationship with Draco, it was too soon to tell, but not knowing was the best thing in the world right then. There was no fate, no decisions already made for him, just endless possibility. Harry had so many choices he could make right now, so he chose to lean forward and kiss Draco again, feeling the blonde smile into the kiss and hug Harry tighter against him.

*Author's Note: Thank you for reading my story! I hope you liked it! Please review! Also, I'm taking requests for stories, so if u have one, please just let me know. Thank you!*

(P.S. I know Draco could have just used a cleaning spell to get the mud off, but where would the fun have been in that hmmm?)