Title: Hot off the Presses
Author: Chosentwo4381
Email: chosentwo4381@yahoo.com
Feedback: I'd really like it if you would.
Rating: PG-13 for one boy/boy kiss, and use of the word hell.
Author's Note: This is the sequel to Harry Potter Can't Kiss Like That, which was a response to a challenge over at the Hermione/Ginny yahoo group. So it's really thanks to my favorite list mum Tash, that this exists at all. You pretty much have to read Can't Kiss before you read this if you want to understand it at all. Many thanks to Jandi for betaing this for me.
Harry felt the arms of his lover wrap around him from behind. "You ready to go love?" Draco asked.
"Just let me write Hermione to tell her that we've got some 'auror business' to work on and that I'll be crashing at your flat tonight." Harry could feel Draco nod behind him. "I know you think I should tell her, but I don't know how to do it without hurting her."
Draco pulled away and Harry turned to face him. "Harry, do you not realize that the longer you go without telling her the more it's going to hurt? And you know Granger; she'll want to know how long it's been going on. Then she'll want an essay on why she wasn't good enough for you, no less than 5 scrolls."
Harry sighed at the petulant tone in his boyfriend's voice. "You know I don't like it when you talk about her like that. She's not that bad really. She is one of my best friends, and I hope that doesn't change when I tell her."
"I'll talk about her any way I bloody please, you and I have been together for 4 years and I had to watch the man I love marry the dirty little mudblood. Forgive me if I sound bitter, but I think I have every reason to."
"It's not that simple Draco love. I'm married to Hermione because everyone expected me to be. We started dating because everyone expected us to. Ever since I came into the wizarding world at the tender age of eleven, I've been doing things because they were expected of me. So, it's just so ruddy hard to look in the face of all that precedent and say, 'Look I'm not who you thought I was.' It'll be a bit hard to deal with."
"But you'll have me."
"I know that. That's going to be what gets me through the whole ordeal."
They leaned in and kissed.
"There, the note's finished. Now let me grab some clothes and I'll be ready to go." Harry stopped before reaching the door to the bedroom that he and Hermione shared.
"Hey Drake…"
Draco turned, "Yeah, babe?"
Harry smiled at him, "I'll tell her tomorrow night."
Draco just beamed at his dark haired lover.
"I'll be out in a few minutes."
Not long after Harry entered the bedroom, a tawny barn owl flew in the living room window.
"Harry, Daily Prophet is here!" Draco yelled.
"Just pay it two knuts, and leave it on the table for Hermione. I'm almost ready to go to your place."
Grumbling under his breath Draco, dug two knuts out of his pocket, and handed them to the owl. He picked up the paper to put it next to the note, but glanced down.
/Oh bloody sodding hell./
"Harry, you know, on second thought, if you don't want to tell Hermione, you don't have to. I shouldn't pressure you."
Harry came out of the bedroom with a small bag packed. Draco was still holding the paper. "Thanks for the out sweetheart, but I haven't got that Gryffindor bravery for nothing." He crossed over to Draco. "Anything interesting in the paper?" Draco handed it to him wordlessly.
Harry took one look at the headline and picture and fainted.
