Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling. I own NOTHING.

Chapter 1 - Old Friends Made New

When an unfamiliar owl carrying a long package pecked on his window, Draco was sitting in his room staring at the fire. He did not hear the pecking, in fact he did not respond to it until it got vigorous to a point when he thought that his window glass would crack. He snapped out of his trance, turned his head towards the window and frowned when he saw a large brownish-yellow owl that he was sure did not belong to anyone he knew. He walked over and lifted the window open. The owl flew in, dropped the package into his hands right away and glared at him once before it took off.

Draco stared at the package in his hands. It does not feel heavy, from its length you could tell that it probably was a wand. Who would send him a wand? Whose wand? His wand was lost to Harry Potter even before the final war erupted. And ever since then he never gotten it back. In fact, he never saw Potter after the war because the Malfoys has fled after the extermination of the Dark Lord. Having no one to turn to after it all ended, the once aristocratic and proud family had hidden in one of their estates in Ireland, cut off all the communications with any other former wizarding families, with the exception of a few close relatives and friends who still remained in contact.

The family also took a turn in their lifestyle and possibly had changed in their personalities as well. Lucius Malfoy was no longer superior and noble in his behaviour, but introvert and dim. He has become a normal old man who was regretting his past in every minute of his present life. Narcissa Malfoy was not that woman who once only followed her husband and son's steps. Although she remained the loving and tender mother who cares deeply for her son, she does not continue to socialize with people like she once loved.

Draco, however, has changed completely, even to his previously close friends in school, he was a totally different person compared to then. Though now, a year and a few months since the defeat of Lord Voldemort, the only friend from school days that he kept contact with now was Theodore Nott. Nott's family was the only one in the few of Slytherin House that did not join in the ranks of Voldemort's Death Eater army. And since the Malfoys defected at the end of The Second Wizarding War, every other former death eater families cut off their communications with the Malfoys, the Notts were probably the closest family friends that the Malfoys socialize with anymore.

Draco has changed from that arrogant and somewhat cowardice young boy into a reticent and quiet youth. He does not speak to anyone except his parents, and even them he does not speak much to unless it is utterly necessary. How he had become a young man like this, nobody had a single clue. But he himself knew perfectly as to why he has developed into a man he is now.

The reason was simple; Harry Potter.

Though it may seem ridiculous and even bizarre to say he changed all because of the Wizarding Saviour, he was telling the truth here, even if it is hilarious in some ways. Even with someone as supercilious as Draco, he would not deny that he was too, thankful to Harry Potter as the rest of wizarding world does. Simply because, he was as normal as anybody on earth, who fears death as the most dreadful fact of life, and Harry, who had saved his life in more than one way, more than once, and Draco feels he owes his life to him, ultimately.

He no longer resents Potter, in fact, he never resented him. His grudges towards him was only because he cannot accept that Potter turned down his offer of friendship, when they were only first years, to a pathetic Weasley. He cannot bring himself to the fact that he had lost to a member of the Weasley clan, whom his family detested for as long as the Malfoy name has lived. Truth is, even when his family sided with that madman, even when his father was unreasonable loyal to that monster of a man and dislikes Potter to an extent, Draco was brought up like any other child of the wizarding world, listening to heroic stories of The-Boy-Who-Lived, a boy who was his age, and yet already saved the society even when he was just an infant. And although he would not admit it to anyone, he was really, an admirer of Harry Potter.

Like really, what else would you thought that made him offer his friendship to any unworthy kid he may encounter? It was only because simply, he was Harry Potter.

Draco has went back to his usual seat near the fireplace, staring at the package-which-may-very-likely-be-a-wand, and frowned. Without further thoughts, he ripped the wrappings open, lifted the lid of the box, and gasped at what he saw.

It was his wand. The wand that he had lost its allegiance to Harry Potter, which the fact has only came to acknowledge later after they settled back in their estate elsewhere. Actually, Draco never thought about his lost wand anymore afterwards, he thought he does not need it, that now he had his mother's, and only used it for minor necessarity of magic.

To be honest, he has totally forgotten about his own wand, or rather, he just never thought about it anymore. He never suspected that one day he would actually have it back, of course, since Harry Potter himself has disappeared too after the war. And now here it is, in his lap, back into his hands.

But... who sent it? Is it Potter?

It has to be. He was the one who had his wand.

Draco cannot help himself but feel excited merely by the idea that Harry Potter himself sent him back his wand, meaning he was probably letting him know about his whereabouts as well. He gripped his old wand in his hand, feeling the long missed yet still familiar touch of his wand back in his hands. He looked back into the box, searching for a letter or a note or whatever of that sorts, and he did. A small piece of parchment was attached at the inner side of the box.

He ripped it off. To his disappointment, it was not from Potter himself. It was from... Hermione Granger. Nevertheless, he looked on with the note.

Malfoy,

I suspect you probably was surprised. Although I am sure you know who this had came from.

Yes it was from Harry. He is not in the wizarding world at the moment. In fact according to himself, he was not going to return to the wizarding world. I did not even see him much, if it was not for that I visit my parents back in Muggle London, I probably would not have the chance to. He does not want the wizarding world to know his location. And so when I visited my parents last month, he contacted me, though I don't know how he had done that, and asked me to send your wand back to you when I return to the wizarding world with Ron. And so I have done this.

You probably have a lot of questions, but I can tell you right now that I may not be able to answer many. Because Harry himself did not tell me much, except that he wanted you to have your wand back. He doesn't want to be in any contact with the wizarding world, so I suspect that he was clearing out his last connections. I do not know after the war if anything between you and Harry changed or not, and I do not care about it. But I wanted to say that, I am doing this only because Harry asked me to. If you still wanted to ask questions, you could find me at The Burrow till the end of the month. If not, then I have done what I was asked, and you can disregard this note or whatever.

Hermione Granger

Draco gripped the parchment in his hands, read it over once more, could not believe his own eyes. And he was just thinking about how he would not be able to see that person ever again, to see him in order to thank him, and... if he have a chance, to woo him.

Yes that is right. Draco Malfoy wanted to woo one Harry Potter, who to, that is, if you asked anyone, they will probably, no, definitely laugh at you. A Malfoy and a Potter? You must be dreaming. There is no way in possibility. But really, that was totally the opposite, that was only because someone never told anyone the truth.

You see, ever since he was saved from the fire by Harry Potter himself, his views on him changed dramatically. Harry Potter actually was able to disregard their nasty past rivalry, however they were childish as it was, and save his life in the fact of knowing it may risk his own. And although he fled when Potter has not even got up, he knew that he would owe this life debt to him no matter what. And then, he did not understand why, or how, but it just happened. He fell for him.

You may laugh if you want, even he himself had done that at the beginning. It felt ridiculously impossible, unimaginable, but however it may seem, it did happen. And happened quiet out of sudden, and fast.

Draco probably would not seem like one, but he was really a simple person, and as innocent as one could imagine. He was brought up to believe whatever his family taught him to believe, without experiencing it by himself. And although it might be impossible for a Malfoy to fall for a Potter, actually, to fall for anyone, but he did, and very hard.

The truth is, he has not realized it until that fateful day when Greyback brought in the trio, and Draco had refused to identify Potter, not wanting him killed before his eyes. It was then that he found that he had somehow harboured a strange feeling towards the raven-haired youth, but could not identify what that was.

And then, when he and his gang cornered Potter in the Room of Requirements, he demanded something that belonged to him to be returned, he realized, that not only he was referring to his lost wand, he was subconsciously referring to his still confusing feelings for him. He was demanding an answer to his unknown question. And it was until Crabbe was attempting to murder him that had he screamed at the top of his lungs to not kill him. He then notice that this feeling was indeed something that he never experienced in his life – that he cared for Harry Potter.

And at the same day when he was saved of his life, that feeling sort of burst itself into something larger. And under the shock of just escaped from losing his life and found out the greatest feeling that he had no idea how to react to, not to mention this feeling was towards his so-called arch enemy, he fled from the scene, and from the urge to explore deeper within.

Unfortunately, when the aftermaths of the war has calmed down to a safer boundary, he had tried to search for Potter, to formally thank him, even if it means that he will be bowing his head in front of someone that he never thought he would. But it did not matter, Malfoys do not owe people, not even with the slightest, and here he owes him his life. But he had no luck. Potter has vanished after the battle, nobody knew where he had gone or what happened to him. He had tried every possible way, but nothing ever came up. Eventually, he gave up.

And now, as if miracle was here to tell him it really existed, he received the wand that he never had expected to be back, back to him, given by Potter himself. Oh fine, not Potter himself, but he told Granger to sent it back to him for him. He must take this chance. Even if Granger already said she might not know much either. He just can't let it pass.

He casted 'tempus', seeing it was just ten past three in the afternoon. He thought about a minute, decided that he could pay a visit to The Burrow now to ask Granger about Potter, and should be able to come back before dinner. Hell, he was going to the Weasley place. For Potter. He cannot help himself when that name sent a fuzzy feeling inside him. Look what you done to me, Potter.

He quickly fetched a piece of parchment, scribbled down a simple note notifying his family he would be gone out for sometime, in case they come to find him. After he had done the note, he took his returned wand, along with Granger's note, grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the flaring flame, stepped in and shouted 'The Burrow'. And he was gone in a flash of green.

DMHP

When the flames in the fireplace in the living room of The Burrow suddenly flashed green, Hermione, who seemed have been waiting near the fire, stepped up to the fireplace with a raised eyebrow and an expectant expression. A few seconds later, one Draco Malfoy stepped out of the fire, which was expected. What was not expected, was that he seems different from how she remembered.

Draco adjusted his robes and looked up, half surprised to see that Hermione already stood there.

"Granger." He drawled.

Hermione nodded. "Well, Malfoy, it's nice to see you again after all this time. Looks like my assumption was right after all." She gestured the dining table, "The Weasleys are currently out, which I thought would be a good timing if you were coming to have a chat. I never thought I would say this, but I am glad you actually came." She took a seat at the table.

Draco gave a curt nod and followed her to take a seat across from her. He looked around, seemingly looking for something. Hermione interrupt him.

"If you are wondering why Ron wasn't here, I sent him out with the family so I could have a quiet conversation with you. Besides when he's not here, it makes things a lot easier." She pointed to the note and wand Draco was holding. "I suppose you were curious as to what was this all about? I may know what you wanted to ask about, but I will let you fire your questions."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, put the note down on the table and took his wand with both hands. Examining it while simultaneously without looking at the other person in the room, and asked, "How was he?"

Hermione blinked at the question, of everything she was expecting she certainly did not expected that, but she answered anyway. "He's fine. Just probably wasn't as bright as he used to be. But I wouldn't know much... he didn't tell me much anyway. To me it feels like he was drawing distance with the wizarding world." She paused, Draco looked up. She took a deep breath, and continued, "It was sad to see know that he wouldn't come back here, but I could totally understand where he's coming from. He looked a lot relaxed in Muggle London."

Draco nodded, caressing his wand. "Did he... did he mentioned anything about me when he asked you to bring my wand back?"

"No, he just requested that your wand to be returned to its owner – to you."

Draco fell silence.

Hermione frowned at him. She was not used to this Malfoy in front of her, in fact, she never seen Malfoy like this before, it was almost as if she was talking to someone else. She leaned forward, determined to find out what was going on.

"Malfoy." She waited until he looked up again. "You... forgive me for asking, but it seems to me that you are not the person that I used to know. I expected you would come here, yes, but I was also expecting you to come and demand answers about the wand itself, and not Harry. But here you are, all quiet and seems subtle, I can't help but wonder, what happened to you? Why suddenly you cared about Harry's well-being anyway?"

Draco stared at her for a long moment, his expression blank, though his gray eyes were filled with unidentified emotions.

"He saved my life." He said simply.

Hermione's frown got deeper, she was more confused than ever now. "Yes I know that, he saved you in the Room of Requirements, even when we told him not to. So?" She leaned back onto her chair.

"I owe him my life."

"Malfoy, could you elaborate and explain your answer more thoroughly? Because what you are saying now only made me even more confused. So he saved your life, and you think you owe him your life? I thought you wasn't someone who was devoted to equality in give and take."

Draco shrugged. He let out a sigh. "That was the old foolish self of me. I changed after the war, after what he had done for me." He looked into her eyes, his face sincere. "I never hated him. It was only because of my bloody pride that cannot forgive him for turning me down when I was trying to be his friend. And... after all those Dark Lord crap ended, I finally realized this. I know it was late, I tried to find him, but I couldn't. He was gone." He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"Would you be able to give me his location? I know you've said in the note," He looked at the note that was put onto the table before. "that he doesn't want people to know about his whereabouts. But, I really need to see him in person."

Hermione tilted her head to the side. "Why?"

He cleared his throat a bit, suddenly feeling a lump there. "I... I wanted to formally thank him for what he did." And more to that, but he was not going to tell her anything else. It wasn't as if he was lying anyway.

Unfortunately, that did not seem good enough for Hermione to buy. She raised an eyebrow at him, not saying anything, but clearly was expecting more.

Draco sighed again. He gripped his wand tighter, took a deep breath and thought might as well be honest with that know-it-all Granger.

"Would you believe me if I was to say, that I like him? Hmm... and, romantically?"

"What?" The widened eyes were enough for Draco to understand her answer.

He looked down, frowning to himself. "I know, it's stupid, it's unbelievable. Hell, I didn't even believe myself when I first discovered the truth behind all these bloody confusing feelings. But you have to believe me, I am being honest and clear like a crystal here." He tried to explain, sounding as truthful as he could.

"How am I suppose to believe you? You know very well how you treated us, no, treated him back at Hogwarts. How do you expect me to believe when you suddenly said you fancied him and just give you his address when he obviously told me not to?" She shook her head, her eyes wide with disbelief.

He shrugged again. "I can prove it to you, but I don't want to. I want to prove myself to him. And that's why I am asking his location." He leaned on the table, and Hermione was shocked to see his eyes were pleading. "I just need a chance to prove myself again, just once. And if I couldn't change anything, then I'll give up and back away. But right now I just can't lose this. Please."

Hermione studied him for a long moment, so long that Draco thought he might have to give up before he even started trying. And then Hermione let out a long sigh and looked at him stern. But her answer had brightened up Draco's hope.

"Harry would definitely kill me for this, but somehow I find that you aren't lying. I hope I am right about that. Now, I wouldn't stick my nose into other people's business, I can give you his location." At this Draco actually smiled a little, and Hermione flashed a small smile in return before turning serious again. "But, only under one condition." Draco nodded at this, and Hermione continued satisfied. "I will be keeping an eye on your every move. You claimed to like him, but your motives still remained unidentified. It is only fair if I keep an eye on you, for Harry's sake."

Draco nodded agreed. That was only fair.

Hermione grabbed the note on the table which she wrote before and turned it over, conjured a quill and wrote down the address while saying, "He lives alone in Kent now, this is his address..."

That night when Draco returned to Malfoy Manor, he was ready to go and find Harry Potter the very first thing next morning.

DMHP

Draco stood in front of an unconspicuous flat on a seemingly deserted street. He double-checked the address on the small parchment, took in his surroundings and nodded to himself.

So this is where Potter lives in Muggle London. It seems ordinary enough. He checked the street number again, then went up the steps and knocked on the door.

He waited for about a minute, there was no answer. He tried again, this time he knocked harder, and after what seems like twenty seconds or so, the door opened, and revealed a young man who was lean and somewhat shorter than Draco. The flashed unique scar on his forehead was enough to tell his identity.

"Who is it...Malfoy?" Potter's eyes widened at the person before him, and adjusted his glasses to have a better look.

Draco blinked a little. He did not expect Potter to actually look the same as his student self, if not a little taller. He straightened up, gave the smallest hint of a smile, and greeted, "Hey Potter."

Harry stared at him, his brain suddenly seemed to stopped functioning fully. How did Malfoy know where he was? And what is he doing over here?

"What are you doing here Malfoy? How did you know my place?" Then it clicked. He narrowed his eyes at him. "Hermione actually told you where I was? I thought I told her not to..." But he was cut off.

"Weren't you going to invite me in first, Potter? Or are we really going to have a conversation at your door?" He smirked. Seeing Potter again somehow made him relaxed and felt more like his old self once again. Damn Potter, look how you affected me.

Harry frowned, but backed away to let Malfoy walk in. What would Malfoy possibly want? If he still had his wand he may suspect a possibility, but he already returned it now. What would Malfoy up to that he even had to question his location and pin him down? He guessed he would find out soon. He closed the door behind him and walked back into the foyer, finding that Malfoy was looking around.

"Nice place, Potter." He drawled, turning his head to look at him.

Harry placed his hands onto his hips, his frown never ceased from the moment he saw Malfoy. "What do you want, Malfoy?"

Draco turned around fully to face him now, his expression becoming a slight smile, he shrugged.

"I came here to thank you for giving my wand back to me." He said.

Harry looked at him oddly. All the way to find him just to say thank you to him? Yeah right.

He raised his hand to smooth back his messy black hair, sighed. "Don't play with me Malfoy, as if you threatened Hermione to give out my location just to thank me. I am not that stupid. Spill."

A hurt look crossed Draco's features. He shook his head. "Actually, I didn't threaten Granger, she gave me your address willingly. And yes, the reason I am here was to thank you, in person. That would only be polite, wouldn't it?"

Although Draco looked calm enough with his appearance, his inside was screaming stop being a bloody jerk like he was before to him. He was here to re-establish a better relationship with Potter, it would not do with a disastrous start.

Harry stared at him incredulous. Maybe he should have kept that damn wand if he knew it was going to end up like this. He took a deep breath, resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and told Malfoy, "Well now you've done what you are here to do, you may leave. I believe you remember where the door is, I am a little busy so I won't be seeing you out, help yourself Malfoy." With that he started towards the stairs, but paused in mid-way and turned back to Malfoy. "Oh, and I would very much appreciate it if you keep quiet of my whereabouts, thanks a lot. Bye." And he continued heading up.

But Draco's reply struck him dead in place.

"I like you."

TBC

AN: How's the first chapie? I actually was really careful when put in the convos coz I SUCK at it... I really hope it wasn't OOCed. (But then again, I think my setting of Draco's already OOCed..*sigh* oh well)

Anyway I hope you enjoyed it! It would be humor! (or I try) Plz R&R! *kisses*

Next Chap: Draco gets a first experience of learning to live the Muggle way! MY GOD! It would be disaster!