Team: Kenmare Kestrels
Position: Chaser 1
Prompts: Kestrels, Word Count 2251-2500
Optional Prompts: (8) lilac, (11) first day of school, (14) 'Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud'
Word Count: 2447

A/N: Hey all! Here's the Round 3 submission for the QLFC! Enjoy!

"I don't want to."

"You're doing it."

"I don't think this is such a good idea."

"It is a good idea. You're simply nervous."

Harry gave his boyfriend a flat look. "No kidding."

"You're going to be fine. I don't know why you are so worried." Draco looked over his shoulder at the other man, who was sprawled across their bed. "You're going to be great. I know you will."

"How?"

The blonde sighed and rolled his eyes. "Because you're the great Harry Potter, the Savior of the Wizarding World, the – "

"I get it, I get it. You can stop." A bright scarlet blush covered Harry's neck and face. "It doesn't mean I can do this."

"How many times must I remind you? You will be great." Draco walked over to their shared closet, which, admittedly, was more his than Harry's. Unnoticed by him, the other man pulled himself off the bed. "Are we going to have to go through this every day until you start?"

"Probably." Coming up behind him, Harry wrapped his arms around Draco's waist. "Wear the lilac tie."

"Why?"

"I like the color on you."

Draco shook his head and selected a blue-green tie instead. "Lilac is the color of mourning. Specifically the later stages of mourning."

"Why do you know that?" Harry asked, his forehead wrinkling.

"Pureblood culture," he answered, fingers nimbly knotting the tie. The gray gaze firmly paid attention to its task, his voice cold. "I don't want anyone to think I'm mourning my father."

Harry squeezed the other man's waist gently. "All right."

"Now you have to quit distracting me. I can't be late again. It's enough that those old geezers glare at me for being gay, I don't need them even more upset." Carefully taking a set of clean, midnight blue silk robes, Draco began to pull them on. "Don't sit here all day preparing. Go out, get some fresh air. Add to your ridiculous notebook."

"It isn't ridiculous!" The dark haired man yanked on Draco's arm and spun him around to face him.

Draco rolled his eyes. "You are twenty-five years old with a bird-watching hobby. What's not ridiculous? You're a disgrace to adults everywhere. Even I don't do that and I have the excuse of a Pureblood upbringing," he responded in a bored tone. This was the millionth time they'd had this discussion and he was getting sick of it.

"I find bird-watching to be soothing. Just me and the birds in the wilderness." Harry snuck a glance at the aforementioned notebook. After the war, he had been on vacation when he began to really notice birds. Hermione had suggested that he get a notebook and start writing down the different birds he saw, saying that it would be therapeutic. He couldn't say if it really helped, but it did keep him occupied. He wouldn't say he was an avid bird watcher, though. "Birds are pretty cool. They fly, they're free, no responsibilities."

"They're birds. If you like them so much we can go hawking." Brushing his hair to perfection, he watched himself in the mirror to double check his appearance. There was no such thing as too perfect, after all. "I have a kestrel you can use. He's very calm, great for a beginner. I trained him myself."

"You have a captured kestrel?!"

"Yes, I do. Multiple kestrels, along with some hawks and other falcons. They're taken care of better in our mews than in the wild," Draco replied.

Harry crossed his arms. "No animal should be imprisoned. Especially a free-flying bird like the kestrel."

"It's a bird! A freaking bird!" Draco exclaimed, spinning around to face Harry. "It's taken care of very well. Why are you so worked up about this?"

"It's a living creature. Kestrels are majestic falcons. They shouldn't be cooped up like that." The man took a deep breath and Draco could tell he was gearing up for a passionate speech. "They – "

"Alright, I get it." He threw up his hands in defeat. "But I'm not freeing it."

"But Dra-co…"

Draco met those beautiful emerald eyes in the mirror, the ones he could never say – No, he was going to put his foot down this time. "I'm keeping it. I like using the bird for practice, to keep myself in shape. You can go outside and find some new birds to add to your notebook."

"Fine. We're going to discuss this later, though." Harry pressed a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek. "I won't let you get away with this."

"Whatever you say. Now stop distracting me already and let me finish getting ready for work."

Harry sat down on the couch and propped his chin in his hands. There was nothing to do. He was all ready for the first day of his new job, so there was nothing to do in here, and it was too hot to go out. The combination of cooling charms and air conditioning kept the apartment cool, but that meant he was even more reluctant to go outside. On the other hand, there was nothing to do in the apartment, either.

He stood up and began to walk around, trying to find something interesting. The first thing that caught his eye was the picture of he and Draco on their first fun date, the one after all the awkward fancy dinner dates. He'd bought tickets for the London Eye, which probably was not the best way to get Draco okay with Muggle technology, but oh well. They'd had fun in the end.

An art print with the quote "Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud" hung beside the picture. That souvenir was a remnant from a trip to an art gallery. Draco was sick of doing common things and insisted on doing something 'cultured'. His words, not Harry's. A Squib artist was the featured artist that month and Draco desperately wanted to go, being something of an amateur artist himself. Harry agreed to go, mostly out of a sense of responsibility. Draco generally agreed to go to all Harry's Muggle events without too much of a fight, Harry should go to all Draco's events if he wanted. He hadn't really enjoyed the exhibit, but Draco had, and that was what was important. The print was of one of the artist's paintings, one with a child painting a rainbow, with the quote superimposed on top. The quote always brought a smile to his face. It was sweet.

Beneath the picture and the print was a low table covered in pictures. Harry picked one up to inspect it closer. It was a picture of him and Draco in lilac robes by Ron and Hermione's wedding. Hermione had insisted that it was unfair that only the girls had to wear lilac gowns and the men should wear lilac dress robes as well. Ron didn't disagree, which was why Draco and Harry were forced to wear the ridiculous clothes. The color wasn't terrible, in fact, Harry kind of liked the color, but whole dress robes? That was a little…tacky. Which Draco had complained about for months before the wedding, but he wore it nonetheless. That was one of the things Harry loved about the blond. He might complain for hours about spending time with Harry's friends, but in the end he gave them a chance, if only for Harry's sake.

The dark haired man grinned as he found the menu from the first restaurant they'd ever gone to tossed amongst the pictures from the last time they'd ordered from there. After Lucius Malfoy's trial Harry had gathered up as much Gryffindor courage as he could and asked Draco out. Draco had only agreed if they went to a nice restaurant, somewhere befitting a Malfoy. After begging Hermione for help, Harry had found a good place for a date. Of course, being a first date, it simply had to go badly. Harry came twenty minutes late, the waiter messed up their orders, and somehow Harry succeeded in flipping his plate into Draco's lap. There was also the drink he'd accidentally flung into the blond's face. But for some reason, despite spending all night claiming he would never go on another date with him again, Draco had gone out with Harry over and over, until they got to this point.

Harry looked over the menu quickly before deciding he wasn't in the mood of French food right now. What he could really use was something ice cold. The air conditioning wasn't quite doing its job and he was starting to get hot. He laughed softly, remembering the first time he and Draco went to America together. Draco had chased an ice cream truck down the streets of Brooklyn, New York before somehow getting the entire contents of the truck for free. That was one odd conversation with the Muggle police that Harry was not keen on repeating. Incidentally, sugar and Draco did not go well together. Not at all. It was worse than drunk Draco, who Harry had had to deal with more than enough times. Sugar high Draco ran around the entirety of Brooklyn and part of Manhattan before Harry caught up to him. The next day they'd toured muggle and magical Manhattan, which was just as interesting if not more so than magical Britain.

He smiled again and put down the menu. Hmm, what to have, what to have…Harry was the one who cooked which meant that he was also the one who knew the kitchen inventory. There wasn't enough ice cream for him to make a good milkshake or iced coffee, but maybe…A good pudding pie would be nice. It would also make a nice dessert for dinner tonight. But that didn't solve his problem at the moment. He needed something right now.

Stopping by the bookcase, Harry quickly surveyed the books on the shelves. He'd never been a great student but ever since Hogwarts he'd realized he was desperately lacking in several areas. A year after the war he asked Hermione for some books to catch up on his muggle and magical studies. Sure, he could get any job he wanted in the wizarding world. Everyone wanted to hire the Chosen One, the Savior, the Boy Who Lived, even if he hadn't actually finished Hogwarts. The only offer he'd even thought twice about was the one from the British Auror Academy. They asked him to join and he'd been sorely tempted, but it wasn't the right thing to do. In their offer, they mentioned his superior defense skills. He wasn't completely sure what that meant. The DA was definitely a big accomplishment, which was one of the reasons why they'd asked him right away. He hadn't done his final year of Hogwarts and he didn't know all that many spells. After surviving Hogwarts for seventh year, Neville was probably more qualified than he was. For Merlin's sake, he'd defeated Voldemort with an Expelliarmus! Twice!

So as soon as he'd come to those conclusions, he'd thrown himself into his studies, muggle and magical. Muggle, because he wanted to keep his options open, and magical, because quite frankly, his Hogwarts education sucked. After spending what felt like centuries of studying Defense against the Dark Arts he finally received his Mastery and then he was ready to take the next step: finally getting a job.

He found a job pretty quickly and would start next week. Maybe he should look over his plans one more time. Just in case. One could never be to prepared. This was a big opportunity for him and he didn't want to blow it. It wasn't like there was anything else to do now. None of the birds would be around, at least, none that he wanted to see, so it wouldn't be going against what Draco told him. He had to do something.

Pulling a sheaf of parchment from a drawer, Harry began to flip through his plans. He suddenly remembered his earlier argument with Draco and quickly wrote a note on the side of a spare scrap of parchment. The blond wasn't getting away with that this time.

Draco entered the apartment and sniffed appreciatively. "Smells good. What are you making?" he called.

"Salad and lasagna, with a pudding pie for dessert. How was work?" Harry looked up as the blond entered the kitchen. "You didn't send me any emergency letters, so I assume nothing went horribly wrong."

"Meetings all day, of course. But I made the deal I've been working on all month, so at least there's one good thing that came out of today." He sat down and watched his boyfriend finish preparing dinner. "What about you? What did you do today?"

"Well…"

Rolling his eyes, Draco groaned. "You went over your plans again, didn't you?"

"Maybe…" Harry ducked the gray gaze, trying not to blush. "But I couldn't think of anything else to do!"

"You live in London! You can use the Floo or apparate wherever you want! There must be something you want to do," Draco retorted.

"But it's hot outside!" Harry whined.

"Yes, but you're a wizard. Find something to do!"

Harry sighed. "I went through our apartment and relived memories. Then I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I figured I should look over my plans. You can't be too prepared, right?"

"Yes, you can. You're going to go crazy, Harry! You'll be burned out before you even start work next week!" Draco shook his head. "It's funny, I'd expect Granger – "

"Weasley," Harry interjected.

"Weasley, right. I'd expect Weasley to panic and go through all the plans a million times. You…I'd expect you to just run in and start working, no preparation whatsoever." The blond tilted the chair back on two legs and successfully met Harry's gaze. "This is very Ravenclaw of you."

"I can't just do it on the seat of my pants. This is the next generation we're talking about. They have to know something. More than we were taught." Harry mussed his hair, thinking. "I don't want to mess this up. I've messed up everything else."

Draco stood up and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist. "You're not going to mess this up. I have faith in you. You'll be great."

"I hope so."

"Don't worry so much. I'll stay home and see you off, okay? How does that sound?" He pressed a kiss to Harry's lips. "Relax a little."

"Fine. We'll see what happens next week." Harry gently detangled Draco's arms from his waist and set the food on the table. "The first day of school."

The blond smiled. "Yup. The first day of school."