Fiction rated: M, English, Romance, Harry Potter-Draco Malfoy

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and the other characters

Puzzle

Chapter 1

Life had returned to normal for Harry Potter. Voldemort was gone and the last of the Death Eaters were sent to Azkaban. All of the wizard community had started to take its normal pace.

Harry was sitting in Ron's room at the Weasleys, looking at the boxes and chest in which he had gathered most of his things. It was time to move. He finally worked up the courage for it. He was leaving for Sirius's house, now his, Number 12 Grimmauld Place to be on his own, independent. This made him feel as an adult, more than all the other events form his life until then. 'Am I able to do this?', Harry asked himself.

'Hey, Harry, what are you doing? Come on, dinner is almost ready. Ron had appeared and that got Harry out of his contemplative state.

'Yeah, sure…'

'Oh, I must have called you a million times', said a smiling and slightly annoyed Ron. 'What were you thinking?'

'Nothing, let's go.'

Arriving downstairs, Harry saw that all of the Weasleys were already gathered. Mrs. Weasley was still busy organizing the meal (in Harry's honor), being helped by Hermione and Ginny. Mr. Weasley was reading the newspaper, the Evening Prophet, while Fred and George were teasing their older brother Percy.

Along with Harry and Ron, Lupin and Tonks appeared. After several excited greetings, Mrs. Weasley announced that dinner was ready. Harry was seating between Hermione and Ginny.

'I am so sorry that you are leaving, Harry dear', said Mrs. Weasley. 'But I know, you have to be independent', she sighed.

'Thank you, Mrs. Weasley. I am sorry too, this is the first real home that I had, beside Hogwarts.' Harry was trying not to think too much about the castle in which he had spent the most wonderful years of his life so far. The Auror School was nothing like Hogwarts, and Harry din not feel sorry when it was over. Anyway, he had to finish his final year at Hogwarts to become an Auror, which he did, studying alongside Ron and Hermione in order to be able to pass the final exams. He hadn't returned at the castle from the night of the final battle between him and Voldemort and he really missed his old school.

'Mom, let's not start this discussion again', jumped Fred.

'Yeah mom, leave the poor boy alone. He is 21 now. It's time for him to be on his own', added George.

'Yes, I know…'

'And Harry, are you excited about living alone?', asked Lupin.

'In a way, yes. But as I was saying…'

'It was your first real home, beside Hogwarts', added Ginny.

Harry offered her a smile, although he didn't really appreciate her comment. Actually, he had realized a long time ago that he was unable to love her as she wanted. He cared about her, but in the same way he cared about Hermione, like a sister. Nothing more. And he certainly did not want to get back to the lover relationship they had before the war.

Meanwhile, the discussion had drifted from the subject of Harry's departure, much to his relief. Lupin, Mr. Weasley and Percy were talking about the Ministry, the Twins and Ron about the latest inventions for the shop, Tonks and Ginny about Quidditch and Hermione and Mrs. Weasley about the flowers that they were going to pick for the wedding, because she and Ron were about to get married in the near future.

The discussion concerning the Ministry of Magic drew Harry's attention, because they were speaking about the Auror Office and about Draco Malfoy, which had proven himself a good Auror.

Harry had contradicting feelings about him. In the end, Draco was on their side, he had joined the Order and worked against Voldemort. He remembered that night, before he turned 17. Harry was enjoying solitude because the Dursleys were not home. Looking out the window, he saw a silhouette in the grass and, hurrying outside to see who it was, we was surprised to see Draco Malfoy laying on the lawn. Harry rapidly brought him into the house, dragging him up to his room. After he laid him on the bed, he did not waste any time and announced the Order and told them to be quick, because Draco was severely wounded: his face and hands were covered in blood, and he had bruises all over his body. Curios, Harry had approached the bed to examine him better and then Malfoy woke up. For a moment he seemed very confused, and then his gaze fell upon Harry:

'Potter…', he said with a weak voice.

'Don't try to speak, you are wounded. Who the hell did this to you Malfoy? Sorry, really stupid question. For a moment, I forgot on whose side you're on. Should I understand that this is what happens when Voldemort doesn't have his way?'

Malfoy closed his eyes again, in an attempt to escape from Harry's words.

'Shut up… you don't know anything…'

'In a short while someone will come to take you out of here. They will get you some place safe. They will probably try to cure you. And after that you will have to start talking', said Harry in with an icy voice.

After he was healed, Malfoy told the members of the Order that Voldemort had made him watch as his parents were tortured and killed. Afterward, amused, he tortured Malfoy and told him to leave because sooner or later he would come back.

The Order of the Phoenix asked Malfoy to return to Voldemort, to be a double agent, and he had accepted. He realized how Voldemort truly was. He was very good at Occlumency, it was one of the lessons that his father had taught him.

After the night in which he had appeared on the Dursleys lawn, Harry hadn't seen Malfoy until the night of the final battle, when Voldemort had been killed. Harry found out the Malfoy was very valuable to the Order and its members had testified in his favor, to avoid being sent to Azkaban. The Ministry of Magic had pardoned him, and gave him all of his parent's fortune back, all except the Malfoy mansion, which was destroyed by an attack of the Order because it had been used by the Death Eaters as headquarters.

After his release, Malfoy had decided to become an Auror and he and Harry had been colleagues again. Although both their behavior had remained the same, they had tried to avoid the fights from their previous school years. Now, Harry and Malfoy were both Aurors and worked for the Ministry, but they hadn't been assigned together to any mission. At the office, they had a cordial relationship, although some fights had been inevitable, but more subtle than in the past.

However, strangely, Harry felt attracted to Malfoy. Firstly we wanted to know why Harry had chosen him that night, why he had appealed to him and to nobody else. Also, he wanted to know more details about the time when Malfoy has worked for the Order. Harry wanted to ask him about this for a long time but every time he wanted to get close to Malfoy, something unexpected happened that stopped him to talk about what he wanted.

Another strange thing was that Harry though that Malfoy wanted to talk to him too.

Harry thought about all this during dinner, while he was trying to actively participate to the conversation, but he finally realized that Malfoy had taken over his thoughts completely.

At long last, everyone finished eating and Lupin along with Tonks said good-bye and went home. The rest of them withdrew in their own rooms to go to bed. Harry thought that Ginny wanted to tell him something, so he hurried to tell the good night and leave. Several moments later, Ron had entered the room and again started to complain about the fact that he couldn't sleep with Hermione, because of the interdiction imposed by his mother. He said good night to Harry, went into his bed and almost instantly fell asleep. Harry did the same and he himself fell asleep pretty quick, enjoying a tranquil night, without nightmare, likes he was used to. Those nightmares were a nuisance for Harry because he couldn't escape from their almost nightly torture. He dreamt about Voldemort, before he died, he dreamt about his parents and he especially dreamt about himself, alone, unloved and abandoned by everyone.

The next morning, after breakfast, Harry said good-bye to the Weasleys, thanking them for everything they had done. It was a teary break-up but Harry promised that there will be a lot of visiting between each-other.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny accompanied him to his new home, to help him get settled, although their help was not really needed, because of Kreatcher and because almost everything had already been prepared. Although he knew that his friends had taken a day off from work only to be with him, Harry was somewhat bothered that Ginny was there too. But everyone thought that it was a good idea, so Harry couldn't say no. Kreatcher had already prepared almost everything, so they did not have much, only to set Harry's clothes in the closets and to again admire their work to make the house suitable for living, and to recount the years that had passed.

Kreatcher prepared for them some tea and cookies (it was a long time since it had been proven that the house-elf had a special gift for cooking) and the four friends enjoyed them in the living room. Ron and Hermione had decided to leave and Harry knew that the two wanted to take advantage of the rest of the free day to spend some time together. He felt left out, although he understood that the two shared something that he could not. But he was not bothered, because he knew that they deserved to be happy after all they had been through together.

Ginny decided to stay a while longer with Harry, saying that she doesn't want him to feel alone. Actually, Harry knew that she wanted to speak with him and knew that he could not avoid it this time. He disliked this, because he showed her that he doesn't want another relationship with her, it had been pretty obvious and he did not want to reject her directly; he wanted to avoid hurting her.

'Harry', Ginny started, 'there is something I need to tell you. Several days ago I ran into Dean Thomas and he asked me out. I said yes.

Harry was speechless. He had though that Ginny wanted to persuade him to be together again but he had been mistaken.

'Aaa', he started, 'but I thought that…'

'I know. You thought that I wanted us to be like before, you know, a couple.'

'Well, yeah, that would be it.'

'But you don't want this right? It was more than obvious that you don't want us to be together anymore. After the War was over, I believed that everything will come back to normal between us so I've waited for a sign from you. But already 4 years have passed and still nothing. Everything is back to normal, except for us. I've been patient, I've said to myself that you've been through a lot and that you have to start rebuilding your life. To follow your dream to become and Auror, to have a career. However, somewhere along the way I saw reality. But I didn't want to accept it, until I found out that you want to live alone, without me. It was then when I opened my eyes, I think, and realized that you never loved me more than a sister, you never have, not even when we were together.

While she was speaking, Harry saw that Ginny had tears in her eyes and that hurt him.

'Ginny, I'm sorry…'

'No Harry. Please don't be sorry. We can't change who we really are. I've realized this and also accepted it. Now it's time to go on with my life. I still want you to know that I love you and that nothing is going to change this.'

Relieved, Harry hugged Ginny and, for a brief moment, she held tightly to him, like she wouldn't or couldn't let go. Then she wiped her tears and said:

'Another thing: I hope you realize who you really are as soon as possible.'

With these words, she kissed Harry on the cheek and left. Harry felt very relieved alter the conversation, he did not have to be cruel to Ginny, to make her understand that him and she had accepted it. But he still was very intrigued by her last words, because he believed he knew himself. 'I know who I am, right?', Harry asked himself and started thinking about the answer.

'Master Harry, you have a visitor'. Harry was startled by the sudden apparition of Kreatcher. He realized that he had stayed in the living room thinking for several hours and that the time dinner was close. Behind Kreatcher was the last man Harry would have expected to see: Draco Malfoy.

Notes: it's my first fic, so be gentle... i'll update really soon