Chapter one

The subtle sound of a restless owl was heard over the open fireplace. The white haired male with defined features were sitting slouched on the big armchair in front of the fire. A clock was ticking in the background. Draco swept his hair back over his shoulders and waited patiently, an opened letter was carelessly tossed on the wooden table in front of him. He threw a glance at the clock, it was unusual for the—

A crack was heard from the fireplace and Draco curved his lips into a smile when a young male stepped out of the raging fire.

"Blaise", he greeted, without moving a finger or making any attempt to move from the armchair.

Blaise stared at the blonde male, a pair of dark slanting eyes meeting the pair of a very ice gray color.

"Draco." He greeted back, the tone was icy even though he was smiling. Draco, who could detect the false smile better than anyone else, got up from his chair. Walking around the small couch table, they embraced in a short and supposedly friendly hug. Taking a step back they looked at each other. Blaise raised his eyebrow when he saw the length of the blonde's hair.

"Why, I see you're taking after your father", he stated as he looked at the long hair cascading over the taller man's shoulder. Draco reached out a hand and tugged at Blaise's darkbrown hair, which was exceptionally shorter.

"And I see you cut yours off."

It was true. It had been four years ago since they had last seen each other - the day they had both walked out of the doors of Hogwarts for the last time. Back then Draco had been the one with hair that didn't even reach his shoulders and now his hair was longer than Blaise's had ever been in school.

"Yes, it seems like I did."

Draco frowned at the reply and reached to take out his wand out of his robe. With a quick turn of it, an identical arm chair turned up next to the already existing one behind the tiny table. He motioned the other to sit down.

"I liked it better when you kept it long, Blaise", he pointed out as they both sat down. Blaise stared at him darkly and looked away. The sexuality of the male in front of him had been widely known among the Slytherin boys, and the constant assumptions had been excessive.

Not getting a reply, Draco leaned back. Everything remotely friendly about him was swept away. "Now, this is all nice. But why are you here, really?" He made a gesture towards the letter. "It was very diffuse, I couldn't make heads or tails out of it." It actually made him annoyed just to think about it, and apparently Blaise could notice. The dark haired male shifted uncomfortably on the seat. This was the only place he could have thought of, so he had no other choice. It was embarrassing and awkward, but there was nothing else he could do. He couldn't face the other as he opened his mouth for a shameful confession.

"I …. I'm in need of accommodation."

There was an interesting story to why they hadn't seen each other on four years. After both of them had graduated from Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, they had gone separate ways. Draco had moved back to his family mansion and with help of his father he had taken a place as a very influent person in the Ministry of Magic. Later he had found a nice house of his own, not very legally acquired. Blaise, on the other hand, had been completely disowned by his rich mother due to a scandal. Since then no one had really known what had happened with the handsome half Italian boy. Except until a few days ago when Draco had received a letter from his old classmate. They had always been on somewhat good terms because they both had found themselves better than the rest, but that was also the same reasons were why they never really got along. Draco had always been willing to put aside his superiority complex, however, Blaise had not been able to do that.

And now, the young man was sitting there, very stiff in the arm chair. His not even shoulder length brown hair was almost black, and the eyes were lowered in shame from the words he had just uttered.

Draco stared at him, his thin white eyebrow raised.

"You…." He let the last vocal roll of his tongue and Blaise didn't hesitate to break the anticipation,

"Yes, I need someplace to stay for a while before I get my act together and you were the only place I could think of. Look, I can't pay you now, but I'll—"

The man got silenced when a house elf came and put tea on the table in front of them.

"I made some sandwiches for Master", the little sickly blue house elf said quietly in a very high pitched voice to Draco and lowered his back in an ridiculous submissive bow. Draco gave it a minimalistic nod and return his gaze to his old school mate, while the elf servant disappeared in front of them.

"How will you repay me?" Draco asked calmly.

"I… I don't know. I don't have any money right now." Blaise replied, in a bitter tone of voice.

Draco shifted in the chair in silence, observing the awkward man in front of him. The fact that he had power over the other made him thrilled, adding to that the fact that the other was fighting the ashamed flush on his face for even requesting accommodation and admitting he was broke to a fellow socialite wizard. The blonde wizard smiled sweetly.

"I think we can work something out."