A/N: This is for the practice round for the Kenmare Kestrels in the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. Thank you Lucy Kent for beta'ing!

Enjoy!

Word count: 2089

Prompt: Suspense (original prompt - write a story using a lesser-used genre)

Optional Prompts: topaz, mermaid, "To die would be an awfully big adventure"

"What now?"

"What do you mean what now?"

"She's going to kill us."

Draco looked over at the Boy Who Lived To Ruin His Life with a haughty look. "She's going to kill you. You're the one who had the brilliant idea – "

"You went along with it!" Harry waved his hands wildly at the blonde. Sometimes he really questioned what the brunette saw in this twat. "You're just as guilty!"

The sound of the door to Hermione's apartment opening stopped the argument. "I'm not sticking around for her to kill me," Draco shot out. As Harry watched, he raced to the window and jumped out.

"Wait for me!" And he jumped out too.

Hopefully they'd survive.

U_U

Draco pushed his wet hair back with one hand as he and the Chosen Imbecile pulled themselves onto shore. "Why did you grab onto my sleeve when I Disapparated? You could have ruined this shirt!"

"Well, sorry for trying not to die!"

"You jumped out a window after me! From the fifth floor! What was going through your head, Scarhead?" he shot back. "I had a plan. What did you have?"

"Um…figured I'd do whatever you did?" Harry gave him a sheepish grin. "I wasn't really thinking about it. And is your shirt really quite so important? More important than my life?"

"Certainly. Authentic Spanish silk."

Harry wrinkled his eyebrows. "Spain is famous for their silk?"

"It was expensive, dammit!" Pointing his want at his soaking wet Italian leather shoes (which probably cost more than Potter's whole wardrobe put together, no doubt) to dry them, Draco shook his head to get the water out of his ears. "What are you wearing?"

"Cotton t-shirt and jeans. I know, not as expensive as Italian leather." At Draco's raised eyebrow, he shrugged. "Hermione has a good influence on me. I know more about clothes and stuff now. Anyway, why the lake?"

"It's safe, and she would never even think of coming here to find us. What was with you and that mermaid?"

Harry's face turned bright red. "She…er…said she'd heard about me from the mermaids in Hogwarts's lake. You know, from the Triwizard Tournament? Wanted to see if I was all I was cracked up to be. Um…everything. Y'know, magic, physically."

"Brilliant. Potter fans everywhere." Draco flopped down on the sandy beach (once he'd ruined his clothes, who cared what happened to them? He'd buy new ones tomorrow) and rubbed his eyes. "Can't escape them. They're not even limited to humans anymore. They're – ugh – mermaids. I hate mermaids."

"Oi! No one said you had to stay with me! 'Mione said I was capable of house sitting by myself."

"Which was completely wrong, seeing what happened," Draco drawled.

"I…fine." The dark haired man deflated and lay back beside Draco. "You're right. I probably couldn't have done it without you, considering how badly I messed up when you were there."

Draco sat up, startled, his face turned towards Harry. "You're accepting it? Just like that?"

"Well, you're right. I can accept that."

"I never thought I'd see a Gryffindor back down." Flabbergasted, he lay back down again. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, he asked, "What now?"

"Mmmm…maybe we should go talk to Hermione?"

"Have you met the woman?"

Harry nodded, rethinking his words. "Maybe you should buy a peace offering? To keep her from killing you? Us? Everyone in our general vicinity?"

"That may be the smartest thing you have ever said in the ten years I've known you, Potter. I will admit to being impressed." Draco sat up and crossed his legs, staring at the other man. "You will have to buy something as well. I won't be the only one having to placate her."

"You and your million-Galleon vocabulary," Harry muttered. "Fine. Where should we go, then? You have to have an idea of the kinds of stores she likes, you two are going out. I mean, there's Flourish and – "

"Really, Potter, do you think?" Seeing Harry's blank stare, Draco huffed. "Hermione is a woman. Your girlfriend, the Weaselette, likes Quidditch, am I correct?"

"Yeah…"

"Can't you say yes like a human? Never mind." He huffed, pulling out his wand and beginning to dry himself off. "Would you buy her a new practice Snitch if you accidentally forgot to come to dinner? Or broke her favorite glass figurine? Or – "

"Ginny doesn't collect figurines," Harry shoved in.

"That is not the point!" the blonde shouted. "The point is, would you go buy her Quidditch gear?"

"No…"

"Exactly. Therefore, I will not buy Hermione a book when I mess up. I will buy her something befitting for a brilliant woman like her."

Harry rolled his eyes at the aristocrat's rambling. "What do you have in mind?"

"Jewelry."

"Jewelry?"

"Jewelry."

"Are you sure Hermione will like that?"

Pressing his fingers to his temples, Draco groaned. "Yes, you imbecile, yes. Women like shiny, sparkly things and Hermione is no exception."

"It's funny how you call her Herm – "

"Will you please stay on task, Potter?!" He stood up, brushing himself off and finishing off drying his clothes. "Let's go."

"Go where?" Harry scrambled to stand up and dry himself off. "Where do you want to go?"

"A gemstone market." The blonde rearranged his clothes in a futile attempt to make himself look presentable.

"They have those?"

"Yes, they do. There are few in Britain, but there are many in Turkey. We can go to one my father frequents. Most of them are Muggle." Draco held out his hand to Harry. "Let's go."

"Why? I can Apparate by myself, I'm not a child."

Draco groaned and rolled his eyes. "I meant that we will go Side-Along. This way we don't have a repeat of last time."

"Oh. Yeah. Let's do that."

U_U

Harry gaped at the myriad of gems surrounding him. "This…this is mad. Completely crazy. How do people shop here?"

"Somehow they do," Draco answered distractedly, bending to examine a stall full of different colored stones, mainly wine red and orange. "This will do for you, if you'd like."

"What is it?" The dark haired man shot a quick glance at the impassive stall owner before leaning down to look at what the Slytherin had found.

"Are you that uncouth, Potter?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know everything there is to know about poncy stuff like this, but somehow I still manage to kick your arse every time." He grinned smugly and reached to touch one of them, making Draco slap his hand away. "Oi! What was that for?"

"You do not simply touch something when you don't know what it is! It could be expensive. Or worse, cursed." The blonde began to inspect the stall. Evidently one of them passed whatever ridiculous criteria he had in mind because he handed a large sphere to Harry. "Here. This won't break very easily."

"And again, what is it?" Harry asked impatiently.

"It's topaz." Draco lifted a necklace with a kite-shaped pendant hanging from the golden chain. "Birthstone of November and symbol of friendship. The orange ones, at least."

"Oh. That's what you meant by friendship." The stone was so perfect, so smooth. But Harry knew he wasn't here for this. Not that he would ever say it aloud, but he was willing to trust Draco on what to buy Hermione. After all, the man was still alive, wasn't he? He must've been doing something right.

He turned to see the other man had walked away to another booth. "Hey! Wait up!" The market was busy, he didn't want to lose his only ticket out of this crazy place.

"Potter, are you planning to buy the thing or – Potter, you idiot, where are you going with that?" Harry glanced down at his hand as Draco stared at something over Harry's shoulder with an expression Harry could only describe as fear. "Put it down!"

Turning slowly, he saw what Draco had been scared of.

The big, burly guards.

"Drop it and run, you twat, run!"

Harry made a split second decision and decided to do the smart thing in this situation. Not that he'd admit it.

He listened to Ferret Face and ran.

U_U

"I cannot believe you," Draco grouched. They'd successfully Disapparated and landed in Grimmauld Place, where they were now sitting with a couple of beers. "How dumb must you be to walk away from a booth HOLDING their merchandise? You're lucky they didn't behead us!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I didn't think – "

"Apparently! And quite frankly, I think I'd rather face Hermione's wrath than deal with you any longer!" The man stood up, though he made less of an effect than he usually did. His clothes were bedraggled and wrinkled, his shoes had certainly seen better days, and the blonde hair he was so proud of…well, it wasn't very neat anymore. "Come on!"

"What?! Look, if you want to kill yourself – " Harry started.

"Kill myself? At least this way there's a chance I may survive. With you…with you I'll die a certain death!"

Harry leaned back on his elbows. "'To die would be an awfully big adventure'."

"What – why are you quoting Peter Pan to me, Potter?"

"You know the book?" He looked over at the blonde, who nodded. "It's a Muggle book."

Draco shook his head. "It is not. J.M. Barrie was a wizard. A seer, actually. He had some clairvoyance, mainly in dreams. Peter Pan was one of his dreams."

"I never knew that."

"There is a lot you do not know. Pan supposedly took away Muggleborns from their parents and raised them until they were old enough to go to Hogwarts. He wasn't a child at all, just an incredible Potions Master who constantly took de-aging potions. The book you know of is an adaptation written by a Muggleborn who disliked Barrie's works." He stood up and held out a hand to help the dark haired man up. "Let's go back. Hermione will catch up to us at some point, you know that."

"Yeah. You're right." Harry held up his hand to stop Draco from talking. "We're getting along so well right now. Don't spoil it."

"Fine. Just come."

There was a sharp crack! and the clearing was once again empty.

U_U

Hermione looked at the two sheepish men in front of her. "Let me get this straight…you ran away, assuming I would kill you, because…?"

"You know why we did it!"

"Yeah!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. What had she ever done to deserve these two nitwits? "Because you broke my piano? And the figurines on it? And knocked over my bookcases? All because of what I think was a duel?"

"Obviously."

"Yeah, what he said!" Harry shouted.

"You two are so…argh!" Hermione shook her head. "You're wizards, I'm a witch, we have magic! Did it never cross your minds to simply fix everything?"

"Oh."

"Now that you mention it…" Draco awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe…"

"Exactly. Now Draco, where's my apology gift? And Harry, I presume he convinced you to get one as well?"

The pair exchanged a quick look. No Occlumency needed to figure out what the other was thinking. "See it was – " Harry started.

"Potter – "

"You know what? Forget I asked." She waved a hand towards the living room. "Just…just go find something to do that won't end in you two killing each other."

"Okay."

"I believe I can do that."

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Now let me relax." As the two left the room, she sank into a kitchen chair. Sometimes she wondered if she'd done the right thing, dating Draco. After the war she had met him in the Leaky Cauldron nursing a beer on his own. She'd gone back several times before Draco finally mustered up enough courage to ask her out on a date. It had taken a few more months before she could tell her friends. Ronald was so angry with her, but Harry seemed genuinely happy. That is, whenever Draco wasn't deliberately trying to rile him up. Those two were always baiting each other. Worse than cats and dogs. But right now they were being really good. They weren't fighting, apparently they'd worked together pretty well this afternoon since they were both alive and unhurt –

"That's cheating!" came Harry's indignant voice from the living room.

"Is not!" And there was Draco's haughty tones.

"Is too!"

She groaned again and rubbed her head. There they go again.