A/N: God, it's been a long time since I've written so I decided to write this one-shot to get back into the swing of things! I love hearing what you guys have to say - constructive criticism is much loved. Like? Hate? Please review! I have some ideas for longer stories - which may include these guys - but I need to know what's hot/not before I go on! Hugs and kisses to you all! Enjoy the fluff!
"Oh, fuck! Why did I agree to do this?"
Enter one Harry Potter, storming into the library in Grimmauld Place.
"Because if I don't turn up with a date to this evening's meal, my mother will try and arrange a marriage for me with one of my French cousins and you, you idiotic Gryffindor, feel some sort of obligation to me, to save me from my 'future'."
Turn to one Draco Malfoy, sitting at a table in said library, whiskey in hand, looking utterly relaxed with a slight smirk adorning that irritatingly perfect face.
Harry turned to look Draco in the eye. He advanced forward to the other side of the table and growled deeply, his eyes bright with a mixture of anger, frustration and unease. But, curiously, Draco observed a reserved quality in the usually open expression of Harry. It made him hopeful.
"Easy, tiger."
"Fuck you, Malfoy."
This gave Draco the impetus to finally make his confession.
"Don't you think that's a little rude, now that we're supposed to be lovers, madly in love and lust with each other?" Draco's smirk widened and stood so that he is eye to eye with Harry, with just a small table separating them. He leant in so that his face was a hair's breath away from the other's mouth. Harry's breath hitched and his eyes were unable to break the contact with the blonde's.
"I know I'm attracted to you, and have been for a very, very long time, and I'm hoping that you're attracted to me. Mmm ..." Draco lifted his right hand so that it rested upon Harry's left cheek, a delicate touch of finger tips over sensitised flesh, barely skimming the soft skin. He leant in further so that his lips were near Harry's right ear. He noticed the gooseflesh that appeared, satisfied when it was obvious that it was his breath which caused such a physical reaction.
Murmuring, he spoke gently, "Why do you think that I asked you, of all people, to act as my lover while my cousins are in the country? Hm, I do find it hard to believe that Gryffindor obliviousness extends so far that you could misinterpret this. I could have asked anyone, I'm sure they would have agreed without hesitation, " Harry began to hold his breath, seeking to hear every word that came out of the blonde's mouth. He turned his head ever so slightly towards Draco's and remained quiet while he continued to speak. "In fact, I'm sure they would have asked me to be their real lover, not just a pretend one." Draco turns his mouth away from Harry's ear and places a chaste kiss upon the cheek before him. "Why do you think I asked you when I could have had an easy ride with anyone else, hm?"
"I...I...I... I don't know."
Draco sighed and smiled gently against the cheek he was still speaking to.
"Let me tell you a secret. When I was eleven, I met this most gorgeous creature. He had hair as black as night and lips as red as blood. He reminded me of Snow White - all innocence and goodness, which I never knew existed. I lived in a world where beauty was coveted and power even more so. I first saw my father kill when I was seven. I knew the Unforgivable Curses when I was eight. I had read every book on dark magic by the time I was thirteen. Then, this creature appeared and showed me that in my world, a world of darkness, death and evil, there is light and true beauty."
Draco felt something wet against his lips as he spoke and realised Harry was crying - for him. Draco pulled away and something broke inside of the Boy-Who-Lived. He crumpled to the floor and sobbed. Draco rushed around to the other side of the table and held the crying man in his arms.
"And, do you know what? That boy that I first met, I still see him every time I look at you. All that innocence and purity and trust. In school, my heart broke every time you were hurt. When you held Cedric's body in your arms, when Hermione was petrified, when your Uncle fell through the Veil. But most of all, every time I hurt you, I think a little bit of me died. I wished I could have shown you the real me in those years, but I couldn't. Just like you, I was a child stuck in the middle of a adults war. What could I have done? I wish I had been brave enough to stand up to them and stand beside you. Maybe, then, we could have really fallen in love." Draco rocked Harry throughout his confession and tears began to stream down his own face.
There was a long moment of silence when the two men just held onto each other.
"Draco?"
"Yes, Harry?"
Harry wriggled around in Draco's arms so that he could rest his head in the crook of the blonde's neck, wrap his arms around his waist and throw his legs over Draco's thighs.
"Harry?"
"Mmm, oh yeah, " Harry blushed slightly, "I was... umm ... I ... oh crap."
And with that Harry sat up straight and kissed Draco. Not just a peck, but a full-on, I-fucking-love-you-why-didn't-you-tell-me-earlier? kiss. All the emotion that had been locked away came pouring out in that one kiss. Everything which had been unspoken for too long, was conveyed through that one solitary action. They became lost in each other; their tastes, smells, textures. Neither one knew how long they were occupied - it could have been minutes, hours or even days for all they cared - but Draco eventually pulled back.
"Harry?" This time, when he said the name, he was panting.
"I've always loved you, you stupid ferret face. I used to hate myself for it because you were such a bigoted bastard but, after the war, when you were making amends, I fell for you again." Draco opened his mouth to interrupt. "Let me finish, please?" Draco closed his mouth. "I told Hermione and Ron how I felt for you in Fifth Year. Ron screamed at me for being 'gay for Malfoy'. In his eyes, I was disgusting first and foremost because I loved a man. Hermione screamed at me because I couldn't possibly love a Malfoy. To her, you were cold and callous and had been the source of most of her pain. I pretended to take on their advice, but you were never far from my mind. How could I leave them for you, when you appeared to be untouchable? But when I saw you with Teddy after the war, so patient and kind, and I saw the first real smile I'd ever seen on your face when he reached out for a cuddle from his cousin, how could I resist you?"
There was small pause before Draco hit the nail on the head.
"You didn't want to pretend to be my lover because you want to be my lover?"
Harry nodded and hid his head in the neck in front of him.
"Harry?"
"Hm?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"We were so young."
An aged Harry Potter-Malfoy stepped away from the memory with his lover turned husband beside him.
"Can you believe we were only twenty-two when that happened?"
Draco Potter-Malfoy smiled softly at his husband. "Harry, you are as beautiful as you were then. The fourty years we've had together - I wouldn't change a minute of it."
The two lovers embraced and kissed softly.
"I suppose we best go back to our party. It is, after all, our anniversary."
Draco and Harry walked together, neither one of them as fast as in their youth, but they still held that sparkle of young love as they held each other's hands.
Everyone who saw them together at that party knew how much the two adored each other and when the news arrived the next day that the couple had passed away together in their sleep, nobody wept but smiled gently and quoted the vows the two had promised to each other when they married: " Wherever you will go, I will always be at your side, ready to face the unknown. Death shall not part us, for you are my joy, my world, my life. I hope the gods bond our life forces together - I could not live a single day in this world without you. I love you far more than I love this existence."