It had all started very suddenly. Harry could remember the exact moment as he stared out the rain washed window of a small cafe into a gray London. He was watching intently for someone. A someone with sleek, white blonde hair.

Harry hadn't seen Draco for years besides brief encounters a few wizarding functions. They had never spoken but just the sight of his old enemy brought back a tirade of memories and left him in a strange mood sometimes for weeks afterward.

Five days ago, he had decided he was tired of hiding from the past. Tired of ignoring what had happened and trying to make sense of it on his own. On that slow day at the ministry, Harry realized it was time to face this, time to finally settle things once and for all.

He lookd down at the cooling cup of coffee in his hand. He took a small sip and placed it on the table in front of him. Uncounciously his hand slid down to his back pocket and removed the leather wallet he kept for whenever he ventured into the muggle world. He opened it and slipped out a small, moving photograph. The edges were wrinkled from all the times he'd held it, smoothing a finger over the smiling face of Ginny Weasley. Her eyes glowed as she happily ran her hands over her buldging stomach. He'd taken this picture a week before the accident that had taken her and their baby's life. His eyes stung and he quickly put the picture away, not wanting Draco to find him crying over something that had happened over a year ago.

But then, he thought to himself, I'm seeing him over something that happened more than ten years ago and he agreed to the meeting. The bell over the door tinkled making Harry look up sharply. Sure enough, the person walking into the cafe, shaking rain off their coat and looking around, was Draco Malfoy. Harry was just about to make some gesture to get the tall man's attention when pale gray eyes found him. They looked at each other for a few seconds before Draco walked over to the table and sat across from Harry.

"Hello, Mr. Potter," he said stiffly, pausing before he said Harry's name, clearly unsure of what to call him. Harry inclined his head slightly and answered in return.

"Mr. Malfoy." Silence fell on the table. The same memories was running through both men's minds but neither were willing to be the one to bring it up. An oblivious, young waitress was the one to break the quiet. Loudly, chewing bubble gum and barely putting away her phone long enough to talk to them, she asked Draco what he wanted to order.

"Just a coffee," he said softly, wanting her to go away. She rolled her eyes.

"What kind of coffee?" she asked.

"Whatever he's having is fine."

"What's he having? There are a lot of customers, I can't remember everyone's order," she said rudely. There was only one other person in the cafe. Draco sneered at the woman and opened his mouth to make a sharp retort.

"One spoonful of cream, two of sugar," Harry interrupted mildly. The waitress scribbled on her notepad then stalked away angrily. Draco watched her go with malice in his expression.

"I hate muggles," he muttered under his breath and Harry took another sip from his cup. He hid a small smile behind the rim of the mug.

"You never change, do you?" he asked good naturedly. Draco glared at him making him laugh lightly. "Honestly, if you were suddenly kind to muggles I wouldn't believe that you weren't being controlled by someone. It's just," he paused, "part of who you are, I guess. And I don't mean that in a bad way." Silence fell over the table again. Draco was watching Harry with a guarded expression.

"Why did you ask me here?" he finally said. Harry lowered the cup he'd just emptied slowly, a thoughtful look on his face.

"You know why. I said so in the letter I sent you."

"Yes, I know why, technically. But why now? Why at all? I thought you were happy. Married to your best friend's sister, child on the way, good job at the ministry, respected by the entire wizarding community. Why bring up an old accident?" Harry stared at Draco for a minute.

"Did you not hear what happened?" he asked. Draco frowned, not sure what Harry was talking about.

"I haven't been involved in much of the wizarding world these last two years, so unless you're talking about something besides what happened at school I have no idea."

"Ginny's dead," Harry said bluntly. "So is the baby." Draco gasped involuntarily. He couldn't stop himself from asking.

"What happened?" Harry looked down at the table where his wallet was still laying. He flipped it open and pulled the picture out again.

"About a week after this picture was taken, some old death eaters attacked our house while I was away hunting down a few of their comrades. It was a goose chase, a ploy to take me away from my family so they could get to them. Ginny was asleep and never knew what happened. They murdered her in our bed, used a knife so we couldn't track them. All were escapees from Azakaban after they started to put the trace back on their prisoners," Harry explained in a hollow voice. Draco felt his heart go out to the dark haired man across from him.

"Why now?" Harry continued. "I got tired of feeling like I'd missed a step going downstairs every time I saw you. There's something unresolved between us and I'd like closure."

"So you're digging up the past," Draco stated simply. Harry stared at him, not saying a word. The waitress came back to the table and set a steaming cup of coffee in front of Draco. She stalked away without asking if either of them wanted anything else, already intent on her phone. Draco grabbed the handle gingerly and took a sip. He made a face and put the cup back down quickly.

"That's bitter!" he exclaimed, grabbing a handful of artificial sweetner out of the small container on the table. "How can you drink that stuff?" he asked while dumping in at least ten packets of sugar. Harry chuckled.

"I don't have a major sweet tooth like you do," he answered. Draco made a face at him, stired the coffee with a lazy flick of his finger that made Harry frown, then took another sip.

"Much better," he declared.

"You're not supposed to use magic in a muggle establishment, you know," Harry said mildly.

"What are you going to do, arrest me?" Draco asked, arching one pale eyebrow. Harry shrugged, nonchalantly.

"I could, but it seems too much effort for such a little thing. Can't say I care that much. Especially seeing as even if someone besides me had been watching, it's not like they would know what you just did."

"Then why raise all the fuss?"

"I didn't raise fuss, I simply reminded you of the law. You were the one that carried it on." Draco smiled at Harry, a small upturning of the corners of his mouth. Harry returned it after a moment's hesitation. He fiddled idly with the cup still in his hands. After a long pause Draco spoke up again.

"We never use too have any trouble finding things to say to each other," he commented in an amused tone. Harry let out a small bark of laughter.

"True, but what we said wasn't ever exactly kind, was it?" Draco shook his head in the negative. Harry asked a question he had wondered about for many years, "Why did you dislike me from the first second you laid eyes on me?"

"I did no such thing. I was perfectly friendly when we first met. The first two times, in fact. It was you that rejected my offer of friendship." Draco responded.

"You had just insulted the only person that had ever been nice to me. And in Madam Mulken's you were acting like Dudley."

"Dudley?"

"My cousin. Spoiled from birth and fond of beating me up." Draco looked down at the table with a somewhat guilty expression on his face.

"Yes, I've heard through the grapevine that your childhood wasn't the golden paradise than I'd always accused you of."

"No, it really wasn't. Both you and Severus were very convinced of my living in a comfortable household that doted on my every whim."

"Didn't you tell me about some of that during-" Draco paused uncomfortably. "During-" he stopped again.

"Yeah," Harry replied. Both refused to make eye contact. The waitress came by the table with a sullen expression, probably having just been told to go see if they needed anything.

"I'll have another coffee," Harry told her just as she opened her mouth to ask. They didn't speak for the few minutes it took for the waitress to bring him his new cup and remove the old one. Harry took a sip then grabbed one of the sugar packets.

"She forgot my order again," he murmured quietly as he added the suger to the dark liquid. Draco made a disgusted noise.

"She's a horrible waitress. Or is this service customary of run down muggle cafes?"

"No, she's just bad. Judging by the glares she's getting from the cook and manager back there, she's not going to be working here much longer. Probably as long as it takes to find a replacement."

"Good. I wouldn't inflict her service on anyone." Harry chuckled.

"Well, now that we're both here, we might as well discuss what we're here to talk about," Harry said. Draco gripped the handle of his cup tightly and nodded stiffly. Instantly both thought back to what had happened years ago. Years ago, but both still remembered it with clarity.

*~*~*10 years ago; Hogwarts*~*~*

The sun slid across the floor of the sixth year, Gryffindor boys dorm room. The curtains were pulled tightly around all five beds preserving the darkness surrounding their inhabitants. Birds were chirping loudly outside the window, darting back and forth. A loud bang sounded from the common room, cracking the silence and waking four of the boys instantly. Ron gave a sharp snore and rolled over in his bed but otherwise did not stir. Harry sat up quickly, opened the curtains, and was now searching for his glasses on the table beside the head of his bed.

"What's goin' on?" Seamus called out.

"I don't know. Sounded like something exploded," Dean responded. He, Seamus, and Neville got up and went downstairs. Harry, who had finally located his glasses, slid them onto his face and went over to Ron's bed to wake him up. After a few minutes, they too were headed down the stairs to the common room. There they found a crowd surrounding a stunned looking Colin Creevey. He was covered in soot and standing in front of a singed hole in the carpet.

"What did you do?" a scandalized looking Hermione asked loudly. He snapped to look at her and seemed surprised by the group that had gathered.

"I-I was practicing a spell and I accidentally hit a deck of exploding snap. Then this happened," he trailed off. Hermione's face softened slightly. She stepped forward to help him clean up and the others, realizing there wasn't anything interesting happening, wandered off back to their dorms. Harry and Ron went to Hermione's side.

"It's ok, let's just clean it up," she said quietly. She waved her wand and the frayed edges of the rug extended and wove themselves together forming a complete pattern again. When she was done she brushed off most of the ash covering Colin's front with another quick spell. Ron, still sleepy, slumped into an armchair and promptly fell asleep again. After she'd done all she could, Hermione sent Colin upstairs to clean off properly. She gave Harry an exasperated look.

"Certainly not how I was planning to wake up," he commented lightly. She gave a small sigh in agreement.

"It wasn't too bad but I should talk to McGonagall, make sure there wasn't any damage to the stone. Wouldn't want anything worse to happen."

"It was just a deck of exploding snap. It couldn't cause anything that bad."

"But was it just a deck of exploding snap? I don't see any cards and I've never heard of this kind of accident occuring before. I think Colin was lying about what happened." Harry looked down at the newly sown circle in the floor. He nodded in agreement though he still suspected Hermione was over reacting. She glanced at Ron and gave a more pronounced sigh. "I can see he wasn't expecting to be up this early on a Saturday morning either."

"No, and I guess he's decided it's not worth the time to go back up to bed," Harry replied with a smile. Hermione shook her head as she started walking to the portrait hole.

"I'm going to go talk to Professor McGonagall," she announced. Harry waved her good-bye then poked Ron awake again. They trooped back upstairs silently. Under the rug and down through the thick stone floor, the force of the magic resonated. Something shifted in the fragile balance and something ancient awoke.