A/N: Post-Hogwarts, AU (as in, ignore the last bit of book 7 – because Draco Malfoy is never having a receding hairline or a wife in any fic of mine!). This is my first fic in well over a year so I may be rusty and unable to accommodate the Drarry community now, but here goes anyway…
Harry fidgeted and adjusted his tie for the umpteenth time before anxiously looking at his watch. Hermione was seldom late and he was not in the habit of remaining calm when such an oddity occurred. Harry was a worrier; it was a trait developed by many Hogwarts students who had experienced first-hand the war against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eater Army, they were worriers – and Harry was more so than most. He was about to apparate to the house she shared with Ron when he heard the clacking of heels on the stone driveway behind him, turning to see an out-of-breath Hermione.
"Sorry" she breathed "I got an owl from Ron asking me to send some of his jumpers to Romania, I started worrying he hadn't taken any at all. I don't want him coming home with frostbite, he's awful at any warming spell and you know he won't ask for help."
Harry began to walk and Hermione stepped in line with him, still slightly out of breath and red in the face.
"That's Ron all over, forgetful and stubborn as a mule" Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he examined his own attire compared to Hermione's, he looked up the driveway and back to his friend. "Do you think I'm underdressed?" he questioned, "I feel it now that you're here." He had only been able to root out his simple black dress robes for the occasion whereas Hermione was wearing a striking midnight blue gown, and high heels, and even a dash of makeup.
"You look fine, Harry. To be honest I hate these networking events. Ron never comes with me so I usually find an excuse to stay at home, but tonight the partners of the firm are attending and I think it wise to look involved and interested. Plus it gets you and I out of the house, and maybe there'll be some nice music."
The pair were only halfway down an extravagant entrance to a sprawling manor with temple-like pillars and stone hippogriff effigies lining the front. Harry was starting to worry that he would not meet the standards required by Hermione's high-flying law colleagues. Upon asking who the owner of the manor was, he became aware that even Hermione did not know whose party she was attending.
Harry soon settled into the ebb and flow of the party, grand as the setting was, Hermione's colleagues were pleasant and seemingly as humble as Hermione. He was happily listening to the back-and-forth chatter between Hermione and her closest work buddies, one being Quinn, the lawyer that was currently assisting on a mass-house elf rights case against Durmstrang Institute. He made an off-hand joke about the shocking state of Wizarding school loyalty before turning his attention to Harry.
"Speaking of which I hear you had an adorably rough-and-tumble Slytherin-Gryffindor relationship with tonight's host." He laughed and raised his eyebrows at Hermione, whose face paled instantly.
"Harry I'm so sorry, I really didn't know" Hermione looked mortified as her eyes scanned the ballroom.
"What are you talking about?" Harry was snapped out of his half-trance and was starting to panic that he'd missed something important.
"Draco Malfoy, I've heard all about your Hogwarts antics" Quinn nodded to the other side of the room, apparently unaware of the awkward situation at hand.
There was no doubt in Harry or Hermione's mind that it was definitely Malfoy, he was taller than most and stood out a mile away, with his platinum hair perfectly coiffed and his tinkling false laughter. He was stood with his arm around the waist of a petite blonde lady in a very Slytherin-green, fitted silk dress and very over-the-top diamante jewellery; talking to an elderly gentlemen leaning on an ornate cane.
"You work with Malfoy?" Harry spun to ask Hermione.
"No!" She replied, still mortified. "I don't really understand what's going on here, all I know is that he is talking to my boss, the man I came here to see." Hermione looked on the verge of tears as she frustratedly peered to watch Malfoy.
"Draco is hosting our lovely evening tonight to impress; he's dating Mr Arey's precious daughter, Fauna" Quinn nodded in turn to the green-clad woman "although if you ask me it's more like he's buying the damn daughter, the woman costs him a fortune."
Hermione and Harry were desperately trying their best not to stare at the couple or draw attention to themselves as they turned their backs on their old Slytherin rival. Hogwarts was eleven years in their past but they still disliked the mere idea of him. Although the Malfoys had generally shown nothing but cowardice in the final battle against Voldemort, Draco had still been insufferably rude to the Gryffindor trio during their entire time at Hogwarts.
"You know Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked Quinn quietly, "I never knew that."
"Oh yeah, I've had a couple of cases that have required his signature on the M.o.M documentation. We get on pretty well. I see him outside of work, sometimes." Quinn was, rather boldly, staring intently at Malfoy. "I actually better go say hi, I've been pretty ignorant so far. Can I get either of you a drink while I'm over there?" the two friends both asked for something strong, knowing they would need it to get through the night.
Harry and Hermione had barely calmed down when they were joined by none other than the green-dressed Fauna Arey.
"Harry Potter" her voiced seemed to purr as she held out her hand for Harry to kiss, which he did dutifully, but all too aware that her current boyfriend could come storming over any second. Thankfully this did not occur.
Fauna introduced herself in a sickeningly honeyed voice and ignorantly butted Hermione out of the conversation whilst firing all manner of questions at Harry. It was clear she was only interested in members of the opposite sex, and only famous or powerful ones at that. She was completely insensitive about the war-based questions, people usually avoided the subject but Fauna Arey wanted to know every minor detail. This made Harry feel incredibly uncomfortable. His eyes uncontrollably started flickering across the room to where Quinn had leaned in to talk in Malfoy's ear, who let out a short but genuine laugh before straightening Quinn's dress-robe lapel and grabbing them both a drink. He looked up and caught the bold green eyes staring at him; but almost instantly looked away again. He had the usual Slytherin custom of covering up all emotion, so there was no sure way of gaging his true reaction to Harry's presence. There was something strange about Malfoy's mannerisms, although Harry could not put his finger on it. Fauna was filling his ears with a dreadful amount of nonsense and he needed to get some fresh air and find Hermione. By the time he was making his way across the room, the corner that Malfoy had been in was empty.
Hermione was nowhere to be found, so Harry settled down on a stone bench in the cool breeze, nursing a firewhisky and enjoying the solitary moment away from the overbearing Fauna. He could not comprehend how even a Malfoy could abide such a foul, pretentious, and selfish narcissist. The woman was, for all intents and purposes, beastly. Entirely akin to Draco Malfoy's old girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson, although a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
Harry tried his best to forget about the ghastly femme fatale. The night was cool enough for him to watch his breath rise and disappear into the night, the stars were sparse but bright and there were fairies lighting up the shrubbery around him, Harry was always fond of these colourful little creatures. He enjoyed a moment's peace and hoped that Hermione had found someone pleasant to talk to, hopefully Mr Arey, whom Harry was certain would have more charisma than his own daughter.
The wind was not too heavy but there was a rustling in the bushes to his right. He craned his neck but could not see the source of the noise. He leaned in close and tried to listen more.
"Hermione?" he whispered, "is that you? Are you hiding? It's Harry. I'm hiding" he turned his right ear to the bush and strained to hear, but felt silly.
With a sigh he pulled himself up and walked around the preened bushes until he found a gap, he craned his neck around them to see if he could spot Hermione without being noticed himself but quickly stumbled back around the corner and held his breathe. Draco Malfoy was embraced, rather passionately, with someone who was certainly not Fauna. Someone who was certainly not even female. The rough hands of Quinn were cupping the back of Draco's head and neck; and the long pale fingers of Draco Malfoy were tangled in Quinn's dark brown hair. One of the men left out a soft appreciative moan, Harry couldn't tell which, his head was swimming. He stumbled back to his stone bench and sat for a long while. Draco walked right past him and re-entered the party, followed a few minutes later by Quinn. Neither seemed to even notice Harry in the dark, head in his hands. It was quite some time later that he was eventually noticed, by the prior absentee Hermione.
"Harry, are you okay? You look awful." Hermione wore an incredibly worried expression, Harry felt silly that he must look so dishevelled after witnessing a kiss. It was just a kiss after all. And yet Harry had never seen two men kissing, so it did shock him a little, along with the fact that Malfoy was being incredibly un-loyal with his girlfriend so close by– this shocked Harry less, it was a common Slytherin trait, and Fauna was despicable at best.
"Harry?" Hermione was tapping him repeatedly on the shoulder.
"I'm fine, the firewhisky is just really strong I think it went straight to my head, I've gone really drowsy" Harry had no idea why he was lying, he knew he felt a bit guilty but he did not know whether it was because he was keeping his knowledge from Hermione, or from Fauna, or the fact that he was not alerting Quinn or Malfoy to the fact he had seen them. He suspected the latter. Harry never could cope well with secrets. Just a few weeks previous Ron had told him he planned on asking Hermione to marry him, Harry was already having a hard time dealing with being near Hermione while she still did not know.
"Yes, well, it might be a good idea we go soon. I don't like the idea that we're in Malfoy's home and Mr Arey is really not in a good mood – we were getting on great and then his daughter started throwing an awful fit about something, it's ghastly. I think we should make our excuses and leave before this whole event turns sour" Hermione was now pulling Harry to his feet and dragging him by the wrist.
Harry had an awful feeling that Ms Arey had found out about her lover's secret…if she had, she was not showing it. She was stood once more by Draco Malfoy's side, clinging to his arm. He had a look of disinterest plastered on his face, Harry was surprised he would even tolerate the woman since he so obviously didn't like her, especially since he didn't even like women. Hermione was making a beeline for where they were stood and Harry's stomach was bubbling over with guilt. He felt sick.
"Draco" Hermione addressed the tall blonde very cordially, he turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, "it was a lovely party, really, I'm very grateful for your generosity tonight and wish I could stay but Harry isn't very well I think I'd best see him home. Your firewhisky was more potent than he expected." Harry almost died upon the spot hearing this, his guilt turned to pure embarrassment.
"Thank you, Hermione, you're too kind…" Draco was interrupted by Quinn cutting into the conversation, the brunette put his hand on Draco's shoulder and leaned in to speak to him.
"Can I borrow you for a minute, it's quite urgent."
Harry's already rosy cheeks went bright red, there was a slightly playful undertone to Quinn's voice and the way his hand was placed on Draco's shoulder was obviously incredibly tender. To everybody else in the circle it was innocent, but knowing what Harry knew, it was the most sensually charged moment he had ever witnessed between two people. It gave him butterflies just watching it. He started coughing, for lack of anything else to do, as he witnessed Draco turn to face Quinn and reply.
"I'll be with you shortly, I'm just seeing Hermione and Mr Potter out."
"Oh there's no need for that, we'll find our own way out, and thank you again" Hermione started dragging the indignant Harry along once more.
Both Gryffindors were happy to be outside in the cool breeze once more, it was only once he had calmed down that Harry found the time to be offended by Malfoy's discriminatory coolness towards him, "How come you're Hermione but I'm Mr Potter?!"
"I at least addressed him once in the entirety of our short stay, you didn't even look at him once, if you think he's being so rude you should look in the mirror, Mr Potter." She reprimanded him
"I did look, we made brief eye contact actually. He just ignored me."
"Have you ever considered that he's mortified that you saved his life?" Hermione quizzed, referring to the blaze that Harry had rescued Malfoy from in the Room of Requirement.
Harry grunted a reply, he couldn't get the image of Draco and Quinn out of his head, it was seriously affecting his ability to speak – he was afraid he'd blurt something out and get himself in trouble. He also couldn't get the thought out of his head that they would be together, in some secret corner, right now.
"What do you think erm –Fauna- sees in Malfoy?" Harry asked Hermione as they walked casually down the great driveway. What he really meant was what Quinn saw in him, Fauna obviously saw lots of money.
"Oh I don't know, you know, he's his own form of charming, I suppose. He has that lovely hair, he's tall, handsome and intelligent. And he can dance."
"He can dance?" Harry was perplexed, but also felt instantly embarrassed that it was this aspect he had chosen to question, and not the fact that Malfoy was handsome or intelligent, or charming. It was not a word he would use to describe Malfoy, but maybe he had been ignorant of the changes his old rival had gone through.
"Oh yes I saw him dance with her just before coming to find you, he was very graceful. She's very lucky, Ron has two left feet. Then again, I think it runs in his family because so does Ginny" Hermione laughed before looking pained in Harry's direction, "sorry…the G word."
"It's fine, don't worry about it" Harry said plainly. He and Ginny had split up, well, she had left him for her old flame, Dean Thomas. Harry was never 'interested' enough in her, she was constantly complaining that she had to compete for his time. He washed thoughts of her away, he was still stuck on his Malfoy conundrum. He had to tell someone. He couldn't tell Malfoy, and he obviously wanted it all hidden away since he had a very public girlfriend. He couldn't tell Hermione, that would just make the situation worse, Harry would look a gossip. There was only Quinn left to tell. He would go to Hermione's work one day and see if he could find Quinn. Quinn would definitely be more understanding about the whole thing.
Harry was as restless as the sea in Hermione's spare bed, he had no idea why but the Quinn/Malfoy debacle was playing on his mind. He could not figure out how he felt about it. As shocked as he was, the more he thought about it, the more Quinn suited Malfoy. They looked good together. Quinn was only slightly shorter than Draco and they were both slim in build although Quinn was more tanned and had thicker, brown hair and brown eyes like a doe, and was broader round the shoulders than Draco. Something bothered Harry now about the image of Draco with Fauna, they just did not fit. Mere hours earlier she had looked like the perfect company for the Slytherin Prince but now she looked insubstantial next to him. Harry wondered where the moan had come from, Draco or Quinn? It sounded like neither man, it was an exquisitely raw sound, as if it was unable to be repressed in any way. Harry found it difficult to imagine himself in a position of such rapture, a position where noises came and went of their own accord, even when you could run the risk of blowing open a huge secret.
Harry could not decide whether he felt sorry for Malfoy, in his mind's eye he could see the blonde lay in bed with Ms Arey, perhaps even having to make love to her, feeling incomplete or at least dissatisfied. Harry knew how that felt. He never wanted Ginny in the way she wanted him to, he never leapt on her and most nights he turned off the lamp and rolled over straight after getting in bed. Harry had never experienced want of the like he had seen in Quinn's eyes just before he left the party. It often made him feel odd, even inhuman, that he didn't have the same urges he heard his male friends talk about.
There was a knot in Harry's stomach just thinking about the way the two men had interacted in front of everyone else, the passionate undertone was so obvious to someone who knew the nature of their relationship. It gave him an uneasy feeling that was not quite guilt but not quite excitement, but knowing their secret and intruding so boldly upon their hidden life made Harry feel uncomfortable. He simply had to tell Quinn what he knew. He would do it first thing Monday. A whole day lay between now and then, it was going to be an awkward Sunday spent with Hermione without being able to tell her.
A/N: I know it's slow but we need to set the scene here guys! Let me know what you think! Can you guys guess where this is going?