Author's Notes: This is a sequel to When the Snow Melts. If you haven't read that one yet, I highly recommend that you do. Otherwise you'll be horribly lost. The same warnings from that story will apply here. Please remember to comment, favorite, and add this story to your favorites. It will really help me find motivation when I feel like the world is falling to shit around me.
Also, thanks everyone for helping me get When the Snow Melts into 5th place for the #drarry tag on Wattpad. It was only for a week, but it was a huge ego boost.
Lots of love - OpalRainDragon
"Draco, look - I'm doing it," Farren gleefully shouted from atop the back of a galloping white and chocolate-brown horse. Harry, an equally gleeful look on his face, was following closely behind on a tan horse. In response, Draco rolled his eyes and went back to drawing in the shade of a large oak tree, a charmed fan blowing uncomfortably warm and humid air in his direction. It was already getting late, but you would never have guessed it with how bright it was outside.
The safehouse that Headmaster Dumbledore had found for the boys was on a secluded ranch in the middle of nowhere Texas. Draco disliked just about everything about the ranch - the smell, the heat, the isolation. But, Farren and Harry were loving their time there. The both of them had even started helping out their hosts with the daily chores.
Draco had tried to help just once; volunteering to enter the hen house one morning to collect eggs. It had seemed like an easy enough task, but he had been forced to flee in terror as the little monsters swarmed him, demanding food, clawing and pecking at his delicate skin in a frenzy. After that, he very much disliked chickens and felt they deserved to be eaten. He got a little flutter of happiness every time they were on the menu, tearing into his meal with gleeful vengeance and eating more than he normally would out of pure spite.
In his place, Farren had taken over egg-collecting duties, explaining to Draco, with a smug expression on his pale face, that he needed to throw feed out on the yard first so most of the chickens vacated the hen house before venturing inside. Draco was unimpressed and unwilling to give it a second try. He wasn't well-suited for these kinds of things anyway.
"Draco, you should join us," Harry suggested teasingly as he approached Draco's brooding grounds. "It's a lot of fun."
His silver eyes narrowed as he eyed Harry's horse mistrustfully, his nose wrinkling in disgust at the very idea of trusting his delicate neck to the likes of such a mangy, ill-tempered beast.
"I'd rather not die, thank you," Draco growled in irritation.
Said beast snorted suddenly, causing Draco to startle. Just like the chickens, the horses weren't very fond of him either. Animals in general just seemed to dislike him. It had been like that for as long as he could remember. It was one of the reasons why they never had any pets growing up.
Harry dismounted and let his horse trot away, plopping himself down under the ancient oak tree next to Draco, his warm, sweaty body uncomfortably close.
"Please don't sit so close to me; you smell terrible," Draco griped.
Harry laughed and leaned in closer, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
"You don't smell much better," Harry replied, the smell of horse and sweat and summer heat overpowering Draco's senses. "Maybe we should help each other out in the shower... really make sure we get all the nooks and crannies."
Despite his sour mood and the stench, Draco found himself smiling at the thought. "I suppose it can't be helped," he stated with a dramatic sigh.
Harry gave him a hungry grin before turning his attention back to the field, his eyes following Farren as the boy turned his horse in their direction.
"Oi, Farren. Draco and I are heading inside to wash up before dinner. Think you can handle stabling the horses by yourself or do you need my help?" Harry asked.
"I can do it," Farren shouted back, a huge smile on his face at having been trusted with such an important responsibility.
"Are you sure about that?" Draco asked Harry in a voice just above a whisper as he eyed the horses in suspicion. "It might be dangerous."
"He's eleven, not three. I was doing a lot more dangerous things at his age. He'll be fine," Harry responded in a self-important tone of voice.
"Yeah, but your whole life has been wrought with dysfunction, so how does that even make sense? I just want to keep him safe," Draco shot back. Farren might very well be the only family he had left. No one had heard anything so far about their parents.
"He'll be fine. I promise. I've already been letting him do most of it anyway," Harry wrapped an arm around Draco's shoulders and pulled him in close to whisper playfully in his ear. "And unlike you, the horses like him."
Draco scoffed and shoved him away. "I don't need the approval of beasts to feel good about myself," he arrogantly replied before standing up to head back to the guest house they were staying at, Harry eagerly pursuing.
He heard the crunching sound of brittle yellow grass underfoot behind him. Draco fought the urge to turn around and smile at Harry as he navigated through the shrub brush, kicking up small clouds of red dust behind him.
The guest house was rather unimpressive - a small three bedroom ranch house with a large porch looking out on shrub land dotted infrequently with scraggly trees. The oak tree near the horse pasture was the largest tree on the property and it likely only got that big because of the stock pond lying right next to it. Everything else seemed in desperate need of water, all of it baking under the hot summer sun.
Their hosts, the Hughes', had actually lived in this house about a decade ago, but the family had lucked out during an oil boom and made a small fortune on the treasure lying under the soil of their ranch. They'd had a larger house built on the property and put up a small wind farm to keep the money flowing. They'd even given up cattle ranching entirely, but had kept the horses and pigs... and of course, the chickens.
The steps of the porch creaked as he walked on them, the screen door squealed as he opened it, and he had to turn the handle just right to get the front door to open. He'd never stayed in such a noisy and irritating place in his whole life.
"How do people even live like this?" he grumbled, spinning around in the hallway to look Harry in the eyes.
Harry snorted in amusement. "Don't be such a snob. This is how normal people live."
Draco crossed his arms with a cross expression on his face. "It's disgusting. I can't wait until we get back to Hogwarts. Where did the Headmaster even find these muggles anyway?"
"No clue." Harry replied with a shrug. "He said something about having a mutual friend. But it's not like we have people lining up to host us or anything. The Chosen One who brings misfortune and the son of a Death Eater turned traitor. Yep, loads of people want to bring that sort of hazard into their life. You should try being a little more grateful. If not for the Hughes' kindness, we'd have been stashed away in St. Mungos all summer with your little brother slowly driving us insane out of sheer boredom."
Harry moved to pull him into a tight hug, but Draco held him at bay. "Not until after you've had a shower," he admonished, his nose wrinkling up in disapproval.
"Thought you were going to help me?" Harry questioned with a smirk.
"Did I? I'm not sure I remember making any such commitment," he stated vaguely, hiding the grin that was struggling to burst free.
Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "That's fine. I'll just go see if David wants to help me instead. I've got this really itchy mosquito bite right between my shoulder blades where I can't reach. I'm sure he'll be glad to scratch it for me while we're at it."
David was the Hughes middle child, just a few years older than the boys, and staying at the Main House while on summer break from college. He had a certain rugged charm about him, but Draco was fairly certain he was not interested in men.
"Now that I'd like to see," Draco remarked, but when Harry made a move for the door with a smug and determined expression on his face, Draco stopped him, taking him by the hand and dragging him to the Master Bedroom that they'd been sharing. "On second thought, he's probably never done something like that before and he might miss some spots. I don't want to have to clean you a second time when he finally returns you."
Harry let out a warm chuckle and allowed himself to be led to the attached bathroom. Draco kept his eyes on Harry as they undressed, pointedly ignoring the hideous pink tiles that surrounded them. Hearty food and manual labor had added several layers of lean muscle to Harry's shorter frame. Despite Draco grumbling about protecting his skin from the sun, he had to admit that Harry looked good with bronzed skin. He looked good even though his tan made the criss-cross of scars all over his upper body much more obvious.
The water came out of the tap already warm enough to shower in and Draco quickly entered the porcelain clawfoot tub. He had a complicated shower routine and he didn't quite trust Harry to manage it. It would be easier just to get things over and done with so he could move on to the more pleasing task of scrubbing down his lover. He'd taken over Harry's routine as well when he'd been horrified to learn that he used some off-brand muggle 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner abomination. His messy hair suddenly made a lot more sense.
The shower head was low and he found he had to duck down to get the water to run over his hair. It was at that moment when Harry joined him, wrapping strong arms around his waist, almost causing him to lose his balance and fall. Harry held him tight, preventing the tumble that surely would have occured, his breath warm against the back of his neck.
"What's the matter?" Harry whispered huskily.
Draco's heart was still pounding from the sudden spike of adrenaline. "You know," he scolded, "if you want to leave me for David, you don't have to kill me first. We can just break up like normal human beings."
Harry let out a barking laugh that echoed loudly throughout the tiny bathroom. "Is that how it works?" he questioned, pulling Draco flush against him. "But you said it yourself, he won't get me as clean as you can."
"So you're just using me for my showering skills?" Draco replied with a fake pout. "I thought you loved me."
"Showering skills... and other things," he replied suggestively, running a hand along Draco's lean chest.
Draco turned around to face Harry, a mischievous smirk on his face. "By other things, do you mean this?" he asked, dropping to his knees to take Harry's hard cock into his mouth with a slight sucking action.
Harry let out a deep moan, his fingers running through Draco's hair. "Something... something like... that," he replied between moans.
Draco continued to work his tongue along his length, his head bobbing up and down, his hands holding Harry steady at the hips to prevent him from bucking unexpectedly. Draco backed off slightly, concentrating on the sensitive head and sucking hard, his tongue darting around for added stimulation. He could feel the tension building up in his lover's body, muscles tightening under his hands - Harry was close.
Harry's hips jerked, his passion erupting into Draco's hungry mouth. His taste had changed slightly - tangy and a bit bitter. Even still, Draco swallowed it down, continuing to suck until he had pulled every last drop, until Harry was twitching and jerking, his knees trembling as he struggled to stay standing.
"Was that a good enough reason to keep me around?" Draco questioned with a sly smile on his face as he looked up. Harry could only nod, his fingers still tightly entwined in Draco's hair to keep himself steady.