Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original Harry Potter characters or anything that has to do with the original Harry Potter stories.
Chapter 2
"I can't believe him!" With an outraged cry, Harry collapsed onto one of his living room couches.
Hermione glanced at him from behind the newspaper that she was reading. She shook her head at him. "Why are you acting so surprised? This is Draco Malfoy that we are talking about," she reminded him.
Harry blew out an exasperated breath. "You're right, I shouldn't be surprised! This is exactly what Draco would do."
"What did Draco do?"
Harry looked up to see his sister Lyra walk through the doorway. Where he had inherited more of his father physical appearance and his mother's eyes, she had been born with their father's brown eyes and their mother's hair and body. She had a soft heart shaped face and was nearly the same height as Harry, who was short for his age. She sat down on the love seat across from him and picked up a glass of chilled tea. "What did your Draco do now?" she asked before she brought the glass to her lips.
"He crashed my engagement party."
Lyra nodded with a small smile. "Hm."
"Literally. He literally crashed my engagement party," Harry told her.
Her gaze flew up to him and then to Hermione. "Really now?" she asked, her eyes lit with excitement and interest.
"Really," Hermione assured her. "The night ended abruptly ten minutes after Draco's arrival, with Gabriel and Draco trying to clean the floor with each other."
"And I screamed myself hoarse at them. But did either one of them listen to me?" he asked. "No! Both totally ignored me. Honestly, like a bunch of dogs fighting over a bone!"
"Where you're the bone," Lyra said with a small laugh. She laughed harder at the look of disgust he sent her.
Harry blew out a breath and stared up at the Renaissance theme painted ceiling. "God, I could kill those two now." He scowled. "I don't know which one to beat the crap out of first."
"I say him," Draco advised as he walked through the doorway. "Hello, love!" he greeted warmly as Lyra let out a squeal, jumped up from her seat and into his arms. "At least one of the infamous Potter kids is excited to see me."
Who said I wasn't excited? Harry thought darkly as he felt delicious chills run through him as he met Draco's grey eyes that danced with mirth.
"What, no bruises?" he asked innocently. "I'm rather disappointed in Gabriel."
Draco smirked. "Don't worry about me, darling, your Irish bastard doesn't know how to fight for shit." He covered his wince as he felt the bruise over his left ribs pang sharply. He could grudgingly admit that the fucker had a solid punch. He smirked at the dark satisfaction of the bastard having a bruise the size of a boulder on his damn chin. The Irish knew how to punch, but Draco knew how to leave his mark. He liked to think of it as a reminder every time the man looked in the mirror, that Harry was Draco's, not his.
Harry's eyes flashed and Draco felt the pang of arousal. God, how long had it been since he had Harry in his bed beneath him? Too damn long.
Harry felt unease and the lick of arousal at the lustful look in Draco's eyes. He marveled at the way Draco had always made him feel like a piece of delectable candy that he wanted to swallow.
Or lick, bite, nibble… Crap, he couldn't keep doing this to himself!
He looked away from Draco and looked at his sister who was beaming at Draco. She had been 10 when she and 16 year old Harry had fell in love with 18 year old Draco Malfoy. She had fell in love with Draco as an older brother, while Harry had fell in love with him for Draco.
Harry hadn't been the only one hurt when Draco and he had broken up.
It had been eight years since and Harry was praying neither one of them would get hurt again.
"So, Draco, where you been?" Lyra asked.
Draco smiled softly at her, making Harry's heart melt at the love that Draco so easily bestowed upon his younger sister. "Here and there. Mostly just business." He poured himself a glass of tea. " After I got my degree, I decided to travel and take a look at all the Malfoy possessions, and then decided to add a few more to the Malfoy fortune. That was the fun part." He looked at Harry. "Do you remember Tuscany, Harry?" he asked softly. His heart soared at the flush that came to Harry's face. He wasn't the only one who remembered that week in Tuscany.
Harry looked at him with a small smile. "How could I forget Tuscany?" he said. He looked away, unable to hold Draco's gaze without breaking.
Hermione cleared her throat, attempting to keep the easy atmosphere flowing smoothly. "Where did you go?" she asked.
Draco smiled at her, aware of her tactics. "Eastern Europe, Asia, Russia, the Pacific, Africa and then the U.S. I'm extending the Malfoy holdings and business all around the world."
Hermione nodded. "Yes, I remember reading an article about you starting a range of Malfoy Pharmaceuticals in Africa and Asia. That's a very charitable thing to do."
He shrugged. "Seeing millions of starving children in one place alone. It could get to even the coldest of hearts."
"Even yours?" Harry sniped. Immediately, he felt ashamed at his remark. Hadn't Draco proved to him constantly during their relationship that he was man before the business tycoon?
Draco locked eyes with him. "Trust me, baby. Thanks to you, my heart melted the year I turned 19," he said with a sexy grin.
"Draco!" Harry protested, but Hermione cut him off.
"Don't be so damn prudent, Harry," she said. "It's not like all those times I walked in on you and Draco during those two years."
"Yeah," Lyra commented. She laughed. "If I got a nickel for every time I walked in to see Draco's hand on Harry's butt, I'd have a lot of nickels."
"Do you remember the time your grandmother came after me with a shot gun?" Draco asked Harry.
Harry groaned. "How could I forget?" he asked miserably.
Hermione laughed. "God, is that when Draco came running out of the house with Grandma Don running – well as much as Grandma Don could run back then – with a shotgun in her hands, yelling out corruption, rape and an innocence stolen by the evils of lust and money?"
"That would be the incident?" Draco said with a nod.
"Where was I?" Lyra asked, fascinated.
"You were at the Duckin's son's 10th birthday party in Florida. Remember when you went with mom to Miami?" Harry asked. "You came back looking like a four-foot, six-inched lobster."
She nodded with a wince. "Yes, I remember peeling for the next three weeks." She looked at him with a puzzled look. "When I came back, Grandma Don was put in a home for the elderly."
Draco smirked and Harry coughed. "Well," Harry said, "it wasn't like there was anyone around to watch her anymore. She needed to be with people her age, in a place with people who could care for her better than we ever could."
"What Harry is trying to say is that no one could stand her and didn't want to, so we used the incident with the shotgun as an excuse to finally put the old bat in a home," Draco said.
"She wasn't an old bat," Harry protested, which Lyra countered with a, "Oh yeah, she was."
"See," Draco told Harry, "even Lyra knew the woman was an old bat. And she was 10."
"She especially didn't like you because you had taken Harry's virginity and were constantly kidnapping Harry to shag every night," Hermione said to Draco. "Can't blame the woman."
"Did not give her the right to go after me with a shotgun," he scoffed.
"You were 18, going on 19 and Harry had just turned 16. You were practically rocking the cradle."
Lyra laughed.
"What do you think?" Lyra asked Hermione when they were alone. Harry and Draco had decided to go to Harry's gallery. Well, Harry had decided to go to the gallery and Draco had chosen to follow Harry.
Hermione watched the two men leave in Harry's Porsche and continued to watch as the black vehicle squealed out of the driveway.
"I think that things may be looking up."
"You're insane, you know that right?" Blaise's voice said into Draco's ear. Draco mentally rolled is eyes, used to Blaise's pessimistic attitude. "Thanks for your offer, but I won't be needing your help for any dinner arrangements, Blaise," Draco said with a small laugh.
"Fuck you, Harry's right next to you," Blaise said. "When the fuck are you going to just let him get on with his life, Draco?"
Draco laughed. "Why, when I am it?"
"Fucking bastard. I'm not helping you," Blaise declared. "Hermione would have my dick on a stick if I helped you try to hurt Harry again."
"Very nice picture, Blaise," Draco winced. "And I did no such thing before."
"Sure, you would think such a thing when you weren't the one who had to witness his complete and total meltdown."
Draco was silent. "I didn't mean to." He ignored how completely a lame remark that was and looked at Harry in the corner of his eyes and watched him drive, seeming to ignore Draco. "I'm done traveling, Blaise. It's about time I settled." He saw Harry tense and stare hard at the road in front.
Blaise was silent for a moment. Then he said, "Don't let me regret this, Draco." And Draco knew he had Blaise's support.
"Thank you," he said quietly and hung up. There was silence in the car for a while before Draco broke it. "How long have you been engaged to this Irish bast- man?" he asked.
Harry threw him a dirty look. "Gabriel and I have been engaged for a month now." He ignored the snort from Draco. "We've known each other for two months."
Draco looked at him incredulously. "And that's what you consider a long enough time to decide to marry someone?"
"I slept with you the second day I met you, didn't I?" Harry threw at him. "I'd say that was long enough time to know that I was in love with you." He stopped and gritted his teeth, angry. Angry at himself for telling Draco that and angry at Draco for pushing him into his outburst.
Draco was silent. "Do you love him?" he asked quietly after a while as he stared out at the road ahead. He looked at Harry when a minute had gone by and he had said nothing. Harry was pale and gripping the steering wheel.
"Yes," he said, his voice small. He desperately hoped Draco didn't hear the lie in the word.
Unfortunately-
All of a sudden, Draco reached in the middle of the car and pulled the hand brake up sharply, causing the car to screech to a halt. Behind them, dozens of cars screeched and swerved to avoid each other. There were obscene words yelled and cars honked as others flew by them. Harry didn't notice any of them.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" he screamed at the livid Draco.
"No! But apparently you are!" Draco yelled. "You never fucking learn, do you? You can't lie to me, Harry. How many times do I have to tell you that? I know when the fuck you lie to me!"
"I'm not fucking lying!" Harry said desperately. Oh God, he could feel the sob building in his throat. Please, don't let him break. Not now. Not in front of Draco.
"Yes you are! You are lying to me!" Draco stopped. "You don't love him," he said as the realization struck. He looked at Harry. "You would never consider getting married if you didn't love-" he stopped and looked at Harry with narrowed furious eyes.
Harry paled. God, he couldn't know it!
"Is he forcing you into this?"
Lyra was about to go into the bath when she heard a phone ringing insistently. She walked to the living room and saw Harry's phone on the coffee table. She walked over and picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"
"Lyra?" Gabriel asked apparently surprised. She thought his voice sounded kind of funny, like it was hard for him to talk. Or, that it hurt to talk. "Lyra, can I speak to Harry please?"
She rolled her eyes. Honestly, he was a nice enough man and he did seem to love her brother, but he wasn't Draco and he was getting in the way between her brother and Draco. Besides, she didn't like the way that Harry had just suddenly announced that she was going to marry the Irish millionaire. She sure as hell knew that her brother wasn't in love with him. How could it be, when he only loved Draco? No, she didn't like it at all.
"I'm sorry, Gabriel, but Harry left without his phone."
"He left?" he asked, confused. "Do you know where he's going?"
"Yes, but he won't be there for a while. He said something about stopping at some art store on the way." Suddenly, an evil thought came to mind. "If you like I could give you a number to contact Harry right now."
"That would be thankful. What number is it?"
"Oh, it belongs to a friend of Harry's. I don't know if you've met him. Draco Malfoy? Yeah, he's a good of the family. Goes way back with us." She grinned into the silence on the other end.
Then, "That's okay, Lyra, I'll just talk to Harry later."
"Okay," she piped brightly and hung up the phone before he could say anything more. She stood there and could only feel slightly sorry for him. After all, it wasn't his fault that he wasn't Draco.
Next chapter: The truth about Harry real reasons for getting married come to light.