So this is chapter 2. Nothing spectacular happens really, but the simplest things can change one's life, right? I apologize for the mistakes, I should've searched for a beta, I know. Well, hope you enjoy this one, just one chapter and an epilogue to go! Aww.
2.
Harry stepped into Grimmauld Place 12. The place felt like everything but his home, he realized now. Even more so now that Ginny wasn't there. Just six days ago he'd seen her face last, had she kissed him on his cheek as a goodbye before she had gone to her work. It seemed like ages. He still felt her face against his, the way her hair smelled, how her eyes would lock with his eyes whenever they weren't alone. He had betrayed her by kissing Draco. All was just so confusing and he felt a desperate need for a Hermoine to figure out his problems, to righten his wrongs. For now, he stepped into their bedroom, still dressed and let the night take him away as he buried himself in the sheets.
But he couldn't fall asleep. He lay in bed thinking the night over, that Draco was the reason why Ginny had disappeared so suddenly, that Draco had thought it was the only way to get to Harry. The song Draco had sang, his eyes filled with lust and love, his lips on Harry's, the tensing feeling that had gone through Harry's body. It was so much more than Harry had ever experienced. It had felt so different from the kisses he had shared with Ginny. Even sex with her had been distant, hadn't excited him as much as Draco had. Nowadays she would only kiss him on the cheek when she left to go to work.
Suddenly Harry couldn't remember why he wanted to marry Ginny in the first place. Sure, she was a kind woman with her heart on the right place, but he had never been in love with her, had he? He had never felt the same attraction with her as he had with Draco. He had never really felt comfortable around her, not even in his own house.
Draco, that arrogant ferret, he'd messed up his life. It was like Draco had given him a mirror, to let Harry see what he'd become to be. And Harry hadn't been able to face himself, he'd ran away from Draco just because he was to stubborn to deny that Ginny wasn't the one he wanted to marry, wasn't the one he was in love with, wasn't the one who brought him joy like Draco had, that night.
Could your life change in a night?
Harry would've never believed it could, but reality had made him see that it was possible. That Draco whom he'd always been interested in, was a love interest. All those times he'd wanted to turn the Slytherin in a ferret and drown the boy in some potion he'd no doubt made perfectly for Snape. All those times he had talked to Ron and Hermoine about him, it had been because he'd been in love with him. He had loved it every time Draco had talked to him, all those time he'd seen Draco laugh, even if it was at him.
Harry suddenly sat straight up in his bed.
He had been in love with Draco. He had pretended to be in love with Ginny and now he was back to being in love with Draco.
Surely his life had never seemed this clear.
Without so much as realizing what exactly he was doing, Harry went out of bed. He took a shower, sang 'All night long' as loud as he could and went to make himself a cup of coffee. He then went to sit at the breakfast table and grabbed a quill, parchment and ink and began to write.
Draco,
You were wrong. It took me about six hours to fall in love with you.
(But I'd still like to spend those other 18 hours with you, will you come to my office?)
Harry
When he was finished, he went to wake up Mells, whom he'd gotten for his eighteenth birthday. She didn't mean to him as much as Hedwig had, but she still was a lovely, kindly owl. "Mells, wake up," Harry whispered, ticking on her head gently. She slowly opened her eyes, before she looked at him in surprise. "I need you to bring this letter to Draco Malfoy. Can you do that?"
Mells took the letter in her mouth, received some strokes from Harry and left through the window a bit later.
Harry then went to dress himself properly. He was sure he wouldn't score points from Draco if he went in his Muggle sweat pants.
When Draco had woken up from some ticking on his window, had received and read the letter, had dressed immediately and had gone to the Ministry. Now he was in Harry's messy office, looking at the Gryffindor a bit defeated. Harry looked like he could win six games of Quidditch, defeat about hundred Dementors and cast the most powerful Patronus - if the stories were true and Harry was really able to do that. The man smiled widely at Draco's appearance; some sweat pants and an old shirt, not to mention his hair which would no doubt look like he couldn't afford a decent shampoo.
"You look awake," Harry said, still smiling as though he was thinking something funny.
"You look depressed," Draco murmured in the same sarcastic tone.
"I had some well-deserved sleep after a heavy life-changing night."
"Oh really? You too? Life-changing?"
"Definitely."
"So, Harry, why did you wanted to see me at the wee hours of the night? Not that I needed some beauty sleep of course."
"I have an offer for you," Harry said seriously.
"An offer," Draco said doubtfully, because he didn't like the sound of that. Clearly the man had lost his nuts.
"An offer."
"Well," Draco said, to hurry things up. "What kind?"
"Well, you see-" Harry stopped abruptly, laughing out loud with his hand on his desk to prevent himself from fallen.
Draco didn't see what was so funny, but couldn't prevent himself from laughing when he saw Harry's face. Harry looked at him as to say; your face! your face! priceless! It wasn't a very nice feeling.
"Nah, not really," Harry said after he wiped away the tears. "I just want to see the memory you gave me."
"What? You woke me up so I could watch my own memory again?"
"Yeah. It's more like a test. If you gave me the correct memory, I will spend the night in Merlin knows where, and if it isn't, I will arrest you," Harry told with a smile as though he said such things every day. Which he probably did.
Draco already knew he really had given Harry the memory of Ginny in his holiday cottage, so he didn't have any reason to be nervous.
"Well, that's a deal then. I really have given you the memory you asked for."
Still, Harry wanted to see it with his own eyes. So together they went to an office - one which was far more organized than Harry's, Harry really should handle his business better - and went to see his memory. He saw himself paralyzing the Weaselette in the privacy of her office, Apparating them to his home in France, going into the basement, how he undid the Petrificus Totalus and how she woke up and argued with him for a bit. It wasn't a bit interesting for Draco to watch, but Harry found it satisfying.
"Tomorrow, we're going to get her and Obliviate her memory and I'm going to tell her I don't want to marry her anymore," Harry said when they were back in his office.
"And we'll tell everyone she was on a much needed holiday?"
Harry eyed him oddly then. "That's a pretty good idea," he said at least.
"You don't have to look at me like I'm some disgusting half giant."
"Take that back," Harry said immediately.
"Fine," Draco said, but he didn't apologize. "Shall we get on with it? I'd really like some well-deserved sleep."
"Not that well-deserved," Harry argued, apparently a bit mad about the disgusting-half-giant-thing.
"Fine, fine, father. I'll sleep on the floor. It's not like I don't have a comfortable flooring."
"Your father let you sleep on the floor?" Harry joked, smiling again.
"Your uncle let you sleep in the cupboards under the stairs?" Draco asked, because he'd wondered about it ever since he'd heard the rumour.
"Yes, he did."
Draco wanted the other man to be joking, but he certainly wasn't. Bloody hell, Draco thought, if I ever see that man I'll hex him till he's too large to fit in any room, ever. Wait. He shouldn't go murdering people now. Or kidnapping.
"Let's go," Draco said at least, and so they did.
Harry was rather tense when they Apparated in Draco's home. The man was single (right?) and had a house twice the size of Grimmauld Place 12. Not to mention the Slytherin had probably some hotel rooms he could go to anytime he wanted, Harry thought bitterly. Surely every bloke would fall for Draco after a kiss like that.
"It's amazing," Harry said, because it was. It felt cosy, but at the same time it was modern and way more personal than Harry would have ever thought. There were photos of Draco at Hogwarts with his friends, Draco with his family and Draco after Hogwarts. He had three akitas (Draco told they were akitas, Harry had never heard of them) and Harry could tell Draco loved the dogs endlessly. Even though they were quiet, one akita woke up and came up to them. Draco knelt to pet the dog. "This is Lexy," he whispered. "She's the oldest and the sweetest. She's afraid of thunder, so whenever there is a thunderstorm, she comes to sleep in my bed."
Harry looked a bit digusted by that, but Draco couldn't see him in the dim light of their Lumos. While Draco hugged the dog and whispered to it, Harry walked around the living room. There were two large sofas, a large telly (Harry was a bit surprised by this), a dining table, some plants, bookshelves and of course a corner for the dogs. The furniture looked expensive, but comfortable as well. The windows were large with a great view of the garden, which was about the size of a Quidditch field as far as Harry could see it. He could easily image Draco playing with the dogs outside, running on the grass with bare field. It made Harry wonder if Draco had enlarged his garden magically, since the man did live in London. Also if there was a place for Harry in that all.
Harry almost yelled in shock when he felt two arms grabbing his waist. "I know you love the garden, but I want you to see the other rooms as well."
And so they did. Harry saw the kitchen, the three large bedrooms - each with an ensuite bathroom, a study with a small library and a room with only a pooltable. Draco then took him to his bedroom, which was by far the most beautiful of all. It had a large bed filled with pillows, a fireplace, the outlook on his garden trough the same, large windows and of course the ensuite bathroom, with a closet about twenty times the seize as Harry's.
"I can see why you wouldn't mind spending the night on the floor. This room and this place, it's brilliant, Draco," Harry said, meaning every word.
"Well, I had to have something to spend my money on, right? And the dogs needed a large garden they could run in. Those animals have way too much energy."
"You had them before you bought the house?"
"No, but I knew I wanted dogs to fill the emptiness with."
Harry eyed the blonde with compassion. "Well, the house is amazing, Draco. It really is."
"It could also be your place if you wanted it to be, Harry. It's yours to grab it."
Harry reached out for Draco's hand and pulled the Slytherin close. "I think I'd like that."
"You think?"
"Yes."
"What makes you think it?"
"Well, I sure don't want someone who snores as loud as my uncle did. Or someone who works overtime, every evening. Or someone who goes around saying 'I love you' to anybody they just met. Or - Or someone who kisses me on the cheek every morning, eats beans in tomato sauce for breakfast, tells everything to their mother," Harry rambled, thinking of Ginny.
Draco laughed and eyed him happily. "I'm neither of those, but I might kiss your lips and cheek and forehead and chest and what more every morning," he added with a grin.
Harry rolled his eyes, stepped forward and kissed the other's lips then. Draco responded within a second, pulling him close. His warm hands went under his shirt, touched his skin carefully. And so Harry touched Draco's body. First with clothes, then without them. Harry kissed every inch on Draco's body, discovering the boy he fell in love with just hours ago. Draco kissed Harry, made him home in his bed, made him feel like he was the happiest person on earth, made love with him passionately, for what would be the first of many times. When the birds began to whistle and the sun arose to shine upon life for another day, the boys fell asleep in each other's arms.
