This collection has been entered in The Ultimate Pairing Drabble Competition.

Pairing: Harry/Draco

Word Count: 474

Prompt: growing up


If Harry was being honest with himself, he knew the only reason he'd agreed to accompany Hermione on her ski trip was so that he could get away from Draco.

Avoiding Draco while he was still in England was impossible. With him being an Auror, and Draco a Healer, they inevitable bumped into each other during his many trips to the Saint Mungo's emergency room.

It had been those constant meetings that had finally resulted in the two men putting their decade long animosity aside and actually getting to know each other. It hadn't taken long before the two of them were close friends, only the Weasleys and Hermione being closer to Harry than Draco, and that only because of the length of time they had been close to him.

At first, Harry had been unable to place the growing feeling he had for Draco, and had instead chalked it up to a strange mixture of friendship and difficulty in letting go of their history. But when he had seen Draco flirting with Blaise Zabini – well, the reappearance of the green monster in his chest had told him all he needed to know about how he really felt about Draco Malfoy.

He'd tried to avoid Draco. It wasn't the fact that he was in love with a man that spooked him, but the fact that that man was Draco Malfoy. Their friendship was still too new for Harry to accurately guess what Draco's reaction to that knowledge would be, and the last thing he wanted was to lose a friend.

But Draco Malfoy was like a hurricane, who drew everyone and everything around him into his orbit. It was impossible to avoid him. Harry would find himself wandering around the corridors of Saint Mungo's looking for Draco, even when he had promised himself that all he was going to do was check up on whoever was injured that time and return home.

So when Hermione had suggested this trip, Harry had jumped at the opportunity. Maybe some actual distance would allow him to think about how he wanted to handle his feelings.

But now that he found himself here, huddled under a blanket in a futile attempt to ward away the cold, he allowed himself to concede that perhaps his actions had been a little childish. He knew he was in love with Draco, and as much as he would have liked to avoid the other man until he knew if his feelings were returned, he knew that there was no way of actually finding out whether Draco felt the same way about him until Harry actually talked to him.

It wasn't going to be the most pleasant thing Harry had ever done, but he knew that if he wanted an actual shot at a relationship with Draco, he would have to grow up.


For:

The Jigsaw Puzzle Challenge

The If You Dare Challenge, Prompt 740. Strange Feelings

OTP Bootcamp, Prompt 32. Ridiculous