Chapter 4 Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron

'Hey Malfoy'.

Draco looked up from his half-finished report on the Enigma of Aesalon and watched Harry Potter stroll into his office, casual as you like. What the fuck? Draco thought.

'Potter? What on earth brings you to my office?' Draco asked. Spotting the slightly guilty look on Potter's face, he suddenly had a very bad feeling about this unexpected visit. 'Are you here on official Auror business? Because I would have thought, that even you know I tend to stay on the right side of the law these days'.

Potter looked startled.

'What? No!' he stammered. 'No of course not Malfoy'.

He looked so sincere as he said it, that Draco had no choice but to believe him. Relaxing a bit, he asked: 'Alright. So what are you here for?'

Potter raked a hand through his messy hair and cleared his throat uncomfortably. Before last week, Draco would have scoffed at him for his manners and shaken his head at the unruly mop of dark hair. He would have looked at Potter and seen the uncouth, attention-craving Hero of the Wizarding World he'd always seen. But now… something had changed. He couldn't put his finger on it exactly, but something was definitely different.

'Well?' he prompted, seeing as Potter hadn't answered his question as of yet.

'Oh. Right. Well, erm… It's lunchtime?' Potter tried.

Draco raised an eyebrow sceptically and prompted: 'Yes?'

Surely Potter wasn't asking Draco to join him for lunch, was he?

'You do eat lunch right?' Potter asked, looking a bit concerned.

'On occasion,' Draco assented.

Potter sighed and rolled his eyes, like he felt Draco was the one trying his patience.

'So how about today? Will you come out and eat lunch with me today? You and me. At the Leaky Cauldron. Like, now,' Potter spelled it out.

'Ok. Why?' Draco blurted out.

Potter bit his lip and fidgeted with his Auror robes. Which did look quite good on him now that Draco was thinking about it. Which he wasn't. At all. Obviously.

It took him a while to realise Potter had started answering his question.

'… and so I thought we could make some plans. You know, on where and how to find the next item. And we should probably arrange for a date and time to meet again. I thought anyway. Malfoy?' Potter ended, looking at Draco a bit funnily.

'Hmmm? Yes alright,' Draco agreed.

He closed the folder in front of him, got up from behind his desk and followed Potter out of the Ministry. They took the main exit, which was only a few minutes walk away from the Leaky Cauldron.

'Our usual table?' Potter asked, heading for the table they had shared before.

Draco smirked and said: 'We have a usual table now?'

Potter shrugged and did that nervous habit thing again where he raked a hand through his hair, messing it up even worse than usual. And was he… blushing? How curious. And also quite adorable, Draco couldn't help but think.

'I'm just teasing you Potter,' Draco said with a small smile. 'Come on'.

They walked toward what was now apparently their table and sat down. Draco watched Potter through his eyelashes as Potter perused the lunch menu. Draco didn't need to look at the menu. He already knew what he was going to order so he used the time to look at Potter instead. Yes, the Auror robes really do look good on him, Draco decided.

They ordered their lunch and had what was actually quite a nice and civil conversation. If he wasn't careful, Draco might grow used to this. And wasn't that a disturbing thought…

'So… Potter. About that meeting,' Draco said.

'Harry,' Potter said.

Draco raised an eyebrow quizzically.

'I'm sorry, what?' he enquired.

Potter smiled and repeated: 'I said Harry. You should call me Harry. You know, since we're required to be all nice and friendly and stuff'.

Now that was just all kinds of wrong. Draco couldn't possibly call Potter Harry, could he?

'Harry…' he tried.

Ok, so technically he could do it. It felt a bit odd, but he could get used to it. Maybe. And Potter, no Harry, did look very pleased which was nice.

'So, Harry,' he tried again, more firmly this time, 'I was thinking about visiting the Manor, perhaps tonight? I know there are more artefacts stored there than in any antique shop in the country. Should be worth a try, don't you think?'

'Visit?' Harry asked, looking puzzled. 'You don't live there?'

Draco couldn't stop himself from pulling a face.

'Of course I don't. Funnily enough, most people don't fancy living in what is basically a gigantic mausoleum. I think I'll stick to my flat, thank you very much,' he said.

Harry laughed. A surprisingly nice sound…

'Good point Malfoy. Or Draco,' he added as if in an afterthought. 'It is ok if I call you Draco, right?'

'Yes,' Draco agreed, repressing a confusing little shiver at the sound of his first name on Harry Potter's lips.

There was a moment. Draco looked at Harry, Harry looked right back and, there was definitely a moment. Harry's expressive green eyes seemed to fill with a sparkle of genuine interest, a sight that almost succeeded in taking Draco's breath away. He allowed himself a moment, a moment to dream, to think of what ifs… What if Harry Potter was interested in Draco Malfoy? Attracted to him? In a very… non-platonic way? What if…

'Harry? Harry! How lovely to see you!'

Ginny Weasley threw herself at Harry thereby very annoyingly, blocking Draco's view of those amazing eyes.

'Hey Gin,' Harry answered her, squeezing her into a hug. 'What a lovely surprise!'

Draco sat up stiffly. Shit. He'd somehow almost managed to forget the existence of girl Weasley.

'Hi Draco,' she said, giving him a polite enough smile.

'Ginevra,' he answered curtly.

She snorted rather loudly, the way she always did when he called her by her full name. She worked at Gringotts these days, and he'd met with her several times on Ministry business. She was always perfectly nice to him, but Draco hadn't managed to warm to her the way he'd warmed to her brother George. Of course that had nothing at all to do with her relationship with the one and only Harry Potter. Nothing at all…

oOoOo

'So… Managed to escape the goblins long enough to have lunch, did you?' Harry asked.

He smiled at Ginny. It always was nice to see her. Unfortunately her timing seemed to be as bad as ever. He stole a quick glance over at Malf… Draco, and managed a quick apologetic smile. The smile froze on his face when he saw the cold grey eyes and set face looking back at him. What on earth had happened? They had been getting along great, really great, and now… what?

While one part of his brain was holding a conversation with Ginny about her work, his latest Auror assignment and news on various members of the Weasley family, the other half of his brain was occupied with the enigma that was called Draco Malfoy. Draco ate his lunch quietly, only speaking when asked a direct question and then using as few words as possible.

Harry didn't understand. They'd been getting on ok, he was sure of that. He'd even thought for a moment that there might be… But Harry guessed he'd read that look wrong. It happened. He tried to ignore the little pang of disappointment. It was fine. Perfectly fine. Of course it was.

To give Ginny credit, she tried her best to include Draco in the conversation. She might as well not have bothered, Draco clearly wasn't interested. In fact, he'd barely finished the last bite of his lunch before he made his excuses and left. He was gone before Harry could even offer to walk back with him.

'So, Draco Malfoy eh?' Ginny commented, a bemused expression on her face.

Harry reluctantly turned his attention back to his friend and asked: 'What?'

Ginny laughed.

'I'm just saying I should have seen this one coming a mile off,' she explained, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

'What on earth are you talking about? Seen what coming?' Harry asked, feeling very confused and also a bit annoyed.

Ginny looked at him as if he were insane.

'I'm talking about you and Draco Malfoy, Harry. What else would I be talking about?' she explained, looking slightly exasperated. 'I'm saying he always was the one who could rattle you, the one that could get to you, catch your interest as it were. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. I'm sorry I crashed your date Harry, I realised too late'.

Harry almost choked on his water at that.

'Date?' he coughed. 'Date? This was no date! We're just sorting out stuff for the wedding, that's all! A date? Merlin Gin, what on earth made you think that?'

She gave Harry a pondering look. After a while, she seemed to come to some sort of conclusion as she leaned forward a bit and started talking with that patient look she'd get, just as Hermione did when she was explaining the concept of Muggle cell phones to Mr Weasley for the umpteenth time.

'Fine,' she conceded, 'so it wasn't a date. This time'.

She held up a hand to stop the mutters of protest coming from Harry and said: 'Let me finish please'.

She waited until he gave an affirmative nod before continuing: 'I'm saying you've obviously always had strong feelings for each other. Come on Harry, you were pretty much obsessed with the git while we were at Hogwarts. I should know, I tried to distract you from him several times with minimal success'.

She still looked a bit miffed about that.

'Sorry Gin,' Harry said. 'I suppose you have a point there. I might have been a tad obsessed with Draco back then. But only because I always thought he was up to something. And more often than not, I was right!'

Ginny shook her head wearily.

'Merlin Harry, you can be simple sometimes,' she muttered.

'Hey!' Harry protested, feeling indignant.

'Sorry, sorry…' Ginny apologised. 'It's just… have you seen the way he looks at you Harry? Never mind that, did you see the way he looked at me earlier? He was none too pleased with me for interrupting your non date, that much was obvious'.

Harry nodded and said: 'Yes I did notice that. Not sure why though?'

'Isn't it obvious? He was jealous,' Ginny stated.

'What on earth would Draco be jealous about?' Harry asked.

Ginny gave him a pointed look.

'I'm not going to spell it out for you Harry. Figure that part out for yourself. You're meeting him at the Manor tonight aren't you?' she enquired. At Harry's affirmative nod she continued: 'Good. I'm sure you'll figure it out together'.

She got up and smirked.

'I'm heading back to the office. Some of us have to work for a living you know! Have fun tonight Harry. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!'

And with those words, she was out the door, leaving a confused Harry behind.