Prompt: the bathroom entrance to the Ministry of Magic

Every day Harry dreaded going into the Ministry. Not because of his job, but because as an employee he entered it through the toilets. No matter how many times he did it, it's just as bad as the first time. He preferred the guest entrance, but there were extra check-ins when he went through there and they were always rude about him not having a guest.

'So, Saturday mum's taking Rose,' Ron said, 'and Hermione wants to know if you'd like to come by for supper. Ginny'll be there and maybe we could play some Quidditch.'

'I'd love to, but—' Harry grimaced knowing there was no good way to put what he was about to say. 'I'm having supper with Narcissa.'

'Narcissa Malfoy?' Ron looked at Harry as if he'd gone around the twist.

Harry hadn't got around to tell any of his friends about his recent run-ins with Malfoy because he didn't want to hear their thoughts on it. Plus, he was still trying to pretend they hadn't happened and move on with his life. That was what the dinner with Narcissa was all about: letting her know everything he knew so that he could forget about Malfoy with a clean conscience.

'As in the-person-we're-not-allowed-to-talk-about-in-front-of-you-anymore's mother?' Ron continued, even as Harry glared at him. 'That Narcissa Malfoy?'

'Do you know any others?'

'Blimey, what are you seeing her for?' Ron went pale, and Harry had to bite his tongue to calm himself down before he hexed his best mate. As far as Ron knew Harry hadn't seen Malfoy since the war, and he looked like the thought Harry was planning to ask for his hand in marriage.

'I just have a few things to discuss with her is all.'

Then it was their turn to flush themselves to work, so they parted. They didn't talk to each other once they were inside the stalls anymore. Ron used to, but it freaked Harry out. There were some things he just wasn't open with and felt that standing in front of a toilet should be a private moment, let alone standing in one.

Once inside the Ministry and headed for the elevators, Ron continued, 'What could you possibly have to discuss with her?' Ron was quick on his heels as they slipped into the elevator, and after Harry pushed the button for level two, he sighed and said:

'Draco Malfoy.'

Okay, Harry probably deserved the intervention, but not for the reasons his friends thought. After Harry's anger subsided, he decided that he rather enjoyed torturing Ron by not giving him all the information. He kept throwing worried looks at Harry and it took all Harry's self-restraint to not bust out laughing. Instead, he wore a constant smirk. Which in retrospect Ron probably associated with Malfoy and just caused him to worry more.

Ron really did seem to think that Harry was planning on confessing his undying love for Malfoy. The idea was so mad to Harry that he'd begun to find the whole thing hilarious. Ron paced around his living room while Harry sat in the wingback chair and watched his friends exchanged worried glances.

'Harry,' Hermione said, leaning forward to rest her arms across her knees, 'we're worried about you.

That Harry couldn't stop laughing did nothing to ease their weariness, but Harry couldn't help it. They'd all gone mental. It was one thing when they kept him updated on Malfoy's life. Harry had at one time been very interested in what he was up to. He could admit that. But to think that he had romantic feelings for him. Well, it just made Harry laugh and the more serious their expressions became the more he had to laugh.

'It's not funny!' Ron looked terrified at Harry's sudden fit of giggles.

'But it is—you think—how could you possibly think—oh my sides hurt.'

Ginny glared at them all and then threw a spell at Harry which made him stop laughing abruptly.

'Will someone please explain what is going on here?' Ginny ask. 'I was told it was an emergency, and don't you start laughing again, Harry, or I'll be inclined to believe whatever these two tell me.'

Ron was the first to speak up. 'Harry is meeting Narcissa Malfoy for supper on Saturday, and he's being very secretive about what he needs to discuss with her.'

'Can't you just accept that it's a private matter?' Harry asked. 'It's really not something I should be sharing with other people.'

'See!' Ron said. 'He's planning on courting him! With no warning. They'll kill him—'

'Or laugh at him,' Ginny pointed out. 'Are you planning on asking Narcissa if you can begin courting, Draco?'

'Of course not!' Harry smiled, but Ginny's spell was still affecting him so he kept himself together. Ginny watched him carefully as if she were a Legilimens, but Harry knew she wasn't. 'I just ran into him the other day and might have . . . saved his life, and as it isn't the first time something like that has happened I thought she would like to know. That's all I'm telling you about it, though, because it really is a personal matter and I wish iI/i didn't know that much quite honestly.'

'You saved his life recently?' Ginny asked.

'Again?' Ron laughed.

Ginny waved their questions away and added her own, 'When you say that this isn't the first time are you referring the time at Hogwarts—'

'Times,' Ron corrected.

'Times?' Ginny looked surprised at that but looked back to Harry and continued, 'times at Hogwarts or times since then?'

They all looked far too interested in his answer.

'It's only been twice.'

'Including the war?' Hermione asked. 'Or like Ginny asked: since.'

'Since,' Harry answered, 'but it's nothing to worry about. Well, I mean nothing for us to worry about. Obviously, it is something to worry about for Narcissa which is why I'm meeting with her.' Harry stood up and said to Ron, 'I'm sorry I made you worry, but you were jumping to ridiculous conclusions. I was just messing with you because I'm sick of this whole Malfoy thing and if I didn't find some humour in it I probably would have blown up at you instead. I'm trying to get him out of my life. It just seems the harder I try the more contact I end up having with him.'

Harry laughed to show that he was joking about that last part, but it made Ron and Ginny's eyes go wide, again. Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Harry cut her off.

'Don't—please, whatever you are all thinking right now, just don't.'

Hermione closed her mouth and swallowed but nodded, and Ginny and Ron, thankfully, remained silent.

There was no reason for Harry to be nervous, but his hands were sweaty, and he was sure he'd spill his food all over himself before the meal was over. He really should have prepared what he wanted to say. It was just that there was no easy way to say that he thought Malfoy's accidents weren't accidents at all, but that he was deliberately putting himself in risky situations.

Every time Harry tried to bring up the subject his voice caught in his throat.

Finally, Narcissa asked, 'Not that I don't enjoy your company, but what was it that you wanted to speak about. Your owl made it sound important.'

Harry coughed and then took a drink of water to give himself a bit more time. 'I came to talk about Malfoy—Draco.'

Narcissa smiled at him pleasantly. 'Yes?'

'I ran across him again the other day and . . . um, saved his life again, and I thought you should know.'

'Really?' She didn't seem surprised in the slightest, but not only that she didn't seem worried either. 'How lucky you were there.'

'Yes,' Harry agreed. 'But I'm not sure that this one was an . . . accident.'

'Oh,' Narcissa said. 'You think that Draco was trying to—'

'I'm not sure he's really trying to kill himself as much as just not being safe on purpose. I mean there were almost no cars on the road that night and he was crossing the road not walking down the middle of it. And with the ice—it could have easily happened to me. Someone trying to kill themselves would use a more trustworthy, um—'

She followed her hands in her lap and leant back in her chair with a sigh. 'Like overdosing on potions? Carrying around Draught of Living Death?'

'Yeah, like that,' Harry said wearily. 'Or jumping from a tower.' Harry remembered Malfoy threatening to do that last one from time to time at Hogwarts, but he'd never thought anything of it at the time.

'He does that, too.' Narcissa looked Harry in the eye. 'It's why I've been trying to get him to see a Healer. He's a good Healer but knows nothing about the mind. He ignores it. I tried to get him into Mental Healing when he went into training, but he scoffed at the idea. I thought if he'd learn about it, new magic as it is, then he'd see . . .'

'You knew?'

'About his suicidal tendencies, of course. About his recent accident—on the ice you said? No. But I do find it very interesting . . . you know, when you first requested this—' She gestured between the two of them. 'I thought you were interested in courting him.'

'What?' Harry became light headed. She couldn't possibly have said what he thought she said.

'I know it would have been very out of the blue for you, seeing as how you were in such a hurry to get out of here the last time. But with this new development!' Narcissa clasped her hands together. 'It would have explained your sudden change of heart.'

'It's hardly the first time I've saved his life,' Harry said with a laugh. 'What would have made this time so much different.'

'Well, that's just it isn't, Mr Potter? How many times exactly have you saved my son's life?'