Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling or Taylor Swift so I own nothing but the plot :)

Chapter 4

You taught me 'bout your past, thinking your future was me.

It had been two weeks since Harry had had his last drink. After the night at the Leaky Cauldron with Ron and Hermione, he had decided that sulking around his house every night getting pissed wasn't going to solve any problems. He had gone to his friends' for dinner a couple of nights to get himself out of the house, and he had taken to going for a run after work to clear his head. Today, however, had not been a good day. Work had been stressful. Then as Harry was on his way to the atrium of the Ministry, he had almost ran into Draco, quite literally. They both had stopped abruptly when they realized who it was they almost collided with and simply stared at each other for several seconds. Draco had then opened his mouth, seemingly to say something, when Harry panicked and bolted in the opposite direction. He had gone back to his office and waited almost 45 minutes before he deemed it safe to make his way back to the atrium.

Needless to say, by the time Harry got home, he was in a rotten mood. He was starving and physically and emotionally exhausted. The past couple weeks he had actually been cooking fairly regularly, but tonight he was ordering takeaway. And as he waited for his food to be delivered, Harry decided he deserved a drink. That drink turned into several, and before he really realized what was happening, he was drunk. He sat in his favorite chair with his firewhisky, once again, and wallowed.

Harry just couldn't seem to get the look in Draco's eyes from earlier out of his head. It wasn't the shuttered look he so often wore in public, his eyes turning a dark, stormy grey. Instead the eyes that had met his had been a light, expressive silver. They had conveyed his initial surprise at almost running into Harry, and then they had morphed into a different expression altogether. An expression so familiar to him that it made his heart ache. The same expression that Draco had worn when they laid in bed and confessed their feelings for the first time, the same expression Draco had used the first time he had said he loved Harry, and the same expression he had on when he informed Harry he wanted to do something special for his birthday just moments before their break-up. And just like that, Harry found himself lost in a swirl of fond memories.

Harry and Draco laid in Harry's bed, naked, Draco's head on Harry's chest, his left arm and leg slung across Harry's body. Harry looked down at the gorgeous man on top of him with fondness, lightly tracing the fading Dark Mark on his arm absentmindedly. They lay in silence for several minutes before Draco broke it by announcing, "I never wanted to take it, you know."

Harry cocked his head in question. "Never wanted what?" he inquired.

"This stupid, fucking tattoo on my arm given to me by a madman," Draco spit out in disgust.

"Then why'd you take the Mark?" Harry asked before he could stop himself. He tensed, preparing himself for a scathing reply.

Instead Draco sighed and snuggled closer to Harry's chest. "I couldn't let him hurt my mother because of me," he whispered. "My mother was my whole world at that point. She had always been there for me when I was a kid, and Lucius was on one tirade or another. She tried not to show much emotion when Lucius was around, but when we were alone, she would hold me and just make everything better. It didn't matter what had gotten me down, she was always, always there."

Harry felt his throat constrict in sympathy. "I'm so sorry," he replied sadly.

Draco lifted his head off of his chest and turned to look at Harry. "What for?"

"For not offering you help before it was too late," Harry explained. "For not being able to see past my prejudice and stupid, childish rivalry, to see that you were truly suffering."

Draco chuckled and shook his head. "You really do have quite the Savior complex, don't you?" he pointed out in amusement. "Even if you would have offered help, it doesn't mean that I would have taken it."

"But you were going to! I saw you lower your wand when Dumbledore offered you help. If the Death Eaters wouldn't have shown up, you would have accepted it," Harry said with conviction.

"You were there that night?" Draco asked, his voice full of some unidentified emotion.

"Yeah, I was below you under the Invisibility Cloak. Dumbledore had cast a spell so I couldn't interfere," Harry explained.

"I had no idea," Draco muttered in surprise. "You're right though. If we wouldn't have been interrupted, I was going to tell him if he could save my mother that I was in."

Harry tightened the arm that was around the other man in a comforting gesture. He could feel the sadness rolling off him in waves. "He was already dying, you know. He knew that you were meant to kill him, and it didn't matter because he was going to die soon anyway. There was a curse…" Harry explained tentatively. He was surprised to hear a muffled sob and felt something wet hit his chest. He pulled Draco closer and slowly began to rub his back. He felt it was best not to say anything and simply let the other man compose himself.

"Thank you," Draco choked out after a few minutes.

"The past doesn't define who we are today, Draco," Harry said sagely, dropping a light kiss on the top of his head.

There was a short pause before Draco started tentatively once again, "We're not just shagging, are we?"

Harry felt his heart skip a beat in excitement. He had had that exact realization a couple weeks prior and hadn't been sure how to broach the subject. He hadn't felt like he could just ask the ex-Slytherin out on a proper date. Harry flashed Draco a warm smile when he realized the other man was looking up at him in apprehension. "No, I don't think we are," Harry agreed. "In fact, I've been trying to think of the best way to ask you on a date with the lowest risk of getting hexed for a couple weeks now."

Draco laughed, a genuinely delighted laugh. "I'm offended you still think so low of me," he joked with a pout.

Harry chuckled along with him. "It's not that! I just have excellent self-preservation instincts," he teased back.

Draco shook his head in amusement before pulling Harry in for a tender kiss. "I would love to go on a date with you," he said with a smile. He paused for a second, biting his lip nervously. "Would it be alright if we kept this to ourselves? I really don't look forward to the public's reaction."

Harry readily nodded in agreement. "Absolutely. Contrary to your beliefs in school, I actually hate being the center of attention. The longer we can keep it out of the paper, the better."

Draco smiled widely, his eyes a soft grey color and brimming with emotion. Harry basked in the other man's admiration. Even after they had met up multiple times to shag, Draco had always kept his emotions behind his protective walls. This, however, was something new and something that Harry thought he could definitely get used to. He pulled Draco's lips to his and slowly slid his tongue along the other man's bottom lip, requesting entrance. Draco's lips parted immediately as he moaned breathily into the kiss. The pair stayed entangled, languidly and passionately kissing for what felt like hours. When they finally pulled away for air, Harry couldn't help the huge smile that appeared on his face. It only grew larger when he met Draco's eyes once again and found that the other man looked just as happy as he did.

Harry felt his heart clench at the memory. Part of him regretted not letting Draco talk earlier, given the familiar look in his eyes, but he knew he made the right choice. At least this way he could pretend it was whatever he wanted it to be. If he would have been fakely civil or overly formal, it would have killed Harry. It was better this way, driving himself crazy with speculation. Sometimes ignorance really could be bliss.