August 17th, 2001

"You don't deserve him," Justin Finch-Fletchy fell into step with Draco on the third floor in the Ministry of Magic building, speaking as though there was no arguing with his words.

Still, it got Draco's blood boiling. "Oh?"

"Yeah, and I think you know it, too. That's why you're so distant. You know you don't deserve him," Finch-Fletchy paused for effect after this word, "but you want to."

"And I suppose you think you deserve him?" Draco raised one eyebrow in that aristocratic way of his.

"Oh no, not me," Finch-Fletchy was quick to shake his head, "I certainly ain't worthy. But neither are you. Strange that he'd pick you, though, of all the unworthy people. The Boy Who Lived Twice decides he wants an ex-Death Eater, when there were, still are even, thousands of people willing to fall at his feet. Heck, even witches and wizards that didn't even face Voldemort's doom want him just 'cause he survived the killing curse."

"Has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps Harry," Draco emphasized his name, "doesn't want someone who wants to just fall at his feet?"

Finch-Fletchy was silent for a moment, and Draco was about ready to put a triumphant smirk upon his face until the Hufflepuff-sorted male spoke. "No, I suppose he wouldn't. That does explain why he picked you, than. You'd rather have him at your feet, like a pet or trophey."

Without much chance to realize what was going on, Finch-Fletchy found himself pinned against a wall, Draco roughly grabbing his robe front. "Listen here, Finch-Fletchy, and listen well - Harry and I are together for reasons we don't have to explain to anyone else. Our relationship is ours and I prefer to keep it that way, so keep your mudblood nose out of it." His shoved off Finch-Fletchy and turned, storming away.

Finch-Fletchy wasn't done, though. "Do you call Hermione mudblood, too?"

Ignoring him, Draco marched onward until he found exactly what he was looking for - The Department for the Fair Treatment of Magical Creatures (a much better name than S.P.E.W Draco thought). He flung open the door but closed it gently, after all, he was a pureblood and therefore could not cause a scene in public.

"What's wrong, Draco?" Hermione's voice was filled with concern and for a moment, Draco was utterly happy to be her friend - she was a less hardened version of Pansy.

"Just a run in with a rather annoying person."

"More people questioning your reasons for being with Harry," it wasn't a question and Draco wasn't going to insult her intelligance by pretending it was one.

"We are happy," Draco seethed, "isn't that enough?"

Hermione gave a knowing smile, "Draco, don't you know by now that everyone wants Harry's happiness. Just so long as you aren't the source of it."

Draco would've chuckled at that if it weren't true. "Yes well, no matter. Lovegood sent me here with an invitation to dinner. I would've floo'd but I figured I could stop in and see Harry as well."

"You'll be sorry to hear that Harry is out. He and Ron got an emergancy call," Hermione said it in a tone that was bored, but Draco could see the worry behind her eyes.

"They always come back," Draco assured her, "they did it all through school, they'll-"

"I was there all through school!" Hermione burst, standing from behind her desk. "I was with them in every dangerous situation! Fluffy, the troll, the Voldemort hunt. I was there! But I'm not. I'm not an Auror, and even if I was, Kingley wouldn't allow a three person team, but at the same time, I so wish I was and that he did so that we'd be... together, and I'd know they were safe, and that they were returning!"

Draco had moved sometime during her speech standing next to her. He reached out and pulled her into a hug, his head resting a top hers. She sobbed into his robe and he refrained from making a comment about how expensive it was. "They'll come back."

"I know," Hermione said once her sobs subdued, "I know. But I still worry."

"Well, you aren't worrying along," Draco mumbled and the only indication Hermione gave that she'd heard him was the tight squeeze she gave him right before releasing him.

"Yes, yes," She wiped her eyes on her own sleeve, a small smile on her face, "I know. Tell, tell Luna that I'll be there - I'll bring Ron, too, if he's back by then."

Draco nodded before promptly leaving. He'd shown enough emotion for one day, thank you very much, and he'd be damned if he stayed long enough for Hermione to drag sobs out of him too.

He made his way back to the Appaperation point slowly, mulling over the events that happened in such a short amount of time.

He focused more on Hermione than Finch-Fletchy's talking, simply because he didn't want to think about anything Finch-Fletchy said. He could understand her worry because he worries too, but it was odd.

He'd worried for his parents and himself during the war, but never had he cared much for other people. Sure, he loved Pansy, Blaise, Theo, and Greg as much as one cared about people whose interests were the same, but he'd never really been close to them. Especially not since he'd not returned his Seventh year and they had. Instead, he'd stayed at the Manor, taking order from anyone and everyone, like a house elf.

Now, though, he was worried for Harry, much in the same way he'd worried for his parents. It was a genuin worry and fear that he might never see Harry again. Could he live with that? If he got news tonight that Harry had... had died during whatever mission he was on, would he be able to accept that and move on.

Accept the fact that he'd never told Harry he loved him? Accept that Harry would never know? He wasn't sure he could live with that.

Yet, he knew, deep down, that when - no, if, IF, Harry returned tonight, Draco still wouldn't tell him he loved him. Draco just couldn't tell Harry he loved him.

Maybe Finch-Fletchy was right, and Draco didn't deserve Harry. Maybe, deep down, Draco knew this and that's why he wouldn't admit he loved Harry. If Harry never heard it, never believed it, than it wouldn't matter. Harry would never be tainted by Draco's darkness and his evil. Harry was pure, kind, and everything Draco was not.

How could Draco deserve the person who saved the world, when he'd been on the side trying to destroy it? And how could Harry want him after that? When had the hostilities vanished? Where had the rivalry gone, the anger, the need to see the other more wounded than themselves? Draco bit his lip because he knew, knew, that in order to get answers to these questions, than he would have ask. And he and Harry never asked. It just wasn't done.

oOo

"You seem out of it," Luna smiled softly as she set tea in front Draco, "are you alright?"

Nodding curtly, Draco replied, "yes, of course. Why woudn't I be?"

Luna frowned, "I don't understand why you and Harry insist on lying all the time."

"What? I am not lying."

"It's a sad thing, Draco, when you lie so much you actually think it's the truth. Before my mum died, she'd tell me that I must always be honest and true because that was the only way to live," Luna sat down across from Draco, an expression on her face that he didn't quite understand. "Now I see what she meant. I'd always that she was saying that in order to stay alive you must be honest and true. Now I see that you can be alive and not live. You merely exist. Why are you and Harry merely existing?"

Draco looked up to meet her eyes. Her grey eyes, so close to his own that (if he hadn't studied his families history) he was sure he could mistake her as having Malfoy blood in her viens somewhere. He found that he couldn't answer her question. Partly in fact that he didn't know the answer, and partly because, if he did, than that would be answering those questions he and Harry had agreed to not. "If only I knew."

Luna seemed to accept this answer, almost as if she expected him to not know. "Yes, yes. Well, while we wait for everyone else to arrive shall we search the backyard for some Nargles? I'm sure daddy would love it if I found some for him to study."

"How about you search, and I'll sit on the porch and keep you company."

"Fair enough."

And that's exactly what they did until the first guests appeared - Blaize Zabini and Pansy Parkinson-Zabini.

"Don't tell me we are the first to arrive? I always prefer to be the last," Pansy fake pouted before pulling Draco into a hug.

"Alright, I won't tell you," Luna said, "but that doesn't make it any less true."

Blaise chuckled at that and Pansy gave a smile.

"Oi, where is everyone!" a voice shouted from inside the house.

"Out back!" Luna called. "Be prepared. I believe the Weasley's just showed up. That was George."

Indeed it was the Weasley clan, as Draco watched them walk by. Molly and Arthur, Percy, George, Ginny and Neville (not exactly Weasley's, but still the same), and Ron and Hermione. Draco frowned. "Where's Harry?"

Arms circled around him from behind and he knew he had the answer to his question. He allowed a soft smile to grace his features as he pulled Harry into a hug, burying his face into Harry's mess of hair. "Glad you're here."

Harry looked up with a grin. "Yeah. Me too."

Luna was watching them with that same expression as before, the one Draco couldn't describe. He suddenly felt very watched.

"So tell me, Draco, how was your day?" Harry said, barely even audiable to Draco's ears.

"It was alright," Draco replied, just as quietly. "Better now that you're here."

Harry smiled and sighed contently. "I love you."

"Me, too."