Harry POV

Harry cleared his throat. "So, now what?" he asked, after he judged they'd spent rather enough time beaming at one another.

Draco blinked dazedly at him, eyes slightly glazed. "Hmm?"

"Well…it sounds like we'll be stuck here a few days at least. McGonagall's right – it's probably not safe for us to leave the wards. So… what shall we do?"

Draco's eyes focused abruptly, acquiring a gleam that Harry would once have dismissed as either greedy or malicious. Now… now he wondered how he could have been so blind. It was clearly excitement and mischief in Draco's eyes. This close, he recognized it as a gleam he often saw in Ron's eyes, and his own in the mirror. It was the gleam that was usually followed by an eye roll and lecture from Hermione. Harry felt so much lighter when he realized that that lecture would be absent, this time. His smile widened.

"You know," Harry continued, "I poked around here, a bit, when Sirius first left it to me, but… I didn't really have much enthusiasm for exploring then."

Draco nodded. "And now?"

"Now, I wonder what we might find if we were to go exploring."

Draco's eyes lit up. "I hoped you would say something like that."

"Let's go then." Harry jumped up and started toward the door.

"What, just like that?"

Harry looked back to find Draco still sitting on the couch. "Yes?"

"But… but that won't do at all. This is part of my heritage, Harry. We should at least be organized about it."

Harry sighed, but turned obediently back to the couch. "Honestly, Draco. You're as bad as Hermione."

Draco stared at him. "Oh, surely not. She'd have you make lists, and find books, and do scads of research before you even started. It would take weeks."

Harry grinned despite himself. "True, that. Alright, Draco, if you don't intend to be quite as… thorough as Hermione, what do you propose?"

"Well – " Draco paused. "Wait – you're giving in that easily? You're not going to rush off into unknown dangers just because I suggested caution?" His eyebrows climbed towards his hairline.

Harry laughed. "Draco. You're right. I am far too impulsive – that's what got me in trouble with your parents." He shuddered. "Anyway, this is part of your heritage. You have every right to dictate how we explore it."

Draco shook his head. "Astonishing. I should have apologized to you years ago."

"Yes. You should have." Harry knew his expression was strange, both because Draco had caught his breath, and because he didn't know himself what he was feeling – but he could feel the emotions chasing each other across his face, even if he couldn't tell what they were. Oh, well. From the looks of it, Draco can't either. So there's that.

"Right. Well. I suggest we make a rough map of the house, starting with what you know. It doesn't have to be perfect – we'll add to it as we go. Then we should take a somewhat systematic approach, exploring one room at a time, marking anything interesting on the map. We should probably also designate a space to collect any dangerous or questionable artifacts." He coughed. "If this house is anything like the Manor – and I suspect it may even be worse – then we'll need quite a large space for this. Perhaps an entire room."

Harry nodded. It was a good plan. Much better than the no doubt haphazard approach he would have taken, had he been on his own. "Why collect the dangerous things?"

Draco raised an eyebrow at this. "Harry. It sounds as if we're going to be living here for some days. Do you really want to leave Dark and dangerous artifacts lying around just anywhere the whole time? What happens when you accidentally touch something you shouldn't on the way to the loo in the middle of the night?"

Harry paled. "Right. Good plan." Then he frowned. "What do we do with them after we've collected them? Lock them up, ward the room, and hope they don't get out?"

"We can get Aurors and Curse-Breakers to help us destroy them. Not now, perhaps, but after we defeat Voldemort. Don't you intend to live here, after you've finished school? It's a lovely house, under all the gloom. You could really make something beautiful of it."

Harry stared at him. "You really think I have a chance of defeating Voldemort?"

Draco just looked calmly back. "Yes. I really do."

Harry replayed Draco's words from a moment before. "Hang on – you said we."

Draco colored a bit. "Yes, well, I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll be by your side. I told you – I always intended to throw my lot in with you. It just took me longer than I'd planned. But I'm here now."

Harry realized he'd slowly moved closer to Draco as they'd been speaking. Now he stood in front of him, looking down as Draco looked earnestly up at him. "Yes. You are."

He watched, as if it were a dream, as his hand reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from Draco's forehead. He gulped, suddenly needing more oxygen. Draco's hair was so soft, now that he didn't gel it back so severely. Harry ghosted his fingers through the silky strands, tucking them gently behind his ear. He smiled as said ear turned decidedly pink.

Draco opened his mouth, about to speak. Harry held his breath.

And Kreacher appeared beside them with a crack like lightning striking a tree.

Harry stumbled back in surprise, flailing his arms for a moment before regaining his balance. He turned to glare at Kreacher, who seemed completely oblivious to the moment he'd so rudely interrupted. From the corner of his eye, he watched Draco raise a trembling hand to trace the path Harry's fingers had just traveled. He nearly smiled, then remembered Kreacher, and scowled thunderously instead. Kreacher didn't even seem to notice.

"Kreacher is needing to speak with Master Potter," he croaked.

Harry sighed. "What is it, Kreacher?"

"Kreacher is needing to speak with Master Potter, alone." Kreacher clarified, jerking his head in Draco's direction and fixing Harry with a stare that made him feel five years old, caught staring out the window when he was supposed to be doing the washing up.

Harry cleared his throat, giving up on the moment. "Er, right. Um. The library then?"

Kreacher considered, tipping his head on one side, then nodding.

Harry looked apologetically at Draco. "Excuse us for a moment, Draco." He turned and strode towards the library, beckoning impatiently for the house-elf to follow him. He was really going to have to do something about Kreacher's insolence. He was Master in this House, dammit, and it was time he acted like it.

He felt Draco's eyes on his back until he closed the library door. When the feeling faded, he felt somehow bereft. He felt his annoyance at the house-elf mounting. "Right, Kreacher. What's so bloody important?"

Kreacher fixed him with an earnest stare, yellow eyes glinting dangerously. "Master Potter is not being a good Master. Kreacher had hoped he was being able to teach Master Potter, but Master Potter is not being able to learn."

Harry thought of his smug teasing this morning, and felt a momentary flash of guilt. Then he remembered that Kreacher had interrupted… whatever he and Draco had been doing, and his annoyance returned to drown the guilt.

"Look, Kreacher – "

Kreacher glared at him. "Master Potter is not interrupting Kreacher!"

Harry felt his mouth drop open, and closed it with a snap. "Er, right. Go on, then."

"Master Potter is not being able or willing to learn how to be a proper Master. So Kreacher has a suggestion. If Master Potter were to be transferring the legal rights to the House to Master Malfoy-Black, then the House would be having a Master in both fact and name. Master Malfoy-Black is being able to learn to be a proper Master." Kreacher's eyes turned crafty. "Then Master Potter is being free of the House." Kreacher nodded and folded his arms, as if to say that now Harry could speak.

But Harry couldn't speak for a moment. He stood frozen, considering. It would solve all of their problems. Kreacher was right. Harry didn't want to be Master of the Black House, not really. Freedom sounded good. He knew the House needed a proper Master, and it sounded as if Draco could be that. And Draco… Draco needed a home, now that he'd given up the Manor. And he'd said that it could be beautiful.

It struck Harry, then, how much Draco had given up, when he'd snatched Harry from his parents' dungeon. Not just his family – his home, his past, his history. All of the artifacts and family heirlooms. He knew Draco cared deeply about his family history. And Harry had, all unwittingly, stripped him of all of it. And he'd never get it back. But this way… this way he could give Draco a piece of his family history. His mother had been a Black – this house really should have gone to Draco. It was only Sirius' disregard for the House and Pureblood rules that had sent the House into Harry's hands, instead.

He sighed. "All right, Kreacher. I'll talk to him about it. And if he wants it, then, yes, I'll sign the house over to Draco."