Harry exited the bathroom first and checked to make sure no one was around. He shuffled barefoot back to his room and when the coast was clear Draco returned to his own room. Harry returned his glasses to their familiar perch on the bridge of his nose and hunted around for something clean to wear to supper. When he emerged Draco's door was still closed, so he descended to the first floor ahead of him.

Their roommates were scattered throughout the kitchen and the sitting room on the enclosed back porch. Magnus was manning the stove, prattling on about Nordic comfort foods and stirring a large pot. Stella was kneading a lump of dough, her shirt streaked with flour. Two house elves stood nervously in the corner, watching their activity with some trepidation. Harry eyed Magnus' work suspiciously, remembering Draco's not so flattering depictions of his hygiene. He hoped he was a cleaner cook than flatmate.

Zane, Harris, Levi and Vaishali were standing around the kitchen island, watching Stella knead the dough. They each had a cocktail in hand, a wheat-colored potion that intoxicated without morning-after repercussions or calories. It was Harry's favorite. He poured himself a glass and went out to the porch to join the others.

Ginny was curled up on the sofa with a magazine and a drink. Harry plopped down next to her with a content sigh. She immediately tucked her legs up and shifted the other way to lean on him, nestling under his arm like she belonged there. Harry had to admit to himself that he was a little nervous about the frequency with which she cuddled up to him. If she was clear that he wasn't available to her, that would be okay. But if she was holding out any hopes that he would see the light of day and fall for her again, it would be bad for both of them.

He heard Draco thump down the stairs and stop off for a drink. He came out onto the porch, sat on an ottoman near the screen door, and set his glass on the coffee table, where it immediately sweated a wet ring onto the wood. He eyed Ginny and Harry's cozy embrace and pressed his lips together disapprovingly. Harry tried to convey with his eyes that it meant nothing.

It was quiet, the kind of quiet only exhaustion can create. Franz and Antonio were sitting in recliners with their feet propped up. Ginny abandoned her magazine and let it fall to the floor with a soft flutter. The deep rumble of Magnus' voice floated out from the kitchen as he narrated his cooking process. It was more peaceful than Harry would have expected with eleven Quidditch players in the house. Of course, true to form, Draco was compelled to fill the silence. Harry smiled the instant the blond Slytherin opened his mouth.

"So what's good for entertainment around here?" Draco asked no one in particular.

"Entertainment?" Ginny asked without lifting her head. "Who has the energy?"

Harry closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the sofa cushions. No one spoke for several minutes. Stella slapped and patted the dough as she shaped it into a loaf, then cast a rising charm to hurry it along before popping it into the oven.

"I swear you won't know the difference," she said apologetically to the other teammates.

She and Zane and Levi returned to the porch and found places to sit around the comfortably cluttered room. They looked back and forth between Franz and Draco, curious about the newcomers.

"So Draco," Stella said. "Are you one of the infamous Malfoys?"

Harry lifted his head and eyed Draco closely as he raised an eyebrow in an expression Harry knew all too well. He silently willed his former schoolmate to think carefully before answering. A short temper now could spell awkwardness later. Of course his family name was known. They were known for their wealth before the war, and they were known for their support of the Dark Lord during the war. That qualified as infamous.

"Do you know Lucius Malfoy?" Zane asked. "They sent him to Azkaban for war crimes."

Draco took a long pull from his drink before answering. "Lucius Malfoy is my father."

The room went silent. Even the roommates in the kitchen stopped talking. No one knew what to say.

"So you-know-who lived at your house?" Stella asked softly, as though talking about it too loudly would raise the dead.

"Yes."

"Did you meet him?"

"Yes."

The silence was heavy. They wanted to know more. They would want to know if he had supported Voldemort. Whether he had fought for him. Whether he had killed anyone for him. Harry didn't think anything good could come from talking about those things.

"Reporters are going to ask you about that," Antonio spoke up in his gently rolling accent. It was the first he had spoken up since their three teammates had moved into the house.

"Do you think Tex knows? This can't be good for our image," Levi said to the group.

"Of course he knows," Ginny said. "He did a background check on all of us. He even called up my brother in Romania."

"Were you a Death Eater?" Levi asked. His mouth was pressed into a thin line. "Are you marked?"

Harry winced. Why now? Why on the first night? He wanted to say something, to redirect the conversation, to whisk Draco out of the room so he wouldn't have to face the scrutiny. But it wasn't his place to do so.

"I was a Death Eater, yes. I didn't have a choice." Draco paused for a moment to let the group absorb that information. "I was marked, but everyone's mark disappeared when the Dark Lord was killed." His eyes flicked to Harry, then away again. Everyone else followed his eyes.

"Oh Merlin, and Harry is the one who killed him!" Harris exclaimed. "That's why you passed the background check!" Everyone looked at him curiously. "It's a newspaper play! Mark my words, at some point his history will end up in the papers and Tex will show how he and Harry are playing on the same team now. It will be like healing the war wounds. People will eat it up!"

"Bloody brilliant," Vaishali swore.

"I don't get it," Stella said. "How can you be best friends if Draco was a Death Eater and Harry killed you-know-who?"

"We're not best friends," Harry furrowed his brow, worried Draco would think he'd been speaking out of turn. "Who told you we were?"

"You're not?" Stella exchanged a look with the other Chasers. "You act like it. You've been talking about him all summer. And you've been inseparable since Nigel brought him over."

"They were enemies at school," Ginny piped up, earning an elbow to the ribs which did nothing to shut her up. "Harry almost killed Malfoy. And Malfoy broke Harry's nose."

"Bygones," Draco said smoothly, although Harry easily spotted his discomfort. "At some point everyone grows up and abandons their childish ways."

"So you're friends now," Levi looked dubious.

"Is this an interrogation?" Draco was starting to sound annoyed. He shot Harry a hard look, urging him to speak up. Harry grimaced apologetically.

"We have to play as a team," Zane said. "If there's bad blood between our Seeker and our Keeper, we have to know that. And you'll have to work out your differences."

"We've worked out our differences," Harry said finally. The room quieted as soon as he spoke, and for once he had a lucid understanding that this was the sort of thing that had earned him the nickname of Saint Potter.

"So you're friends now?" Zane pressed the issue.

"I would trust him with my life," Harry said seriously, looking directly at Draco with unblinking honesty.

Magnus came to the doorway, wiping his hands on a towel. He looked over everyone's head to Franz. "Draco has been a good roommate," he said.

"I agree," Franz nodded.

"Do I get to be part of your club now?" Draco curled his lip in a sneer.

"He's a bit prickly," Harry said with a knowing smile. "But he'll grow on you,"

"Not surprising," Stella smirked. "Everyone knows Keepers are prima donnas."

"Pardon me?" Draco sat up straight, his posture outraged.

"I think the bread is about done," Stella hopped up from her chair and darted into the kitchen with a giggle. Of course the bread was nowhere near done, but she had a charm for that, too, and soon enough Magnus was ladling out bowls of stew and Stella was slicing off thick slabs of crusty fresh bread. Zane directed everyone to the enormous dining room to eat, playfully topping off their beverages from the endless carafe as they passed.

Harry hung back with Draco and was served last. Draco accepted a slice of bread from Stella and arched his eyebrow in its most demanding curve. "Who says Keepers are prima donnas?"

"No one," Stella arched her eyebrow in return. "I just thought that might get under your skin," she smirked.

Draco eyed her appraisingly. "You," he wagged his finger at her, "you and I are going to get along."

She flipped her hair as she headed into the dining room with the others. Draco turned and eyed Harry appraisingly now. Harry caressed his ear, apologizing silently for not anticipating the confrontation. Draco nodded for him to lead the way to the table.

Supper was actually nicely done. The house elves popped in and out with second servings and more intoxicating potion. Harry's head was swimming by the time the dishes were cleared. He was flanked by Ginny and Levi, across the table from Draco, Stella, and, to Draco's obvious dismay, Franz. Because apparently he was destined to share his personal space with at least one Beater at all times.

"So who else here knew each other before making the team," Harris called out from the end of the table. "Harry and Draco, obviously."

"I went to school with them, too," Ginny piped up. Her cheeks were inflamed with drink in a rather indelicate way.

"Any dirty secrets about them that you could share?" Zane leaned forward expectantly.

"No," Ginny shook her head and grinned. "They always hated each other."

"I still don't understand how you go from hating each other to friends," Vaishali said.

"It's long and complicated," Harry waved her question away. He was as inebriated as everyone else and the lovely buzzing in his head made storytelling sound like much less fun than listening. "Short story is, the war changed everything."

"That's a cop-out," Harris complained.

"You know what it is?" Draco was clearly pissed and his tongue had loosened up. "There's not that much difference between being enemies and being friends. Either way you're connected. And when you no longer have a reason to hate each other, there's no point in being enemies anymore. That's why it makes sense when he says the war changed everything. Because it did."

Harry smiled across the table at him. He was pleased that Draco understood. No, he loved that Draco understood. Oh bollocks, he'd better watch himself. Drink had a way of making him gush and confess his love for everyone around him.

"That makes absolutely no sense. When you're not enemies anymore you have to be friends? Can't you just go your separate ways?" Levi looked dubious. Harry could tell the skeptical Chaser didn't trust Draco and didn't want to like him.

"No," Draco shook his head. Everyone looked to Harry for his answer.

"No," he concurred.

"So what do you do then?" Levi was annoyed. "Just shake hands and say, let's kiss and make up?"

"In that order? Yes!" Draco giggled in a very uncharacteristic way. Harry blushed.

"I don't get it," Levi looked away grumpily.

"So you three knew each other," Harris moved the conversation back on topic. "Magnus and Franz, you knew each other, right?"

"We played on the same team at Durmstrang," Magnus nodded.

"Are you friends?"

"Sure," Franz shrugged. "We've never talked much off of the pitch but we get along."

"We were told the only way we could make the team is if we both signed," Magnus added. "Tex and Nigel wanted us as a pair or not at all."

"Interesting," Harris steepled his fingers. "Anyone else?"

"Zane and I have played against each other," Vaishali said. "We were both on community teams in Leeds."

"You don't sound like you're from Leeds," Levi frowned.

"I'm not," Vaishali and Zane said in unison.

"Sounds fishy," Draco leaned over and whispered conspiratorially. "You should probably investigate."

A few chuckles scattered around the table as his roommates caught his mocking tone. They had all learned to anticipate the suspicious man's skepticism. Levi scowled and leaned away.

"Do we really have to be up for swimming at five thirty?" Franz changed the subject.

"Every day," Ginny nodded. She draped her arm around Harry's shoulder.

"I'm not a strong swimmer," Franz's brow furrowed.

"You'll learn fast," Antonio said, speaking for the first time since they sat down. "I could hardly swim when we got here."

"I'm not good in the morning," Franz added.

"Then you'll learn faster," Stella smiled. "Thirty laps will teach you in no time."

"Speaking of which," Zane stood and bowed to the room. "I am off to bed."

"It's early," Magnus said.

"This isn't early," Zane said knowingly. "Five thirty is early."

Everyone grudgingly agreed and rose from their seats. The house elves moved in right away to clean up as they clomped up the stairs in a line, some stopping at the second floor, some continuing on to the third. Ginny held Harry back as Draco went on ahead. He was going to have to find a way to gently explain that she was dominating his attention too much.

"That was mad, wasn't it?" she asked. "They jumped all over Malfoy like they could smell the Dark Mark on him."

"I wish they hadn't," Harry said. "He doesn't deserve it. He's made amends, and he shouldn't be held responsible for what his father did, just because they share a name."

"Maybe so," Ginny frowned. "But he's still an arsehole, no matter what."

Harry murmured noncommittally and continued up the stairs. She followed closely behind as they passed Levi and Antonio's rooms, then went quietly to her own room. Harry continued to the end of the hall and sighed regretfully at Draco's closed door. He hadn't done a good job defending him to the others. He didn't think he had a right to seek out Draco's company tonight. He sagged as he went into his own room and stripped down to his pants for bed. After such an intense day with his former rival, it felt like the evening was drawing to a close with a disappointing fizzle.

He was lying on his back, eyelids fluttering and drifting off to sleep when a rap came at his door. "Alohomora," he called sleepily as he sat up and donned his glasses. The door swung open and Draco darted inside. Harry smiled in wonder, "What are you doing here?"

"Do you do any spells with your wand anymore?" Draco scowled as though he disapproved. He slipped into bed beside Harry without asking.

"Not the simple ones," Harry scooted over to give him room. The bed springs squeaked loudly, quelling any ideas of fooling around in here.

"Were you asleep already?" Draco asked, hesitating before settling down on the pillow.

"Sort of," Harry removed his glasses again and handed them to Draco to set on the bedside table. It was a small gesture, but Draco looked up at him in surprise, as though he had been entrusted with Harry's life. Harry's heart squeezed.

"I couldn't relax," Draco set his glasses down and nestled into the pillow. "My head is all jumbled."

Harry leaned over to kiss him gently. At the touch of Draco's lips an intense warmth spread through his chest and radiated to his fingers and toes. It wasn't the urgent kiss of foreplay, it was quiet, intimate, and caring. Harry stroked his hair and held him closely, and Draco hesitantly raised his hand to touch Harry's hair in return. It wasn't about sex. It was a continuation of the kiss Harry had offered at the Three Broomsticks. Draco kissed him back with nervous tenderness. He was scared of this feeling; and Harry could feel the fear in his body as though it were tangible. Caring for Draco didn't frighten Harry at all. He wished Draco shared his confidence.

He shifted until he was lying on top of Draco, both hands tangled in his hair. Draco ran his fingers up and down Harry's spine as they kissed, his cock perking up bit by bit as the kissing intensified. Harry reached down and caught Draco's arms, then pushed them up over his head. He held his wrists for just a moment, then trailed his fingers down to his chest. Goosebumps scattered everywhere, and Draco let out a tiny moan.

"Shh," Harry released his mouth long enough to hush him with a smile. He was smug, proud of himself for coaxing an uncontrolled response from the other man.

Draco pulled his mouth in again, his fingers feathering through Harry's hair and stroking the sandpapery stubble along his jaw. Harry wondered if Draco would have friction burn on his cheeks in the morning. Then he slipped his hand down Harry's y-fronts and firmly grasped his cock, driving every other thought out of his head.

"Harry?" a flurry of taps at the door drove them apart. The door handle turned and before the visitor could enter Draco did the only thing he could: he threw the quilt over his head and froze.

"Ginny!" Harry gasped as the ginger girl slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. Draco laid still as though he thought that would help conceal the outline of his body beneath the coverlet.

"Who is that?" her eyes widened in surprise.

"Nobody," Harry said stupidly. Of course it was somebody.

"Harry," she said sternly. "That is clearly not nobody. Who is in your bed?"

"Can you come back later?" Harry pleaded, his voice weak.

"Come on."

"Ginny, please don't."
"Just tell me."

"Can't you take a hint?" Draco called from beneath the blanket. Harry groaned in dismay.

"Who is that?" Ginny sounded shocked now. "Is that Malfoy?"

Draco pushed the quilt aside and sat up. "I thought your brother was a nosy git, but you're clearly worse than he is."

"Are you sleeping with Draco Malfoy?" Ginny ignored him and gawked at Harry.

"Not right at the moment, thanks to you," Draco snapped.

"Harry, you can't," she shook her head in denial.

"Why can't he?" Draco demanded. "He's an adult, he can choose for himself."

"I should have known," she hissed through clenched teeth. "I should have guessed when you made that bloody stupid comment downstairs about trusting him with your life. I thought you were being dramatic to smooth things over." She slapped herself on the forehead like an admonishment. "But really you were defending your boyfriend."

"He's not-"

"Let's not rush things-"

"So he's not your boyfriend," Ginny folded her arms across her chest.

"It's only been one day," Draco said. A small portion of Harry's brain couldn't help being amused by the way Draco was compelled to answer, even though none of her comments were directed at him.

"Well," Harry snapped back to the present. He cocked his head at Draco, "plus eight years."

"Yeah but that's actually a point in favor of her outrage because we weren't friends for most of those eight years," Draco pointed out.

"True," Harry conceded.

"Listen to yourselves!" Ginny grabbed two handfuls of her hair like she was going mad. "Talking about it like it's academic!"

"It is, sort of," Harry said weakly. "I know you're upset but you shouldn't be. If you knew him the way I do-."

"I don't have to," she said. "I know him well enough."

Harry sighed and shrugged in defeat. There would be no convincing her. She didn't know him. She hadn't forgiven him. She hadn't seen what Harry had seen during the darkest days of the war. She hadn't seen his agony in the Astronomy tower the night Professor Dumbledore passed. She hadn't looked him in the eyes and seen his pain the way Harry had, just before nearly slicing him in two with that ill-gotten Sectumsempra. She hadn't seen his refusal to identify Harry to the Death Eaters, saving Harry's life while risking his own.

She hadn't seen any of that and he couldn't expect her to understand otherwise. He wasn't sure anyone could understand. But Draco understood, and that was all that mattered. He slipped his hand beneath the coverlet and grasped Draco's hand in his to show that he would stand by him.

"I know I don't have a right to tell you who to date," Ginny was saying. "But I'm not going to pretend I understand this. And I'm not going to pretend I like it."

"I know," Harry said softly. "Just don't ask me to choose between you." He looked at Draco, "You either."

For once Draco seemed to realize that now was not the time for a smart retort. He nodded soberly.

"What did you come in here for?" Harry asked Ginny.

"It seems silly now," her cheeks flushed.

"What is it?"

"I was just going to gossip about Vaishali and Zane," she waved her hand dismissively. "Really not important."

"Oh they've definitely shagged at some point," Draco said. "You can just tell."

"That's what I thought, too," Ginny's eyes finally flicked his direction and then away again.

"Merlin," Harry flopped back onto his pillow. "Five thirty is going to be painful. Doesn't anyone other than me want to sleep?"

"Sorry," Ginny popped the door open at her back. "I won't say anything, I promise."

"Thank you," Harry smiled. He waved as she slipped out. "Good night."

"Fuck," Draco laid back with his hands over his face as she pulled the door shut behind her. "Well that went smashingly."

"I suppose It had to happen sometime," Harry said with a yawn.

He rolled Draco over onto his side and scooted close to spoon him from behind. He draped his arm across Draco's waist. Without hesitation Draco clasped their hands together.

"I would have preferred if it hadn't happened on the very same day that my life went all sixes and sevens," Draco murmured.

Harry nuzzled into the hair at the nape of his neck and dropped a kiss onto his shoulder. "Stop thinking so much and go to sleep."