When Harry got back to Grimmauld place, he sat down and thought about what had happened the day before.
Harry supposed maybe they were friends. They did, after all, talk about more than their competition. Huh.
Well, whatever. Then they'd been friends for a while. Harry didn't really see their point.
Draco had been doing some Thinking over the summer holidays. He liked to believe he was usually a very sharp person, but he was starting the think Harry's obliviousness was catching. The fact that he was catching anything from Harry at all was the disturbing part.
So perhaps he had been lying to himself a bit, and they had managed to accidentally become sort of friends along the way. He didn't see why that should be a big deal, I mean, they had so much history, how could people possibly think they were together?
By the sixth of July, Draco was beginning to reassess. He missed Harry. He was so used to seeing him every day, and Harry was pretty much the only person he talked to. Perhaps it was less Harry's obliviousness being catching that distracted him, and maybe it was more Harry himself. The students had been right on one count, at least: he often really didn't notice anything else when he was talking with Harry. When they talked, they kind of formed their own little bubble - he hadn't thought anyone would notice it though, he hadn't noticed it.
He kicked the trunk the students had given them (which Harry had insisted he take, since his own already had an undetectable extension charm on it). He blamed it for reminding him of Harry.
Draco forced his brain onto more harmless things, and quickly threatened it with bodily harm if it ventured into dangerous territory like that again. Completely unacceptable behaviour.
Harry moped around Andromeda's house. He missed Draco but he refused to admit it. Really, they barely passed as friends. He was trying to be a better godfather and spend more time with Teddy, but the first action game they'd made up ended with him being turned into a Ferret, and the second one had involved them being admiring dragon watchers. After Teddy insisted on being a blonde haired prince, Harry pressed his lips together. He wasn't going to say why, he was just very tired of fantasy games suddenly.
He herded the excited eight year old into the kitchen with the promise of baking sweets. Andromeda might be angry for them making a mess, but Harry thought it was worth it if it got them to stop with the fantasy games.
He couldn't wait until the first of September.
Harry sulkily walked around Diagon Alley in the early August heat, buying new things for the upcoming year at Hogwarts. He wasn't sulky for any particular reason, that just seemed to his general state now.
He insisted to Hermione that it was because of a lack of initiative. He missed Hogwarts and working, that was all.
He stepped into Flourish and Blotts, and stopped when he saw a blonde man looking at the display by the door.
"Draco!" His face lit up, and he immediately move to embrace him.
"Harry! It's been a while!" Draco beamed.
They attracted quite a few stares, because of who they were, and didn't they hate each other?
They, of course, did not notice.
"Are you picking up stuff for school too?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, and I needed some new reading material, I've been pretty bored all summer. Haven't really had many people to talk to."
"Same here, although I've been trying to hang out with Teddy some more."
"My cousin? How is he? He must be about...eight now, right?"
"Yeah, he's my godson. He's almost eight and a half now, as he was very proud to tell me the other day."
Draco laughed.
"Right. How could I forget he was your godson? You're all tied up in half of the pureblood families there are! You're like a Potter, a Weasley, and a Black all in one."
"Thank you, I guess. Teddy's fun to hang out with, you should visit him sometime. He's still living with your aunt Andromeda. He's a metamorphmagus, you know, it can be very entertaining to play fantasy."
"I should write Andromeda about that. I would quite like to meet him. I never knew Nymphadora, but I did actually like Professor Lupin quite well, despite some of the things I said."
"I think Teddy would like you. Do you want to go to the Leaky and catch up?"
"Yeah, I'll finish my shopping later."
They left, a strangely quiet Flourish and Blotts erupting into speculative noise in their wake.
They ended up spending hours in the Leaky Cauldron, first talking about how they missed school and their students, and then other more arbitrary things. They were discussing the uses of scarab beetles (or rather, Draco was discussing it, and Harry was listening with more interest that he would have previously thought), as the bartender wiped down the countertop. Draco suddenly started.
"I still need to stock up on potions ingredients and the apothecary closes early. What time is it?"
"Half five," the bartender answered helpfully.
"Shite, sorry Harry, they close at six and I've got a lot I need. I'll owl you later?"
"Yeah, sure, I should probably finish my shopping too."
They paid and left, going different ways, but both were smiling. Harry's sour mood had miraculously lifted and he hummed the whole time he finished his shopping.
He finished back in Flourish and Blotts, and as he was browsing, he saw a book called 'Unconventional Potions Ingredients and Substitutes.' It seemed like the sort of book Draco found interesting, so he bought it. He could give it to him when they next saw each other.