Matters of Divorce and Terror

When Harry got home it was seven O'clock. He was exhausted and hungry, having worked almost ten hours nonstop. He sluggishly made his way to the sitting room to wait for dinner to be ready. When he opened the double doors he saw the bright light of the fire illuminating the room. The chandelier cast the light of the fire in all directions giving the room a beautiful glow.

Harry made his way to the plush dark green armchair that was identical to the one in Dr. Blacks old office. It was undoubtedly his favorite piece of furniture in the entire apartment. He had, admittedly fallen sleep in its warm embrace several times. If Valdey or Jispy hadn't woken him up those few times, he would have surely woken up there. He did find it odd, however that each time he was woken up by one of the elf's it had been eleven O'clock exactly and he was covered with a blanket that was just a little lighter shade of green than the chair.

Halfway to his chair Harry heard a groan and the shuffle of cloth on cloth. Harry turned around to see Malfoy laying on the black sofa in front of the fireplace, asleep. Forgetting about his chair, Harry moved closer to the sleeping man. He kneeled next to the sofa and began to comb his hand through Malfoy's unbelievably soft hair. He continued this for a few minutes, before running his hand down the mans jaw line. Malfoy hummed in contentment and leaned into Harry's touch.

Within seconds Malfoy's eyes sprung open. It took him a second to realize that the figure blocking his view of the fire was Harry Potter. He backed as far away from Harry and his touch as the couch would allow. "Potter." He said looking at the man with wide eyes. "What the bloody hell Potter? What were you just doing?" He said as his hand unconsciously went up and touched the side of his face that was still tingling from Harry's touch.

"I'm sorry Malfoy. I don't know what came over me." Harry said as he stared at the fabric of the sofa, a light pink making its way to his cheeks. Harry really wanted to believe what he said, but he couldn't. The moment his hand had touched Draco's hair he knew why he had felt compelled to do so. He wanted to feel the hair of the man that had captured his eye so long ago.

Malfoy while eying Harry slowly sat up. "Go sit in your chair Potter." He said calmly, as if nothing had happened. "You're making me uncomfortable." He wasn't entirely lying. He loved how it made him feel when Harry touched him, but he felt guilty about not telling him who his other self was. This nagging guilt is what made Harry's proximity uncomfortable to Draco.

Harry nodded and made his way to his usual seat. "Merlin Potter what time is it?" Malfoy asked rubbing his hands over his eyes.

"A little after seven." Harry replied.

"Blimey I've been asleep for three hours." He said as he ran a hand through his hair. "What are you doing home early Potter?"

"That sounded cordial Malfoy." Harry teased.

"Well I'm truly sorry if my tone of voice has offended you Potter." Draco spat out. He rolled his eyes at Harry's dumbfounded expression and laid on his back on the sofa. He turned his head to face the fire. As he watched the flames dance he could feel Harry's gaze on him and could tell that he was biting his lip.

Eventually Harry broke the silence. The only words he was able to utter were "I'm sorry..." before Draco interrupted him.

"Save it Potter. I don't want to hear it." There was an edge to his voice. "I had to preform a particularly grueling procedure last night until early this morning. Just leave it alone." Draco said his voice slowly turning petulant. After a few moments he spoke again, this time his voice was calm and composed. "You have nothing to be sorry about. You left without a word due to work, I understand. It is I who should be apologizing for acting like a petulant child."

"How did you know that was what I was going to apologize for?"

"You're very predictable Harry." He said. His eyes widened as he realized that he had addressed Harry by his first name.

"Did you just call me Harry, Malfoy?" Harry asked with a raised brow. A small smile played on his face. He liked the sound of his first name coming from the blond laying on the sofa.

"You must be hearing things Potter. Clean out your ears." Draco quickly retorted. He hoped that he had hid the panic from his voice.

Harry smirked when he heard the small amount of panic behind Malfoy's words. The room fell silent again as Harry deliberated telling Malfoy about the papers. He had gotten home too late the night before to even think about talking to him about it. It wasn't clear to him as to why he wanted to tell Malfoy about the papers, he just knew that he wanted him to know.

After a few Minutes of chewing on his lip he decided to tell him. He cleared his throat causing Malfoy to open his eyes and mumble something about almost being asleep. "I got the divorce papers yesterday."

"What?" Malfoy said a little more aggressively than he intended. He sat up once again, all drowsiness gone from his body. He wasn't shocked about the information after all he already knew about the papers, well the him that was Dr. Black knew about them. He thought that the part of him that was Draco Malfoy would be kept in the dark about the papers.

"James came to my office yesterday and gave me the divorce papers." Harry said pressing further back into his seat.

"Sorry Potter, I didn't meant to startle you. I'm just surprised that you're telling me. Why are you telling me?"

Harry could hear how genuinely surprised Malfoy was, and relaxed. He shrugged "I'm not entirely sure. I just am."

Malfoy nodded still a bit flabbergasted about being told. "You're going to sign them correct?" He asked.

"Yeah I think so." Harry shifted his attention to the coffee table in front of him.

"You think?" Malfoy said slightly irritated. "You think? Potter, that woman cheated on you, and didn't have the decency to tell you to your face. You were sleeping on a couch in you office for Merlin's sake! I would think that signing those papers is common sense!" he seethed.

"Malfoy you don't get it." Harry said looking at him in the dimly lit room. "It's hard to end a marriage, even if that marriage turns out to not be as good as you thought it was."

Malfoy opened his mouth to retort but closed it as he remembered staring at divorce papers as his wife lie in a bed a few rooms away. He knew that ending a marriage was difficult. It had been difficult for him to sign those papers, and lose a wife and a friend all at once. In the end he couldn't do it, by convincing himself that it wasn't the right time.

Malfoy sighed and looked into the fire. "I know it's hard." he said quietly. Harry furrowed his brows in confusion. Before he could voice his confusion Valdey popped into the room.

"Master Draco, Master Harry dinner is ready."

"Thank you Valdey. We'll be right in." Malfoy said still looking at the fire in front of him. "Valdey, would you turn on the fire in the dining room please."

"Of course Master Draco." he replied and left the room with a crack.

After a few deep breaths Malfoy got up and walked to the double doors that led to the dining room from the sitting room. Before he opened them he said "Coming Potter? Or are you going to sit there all night?"

Harry didn't reply, he knew he didn't need to. He got up from his chair and followed Malfoy through the double doors. He went to his usual seat as Malfoy closed the door behind them.

He jumped and looked at Malfoy with bewilderment as he took a seat to his right instead of in front of him. Malfoy looked over at him and rolled his eyes. "If you don't remember Potter I asked Valdey to start the fire in here." he said as he started to fill his plate. "It gets hot over there, so I'm sitting here." He shrugged. "Will this be a problem?"

Harry quickly shook his head. "No, it's fine." He said as a he turned a light shade of scarlet and filled his plate.

Malfoy smirked and said "Good. The mornings are getting chilly so I might be sitting here more often." Harry nodded and looked at his plate trying to stifle a smile and quell his bush.

They ate their dinner in relative silence, only talking to comment on how good a certain part of their dinner was. When they weren't talking the air was slightly more tense than usual. Draco had noticed that Harry greatly disliked that tension and would typically break it during dessert, so it didn't come as a surprise to Draco when Harry did just that.

"You should really try this." he said pointing to his half eaten Eton Mess. "It beats that boring apple pie that you're having."

Draco turned slightly in his chair to face him. "Is that so?" He arched his brow.

"Definitely." Harry said taking another bite of his dessert.

"I'll be the judge of that." Malfoy swiftly took Harry's spoon from his hand and scooped some of Harry's Eton Mess onto it. Harry watched Malfoy with wide eyes as he ate the dessert. "I think you might just be right Potter." Malfoy said.

Harry involuntarily licked his lips, and his heart began to beat faster as he watched Malfoy lick the spoon clean. Malfoy handed the spoon back and Harry took it as he looked away from Malfoy to cover up his growing blush. "Thanks." He said quietly.

Malfoy smiled at knowing he had just made Harry turn cherry red. "Well Potter," he said as he got up from his chair "I will be going to bed. Enjoy your desert, goodnight." He left the dining room with a small bounce in his step and a smile stretched across his face.

Harry sat at the table staring at his dessert. His mind was racing. 'Malfoy... He was... The spoon... Oh Merlin that was hot... But why did he do it? Does he... No he cant possibly... He can barely tolerate me... But maybe he does... He did flirt that one time... It could be possible... But what about Dray? Oh, my dearest Dray... I don't even know if he likes me that way either... He kissed me back though, so maybe he does... Then there's Niko, he kissed me too... Well at least I know his intentions...' He began to vigorously run his hands through his hair. 'Merlin why does this have to be so difficult! I shouldn't be thinking about this right now. I'm still married for Merlin's sake.'

Harry sat back in his chair trying to empty his mind. He took in breath after breath as slowly emptied his mind of all three men. His heart rate slowly came back down and his breathing came back to normal. He then got up and went to his room. He changed into his pajamas while humming to himself, but couldn't remember where he hared the tune.

He laid on Scorpius' bed and looked up at the stars. His previously clear head began to dwell on the hectic day he just had, as he slowly began to fall asleep.

Harry had been working in the interrogation room for four hours when Hermione sent him a message through his medallion.

Harry, where are you?

Harry replied with: I'm in Interrogation room 4. You'll know why I'm back here when you get here. Make sure to come with heavy barrier spells around you. Knock so I can open the room for you.

After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. Harry jumped out of his seat. "Hermione is that you?"

"Yes Harry, it's me." Hermione said.

"Have you heavily warded yourself?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Yes Harry." She replied. "I started feeling a little suffocated by dark magic a few meters back. Can you open the door now?"

"Okay but get ready to reinforce your barriers. The dark magic in here is much stronger than what you're feeling right now."

"What are you talking about Harry?"

"Just trust me Hermione." Harry pleaded.

"Okay, alright." Hermione said when she heard the desperation in his voice. She took out her wand and waited for Harry to open the door.

"Ready Hermione?"

"Ready."

Harry opened the door and Hermione was hit with a wave of powerful dark magic. She sucked in a breath as she felt the dark magic surround her trying to get past the few barriers she had around herself. She began to panic and fell to the floor struggling to breath. The dark magic was winning, she could feel one of her barriers break. "Hurry Hermione. I cant keep this door open for long. It will start to effect everyone in that room in a few seconds."

When he saw that Hermione wasn't moving he took his wand and began to place barrier after barrier around her. After placing five highly protective barriers around her, she began to move towards the door. Harry went forward and grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to her feet. He helped her into the room and closed the door behind them.

He let her go and she fell to the floor, and leaned against the wall. He crouched down and cupped her face in his hands. "Hermione I need you to reinforce your barriers until the magic feels like a tingle. Do you understand me?" He asked firmly.

She nodded and did as she was told. "Now I know why you're back here." She said breathlessly. "Help me up would you?" She extended her hand towards and already standing Harry. He took it and helped her up and into a chair. "I brought lunch." She said as she reached into the bag she had on her shoulder.

"I can't eat right now Hermione." He said as he sat down next to her. "I've been in here," he looked up at the clock on the wall "four hours, and all I've been able to do is take down one ward. I have to..." Hermione cut him off.

"That's all the more reason to eat Harry. You need to keep your energy up if you want to keep going. I'll help you afterwords. Eat Harry." she said as she handed him a Tuna sandwich.

He reluctantly took it from her and set his wand on the table. He took a bite of the sandwich before saying "Have any chips in there?" Hermione smiled as she reached into her bag and took out a container with chips inside it. She handed it to him and he quickly opened it.

"How did you get this thing in here?" She asked as she took sandwich for herself out of her bag.

"I placed several magical dampening barriers on it. They didn't last long though. The thing started to break them almost instantly."

"What?" She asked almost dropping the drink she had taken out of her bag. This terrified her, Harry's magical dampening spells were powerful, extremely powerful. If this thing could break them like they were nothing, the caster must be on the same caliber of power as Harry.

Harry nodded. "You should have seen what this thing did to me after it broke the last barrier I placed on it. It was bloody terrifying. It was like it had a mind of it's own, Hermione." There was terror embedded in his voice. "It was like it was mad that I confined the magic it was expelling, that I wouldn't let it hurt anyone on the way over here. It had me pined up against the wall and kept hitting me with magic. It broke three of my barriers before it gave up and let me go."

The terror on Harry's voice scarred fright he had displayed when going up against Voldemort was nothing compared to this. The only thing that may have rivaled his current fear was the fear he had when he thought he was going to lose Albus a few years ago.

"It's constantly breaking the protective barriers I've placed on the room." He continued. "It's like the magic learns, Hermione. Every time I replace a barrier it breaks it just a little faster. The only thing that seems to slow it down is breaking a ward on the box."

This made Hermione very scared. She knew that when magic learns, nothing good can come of it. The tension and fear in the room began to unsettle her, so she decided to change the subject. "So you and Dr. Black?"

"What?" Harry asked surprise embedded in his voice. He looked up from his sandwich to stare at Hermione with his eyebrows furrowed.

"You two seem close." she said in attempt to clarify what she was talking about. "You seem very close. I felt like I was intruding on a private moment in that room earlier today. Mind telling me what's going on?" She said raising a brow in inquiry.

Harry blushed "There's nothing much to tell." he said shrugging.

"I'm not thick Harry, I know there's something going on between you two." she teased.

"You know don't you?"

"Know what Harry?"

"That I'm bisexual." he dared to look up and saw a smile playing on Hermione's face.

"Of course!" She exclaimed. "Harry you looked at blokes all throughout school. There was Cedric, Zabini, Oliver Wood, Malfoy!" Her voice grew louder with every name she said. "You weren't as subtle about it as you think Harry."

Harry's blush intensified. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You didn't want anyone to know, you weren't ready. I knew that you would tell us when you were ready. I just never thought it would take this long." She said casually.

The room fell silent for a moment. "Does Ron know?" Harry asked.

"He says you talk in your sleep sometimes, and one night in fifth year you said something about Anthony Goldstein. He couldn't look at you for a week after that."

Harry groaned and banged his head against the metal table. Hermione laughed at his antics and pat his back. "It's okay Harry." She said. "Coming out to people is always hard. Neither Ron or I blame you for not telling us." Harry picked his head up off the table and gave Hermione a smile that said 'Thanks for understanding.'

They spent the rest of their lunch talking about his impending divorce, Dr. Black and Harry's various crushes over the years. When the conversation turned to Nikmor Hermione voiced her disapproval, but said that if he ever did go out with him she would respect his decision. Harry was relieved to finally be able to talk to someone about all this.

After lunch they focused their attention to the box. "Elymas Magus Diaboli" Hermione said. "It means Devil's Sorcerer."

"I know." said Harry. "It's a group, similar to the Death Eaters, but less potent. They have the same beliefs but don't act on them. We've been keeping an eye on them, you know, just in case. They don't do much though. The most illegal thing they've done is try and smuggle someone out of Azkaban. They were far from successful. They mainly stage protests."

"So then how did it end up in Ron?"

"I don't know Hermione. This wasn't even his assignment. He was tracking the source of Fairy Dust."

"Fairy Dust? You mean the magical drug that puts you in a state of euphoria for a few days?"

"Yeah." He replied. He looked at Hermione from the corner of his eye then added "I'll ask Ron to fill me in on what happened when he's better Hermione. In the mean time I'll read his report."

Hermione nodded, then put on her work face and said "Shall we?" Harry nodded and they began working on the box. Between the two of them it took an hour to successfully remove another ward. When they did the tingling feeling they were getting from the magic disappeared. They decided to remove one of their barriers, and continued working with the tingling of magic once again around them.

Ten minutes before four there was a knocking at the door. Harry and Hermione exchanged a puzzled look. "Minister are you in there?" came the muffled voice of Dr. Black.

"Did you tell him we were in here?" Hermione asked Harry.

"No." Harry replied. "I haven't spoken to him since this morning."

"Arias is that you?" Dr. Black asked. "I'm going to come in." He turned the nob.

"No don't!" Harry and Hermione exclaimed but it was too late. The door was already open and the doctor entered. He closed the door behind him and shivered. He reached into his robe pocket and took out his wand. He cast a barrier around him and squared his shoulders.

"That was uncomfortable." He said as he put his wand away. Harry and Hermione wore dumbfounded looks. "Why is there so much..." the doctor trailed off as his eyes landed on the box. He gulped and pressed himself flat against the door.

"Doctor why are you here?" Hermione asked, still amazed at how the dark magic was merely 'uncomfortable' to the man in front of her. "I thought I told you to go home and get some rest."

"You did but I find it best to do the necessary paperwork for a case such as this immediately." Dr. Black lifted the stack of papers he was holding.

"You are exhausted Dr. Black. Go home."

The doctor took a deep breath and inched his way to the table. "I will. I just need you to sign here," He pointed to a line at the bottom of the first page before flipping a few pages and pointing to another line "and for Mr. Potter to sign here." He kept his eyes in Hermione as he spoke. He didn't want to look at the thing that terrified him to no end.

"If we sign this will you go home and get some rest?" She crossed he arms and leaned back in her chair.

Dr. Black smiled tiredly and said "Gladly Minister." His voice was a little shaky.

Hermione sighed. "Do you have a quill and ink?"

The doctor placed the papers in front of her and reached into his robes. He took out a beautiful dark purple feathered quill and handed it to Hermione saying "It needs no ink." Hermione and Harry signed where they needed to and he left the room almost at a run.

Harry and Hermione spent the next three hours taking off another ward before Hermione demanded that Harry go home and get some rest.

Later that night Draco entered Harry's room finding him asleep with his glasses still on his face. He sighed. "Honestly Harry, why do you insist on sleeping with your glasses on?" He carefully removed Harry's glasses and placed them on the nightstand. He sat at the edge of the bed and began to run his hands through Harry's hair. A small satisfied smile played on his face. "You know you're quite the heavy sleeper, Harry." He said, reveling in the fact that he could say Harry's first name freely.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes he spoke again. "I came in here to talk to you, but you're asleep. I wanted to talk to you during dinner but I couldn't." There was a small pause before he spoke again.

"I'm going to tell you anyway, because come morning I will have lost my nerve... Astoria, you know my dead wife?... We got married out of obligation. Yes I loved her but not in the way you think. I could never love a woman that way. She knew this, she was my best mate after all. I really do miss her, and I know Scorpius misses her too" He looked down at Harry and smiled fondly, before his expression became serious and he continued.

"I asked her to marry me under the agreement of getting a divorce and going our separate ways when the time was right. So we married and produced an heir." He sighed. "When Scorpius started Hogwarts we decided to proceed with obtaining a divorce, but she got sick. I refused to sign the papers until she was better. I didn't want to leave my best mate like that, but she never did get better. She just got worse. I hated seeing her like that, and mind you I don't care about most people. I cared about her though, just like I care about you."

He leaned down and kissed Harry on the forehead. "My point Arias, is to tell you to not drag this out more than is needed. I don't want to see you hurt, sign the papers."

Draco leaned his head against the headboard and looked up at the stars. "I would have preferred to tell you this while you were awake but this will do just fine. I don't think I would have the courage to tell you if you were awake. There's this small part of me that is hoping that you are actually awake, but at the same time I hope you're not."

Harry woke with a start, and sat up in bed. "The doctor!" He said. Malfoy jumped off the bed and onto his feet.

"Potter, what are you... Are you okay? What doctor?" Malfoy asked frantically. His eyes widened. "Do you need a Healer?" He leaned over and grabbed Harry by the shoulders as he began to inspect him.

"What? No, Malfoy I'm fine." Harry shook of Malfoy's hands and stared at him. "Don't you see Malfoy? The doctor, the box didn't effect him. There has to be something different between him and everyone else, so the box won't effect him. I have to figure out why it didn't effect him."

Malfoy's eyes widened and became paler than he already was as he realized what 'box' Harry was talking about. The mention of the box terrified him and he couldn't find it inside himself to hide it as any Malfoy should.

"He only had one protective barrier around him. Hermione and I had several, but he was barely fazed. Actually it looked like he wasn't fazed at all." Harry continued to voice his thoughts, oblivious of Draco's paling face. "I mean it scared him, that much I could tell, but it didn't try and take him over like it did Hermione and me. Why? What's so different about him? All he said was the it was 'uncomfortable'. What does 'uncomfortable' mean?"

Harry stopped talking and took in Malfoy's terrified expression. "Malfoy are you okay? You're white as a sheet."

Malfoy blinked once and gulped audibly. "Box." he muttered under his breath.

"You were the other healer in the room weren't you? You know what box I'm talking about?" asked Harry. Malfoy nodded slowly. "You'll be okay Malfoy." he said as he reached out and took one of Malfoy's hands in his. "Merlin this thing really scared you didn't it?" Harry instinctively pulled the blond into a tight embrace. Malfoy slowly relaxed into the embrace and buried his face into the crook of Harry's neck.

"It's okay Draco. You'll be okay. It cant hurt you. The cursed thing is in a vault at the Ministry. It can't hurt you. You're okay." Harry said as he stroked Draco's hair.