"So it worked?" Harry asked.

"Not the first time. It actually took a few months, but just as we were about to give up and go to a Muggle doctor she found out she was pregnant."

"Did you ever consider having another child?"

"We discussed it. It's quite obvious to anyone who ever knew me that I was a very spoiled only child."

"You? Spoiled? No not at all," Harry deadpanned.

"Funny Potter, funny," Draco drawled dryly resisting the urge to roll his eyes or shake his head..

"Sorry couldn't resist," Harry grinned.

"Anyway, Tori pointed out that she and Daphne were equally spoiled and they don't exactly get along. Never really have but as Daphne still tows the Pureblood line they really stopped speaking except at family events. Anyway Scorpius began to make friends in our little village in France and while our parents spoiled him-"

Harry sighed, "As is a grandparents' prerogative and seeming goal in life."

"Quite. Anyway we decided one child was enough for us."

Harry cocked his head to one side, "You didn't want to bring up another child with the Malfoy name did you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've said you were worried about what Scorp would go through being a Malfoy, you didn't want to do that to another child as well did you?"

Draco shrugged, "I suppose that was part of it."

"Very noble of you I'd say," Harry replied.

This time Draco did shake his blond head but just a bit, "Strange, I'd call it selfish."

"And I'd say it's rather the opposite, it would have been selfish to keep having children just because you wanted them when you knew what life might be like for them."

"Are you trying to butter me up for some reason?" The blond's right eyebrow nearly disappeared into the hair hanging over his forehead.

"What?" Harry asked in near innocence.

"You're being awfully kind and complimentary."

"I thought we had become friends in the last few months, friends do compliment one another you know."

"Yeah they also regularly take the piss out of each other."

"Draco you're too suspicious," the brunette insisted.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing."

Draco just raised an eyebrow and waited.

Harry dropped his gaze to his hands, chewing the inside of his cheek before finally responding, "I was just curious, how did you know you were bent?"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. How did you know you were bent? Did you always know or was there some clue?"

"You're starting to think about what Ginny said?"

"Did you think I wouldn't?"

"No I knew you would, I just thought it would take you longer. I honestly thought you'd go into a state of vigorous denial first."

"Thanks so much."

The blond raised one hand palm up and shrugged, "So have you told Hermione?"

"How did you know?"

"Well you're not on good terms with the Weasel, not that I think you'd go to him anyway. You'd be more likely to go back to your ex-wife or possibly one of her other brothers."

Harry shook his head, "No," he said emphatically.

"Then Hermione it would have to be, so what did she say?"

"She said she could see it."

"That's all?" Draco queried "I find that hard to believe."

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Well, Ron came in."

"And overheard?"

Harry merely nodded.

"Ah ha, so in other words there was a veritable shitestorm in your office."

"How did you know it was my office?"

"Either yours or hers, can't imagine you'd risk going to their house. I'd say you probably weren't exceptionally welcome there before."

"And certainly won't be now," Harry sighed.

"Does he really not understand that your sister is happy now, that she's moved on?"

"I think he might have come around to that eventually."

"But not now."

The messy brown haired head shook.

"If he can't accept you for who you are or might be, if he can't accept that your marriage to his sister didn't work out and that it wasn't all your fault, if he can't accept that she has moved on and is happy, you're better off without him in your life."

"I know that."

"But you're worried about losing Hermione too?"

"No, not really."

"Good because I was going to say you shouldn't, I can't imagine she would let anyone tell her who she could or couldn't associate with."

Harry laughed ruefully, "Not likely."

Draco stood, crossed to the side table and filled his glass; he then held it up swirling it, looking at the amber glaze up the sides with the firelight behind, took a drink, then turned back to Harry.

"It hurts to lose your best friend, worse than losing your wife doesn't it?"

Harry leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands over his face, glasses slid up on top of his head. He sat that way for only a moment before rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes. A long deep sigh escaped his lips but that was his only response.

Draco leaned back against the side table, "That thought is rather revealing about the state of your marriage and yet you're stuck on losing your best friend."

Harry's hands dropped to his sides as he turned to gaze at the blond, "How is it you can read me so well?"

"How many years did we spend studying each other instead of our schoolwork?"

"Too many," Harry replied simply, "Actually I was just thinking about that."

"Wondering if your obsession with me was more than just trying to stop me from whatever evil thing I was concocting at the time."

It was a statement not a question. Harry thought for a moment before replying, "So you watched me for more than just to figure out how to annoy me? You were attracted to me?" Harry was agog at the mere thought.

Draco quickly swallowed the firewhiskey in his glass and turned back to slowly refill it answering while his back was turned, "Yes, I fancied you. That damned messy hair, those always crooked glasses, your sloppy inn tucked shirt, your robes that looked like you'd slept in them, the way you sat on a broom, the way you chewed your lip without even realizing it when you were thinking hard about something, that damned suspicious look on your face every time I caught you looking at me when you thought I wasn't looking. You drove me crazy."

"That's why you hated me."

Draco shook his head, hands down on the table, on either side of his glass, "I never hated you. Oh I certainly intensely disliked you, but hate no. You were above all else the one bloke I could never have, could never even approach for so many reasons and yet you were always there. I had my family obligations and well let's be honest when Voldemort first returned I fully believed in his cause. I supported it and couldn't wait to be part of it," he grew quiet, "well you know the rest. Before all that though… you asked when I first knew I was bent. I don't remember ever not knowing. Girls, women just never attracted me. Oh they were good friends, still are but I never had the inkling that so many of the other blokes seemed to have to get my hand up a shirt or a skirt. From the first time a discussion turned to girls in our dorm room Blaise and I were quiet, it wasn't long after when we were alone in the room that he asked me if I was bent too. I didn't know the word, it was certainly never one I'd heard in my home, but I still knew what he meant and so I just nodded. We didn't talk about it. And it was a few years before we did anything, tried snogging or anything. To be honest while I did find him attractive I think I went along with it more to get you out of my head than anything else."

"That's why you picked on me so much too isn't it? Those stupid Potter Stinks badges?"

Draco laughed quietly, "I was pretty proud of those. What better way to distract everyone including myself from my growing attraction to you. It worked on everyone but Blaise who was knew better. Actually I probably have him to blame for my seeming inability to beat you to the Snitch."

"Umm, I think I'm almost afraid to ask how."

"Almost?" Draco peered over his shoulder turning only halfway.

Harry shook his head and laughed, "Oh just tell me, you know you want to."

"And if I don't the curiosity will drive you mad won't it?"

"Most likely."

It was Draco's turn to laugh as he turned to fully face Harry once again leaning back on the side table, "Blaise was the one that pointed out to me just how delicious your arse looked as you sat on your broom. No thanks to him pointing that out I was often rather distracted when we played. I knew I needed to get the Snitch; I wanted to get it and to win but your arse on that broom was a distraction. I would find myself staring at it rather than looking for the Snitch."

Harry looked a bit confused, "You could see my arse when I was flying? What about my Quidditch robes?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "The robes flew out behind you when you were flying. I didn't always like you, rarely ever liked you to be honest but I couldn't seem to fight the attraction. If I managed to avoid it and you during the day it came back to me at night."

"You had dreams about me," Harry said quietly.

Draco looked at him and nodded.

Harry looked at the floor, took a deep breath and spoke once again quietly, scarcely loud enough to be heard, "I dreamed of you last night."

Draco fought back shock and exhilaration, "I take it from your tone it was not the same nightmare you've had of our encounter in the loo sixth year."

"No, though it did start the same way. I followed you and found you there in Myrtle's bathroom crying. You spotted me in the mirror and turned wand up. I held up mine and dropped it on the floor. You lowered yours. Slowly I walked up to you and you turned away, head down. When I reached you I put my hand under your chin and moved your head so that you were facing me. I wiped the tears from your cheeks. We stood staring into one another's eyes for I have no idea how long. Myrtle for once was nowhere in sight or hearing distance, it was just the two of us. One of us, I'm not sure which stepped closer to the other, we were just suddenly standing chest to chest kissing...kissing long and deep our arms wrapped around each other. You had one hand in my hair, my glasses got knocked askew. You pulled back and looked at me for a moment before spinning us around and down the wall so that you had my back pressed up against it. Your hands were on either side of me, mine were flat against the wall and you kissed me again hard…" Harry trailed off.

Draco closed his eyes, swallowing hard, did his best to breathe slowly and try to calm his pulse. He dared not move a muscle or open his eyes to so much as glance at Harry. Then he heard it, a slight rustling as Harry stood and stepped closer to him. Soon he could feel the other man's breath on his face.

"Draco," Harry said in a low voice, "Draco look at me."

The blond did as he was asked and found himself looking down into bright green eyes looking up at him with hesitation and yearning. Almost without thinking Draco took a step closer to Harry and found himself reaching up to run his hand through Harry's hair. The brunette's eyes drifted close as he leaned into the blond then the Floo flared to life and the two jerked apart just as a trunk hit the floor.