The following Monday found Draco and Harry in their gym class running out on the track. They kept a steady pace, comfortably circling their 6th lap while the boys around them dropped like flies. Across the field Edward was having a conversation with the coach about why he (once again) wouldn't be trying out for the football team in the coming fall. At least this time he had the added excuse of "I'm sorry, Sir, but I'm moving to England," to defend himself with.

"How's Jacob?" Harry asked his companion.

"He's stressed, understandably," Draco answered. "He's only had so many encounters with magic and most of them have sucked: me attacking Lucius, him being obliviated, then being un-obliviated, the apparating fiasco, having his house and possessions ruined…" The pureblood exhaled firmly and picked up his stride.

Harry matched him and they continued to talk as they ran. "But he knows it's not all bad, right?" Harry asked confidently. "I mean I burnt the back of Edward's neck early on but he's forgiven that. Magic was the thing that healed it, after all, and George's Deodor-Ants help keep Jasper in polite company in addition to the fact that Edward can get close to me without taking too many breaks, the horny bugger. The Cullens have developed a bit of an appreciation for magic, I'd say."

"I get where you're coming from, Potter, and no offense but we're sort of talking about two different sides of the same galleon. Let's be honest- you're the golden boy. You always will be. You help people without even meaning to sometimes. I'll always have to fight against my reputation and the Malfoy legacy. You can't fault me for having qualms about dragging Jake into all that."

Coach blew his whistle, encouraging the students to finish up their last lap quickly to get back inside. While most of the boys gratefully cut across the field so as to get in sooner, the wizards kicked up their pace another notch and finished the last half-lap before leaving the track. They hung back from the pack as they entered the locker room.

"But qualms aren't going to stop you from bringing him into it anyway, are they?" Harry mentioned knowingly.

"Of course not," Draco scoffed. "He physically can't be away from me that long, and it might as well be the same for me." Draco pulled his gym shirt over his head and tossed it into his locker.

Harry stared at him, almost slack-jawed. "That was actually really sweet, Draco," he told the blond, impressed.

Draco swept his hair demurely out of his face. "What can I say," he said loftily. "I'm just a romantic."

"Yeah, so put a shirt on and step away from my boyfriend, Draco," Edward said amicably from behind him. He grinned as Draco jumped.

"Merlin, put a bell on him, Harry!" he complained.

Harry grinned too and tilted his chin up to accept an extremely chaste kiss from the vampire, aware of the company kept within a boy's P.E. locker room.
"He's not a kneazle, Draco."

Edward nodded. "He's right. I'm not a 'small catlike creature with flecked, speckled, or spotted fur, outsize ears, and a tail like a lion's.' Although I must admit that I do consider myself 'intelligent, independent, and occasionally aggressive.'And, while I have taken a liking to a particular wizard, I would appreciate it if he did not think of me as a pet." He flashed a crooked grin, pleased with his own cleverness and Draco rolled his eyes.

"Why has he been reading your textbooks?" he asked exasperatedly.

The bell rang and the two wizards quickly slipped on their footwear before the three of them filtered into the hallway.

Edward shrugged. "Harry is only so interesting when he's asleep."

"What did you do all night?" Draco asked, genuinely curious. "Before you started stalking Harry, I mean."

The vampire narrowed his eyes. "It varied. I would study, hunt, travel, people-watch, contemplate life and death… study."

"So are you er, super-intelligent?" Draco asked.

Harry positively bragged as he slipped his arm around Edward's waist. "Edward has graduated med school 9 times; he has a doctorate in 17 different fields and has been on the president's list of every institution he has ever attended."

Edward scoffed. "Except the first time around," he joked. "I think I recall failing a number of subjects. I was a rebel, you see."

"Pah," Harry waved that away with his hand. "It was the 1900's. All that they were teaching you then is obsolete in this day and age. Look, now you have technology." He brandished his phone and laughed.

"Hey, don't knock it!" Edward said. "Those were simpler times. Well, until the depression. That was hell. We went to Europe for a while, but things were rough everywhere, you know. At least Carlisle and I didn't need to worry about food and rations." He winked. "Besides, didn't you say once that Hogwarts was ancient but you loved the historical feel of it?"

"I recall saying nothing of the sort," Harry answered loftily, clearly lying as he grinned playfully at his boyfriend.

"Ugh, you both are sickening," Draco groaned.

They were suddenly joined by the rest of Edward's siblings.
"Edward, we're going hunting," the vampire heard in his head.
"Now?" he asked aloud.
"Now."
"Alright."
He tugged his boyfriend close to his side and kissed his temple. "We're going for a hunt. I'll see you tonight."

"Be safe," Harry enjoined.
"Of course."
The Cullens swiftly melted into the throng of students in the hall and were gone without another sound.

"Anyway," Harry redirected the conversation back to their previous topic. "Kreacher spent the day scavenging through the Black's house. When we get home he should be able to tell us if he found and managed to repair anything of sentimental value."

Draco sighed. "I hope so. I don't want Jacob to resent magic, or me, for all this mess."

Harry patted his friend on the shoulder. "I'm sure he doesn't blame you. And if a small part of him does, the bigger part of him that loves you will knock that out soon enough."
"Thanks, Potter."
"Anytime."

"Meanwhile," Harry continued, "Krum happened upon a nest just West of the Quileute reservation that they are investigating. They lifted footprints in that area that match the treadmarks on the soles of Azkaban flats, so it's pretty much obvious that it was Lucius. According to the team, they haven't found any significant magic traces in that immediate area, so he must have been roaming around. Being that close to the reservation made it a lot easier for him to pick up on your magic the other day, which is why he acted so quickly in torching the Black's home. He must have assumed we were still there."

Draco seethed. "But if he really was that close, why couldn't the guard catch him? I mean, they are following you and me, right? Even when I go to Jake's?"

"Yeah," Harry confirmed. "They're never too far- he must have just gotten lucky in slipping between our clutches."

"I really hate luck," Draco muttered. "Do you think he's on Felix Felicis or something?"

"I doubt it," Harry answered confidently. "If he was on something as strong as liquid luck, you still would have been snogging Jacob when the building burned down."

The pureblood closed his eyes at the thought. "That's true. So what's the plan then?"

Harry chewed his lip. "I guess they'll just keep scanning the area. Sure, Lucius used magic to light the blaze, but he escaped on foot and he's dodging us at every turn. Until they track him down, we just have to wait for him to mess up. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Draco asked.

"Well, he was quiet until you messed up. So maybe we just need to convince him that we messed up again."

"You mean just make a trap and ambush him? That's so... juvenile," Draco wrinkled his nose.

"Juvenile?" Harry scoffed. "Draco, it's Slytherin. Remember when you convinced me to a midnight duel, just so Ron and I would get busted by Filch?"

Draco laughed. "First year, Potter. I was eleven. Sure it's Slytherin. It's just a juvenile Slytherin."

"Fine," the gryffindor conceded. "It's juvenile. But your dad has got to be more than half gone by now, Malfoy. I'm telling you, it's worth a shot."

The pureblood quieted for a moment. "Fine." He acquiesced. "We'll propose it to Diggle and see if the guard have any ideas."

XXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxXXXX

Overall, Kreacher had managed to rescue two photo albums containing pictures of a baby Jacob and his family, as well as a hand-sewn quilt and a beautiful dream-catcher. Draco recognized it as a piece that hung above his boyfriend's bed. He ran his fingers gently over the beads that dangled from weathered strips of leather, slipping the soft feathers between his thumb and index finger. He noticed that the white and blue plumage was singed black at the very tip, where the material was too disintegrated for Kreacher to recreate. He sighed, ruffling the feathers. The doorbell rang downstairs. Draco listened to Kreacher answer the door with a mumble and he waited for the heavy though graceful steps of his boyfriend to bound up the staircase. When his door swung open, he was quickly caught up in the warm embrace of Jacob Black. He buried his nose into the russet skin and breathed deeply, digging his fingers into the material at the back of Jake's shirt.

"I'm so sorry," he murmered quietly.

"Hey," Jake said sincerely, pulling back from the hug to look his boyfriend in the eye. "It wasn't your fault. You were not responsible for what happened. In fact, you have done as much as possible to make better an awful situation. When I was standing outside the house and everything was just so dark with smoke, I knew that if I could just call you, everything would be ok. And it was. You got the fire out, got us moved into the Clearwater's place without too much hassle. You made me feel so safe."

Draco snorted. "No one ever calls me to feel safe. Harry's the rescuer. He's the golden-boy hero."

Jacob kissed the pureblood firmly. "Then you're the underdog," he said bracingly. "The one who comes from behind, despite the obstacles, and overcomes the odds in order to be the hero. Trust me, Dray. You made me feel so safe."

Draco smiled a bit. "I'm glad."

They sat on the floor, leaning their backs against the bed, and Razor padded across the room to sprawl across their laps. After his customary over-nuzzling of Jacob's thighs, he rolled over contentedly and bared his stomach for a belly-rub. They obliged him.

"Kreacher was able to rescue some of your things," the wizard began.

Jacob lit up. "What things?"

Draco reached up to pull the stack from the bedside table and set the small pile in front of them.
The werewolf "ohh"ed softly as he recognized the items and he gently ran his fingers over the quilt, across the photo albums and through the netting of the dream-catcher.

"My great-grandfather's grandfather made this," he informed his boyfriend. "It's really special to the Quileutes… It was a very honorable thing to recover. Please, thank Kreacher for me and for the pack."

Draco nodded. "Of course."

"And," Jake continued, "I know you don't have the best memories of your family, and I know they did you wrong, but I know that you understand how much these photographs mean to me. "

"I know," Draco said softly.

"So," Jake announced, falsely bright and wiping at his eyes inconspicuously, "do you have anything to eat?"

The pureblood grimaced. "Uh yeah, Harry and Edward went to the store to get you some cereal that you like but er… I don't know if you'll be offended."

"Offended?" Jake scoffed, already halfway out the door. "Who ever heard of offensive cereal?"

He almost walked into Edward, who was hanging onto Teddy's fists as the little boy toddled down the hall toward Harry's room. Jake swiftly sidestepped them.

"Yeah, Jacob. WHOOOoooOOOOever heard of such a thing?" the vampire howled.

Teddy cracked up but stopped abruptly with a pout when Jake growled- short and deep.

"Oh relax, you old codger," Draco said teasingly and he grabbed his boyfriend's arm to lead him downstairs. "After a snack, remind me to show you the boots that I ordered for you. The owl arrived this morning."

Jacob, for his part, was so excited by the idea of real dragon-hide boots that he only grumbled for five minutes at the selection of K-9 comestibles. That evening, Jake thoroughly thanked his boyfriend for the purchase in every way that he knew how.