36. Euphoria [Friday, March 18th 2005]
It was Father's fifty-first birthday and Draco was sitting on the floor.
These two things had nothing to do with each other, of course – that would have been absurd. Nobody had ever sat on the floor of Malfoy Manor in its nine hundred years of existence – except for the dungeons maybe (but Draco was trying very hard to forget about those). Besides, he hadn't talked to or heard from his parents in the past four years. He certainly wasn't welcome to just stop by.
He was sitting on the floor because Ella and Callum's apartment was chock-full of people and he had run late at the hospital. Harry had already been there – sandwiched between Ella and Olivia on The Best Couch – and just thrown a cushion at him when he came in. Draco had taken the last free spot, the one at Olivia's feet and next to Hermione, who was sitting in front of Harry. Still better than enduring The Couch.
Hermione smiled as she handed him some popcorn in a paper bag. Two hands landed on his shoulder, and when Draco put his head back, he saw Olivia frowning down at him.
"Wow, you're tense." She started kneading his shoulders as Callum inserted the disc in his movie machine. "Have you thought about picking up yoga?"
"Kickboxing is also a great way to de-stress." Lauren, who was sitting next to Olivia, punched his shoulder in emphasis.
"Forget it!" Oliva leaned forward and slung her arms around Draco's neck, as if to claim him. "You've got Harry already, so I get Draco."
"Silence!" Ella ordered. "It's time to educate our clueless friends by showing them another classic – The Matrix."
"When have you ever shut up during a movie?" Lauren tossed some popcorn at her, which got intercepted by Harry's mouth.
"Yeah, look who's talking!" he said while chewing. "Literally."
"I'm an expert, which makes my commentary additional information." Ella pressed a button and the movie started. "You're welcome."
The Matrix was wildly different from Mean Girls and Draco understood it even less than The Incredibles. He looked over at the other Pure-bloods from time to time, to see how they were holding up. It seemed that they had received some crucial information in the years before he had joined their group, because they seemed to be following the overall narrative. Only Ron seemed just as clueless as he was. His mouth stood open in confusion and his eyes glazed over a good fifteen minutes in.
"Well?" asked Ella as the screen turned black. "Wasn't it great?"
"That was the loudest movie I've ever watched," Draco said to get his involvement in the conversation out of the way. Harry snorted, for which Hermione put her hand on his foot discreetly and pressed down. Harry pulled his foot away and shut his mouth.
"I liked The Terminator better," Dean Thomas said, munching on some popcorn.
"Well, then you're an idiot," Ella commented drily. "Luna tell your boyfriend that he's nuts."
"Oh, Dean and I broke up," Luna said lightly, smiling at Dean, who was sitting right beside her. Several people made noises of protest and disbelief.
"It's alright." Dean sounded sincere. "We've been talking about it for a while. We want different things in life – that's just the way it is."
"But somebody here has good news." Luna looked surprised, like she only came to know it as she said it.
She looked around, her eyes as big as two silvery moons. They caught on Draco for a second and then came to rest somewhere next to him. He could feel his stomach drop. Hermione shifted at his side and Draco just knew that Luna was staring at Harry behind her. So much for waiting to see if they worked out before telling people.
He turned his head to look at Harry, who seemed to be petrified. Olivia squeezed Draco's shoulder lightly, maybe because she'd felt him tense up.
"Er … well …" said Harry.
"We're having a baby!" Hermione burst out.
There was a second of silence during which Draco tried to understand how Harry and Hermione could possibly be having a baby. Then she took Ron's hand, who beamed at her and kissed the top of her head, and Draco was glad he'd held his tongue.
Then everybody was talking at once and getting to their feet. They were shouting congratulations, hugging Hermione, Ron and each other as well. Harry had managed to get a hold of both Hermione and Ron at once, and crushed them in his arms simultaneously. Then he let go and turned around to hug the person closest to him, which happened to be Draco.
Their eyes met and then, before Draco could protest – people were right there! – Harry's hand was on his neck and his lips on Draco's. He tasted like popcorn and lemonade and happiness. Draco buried his fingers in Harry's curls, not yet sure if he wanted to pull him closer or pull his hair for making such a scene in front of practically everybody they knew.
People seemed to have noticed, because the noise picked up a notch, though Draco wouldn't have thought it possible. Somebody downstairs pounded against the ceiling – Draco could feel it in his feet.
Now Draco really did push Harry away, but then Olivia threw her arms around them and squished them back together. Harry protested feebly, even though he had just subjected his best friends to the same treatment and Draco to far worse.
"I think I just had a déjà vu," Ginny commented, looking over at Dean, who laughed.
"When did that happen?!" Olivia half-screamed, grabbing Lauren's arm and shaking her in excitement. Lauren just looked at her fondly.
Harry squeezed Draco's hand, a guilty expression on his face. His own hand was almost warm, which was a clear sign that he too was probably a little embarrassed to be the centre of attention. Well, that definitely was on him.
"A good month and a half ago? But enough about that!" Harry freed himself and turned to look at Hermione, who was beaming at him. "Hermione, when did that happen?"
"About four weeks ago," Ron said proudly.
"Alright, order!" Lauren called above the noise. The neighbour pounded the ceiling again, but to no avail. She pulled a tiny phone out of her pocket and checked something.
Olivia looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Oooh, I almost feel bad for you all," she giggled.
"Let's see. The child will most likely be there in November. That's fifteen pounds from Ginny, Harry, Neville and Callum. Dean, Luna and Ella: five pounds each. Pay up!"
Olivia and Lauren exchanged triumphant looks as the others scoured their pockets for some money. Hermione looked at Harry, both eyebrows raised expertly.
"You placed bets on our child?"
"That was ages ago!" Harry tried to justify his involvement.
Hermione seemed unimpressed. "You mean back when we were much younger and probably not ready for a baby?"
"Er –" Harry said, ruffling his hair. "Peer pressure?"
Hermione exchanged a look with Draco (who was apparently the only one who'd been as clueless as the happy couple) that clearly said 'Can you believe him?' Right now, Draco could not.
Lauren collected the money and then split it between Hannah, Olivia and herself. Then she took out her phone again.
"Alright, moving on to the next item on our agenda."
Harry paused his attempt at squeezing his wallet back into his jeans pocket. His eyes darted around in a very confused manner. "There aren't any more active bets."
Lauren ignored him. "Blaise, looks like you robbed us blind. That's ten pounds each. Except for you, Ginny – October 2007, really? Blaise gets fifty pounds from you. Everybody, pay the man."
Ginny just shrugged and tossed Blaise her wallet. "It did seem pretty hopeless for some time there."
"Hey!" Harry protested. Then he turned suddenly, fixing Hermione (who had tried to slip Blaise her wager unnoticed) with an imitation of the look she had given him. "Hypocrite."
"Oh Harry, I don't see any harm in betting on something that makes you happy."
Harry huffed in frustration. "Fine. I want to change my earlier answer to this as well."
Hermione patted his arm and said "Sure. So, what was your bet?"
"What was your bet?" Harry was trying to see how much deviance was acceptable, which was probably smart, but not what Draco was interested in.
"When did you bet on this?"
"December 25th, around five in the morning." Lauren winked at him. "Right before we hauled your cute butts all the way to our place."
Draco refrained from checking out his butt and focused on the important things instead. Like how they'd apparently been waiting to sell Harry off to the next best candidate. "You'd only just met me then!"
"Yeah, but we wanted to keep you!" Olivia said like the sweetheart she was.
"Also, you were both really drunk," Callum added. "And it was kind of obvious."
Blaise was stuffing a wad of cash into his wallet and managed to look at them reproachfully at the same time. "I can't believe you kept it secret for a whole month. Well, not you, Draco, you're a Slytherin, but Harry is usually really easy to read."
"Slithering?"
"Inside joke from boarding school. Means that Draco's a reserved, calculating bastard," Harry explained with a sly grin in his direction. Then he added, "I'm not 'easy to read'!"
Absolutely everybody laughed at that, so Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest and huffed.
~o~
"Shorry."
Draco raised his eyebrows at Harry's reflection in the bathroom mirror and spat out his mouth full of toothpaste before answering (because he had manners and didn't subject others to his foamy face while talking to them).
"Well, I honestly don't know what I expected of you."
Harry sighed and spat out too. He did absolutely nothing about the toothpaste running down his forearm. "I'm sorry. We should've talked about it before I told people."
"Told?" Draco's laughter sounded just a bit hysterical. "If only you had used your words."
Now Harry was frowning too. He broke eye contact in the mirror and turned to face him for real. "Wait, so you're not mad because they know?"
"You're dripping on my floor," said Draco calmly. Then, when Harry looked down to watch the dripple of toothpaste, he added, "I am displeased because you made a scene. That was highly inappropriate."
"I'm sorry, what?" Harry crossed his arms, smearing toothpaste all across his stomach. "I can't kiss you in front of our friends?"
Draco shook his head, even though his mind was drifting already. The streak of toothpaste was now underlining one of Harry's delicately toned abs, the white line in glowing contrast with his warm skin, and Draco had serious trouble looking away.
"My eyes are up here, you know."
Draco looked up at once. Harry was grinning at him, so Draco rolled his eyes and turned back around to rinse his mouth. "No kissing in public," he said resolutely. "It's simply not proper."
"Proper?" The corners of Harry's mouth were twitching. Draco could see it in the mirror. "What are you, a relic from Victorian times?"
To Draco's disappointment, Harry didn't even flinch when Draco flung some water at him. "I was raised with manners. Unlike others in this room."
Harry looked at Aurelius, who was busy arranging his fourth towel along the rim of the empty bathtub, and said, "Don't listen to him, Lee. I think you're doing brilliantly."
"Don't encourage him!"
Harry bumped his shoulder and finally washed the toothpaste off his forearm. "What about hugging?"
"Only if it doesn't last longer than two seconds." That was proper etiquette, if one really did need to hug at all.
Harry snorted. "Two seconds? Why even bother?"
"Also, hands above waist level."
"You're having me on, right?"
Draco turned back to face him, face completely serious. Too late did he notice that the toothpaste on Harry's stomach was still very much there. Well, at least now Draco knew why he always brushed his teeth shirtless. He had wondered about that, because it wasn't like Harry was too hot – he always cast a warming charm beforehand.
"Eyes, Draco."
Right. Draco's eyes flicked back up to Harry's face. The bastard was grinning even more now. Draco cleared his throat and said. "I'm completely serious."
"Fine, what about holding hands?" Harry didn't even wait for Draco to open his mouth, cutting him short immediately. "You know what, I don't want to know. I don't care about Pure-blood etiquette. I'm already holding back in our world. I'm not going to do it in the Muggle world too. I'm not bloody compromising on holding hands. It's none-negotiable."
Sighing, Draco rolled his eyes and then dropped his shoulders in defeat. Small victories, right? "Fine. As long as we are clear on the hugging and kissing."
"I'm gonna hold your hand so hard," Harry said fiercely, grabbing both of them like he was trying to proof a point. Then he nodded down at his toothpaste streaked torso. "So, are you gonna help me with that? You do like mint, right?"
Draco glanced over his shoulder and said, in his most outraged voice, "Not in front of Aurelius!"
Green eyes narrowed dangerously. "You can't be serious."
Draco's laughter was cut short when Harry growled, grabbed him around the waist and dragged him across the hall and into the bedroom.
And who could complain about that?
