Muttering to himself, a slightly flustered Harry Potter set up a muggle laptop wondering when muggle technology had become so complicated. As a child he hadn't had a lot of experience with muggle technology, but his cousin Dudley had seemingly owned every computer and game station going, and Harry had watched the advancement of technology from afar. But it had been a long time since he'd last seen his muggle relatives, let alone used muggle technology and it seemed as though advances had been fast moving since he'd last laid eyes on a computer.
"I think that's it," he muttered as he finally got the screen to change from black as the laptop began to whir into action.
Despite Harry's optimism it still took him another half hour to get the laptop up and running properly. Although he then had to work out how to use a video call, so he could talk to his best friend, Hermione Granger, face to face for the first time in nearly three years.
The reason Harry hadn't spoken to Hermione in so long was because he'd been travelling with his godfather, Sirius Black. Sirius had re-entered Harry's life during his third year at Hogwarts, and after clearing his name of a crime he hadn't committed, he'd become Harry's guardian. If it hadn't been for Sirius, Harry might have ended up losing himself in the war that had engulfed the wizarding world during his final few years at Hogwarts, but his godfather had been there for him and ensured that while Harry fought as he wished, he wasn't used as some sort of pawn and sacrificed as a hero, which Sirius was sure certain people would have preferred. By the time the war was fully over it was the middle of Harry's seventh year, and rather than push Harry into being an Auror, which was what the headmaster Albus Dumbledore thought was best, Sirius had instead suggested he and Harry had a gap year and travelled the world.
Harry had jumped at the idea, and he and Sirius had set off almost as soon as he'd graduated Hogwarts. Although it wasn't until they were well out of the country that Sirius confided in Harry that part of the reason he'd wanted Harry to go travelling was to give him some space from the Weasleys. The family of Harry's best friend, Ron, had welcomed him into their family with open arms when he'd started Hogwarts, but Sirius was worried that certain members of the family were more concerned with Harry's fame rather than him as a person. He was particularly worried about Ron, his little sister, Ginny, and his mother, Molly.
Sirius was worried that Ron didn't have a plan of his own for his life, and would merely follow Harry down whatever path he chose. And while that was fine if that was what Ron truly wanted, Sirius was worried that Ron would grow resentful of Harry for making choices about his life, while he'd just tagged along for the ride. He was also worried about Ron taking advantage of the fact Harry had more money than him as before they'd left on their travels he'd heard a few hints from Ron that he wouldn't mind him and Harry finding a flat together, and Sirius was concerned that Ron would expect his wealthy friend to foot the majority of the bills.
However, his concern over Ron was nothing compared to the problems he foresaw with Ginny and her mother. By the time Sirius arrived on the scene, Ginny was already smitten with Harry, but he'd heard enough to know the crush had started before she'd even met his godson. Although that wouldn't have been a problem if Ginny had then genuinely fallen for the real Harry, but Sirius suspected that as much as she professed to love Harry, Ginny didn't even know what he was truly like. Even when they started dating in Harry's final year, Sirius wasn't convinced that Ginny was able to see there was more to Harry than the rich and famous Boy Who Lived.
As for Molly, in Sirius's eyes, she just seemed determined to include Harry in the family, whatever it took. She'd clearly been resentful when Sirius stepped in as Harry's guardian and they'd clashed several times over how best to do things. But once Harry and Ginny started dating, she started to act like it was a given that they would end up married and Harry would officially become part of the Weasley family.
Ultimately Sirius was worried that Harry had been so long without a proper loving family that he would get sucked into the Weasleys and end up living a life he didn't want to live. So he'd suggested the trip as a way to give Harry some breathing space and a chance to make some decisions of his own about his life. When they'd set off he'd vowed to accept whatever Harry decided upon their return, and he'd promised Harry exactly that when he'd told him about his reason for suggesting the trip.
Although as it turned out their trip had yet to come to an end as Harry was in no rush to return home to England. Before they'd left, Harry had promised a put-out Ron that he could join them for their final month of the trip, and they would all return home together. However, by the time Ron joined them, courtesy of Harry paying for him, Harry was loving the freedom of travelling and when Ron went home, Harry and Sirius chose to extend their trip for another six months. Six months turned into a year and that second year was now nearing three, and still Harry had no real desire to go home.
To be honest, the only thing Harry missed about home was his second best friend, Hermione. Unlike Ron, who had not taken his travelling extension well and had all but ended their friendship, Hermione had encouraged the trip and told Harry he should live life to the full. He and Hermione exchanged regular letters and cards, but it wasn't the same as seeing her in person, and even though he fully planned on either going home for a short break to see his friend, or inviting her to visit him in the near future, Harry had decided he needed to see Hermione. So in his last letter, he'd mentioned finding a way to talk face to face, so they could discuss all the things that just never got mentioned in letters, and Hermione had suggested they use a muggle video link to chat. Her parents were also travelling these days, and it was how Hermione kept in touch with them, so she figured it would be perfect for her and Harry to try. To be honest, Harry was hoping it did work, as then they might be able to use it regularly and then he could see his friend as often as he wanted. If only he could get the damn thing set up.
"I don't get why you didn't just use the floo," Sirius remarked, entering the front room where Harry was still trying to get to grips with the muggle technology. "It was always good enough in my day."
"Things have moved on since then," Harry chuckled. "Besides, Hermione doesn't like talking via the floo. She thinks it's strange just talking to someone's head."
"No stranger than using that contraption," Sirius shrugged. "Anyway, I'm going for a swim. If you ever get connected, send Hermione my love. And tell her she has to come and visit us. She can't work all the time, a girl needs some fun in her life."
"I'll be sure to mention it," Harry answered with a chuckle as his godfather headed outside and left him to finally get things set up.
Eventually, after nearly an hour getting sorted, Harry was ready to chat to Hermione. Taking a deep breath, he activated the call and within moments the screen in front of him flickered to life and he found himself looking at his best friend.
"Hermione," he cried, grinning widely at the sight of his friend. "You look amazing."
Harry had always thought Hermione was pretty, even when she herself had no confidence in herself, but since he'd last seen her, she'd positively blossomed. Rather than trying to tame her wild hair, it looked like she had embraced her curls and her long hair framed her face in a halo of curls. As for her face itself, she looked to be wearing a small smattering of make-up, but more importantly than anything she was glowing with happiness. Harry would have liked to think it was all down to seeing him, but there was something about Hermione that told him that she wasn't just happy to see him, she was happy in general.
"So do you," Hermione returned with a chuckle. "No glasses, I see."
"I ditched them and moved to contacts," Harry replied. "Less hassle."
"It suits you," Hermione said, smiling warmly at her friend. "And so does travelling. You look like you've got a good tan."
"Yeah, I am pretty brown," Harry agreed. "But you should see Sirius, his tan is even darker than mine. But then again, he's a real sun worshipper. He spend hours in the sun."
"I don't suppose you can really blame him given where he spent so much of his life," Hermione remarked.
"True," Harry agreed with a nod of his head.
"So Harry, tell me everything," Hermione urged. "I want to know everywhere you've been, and everything you've done."
"That could take some time," Harry laughed. "We've squeezed a lot into this trip."
"I'm not going anywhere," Hermione replied with a grin.
Grinning back at Hermione, Harry began to regale her of stories of his travels. As they talked, it was as though no time had passed and the fact they hadn't spoken in person for years didn't matter. Their bond was as tight as ever, and Harry just wished Hermione were actually in the room so he could hug her. In every other way it was as though she was right in front of him, but he missed her physical presence and being able to hug her.
"You have to come and see us," Harry urged, after they'd been talking for almost half an hour. "We're moving onto Greece next month, why don't you join us? Sirius said to remind you that you need some fun in your life."
"That does sound like a good idea," Hermione conceded. "But for the record, I do have fun in my life."
Harry laughed, and was about to ask what sort of fun his friend was having in his absence when he noticed a movement behind Hermione. He'd already decided that Hermione was sitting at her kitchen table and he could see the hallway behind her. However, there was now movement in the hallway, but before Harry got a chance to mention it to Hermione, he realised it was another person. A pair of bare, masculine legs came into view, and then Harry got an eyeful of a part of another man he'd never wanted to see.
"Bloody hell," he gasped, turning his head away from the screen.
"What?" Hermione asked, clearly concerned about her friend.
"Balls," Harry blurted, gesturing wildly to the screen even as he kept his eyes averted.
With his eyes averted, Harry couldn't see what happened on the other end of the call, but he heard Hermione scream slightly and order whoever she was with to cover himself up. Once he thought it was safe to look, he turned back to the screen to find a mortified Hermione holding her head in her hands. The only problem was, behind her the mysterious man was sauntering casually away, his bum on full display. Clearly whoever Hermione was with wasn't shy and didn't mind he'd just flashed someone on the other end of Hermione's video call.
"I am so sorry, Harry," Hermione apologised, finally lifting her head from her hands.
"These things happen," Harry laughed, able to see the funny side now he was no longer faced with a naked stranger wandering about behind Hermione.
"Only to me," Hermione muttered. "Honestly, he has no shame."
"Well at least I can assure Sirius you're not going without fun," Harry remarked. "It looks like you've got your hands full there."
"Harry Potter are you commenting on the size of my boyfriend's package?" Hermione gasped with a laugh.
"What? No, of course I'm not," Harry replied, before it occurred to him exactly what he'd said and his eyes widened comically. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I honestly didn't notice how full your hands, or other things, would be. I just meant you had something to occupy your time and weren't just focused on work."
"Harry, you should stop digging now," Hermione laughed.
"Okay, I'll stop," Harry vowed. "Oh look trousers," he remarked spotting movement behind Hermione again. "What a nice sight."
Hermione turned her head to check on the wizard she was with, and as he moved into the kitchen, Harry heard him chuckle.
"Richard, Jean, I am so sorry," the wizard with Hermione began as he leaned over Hermione's shoulder, his eyes widening in surprise as his face came into focus and saw the screen in front of his girlfriend, and saw exactly who she was talking to. "Potter."
On his side of things, all Harry could do was stare at the face in front of him. He could hardly believe who he was looking at, and he certainly didn't want to think about the sight he'd seen just minutes earlier.
"Malfoy?" he eventually muttered, hearing the question in his voice even though there was no doubt the wizard peering at him from Hermione's flat was Draco Malfoy.
"This wasn't how this was supposed to go," Hermione muttered, shooting her boyfriend an annoyed glare. "I wanted to tell you about Draco properly, Harry, not have him flash you as a greeting."
"I didn't know you were talking to Potter," Draco retorted defensively.
"Yeah, he thought he was flashing your parents," Harry laughed, recalling the apology Draco had made before spotting who exactly Hermione was talking to.
"I think that is even worse," Hermione groaned. "Why do you have to flash anyone?" she asked Draco with a tut.
"The only person I expected to see was you, and you never complain about me being naked," Draco shot back at his girlfriend with an unconcerned shrug. Obviously he wasn't bothered that Harry had seen far more of him than he should have.
"In future, I'm going to put a new rule in place. Trousers are to be worn outside of the bedroom at all times," Hermione declared.
"It'll never work," Draco snorted as he rose to his full height and wandered out of Harry's sight. "You'll not be able to resist me."
"Smug git," Hermione whispered to Harry. "The problem is, he's right. That rule will not last."
"How about trousers on when you're talking to someone online?" Harry suggested.
"I can live with that," Draco called from the other side of the kitchen.
"How about leaving me in peace, so I can talk to Harry?" Hermione questioned her boyfriend. "I've got a lot to tell him."
"I get the message, I'm going," Draco sighed, leaning back down and raising a hand towards Harry. "Nice to see you, Potter."
"You too, Malfoy," Harry replied, slightly bewildered at everything that had happened over the last few minutes. "Although, I'd rather I hadn't seen quite as much of you."
"Don't worry about it, Potter, I've got nothing to be ashamed of," Draco replied with a smirk as he gave Hermione a quick kiss and sauntered out of the kitchen with a glass of juice in his hand.
"Modest, isn't he?" Harry chuckled, unable to do anything but laugh given how calm and collected Draco was about the entire incident.
"I'm sorry about that Harry," Hermione apologised. "As I said, that wasn't how I wanted to tell you about him. I've been waiting to speak to you in person, and then he goes and blows it all by wandering around naked."
"So how long have the two of you been together?" Harry asked.
"Nearly eight months," Hermione answered. "I hope you saw enough to see how much he's changed from the boy we knew at Hogwarts."
"I can't really comment on that, I never saw him naked in school," Harry joked.
"I didn't mean that Harry," Hermione laughed, starting to see the funny side of what had just happened. "I meant the change in who he is as a person."
"I can see the change," Harry assured his friend. After all, the Draco Malfoy he remembered from Hogwarts wouldn't have chatted to him so casually, let alone date a muggleborn like Hermione. "How are other people taking it?"
"By other people, I take it you mean Ron," Hermione snorted.
"Not good, I'm guessing," Harry remarked, easily able to read Hermione's expression.
While he hadn't spoken to Ron in a long time, he knew things weren't great between him and Hermione. When Hermione had refused to condemn Harry for not going home, Ron had taken it badly and Hermione had remarked in her letters on more than one occasion that Ron was being off with her. In Harry's eyes, Ron was just being an idiot, and he could hardly believe he'd managed to hurt his friendships with both him and Hermione, simply be being a stubborn arsehole.
"When I told him about Draco, he said it was the final straw," Hermione explained. "You know how mad he was when I refused to take his side about you not coming home. Well apparently dating Draco was the final proof that I wasn't a true friend."
"How is your choice of boyfriend anything to do with your friendship with Ron?" Harry queried with a frown.
"That's what I asked, but Ron just started to rant on about all Slytherins being evil and Draco's father having connections to the dark. In the end, I told him I could date whoever I liked, and if he didn't approve then it was tough."
"What did he say to that?"
"Walked away and said that as long as I was with Draco, we were no longer friends," Hermione answered with a shrug. "That was almost seven months ago. Last time I saw him was a few weeks ago, and when he asked if I was still with Draco and I said yes, he walked away from me again."
"Prick," Harry declared. "I don't get why he is so petty. Why throw away his friendship with you because he doesn't like your boyfriend?"
"Why throw away his friendship with you because you're off travelling and seeing the world?" Hermione countered. "Neither of those choices affects our relationship with Ron, but he's chosen to act as though they do. All I can think is that we never meant as much to him as we thought."
"Obviously not," Harry agreed. "But enough about Ron. I want to talk about something happy. Do you love Malfoy?"
"That is very nosey, Harry," Hermione laughed. "What if I haven't told him how I feel yet? I can't go around telling you I love him, if he doesn't know."
"So you do love him," Harry crowed with a grin. He might never have picked Draco as a boyfriend for his best friend, but it was clear when she spoke about him that she was well and truly smitten.
"Things are getting serious, put it that way," Hermione said with a smile that told Harry everything she wasn't saying.
"Serious enough for him to join you when you come and visit?" Harry asked.
"You want Draco to come with me?" Hermione questioned, clearly surprised by the idea.
"He is your boyfriend, and if you're serious about him, I'm going to have to get to know him," Harry replied. "Unless you don't want us to get to know each other."
"I would really like it if you got to know each other and became friends," Hermione said with a smile. "And we would both love to come and visit you."
"I just have one condition," Harry said. "Malfoy needs to keep his clothes on. I don't need to see any more of him."
"I don't think there's any more of him to see," Hermione laughed. "You've already seen him in all his glory."
"And I won't forget that in a hurry," Harry muttered. "Not that I enjoyed the sight," he added hastily, not wanting Hermione to get the wrong impression. "I'm just saying that it was a memorable way to be re-introduced."
"It was rather unique," Hermione agreed with a laugh. "But at least it broke the ice."
"A simple hello would have worked just the same," Harry remarked.
"I promise, all you'll get when we come and visit is a hello," Hermione vowed. "No flashing allowed."
"That's something to be grateful for," Harry replied with a relieved sigh.
Moving on, the two friends made plans for Harry to get in touch once he and Sirius moved onto Greece, so that Hermione could then arrange for her and Draco to have a holiday and go and visit.
"I'll talk to you soon," Harry said as they wound up their call. "In person, that will be nice."
"It will," Hermione agreed. "I can't wait to see you, Harry."
"I can't wait either," Harry returned with a smile as they said their goodbyes and disconnected their call.
After shutting down the laptop, Harry wandered outside to fill Sirius in on what had happened. Sirius was thrilled when Harry confirmed that Hermione would be coming to visit them, but he was rather stunned to learn she would be accompanied by Draco Malfoy.
"You can't possibly be as shocked as I was," Harry laughed. "There I was talking to Hermione, then suddenly in the background I spotted a sight I never wanted to see. Honestly, Sirius, he was on full display and didn't seem a bit bothered by the fact I'd seen everything."
"That's one way to make an impression," Sirius laughed. "And at least we know Hermione is having fun. She is having fun, isn't she?"
"She is," Harry confirmed with a smile. "She's positively glowing. He might not have been my choice of boyfriend for her, but Malfoy clearly makes her happy, and that's all I care about."
"As a good friend should," Sirius replied with a nod. "So I take it, this means there's going to be no problems when he arrives."
"No problems," Harry confirmed. "The past is over and I don't want to hold grudges. As long as he doesn't hurt Hermione, we'll be just fine."
"And just think, you can always embarrass him into submission when you remind him that he flashed you," Sirius chuckled. "Perfect blackmail material that is."
"Not for Malfoy," Harry snorted. "He wasn't the slightest bit bothered."
"I bet I can embarrass him about it," Sirius predicted confidently.
"I bet you can't," Harry countered with a laugh.
And of course, Harry was right and no matter how hard Sirius tried when Hermione and Draco were visiting, Draco was completely unbothered by the fact Harry had seen him in all his glory. For Draco it was just a funny story of how he was re-introduced to his girlfriend's best friend. And over the years, the story was wheeled out time and time again, and everyone had a laugh over the fact Harry had found out Hermione was dating Draco thanks to the blond wizard gatecrashing their video-call while he was completely naked.
The End.