Chapter 2: Holding it All Together
Warning: M/M
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
"But Draco, you have to!" Whined the five foot seven busty blonde standing with her hands on her hips in front of him. It made it tremendously hard for Draco to say no. He became vaguely aware of the way her rosy lower lip stuck out when she was pouting.
"I can't, my boyfriend cancelled on me..." He said trying his best to sound genuinely disappointed (which he only partly was).
His hands worked furiously, eyes darting as he penned in checks on a requirement list he had received in the mail only a few days earlier.
"You don't have to come with you're boyfriend." She cooed, watching as Draco's line of sight traveled to her swaying hips.
"I, uh...really couldn't do that to him." Draco's eyes flitted back and forth from his paper work to the curved body of the woman tempting him. He was only glad there was a solid desk between the two of them, or only god knows what he would've done.
"What's his name?" She asked innocently, drumming her fingers on the surface of her desk as she leaned as far forward as she could without being blatant, her top loosely drooping down.
"Harry." Draco blurted and startled himself so greatly, jerked his pen and made a jagged lightning bolt on the paper in place of a check mark.
"God damn it." He muttered, throwing the bottom drawer of his desk open with a slam, scrambling for some whiteout.
"Harry's a pretty name. I bet he's really cute," she pondered, letting her eyes wander innocently.
"He is. I mean...fuck it." Draco's pointer finger curled tightly around his pen, and rested his head in his hands, rubbing his face and squeezing his eyes shut.
"You look stressed..." She expressed her concern by stepped around to the other side of the desk and placing her well manicured fingers lightly on his back and began rubbing soothingly. He groaned.
"That feels...incredible." He sighed. "And you're right I am stressed." He ran an unsteady hand through his bangs.
"That's why you need to come to this Draco. You don't have enough time to have fun and let loose and just...relax." She breathed into his ear, sending chills down his spine.
"That is...also correct." He admitted in two separate gulps of air, while arching his back as her sharp nails traveled further down, ticking him all the way.
"Then go. You're the manager Draco, it wouldn't be a party without you." She used her free hand to gently thread her fingers through the hairs behind his ears, extracting another shudder from him.
"I guess you're right Ally..." He appeared deep in thought, chewing on the cap of his pen lightly. "I think I'll go." He quickly checked another box with a flourish.
She beamed, her teeth so white nearly glowing.
"I knew I could convince you." She laughed, and stood up straight, turning Draco around in his swiveling chair. Her nose practically collided with his and he gulped noticeably.
"I'll see you there then, I presume?" Her voice was soft and rumbling, echoing deeply in her throat.
"Yup." He swallowed again, eyes wide, hoping she would back her overly made-up face out of his. Her eye shadow was heavier on the right side.
"Good." She smiled at him flirtatiously, and flipped her hair over her bare shoulder as she headed towards the door of his small, cluttered office.
"Oh." She yelped, and nearly jumped when she bumped into the large body squeezing their way through the glass door.
"Excuse me." She apologized, staring at a tall, tanned, muscular man whose amazingly green eyes were darting around the messy room and looking exceedingly confused.
"I-uh." He tried to explain.
"Are you looking for someone?" She asked, her eyebrow rose in question.
"Well, yes, actually." His voice was deep and gentle, outwardly calming. "Do you know Draco...Malfoy?" He asked with vague tone of hope laden in his eminent stress.
"Know him?" She asked, guffawing.
"Oh, you don't? I'm terribly sorry; I must have the wrong place-" He made frantic gestures with his hands, running his fingers through his thick, tousled, black hair.
"Calm down honey..." Ally stroked his forearm while chuckling fairly. "Draco...uh...Mr. Malfoy is sitting right behind that desk."
She pointed, and Harry frowned at her blindingly pink nails, adjusting the glasses on his face so they weren't slipping down the bridge of his shapely nose.
"Oh...oh." Harry sighed, head cast downward, utterly embarrassed at his lack of common sense. He failed to notice the bemused look on his friend's face, still clutching his writing utensil in one slender hand.
"Harry." Draco muttered before he could stop himself. Only when he saw Ally's eyes widen and mouth drop did he realize his primary mistake.
"Draco." Harry murmured seemingly affectionate, but mostly reassured. "I was running all over this place look-" He paused as Ally stomped her way around from his back to his front, giving him a speechless look.
"You're Harry?" She asked, pointing her finger out at him, disbelieving.
"I-I...am Harry, but how would you have heard of me?" If he were at all any more perplexed his eyes would've crossed.
"You're Draco's boyfriend." She stated, an un-amused stare planted on her face as if she had just said the sky was blue and Harry had argued that no, it was bright green.
"I'm n-" His mouth promptly shut as Draco gave him a hard, pleading stare. Harry merely scowled back at him, knowing he would regret this later on.
"I am his...boyfriend." Harry tried his best to say that without choking on the words but he said them with surprising smoothness.
"Oh." She said, still dumbfounded that Draco had been telling the truth all along, and his boyfriend was indeed stunning.
"Oh, well, I'll just give you two some alone time." The smile plastered on her face was fake, both of the men could tell, but they were thankful that she didn't comment, only strode out the door in her garish pink high-heels.
"So you'll do it?" Draco leapt from his desk the moment the door had clicked shut, his eyes were filled with excitement.
"I guess I have to now." Harry shook his head, ashamed that the love and compassion for his friend would allow him to stoop to such a low.
"Uhf." Harry winced as Draco grabbed him in an enormous, smothering bear hug. "Just remember," Harry teased. "You owe me one." He gave Draco a stern look, clearly serious.
"I do, I do I do." Draco mumbled into Harry's cotton sweater.
"...This really means something to you doesn't it?" He asked, realizing only after the words had escaped his mind to the surface that they could be interpreted quite differently than intended.
"You know I have standards to obtain." Draco smirked from his position still buried in Harry's chest.
"And by me being you're boyfriend, you're ego will be kept in tact, no bruises or cuts or lacerations?" Harry joked and chuckled as Draco nodded with a wide smile on his face.
A silence passed and Draco rested his head on Harry's shoulders.
"You can...stop hugging me now." Harry squirmed, disliking and liking the awkward warmth radiating from Draco, warmth from another human being he hadn't felt in years.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" Draco teased, gripping the sides of Harry's pullover unfalteringly.
"Yes." He said without hesitation. Draco let out a bark of laughter and let go, stepping back to give Harry another one of his best smirks.
"You better get used to it sweetie." Harry felt his body tense up and he almost shouted aloud with surprise of the audacity Draco held.
"Only joking Potter, don't be such a tosser." Draco tossed his arm over the shoulder of Harry, enjoying the way Harry would tighten up under his touch.
"You don't take compliments well..." Draco said thoughtfully and honestly with a shrug of his shoulders. Harry scoffed and Draco merely smirked back, opening his mouth to deliver another line.
"Why don't you run along home to you're beloved apartment, and pick out something to wear for the party like a good little boyfriend."
Harry growled at Draco's familiar banter, and darted under out of Draco's arm, and stepped away from his reach.
"Or better yet, I could take you shopping." Draco leaned his body casually against his desk, paperwork having lain forgotten, and his fingers gripping the edge so tightly his fingers turned white.
"Absolutely not." Harry frowned.
"I'll be buying." Draco enticed him the best and just about only way he could: money.
"...I'll think about it. But I absolutely refuse to be referred to as anything but Harry. No terms of endearment or any silly nick-name you can conjure up in that perverted mind of yours." His words were serious yet Draco laughed at them anyway, mocking Harry as accustomed.
"I'm not fucking joking around Malfoy." Harry's brow furrowed with anger and frustration at being ridiculed so freely. "I'm the one doing you a favor so you bloody well be grateful." He pointed out.
"I am, I am." Draco held up his hands to surrender. "Jesus Harry, you need to learn not to get so riled up from one inane little comment. Calm yourself down, take a deep breath, count to ten, whatever helps."
"I don't usually get riled up, it's only around you." Harry flung the snide comment back at Draco, but it seemed to take no result.
"Oh Harry, I feel the exact same way." Draco wailed in a high-pitched, female voice. He reached out a hand to grab at Harry's collar and pull him closer so that their bodies were nearly touching. Draco gave him a sly look.
"God damn it, stop it!" Harry shouted, almost throwing Draco's pawing hands away from him.
Draco only laughed, and took no heed to Harry's words. "Shh! People will hear you...and we wouldn't want that." He said his last word chuckling instead of seductively, as he meant it, ruining the comical effect it had on the situation. He pulled at Harry's sweater again, bumping their noses. Harry blushed, and tried once more to free himself from Draco's claws.
"You are too cute." Draco said with a serious note, tilting his head as if to get a better look at his new 'boyfriend.'
"I hope you didn't mean that." Harry said, pulling and adjusting his clothing again, the effect of Draco yanking on it so hard had twisted it around his torso.
"Then forget I ever said it." He said offhandedly. "...And why did you wear that ridiculous sweater just to see me?"
"I didn't know what else to wear..." Harry looked embarrassed.
"Well it was a nice thought, but you look absurd."
Draco began another fit of laughter at the fuming look on Harry's face.
"You just love doing this to me don't you? Just aggravate me enough so I writhe only for you to laugh and take it all back."
"Alright, you caught me. It is amusing to see you squirm in your pink panties." Draco said without even meaning to.
Harry cocked his head with a grim, rebuking look in his eyes.
"Sorry." Draco said, dropping his eyes, ashamed.
"It's alright." Harry said low and quiet.
"Why did you come here anyway?" It was Draco's turn to look bewildered, finally finding the unanswered question in his mind.
Harry sighed. "I was going to," he started, knocking his knuckles on a book lying on top of Draco's desk, letting his gaze drop. "...Going to come tell you that I wasn't going to agree to it." Harry admitted, willing himself to look up into the hurt gray eyes of his friend.
"...You weren't?" Draco's voice was unashamedly pained.
"Draco you have to admit, there's just certain lines friends don't cross and I'd have to say this is one of those lines. In fact, it's not just a line it's a bloody border. Lined with barbed wire and patrolled by flashing police cars and signs hanging everywhere that read 'Caution: Cross at your own risk.' I just wasn't sure our friendship could handle that."
Harry tried to gaze pleadingly into Draco eyes, only hoping he could understand where exactly he was coming from.
"I know." Draco said. "I've thought about the same things as well. I guess my ego and impressing people was more important to me than our friendship." He admitted, feeling deeply repentant. "I'm sorry."
Harry was quiet.
"Let's just call this whole thing off...It's been too much trouble." Draco seemed content to stare at the stain on the floor. "I haven't gotten any sleep since I proposed the damn event."
"Nor have I." Harry divulged, shrugged. "But-" he started to say, reaching a calloused hand out to touch Draco's lean shoulders lightly. "You don't have to call it off." He smiled a crooked smile at Draco, hand left to rest on his friend.
"...Really? You think we can pull it off?" A smile of Draco's began to form, plans already cooking in his feral mind.
"There's no way we couldn't pull this off." Harry assured him. "After all, who better than the two most clever, most dashing, most brainy men in all of England?"
"I'd say you're right." Draco grinned, flashing his pallid teeth. "In this together?" He asked confidently, holding out his hand for his partner to shake.
"Well...why not?" Harry said with a light, breathy, voice, amazed at himself. Yet the dazzling look on Draco's face once he agreed was worth the panic and previous sleepless night, and the trouble that would be had going through this.
They shook hands, Harry blushing nervously, realizing what point they now stood at.
"Harry?" Draco asked, letting his hand drop to his side, and took a step away from Harry.
"Mhm?" He was only a little skeptical of what Draco's next comment would be.
"It may just be me but you seem to be a bit uncomfortable about this, and well-" He was interrupted mid-sentence.
"Well of course I'm going to be uncomfortable about it, we're going to have to touch and flirt and...god knows what else your mind will conjure up, and it's a definite big step from where we were and-" Harry seemed to have gone into panic mode.
Draco's hand smothered Harry's words.
"Exactly my point. Which is why people are going to be able to tell that we're not in a relationship by the way we act around each other, without say...a little practice date first. Or something..."
Draco feebly looked for the right phrase, lifting his hand from his friend's mouth.
"...Practice date?" Harry squirmed nervously, not liking the sound of this new development.
"Well unless you got damn good acting skills, we need to get a bit more comfortable around each other...at least until we can come to the point of me touching you without you jumping forty feet in the air like some kind of anxious jackrabbit."
Draco searched Harry's eyes for a response and understanding.
"I understand, but..." Harry sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"But what?"
"I'm really indecisive about this whole thing still." Harry's head bent in shame, wishing he could help his friend a tiny bit more than he was at the moment.
"It's a lot for me to handle and maybe you could give me a day or two to get used to this new level we're on. Or at least, pretending to be on."
Draco tried his hardest not to look disappointed. "Well you still have a week until the party, how about we meet for lunch one day and talk about it?"
"Sounds great." Harry smiled, sagging his shoulders, feeling once again at ease. There was a moment of silence and suddenly Harry's mind clicked as he remembered what he had planned for that day.
"May I leave? Or do we have something else to discuss, because I promised Ron I'd call him and Hermione-"
Draco's mood immediately and obviously changed.
"Oh yes. Ronald Weasley. Hermione Granger. How could I forget about the two most important people in your life?" Draco said bitterly and sarcastically, scowling as he dropped his gaze from Harry and slipped behind his desk once again and sat down.
Harry glared at Draco's display of immaturity and predictable selfishness.
"All you care about is you, don't you?" Harry asked with a teasing tone, yet intending it as a somber question.
"Have you only now figured that out?" Draco rested his right hand against his face, knuckles pressed to his cheek while using his left to scribble on his now seemingly uninteresting paperwork.
"Well of course not, but your demonstration of your immaturity says a lot sometimes." Harry shook his head disapprovingly.
"Then why do you waste your valuable 'mature' time on me?" Draco asked scathingly.
Harry paused.
"I honestly have no idea." He said with a touch of a laugh in his tone, shaking his head.
"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" Draco hissed.
"I am." Harry spat back, turning on his heel to walk out the glass office door.
"Just in case you didn't realize, my fucking name is written on the door." Draco pointed and shouted. "Maybe if you use your god damn eyes next time you might not get so lost."
The door slammed and Harry was gone.
Draco groaned and buried his head in his folded arms on his desk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The wind was once again whipping at his face with a bruising force, teeth chattering as Harry once again wished for something as trivial as a car. Nothing fancy, sporty, or expensive. Just as long as it ran, perhaps had a radio, a heater and windows that would roll down for the summertime.
He grimaced as the flurries of snow started to drift through the air, wrapping him in a hazy, bitterly cold environment. It didn't help his disposition at all that he just had a fairly minor fight with one of his closest friends, Draco Malfoy. Then again their fights were so typical it was amazing that they even bothered to acknowledge them as significant anymore.
But their last fight was the worst. The fight that drove them so separate that they refused to speak to one another for nearly two years. Harry remembered struggling most those years. He had almost lost his apartment, the last solid thing he held in his life. Of course he always had the customary support from Hermione and the entire Weasley family, but it wasn't completely the same without the quirky, snarky, mess of Draco Malfoy filling in the spots that needed to be filled in Harry's life.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets, needing the warmth seeing as his tattered gloves were beginning to fray from overuse.
You might say Harry had an epiphany then and there, reflecting on his relationships and the embarrassing condition of his possessions and the basic things he even didn't have.
He didn't have a job, he didn't have a car, he didn't have a girlfriend (not failing to forget as of late he did have a boyfriend), and he didn't even own a decent, hole-less pair of gloves. He grumbled as he stepped off of the sidewalk on to the paved road, half expecting a car to zoom by and barely miss him, as goes the typical "I need to change my life-style and start valuing things more" type of realization.
But the car never came, and Harry stepped, left foot first, unto the other end of the walkway, unscathed. He was a little disappointed.
As if mesmerized, he turned at the according street corners he was suppose to, feeling the rush and hearing the purrs of the engines passing by him, uncaring. You might say that was always his problem. Life passed him by and he even watched it with his own two eyes. Perhaps his glasses had fogged up, and sooner than he realized his friends were getting married, getting college degrees, getting jobs, having a stable, enjoyable life.
Maybe...
Without Draco, it was as if he had lost two years of his life. Pile that on top of the years of his life he selectively chose to lose. The years of feeling the grief and pain over the loss of his long time friend Cedric Diggory, one of the finer friends that Harry ever had.
But there are times to think these kinds of events over and there are times for other things. And now was a time to focus on how to get home in time for Ron's phone call.
A/N: This is a slow going project; I just need a second opinion on the time and effort I'm putting into this. I appreciate comments. ^_^
Warning: M/M
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
"But Draco, you have to!" Whined the five foot seven busty blonde standing with her hands on her hips in front of him. It made it tremendously hard for Draco to say no. He became vaguely aware of the way her rosy lower lip stuck out when she was pouting.
"I can't, my boyfriend cancelled on me..." He said trying his best to sound genuinely disappointed (which he only partly was).
His hands worked furiously, eyes darting as he penned in checks on a requirement list he had received in the mail only a few days earlier.
"You don't have to come with you're boyfriend." She cooed, watching as Draco's line of sight traveled to her swaying hips.
"I, uh...really couldn't do that to him." Draco's eyes flitted back and forth from his paper work to the curved body of the woman tempting him. He was only glad there was a solid desk between the two of them, or only god knows what he would've done.
"What's his name?" She asked innocently, drumming her fingers on the surface of her desk as she leaned as far forward as she could without being blatant, her top loosely drooping down.
"Harry." Draco blurted and startled himself so greatly, jerked his pen and made a jagged lightning bolt on the paper in place of a check mark.
"God damn it." He muttered, throwing the bottom drawer of his desk open with a slam, scrambling for some whiteout.
"Harry's a pretty name. I bet he's really cute," she pondered, letting her eyes wander innocently.
"He is. I mean...fuck it." Draco's pointer finger curled tightly around his pen, and rested his head in his hands, rubbing his face and squeezing his eyes shut.
"You look stressed..." She expressed her concern by stepped around to the other side of the desk and placing her well manicured fingers lightly on his back and began rubbing soothingly. He groaned.
"That feels...incredible." He sighed. "And you're right I am stressed." He ran an unsteady hand through his bangs.
"That's why you need to come to this Draco. You don't have enough time to have fun and let loose and just...relax." She breathed into his ear, sending chills down his spine.
"That is...also correct." He admitted in two separate gulps of air, while arching his back as her sharp nails traveled further down, ticking him all the way.
"Then go. You're the manager Draco, it wouldn't be a party without you." She used her free hand to gently thread her fingers through the hairs behind his ears, extracting another shudder from him.
"I guess you're right Ally..." He appeared deep in thought, chewing on the cap of his pen lightly. "I think I'll go." He quickly checked another box with a flourish.
She beamed, her teeth so white nearly glowing.
"I knew I could convince you." She laughed, and stood up straight, turning Draco around in his swiveling chair. Her nose practically collided with his and he gulped noticeably.
"I'll see you there then, I presume?" Her voice was soft and rumbling, echoing deeply in her throat.
"Yup." He swallowed again, eyes wide, hoping she would back her overly made-up face out of his. Her eye shadow was heavier on the right side.
"Good." She smiled at him flirtatiously, and flipped her hair over her bare shoulder as she headed towards the door of his small, cluttered office.
"Oh." She yelped, and nearly jumped when she bumped into the large body squeezing their way through the glass door.
"Excuse me." She apologized, staring at a tall, tanned, muscular man whose amazingly green eyes were darting around the messy room and looking exceedingly confused.
"I-uh." He tried to explain.
"Are you looking for someone?" She asked, her eyebrow rose in question.
"Well, yes, actually." His voice was deep and gentle, outwardly calming. "Do you know Draco...Malfoy?" He asked with vague tone of hope laden in his eminent stress.
"Know him?" She asked, guffawing.
"Oh, you don't? I'm terribly sorry; I must have the wrong place-" He made frantic gestures with his hands, running his fingers through his thick, tousled, black hair.
"Calm down honey..." Ally stroked his forearm while chuckling fairly. "Draco...uh...Mr. Malfoy is sitting right behind that desk."
She pointed, and Harry frowned at her blindingly pink nails, adjusting the glasses on his face so they weren't slipping down the bridge of his shapely nose.
"Oh...oh." Harry sighed, head cast downward, utterly embarrassed at his lack of common sense. He failed to notice the bemused look on his friend's face, still clutching his writing utensil in one slender hand.
"Harry." Draco muttered before he could stop himself. Only when he saw Ally's eyes widen and mouth drop did he realize his primary mistake.
"Draco." Harry murmured seemingly affectionate, but mostly reassured. "I was running all over this place look-" He paused as Ally stomped her way around from his back to his front, giving him a speechless look.
"You're Harry?" She asked, pointing her finger out at him, disbelieving.
"I-I...am Harry, but how would you have heard of me?" If he were at all any more perplexed his eyes would've crossed.
"You're Draco's boyfriend." She stated, an un-amused stare planted on her face as if she had just said the sky was blue and Harry had argued that no, it was bright green.
"I'm n-" His mouth promptly shut as Draco gave him a hard, pleading stare. Harry merely scowled back at him, knowing he would regret this later on.
"I am his...boyfriend." Harry tried his best to say that without choking on the words but he said them with surprising smoothness.
"Oh." She said, still dumbfounded that Draco had been telling the truth all along, and his boyfriend was indeed stunning.
"Oh, well, I'll just give you two some alone time." The smile plastered on her face was fake, both of the men could tell, but they were thankful that she didn't comment, only strode out the door in her garish pink high-heels.
"So you'll do it?" Draco leapt from his desk the moment the door had clicked shut, his eyes were filled with excitement.
"I guess I have to now." Harry shook his head, ashamed that the love and compassion for his friend would allow him to stoop to such a low.
"Uhf." Harry winced as Draco grabbed him in an enormous, smothering bear hug. "Just remember," Harry teased. "You owe me one." He gave Draco a stern look, clearly serious.
"I do, I do I do." Draco mumbled into Harry's cotton sweater.
"...This really means something to you doesn't it?" He asked, realizing only after the words had escaped his mind to the surface that they could be interpreted quite differently than intended.
"You know I have standards to obtain." Draco smirked from his position still buried in Harry's chest.
"And by me being you're boyfriend, you're ego will be kept in tact, no bruises or cuts or lacerations?" Harry joked and chuckled as Draco nodded with a wide smile on his face.
A silence passed and Draco rested his head on Harry's shoulders.
"You can...stop hugging me now." Harry squirmed, disliking and liking the awkward warmth radiating from Draco, warmth from another human being he hadn't felt in years.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" Draco teased, gripping the sides of Harry's pullover unfalteringly.
"Yes." He said without hesitation. Draco let out a bark of laughter and let go, stepping back to give Harry another one of his best smirks.
"You better get used to it sweetie." Harry felt his body tense up and he almost shouted aloud with surprise of the audacity Draco held.
"Only joking Potter, don't be such a tosser." Draco tossed his arm over the shoulder of Harry, enjoying the way Harry would tighten up under his touch.
"You don't take compliments well..." Draco said thoughtfully and honestly with a shrug of his shoulders. Harry scoffed and Draco merely smirked back, opening his mouth to deliver another line.
"Why don't you run along home to you're beloved apartment, and pick out something to wear for the party like a good little boyfriend."
Harry growled at Draco's familiar banter, and darted under out of Draco's arm, and stepped away from his reach.
"Or better yet, I could take you shopping." Draco leaned his body casually against his desk, paperwork having lain forgotten, and his fingers gripping the edge so tightly his fingers turned white.
"Absolutely not." Harry frowned.
"I'll be buying." Draco enticed him the best and just about only way he could: money.
"...I'll think about it. But I absolutely refuse to be referred to as anything but Harry. No terms of endearment or any silly nick-name you can conjure up in that perverted mind of yours." His words were serious yet Draco laughed at them anyway, mocking Harry as accustomed.
"I'm not fucking joking around Malfoy." Harry's brow furrowed with anger and frustration at being ridiculed so freely. "I'm the one doing you a favor so you bloody well be grateful." He pointed out.
"I am, I am." Draco held up his hands to surrender. "Jesus Harry, you need to learn not to get so riled up from one inane little comment. Calm yourself down, take a deep breath, count to ten, whatever helps."
"I don't usually get riled up, it's only around you." Harry flung the snide comment back at Draco, but it seemed to take no result.
"Oh Harry, I feel the exact same way." Draco wailed in a high-pitched, female voice. He reached out a hand to grab at Harry's collar and pull him closer so that their bodies were nearly touching. Draco gave him a sly look.
"God damn it, stop it!" Harry shouted, almost throwing Draco's pawing hands away from him.
Draco only laughed, and took no heed to Harry's words. "Shh! People will hear you...and we wouldn't want that." He said his last word chuckling instead of seductively, as he meant it, ruining the comical effect it had on the situation. He pulled at Harry's sweater again, bumping their noses. Harry blushed, and tried once more to free himself from Draco's claws.
"You are too cute." Draco said with a serious note, tilting his head as if to get a better look at his new 'boyfriend.'
"I hope you didn't mean that." Harry said, pulling and adjusting his clothing again, the effect of Draco yanking on it so hard had twisted it around his torso.
"Then forget I ever said it." He said offhandedly. "...And why did you wear that ridiculous sweater just to see me?"
"I didn't know what else to wear..." Harry looked embarrassed.
"Well it was a nice thought, but you look absurd."
Draco began another fit of laughter at the fuming look on Harry's face.
"You just love doing this to me don't you? Just aggravate me enough so I writhe only for you to laugh and take it all back."
"Alright, you caught me. It is amusing to see you squirm in your pink panties." Draco said without even meaning to.
Harry cocked his head with a grim, rebuking look in his eyes.
"Sorry." Draco said, dropping his eyes, ashamed.
"It's alright." Harry said low and quiet.
"Why did you come here anyway?" It was Draco's turn to look bewildered, finally finding the unanswered question in his mind.
Harry sighed. "I was going to," he started, knocking his knuckles on a book lying on top of Draco's desk, letting his gaze drop. "...Going to come tell you that I wasn't going to agree to it." Harry admitted, willing himself to look up into the hurt gray eyes of his friend.
"...You weren't?" Draco's voice was unashamedly pained.
"Draco you have to admit, there's just certain lines friends don't cross and I'd have to say this is one of those lines. In fact, it's not just a line it's a bloody border. Lined with barbed wire and patrolled by flashing police cars and signs hanging everywhere that read 'Caution: Cross at your own risk.' I just wasn't sure our friendship could handle that."
Harry tried to gaze pleadingly into Draco eyes, only hoping he could understand where exactly he was coming from.
"I know." Draco said. "I've thought about the same things as well. I guess my ego and impressing people was more important to me than our friendship." He admitted, feeling deeply repentant. "I'm sorry."
Harry was quiet.
"Let's just call this whole thing off...It's been too much trouble." Draco seemed content to stare at the stain on the floor. "I haven't gotten any sleep since I proposed the damn event."
"Nor have I." Harry divulged, shrugged. "But-" he started to say, reaching a calloused hand out to touch Draco's lean shoulders lightly. "You don't have to call it off." He smiled a crooked smile at Draco, hand left to rest on his friend.
"...Really? You think we can pull it off?" A smile of Draco's began to form, plans already cooking in his feral mind.
"There's no way we couldn't pull this off." Harry assured him. "After all, who better than the two most clever, most dashing, most brainy men in all of England?"
"I'd say you're right." Draco grinned, flashing his pallid teeth. "In this together?" He asked confidently, holding out his hand for his partner to shake.
"Well...why not?" Harry said with a light, breathy, voice, amazed at himself. Yet the dazzling look on Draco's face once he agreed was worth the panic and previous sleepless night, and the trouble that would be had going through this.
They shook hands, Harry blushing nervously, realizing what point they now stood at.
"Harry?" Draco asked, letting his hand drop to his side, and took a step away from Harry.
"Mhm?" He was only a little skeptical of what Draco's next comment would be.
"It may just be me but you seem to be a bit uncomfortable about this, and well-" He was interrupted mid-sentence.
"Well of course I'm going to be uncomfortable about it, we're going to have to touch and flirt and...god knows what else your mind will conjure up, and it's a definite big step from where we were and-" Harry seemed to have gone into panic mode.
Draco's hand smothered Harry's words.
"Exactly my point. Which is why people are going to be able to tell that we're not in a relationship by the way we act around each other, without say...a little practice date first. Or something..."
Draco feebly looked for the right phrase, lifting his hand from his friend's mouth.
"...Practice date?" Harry squirmed nervously, not liking the sound of this new development.
"Well unless you got damn good acting skills, we need to get a bit more comfortable around each other...at least until we can come to the point of me touching you without you jumping forty feet in the air like some kind of anxious jackrabbit."
Draco searched Harry's eyes for a response and understanding.
"I understand, but..." Harry sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"But what?"
"I'm really indecisive about this whole thing still." Harry's head bent in shame, wishing he could help his friend a tiny bit more than he was at the moment.
"It's a lot for me to handle and maybe you could give me a day or two to get used to this new level we're on. Or at least, pretending to be on."
Draco tried his hardest not to look disappointed. "Well you still have a week until the party, how about we meet for lunch one day and talk about it?"
"Sounds great." Harry smiled, sagging his shoulders, feeling once again at ease. There was a moment of silence and suddenly Harry's mind clicked as he remembered what he had planned for that day.
"May I leave? Or do we have something else to discuss, because I promised Ron I'd call him and Hermione-"
Draco's mood immediately and obviously changed.
"Oh yes. Ronald Weasley. Hermione Granger. How could I forget about the two most important people in your life?" Draco said bitterly and sarcastically, scowling as he dropped his gaze from Harry and slipped behind his desk once again and sat down.
Harry glared at Draco's display of immaturity and predictable selfishness.
"All you care about is you, don't you?" Harry asked with a teasing tone, yet intending it as a somber question.
"Have you only now figured that out?" Draco rested his right hand against his face, knuckles pressed to his cheek while using his left to scribble on his now seemingly uninteresting paperwork.
"Well of course not, but your demonstration of your immaturity says a lot sometimes." Harry shook his head disapprovingly.
"Then why do you waste your valuable 'mature' time on me?" Draco asked scathingly.
Harry paused.
"I honestly have no idea." He said with a touch of a laugh in his tone, shaking his head.
"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" Draco hissed.
"I am." Harry spat back, turning on his heel to walk out the glass office door.
"Just in case you didn't realize, my fucking name is written on the door." Draco pointed and shouted. "Maybe if you use your god damn eyes next time you might not get so lost."
The door slammed and Harry was gone.
Draco groaned and buried his head in his folded arms on his desk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The wind was once again whipping at his face with a bruising force, teeth chattering as Harry once again wished for something as trivial as a car. Nothing fancy, sporty, or expensive. Just as long as it ran, perhaps had a radio, a heater and windows that would roll down for the summertime.
He grimaced as the flurries of snow started to drift through the air, wrapping him in a hazy, bitterly cold environment. It didn't help his disposition at all that he just had a fairly minor fight with one of his closest friends, Draco Malfoy. Then again their fights were so typical it was amazing that they even bothered to acknowledge them as significant anymore.
But their last fight was the worst. The fight that drove them so separate that they refused to speak to one another for nearly two years. Harry remembered struggling most those years. He had almost lost his apartment, the last solid thing he held in his life. Of course he always had the customary support from Hermione and the entire Weasley family, but it wasn't completely the same without the quirky, snarky, mess of Draco Malfoy filling in the spots that needed to be filled in Harry's life.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets, needing the warmth seeing as his tattered gloves were beginning to fray from overuse.
You might say Harry had an epiphany then and there, reflecting on his relationships and the embarrassing condition of his possessions and the basic things he even didn't have.
He didn't have a job, he didn't have a car, he didn't have a girlfriend (not failing to forget as of late he did have a boyfriend), and he didn't even own a decent, hole-less pair of gloves. He grumbled as he stepped off of the sidewalk on to the paved road, half expecting a car to zoom by and barely miss him, as goes the typical "I need to change my life-style and start valuing things more" type of realization.
But the car never came, and Harry stepped, left foot first, unto the other end of the walkway, unscathed. He was a little disappointed.
As if mesmerized, he turned at the according street corners he was suppose to, feeling the rush and hearing the purrs of the engines passing by him, uncaring. You might say that was always his problem. Life passed him by and he even watched it with his own two eyes. Perhaps his glasses had fogged up, and sooner than he realized his friends were getting married, getting college degrees, getting jobs, having a stable, enjoyable life.
Maybe...
Without Draco, it was as if he had lost two years of his life. Pile that on top of the years of his life he selectively chose to lose. The years of feeling the grief and pain over the loss of his long time friend Cedric Diggory, one of the finer friends that Harry ever had.
But there are times to think these kinds of events over and there are times for other things. And now was a time to focus on how to get home in time for Ron's phone call.
A/N: This is a slow going project; I just need a second opinion on the time and effort I'm putting into this. I appreciate comments. ^_^
