A/N - This chapter probably raises more questions then answers them, but don't worry, all will be revealed in due time...



"What?" Draco stared at Harry uncomprehendingly. "What are you talking about?"

Harry forced himself to sit down opposite Draco and calmly fold his hands in his lap. "Cody is not my boyfriend."

"So you lied?"

"No, I never actually said that I was going out with him."

Draco was still confused and also beginning to feel a little angry. "Oh, come off it, Harry, you knew very well what it looked like; you slept in the same room, you sat on his lap…"

Harry's cheeks were by now a very deep crimson. "I know, I know. We pretended to be a couple. Also, there are two single beds in that room."

"Why would you pretend? And why would Cody go along with it?"

"I asked him to."

"Why in Merlin's name would you do that, Harry?"

Harry looked at the floor in embarrassment. "I wanted you to think that I had a boyfriend."

"Me? You did this because of me? Why…" Draco trailed off, suddenly understanding. Pretending to have a boyfriend was Harry's way of trying to tell him that he just wanted to be friends and that he didn't want to start their relationship again. "Oh, I get it. You just wanted to make the situation easier again, no messy conversations and painful letdowns, right?"

Harry nodded, cheeks still red. "It was dumb, I know. You don't know how embarrassed I am about the whole thing now, I should've just talked to you the first day I got back like you wanted." Harry twisted his hands uncomfortably in his lap. "I was never any good at dealing with painful situations like these, I guess I was just trying to avoid the issue - as usual. You understand why I did it though, right?"

Draco nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"I'll tell everyone the truth." Harry sighed. "Ron's the only one who knows. Then Cody is free to see Ginny without people thinking he's cheating on me. I'm just sorry I dragged him into all of this in the first place."

Draco swallowed. "But you still don't mind if we're friends, right?"

Harry smiled. "No, of course not - as long as you don't bring this up again."

Draco smiled half-heartedly. "Now we both have certain past events that we're not allowed to talk about."

Harry's smile faded. "You don't think this will be too hard for you, do you? Being friends, I mean?"

Draco forced a smile and shook his head. "No, I promise, it'll be just fine."

Harry smiled in relief. "I'm so glad. You know, you're probably my best friend now, you know me better than anyone."

I thought I did, Draco added privately.

Harry suddenly laughed. "I'm surprised you didn't just walk right up and punch Cody in the face tonight."

This time Draco really did smile. "I almost did, but then I decided to let you deal with it on your own."

"Well, thanks for being angry on my behalf."

Draco laughed. "No problem, call me anytime you need to have a cheating boyfriend beaten into submission." Hopefully that won't be anytime soon.

"I don't think that'll be for awhile," Harry said, leaning back in his chair and staring at the fire.

Draco lifted a brow in surprise and tried to think of something to lighten the mood, although inside he was secretly glad that Harry wasn't ready to jump back into the dating world just yet. "You know, I knew Cody wasn't gay all along."

Harry turned and smiled. "Oh, you did, did you? And how, may I ask?"

Draco smirked. "Because he never tried to come on to me."

Harry laughed. "I guess I should've told him to flirt with you in order to be truly believable."

"Natuarally. Although, are you really sure he's straight? 'Cause he seemed awfully angry with me at times."

Harry looked slightly uncomfortable as he answered. "He was only acting like that because…well, because he doesn't really like you."

Draco frowned. "Doesn't like me? He doesn't even know me."

"I sort of told him some stuff," Harry mumbled.

"You told him lies about me?"

Harry's eyes darkened slightly, but his tone remained light. "I didn't have to, I just told him the truth."

"Oh."

"And I was a little angry at the time, so it might have sounded worse then it actually was…if that's possible."

Draco glanced up sharply. "I thought you promised-"

"I know, forget it. I didn't mean to bring it up again."

They lapsed into silence.

"Were all those stories that Cody told at breakfast true?" Draco asked after a few minutes of staring into the fire.

"Yeah, except the strip tease one." Harry smiled.

Draco smiled back.

"We can do this, right?" Harry asked. "We can make the 'just friends' thing work."

Draco sighed and pulled at a loose thread on the arm of his chair. He tried to imagine his life without Harry…

"Because if you don't want to, I'll understand," Harry said quietly, misinterpreting Draco's silence.

The trouble was, Draco couldn't imagine his life without Harry in it in some capacity. Being friends was better than nothing, and he'd just have to learn to live with the fact that they would never be anything more again.

Draco looked up and was surprised to see Harry's eyes swimming with tears. "Harry?"

Harry smiled and hastily wiped his eyes. "Don't mind me."

Draco hesitated, he wanted to go over and hug Harry but he didn't want to cross that invisible boundary that now existed between them.

Draco leaned forward in his chair. "Of course we can make the friends thing work. Don't worry about it, Harry, I'll still be your friend no matter what, it just might take some time."

Harry smiled through his tears. "Thanks, that means a lot to me." He shook his head as if to stop himself from saying more and stood up. "I'd better get going, Cody will be here any minute to pick me up."

Draco raised a brow. "Hot date?"

Harry chuckled. "Oh yeah, a hot date of patrolling for Death Eaters. If that's not a turn on I don't know what is."

Draco laughed and watched Harry walk out into the hallway and disappear from view. He leaned back in his chair and stared into the slowly dying fire.

We will make it work. Despite what everyone else thinks, it is possible for the two of us to have a nice, normal friendship and have it last for more than a few months. I shouldn't have expected Harry to just waltz back into his old life and accept me back after what I did. I should be happy for his offer of friendship. I will be happy. This will work…

. . . .

Draco slept in late the next morning. He had waited up the night before to make sure that Harry arrived back safely and then couldn't seem to fall asleep for hours afterwards.

He stumbled downstairs into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee pot.

Hermione smiled at him from the table, a buttered scone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. "Late night?"

"Yeah." Draco ran a hand through his un-brushed hair and poured himself some of the still warm coffee.

"I never got a chance to ask you about your meeting yesterday, how did it go?"

Draco walked over to the window, mug in hand, and stared out at the overcast day. Harry was outside, sitting on the back fence with his back to the house, staring out at the grass covered fields beyond.

"It was horrible," he answered, watching Harry. "What's Harry doing?"

Hermione stood at his side and looked out the window. "Brooding. What happened at the meeting?"

Draco sighed and took a sip of coffee, trying to push away the picture of that little Muggle girl with the big brown eyes. "Voldemort is growing more and more suspicious; he wanted to test our loyalty to the cause."

"What did he do?"

He shook his head as if to clear it. "Look, can we not talk about it right now?"

"Of course." Hermione immediately backed off, knowing when not to push the blond for more details.

"Why is Harry brooding?" Draco asked, searching for a distraction from the memory of that horrible Death Eater meeting.

Hermione turned to look back out at Harry with a concerned frown. "He got another invitation to go to Hogwarts from Julian." She handed the paper in her hand to Draco.

"So?" he asked, reading it.

"He refused – again."

Draco handed the invitation back. "Is that where Cody is right now?"

"Yeah, everyone's there. I tried to talk to him but he wouldn't listen."

"Would you want to go back if you were in his place?"

"No, but I think it would be good for him in the long run."

Draco nodded. "He'll go when he's ready."

"Maybe you could talk to him."

"Hmmm…" Draco made a non-committal noise and took another sip of coffee.

"I wish Dumbledore would come and see him, he hasn't been here once since Harry's return."

"He's a busy man, he doesn't have time for people's feelings."

"Draco, you know he looks on Harry like a son," Hermione said, defensively.

"Then why isn't he here?"

Hermione fell silent, unable to answer.

They watched as Harry hopped off of the fence and bent down to pick up a rock. He threw it up in the air and waved his other hand towards it. The rock instantly turned into a white dove and sailed down to land on Harry's shoulder.

"Holy shit," Draco breathed, impressed.

Hermione smiled. "That's nothing, you should see all the other stuff he can do now."

Draco smiled as Harry made another dove and the two snow white birds flew off together.

Hermione shook her head with a smile. "That boy really is a romantic at heart," she said, affectionately. "I must say I was surprised to hear about Cody."

"So he told you, did he?"

"Yes, but he didn't tell me why. Do you know?"

"No." Draco set his mug down on the counter. If Harry didn't want people to know then he would respect that.

Hermione sighed. "Well, I'm off to Hogwarts. Will you be okay here alone?"

"I'm not alone."

Hermione glanced at Harry before turning to leave. "You might as well be," she said on her way out the door.

Draco thought that that was unusually harsh for Hermione, but then she was probably just frustrated and worried about her friend. He pulled open the sliding glass door and walked outside. He strolled up to the fence with his hands in his jean pockets.

Harry was still watching the doves when he heard Draco's approach. "I hope you're not here to convince me to go to Hogwarts because you're not going to win."

Draco leaned his arms on the top rail of the wooden fence. "I'm not."

"Good." Harry reached down and tore up handfuls of the long grass at his feet. He threw them up in the air and waved a hand. The grass transformed into fluttery pieces of white confetti that slowly started to drift down towards the earth.

"Looks like snow," Draco observed.

Harry glanced back at him sharply, then waved a hand and the confetti burst into flame.

Draco started in surprise. "That was kind of sadistic."

Harry looked down at the tiny pieces of ash lying on the ground. He flicked his wrist at them and little yellow flowers rose up out of the dirt and burst into bloom.

"Now make a bunny," Draco demanded in a whiny little kid's voice.

Harry smiled and waved a hand over a lone stick sitting next to the flowers. The stick rose off of the ground a few centimetres and morphed into a tiny brown bunny.

"Hey, that's a stuffed bunny!" Draco complained with an amused smile.

"You didn't specify." Harry shrugged, straight-faced.

"Hmph."

Harry picked up the little toy bunny and walked over to Draco. "Hold out your hands."

Draco complied curiously.

Harry placed the bunny on his upturned palms, glancing up at Draco's intent expression with a smile. Harry placed his hands on his knees and leaned over so that he was eye to eye with the stuffed animal.

Draco watched in fascination as the rabbit's ears suddenly twitched, then the nose, then the big eyes blinked. The weight in his hands suddenly increased and he could actually feel heat flooding the tiny body with life.

Harry smiled in satisfaction and straightened up. The transformation was complete.

"Wow…that was incredible." Draco stroked the soft fur between the baby rabbit's ears.

Harry shrugged and climbed back up on the fence, watching from the top rail as Draco pet the little animal.

"I think I'll call him….Harry junior," Draco decided with a teasing grin.

Harry laughed. "I don't see the resemblance."

"Can you make its eyes green?"

"Sure." Harry flicked his wrist almost lazily and the bunny's eyes changed from deep brown to bright emerald.

Draco wrinkled his nose. "Now he looks possessed."

Harry laughed and changed them back.

"Will he run away if I put him down?" Draco asked.

"Not if you don't want him to." Harry touched the tip of his finger to the bunny's back and nodded to Draco.

Draco placed him on the ground and chuckled as his new pet hopped over to inspect Harry's yellow flowers.

"You've changed," Harry commented thoughtfully.

Draco leaned back against the fence next to Harry, keeping an eye on his rabbit. "How do you mean?"

"You're different, you're more emotional or something. You used to keep that side of yourself to, well, yourself. Now I see you being openly thoughtful and kind and sensitive."

"Great, so I'm turning into a girl." Draco snorted. "In my defence, I have been spending most of my time with Granger. Her girliness must be rubbing off."

"It wasn't meant as an insult. It's nice to know a person can escape his upbringing.

Draco looked at the ground and kicked at the dirt. "I think it helps that I'm not around my old Slytherin classmates anymore."

"What happened to them?" Harry asked, quietly. "Are any of them on our side, too?"

"No."

Harry chewed his lip and watched Draco's bunny bite tentatively at a blade of grass. "I'm glad you're on our side."

"Me, too." Draco smiled. "Just for the record though, I am still a Slytherin."

"Who happens to have a little, furry baby bunny." Harry grinned.

Draco picked up his rabbit and stared at it thoughtfully. "You may not know this, but this is actually a killer rabbit."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, he may not look it now but once he's a few years older – he'll be deadly."

Harry laughed. "Then I think he needs a tougher name."

Draco smiled and climbed onto the fence next to Harry, holding the bunny to his chest. "I think you're right."

"How about Spike?" Harry suggested.

"Nah, too undignified. He's not some junkyard pit-bull."

"Hey!" Harry cried, offended.

"What?"

"Never-mind."

"What about Xavier Lamentationes Ieremiae?"

Harry grimaced. "No, too long. How about Fluffy?"

Draco looked scandalized. "Ugh, no!"

Harry laughed and reached over to pet the nameless bunny. "So you want something pompous but not too long."

"How about Cody?" Draco smirked.

Harry burst out laughing, almost falling off of the fence. "I'm going to tell him you said that!"

Draco held the bunny out in front of him speculatively. "I guess he's stuck with Harry, jr."

"The poor thing," Harry sympathised.

"Happy birthday Harry, jr," Draco said to his new pet, whose eyes were beginning to droop sleepily. "Speaking of birthdays…"

Harry groaned. "I was hoping you would forget."

"Not likely, you're going to be the ripe old age of eighteen tomorrow and we have big party planned."

"You do not."

Draco smiled mysteriously. "Indeed we do."

Harry rolled his eyes but looked secretly pleased.

Draco noticed this with a self-satisfied smile.

Harry looked up as a raindrop landed on the end of his nose.

"I'd better get Harry, jr inside," Draco said, glancing up at the grey clouds.

Harry laughed and hopped down. "That is going to take me forever to get used to."

Draco carefully climbed down, trying not to jostle the sleeping bunny in his arms. "Have you had lunch yet?"

"Nope." Harry dusted his hands off on his trousers.

"Great, I'll have whatever you're making."

Harry glared, but quickly broke into a helpless smile. "Okay, so maybe you haven't changed that much."

Draco smirked as the two headed back to the house together.