CHAPTER 3

Draco looks up and watched as Harry entered his bedroom and the door closed slowly but not shut. Harry does deserve the right to know how Blaise really feels. Draco can only hope that it will end everything they held for the past years.

The door is opened and Draco smiles at Blaise who enfolds himself into an embrace with the other.

After a while of nervous shuffling and awkwardness, Blaise is seated on the couch Harry was sitting on earlier and the two friends broke out in conversation.

"What happened?" asked Draco, starting at the beginning if he didn't want Harry discovered.

"Well you know how gay marriage is legal in Toronto right?"

Draco nodded with a concerned expression on his face.

"Well, I've asked Harry to marry me so many times that I started thinking he just didn't want me around anymore and I was just being foolish for thinking that we could be something more. So after we both had a nice dinner which I cooked for him, I asked him for the fourth time and he once again said that he just didn't think we needed to get married because we've been together for four years already and that there was really no point in getting married. He said that he likes that I stay because I want to and not because I have to. But he doesn't understand that I just want to show him how much I love him."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Well, I went out and this time I brought someone home. It wasn't supposed to go as far as it did but after waiting around in the apartment with the man and Harry not showing up for over an hour he said he would leave and that would ruin everything. I needed Harry to feel threatened and the whole time I was waiting for Harry to return to see that there is a way where I can be with someone else too. And that he should feel threatened. I feel like he takes me for granted and that he knows I'll be around forever. And I wanted to show him that maybe I won't be around forever and that he needs to marry me to show me that he even wants me to stay. I just don't feel like he loves me, and how he left and he broke the glass rose I gave him for our three year anniversary Draco. He broke it just like that, like he just didn't even care that we were together for three years."

"What else happened?"

"Well, he came in too late, it went too far. All the while I was trying to stall the other man but he kept persisting and then when he threatened to leave I let him get a little bit further. If only Harry showed up a while earlier. If only he was there sooner then it would never have gotten that far."

"Is that all? Are you not telling me something?"

Blaise looked at Draco suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"Well Blaise, I've known you for years now, how could you be so innocent. And I also know him. You two have been together for four years. He isn't the type of person to leave a four year relationship on something like this. What happened?"

"Oh, well, he walked in at the wrong moment."

"Blaise, he couldn't have walked in on the wrong moment unless you gave it a wrong moment."

"I know Draco. I know what I did was wrong and I would do anything to take it all back. But I don't know what to do, he's gone and no one knows where he is."

To avoid the awkwardness of that comment Draco knew all he needed to do was shock the man in front of him and shock the man he did, "Do you love him Blaise?"

"What?"

"Do you love him?"

"Of course I do, why else would I have asked him to marry me?"

"Blaise think about what you have just told me, think about what you did not just to yourself but to him. Think about it and then you come back and tell me what you think. You need to realize how deep the mistake you made was. You cheated on him, it's not like forgetting to pick up the laundry or leaving the cap off the toothpaste tube one too many times. You cheated on the man, the man you claim to love. If there is a line, Blaise Zabini, you crossed it the moment you took the man home and put yourself in this position and anything after that line deserves nothing."

"But Draco, I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't mean for it to turn out this way."

"Accidents never turn out the way they were planned to. That's why they are called accidents but this turned out a certain way and honestly, I question if you never thought about this before."

"What do you mean? Of course I never thought about this before. I never wanted to hurt Harry, never. It just, happened."

"A lot of things 'happen', Blaise, you just need to take the fact that it's happened and understand what you did. Not everything can be forgiven and even though I have not held many stable relationships in a while I know that this is crossing the line. You made a promise to him by being there each night to not be with someone else. This just proves his point further that you two should not get married. You proved to him that you will not stay with him out of your own free will, so why would he tie himself to you and force you to stay when you showed him how obviously you don't want to stay with him."

"But I DO want to stay with him."

"That is not the story you just told me. By bringing a man home with you does not show him or anyone else that you want to stay with him forever. It shows that you have the power to leave him at any moment and how do you think that makes him feel after you just proposed to him for the fourth time?"

There was no response from Blaise as a noise from upstairs alarmed both of them. Draco forgot that Harry downed the cocoa and now that the liquid went through his system, it was time to release it.

"What was that?" asked Blaise looking upstairs trying to locate where the noise came from.

"Nothing, it's probably just the house settling down."

"No, Draco you have someone in here."

"What? Don't be absurd."

"Is it Harry? Draco, do you have Harry in here with you? It certainly would be the last place he would hide and I would never come here to look for him."

If there was one thing Draco knew how to do after years of living with his father being the second in command with the darkest lord of the century was bluff and he was bloody good at it too, "Blaise, look at me, do I look like I would harbour a Gryffindor in my home?"

Blaise searched Draco's eyes for a long time and the blonde held his gaze intensely.

"You're right. Why would Harry even think of hiding in here? You two never even got along, even when he and I were together. You always refused to show up to the parties unless it was absolutely necessary or that Harry wouldn't be there. I guess you're hatred for him didn't subside did it?"

"He was and always will be a Gryffindor at heart and Gryffindor and Slytherin hold true to being mortal enemies. What do you think Blaise?"

"See, that's where you are so wrong, Gryffindor and Slytherin don't have to be mortal enemies. Just look at Harry and me, we are the perfect example that the two houses can work together."

"Ah yes, and look at you two now."

"But we worked for four years. Even if it doesn't work out between us in the end, we still had four years."

Neither of the two said anything. Blaise was quiet because he really didn't know what to say, he always thought that Draco and Harry would end up together but look at them now, years later and Draco and Harry weren't even talking to each other. Draco even avoided Harry whenever possible. He sometimes wondered if Draco and Harry would still be in contact with each other if it weren't for Blaise. Draco was quiet because he agreed with Blaise. The thing with Draco was that he tried not to lie whenever possible, but when things were this close to falling apart, he had to take emergency actions and this meant, lying through his skin and heart about his feelings.

Finally Blaise got up and muttered that he needed to think about things for a while which he did but he just needed to get away from the constant reminder of Draco who was the reason why he needed so desperately to get married to Harry. From the deepest of Blaise's heart he wondered if he would ever let go of the possible thought that Harry and Draco could be with one another.

When Blaise was gone and Draco shut the door behind the man he took a quick breath and all but ran up the stairs to see how Harry was holding up.

When Draco opened the door to his bedroom he found Harry holding his knees to his chest and Draco went over to him and crouched down next to the man, "What's going on?"

Harry lifted his face and there Draco saw the most sorrow he ever saw in a pair of eyes and the first thing he wanted to do was run after Blaise and kill the man for bringing Harry such misery until Harry spoke.

"I still love him." Were the words which slipped out of Harry's mouth and at that moment Draco's hope not only broke into a million pieces but he felt like they would never be pieced together again no matter what amount of glue was used.