Disclaimer: See previous chapter
A/N Okasy this is the beta'd version of it. Yes this was a filler but it was needed because sadly... the next chapter was not ready to be written just yet. Thank you for all who reviewed when it was first posted!
Avy glared at her father as he glared back at her, both wearing faces that silently spoke what the other was thinking about their current argument. "Dad, I need to go and get my snake food!" Avy whined again, looking very annoyed at her father.
"Avy, what part about not today don't you understand?" Harry growled back, feeling his day had been far worse then hers. He'd gotten thrown off his Quidditch team and Hermione was going to be planning the new gay rights speech for the minister of magic any day now.
"Dad, I need the mice! I'm not starving my snake, would you starve me?" Avy continued, getting very fed up with her father. She needed the mice before her snake got too hungry and got aggressive; she hated it when her snake started biting.
Harry let out a grunt before snapping at his persistent daughter. "Of course I wouldn't starve you, Avy, but I'm not in the mood to go out tonight. I'm sure the snake can wait a night." he told her, but Avy wasn't hearing it.
"Dad! He hasn't eaten in ten days, I need the mice tonight! Could you just bloody well take me to the muggle pet store to get some? It won't kill you!" Avy said, watching her fathers face turn from very annoyed to angry.
"Avy what part of 'I'm not feeling like it' do you not understand? I just got fired today, I want a break!" Harry half yelled in frustration, walking away from his daughter to sit down on the sofa in the den and read a bit.
"Why the hell did the team let you go?" Avy asked, following her father into the room, intent on getting her mice tonight; come hell or high water.
"Because they're a bunch of homophobic pricks like the other half of the wizarding world!" Harry growled out, pointedly trying to ignore Avy as she sat down on the floor beside the sofa, staring at him with her azure eyes.
After a few minutes of silence Avy broke it with a rude comment. "Harry, could you please forget about those stupid fucks and get me my mice?" Harry sat up quickly, placing his feet on the floor as he sighed in defeat.
"If I get you the mice will you let me have some rest?" Harry said with annoyance lacing every word. Avy nodded, grinning cheekily at her victory of the day. "You bugger." Harry whispered under his breath, getting up to fetch the car keys and a wallet with muggle money.
As Harry and Avy walked out of the pet store, Avy holding a blue bag which contained the snake's mice, Avy noticed a woman with dark red lipstick, brown hair that was quite lengthy, and her shoes were so pointed Avy could have sworn they were footwear weapons in disguise.
She was staring at Harry in a way a leopard might stare at a wild boar, and Avy got a distinct dislike for the woman just by taking one look at those bright red shoes that called for others' attention, and had to be the most uncomfortable thing to wear in the history of women's shoes.
Now while Avy didn't like any of her father's ex-girlfriends, she didn't like this woman at all because she wasn't looking at her father with attraction, she was looking at him with interest.
Avy couldn't put her finger on it, but this woman was interested in her father more for what he was doing, rather then how he was looking. She could tell because the woman's movements weren't jittery like the women who had approached her father before, they were confident, sneaky even.
This woman wasn't even thinking of approaching her father, Avy would bet five bucks on it. So Avy watched the woman from afar as her father walked back to the car to start it up and get back home, trying to memorize her face in case she ever saw the woman again.
"Avy, when we get home I want you to keep things quiet." Harry said and Avy looked up at him with a frown. 'Since when am I ever loud, Harry, you tell me that?' she thought in her head, keeping her mouth shut because she could easily cause a fight with him if she said something.
Avy just looked out the window of the muggle car her father owned yet rarely used, and Harry took that for a yes. He didn't seem to pay any more attention to her but Avy was paying plenty attention to him. She wanted to know what the deal was with this guy, why he was getting a bunch of letters, and why he'd lost his job.
Harry never explained much to Avy, she usually had to figure it out on her own, and this time it was too vague to really piece much together other then her father was being 'gay bashed' by a bunch of people over some article in the Daily Prophet. To Avy that didn't mean much other then people are stupid.
She always thought people were stupid anyways.
Draco went into work two days after the article came out because his boss felt he deserved a day off. Draco knew the reason was simply because the owls had also over flown the ministry because even though Draco had been 'out' for quite some time, it had never been as public as Harry's 'coming out of the closet' stage was.
Walking into work was a dodgy thing, as he did not want to get spotted by someone who wanted to know if he really was dating Harry Potter, the Harry Potter. 'Stupid idiots, can't piece two and two together and leave it alone.' Draco thought as he slammed his office door closed, Byron looking up at Draco from his desk.
"Bad start to the day?" Byron asked, watching as Draco sat down at the other desk in the room, his hair flying around unevenly. Draco looked like he'd been through a tornado and lived.
"You have no idea." Draco replied, sitting down on his chair slowly, trying to think of a way to fix his hair quickly before he and Byron went to go fix that ward on The Leaky Cauldron.
A small silence fell over the room as Byron looked through a file and Draco tried to mat his hair down on his head and fix his robes so he looked somewhat presentable. "If I hear one more question about that Magda's article, I'm going on a temporary permanent vacation." Draco said once he felt satisfied with his appearance.
"You mean that's actually true?" Byron said, his eyes widening as he swiveled his chair to have Draco in his view. Draco looked puzzled for a second before shrugging his shoulders and nodding his hair, effectively making his hair go back into disarray.
"Sort of… What, you believed that Potter was the straightest man on earth because of all the girls he's dated right?" Draco asked, and Byron shook his head in disbelief, staring at Draco with a sort of horror mixed in with awe.
"Well I assumed you two were becoming friends or something and the Daily Prophet was writing lies again." Byron said and Draco let out a laugh, leaning back in his chair a bit.
"They were, Harry and I are not madly in love, nor have I stolen him away from that woman… intentionally." Draco said, adding that last part because he knew if it had come down to it, he would have done every dirty trick in the book to get Harry back.
Byron still looked unconvinced, but seemed to take Draco's words for truth. "So how exactly did this come about?" Byron asked, staring at Draco who thought of how much he should reveal.
"I made out with him in a bathroom at some bar while he was drunk." Draco said simply, not wishing to inform Byron on how he and Harry had way more history then that.
"You sure you didn't do anything..?" Byron asked, looking very skeptical by now.
"I didn't slip him a potion, I did not curse him, and I did not instigate.. whatever me and Harry have. He was the one who called me up, asked to see me, and started to want to be around me." Draco said, trying to act as if he really hadn't been that interested in Harry as he really was.
Bryon nodded his head, looking slightly discomforted. "Well, he's still an awesome Quidditch player." Byron said meekly. Draco took out the paper he'd grabbed from his kitchen table after he'd woken up a little too late, glancing at the first page.
"Not anymore." Draco said, looking rather annoyed as he threw the paper Byron's way. It landed on his table and skidded in front of him, stopped only my Byron's hand which picked it up soon after.
Byron scanned it quickly, reading out loud, "Star Quidditch player kicked off team. Harry Potter was… NO! Oh, how stupid could they get? This is just wonderful, how the hell do they expect Britain to win the world cup without him?" Byron said, looking agitated at knowing Britain probably just lost its chance at winning this year.
Draco rolled his eyes and got up, more concerned over why Harry had been kicked off rather then Britain winning this year. "Byron, how about you vent about the team on the way to The Leaky Cauldron? Those wards will not fix themselves." Draco said, glancing at the clock on the wall again.
Byron got up, going on about the team, and all about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy being together was forgotten between the two coworkers. It left a bad taste in Draco's mouth because he had a feeling Harry had been sacked for reasons not about his performance, but about Draco.
But Harry hadn't contacted him yet, so how could he be sure?
Review please! always gives me ideas and tells me people want me to update it.