Chapter 30

There was not one but three owls waiting for Harry when he arrived back at the Grimmauld Place from hanging out at the park with Ginny and Hermione. Hedwig was sitting atop a bookshelf with a jet-black hawk. A grey great-horned owl was sitting on the open windowsill, hooting intently at the two others. Harry recognized the black one, and nearly screamed.

"Not again!" he muttered angrily to himself as he pulled off his coat and threw it on his bed. He pulled the letter roughly from the hawk's leg. The hawk squawked irritably and flew away out the open window.

Harry placed the letter on the desk and went to receive the letter from the other owl. The letter on the great-horned owl's leg was official-looking.

He placed it next to the first letter and sat down on the wooden chair. He stared at them both for a moment, then slowly picked up the first letter with slightly shaking hands. He hesitated before opening it.

The handwriting was sloppy and urgent, but he recognized it.

Harry,

PLEASE! I know you don't want to talk to me, but we have to work some stuff out! I'm so, so, SO sorry! I made a huge mistake, but can't you at least hear me out before you make any brash decisions? I need to talk to you in person! I don't want to do this in an owl, but you're leaving me no choice. Harry, I miss you! I love you! I know you don't trust me right now, but you have to believe me when I say that I never wanted this! I never wanted to cheat on you, I never wanted to hurt you, I never wanted for any of this to happen, and if I could take this all back, I would.

You can't avoid me forever. I'm your husband, Harry, you have to talk to me sometime.

Please, just owl me, call me, stop by, anything! Even if it's just to tell me to leave you alone! I just need to know you're alright.

All my love,

Draco

Harry sighed as he tossed the letter into the trash can without a second thought, then moved on to the second letter.

Mr. Potter-Malfoy,

Your request for a divorce has been received, filed and accepted. We have attached a contract for the two parties to sign. Please send the contract back to the Ministry of Magic once both parties have signed, and your divorce will be finalized within a month. If the contract is not received within four months, the request will be discarded.

Thank you.

Alonia Smithson,

Head of Department of Wizardly Marriages and Relations

Harry took a deep breath to calm his nerves. His hands were shaking, and his mind was racing. There, in his hands, was the one thing that could make or brake the entire life he had built. 'Just sign,' he told himself. 'Just sign the damn form.'

There was a pen, two inches away from his hand…. Just a signature on a line at the bottom of the paper, and all of this foolishness would be over.

He set the paper down and pulled out another one. He needed to talk to Draco. He needed to talk to Draco before he made any brash decisions.

I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!

There was a crowd gathered on the street below, as usual. There were owls flying across the sky, landing on rooftops and porches. But no snowy owl in the sky, no boy wonder on the streets. Everything seemed so empty and lonely on that fast-paced street.

Draco sighed and sat on the freshly made bed. It was a new hotel room in a much cleaner inn in Hogsmeade, with a view overlooking the main street and the half of the small town. The maids came in every day, cleaned his sheets, put in new bottles of shampoo, made fresh coffee, and left a mint on his pillow.

This was the life that Draco could have been living if he had obeyed his father. This was the life anyone else would want. If Draco had listened to his father and broken it off with Harry, he would be back at the Malfoy Manor, his attendants feeding him his food if he didn't feel like raising his arms, the chef cooking anything he wanted on command, anything he could ever want at the snap of his fingers. That's the life that truly belonged to him.

That life never made him happy.

He wanted so badly to be back in a lumpy bed under mid-class sheets, with Harry in his arms. That was the only life that made him happy.

And still no response from his husband.

He picked a pencil off his nightstand and fiddled with it as he pulled his knees to his chest. There was nothing better to do, as he waited and waited for a response. He had been waiting for three weeks. The only time he left his hotel room was when the maids came in. He ordered room service for every meal, had the maids wash his clothes, and sent out for everything he needed.

He was getting sick of it.

It was around five o'clock in the evening, and his stomach was growling. He leaned back against the headboard and picked the phone off the receiver on the end table next to the bed, but changed his mind and set it back down. He was going out tonight. He wasn't going to wait.

He pushed himself off the bed and rushed over to the closet. He flipped through the clothes he had hanging there, before deciding to just go in his jeans and a t-shirt. He grabbed his coat and hotel room key, but as he headed for the door, there was a tap on the balcony door. There, sitting on the small balcony of his hotel room, was a snow-white owl with an envelope tied to her leg.

"Hedwig!" he shouted happily, hurtling over his bed and pulling open the sliding glass door. The owl fluttered in and landed on a shelf, holding out her leg and glaring at Draco reproachfully.

Draco rolled his eyes as he untied the letter. She flew off as soon as the string had loosened.

The blond ripped the envelope open eagerly and sat down on the bed as he unfolded the parchment.

Draco,

You're right. We need to talk. Please come to the Grimmauld Place Thursday at noon. There's something I need to tell you.

Harry

I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!

"So you're gonna talk to him?" Hermione asked

Harry nodded. "Yeah. I have to eventually. I might as well get it over with."

"I'm proud of you," Hermione smiled as she gave Harry a big hug. "Not many people could get through something like this. No one else would have the guts to talk so soon."

Harry smiled back as he pulled the divorce contract out of his pocket and sat down on the couch in the living room of the Grimmauld Place. The paper was crinkled and bent. He hadn't taken it out of his pocket all week, save the times he had convinced himself to sign it only to have changed his mind. He still hadn't reached a decision. And he still hadn't told anyone he was even trying to decide.

"What's that?" Hermione asked, pointing to the paper.

"Nothing," Harry sighed, putting it down on the dusty oak coffee table. "Just a letter."

Hermione nodded and looked at her watch. "Well, Draco should be here any minute. Do you want me to leave?"

"Um…. Yeah," Harry nodded as he pulled the tray of tea that was sitting on the coffee table toward him. "I think we need to be alone. It would just be easier."

"Okay." Hermione gave him another hug real quick before heading up the stairs. "I'll be in my room if you need me," she called over her shoulder.

Harry picked the letter off the coffee table gingerly and unfolded it. The folds were creased deep into the paper, and he had to tug at it to get it to flatten out. He read over the words, for the thousandth time. He had nearly memorized them. Each of the two parties will leave the union with the funds and items they entered with. All of the belongings acquired during the union will be sold and the profit will be divided equally, unless otherwise specified on the attached sheet.

It was a shock. Reading this made them two separate people. It completely put them apart. It scared him.

There was a loud thud behind him. He jumped, dropped the letter back on the coffee table, and turned to see what it was. The door leading from the entrance hall lsowly creaked open.

"Hey," Draco said quietly from the doorway.

"Hi." Harry's voice was shaky. He had planned this meeting, but he certainly hadn't been prepared for it. "Do you want some tea?"

"Um… sure," the blond shrugged as he slowly walking into the room and sat down on the couch opposite the one Harry was sitting on. He was glad for that one slice of normalcy. When everything else had become so foreign and strange, he was grateful that Harry had given him that one anchor to normalcy and reality--a simple drink.

Harry poured the steaming liquid from the kettle into a mug, spooned in three lumps of sugar, and splashed just a tiny bit of cream before handing to Draco. Just how Draco liked it. Harry did the same to his tea.

They were quiet for a long moment, each of them sipping their drink and debating what to say and what not to say. Finally, Harry looked up, his face solemn.

"Explain," he said quietly.

Draco took a deep breath and contemplated his words for a moment longer. "I fucked it up. I was really, really drunk, Harry. We'd gone through so many bottles of wine. You have to understand that I would never have done it if I were sober. If I were in the right state of mind. And… she kind of just… attacked me. I couldn't do anything, Harry. I was stuck."

"Well you must've done something," Harry hissed sadistically. "It's kind of hard to fuck someone when you aren't."

"Harry…." Draco sighed. "You have to believe me. I know it seems impossible, but I didn't want this. I love you, Harry. Jenni doesn't mean shit to me. It was an accident. She forced it on me."

Harry shook his head, but said nothing. Draco stared at him questioningly for a long moment, then leaned back, sighed and took a sip of his tea, surrendering.

"I may be able to get over the fact that you cheated in time," Harry said quietly, staring into his mug. "But that doesn't change the fact that we were bad idea from the start."

Draco looked up at him, shocked.

"What made us think that after seven years of non-stop fighting, we could pull off an actual relationship?" Harry asked, setting his now half-empty mug on the coffee table. "It was naïve, Draco. We may love each other, but we will never be able to make this work. The more we try, the more miserable we're both going to be. We need to move on."

Draco was hardly listening. He was staring, wide-eyed, at the paper on the table. As soon as Harry stopped talking, Draco slowly picked it up.

"Harry….."

"Oh my god." Harry shook his head and snatched it from Draco faster than the blond could think. "I didn't want you to see this. Not yet." He stood up, stuffed the contract into his pocket, and began pacing the room vigorously.

"You want a divorce?" Draco asked, trying to stay calm. "You…. You want to get a divorce?"

Harry stopped and turned toward Draco, then turned away. "I don't know. I don't know yet."

"You just said it, Harry," Draco nearly shouted, jumping to his feet. "You just said it! If you think we're going to be so miserable together, then why the fuck don't you know?"

"Because I love you," Harry sighed, moving a little closer to Draco. "I love you so much, but I don't know if it's worth it."

They were silent for a moment. They stared each other for a long moment. Harry lowered his head, trying desperately to hold back his tears.

"Give me the papers," Draco said coldly, holding out his hand. Harry looked up, confused, but Draco did not back down. The raven-haired teenager slowly pulled the paper from his pocket and handed it to the blond.

Draco went to the coffee table, picked up a pen and, without hesitation, signed the second line. Then he handed it to Harry.

"I love you more than you could possibly imagine, Harry," he whispered in Harry's ear, "but if you don't have enough faith in our relationship, then this isn't worth it."

Harry let the tears fall as Draco left without another word.

I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!I!

Author's Notes: Oh my god. High school is a bitch this year. I REALLY wanted to get this chapter out sooner but I didn't have the time! Ugh.

But lately I've been REALLY sick, so the only thing I can do is write…. I'm gonna get started on the next chapter as soon as possible.

Oh, I got a Beta-reader! See a decrease of errors? Heh heh.

And remember people… if you stop reading now, you'll never find out what happens at the end…. Grin

Deathdragon4