Title: Prelude to a Winter's Bonding
Pairing: Harry/Theodore
Content Notes: Angst, present tense, Harry being harassed by Draco, surprise kiss
Rating: PG-13
Theo sighs as he steps out of the door of Belinda's Bakery, the best shop on Diagon Alley. Now he has the small lemon tarts that are the only ones Pansy will eat, and that means his Christmas shopping is almost finished.
He only has to find something for his father, and—
Someone bangs into him so hard that only Theo's instinctive wand wave to make his packages hover keeps them from smashing into the ground with horrid results. Theo hisses and looks up to find Harry Potter, for some reason, standing there, his cloak covered with snow and his eyes wide with panic.
"Play along, all right?" Potter pleads with him. "I promise I'll make it worth your while."
"Potter, what—"
Potter doesn't give him a chance to complete his extremely necessary question. He seizes Theo's shoulders and drags Theo towards him, kissing him.
Thoroughly. The kind of thorough kiss Theo hasn't since his last boyfriend decided that he "deserved" more from life than Theo's slow, considerate, careful lovemaking.
Theo reaches up and seizes Potter's shoulders, drawing him close, licking his lips until Potter parts them and lets Theo in with a little shiver. He's nervous as a wild Abraxan, but there's enough passion behind his kiss for Theo to wonder, enviously, who's getting it from Potter on a daily basis.
Sharp, quick footsteps come around the corner Potter already ran around, and then someone obviously stands and stares. Theo ignores them. If they don't want to see this, then they can avert their eyes.
The someone then clears their throat and says faintly, "I—what, Potter?"
"Told you I had a boyfriend, Malfoy," Potter says, pulling back and resting his hands on Theo's shoulders. Actually, Theo thinks, licking his lips, I should probably think of someone whose body I've already been that deeply inside as Harry. "Not your fault that you didn't believe me, is it?"
"Theo?"
Draco's voice promises consequences, but Theo just looks at him and slowly shakes his head. Draco used to be a friend, of sorts, when they were in Slytherin together, but then he decided to distance himself from Theo in fifth year, wanting to show everyone how high and mighty he was as Umbridge's favored Slytherin. He went on acting high and mighty after that, even walking past Theo with his nose in the air on his way to a trial as a Death Eater.
Sure, he was acquitted, with Harry speaking for him. But Theo is the only one of the two of them who was smart enough to never let the Dark Lord brand him.
"Our relationship is new, which is why you haven't heard anything about it in the papers, I'm sure," Theo says, with a dismissive shrug. "But it's ours, and we don't have to answer to you for it, Malfoy."
He's imitated the way he remembers Harry saying Draco's last name in Hogwarts, and Draco flushes with rage. He immediately turns to Harry, as if he thinks he stands a chance of persuading him, when Harry is the one who came up and kissed Theo. Theo gently entwines his fingers with Harry's, and waits.
"Yeah," Harry says, squeezing back a little on Theo's hold, which he doesn't need to do, while tilting his head and giving Draco a bright, challenging grin. Theo might have fallen a little bit in love right there. "Told you I had a boyfriend, Malfoy." He says it exactly the way Theo did, too. Theo stares at him delight, which, from the expression he can see on Draco's face out of the corner of his eye, is probably the best thing he could have done. "And you still wouldn't leave me alone, and claimed if you chased me long enough you could make me fall at your feet—"
Theo startles himself by laughing. But really, Draco said that/ There's self-confidence, which Theo has, and there's arrogance, which his father has, and there's hubris high enough to dare the universe to fall on you, which is what Draco has.
Harry shoots Theo a small grin and a wink, and then turns back to Draco, somehow managing to sag back just the right amount that Theo can wrap his arms around Harry's waist and look like he's supporting him. "Sod off."
Draco opens his mouth and seems as if he'd like to say something, but he's smart enough to realize there's nothing that can salvage the situation. He turns and stalks away, his cloak billowing behind him. (Theo might admire that if he didn't know that Draco copied it from Snape).
The minute Draco disappears around the corner, Harry heaves a long sigh. "Thanks, Nott," he mutters, and turns as if he's going to extricate himself from Theo's clasp. "I know that you probably didn't expect to have your afternoon disrupted like that, and I'm grateful. Don't worry about Malfoy spreading tales. I think he's too humiliated."
Theo judges that, too, which is why he didn't worry about it. Instead, he tightens his hold on Harry's waist and asks, "What if I don't regard it as a disruption?"
Harry stares at Theo with his mouth slightly open. It's a good look on him, Theo thinks, although not as good as when his open mouth is stuffed full of Theo's tongue.
"I—really? You—"
"Quite," Theo says. No, he's never considered Harry Potter in the position of the abstract "someday, another boyfriend" goal that pops up in his mind on a regular basis. He still fits there. "And anyway, I would consider it a Christmas gift."
"What? The kiss? The relationship?"
Theo smiles and leans forwards. "The bonding we're going to have. The lovers in my favorite story as a child bonded on the winter solstice. I would consider it a gift if we did the same."
Harry's jaw works back and forth for a long moment. Then he says, "Nott, you're mental. The solstice is nineteen days away."
"Or three hundred eighty-four, if you think about the next one. Or seven hundred forty-nine, if you think about the one after that."
"Did you just do maths in your head?"
"Yes?"
"That's disgusting."
Theo laughs as he can never remember doing. "But we don't have to think about that," he says, sliding a hand into Harry's hair. Harry's eyes flutter pleasantly shut. "Believe me," he whispers into Harry's ear. "Nineteen days is more than enough time."
