Disclaimer: Gods I wish I owned Harry Potter, or at least Draco in a towel…Oh well, I suppose I'll have to make do with my dishy husband ((sighs and gets smacked by her man)) ouch! Touchy ain't he? ((Gets smacked again)) meanie.
(Where we left off)
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" a distinctly English and familiar voice called through the wood. Harry's jaw dropped for the second time that day and his eyes went wide. Bob sighed again and his grip on Harry's shoulder tightened as he actually was trying to bolt now. The door opened and standing there wrapped in a towel, dripping from the shower, was Draco Malfoy. "Oh bloody hell…"
Harry glared angrily at the towel clad boy, "Malfoy." He ground out but didn't notice Draco's slight twinge at his surname. "So this is where you've been hiding you bloody evil git!"
Bob's hold on Harry tightened once more and he glared down at Harry, "Knock it off Harry, there's no fighting amongst employees here, or Anna will quite literally feed you to the sharks, and you don't want that now do you?" he threatened. "and I must remind you that you are now under contract," he pulled the paper out one handed and read off of it, "I, the undersigned, will not under any circumstances," he started a long list of don'ts that included but was not limited to, shooting paper wads at the ceiling (do you know how hard it is to remove those things?), go unwashed longer then a day and a half, leave food and dishes lying about the room, illegal activities such as drugs, playing with fire, faking sick to get out of a job and, "Tell anyone of the whereabouts of others under protection of the company, and I will never question Anna's orders on any mission, room assignment or general instructions given by her or her direct subordinates, Robert and Helga under pain of death by being fed to the pet sharks, or in the case of being under protection, such protection will be immediately terminated and I, the undersigned, will be left to fend for myself." He then shoved the paper under Harry's nose and pointed at his scrawled signature. "Signed, Harold James Potter. That's you. So suck it up and get over your differences." He signed for Draco to move and shoved Harry into the room and ignored his protests, then closed the door and walked away down the hall muttering under his breath.
Harry stumbled with the force of the push and nearly fell but the younger Malfoy caught him just in time and helped him right himself. He held onto the raven haired boy slightly longer then necessary and Harry glared. "Sorry." He said quietly and quickly removed his hands from Harry's arms. Draco then turned and walked through an open doorway that led to his room, closing the door softly behind him while Harry fumed in the small entranceway.
He saw that this was also a shoes off room and slipped out of his trainers again; glad he hadn't bothered to tie them. "I am going to kill Helga." He muttered as he walked into the front room, decorated in slytherin colors of course.
"No you aren't." another familiar voice said and Harry looked around for the source. Helga sat on a green bean bag chair in the corner but she stood up when Harry started walking towards her. "For two reasons, the first being that it's against the contract, and second because I'm your friend." She said with a grin. "And without me, you would still be in Hogwarts hiding from the Skeeter bug"
Harry let a reluctant smile out at the nickname of the horrible reporter who would do anything to get a story on him. "But Helga, why is Malfoy here? Do you know what he did? Or rather, what he almost did and what Snape had to finish for him?" he frowned again and they both settled onto the black leather couch. "Oh no, D and S….Snape's here too isn't he?" He groaned and covered his eyes, sinking down into the cushions.
"Who, Sev? Yeah he's here as well, but Harry, they're different people now, once they got away from Moldy Voldy they were able to be the people they wanted to be, and with Bob's help Draco's become a great bodyguard, and Sev of course makes potions for our wizarding clientele." Helga tried to reason with him. "They were both ecstatic when they heard you defeated that snaky guy."
"You knew who they were, and who I was after all then didn't you?" Harry said quietly. "I told you about them at Hogwarts and you acted like you had no clue who they were!" he accused.
"Well, yes and no…." Helga said, biting her nails and trying to decide how to word it. "you see, I heard from Draco about a guy at Hogwarts with black messy hair that he uh….well that he knew, and Sev said that he was one of the students there… but I didn't know it was you when I met you, I thought it was a Slytherin because neither of them ever said the guy's name. I assumed it was because they wanted to forget all their ties with their past, which they did"
"That doesn't change the fact that when I told you about THEM you acted like you didn't know them!" Harry practically screamed. Helga shrunk back and her nail biting became more intense as he continued to shout, "Why didn't you tell me! Why didn't you say anything? They killed Dumbledore; they were on Voldemort's side for crying out loud! That doesn't change so easily Helga!"
Helga looked almost ready to cry when Draco came back out in his pajama bottoms and stood between Harry (who had risen to stand in front of Helga to yell at her) and Helga with his arms crossed, glaring at him.
"Leave her alone Harry, she couldn't have told you even if I hadn't told her not to. Uncle Severus and I are under Anna's protection just like you are, and it's because of the Dark Lord. He didn't want to kill the headmaster, he was under the unbreakable vow, and I didn't want to either, but my whole family would have died if I'd disobeyed orders. I deeply regret my choice and everyday I wish I hadn't been born into the Malfoy family," he spat the name Malfoy as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. "I doubt you'll ever be able to forgive us for what we've done, but we aren't those people anymore, we came out here to start over, just like you."
Helga sniffed, "I'm sorry Harry. I wanted to tell you, really I did, but I couldn't. I can't go against my contract anymore then you can go against yours, and I believe that they're good people now, you'll see since you'll be living here now." She stood up and squeezed Draco's shoulder, giving him a hug.
"Welcome back Helga," He whispered before releasing her. She looked at Harry who sighed and hugged her too. She left without the usual bounce in her step and Harry felt even guiltier then when she had turned her pouty puppy dog eyes on him. "No one can resist the puppy dog pout, eh Harry?" Draco said softly.
"That's the second time." Harry said, glancing at Draco and trying not to drool at the other boy's well toned upper body. 'Quidditch does a body good.' He couldn't help himself from thinking.
"The second time what?" Draco asked.
"The second time you've called me Harry." He replied, and sat on the couch again. "Why are you doing that?"
"Because that's your name." Draco said, "To me, you're not 'Potter' anymore, Hogwarts never existed, and neither did our rivalry. You are simply Harry now aren't you? No more golden boy, no more 'the boy-who-lived', just Harry." He sighed and sat next to Harry with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him as if praying. "And I wish we could really start over."
Harry contemplated for a moment then sighed and turned to the blonde boy, holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Harry."
Draco smiled and shook Harry's hand, "I'm Draco, Harry. Nice to meet you." Again he held Harry a bit longer then necessary, but then dropped his hand. "Want a tour of the suite?"
Harry smiled, "yeah, that would be cool…" the boys stood and Draco guided Harry through the rather large apartment, pointing out the guest bathroom (they each had one in their own rooms) his room, Severus's room, Harry's new room which was empty except for some basic furniture that Draco assured him would be changed as soon as Tye got back from Japan, their training room (filled with dummies and weapons of all kinds) and finally to the potions master's laboratory.
"Uncle Sev?" Draco called out tentatively when they reached the black door. "Our new roommate is here…." He glanced at Harry and they both grinned, wondering what the snarky man's reaction would be to Harry's presence. Harry highly doubted he would be as nice to him as Draco was being.
"Draco, is this door closed?" The deep silky voice called out. The door was indeed closed and Draco gulped.
"Y-yes…" he said too quietly to be heard then again louder, "Yes Uncle Severus it is."
"Then why are you bothering me?" The older man snapped as he opened the door. He saw Harry standing there, semi-glare in place in case the man decided to be the same arse he was in Hogwarts. "Oh bloody hell…"
Draco snickered and Harry coughed to hide a laugh. "I seem to be getting that reaction a lot." He said to Draco who blushed a bit and nodded. During the small tour the boys had become semi-friendly with each other. Or rather, Harry had begun to see Draco less as the evil git he had been and more as the sexy blonde he was now.
"Uncle Sev, Harry is our new roommate, he's under Anna's protection now too, he wants to build a new life…Just like us." He said, giving his uncle a glare that most clearly said "be nice," and putting an arm around Harry's shoulders making Harry think rather naughty things, "We've decided to start over, so why don't you do that too?"
"Nice to meet you sir." Harry said, again extending the hand of friendship though he was very surprised when Snape returned the gesture, as grudgingly as it may have been.
"Nice to meet you as well," he grumbled then turned to Draco. "We need to talk later." And turned back into his lab, cloak snapping behind him as always.
Once the door was closed Harry turned to Draco who still had his arm around him, this brought their faces merely a few inches apart. Both blushed and jumped apart, laughing uneasily. "Uhm, how does he do that? That cloak thing?" Harry asked, trying to hide his embarrassment.
"I have no idea…." Draco said, laughing again. "I think it's a spell myself…" he shuffled around and an uncomfortable silence stretched between them. "Uh"
"So…." Harry looked down at his own shuffling feet. He cleared his throat. "This being friends things is harder then I thought…." He muttered, running a hand through his messy hair.
Draco nodded, "mmhm…" he looked at a clock on the wall, "well I was going to take a nap before you showed up, so I guess I'll go do that now and let you get settled in…" another awkward pause, and then, "right then, uhm see you later."
"Yep." Harry said and they both walked toward their separate destinations. Once Harry had gotten to his room and closed the door he sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. That close contact had left him with a rather large problem he now had to deal with. "Oh bloody hell…" he grumbled and set out for the shower.
A/N: And I end it here because I must go and study for an exam that I have coming up on Monday. Next chapter will make the jump to NC-17, so if it offends you (and I have no idea why you would be reading this if it did….) then skip that chapter and wait patiently for the next! Leave me some lovely reviews and maybe I'll update faster!