Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to the amazing JK Rowling, and sadly, not me.

Thank you to my beta, HPalto87, and thank you to my reviewers!

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8

Harry hated reading about how he had gotten together with Draco, and skipped ahead to Draco's next entry. Summer. They had spent the summer apart, of course. What did Draco have to say about-

Oh. Death Eaters. Harry sighed, and seriously considered skipping that part of the letter too, but ended up reading it anyway.

The Dark Lord was back, and quickly rising to power. He needed more minions. My father volunteered me.

I protested, but was brought before the Dark Lord anyway, made to kneel in his presence… The Dark Lord threatened me, saying that if I didn't do this he would kill my mother.

I cried, but agreed. I couldn't sacrifice her.

Harry knew that. They had spoken about Draco's cooperation with Voldemort at length. That didn't make it right, however, and it had always been a sensitive subject between them. Harry always said that there was nothing worth becoming a Death Eater for. Draco always countered by saying that if he had a family, Harry would think differently.

Because of his decision, Draco had nearly been sent to Azkaban to rot with his father. Harry had saved him. He had gone to Draco's trial against the recommendations of his doctors, and against the will of some of his friends. Mostly Ron, actually. Harry argued that as Draco had actually helped the Order during the war, he was entitled to a fair trial. Ron had never actually agreed.

Harry was supposed to be resting in St. Mungo's, but at the time, Draco was his whole world. Harry had to save him. The only two people who knew Draco's story were himself and Dumbledore, and, well, Dumbledore couldn't exactly be there to speak on Draco's behalf.

The evidence was clearly against him, but Harry managed to persuade the Wizengamot that Draco was working as a spy for the Order, and had taken the Dark Mark against his will. The witches and wizards had a hard time ending that particular case. The name Malfoy meant 'Death Eater' to them, but there was Harry Potter, representing him. Finally, they had decided that as Harry had saved their world, they couldn't deny him what he wanted. Besides, would Harry Potter be in love with a murderer?

I should have let him go to Azkaban, Harry thought. He was guilty, after all. If anyone but me had represented him, he would have been convicted.

But he knew he never would have let that happen. Back then, Harry couldn't picture a life without Draco. In fact, he was still having difficulty grasping the concept. He supposed that eventually it would hit him, and he would break down, but in the meantime there was mostly just anger.

Why couldn't he just accept what Harry wanted to begin with? The day he told Draco that he needed a change was… well, why the hell did he have to take it wrong? All he had to do was say okay and accept that Harry just wouldn't be around as much for a short while.

But, no. He had started an argument that just snowballed over the next several months. Harry may have been a jerk about it, but Draco had driven him away. If Draco had just supported Harry, he wouldn't have done what he did.

The argument had started after that breakfast with Ron and Hermione.

---

flashback

After breakfast Ron and Hermione left to enjoy the rest of their day together. They would be shopping in Diagon Ally, then having a nice dinner at a new muggle restaurant that Hermione had been dying to try.

Before they flooed away, Ron gave Harry a friendly hug, and Hermione gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Tell him, okay?" she whispered in Harry's ear.

Harry nodded.

"Good luck," she said, and then they were gone.

Harry went back to the kitchen to clean up, only to find Draco already doing it. He dropped a stack of dishes in the sink and turned to glare at Harry.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Harry said.

"You're lying," Draco said. "You know you can never get away with lying to me."

Harry didn't say anything.

"Are you going to tell me?" Draco asked through gritted teeth.

"Later," Harry replied evasively.

"Why not now?" Draco demanded.

"If we start now, we'll be late for work," Harry said.

Draco looked at the clock, then stormed out of the kitchen. As Harry began to attack the dishes, he heard a loud crack, indicating Draco had gone without him. He decided to leave the dishes for the help staff that Draco insisted on keeping, and flooed to Diagon Ally.

---

Harry and Draco hadn't gone back to Hogwarts to complete their final year. Instead, they had purchased Quality Quidditch supplies. After the war, Harry found that he had no desire to work with the Ministry, and had easily fallen into the nice, quiet, safe occupation of shopkeeper alongside the man he loved.

Surprisingly, it had been Draco's idea. Initially, Harry had laughed at the idea of Draco in customer service, but it turned out that they made a great team. Harry dealt with problems with customers, and Draco did the finances (something Harry was never very good at). In every other aspect, they shared the work, from advertising, to inventory, to custom broom repairs. They were both knowledgeable in the subject, and with Harry's reputation and Draco's keen eye for business, their shop had quickly become a success.

They had eventually hired Seamus, Ginny and Zacharias Smith, who had been a Ravenclaw chaser when they were in Hogwarts, to help out.

Ron and Hermione had tried to convince Harry that Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without him, but Harry stuck to his plans. It turned out to be a good thing, as his absence allowed Ron and Hermione to get closer than they would allow themselves when he was around all the time.

---

Harry entered the shop via the floo in the back room and stumbled over a few stray boxes before righting himself. He dusted off his robes with his hands and wiped the soot from his glasses. He changed into a set of midnight blue robes with the store's logo on them, and went into the main shop.

Brooms lined the walls, and there were displays set up around the store, showing off sets of Quidditch balls, Broom-care kits, and other supplies. There were two small dummies in full Quidditch gear floating near the entrance. One had a beater's bat and the other had a quaffle. Any time someone walked by, the dummy-beater would swing at the dummy-chaser, which would duck and fly once around the dummy-beater, then resume its position. Every once in a while, the dummy-chaser wouldn't duck in time, and Harry or Draco would have to re-set the spell.

"Great! You're here," Seamus greeted Harry. "I'll be off then."

He took his store robes off and headed to the back room.

"Thanks for covering for us," Harry called after him.

"No problem, mate," Seamus called back.

Harry turned to Ginny, who was standing behind the register. "Thanks for letting us have the morning off."

"You don't have to thank me!" Ginny scolded. "You own this shop. I work for you, remember?"

"Err… right," Harry replied. "It wasn't busy, was it?"

"It was quite boring, actually. You know we're never busy on weekday mornings," Ginny replied. "We only had three customers, and one didn't even buy anything. Seamus and I restocked the pennants, then spent most of the morning playing exploding snap."

She gestured to a display with pennants and action-figures from several professional Quidditch teams, which was, in fact, more full than it had been yesterday.

"Oh," Harry replied. He always felt silly for worrying so much over the shop. "Where's Draco?"

"Taking inventory in the back," Ginny replied.

"Thanks," Harry said.

He headed to the back room, wondering how he had missed his boyfriend when he came in.

"Draco?" he called.

Draco's blond head appeared over a pile of boxes.

"Come help me," he demanded.

Harry walked around the stack Draco was working on, and Draco pointed to another pile. "Those are the new Comet 360's we got in last night, and beneath them are some Firebolts. There should be six brooms in each box. We need to bring some of the Comets out to be displayed, but we're only short one Firebolt."

Harry nodded, and the two worked in silence for a while. Draco finished before Harry did, put the boxes away, and left Harry alone.

When Harry entered the main shop, arms full of brooms, he found Draco and Ginny both helping customers, with a group of young boys ogling over the brooms. He put a Firebolt on the display rack next to the others, and set up a display for the Comet 360's. The maker of the brooms had provided a banner that read "NEW! Comet 360! Faster and more agile that the Comet 290. You won't want to be without one for this Quidditch season!"

Harry was setting up the banner and one of the brooms in the window when he heard Draco's irritated voice reached his ears.

"Look, if you want something cheap, you get a Shooting Star or a Twigger, but if you want something reliable, you get a Comet or a Nimbus," Draco was saying through gritted teeth.

Harry looked toward the voice, to find Draco standing next to a very confused-looking witch, and holding various brooms.

"Well, um… what about that one?" She asked, pointing to a Firebolt.

"You can't afford that one," Draco replied.

Harry decided to intervene before Draco got violent. He was great at business and finances, but customer service wasn't always his cup of tea.

"Hello, Miss," Harry greeted, stepping between her and Draco. He placed a hand on her arm and guided her away from the seething blond. "Draco doesn't look well, do you mind if I take over?"

"You're Harry Potter!" the witch exclaimed happily, pointing at his scar.

"Err… yes, I am," Harry replied.

"I've read all about you! It's fascinating, your past," she said.

"I'm sure it is," Harry said, and quickly changed the subject. "What sort of broom are you looking for?"

"Something reliable, but I haven't much money," she replied, holding up a rather small coin purse.

Harry scanned the brooms. "How about a Cleansweep Seven?" he suggested. He pulled one down and handed it to her. "Cleansweeps are reliable, and new ones are a bit costly. But this is an older model, so it's not quite as expensive."

The witch ended up buying the Cleansweep, and by the time the transaction was done, Draco was nowhere in sight. Harry had other things to worry about however, as more customers had wandered in.

Draco came back close to dinner-time, when the shop was beginning to empty out. He sent a very tired-looking Ginny home, and took over her position at the register. When the shop was finally empty, Harry approached him.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"In the back, doing finances," Draco replied. "Rent on the shop is due next week, and I had to balance the books."

"We could've used your help out here," Harry said.

Draco shrugged and opened the register. Harry stayed quiet while Draco counted the money, made a note of the amount, and put most of it in a bag. He slammed the register drawer shut, and looked up at his boyfriend.

"We need to stop at Gringott's before we go home," he said.

"Okay," Harry agreed.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Draco asked suddenly.

Harry gave in. "I got an offer that I would very much like to take."

"Regarding what?" Draco asked.

"Do you remember Oliver Wood?" Harry asked, ignoring Draco's queston.

"Wasn't he your Quidditch captain at Hogwarts?" Draco asked.

"Yeah. He's the keeper for Puddlemere United now," Harry said. "Puddlemere needs a new seeker desperately. They lost both their seeker and reserve seeker during the strike. Ollie recommended me."

"You want to play Quidditch again." Draco confirmed.

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"Why didn't you just tell me that?"

Harry sighed. "If I do this, I won't be able to spend a lot of time at the shop, or with you for that matter. Practices have already started, and the season doesn't end until August. So I'll have practice four days a week from now until mid-june, then I'll be traveling to the matches with the team until the end of the season."

"So I won't see you for two months." Draco said.

"Very possibly," Harry replied. "And you'll be running the shop by yourself all summer."

Draco was shaking his head.

"I've been standing beside you for the past four years, ever since I got out of St. Mungo's," Harry said. "I need you to support me now."

"I don't know if this is a good idea. What if you get hurt again?" Draco asked.

"This is different. I got hurt in a war, not playing a game," Harry replied.

"So you're just going to leave me like that?" Draco demanded.

"I'm not leaving you forever, I'm just going on a trip for a while. It doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means that I need something new in my life," Harry replied. He hadn't meant to say that last part, and it surprised him almost as much as it did Draco. There was silence for a moment while they both processed this information.

"So I'm not good enough for you anymore," Draco said dryly.

"No, you are plenty good enough for me, I just need a new experience, okay? I'm not ready to settle down and spend the rest of my life like…" He looked around the shop. "Well, like this."

"I thought you were happy," Draco said.

"I thought I was, too," Harry responded. "But when this opportunity came up, I realized how much more I could do."

Draco looked away from him. Harry placed a hand on his boyfriend's cheek and turned his head back.

"Don't you miss it? The games, the crowds? The only Quidditch we've played since we left Hogwarts were a few pick-up games with the Weaselys," Harry said.

Draco scowled and pulled away from his touch. "If you'd rather have Quidditch than me, go," he said.

"I'm not leaving you!" Harry said again. "You're deliberately misunderstanding because you don't want me to go!"

The shop door opened then, ending their conversation.

"Ohh, is this a bad time?" a familiar voice said. Harry turned. Bill Weasely stood at the door.

Harry gave him a brotherly hug. "What do you need?" he asked.

"Broke another broom," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe Fleur should consider a different mode of transportation," Harry laughed.

"She's very insistant on learning," Bill replied.

"Right. So something cheap then?" Harry asked with a smile, and picked out a few brooms to show his friend.

---

Harry pushed his thoughts aside and continued reading Draco's letter.

Well, he tried, anyway. His thoughts kept wandering to that night. Could he have presented it differently? No, Draco would still hate the idea. Harry had known from the start that Draco wouldn't be happy that he wanted to play Quidditch. Of course, it wasn't the Quidditch part that upset him, it was the part where Harry would be leaving for a while. Draco had somehow gotten it into his head that Harry was his, and Harry felt like he had been gradually losing his freedom.

He had needed Quidditch in order to regain that.

Harry returned his attention to the letter. Unfortunately, Draco's words were not making this whole breaking-up thing any easier.

We promised not to let little things come between us.

Then we promised not to let the big things come between us either, because with each of us seemingly on different sides of this war, it wasn't safe. I say seemingly. You know what I mean. You know I will always stand by you.

I realized that night just how much I loved you.

But they had let the little things come between them. If they had stuck to that promise, then the fact that Harry wanted to play Quidditch wouldn't have been such a big deal. They would've been able to work it out. But since they were having so many little problems already (which neither of them wanted to address), it made the big problems even more difficult.

Harry wanted to cry.