Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to the amazing JK Rowling, and sadly, not me.
Thank you to my beta, HPalto87, and hearts to my reviewers!
---
15
Blaise stayed with Draco until he had calmed down enough to go back to work. They talked about relationships, and how difficult love could be. They talked about the short affair that they had once had together.
That had been before Harry, of course. Once Harry had found his way into Draco's life, the blonde didn't have room in his heart for anyone else. As much as Blaise hated to admit it, he didn't think they could be happy without each other. Before Draco started dating Harry, Blaise had been the one that Draco had depended on, his most trusted friend. But then, suddenly, Draco didn't seem to need him anymore. It had hurt at first, but Blaise was used to it now.
After Blaise left, Draco made a half-hearted attempt to apologize to Ginny. "I'm... err… I shouldn't have lost my temper. It's unprofessional and… err…"
"It's okay," Ginny said. "This must be horrible for the two of you."
Draco nodded, and the subject was mercifully dropped. He busied himself with work around the shop to get his mind of Harry. It didn't work. Especially when people kept asking about him.
Draco was beginning to get thoroughly irritated, when one of their regular customers, Brevis Birch, came in. He was carrying two brooms, one of which was obviously broken.
Birch was the captian of the Tutshill Tornados, and Draco had been worried that when Harry made Puddlemere United he would find a new place to get supplies for his team. His team and Harry' s were rivals, after all. Thankfully, Birch had continued to do business with Draco and Harry, despite this, stating that the service was just good, and he trusted the couple to act professionally.
"Malfoy!" he called across the shop.
Draco approached him and shook his hand. "I heard about your last game," Draco said. "Tough luck with that one."
"Yeah, it happens," Birch said.
The Tornados had lost their last game by a mere ten points because one of the other team's chasers took out their seeker at the last moment. The accident had only served to increase Draco's worries about Harry playing the position, even though he knew his boyfriend was an exceptionally good flyer.
"What do you need today?" Draco asked.
"I have two brooms need to be repaired," Birch said, shoving the items into Draco's hands.
One was cracked down the middle of the handle, which meant the cushioning charm would have to be re-placed. The other had become unbalanced, and tended to swerve to the left. Draco priced the job, and then they talked for a while, mostly about Quidditch. This was fine with Draco, and actually helped him calm down again, until Birch brought up the Puddlemere team, which inevitably led the conversation to Harry.
"Where is he today?" Birch asked.
"We broke up," Draco replied coldly.
"What?" Birch frowned. "You two can't break up."
"Why not? You must know what happened yesterday. Even if you weren't there, which I doubt, it was in the Daily Prophet this morning," Draco sneered.
"I just thought, you two could work it out. You've been through worse. How many couples could get through a war like you and Harry did? How many relationships do you think could survive being directly attacked by You-Know-Who?"
"Voldemort," Draco corrected. It amazed him that people still couldn't say the name.
"Right, him," Birch said.
Draco had to admit he had a point, but that didn't make what Harry did hurt any less.
"We've been through a lot, but I don't think I can forgive him this time," Draco said.
Birch looked skeptical. "One kiss doesn't mean-"
Draco's glare stopped him. "Trust me. It wasn't just one kiss."
Draco thanked Birch for his continuing business, as he felt a good shop-owner should, then stormed out of the store and into Diagon Ally.
It wasn't just one kiss. Draco knew Harry's relationship with Oliver ran deeper than that, and it hurt. What made it worse was that Harry cheating wasn't even the major issue. It was a big issue, but it had only come about because of the other things.
Like how they didn't trust each other, and couldn't respect each other. They had pushed each other away. It was driving Draco crazy that he had pushed Harry so far that he had fallen into the arms of someone else. All the disagreements, all the petty little arguments, every request or desire that went unfulfilled, had contributed. They had fallen into a dreary routine of broken promises that they couldn't break out from.
---
Flashback
"My first game is this weekend," Harry said.
Draco looked up from his dinner. He wasn't hungry, and had been absently mashing his peas with his fork.
"What?" he asked.
"Are you all right, Angel? You look really distracted." Harry looked at him worriedly.
"No, I'm fine," Draco answered, then realized that his reply contradicted itself.
Harry gave him a concerned look.
"Really, I'm fine," Draco confirmed.
Harry looked like he was going to push the subject, but then changed his mind. "So will you be there?"
"Where?" Draco asked.
"My first Quidditch match with Puddlemere," Harry said.
"Oh. No. One of us has to run the shop," Draco scowled at his boyfriend.
"It would mean a lot to me if you were there," Harry insisted.
"The world doesn't stop for you," Draco sneered.
"What does that-"
"While you run off to play your little game all the time, I have to take care of things here," Draco said.
"It's only one afternoon! Leave Ginny or Zach or Seamus in charge!" Harry exclaimed. "The shop will be fine."
"I'll go to a different game," Draco said.
Harry looked down at his plate so he wouldn't have to look into those cold gray eyes.
"We don't do things together anymore," Harry said.
"That's because you're always at Quidditch practice," Draco replied with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"No, even before that. We were together all the time, but we just went about our daily lives. Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered if you were beside me or not, because we just… I don't know. We could be in the same room, but it often felt like we were miles apart," Harry tried to explain.
Draco had felt that way too, but he didn't say anything. It was almost like they didn't actually need each other anymore. They loved each other, but they didn't go out of their way to do anything special for each other. Not often, anyway. All the love in the world couldn't make up for neglect like that.
"We used to have fun together," he said quietly. "We used to do romantic things for each other, and we proved the whole wizarding world wrong when they said that our relationship couldn't possibly last. More importantly, we challenged each other. Even back in Hogwarts. We never did anything the easy way. We always had to push each other. It was an endless series of mind games, but it was always fun, and always made us more passionate with each other. We've lost that."
"We don't have anything to prove anymore," Draco said. "We can finally sit back and enjoy the easy life we've worked for. Isn't this what you wanted?"
"I thought it was," Harry whispered.
Draco shoved some food in his mouth so he wouldn't have to reply to that. They fell into a tense silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
