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

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

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23

The ice cream shop closed, and it had stopped raining, so Harry went to the park near his and Draco's home. It was his favorite place to go to think. He loved the quiet trails with the sounds of nature around him. He knew Draco didn't appreciate this sort of thing, so Harry had spent a lot of time there alone. He breathed in the rich aroma of the trees, and let his eyes flutter shut. He would find a new boyfriend, one who appreciated simple things like this. Draco was vain and materialistic. Harry would find a guy who wasn't.

Except, he didn't want another guy, not even Oliver. Despite everything, he still wanted Draco.

Night was falling, and Harry was thinking he should go back to Fred and George. For some reason, however, he just really wanted to be alone. He had done the whole self-pity thing with Hermione and Ron, and he had tried to get drunk in order to forget with the twins, and none of it was helping.

He had to admit to himself that no matter how hard he tried to forget about it all, he still loved Draco.

It was a horrible realization, and it hurt to know that the two of them would never be able to make this work. All the love and hot strawberry-sex in the world couldn't make up for what they had done to each other.

Harry sat down on a bench. It was a simple wooden bench, painted green, and had things like "Dave wuz here" and "CF heart JC" carved into it. Harry traced the heart with his finger. He and Draco had never had to announce their love in such juvenile ways, of course. The entire wizarding world knew about them. They had to make a public statement in the daily Prophet in order to get everyone to leave them alone.

Harry still had Draco's letter with him, but it was quickly becoming too dark to read. Good. Reading it only made him feel worse.

Yet, he was drawn to the letter. He felt there was something he was missing, something in Draco's words that would help, even if they were written five years ago. He took out his wand and said, "Lumos." The tip lit up, and he held it close to the parchment.

I think writing this is the only thing that keeps me sane. I watch the Medi-Wizards coming and going from the general direction of your room all day, waiting, hoping one of them will take pity and tell me something.

Hah, that's funny right? Malfoys don't accept pity. But you are worth it. For you, I can change. For you and you alone, I can leave my past, forget the twisted ideas that have been drilled into me since childhood. For you, I can stop being a Malfoy, and just be Draco.

But he hadn't. He was still the same selfish git.

No, that's not quite true. Draco had changed, had made sacrifices. It wasn't easy for him, but he was slowly breaking away from the cold, arrogant boy Harry had met on the Hogwarts Express all those years ago. It was a bit too slow for Harry's liking, but still, it was there.

The Medi-Wizards all know who I am and why I'm here. I made sure of that. I told them you're my boyfriend, and they looked at me like I was insane, or at the very least, delusional. But we know it's true. You and me love, that's what matters.

That was what mattered. Harry's stomach turned at the thought. They had always said that as long as they had each other they could get through anything, including public ridicule, Death Eater trials, and the acceptance or non-acceptance of their friends. No matter what, they would stick together.

How things change.

Draco had taken Harry for granted, like he took so many things for granted, and Harry had run off with another guy. No, not run off. Harry had allowed himself to be seduced by another guy. There was a difference.

It all amounted to the same thing, however. Harry had cheated on Draco.

He felt horrible. More than anything, he wanted Draco's forgiveness. He wanted to go home and apologize, and demand that they start over. He knew that Draco wouldn't take him back, though, and he didn't blame him.

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Flashback

Harry was ready for the Quidditch World Cup. Puddlemere had practiced and played hard all season, and they all felt they deserved it. What made Harry even more excited was knowing that his friends were watching, and they were just as excited as he was. He had gotten owls from all of the Weasleys, Seamus, Zach, and a number of old friends from Hogwarts congratulating him.

The only person he hadn't gotten an owl from was Draco. Still, Hermione had said he was coming, and Harry knew she would make sure he did. Besides, Draco loved him. He wouldn't miss one of the most important events of Harry's life.

Puddlemere United flew out of the locker rooms to the wild cheering of the crowds. The first thing Harry noticed was how huge the stadium it was, and how full it was. The stands rose higher than those around any pitch he had played in before, and they were lined with more wizards than Harry had seen in his life.

He loved it all, and let the cheering crowds fuel his excitement.

The rival team emerged from the other locker room and took a lap around the pitch. Puddlemere would be playing the German team, the Heidelberg Harriers. Both teams gathered in the middle around the referee.

'Okay, here we go.'

The snitch was let go. Harry watched as it flew around his head, then disappeared into the distance.

'Focus.'

He gripped his broom tightly. Morgan shook hands with the Harriers' captain.

'Speed.'

The referee blew the whistle and let the quaffle go. Morgan caught it and flew over the rest of the players. The Harriers were right behind her, however, and she passed the ball to Marco. Marco layed flat against his broom, hugging the quaffle to his chest, and raced down the field. He threw the ball toward the right hoop, but the keeper caught it. The keeper tossed the quaffle to his own teammates, but Jennifer swooped in and intercepted it, then scored so fast the other team didn't even have time to react.

In the meantime, Harry sped in the direction the snitch had taken, searching for the flash of gold. This was the one game that would be good to end quickly. During the others, Puddlemere had been trying to rack up the points to get to the Cup, but this one was more about winning than points.

The Harriers had the quaffle now, and the three chasers were passing it among each other, continually swinging in circles to avoid the Puddlemere chasers. Ford and Arthur hit the bludgers toward them, scattering them, and making them lose the quaffle. Jennifer caught it and back-flipped so she was going in the opposite direction. The Harriers' chasers quickly caught up, and she passed to Marco, who scored another goal for Puddlemere.

The Harriers' seeker, Zusak, pulled up so he was flying nest to Harry. He was a thin, bird-like man with sharp features and intense eyes.

"They say you're good, Potter, but I don't believe it," he said with a strong accent. "The fact that your name is famous doesn't mean you can play for shit."

"Do you think we'd be here if I couldn't play for shit?" Harry shot back.

"Just because you can buy your way to the top in the UK doesn't mean you actually stand a chance in the big leagues," he said.

Harry flipped around him and dived strait for the ground, pulling back up at the last moment, in an imitation of the Wronski Defensive Feint. It was a move only the best seekers could pull off.

"I didn't buy my team's way into the Cup, if that's what you're thinking," he called.

"Show off!" the other seeker called back.

Harry was reminded of his matches against Draco in Hogwarts, and smirked. Then he sped off, still searching for the snitch.

Morgan had the quaffle again, and just before she threw to score, a Harrier chaser lurched forward and grabbed the end of her broomstick. She was awarded a foul, and scored without a problem.

The game resumed. It was fast-paced and highly competitive, with the scores remaining very close the whole time.

Finally, Harry caught sight of the snitch. The other seeker hadn't, however, and Harry dived strait down, even though the snitch was off to the right. When Zusak fell into a similar dive, Harry pulled up and swerved toward the golden ball, leaving him behind. Zusak quickly caught up, however, and both reached for the snitch at the same time. Harry touched it, but Zusak grabbed his arm. Harry wrenched his arm out of Zusak's grasp, pulling him off balance just before he grabbed the snitch. Before the other seeker could right himself, Harry grabbed it and won the game.

Puddlemere United gathered in the center of the pitch while the Harriers slumped off to the locker rooms. Harry found himself completely caught up in the moment. His teammates congratulated each other while the wizarding press gathered around to take photos of them. They were handed the Cup, and hugged each other excitedly.

Harry let Jennifer go, and was pulled into the strong, familiar arms of Oliver.

"You're amazing, Harry!" Oliver said eagerly; and in the next moment Harry had his arms around Oliver's neck and they were kissing in front of half the wizarding world.

They pulled away when a bright flash went off in their faces. The camera was lowered to reveal that irritating interviewer from Irkely.

"Hey!" Harry called, but the reporter slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

"Impedimenta!"

Suddenly Harry couldn't move. He tried to look in the direction of the voice, but he couldn't make his muscles cooperate. Instead he looked helplessly up at Oliver.

"Diffindo!" The voice, which was sounding increasingly familiar to Harry, cast another spell at the same time as Oliver whipped out his wand and called, "Expelliarmus!"

Oliver then cast a counter-spell to free Harry. He turned toward the voice.

Draco was standing on the edge of the field, looking around angrily for his wand.

"Shit," Harry said out loud.

Draco appeared to give up on the wand and opted for just staring at Harry.

Harry walked slowly to his boyfriend. "Draco, I…" but he didn't know what to say.

Draco wore the arrogant scowl Harry was used to seeing, but his eyes showed how much he was hurt. Harry looked away, afraid of what he would do if he kept looking into those gray eyes. He realized that they were being stared at.

"You what? How could you do that to me?" Draco demanded, pointing at Oliver over Harry's shoulder.

"I don't… you know what? I do know. Do you realize how unhappy I've been the past few months, and how little support you've given me when I finally did find something that does make me happy? I was always convinced that you had changed, Malfoy, but you're just as selfish as you always were," Harry said.

He sounded just as hurt as Draco did. They stood in silence for a moment, avoiding each other's eyes.

"It's over," Draco said softly, and apparated away.

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A/N: Odd References:

Markus Zusak wrote a powerful book called The Book Thief, which is about a German girl during WWII.

Ford and Arthur are the main characters of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which is witty and fun, and also comes highly recommended.

The lines "Okay, here we go," "focus," and "speed," and the way they're laid out, are a reference to Pixar's Cars, which is a lovely movie about nostalgia and appreciating what you have. It's also funny in a cute way.

I think that's all of them in this fic. Sometimes my odd references are blatant, like in The Golden Apple, and sometimes they're not.