Word Count: 843

~ Chapter 20 ~

Draco watched Potter walk out of the kitchen with a sinking feeling in his stomach. After everything, he was just going to walk away?

Maybe he hadn't been as invested in the time they'd spent in the house as Draco had been—as Draco had thought Harry had been.

A niggling feeling in the back of his mind annoyed him, but he pushed it away, his focus landing instead on the hurt he felt at Potter just… leaving.

It wasn't like Draco had expected him to stay indefinitely, but… he'd thought that they could arrange a visit, or make plans for when Draco was finally safe to leave and return to the real world.

What was going to happen when that finally happened? If he saw Potter in the street, would he even be able to say hello to him without feeling awkward?

Draco glared down at the parchment he'd been furiously writing on and sighed. Maybe he should have at least forced Potter to read the letter he'd written to the editor of Witch Weekly.

If nothing else, it would have opened up a dialogue, the possibility of them being at least friends when they were both back to their usual lives.

Opportunity suddenly lost, Draco tossed his quill on the table.

It didn't escape him that since Potter wouldn't be reading the letter, he no longer had any interest in writing it.

…

Harry made it as far as the edge of the wards and stopped. Could he really just leave things like that?

Even if Draco was writing a scathing letter to the editor, he thought that maybe Draco had taken the questions seriously. Maybe even more so than Harry had.

Sure, they hadn't worked for Draco in the way they were supposedly meant to, but that didn't mean they weren't friends now, right?

Turning back to the house, Harry pushed the door open and walked back through to the kitchen, frowning when he found that Draco wasn't there. Surely he hadn't finished his letter already?

The parchment was still laid out on the table, and Harry picked it up, curious despite himself.

Dear Witch Weekly,

I recently came across your article, 20 questions to fall in love, and was deeply sceptical that it could possibly work. I've been in rather unique circumstances for the last few weeks, and so, I had the opportunity to test it out with… someone that I never would have dreamed I could even be friends with.

As we answered the questions, the days passed, and I found myself proven wrong. A man I thought was the opposite of everything I liked in a person showed me that I can be wrong about a lot of things.

And I fell in love.

I'm writing to thank you, and also to warn you against posting such things. The end of our time together has come, and he's going to wander off into the sunset, into an undoubtedly blessed life, and I'm left alone to pick up the shattered pieces of a broken heart.

Such an article can't possibly work for everyone; there will be many who it works for, only to be left in the dust. That seems rather callous to me, one who has been burned in such a way.

Harry read through the letter twice, trying to understand the words he was seeing on the page and wondering how they'd both got it so wrong. The letter didn't seem to be finished, but Harry could only imagine what would come next.

"Forget something?"

Harry turned to see Draco looking at him from the doorway of the kitchen, his eyes guarded as he saw that Harry was reading his letter.

Harry dropped the parchment to the table and crossed the kitchen in three steps, his hand settling on Draco's hip as he tugged him closer.

"Yes."

Their lips met and it was like fireworks were exploding behind Harry's eyes. Draco opened his mouth in shock and Harry took advantage of it, deepening the kiss as he pulled Draco even closer, his hand reaching up to play with the hair at the back of Draco's neck.

The movement seemed to spur the blond into action, and he practically wrapped himself around Harry, pushing his whole self into the kiss, giving as good as he got and more as he melted into Harry's embrace.

When they parted, panting and grinning like idiots, Harry shook his head.

"I thought it was just me," he admitted. "I thought… I thought you just wanted to be friends… or maybe not even that."

Draco snorted. "I thought the same thing. We're always idiots about each other, apparently."

Harry nodded. "I… yeah. I guess we are."

"Are you still leaving?" Draco asked, biting his bottom lip.

Harry twisted his lips. "I'll have to leave for a little while. I have to see Kingsley tomorrow, and I want to drop in on Andromeda and see Teddy, but… I'll come back as soon as I'm done."

"And you'll stay?"

Harry smiled. "I'll stay."