A/N: Hey, so here's the next chapter, just thought you'd like to know that all the characters you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling or whatever author made them up… and I've probably made mistakes, so either point them out to me (nicely, please) or just deal with them… :-D

Chapter 2: Excuses and Reasons

Draco was content for the first time in his life. He had given into his desires and touched Harry with all the passion, love and desire he had kept inside for 10 long years. Harry hadn't run away, he had leaned into Draco's caress and even caressed Draco! Draco was on cloud 9!

All too soon he came crashing down with the arrival of Pansy. He still 'dated' her to please and placate his parents but saw her the least amount of time possible. And yet, she found him the one place he couldn't escape, his work at the Ministry of Magic

"Draco!" shrilled Pansy. "How have you been?"

Draco tried to slink away, but Pansy cornered him. "You know, I've been fine, real busy, you know,"

"Busy?" Pansy's shrill voice carried her doubt. "Busy with what? And besides, you can't have been too busy to see me for supper!"

"Darling-" Draco tried to say.

"Don't you 'darling' me! I've been in your house Oh don't look so shocked! I can do magic! And I've seen how neat it is. I know you don't have a house elf, so you had to have done it yourself, but it wouldn't look half as neat unless you had spent a good amount of time on it, so you must not have been busy with work!" Pansy's eyes gleamed with the satisfaction of cornering her man. However, Draco wasn't even paying attention to Pansy; his eyes were on the tall slim man with black hair across the room.

"Huh! Oh, um, yes I was busy cleaning, not with works, you're right. Work's been fine, I uh, must be off," And with those word he was gone, leaving a baffled and fuming Pansy behind.

XXX

Harry wasn't sure why he came in this room, he was just torturing himself. Harry watched Pansy approach Draco and heard her shrill voice. He could see Draco trying to placate her and turned away knowing it wasn't meant to be. Curiosity got the better of him a few moments later. Harry turned and nearly ran head first into Draco.

"Can I talk to you, alone, about … things?" Draco said in a low non-caring voice before Harry had even opened his mouth.

"Sure, why not?" Harry said bewildered, "My office is close, shall we talk there?"

"Yes," Draco said, hurriedly, "Let's go."

Harry followed Draco to his office. Once Harry had set in this chair he turned to face Draco and stopped short. The words on his tongue died due to the look on Draco's face. It was a look of torture and unhappiness. "Is anything the matter?" Harry asked gently.

"Yes," Draco took a breath, "my life is falling apart at the seams. My parents don't trust me, I've been having problems with my kind of girlfriend and the love of my life, the one I want to be with into eternity, doesn't even know how I feel!" Draco bemoaned.

"Care to explain?" Harry said not unkindly, he could sympathize but he wanted to know more.

"I'm not sure how much I can trust you, I mean you are the golden boy, and you did save my life, but if this got out to my parents, or the papers, I think I would die," Draco's inner life was slowly eating him alive, and it was all he could do not to just tell the whole tale.

"I am the most famous person this side of Europe; do you really think that I would tell the secrets of another person to the Daily Prophet? I certainly don't want my secrets on the front page; I would never betray you're trust,"

Draco wanted to believe Harry so badly, but keeping everything inside of him was slowly driving him insane, "This….the… what I'm about to tell you is the…well it's the catalyst in the… it's the most important thing I've ever told anyone," he took a deep breath, "I'm gay."

Harry was baffled, how did someone respond to something like that? Even in the wizarding world such things were not commonplace. "I suppose you're parents don't know this," Harry said after a tense moment.

"It's more than that," Draco was relaxing into the feeling of having all the problems shared with another.

"Start at the beginning, and when you get to the end, stop," Harry said with a grin. A/N: bet you can't tell me where that's from. :-D

Draco took a deep breath and started to speak, he told about that first train ride to Hogwarts, "because my father would have been crushed to see his only son as a gay man, never to have children, never to pass on the family name or the pure blood lines, I found a girl friend, someone who wouldn't ask questions or cause problems, someone my father would have accepted as a daughter,"

"Pansy," Harry guessed.

"Draco smirked, "yeah, when I was walking next to her, or anything I would close my eyes and pretend it was the boy from the train instead of her. The one with the perfect hair and eyes." Draco sighed. "So I kept up my appearances with Pansy, just to the extent that we were dating, but not serious enough for anyone to encourage me to propose. My mom still trusts me, but because I've been working at the ministry, not as a spy, but as a part of the whole, my father has been trusting me less and less."

"Why does your father not trust you?" Harry wondered, "It's been years since Voldemort was destroyed. All of his followers were rounded up and sent to jail or killed, and I'd thought he'd repented," Harry tried to make sense of this admission.

"I don't think dad really things that the Dark Lord is gone for good," Draco said slowly. "That and he can't fathom anyone wanting to work alongside the people at the ministry." Draco shook his head. "He' an old man stuck in his ways" Draco concluded as if that explained it all.

"And the love of your life?" asked Harry tentatively, fearful of who this man night be.

"I don't know if he's gay, I don't know if he's got a Significant other, I want to get to know him but I don't know if he would even want to be my friend!"

Harry could see this was what Draco was the mist stressed about. He put a gentle hand slowly out towards Draco's hand and gave him a comforting squeeze. "I'm sure if you try to be friends with this mystery man he will quickly become more." Harry was trying not to hope that he was the man Draco was talking about.

"Maybe that would work," Draco acknowledged.

The boys said their good-byes. Draco left for his house in the outskirts of London and Harry sat down to finish a report.

A/N: I've recently found out that reviews, etc. are addicting, so why don't you pop me a note with anything you've found wrong, or right, I would LOVE it! :-D