5 years ago, Salem.
"If you will please step through here, sir?" He nodded at the woman behind the counter and held out his identification papers. "Harry Potter?" She asked, her eyes lighting up, her smile softening. He smiled back, patiently. Without any further theatrics, she looked over his papers and sanctioned his entry into the country. "Your next portkey is in six hours, sir." She told him, handing his identification papers back to him. "Salem is very busy this time of the year." She added, when his face fell. "You're free to leave the International Travel Office." She consoled. "Please feel free to look around our little town, Mr. Potter." He smiled, nodded his thanks and picked up his suitcase.
"You will need to be back, however, about an hour before the portkey departs." She said, in farewell. Agreeing amiably, he walked out of the ITO headquarters, pulling out his wand to shrink his suitcase. He collided heavily into someone and dropped his suitcase. He frowned, looking up. Almost reflexively, his hand tightened around his wand, body coiling taut in tension. Draco Malfoy stared down at him, his face curiously devoid of expression.
"It's daylight, Potter, in the middle of a busy street in Salem." He drawled. Harry frowned. "Yes." He said, slowly. "I'm aware of that, thank you so much." Malfoy sneered. "And yet, you honestly believe that I'm going to go for my own wand and hex you." He stared pointedly at Harry's white-knuckled grip on his wand. "Oh." Harry said, his cheeks suffused with color. "Habit, Malfoy, sorry." Malfoy nodded, curtly and turned away.
Harry could not help himself. He shrunk his suitcase, put his wand away and followed Malfoy. "Where were you going?" Harry asked, gesturing to the ITO HQ. "Is that any of your business?" Malfoy asked, curiously, still without any bite in his voice. "Just curious, Malfoy. Don't have to bite my head off." Harry mumbled, still walking beside the Malfoy Heir. Malfoy turned to regard him with a small smirk.
"Curiosity killed the cat and all related species, Potter." He dead-panned. Harry grinned, enjoying himself. It figured that Malfoy would be able to bring up the fact that he was a Gryffindor without actually saying it. "Cats have, I'm sure you're aware, nine lives, Malfoy." He retorted. Malfoy smiled, barely there, yet it was an honest smile. Harry's grin widened. "You might want to stop using them up." Malfoy said, raising his hand and running it through his hair. "But if you must know, hero, I'm going to Miami."
Harry started. "Hey, I'm going there too." Malfoy raised an eyebrow. Harry shrugged. "So we have five hours to kill. Might as well kill them together, right?" Malfoy was shaking his head before Harry had completed his question. "It's not one of the most novel ideas you've had, Potter." He said, seriously. Harry nodded. "Sure it is." He said, coaxingly. "You go that way, and I'll go this way." Malfoy insisted, pointing in opposite directions. "Oh come on, prat, give in for a while, will you?" Harry pushed. "Surely if Pansy and Ron can make a go at it, we can as well?" He added, pleadingly.
Malfoy smirked, eyes flashing. "You want to make a go at it with me, do you now, Potter?" Harry flushed. "That's not what I meant and you know it." He huffed. "Git." Malfoy looked hugely amused, the bastard. "Alright, Potter. What do you want to do?" Malfoy asked, giving in. Harry grinned. "Please, let's go see the zoo." He said, grabbing Malfoy's robe sleeve. Malfoy laughed. "The zoo?" Harry huffed. "I'm so happy I can be your source of entertainment this morning, Malfoy." He snapped.
"Okay then." Malfoy grinned, leading the way. "The zoo it is."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Harry licked his ice-cream cone, complacently, looking out into the small lake and the serene ducks. Malfoy sat beside him. The silence was strangely comforting. "What are you going to do in Miami?" Malfoy asked, after a little time had passed. "Internship." Harry said, much more interested in finishing his ice-cream than making conversation. "Healing?" Malfoy asked, surprised. "Well, yes. Why does that come as such a surprise?" Harry asked, honestly curious.
Malfoy relaxed back into the bench, cushioning his head with his arms. "Well, I'd always pegged you for the type to go into the Auror's; marry the Girl Weasley and have a horde of red-headed kids." He said, again without any sort of malice. Harry snorted. "Yeah, you and half the Wizarding World." He said, smiling. "The other half is sure that I'm going to lose it any time now, and become the next Dark Lord." Harry added with a self-depreciating smile. Malfoy chuckled. "I have better chances of becoming the next Dark Lord than you do." He dead-panned. Harry grinned. "True, that." He agreed, easily.
"So why not, Girl Weasley?" Malfoy asked, after another pause. Harry smiled, amused. "You're like a dog with a bone, aren't you, Malfoy?" He teased. Malfoy sneered, but he did not say anything. "The spark died." Harry said, a moment later. "She's more like a sibling that a potential romance." Malfoy still did not speak. Harry relaxed into the silence.
"What about you?" He asked, after a couple minutes had elapsed. "Girlfriend?" Malfoy shook his head. "Who would want to date a Death Eater?" He smiled, sardonically. "The Dark Mark is a huge turn-off; like you would not believe, Potter." Harry shook his head. "You defected." He said, defensively. "You defected and you were cleared of all charges." Malfoy snorted. "You think anyone actually cares?" he drawled, bitterly. His smile, if it could be called that, was pulling at strings Harry did not know existed.
"Well, they should." Harry put a friendly hand on Malfoy's shoulder, throwing the melted cone into the trash with his other hand. "We all did stupid things during the war, Malfoy. We were just kids." He squeezed the blonde's shoulder once and then let go. "You grew up with a lot of negative influences." He mused. "You can't really be held responsible for your actions then, not when children as so easily impressionable."
Malfoy's brows were furrowed, as he gazed at Harry, looking for all the world like he was trying to find the solution for world peace. "Why are you, the paragon of all goodness, defending my actions Potter?" Malfoy asked, finally. Harry grinned at the ridiculous title. "Oh, that's a new one." He chuckled. "Look, Malfoy, I was pretty nasty to you too. Mainly because I was so firmly convinced that any witch or wizard from Slytherin could be up to no good."
Harry sighed. "That's a stigma similar to what Voldemort died preaching about. And it was wrong of me to have let it skewer my perception of you, Pansy, Blaise and any number of other Slytherins who are all pretty decent and my friends now." Malfoy smiled. "That's mighty decent of you, Potter." He said, finally, looking like the world had been just lifted off his shoulders. "Harry." Harry corrected, smiling back. "It's Harry." He held out his hand.
"And it's very nice to meet you, Draco Malfoy." Malfoy put his hand out and shook the hand he had wanted to shake for the past eight years. "Pleasure's all mine, Harry." He said, smiling, bemused. "I assure you." Harry grinned.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
They had two more hours to kill.
Harry sighed for the umpteenth time and Draco snapped. "What, Potter?" He barked. "I am bored." Harry said, drawing out the 'o' sound in bored. Draco sighed. "It's a tiny town." He said, as if to a child. "There isn't much to do." He glanced at Harry, irritated. It was so hot and his robes were clinging uncomfortably. Harry looked pretty comfortable in his muggle jeans and a plain green t-shirt. "And you did not want to go to the museum, remember?" Draco added.
He shrugged out of his robes and folded them neatly, enlarging his backpack and stowing them inside. Then he shrunk his backpack again and put it back in his trouser pocket. His white cotton shirt hugged his body like a second skin and he untucked it from his dark trousers and pulled at it a couple of times trying to dry the sweat. He uncuffed the sleeves and rolled them back up to his elbows revealing strong, pale forearms. Then he cast a cooling charm and reclined back on the grass, still slightly uncomfortable.
Harry's eyes had dilated just a bit, not enough to be noticeable and he turned over on his stomach and put his head in his hands. He had not exactly told Malfoy the whole truth about him and Ginny. About a year after the war, he had finally given into Ginny's not-so-subtle hints and they had started dating again. The sex was pretty mediocre, so much so that sometimes he had not even been able to get it up. One night Ginny had, with a calculating gleam in her eyes, shoved one finger up Harry's arse and he had keened and come all over her hand.
Later when they lay staring up at Harry's ceiling, enchanted to look like the night sky, Ginny had laughed. "I thought it was because you did not find me attractive." She had said and Harry had blushed to the roots of his hair. "It's okay, you know." Ginny had said, hugging him close. "No one's going to judge you. Things are very liberal here in the wizarding world." She had smiled cheekily.
"Charlie's gay." She had whispered. "So are the twins." Harry had shaken his head at the silent intent in her eyes. "Red hair not your thing?" She had asked, laughing. 'How about blonde then?" Harry had groaned, burying his head in his arms. Ginny had laughed loudly, then. "You know, this does put a lot of the Malfoy- stalking into a different perspective for me." She and Harry had talked the whole night and the next day Ginny had told her family had things between her and Harry had been called off and he had told them he might be, sort of, just a little bit gay.
Ron had laughed. "I always knew, Potter." He had said, solemnly. "I always knew." Harry had shoved him, playfully and it had become just one more quirk, just another detail, nothing important, and nothing that ever needed to be worried about.
"What are you thinking about, Potter?" Draco asked, his voice peppered with amusement. "I can here the gears turning, you know." Harry mock-glared. "I'm bored." He said, again, drawing out the 'o' sound. Draco sighed. "The museum it is." He said, and he stood, dusting himself off. "No." Harry said, drawing out the 'o' sound, dramatically. Draco ginned. "Cut it out, Drama Queen." He cast a tempus, ignoring Harry's fake insulted gasp.
"We have another hour and forty-five minutes to kill, easily enough time to go visit the museum." He took off at a brisk pace. Harry groaned and followed.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"Urgh!" Harry exclaimed, pretending to gag. "That's probably the most boring museum I have ever been to. And Hermione's dragged me and Ron into a couple of million when we were on our world tour." Draco raised a sardonic eyebrow. "So that's why the three of you went missing after the war." He said, thoughtfully. "Pansy wondered." Harry grinned. "I'm sure." He teased. "You never missed me, of course." He shook his head, sadly. Draco grinned, suddenly. "I never missed you, of course." He said, as if it was preposterous to assume otherwise. And technically, it was.
"Well, a half hour more." Harry said, casting the Tempus charm. "We'd better start walking then." He waited till Draco affirmed and started walking, his hand in his pockets. He felt Draco's presence beside him and smiled. "So, you never told me why you're going to Miami." Draco looked up, surprised, from his careful perusal of his shoes. "Oh, well, I'm moving there, I think." He said, a little flustered for reasons Harry could not understand.
Harry chuckled. "You think?" He asked, curiously. "Well, yes, I need to first see if Wizarding Graphics are as developed there as I've gathered it is." Harry flashed him an admiring glance. "Graphics, huh? Nice." Draco smiled. "It's different." Harry mused. "I would have thought you'd apprentice and then become a Potions Master yourself." Draco snorted. "I've only ever wanted to apprentice under Professor Snape." He said, a tinge of melancholy coloring his voice. Harry winced.
"I'm sorry, Malfoy, I didn't mean to bring that up." He said, apologetically. Draco shook his head, surprised. "Don't worry about it." He said, reassuringly. "Either ways, I've always been interested in holographs. So I figured, what the hell, right?" Draco added, shrugging. Harry smiled. "Good for you, then, Malfoy. I hope you're very happy."
Draco smiled in reply.
They walked into the ITO in companiable silence.
They sat side by side waiting for their portkey and when it was announced they stood and walked into the booth together. They arrived in Miami together and walked out of the Miami ITO together. Outside, Harry shook Draco's hand again. "Until next time then, Potter." Draco tilted his head and smiled. Harry dimpled. "Until next time, mate."
And they parted ways.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Present Day, England.
"Harry? Dinner, mate?"
Harry shook his head, despondently. "Not too hungry Ron." He whispered. Sighing, Ron sat next to Harry on the couch. "You can't let yourself go, mate." He said. "You don't want to look anything but gorgeous when you see him." Ron teased. Harry laughed, darkly. "If I ever see him again, you mean." Ron curled a hand around Harry's shoulder. "I can promise you that you will." He said, confidently. "We just need to wait till your book reaches him."
Harry sighed.
The inscription on the front page of the book read,
'When I revisit your sly, knowing smile the moment you told me…
"We dance around a ring, Potter and suppose;
The secret sits in the middle and knows…"
… I am sure that I will never love anyone as much as I love you.
Come back to me.
Yours,
Harry.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O