Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I realized that I had mentioned something that hasn't happened yet in the story so I had to do some rearranging. I switched the main event in this and the next chapter. It took a while to make everything make sense. That's the problem when you're writing the whole story at once instead of chapter by chapter; you can lose track of what has happened already.

I had some things to do this week so I haven't done much writing. It didn't help that I decided I wanted to draw something yesterday. If you want to see the images for this story you can check them out at my live journal.

Twilight Moonbeams

Truce

o0o

George groaned as he regained consciousness. When he sat up the light blanket fell to the floor. Looking around he realized he's passed out on the purple stripped couch in Malfoy's apartment above the shop. It had been a long night. He had broken out the fire whiskey to help Malfoy calm down. It didn't seem like such a good idea in the light of day.

"My head is killing me." Draco groaned as he leaned against the hall way wall at the entrance into the main room. He'd fallen asleep in his clothes on top of the covers, his hair was a mess. With his head pounding he walked over and collapsed in the blue high back chair in front of the fire.

"Do you feel as well as you look?" George asked.

"Don't even get me started." Draco grumbled as he shut his eyes and rubbed his temples. "I am never drinking with you again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." George warned the Slytherin.

"You're right. There is now way I can possibly survive working day in and day out with you completely sober." Draco replied back sarcastically. He felt his stomach turning. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"I have just the cure." George shakily stood and then disappeared down the hall. Opening the medicine cabinet in the bathroom he retrieved a bottle. Stopping in the small kitchenette he grabbed two tankards and divided the bottles contents. Walking back over to the seating area he handed Malfoy one of the mugs.

Draco scrunched up his nose in disgust at the smell the liquid was giving off. "What is this shit?" He leaned his head area and held the liquid as far away from himself as possible.

"Weasley hangover cure." George replied, taking his own like a shot so he didn't have to taste it. He sighed in relief as it took effect. "Just drink it. You'll thank me."

As soon as Draco swallowed he concoction he felt the pounding in his head clear. He felt completely normal again surprisingly. "You should sell this shit in the shop. You'd make a fortune." It worked better than any hangover potion he had ever had. His mouth tasted disgusting though.

"Duly noted." George replied leaning back with a contented sigh.

Now that he was sober Draco could remember everything that happened the night before. He cradled his head in his hands. "I feel so embarrassed." Draco blushed as he remembered crying on the floor.

George shrugged. "It isn't surprising that after what Harry said you had a mental break. You've been going through a lot lately. I won't hold it against you."

"I don't want to ever see Potter again." Draco exclaimed leaning back into his chair with his arms crossed.

"You two need to talk this over. You've been at each other's throat since you were eleven." George suggested.

"Maybe we do but not right now." Draco stood up and walked towards the kitchen where he placed the cup in the sink. "I'm going to have a shower then get to work."

...

Once Malfoy was back in the work room brewing he seemed to be calming down more. It made him realize that he really wasn't going to get fired and it was something to keep his mind busy.

George made an excuse to leave the shop. Instead of going to retrieve more ingredients though he walked over to The Leaky Cauldron and floo-ed over to Grimmauld place. "Harry!" George called stepping out of the mantle, brushing off the soot from his shoulders.

He heard some noise from the kitchen. "Be right there!" Was yelled from that direction. Harry stepped out holding a cup of tea in one hand and a copy of the Prophet in the other.

"Did you read some of the Prophet articles then?" George asked noticing the paper in his hands. Since Harry didn't have a subscription he must have purposely went out to buy one.

"Yes. I didn't know the ministry confiscated all his money." Harry gestured to the stacks of papers by his favourite chair.

"I asked you to read some of the articles. That's a little over kill isn't it?" George's eyes widened at the tall stacks spread around the room.

"One word, Hermione." Harry sat down with a sigh in a high back chair by the fire. He had come home after a long day of Auror training to find his parlour swamped by the papers.

"That would explain it." George nodded in understanding. Hermione did everything thoroughly to the point of overkill. This had her name all over it.

"I haven't even made a dent in them but I got the gist of what you are trying to say." Harry had mentioned how he didn't know what had been going on with Malfoy because he never read the Prophet. Hermione had gone owled the Prophets archives and asked them to dig up all the recent papers that had featured Draco Malfoy or anything about the Malfoy's at all. She had sent them over that morning while he was out at auror training.

"Like I said yesterday, Malfoy needed a job and I needed help with potions so it was a good fit." George started to explain. "What was never brought up was how he actually came to be in my company."

"Didn't Malfoy just come in and inquire if you were hiring?" Harry asked, taking a sip of his tea.

"No." George sighed. "I ran out of some potion ingredients so I went to Knockturn Ally to restock some of them. I heard a disturbance so I went to check it out. Malfoy was being practically kidnapped by two men."

Harry froze at the information. "What did they want with him?"

"Malfoy really won't like me telling you." George looked at him contemplatively. "Just know he wasn't in a good situation. I'm here because you verbally attacked one of my employees yesterday. You can be upset about him working for me but you didn't have to destroy him in the process." George said with a disappointed tone.

"We argued all the time at Hogwarts and it never bugged him before." Harry said in defence. He knew he hadn't reacted well yesterday at the shop.

"It's different now. Draco's delicate." George claimed grabbing one of the papers he shoved it in his face. The image on the front was Malfoy's mug shot from when he had been taken into custody after the final battle of Hogwarts. Since everyone was on high alert anyone with a dark mark had been sent straight to Azkaban to await their trial, a couple days later Malfoy was removed because they realized he was under age.

Harry grabbed the paper out of his hands. The article was about Malfoy's trial and included everything he had to go through during the war. Most of it Harry didn't even want to think about. He got George's point though. They weren't children anymore. There had been a war and they had both experience horrible things.

"Delicate, nothing about Malfoy is delicate except maybe the way he drinks his tea." Harry still huffed defensively.

"I mean emotionally. What you said about him pushed his feelings over the edge." George narrowed his eyes. "He was doing ok before you opened your big gob. Malfoy knew that most people hated him but he at least had hope that if he worked hard he could change their opinions."

"Now?" Harry asked nervously.

"Now he doesn't feel like he ever has a chance to change people's attitude towards him. He's lost hope." George crossed his arms.

Harry sighed. "I didn't mean to do that. I had just had a frustrating day of auror training and I might have taken it out on him." He took a sip of his cooling tea.

"You spoke for him at his trial. Why would you do that if he didn't deserve another chance?" George pointed out.

"It just felt like the right thing to do to testify for Malfoy." Harry shrugged at the reason he helped his school yard nemesis stay out of Azkaban.

"Well I feel like this is the right thing to do." George narrowed his eyes. At first he'd had his doubts about hiring Malfoy after everything his youngest brother had said about the boy from school, but after getting to know him personally he knew it was a good fit. He didn't like to see Malfoy hurt like this. "You're going to apologize to him." George claimed like it was a done deal.

"No way. I'm not apologizing to that git." Harry frowned and crossed his arms.

George leaned over and grabbed his arm aperating him back to the shop.

"George!" Harry snapped tugging his arm out of the red heads grip. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"I figured now, since you're already here, you might as well apologize to Draco now." George shrugged and acted innocent like he didn't know why the other boy was mad.

Harry narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Fine." He looked around the empty shop. "Where is Malfoy so I can get this over with?"

"He should still be in the work room where I left him." George answered. Harry stomped towards the stairs.

.

When Draco heard Potter's voice in the main room he winced and stopped stirring the potion. Pushing the curtain aside he peered into the shop, he swore when he saw that his hunch was confirmed. 'He told George he didn't want to talk to Potter yet, the interfering bastard' He thought to himself looking around figuring what to do.

Draco decided to retreat up to apartment to avoid the confrontation all together.

.

George entered the back room. "That's weird. He was just here." He looked around curiously. The cauldron was still smoking so he hadn't been gone long. Then he heard the closing of a door on the upper level and he sighed in exasperation.

"Where is he then?" Harry asked disgruntled. He really didn't want to do this.

"Draco went upstairs to hide from you apparently." George rolled his eyes. "Here's the key so you can get in." He pushed him towards the stairs.

Harry glared back at him but then marched up the stairs anyways. Trying the door he found it was indeed locked. Placing the key in the hole he turned it till he heard the click. Opening the door he ascended the short set of steps and looked around the seemly empty apartment. "Malfoy!" Harry called.

Draco had been flopped on his bed when he heard someone entering the apartment. He expected it to be George but instead it was the person he as hiding from. He pressed the pillow over his head to block out the noise.

"I just want to talk to you." Noticing the closed bedroom door Harry walked over and turned the knob. He could see Malfoy's form on the bed with a pillow over his head. "Malfoy?"

"Go away Potter." Draco demanded pressing the pillow closer to his head.

"Come on." Harry rolled his eyes at the childish behaviour. It was almost like Malfoy was pretending like if he couldn't see me I couldn't see him. Walking over to the bed Harry ripped the pillow away from the Slytherin's head. The blonde sat up and glared at him. Malfoy's hair was all messed up and sticking in different directions. It was almost cute in a way.

"What do you want? Didn't you already say enough? You don't want to be sullied by the Death Eater too." Draco snapped defensively.

Harry winced when he noticed the redness around the grey eyes that came from crying. It hit him that his words had truly wounded the blonde. "I'm here to say I'm sorry for the way I reacted yesterday. It was wrong of me to judge you like that." He apologized sincerely realizing in surprise that he truly meant it. "Truce."

Potter held a hand out for him to take. Draco deflated feeling tired from his wound up emotions. He slipped his slender hand into the rougher one and croaked. "Truce."

o0o

Draco yawned as he entered the work room in the early morning. He'd had a hard time falling asleep the night before. His talk with Potter kept running through his head.

After working at Weasley Wizard Wheezes' for a couple weeks he had a routine now.

Flicking his wand he turned the lights on. Placing his tea on the work table he walked over to the cauldron to fill it with water and swished his wand to light the base. He sat down on the bench to drink his tea as he waited for the cauldron to bubble.

He looked at the list of products he still needed to make to restock the shop. Slowly he had been ticking items off the list, he was more than half way through. Decided on one, Draco flipped open the book to the right recipe. Looking at the list he stood to retrieve the right ingredients from the cupboard.

Once the water had come to a boil he started to add ingredients in the proper order. Following the instructions he completed the potion.

It was quite working by himself. George rarely entered the work room except for certain designated times. The charms or the products were a lot less time consuming than potion brewing. With just a flick of his wand he was done. George spent most of his time getting the packaging made for the products.

The morning passed quickly with him following a similar routine.

Checking the time Draco decided he had enough time to make one more batch before he took his lunch break. After setting up the cauldron and the ingredients he slowly started to add ingredients carefully. He counted under his breath as he stirred counter clockwise ten times just like the other Weasley twin's notes said.

Draco jumped when he felt someone leaning over his shoulder. When he realized who it was he sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Have to make sure you aren't up to something." Potter replied with a teasing tone in his voice.

"Didn't we already make a truce?" Draco turned his burning eyes on Potter. "Why are you still suspicious of me?" He waved the stirring rod in Potter's face threateningly.

"I want to be able to immediately be able to trust you but truthfully you need to earn it." Harry explained his apprehensive behaviour. Pushing the stirring rod out of his face making the blonde frown. "Even though we've know each other for the past 8 years, we hardly know each other."

"Well whose fault is that? I offered to be your friend and you turned me down." Draco replied petulantly, turning back to the potion.

"There was a lot against a friendship working between us, now there isn't." Harry stated with a sigh. "Can we at least try to get along together? For George." He added on.

"Fine." Draco sighed in resignation. In his frustration he started to stir the cauldron really fast.

"Good. I've got to go but I be back soon." He exclaimed after looking at his watch. His lunch break was over and he had to check in with his training officer. Pushing off the wall he left the workroom.

The cauldron suddenly bubbled threateningly. Draco winced realizing he had over stirred making the potion now unstable. "Stupid Potter!" Draco cursed as he shot a Tergio charm at the cauldron clean it out. Having to start over all over again.

...

True to his word Potter showed up almost every day that week to check in on him. Draco thought he was just doing it to bug him. At first they were tense in each others company then they started to have actual conversations. In his frustration at being constantly disturbed in his work he started to snap at Potter.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Auror training?" Draco grumbled as he stirred the potion he'd been working on. It was hard to concentrate with Potter staring at him all the time. It was the middle of the work week and the boy had just been lounging around the shop all day.

"I'm in between cases at the moment." Harry shrugged turning the page of the Quidditch magazine he was reading.

"What does that even mean? You aren't even a real auror yet." Draco snapped cutting some ingredients aggressively.

Harry shrugged as he licked his finger so that he could turn the page. "I get training assignments that I have to complete daily but my Senior Auror is in the middle of an important case so he doesn't have time today to hand out anything new."

"Shouldn't you be doing something productive instead of hovering around me disturbing my work." Draco complained in frustration. "Why aren't you having a relaxing day at home?"

"I'd rather hang around here than at home. Kreacher is getting on my nerves." Harry exclaimed adamantly shaking his head.

"And Kreacher is...?" Draco inquired confused.

"He's my house elf." Harry replied flatly

"If he's a house elf why don't you just order the thing to fuck off?" Draco asked since he had a lot of experience with the buggers.

"Because it's a house elf that doesn't really listen to me." Harry replied in exasperation. Kreacher had become alot after the war but he still had mood swings were he returned to his former self. "I inherited Kreacher from the Black family, he would probably listen better to an order you gave than me."

"Then just tell the elf that Draco Malfoy commands him to fuck off." Draco replied flippantly as he measure some stink sap.

Harry ended up trying hat when he got home. Surprisingly it worked.

o0o

George woke up when his alarm sounded. Feeling around with his hand he slapped the top to make the loud noise quite. He dragged himself out of bed and slumped into the kitchen. When he got there is room mate was already up.

"I made you some tea." Jordon said, pointing to the second cup.

"Thank you." George sat heavily into one of the chairs at the little. He pulled the saucer closer to his seat. Removing the tea bag that had been seeping he put two sugar cubes in and stirred. Taking a sip he slid the paper closer to himself.

Flipping open The Daily Prophet, George crumpled the paper in his hands when he read the head line. Pushing his chair back, he immediately stalked over to the hearth.

"George, something wrong?" Lee Jordon asked confused by his roommate's actions.

Without answering George threw floo powder down, he growled out. "The Burrow." Stepping out on the other side he couldn't see anyone from his position in front of the mantle. Listening he could hear cutlery scrapping in the kitchen. Stalking towards the sounds he pushed open the door to see all of the house inhabitants minus his father and plus Harry Potter eating breakfast. Ginny was on her way out.

"Who blabbed?" George demanded announcing his presence, putting his hand on his hips.

"Who did what now?" Ron asked with his mouth full. Hermione slapped him in the shoulder in reprimand.

"Who told the Prophet that Draco Malfoy is working for me?" George demanded the room's occupants. Throwing the paper on the table for them to see. The head line Malfoy Working Under A Weasley was splashed across the cover with a verity of photos of Malfoy and one of him.

"What?" Ginny screeched, turning on her hell and glaring at her own brother. She checked her watch. "I have to go but i want to here about this later." She exclaimed as she backed out of the room.

"It wasn't me." Harry snapped defensively when he realized who George's eyes were looking at him.

"Only a couple days after you found out, and now, it's splashed across the headlines." George accused leaning on the table.

"I'm the last person who would go to the press." Harry defended himself.

"You're... right." George sighed in acceptance. He knew how much the press harassed the boy and he would never wish it on another. "Who did you tell?"

"Just Ron and Hermione." Harry responded pointing across the table.

"I didn't say anything." Hermione answered. Looking at her boyfriend who just fidgeted under her stare. "Oh Ron. You didn't?"

"I just mentioned it to Seamus over a pint after training." Ron shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't know it was a secret."

Harry rubbed his temples. "Seamus is the worst person you could've told."

"Why?" Ron asked confused.

"He is dating Lavender Brown." Hermione spat with exasperation. "She is the worst gossip I have ever met. Doesn't help she is doing an internship with the Daily Prophet."

"There's nothing we can really do now that the information is out there."

"At least I know where the leak is now." George shot a glare at his youngest brother who looked sheepish. "I'm just worried about the attention this article draws to Malfoy." George exclaimed. The article had not been the kindest about the Malfoy heir. It dug up his involvement in the war again just as people were starting to forget.

Mrs. Weasley wondered over from her position by the stove. She was serving a pan of scrambled eggs out to everyone one. She made sure to give Harry a fare amount. "I know the boy hasn't always been the nicest and he'd done some awful things. I can't believe the boy's own mother just up and abandoned him like that."

"Don't speak badly about Mrs. Malfoy." Harry admonished the women. "I wouldn't be alive without her. She loves her son dearly "

"I wouldn't phrase it that way either." George shook his head at her description. "Draco explained to me that his mother practically begged him to go to France with her but he was stubborn and stayed behind."

"Still, the boy has no family he can truly turn to. The closest thing is Andromeda and they're estranged from each other. I don't think they've ever even met." Molly exclaimed since she thought family was the most important thing. "I want you to bring Mr. Malfoy to Sunday brunch." Molly suggested suddenly.

"No." George shook his head adamantly.

"I'd pay to see that." Ron commented, amused by the mere suggestion. Having Malfoy here at his home eating amongst them.

"If the boy is going to be working with my son I want to properly meet him." Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, waving her own copy of the paper in her sons face. The photograph Malfoy stumbled like the ground was shaking. He shook his fist in the air indignantly.

"I think it would take a lot of convincing to get Draco to come to dinner at the Burrow." George replied grabbing his mother's wrist to stop the movement. "It's very unlikely."

"Just tell the boy he has an open invitation." Mrs. Weasley informed him.

"Fine." George shrugged. "For now I guess I'll just try and keep Draco at the shop." Hermione was right, there was nothing he could do now that the news was out. "I have to go now and intercept Malfoy from reading the Prophet." George slapped Ron in the back of the head with the rolled up paper on his way out.

"Hey!" Ron snapped, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's your own fault." Hermione pointed out sipping at her tea.

...

Draco was just putting the kettle on for tea when George floo-ed in.

"You've been up long?" George asked as he stepped out from out of the fireplace.

"No. Slept through my alarm. Why?" Draco asked leaning against the counter.

"No reason." George shrugged while he looked around the apartment for the paper. He spotted this mornings daily prophet on the coffee table where Missy had placed it. Stealthily he snatched the paper and threw it in the fire while Malfoy was busy pouring his tea. The paper started to burn quickly.

"I guess I'm ready to get to work now." Draco exclaimed as he walked over with his warm cup of tea.

"Let's get going then." George led the blonde away from the fire place so he wouldn't see the burning paper. By the time they were done working it would only be ashes.

o0o

Draco was setting out all of the ingredients for making Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher. Opening the drawer labeled Baneberrry he slammed it closed again when he realized it was empty. He'd used the last of it and had forgotten to write it down. "I need to get some more ingredients." Draco exclaimed to his partner writing out what he was running out of on a scrap piece of paper.

"I'll do that." George plucked he list from his fingers. He didn't want to risk anyone harassing Malfoy while he was running an errand.

For the next week or so he stealthily volunteered to run out to buy more ingredients. Every time Draco even volunteered to fetch food, ingrediants or leave the shop for some fresh air. He would distract him if he had to. He could tell that Malfoy was suspicious by his actions but after a while he stopped asking questions.

.0.

"Dammit!" Draco swore as he looked through the ingredients he had available. He counted a couple times.

"What?" George asked from where he had been working charming some more invisible hats.

"I don't have enough Wornwood to finish off the Skiving snack boxes." Draco sighed, he hated starting a potion and not being able to finish it. The cauldron was already bubbling away.

"I can go get some." George offered.

"No, I'll go. You're busy." Draco denied the offer.

George thought it over. He was right in the middle of charming some Sheild Hats. It had already been two weeks since the article had come out. "Fine." George sighed and reached into his robes to retrieve money for the materials.

Draco grabbed his robe from the apartment and left the shop with a small amount of Galleons George supplied him with for the ingredients.

It wasn't until he was already strutting down Diagon Alley that Draco realized he hadn't been outside of the Joke Shop since he had originally moved in. Whenever they had needed anything George usually immediately jumped up and offered to fetch whatever it was.

"If it isn't Malfoy Jr." A voice mocked stepping out from an alley. Stopping the blonde in his tracks.

Draco looked up nervously. There were four young adults blocking his place. "Just let me by."

"I don't think so." The one that must be the leader stated. The young man towered over the Slytherin as he backed him up into a wall…

...

The bell rang when Malfoy returned.

When George peeked out of his office, he noticed Malfoy had no shopping bags in his hand and he had his head facing the floor as he walked. George found it weird behaviour. "I thought you were getting ingredients?" When the blonde ignored his question and picked up his speed headed for the stairs; George push off the door frame and stalked over.

Draco tried to slip up to his apartment before his boss saw him but his George grabbed him by the arm to stop his retreat. He looked at Weasley's face in defeat.

George hissed when he saw the state Malfoy was in. "What happened?" There was black eye forming, a couple scraped and bruises. He also had a cut going through his right eyebrow. His robes were ribbed in places like Malfoy had been held down and had to struggle to get away.

It was like the first day he had saved him all over again.

"I was jumped by some people on the way to the apothery." Draco admitted with a sigh.

George grabbed his chin and looked over the injuries. Malfoy slapped his probing hands lightly away. "Come on let's get you cleaned up." George led the blonde the rest of the way up the stairs.

When they entered the apartment George dragged the blonde to the bathroom. He sat Malfoy down on the toilet seat and dug around through the medicine cabinet for the first aid kit. Flipping it open he got out some bandages and salves

Draco hissed as the potion was spread over the cut. It stung making his eyes water.

"I'm no healer. This will have to do." George claimed as he spread the Band-Aid over the scape. "I don't have anything for that bruise though."

"I'll brew something in the morning." Draco exclaimed as he examined the damage to his face in the mirror.

.0.

Pushing the curtain out of the way Harry entered the work room. He was just about to start in on the Slytherin when he caught sight of his face. "What the fuck happened to you?" Harry gasped when he noticed the black eye and split lip.

"Some people don't appreciate my presence." Draco hunched his shoulders over the small cauldron, uncomfortably at the topic being brought up. He had been in the middle of brewing some bruise paste, hoping to apply it before anyone else saw him.

"You should be more careful." Harry warned him. He really didn't like that Malfoy was being harassed.

"It's not like I ask for it. I'm just really recognisable with this stupid hair." Draco snapped pointing to his white blonde locks. It marked him clearly as a Malfoy. Anyone could spot him from a mile away.

Rolling his eyes Harry pulled something out of his pocket and pulled it over Malfoy's head. "It's called a hat." He said sarcastically. It was such a simple solution. Malfoy looked so normal with his air covered by the grey wool. In school he always remembered Malfoy wearing fur hats, he was sure the Slytherin had pawned the clothes for money at some point since he didn't have them anymore.

"I should have thought of that." Draco readjusted he knitted cap that covered all of his hair. He went to take it off to return it but Potter stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"Keep it. It looks better on you than me anyway." Harry offered. It was one of the hats that Mrs. Weasley had knitted for him for Christmas. He found the colour always washed him out but he had grabbed it that morning because it was warm. The grey did the opposite to Malfoy and actually brought out some warmth in his skin and made his eyes look more blue than grey compared to the colour of the wool.

"Thanks." Draco looked at Potter questionably, wondering what his reason for this could be.

For the next couple days Potter was strangely nice to him. That is until his bruises fully healed, then he was an ass again.

…

Harry tried to wrap is scarf around his head to cover his ears. They felt like they were going to fall off. It was getting cold enough at night you can see your breath.

As the training went along they were allowing them to do actual cases though only the really small things. They were trying to give them experience in a wide variety of things. He'd been paired off with Lee Jordon for a night mission.

They were on a stake out trying to catch a worker who had been suspected of stealing from a ware house he worked at. As long as there was no possible danger the Senior Aurors allowed them to do them unsupervised. Any small complaints like this the aurors usually left to the trainees because no one wanted to do them.

"Where's your hat?" Jordon asked as he rubbed his hands together for warmth. He was wearing a thick wool cap that was stretched over his dread locks.

"Left it at home." Harry replied as he reapplied his warming charm again.

...TBC