Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe, J. K. Rowling is the brains behind it all.
Note: Sorry it's taken me so long to upload, my house situation is in turmoil and I'm also getting hit by flu season yayyyy. Will definitely be trying to update more often. Thanks for your patience! xx
Boyfriend
Chapter 2: Inebriation
Hermione smiled to herself as the bell above the door rang as she entered the bookstore. Papers and folios zoomed around above and the smell of ink and parchment wafted around her. She was definitely in her happy place. She shoved a stray curl behind her ear and rummaged around in the oversized pocket of the set of purple silk robes she'd thrown over her denim shorts and white slouch tank top. She triumphantly pulled out a folded piece of parchment after uttering a silent accio.
The clerk at the desk noticed her standing in the doorway and put his quill down on the desk, heading towards her with a smile.
"Hermione! What a pleasure it is to see you again. How may I help you today?" He had his hands clasped in front of him earnestly. She handed him her list and proceeded to follow him over to his desk where he pulled out a rather large ledger that covered most of the available space on the desk.
Wand in hand, he flipped through the pages, locating where the books she wanted to see were. Hermione turned around and looked around the store, staircases lined the left and right walls, leading up to second and third stories, both teeming with bookshelves and towering piles of books.
The books on her list drifted down of their own accord and settled on an empty work table in the back of the shop where she could go through and make her mind up about which ones she wanted to assign this year.
A couple of hours later, the sky was beginning to dim and the candles flared into life around her. She had made up her mind about most things but still could not decide between two books for the 7th year Arithmancy class. The students she had this year were extremely bright and she wanted to make sure that they were significantly challenged and wouldn't sit there bored out of their tree as she was in her make up year at Hogwarts.
A shadow fell over her and a deep, sultry, dry voice sent shivers down her spine.
"I suggest the Advanced Arithmancy for the Auspiciously Minded. It was quite a riveting read." Hermione turned around; ready to reprimand the stranger who had interrupted her train of thought.
"Excuse me, but no one asked your…" The sentence drifted off, and her mouth opened and closed she saw that it was the Headmaster standing behind her.
"S-sir, forgive me, you startled me." She ducked her head, embarrassment blossoming like a red rose across her face.
"That is quite alright Professor Granger." Snape nodded, his long black hair falling into his face, obscuring it from view for the few seconds it took before he pushed it out of his face. He turned on his heel and walked away.
And for a fleeting second, Hermione couldn't help but notice how good he looked in his black muggles slacks and cashmere v-necked sweater.
Draco smirked at the look in Potter's face. His black hair fell into his eyes as his head jerked up when he noticed the presence of someone else.
"Ma-malfoy. What are you doing here?" His voice shook as if he was unsettled. For a second he wondered why.
"Potter." He nodded at him, a gesture of openness. " Thought I'd buy you a drink." He looked into those green eyes, which widened a little before narrowing suspiciously.
"And why would you do that exactly?" An edge crept into Harry's voice as he sat up straighter, and Draco noticed that his arms flexed visibly underneath the leather as he tensed.
Draco rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. He tilted his head to the side a little, gray eyes searching Harry's green ones.
Harry shifted in his seat; uncomfortable with the way Draco was looking at him. He quickly chugged down the rest of his beer, gathering up his strength, waiting for the insults and insinuations to start flying.
Draco turned on his heel and stalked towards the bar, his blond hair whipping around his face. He half expected Harry to sit there looking like an idiot, but moments later he heard the stool scrape and footsteps follow him. When Harry came to stand next to him at the bar, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jacket he snuck a look out of the corner of his eye as he held up to fingers to Finnegan.
Draco almost groaned aloud, Harry looked so good in his tight jeans and the way his black hair fell into his bottle green eyes was heavenly. He almost jumped when those very eyes turned to look directly into his own grey ones.
Two glasses of firewhiskey were set down on the bar in front him, and Draco broke the eye contact somewhat reluctantly. He hated that this was the most turned on one look at made him, well possibly ever. And it had to be Harry Potter who did it. He didn't even know if he was gay or straight! He picked up the glasses and turned to hand one to Harry, who looked into the depths of the glass as if would answer life's big questions.
Draco grimaced, why did he even come over to talk to him? Last he remembered he was sitting there ogling the man, and then his treasonous feet were carrying him over to his table. Now it was just awkward and weird.
He shoved his glass forward and clinked against Harry's, who looked up in surprise.
"Cheers." And with a forced smirk on his face he downed the glass, slammed the glass down and walked as fast as he could out of the bar without looking like he was running. The smirk dropped from his face as soon as his back was to Harry. School started soon and he wouldn't have to see him again for a long time.
Harry stood, mouth gaping open. That was the weirdest 5mins he had experienced in a long time, and he investigated murders for a living. He watched as Malfoy walked away, his black cloak swinging behind him. He had a momentary flashback of watching him walk through London before he chugged down the firewhiskey, spluttering slightly as it churned down his throat.
Ron strolled over a grin on his face and a piece of parchment in his hand. The grin faded as he saw Harry's pale face.
"What happened?" He asked quietly. Harry looked up at him and grinned.
"Nothing. It's fine. I see you were successful." He indicated the piece of paper clutched in Ron's hand. The grin appeared again and he looked over his shoulder to look at the blonde who giggled and waved.
"Yeaaahh, we're going out tomorrow night, have a little… fun. If you know what I mean." He winked and elbowed Harry in the ribs, laughing boisterously. Harry winced and rubbed his side. Ron forgot his own strength sometimes. He laughed along, feigning interest. He couldn't help but think of the way Draco looked at him when they were at the bar, his deep grey eyes boring into his own. It was unnerving to say the least.
The spent the rest of the afternoon downing various drinks, and Ron had convinced him to sit at the booth with the group of girls. A brunette had decided that Harry was her target tonight and he constantly had to rebuff her advances while Ron had his mouth firmly attached to the blonde's.
Hermione appeared about 3 hours later, her bag about 5 pounds heavier than it was that morning. She grimaced as she saw Ron, and collapsed on the bench next to Harry, who was grateful to have an excuse to turn his back to the disappointed looking girl next to him.
"Hermione! Thank Merlin you're here!" He grinned; she was definitely a welcome distraction. She sighed and grabbed his half-drunk pint and chugged it down. Wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve she sighed and smiled.
"Thanks, I needed that. I feel like I've inhaled a year's worth of dust." She waved a hand at Seamus who grinned and set about bringing them another round.
"I ran into Snape, or rather he crept up on me and scared the shit out of me." Harry laughed, shrugging out of his jacket. He draped it across his knees as he reached for two of the pints set down on the table, handing one to a grateful Hermione.
"I would have loved to see that. Is he still all dark and gloomy, I know it took him a long time to recover from the venom still in his system." He ran his fingers through his hair, the black bangs messy and unkempt after an afternoon in a crowded bar.
"Surprisingly no. He actually seemed somewhat… uh, at peace I suppose. This summer break must have been good for him." She blushed a little as she said this, thinking about how his sweater hugged his unexpectedly nice torso.
Harry nodded, and took another sip of his beer. He leaned back against the booth and slung his arm around Hermione's shoulder. They chatted and drunk some more and soon all of them were very inebriated. They stumbled out the Floo and into their beds in the early hours in the morning.
The last thing that went through Harry's addled brain was the image of Draco's eyes looking at him. He slept with a smile on his face.
The sunlight streamed through the window where Harry and forgotten to close the blinds the night before. He groaned and rolled over, burying his face in the pillow as his head pounded like a hammer onto a nail. He pulled the covers over his head just as an excessively happy voice carried up the stairs.
"Boys! Breakfast!" It was then that the smell of pancakes and crispy bacon drifted up the stairs and into his bedroom and he forgot about the headache and ran down the stairs in his boxers. When he sat down heavily in a chair, his headache came back in full force just as a pepper up potion was shoved into his hand. He smiled gratefully at Hermione before downing the potion. His headache subsided and he felt his energy levels rise.
Moment's later thudding footsteps came down the stairs as a disheveled Ron emerged, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The three of them sat around the small kitchen table, sunlight shining through the window and a light breeze coming from the open back door. The chatted and laughed as they ate breakfast and the dishes danced through the sink as Hermione's dishes spell worked it's magic.
Later on, after Hermione had excused herself to the library to curl up with a book, and Ron had grabbed his broom and headed off to the Burrow to participate in the weekly Sunday Weasley Quidditch match, Harry headed upstairs to have a shower in his lavish ensuite. The tiled room was cool and the large shower had faucets coming from all directions.
He stepped out of his boxers and stood in front of the mirror, his legs were long, and his arms and shoulders heavily muscled. He pushed his hair back off his forehead and leant in towards the mirror and looked at his faded scar. It had started to fade after Voldemort died and had long since faded to as near a skin colour as possible. He still knew it was there though and served as a daily reminder to what he had gone through.
He sighed and turned on the shower, the hot spray filling the room with steam. He stepped under the hot water and the sighed as it soothed his aching muscles, he never slept easy when drunk. He stood with his arms braced against the wall as the water streamed onto his neck and down his back. He closed his eyes and just relaxed. This was his private time, his time to reflect.
He reached for the shampoo and massaged it through his hair, he leant his head back and the water flowed across his face. The suds gathered near the drain as he then grabbed the loofah and poured body wash on it, he closed his eyes again as he dragged it across his skin. All of a sudden, the image of a pair of hands replacing his and washing his body rose unbidden behind his eyelids.
His hands drifted lower, washing his thighs and his crotch area. The hands, in his minds eye, caressed him as well as swipe the scrub roughly across his skin. The hands turned into arms and all of a sudden, Harry was imagining a naked Draco Malfoy standing before him, stroking him in the most personal way.
Harry opened his eyes and stiffened. He could not be thinking about him that way. He was Draco Malfoy! He shook his head, water spraying around him and rinsed off quickly and stepped out of the shower, trying to shake the images out of his head, though his arousal was clear as day. He dried off, dressed in his usual garb and headed out the door, grabbing his helmet on the way.
Moment's later he was astride his bike, the wind whistling past him as his bike roared along the highway. No matter how hard he tried the images from the shower kept rising up in front of his eyes.
A couple of hours of mindless drifting, he returned home. Hermione was asleep in the armchair in the library when he checked on her. Ron was still at his parent's house, probably eating them out of house and home. Harry collapsed on the couch in the lounge, putting on a muggle movie. Something called Ironman, a movie he had loved when he saw it the first time.
He sat there with his booted feet propped up on the table in front of him. He was about halfway through the movie when the sound of someone clearing his or her throat startled him. He looked around, and seeing no one, settled back onto the couch.
"Potter!" He sat up and saw a face in the fire, a face belonging to the headmaster of Hogwarts. He moved over to kneel in front of the fireplace.
"Headmaster Snape, what can I do for you?" He had no idea what Snape would be doing in his fireplace. The Floo was open to a select few, Hogwart's being one of them.
"I have a proposition for you." Snape's dark eyes, flickered in the flames. "How would you like to be the new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts?"
end of chapter 2.
thanks for reading xx