Chapter 7

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

Harry and Draco sat in front of his computer waiting for Ron and Hermione to video chat them. Draco had pressed him for details, but he had insisted on telling them all together. He couldn't shake the feeling of doubt he had about the entire situation, he knew that Severus would more than likely hate him for it. He knew that he couldn't keep it from him, it wasn't fair. He might not tell who the date was with, but the fact that he had gone on one was bad enough.

Finally, Ron and Hermione popped up on the screen and he smiled weakly.

"Harry are you okay?" Hermione asked, her voice filled with concern. "You're as white as a sheet."

"Our friend Harry here has just been on a date," Draco said smugly. "Tell them who with Harry."

"Tom Riddle," he said after a moment and Ron and Hermione gave him matching looks of shock.

"What? Why didn't you tell us that he'd asked you out?" Hermione started immediately.

"He just showed up at my flat. He said he got my name from someone at the restaurant and the rest was a piece of piss basically."

"Why didn't you tell us, mate?" Ron repeated Hermione's question.

"The only reason I went was to let him down and tell him I couldn't see him again. It doesn't feel right with Severus and everything," he sighed looking down at his hands.

"So did you let him down?" Draco asked curiously.

"Not yet, I was going to text him later," Harry shrugged.

"Classy," Draco laughed and Harry shoved him.

"I have to tell Severus, it's just wrong to keep it from him. I feel sick about it and I know that he's going to hate me," Harry told them worriedly.

"You don't know my godfather like I do," Draco started. "You can't tell him, he'd never forgive you. He's not the easiest man to trust anyone and he loves you. You can't throw everything away over a pissy little date that didn't even end with a kiss."

"What about using him to get to Skeeter?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"I can't do it Mione. It feels all wrong. I'm sick to my teeth over this."

"Don't worry, everything will sort itself out," she reassured him and he wished he could believe her.

After Ron and Hermione had left and it was just him and Draco the pair of them made plans for when they were going to break into Rita's office. Draco and Neville had been tailing her for awhile now and sort of had her schedule worked out. Draco told him that the woman never went to her office after 6 in the evening and it would be the perfect time for them to make their move. They just couldn't be too suspicious about it. As if picking a lock in a public place surrounded by CCTV cameras wasn't suspicious enough. They finally decided that Friday afternoon would be their best shot, because the woman didn't visit the office on weekends and it would be free for them to make their move.

He couldn't say he was excited to be committing a crime, but he had technically committed a crime every time that he had gone out to meet a client and accepted money. This was different, this felt more real, and this posed the risk of actually being caught and charged with something. Rita would love that to be able to charge them with breaking and entering and whatever else she could throw at them. It would make her fucking day, so that was another reason they had to be extremely careful. It was going to take more people, and Ron and Hermione weren't exactly available. The pair of them decided that it was time to involve more people into their plans. Draco would ask Pansy and Blaise to tail the woman for the evening and Harry would find Luna and ask her to be their lookout. He hoped that everything went off without a hitch.

After Draco had gone and he was left to stew in his emotions he couldn't take it anymore. He had to see Severus, he had to tell him he was sorry for the way that he had acted. Severus was too important for them to not be together. He reached for his phone and dialed the man and waited impatiently behind each ring.

"Hello?" Severus asked and he sounded distracted.

"Severus?" Harry all but sobbed.

"What's the matter Harry?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm so sorry. I'm such a wanker. Please forgive me. I don't want to play these petty games anymore. I overreacted," Harry said feeling the hot tears start to slide down his face.

"It's okay Harry, we both acted like horribly," Severus said warmly into the phone. "We're allowed to mess things up every now and then. All that matters is that we manage to sort it out and don't let it continue to stand between us."

"Can I see you? Can you come over?' Harry asked desperately. "There's something I need to tell you."

He decided then and there that he had to tell Severus, and that if the man never wanted to speak to him again at least he had been honest. That it would only make things worse later if the man were to find out on his own. He was sure that Seamus was still lurking around the bend just waiting to divulge any news to Severus. He wanted to kick himself for being so incredibly stupid.

"I'm not in town Harry. I'm in New York, I did try to tell you, but you wouldn't answer my calls."

"Yeah, sorry," Harry grumbled miserably. "When will you be back?"

"In a week or so, it all just depends on how these meetings go," Severus said apologetically. "What's wrong why can't you tell me now?"

"It's nothing that I want to talk about on the phone," Harry said quietly.

"Did something happen? What's wrong?" Severus asked a little more urgently.

"I'll see you then, yeah?" Harry asked quietly.

"As soon as I land," Severus promised.

He ended the call and took up residence in his favorite spot, his chair. He just hoped that Severus came home sooner rather than later. He didn't want to carry this around any longer than he had to. It wasn't fair to Severus to keep it from him. Severus who had looked past his escorting and loved him unconditionally, or at least he hoped so. His date with Tom could be the one condition that happened to break that streak. He just knew he couldn't ever marry the man without telling him.

Friday night found Harry with Draco and Neville staked out across the street from the building that hosted Rita Skeeter's office. They were impatiently waiting for the woman to leave and head home for the weekend and Blaise and Pansy were nearby waiting to tail her and keep them abreast of her movements. When the blonde woman finally made her exit, they were nearly too eager to pounce. Neville insisted that they wait an additional fifteen minutes to make sure that she wouldn't come back for something she may have forgotten. It wouldn't due for her to catch them breaking into her office on her way back for something.

Finally, the three of them split up and approached the rear of the building from different routes and met near the backdoor. Luckily for them, the backdoor was pretty well hidden from any view of the street and they would more than likely be left alone. After all, if a police officer did happen to walk by, Draco was incredibly posh and could probably talk his way out of anything.

Neville set to work on picking the lock while he and Draco kept watch for anyone who might be unwelcome. After a few minutes of fighting with the pair of locks on the door Neville was finally able to get the door open.

"Holy shit," Draco said as they stepped into the woman's sanctuary. The place was his worst nightmare. Everything was done in various shades of pink and the furniture even had pink fur on it and the pillows on the couch were a particularly horrible shade of pink.

"This place is downright horrible," Neville said taking his own time to look around.

"Well it's a nice match for the bitch then," Harry said wearily glancing at the pen holder that's rim was done in the pink feathery stuff.

Harry walked over behind the desk and gingerly took a seat in the fuzzy chair that sat behind her desk. He pulled his gloves up and woke up her computer.

"She didn't even lock it," Harry said surprised when a picture of her in riding gear with a white horse popped up as the wallpaper.

"She looks like she's on the Essex version of Downton Abbey," Draco smirked at the picture.

Harry continued to go through her computer, but wasn't having much luck. While Neville went through the filing cabinets and Draco did the same with her desk.

"Why is all of this so easy to get to?" Harry asked skimming her emails.

"I don't think that anyone is meant to know about this place," Neville said looking up from the paper he was reading. "We tailed her for ages now and not one person other than her has ever set foot inside this office."

"What do you reckon this is?" Draco asked slapping a black diary down onto the desktop.

Harry flipped the cover open and started flipping through the pages. He didn't know what it was, it was all written in some kind of shorthand and the only thing he could make out was that this was something that she wanted to keep private. He kept looking and was making nothing out of the words and symbols that occupied the pages of the journal. He found some sort of list of what seemed like names, but he couldn't make out any of it.

"What is this?" Neville asked peering over his shoulder.

"I have no idea she's got it all wrapped up into some sort of code," Harry said frustrated.

"There's a photocopier over there, let's get as much of it as we can," Draco suggest and Harry shook his head.

"She might notice that something has been used. We'll take photos of it instead," he answered and pulled out his phone.

They carefully photographed as many pages of the book as they could and made sure that everything was back in place. They locked the door and made their way out of the back alley and onto the street. Draco hailed a cab and the three of them were off, hopefully leaving no sign of their presence.

Once they were safely on their way, Harry emailed all of the pictures to Hermione and asked her if she knew or could figure out what the pages of the book had said. Whatever it was it was clearly very important and Rita didn't want anyone to be able to read any of it on first glance. He had no faith in himself, but if anyone could solve this it would be Hermione.

Later at home all he could manage to do was to feel frustrated by everything. He was super impatient to find out what they had uncovered in their little break in and even more impatient for Severus to come home. All he had to do was to wait and it was driving him mad. He spent time trying to study, or to do anything that might be productive, but most of his time was spent pacing in his sitting room. It did nothing to soothe him and if anything it only made him more on edge. He just wanted some form of closure, if it was something they could use then great, but if it was nothing he needed to know so that they could get cracking on their next move.

A/N: Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but I wanted to update and just know that big things are coming soonish I hope. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I've also sort of started another Snarry if you want to check it out it's under my name and it's called 'Just Always Be Waiting For Me.'