Narcissa Malfoy read the newspaper on the west wing terrace, as she did every summer morning. She smiled as she looked at the gossip column. She was not a woman who usually red these things, but she had heard that Harry had plans to take her son out the ballet the night before, and she wanted to get some confirmation. She was not disappointed.

The papers did not know about Harry's curse, to them he had suddenly become extremely out going, and then just as suddenly became a recluse again. This trip to the ballet had been his first outing in months, and the press was scandalised to see who he had on his arm….

Her beautiful baby boy.

She beamed down at the photograph and traced the outline of his face. He was laughing and holding hands with Harry, who had eyes only for Draco. He probably didn't even know they were being photographed. She sighed. They did look good together, happy even. If she didn't know better she would think they were perfect. In fact, Harry looked like he was taking care of Draco and Draco looked like he was happy….

Far happier than she had ever been in her marriage, in fact. He had never hit her or anything, but she was far happier now she had killed him. Yes, she killed him, a few drops of poison in his afternoon tea; it was an effective and rare poison, the extremely expensive stuff that was untraceable. She had a feeling that Severus had made it during the first war, but she couldn't remember.

Anyway, it was clean and business like and now it was over. She just wished she could do the same to Harry. She had had plenty of opportunity when he was here before, but Draco was so dependent on him at the moment, it wouldn't make sense to do it…yet.

She sat back in her chair and let the sun wash over her.

Harry himself walked into his apartment, a sleek black bag in his hand.

He wasn't totally sure this was a good idea, but ever since….the incident, as Harry now thought of it, he couldn't stop thinking about Draco and his collar, and well…. He hoped he wasn't going to mess everything up again; there was no way to really tell. He was just going to have to risk it.

He went through to the lest formal room, the games room and called Draco in. They sat down on the deep blue love seat and Harry took a deep breath, suddenly feeling a little ill…

"Draco." He said, trying to sound confident. "Please take off your collar." Draco's eyes went wide and his hand flew up to his neck, heart ponding. "just trust me baby." Harry said, to be honest he didn't even trust himself. He couldn't be sure that this was the right thing to do. But he hoped it was.

With shaking hands Draco unclasped the plastic collar and slowly, achingly bought it to his lap. His held on to it so tightly his hands were deathly white, but he did as master asked. He just prayed that this wasn't….the end. Harry came forward and kissed Draco's neck sensually, licking, nibbling, sucking. Despite himself Draco moaned and threw his head back, a huge smile spread across Harry's face and he pulled Draco on to his lap. As they kissed, Draco's grip on his collar slowly loosened and trembling, he let go of it to cup his master's face.

When they finally pulled apart Draco's lips were swollen and his eyes bright.

"Like that baby?" Harry couldn't resist asking. He knew he had, they both clearly had, but Harry liked to be told. "Yes master" Draco said, blushing slightly. "Now" Harry said, truly confident this time. "Close your eyes." Draco did so, still all too aware of his bare neck, but unwilling to deny his master…

He heard a slight rustle of tissue paper before he felt Harry's breath on his face and something cool being wrapped around his throat. "open." Harry said, He held out a small hand held mirror to Draco, who snatched it up eagerly and looked- and gasped.

His new collar was rose gold with rows and rows of brilliant diamonds, each glistening and omitting a tiny rainbow, making Draco look as if he glowed. "Oh Harry! It's amazing!" Harry beamed at him, but then his eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. Luckily, Draco was still admiring himself in the mirror so he didn't see, but- he had just called Harry by his first name! Harry was gob smacked, he felt like dancing and singing and celebrating, and anything else he could do. This was major, this was huge, and this was-

"Oh thank you master!" Draco dropped the mirror and climbed in to Harry's lap again. "Well, I thought you deserved something better than that old plastic one." "Thank you!" Draco gushed. Harry kissed him on the forehead, rather pleased with himself. "But baby," he said, bracing himself for whatever Draco decided to throw at him. "Sometimes…" he started slowly. "Sometimes, I'm going to ask you to take it off okay? And it doesn't mean anything bad will happen it just means…you'll take a break from it for a bit. Like you did just now. Okay?"

The point was for Draco to learn that the world wouldn't end if he wasn't wearing it, and maybe when he learned that, he could learn the same thing in relationship to being Harry's pet…

"Okay!" Draco said, almost jumping up and down for joy. Harry wasn't totally sure he had been listening, he had picked up the mirror again and was still gazing at his gift in awe, but, well he was so happy and that was so rare, Harry just didn't have the heart to interrupt him….

He wrapped his arms around Draco and kissed his head gently, but Draco only vaguely registered it, he was still so enchanted...

Harry's plan took a long time to work, but by mid-October, he had actually got somewhere with it…kind of. Draco was now totally okay with taking it off, excited about it even, but he never, ever forgot to put it back on again, and he got nervous if it was away from him for too long. But well, small steps… Time moved on, Severus visited the two of them often and Draco was clearly becoming very close to the man. They went to see Draco's mother a few more times, and the ballet, opera and any other thing Harry thought Draco was likely to enjoy.

Harry was currently wondering around muggle London, he did that sometimes. It was nice to get out of the house to be honest, and he always picked up a little something for Draco, some flowers, or a box of chocolates or something. He was never very original, but it was the thought that counted, and everywhere he went, he thought about Draco, saw things that he might like, small things mostly, but he was always on Harry's mind.

He didn't spend a long time out, it was starting to rain and he had a craving to curl up in front of the TV and snuggle with Draco…

But when he got home, something wasn't right. Draco looked slightly damp for one thing, and he was very fidgety, almost as if guilty. Harry tried to ask what was wrong, but Draco just said; "not wrong, exactly master." Harry wanted to clarify, but he also wanted to respect the other man's privacy, so he left it alone.

It was a little while later, they were both watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory, when Draco finally spoke up; "you said I was allowed to go outside, um, right master? That I had permission, and everything?" Harry turned to Draco, stunned. "Well, yeah, you are defiantly allowed too! Did you?"

"Yes master." Draco told the floor. He had been nervous ever since master had come home a few hours ago, but now he was verging on terrified, he tried not to let it show, but he wasn't totally sure what he had done was allowed. And he didn't want to be a bad boy…

"What did you do?" Draco took a deep breath. "Well, I was cleaning one of the windows master, and I looked down and I thought I saw… I mean we're so high up, it was hard to tell, I thought I saw a cat in the street… it looked hurt, it kept wondering around in circles, so… I went down and…well checked if it was okay." Draco decided to skip the fact that he was almost crying in fear by the time he got down there, and that it was perhaps the bravest thing he had done in his entire life.

"Oh good for you honey." Harry said, heart fluttering. "And was the cat okay? What did you do?"

"I…bought it up here master." Draco looked at Harry with wide eyes, fearful not only for himself, but for his new…friend. But Harry just smiled and asked where the cat was now. Still shaking slightly, Draco went to retrieve her.

He walked back in a few moments later, with the most adorable grey kitten in his arms. She mewed softly and Draco began to stoke her. Harry could honestly say he had never seen anything more angelic in his life than these two beings together. He was so in awe that he could do nothing but stare at them, stare at their beauty.

"Her name is Pringles." Draco said after a moment.

"Awwwww!" Harry cooed, reaching out to take her. She certainly seemed like a stray, her hair was a bit manky and there was blood on her leg. With a quick spell he fixed the bone and had her purring in moments.

"Why pringles?" Harry asked. "Oh, when I found her she was going through some rubbish on the side of the street, a pringles can to be exact… I thought it was sweet. If that's okay master…"

"Of course baby!" Harry said, "I'll go out and get her some food and stuff in the morning, all the shops will be closed by now."

"You mean, we can keep her?" Draco exclaimed, he really hadn't been expecting anything as god as that! "Of course, unless you don't want to..?" "I do master! I do very much!" Harry smiled and kissed Draco before letting pringles down to the ground. "Good. Because I do too." Draco smiled and hugged him, before merrily heading off to start dinner.

He's an amazing person, Harry thought suddenly. And it was true, he was. To risk his 'masters' wrath must have taken a huge amount of courage, and just so he could help a kitten…

And Harry felt himself sliding just a little more in love.

That night, Pringles jumped on the bed with them, settling between Harry's and Draco's legs. For such a hurt little thing, she was remarkably resilient, just like Draco, really….

"I'm so glad you saved her baby, good for you."

Draco Just smiled in to his master's neck, and took his hand. He felt really good about what he had done, felt…proud. Of himself. He hadn't felt like that in a long time. For a moment there was a spark in him that said that perhaps he was a good and strong, possibly even strong enough to be independent. But the spark was gone before he could even really think about it.

It was like watching a flower opening, Harry decided. That's what it was like seeing Draco start to come alive again. It had been about four months since Harry's curse had been lifted, and six since he had taken Draco away from his family. And still so little had happened, and yet so much. Harry was fiercely proud of Draco, of his kindness, his raw emotions, and his pure endurance. He had so much inside of him that Harry just didn't understand, so much hurt, and yet he was still… so amazing.

Harry woke up multiple times in the night, due to Pringles yowling, but Draco slept straight through, and she was so cute, and he was so happy to just be with Draco, that Harry didn't really mind.