Chapter 23

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

After setting things up with Neville, Harry wandered back upstairs to find Severus. All he wanted was for Draco to be able to have in someone else what he had found in Severus. Someone that he could spend everyday with, just the two of them, and not want to come out killing each other. Who knew when it was a good time to order takeaway without even having to ask. Severus was incredibly perceptive and he always had this way of knowing when something was up. Harry didn't even have to say anything most days Severus could read him from just one simple look. It was incredibly wonderful and infuriating at the same time.

He found the man laying in the large bed reading some book. Harry crawled into bed and snuggled tight up against his side. He just laid there in the crook of the man's arm as he read silently to himself. He switched over and propped the book on one of his knees and used his free hand to run his fingers through Harry's hair. Harry sighed in content and snuggled closer to the man. He loved the moments they shared that were like this, when they rest of the world could be tuned out and all they had to focus on was each other. They lay there together for ages just enjoying each other's company, and the fingers running through his hair finally started to get to Harry and he could feel his eyelids growing heavy and before he could stop himself he had drifted off to sleep.

The next morning he woke up to find Severus sitting across the room in a chair watching him sleep. Harry pushed himself up onto his elbows and studied the man who seemed to be deep in thought. When he noticed that Harry was awake and watching him Severus offered a brief smile before getting up and coming to sit on the edge of the bed next to Harry.

"What were you thinking about?" Harry asked quietly.

"More worrying than thinking?" Severus laughed softly.

"Worrying about what?"

"About, what if you wanted someone who could be here for you everyday," Severus sad sadly.

"Is this because I wanted you to stay the week? It's fine honestly!" Harry said earnestly. "If we spent every second of everyday together we would drive each other mad."

"I am sorry you know," Severus said somberly.

"And I'm not going anywhere," Harry smiled pointing to the ring on his finger and Severus kissed him quickly.

After Severus had left for the airport he couldn't help but find himself moping. Draco had gone out for the morning and he was left to his own devices. In the end he decided a dip in the pool was in order and he quickly changed and headed downstairs. Harry was sitting with his legs in one end of the pool when a member of the house staff brought it to him. He didn't have the faintest idea who it was from and when he asked who brought it the lady shrugged and said a currier service. There wasn't a return address at all just his name in the center. He pulled back the tab and then slid out the stack of paper that was inside. He pulled off the post it that said 'read on private' in bright red and started to read.

He couldn't believe what he was reading, it looked as if someone had compiled a load of information on the death of Lucius Malfoy. The papers clearly implied that due to Lucius Malfoy's role in an international cartel that dealt with the trade of illegal goods, a rival cartel had set up his death to look like an accident. Lucius Malfoy had been murdered in the south of France rather than dying in a freak accident. He ran his hand through his hair before picking up the last page.

The last page seemed to be a list of identified members of said cartel. The man in charge seemed to be someone called Tom Riddle and a couple lines down from Riddle was Lucius Malfoy's name with a red line through it. A few spots below that was Severus' name. Harry felt his stomach drop. He was engaged to essential a gang member, someone who had undoubtedly been involved in crimes on an international scale. Someone who had asked him to marry him and hadn't even bothered to tell him the truth. He had been upfront about escorting and his own double life from the start and Severus couldn't even be bothered to show him the same courtesy.

At the bottom of the list in the same bright red ink a warning had been written:

Don't say a word about any of this, to anyone, including your lover. By doing so you endanger your lover's life. I will contact you later with what I want from you.

Brilliant, he thought to himself. He climbed up off the edge of the pull and hurried to his room. He hid the envelope and papers in the bottom of his suitcase and tried to decide if he should tell Severus. But it had said that telling would put not only Severus in danger but everyone else on the list as well. He idly wondered if Draco knew about any of this. The git had to right? With his father and godfather involved he probably grew up in the midst of everything. Draco had also taken up learning to run the Malfoy empire and that made him wonder if Draco had become involved in his father's and godfather's career of choice.

The signs had been there all along. With Severus flying to Glasgow to see him on a moment's notice, the whole thing with Rita Skeeter. He felt sick to his stomach thinking about what might have happened to the woman. She was an insane bitch, but killing or hurting her was just out of the question to him. He wanted to ask Severus or Draco about it all, but the letter had told him not to say a word. He didn't want to put anyone at risk. He felt sick to his stomach. None of this boded well with him, someone knew what was happening and they made sure that he knew. He was of course hurt that Severus or Draco hadn't bothered to mention it to him, but they both probably had a very good reason. Right? He was stuck holding onto this secret and it was already starting to eat away at him.

He got by with avoiding Draco until that Friday when he had promised to take the blonde out for his birthday. Luckily for him Draco had been spending the week with him and Blaise and Pansy. The pair were done with university and had decided to surprise him by staying for the week as well. Harry had spent most of the week avoiding him, other than the small birthday dinner that he was forced to attend, things were going really well on that front. He was thankful that he had sorted things with Neville for today, so instead of spending the whole afternoon with Draco he was going to be able dump Draco on Neville and head back to the house to pack and spend more time on his own. He was trying to deal with his feelings on the information he had received, after all there wasn't any concrete evidence, just some papers in an envelope from a stranger. It could just be someone trying to prank him. He was trying to just push it to the back of his mind and not even think about it. He was just spacing himself for two reasons: he felt like no one trusted him, because if this was true they surely would have had the courtesy to tell him the truth. The second being if it wasn't true, he didn't want to be so quick to judge, and react for it all to turn out to be some horrible lie.

When he came downstairs when he was due to meet Draco, the blonde was already waiting on him. He huffed about Harry taking ages and led him out to the car that was waiting on him. Harry spent the short trip staring out the window as Draco babbled on about something he had done with Pansy and Blaise last night. Harry was too distracted by the fact that he was about to set Draco up to notice. He nodded and agreed in all the right places, and luckily Draco was too full of himself to notice.

Harry felt like the unlucky boyfriend who was forced to watch his girlfriend try on everything in the store and still expected to make all the right comments at the right times when he was shopping with Draco. Draco wanted honesty when asking about an outfit or a piece of garment, but he also suffered from this very narcissistic point of view that everything looked good on him. The only reprieve was when his phone buzzed with a new text.

'I miss you,' Severus had sent.

'Miss you too. Xx,' Harry replied before Draco burst out of the dressing room and did a spin.

"Perfect," Harry said absentmindedly.

"If you insist on this marriage," Draco feigned boredom. "I am obviously the best choice for your best man."

"I think that maybe Severus would like to ask you to be his," Harry said thoughtfully. "Your father was his best friend and you're his godson."

"True," Draco said after a moment and turning and prancing back into the dressing room.

After ages of shopping with Draco, Harry convinced Draco that he was starving and led him down to the restaurant where he was meant to meet Neville. He was still anticipating the reaction he would receive from Draco, he had never done anything as brash as set him up on a date. The only good thing was that he wouldn't be around to face any post date wrath, because he had booked a flight back to London later that night. With everything that had happened he just wanted to go home. There was also the matter of breaking the news to everyone that he was now officially off the market. For now he had to focus on Draco and Neville, and getting Draco to agree to stay to at least have dinner with him.

When the restaurant came into view, Harry was relieved to see that Neville had indeed showed up. He was nervously shifting from foot to foot near the door, he had tried to dress smartly but casual at the same time. Harry was still trying to sort out how to introduce Draco to Neville, when the boy spotted them and waved nervously.

"Who is that?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"That's Neville, and well, you're going on a date with him," Harry smiled slyly, and then shrugged.

"What are you talking about!?" Draco whispered harshly.

"Well, I sort of set you up with him. He was at your party and he agreed."

"Why would you set me up?"

"Well, I wanted you to actually go on a date with a normal human being without being paid," Harry shrugged again.

"Well, I'm not going!" Draco whispered.

"Don't be such a prat!"

"You're the prat," Draco said shoving him lightly.

"Just go, and if you don't like it you can ask one favor of me," Harry offered.

"Anything?" Draco asked his interest peaked.

"Within reason," Harry agreed hesitantly.

"Fine," Draco huffed and then headed over to turn on his famous Malfoy charm for Neville.

When Harry arrived home a few hours later, Severus wasn't in from work yet, and the house was pretty empty. There were a few members of staff milling about, but other than that he was on his own. He had went upstairs and hid the envelope of papers in the spare room, in a box of his old escorting clothes. It was the last place that anyone would look to find it, and he had decided that if nothing else happened, he wasn't going to say a word and just let it all blow over. There was no reason to cause a fuss over something that could have been a poor choice in prank. For now he was going to spend some time with Severus and tomorrow after he had finished settling back in he was going to tell Ron and Hermione about his engagement, and then the rest of the Weasley family. This was meant to be a happy time and he wasn't going to let it be marred by this.

He couldn't help but be distracted by it though, to be fair it was a lot to take in and he didn't really have anyone to talk to about it. He just wished he knew who was behind the envelope. He couldn't even think of anyone that would want to send him something like that. What was their motive. It was a lot hard to push to the back of his mind than he had wanted it to be. The most important thing was to not allow Severus to pick up on it because if he were to ask what was wrong Harry might not be able to help himself from blurting it out. He wanted to get to the bottom of this with as little damage done as possible. He would have to distance himself, but not noticeably so. Severus was incredibly observant, so he needed to distance himself from what had happened and any connection Severus may or may not have to it all.

Severus was of course happy to see him when he finally got in from work for the day. Harry ordered a takeaway for them, and after dinner he laid on the couch in Severus' studying reading a book while Severus finished some last minute work stuff. After a bit Harry kissed Severus goodnight and headed up the stairs to have a shower before bed. When he got out and padded into the bedroom Severus was sitting on the end of the bed waiting on him.

"Are you upset with me?" Severus asked after a moment.

"What no, why would I be?" Harry asked confused.

"You wanted me to stay," Severus answered after a moment.

"We already talked about this before you even left. I'm the furthest thing from mad at you," Harry promised pulling on some pants to sleep in.

"And you're sure?" Severus said extending a hand for Harry to come to him.

"Positive," Harry nodded and Severus kissed him.

Severus kissed Harry again and pulled him closer, but Harry put a hand on his chest to stop him and Severus stared up at him quizzically.

"Not tonight, yeah?" Harry said after a moment.

"You are mad," Severus said quietly.

"I'm not mad," Harry said offering a weak smile. "I just don't feel very good tonight, I'll make it up to you soon."

"You never have to make it up to me," he replied sincerely. "Come let's get my fiancé into bed so that he may feel better in the morning."

Harry lay awake long after Severus had finally drifted off to sleep. He was worrying himself about the envelope and how it could cause so much trouble for them, and that he didn't want it to come between them. He didn't intend to allow it to, but the person who had sent it had some sort of motive, and Harry couldn't help but to worry that this was more about him than it was either Severus or Draco.

A/N: I hope you like it! Sorry about the wait, a lot of stuff came up and then someone said this story didn't exactly live up to the hype around it, and that was sort of discouraging. Thanks for reading and reviewing!