Author's Note: Are you proud of me? I actually didn't wait six months before uploading another chapter. There's only one more chapter left after this one.

Chapter 24

Harry stirred his coffee and stared at the Daily Prophet. Nothing exciting was really going on around London, it seemed. Stretching, he felt his back crack and sighed. He looked at the croissant on his plate and bit in, jelly flowing out and coating his fingers. He licked it off before settling back in his chair and staring blankly ahead of him. He was going to start working again next week. Kingsley said that he was willing to give him one final chance. After all, the whole mess hadn't started because Harry had wanted to become a vampire; it simply hadn't been his fault.

Of course, the thought was frightening. He hadn't worked in so long. He had spent most of his free time working at a Quidditch shop that had hired him. A good portion of the job was trying out new models of brooms. Harry loved the feeling of soaring through the air. It reminded him of Hogwarts – mostly of happier times. Sometimes, however, it reminded him of Draco. Harry winced, taking another bite out of the flaky pastry.

A year and two months. Or, really, it had been a year two months and eleven days. He was still keeping track. But the subject wasn't as touchy as it had been a mere few months ago. It still hurt and sometimes, when he dreamt, Draco would still swim in front of his eyes, smiling at him like he used to, but he was able to handle it now. It didn't make him go insane. He hadn't cried about it in over three months. Still, it was embarrassing that he had let him affect him for that long.

That was love.

At least, if nothing else, Seamus had finally forgiven him. It had taken a few months for him to come around, but when he did, Seamus had been able to hang out around him with minimal awkwardness. That was a step forward. They weren't quite as close as they used to be, and Harry wouldn't be surprised if that was a bridge that could never be gapped. Still, at times, Harry swore he saw Seamus give him wanting looks, but he never said anything. They were talking and friends; that was more than he could ask for after what had happened.

Ron and Hermione had let go as well. They had both admitted that they had freaked out. Harry had never been like that. Sure, there were moments of weakness, but he had always been able to pull through, to sacrifice. But for months at a time he had locked himself up. "We wanted to help you, but you shut us out," Hermione had said. "And then you go off with Seamus, hurting your friends…" That had stung. How badly had he hurt them? But he had accepted it; he had to take responsibility.

So, everything was basically back to normal, or it would be once he was back working as an Auror. He had heard Roberts had been instituted head of the department in the meantime, though. Apparently he had gone "all Sherlock Holmes" on a case. At least that was how Ron had explained it to him. Hermione had introduced him to the show, and Ron had been overjoyed by it. "I don't know how half these wizards live their lives without the telly," he had commented, ignoring Hermione as she rolled her eyes.

Harry chuckled. It was strange that so much time had passed and yet he was back to stage one. Emotionally, no, but other than the fact that he was approaching twenty-two, he had the same life he'd had just over a year ago. Still, so much had happened. Lucius Malfoy now was rotting away in jail, soul sucked out of him. Harry shuddered. That kind of a punishment was beyond imagination. Yet if anyone deserved it, it was Lucius Malfoy.

Vampires had even begun re-integration into society. A handful of them chose to stay as they were, but a majority found solace in their human forms. Hermione's potion had become a success, and Ron felt immensely pleased by the amounts of money that had poured in. After their help in the war, the Weasleys had gotten money, and George had gained a fair bit as well, but they still weren't by any means rich. Yet after that, it was impossible not to be. Hermione still said she felt bad charging for it.

"I mean, what if we had charged House Elves for freedom? It's their given right." Same old Hermione from Hogwarts…

Harry finished his croissant and placed a tip on the table. However, he didn't quite feel like getting up yet. He didn't have to get to work for another hour. They wanted him to test out the newest model of a Firebolt today. It was exciting. He occasionally took his own Firebolt out for a ride, but he hadn't ridden one other than that. If it was nice enough, he was thinking of buying one. Riding still served as the same kind of relief. His worries dropped away with every dip and dive. It cleared his mind.

He probably should get up soon, though. He could open the shop and get it ready early. He knew that Sam liked when he did that. Sam was the person who owned the shop, and she was part of the Tutshill Tornados. She was incredibly bubbly, and Harry liked her quite a lot. They got along quite well, and she kept him on edge. They occasionally raced. She played Keeper, though and wasn't the fastest. Still, she was professional and knew a handful of manoeuvres that Harry didn't know. She had been a big part on helping him move on.

They had discussed Draco to the point that she was probably sick of him. Of course, she was far too nice to put it that way, but Harry was nearly certain that she was. He had babbled like a lovesick schoolboy. She had made a point to tease him about this. Still, she was sweet and the teasing was always friendly. She could gage him better than anyone else and always seemed to know when he did and didn't want to talk about stuff. Stuff being Draco. He sighed. That damn blond…

Someone scooted over, grabbing the chair opposite of Harry. "Can I…?" He began to pull at it, and Harry stared sullenly down at his coffee mug. Even the voice sounded like Draco. He waved his hand, still glaring at the table. And yet the person didn't take the chair and walk away. That person slid down into it, sitting across from him. Harry looked up to see none other than Draco Malfoy sitting across from him. His throat dried up and he shook his head. Not after this long – it couldn't be Draco.

"I…" He shook his head again, unsure what to say.

"Hello, Harry." Harry nodded in response, his movement jerky.

"How did you find me?" Of all the questions to ask, that was the least important. What mattered was why he was here? What did he want?

"Well, I was told I could find you here. La Douceur de France, huh? The sweetness of France if I'm not mistaken…" Harry barely knew what to say. Draco was talking to him as if this was completely normal.

"I wouldn't know. I never knew French." He paused, and Draco waited expectantly. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

"Back to Malfoy, is it?" Draco sounded hurt, and Harry almost took back what he said. Yet he wasn't the one who needed to apologise. Even if he wanted to... "Not that I blame you. After what I did to you, it's only understandable."

"Understandable? I don't think you realise how fucked up –" He wasn't going to have this conversation. Draco just shouldn't have affected him as much as he did after all this time. As he looked into those blue eyes, every feeling that he had managed to suppress flooded back in. He loved Draco and hated him at the same time. Every inch of him ached to hear Draco say that he loved him again, and yet he knew that if that happened, he'd be gone again.

"I'm sorry. I know there's no way I can make it up to you."

"So leave." Harry stared intently at the table, but melted when Draco's hand touched his chin. With a gentle nudge, Draco managed to put Harry back at eye level, and he gave a small, scared smile.

"But I'm going to do everything I can to show you that I'm sorry. I – I screwed up," Draco looked genuinely sorry, and, somehow, that only made it worse.

"So, what about Aiden, huh?" Harry spat, clenching his fists. As he quivered, he noticed a few people around them looking at their table.

"Oh, you saw that..."

"That whole world saw that! And the whole world saw your interviews. 'Oh, it was a mutual break-up, but Aiden makes me happy because he cares about me.'" Harry was screaming at this point, and the entire cafe was looking at him. Shoving the chair, he stormed out, but Draco chased him. "Why can't you leave me alone? You did a fantastic job for the past –"

"Year two months and eleven days?" The fact that he knew... Harry clenched his eyes shut and then continued walking.

"I can't do this. You're just going to leave me again." He felt his eyes burn. No, he wasn't going to cry. He wasn't going to! But then they began to spill over. "Shite," he mumbled to himself, hastily wiping them away.

"I won't. Harry, I'll do anything. No, do the truth spell. I can prove to you..."

"Prove what to me – that you left me with a good reason? Because there's no good reason for ruining my life."

"I didn't mean to..." Harry turned around only to see Draco with tears in his eyes. Draco looked hopeless. "Look." Pulling out his wand, he pointed it at his head. Before Harry could figure out what he was going to do, he muttered the words to the truth spell. "De veritate."

"Please don't..." Harry collapsed to his knees, begging Draco to stop. Begging him not to say words that would make him hurt all over again. Begging him not to send him back into that hell.

"I freaked out. I still cared for you and I didn't know what to do. I felt like it was a disgrace to William..." His hand reached out for Harry, but Harry pulled away. Why now? Why couldn't Draco tried bringing this up a year ago?

"Please..." Yet Draco ignored him.

"So I got together with Aiden thinking that if I could find someone else I could get you out of my mind. But I couldn't. It took me a year before I'd admit it, but I love you Harry. I don't expect you to understand that, but I need your forgiveness."

"Why did you stay with Aiden all this time, then?" Harry asked, his voice hoarse. "Did you dump him? Is that why you're with me?"

"No, he dumped me." Harry threw his hands up and went to get away, but Draco grasped his arm. "He said that he couldn't be with me if I was in love with someone else. I've been trying to build up the courage to talk to you for three months now."

"You could've come before I fucked Seamus," Harry said, shaking his head. "No, I'm not discussing this with you," he quickly added, trembling.

"Seamus? Are you two –"

"No. He's had feeling towards me for a while now. And I freaked out because no one loved me." He had to shut his mouth, but the words were just gushing out. And those endless blue eyes looked at him with nothing but sympathy and love. But not now... He was supposed to be getting over him. But everything inside of him crumbled and fled. All he wanted to do was wrap his arms around Draco and tell him not to let him go.

Never let me go. Stay. Love me.

"You freaked out?"

"I used him. You should know how that goes. You're the expert." Draco flinched at those words.

"I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, well, you did." He began to walk away, but Draco grabbed him, pulling him close. His eyes looked incredibly red and puffy up close, and just from his ragged breathing, Harry could smell him. All he wanted to do was kiss him. But he couldn't. He had to resist.

"You don't have to forgive me now. I don't expect that. I know what I did was horrible, but please don't shut me out."

"Like you did," Harry prompted again. Draco let go, stumbling backwards.

"This was a mistake. I – Never mind." Harry watched as Draco walked away and Apparated. Gone. Out of his life again. Harry barely made it into the shop before he broke down sobbing. Sam had just come in, and immediately ran to him.

"Harry, what happened?" She was immediately at his side, her hand resting on his shoulder.

"It's Draco. He came to see me in the cafe. I thought I had started getting over him, but then he was there. And he kept on saying that he loved me. I didn't know what to do..." Harry broke down, and Sam pulled him into a tight hug.

"Bastard. If I ever see him, he won't know what hit him. He'll never be able to have children." She paused, realising what she had said and quickly added, "Well, not that he'd really be able to have children otherwise..." A chuckle broke through Harry's sobs. At least Sam seemed to know what to say to cheer him up. "But you know he was lying, right?" She smiled, and Harry shook his head.

"Truth spell," he said morosely. "I don't know what I'm going to do. He just came out of nowhere."

"Look, let's go fly. Maybe it'll help you take your mind off of things."

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It had been two and a half months since Draco had popped by. Harry kept a part-time job at the Quidditch shop. The job had been too nice to drop. Sam was busy with her team, in any case, and she needed his help taking care of the shop. He had managed to settle down again. Draco's words were like a broken record in his head, but he had at least gotten used to them.

Still, he wasn't sure what to do. His trashcan was overflowing with never-sent letters to Draco. He had wanted to say he forgave him, but he hadn't been able to muster the courage. And did he really forgive Draco? Hermione told him that perhaps it was wise to pretend like it had never happened, but they had both known that was an unrealistic expectation. He couldn't just wipe Draco from his mind. If he could've, this mess would have been over ages ago.

Harry stared down at his most recent letter. It covered the whole front of a scroll of parchment. A lot of it was him describing how the past year and a half had passed for him. But he knew that if Draco honestly was looking for his forgiveness, then he had to know everything and he had to accept it.

Harry was about to crumple it as well when Fred hooted softly from behind him. Harry turned around to see the owl glaring at him. Maybe this was some sort of sign. Perhaps he was supposed to send it to Draco. He let Fred out of his cage and attached the scroll to his leg. "Take it to Draco. And give him a good peck or two for me." Harry laughed trying to picture Draco's reaction and opened the window.

"Tempus." It was almost two in the morning. That meant it was about time to go to bed. Harry woke up to the irritating, persistent tapping on his window. Groggily he pushed open the window, and Fred flew in, a letter attached to his leg.

Harry,

I'm sorry. I never meant

to hurt you. But by now I probably sound

repetitive. It's just that I never imagined I would hurt you

that much. I just was afraid what would happen. I'm sure you're not too

keen in finding out why I treated you like I did, but I don't know how else what to

tell you. The fact that you can forgive me... It's more than I ever could have asked. I gave up hope a

while ago. If you wouldn't mind, could we possibly meet up? I understand if you

don't want to or if you're not ready yet, but you're a fantastic human

being and it would mean the world to me if we could just

be friends. Just tell me a time and a place

if you want to. Until then.

Love,

Draco

P.S. Something is wrong with your owl. He practically attacked me.

Harry laughed and looked over at Fred. "Good job." Fred ruffled his feathers in response. Yes, he did want to meet up with Draco. Was it a good idea? Probably not. Was he going to do it? Probably. Now he just had to choose a time and place...

HDHDHDHDHDHD

"He's going to be here soon," Harry said, fingers playing nervously over the handle of his new Firebolt. The model had run smoothly and Harry was one of the first ones to buy it.

"I don't know whether this is a good idea. Draco knows how to play you. Remind me again why you're doing this?"

"We're just going to be friends." Harry had explained this to Sam twenty times already, but she just gave him a sceptical look every time. "And we're going to be flying anyway."

"Really, I thought the broomsticks were just an added touch. And lending you the Quidditch pitch – just a nice background setting. Look, I'm just saying that you shouldn't get your hopes up. And be more wary and, oh, Harry, I just don't want you to get hurt!" She threw her arms around him, and Harry laughed, squeezing her tightly.

"I can handle myself. I promise. Let's just see how this goes." She nodded and leaned her head on his shoulders.

"Something you didn't tell me?" Harry pulled back to see Draco chuckling nervously and looking at the two of them.