Title: Cimerice
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Year 2 Assignment: 6
Task: extinct languages, task 1
Prompt: write about someone learning a new language
Gotta Catch 'Em All: number 79, Slowpoke, water
Prompt: [dialogue] "Can't we just fake our deaths and start over somewhere new?"
Jurassic Park: topiary/design, John Hammond statue
Prompt: [dialogue] "You cannot be serious."
Disney Magic: Mulan, 1
Prompt: [dialogue] "Would you like to stay for dinner?"/"Would you like to stay forever?"
Diagon Alley Adoption Centre: No Probllama the Llama, number 93
Prompt: [dialogue] "Not my problem."
Fandom Frenzy: Ted Lasso
Prompt: [dialogue] "If that's a joke, I love it. If not, can't wait to unpack that with you later."
What a Bargin: beauty & personal care, perfume/cologne
Prompt: [food] vanilla flavoured something
Stardew Shopper: 42 [flower] summer spangle for Caroline
Prompt: [setting] foreign country
In Memoriam: number 27
Prompt: [word] feline
It's All Relative: Harry, number 4
Prompt: [action] learning a new skill
Movie Night: companions, number 1
Prompt: [character] Harry Potter
Writing club
Character Appreciation: number 9
Prompt: [emotion] amused
The Forecast says: 12th, thunderstorm
Prompt: [emotion] exasperated
Music Mayhem: number 7, Best Song Ever
Prompt: [word] unforgettable
Days of the Year: 3rd, world Jellyfish day
Prompt: [dialogue] "I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine."
Actor Appreciation: 13
Prompt: write about a character with a space themed name
Prompt Parlour: dialogues, number 5
Prompt: "You have no choice."
The Menagerie on Discord
Weekly Writing Challenge: 11/11/24
Prompts: [word] amazing
NaNoWriMo Daily Prompts: Day 1
Prompt: [word] per se
Word count: 2512
Warnings/Trigger warnings: N/A
A/NSet after the war. A continuation of Life Finds a Way but it is not necessary to have read it to understand this (I hope).
It had been a little over a year since Draco's chance meeting with Harry Potter in a supermarket in Croatia. Draco had been in desperate want of a cup of tea and Harry had come to his rescue in the supermarket. He had taken Draco to a nearby café and even bought him a cup of tea. Even more surprising to Draco, and to Harry, had been the fact they had cordially enjoyed a cup of tea and coffee together, discussing what had brought each of them to their chance meeting in the supermarket. If you'd told Draco ten years ago that he and Harry would pass the time of day together without any animosity he would've laughed in your face. But the war and the press's attention in its aftermath had wearied them both and there was just no energy or point left to carrying on schoolboy grudges. Despite the lack of open hostility between them you could have still knocked Draco over with a feather when, asked where Draco could find a good dinner, Harry had offered Draco dinner at his house. Deprived of substantial human interaction due to language barriers, Draco had found himself accepting Harry's offer. Dinner had turned into staying at Harry's for the next two weeks and watching the game with Harry's new friends at the weekend. It had turned into the most unforgettable and best two weeks Draco could ever remember in his life.
A part of Harry's offer at the time came from pity for Draco (and himself) but also from the novelty of conversing with someone in his native tongue. Moreover, someone who understood the world that Harry had left behind when he moved to Croatia to live a mostly Muggle life. No matter what had prompted the offer the fact remained that by the end of the two weeks, the relationship between the two former rivals was dramatically altered beyond recognition, forever. Draco had left and finished visiting all the places in Europe that he had initially embarked upon, promising to visit Harry again before he returned to Britain.
Draco had spent another two weeks with Harry on his way home, wishing to delay as much as possible his own return to Britain. Draco missed his home and his family, but life at home was so intolerable to him that he spent only two weeks at home visiting with his mother and briefly visiting his father in Azkaban before he left the country once more. He wandered through Europe for another month before writing to Harry and asking if he could visit. He'd received a reply the next day inviting Draco to come and stay for as long as he wished. After that Draco became a frequent guest at Harry's house, returning home for brief periods to see his mother; each visit to Harry became longer and longer. Draco had even begun learning Croatian as he spent so much time there and he couldn't continue to rely on Harry translating all the time. The last time Draco had been there he'd stayed for two months before he went home to visit his mother and his father, who was now released from Azkaban due to poor health. His father's compassionate release resulted in Draco's longest visit home in over two years.
He'd been home for a month and a half and he hated it.
Rita Skeeter had managed to publish no less than six articles about Draco in the time he'd been home, speculating, amongst many things, that Draco was travelling in Europe to gather supporters to his cause to become the next Dark Lord. The problem was that some people believed the codswallop that she printed and Draco found himself the subject of many stares and mutters whenever he tried to go about his business. It was exasperating, to say the least. Draco was supposed to be returning to Harry's in a fortnight but after a particularly nasty encounter on his way back from Gringotts, an emotionally and physically bruised Draco had bid farewell to his parents and returned to Croatia. Harry wouldn't mind that Draco had returned early. It was why he had given Draco access to his security spells so that Draco could let himself in when Harry wasn't at home.
Draco sighed with relief as he walked up the driveway to Harry's house. He had almost reached the house when a flash of white zoomed around the corner of the house and rubbed itself against Draco's ankles, purring contentedly. Draco smiled and reached down, scratching the cat behind his ears. He was incredibly fond of Harry's cat, despite his initial apprehension.
"I've got a present for you," Draco told the cat, holding up a tin of tuna and was rewarded with an appreciative chirrup. He let himself into the house and dished the tuna out into a bowl, with some difficulty as the cat kept shoving its face in the way, eager to get to the tuna. "Is that good?" Draco asked, smiling again. He could remember very clearly his first encounter with the cat.
Harry had no sooner put his shopping bags down, when he was greeted by the bundle of white fluffy fur and whiskers.
"He's beautiful," Draco had said, surprised by how much he liked the cat. "What's his name?"
"That…a name is unimportant," Harry had muttered, rubbing the back of his neck and quickly starting to unpack his shopping. Draco had then found himself the subject of great curiosity to the cat who was circling round Draco, pausing to sniff at him every so often. Draco stood quite still, avoiding eye contact with the cat, hoping it would go away. It didn't. The next thing Draco knew, the cat had jumped up onto his shoulders and was making itself at home. Draco had yelped, causing Harry to turn around and shout, "Draco! No! Get down. Come and have some dinner."
For a moment, Draco had been very bewildered, until the cat had hopped down from his shoulder and trotted across the room to where Harry was opening a tin of cat food.
"Potter, did you name your cat Draco?" Draco had smirked and Harry had flushed bright red. For the briefest of moments the tension that had existed between them during school had returned.
"Well, he reminded me of you as a ferret cos he's white and then of course he thinks he's better than everyone," Harry had replied and it was Draco's turn to flush at the memory. "I've since realised all cats think they're superior to everyone."
"Huh, I guess I am unforgettable to you, after all." Draco had laughed. "Although, perhaps not for the reasons I would have liked. I was a total arse."
"Yeah, you were, Malfoy," Harry had agreed. "But you're trying to change that, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's not dwell on that," Harry had replied as he finished unpacking his shopping and Draco the cat once more leapt up onto Draco's shoulder and perched there, nuzzling his head against Draco's. "Draco seems to like you," Harry had commented, looking curiously at him.
"He's feline good about meeting his name's sake," Draco had shrugged.
"Urgh," Harry had groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Did you miss me?" Draco asked Draco the cat as he wrapped himself around Draco's ankles having finished his tuna. "I'll take that as a da. See, I'm learning. Slowly, but I'm learning bits of the language." Draco the cat looked pointedly at him. "Hey, it still counts," Draco protested. "Don't you judge me 'cos I'm rubbish at learning languages." Draco the cat meowed at him. "I also learned how to cook something," Draco said, pointing to his bag. The cat cocked its head to one side. "Look," Draco said triumphantly, pulling a jelly out of his bag. The cat sat up on his hind legs to inspect Draco's 'cooking'. "It's for Harry, not for you." The cat gave a disapproving meow. "Hey you had tuna," he told the cat as he placed the jelly into Harry's fridge before raiding the freezer for some ice cream.
Harry arrived home a couple of hours after Draco. He took off his shoes and paused. He could smell tuna. He knew immediately what he would find in his living room.
"Hi Draco," he called out as he opened the door. Draco was lounging on the sofa eating a big bowl of ice cream.
"Hi," Draco cheerfully replied. "Did you miss me?"
"You gave Draco tuna again, didn't you?" Harry glowered at Draco. "Please note your answer to this will dictate how much I missed you."
"Who? Me? Never," Draco said, giving Harry his most innocent look. "I would never do that."
"I can smell it."
"Ice cream?" Draco asked, offering his bowl of ice cream to Harry in a bid to distract him from the tuna.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that's the ice cream from my freezer, or did you actually go shopping for me?"
"I may have found it in the freezer," Draco acquiesced and Harry rolled his eyes. "In my defence I've been learning to cook and I made you something."
"You've been learning to cook?" Harry looked sceptical.
"Yes!" Draco said defensively. "You're always cooking for me when I'm here and I thought it would be nice if I could learn to cook so I could make you something sometime."
Harry blinked rapidly, clearly shocked. "I…okay…wow," Harry said. "So where is it?"
"Where is what?" Draco asked through the last mouthful of ice cream.
"What you made for me," an exasperated Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, yeah. It's in the fridge."
Harry opened his fridge and looked inside, before looking back at Draco and saying, "Where?"
It was Draco's turn to roll his eyes as he got up and crossed over to Harry, and pointed to the jelly. "Right there," he said as though this should have been perfectly obvious. "The only thing in your fridge that wasn't in your fridge when you left."
"The jelly?"
"Yes."
"You cannot be serious," Harry said, trying not to laugh. "You said you cooked something."
"I did. I cooked the jelly for you," Draco said, looking very pleased with himself.
"You cooked the jelly?" Harry asked, the amusement in his voice was evident.
"Yes," Draco said smiling broadly.
"If that's a joke, I love it. If not, can't wait to unpack that with you later."
"Why would it be a joke?" Draco asked, looking genuinely confused. "Don't you like it?"
"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine," Harry said, "for dessert."
"But what needs unpacked?"
"Draco, I love that you've done something nice for me, but making jelly isn't cooking." Draco looked crestfallen. "But I love that you're trying new things."
"Hvala puno," Draco said with a grin.
"Ucis Hrvatski?"
"Pokušavam učiti," Draco replied uncertainly.
"Close enough," Harry smiled.
"I thought I relied on you too much for translating so I'm trying. I'm absolutely rubbish at it but I'm trying."
"Bravo. To je težak jezik."
"Erm…"
"I said it's a hard language."
"Da!"
"Pivo?" Harry asked.
"Naravno?"
"Let's sit outside," Harry said, handing Draco a beer from the fridge and leading the way outside to his pool.
Draco followed Harry out to the sun loungers by the pool. Draco stretched out on the sun lounger and took a swig of his beer.
"I'm pleased to you," Harry said, taking a sip of his own beer, "but I wasn't expecting to see you for another couple of weeks. What happened?"
"Does something have to have happened per se?" Draco asked. "You know how much I hate being back home."
"I do, but I think I know you pretty well by now and I know when something seems off." Harry cocked an eyebrow at Draco as he scrutinised him.
"Fine. There was an incident when I was running an errand to Gringotts," Draco offered.
"What kind of an incident?" Harry inquired, sitting up straight on his lounger.
"More than just the usual stares and mutters," Draco said, avoiding Harry's gaze.
"You were attacked?" Harry exclaimed. "Were you hurt?"
"A little bruised, emotionally and physically," Draco said with a sigh. "No one will ever believe I've changed, not with Rita Skeeter still publishing articles about how I'm trying to recruit my own followers to become the next Dark Lord."
"Well, you know you're always welcome here."
"It's still so surreal that you of all people tell me that." Draco gave a little shake of his head. Harry merely chuckled. "Can't we just fake our deaths and start over somewhere new?"
"Well, I did it without faking my death," Harry said, gesturing to their surroundings. "And you seem to have done that too."
"I have?"
"I thought you'd pretty much moved in with me, given how much time you spend here." Harry chuckled again.
"I guess I quite like not being the notorious Draco Malfoy here."
"Who would have thought a dinner invitation would turn into a roommate," Harry added.
"Wasn't that what you asked?" Draco pretended to look surprised.
"I'm pretty sure I said: Would you like to stay for dinner?" Harry mused.
"Would you like to stay forever?" Draco smirked. "I'm sure those were your words."
"Certainly seems to be what you heard," Harry said with a laugh.
"Not my problem," Draco shrugged. "You should choose your words more carefully."
"Can I redact my statement?"
"No."
"Do I have a choice?"
"You have no choice. You're stuck with me now Potter."
"Amazing!" Harry said sarcastically.
They sat in silence for a long time finishing their beers. It wasn't until the sun was low in the sky and the shadows had lengthened that either of them spoke again.
"You'd tell me if you were fed up of me visiting you, wouldn't you?" Draco ventured.
"Of course I would, but I wouldn't have given you access to my security enchantments if I thought that would be the case," Harry reassured him.
They lapsed back into silence again. The sun had disappeared below the horizon and the first stars had appeared before Harry stirred from his seat.
"Why don't I make us some dinner before we get eaten alive by mosquitoes?" Harry offered.
"Is that another dinner invitation, Harry?" Draco smirked, following Harry indoors.
"I guess I never learn." Harry shrugged.
"I guess not. You'd best be more careful with your words or I'll never leave." Draco laughed.
"Do you plan to leave?" Harry asked as he rummaged in the fridge for ingredients for dinner.
"I don't want to."
"Then don't. You're already trying to learn the language. Why not just stay?"
"Are you serious?"
"Would you like to stay forever?"
"I mean, yeah. There's nothing for me back home."
"Then it's settled," Harry said, smiling brightly. "Grab us another couple of beers roomie. We've got something to celebrate. And we've got Squishy to eat for dessert."
Draco handed Harry a bottle of beer.
"Cheers," Harry said, as they clinked their bottles together. "To…cimerice"
"Cimerice," Draco echoed.