Chapter Text
In the morning, Harry woke up to find Draco sitting up in bed next to him with a book. He rolled over and lazily draped an arm across Draco’s waist, mumbling something he hoped resembled a greeting.
“Morning sleepy head,” Draco said, scooting down in bed so they can cuddle.
They shared a soft kiss and Harry buried his head back into Draco’s chest. They lay there for a while before Draco broke the silence.
“Harry?”
There was something in his tone - this was a serious conversation. Harry moved back so he could see him properly.
“I don’t know what to do about this,”
In his hand was the ace flag from the night before. Harry didn’t know if it was his sleep addled brain or not, but he didn’t see the problem with the flag.
“We should put it on the wall,” he said.
Draco rolled his eyes, “no, I mean, I basically came out to everyone last night… that wasn’t the plan.”
“Oh,”
“Yes. Oh.”
“I don’t think it’s gonna be a big deal, honestly. Everyone’s pretty accepting,”
“No I know, and I don’t think I’m worried about that, more like… it feels very personal, you know? I feel like I just announced that we don’t have sex, rather than announced part of my identity,”
Harry sat up slightly as Draco did the same.
“I don’t want to have to explain myself,”
“Then you don’t have to,” Harry said simply, “I’ll just hex anyone who asks any questions. Ron’s been due for a good hexing since he burst in on us last week,”
Draco laughed despite himself.
“Or,” Harry said, “I’m happy to talk, kind of, on your behalf if you want? If you tell me what you want to say but don’t want to have the actual conversations?”
“No,” Draco said sharply, and Harry held his hands up in mock surrender, “I need to do this myself.”
“Okay, well, just give me the symbol if you need to hex anyone. Ginny is particularly good at Bat Bogey Hexes,”
They got ready with more light touches than usual, and Harry could feel Draco’s nervousness radiating from him.
They entered the kitchen that morning holding hands, as a team. Apart from hungover groans, breakfast was a quiet affair. Harry chose coffee rather than tea and regretted it almost instantly. He put way too much sugar in it, and Draco wrinkled his nose up at it when Harry tried to palm it off on him. Harry did his best and drank a third of it before pouring it down the sink and instead making a cup of tea.
Sirius was the worst off, as could’ve been predicted. He didn’t even make it to the kitchen, and instead collapsed on the couch whining much too loudly for someone who was so hungover.
“Moonyyyyy, Moooooooonyyyyyyyy, I need coffeeeeee,”
“Shut up, Pads,”
“Moonyyyy, don’t you love me anymore?”
“I’ll love you if you make me coffee instead,”
“Moony!”
“Padfoot!”
Their whining went on for so long that Hermione eventually took pity on them and brought coffee to the couch along with a stack of buttered toast. Remus looked appropriately sheepish as he thanked her, but Sirius accompanied his thanks with: “At least someone loves me, Moony!”
After a couple of hours during which everyone trickled out of their rooms and ate breakfast and drank coffee at very sedate paces, Narcissa approached Harry and Draco where they were sharing an armchair.
“Harry dear,” she said, and Harry was struck by how motherly she seemed, “do you mind if I borrow Draco for a minute?”
“Of course,”
Draco got up awkwardly, and followed his mother down the hallway, a blank look on his face.
Harry tried to take his mind off it by engaging Gina in a conversation. Harry had to hand it to Ginny, last night seemed to be exactly what Gina had needed. Gina talked Harry’s ear off about how wonderful last night had been, and all the things around the street she’d seen that he hadn’t noticed. She then told him, in no uncertain terms, that they were going out again.
“Queers on the town!” she shouted, and Sirius gave a half-hearted “woo” from the couch. Remus almost fell over with laughter, which was impressive considering he was sitting on the floor.
Draco emerged, and sat himself straight back down on Harry’s lap where he’d been before Narcissa had whisked him away.
“Okay?” Harry asked quietly. Gina seemed to get the message, and shifted her body so she was facing Remus and Sirius to give them some privacy.
“She wanted to ask about the ace thing,” Draco said, and he sounded exhausted, “wanted to make sure it wasn’t her fault, or something,”
“I’m sorry, love,”
“It’s okay,” but Harry knew it wasn’t.
“It will be okay,” Harry said.
Harry thought they spent an awful lot of time cuddling, and he didn’t really mind. He didn’t know what he was going to do once they started working though and had to spend whole days apart. When did he get this co-dependent?
Harry and Draco thankfully weren’t disturbed by any more questions until after lunch when Ron found them as they were sitting under the apple tree in the yard, taking in the fading sun.
“Hey,” he said, “Can I sit with you?”
Harry shrugged and moved over so that Ron could fit on the blanket he and Draco were using as a picnic blanket.
“Please, you know, tell me to shut up and all, but I just wanted to ask a couple of questions?”
Harry looked to Draco. Draco seemed resigned to the fact that this was going to happen sooner or later and nodded.
“Um, so, I don’t really get this asexual thing and I tried talking to Gin, but honestly I’m not sure she really gets it either, and Hermione just repeats the dictionary definition to me,”
It wasn’t a question, but Draco straightened up and answered anyway.
“It just means I don’t get sexually attracted to anyone, I don’t really see the point in sex,”
Ron looked at him for a moment and then said, awkwardly, “But… you’re dating Harry,”
“Yes,” Draco said, “I am dating Harry, I’m not fucking Harry,”
Harry kind of wished he could fall into a deep hole, or, alternatively, go back in time and tell 14 year old Ron Weasley that he’d be having this conversation in a few years time.
“Right,” Ron said, “and that’s the romantic attraction, right?”
Draco nodded.
“Can you- sorry, can you explain what that is, exactly? Gin said it’s different for everyone, which doesn’t help much,”
“For me, it means I want to kiss and cuddle Harry, and go out on dates, and tell everyone he’s my boyfriend. It’s basically everything except for the sex stuff. But for some asexuals, they don’t like kissing because that’s too much like sex, or they don’t even like touching. That’s why it’s different for everyone,”
Harry grabbed Draco’s hand and made a mental note to remind Draco how grateful he was for him taking the time to patiently educate Ron when he had absolutely no obligation to.
“Okay,” Ron said, “that makes sense. Er- so, sorry, do you never see someone and think they’re attractive then?”
“I have eyes, Ronald,” Draco said, and Ron grimaced, “I can see what looks good, that’s aesthetic attraction. I just don’t have the urge to take the clothes that look so good on them off,”
“Right, okay,” Ron hesitated for a moment, awkwardly looking between Harry and Draco, and then abruptly stood up. “Thankyou,” he said, holding out his hand for Draco to shake in an oddly formal gesture, “I- uh- I’m sorry if this was too personal, and, I’m proud of you for telling us,”
Despite Ron sounding like he was repeating what he thought you were meant to say when someone came out, Draco watched Ron leave with a smile on his face.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Harry said.
“No, it wasn’t. And, the best thing, is that Ron is going to go repeat what I’ve said to everyone else, so no one should have any reason to talk to me again,”
Draco settled back down against Harry’s chest and Harry kissed his hair.
“But, the downside is we won’t be able to use your little silencing trick to get them to not interrupt us,”
Draco laughed out loud at that and the afternoon was spent in no one else’s company but each other’s.
Ginny didn’t stay for dinner again that night, as she had to go back to Hogwarts the next day. Harry could hardly believe the summer had gone so quickly.
She pulled him aside as they were saying goodbye.
“You’re good, yeah?”
Harry looked at her, surprise evident on his face, “yeah, of course I am,”
“Good,” she gave him a hug, and didn’t let him go until he promised to write.
“See you at Christmas!”
“Bye, Gin,”
Three weeks later, the results of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco’s applications began trickling in. Hermione got one first, which wasn’t surprising considering she’d applied for at least three times the amount that the others had, and began a cycle of stress and anxiously waiting on letters they’d been focusing on not thinking about.
Hermione made more pros and cons lists than Harry had ever seen in one place before, and ultimately decided on a Ministry job protecting rights for magical creatures. Harry thought back to the house elves and agreed that that was perfect for her.
Draco received a potions apprenticeship under a medical potions master, which was exactly what he had wanted. He ran around the house, displaying the most un-Malfoy-like behaviour Harry had ever seen. He was soon joined by Gina, who Harry suspected just liked to have a reason to run around the house howling.
Ron received a Quidditch commentator trial in which he’d start commentating smaller matches, with opportunities to advance. Harry secretly thought Ron would’ve gone mad having to write out a column every week and was glad that this was the direction he was taking.
Harry received offers to both a DMLE job, and the DADA position. If he was honest with himself, he would’ve been quite offended if McGonagall hadn’t considered him for the position. But now he had to choose one, and no one was giving him any real advice.
“Don’t be thick,” Ron had said.
“I think you know which one you’d prefer, Harry,” Hermione had said cryptically.
“You were born to be a teacher,” Draco said, and, well, that was clearer.
Harry thought about the book Hermione had given him, had thought back to the DA, and thought about living at Hogwarts again, and decided that there was really nothing appealing to him about doing paperwork for the Ministry.
“But wait,” Draco said, as they got into bed after a night of celebrating that everyone had something to work towards now, “hasn’t term already started?”
Harry felt stupid that he hadn’t even thought about when he was actually starting work. He dug the letter out of his jacket pocket that he hadn’t yet taken off, and reread it.
“Uhh, oh here we go - You will be aware that the Hogwarts term has already begun. I will be sending curriculum documents in the next couple of weeks. Your official teaching post will begin after Christmas break. You may use this time for planning. ”
Draco squinted, “that seems odd,”
“It does a bit, doesn’t it,” Harry agreed, “But hey, I get more time here,”
A thought occurred to him that he couldn’t believe hadn’t occurred to him as soon as he received the letter.
“We won’t be able to live together anymore,” he felt his stomach drop and he considered writing to McGonagall right now, before he realised Draco was laughing at him.
“Sure we can, you’re not the first person with family to work at Hogwarts. Either we’ll live there, and I’ll floo to work every day, or we’ll live here and both floo to work. We’re wizards, Harry,”
Harry almost sobbed at the wild rollercoaster of emotion he’d just been on, and hugged Draco.
“Harry,” Draco said, suddenly serious, “you want to keep living with me?”
Harry looked at him, not believing what a ridiculous question he was being asked, “I want everything with you, Draco,”
“Good,” Draco smiled, “because I want everything with you too,”
The last couple of weeks before Ron, Hermione and Draco began work was odd for Harry. Gina had gone back to working at the shop almost as soon as Ginny had gone back to Hogwarts, and as soon as his three best friends were working, he’d be spending every day home with Remus, Sirius and Narcissa.
He went with them to Diagon Alley to get supplies they needed to work - not that they really knew what they needed, except for Draco, who insisted that he had to have a potions lab set up somewhere in the house. Ron decided he needed to check out the Quidditch supplies store - “it’s important to know what’s going on, now that I work in the industry” - and Hermione buried herself in the magical creatures and law sections of Flourish and Blotts. Harry felt simultaneously like he had too much he wanted to look at to prepare himself, and yet no idea at all. He was only minutely freaking out, but it was enough for Draco to notice and Draco pulled him into a sweet kiss outside the ice cream store.
Predictably, had Harry thought about it even a bit, a Daily Prophet reporter who had probably been following them since they arrived through the Leaky Cauldron, captured the moment.
“Honestly, I’m surprised they’ve taken this long to realise we’re together,” Draco said flippantly, as Harry groaned.
“Well, it’s not like we leave the house much,”
“That’s true, but not for long. We’re proper adults now, Harry. Working adults, productive members of society, all that crap,”
Harry and Draco, done with subtlety, held hands for the rest of their shopping trip. Draco even helped Harry choose a couple of books on defensive magic, and a device that looked oddly like the sneakoscope Harry remembered in fake Moody’s office at Hogwarts. It was similar, but shone different colours depending on whether there was good or bad energy in the room. Harry thought it’d be interesting to watch it for students’ reactions around different types of creatures, and in different lessons. A kind of professional development, he thought.
On Monday, he bid them goodbye for work with packed lunches in brown paper bags. There was no way he was committing to doing that every day, but their first day was something special. Inside were pieces of paper charmed to give whatever encouragement they needed at that moment to get through the day.
When everyone got home and shared anecdotes from their days, and described their colleagues either politely (Hermione: “she’s quite an interesting lady,”) or in too much detail (Ron: “he’s got this massive wart on his chin, and I just couldn’t stop looking at it,”), Harry thought that everything would certainly be okay.