Chapter Text
Hundreds of small baubles of light floated under the night sky, casting a warm glow over the party guests and gardens alike. The night had started out with a ceremony in the South Gardens, chairs set up just beside the long reflecting pool which caught the orange and pink of the setting sun just as the brides said their vows. It was perfection, and Harry had found a large lump growing in his throat as he listened to one of his closest friends tell the love of her life just what she meant to her, with all their loved ones as witnesses. Draco had looked similarly affected and they both struggled to keep their focus on the brides instead of staring past them into one another’s eyes. Only a few months ago, Harry had been nothing but anxious about telling everyone about them, and while he knew they had many apologies to give, he wanted nothing more than to tell the world how much he loved this man. Soon enough.
After the ceremony, they had moved the festivities to the lawn. There was a large dark wood platform holding dozens of tables for the dinner while still leaving a large open space for a dance floor. Once they’d moved on past the speeches and the initial formal dances, they’d moved into a series of traditions that Harry was mostly unfamiliar with. Prior to attending his friends’ weddings over the past few years, his only knowledge of weddings had been based on Muggle movies and books, so he had at least a rough understanding of how they all worked. But the wizarding traditions were still a bit confusing to him. Many of his friends, like Ron and Hermione, had chosen to forgo the majority of the traditions. Since both Pansy and Ginny were purebloods, even if the Weasleys had embraced a more modern and inclusive take on it over the past few generations, they still felt that major occasions such as marriage should continue many of the traditions. While Ginny and Pansy had put an absolute stop to some of the more, as they had put it, gender normative traditions, they let their mothers have the ones they felt were innocuous enough. Ginny had rambled off a list at some point of the ones they were keeping, rolling her eyes at a few, but not feeling they were a worthy hill to die on. Harry had stuck to his role as a supportive best man and continued to nod along and agree with her when he was clearly expected to, not actually knowing what she was talking about.
Now that he was at the wedding, he had to admit there was something special about having traditions that carried on, hearing guests of all ages sharing what they’d done at their own weddings or funny stories about how some of the traditional spell work had gone wrong when drunken guests were casting.
Harry was laughing at one of these stories when Draco abruptly appeared next to him, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away toward the house.
“What is it?” Harry asked as soon as he got over the initial shock.
“We need to get out of here right now,” Draco said under his breath.
Harry noted the tension radiating off him and felt his stomach drop.
Once they’d made it through the west entrance, Draco dropped his grip and looked around wildly.
“We need to hide,” he said.
“What?” Harry spun to look at him. “What is going on?”
“They are about to share the Chalice of Amor Meam ,” Draco replied, before grabbing Harry’s hand and dragging him down the hall into the kitchens and then into a dark pantry, lined with shelves of fresh produce and small glass jars. Once there, Draco cast a Lumos before shutting the door and pacing small space for a moment, running a hand through his hair. “Hardly anyone does that anymore in pureblood families. I didn’t even think— Okay, we’ll just stay here for a bit, and it will be fine.”
“You are going to need to explain this to me,” Harry said. “This is one of the marriage traditions, right? I remember Ginny mentioning it. What does this have to do with us?”
“It’s a matchmaker spell, Harry. It used to be to help single people find their match at weddings, originally to help marry off the next generation, but it turned into a sort of romantic superstition that couples that found each other at weddings would have happy marriages. It fell out of practice in pureblood circles since it would often go against the parents’ plans for the child,” Draco explained, running another hand through his hair and biting his lip.
“So it would show that we match?” Harry asked, still confused. He backed up to the shelves and leaned back, trying to give Draco more room to continue pacing.
“No. It’s just a spell done to a punch or drink that changes colour to show potentially compatible wix. Probably why Ginny and Pansy allowed it, actually, since it’s not gender-specific and folks would be free to chat up anyone with a match that they were interested in,” Draco huffed a laugh.
“You’re still not explaining why this is a problem,” Harry said.
“Well, it doesn’t match up married people, Harry,” Draco replied. If Harry’s stomach hadn’t just dropped out, he would have definitely taken issue with Draco’s condescending tone just then. But as it was, the issue became crystal clear.
“What happens to married couples’ drinks?” Harry asked.
“They turn a glimmering gold. And it’s obvious—there’d be no mistaking it for anything else. The match colours are all vibrant, blues, reds, pinks…”
“Well shit.” Harry leaned his head back on the shelf right behind it and took a deep breath. “That’s a problem.”
“Right.” Draco huffed, taking a jar off the shelf and transfiguring it into an ornate stool. He sat down with a huff.
After all this. After literal months of them trying to tell everyone and failing miserably, they could walk out there right now and have a drink do it for them. Harry felt a laugh bubbling up.
Draco looked up at him as Harry started shaking, first quietly and then, eventually, the laughter escaping his lips.
“What has got into you?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.
Harry took a minute to calm down and then slid down to the floor, sitting down and pulling his knees up in front of him. “I can’t believe we let it get to this.”
Draco’s lip quirked up in a crooked smile. “We’re ridiculous, aren’t we?”
“Merlin. It just all seemed so logical at the time,” Harry said.
“And now we’re hiding in a pantry at our best friends’ wedding so that nobody finds out.” Draco let out a huff of a laugh.
“Right.” Harry knocked his foot against Draco’s. “Do you ever wonder what would have happened? If we’d just been honest from the start?”
Draco looked thoughtful. “You mean do you wonder if we could have had all this?”
“Well, not this exactly. I still don’t think I would have wanted a large wedding.”
“But you mean, have our friends and family together?” Draco slid off his stool and scooted over to the side of Harry, repositioning his dress robes as he sat down, pressing up against Harry’s side.
“Yeah,” Harry replied, turning to look at him.
“Back then? I know not that much time has passed, but we were only a few years out from the war.” Draco slipped his hand in Harry’s, threading their fingers. “I’m not sure it would have been so easy.”
Harry nodded.
“Do you regret it?” Draco eye’s travelled over Harry’s face, searching.
“No. Not a second of it actually,” Harry replied, a small smile forming over his face. “I love everything about our life, Draco.”
“I know that. I just meant to regret not doing it differently?”
“I don’t know that I regret how we did it. Or at least not maybe until recently. But it would be nice to be able to dance together tonight, you know?” Harry dropped his head on his husband’s shoulder, still holding his hand tightly.
“Yeah, I know.”
Before they could regret it for much longer, footsteps sounded right in the kitchen, clicking against the hard tile. They both froze.
“Harry and Draco—we know you’re in here,” Ginny’s voice rang out. “I don’t know what you two are playing at but you had better not be fighting.”
“And you had better be decent. I swear to fuck if you two decided to bury the hatchet tonight of all nights and have a one-night stand during my wedding, I will kill you both,” Pansy threatened.
They simultaneously looked at one another, eyes wide and then jumped up, straightening out their clothing. Draco took a beat before opening the door to reveal both brides looking furious, a stark contrast to the softness of their dresses.
“What are you two doing?” Pansy asked, her eyes darting around the pantry behind them as if it would hold the answer.
“Erm—We needed to talk about a surprise for you two,” Harry offered at the same time that Draco said, “We needed to find more crackers.”
The two men looked at each other with matching expressions of irritation.
“Crackers, really?” Harry asked, an eyebrow raised. For all the shit Draco gave him about his terrible ability to lie, Draco wasn’t much better when put on the spot. Not that he’d ever admit that.
“Okay, you know what? We don’t have time for whatever this is,” Ginny said, waving her hand between them. “We were waiting for you to get started on the Amor Meam and no one could find you. So come on.”
Both women made to leave, gesturing for the men to follow.
Harry and Draco stayed rooted to the spot, and Harry could feel himself breaking out in a nervous sweat.
“What is the problem?” Pansy asked, her voice taking on a dangerous pitch.
Draco stood there frozen, barely breathing, and Harry knew immediately he would be no use in getting them out of this. Given enough notice, Draco could construct the most elegant half-truths to get out of any situation, something Harry never thought he’d appreciate until they found themselves in the situation they did with their relationship. But put on the spot with no notice, and he became completely useless. Harry sighed and made a decision.
“We can’t participate,” he said.
“What do you mean you can’t participate?” Ginny asked.
Harry took a fortifying breath. “We don’t want to make a scene at your wedding. We’re so sorry we are telling you like this, and we are aware that we are going to be in so much trouble, but we can’t participate… because we’re married."
Harry heard Draco let out an exhale and realised the man might not have been breathing at all. He grabbed his hand for support and squeezed. Draco seemed to snap out of it at the movement and glanced over at Harry with a small but terrified smile.
“I don’t get it,” Ginny said after a minute brow furrowed.
“What?”
“I assume you are messing with us, but I don’t get it.” Ginny looked at Pansy, who also looked several levels of confused.
“We’re not messing with you. We’re married.”
“Yeah you are going to need to explain this again. Because I keep hearing that you are married, which cannot possibly be true.” Ginny huffed and looked back at Pansy again, whose eyes were narrowing. Harry had a feeling she was putting two and two together, even if Ginny wasn’t.
“Well, erm—” Harry started, caving a bit under the intense and increasingly angry stares. “We started dating a few years ago before everyone got along and everything, and erm— you know…” He looked over at Draco who was fiddling with his collar with his free hand, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Are you going to help me out here?”
“What?” Draco looked over at him, eyes wide. “You seem to have it.”
“I clearly do not have it,” Harry replied in a harsh whisper. “Help me out.”
“What do you want me to say?" Draco asked.
“I don’t know, literally anything!” Harry said.
“But you already told them, what else is there to say?”
“Was it an accident?” Ginny asked, almost sounding hopeful.
“An accident?” Harry asked, momentarily distracted from his frustration and panic. “How would we accidentally get married?”
“I don’t know—accidental bonding, some crazy pureblood ritual you stumbled into, I don’t know how! How would you intentionally get married?! You hate each other!” She yelled, hands waving in front of her she paced the room. Pansy was still stock still, but Harry could see the wheels turning.
Harry sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands. “Ginny. We don’t hate each other. We haven’t hated each other for a long time. We were afraid everyone would be against it.”
Ginny stopped pacing and looked back and forth between the two men. “Why would we be against it? Pansy and I have been together for nearly half a year; we’ve been friends with Draco for a couple of years now.”
“Before that, I mean.”
“Just how long have you two been together?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
Harry cleared his throat, glancing at Draco who was fixing his cufflinks and avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room. He suppressed an eye roll.
“Four years,” Harry mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
“What?”
“Four years,” he said louder. “But we’ve only been married for a little under a year, and we didn't buy the house until after that. So before that, it was just dating.”
“You fuckers,” Pansy said. “ Oh, Pansy, you can’t come over, house totally wrecked, so busy renovating. And Potter, I cannot believe I believed your bug infestation stories for a minute. Half of them didn’t even make sense! I just assumed you didn’t understand what the magical pest exterminators were telling you!”
“Oh my god,” Ginny said, the pieces finally clicking in place.
Harry continued to rub the back of his neck, staring off to the side of the room, while Draco continued fixing and re-fixing the cuff links.
“Oh my god ,” Ginny said again, her face turning red. Harry knew they were about to get a Weasley tongue-lashing. Harry would never ever tell Ginny, but she bore a striking resemblance to her mother when she was in a temper about something.
Just as she inhaled to start reaming them out, the kitchen door swung open, a group of their friends behind it. Seeing them again all dressed to the nines for the event reminded Harry they had a wedding to get back to. So much for not making a scene.
“Everything okay?” Hermione asked as she walked in. Ron, Neville, Luna, Blaise, and Parvati all filed in behind her, spreading out in the large kitchen around the two couples.
“Mum’s trying to get the drink ritual thing started,” Ron said, looking between Harry and Ginny, brow furrowed. The tension was still thick.
A large and dangerous smile formed on Ginny’s face. “Harry and Draco have something to tell you all.”
Harry felt his face flush, and he wanted nothing more than to run for the door. He glanced around frantically. He wouldn’t make it. Too many people between them and the door at this point. Draco was still looking around like he was visiting an art gallery, glancing around the room as if no one else was there and he was simply trying to decide what to look at first. Harry had to suppress a snort, hit with the sudden realisation of how much they deserved each other. Merlin, they were hopeless.
Fuck it, he could be the Gryffindor here.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Okay, he could be a little Gryffindor; he just didn’t want to see all their disappointment. “Draco and I started secretly dating years ago, then we got married, have a house and a dog, and we’re so sorry we lied to all of you.”
His confession was met with silence. He slowly peeked open an eye to see five shocked faces and two smug and irritated ones.
The silence was worse than Ginny’s yelling. Harry wanted to crawl out of his skin, from the nervous movements next to him, Draco was feeling much the same.
Eventually, there was some movement, the sounds of breathing in the air again.
Luna was the first to finally break the tension, looking thoughtful. “Huh.”
“I don’t understand,” Ron said, freckles standing out against his face which was now drained of all colour.
“Holy shit,” Parvati said under her breath. Her expression was morphing from shock to glee. Harry supposed he didn’t need to worry about telling the rest of their friends. No way was she going to keep quiet about this.
Like Pansy, Hermione was the first to put the pieces together. “Oh my god, the houses. That’s why we couldn’t ever come over.” She hid her hands in her face.
“You haven’t been single this whole time?” Ron asked.
“Erm, no,” Harry said, shifting his weight, fighting every instinct to just run out the door.
Parvati was full-blown smiling at that point. “Holy shit. How long?”
“Erm—total? We’ve been together a bit over four years.” Harry realised he was still the only one answering any questions and elbowed Draco in the side, who gave him a dirty look, which Harry returned.
“You have a dog?” Ron asked.
Harry shrugged.
“That’s so nice,” Luna said, smiling as if this whole situation was perfectly normal.
“Oh my god,” Hermione said. “I set you up on a date!”
“Yes, you did,” Harry said, pressing his lips together and giving her a look that expressed just how much he appreciated that. Everyone burst out laughing and started replaying that night, much to Harry’s irritation. He hadn’t even known it was possible to humiliate himself so much in such a short period of time before. Draco had been ruthless about it, reenacting Harry’s less than graceful exit at their kitchen table several times over the following weeks.
“So,” Blaise spoke up quietly. “Draco.”
Draco froze beside him.
“When you said you couldn’t come to dinner, or the party a few months ago, or out for drinks after work because you were renovating your house.” Blaise raised an eyebrow looking somewhere between impressed and pissed off. Harry would never understand Slytherins, not even being married to one.
“Right, well. You see—” Draco stammered.
“Ginny!” Molly Weasley’s voice came from down the hall outside the kitchen. “Everyone is waiting!”
“Sorry, Mum!” she hollered. “We just had to work something out. We’re on our way.”
She turned back to Harry and Draco, and pointing her finger at them, said, “You two are staying here. You can get right back in that pantry and think about what you did until the coast is clear”
“Maybe we’ll come to get you when the Amor Meam is done,” Pansy said lightly, looking at her nails.
Hermione snorted.
“What’s that?” Blaise asked, tilting his head. Everyone looked at him. “Did I hear Draco and Harry said they were getting drinks for the next year?”
Pansy snorted and Ginny’s smile grew. Harry supposed they could afford it… and that they deserved that. Hell, if that was the worst they had to deal with, he’d count themselves lucky. He knew the pub night would also be filled with incessant ribbing, but at that thought, he also visualised sitting next to Draco, not having to hide anymore and thought he would put up with all of it just for that.
“That is so generous of you two,” Ginny said. “I’m so glad you offered to take me and Pansy out for a few dinners also.”
“And babysitting,” Blaise added. “The twins are quite the handful.”
“You don’t live at Grimmauld Place?” Ron asked, still clearly processing the news.
Hermione sighed and patted her husband on the arm, before looking back at Harry. “We’re not done talking about this.”
Harry nodded his head. “I know.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, as much as I love watching these two squirm, we have a wedding to get back to.” Pansy gestured toward the door before pointing at Harry and Draco and then back at the pantry.
Harry doubted it was actually necessary for them to hide in the pantry at this point but was not about to argue with either of the brides. They could take their punishments. He grabbed Draco’s hand and pulled him back to the pantry to wait it out.
After an hour, Draco said there was no way that the Amor Meam was still going on, so they slowly stood up, stretching out their muscles which were cramped from the tight quarters. Harry leaned over and gave him a kiss. No matter how much shit their friends gave them, he was happy they knew. No more lies, no more excuses. They could just be.
Draco smiled that soft smile he reserved just for Harry, well him and Minnie. But to Harry that smile meant family, and he cherished it.
They made their way through the halls toward the entrance to the gardens. Before they could make their last turn, another couple turned down the hall. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy stood before them, dressed in their wedding best.
Harry and Draco froze.
“Mother, father,” Draco said.
“You missed the Amor Meam ,” Narcissa said, raising an eyebrow.
Harry held his breath. He hadn’t expected to have to deal with their families so soon.
“Yes, we, er, had some groomsmen things to attend to. We’re heading back out,” Draco said, gesturing toward the way the other Malfoys had come.
Lucius’s eyes narrowed for a split second and then smoothed out. Harry wondered how familiar with his son’s lying he was. Either way, he let it go. They waited for Harry and Draco to reach them before falling into a pace beside them.
“So, Draco. I know you’ve been busy renovating, but I would love to stop by tomorrow and see the progress. Nora was just telling me about how her daughter’s house renovation was going and I was thinking how much I would love to see the house,” Narcissa said, conversationally.
“Oh,” Draco replied. “Absolutely, Mother, but it can’t be this week. The renovators have the whole place warded off while they do structural work. I’ve been apparating straight into the bedroom. Could take a month, even.”
Harry looked over at him, and Draco shrugged subtly, panic still etched on his face. Well, there was always next month.