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“I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks.”
Draco raised his eyebrows and blinked. His hand was still held out, waiting for Harry Potter to take it. The Weasley boy was staring at them, mostly at him, maybe he felt honored to be in the presence of a rightful son of the Magical tradition, of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. He looked at the boy in front of him, still waiting.
“Draco, lower you hand.” Vince said behind him.
“But he didn’t take it.” He replied, like it was the most obvious reason in the world.
“Yes, that’s exactly why.”
Oh.
Oh, okay. Draco lowered his hand and grabbed his wand, trying to find some kind of protection. He said something to save face, a little bit at least, he turned around and he left the compartment. Maybe next time.
————————
“Good afternoon, Potter” He said playfully as the dark haired boy entered the classroom half-hour later than expected with his redhead friend by his side.
“Sod off, Malfoy.”
Well, that was just plain rude. He sneered and turned back to his own bloody parchment.
Greg nudged him a little, he just shook his head and dismissed his concern entirely.
One would have guessed that after an entire year of saying hello and asking Potter what the hell was he up to, of actually getting Potter on the bloody quidditch team as a first year, he would, you know, at least say hi to him. But no. Second year and most of his replies were ‘shut up, Malfoy’ and ‘sod off, Malfoy’.
Well, sod off to you too, Potter.
————————
“Leave Hagrid alone, Malfoy.”
Draco rolled his eyes. As if he cared for picking a fight with the half-giant. He just wanted a decent education, Merlin. Was it too much to ask? He was looking forward to have Care of Magical Creatures. And he got attacked by a bloody Hippogriff on the first day.
“You can take your concerns to my father and the Board, Potter.”
Truly, he should give it a try because they weren’t listening to him. Draco just wanted another teacher, not to get Hagrid bloody sacked. Maybe he called Buckbeak a chicken but he was mad and his arm hurt. Now, thinking about it, it wasn’t the poor creature’s fault... Maybe a part of it was Draco’s fault, but just a teeny-tiny part.
“I’m serious!” He snarled. “Leave him alone or I’m going to make you regret it.”
“Oh, really? How?”
When Draco asked that, he didn’t imagine Hermione Granger punching him in the face. It didn’t even cross his mind. He hated Potter and his stupid crew so much.
———————
“Does anyone else think that Diggory is a creep?” He asked as he sat next to his friends by the lake. Theodore sighed exasperated and asked Pansy to Avada Kedavra him right there and then. “He is! He is seventeen, Saint Potter is fourteen. Find someone your own age, Merlin.”
“He is dating Cho, you are just insane.” Pansy said with a bored tone in her voice.
No, he wasn’t. They talked to each other all the bloody time. And Potter blushed whenever he was near. Diggory was a cradle-robber if you asked him.
The announcement of the Yule ball came and everyone went crazy. Rumor had it that Potter was still dateless. Vince was annoying him to death, saying that he should just ask the stupid Saviour to the stupid dance or to shut the fuck up. Which, you know, rude.
He walked towards the stupid window where Saint Potter was with his stupid friends. He tried to seem elegant, tall, not at all nervous about this awful idea.
“Hey, Potter!” And he could hear the green-eyed boy cursing under his breath. “Heard that you don’t have a date to the Yule Ball. That could be embarrassing, you being the fake champion and all-“
“I do, actually.” Draco froze.
“You do?”
“Yes, so you can shove whatever stupid joke you were going to say right up your arse.” He replied before gesturing Weasley to walk away with him.
Okay, so Draco was the dateless one.
————————
When he saw Potter sitting in front of Umbridge, her bloated pink frog face looking wildly mad, and her ridiculous wand pointing to him... Draco had to admit that he was scared. He couldn’t do anything, he was guarding the other stupid Gryffindors, but it was pretty horrible to watch.
“The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue,”
He felt his entire body stiff. Surely it was just to scare Potter... right?
And he could say whatever about Granger but she was the one who saved them all. Draco only stood there, being the coward that he was. It seemed that she didn’t only beat him in their classes.
———————
When Draco was hit with the curse, he thought that he deserved it. The other thought was: fucking finally, because he had no particular interest in living but death scared him, taking the decision was too damn hard. This way it just happened to him. And it happened because of Potter.
If he could choose between noseless Dark Lord and Harry Potter to kill him, he would choose Potter. Of course.
Sadly, death never came.
—————————
“Is it him, Draco?”
Her voice sounded too cheerful. It made Draco think about all the things that made Aunt Bella happy. He began to listed them in his head: cheating on Rodolphus, pleasing the Dark Lord, casting the Imperious on house-elves, casting the cruciatus curse without reason, killing mudbloods, killing half-bloods.
Half-bloods.
Potter.
After all this months, after not seeing him for almost a year, Draco still felt his heart jump off his chest at the mere sight of Potter’s eyes.
Those beautiful green eyes were looking at him behind the swollen face. Pleading. For the first time in his life Harry Potter was asking him for something, trusting him with a secret.
“What happened to his face?”
“It doesn’t matter, just tell us.”
He looked at the boy again. For a moment, defeat seemed to flash through his green eyes, like he was expecting for Draco to hand them in.
‘Well, fuck you too, Potter’
“I don’t know.” Draco replied with a flat voice.
He felt Bellatrix putting her wand right in the back of his head.
“Are you sure, Draco darling?” She asked in that smooth voice of hers.
“I don’t know who he is.”
He saw the surprise written all over Potter’s face before he was being dragged away by his father. He could try to bribe him all he wanted but he wasn’t going to say anything. Not now. Not when Potter had looked at him with something other than hatred for the first time ever.
————————
“He is exactly like Potter.”
Draco almost chocked with his wine when he heard her. He blinked.
“Oh, come on. Dark hair, nice jaw, lean built, blue eyes-“
“Potter has green eyes.”
“That’s it. That’s the only difference.”
He looked away as he took another sip. This was why he didn’t want to tell her, this was exactly why.
“Their personalities are nothing alike.” Tried to argue but Pansy was quick to dismiss him.
“Really? So he is not a bullheaded and sarcastic? Not to mention terrible mannered.”
“He is a vampire, and he doesn’t wear glasses.” He ended up saying as he showed her his middle finger.
“Speaking of which... isn’t it against the rules? To date someone that you patrol?”
“First of all: technically no, there are no rules against it, but they could not take my reports seriously so I’m giving the case to Weasley. Second of all: when we meet at the pub on Friday you don’t say a thing, I don’t need Potter going with the tale to Kingsley.”
“Sure, darling. Let’s pretend that you don’t want Potter to know all about the vampire sex you’re having.”
He kicked her under the table and then poured himself another glass of red.
His stupid crush on Potter was long dead, Pansy was just being ridiculous. And he liked Caleb, he really did. And the sex was great too, that was a plus.
Besides, now that they worked together, Potter and him got along, kind of. He had to get use to Draco when he started to work with the Aurors. They even were partners for like half a day, Kingsley assigned them new partners when he found them dueling in the middle of the office because they couldn’t decide who was getting the desk next to the window.
Draco was a new man now. A new man, not at all in love with Potter.
—————————
“I can’t believe I’m actually joining you on pub night.”
“You don’t sound excited, love.”
He had reasons to not be excited. They had been dating for a year now, Draco had kept their relationship in the down low until Caleb was declared in innocent for the blood bank robberies.
Last week, they were talking about how now ‘pub night’ became ‘date night’ because Weasley was with Granger, Pansy was with Blaise and the only poor single sods were Potter and Draco... That became an excellent moment to bring up that he actually was in a committed relationship. The reaction was unexpected to say the least.
“Who?” Potter asked frowning, and it sounded more like a demand than a question.
“Caleb.”
There was no need to lie, the case had been closed, and he hadn’t been the Auror in charge of it. About two months in the case, Caleb had asked him out and by the first month they had been dating the case was all Weasley’s.
“Hales?”
He could see that Potter was mad, he just couldn’t figure out why.
“Oh, Draco, that’s lovely.” Granger said smiling kindly at him. “Maybe you could bring him so we can meet him.”
“We’ve all met Hales.” Potter replied shortly.
And they had, Caleb used to go to the ministry once a month for paperwork and Weasley had to check his house once a week without previous announcement. Draco used to apparate the hell away when he heard him at the door.
“What would be the problem, then?” The girl asked his best friend, only to get a crossed arm Potter muttering something as he looked away.
Pansy pinched his arm and when he looked at her she was wiggling her eyebrows. She always did that when Potter acted like this.
Draco had already come to terms with the fact that Potter was the jealous sort about everyone. He didn’t like strangers, he didn’t like when new friends appeared. He liked their group as it was and any other person was going to on that table as a guest, an outsider. That was exactly why Caleb didn’t want to come to pub night.
He turned to look at him, he looked troubled but even being troubled he looked beautiful. Draco squeezed his hand and when Caleb turned to look at him he gave him a chaste kiss.
“It’s going to be fine. You already know everyone. Let’s just get through this so we can go back to yours.”
That seemed to convince him. There was little in their life that couldn’t be settle with sex. Blaise had the habit of pointing out that it wasn’t healthy, he didn’t get it though. Vampires had enhance senses everything felt ten times better than for humans... And it was easier than actually talking about their problems, it was easier to fight and shout and end up shagging in the kitchen counter.
When they entered the pub, everyone was already at their table. Draco noticed the extra chair. He guided them to the table, holding Caleb’s hand and, as soon as they got to it, Potter stood up. He never did that, he never was that polite.
He looked groomed, more than other nights. Normally he would just appeared with the Auror uniform because he got out late on fridays, not today though. He was wearing dark blue muggle jeans with a shirt that seemed to be too buttoned up for him to be using it. It was funny because Caleb was wearing some black jeans and a plain white t-shirt that he grabbed randomly out of the closet.
“Potter.”
“Hales.”
And the night went on as awkward as Draco had thought.
—————————
“Are those fang marks?” Potter asked.
He put a hand over his neck, self-consciously.
They were at his office, Smith was off at lunch and the green-eyed had asked him if he wanted to have lunch with him.
“The glamour must’ve worn off-“
“Does he feed on you? Because that’s illegal.”
“No, it’s not. I actually looked it up.” He replied before smirking. “And i asked him to. He doesn’t need it, but I like it.”
Potter’s face went red at that. He always got that way when they talked about sex. Embarrassed, awkward, changing the bloody subject.
“What about you? Has someone captured the Chosen One’s heart yet?”
Potter had broken up with Ginevra in the first year of Auror training. No explanation, nothing. Now it’s been four years and he hadn’t been in a relationship since, at least not that Draco was aware of.
He looked at Draco for a moment, those green beautiful eyes still made him shiver, after all this years... He guessed that he would never stop having feelings for him.
“Something like that...” He answered, his cheeks all red as he took another bite of the sandwich. “But they don’t feel the same so I’ll just keep being the single one on pub nights”
Draco snorted.
“As if someone wouldn’t want you, Potter.”
He didn’t respond after that. He just kept looking at Draco from time to time, like something was troubling him and he couldn’t say what.
——————————
”What?”
To be honest, he wasn’t expecting this reaction when he told them. He expected cheering or, you know, something. Instead, he got four pairs of eyes just blinking in shock and a pair of green ones with a mixture of fear and anger.
“I found the ring, I think he is just waiting for the right time.”
“There is no right time.”
“ Harry” Granger said with a scolding tone.
“Ron, for fuck’s sake say something. He listens to you.” Potter pleaded with a desperate tone.
The redhead looked like he wanted to evaporate from the conversation right there. Potter groaned and turned to Pansy and Blaise.
“You can’t be okay with this. Not you Parkinson, come on, say something.”
Pansy presses her lips to a fine line before speaking.
“Isn’t it too soon, darling?”
“Too soon? We have been dating for two years, Pans.” He replied but Potter interrupted again.
“Two years is nothing. You don’t really know a person in two years.”
Now Draco was officially angry.
“What would be a reasonable amount of time then, Oh Chosen one?”
Potter ignored his sarcasm and replied all the same.
“A life. You deserve someone who has known you your whole life, Malfoy. Look at Mione and Ron, look at Parkinson and Zabini. You deserve that-“
“Well, not all of us have options, Potter. And Caleb makes me happy. I thought you all were going to be happy for me,at least-“
“You have options, Malfoy. You are just too bloody blind to see them.” He hissed at him before stumbling out of his chair, trying to do a dramatic exit.
He was about to walk away when he added:
“And Ginny made me happy. You are supposed to be in love too. It’s not just enjoying their company or having good sex. It’s more. It should be more.” He took a deep breath. “If you say yes I’m not going to the wedding. Don’t even bother with the invitation.”
And he left Draco just sitting there looking at the door where Potter had dissapeared.
—————————
He entered to Grimmauld, drunk, drepressed and so fucking angry. As he was getting out of the fireplace he bumped his head with it. He groaned.
“Malfoy...?”
Potter had the snitch pajamas on, the ones that Draco had gifted him as a joke, the ones he swore he would burn for being ridiculous. He blinked.
“This were the only clean ones I had.”
Draco rolled his eyes and threw himself on the couch.
“Are you drunk?”
“I hate how I act around you.” It’s the only thing he responded. His mind too blurry to think about something else.
Potter sat down beside him, sighing.
“Like a prat you mean?”
“Like I’m not enough. I’m never going to be enough. I keep trying to make you like me-“
“I like you.” He heard him respond, his voice softer than before.
It was so pathetic that he felt his heart racing just from Potter saying that.
“I broke up with Caleb.”
For a while none of them talked, it made Draco wish he hadn’t come at all.
“Why?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“I’m not sorry. Everyone thought the same, I just said it out loud.”
And Draco wanted to punch him. The bloody Saviour, saving him from himself, from having a future with someone who actually loved him. Maybe with time he could love him too... But now he couldn’t. Not after the crying, and the fight, and Caleb screaming at Draco that this was all for Potter, that he bloody knew it was.
He wasn’t wrong though.
“I’m going to die alone.” Potter let out a soft chuckle.
“Yeah. Join the club.”
Draco looked at him. His glasses were slightly crooked, it reminded him of the day they had met.
“Still no luck?” He knew it was a touchy subject, Potter would always get all moody about it.
Then, he got off the couch and sat on the floor, his face was now right in front of Draco’s, he could feel his breath, he could almost taste him.
“How drunk are you?” He asked him raising an eyebrow.
“Not black-out drunk but enough to decide to come here at 1 A.M.”
Next thing he felt was Potter’s lips on him. Soft, warm, not moving, just... A simple kiss. A very perfect simple kiss. Draco thought he was going to die with how fast his heart was beating.
Draco hesitated before putting his hand on Harry’s jaw to deepen the kiss.
It was wonderfully addictive. Maybe it was the alcohol talking but he could spend a lifetime kissing Potter.
A soft moan escaped from the green-eyed and Draco seemed to devoured it with the kiss itself.
“God, how did we went so long without this?” Potter breathed out, his eyes still closed and his forehead on Draco’s.
He laughed and kissed him again.
“You should have taken my hand on first year. I’m sure we would have been sneaking to broom closets by the time we were fourteen.”
And that thought seemed to have the same effect on Potter as it had on him in fourth year because he was guiding Draco to a sitting position and climbing into his lap.
——————————
“So... What’s the big news?” Granger asked, her eyes glinting in excitement.
“Oh, come on! It’s obvious that Potter proposed!” Blaise said rolling his eyes.
To which Weasley responded with his mouth full of fries:
“Not true, one of them could be pregnant.”
“I call Godmother!” Pansy yelled raising her hand.
“You can’t just call it, we are Harry’s best friends, don’t you think we should get to-“
“Sure, Granger, if you care enough to call it first.”
“How about you let us speak?” Potter asked with annoyance in his tone.
When everyone stopped yelling at each other to look at them, Draco just raised his left hand to show the beautiful ring.
“I knew it!”