Chapter Text
Neither Harry nor Draco were sure how it had got so out of hand. At first, it was just a hook-up, a random encounter after meeting at a pub. No reason to tell their friends and families about that. No one needed to know the details of their sex lives, after all. And if that one night turned into several, it still wasn’t anyone’s business what either of them did in the privacy of their own bedrooms.
Then later, when Harry pulled together his Gryffindor courage and asked Draco out on a date, and when that one date turned into two and then three, it still just didn’t seem enough to tell anyone yet. How were they even to know it would work out? If there were ever a pair that had the potential to self-implode, it was clearly them. Why get everyone upset over nothing? The Weasleys weren’t likely to take this match much better than the Malfoys, they reasoned. No need to upset anyone.
But the dating went well, amazingly even. Sure, they fought… over whose turn it was to pick-up takeaway or Harry’s clothes strewn about or Draco’s need to take an hour in the bathroom every morning. But it was good.
They went on dates and ordered in. They listened to Quidditch curled up on the sofa on rainy afternoons. They talked about their days and shared their secrets.
But it still never seemed like the right time to tell everyone. Surely, it was okay for them to have this just for themselves. Just until they were certain. So, when the Gryffindors’ pub nights continued to expand with former classmates, and Draco found himself pulled into the fold with Blaise and Pansy… well, Harry and Draco did what any reasonable couple would do in that situation and pretended they barely knew one another. Even after Draco apologised to Harry’s friends, and Ron and Hermione had warmed up to him, and Ginny and Pansy inexplicably started dating, they just couldn’t bring themselves to tell their friends. How could they explain they’d been lying that whole time? And, so, while their weekends were spent wrapped in one another’s arms, their Thursdays were spent with curt nods and avoided glances.
Once they finally realized how serious it was, how in love they were, telling everyone seemed an impossible task. How was Harry to tell his friends and adopted family that he’d been secretly dating Draco Malfoy for over two years? How was Draco to tell his parents who were still trying to match-make a spouse for him that he was already taken? And by the Saviour of the Wizarding World, at that. So, more time passed as they made their excuses and kept to their flimsy lies and spent lazy Sunday mornings at Harry’s place and more energetic Friday nights at Draco’s flat.
While both of them had turned out to be excellent at the procrastination of uncomfortable things, they might have found a way to come clean, given enough time. But then there was the Las Vegas vacation. It was meant to just be a little get-away, nothing big, just a quick jump by an international Portkey. But they’d seen the little chapel with the neon lights, and they’d looked into one another’s eyes, and with a laugh, Harry had dragged Draco straight to the altar.
It only made sense to move in together afterward. Harry didn’t really want to stay at Grimmauld Place anymore, and Draco’s flat was too small for both of them. So, buying a house in the country was the logical choice. And, really, they’d meant to tell everyone at that point; really, they had. They continued to talk about it at length, coming up with plans, discussing who should be told first and how. But then life got busy, and Lucius had been in and out of St Mungo’s. So they’d kept up the excuses: the house was still being renovated, not in any shape for visitors, completely busy this weekend.
That had been six months ago.
* * *
Harry dipped a spoon into the pan, leaning over while he tasted the bolognese sauce. He frowned as he put the spoon back down on the counter; it needed something. Opening the cupboard, he looked through the glass bottles his husband had labelled from the garden. Finally, he settled on adding some additional basil, making sure to put the bottle back exactly where he found it.
At first, he’d found Draco’s obsession with “everything must have a place” in the house endearing; it was such a stark contrast to the absolute mess he made throughout the rest of the house on any given day. That had been when they were still living separately though. Then, they’d bought the house in the country and Harry had to hear about it every time he so much as moved something in the kitchen, while at the same time having to clean up random mugs left all over the house. Apparently growing up with house-elves had not taught the man much about housekeeping or general cleanliness.
They’d had more than a few spats about it that first month. Now Harry had adjusted, though. While Draco’s little idiosyncrasies hadn’t quite come back around to endearing, he’d at least given up on changing the man. So, Harry dealt with cleaning up the random things Draco left around the house while still making sure everything in the kitchen and bathroom went back exactly where it was found with a roll of his eyes. And, though Harry would never admit it, it was nice to actually be able to find what he was looking for when he was cooking. He hadn’t burned a single meal while frantically casting Accios trying to find the last few ingredients since they’d moved in together.
“What are you looking at?” Harry asked the very hopeful English Setter looking up at him. She huffed and laid her head on her paws, not breaking eye contact.
“You cannot have any. We have been over this,” Harry said, turning to her as he leaned up against the counter. “It has garlic and onions and last time we gave you some, you stunk up the entire house.”
She whined a high pitch plea, and Harry sighed.
“Fine, you can have some cheese,” he said, turning back to the counter to cut off a small piece of parmesan. She jumped up, her nails clicking on the kitchen floor. He’d need to trim those again. Even with magic, it was a nightmare getting her to sit still long enough.
“Okay, Minnie. Sit.” Harry held up the piece of cheese.
She sat immediately, and Harry carefully handed her the cheese, making sure to not get his hand caught in her over-excited jaws. It had taken some convincing to get Draco to agree on a non-Magical pet, but after Harry had explained at length how difficult it would be to take a crup for a walk in their nearby village, Draco finally relented and agreed to go to the rescue, just to look. But one look at Minnie, with her big brown eyes and her speckled fur, and Draco had completely caved.
A pop of apparition sounded from the sitting room, and Minnie took off running to greet her other person. Draco walked in the kitchen a few minutes later with a very happy dog following behind, tail wagging, just as Harry was dropping the pasta into boiling water.
“Smells amazing,” he said as he came up behind Harry, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his chin on Harry’s shoulder.
Harry relaxed back into him. “How was your day?”
“Stupid. How was yours?” Draco pulled him tighter.
“Good. I talked to Terry about the next fundraiser and finally got some paperwork done,” Harry replied.
After trying to do all of it himself with varying levels of success for too long, he finally had heeded both Hermione’s and Draco’s advice about hiring staff for his charity. Once he’d hired the right people, it ran far more smoothly, but Harry often found himself at ends without much to do. He tried not to complain about it too often, though, as Draco was regularly overworked and exhausted in his finance role at Gringotts.
Draco gave him a kiss on the cheek and then released Harry to walk over to the table. He pulled out a chair before sitting down with a sigh.
“So what happened today?” Harry asked, glancing over at him before setting the pot to pour over the strainer with a spell, while he checked on the sauce.
“Just one of those days where everything that could go wrong went wrong. Lost paperwork, Jones was on my case about the Pennyworth Estate, Rabgrod threatened to move my office again to a lower level,” Draco said, scratching Minnie behind her ears. “But enough about that. It’s the weekend.”
“You still going clubbing with Pansy and Ginny after dinner with your parents tomorrow?” Harry asked, arranging the finished meal on plates before levitating them to the otherwise set table.
“You sure you don’t want to come? I’m sure we could procure a nondescript Muggle for you to Polyjuice into,” Draco said with a glint in his eye.
Harry shooed Minnie from the table where she was already trying on pitiful expressions in hopes of a taste and then sat down.
“I’ll pass. I’m not gambling that Ginny doesn’t see right through me.” Harry laughed. While they occasionally went to Muggle clubs to get out, just the two of them, he could never relax in wizarding establishments. He might not have finished Auror training, but he remembered very clearly all the ways a disguise could fail. And he certainly didn’t trust that one of his closest friends wouldn’t cotton on.
“Plus, I’ll be too full from Molly’s cooking for dancing.” Harry spun his pasta on his fork before taking a bit too large of a bite.
They fell into a comfortable silence, resolutely ignoring the dog laying next to the table doing her best to look pathetic and starved.
“You know, my father’s been stable for nearly a month now,” Draco said, looking pensive.
Harry chewed slowly and swallowed, before taking a drink of water. “I think most everyone is planning on making it to pub night next week.”
“Right. We could just get it over with all at once, at least with our friends.”
Harry ignored the twist in his gut at how their friends would react to the news. Not that he was with Draco; he was relatively certain they’d be fine with that after all this time, but that they’d kept their entire lives a secret.
“It’ll be fine. They’ll get over it,” Draco said, taking a long drink of his wine.
“Right,” Harry sighed.
* * *
Draco walked slowly from Gringotts through Diagon Alley, his hands already clammy. They needed to come clean; it was well overdue. Their hodgepodge group of friends would give them a lot of crap, particularly about the marriage part, Draco thought with a grimace. But he also knew they’d get over it.
His parents on the other hand… He knew that would go even less smoothly. And standing up to them had never been one of his talents. For the past eight years, he’d dealt with their plans for him to marry a pureblood witch by pure avoidance. He’d refined his ability to change topics and derail even the best attempts.
Draco knew his mother suspected he was gay; they’d had a few awkward almost-conversations about it. His father had never given any indication that he had any idea. Draco didn’t feel obligated to share any part of his personal life with the man, either. Not since the war. He did his son duty and showed up to the occasional family dinner and holiday, but otherwise preferred to keep his business to himself. He certainly didn’t want his father attempting to intervene in any aspect of his life.
When he’d started spending his nights with Harry, Draco had laughed privately, thinking about how his father would have reacted had he found out. He let himself relish the small amount of vindictiveness at his choice of partners, knowing his father would never actually know. Harry and he were far too careful for the press to catch wind of their relationship. That was long before he had even considered there might be a future for the two of them. The idea it was going to last had seemed ridiculous at the time.
Draco steeled himself as he neared the pub. This was it; once the kneazle was out of the bag, they’d have to tell everyone. He hoped his father didn’t say too many insulting things about his husband to his face. Though, that was likely a lost cause.
He sighed with that thought in mind as he entered the Dragon’s Lair, a relaxed pub that had a zero-tolerance policy for reporters harassing their clients; no question about how it had become a favourite for pub night amongst Harry’s friends long before the Slytherins had been brought into the fold.
The group already had pulled several tables together, chairs clustered around and a long bench on one side. Harry was seated at the far end with Ron, Hermione and Neville. Draco usually stuck to the other end as it was far easier to keep up their charade if they didn’t actually have to talk to each other. Given their plans to announce their relationship tonight, he wasn’t sure if he should stick to his side or try to sit by Harry. Would it be a nice segue into the topic if he sat next to the man for the first time? Merlin, he realized they hadn’t really planned this out at all. They just decided to come clean with absolutely no thought as to how they were going to broach the topic.
Draco tried to make eye contact with Harry, but he was resolutely watching Hermione who was talking animatedly about something. Draco wondered if Harry actually hadn’t seen him walk-in or if he was chickening out. Probably the latter, he thought. Some Gryffindor he married. Harry would jump in front of a stray curse to save someone without a second thought, but given an awkward social situation and he ran for the hills every time.
Before Draco could make a decision on his seating choice for the evening, Pansy was pulling him down into the chair next to her, Ginny on her other side.
“Malfoy,” Ginny said in greeting with a relaxed smile.
Pansy hollered for someone to get Draco a drink and one slid down the table toward him in a matter of seconds.
He nodded once in thanks and let his eyes flick back to Harry, who still hadn’t looked over. Draco was going to kill the man; Harry was going to make Draco make the first move, he just knew it.
“Everything alright?” Pansy raised an eyebrow following the direction of his gaze, before sighing. “You need to learn how to move on, Draco. He’s not such a git anymore, you know.”
Draco suppressed a sound of frustration as Pansy shared a look with her girlfriend. He had quite a few thoughts at that moment about exactly how much of a git his husband was, actually. Pushing that thought aside, he took a long swig of his beer. Ok, this was it. He’d just tell Pansy and Ginny, and he’d let their reactions inform the rest of the table. He took one last look at Harry and couldn’t help the way his eyes narrowed as he looked at his husband who was still resolutely avoiding any eye contact. Harry was definitely going to pay for this later. There was nothing to be done for it now, though, if he wanted their friends to know.
Draco inhaled, just as Ginny added, “We know you two still dislike each other, but we’d appreciate it if you could at least try to get along for the next few months.”
Draco looked at her, brow furrowing at her choice of words, temporarily distracted from his task.
Ginny smiled and looked at Pansy again.
“We have a bit of an announcement,” Ginny said. “Ready, love?”
Pansy grinned broadly and stood up. “Can we have your attention, please?”
Everyone stopped their own conversations and looked over.
Harry even finally looked in their direction, his face etched with panic. Draco almost laughed, realising Harry thought Pansy was about to announce their relationship status.
Before he could enjoy his husband’s discomfort for too long, Pansy continued. “We’re engaged!”
Ginny stood up and wrapped her arms around Pansy and dipped her into a kiss. Hoots and whistles rang out as everyone loudly congratulated the couple.
Harry finally looked at Draco, eyes wide. Draco did his best to give him a look that explained exactly how much trouble he was in. Not only had Harry avoided the entire situation, they never even got to make their announcement. And they couldn’t very well do it now. Even Draco wasn’t that much of an arsehole. They’d need to let Pansy and Ginny have their moment.
Draco sighed and took a long drink of his beer. Well, there was always the next pub night.