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Following the war, Hogwarts instated a new policy. Everyone (regardless of their upbringing) who attended the school would be required to take a Muggle Studies Course.
Muggle Studies was not terrible, much to Draco’s surprise and relief. In fact, Draco found that he actually rather enjoyed it. Especially the classes on Fridays.
On Fridays the eighth years had no classes except for Muggle Studies in the afternoon and their Professor always took them somewhere fun. They’d been to a pub, a bowling alley, a movie theater (Draco had especially enjoyed that one), a fancy restaurant, a few cafes, art museums and history museums, they went to see parliament, and Big Ben, and even a place called a ‘science center’.
Today they were going to a muggle amusement park.
Potter (his assigned partner since he’d been raised by muggles) found him in the crowd once they arrived. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Draco replied, raising a hand to shade his eyes.
“Where should we start?” Potter asked, nodding to the expanse of oddities in front of them.
“Umm,” Draco said, shading his eyes once more to look around, seeing only unfamiliar things.
“Come on,” Potter said, apparently making the decision for them. “I think you need some sunglasses first.”
Potter tugged him over to a stand off to the corner where they bickered about which sunglasses suited Draco best before finally agreeing on a pair of wayfarers with pink frames. The other boy’s smile and encouragement were enough for Draco to slip them on.
“Very handsome,” Potter said and Draco could feel his cheeks heat under the praise. Fortunately, Potter seemed not to notice as he turned to pay for the sunglasses.
After that they wandered around, Potter took him on a carousel, then down a giant slide that they had to climb into burlap sacks for, before dragging him over to the carnival games.
“Here,” Potter said, paying the man at a booth and taking six ping pong balls from him. “You just have to sink them in the fish bowls and you win a prize.”
“That hardly seems difficult,” Draco replied.
The man behind the booth snorted, “Good luck, kid.”
“Would you like to go first?” Harry offered.
Draco nodded and squared his shoulders before tossing the first ball. It pinged off multiple bowls before falling to the ground in between. “What?!”
“It’s okay,” Potter said, “try again. If you get two in, you still win a small prize.”
“Right,” Draco said, blowing out a breath and focusing. He tossed the ball more gently this time and it bounced once before sinking into one of the bowls. “Hah!” Draco shouted triumphantly.
“Good job,” Potter replied, and there was a time when those words would have been tainted and sarcastic, but the two of them were long past that at this point. He knew the other boy was simply genuinely happy for him.
“Alright,” Draco said, “Last chance little ball.” He nodded once and tossed this one as well, it bounced once, twice, three times, before catching the rim of one of the bowls at an odd angle and flying off.
“Better luck next time,” the man said. “You’re up specs.”
Potter nodded, let out a little huff of breath and tossed them right in a row; one and two sunk straight in, the third bounced once before sinking into a third fish bowl.
Draco’s jaw dropped and he looked over to see that the man behind the booth looked equally stunned.
“Plushy unicorn or dragon?” Potter asked him.
“What?”
“Unicorn or Dragon?” he prompted.
“Dragon,” Draco replied without real thought.
Potter nodded, “We’d like the blue dragon, please.”
The man grabbed the dragon and handed it over to Potter, “That was well done.”
“Thanks,” Potter replied before turning and handing the dragon over to Draco. “For you.”
“For me?”
Potter nodded and stuffed it into Draco’s arms before walking off, “Come on,” he called over his shoulder, “Roller coaster next.”
It took Draco a moment to catch up with him, “Why did you give this to me?”
The other boy looked over at him and shoved his glasses up on his nose, “Do you not want it?” he asked, reaching for it.
“No,” he said, turning away so he couldn’t take her, “I want her.”
“Alright then.”
It wasn’t really an answer but he didn’t want Potter to take the delightfully soft and fluffy dragon from him so he kept quiet and mulled over the possible reasons. Pansy would say that Potter liked him, too, but Pansy was gay so he didn’t trust what she had to say about boys.
Potter led him over to a tall, monstrous metal contraption and Draco watched with a small amount of horror as the muggles riding it were sent speeding off as they screamed bloody murder.
“Are you serious?” he asked.
Potter glanced over, “Yeah, it’ll be fun. Like riding a broom,” he added soft enough for only Draco to hear.
“Sure if someone else were in control of it!” Draco hissed.
“That’s part of the appeal,” Potter said as he stepped into line and tugged Draco after him. “Letting go, just flying without the work.”
“You’re insane.”
“We’ll see,” Potter replied with a shrug and a secret little smile at the corner of his mouth that made his dimple show.
Draco waited, his heart pounding, palms sweating, as he got closer and closer to the front of the line. “Are you sure about this?”
“As sure as I am about anything,” Potter replied with a sardonic grin.
They stepped up to the front of the line and the man told him, “You’ll need to leave your dragon here.”
“Might as well leave your sunglasses, too,” Potter said, “wouldn’t want those to go flying off,” he added with a wink. A wink. And Draco was so off kilter that he did as Potter suggested before he climbed into the seat next to him.
The lap bar was pulled down and secured, “Potter,” he started, sure that it wasn’t healthy for your heart to beat this fast.
“It’s okay,” Potter assured. He’d taken his glasses off and folded them over the collar of his shirt.
“But-”
“Draco,” the other boy said, turning to look at him and putting his hand over Draco’s. “Seriously. No one has ever died from riding on this roller coaster.”
“Are you sure?” Draco asked but it was too late, the roller coaster was already starting to pull them upwards.
“98%,” Potter called.
“What?” he asked, trying to make sense of his words over the pounding in his ears and the rush of adrenaline he was experiencing.
“I’m 98% sure no one has ever died on this roller coaster.”
It was not really the answer he’d wanted to hear. He opened his mouth to reply but the cart tipped over the top of the first hill and his words turned into a scream, one of his hand’s clenching the lap bar, the other crushing Harry’s hand.
He screamed as they were dropped and flipped, as the cart whipped around corners and he was knocked into Harry and Harry into him, all the while his heart racing. And Harry was right, it was a lot like flying but without the predictability.
As the roller coaster glided to a stop, Draco couldn’t help but laugh; he felt lighter than air, freer than he could remember feeling in a long time. He turned grinning at Harry, “That was amazing.”
“Yeah,” Harry replied, giving his hand a little squeeze.
“Oh,” Draco said, looking down at where he was still clenching the other boy’s hand. “Sorry-”
“I’m not,” Harry replied softly, a little shy.
“Please exit the cart, lovebirds,” the man running the ride called. “We have other people waiting.”
“Right, sorry,” Harry apologized and he clambered out before holding out a hand for Draco to take.
Hand in hand, they made their way around to collect the dragon and Draco’s sunglasses. “Where to next?” Draco asked, smiling so widely that it made his face hurt.
Harry swung their hands between them as he replied, “As long as it’s with you, it doesn’t matter.”