Chapter Text
How he had thought it would be a good idea to take fifteen kids on the ice by himself was beyond his comprehension.
Sure, he was good enough playing some hockey back at the Burrow when the lake iced over, but this was just ridiculous. And he’d done it to himself.
“Everyone behave! Don’t get on the ice until I say so… I need to check all your skates first!”
Under the guise of checking their lacing, he subtly put a dulling spell on the blades so no one would get their fingers cut off and then led his ducklings on the ice rink, carefully turning to skate backwards so he could keep an eye on everyone.
Rookie mistake.
“I can skate backwards too, Mr Potter! Look!”
The excited shout was nothing but the prelude to a young skaters pile up when the first kid fell and the others proceeded to brake with their faces on the ice and other children.
Harry helped everyone up and changed his strategy, putting them in line in front of him “Okay everyone… no hurry, check your balance, bend your knees a little, lean forward…” he listed, showing off the movement and then inviting the kids to shuffle towards him.
A couple of the Muggle kids were clearly more experienced and started helping Harry with their friends, slowly the little group managed to create a line and skate around the rink without major injuries. Success achieved.
When everyone was decently safe on their feet, Harry got the hockey stick, a puck and a pair of figure skating skates, calling the kids around him to explain the Muggle sports on ice.
There was entirely too much interest towards hockey for his liking but he went to rent a few more children sized sticks and separated the interested kids in two small teams to let them skirmish “Careful with those sticks! And don’t run or…”
The words died in his throat when he noticed a shock of platinum blond hair make its way to the rink.
After the trials it was like Draco Malfoy had simply disappeared from his life, obviously he knew he was alive, Andromeda had rekindled her relationship with Narcissa and Hermione did mention reparation efforts coming from him and other Slytherins, Goyle even had a child at the school, but Draco had somehow become completely irrelevant in public life and in Harry’s life as well.
Well, maybe irrelevant was too strong of a word considering the effect he was having on him right now.
No fear, the kids were ready to pull him back to his duty with a chorus of screams when one of them toppled over while holding his stick.
Harry scrambled over to him but only managed to belly flop on the ice and awkwardly slide to the kid “James, buddy… Ow… What happened?” he asked, shifting to sit beside the child, holding his side with a grimace.
“Beth tripped me! My wrist hurts!”
“I didn’t trip you!”
“Yes you did!”
“Are you okay Mr Potter?”
“We need to get a Healer!”
“No, we need a Doctor, that’s the Muggle word!”
“I saw Beth, she tripped him!”
“Liar!”
Harry was about to silence all of them at once as he tried to figure out just how badly James was hurt and pray that Draco wouldn’t report him to the board.
A slim shadow fell on the squabbling group followed by a familiar drawl “I’m going to count to three and when I’m done counting all the people who are not injured are going to stand by the rail because the healer said so.”
As the children shuffled away, whispering among themselves, Harry looked up to meet familiar gray eyes “The healer?”
“Yes, Potter, the Healer. Children Healer, actually, what seems to be the issue?”
Draco crouched beside James and offered him a polite smile “I heard something about your wrist?” His voice had been cold as the ice they were sitting on when talking to Harry but it had gained a soft quality the moment he focused on the child.
“I can’t move it, it hurts…”
Harry was mesmerized by the way Draco’s long fingers delicately took the small wrist and checked it over without hurting the boy more than strictly necessary.
He then turned to Harry with a raised eyebrow “Do you think your ribs are all intact after that little dive you took?”
Harry rolled his eyes, “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Great, keep an eye out while I fix his wrist…”
He surreptitiously pulled his wand out of a forearm holster and murmured an incantation “There, good as new.” He flashed a grin to James and then took a handkerchief out of his trousers, wiping any tears off the child’s cheeks.
Harry proceeded to confiscate the hockey sticks and let the kids free around the rink again, leaning against the rail and stealing quick glances toward Malfoy who was now back to the other side of the rink, digging through a gym bag until he got his skates.
He looked away, acting casual, when the man straightened up but suddenly he was at his side again “Keep your eyes on the kids, Potter, I can’t very well patch them all up with magic in a Muggle establishment.”
Harry glared at him for an instant but kept his eyes trained on the children otherwise, shouting at a few of them to slow down “What are you even doing here?”
“If anything I should be the one asking this question since, as Dave or Helena can confirm, I'm a regular at this rink.”
“I’m their Physical Education and Muggle Culture teacher, for your information! At St.Hedwig” Harry specified, the familiar way of Draco getting under his skin fresh as if the last eight years hadn’t passed.
“I know that, Potter, I’m the godfather for one of the kids you take care of… Hence why I didn’t really ask.” He drawled, leaning against the rail.
“Sarah?”
“Yes, Sarah Goyle. She’s adorable, isn’t she? And lucky for me she doesn’t have a crush on you so I don’t have to hear everything about how amazing you are every time I see her… only every other time.”
The exaggerated way Draco rolled his eyes made Harry laugh, taking a moment to consider the whole situation and how absurd it was, that is until he had to speed off to stop Beth and James from murdering each other with the blunt blades in some creative fashion.
Unexpectedly, Draco followed him and stopped with a graceful, wide arc. It made Harry stop for a moment and look down at Draco’s skates, holding the children by the shoulders gently.
“Are you a figure skater?”
“More of a dancer, I started too late for the difficult stuff, but I can do a few jumps…” he shrugged.
Beth and David gasped in unison “Can you show us, mister Healer? Please!”
Harry chuckled at their enthusiasm although in truth he was just as fascinated “Yes, please, mister Healer! I tried to explain a bit about figure skating and ice skating competitions but a demonstration would be so much better!”
A sigh escaped Draco’s lips “Alright, get your friends along the rail, please”
The children scurried off and Harry gave Draco a small smile “I appreciate it, Malfoy.”
“Just as long as you take them off the ice so I can practice afterwards.” He scowled but his heart wasn’t in it, Harry could tell, it was such a different look than those he’d pull off back in school.
Harry reached the kids and Draco stood proudly in front of them “Mr Potter mentioned that he explained the basics of this sport but that you lacked a proper demonstration. I’m not a professional athlete by any means, keep that in mind.”
The premise was entirely useless because as far as Harry and the kids were concerned Draco was the most graceful creature to ever put on a pair of skates.
His body elongated in an elegant T as he glided along the length of the rink before swinging his foot forward and gaining momentum for a simple but elegant jump, landing backward on the other foot and eliciting a round of cheers from the kids.
He circled and jumped a few steps and finally came to a close with a fast pirouette, slowing it down with his arms and then stopping neatly, offering the children a small bow.
Despite his previous lamentations he took the time to walk up to the small group and explain in more detail the difference between their hockey skates and the ones he was wearing, how the toepick allowed him to jump and spin, what went into an ice dancing competition and a few fun anecdotes for their amusement.
As they left the premises the children couldn’t stop talking about how cool ice skating was and how pretty ‘Mr Healer’ had been, he had a suspicion a few parents would need to take notes for Christmas gifts after this.
When all the children had been returned to their rightful homes and Harry was officially done with his day, he was left with the knowledge that Draco Malfoy was now a Healer, that he was involved enough in his goddaughter life to know about her school and her teachers, that he was very good on a pair of skates, that when he smiled at kids his whole face softened and that he was stupidly hot.
Nothing about this could go wrong.
Draco, for his part, found that the thought of Potter in Muggle sport attire, wrestling 15 kids without giving way to madness or despair, on ice, grinning at Draco, was far too distracting for anybody’s good.
Hence why he spent as much as possible of his afternoon shift wrangling charts and papers he’d let pile up.
The torture wasn’t helped by the knowledge that Pansy and Blaise were expecting him for drinks that night.
With a margarita safely clutched in his hand, he tried to start Blaise on a tangent about his business before either of them could notice his predicament. It worked for all of ten minutes, which arguably was already too long for whatever Blaise was going on about.
At last, Blaise raised an eyebrow “You never ask about my trading, not to mention you’re holding onto that margarita for dear life… Who is it?”
Draco just sighed, protesting wouldn’t help anyone, it would just give way to a different sort of needling. Yet, he wasn’t going to just give them what they wanted.
Pansy tapped her lower lip, thoughtful, dangerous “Do we know him already?”
Whatever Draco did was enough for Blaise to exclaim “Oh, we do!”
“British?”
“Yes, British.”
Draco groaned “Stop doing this twin telepaths thing or whatever! It’s creepy!”
Pansy pressed forward “Then who is it?”
“It’s none of your business!”
It was worth a try.
Pansy’s grin was wicked and determined “Oh but that absolutely indicates that it is! Hogwarts?”
Staring ahead and sipping his drink, trying to keep his voice completely uninterested was probably a bad strategy to adopt with people who’d known him his whole life “Drop it, there really is nothing to tell.”
A tilt of his head on Blaise’s part, completely focused on the task at hand “With how ticked off you are one would think this was about Saint Potter, champion of new Wizarding society.”
The poor margarita didin’t stand a chance.
Draco wasn’t sure whether it was a matter of accidental magic or he had gripped the stem too tight, still it snapped neatly, telling on him far more than he wished.
Pansy, for her part, was positively howling with laughter.
“I hate you both so much.”
“If you hate us like you hated Potter in school just keep in mind I’m a lesbian, honey.”
Draco sighed and vanished the destroyed drink and glass, waving over the waiter “I was just going through life pretending he doesn’t exist, why does that have to be so hard?”
Blaise smirked “Don’t be so hard on yourself! You do have to tell us how you met him, though”
Draco recounted the entirely accidental meeting, only stopping to take a sip of his White Russian when he got to Potter smiling at him “Potter doesn’t smile at me !” he griped, feeling more than a bit ridiculous “He smiles at his friends, of course he smiles at the kids… but me? Oh and he has filled out and he has new clothes and he let his hair grow a bit so it doesn’t look stupid and sticking out all over.”
Pansy reached out and patted his arm “Draco, we know that. We’re not the ones who have been avoiding all public functions in some convoluted atonement scheme.”
Draco stared at his drink, feeling an unexpected turmoil rise at her words “Do you think he thinks I’m not participating because I don’t care?”
Blaise made a dismissive sound, setting down his glass with a thud “It’s Potter, if he thought that was the reason he would have chewed you out this morning and then possibly proceeded to start stalking you again to make sure you’re not summoning demons when spinning as fast as you do.”
“Fine.”
“You have to fuck him, by the way.”
Draco almost choked on his drink as his head whipped towards Pansy.
“You can’t keep moping about this crush and stop working whenever he shows up. There’s too few of us in Britain to think you can stop meeting Potter entirely.”
“I avoided him for six years successfully already, thank you very much.”
Pansy rolled her eyes “I’m just saying, Draco Lucius, that if you fucked him already you’d close this pitiful teenage angst chapter and find yourself a rich husband or wife with which to have cute Malfoy heirs to send to Potter’s school.” she smirked cruelly on the last word, earning a chuckle from Blaise.
“I mean, Potter is rich, nothing says he can’t be the husband in question.” he teased further.
Draco gulped down the rest of his drink and slammed the glass on the table “You two are devils and I hate you.”
“Nothing but lies, darling.”
He waved them both off “This is all pointless anyway because it’s not like I’ll see him at the rink again or anything, he was just taking the kids out for a day.”
Famous last words.
Harry knew it would look suspicious when he showed up with two bags of takeaway at Hermione’s office but he wasn’t entirely sure he cared.
Hermione, on her hand, let him split the food and talked his ear off about the new policy she was working on as if she didn’t know this was nothing short of a bribe in exchange for her eventual advice and most importantly, silence.
When they were on to the dessert she smirked “Come on, what do you want to talk about?”
Harry hummed, savoring his treacle tart and glancing down at her desk “I brought the kids to the ice rink Tuesday…”
Hermione frowned “I know that…”
“I know you know, it was a preamble… Anyway, one of the kids fell and broke his wrist and it turns out… Draco Malfoy is a Children’s Healer
and
skates on ice in his free time.” Harry rushed through the last sentence, bracing himself for Hermione’s reaction although he wasn’t even sure what he was expecting.
“Well, you’re lucky he was there then!”
Harry blinked and considered her words for a moment, trying to piece together his nebulous expectations with what had happened and he tilted his head a bit.
“Isn’t it weird? Did you think he’d become a Healer? For kids?”
“Do I have to respond to that?” She chided, clearly not very amused by the question.
Harry sometimes forgot just how hard she had to fight for every scrap of genuine change she brought to Wizarding Britain. Still, he’d been stuck on that question the whole morning.
“Come on, Hermione, you know what I mean! Of all the people in our year did you think Malfoy would be the one to cure kids' broken wrists?”
“Fine, no, but people surprise you…” She shrugged, finishing her dessert and shuffling a few files as she got ready to end her lunch break.
A frown crossed Harry’s brow “I thought he was just spending all his days in Wiltshire tending the Malfoy estate.”
Hermione gave him an exasperated glance “As I said, people surprise you.”
Harry relaxed back into his seat and stretched his feet in front of himself “I suppose you’re right…”
“Well, yes… wait, what are you thinking of?”
Harry scowled “I’m not thinking of anything! Except… Maybe… Possibly showing up at the rink to see if he wants to get a coffee?”
It was Hermione’s turn to scowl, wagging her finger at Harry “No stalking.”
“I solemnly swear I’m not going to stalk Draco Malfoy, happy?”
“Marginally.”
“Good, because I don’t intend to stalk him if he’s not interested but I can’t just drop it either… You should have seen him.” Harry grinned at the memory.
“Happy to leave the pleasure to you, he was never my type.”
Harry sighed, a little smile on his face “He wasn’t mine, either… Always getting under each other’s skin”
Hermione raised an eyebrow “I need to ask you to consider that statement very carefully, Potter.” she laughed when her friend hit her square in the forehead with a stuffed toy owl from her desk “I’ll let you work, Granger.”
“Thank you very much, and thank you for lunch, too! Don’t bother the man!”
“You only said no stalking!” he called, closing the door before she could hex him.