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Draco was having trouble focusing on his work at the moment. His thoughts kept getting invaded by Potter.
And that damn smirk of his.
They worked together at Hogwarts, and had for a couple years now, Potter taking up the DADA post after working in the Ministry for a few months as an Auror to help round up the rest of the escaped Death Eaters and help defend those who were spies (like his parents) and those who were actually controlled and doing Voldemort’s work against their will. He had an uncanny ability to tell who was and wasn’t a true follower.
Though some of that was because he faced them all so bloody much.
Draco had taken up the post as Potions Master after completing their eighth year. The one who was temporarily filling in was doing so as a temporary thing and was more than happy to relinquish the job to Draco when McGonagall offered it to him. Potter had joined the staff shortly afterwards.
Meaning Draco was stuck working with his crush and seeing him for meals on a daily basis. They had staff meetings and somehow the two of them always ended up sitting next to each other, which Draco was thinking was deliberate if the looks he saw on a few of the other professor’s faces was any indication.
The meddling wasn’t appreciated.
And it also meant that Draco was forced to see Potter’s smirk all. the. time.
Damn him for having such a cute smirk.
So here Draco was, thinking of Potter’s face when he should be grading the essays his second-years had handed in. He either needed to get over this crush on Potter or work up the courage to ask him out because he couldn’t stand this anymore.
~~~~
At dinner, the two of them were, once again, sitting together. Longbottom was sitting on Potter’s other side and Lovegood was on the other side of Longbottom. Three of Draco’s former classmates had become professors, though Lovegood was the most recent addition since she was a year younger than them.
From what he’d overheard students say, they enjoyed her class and her… unconventional ways.
He noticed some of the students looking up at Potter periodically and decided to ask him about it. The students sometimes did this, though Draco had always just assumed it was because he was Harry bloody Potter and they were starstruck. But this was partway through the year and not Potter’s first year teaching so it made a little less sense.
“Any particular reason some of the students are staring at you?” he asked Potter, watching as he looked out to the sea of students and noticed the few stealing glances at him before he sighed and looked over at Draco.
“It’s because I’ve shown a few classes the Patronus Charm and it’s apparently still impressive that I can conjure a corporeal one despite the fact that this has been known for years,” Potter replied. “I do wish I’d stop getting stared at for it.”
“Potter, it is still impressive that you can conjure a corporeal one considering it’s hard for most grown wixen to produce one and yet you’ve been able to since the age of thirteen.”
Potter rolled his eyes and scowled (bloody scowl was cute too) a little. “I wouldn’t have needed to if it weren’t for those bloody dementors deciding I was a perfect target.”
Draco remembers that; Potter passing out on the train and then nearly dying during that Quidditch match. There was also what happened near the end of the school year with those dementors trying to kill both Potter and Black. There was still very limited information for exactly how Potter had been able to cast a strong Patronus during that event, but it was known that he was the one to cast the spell based on who was present.
He was determined to find out the full story someday.
“So how have your classes been so far?” Potter asked, bringing Draco out of his thoughts. He shrugged slightly in response.
“Nothing major to report except for a few students who thought it was a good idea to ignore the instructions and try their own way to brew what should’ve been a simple potion. Nearly blew up their cauldron and the classroom. It seems like each month I discover more reasons why Severus was so strict with that class.”
Potter laughed a bit at that and Draco felt his heart melt a little. He also noticed Longbottom, Lovegood, and McGonagall giving the two of them very pointed looks.
How many people knew about his crush?!
He definitely needed to ask out Potter even if just to find out if he shared even a fraction of Draco’s feelings.
But he’d wait till after dinner so they didn’t have such a large audience. He’d be damned if he either got rejected in front of everybody or Potter reciprocated and he couldn’t immediately act on it.
~~~~
As dinner was wrapping up, Harry noticed Neville and Luna (and even McGonagall) looking between him and Draco. Again. They’d been doing that a lot lately.
(Though they’d been doing it at least a little since the two of them started eating meals next to each other).
“Why do you keep looking at Draco and I like that?” Harry eventually asked Neville in a low enough voice that Draco (who was chatting with another professor about something) wouldn’t hear. Neville looked a little surprised.
“Do you seriously not know?”
“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t be asking if I did.”
“Mate, we’re wondering when the two of you will stop subtly flirting and start dating.”
Harry blinked at him for a couple moments.
“What?”
“Harry, do you really not realize that you two flirt with each other? Like a lot?”
“Draco’s not flirting with me.”
Neville just gave Harry a deadpan stare. “Harry, you just might be the only person to not notice the way he looks at you and the very clear flirty comments he makes.”
Harry shook his head, looking down at the table. “There’s no way…”
“He clearly shares your crush-”
Harry whipped his head up to look at Neville in shock, cutting him off. “How do you know about that?!”
Again, Neville gave Harry a deadpan stare. “Everyone has known about your crush on him since sixth year.”
Damn, Harry was apparently not as subtle about that as he thought. Yikes.
“Mate,” Neville said, drawing Harry’s attention again, “just ask him out. He’ll say yes and you can put the rest of us out of our misery so we don’t have to watch you two pine and dance around each other for who knows how long.”
Harry rolled his eyes a little at that. There was no way Draco liked him. No way.
As they were getting up from dinner and the students were heading back to their dorms, Draco caught Harry’s attention. “Potter, could you come with me to my office? I want to talk to you about something.”
Harry nodded as he answered. “Sure.”
Draco nodded and the two of them set off for the dungeons, Harry only vaguely registering the looks being sent by the same three that kept looking over at them all through dinner.
They made their way through the mass of students walking along, the two of them using a few lesser known passages to get there a little more unimpeded, and finally made it to Draco’s office with little interference. Once they were both inside and Draco closed (and locked?) the door, Harry turned to look at the other man.
“So, what’d you wanna talk to me about?”
~~~~
Draco turned to look at Potter, his head tilted to the side (was everything about him cute?!) as he asked his question. Draco took a moment to breathe a little deeper to fight off the few nerves that had collected.
He was not nervous. He totally was
“I want to ask you something,” Draco started, Potter only nodding for him to continue. “I was hoping you’d do me the honour of going on a date with me?”
Potter seemed to freeze upon hearing that. Draco wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good response. He just waited.
“You want to go on a date… with me?” Potter asked, seeming confused. Draco just furrowed his brow and frowned slightly as he nodded.
“I would’ve have asked if I didn’t want to. I’m not in the habit of just asking people on dates, you know.”
“But… why me? Surely there’s multiple people better than me that you’d want to date instead?”
Did Potter truly think so little of himself?
“Potter, I’ve had a crush on you for years at this point and if I didn’t ask you out I’m pretty sure I would’ve gone mad,” Draco confessed, watching Potter’s eyes go wide at the admission.
“How-how long have you had a crush on me, exactly?”
“Since about fifth year, at least that I know of.”
Potter smirked (that damn smirk again) as he replied, seemingly getting over his shock at least a little bit. “I’ve had a crush on you, that I’ve known about since at least sixth year, though Ron and Hermione would probably argue that I had one earlier than that.”
Draco smirked in return at that tidbit. “So, does this mean that you’ll go on that date with me?”
Potter looked up at him, those bloody brilliant green eyes seeming to sparkle as he did so. “Yeah, I’ll go on a date with you. What do you have in mind?”
Draco closed the distance between them, stepping into Potter’s space and slowly wrapping his arms around the other man’s waist so he had a chance to pull away if he wanted to. He didn’t.
“Well, we could always have our first formal date in Hogsmeade or dinner at one of our places. Though I’d much rather we have an informal date right now where I can get to know your body a little better and figure out what name I should call you since Potter is too formal and Harry isn’t good enough for regular use.”
Potter laughed a bit at that, wrapping his own arms around Draco’s neck. That damn smirk was in place, though it was accompanied by a lovely blush colouring his cheeks and (from the skin Draco could see) the tops of his shoulders.
“I like the sound of that.”
Those words were barely out of Potter’s mouth when Draco sealed their lips together, snogging the daylights out of him and feeling Potter run his fingers through Draco’s hair, pulling slightly and drawing some sounds of pleasure from him at the feeling. He felt Potter smirk against his lips at that and responded by slightly biting his bottom lip to elicit the same sort of sounds from him.
This was going to be a very good night.