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Secrets & Lies	By : Digitallace Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 14570 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with the fandom, nor do I get paid to write or post this work.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Author's Note: And the long wait is nearly at an end. Thanks for every review, warm and fuzzy cupcakes for all

Hermione arrived early to the office, a sleepy and disgruntled Ron in tow. "I don't understand why we couldn't have stopped off for even a muffin. Or a bit of egg and sausage," he complained, and Hermione ignored the trail of drool seeping from the corner of his lips.

"I've already told you. We haven't seen Harry all weekend. We need to check on him and make sure he's okay," she explained. Again.

"Then can we get some breakfast? I'm half starved," he whined behind her as they slipped into the dim row of offices. Only a few lights were on in the cubbies and Harry's was one of them.

"He's here," she whispered, obvious relief in her voice.

"It's not all that surprising," Ron muttered. "He's always here."

Hermione pressed forward, rounding into Harry's office with an expectant look. "All right, Harry?"

Her friend looked up, spectacles resting crookedly on his nose. Harry never wore his glasses anymore, a sure sign that something was amiss. "Fine. Busy," he muttered, turning back to his paperwork, scribbling furiously.

"What are you doing there, Harry?" she asked softly, stepping further into his office. He seemed like a skittish cat that could be spooked off by the slightest movement or raised voice.

"Filling out a search warrant," he replied curtly, and Hermione bristled.

"A search warrant for what?" she asked, still calm but growing more worried by the minute.

"For Malfoy."

Hermione's heart dropped to her toes. "You found something, then?" She felt a wave of pity for her friend, who was obviously enamored with the man he now had to shackle and bring into the Ministry.

"No," Harry huffed quickly. "But there is only one place I haven't been able to look, and once I check there, we can close this case for good," he explained rather curtly, his attention still focused on the spread of papers in front of him. "And then I'm done."

"What?" Ron piped in, stepping in behind Hermione. "But, Harry…I thought…."

Harry turned in his chair, meeting Ron's gaze. The dark shadows beneath his eyes made them look somehow brighter, even through his glasses. "You thought what?" he asked challengingly.

"I thought that you…liked Malfoy," Ron replied sheepishly.

"I did," he bit out, sighing as he raked a hand through his hair. It was already standing on end and Hermione wondered how many times he'd done that already this morning, or if he'd been here all night. It seemed likely by his restless and cranky demeanor. "I do…I mean…how the hell did you know that anyhow?" he demanded, but his eyes took in Hermione's guilty look and he shook his head. "Of course. It doesn't matter. I'm eager to put this part of my life behind me. Once we get leave to check Malfoy's storefront, we'll be done. I'll be done."

"But…does that mean…." Hermione's loss for words was uncommon. She felt terrible for her friend. Obviously something had happened, but she knew from experience she couldn't make Harry talk if he didn't want to talk.

"I don't know what it means, and I really don't have time to think about it. I want this done. Today. Now. I'm ready to move on," he sighed, an almost defeated tint to his eyes.

"Harry-"

"Can I please have some quiet, Hermione?" he bit out tersely. "I really need to get this done."

Ron tugged on Hermione's sleeve and touched his fingertips to her gaping chin. She couldn't remember the last time Harry spoke to them that way. "Yeah. Alright. We'll be around. If you need us," she murmured before slipping from Harry's office and letting Ron tug her toward the lifts.

Harry turned back to his work, scribbling furiously on the parchments in front of him, itemizing every thought and trying to distance himself from the fact that he was about to break the law for someone who was obviously practicing in illegal activities. Because he was in love with him. He gave a resigned sigh as his signature went onto the last document. He might not be able to see a life with Draco any longer, but that didn't mean he could sit back and watch the man hauled away to rot out the rest of his days in prison.

The last twenty-four hours had been the single most emotionally draining Harry could recall. Flip flopping between his break up with Ginny, his newly found desire for Malfoy and then witnessing what Harry felt was the ultimate betrayal had left him sapped of all energy and apparently his manners as well. He knew he'd have a massive apology on his hands when he saw Hermione next, but he was too far wasted to care at the moment.

He alternated between feeling pity towards Draco and a fury so deep it made his hands tremble. How could he do it? Some of those items were so evil that Voldemort himself might have cringed in their presence. He just wanted to shake the ignorance right out of Draco and tell him off, but at the same time he didn't know if he could even see him again.

And then there was his own betrayal, something that would have forced them apart, Harry was certain. They were destined to their own paths, but at least this way he could do something to help Draco before they parted ways.

Rolling the papers into a tight scroll, Harry marched down the hall to Fledgecraft's new cubicle. The man wasn't in yet, but Harry knew he'd tear into the search request the moment he sat down. Maybe with Fledgecraft having to admit they'd found nothing, it might lend a bit of credibility to Harry's own signature, although he suspected it was an unnecessary precaution. Kingsley signed off on whatever Harry asked him to, but he didn't want his old friend getting into trouble if questions were asked.

He debated taking a personal day, but he wanted to be present for the raid, and honestly, all he'd do at home would be sulk around and think about Draco. At least work gave him something to keep him busy and distracted. But no sooner had the thought entered his mind than a surly looking blond stormed into the Auror offices, his gaze immediately seeking, finding and boring straight through to their target.

Draco.

"Malfoy, what are you doing here?" Harry pressed, glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed the blond stalking purposefully toward him. There were still only one or two people in the entire department, and they didn't seem interested in Harry or his guest.

The blond sneered as Harry somewhat directed him into his office so they'd be granted at least a bit of privacy. "Back to Malfoy, is it? I should have known it would be all business with you, Potter. It always has been, hasn't it?" he demanded, slamming a thick manila envelope on Harry's desk.

He winced, immediately recognizing the broken Ministry seal, his own handwriting on the front and 'Malfoy, Draco Abraxas' typed in big block letters along the edge. "Where did you get this?" Harry demanded, his voice a bit breathy and choked. Despite the fact that he'd been lied to this entire time, Harry knew he'd been doing his fair share of storytelling as well and the idea shamed him more than he wanted to admit.

"Is it true?" Draco hissed, ignoring Harry's question outright. "You've just been using this…." He paused, seemingly unable to come up with a word to describe them and merely gestured wildly back and forth between their bodies. "…to get dirt on me? To have me arrested?"

"No. And yes. But, no," Harry insisted, fumbling. "I was tasked with the mission, more...forced into it really."

"How lovely," Draco growled mockingly, but the hurt was plain on his face.

"That's not what I meant," Harry sighed, already exhausted and the fight had merely begun. "You and I both know how unlikely it would have been for me to approach you of my own volition, especially like that…I wasn't even…I didn't know…." Harry pinched the bridge of his nose before running a hand through his hair and decided to just come out with it. All of it. "I thought I was straight, Draco. I thought I was going to marry Ginny, move to the seaside, have children, grow old and die. The idea that all I secretly wanted was for Draco Malfoy to fuck me hadn't even entered my mind."

Draco opened his mouth as if to scream some obscenity at Harry, but promptly closed it at his admission. He stared, seemingly baffled for a moment, but quickly shook himself out of it. "That doesn't change the fact that you lied to me," he said at last, a little weakly.

"No. It doesn't," Harry replied, looking contrite. "But I'm sorry in any case." Even now, with Draco's arrogant eyes shining down at him, Harry couldn't seem to make himself bring up the room and all the illegal things he'd found within. It would be so easy to turn the tables, rub it in his face, and maybe the old Harry might have done just that, but the old Harry was a miserable sod and Harry found he liked that man less and less each day.

"I don't want your apologies, Potter," Draco spat, slamming a second folder on top of the first, but this one was unfamiliar to Harry. "It's my confession," he explained at Harry's look of confusion. "I've listed every dark artifact to ever enter and leave my care. Go ahead and shackle me, Potter. I know it's what you want."

Shaking his head tiredly, Harry incinerated the documents with a flick of his wrist, his eyes never leaving Draco's stormy gaze. "If I'd wanted that, Draco, you'd already be on your way to Azkaban. I know about the room. I found it last night," he admitted to try and deter Draco from pursuing this path.

A flash of guilt passed over Draco's cold, gray eyes, but he shrugged his elegant shrug. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Harry quirked a brow in annoyance. "No? You mean you've never seen the room beneath your father's study, the one down the dank tunnel that smells like old socks? The one whose walls are made up entirely of illegal artifacts?" Shaking his head, Harry merely slumped into his office chair and sighed. "Please don't take me for an idiot, Malfoy. I might not be a good person, but I'm a damned good Auror."

The corner of Draco's lip twitched. "Then why didn't you bring me in?"

"Because, it's not about the case for me anymore. I've already signed the papers that will have your file put into archives for the better part of our lifetimes. I care about you too much to see you thrown into a cell because you were a devoted son. No matter how ignorant and dangerous that devotion is," Harry said, feeling weighed down by it all over again.

His mind reeled as he said words aloud he'd almost been too afraid to think. Part of him knew that charging Draco would be the right thing to do. That all of his past experiences, all of his training – by both the Ministry and Dumbledore – had indicated Azkaban as the only rightful place for a man like Malfoy.

It wasn't until he sat down and tried to put a signature to such a document that his carefully constructed walls had come crumbling down. His hand shook with grief at the very idea of sending Draco away. If it were Hermione or Ron, would he be able to do it? No. He'd do his best to shove it under the rug if either of them were the guilty party, just as he was doing now for Draco.

Draco continued to stand, staring down on him like some dark avenging angel, but his expression was clearly torn. "I'm not sure what to say," he replied at last.

Harry offered him a weak smile and took of his glasses to scrub his hand across his face. His vision of the blond immediately blurred, but he no longer felt the tight constrictions of the glasses adding to his headache. He lifted his wand and muttered the spell Hermione taught him to fix his vision and waited for the room to come into focus. "We should just call it a comedy of errors and part ways as amicably as still possible," he said at last, not noticing how stricken Draco looked at the suggestion. By the time Draco's features sharpened before him, his face had returned to its hard mask. "And perhaps try not to do anything too illegal until I can get Fledgecraft off your scent, yeah?"

"That's what you want?" Draco asked, his voice smooth and soft. "To end things before they ever have a chance to begin?"

Harry blinked at the question, realizing he didn't want to let any of this go. Not yet. "Don't you? I mean…this whole thing has been a lie. How could you even stand to look at me knowing I manipulated you into…whatever it is you feel about me?" he asked, wondering not for the first time, how deeply his own fondness of the blond had latched on.

Frowning, Draco slumped –somehow still elegant- into the chair opposite Harry's desk. "I'd thought that you never cared at all. That it was a game to you."

Harry gritted his teeth and shook his head. "It was never a game, Draco. My feelings in the beginning might not have been completely genuine, but I hated with a passion what I was being instructed to do. I should have put my foot down from the beginning and told Fledgecraft off, but…I was too much of a coward," he admitted.

Draco swallowed and nodded. "I know a bit about how that feels," he whispered. "I've spent the better part of my life taking orders I never wanted to fulfill, hoping that one day it would be my turn to call the shots, but it took me until being with you to know that if I ever wanted that, I had to take it. I couldn't just wait around for someone to ask my opinion, ask me what I wanted to do."

A slow, understanding grin spread across Harry's lips and he nodded. "So, what is it you want, Draco?" Harry asked, somewhat tentatively.

"The same thing I wanted last night, earlier this week, last week and the week before that…maybe longer," Draco said, as if that explained anything. "You."

Harry felt a shiver course through him at the words and knew he was probably blushing, and Draco's soft smirk a moment later confirmed that thought. "We'd have to keep it quiet. For now, at least. Until this whole Ministry business blows over. If Fledgecraft saw fit to prove I'd tampered with evidence, he'd have both our arses in a sling."

Draco quirked a brow, but nodded. "That's fair. We should probably start fresh anyhow, what with how everything played out the first time."

Harry found himself liking the idea of that. "And the artifacts-" he began, but Draco beat him to the punch.

"Arrangements have already been made to have them vacated from my premises. Everything will be destroyed once it's away from Malfoy Manor. Unless, of course, my Auror boyfriend would like to oversee the process?"

"I should," Harry mumbled, but he was too pleased at being called Draco's Auror boyfriend to put up much of a fight. "But I think you can handle it."

Draco bowed his head knowingly. "I assure you, it'll be taken care of."

"I trust you," Harry whispered, and found the words to be true. He'd been trusting Draco for a long time, and if he got his way, a long time still.

Author's Note: Only the epilogue left now. Then I'll start posting chapters of Glorious, my new extra long oneshot.
- 15
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- 17
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Secrets & Lies