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Learning Life Over	By : Meander Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 69712 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 26
- 27
- 28
Thanks for the reviews, and hello to the new readers! I�ve
answered a few questions at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 27- In Which Nothing Goes As Expected

�� Harry
resisted the urge to scrub at his forehead. It wouldn�t actually damage the
glamour Draco had cast on him- which made him look two inches shorter than he
really was, with brown hair and blue eyes- but someone who saw him at the play
might notice it, and wonder why he wasn�t touching a visible wound or scar, and
remember that Harry Potter used the exact same gesture, and then the game would
spin out of control.

�� Paranoid,
Potter? he asked himself sharply, then shook his head. Of course I am.
That�s a survival tactic for an Auror.

�� And is
that what you still are?

�� Harry
wrinkled his forehead. Of course he was, even now. He would- change things, but
he couldn�t imagine changing his profession. He needed to work so that he could
continue making a living, and he�d trained hard to become an Auror. Even
assuming he could find something he liked better, would he really have the time
at this point in his life to train to fit it?

�� Ready,
Harry?�

�� Draco had
entered the room behind him. Harry nodded and turned away from the mirror,
pausing when he saw an amused smirk curling the edges of Draco�s mouth. �What?�
He brushed self-consciously at the sleeves of the robes he�d chosen. They were
dark blue, and formal, and the kind of clothes he�d worn the last time he�d
been at any entertainment, guarding a high-ranking Ministry official from
threats of kidnapping. �Did I put some kind of stain on them already?�

�� No,� said
Draco easily, and held out his arm. Though he didn�t understand Draco�s mania
for the gesture, Harry accepted it, intertwining his arm with the other man�s.
�I was simply thinking that I�ll know who you are under the glamour, but
no one else will. So I have the pleasure of looking at you all to myself
tonight.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes, unable to help it. �You are possessive.�

�� And don�t
forget it.� Draco�s hand gripped his elbow a little harder. �Once you do start
changing the way you act, people will want you for more than your Auror
training, Harry. I fully expect you to remember my possessive streak.� He
appeared to catch himself. �If we�re still dating by then, of course.�

�� Harry
ignored the last few words. He frankly didn�t know himself what would happen
from moment to moment with Draco, and he preferred not to think how permanent
their arrangement would be. He knew utter stupidity when he heard it, though,
and he could refute it with a few words.

�� You�re not
going to have to fight anyone for me, Malfoy. Honestly. I know what I look like-
yes, without the glamour- and I told you, the allure of killing
Voldemort has faded, since I didn�t take advantage of it. You won�t have a
chance to get jealous.�

�� Draco
looked at him with solemn exasperation, as if he would like to say something
but Harry was being too dumb to make sense of it however he phrased the words.
Harry scowled at him. He doesn�t need to tell me what I look like. I already
told him I know it.

�� Still some
work to do,� Draco said, as if that were supposed to make sense, and
then pulled Harry close to Apparate them. Harry told himself not to enjoy the
closeness that much. Damn sensitive skin.

*

�� Draco had
meant what he said. If he and Harry were an established couple- as, in the
future, they would be- there was nothing he would have liked more than to
appear with him and be subjected to gawks and stares of envy and longing. But
Harry was still healing, and Draco definitely didn�t want the Manor besieged
with former lovers, reporters from the Daily Prophet, and Ministry
officials who wanted to know who was lying in St. Mungo�s under the name of
Harry Potter. So he would take the lesser pleasure of being the only one who
knew the wizard on his arm and what he really looked like.

�� Even the
glamour couldn�t make Harry less than fascinating to watch, though. And the
drape of the dark blue robes did nothing to hide the strength of his stride, or
the alert way his head turned.

�� Draco
smiled slightly when he saw glances of envy and longing following them anyway
as they made their way into the theater. I should have known.

�� The theater
itself had once had a formal name, but the battered letters carved in the stone
had been worn by centuries of wind and rain; the wizards Draco knew called it
the Half-Globe. The stage was open to the sky, particularly useful for night
scenes, but the seats were sheltered, and arranged in galleries that gradually
mounted back and away from the stage. Draco had tickets for a perfect place, in
the middle of a row and close enough to the stage that they could hear the
words without having to rely on Eavesdropping Charms, while far enough away
they wouldn�t get a clumsy actor�s spittle on them. Besides, the play was a good
one, an alternate history that speculated what would have happened had Salazar
Slytherin returned to Hogwarts after his unjustified casting-out. Draco was
quite looking forward to seeing it, and to seeing Harry�s indignant reaction to
the portrayal of Godric Gryffindor.

�� They had
just reached the row the tickets indicated when they met Blaise Zabini. Draco
smiled when he saw him, sweeping up the stairs with his latest conquest, a
small, honey-blonde witch whose skin shone milky pale next to Blaise�s dark arm
curved around her shoulders. He and Blaise were not always friends, but it was
a pleasure trading barbs with him.

�� Blaise
halted at the sight of him, and then raised a brow when he saw the glamoured
Harry. His eyes moved to Draco�s face, a question in them. He had been privy to
Draco�s plans, had known that he intended to go after Harry a little more than
a week ago, and clearly wondered what had happened to that plan.

�� Draco
barely kept from laughing. He did nod impressively, and say, �Blaise, I�d like
you to meet Perry Faulter, my date for the evening.�

�� Blaise
received the message, of course. His eyes narrowed, but he only said, �I�m
pleased to meet you, Perry.�

�� Harry was
busy glaring at Draco. He obviously didn�t appreciate the name. Draco didn�t
care. The spark in his eyes was only a bit less intoxicating when they were
blue instead of green.

�� Luckily,
Harry kept his mind enough on the game to tear his gaze away from Draco�s, and
said, �Likewise, Blaise. Draco�s mentioned you a time or two.� He put a hand
out, and though Blaise tried to crush his wrist, because he did that to
everyone, he didn�t flinch or struggle. He simply looked calmly into Blaise�s
face. Blaise drew his hand back appearing mildly impressed.

�� Blaise?�
giggled the witch on his arm, and tugged at his cloak. �Aren�t you going to
introduce me?�

�� Draco saw
the stifled tension in Blaise�s face. This is a date his mother set him up
with, then. Gloriana Zabini was forever urging her son to find and marry a
pure-blood witch of some kind. And Blaise did- for a few months, once almost a
year, before he divorced them. He was growing almost as famous as his mother
for sheer number of marriages, though luckily his spouses didn�t die
mysteriously.

�� Blaise�s
problem, Draco thought without sympathy, was that he was irrevocably attracted
to blood traitors. First it had been the Weasley girl, and then the
undistinguished daughter of a wizard who�d run away to marry a Muggle, and then
a Mudblood witch with a Squib grandmother whom he�d actually wed and lived in
bliss with for a whole week before his mother caught up with him.

�� Draco,
Perry,� said Blaise, his voice bright and brittle, �this is Selina Bella-aloe.�

�� Soon to be
Mrs. Zabini!� Selina said, and giggled like a pissed fairy as she extended one
hand. A diamond ring sparkled on it.

�� She�ll
last an even shorter time than the others, Draco thought, and made his
voice and smile cool as he responded, �Congratulations. I�m sure having the
Zabini name for a short time will be an honor.�

�� The silly
bint didn�t even catch on that he�d used the wrong preposition. She just
burbled inanely at him, and then leaned on Blaise and feigned a yawn. �Can we
sit down soon, Blaise? I�m just so tired!�

�� Blaise,
looking as if he�d agreed to go on a death march, nodded and escorted her
towards their seats. Draco led Harry a few chairs further on and then sank back
with a sigh. The seats in the Half-Globe were comfortable, with enough
Cushioning Charms to make Draco wish he could spend half his days here, simply
napping.

�� Is that
what your social circles are like?�

�� Draco
opened one eye. Yes, Harry looked disgusted, but that wasn�t truly a surprise.
Most of his peers� company would have seemed gauche after the concert in Mrs.
Parkinson�s home. �No, that�s what Blaise is like,� he said, �because his
mother makes him. She�s hoping to get a grandchild out of him one of these
days. Poor Blaise.� He said it without much conviction, though. Blaise should
simply stand up to his mother. If he�d invest some of his own money, instead of
letting her control all of it because he found the actual process of making
money boring, then he�d be independent enough.

�� Harry was
silent for long moments. Then he said, �I don�t know if I could always look a
witch like that in the face and make polite conversation.�

�� Draco
raised a hand and laid the back of it along his cheek. Harry�s eyes half-lidded
at once, which was pleasant. �You�d have to spend as much or as little time
around witches like her as you pleased, Harry. Our lives together will be
yours, too, you know, and not all polite small talk with my friends. Besides,
that one won�t last long. Blaise will marry her, to satisfy his mother, but
then he�ll divorce her, and hopefully date someone more tolerable.�

�� Why does he
put up with it?� Harry had his nose wrinkled, and didn�t seem to realize that
he�d pressed closer to Draco. Draco grinned in delight and casually put his arm
around the back of the seat.

�� Because
he�s too lazy to make his own living,� Draco responded. �He�ll learn someday. I
promise, Harry, not all of us are like that. I�d like you to meet Theodore
Nott. You�d probably enjoy his company.� Or want to arrest him. It was
no secret to the right people that Theodore, clever and sophisticated though he
was, had his nose buried deep in Dark magic.

�� I might
like that,� Harry murmured, and then seemed to realize how close they were. He
pulled away, flushing, and suddenly stood. �I need to use the loo,� he
announced.

�� Draco
inclined his head. Harry had accepted gestures more intimate than that from
him, but they were in a public place now. Draco had half-expected the retreat.
�Come back in a few minutes, though. The play is about to start.�

�� Harry
nodded jerkily, and hurried down the aisle, murmuring regret and excuses to
people whose legs he kicked. Draco lounged in his own seat and admired the view
of Harry�s arse. He really should have been choosing Harry�s robes for him all
along.

*

�� Harry
closed his eyes and splashed water across his face, then across his forehead,
then across his face again for good measure.

�� What am
I doing?

�� Sitting
grinning into Draco�s face like a love-struck fool was not on. And
neither was cuddling up like a cat against his hands. Harry had- well, he had
standards to maintain. They weren�t precisely lovers. They�d had sex a grand
total of once. He kept insisting that he wanted friendship before anything
else, and yet what did he do? Let his body betray him.

�� Harry was
determined not to do that. He�d fucked most of the rest of his life up, God
knew. He didn�t want to fuck this up, too, though perhaps it was inevitable,
given his record.

�� A wave of
hopelessness nearly made him close his eyes, but Harry ground his teeth and
resisted the impulse. He could do this. He would do this. He
might fuck things up, yes, but he wasn�t going to give in and scuttle away out
of sheer fear. He would make a spectacular mistake if he made one, by
God.

�� He stepped
out of the loo and started to walk back towards the stage. Then he paused as he
heard a low sound from a hallway that led towards their Apparition point.
Cautiously, Harry turned to face it, while drawing his wand and simultaneously
scolding himself for doing so. There�s no Dark wizard here, don�t be
ridiculous-

�� Except
that, when he peered into the hallway, there was a young witch pressed
back against the wall, her robes open and her face crimson with embarrassment
and misery, while a much larger wizard held his hand over her mouth and opened
her robes further.

�� Harry�s
blood boiled with rage. So this wasn�t a Dark wizard; it was still the kind of
person he trained and struggled to stop. He stepped into the hallway, his wand
held out in front of him.

�� Lumos,�
he said clearly, stealing the protection of the darkness. The wizard turned to
stare at him, but kept the witch pinned against the wall, foiling Harry�s first
hope. Sometimes people like this simply ran away when caught. Courage wasn�t a
requirement for rape.

�� Who the
fuck are you?� snarled the wizard. He sounded a bit drunk.

�� That
doesn�t matter,� said Harry. He felt his magic swelling around him, and for
once he welcomed it. The idiot�s eyes darted sideways nervously as a wall
rattled. �She obviously doesn�t want to be doing this with you. Let her go.�

�� Go away,
hero,� the wizard said, and then turned and drew his own wand.

�� Harry
reacted on instinct, casting a Glass Wall Charm between the witch and the
wizard first, so that she wouldn�t be hurt by any spells that might fly during
the duel. Then he cast the Body-Bind. Yes, a hex might have hurt him in
the meantime, but he doubted it. After so long around painful magic, he knew
how to resist most minor spells.

�� The wizard
got off a spell, but Harry, with the roar of his blood and his magic in his
ears, didn�t hear it. It only seemed to settle on him with a faint tingle,
anyway, so he ignored it and concentrated on petrifying the man. A moment
later, his wand fell from his slack hand.

�� Harry
wasted no time in casting Finite on himself, after that. The tingling
faded, and he moved forward to take down the Glass Wall Charm and help the girl
out from under it.

�� She stared
at him, eyes wide open in awe, and Harry abruptly realized what must have
happened. In removing the spell the idiot had cast on him, he�d removed his
glamour, too. His temper was up, and his level of power, even in simple spells,
tended to rise with it.

�� Harry
Potter?� she whispered.

�� Harry
winced, and tried to say something, but someone behind him repeated in
astonishment, �Harry Potter?�

�� Shit.

********

�� wizli:
Thanks! I have been hoping to keep the sexual undercurrent balanced with the
friendship, since it�s not at all gone away.

Angelina: Thanks! I�ve added you to
the update list.

�� John: Thank
you for your kind words. I�ve also put you on an update list. I�m glad that you
find Harry�s progress interesting; sometimes I think it would be too slow for
some people.

�� Rhiannon
Uerch Llewelyn: My favorite characters from Martin�s series are Jon Snow,
Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister. No pairings I like, specifically.

�� Satu: Heh,
perhaps so. Of course, Harry has bigger problems than Theresa to worry about
right now.��
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Learning Life Over