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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
- 27
- 28
- 29
Sorry for the break in updates! I got sick yesterday (ate
something that didn�t agree with me), so wasn�t able to work on the story.

Chapter 28- Hero and Bastard

�� Draco
frowned and looked towards the loo. The actors had started to take their places
on stage. One would think that Harry would make an attempt to arrive on
time, even if he had found it fascinating to stare at his own face in the
mirror.

�� Then he
heard someone mutter excitedly, �Harry Potter!�

�� Draco�s
heart stuttered, and began beating again. He stood quickly, even as he tried to
tell himself it must be coincidence. Or perhaps someone had glamoured
himself to look like Harry for the joke of it. Harry probably had no idea how
frequently people still did that.

�� But, as he
forced his way past the legs of those sitting in his row, and past glares and
muttered complaints, he heard mentions of �saved a girl,� and grimaced. Yes,
that was his Harry, all right.

�� Now,
hopefully, to reach him before someone remembered that Harry should have been
lying in St. Mungo�s in a coma from falling down the stairs outside his flat.

�� As soon as
he reached the ascending tiers on the side of the theater, he began to vault up
them, his heartbeat thick in his ears. He didn�t want to be too late. He
probably already was. There were probably too many people to Obliviate.
And there were people who would stare at him, a former Death Eater, in Harry�s
company even now.

�� And then
the simple, obvious solution occurred to him, and he slowed with a snort and a
shake of his head.

�� Yes,
granted, it would make some of Harry�s decisions for him, but he always had the
opportunity to reverse them at a later date if he so desired. And it was the
only way to get them out of there without making a scene.

�� Draco
sauntered up the last few steps and down the hallway that led towards the loo
without a care in the world. Then he saw Harry in the center of a crowd of
people, and managed, he thought, to look no more than mildly interested.

�� Harry?� he
called out, making several heads swing to him at once. �What are you doing
here? The play started five minutes ago.� And then he pretended to notice some
telling detail- the wand gripped in Harry�s hand, perhaps- and clucked his
tongue. �Oh, dear. Please tell me that you weren�t involved in saving a puppy�s
life again. That kind of thing does get tedious, Harry, and surely
conquering a Dark Lord is enough for one hero�s lifetime.�

*

�� Harry
stared blankly at Draco. What does he think he�s doing? Does he really
believe that he�ll get us out of this with a few well-placed words and winks?

�� From the
gleam in his eyes, his smile full of disinterest and exasperation and fondness,
it seemed that he did.

�� Harry
didn�t think he could pull off his part of the deception, though. Lying had
never been his forte, and there was no way he could pretend that saving the
young witch didn�t matter to him. It did, and anyone who knew anything
about him would know that he�d spent the past eleven years proving that.

�� And then he
remembered that he was good at ignoring inconvenient truths, even if he wasn�t
good at lying. He doffed what armor he could, the pretense that these people
didn�t matter to him as much as some argument with Draco, just as he�d once
pretended that he�d completely overcome his grief for his friends and wouldn�t
shatter at a touch. Present the mask strongly enough, and few people would poke
it to find out if it was false. Harry had certainly learned that, if nothing
else, in his few years at the Ministry.

�� Draco,�
he said, and hoped his voice was either a dignified protest or a whine. Either
would lend credibility to their fa�ade. �Must you? I was having fun, you know.
More fun than seeing a stupid play would afford me.� He tossed his head, a
parody of the gesture he usually made when irritated, and put his wand back in
his robe pocket. He could feel the heavy stares on the sides of his neck and
face, and proceeded to ignore them. If he looked at one person, he would crack,
or flush and start stammering, the way he used to do when someone caught him in
a lie as a teenager. �And of course saving a life matters. It wasn�t a puppy.
It was- �

�� Oh, I
don�t care,� said Draco, with a languid wave of his hand, and then he came
through the crowd to Harry by what seemed the simple process of not being where
the elbows and the legs were. �What I care about is that you always find
someone to rescue when we�re at an event like this. You don�t always manage to
lose the glamour, though. That�s a new level of carelessness even for you.� He
halted in front of Harry and folded his arms with a glare, every inch of him
radiating petulant sullenness.

�� Harry built
the lie with him; he might not know exactly what Draco had in mind, but his
words gave enough of a handle for him to hold. �Just compensating for your own
prissiness, Draco,� he said easily. �Inside the Manor, I can�t even save a vase
from falling, because you�re there squawking like a hen. So I might as well get
to use some real magic outside the walls.�

�� Draco�s
eyes sparked, and Harry knew he was going to pay for the hen crack. He didn�t
care. He felt far too good. This was exactly the kind of prank that he might
have played with Ron or Hermione- well. A friend. Playing off each other,
letting their words flow around one another�s, making them into a team that
flourished against the world. The world against them.

�� Harry
hadn�t known, until this moment, how much he missed that aspect of friendship.

�� Draco took
a step forward, and then reached out, grasping Harry�s hand and pulling him
forward. A moment later, he had pressed his lips quite firmly to Harry�s. He
didn�t use his tongue- probably because they were in public, Harry thought, and
even Draco recognized certain limits- but he made the kiss fierce anyway, and a
silent demand. Harry gave in and lent their deception even more credibility by
reacting like a lover, or he pulled away, embarrassed, and had to tell the
truth.

�� Thoughts
chasing themselves wildly through his head, Theresa�s warnings and his own
confused sexual response to Draco among them, Harry moaned, or, rather, let the
moan that had built in the center of his chest out. Draco snarled in
satisfaction, though Harry doubted anyone else could hear the sound; he felt it
because, by this point, Draco had pressed their bodies together. When he finally
drew back from the kiss, he had a feral look in his eyes.

�� Harry felt
it call heat from his own body in response, and not all- solely- the heat of
shame or embarrassment. He didn�t remove his eyes from Draco. He didn�t think
he could.

�� I hate it
when you end arguments like that,� he murmured. His tongue, not only his lips,
felt swollen.

�� Draco
smirked at him. �That�s half the fun of doing it,� he replied smoothly.

�� Someone in
the staring crowd finally found her voice, an older witch with gray hair whom
Harry saw clutching her wand with shaking hands. �See here, Harry Potter�s in a
coma at St. Mungo�s- �

�� Draco
snorted, grabbed Harry, one hand on his hip and one arm around his shoulders,
and turned him firmly, so that Harry rested against him, back to chest. Harry
felt the hands tighten, and knew better than to try to break away, so he
settled for looking mulish while Draco spoke as he might to an extremely slow
child. �And why do you think we did that? Harry gets little enough rest as it
is, working as an Auror. If he announced he was taking a holiday, the press
would follow him and hound him until they discovered his hiding place. We
thought we could use this to make sure he got some time away from his job and
didn�t attract a crowd of admirers.� Draco swept the group in front of him with
a glance that, Harry saw, made several people flinch. �I see that goal failed.�

�� He saved
my life,� a voice said, and Harry turned his head to see the young witch who�d
first recognized him coming out of the hallway, her robes now more demurely
buttoned. Her face was pale, and her words shook, but she still spoke up,
gamely. �A man I�d just met was trying to rape me. Harry Potter heard me, and
protected me, and put a Body-Bind on him so that he�d stay still. He�s in the
corridor behind me, if you want to look.� She turned and fixed Harry with a
look of worship that made him uncomfortable. It was exactly the expression he
managed to avoid most of the time when he worked as an Auror. He acted so calm
and professional that the victims he worked with could accept him as someone
there to help them, and not a hero, nor a celebrity. But she saw him as, well, him,
and Harry could feel the dull flush climbing his cheeks. �Thank you,� she
whispered.

�� Harry
nodded in acknowledgment, and then tried to shift away from Draco. Those hands
tightened again, and Draco leaned down and breathed into Harry�s ear. Harry
closed his eyes, half-helpless with the feeling. His cock was twitching. God,
he didn�t want to get hard now, in the midst of everyone.

*

�� Draco was
getting more and more pissed off.

�� Oh, of
course he�d wanted to walk openly with Harry at his side in front of the
wizarding world someday, and the stares would be half the fun. Of course he
knew that openly dating Harry would always attract attention. If he hadn�t
wanted that, he should have become obsessed with someone who hadn�t killed a
Dark Lord and saved thousands of people from death or slavery.

�� But he
hadn�t wanted it just yet. More to the point, he hadn�t wanted people to stare
at Harry like this: in devouring curiosity, as if he were an ornament for their
enjoyment, or shock, as if he had no right to live in Malfoy Manor and date
Draco because he had a reputation to maintain.

�� He wanted
to get out of here, and now.

�� It seems
that our enjoyment of the play is not to be, alas,� he said, and his voice was
cool enough to make the older witch, who�d opened her mouth, snap it shut
again. Draco took the moment to glare at her. She looked like his mother would
in another few years, the way she sourly pinched her lips shut. �Well. We�ve
weathered worse crises before. Shall we go home, Harry, and leave them to stare
at each other?�

�� Harry
glared at him over his shoulder. Draco supposed his possessive grip was
becoming a bit much, and using Harry�s sensitivity to touch against him was a
dirty trick, but he didn�t care. That chit had a crush on Harry, he was certain
of it. Draco wouldn�t allow that.

�� No,� said
Harry.

�� Draco
blinked, and came back to the present. It hadn�t occurred to him that Harry,
Harry who hated crowds and was blushing furiously after that kiss, would want
to stay. �What?�

�� That
criminal needs to be reported and taken to the Ministry,� said Harry, his voice
cool. �I know that you don�t like me working during holidays, dear, but
it has to happen. There are procedures to be followed.� He nodded to the girl
gazing at him with star-dazzled eyes and lowered his voice. �And I have to find
someone to talk to her. She might not feel the need right now, but she was
almost raped. You don�t just let that go. She�ll need help.�

�� Draco
stared at him in silence for long moments, then shook his head. God, he has
to help everyone but himself, doesn�t he?

�� If you go
back into the Ministry, Harry,� he whispered, also keeping his voice low, �do
you honestly think they�ll let you leave again without demanding to know where
you were? And you�ll answer them. And they�ll know that you�re lying. And then
they�ll tug you back into their world, and I don�t think you�ll re-emerge
again, not without my storming the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.�

�� Harry
blinked. He probably hadn�t considered his own temptation. Well, that was all
right. Draco had, and he wouldn�t let Harry be exposed to it.

�� Of course,
being a Gryffindor, Harry had shrugged that danger off a few minutes later.
�There are certain procedures that need to be followed,� he repeated, this time
raising his voice high enough to include the crowd. �And I won�t change that
just because you don�t like it.� He leveled his eyes with Draco�s, and they
sparked. �I�ve told you that before,� he added in a warning voice.

�� It did
not help that the sight of Harry angry almost instantly made Draco drunk
with arousal and the urge to Apparate them both to a bed. He took a deep breath
to control himself and said, �Fine. If you really feel this way, Harry- �

�� Harry
nodded smugly, seeming to think he�d won.

�� Then I�ll
just have to come with you,� Draco finished, and merrily ignored the horrified
expression on Harry�s face. �You may have to work, but you don�t have to
abandon my company.�

�� You can�t
do this,� Harry hissed at him.

�� Yes, I
can.� Draco examined his fingernails for a moment, then looked at him from
half-lidded eyes. �I�ve worked too hard to help you, Harry, and to have you.
I�m not going to lose you again.�

�� Harry bared
his teeth. �It�ll be fine,� he said. �I�ll return to the Manor in a few hours,
when I�m done with the paperwork.�

�� No.�

�� If you
would just- �

�� No,� Draco
repeated.

�� You have
to- �

�� No,� Draco
said a third time, and enjoyed the way the high, deep, beautiful red flush
spread across Harry�s cheeks.

�� Harry
trembled with rage, but Draco knew he couldn�t explode with it; it would mean
destroying the fa�ade they�d built up for the crowd, and the only way to escape
intense public scrutiny for right now. Finally, he gave a tense nod, and then
turned away to attend to the young witch. Draco caught his wrist gently and let
himself be pulled along for the ride.

�� Harry was
obviously trying to slip into professional Auror mode, but the constant annoyed
glances he darted sidelong at Draco were ruining the effect.

�� That�s
good, Draco thought. I said I won�t lose him. I won�t.

�� Besides,
it will be fun to see the office where he works in the light of day.

*********

�� Rhiannon
Uerch Llewelyn: I don�t enjoy Sandor as much as some other people. For
creepiness, I have to go with Arya Stark.

�� SLQ: Alas,
Blaise�s plight is all too real. I don�t think he�s a good enough actor to keep
something like that concealed from Draco.

�� The man
Harry stopped from violating the girl really is just an inconvenience, not a
character who will show up later.
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Learning Life Over