The game and love

54

It had been about six weeks now since Draco had asked Harry to help him find the ring. Though his mind had never left his thoughts of Harry far behind, his rehab schedule with his hand was distracting him well enough to make the days pass at a less agonizing pace. He worked hard to learn to use his fingers again. His writting had improved and he'd begun catching tennis balls with his physical therapist. She was an encouraging woman, very patient when Draco would get frusterated with his hand. Draco was battling the injury in his mind as well as the actual physical problem. He wasn't used to this kind of thing, it was the first major injury he had playing sports. The anger of not just being able to gut it out until he got better was extremely irritating.

"Well, you're motor control is almost back Mr. Malfoy." The woman said, obviously proud of the effort that had bared fruit over the last weeks. "You should be able to write some now." He nodded to her and thanked her. "Same time friday?" She asked him as he wiped his face with a towel. He nodded. "Good, I'll look forward to it. You take care of that hand now, don't work it too hard." She walked him to the door of her small office and led him out to Ron's car. Hermione sat in the driver's seat. She had grown a soft spot for Draco. She looked in his eyes as her husband had and saw the same emptiness he had. She felt she owed him for having always taken Harry's side. She didn't forgive him for cheating, but she could see that Harry had made no effort to make things right or understand him either. Ron and Hermione were both unsure of how to stop these two from making a terrible mistake.

"Hello Drake, how did it go?" Hermione asked as he got into the car. He sighed heavily. Something was clearly on his mind. They sat in silence as she drove them back to Ron and her's house. Draco had been living there since he started rehab and he needed a place to stay since he didn't want to stay in that big mansion all by himself. Lucius stayed there with them and Kayla Ron and Hermione's daughter treated him like a little brother. She had just turned four, she definitely had her mother's caring instinct and her father's hot temper, which exploded if anyone made the boy cry.

They pulled up to the house and Draco got out. He knew what he had to do now. He knew it was the right thing for both he and Harry. When he got inside he was going to call Harry and let him know that he could sign the papers. He felt it was the way to go. He was numb about it. He had been sad so long, he couldn't tell the difference anymore. He got to the dinning room. Kayla was feeding Lucius all by herself while Ron kept a good eye on her. Draco smiled at the little girl.

"Did you wanna feed him now?" She suddenly asked him. He nodded and sat down in a chair next to her and gently took the baby from her lap. The little one was upset that he was being moved before he had finished and started to make in known by crying. Draco smiled a sad smile.

"I interupted your meal didn't I sweetie. I'm sorry, please don't cry. Shhhhh." Eventually the baby adjusted and became content again, drinking his bottle with vigorous gulps. Draco chuckled and wiped some milk off the baby's face. "He he eats like you Ron." His smile was big and warm. It was just a small moment, but it was nice for both Ron and Hermione to see. "You're gonna be such a big boy one day. I love you so much." Draco whispered softy. Once the baby was full he put the bottle onto the table and rubbed the boys back as he laid on his left shoulder. He didn't know why he felt the urge to speak these words to the baby, but as they ran through his mind, they sounded like good advice. "Son, when you grow up and go through life, don't be like me. Be like your papa Harry. He was a good man." His expression wasn't even sad, it was the most serious he'd ever been. As he rubbed the baby's back more. He watched hermione leave the room. Ron was shaking his head in dissapointment.

After a few hours Draco put Lucius to bed and came back to the kitchen and sat down. He ate a small plate of food that Hermione had lovingly prepared for him. He didn't seem to ever have much of an appitite, but somehow she managed to feed him enough to keep him from getting sick or losing weight, which in his profession is hard to put back on. Ron had stayed out of most any talk of Harry. Hermione had only approached the subject three times with Draco and seeing the pain it caused ended the line of questioning almost right away with deepst apologies.

"I need someone to call Harry." Draco said out of the blue. "I'm ready to sign his papers so he can sell the house." His two friends eyed him in surprise. Ron sighed. He knew he'd have to do it. His wife was no good at tense situations. He didn't look forward to this awkward phone call at all. He knew it was also not a good idea to question wether or not Draco meant it. It would likely only end in angry words being exchanged. Ron retrieved the cordless house phone from the kitchen counter and dialed. He swallowed down his anger. This was so stupid.

"Hello?" Came a strained voice.

"Harry, this is Ron, Draco is ready to sign your papers." Ron's words were crisp and to the point. Showing nothing of how angry he was that this was happening.

"Ok, I'll be there in twenty minutes or so." Harry said, his voice worn. It had been a long day in the studio.

Harry's thoughts were racing at a chaos pace as he hung up his cell phone, it was finally over. He didn't know if he wanted it to be. Even though they'd spent almost 3 months apart he always had this idea that things would get better somehow. They hadn't, now he'd put himself in a corner. Was Draco so willing to give him up? Why didn't Harry feel like he could tell Draco it was ok and they could move past this? These questions almost made him forget where he was driving to, twice having to turn around to be headed in the right direction. His chest started to hurt, his heart burned with the thought of seeing Draco again. He hated this, but he didn't see any way out.

Ron was at the table with them both as he watched Draco struggle to manipulate the pen properly in his hand. Harry could see the long pink scar that ran the length of his ring finger. The hand shook, he found himself unable to stop being drawn to it. Draco was getting frusterated and he mashed his hand through his hair. Harry more than anything wanted to leap out of his chair and help him. He always wanted to help when Draco was like this, it was no less potent now.

"I'm sorry, this is really harder than I thought." Draco said to the room and to himself. Harry stood up.

"I'll be outside, let me know when you're done." Harry said with his voice still raw. He turned and walked out to the backyard balcony. He stood there and sighed. He didn't realize Ron had followed him.

"Is this what you want?" Ron's venom was obvious. "He's in there right now giving you what you want and you can't even look at him?" He was fuming now. "You don't get off scott free here Harry, it takes two people to make a relationship work and all you've done is let Draco take the fall." Harry was speechless, but he turned to face the accusing man with a galre. "What did you imagine Harry? Did you have this whole idea that relationships are perfect things?"

"He cheated..." Harry started to try an say, indignation in his voice.

"Yeah, he cheated, you're right. Do you know how awful he feels? You haven't paid attention to the fact that he thinks himself unworthy of you and has done nothing but try and make this as easy as he can?" Harry grimmaced now. Ron was right. Draco had made it easy for him to walk away. He had chosen not to fight for their relationship either and he was just as guilty for where they were now.

"If he really wanted it bad enough, why won't he fight for it?" Harry asked now a hint of caring in his voice.

Ron calmed himself down and took a deep breath at Harry's words. "Because he doesn't know how. I've known him forever, the one thing that has him trapped is his fear of failure. His dad pressed into him that you have to be perfect and that if you aren't than nothing you ever did until you messed up mattered anyway." Ron breathed out in frustration. "Look, you'll never understand him unless you look hard enough, beyond what he'll let you see." Ron shook his head. "I hope this makes sense." And he turned to walk inside.

It was about ten minutes later when Draco opened the door to walk out on the back porch. It was on his face that he didn't want to do this, but Ron had insisted that he be the one to do it. He walked up beside Harry keeping his eye's forward. They didn't say a word for three or four minutes. Draco was fighting the frog in his throat and his face hurt from clenching up to prevent himself from crying in frustration.

"I signed the papers." Draco said suddenly, shocking Harry and himself. Draco's heart pounded with anxiety. Harry turned to face him. He was having his own internal struggle, he knew that if he took those papers it would be over. Life would never be the same. He felt like an enternity passed before Draco turned and held out the papers. He took them, he felt his whole world collapsing. He wanted to scream out in terrible agony. He looked at them. The signitures were all there, dispite being hard to read and showing the difficulty Draco had gone through to sign them for him.

"Harry, wait." Draco's voice caught him just before he was about to move. "I wanted to give you something. Please, just as an I'm sorry." Draco fished into his pocket and pulled out his dad's ring. Draco's breath wheezed with the saddness he was holding back. "I know you can't forgive me Harry, it's ok, I wasn't good enough, I'm sorry. I want you to have this, more than anyone else in the world. I'm not going to use it now anyway. Here." He gave Harry the ring.

Harry looked at the ring in his hand. This was it, Harry could feel it. This was the gesture he'd been waiting for Draco to make. He was staring at it in awe. Then a thought occured to him. "What did you mean you weren't going to use it now anyway." Their eyes met. Draco's eyes were misty and he smiled bitterly and sniffed.

"Well.." He started and then his eyes fell to his feet unable to look at Harry's searching gaze. "I was going to ask you to marry me." Harry felt the papers drop from his hands. He was in shock for a moment. He swam through his own thoughts and finally managed to walk over to Draco and fold the ring into his left hand. He looked into Draco's eyes. He looked confused and hurt.

"What if I said yes?" He asked his voice still not cooperating with him. Draco looked at him, still confused and Harry knew this called for drastic measures since his voice would not carry well. He pulled Draco into a hug and whispered in his ear. "I said yes, I will Marry you." And he held tight as he felt the man in his arms release the emotions he'd been holding in since he'd walked out onto the balcony. "I'm so sorry Harry." He cried.

"Draco, I'm sorry too." Harry said into his ear. They both stood there for the first time in three months, in the place they misssed the most, eachother's arms. Moments later, they kissed eachother fully as tears fell from both their eyes. They were connected again at last.

It had been about 20 minutes or so before Ron had insisted He and Hermione go check on them. When she opened the door quietly, she instantly waved to Ron, excited by what she saw. When Ron finally got a look, he grinned. 'I did it' He thought. as he looked on his two friends in a calm embrace looking out toward the night sky.

End chapter 54

A/N: Cry much? I know I almost did.

Also a couple people emailed me and asked me some questions about the story. So I will answer them now.

Harry doesn't know that Draco cheated only once. For all he knows it could have been a full blown afair right in their bed.

Also, on Draco. If you remember way back to the begining of this story the scene after Draco loses a game in highschool you see how his approach is sort of similar with cheating on Harry.
Gay weddings anyone? Please review.