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The Optimal Balance	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17125 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe and characters belong to JK Rowling and associates. This was written for fun. I make no money from it.

Chapter List
- 1-The Optimal Balance
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-Ch. 36
- 37-Ch. 37
- 38-Ch. 38
- 39-Ch. 39
- 40-Ch. 40: Epilogue
- 7
- 8
- 9
A/N: Jan: There will be more with Ron in the next few chapters :)

Hestia: Thank you! And I update every Sunday afternoon/night Australian eastern time :)

Sliding quietly out of bed just after his alarm went off at 5am, Draco had to resist sighing. Harry was snoring in the bed next to him and Draco wanted nothing more than to stay in bed that morning with him, but he knew he needed time to himself to sort out everything that had happened the day before. He dressed quickly after a short shower and made his way downstairs.

The house-elves were well used to Draco's early hours by this point in time and never failed to have the morning newspaper and his breakfast on the kitchen table ready for him. The fact that the only things on the table that morning were his eggs and bacon with the salt and pepper shakers should have warned him that this was a bad omen, but he merely shook his head and called for one of the elves.

“Yes, Master Draco?” The small elf bowed deeply, her union uniform brushing the floor along with her nose before she straightened. “Is something wrong?”

“Zinty,” Draco began, quite proud of himself to have remembered the elf’s name. “Where is the morning paper?”

“Ah. Zinty… Zinty thought that maybe… Maybe Mr. Malfoy would prefer to wait for the later edition today?”

The question along with Zinty’s formal address to him sent suspicion racing down Draco's spine. Still, he merely eyed the elf for a few seconds instead of losing his temper as his Father before him would have.

“No, Zinty, Mr. Malfoy would prefer to know exactly what it is you are hiding from him.”

It was remarkable how fast a house-elf could turn beet red. And not a full-coverage blush the same way humans did, either; no, Zinty went splotchy red as she stared up at Draco in what appeared to be a combination of horror and insult.

“Zinty would never hide anything from her employers, Sir.” Draco's lips twitched as he watched her gather all of her dignity and draw herself to her full height of roughly three feet. “Zinty respects the fact that Master Draco has accepted employed house-elves into his house, Sir. It is a sign of true good breeding to respect every lifeform as being equal, Sir, and Zinty is thankful to Master Draco for giving her the chance to earn a living.”

Draco discovered that he had to bite down on the inside of his lip to prevent the threatening frown. The sharp jab of pain helped him to refocus his attention away from the house-elf’s profuse thanks and back to the fact that she apparently was hiding something from him. There was no way Draco would ever punish his house-elves – not in the way that had been so common years ago, at least – but he would also not stand for them to be keeping things from him. He may treat his house-elves much better than Lucius ever had, but they were still his employees and they would respect that fact. He arched an eyebrow at Zinty, who flinched.

“But?”

Zinty sighed before beginning to wring her hands before her. “Master Draco must not be mad with Master Harry, Sir.”

Harry? The air left Draco's lungs and he was absolutely certain that he had lost what little natural colour he had in a matter of only a few seconds. Surely Harry couldn’t have managed to get into some kind of strife without Draco knowing it, could he? The thudding of his heart in his chest told him that Harry very well could have gotten himself into trouble from numerous sources without his knowledge, some worse than others. Taking a deep breath, he clenched his hands by his sides and released them in an attempt to curb the urge to grab Zinty and shake the information out of her. When he spoke it was in an obviously controlled voice that had scared information out of men with much stronger wills than the house-elf before him.

“Tell me what has happened, Zinty.”

Draco's nerves jumped as Zinty walked over to a drawer in the cabinetry and withdrew the newspaper. Judging by her slightly jerky movements, she was almost as nervous about this as he was. She stood before him with the folded paper held in her hands, straightened to her full height again and raised her chin, clearly hoping to look dignified.

“Please do not be mad with Master Harry, Sir,” she repeated before handing over the paper.

Draco immediately unfolded it without even taking his seat at the table. He regretted the action in the next second when he was greeted by a full-page spread of him and Harry kissing for the entire wizarding world to see. The photographer had obviously been at a distance, but the men kissing were unmistakably the two of them in the alley the day before. Groping behind him for the chair, Draco sat down with a thud.

“Master Draco?”

“That will be all, Zinty.”

He shoved the plate of food aside as the house-elf sighed and Disapparated. Staring down at the moving picture, Draco's nerves began to sing with both tension and an anger at himself for being so stupid as to allow this to happen that he hadn’t felt in months. He had known that allowing Harry that kind of freedom with him in public had been a chance, but he had truly thought they had gotten away with it. Picture-Harry’s hands shifted slightly, giving Draco a good look at the absolute adoration in his eyes as he pulled back from the kiss before his expression changed to the cheeky grin Draco remembered much more clearly from the day before. Warmth flooded him, warring with the embarrassment he was feeling knowing that the whole of the wizarding world would be seeing the exact same thing he currently was as soon as they awoke. It could have been minutes or mere seconds before he was able to drag his attention away from the picture to read the headline, but he was thankful that he had taken the time once he did.

Has Harry Potter Thawed Draco Malfoy? Full story on pages 4-5.

His stomach seemed to have turned to lead in the past few minutes, making it difficult to breathe properly as he immediately flipped to page four. What he saw there nearly stopped his heart: himself with an almost dopey smile on his face, staring as Harry walked away from him down the alley. Watching as his picture-self licked his lips, the thought that the assumption that he had been ‘thawed’ by Harry was understandable crossed his mind: the man he was watching in the picture was so obviously smitten that it was almost painful to witness. Draco’s eyes slid closed as humiliation crept slowly through him, prickling along his skin and heating his face and the back of his neck.

“Have you been scaring the house-elves?” Astoria’s sharp voice startled Draco out of his little cocoon of shame, causing him to jump. “Draco? What’s wrong?” Her tone changed to concern when he didn’t respond.

Draco reopened his eyes, but kept his gaze fixed firmly to the table to prevent himself from showing any of the anger at himself that was still coursing through his veins. “Take a look at this. Zinty was trying to hide it from me.”

The paper shifted from Draco's eye line. It rustled a few times as Astoria read the article, but he ignored it, instead focussing on listening to the sounds Astoria was making as she read. She gave little sighs and made the occasional noise that sounded disbelieving, but overall Draco thought she sounded more amused than anything else. The idea that she found his humiliation humorous only increased his anger, finally causing him to look up. Astoria met his eyes without hesitation.

“You didn’t actually read the article, did you?”

Draco scowled. “The pictures are embarrassing enough.”

“Well, actually…” Astoria paused, a small smile tilting her lips upwards. She seemed to be hesitant to continue, but sighed and nodded when Draco cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’m sorry, but the pictures are cute. The article itself is quite a good one as well. All it does is speculate as to whether you’ve brightened up a bit since getting together with Harry.”

Disbelief washed through Draco as he stared up at her. Cute; she’d called him cute. Insult piled in on top of the humiliation, anger and the emotions still lingering in his chest from the day before, but he shut them down before Astoria could get a glimpse of anything. Without another word, he stood, straightened his clothing and stepped around her, heading for the back door and his greenhouses.

“Draco, come on, I–”

He cut her off by giving in to the childish impulse of slamming the door.

*~*

“Oh sweet Merlin, he’s going to kill me.”

Harry stared down at the newspaper Astoria had practically thrown at him the second he had made it downstairs that morning with mounting dread. He had thought all the unpleasantness from the day before had been put behind him once he had explained it all to Draco. The picture on the front of the paper of him grinning like an idiot told him otherwise.

“There’s another picture and a two-page story inside.”

Raising his eyes from the newspaper, he met Astoria’s amused gaze before turning the pages. The picture of Draco watching him as he walked away was actually quite good, but Harry figured he was slightly biased when it came to judging just how attractive Draco was at any particular moment in time. He scanned the article quickly, knowing that no matter how nice the writer had been, Draco was still going to be pissed off. Several phrases in particular stood out to him, but they didn’t seem too bad.

The warm expression Malfoy wore when Potter left him alone is clear for all to see… Potter has helped to reshape the former Death Eater’s public image… One of the only times we have been granted a glimpse into the extremely private couple’s life together… Hope to see more…

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say he didn’t actually bother to read the article, did he?” Harry smiled when Astoria shook her head. “But he was still angry?”

“He’s never been happy about the press intruding on his life, you know that.”

Harry nodded, frowning. “Greenhouse or basement?”

“Greenhouse. The third one I would say, judging by the weather.” Astoria offered him an encouraging smile as he stepped around her. “Harry?” She waited until he paused with his hand on the doorhandle before continuing. “Go easy on him. He may be being a complete idiot about this, but it’s not without reason. This has been a huge adjustment for him and I’m not sure he feels completely stable just yet.”

Harry smiled and nodded to her before trotting outside and towards the greenhouses. It wasn’t like he had been planning on yelling at Draco or anything like that, but he knew that Astoria feeling the need to warn him to go easy on him would temper many of his slightly rasher impulses. Rounding the corner to the third greenhouse, he slowed his steps, bracing himself for whatever would meet him.

The door creaked when Harry pushed it open. It was, unfortunately, the only sound in the entire greenhouse, which Harry took as a bad sign. Generally when Draco was working there were hissing cauldrons or the sound of ingredients being sliced up; complete silence was never a good sign. Taking a quick look around, Harry moved a few steps forward, breathing deeply. The scent of freshly turned earth had always held a strange appeal for him and now that it was firmly associated with Draco in his mind, that appeal had only increased.

“Draco?”

“Leave me alone, Potter.”

Harry continued further into the greenhouse, keeping an eye out for Draco. “Sorry, but no.”

The sigh Draco let out at that was soft and sounded slightly shaky to Harry’s ears. “Why?”

Harry stepped around a corner to see Draco standing with his back to him. His arms were raised above his head as he reached for a high-hanging plant, raising the bottom of his black shirt so it revealed a slither of smooth, pale skin. Harry waited for Draco to lower his arms before he closed the distance between them, wrapping his own arms loosely around Draco's waist and burying his nose into his soft hair.

“I love you.”

“Don’t give me that; it won’t work this time.” Draco stepped out of the circle of Harry’s arms and turned to face him, a scowl on his face that caused worry to shiver through Harry’s stomach. “I have asked you repeatedly to not risk doing anything in public that would attract the attention of the press.”

Watching as Draco's eyes turned the steely grey that he recognised as meaning that he was quite angry, Harry hung his head. “I know.”

“And yet still you ignore that one simple request.”

Harry’s eyes slid closed at the harshness of Draco's voice. Despite the fact that it was obvious that he was holding back, his anger still shone through. “I know, I–”

“Shut up.” Harry flinched. “Look at me.”

Taking a deep breath, Harry raised his head. Draco's arms were crossed tightly across his chest and his expression was completely closed off, save the anger burning brightly in his eyes.

“In the twenty years since the end of the War, I have never once been so exposed in the press. I have never once allowed them to find me in any form of compromising position; that was how I kept my orientation a secret for so long. Nine months with you, however and I’ve made the front page twice.”

“Draco–”

“Shut up.”

“No!” Breathing heavily through his nose, Harry clenched his jaw to stop himself from continuing to shout. “Look, the rest of the world seeing you the way I do isn’t a bad thing.”

“The way you do.”

Harry knew the scoffed statement was aimed to hurt him when combined with one of Draco's trademark sneers, but he ignored it. Stepping forward so he was within arm’s reach – but not yet touching Draco – he let out a steady breath.

“Yes, the way I do.” Harry’s fingers twitched with the need to simply grab Draco and kiss him until he acknowledged the fact that Harry would never intentionally hurt him, but he resisted the temptation. What he actually needed to do here, he knew, was just tell Draco the absolute truth, complete and unembellished. “The man I fell so hard for is kind and caring and over-protective and generous and–”

“Harry–”

“And I don’t see what the harm is in showing the world the man you truly are rather than hiding behind those shields you put up.”

Draco sighed and stepped backwards, a brief glimpse of vulnerability flashing through his eyes as his posture relaxed fractionally. He shook his head. “My caution in public is the only thing that has kept Astoria and Scorpius safe from the publicity hounds over the years.”

“You do realise that you’re not alone in this anymore, right?” The question was out of Harry’s mouth before he had time to think. “Look, I’m sorry I’ve caused you so much trouble over the past few months. I know how much you hate being in the public eye and I’ve tried to respect that, I really have. The thing is...” He trailed off, unsure how to voice what was running through him.

“You want more.”

It was such a simple statement, but it caused Harry’s chest to ache with a combination of shame and need. This time when he stepped forward, Draco didn’t push him away. Wrapping one arm around Draco's waist, Harry used his other hand to brush lightly against Draco's cheekbone before drawing him into a soft kiss.

He knew he couldn’t do this – couldn’t push Draco beyond his comfort zone – but Draco seemed to have cut straight to the heart of the issue for Harry. He was so used to being free to touch his partner in public and to demonstrate his affection that it had been jarring for him to have to curb those impulses. If he had to be completely honest, then what he truly wanted was to be able to show Draco off the way he had with Ginny at the beginning of their relationship. He wanted people to know what an amazing person Draco was, but he knew Draco would never approve of such a public display, especially not after that morning’s newspaper. He knew that this was one of the things that would always divide them, no matter how long they spent together.

“I’m sorry.”

Draco hummed against Harry’s lips. “As am I. I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“Despite how wrong I actually was?” As his stomach flipped, Harry knew he would never get tired of seeing the completely unguarded smiles Draco sometimes gifted him with.

“This is something that still needs work, isn’t it?”

Draco's smile had faded a little, but the warmth lingered in his eyes. As much as Harry hated to ruin the moment, he knew he had to.

“I think it is, yeah. I also need to get in touch with both Ron and Molly and try to work out a time when we can all meet up to try to work out the issues there.”

“Not yet.”

Refocussing, Harry’s eyes widened when he saw the heat that flashed through Draco's eyes, replacing the soft warmth that had been there. “In here?”

Draco's grin lit Harry’s nerve endings on fire. “Are you objecting to getting dirty?”

He latched onto Harry’s bottom lip and sucked hard, sending Harry’s mind spinning.

“Gods, no.”
- 7
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- 9
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The Optimal Balance