Truths and Lies
Soon it's time for dinner and Draco is sat between Ginny and Fleur while Harry is across from him between Hermione and Seamus.
“Harry?” Ginny tries to get his attention for the third time with her hand outstretched with the bowl of salad they were passing around.
Draco kicks him under the table to get his attention away from where he’s avidly arguing the newest Ministry policy on underage dark magic with Hermione.
“OW!” Harry yelps and whips his head around to Malfoy who tilts his head in Ginny’s direction who looks over at him when Harry finally grabs the salad bowl and passes it along after giving himself a generous serving.
“Genuinely don’t know what you see in him Malfoy,” Ginny mutters.
Before Draco can respond, Ron cuts in from across the table, “Gin don’t even try to act like you weren’t obsessed with him in school we all saw it.” This catches the attention of most of the table who turn to listen.
Ginny rolls her eyes, “Okay that does not count, that was before I realized I was a dyke.”
Harry snorts out a laugh but Seamus turns to Draco, “No but really what do you see in this git? We’ve been trying to get him off our backs for ages and everyone just goes running.”
Draco has to stop himself from flinching, he’s really beginning to see why Harry was desperate enough to come to him for help. “I just keep him around for the pretty face,” Draco responds, trying to keep the mood light, “and for a free meal every now and then.” smirking when Harry squints at him.
“Yea and I just keep Draco around because he likes to speak French in the bedroom,” Harry says without missing a beat, relishing at the way Draco’s jaw drops before he composes himself.
Draco can feel his face burning and hears Ron imitate a gagging toad. That wasn’t fair, these were his friends Draco was allowed to embarrass him, not the other way around.
“You speak French Malfoy?” Charlie asks.
“Er - yes, I grew up going to France every summer with my parents, and my mother wanted me to learn the language,” he answers.
“How do you say ‘I love you’?” Parvati asked.
Draco could feel the tips of his ears burning under everyone’s gaze and didn’t dare look at Harry when he answered, “je t’aime”
“What about ‘I need a cold beer’?” Ron asks, seemingly recovered from his gagging.
Draco smiles, “j’ai besoin d’une bière froide, and also you all realize Fleur is literally right here?”
Fleur waves him off and leans back with her wine glass, as if to give him the floor.
“What about ‘I could use a good fuck right now’?” Ginny cuts in, leaning into Luna next to her.
“Ginny!” A few of the Weasley brothers exclaim in unison.
“What?” Ginny shrugs innocently, “I was just curious.”
Draco smirks feeling brave, “j'aurais bien besoin de baiser,” he looks over at Harry to see him watching him intently, and gives him a wink. If Harry wanted to play dirty, they could play dirty.
After the French thing Draco can feel Harry’s eyes on him for the rest of the meal, while he tries to carry on polite conversation with everyone else at the table. When he finally looks up to meet his gaze, Harry looks away and Draco isn’t sure what to make of any of it.
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The rest of the evening goes by in a blur of catching up and old stories, and eventually the guests start heading off to bed. Harry pokes Draco in his side to get his attention, and nods towards the stairs in a silent question, Draco nods in agreement and lets Harry pull him to his feet from where they were nodding off on the couch. They say good night to the few stragglers still sitting by the fire and head up to their room.
“I could probably transfigure the bed into two single beds,” Harry says when they enter the room.
“Don’t be daft, Potter,” Draco says, “This bed could easily fit us both, and how would you explain it if someone were to see? As long as you have some self-control, we’re fine.” he winks at Potter to show he’s teasing.
Harry seems to relax, “You wish I’d touch you,” he counters flopping down on the edge of the bed.
“You wish that I’d wish you’d touch me.” Draco answers, and he knows it’s childish but it’s also comfortable to fall into this back-and-forth, it felt like no time had passed at all since Hogwarts.
Harry pulls his jumper over his head and is about to pull his jeans off when Draco grabs his bag of hair potions and his silk pajamas before hurrying into the bathroom. When he returns, Harry is already under the covers, his naked chest rising and falling slowly. Draco knows he’s staring but Harry looked so peaceful - such a stark contrast from what he usually saw of him out in the field.
“Didn’t mummy ever tell you it’s rude to stare, Malfoy?” Harry squinted in Draco’s direction.
Draco huffed, “I was not staring,” Harry looked even further from his Auror Potter image without his glasses.
“Of course you wear silk pajamas,” Harry chuckles, as Draco makes his way over to the bed.
“I’m sorry some of us have a taste for finer things,” Draco responds, getting under the covers.
Harry could’ve kept teasing but he was beat from the long day they’d had, so he wandlessly turns out the lights and settles back into bed.
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Draco wakes up uncharacteristically warm, and realizes after trying to turn around that the warmth was actually coming from beside him. Harry was sleeping on his stomach with one arm tightly around Draco. Just as Draco is trying to plot a way to get out of bed without waking Harry, there’s a sharp knock on the door. Draco squeezes his eyes shut and lays as still as he can - figuring it would be better to have Harry think he was still asleep. Harry stirs lightly next to him, only to pull his body even closer and nuzzle his face into Draco’s neck.
The door then flies open, and Draco doesn’t dare open his eyes to see who it is, “GET UP!!!!” Ginny bellows.
Harry barely lifts his head before he’s laying back down again cursing her with threats of ‘you better fucking knock next time’ and ‘leave us the hell alone or I’ll hurt you’ Draco smiles at her apologetically from where he’s sat up on his elbows.
“It’s nearly 11, the both of you better be down for brunch in under 30, I’m starving,” Ginny says mostly to Draco before slamming the door on her way out.
“Potter,” Draco says in a hushed tone, shaking Harry’s shoulder after he hears Ginny knocking on another door.
“Mm?” Harry responds without opening his eyes.
“We need to get up,” Draco says, trying to sit up and failing when Harry refuses to remove his arm.
“Five more minutes,” Harry says in a muffled voice from where his face is still smushed into his pillow.
“Alright, you can have five minutes, but will you please let go of me so I can get up?” Draco asks, finding Harry too endearing.
Harry loosens his grip and Draco slips out of bed to take a quick shower, when he returns, he sees Harry still just in his flannel pajama bottoms sitting at the edge of the bed, brushing his teeth with his eyes closed.
Draco chuckles, “Shower’s all yours,” Harry gives him a mock salute before trudging into the bathroom.
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Brunch is delicious, so much so that Draco asks Luna the recipe for her waffles. Eventually everyone is scattered around the house, Draco is sitting by the fire with Crookshanks in his lap as he watches Harry, Seamus, Ginny, Ron, and Parvati play some muggle game with a large board and fake money.
Suddenly Hermione walks in with someone behind her, “Cho’s here everyone!” she announces.
Cho went around saying her hellos, and Draco watched as Harry pulled her into a tight hug, lasting a beat longer than a simple greeting. Draco stared at them, as Harry pulled her in for another hug, maybe Potter still liked Cho, maybe she liked him back, maybe this holiday would’ve been the perfect chance for them to get together – if only he weren’t here. Lying. To everyone.
He watched Harry pull away and then saw his eyes scan the room, searching, until they landed on him, and then he was waving him over. Draco plastered on a smile and made his way through the room. He walked up to the pair and easily slid his arm around Harry’s waist, he felt Harry lean against him instantly. Cho’s glance dropped down to Draco’s hand before she quickly smiled back, and if that made the funny feeling he had seeing them together earlier go away, it didn’t have to mean anything Draco decided. He was just playing his part. Like Harry had asked of him.
“Hey, I was just telling Cho I brought my boyfriend with me and she absolutely refused to believe I actually had one,” Harry explained, “And Cho I’m sure you remember Draco from school.’
Draco tried his hardest to listen to the conversation instead of the way his heart fluttered when Harry introduced him as his boyfriend.
“It’s nice to see you Malfoy, I can’t believe you were the one to finally tie Harry down!” Cho exclaimed looking excited, “Well, have you told the story yet?”
“What story?” Draco asked
“The story of how you two ended up together, of course!”
“Well there isn’t much of a story to tell,” Harry started.
“No Harry you must tell us I’ve been dying to hear it all week,'' Hermione chimed in from the couch.
“Everyone shut it! Harry’s telling us how he and Draco got together,” Ginny yelled. Slowly the lively room quieted and all eyes were on them. Cho slowly squeezed herself onto the couch next to Luna and Ginny leaving just the two of them left standing.
Draco panicked, there was surely no way Harry was about to tell this entire room of people that they just shagged was he? But then again when did any Gryiffindor stop to think before plowing straight through everything? He had to tell the story before Harry said anything, and what was easier to say than the truth?
“Well I think I first realized I’ve liked Harry for longer than I’m willing to admit back when we were paired together for Auror training,” Draco chanced a glance at Harry who was staring back intently, his expression inscrutable. “And I was never going to act on them, until one day we were at the pub after work and -”
“I’d probably had too much to drink that night,” Harry cut in, his brain seeming to have caught up and the story flowing smoothly, “And Draco kept insisting that we deserved a dance after the night we’d had and pulled me onto the dance floor, I think that’s when I realized I liked him ,” Harry explained, looking way too earnest.
Draco smiled remembering the night that actually happened, Potter had been entirely too drunk and was shamelessly dancing with Draco, or more like on him. But Draco had chalked the behavior up to the alcohol, and surely that was the true explanation still. He tightened his arm around Harry tugging him closer, causing Harry to lean into him, “And I’m sure you all know how Harry’s about as subtle as an elephant,” Draco continued earning him a few laughs and nods of agreement, “So when he asked me for a favor one day, I saw right through him.” Draco felt Harry’s muscles tense next to him but his expression gave nothing away as he stared at Draco the perfect picture of a man in love. “And I told him he should drop the act and just ask me out on a real date.” Draco finished staring right back into Harry’s perfect green eyes.
“Awww!,” Cho and Hermione said in chorus.
“Glad you got your head out of your arse Potter,” Ginny called.
There were more comments, and then all the conversations were back in full swing around them but Draco didn’t hear any of them he felt like he was caught in a trance, he couldn’t look away from Harry’s gaze. He sees for what feels like a millisecond Harry’s eyes drop to his lips but it’s gone before he can process it and Harry is turning away from him to grab a cookie off the table and Draco isn’t sure if he imagined it.