Ron shook his head as he stared at Harry’s back garden through the window. “Mate, I think you’re gonna have to do something about this.”
“I know,” Harry groaned as he flopped into a chair at the kitchen table. “The bloke who owns this place says I have to maintain the garden or leave.”
“What’s with the fence?”
“Oh.” Harry pulled a face. “Malfoy put it there.”
“Bit—large, innit?”
Harry didn’t have to look to remember exactly what the monstrous yet intricately carved fence between his garden and Malfoy’s looked like.
“He says it’s so he doesn’t have to look at my inept gardening skills.” Harry sighed. “Says it was causing him emotional distress to see me murdering innocent plant life.”
Ron snorted. “He’s such a prat. Can’t believe you have to work with him.”
“Eh, don’t have to see him that often to be honest. He’s in the dungeons with his potions and I’m outdoors most of the time with the broomsticks.”
“It’s not that I don’t care it looks a right mess. It’s just that I’ve been really busy with Quidditch and extra sessions of flying lessons now that Madam Hooch retired. I mean, that’s the entire reason I’m living in Hogsmeade at the moment—to be closer to Hogwarts.”
“Maybe Neville can help. He was always good with this kind of thing,” Ron said as he walked over to the table.
“Yeah, maybe.” Harry got up to flip on the kettle. “Hate to bother an auror with something like this though. He’s busy himself. With things probably more important than my garden.”
“Well, you’ve got me, mate. And Hermione if she’s not too busy knocking heads together about elf rights and such.”
“I thought she was working with goblins now.”
“Them as well.”
Harry sighed. “So she’s probably quite busy.”
Ron shrugged, stuffing his mouth with a pumpkin pasty.
“Just you and me then.” Ron gave him a thumbs up and a pumpkin pasty filled smile.
The following Saturday found just Harry and Ron tentatively making their way through the overgrown plants and brush that had taken over the garden. It took only ten minutes before Ron had a welt growing on his forehead and blood ran down Harry’s arm.
“Maybe we should take a break.”
Harry sighed as he looked over the garden that did not look as though any progress had been made. “We just started.”
A noise that sounded like a snort came from the other side of the fence. Ron’s narrowed eyes met his. They both knew that sound.
In the way that only best friends can, they knew exactly what the other was thinking. Pretending to continue pulling out plants, they made their way closer to the fence, properly studying the structure now.
They quickly found what they were looking for. A knothole. Ron grinned as he raised his wand.
“Anteocultia!”
A startled squawk sounded from the other side of the fence. They grinned at each other just before Harry blasted a hole through the fence.
They poked their heads through to find Malfoy on the other side of the fence with a large pair of antlers and an alarmed look on his face. The look quickly turned to one of fury.
“You! And you!” Malfoy pointed his wand at them, and they ducked their heads back onto Harry’s side of the fence. “Come back here and take these—things off of me!”
“They’re antlers,” Ron helpfully supplied.
Malfoy tried to stick his head back through the hole in the fence only to find the antlers caused a bit of an issue with that. “Oof—bloody antlers—”
Flashes of white blonde hair appeared and disappeared past the opening as he tried to find a way to fit the antlers through it.
“Potter! Weasley! I’m going to—oof—agh—when I get through this I’m going to—”
Harry grinned. “Just calm down, Malfoy. The effects only last a day or so. At least that’s what I recall from when someone used it on Parkinson.”
“Is that where I remembered that from then?” Ron asked.
Harry nodded. “Rogue spell hit her when your brothers were taking their official exit from Hogwarts.”
Ron smiled. “Ah memories.”
“I’m still over here with horns whilst you two reminisce about old times!”
“Antlers,” Harry corrected.
“And you’ve ruined my fence!”
Harry frowned. “Mm. I suppose I have. Don’t think I can probably repair that to your standards, but on the bright side you can probably do it quite easily yourself.”
There was some grumbling on the other side of the fence before it was repaired, and Harry and Ron quickly made their way back to the house, Harry tripping only once on an exposed root.
After a few hearty laughs at Malfoy’s expense (always a good time) and a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits (always time for tea and biscuits), there came the realisation as they looked over the back garden that they had not made much if any progress.
“When did you say the owner was coming by?”
“Next week.”
“Ah.”
They both continued to stare at the overgrowth of plants, one of which seemed to be eating the one growing next to it.
Ron clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, mate. I’m off now, but I’d suggest a firecall with Neville and a lot of begging and promises to return the favour.”
“What am I going to promise him? Flying lessons?”
With a shrug, Ron backed away towards the front door.
Early the next morning, Harry found himself hacking away at a plant that was very much fighting back against his pruning. “Ow! Bloody hell!”
He rubbed at the side of his head where the plant had given him a good smack. A familiar snort came from the other side of the fence. Harry glared in the direction of the knothole, which to be honest wasn’t even well hidden.
“Didn’t learn your lesson yesterday, Malfoy?” The taunt was not as effective as it might have been given that as he stood up to march over towards the fence one of the plants grabbed hold of his shoe, knocking him to the ground. The snort had turned to outright laughter.
A gate suddenly appeared in the fence, one large enough to fit Malfoy’s antlers through it.
“Still there, are they?” Harry gestured above his head.
“Yes,” Malfoy bit out. “They do feel a bit lighter now though, so I suppose they’ll be gone soon.”
With the way Malfoy stood, straight backed like he had a wand up his arse, the antlers lent themselves a bit of a regal air as though he was wearing a crown instead of a pair of antlers. Even the emerald coloured pyjamas woven at the seams with gold thread didn’t detract much from the sight.
Harry found himself staring a bit longer than necessary, unused to seeing Malfoy in anything other than his buttoned up clothing and deep green professor’s robes. The milky white skin of his throat and chest peeked through in quite an inviting way. Harry cleared his throat.
“Yes, ehm—” He couldn’t remember what they had been speaking about.
Malfoy gave him a strange look before letting his gaze travel over the tangle of a garden behind him. Something rustled in the mess of plant life. Harry winced but didn’t turn around. To be honest, he didn’t want to know what it was.
“You’re going to need a lot more help than just Weasley’s.” Malfoy aimed a severing spell near Harry’s feet as a vine had begun to creep up fairly close to him. “That’s a Venomous Tentacula.”
Harry sighed, turning to look at the disastrous garden as the vine began to retract back into the brush. “I suppose it’s time to beg Neville for help.”
“Ahem.”
When he looked back at Malfoy, Draco rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated noise. “I do know what I’m doing with plants, you know. And I do live right next door. All you need do is ask.”
“Ask what?”
Malfoy’s lips pressed into a thin line of displeasure. “Fine. Do it yourself then.” He whipped back around, his antlers held high.
“Wait! Just taking the piss! Please, I’d really appreciate the help. And er—sorry about the antlers. Though just for accuracy’s sake, it was Ron who jinxed you.”
By the end of the afternoon, Harry looked a bit worse for wear (Malfoy, of course, had not a scratch on him), and they had made decent progress especially along the fenceline. Harry had to admit, at least to himself, that most of the progress was due to Malfoy’s help.
“I don’t remember you being that interested in Herbology when we were in school,” Harry said as he flung off the old t-shirt he had been wearing and wiped the back of his neck with it.
Malfoy didn’t respond, so he turned to face him. His face had flushed pink across his cheeks. “Malfoy?”
“Hm, what?”
“Herbology?”
“What about it?”
“I think we should call it a day. You look like you might be overheating.”
Malfoy mumbled something under his breath.
“Do you want to come in for tea? As a thank you for all this.”
“We’re not even done yet, Potter. I can help after classes tomorrow if you’d like. It’s going to take a few more days at least.”
Harry grimaced. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Thanks for the offer. Afraid I’m going to have to take you up on it.”
Draco snorted.
“Hey, your antlers are gone?”
“They faded an hour ago.”
“Oh.”
Draco began walking towards the gate, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Potter.”
As Harry walked inside the back door, he felt an odd pang of regret that Malfoy hadn’t taken him up on his offer of tea.
True to his word Draco appeared at his back door after classes on Monday.
With a grim look on his face, Draco swished his wand thwacking plant after plant.
“Bad day?” Harry asked, eyes wide as a wide branch was severed off from the trunk of a small tree.
Draco sighed. “One of my students managed to not only blow up his cauldron, but also to concoct something hazardous out of a rudimentary potion. Sent nearly the entire class to Madam Pomfrey.”
“Bloody hell. Poor bloke, how long are you giving him detention for?”
Draco turned a curious look on him. “Detention? For what?”
“For blowing up his cauldron? And injuring most of the class?”
“I don’t know what kind of professor you think I am, Potter, but you clearly know nothing about my teaching methods.”
“Sorry?”
“Louis Abbott simply needs more review of the concepts, which I’ll provide to him. His mistakes are a reflection of my teaching, Potter.”
“Oh.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you certainly didn’t learn to teach Potions from Snape,” Harry laughed.
“Well—I suppose not,” Draco said, a small smile crossing his face. “My godfather had his own ideas about how things should be. A bit old fashioned.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Harry said as he pruned back a Shrivelfig. “Glad Louis has you to help him. So I know you’ve always been interested in potion making, but what made you so interested in Herbology? You clearly know a lot about it.”
“Yes, I’ve come a long way from our days with Professor Sprout, Potter. Over time, I found it important as so many ingredients for potions come from magical plants. I became interested in growing them so as to have fresh ingredients on hand. It can be quite useful.”
“Huh. I can imagine so.”
“So what about you, Potter?”
“What about me? I clearly haven’t learned a bloody thing about plants since Hogwarts.”
“I mean, what do you like to do in your free time? You can’t possibly spend all your time on a broomstick.”
“Can’t I, though?” Harry chuckled. “Honestly, besides Quidditch and teaching flying, I mostly just meet my mates for a few at The Three Broomsticks.”
“No girlfriend, then?”
Draco tried to hide his face, but Harry saw the bit of pink colour splashed across his cheeks at the question. He grinned. “No girlfriend, not interested really. Would be interested in finding a boyfriend though.”
“Oh.”
“How about you?”
Draco cleared his throat, his voice a bit higher pitched than normal. “No boyfriend right now either.”
It was not until Friday evening that Harry’s back garden actually looked like a proper garden again.
“I honestly can’t thank you enough, Draco.”
“Yes, well, I think there might be a proper way to thank me if you think hard enough.”
Harry scrunched up his face in thought.
“Don’t hurt yourself thinking so hard,” Draco scoffed. “I simply meant I’d like to try that new restaurant on High Street.”
“Oh—” Harry’s mouth dropped open. He quickly closed it back up. “Did you just ask me on a date?”
“No. You’re paying, obviously. I’m saying if you’d like to take me to dinner, I will agree to accompany you as I’d like to try that new restaurant.”
Harry grinned. “Draco, thank you for all your help. I’d love to take you to dinner, but not as a thank you. I’d like to take you to dinner because I want you to go on a date with me, and I want to kiss you until you forget your own name.”
“Oh. That’s alright then—Harry.”