And All Over Again, Part 8

[fathomlessspite]

Title: And All Over Again
Author: fathomlessspite
Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and the rest of them
Warnings: slash, DH SPOILERS, epilogue compliant :(
Rating: PG thus far
Summary: (highlight to read) It's Lily Potter's first year at Hogwarts, it'll be the first year in thirteen since Ginny and Harry had the house to himself. But as Ginny has decided to take a course at a wizarding college in Egypt Harry accepts a teaching position at Hogwarts. With old friends and enemies surrounding him, questions about his slowly disintegrating marriage are hard to ignore.
A/N: Sorry for the delay! Be warned this chapter contains some fluff... 

CATCH UP: --PROLOGUE-- , --PARTS 1&2--, --PART 3--, --PART 4--, --PART 5--, --PART 6A--, --PART 6B--, --PART 7--
 

By the time the evening began to draw to a close, Weasley and Granger-Weasley had long since retired, and most of the staff were well past being mildly inebriated. By far the most inebriated of them all however, was one Harry Potter.

As the only remotely sober person left Draco cursed the air around him blue, before quickly heaving Harry out of his chair to avoid a fast approaching Flitwick.

It was when Potter latched himself onto Draco in a vice like grip that he began to regret his generous and charitable nature. And the fact that he hadn’t just knocked Harry out and thrown him headfirst into the floo.

* * *

 

Harry had been feeling quite happy and floaty, sitting in the corner of the staff room with his bottle of whiskey. That was until strong arms had lifted him up and led him away from the party and down several corridors.

He didn’t know why the arms and whoever was attached to them seemed insistent on keeping hold of him. It wasn’t like he couldn’t support himself. Harry was quite confident that he could have floated his way along to wherever it was that they were going.

Nonetheless the warmth emanating from his helper was rather nice. Very nice, he decided as he snuggled closer and held on tighter.

After a few minutes, or hours, Harry couldn’t really tell, they drew to a stop.

"Harry," a voice tried to permeated his floaty sense of calm.

Harry turned away from it and into a wave of silky hair which he buried his face into, his mouth and his nose pushing through the fine strands to make contact with the warm skin beneath.

"Potter, she won’t let me in, what’s your password?" the voice asked him quietly.

Harry sniffed and moved closer. "Who?" he murmured against skin suddenly covered in goose bumps.

"The portrait," the voice said in exasperation. Harry knew that voice, he thought distantly. "Come on, we need to get you inside."

"Oh," Harry mouthed silently against breath warmed skin.

"Harry," the voice coaxed as a cold hand rested on his hip. So much so that the cold permeated Harry’s shirt, and yet it seemed to warm him through. The voice, he thought distractedly, he knew the voice.

Harry moved closer bodily but drew his head back and up fractionally. "Malfoy?" he questioned against Draco’s ear.

"Harry," Draco murmured again, holding himself very still. "The door."

"Salazar," he told Draco’s ear.

Harry heard the portrait reply before Draco adjusted his hold on him and lifted him through the doorway. Harry groaned as the movement dislodged his position in the crook of Draco’s neck and shoulder.

"Quit complaining Potter, we’re almost there," Draco said as he dragged Harry through his quarters.

Harry was about the grumble in response when the world around him shifted and he landed heavily onto something soft. He shifted around slightly and concluded that it was his bed and that Malfoy had thrown him onto it.

He kicked helpfully when Malfoy pulled his shoes off, wishing he’d worn a robe so Draco could take that off as well.

"Well, I’ll just be going then," Malfoy said. "If you’re okay?" he added, looking at Harry questioningly.

"I-" Harry swallowed and took a breath before speaking again. "No," he said, because all of a sudden he was feeling the absence of Malfoy’s warmth, feeling the cold he felt most nights he slept alone in this room beginning to creep in. "Stay?"

* * *

 

Stay? Merlin, Potter was trashed.

Draco was composing a way of saying no when Potter reached out and grabbed his wrist, giving it a sharp tug which pulled Draco completely off balance and onto the bed.

"Hi," Potter said simply from his position beneath Draco.

"Harry," Draco said in annoyance.

"Please?" he asked, green eyes gazing at Draco imploringly through glasses that sat crookedly on his face. Draco reached up the hand that wasn’t supporting his weight and gently removed them from Potter’s face and put them on the bedside table.

"No," he breathed. Potter frowned and shifted on the bed, knocking Draco’s hand out from under him so he landed fully on top of Potter.

"Please?" Harry murmured against his cheek and Draco closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Because…" Draco paused as Harry pressed his lips against his cheekbone.

"Because why?" he breathed, lips moving down to the corner of Draco’s.

"Because…" Because we’re both married, he thought. Because of your children and your family. Because we have to work together. Because I want to too much. "Because you’ll regret it tomorrow," he finally responded.

"Maybe," Harry said, and Draco could feel him smile. "Stay anyway," he said, before shifting over on the bed so Draco was no longer laying directly on top of him.

Draco rolled over so that he was no longer being suffocated by Potter’s pillow and glanced to his side. Harry was laying facing him, green eyes watching him avidly, a small smile on his lips.

Draco rolled his eyes and kicked his shoes off before removing his robe. When he laid back down Harry was still watching him. Draco sighed and closed his eyes.

"Go to sleep Potter."

"Okay," Harry said softly, shifting closer to Draco and resting his hand on Draco’s stomach, his fingers curling slightly in the fabric of Draco’s shirt.

Harry’s breathing soon evened out and his fingers relaxed. Draco remained awake for a long time before he finally started to drift off.

His final thought before sleep claimed him was that somewhere out there, there was a clan of Weasley’s readying their wands to hex him into next week.

Part 9