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Despite spending close to a year coming and going from the Manor, this was the first time they had ever left the grounds; leaving through a gate at the very back of the gardens quickly had them connecting to a winding pathway towards town.
“He’s been writing’ me a lot lately begging for a broom,” Harry went on, having gotten on a tangent about Teddy, who had just started Hogwarts this past september.
His eyes were absentmindedly towards the path, for despite its clear signs of frequent use, old tree roots still protruded from the earth every few steps, making the path treacherous to those who didn’t know it by heart.
“Reading between the lines, I think he’s figured out I got to play at 11, so I’m feeling backed into a corner,” he said with a crooked grin, glancing up at Draco. “And frankly, with Christmas coming up, I’m quite tempted to give in.”
Having done his best to follow instructions to keep away from magic, Harry had Kreacher send over a change of his Muggle clothes, rather than having to glamour his uniform. It left him in a mis-matched set, and his hands buried deep into the pockets of a slightly-too-chilly jacket.
“Do you think I’d get a Howler from Minevra if I try to brush off responsibility to her?”

Getting to hear Harry talk about his nephew like this made Draco realise just how little the two of them knew about each other’s lives outside of their work.
Sure, for Draco it was because he really didn’t have much else going on for him, but it really did seem like Harry had such a full life outside of the ministry that Draco couldn’t help but feel bad about having removed him from it the way he did.
Still, Draco found that he genuinely enjoyed hearing Harry go on about the more mundane parts of his life, finding it exciting that he could get to know Harry in a new and different way than what had formerly been afforded them.
“There’s no way she’d let him play at eleven no matter what,” Draco stated, having been startled by Harry’s use of McGonagall’s but he figured that Harry probably had a different relation to their former teacher, so maybe it wasn’t that strange after all.
“I’d fear her wrath but you were always her favourite.”

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Harry hummed at that, hardly able to take any affront to that. For how wrong-footed he often felt in her company during school, Harry felt like their relationship had really come to its own after the war. Sometimes, Harry thought they both felt indebted to one another, particularly after Dumbledore’s death.
“She gifted me my bed,” he said, more of an agreement than an attempt to disprove Draco’s statement.
Even while watching his steps, Harry’s eyes kept drifting towards Draco, a slight shyness about the boyish pull of his grin. “For my 20th. I don’t know if you’d noticed, but it’s a Hogwarts bed.”

Draco had definitely had his suspicions about Harry’s maroon canopy bed, but there was something endlessly more juvenile about getting absolute confirmation that it was indeed a former hogwarts bed. It made Draco grin a little, finding that it made their nights together get a different connotations all together.
“Why am I not surprised?” Draco found himself asking, a warm smile staying on his lips and undercutting the tease in his remark.

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Harry’s eyes remained on Draco, his smile only widening before his expression settled into one of mock surprise.
“Christ, Draco, do you think it might be that we've actually gotten to know each other?” he asked.
While his smile was lopsided with an attempt at an aghast tease, Draco’s lack of surprise seemed to tug at something deep within Harry that made the sentiment sound a little too thrilled.
Hands still buried deep in the pockets of his jacket, Harry couldn’t help but follow that invisible string tied to his heart, leaning closer in order to bump his shoulder into Draco’s, the gesture boyish at best.
“Or do you reckon it’s just ‘cause you’ve been in my bedroom?”

There was no reality in which Harry’s boyish grin wasn’t going to make Draco’s heart flip in his chest, liking the easier and more carefree Harry that he was getting to see a lot more of lately.
The comment made a sheepish grin appear on Draco’s face, making him want to shrink away slightly, overwhelmed by the intimacy that they shared, but it also had him excited in a way he hadn’t experienced in a while.
“Shut up,” was the only comment he could settle on, bumping back against Harry’s shoulder but there was no fire in the gesture, an embarrassed energy more than anything else; a terrifying realisation that the two of them were actually getting to know each other.

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Unable to help himself, Harry took advantage of Draco’s returned proximity, wrangling a hand free of his pocket in order to hook it around Draco’s arm and catch a hold of him.
Aided by the touch, Harry’s attention had completely diverted from the pathway, eyes skimming Draco’s profile with a look of gleeful entertainment.
“Both things being equally mortifying, I’m sure,” he insisted with a grin, tugging them closer.

There really was something in the way that Harry seemed to keep pulling him in closer, as if he needed Draco to be close and it wasn’t just a habit that they had both fallen into by now.
“You’re so daft,” Draco stated with a roll of his eyes, but the smile on his lips made it very clear that he didn’t actually mind it all that much. He relished this opportunity to spend time with Harry outside of known environments, hoping that that would mean he got to see more of this Harry throughout the day.

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Draco’s half-hearted insult made Harry’s mouth quirk, entertained by that way of speaking to each other that filtered in and out of their lives. Draco had stopped calling him names years ago, and this tone was so distinctly different to the last time he had; Harry couldn’t help but feel a little smug about it.
“See,” he said with that perpetual grin, leaning further against Draco’s arm as he stretched towards him. Matching Draco’s pace didn’t properly allow him to stretch far enough to steal a kiss, but gods did he want to. “You do know me.”

It was impossible not to be completely taken with Harry when he was like this, all big smiles and teasing comments. It was delightful and Draco wanted to soak it up, no matter how over it he would like to pretend to be.
“I should think so yeah,” Draco said with a soft shake of his head, slowing down his pace to be able to properly appreciate just how much Harry was leaning against him.
“At least enough to know just how daft you can be.”

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Harry didn’t fail to notice the way Draco slowed his pace, an almost thoughtless engagement with the embrace he tried to appear so annoyed by; it made Harry’s stomach flip, something about it all making him feel so young again.
“Yeah, I guess knowing me doesn’t necessarily translate to liking me,” he said with an lopsided grin, too smitten to take any real offence to Draco’s feigned exacerbation. “It’s a bummer, though.”

There was something in their teasing tone that took Draco back to a much simpler time in their life.
Of course, they had never been like this when their lives had been simpler, but Draco desperately wanted to believe that this was something that could have been afforded to them earlier.
He shook his head as he stopped them fully, a grin on his face as he turned Harry’s head to face him.
“Merlin, you’re stupid,” he stated before he leant down to kiss him.

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Harry should have been a little embarrassed to admit how juvenile poking and prodding at Draco’s patience had been, but it was hard to care when Draco pulled him in to kiss him. It split Harry’s face in a grin, relieved and accomplished, as he stretched to meet the kiss, regardless of how poorly he managed to reciprocate it.
A deserted trail through the woods behind the Manor was barely visible enough to be considered public, and yet it was, and it struck something within Harry that he had otherwise buried deep down; as his hands found a steady grip of Draco’s waist, Harry clutched at Draco’s coat, pleading him to stay close.

It was impossible not to be struck by just how public this entire thing seemed.
Sure, they had fooled around in empty offices at the ministry, but this felt entirely different to Draco. Maybe because it wasn’t rushed and this kiss came with different connotations, but it left Draco feeling so open and vulnerable that he almost wanted to weep.
How he had ever thought that he would be able to go without Harry was a mystery to him, and not one that he thought he would ever be able to solve.
As he gingerly broke the kiss, he had a soft smile on his lips, unable to stop it when he was feeling to light and, frankly, happy.
“Come on, I promised you a coffee.”

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Standing in the muggle bakery of Draco’s country village felt strangely foreign. Though Harry had spent time in Muggle London during the years immediately following the war, that was a busy metropolitan centre and a habit that had grown lazy years ago. This, like everything else today, felt fresh and exciting.
Having stalled a few yards away from the counter, Harry’s eyes skipped between the hand-lettered signage behind the bar and the display counter of baked goods.
Thoughtlessly, Harry unzipped his jacket, adjusting to the warmth of the shop.
“Do you know what you’re having?” Harry asked. While he barely glanced towards Draco as he spoke, he instinctively shifted towards him, closer than strictly necessary.

There was something so very liberating about getting to be out in public together with Harry, especially knowing that he wouldn’t have to fear anyone giving them any strange looks. He could be as affectionate as he should want to, not having to consider the consequence.
Draco hadn’t been to the bakery for quite a while, however not much had changed in the quaint shop, so he already had a very good idea of what he wanted to get.
He was, however, robbed of his chance to answer, when the response that had been on his tongue seemed to slip out of someone else’s mouth.
“My guess is a pain au chocolat, unless your tastes have changed since I saw you last.”
While Draco had known that he was running the risk of running into Benjamin when he took Harry to this bakery, he hadn’t expected to be immediately met with his warm and smiling face, Draco having missed him as he was standing with back to them, stocking the shelves behind the counter.
“Hello Benjamin,” Draco said, flushed and feeling extremely awkward.
“Hiya Draco, long time.”

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Harry wasn’t quite prepared to hear someone else call out Draco’s name, here of all places. It made his expression waver for a moment, as his attention narrowed onto the man behind the bar, then onto Draco, already chasing an inkling of an assumption.
It wasn’t that Harry had spent a lot of time thinking about Draco’s ex, having only heard about him in passing, and still it clicked for him almost immediately upon seeing the flush on Draco’s face. Benjamin was very handsome, and probably made even more so by the sweetness of his smile and his surroundings. It made Harry feel a little sick.
Still, unable to fight an almost dizzy smile from gaining a foothold of his expression, Harry approached the display. For how close he and Draco had become, Harry had even less of a claim to Draco than the Muggle in front of them, who at least had been with Draco for real.
“They’re good?” Harry asked conversationally, first directing himself towards Benjamin, and then, with greater attention, over his shoulder back at Draco.

While both Benjamin and Harry were absolutely lovely, Draco still couldn’t help but feel so endlessly awkward that he really didn’t know which leg to stand on.
It had been years by now, however Draco could still vividly remember how it felt to visit the bakery one Benjamin’s break the way he sought out his company and just how many pleasant chats they had had over coffee.
“Best outside Paris, or so I’ve been told,” Benjamin stated with a pleasant grin, clearly not feeling anywhere near as awkward as Draco was. “But we’ll see how he feels now that I make him pay for them himself.”

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Having come to terms with the fact that Harry couldn’t ever have a normal, public relationship with Draco, he felt a pang of jealousy at the evident normalcy that had been afforded Draco when he was seeing Benjamin. It was hard to pin it on Benjamin, though, aware of the fact that it wasn’t only Draco’s baggage that burdened their shot at anything remotely normal.
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s on me today,” Harry brushed off as his attention briefly returned to Ben, his smile bright and well-meaning despite the lick of possessiveness that flared in his chest.
“Choc croissant, then?” he asked Draco, turning towards him with a lopsided grin, tentatively self aware. “What’re you having for a drink?”

Draco was honestly mostly surprised by how well everything was going, too surprised to really have a proper idea of what he wanted to drink.
He genuinely hadn’t thought that he was ever going to see Benjamin ever again, having assumed that he would have moved on in some way, so the sight of him was still settling properly in Draco’s stomach.
“Just tea,” he stated, feeling absolutely lost and trying not to show it too much. It seems so entirely unlikely that Benjamin wouldn’t hold some kind of grudge against him, but the way the man was smiling at him and Harry showed a different story entirely.

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