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PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:50 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Draco had been mostly concentrating on what he was reading and was caught off guard when Potter started talking to him. It didn’t help that the first thing he saw was Potter’s arms, which bore clear witness to the fact that Potter likely had a strict training regime. It was probably the first time Draco casually saw Potter’s arms like that, Potter usually being hidden under several layers of clothes, only able to drop them now that they were sitting in what was essentially an indoor greenhouse.
It caused Draco to pause for too long, having to collect his thoughts again and actually register what it was that Potter was asking him.
“Yeah, sure,” he managed, hoping that his hesitation could be written off as him just having been pulled out of his reading.
The more time Draco spent around Potter, the more it got cemented into his head that he found Potter attractive. It wasn’t a thought that he expected to be able to do much about, sincerely doubting that his relationship with Potter was ever going to be anything but maybe a very tentative friendship, and that was more than enough for him. The fact that he found Potter attractive was never going to be anyone but Draco’s own problem and he was fine with that.
“What’s on your mind?”

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:12 pm 

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The question didn't feel as straight forward as it sounded; Harry's mind was a clutter of files, currently best illustrated by the controlled scattering of case exerts on the sunroom floor. It made him shift his stance, straightening his posture so that only the tips of his fingers graced the tabletop. Harry had turned to glance over at the fruits of his labour, as if that would reveal a coherent response to Draco's question. He wasn't sure where to begin.
"I've narrowed down what I believe to be the cases of interest," Harry stated blankly, and while his choice of words was rather definitive, Harry was anything but sure in his own reasoning. "From 35 to about 15."
He had started the morning certain that 35 cases was too many, expecting to be able to narrow down the field considerably if he copared them to oneanother. When Harry was left with thrice as many as initially expected, even judging them critically, Harry had come to doubt either the hypothesis or the approach. While there wasn't any dicernable pattern, they all followed a similar trajectory from identification to end, and he had reached a point where removing one meant having to remove all.
"I think I need to justify it to someone," he admitted; though the concent wasn't foreign to him, it wasn't an excercise the two of them had ever really practiced together.
His attention returned onto Draco, once again aware of how invaluable Draco had become for Harry's process. He smiled. "I need to make sure the exclusion criteria makes sense to you, too, if I could borrow you for a minute."


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:14 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Still vaguely distracted, the sunroom being much smaller than his study and thus leaving less space between the two of them, Draco hummed and nodded. If he could do anything at all to help this case progress, even if it just meant helping Potter narrow down which cases were of interest, then he was more than willing to do.
They had to help each other out after all, being the two experts on the area, very broadly speaking. It wasn’t something that he had ever considered before, but Draco suddenly realised that it really only was he and Potter who would be able to crack this. They had a shared set of skills that proved invaluable to this case and Draco couldn’t see how anyone would be able to do anything without the knowledge the two of them had.
“Yeah, sure,” he stated, closing the folder he was reading and turning his full attention to what Potter had been doing.
Cases were spread out on the floor all over the sunroom, Potter having made reality of what he had threatened to do back in the study. Clearly it had actually made somewhat of a difference, or maybe Potter had just looked at the cases with different eyes, it was hard to tell.
“Tell me about your process here,” Draco stated and indicated at the files, which all just seemed like a huge mess to him, but he figured that it all had to make some level of sense to Potter. He knew what that was like after all, so he didn’t judge.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 3:58 pm 

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Harry, too, looked over at the material. It wasn't his proudest work, finding the work to be juvenile in its clutter; he would defend it as being a matter of logistics rather than of logic.
When Draco remained seated, Harry turned properly. He leaned against the table edge, settling himself carefully as to not to spill any ink or tea. He gripped the lip of the table, a hand on either side of his hip, once again turning his attention to the collection og parchments scattering the floor a few yards ahead of them.
He thrummed a restless note to the underside of the table, trying to gather his thoughts.
"I've been looking at it from the approach of what's plausible intent, and whats an inadverted effect," he said eventually. He felt like a better point of reference was that he was, plainly put, sick and tired of looking at chestfulls of data. "Malignant magic firering with intent, or destabilized deteriorated magic, that is."
There wasn't much authority in his voice, hesitant to make claims. The nature of Dark Magic was beyond Harry's knowledge, but he had made a career of quantifying the intent and plausible location of dark artefacts and magic; he had never looked at the details of the curses, only their intended use put into context.
"Determining whether or not this was an intended curse or a destabilised spell helps discard about half the material."
Harry's eyes were skimming across the material, proof that he wouldn't remain stationary much longer. "I've been taught that a quick way to judge that is based on location, but I think it's more nuanced than that. But the idea is that a curse with a slow effect wont guard anything of immediate value."
He turned to look over at Draco, looking for something he couldn't quite place. "So those are among what I've removed from the pot."


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:38 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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There was something deeply chaotic about the way that Potter was working.
Draco knew that this wasn’t necessarily the norm for him, but their change of scenery and the need to think out of the box might have pushed Potter to do something drastic.
Draco nodded as Potter launched into an explanation of what he had done, finding that it made good sense. They were both just going into this blind and was trying to find their way out, so naturally there was no idea that was going to be a bad idea.
However, it was hard for Draco to fully focus on what Potter was telling him, which undoubtably was helpful and smart, because once again Potter was close to him. It kept distracting Draco terribly, even when he tried to stay focused on what they were doing, there was just something about having another person so close that kept making Draco’s head go completely haywire.
“Yeah?” Draco prompted, liking that Potter had managed to narrow down the cases and finding that it was a realistic way that he had gone about it. They could always include those cases again later if they turned out to be relevant, but for now it was really going to be about narrowing it down and trying to lighten their work load as much as they possibly could.
“Want me to look at the corresponding medical journals?”

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 2:05 am 

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"Yeah, probably," Harry answered absentmindedly. It hadn't been why he had engaged Draco in conversation, and while it was certainly necessary, it wasn't in line with Harry's immediate train of thought, making it hard to even process.
His eyes had already drifted back onto the files, something on his lip he couldn't quite articulate.
Instead, he pushed himself away from the table to stand.
"What I wanted your take on -" Harry said, dismissing Draco's offer in the kindest way available to him. He had already stepped forward to the abstract map on the floor. Not for the first time, Harry missed his wand, resolved to illustrate his point in on two dimensions.
"There aren't really many things to guard," he resumed, instinctively glancing over at Draco in an invitation for him to join him. "It's not really the stuff that's left. We haven't cleared out a private home in years, and safe houses were abandoned too frequently for things to really gather there."
Eyes once again to the floor, Harry gestured towards a seperate few pieces of parchment gathered in a loose pile. "Those are really the cases that fit the bill, because -"
Harry stalled, catching on his own intention. The attempt he had initially made to consider his point before speaking had already escaped him. "I guess we're back to the question of whether it's intentionally slow working or whether its - well, gone bad."
Picking at his hands, Harry once again paused, trying to recall what he had settled on; why those cases in particular had been dismissed, even with that considerarion in mind.
"Those have been removed due to their age. They are all older than five years, and at that point its unlikely to be a watered down remnant of an immediately mortal or harmful curse," he said, with more security. While wards were wards required more upkeep for them to remain stable, cursed objects remaimed active with the intended curse for much longer. "It wouldn't have taken five years to present any adverse symptoms."
Having spoken the argument out loud, Harry remained satisfied with that decision. However -
"These," Harry instead started, a wide gesture made over the bulk body of the parchment, another cluster of about eight photogeraphs of various confiscated objects, "- are where we get to why placement doesn't serve us any good. These objects all appear to be discarded without any consideration, or removed from their place of function by others and tossed, making their intended effect virtually impossible to decide. We know what it does now but not whether thats as intended fifteen years ago."
Finally, Harry's attention returned onto Draco. Even though he had drifted while speaking, having almost done half a lap around the pile, Harry hadn't lost Draco, eyes immediate finding him. "Are there any of them you recognize?"


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:08 am 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Wanting to be able to get a better look at what Potter was showing him, Draco stood up from where he had been seated for the past many hours. It was only upon standing that Draco realised just how close he had been to Potter and standing made that worse. Then again, Draco had to remind himself that there was nothing to it, other than his own misplaced attraction.
“I’ll take a look,” Draco muttered, almost as if he had to explain himself for suddenly being so close to Potter.
He decided to turn his attention to the artefacts that Potter was asking him about, finding that that was easier than to think about anything else.
Draco liked the work that they were doing, liked knowing that he was making a difference and he wasn’t going to allow himself to ever get distracted from that. They had an important job to do the both of them and as long as Draco remembered that, he figured that he would be just fine.
Draco turned his attention properly to the objects in front of him, wanting to focus and be able to help Potter with what he could. It was the advantage of them being two on this case after all and Draco had to remind himself of that. After all, he had had to ask Potter for help himself, so he was only far too happy to be able to be of assistance right back.
“Am I looking for anything specific, or is it enough that I recognise them?”

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:14 pm 

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Harry's expression shifted, surprised that Draco even seemed to think anything was too unimportant to share.
"Either," he said, brightly. Whatever Draco could think of, Harry would eagerly listen to. "Anything. I have the info we have on the objects somewhere, but some are too niche even for us. Some are just in stable containment and not dismantled."
Facts of the matter were that the DMLE was only aware of a fraction of what Dark Magic even encompassed; quicker than they could study it, dark wizards had developed it, and they had come out a wartime filled with innovations that was previously unheard of.
Thoughlessly, Harry stepped closer towards Draco, eyes to the photographs, as if sharing a point of view would reveal to him what Draco saw. "Why, do you know what any of them are?"


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:17 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Even though Draco knew that his former involvement with the Death Eaters and just how close he had been to the Dark Lord was part of why he was good at what he was doing, it was still hard for him to face the fact that that was why he knew these things.
He could indeed recognise a lot of the artefacts presented to him in the photos, having seen them around in safe houses or even just at the manor before they were deployed. It was almost too much for him to handle and he had to take a moment to remember that Potter simply wanted to know and wasn’t there to judge him for what he had done as a teenager.
“Well, that’s a nasty one,” Draco stated, pointing to what looked to be a fairly regular goblet. He had been the witness of some poor fool trying to take a drink from it and the sight of it was still almost as vivid as it had been when Draco was 17.
“Butt only if you tried to actually drink from it,” he added with a shrug, doubting that Potter would have done something as stupid as to drink from a dark artefact. And while it easily could have gotten mixed up with other goblets, Draco knew that the effects would not be what he was currently seeing in Potter. Mostly he had just mentioned it to get himself thinking, trying to figure out what it actually was that Potter was asking of him.
“I think we can rule this one out too,” he stated, pointing to a ring.

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 6:58 pm 

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Moving with great attention, Harry was quick to retrieve the photographs Draco singled out. Without his wand, he had to step through the files to get them, glancing to their backside as soon as he had them in his hand. There, he had written in rough scrawl the place of discovery; very correctly, the goblet was the object found to be polluting a forest creek.
"This?" he inquired, lifting the photograph of the ring within view. In part it was an encouragement, prompted more by interest than by any professional necessity.
Harry had often enough heard Draco muse over the magic in Harry's chest, but that always seemed to scew towards his Healer's degree. He had yet to speak freely about the actual subject-matter of of his research, and it would be a lie to say Harry wasn't interested in hearing it.
Carefully stepping out of the material, Harry returned to Draco's side, attention drawn by his own annotations on the ring. "Part of a set; the DMLE has had the matching necklace and earrings in containment since the 70s."


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:04 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Draco nodded softly at Potter’s comment, remembering how he had seen the ring lying around at some meeting. It was the intention that someone were to plant it on a ministry official, but Draco wasn’t sure if that plan ever actually succeeded. They had never talked about the small failures, only around to get the punishment for the big ones when the Dark Lord was in a poor mood.
“The magic in that wouldn’t be able to get lodged in your chest like that, especially not while removed from the necklace and earrings,” Draco stated, figuring that taking out the ones that he didn’t believe in was as good as pointing out the ones he did. Especially because the latter was a lot more difficult and Draco was trying to get into a proper headspace for picking out dark objects, having read too many medical journals over a very short period of time.
He glanced over the photos again, trying to remember if there was any of them that he had seen more recently than just during the war, but his memory was a little blurry about it all. He had seen so many dark objects during the war that many of them didn’t even stand out to him, just another tool for destruction that they were meant to use to get their way.
“What made you pick out this one?” Draco asked, pointing to a fountain pen. He was familiar with the pen and did indeed know that it had a nasty case of dark magic, but he also knew that it was fairly harmless compared to most of the others he saw lying around.

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PostPosted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:39 pm 

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The way Harry's expression distorted told that even he had had his doubts in including that in his final selection.
"That -" he dragged, ending the sentence with a breath rather than a constructive explanation.
He turned towards the table Coote had aparated into the room for him, either the dinette from the kitchen or a true copy; on it was a scatter of gutted journal covers, and Harry added to the pile the two photographs Draco had dismissed.
"The fountain pen only has a trace amount of magic latched to it," Harry eventually admitted, returning both mentally and physically to the scatter of papers. His hands restlessly found the pleat of his shirt sleeve, absentmindedly redoing the fold. "There's been several opinions on whether or not the pen itself was ever cursed, or if it is residual magic from the ink it carried."
The case itself had been a throwaway, a halfblood witch having contacted the department when her dog had stumbled upon it in her garden and cowered away from it, uneasy. It had been concluded it had been tossed in passing, not an intentional attack on her life, though she had been so distraught Harry had been asked to handle the case personally as a sign of reverence. "But the effect of the curse seems transferable from one mass to another, even as is; the dog who found it fell ill a few days later, but I've been told it made a full recovery."


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 1:06 am 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Draco nodded again, recognising the pen easily but not because of his involvement with the death eaters. Instead, Draco recognised the pen as a Zabini family heirloom, something that Blaise had dragged with him to Hogwarts after Christmas in fourth or so year. Draco couldn’t remember exactly which of his mother’s husbands had gifted it to him, but Draco knew that it was a family heirloom.
“Must have been the ink yeah,” he stated in a thoughtful voice, the picture of the pen reminding him of an easier time in his life. He had hardly been involved with the Death Eaters when Blaise had first shown him that pen, but it probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise to him that they had someone persuaded Blaise to give it up for the cause, or maybe they hadn’t even asked.
“The pen itself is harmless,” he stated with a shrug, a good sense of authority on the matter present in his voice. He felt absolutely certain that it wasn’t the pen.
“Unless you chewed on it of course,” he added with a soft smile playing on his lips at the mental image.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:18 am 

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Surprised, Harry let out a chuckle. Draco's teases were few and far between, always managing to catch Harry unprepared. It was distinctly different than their youth, Harry having always been tense around Draco in the anticipation of a snide comment. This wasn't like that at all, shoulders settling as the comment broke the air of professionalism between them.
"Yeah, me and the dog alike," he grinned, in on the joke. He had once again leaned in over the photographs to pick out the photograph from the make shift map, glancing iver at Draco as he straightened his posture, reassuring the easy intention with a smile.
"She was terribly distraught that someone had attempted to poison her in her own garden, but invited me to several cups of tea on her porch regardless."
That photograph was tossed onto the pile, too. He brushed his palms against his thighs, absentmindedly.
"Anything else that jumps out at you?"


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PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:31 am 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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It always felt a bit daunting to Draco to make jokes on Potter’s behalf or even in his general direction, never feeling entirely certain as to how he was going to react. It always calmed him down when Potter turned to smile at him, or even better if he simply laughed.
It helped Draco ease into the transition of them being both coworkers but also tentative friends. It was nice to know that they were getting that much better and it felt that much easier just to be around Potter on a daily basis.
As Draco saw Potter work, it was easy to just let himself fall into the lull that was them working together. Comforted by how easy it seemed, even if it had only been for about a month.
Draco took another glance at the photos, digging hard into his memory to try and remember what the different ones did and just how likely the magic would have been to leak.
“This one,” he stated, pointing to a picture of a singular clip earring. “Did you never find the other one?”

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:46 pm 

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Despite the vague phrasing of the question, Harry didn't have to look at the pictures to know which object Draco was singling out. Instead, Harry's eyes found him with piqued interest, seeming both surprised and intrigued by the fact that Draco had found the earring worth mentioning.
Delayed, the choice of words even managed to pull the corner of Harry's mouth upwards, grimly humoured.
"Do you recognize it?" Harry asked again, but the infliction set this repetition apart. The ghosting of a smile made it appear leading; Harry himself believed to be intimately familiar with one half of Dolores Umbridge's clip on pearls and sea shells. Draco had seen them as much and as often as Harry had, but it felt like a minute detail to have stuck with him for 15 years.
Helpfully, Harry leaned down to pick up the picture, this time offering it to Draco to have a closer look.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 2:23 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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Draco nodded very softly at the question, not all too keen on thinking back on that particular period of time at Hogwarts. All in all, Draco knew that he had done a lot of things in the past that were objectionable and answering to Umbridge had been were likely the least horrible of them.
“I am just impressed that you managed to find the one after she was trampled by centaurs,” Draco stated, well familiar with the fate that Dolores Umbridge had met in the Dark Forest that day. The rumour mill had always been very active at Hogwarts, but it had also served as a milestone to Draco that everything that he knew was going to change.
He looked up at Potter, trying to gauge a reaction to having picked out those specific ear clips. There was no sign of resentment in Potter’s expression, something that still managed to take Draco aback every time he met it. Despite how much time they had been spending together, it still felt like a terribly new thing whenever Draco found himself caught up in another thought.

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:33 am 

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The corner of Harry's mouth quirked upwards. He was continuously impressed by Draco and the quality of his work and magic, that even the slightest acknowledgement that the feeling might be mutual made Harry's heart flip. While Draco likely hadn't mean the comment as a true compliment, Harry had still taken it as one.
"They knew exactly where it was," he said. No matter how gladly and readily Harry accepted the praise, he needed to correct Draco's expectations to the work Harry himself had actually carried out. "They've known since sixth year, but its only a few years after the war when they stopped being classified as 'Sub-Human Creatures' and could report the finding themselves."
At the time, it had been a landmark case; Hermione had pushed for the reform and immediately after it was proved not only necessary but valuable when Harry had personally been contacted by the centaurs of the Forbidden Forest with a report that had been previously blocked and ignored. It had been terribly embarrassing for the DMLE, and catapulted both Hermione and Harry's careers; hers as a lawmaker and Harry further solidified as a poster child for sickly sweet unison and collaboration.
"I know it's significantly older than any of the others up there," Harry instead reengaged, not deaf to what Draco had actually wanted to knw when he questioned why the earring was there to begin with. "We only have the one, and it's not particularly cursed. We collected it in '03."
Thoughtlessly, Harry picked at his hands, running his fingers over the raised scar tissue cutting across the back of his left hand. His eyes had once again drifted to the picture in Draco's hands. "But its also the only one I've had actual, continuous exposure to, even though it's been fifteen years. I don't know how long ago to go back."
None of their tests had answered that question, and the way Harry's eyes darted to the last cluster of photographs proved that that exact thought had crossed his mind on several occasions.


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 5:09 pm 

This body is a vessel for my mayhem and as long as I can perform bafoonery it doesn’t matter if this stomach is flat or not

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While Draco had done everything that he could to not get involved in the wizarding community after having been shun, he definitely remembered Potter and Granger essentially reforming the entire categorisation of magical creatures. It had been front page news and had probably been what had catapulted Potter’s career after the glow of being the golden boy had waned.
At the time, it had made Draco bitter, feeling that Potter could never do anything wrong and that he would always find a reason to shine. Now though, he knew that it was likely more than well-earned and that Potter and Granger both likely had put a lot of work into the reform happening.
As Potter talked, Draco realised that he was fiddling with the scar at the back of his hand, probably due to them actually talking about Umbridge. That pen of her’s left absolutely nasty scars, not that Draco ever had been the subject to that particular kind of torture, and it made Draco’s stomach churn knowing that he had been part of the reason that Potter had that scar in the first place.
Without thinking, Draco reached out for Potter’s hand, covering the scar with his hand almost as if he could make it go away just by covering it up like this. Ever since getting close with Potter, Draco had been filled more and more with regret at the way that he had treated Potter, not feeling that it was fair that Draco had gone out of his way to make Potter’s life even more complicated than it already had been.
“I’m sorry,” Draco said in a soft voice, unsure exactly what he was apologising for, just feeling like Potter at least deserved to hear him say that.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:13 am 

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Something had shifted in the air between them; by the time Harry's eyes returned onto Draco, his attention caught by the touch, the tone of their conversation had distinctly fractured from what it had been only seconds before. What exactly it had been had escaped Harry. His mind had still been on the cases they had yet to review, but the gentle affection of the touch completely washed his mind clear, narrowing his existence down to the few points of contact they held.
Failing to realize that the movement nulled the intent gesture, Harry turned his palm upward to meet Draco's, instinctively chasing the first ounce of physical affection he had received in a month. He didn't tighten the grip; it was barely more than an expression of bared vulnerability, wrist exposed and his fingers only just meeting Draco's skin.
It took processing the apology for Harry’s mind to recognize that Draco hadn’t reached for him to yet again feel his temperature or pulse, simultaneously making the persistent touch intimate and juvenile. It made Harry’s smile return boyish.
"What for?" he asked with sincerity, humoured by the seemingly incoherent interruption and how readily he had fallen quiet for Draco to peacefully count his heartbeat.


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