Stuck With You / drarry

Marigold

For the entire weekend, Harry couldn't stop thinking about Malfoy. Whatever he did, the man was always there, in the back of his mind. Harry couldn't stop thinking about him showing up to his doorstep wearing his damned suit, waiting for him for what could have been hours, then proceeding to have a mutually redundant conversation with Harry, and lastly, give him no reason at all for his visit. I don't think you'd want to know that, he'd said. Those words didn't stop bouncing around in Harry's mind, tormenting him. He would have very much wanted to know that. In general, he hated not knowing things, and Malfoy seemed to always push that button.

Harry tried to come up with normal reasons that would explain Malfoy's behaviour, but couldn't come up with any. Why would someone act like he had, and have an ordinary explanation for it? At the end of every bout of wracking his brain he could only come to one conclusion: Narcissa was right. Somehow Malfoy was obsessed with Harry again, and he was either scheming to cast some horrendous curse on him that somehow required him to seek Harry out a bunch of times, or... or, there was always the something else. At this point Harry didn't care which one it was, he just wanted answers. Well, he cared to the extent that he wished Malfoy wouldn't cast a horrendous curse on him, so, it had to be the other option then. And that was really the thing driving Harry mad.

Thinking about Malfoy that way... was frustrating. It hadn't, at least consciously, occurred to Harry before, but now that the thought had been planted in his head, it started growing roots he wasn't able to remove. It was vexing to say the least – intrusive thoughts about Malfoy started popping into Harry's head at random times: thoughts about his long legs, his pale slender figure, his blond hair that looked white in the moonlight but had caught some golden streaks, the way he ran his long fingers in his hair, everything about him was so utterly eloquent and maddening. He couldn't explain it, but suddenly Harry felt a different energy running through him.

Harry felt like he could've used a bucket of ice poured on his head to somehow jolt him out of this bubble he was currently engulfed by. But, no matter how many cold showers he took, Harry couldn't shake the ominous feeling that something was about to awake in him. It had been years since Harry was last intimate with anyone, and his sexuality had lately been repressed to say the least. He had been too busy with work, at least, that's what he told himself. And now, in the darkest hours of the night, when everyone and everything was asleep, but Harry was tossing and turning, he might have slipped his hand in his pants and strictly thought of the blond guy from his gym. Strictly him, no one else.

On Monday Harry was almost glad to go to work, he craved anything that would wake him up from this weird nightmare he had been living in. The Ministry Atrium was packed when Harry strode through it in his usual fashion, greeting the wizard at the security stand and anyone else he knew. Being around people made him feel less detached from reality, it felt relieving to get out of his head more.

Fortunately, Harry got something else to think about right away, when he stepped into his havoc of an office and saw a pile of interdepartmental memos on his desk. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the business ahead. It ended up taking him a few hours to open them all – apparently it had been a busy weekend, since all of a sudden he needed to reply to various inquiries and questions, as well as let his self-writing quill note the most important things in his calendar that he never checked. One of the last letters was from Evergrey, and it contained a new case for Harry. It made him smile.

Thought you needed a pleasant distraction so I fished this out for you.

P.E.

Enclosed was a case description of a standard burglary, however, it was to Quality Quidditch Supplies on the north end of Diagon Alley. Harry felt cheerful reading Patrick's heartfelt attempt to divert him from thinking about the case he was dismissed from, and by Merlin he needed the distraction from his own anguish. Harry had told Patrick that he loved Quidditch, but wasn't sure if he knew that QQS had once been his favourite shop in all of Diagon Alley. Nevertheless, the gesture was awfully kind.