𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐆𝐎

Epilogue

Epilogue

Harry swings his legs idly from where he's perched on the Station One counter, checking his watch and rolling his eyes.

"We're going to miss our Portkey," he grumbles to Ginny down below, who chuckles airily and shakes her head.

"Oh, come on. Don't be a grump. This is a big deal for him—this will be the longest he's been away from this place in a good long while. He's entitled to a little freak-out, I think."

A little freak-out is a bit of an understatement—Draco had been a crazed, neurotic mess (even more so than usual) in the days leading up to their three week, well-deserved trip to Canada. He'd spent it alternately shut up in his office, hexing the newest batch of Trainees, and running around the Abraxas Ward like a madman, settling in his new round of Forget-Me-Not patients. His trips to the Lab have been rather scant, though, for which Harry is grateful, since he currently has a lifetime ban on ever setting foot down there again and can't follow. He realizes that might be annoying once he becomes a Mediwizard, but for now he just thinks it's funny.

Now, it's just a half hour before they're meant to be at the Portkey terminal, and Draco is still in a conference with Michael and Tabitha. Harry can't imagine what could be so important—the amount of serious cases up in Bugs has had a drastic downturn lately. The huge amount of press and attention that had come from Draco solving the mystery of the Hogwarts patients and then curing them had turned into a huge influx of hypochondriacs flooding the wards, all claiming to have some kind of mysterious bug they wanted Draco to cure for them. Draco had responded to that about as well as anyone had expected him to, which is to say, not well at all, and so Harry's idea for this trip had been born.

There's only a month left before Harry has to start at the Apollo School for Healing and Mediwizardry, and he intends to spend every minute of it with his boyfriend: wrapped in warm layers, drinking hot chocolate spiked with brandy, making snowmen, and having Canadian sex. Harry doesn't think there is a difference between Canadian sex and English sex, but Draco is sure there is, and Harry is sure he'll like it anyway, so he's just gonna roll with it.

He's thinking about Canadian sex and wondering if it involves maple syrup when Draco appears from around the corner, pink-faced and muttering into his Wrackspurt. Ginny frowns up at him and then holds up her wand, flicking it and summoning the Wrackspurt over, making Draco cry out and glare. Grinning, Harry hops off the counter and grabs his grumpy boyfriend, hugging him close to cut off the no doubt spectacular rant bubbling up inside of him.

"Hi, you. You ready to go?"

"I don't think I can do this, Harry," Draco whines piteously, dropping his head onto Harry's shoulder and thankfully missing his eye roll. "This floor is full of idiots. They will fall apart without me. Tabby and Michael are already fighting about who has more power—I'm considering firing them both and leaving Sparrow in charge."

Harry bites his lip and wisely decides not to bring up the giant hissy fit Draco had thrown when Sparrow had chosen Bugs as his specialty upon completing his Traineeship.

"And I don't like not working, you know. It makes me feel like a lazy, rich, pureblood cliché. It makes me feel like Blaise."

"It's a vacation, Draco. It's only three weeks. Everyone will be fine without you, I promise." He jerks his head back at Ginny, smiling brightly. "And Nurse Weasley will keep them in line, right Gin?"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Ginny crows, and then she comes around the counter to lean up and give them each a kiss on the cheek. "Now go on you two, have some fun for once. If you'll excuse me, I'm meeting Zach for lunch at the castle."

Spluttering in outrage and gesturing frantically as if to say see?, the only thing that keeps Draco from following her and berating her is Harry's tightened arms around him and the quick, placating snog he draws him into. It shuts him up long enough for Harry to be able to drag him to the lifts and start them down towards the first floor entrance, but not for the whole ride down.

"But what if Daphne needs help with the baby? This is a crucial time in the newborn's life, you know, and I'll need to be on hand for a consult."

"Tabby will handle it, Draco, honestly."

"And what if, ugh, what if Weasel and Pansy decide to spawn? I need to be here to keep that from happening, Harry, Pansy's not been herself lately, she might decide to contribute to the freckled population and what happens then?"

"Then you get to spoil another godchild; don't tell me you're not salivating at the thought of it." He ruffles Draco's hair fondly and smiles when he squawks.

"And what if Zach gets fired again? Pomfrey's sacked him twice, you know—"

"Yes, and taken him back twice. He'll be fine. Besides, he's got Ginny now, you know she'll take care of him." The strange and rather violent relationship between Ginny and Zacharias had had the entire floor of Bugs buzzing for weeks, following the bedpan incident and then their loud argument about it once Zacharias was discharged. There had been a lot of stomping, a lot of snarling, and then some rough snogging (unsurprisingly, Ginny was the aggressor, though Zacharias hadn't seemed too violated by it at the end).

Harry is happy about it because it gets Zacharias to start pulling Ginny's pigtails instead of his boyfriend's, and Draco is happy about it because he had gotten to threaten them both against hurting each other.

"But what if—"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" And as the lift doors ding open, Harry grabs Draco again and pulls him into another bruising kiss, heedless of the dozen or so St. Mungo's employees standing outside in the lobby, or the Welcome Witch squealing with delight at the sight of them, or Lenore Coalfleet smirking with her arms crossed over her chest. He spreads his hands across Draco's back and thrusts

his tongue into Draco's parted lips, groaning in both lust and triumph when Draco finally melts right into his arms. "Th—there. See? Three weeks of just that, and more. With maple syrup. Are you ready to go now?"

Draco nods slowly, flushing wonderfully, and they step out into the lobby grinning like fools, ignoring the catcalls and wolf-whistles of the employees surrounding them, and leave St. Mungo's hand in hand.

Harry turns briefly and waves at the dilapidated Muggle storefront that hides his future, grateful to be leaving it but even more grateful to be planning on coming back. He keeps waving until Draco yanks his hand down and calls him a sentimental prat, and then he lets Draco spin him into space, smiling in anticipation of meeting him on the other side.