The Christmas Hotel (DRARRY)

Chapter 17: Australia: Day 6

It was the second to last day in Australia and Harry was already looking forward to the cold that Canada would be providing. Christmas just wasn’t the same without snow. However, it was still nice to sit at the beach and watch the waves or the way the talented surfers would do tricks on them and enjoy their somewhat different Christmas spirit.

He had already done all his Christmas shopping in a nearby town and even bought gifts for the people inside this house and the ones who had left (and had been nice, no thank you Asher). What had been harder was buying something for Draco.

Because while it was nice to be here and have him close, what would happen once Harry’s holiday was over? Yes, he was going to ask the owners of the hotel if he could be added to the staff, honestly, that wasn’t such a guess, but…

Would this still be the same? Harry was a guest right now, not a worker. Draco always had things to do and that wouldn’t stop once Harry would (maybe) work here. He didn’t know what to do.

This all felt so amazing, so right, but also like a dream. And the closer it got to the twenty-fourth of December, the closer it got to said dream ending. And he didn’t want that. He wanted to stay, he wanted to… be a part of something that felt so special.

“Hey there, why are you hiding?” Daniela’s voice reached him and he turned to see her walking over the beach towards him. She had her shoes in one hand a tray of Christmas cookies in the other. “Matthew made these, and I thought I’d come look for you and we can both review hic baking skills.”

Harry chuckled and crossed his legs. “How did you find me? I thought I put an anti-detection charm around me.”

“For Muggles yes, so Jax won’t find you.”

Laughing lightly, Harry took away the charm and held the plate of cookies while Daniela sat down. She neatly placed her shoes in the warm sand and turned back to look at Harry. “What’s bothering you, my friend?”

Harry snorted. “Oh, everything, my friend. I can’t even seem to find a starting point.”

“Most of the time, it’s just where the mess started, so come on then, tell me.” She grinned at him and took a cookie and bit into it carefully, like she thought it was about to explode over her face.

“Well” Harry sighed and took one as well, but he then just stared at it. Where was the beginning to his current problem? “When I came here I thought that I was just going to have four weeks of… holidays away from everyone, away from people who would know me to my very core. I had gotten into a small argument with my current superior and I thought that running away was the easiest option than to have to face the circus that is my life.”

Daniela chuckled and took another cookie. “So, you came here and you realized that ‘shit, I know people here, Draco Malfoy is my former classmate and we used to hate each other but know he looks damn hot!’, right?”

Harry wished he could hit her over the head. “No!”

“Yeah you do, so come on.”

“Do poeple ever tell you that they hate you?”

“They all tell me. Doesn’t mean that I believe them.”

Chuckling, Harry ate his Christmas cookie quietly. “I’m not sure how things will change if I stay. If Draco’s even that… interested…” He paused and buried his hand in the sand for a little before pulling it out and watching the sand corns drizzle away. “Am I stupid?”

“Yes.”

“Hey!” He shoved Daniela slightly, while she laughed.

“What? You asked a serious question, I answered seriously.” Daniela took a third cookie and ate half of it, before she continued. “Look, Harry, I haven’t known Draco as long as you have, but I’ve spent more time with him in this hotel than you have. I can tell you that he’s a lot happier since you’ve been here. He has more time for us, he even does things with us and most of all, he looks at you like you hung the moon in the sky. Why are you doubting yourself?”

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I just… I have never been in a relationship where I’m scared that I’d miss something if that was gone. And I’m scared that it’s all in my mind. What if Draco isn’t as invested as I am? What if I drop everything to work here and then we realize that we actually don’t match and I have to go back and do something else?”

Daniela shrugged her shoulders. “Then you go back and do something else. I’m sure you can do more than play Quidditch and be a lawmaker.”

That was true. But the question was if he really wanted to do all of that if Draco wasn’t there with him… it certainly sounded stupid. He just really wanted this idiot to be close!

“I like to cook and bake” Harry said slowly.

“There you go” Daniela grinned at him. “If this with you and him doesn’t work out, we’ll open a bakery together, somewhere in France, so we can annoy the shit out of Jax, deal?”

Harry laughed and nodded. “Sounds like a plan, Daniela.”