Aurora Borealis

Chapter 12

Harry's shaky fingers reached upward toward his hair only to be slapped away immediately. 

"Stop touching it," Draco growled, glaring at Harry's refection in the mirror. "You're going to ruin everything I've done already." 

Harry sighed and clutched at the edge of his shirt to keep his hands away from the hair the blonde aristocrat had painstakingly styled for him. Draco huffed and strolled out of the bathroom with a shake of his head. Harry's eyes skittered upward to his reflection and he bit down on his lip, trying to keep the panic from his face. He practiced his smiles and neutral expressions, but it didn't do much. He still thought he looked rather goofy and pathetic. 

Honestly, he shouldn't be this nervous. He'd been on a date before. Granted it had turned into a total fiasco and his date had run away in tears. But this was different. Firstly, Edward literally couldn't cry. And seeing as the vampire had been the one to ask him out Harry didn't think Edward had the right to be crying at the end of this anyways. 

Secondly they were mates. This was supposed to be fated to work or something like that. So really, there was no reason to be nervous. 

Harry looked at his reflection again. The relaxed smile he was going for looked rather shaky and he was way too pale to be healthy. 

"Okay, breathe," he told himself. And saying it out loud helped to calm himself somewhat. And really, he was behaving like he was about to walk to his death. 

Harry winced at that thought. 

Okay, not the best thing to think seeing as he had actually done that before. Shaking his head, Harry lifted his hand toward his hair in an unconscious gesture. 

"Don't even think about it Potter," Draco's voice called suddenly and the blonde was back in the bathroom, glaring at Harry in an oh-so-familiar way. Harry dropped his hand and grinned at the aristocrat. 

"No decorum whatsoever," Draco muttered as he pulled Harry up from his seat. Those silver eyes ran up and down his body with a speculative look. Harry almost started shifting but a single glare had him freezing in place. Finally, Draco said, "You'll do for now," and pushed Harry out of the bathroom. 

Harry rolled his eyes at the behavior but felt suitably calmer. As annoying as Draco could be sometimes, the pureblood was perfect for dressing people up for special occasions. Not that this was a special occasion. And that was proven by the fact that Draco allowed Harry to wear a pair of jeans. Granted they were fairly new and didn't have that comfortable worn feel to them that Harry liked, they were still jeans. 

The two walked down to the living room where everyone else was gathered doing their own thing. Neville was the only one to look up when Harry entered and the former Gryffindor gave Harry a reassuring grin. Harry grinned back and then dropped to the floor beside Teddy, which earned him an annoyed hiss from Draco that he suitably ignored. 

Harry allowed the action of playing with his godson calm him further so that by the time he felt a small tingle run up his arm, announcing that someone was just on the outside of his wards, he was ready to tackle this date. Taking a deep breath, he gave Teddy a bright smile and then Apparated out of the room. 

Harry appeared right outside of the gates that protected the manor, almost landing right on top of Edward. The vampire started at the loud cracking sound and blinked a couple of times before he managed to collect himself. 

"Oh, sorry about that," Harry apologized, his face turning red. "I didn't mean to startle you. It's just a whole lot faster to Apparate than to walk. It would have taken me a whole ten -"