Ship of Theseus (Harry X Draco)

Chapter 2

There was a stupidly handsome young man sitting next to Hermione at the Weasley's Sunday lunch.

"Oh, Draco!" cried Hermione. "Come meet Clarence!"

Draco pulled a smile onto his face and held out a hand. Clarence was much taller and broader than Harry had been, with a tanned-bronze- Frenchman sort of face.

"Draco," said Clarence. "I've heard so much about you."

Draco recognised that this was a platitude, but in his case he wished people wouldn't use it.

"Yes, well," said Draco, and Clarence seemed to realise his mistake.

"From Hermione," he said hastily. "At work. I work-good things. I've heard good things about you."

Draco relented and smiled at him.

"Glad to hear Hermione's not waging a war on my reputation," he said. "I don't think it would stand much of a chance."

It was clear within about five minutes that it was a set-up. Hermione kept asking leading questions, like, "Clarence has always wanted children, haven't you, Clarence? But his last boyfriend wasn't interested." And, "Clarence was telling me how difficult it is to meet people in London. Weren't you, Clarence?"

"Hermione, a word?" asked Draco. Clarence, to his credit, seemed quite as embarrassed and uncomfortable as Draco.

Hermione followed Draco into the corridor.

"All right," she said, "I shouldn't have sprung that on you."

"I am married!"

Hermione looked so sad that it made Draco want to crawl back to his stupid cottage and never come out again.

"Draco..."

"No. No more set ups. Clarence is lovely-"

"Isn't he?" asked Hermione.

"He's really fit," said Draco. "I mean, almost too fit. Untrustworthily so."

"You should see him with his shirt off," said Hermione.

"Is he ripped?" asked Draco, momentarily distracted.

"Like a Greek god," said Hermione. Draco paused. Well could he imagine what Clarence looked like under his clothes. He and Hermione sighed at each other.

"Look, Granger, Greek god or no, it doesn't change my marital status."

"But-"

"No coming back. I know it."

In his darker moments, Draco could admit to himself that this certainty was only a form of denial.

Yet, after all, his denial proved true. Harry had been gone for a year and a half when a panicked underling burst into the operating room. Draco was in the process of removing a teapot that had grown arms and wrapped itself firmly around a small boy's head.

"Healer Malfoy! It's Harry Potter! They've found him, sir! He's here!"

Harry. Scruffy beard, undernourished, fitfully sleeping, Harry. Draco couldn't even think. He kept trying to go back to his teapot patient, and the healers kept telling him that it was all right, someone else had taken over, he could relax.

He sat next to Harry and touched his hand. Harry had such long, graceful hands. Draco thought he had remembered them, but he had been wrong, he didn't remember anything, it was all brand new. The gold ring glimmered on Harry's finger, making it look even stronger and more Powerful hands. They were one of the first things
Draco had noticed, at the party when he and Harry had first- Ginny had broken Draco's heart, obviously, because she was Ginny and she couldn't help herself. And Harry had been at that first party
after the break-up, he had got back from Sardinia or wherever he had been hiding, and he hovered uncomfortably by the drinks. Draco actually noticed him. His gaze had been fixed on Ginny, and her shiny, shiny hair.