Defense

{5}

A while passed normally for Harry, getting further into the school year and already testing some of his classes on certain things he wanted them to know. It was mostly the students taking their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s that he labored on. While his finals for the lower years held their own challenges, they were not the standard wizarding examinations. 

When Saturday came, Harry allowed himself to wake up later than he usually would, tired from the adjustment that came every year with teaching after the break. He, however, had been startled to awake to the arrival of a letter at such an odd time. 

Harry Potter,

While I am not in practice of doing this often, I thought you'd possibly want to join me for a drink again on this fine evening? If you can excuse the American accent, of course. 

Harley x

Harry smiled at the thought, even if his curiosity got the best of him in wondering why she was still there. It wasn't solely because of him, was it? He wanted to say no, obviously not, yet there was a voice inside of him that suggested otherwise. It could be Malfoy and her wanting to assure his investment in her, or, his conscience offered silkily, it was that she might just fancy him properly. 

And here he thought he'd have to wait before attempting to find a nice woman to date. 

The word dating was premature, but Harry would hold out his hopes. She probably wanted the investment, he remembered with diligence, as she would be leaving for America... but they were wizards! 

Harry let his mind get too far ahead of him thinking about how they would make long-distance work when he realized he hadn't even eaten a proper breakfast yet. The house-elves probably deserved a visit anyways seeing as lunch was not yet near. 

Only in mulling over the fact that there had been an absence of one Draco Malfoy, did Harry note that he hadn't seen the blonde in quite a while. Several days was more than he'd been separated from any of his friends, and Malfoy would be no exception. At least, Harry hoped not. 

Passing a few worried Hufflepuffs on his way to the kitchen, Professor Potter smiled and went on, grabbing a quick few things before heading back to his rooms where there he could grade papers and await the evening to come. It flashed by his mind to wonder if James would be alright with the arrangement of him not being there, then realized the boy would probably be more than thrilled to have his father off the grounds on a Saturday evening. 

Harry, for some odd reason, had always enjoyed the fine art that was grading. It was just a system, and when not a punishment, the time it took him to grade papers and exams was significantly shorter than that of the other's on staff. 

McGonagall glared in a joking manner when all his exam grades were submitted a day after they were taken, her work the lesser because of his prompt nature. She told him constantly he was a good professor (mostly in fear of losing him), but Harry couldn't part from the career, not at that point in time. 

Back to his grading, it seemed that that specific evening was going just the opposite of how it always had felt. He barely wanted to touch any of the papers before him, and his eyes couldn't focus enough on any of the words to know what was actually being said by the students. 

It was Saturday, though, so Harry allowed the work to rest on his desk in favor of preparing for his date. The blonde popped into his head with a grin on her foreign face, and excitement blossomed on his own. He would most certainly want to tell Malfoy about all of this, of course. Ron and Hermione would be thrilled, too, though they'd probably hear it third hand from Rose. When Harry told his son, it would be around to his relatives, then his friends, in an instant.