Angels and Devils (Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter 27. Epilogue

It was decided that Harry should spend the rest of the holiday at Malfoy Manor, to which news Ron has reacted rather badly. However, after Remus had taken Harry's best friend aside and had an undisclosed little chat, Ron had seemed much calmer about the idea. Harry could not say he thought Ron liked the idea, but his best friend did seem to support it. There were bound to be many conversations once they were back at school, but hopefully they would not be shouting matches.

So it was that Harry spent the next week with Draco trying to get to know the somewhat difficult Slytherin. What really surprised him was that under the cold exterior, which Harry was beginning to realise more and more was a mask of necessity, Draco was quite a normal human being. His blond mate had some unusual habits, like colour coordinating his wardrobe, and spending twenty minutes each morning straightening out Harry's clothes before he would let him out of his room, but Harry could live with those.

It was not all sweetness and light of course; they had been rubbing each other up the wrong way for so long that they were bound to keep doing it every now and then. They had a huge, screaming row before the first day was out and stopped speaking to each other for three hours until Harry had searched out Draco, pounced on him, kissed him senseless and then said sorry, since in that instance it had been his fault. Extracting an apology out of Draco was like drawing blood from a stone, as Harry had found the next day when the shouting had been all Draco's fault, but then he didn't expect miracles. Draco seemed to express more by action than words at such times, and Harry chose to accept that as well as the mind-blowing sex.

Harry learned a great deal about his mate in that week. He learned that Draco liked his tea dark with only a dash of milk in the mornings, and dark with a lot of milk later in the day; he learned that they would never agree on the pureblood vs Muggle-born issue even if Draco did not hold with his father's extreme beliefs; he learned that laughing at Draco's bed hair resulted in a tantrum on the part of his mate (they had given up the whole separate rooms idea on the second night); he learned that Draco had the most adorable pout when he wanted something from someone he did not consider an enemy; he learned that he was not the only one scarred by a childhood over-shadowed by Voldemort; he learned that Draco's extreme dislike of werewolves came from a violent near-miss when he was only five and it would take a long time for his lover to accept Remus; he learned that his mate was far more complex than he had ever given him credit for; and most importantly he learned that the need to be close to Draco was not the only motivating factor in his heart.

Harry was not well experienced with love; he had had little as a young child and his teenage years had not been easy either. He had loved Sirius in an instant when he had understood what his godfather had done for him, he had no doubt he loved Hermione and all the Weasleys, and he knew he loved Remus, but with Draco it was different. This would not be a love of brothers, or family, or friends; this would be a fiery love of passion, and a love that would shape every moment of every day. In a way it was a frightening love, but he could feel its beginning around his heart.

Harry had told Draco he needed to know him to love him, and he did not know everything yet, but he knew enough to understand that it would not be long before he did.

~*~

Draco had made a couple of rules the moment they had talked about going back to school. His mate did not care what Harry wore when they were alone, or apart, but Harry was going to have to wear proper Wizarding clothes when they were to be seen together. This had resulted in a shopping trip two days before going back since Harry had plenty of Muggle clothes and school robes after having to re-kit himself from the growth spurt, but he owned very little to do with Wizarding attire.

In some ways the clothes were not that different, but it seemed to be important to Draco, and Draco did have a point that Harry wanted to be taken seriously by the rest of Slytherin house. Harry had countered that Draco would need to at least make an effort with the Gryffindors and had bought his lover a pair of jeans and a silk shirt for occasions where Draco was the one that needed to blend.