It's time you pick your battle and I promise you this is mine

Changes

The next few weeks felt weird to Harry. He and Neville had always been friends and spent time together but now they had a lot of one on one time. Harry and Draco were now not only sitting next to each other in Potions, with an occasional helpful comment from the latter but were wholly working together. Harry loved this and was glad that the awkward tension between them in their shared lessons had finally been resolved, even though this came with a (probably not that much) unforeseen side effect that made the whole lesson not less awkward but probably even more so: Ron threw them suspicious glances every time they were talking to each other (which was a lot) and Hermione joined him, her glances being more discreet and of a more curious nature than her boyfriend's but still being obvious to anyone who dared look. If anyone was feeling bold, they might even accuse Hermione of becoming a little distracted from the lesson (she'd counter that they had no proof of it as you could barely make out the difference in her Potions).
Everyone in the room could not help but notice the inseparable Gryffindor trio barely talking to each other while the former foes vividly chatted and soon got in on peeking at the pair suspiciously.
Harry knew that soon the whole school would know and talk about it and maybe (he didn't even wanna think about how that would turn out) the Daily Prophet might even write an article about it.
Ron was spending a conspicuous amount of time studying with Hermione at the library, meaning they were unable to talk about anything (without pulling Mrs Pince's wrath on them), and Harry easily understood that this was Ron's way of taking time to adjust to the new situation (and being totally not okay with it), while not risking their friendship.
Harry was all-right with it but planned to give his best mate some time and some room. He had known before that Ron would not like it but was just as unwilling to let their friendship suffer because of it. They've been through worse.
This means that Harry is finding himself in Neville's company more often than not. It was getting warmer outside and the two of them had spent an afternoon studying outside in the sun.
"This might seem random now", Neville spoke up, making it sound like a question, "but when you were talking about not wanting to become an auror anymore, you were talking about becoming Defense against the Dark Arts Professor, right?"
Harry stayed silent for a while, thinking. "Well, it's one option I was contemplating."
"So Luna was right."
Harry looked up.
"Well, you see, I did not believe her at first because I was thinking of how vehemently against teaching the DA you were back then but she was like No no, he knows now that he is a good teacher. And Defense against the Dark Arts has always been his favourite subject. If he doesn't want to be an auror, there is no other occupation than Defense against the Dark Arts teacher that he could want to have. And well, it's Luna and sometimes she's awfully sure of things that are kind of outlandish and sometimes even downright false, so I didn't believe her directly. But you two always somehow got each other in some weird way I never got behind (don't get me wrong, I love her but you two get each other in a different way than we do), so I thought I might as well ask you about it."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, she was right apparently."
"Should have been obvious that if anyone besides you thought about the possibility of you not starting auror training, it would be Luna." The two of them laughed.
After a short time for thought, Neville added: "Rumour has it, Slughorn offered the Potions teacher position to Draco Malfoy. Do you know about that?"
"I'm sitting next to him in Potions, so I heard when they talked about it."
"And?"
"Why are you so curious about it?", Harry looked at his friend questioningly.
"Am I not allowed to be? He's our classmate and now apparently some kind of friend of you."
Harry nodded. "As far as I know, Draco has made no enquiry about it yet, but he's definitely thinking about it. I think it'd be good for him."
"He's made no enquiry about it?", Neville asked, and more urgently, "did you make an enquiry about the Defense Against the Dark Arts position?"
"No", Harry deflected.
"Oh my, Harry, you have to ask McGonagall about it", Neville urged, "you have to. She will say yes, I know it."
Harry groaned.
"Let's do it right now!"
"What? No!" Harry protested, but Neville was already putting both of their things away and as soon as he was finished, started to pull the other boy along with him. As much as Harry tried to hold Neville back, they did arrive in front of the corridor that leads to the headmistress' office just a few minutes later.
"Why do I have to do it now?", Harry asks in a hushed voice, "I could just as well could it any other time."
"Yes", Neville answered smugly and continued to drag his friend along, "we're doing it exactly because you could do it any other time, so you might as well do it now."
He stopped and turned to Harry. "You don't have to apply for the position yet, just ask about it. If it's free; If she'd consider you if you applied for it. Just ask. Otherwise, you'll just wait until Ron drags you into becoming an auror with him." He gives him a pointed look.
"Ok", Harry whispered.
They turned back on their way, just to walk right into the blond Slytherin they were talking about earlier.
"Oh", Draco said, when he saw the two Gryffindor's approaching, "do you have an appointment with her? I can come back later then."
Harry sighed. "We certainly do not have an appointment. I don't want to be here at all, so feel free to go in, we'll just get back to what we are supposed to be doing now." As the sentence progressed, he turned towards the boy standing beside him, giving him a meaningful look.
"Are you here because of Slughorn asking you to take over Potions?" Neville cheerfully ignored Harry, whom this caused to slip a deep sigh.
Draco eyes wandered between the two friends warily but finally decided to nod.
"I would not blame her if she did not want to consider me for the job, but then I'll have to search for something else, so I'd rather know sooner than later."
Harry tried to shoot him an encouraging smile, which proved rather difficult when Neville apparently decided that the should accompany him.
When Harry tried to hold him back, Neville said: "You're both here for the same thing, so why not? And I'm coming with you, so you don't decide to chicken out."
At that, Draco looked at Harry questioningly, who only groaned but followed them inside nonetheless.
Professor McGonagall looked up from her desk when she heard steps on the stairs and soon after lifted her eyebrows when she saw this unusual combination of people.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you three in my office? And together at that?"
"We came separately", Harry felt the need to explain, "we're here for separate, although related, affairs."
"And what would those be?", she eyed them curiously.
"Professor Slughorn mentioned that he'd like to retire again", Draco started.
"Ah, yes, he's very adamant about it. I'm trying to find him a replacement but we're currently running this school mostly on stand-ins already. How is this your concern, Mr Malfoy?"
"He mentioned he'd consider me a suitable replacement if you were willing to hire me. So I am here to ask if you would even consider my application considering my personal history."
"And Mr Potter and Mr Longbottom also want to apply for Potions?"
"Not for Potions, ma'am", Harry replied. Neville nudged him to keep talking. "Defense against the Dark Arts, if there was a position vacant."
McGonagall smiled amusedly. "There are more positions vacant than I can fill. And I told you once before that you've always had very high marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Additionally, you already have experience in teaching it, I recall. I do not know why you would worry about your application. And what about Mr Longbottom?"
"Oh", Neville exhaled surprised, not having expected to be spoken to, "I am only here for moral support."
McGonagall nodded again.
"Coming back to you, Mr Malfoy." The headmistress looked at the Slytherin pensively, "I remember from your godfather's accounts that you always had very good marks in his Potion's lessons and I understand from Slughorn's interest that they have not significantly declined in his classes either." She made a small pause and Harry and Neville were following the interaction with much interest. Neville with more curiosity, Harry with more concern. "Your personal history might be a reason against it." She motioned with her quill between Draco and Harry. "And I heard that you two started spending time together, have even witnessed so myself", Harry thought back to when she could have done so but came up empty-handed, "some of the younger students even believe you to be friends now and you two coming up here together seems to confirm it. So although I do not condone all of Mr Potter's actions, especially here in school, I am very well aware that you must have undergone some fundamental change for him to spend time with you which takes that worry away." She breathed in. "Meaning, I will consider your application. But I will keep a close eye on you until the end of the school year, and should I employ you, I will continue to do so."
Draco visibly relaxes.
"Something else?", the woman asks and the three boys shake their head in response.
"Thank you very much", Draco sais when they are leaving.