Beyond Hogwarts - A Drarry Fanfiction SEQUEL

Cardboard

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi, readers. This is a sequel to I Do What I Want - A Drarry Fanfiction. If you haven't read that, go read it before you read this one. Sorry for all the quick-changes, I just need to set things up so I'll try to have longer pieces next time. I'm also not too happy with this chapter, but hopefully, things start to pan out soon.

Enjoy!

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Paint. The world smelled like paint and cardboard.

Harry walked through the small, mostly empty flat, stopping to look out the window. It was the first sunny day that month, and the white-yellow light streamed into the freshly painted living room.

He and Draco had considered sharing a flat but had decided against it for multiple reasons, the main one being transportation. Harry's school, the York School for Magical Professors, was on the opposite side of the city from his boyfriend's.

Towers of boxes filled the flat, some of them packed by Harry, and some of them full of things he'd gotten from stores like furniture and kitchenware. The flat was on the fourth floor of the building, and, like many buildings in York, had first been built hundreds of years ago. The bricks of the building were faded and aged, but luckily Harry's flat had been refurbished recently.

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"So, how's your new place?"

Harry sat with Draco at a coffee shop, a mug of black roast sitting in front of him. He'd always preferred coffee over tea, something that Draco had always made fun of him for.

"Nice," he answered, taking a sip. "I like it. Still got to unpack a lot, though. And I need to get the-" he lowered his voice. "magical protection charms up. How about you?"

"It's alright," Draco said, running a hand through his hair. Once fully turquoise, the dye had started to grow out and fade, so the roots of his hair were white-blond again. "I mean, it doesn't feel like home yet, but I suppose that's normal."

They chatted about school and the city for a while, before Harry noticed the time.

"Merlin, it's nearly five," Harry muttered, standing up and putting down ten pounds for his two cups of coffee. "Bloody expensive coffee. I need to set up my bedroom otherwise I'll have to sleep on the floor."

"See you." Draco kissed Harry quickly before they walked their separate ways down the sidewalk.

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The day before Harry was to start school, he and Draco went to West Bank Park, the recent heatwave driving the muggles of York out onto the streets. As they walked, Harry noticed a colourful poster on a lamppost.

Going closer, Harry could see what it said.

PRIDE PRIDE PRIDE

Attention LGBT community of York!! Pride Parade will be:

10th September 1999

If you are: Lesbian! Gay! Bisexual! Transgender! Etc! Come to pride and feel accepted!!

"Look at this," Harry called to Draco, who was patting a woman's dog across the pathway. 

"What is it?" Draco asked, looking over Harry's shoulder.

"Something muggles do. People like us go out and have a parade. Want to go?"

Draco was quiet for a moment, and in the silence, Harry worried. He knew Draco's parents were purists in many ways, and he figured Draco hadn't and didn't plan on coming out to them.

"Yeah," Draco said, surprising Harry. They kept talking as they walked back in the direction of Draco's flat. "I want to get more connected with muggle stuff, you know, stop being so exclusively a..."

"A prat?" Harry asked with a teasing smile.

"I was going to say a pure-blood asshole, but you got me there."

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Draco's flat was right next to York Minster, a large gothic cathedral. The late afternoon bells echoed across the city as they walked through the hallway.

Inside, odds and ends of furniture were arranged, no piece matching the other. A large crawling ivy plant crept up the wall - Draco must have sped up the plant's growing magically.

"I got all my furniture from second-hand shops," Draco explained, tossing his keys onto the kitchen counter. "I didn't want it to feel..." he trailed off, lost for words, but Harry understood. He figured Malfoy Manor had been full of sophisticated, expensive furniture in immaculately arranged rooms. 

"It's perfect," Harry said truthfully, "I love it."

"Want to stay?" Draco asked, and Harry felt his cheeks flush. He'd thought so much about being in his first real relationship, but he hadn't had time to think about what came with it.

"Tomorrow," Harry decided, heart thumping. "I have class in the morning."

"Shit, I forgot about that," Draco laughed, "I do, too. Well, we'll have to go out to celebrate. Want to meet at Nightingale Kitchen at seven? It's this new restaurant I heard about."

"Absolutely."

The sun was setting as Harry's taxi stopped outside his building. Long shadows streaked across the pavement, casting distorted images of themselves in the evening light.

Harry's flat was still full of boxes. In a way, he thought as he cut carrots for his dinner, his whole life was like a cardboard box. Strong enough to hold things for a while, but eventually, something would become too heavy and the contents would fall to the ground and break.