Despite Malfoy’s shit-eating grin, Harry met the kiss immediately and indulgently, drowning out the way the mocking praise sent shivers down his spine.
His hand found the belt of Malfoy’s robe, desperately aware of the fact that Malfoy was barely even dressed. It made no difference, having no intention of staying, but after weeks of only getting to be with Malfoy fully dressed, this new development rattled around Harry’s brain like a loose marble, and would continue to do so for ages.
Breaking the kiss by taking a step back, Harry’s hand lingered, giving an experimental tug of the tie. Inevitably, his eyes dipped to it, a boyish impulse to see if the knot would give when pulled.
“Bye, Malfoy,” Harry said with a grin, when really, his tone was saying see you later. Without any further preamble, Harry apparated, letting the belt slip through his fingers at the very last moment.

_____
It wasn’t like Draco to be late for ministry socials, no matter how little he actually wanted to be a part of them, however, testing on illicit potions brought in had dragged out and Draco had had to stay back.
He had almost considered skipping the party, however, it was the ministers retirement party and as Head Potioneer at St. Mungos Draco really didn’t feel like he could miss it. Besides, there was always the chance that he might run into Potter and that was worth it enough to make Draco go.
Still, he almost regretted it when he was faced with a reception hall that was filled to the brim with ministry employees and other important personnel. Everyone were dressed up in their very best robes, wanting to show their respect for the minister, and honestly probably just wanting to show off. It made Draco exhausted before having even joined the group, but he figured he would have to at the very least make some niceties.

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It had barely taken a preliminary loop of the room to figure out Malfoy wasn’t there, making for the remaining parade of small talk and greetings exceptionally boring and lackluster; his attention fractured from then on. Interjecting glances towards the wide doors of the great room with restless visits to the bar, Harry had had several drinks past what he usually would have, an excuse to abandon conversation and circle back to the bar at the edge of the room.
When he finally saw Malfoy from a few years away, Harry immediately filtered through the crowd towards him. He barely stopped by him, reaching for his elbow in an encouragement for him to follow as Harry urged him back towards the entry.
“I thought' maybe you weren’t coming,” Harry said, and though he glanced over at Malfoy with a boyish smile, his eyes were swimming with the alcohol, offering a window to something both fragile and relieved, transparently earnest.
His eyes dipped to Malfoy’s chest and dress robes. “You look good.”

Draco had barely had time to decide on where to start with his greetings when Potter suddenly was in his space and grabbing at his arm; pulling him along. It left Draco dazed, unsure what made Potter this brazen and open about their physical intimacy, that was, until he managed to get a proper look on his face.
It wasn’t a secret to Draco that Potter drank and probably too much, but it was the first time he had seen him this drunk. Most others probably wouldn’t have paid it much mind, but Draco had a lifetime of watching and observing Potter behind him, so it was impossible to miss the earnest look in his eyes and that stupid grin on his face.
“I was caught up at work,” he explained as he was pulled along, feeling glad that his deepest desire always was to be seen by as few people as possible, otherwise there was no saying the amount of people who would be able to see them.
Potter looked good as well, the gala robe of the aurors clinging elegantly to Potter’s chest and even with the stupid purple ribbon around his neck, announcing his Order of Merlin, clashing horribly with the burgundy of the robe Draco couldn’t help but appreciate the sight.

_________________

“Were you?” Harry almost laughed, doubting that to be a real answer.
It felt like half of the wizarding world was present tonight, and it felt unlikely that Malfoy would even be allowed to stay late, but when it came down to it, Harry didn’t really care.
“I thought maybe you were trying to get back at me,” he said, and once again did his tease tip over into something a little too honest.
His smile prevailed as he looked over at Malfoy, more humoured than hurt, though there was no denying that it had indeed occupied his mind for the last couple of drinks, remembering just how bothered Malfoy had seemed when Harry had showed up late. While Harry wasn’t necessarily bothered by Malfoy’s absence, he was relieved to see him.
With his free hand, Harry opened the door to the toilets, barely taking a moment to check his surroundings before shoving Malfoy inside, blind and drunk trust in Malfoy’s felix felicis.

Once pushed into the bathroom, Draco was finally starting to settle into what this was, the familiar song and dance that he and Potter seemed to be unable to stop engaging in.
Maybe it was better this way, just letting both of them get it out of their systems before having to engage with all of their higher ups.
“Maybe I was,” Draco lied as he grabbed Potter by the medal and pulled him close, figuring that that stupid piece of metal would have to be good for something. He didn’t necessarily like how easy it had become for him to be around Potter like this, but he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the results immensely.
“Did you miss me terribly?” He asked, a grin finally making its way to his lips as he managed to properly land in the situation he had been so roughly pulled into.

_________________

It felt like Harry barely got a chance to close the door before Malfoy got a hold of his medal, the tug making Harry’s stomach flip with a misguided anticipation. Certainly there would be people who would cuss Malfoy out for the blatant disrespect of the Order; Harry himself had probably never felt more justified in wearing it, finding that, for the first time in decades, he didn’t resent it all that much.
It was more likely that which showed on Harry’s drunken expression rather than any semblance of a reply to Malfoy’s question, a self-aware and blatant attraction. Malfoy could probably patch together enough of an answer from it, though, having not missed him until faced with him.
Taking the last step forward, the tension in the ribbon around his neck became slack, needing no encouragement to come closer.
“Terribly, Draco,” Harry replied, mockingly but smiling, as he reached for Malfoy’s jaw, a desperate scramble to get Malfoy enough within reach to stretch up and kiss him.

There really was nothing that could have prepared Draco to hear his own name slipping from Potter’s lips, honestly not sure if he had ever heard it before. It made his breath hitch in his throat, grateful for the distraction that was the kiss.
Not wanting to linger on it, knowing that it might make him want to ask Potter to say it again, and that would reveal for too much about himself.
Instead, Draco let his hands slide to Potter’s waist, bunching up the tighter dress robe in his hands as he pulled Potter closer.

_________________

Stepping further into the kiss, Harry inelegantly pushed Malfoy backwards towards the sink. No matter how much he enjoyed getting pushed around by Malfoy, Harry enjoyed this, too, as his hands dropped from Malfoy’s jaw to his hips to keep him firmly in place.
Breaking the kiss, Harry displayed a glimpse of self-awareness, as he mindlessly turned his head back towards the door. It was a small acknowledgement that he hadn’t entirely lost his bearings on where they were, but whatever fleeting thought occupied his mind was soon gone; the moment his hands found Malfoy’s fly through his robes, Harry’s attention was entirely back on him.
Without any further preamble, Harry dropped to his knees.
“Did you really arrive late just to bother me?” he asked with a drunk earnestness as glanced up at Malfoy between undoing his fly.

While Draco had definitely seen Potter drink before, and maybe even be tipsy, he was suddenly realising that he had never seen Potter actually be drunk; however it was so abundantly clear that that was the case.
It was a jarring experience, forcing Draco to see the person that most people probably saw when looking at Potter; someone who had never been shown to Draco in the past, but someone who was charming and boyish in a way that made him so terribly weak.
“No,” he choked out, unsure he how he was supposed to handle this earnestness from Potter when he really had arrived directly from work.
“I really was working.”

_________________

Malfoy’s words seemed to hang in the thick air between them, suspended long enough for Harry to admire the way Malfoy’s voice trembled with honesty as he said it. It made something filter across Harry’s expression, eager and complicated and mean, eating it up.

About as inelegantly as Harry had pushed Malfoy up against the sink, he pushed him away from it. Leaning forward against it and cupping his hand under the running tab, Harry had brought a few handfuls of water to his mouth to rinse it out, feeling the realisation that he had to go back out there cool uncomfortably on his skin.
His eyes kept favouring Malfoy in the reflection, happy to avoid his own reflection. While he could have passed for sober before, his eyes had grown bloodshot and his skin flushed, and though it was due to something else entirely, the effect was the same. Harry forced his attention off of Malfoy, ducking forward to spit out the water.
“Are you staying?” he asked, finally turning off the water. Grabbing one of the hand towels, he finally turned to properly look at Malfoy as he wiped his mouth.

There hadn’t been a lot of time for Draco to transition from work to hooking up with Potter in the ministry bathroom, and now it felt like he was granted even less time to transition into actually joining the party. He felt like he had barely gotten his fly zipped back up, but maybe Potter was right and he should just get going; after all, there really was no reason for him to linger, their earlier engagements notwithstanding.
“I always forget how classy you are,” he stated in a bored tone, refusing to let Potter get a rise out of him.
After all, Potter was probably right in his insinuations and them leaving separately would probably be better, even with the relatively fresh dose of felix rushing through his system.
“Bye Potter,” Draco instead said as he unlocked the door and went out to join the party, figuring that he really should start making his rounds out there.

_________________

Harry had spent a few long moments trying to stop his head from spinning enough to reemerge into the party, feeling wrong-footed and disjointed with the otherwise pleasant mix of alcohol and endorphins. It, however, hadn’t deterred him from passing by the bar as he returned a couple of minutes after Malfoy had left, intent on throwing liquor at the problem.
An odd hour later, Kingsley Shacklebolt had taken the stage, addressing the crowd.
The former Minister had already ended his last term in the spring, graciously offering kind words to his successor and the Wizarding society as a whole. Having navigated the uncertain times after the war, Harry had always held him to great esteem both as a Minister and a friend. Part of Harry had been hesitant when Shacklebolt had approached Harry, having much preferred to have kept the two occasions separate, feeling simultaneously too drunk for one thing and not drunk enough for the other.
“But as it tends to be, when something ends something else tends to begin,” Shacklebolt added as the roar of applause finally settled. “As I bid you all my farewell, it is my greatest pleasure to share with you the engagement of our very own Harry Potter and the lovely Catherine Porter.”

The party had been exactly what Draco had expected and he honestly wasn’t sorry to have missed a large part of it. Even with the new addition of Potter to some of these events, Draco found that once you had been to one you really had attended all of them.
It had been a dreary hour of mingling around the room with a glass of wine in his hand, talking to people just enough to not seem rude but not enough to be dragged into a proper conversation.
He had been making meaningless smalltalk with some ministry employee whose name already had escaped him, when the minister went up to make him speech. Even with his distaste for the ministry in general, Draco had to admit that Shacklebolt had done an amazing job in an impossible situation and for that he could give a small applause.
There was however nothing that could have prepared Draco to hear the announcement of Potter’s engagement, almost choking on his wine at the words, remembering too vividly exactly how Potter had been engaged just an hour ago.

_________________

Harry only really registered what Shacklebolt said because he had known it was coming, the room once again growing muddled with applause. He was pulled out of his reverie by the boyish hand on his shoulder of a nearby coworker, pinching an almost painful congratulations to the crook of his neck. It made Harry look over at him, as a smile finally broke through his dazed expression, drunk.
“Harry, Kate, will you please join me for a toast to your health,” Shacklebolt invited, extending an arm towards the few steps onto the lifted stage.
In a reluctance that was probably interpreted as modesty, Harry was pushed ahead by another coworker as Kate simultaneously took his hand to encourage him forward. Quick to let go of it, however, he urged her to climb the stairs first, instead barely brushing across the small of her back.
“Congratulations to you both,” Shacklebolt said, raising his champagne flute in a toast. “Harry, may you be as good to her as you’ve been to us.”
As the room once again applauded, Harry took a more steadfast hold of Kate’s waist. Suddenly desperately aware of the fact that, for the first time this evening, he had no drink in hand, he instead sealed the toast by meeting Kate's lips in a kiss.

It was absolutely surreal to see Potter and the much younger woman get on the stage, even more so when Potter leaned over to kiss her on the lips, almost making Draco blush with the recollection of where that mouth had very recently been.
It was pure muscle memory that made Draco clap along with the people around him, trying to make sense of what he was feeling about the entire thing.
He hadn’t necessarily thought that he and Potter were only seeing each other, but the revelation of a fiancée was definitely catching Draco off guard, but he found that he didn’t really feel betrayed, mostly just confused.

_________________

________

It took about a month for Harry to finally go seek out Malfoy at St. Mungo’s. It hadn’t been a conscious decision to stay apart, and merely a question of not coinciding at any reception or dinner since Shacklebolt’s retirement. Though Malfoy had occupied his mind for the entirety of the month, Harry had been intent on waiting it out, happy to let their social calls be purely circumstantial.
However, when another caseful of impure potions once again came across Harry’s desk, Harry thought it was within his right to chalk a visit to the St. Mungo’s apothecary up to pure coincidence. He had gone through the Floo within 30 minutes of unwrapping the samples.
As it turned out, Malfoy’s office wasn’t exactly on Harry’s way to the basement breweries, but neither was it particularly hard to come by when he had gone looking for it. Despite wearing wearing his Auror robes, Harry doubted he actually needed to flash his badge to request entry; Malfoy’s secretary had clearly recognized him, cheerfully waving him past her towards the office door.
Offering her a pleased smile, more due to boyish anticipation rather than any real gratitude, Harry knocked on the door with his knuckles, opening it up before waiting for an answer.

Ever since Shacklebolt’s retirement party it had been hard for Draco to not think about Potter more than he would normally allow himself to do. The nature of their relationship allowed for very little actual talking so Draco had no idea how long his fiancée had been in the picture, he had, however, also come to the conclusion that he really didn’t care.
After all, he and Potter weren’t actually in anything resembling a relationship so really he could do whatever he wanted, even if Draco did think that it was a shame if that rushed blowjob would have been their last hookup.
He tried telling himself that that exact train of thought hadn’t been on his mind when he upped his dose of felix felicis that morning and he was clinging to that denial as he heard a knock on the door and Potter’s face peaked into his office.
“You don’t seem to properly grasp the point of knocking,” was all he said, trying to downplay just what a relief if it was to see him again after a whole month of distance.

_________________

Undeterred by Malfoy’s dry comment, Harry continued to open the door. Nothing about the sight that met him was particularly exciting, yet Malfoy’s mere presence made a deeply suppressed anticipation bubble to the surface, making Harry’s stomach flip.
“Can’t give you enough time to hide away your illegal brewing operation,” he said pleasantly, still very much within earshot of Malfoy’s secretary.
The familiar pull of Malfoy’s felix felicis dulled the pointed tease to barely more than good-humoured banter, making the woman giggle, seemingly at the mere thought of it. Harry’s attention, however, remained on Malfoy, his smile crooked with far more awareness. “It’ll just take a moment.”

Potter’s stupid comment followed by Diana’s giggle was enough to make Draco roll his eyes, finding the entire scene deeply unnecessary, but he couldn’t deny the pull he felt towards Potter and how badly he had wanted to get him aloe again.
“Close the door,” Draco stated, almost as if he had actually expected Potter and knew what this was about. After all, he didn’t want Diana to think too much of this visit to his office, and he was pretty sure that he knew what this was about, though he was also certain that Potter would have some kind of other explanation for his presence in Draco’s office.
“How can I help you, auror?”

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