So Far Away

So Far Away
By: Gwen
Rating: NC17 overall
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Warning: AU/Slash/Drama/Angst/Romance
Betas: Tracy & Dorothy
Feedback: Much appreciated
Disclaimer: The \"boys\" belong to JKR. I just borrow them on occasion. No money is being made from this little adventure.

Summary: Interesting things can happen when you\'re away from everyone and everything you know.




Chapter 12 - Celebrate Good Times!

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\"It’s about time you guys got here,\" Greg said as the four boys approached his table at the club where a group of fellow teammates had gathered. Everyone had agreed to be there no later than nine o\'clock, and presently it was a few minutes before.

\"We would have been here sooner if SOMEone hadn\'t changed clothes four different times,\" Chad said as he looked over to where Draco was borrowing an empty chair from a nearby table. \"He\'s as bad as a girl when it comes to getting ready to go out.\"

\"Will you two drop it?\" Allen said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly exasperated by this latest round of nit picking. \"They have been at each other\'s throats all the way here,\" he explained to the others. \"I was tempted to turn them into toads and leave them on the side of the road.\"

Draco threw his arm around Allen\'s shor. r. \"But you didn\'t, did you? You would have missed me too much,\" he said before taking his seat, pulling Allen down with him so that they were sharing the chair. Harry procured a second chair and shared it with Chad. Several rounds of drinks had been consumed by the time the other players arrived.

\"Now that everyone is here, let\'s adjourn to the billiards room, shall we?\" Greg said as he rose from his spot at the table. The others followed as they moved towards the back of the club, finally entering into a room that held ten hand-inlaid Mahogany tables, two of which were in use.

Draco inspected the tables closely, noticing the exquisite craftsmanship that went into their creation. The tables had unique geometric inlays of burled maple, with a classic arched base and impressive Ball and Claw legs, and pearlized diamond rail sights. Over the past summer, he had spent many hours in the billiards room at Malfoy Manor, playing game after game, perfecting his skills. He smiled as he trailed a finger over the forest green felt, the texture smooth to the touch.

\"Planning on stroking the table all night or are you going to join us for a game or two?\" Allen asked as he walked by on his way to the cue racks on the far wall.

\"Maybe a bit of both. I hadn\'t realized that the tables were this nice,\" he said as he followed his roommate. Draco waved his hand over the rack, and after assessing the selection, summoned two from the rack. \"Here,\" he said as he handed one to Allen. \"These aren\'t as good as the one I have at home, but tll dll do.\"

\"Draco, you just did that without your wand,\" Allen said, his eyes wide, earning a shrug from the blonde man.

\"I\'ve been able to do things wandless for a couple of years now. Nothing big, mind you. Just little things like choosing and summoning a pool cue,\" he said with a grin.

\"Does Professor Smith know?\" Allen asked of their Advanced DADA teacher.

Draco nodded. \"Yes. Apparently Dumbledore passed on that bit of information, but how he knew about it I\'m not sure,\" he said as they made their way back to the others. \"Listen, I don\'t want the others to know so I would appreciate it if we kept this just between us.\"

\"No problem,\" he assured him. \"So you have a table at home?\" Draco nodded. \"How good are you?\" he asked.

The Malfoy smirk appeared as his gray eyes filled with mischief. \"I\'m good, Allen. Verrrrry good,\" he said.

It was decided that the teams would be formed based on each sport, and from there, split into the four team divisions, the Cobras, Wildcats, Falcons, and Wolverines. Chad and his fellow basketball players had moved to a table against the far wall, while Allen and his fellow rowers chose the one beside that. Harry noticed this and nudged Draco.

\"How much longer do they think they can keep things a secret?\" he asked as he motioned to the others with a slight nod of his head in their direction.

Draco looked over Harry\'s shoulder. \"I\'m not sure, but it will be fun to watch them act like there\'s nothing going on,\" he said as he watched them for a moment, then turned back to the tables that Greg had chosen for the Quidditch teams.

\"For the new player\'s benefit, I\'ll quickly explain how we do this,\" Greg said as he stood by the table, his fellow players gathered around. \"It\'s a tournament of sorts, the four teams playing each other, and whichever team has the best record after all the games have been played is the winner,\" he said as he looked over the group. \"To keep things fair, we\'ll play four on four, and those of you who aren\'t playing the first game will play the second, and we’ll alternate teams until we\'re done. Does everyone understand?\" he asked, receiving a round of nods and \'yes\' from everyone. \"And don\'t worry if you\'ve never played. It\'s all in fun.\"

Harry relaxed somewhat. \"That\'s good because I\'ve never played before,\" he admitted.

Brad, who was on the Wildcats with Harry, heard his comment. \"No worries, Harry. I\'ll help you if you need it. We\'re playing 8-Ball and it\'s pretty simple. There are fifteen playable balls and one cue ball, the white one. The balls are numbered one through fifteen, one through seven being the solid colors and nine through fifteen are stripes. Each team must pocket their entire group before the other, and then they move on to the eight ball. If they sink that, they win. But if the eight ball drops anytime before the last shot, the team loses.\"

Harry nodded his understanding. \"Doesn\'t seem too hard,\" he said as he watched someone put the balls into the triangle, or rack, as he learned, and positioned them at the other end of the table.

\"Someone will break and play begins from there,\" Draco said as he made his way over to where Harry and Brad were. \"Think you can do it?\" he asked as he perched himself on a tall wooden stool, his feet resting on the lower rung, his pool cue resting against his inner thigh.

\"We\'ll see,\" Harry said with a grin as he took the stool next to Draco.

Everyone agreed that the first game would be the Cobras and Wolverines on one table with the Wildcats and Falcons on the second. Each team chose their players and the games began. The Wildcats won the coin toss and elected Mark to break. After chalking his cue stick, he lined up his shot and executed a perfect break, sending one solid and stripe into different pockets.

\"Since he sunk one of each on the break, the table is still open. Normally when someone pockets a ball, he would take another shot, but since we have four players, the next player will shoot,\" he said as Greg surveyed the table and chose his shot. When nothing fell, Brad explained that the table was still open and now the turn went to the Falcons. Chris went first and dropped a solid, followed by Alex, who missed his shot. Now it was Harry\'s turn to shoot for the Wildcats. Not knowing what he was looking at other than a mess of colors on the table, he found a stripe that was close to a pocket and moved to the table. He mimicked the other\'s motions from earlier and lined up his shot. His eyes went wide as he watched the ball fall into the pocket.

\"Merlin, would you look at that,\" he said as his smile threatened to split his face. He moved around the table back to where everyone was gathered.

\"Don\'t let it go to your head, Potter. It was beginner\'s luck,\" Draco commented as he slid off of the stool and walked to the table. He took a moment to look things over and found his shot. Leaning over the table, he positioned his cue stick on his knuckles, slowly sliding it forward, the tip connecting with the cue ball and sending it rolling towards two solids that were sitting together. The impact sent one to rest in a pocket while the other rolled towards the side. He slowly straightened his stance and turned back to the group. \"See, nothing to it,\" he said with a smirk before moving back to his stool.

Play continued and on Harry\'s next shot, he missed.

\"See, beginner\'s luck,\" Draco said as he went to take his next shot. As Draco slowly leaned over the table, Greg laughed.

\"Must you do that?\" he asked with a smile.

Draco looked over his shoulder. \"Do what?\"

\"That,\" Greg answered, pointing to Draco\'s black trouser clad ass sticking out.

\"Checking me out, Greg?\" Draco asked with a smirk as he wiggled his behind in Greg’s direction.

\"Oh hell, you\'ve gone and done it now, Greg. Now he\'ll do that every chance he gets,\" Harry said. \"He has this thing about his arse.\"

Draco smiled. \"I have a very nice arse, thank you very much.\"

Allen had heard their conversation. \"Hey Draco,\" he called from his table. \"Fixating on your ass again are you?\" he asked.

\"Always,\" he said as he turned his focus back to the game and missed his shot.

Everyone laughed. \"Too focused on it, if you ask me,\" Alex said. \"You just missed your fucking shot.\"

Draco moved to stand by Harry. \"They\'re just jealous that their arses aren\'t as spectacular as mine.\"

\"One of these days that arse of yours is going to get you into trouble,\" Harry said under his breath.

Stormy gray eyes met emerald. \"And I can\'t fucking wait,\" Draco declared.

They watched as their teammates took turns with their shots, and then it was Harry\'s turn again. There were four balls left on the table, including the 8-ball, but he did not have a clear shot to his. He wasn\'t sure what to do.

\"Hey Brad,\" he called. \"How am I supposed to do this?\" he asked as he used his cue stick to point at the balls on the table.

Brad laughed. \"Just shoot through them. We\'re not playing by the rules, so it doesn\'t matter,\" he said as he turned back to continue his conversation with Taylor.

Draco shook his head and laughed. \"He\'s not going to learn proper way to play if you do not teach him,\" he said as he slid from his stool once again and moved to stand beside Harry. \"This shot is a bit tricky, but it can be done,\" he declared.

Harry doubted it but listened as Draco explained everything that Harry would need to do to make the shot. Harry shook his head. \"I can\'t do that Draco. Angles and banking? You\'re speaking a foreign language, mate.\"

\"Come here,\" Draco said as he moved to the end of the table, tugging Harry along with him. \"Stand right here,\" he said as he put Harry in a specific spot and then moved behind him. \"Now hold your stick like you were getting ready to shoot.\" Harry did as he was instructed and lined up what he thought to be the shot. \"Okay, now relax,\" Draco said as he slid his arms around Harry, his chin grazing Harry’s shoulder, and placing his hands next to Harry\'s on the stick. \"Now lean forward just a bit,\" he said and followed Harry\'s body forward, his chest now resting against Harry\'s back. This new position brought Draco’s lips in close proximity to the shell of Harry’s ear. \"Now you need to swing the end of the stick towards us,\" he said softly as he brought their arms closer in, thus adjusting the angle of the shot. \"You\'re going to hit the bank on the right side and the cue ball should bounce back to the left, go up and hit the opposite end of the table, hopefully catching your ball on its way back and sending it towards the pocket. Understand?\" he asked and Harry nodded. \"Good. Now take a deep breath and shoot,\" he instructed quietly.

Chad nudged Allen. \"Would you look at that?\" he whispered.

\"Fuck, how can they not know?\" Allen said as he shook his head.

\"They don’t think of each other like that, Allen. At least, not yet.\"

\"Yeah, unlike someone else we know, right?\" he asked as his sienna eyes searched blue.

Harry did as instructed and took a deep breath, then slid the cue stick forward. He watched as the cue ball took the path that Draco had predicted, but it missed his own ball. Once the white ball had ceased its movement, he stood up and turned to face Draco, who had stepped to the side to watch the shot.

\"You wanker. You did that on purpose,\" he said, his brow furrowed in mock anger.

\"I did not. It was a difficult shot, Harry,\" Draco said in his own defense. \"The angle was just a bit off,\" he said as he moved to his stool to collect his own cue stick. As Harry passed him, he smirked. \"But now we\'re in a much better position to finish the game.\" Harry reached over with his own stick and hit Draco\'s backside with it.

\"Now who\'s fixated on my arse?\" he teased as he prepared to make his shot. As he predicted, he made it, and his teammates finished off the game.

\"I still say you set my shot up wrong,\" Harry teased as they gathered around the tall tables for more drinks. A few minutes later, the teams switched to play the next game. Since both Harry and Draco were not playing in this round, they went to see how Allen and Chad were doing.

\"Allen seems to be doing fine but I totally suck at this game,\" Chad said as he watched Allen make a spectacular bank shot. \"See, he hasn’t missed a shot yet.\"

Allen joined them. \"My ears were burning. Were you talking about me?\"

\"Chad said that you’re good and that he sucks, but the same goes for me and Draco. He’s the great player and I suck at it. But it’s fun,\" Harry admitted.

Everyone erupted in laughter at what Harry just said.

Draco’s lips curled into an evil grin. \"So, DO you suck, Chad?\" Draco asked as his eyes teasingly roamed over Chad’s body, only to come back up and settle on his lips.

\"There are some things that I suck AT and then there are things that I suck ON,\" he answered, his blue eyes full of mischief. \"And believe me, I’ve never had a complaint for the latter, unless it’s them asking for more.\"

Harry leaned one shoulder against the wall, his ankles crossed, his cue stick cradled against his chest.

\"I don’t know who’s worse between these two,\" he said to Allen. \"Until now, I had thought that Draco was the only one who held such a high opinion of his abilities. I think he’s rubbing off on Chad.\"

\"No, I’m sure that he’d rather be rubbing ON Chad,\" Allen teased.

\"Like a cat in heat,\" Harry quipped.

\"You do realize that I could hex the both of you for that, right?\" Draco commented in a bored voice.

\"But you wouldn’t because you love us too much,\" Allen teased as he put his arm around Draco’s shoulder and pulled him close.

Draco shook his head. \"Now who has the high opinion about themselves?\" he asked as he turned his attention back to the game.

\"We have an excellent teacher,\" Chad added.

\"Obviously not or else you wouldn’t be dressed like you are,\" Draco countered.

\"Draco, my friend, it’s like this,\" Allen started. \"You see, the four of us are a set. We compliment each other. I am the brains of this outfit while Chad is the brawn, you are the beauty, and Harry is the entertainment,\" he said with a laugh.

Draco smiled brightly and Harry shook his head. \"There you go Allen, filling his head with more nonsense. Before too much longer everything will start spilling from his ears and we’ll end up in a mess of epic proportions. And for the record, I’m not cleaning it up. As your entertainment, I refuse to clean up after His Vanity. You’ll have to get Chad to do it because I’m sure that there will be a ton of shite to be hauled off.\"

\"Well then, since you have appointed me as Royalty, how about you all kissing my feet?\" Draco asked sweetly.

\"How about you kiss my arse, Draco?\" Harry asked with a sneer.

\"I could have you stripped and flogged for that remark.\"

\"And you’d probably get off on it, wouldn’t you?\"

\"You never know,\" Draco said as he smiled a knowing smile and then turned his attention back to the game. Harry wasn’t sure if he liked that smile or not.

They were called back to their tables a little while later, this time playing against another team. Harry was between the tables, leaning over his table to line up a shot when he felt something pressing up into his crotch. His brow furrowed and looked down to see the tip of a cue stick peeking out from between his legs.

\"Malfoy,\" he warned, knowing immediately whom it was standing behind him.

\"Potter,\" Draco countered as he applied just a bit more pressure.

\"If you don’t remove that stick right now, I’m going to take it from you and shove it up your arse,\" Harry said as he looked over his shoulder at Draco. \"But then again, you’d probably like that, wouldn’t you?\" he asked with a wink.

\"No more than you,\" Draco commented with a quick laugh and removed the stick from between Harry’s legs, watching as Harry turned back to the table and made his shot. \"You’re getting better at this. I’m impressed,\" he said before going back to his own game.

After several more games were played, it was decided that as far as the Quidditch teams were concerned, the Cobras had the better billiards players and was pronounced the winner of their competition.

\"Ahhh, foiled again,\" Draco said as they left the billiards room and made their way back into the main part of the club. \"These Yanks are better than I gave them credit for.\"

\"Finally admitting that you’re not ‘all that’, as they would put it?\" Harry asked as they wound their way to the other side to where a few empty tables were.

\"You wish,\" Draco said as they arrived at the tables and took their seats.

\"So tell me, why haven’t you hooked up with anyone yet? Merlin knows there are enough good looking guys around here to choose from, so why haven’t you?\" Harry asked as he watched the bodies moving on the dance floor.

\"Haven’t found anyone that lives up to my expectations,\" he admitted.

\"You mean someone like Blaise,\" Harry offered.

Draco turned steely gray eyes towards him. \"Why are you so fixated on Blaise? Jealous that you never had a chance with him?\"

Harry slapped his hand on the table. \"Finally!\"

\"Finally what?\" Draco asked.

\"Your comment just answered my question from the other night.\"

\"What are you on about?\" Draco asked. \"What question?\"

\"In the lounge. I had asked whom it was that caused you to impose your ‘I don’t do roommates’ rule. I had guessed Blaise but you never confirmed or denied my guess. But your latest comment confirmed it,\" Harry said in triumph.

\"You’re daft,\" Draco said, hoping that Harry would drop the subject.

No such luck. \"Maybe, but you were wrong about me being jealous,\" Harry commented.

Draco’s eyes widened as he caught the hidden message. \"Oh bloody hell! He would not!\"

\"And why wouldn’t he Draco?\" Harry asked.

\"Because,\" he said with a wave of his hand as if that explained everything. \"Because you’re you. And I’m me. And it’s just not possible.\"

Harry glared at him. \"You know, you sounded an awful like Malfoy right then. So tell me Malfoy, why is it that you were allowed to shag him and I wasn’t?\"

\"Because Slytherins do not crt wrt with Gryffindors,\" he concluded. \"They are not friends with them and they sure as hell don’t sleep with them.\"

\"And yet look at us,\" Harry pointed out. \"You’re still a Slytherin, I’m still a Gryffindor, and yet by some strange twist of fate we are friends.\"

Draco shuddered. \"But Blaise would never do that!\"

\"I can assure that he did, that WE did, several times in fact.\" Harry’s revelation hung in the air between them for a few minutes. \"Look Draco, if it’s any consolation, it didn’t mean anything to either one of us. I think in some strange way we both did it to get back at you.\"

\"Me? What in the bloody hell had I done?\" he asked.

\"I think there was more to you and Blaise than you want to admit, but I won’t force that issue right now. Suffice it to say that he wanted to do something to get back at you and I was the perfect way to accomplish that, even though you never found out about it until just now. We met a few times, and then afterwards, I would lie there and hold him. I knew that he was thinking of you, but that didn’t bother me. We each needed something so it was beneficial to both of us. That’s all it was,\" he concluded.

Draco sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking over this newly found information, which was how Allen and Chad found them a little while later.

\"What’s wrong with Draco?\" Chad asked as he slid into the seat next to Harry while Allen slid in next to Draco.

Harry hated to see Draco like this, so sullen and withdrawn, and wished now that he would have just kept quiet about the whole damn thing. It was in the past and there was really no need to have brought it up.

Harry played if off. \"Draco is a tad bit upset that Greg turned out to be a better billiards player than himself,\" he commented.

\"Is that all?\" Allen asked.

Draco looked up to find Harry watching him, an apology hidden in his emerald gaze. He nodded his acceptance and turned to face Allen, launching into a false tirade about all of the hard work and practice that he’s put in at home only to come to America, of all the bloody places, to be bested.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief that this storm had passed. There would be another time, another place for them to sort it out, but for now, they would leave it.

TBC