Rivaling Affections

Authors Note:Many thanks to my beta Alexandra. For anyone who hasn't already noticed, I have started new fics called Alluring Lullaby & History Repeats Itself, please check it out and tell me what you think!(I'll also be posting the usual header for these on my other accounts)

Chapter 4 The Product of Boredom

Draco got bored long before dinner, but was afraid to leave his room for fear of running into Potter and being forced into another sexually charged conversation. He did want to see his Aunt and his cousin though, so he decided to test his luck.

He slipped silently from his room and noticed that Harry’s door was still firmly shut, and Potter wasn’t stalking him in the hallway. He went first to Teddy’s door and knocked softly.

No one answered.

He tried again, slightly louder and still no one answered. He tried the knob and it was unlocked, so he twisted it gently and peeked in. The lights were off and no signs of life were visible in the small boy’s room.

He walked toward the living room and over to the double French doors leading out into the backyard.

The back garden was as beautifully landscaped as the front had been. There was a small stone courtyard with a fountain in the center. The fountain was of a mermaid sitting on a rock pouring water into a pool from a large pitcher.

Around the fountain were heavy wooden benches with comfortable looking plush pillows. All around the courtyard could be found nearly any flower Draco could ever think of. In fact, loath as he was to admit it, the variety might even have rivaled that of the manor.

Tucked away down a path leading from the courtyard was a small cottage, just as Harry had told him. It matched the large house exactly, only on a smaller scale. Judging by its size, it probably only had a bedroom, living area and bathroom.

Draco walked up and knocked on the door, which had a wreath made of brilliant turquoise peacock feathers in its center.

Again, no one answered.

Draco knocked one last time and waited, but no answer came. He was starting to become frustrated. Had no one cared that he was staying in Potter’s home? Did none of his family wish to visit with him?

At this point he might even be happy to have Harry’s company.

He walked back into the main house and found it very quiet. He tiptoed into the kitchen and stole another bite of Harry’s delicious pie and then started to wander. It seemed the house was empty; perhaps they had all gone into the village.

Draco strolled leisurely around the sitting room. It was very cozy with its oversized furniture and crackling fireplace. He sat by the front window for a moment watching a butterfly drift lazily over some flowers in the front garden.

Out of his peripheral he spotted the narrow stairs that had caught his attention when he came in and he ventured a glance up the passage. From the bottom of the stairs he could see a skylight and a couple of bookshelves.

He went up the staircase, excited to find something to read that would cure him of his boredom. Surely Harry wouldn’t mind if he borrowed something.

The room was captivating. It was like being inside the hollow of a fairy tree. The rich wood all around him smelled like wisdom, and it was only enhanced by the fragrance of ancient scrolls and bound paper.

The shelves were actually carved into the walls, and lining each indention were gold inlays of ivy and flowers that trailed up the walls and against the framing of the skylight. The ceiling itself was an impressive thing, made of twenty individual angled panels, each with patterns of stained glass buried within them.

In the center of the room were a desk and chair as well as two additional armchairs and an end table. Scrolls littered the desk and Draco frowned. This must be Harry’s study. He was suddenly a little jealous of Harry’s happy little home.

“Like it?” came a low voice from behind the desk. Draco started and looked over to find Harry looking up at him from his desk chair, he only then realized it had been turned around to face the back wall when he had first come in. “I had this house built around this room,” he said.

Draco narrowed his eyes. “How do you have an entire house built around a room that’s on the second floor?” he asked skeptically.

Harry smiled and leaned back in his oversized leather chair. “It was a tree with a hollowed out space at the top, and aside from the fact that it had no top or canopy, it was still alive. It still is, in fact, can’t you smell it?” he asked, taking a deep breath and doing just that.

Draco could smell it of course, and it fit tightly with what he had thought of the room upon seeing it. “It’s… nice, I’ll admit. It’s a little small but-“

He was cut off abruptly by Harry’s laughter. “You are sorely incapable of giving compliments aren’t you?” Harry asked.

“I don’t often feel the need to do so,” Draco huffed in annoyance.

“Well, I do,” Harry said. “For instance, you have lovely eyes. I’m not sure why I never noticed before,” he said casually, as if it meant nothing, and perhaps to Harry it didn’t.

Draco shook himself lightly and bowed his head as a small appreciative gesture, only to have Harry laugh again.

“You don’t give compliments or receive them very well,” he teased. “I’ll have to work on that,” he added with a smile.

“You’ll be working on nothing, unless it’s to work on your own habits of annoying me,” Draco scoffed. “I don’t need personality assistance from Harry bloody Potter.”

Harry only shrugged and went back to looking over the scroll in his hand. Draco was insanely curious what the scroll contained, but couldn’t bring himself to ask. Instead he asked another pressing question. “Where are Andromeda and Teddy?”

“Andiron’s market,” Harry answered casually. “They’re picking up some things I asked for to fix for dinner tonight.

“So you send them to run your errands?” Draco asked crassly.

Harry narrowed his eyes. “You can just get out of here if you’re going to start talking nonsense,” Harry said.

“Well, it just seems-“ Draco began, but again Harry cut him off.

“I would do it all if I could, but Andromeda is insistent that if I do all the cooking that she should at the very least get to do the shopping. I’ve tried to dissuade her, but like all people with Black blood, apparently, she is quite stubborn,” he finished with a grimace.

Well, that did make sense with what he knew of his Aunt. She wouldn’t like a handout and if Harry was doing so much around the house, she would require some work of her own to do. She was different from her sisters that way. Bella and Narcissa were always quite content to let the house elves do everything. Speaking of, “Do you have a house elf, I haven’t seen one since I’ve been here,” Draco said.

“And you won’t. No I don’t have one, nor do I intend to ever have one. We pull our own weight around here and we each share in the load and everything gets done just fine without having to employ a slave,” Harry added.

“Slave? Elves aren’t slaves! They’re just servants who do the cooking and the washing and the cleaning,” he protested.

“And what, Malfoy, is your definition of a slave? You complained that Hogwarts was treating you like a slave when you had to serve one measly detention in the forbidden forest,” Harry reminded him.

Draco winced at the memory and said nothing more. He began looking at the tomes covering the massive shelves and wondering how Harry had acquired some of them, as most were rare, to say the least.

It wasn’t until he came upon a shelf, sitting alone in a corner, full of several copies of the same book that he found anything worth mentioning. “Potter,” he asked, “why in Merlin’s name do you have so many copies of the same book?”

“Hm?” Harry asked distractedly. He had gone back to his work while Draco was perusing the shelves, and only then noticed what he was looking at.

“These books,” Draco gestured toward them annoyed, “You must have more than fifty here,” he added.

“Sixty two,” Harry corrected. “They are all copies of a muggle book I had when I was young. The Velveteen Rabbit,” he told him.

“Why do you have so many?” Draco asked, still curious as to how Potter’s twisted mind worked.

“Every time I see a copy in a used bookstore I buy it,” Harry said quietly, seemingly lost in thought. He was doing that thing again where he ran his hand through his already messy hair and bit down on his bottom lip. Draco fought with the urge to pull the poor soft pink lip from its torture before Harry damaged it too severely.

“That seems rather daft, it cannot possibly be that good,” Draco commented. “And I hardly think the story changes from copy to copy.”

“The copy I had as a boy was left over from my mother’s childhood things. My aunt didn’t know I had it, and I used to read it all night in my cupboard,” he said.

“Cupboard?” Draco asked.

“My room, until I was eleven, was the cupboard under the stairs,” Harry said casually, like it was nothing at all.

“What? We even treat our house elves better than that,” Draco shouted, sounding thoroughly offended. “You were a wizard! How dare those muggles-“

Harry cut him off with a wave. “I didn’t even know I was a wizard, and it was a long time ago, just leave it, okay Malfoy?”

He took a deep breath and counted to ten in his mind. “Okay. You were saying? About your odd book collection,” he prodded.

Harry shot him a crooked grin. “Right, well the copy I had was my mum’s and it had an inscription in the front. It was a sweet little message from my grandmother to my mother.”

“What did it say?” Draco asked, suddenly finding the story fascinating.

“To my dearest Lily, may the world bestow upon you the most precious of life’s gifts, and one day you can pass this along to your little one,” Harry recited perfectly from memory. “It was signed ‘your loving mother, Rose’,” he added.

“So why the rest of these?” Draco asked.

“Well, when my uncle found me with the book, he took it away and sold it at a garage sale and I never saw it again. I know I’ll never find it, but I can’t seem to stop buying up all the copies I can get my hands on, regardless,” he said with a sad shrug.

“Oh, I guess… well I guess it makes more sense now. I’m sorry I mocked it,” he added. The loss he felt with Lucius being in prison was a torment to Draco, and he got to visit his father occasionally. He couldn’t imagine the pain of never being able to see or talk to either of his parents.

Harry’s eyes lit up a fraction but quickly calmed. “It’s pretty silly; you’re not the first person to tease me for it.”

“Still,” Draco said, not willing to say the word ‘sorry’ again, least of all to Potter. Once was enough.

“Have you read it?” Harry asked softly.

“A muggle book? No, father would have lashed me if he caught me with such a trifle,” Draco replied.

Harry got up and walked over to where Draco was standing. He leaned in and for a moment it looked as though he would kiss him, but at the last possible moment he turned and reached for one of the books. Draco’s heart was racing from the close proximity, but he willed himself to calm and watched Harry’s movements.

He handed Draco one of the newer copies of the story and smiled. “You should read it… if you get the chance,” he offered.

Draco took the book and nodded, and Harry made to leave the study. “Dinner should be ready in another hour, I hear Andromeda coming through the wards now, you should go and see her,” he said before disappearing down the narrow staircase.

Authors Note: Please review! Over 75 reviews from the first 3 chapters alone! I have the best readers!! I love coming home to a full inbox. lol.(also, as a side note, the book idea was a modified take off of Definitely Maybe. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's adorable. I remembered makig a note to myself when it was in the theatres and I reworked it to fit an HP story and while writing this one, I came across the note, so here you go, although, I doubt it's going to play a major roll as it did in the movie)