Rivaling Affections

Okay, so I suck and today I'm finding out that AFF hasn't always been saving my chapter updates. First Memoirs went wonky, and 2 chapters back I missed an update of this one. So as thanks for being patient with me, I'm posting an extra chapter of this story. If you want to go back and read the missed chapter it's called Chasing Sanity.

Chapter 8

Not only students felt the sinking feeling in their stomachs that was the first day of school. Draco was feeling the butterfly wings ghosting in his belly when he woke that morning. He looked around his now familiar room and sighed. This was the first day of the rest of his life.

He swept himself grudgingly out of bed and went quietly into the shower, letting the hot spray ease the muscles that had tensed overnight during his fitful dreams. It made him think of another things that would help ease tense muscles but he banished the thought from his head.

Harry wanted more from him than he was willing to give, and now even the idea of it was over. He would be far too busy in the upcoming months to even dream of entertaining thoughts about Harry in any other way than ‘co-worker’.

It was as it should be. He should have never even let the idea trickle into his mind, where it worked its unnatural hold over him. But no more, he was Professor Malfoy now, Potions Master and Slytherin head of house. His life wasn’t big enough for any other title, least of all Harry Potter’s boyfriend.

He dressed in a smart black on black suit, reminiscent of what he could recall his old potions professor wearing at Hogwarts, over which he draped clean black robes with the Hogwarts insignia blazing on the left collar.

Draco was disappointed not to smell the fragrances of a lavish breakfast wafting down the hall. He knew that Harry didn’t cook very much while school was in session, but the fact still made him sadder than he had anticipated.

There would be no thick hot blueberry pancakes awaiting him this morning, or any moist and delicious coffee cake, or even banana muffins.

Instead, when he ventured into the kitchen he found Teddy eating a bowl of cereal and Harry washing dishes. “Aren’t you going to eat?” Draco asked before thinking of how nagging the question might sound.

“I already did,” Harry answered with a smile, completely unfazed.

“Cereal?” he asked.

“Toast,” Harry corrected.

Draco turned up his nose and poured a bowl of cereal, taking a seat next to Teddy. He needed more in his stomach than toast in order to deal with the mass of students who were about to scream for his attention.

“So are you excited?” Draco asked Teddy.

“Nervous,” he replied. “I’ve never really met many wizards or witches my age, except Victorie, but she’s a girl,” he added with a grimace.

Draco chuckled. “So you don’t like girls yet?”

The only response he managed to get out of the boy was, “ew.”

“Don’t worry, it will happen for you, probably all at once and when you least expect it,” he said, mimicking his father’s words when Draco expressed the same dislike for girls his first year.

Teddy looked over at him confused. “But it didn’t happen for you, or for Harry.”

“Er, well no. I mean it did, just not with girls,” he added with a laugh.

He could tell that Harry was paying avid attention, though to the untrained eye he appeared to be immersed in his task. But Draco knew that no on, not even the great and powerful Harry Potter, could concentrate that hard on washing dishes.

“Have you ever been in love?” Teddy asked.

Draco shook is head. “Not in the traditional sense, no.” He looked up at Harry as he spoke, not even sure why he wanted the boy to know that.

“So, when did you know that you didn’t like girls?” the boy asked.

“I always knew I think, but I knew for sure after the war,” he answered.

The boys face brightened and Draco thought it was odd that the word war, something that took away both of his parents in one fell swoop, would make Teddy smile. “Harry won the war,” he said at last and Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“I was there,” he replied instead. “Did he tell you that he won the war with my wand?” Draco asked with a smug grin.

Teddy nodded and Draco sighed in defeat. There seemed to be nothing he could do to impress his cousin who was already enamored with Harry. It was equally infuriating that Harry had actually told the truth, which left nothing for Draco to call him on.

“Harry’s so cool, don’t you think?” Teddy asked.

Draco ignored the snickering coming from said cool guy. “Did he tell you that he died?” he blurted.

“Malfoy,” Harry hissed.

He felt suitably chagrined, as he looked back and forth between a furious Harry and a horrified looking Teddy. It was tactless and mean to say such a thing. “I’m just joking Teddy,” he amended.

Teddy looked wide-eyed over to Harry for confirmation. “I’ll tell you the whole story one day, champ, but not over breakfast your first day of school.” Draco didn’t miss the hurt look on Harry’s face when he said the last bit.

It looked as though Teddy was on the verge of protesting, but Draco caught him off guard. “Is that how you’re going to wear your hair for your first day of school?” he asked, making a sour face.

Teddy gasped and ran to look at his reflection in the mirror. “Is it bad? Should I change the color?”

“Maybe blonde,” Draco suggested.

Teddy stuck out his tongue, but changed it to blonde in a heartbeat. It was more the light golden honey color of Narcissa’s hair though, rather then the platinum blonde of his own.

Harry didn’t say another word as he slipped out of the kitchen and down the hall. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay? Finish your breakfast,” Draco told Teddy.

Draco followed the Gryffindor down the hall, stopped outside the master bedroom door and knocked. No one answered so he tried the knob and felt no resistance. He gently pushed on it but was stopped by a hand swiftly yanking it open. Harry slipped quickly into the hall and shut the door behind him before Draco could even peak inside.

Harry didn’t look at him as he spoke. “What were you thinking?” he asked harshly.

“I wasn’t,” Draco admitted. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. Just like your father getting you on the Quidditch team wasn’t my rumor to spread, this wasn’t yours,” he whispered angrily.

“Potter, I’m sorry. He just doesn’t respond to anything I say or do, it’s always about you,” he replied, leaning heavily against the wall.

Harry’s face softened and he ran a gentle hand down Draco’s cheek. “He’s lived with me for four years, Malfoy. Before that I saw him almost every weekend. It’s not a bond that you can compete with in just a few short weeks. It’ll get there though, I promise.”

Draco rolled his eyes and ignored the fluttering in his chest at Harry’s touch. “Ah, but you’re the great and powerful Harry Potter. Nothing I do will ever compete with that.”

Harry jerked his hand away quickly and stuffed it into his robe pocket. “It’s nice to see you’ve already admitted defeat,” Harry said.

“I… I haven’t. It’s just… even you have to admit you’re a hard person to best on any subject,” Draco stammered, sorry for the loss of Harry’s touch and wondering what words had caused it.

“I’m rubbish at potions,” Harry offered.

“But you’re probably not, you can cook brilliantly, and the same fundamentals apply to potions. You just never applied yourself,” Draco corrected.

Harry rolled his eyes, a faint smile pulling at the edge of his mouth. “You sound like Severus.”

“Since when do you call Professor Snape, Severus?” Draco asked incredulously. Draco knew the old potions master fairly well before he died and even he was never emboldened enough to call the man Severus.

Harry chuckled and ignored the question, walking back down the hall toward the front door. “Teddy,” he called. “Time to go.”

Draco groaned at the long walk that was ahead of them, and it was raining out no less. But Harry surprised him and went up the stairs into his study instead of out the front door. Teddy followed closely and Draco walked up last, just in time to see Harry ushering Teddy through the massive fireplace ahead of him.

With a green flash Teddy was gone and Draco smiled, quite pleased that he wouldn’t have to walk in the rain. “Where does this lead? The Headmistress’s office?”

“No, mine,” Harry said, throwing floo powder into the fireplace. “Just say ‘Gryffindor Office’,” he instructed, and Draco obeyed, stepping into the clean fireplace and speaking his destination clearly.

He arrived in a decent sized room. Every wall was lined with mahogany bookshelves, each with proud lions carved into their bases, the tails coiling up to the third or fourth shelf. At the top of every other bookcase, were red marble phoenix statues, their wings splayed so wide they were almost touching the next.

“Bloody Gryffindor’s,” Draco cursed mockingly under his breath.

“Hey, watch it. I’ll probably be in Gryffindor,” Teddy boasted from the doorway.

“There will be no end to my teasing if you’re sorted into Hufflepuff,” Draco said with a laugh.

Teddy made a disturbed face and opened the office door. “Tell Harry I went to the great hall,” he called on his way out.

“Brilliant, no I’m just a messenger,” he muttered.

He wandered over a large desk situated in the middle of the room with two chairs in front of it and one large one behind it. The surface was mostly clean, but he could see that the headmistress had left him a memorandum parchment or two for Harry to read on his return to school.

Otherwise the only things on the large expanse of desk were two photographs. Once of a much younger Harry in the center of Weasel and The-Know-It-All, and the other a picture of Harry, Teddy and Andromeda playing in the garden. A slight limp formed in his throat as he realized he had no personal pictures to place on his desk in his own office.

A flash of green erupted in the fireplace and Harry climbed out, looking only slightly disheveled. Draco walked over automatically and began smoothing, or rather attempting to smooth, his hair, and straightening his tie.

Harry beamed at him Draco stepped back quickly, colliding with the desk. Harry righted him and went over to the small stack of parchments littering the surface. As he flipped through them, Draco continued to scrutinize Potter’s office. Starting with the empty portrait over the fireplace.

He desperately wanted to know what deceased family member or professor he had looking over his shoulder all day. It was bound to be someone like Albus Dumbledor. He walked over to the portrait and looked for anything that would indicate who should be filling it. It was obviously someone who was fairly busy and important if they were there to greet Harry on his first day back to Hogwarts.

“Who is in the portrait?” Draco asked, tired of trying to guess.

Harry chuckled and looked up at the empty portrait. “Maybe you’ll see one day.”

Draco huffed and rounded on Harry. “Are you embarrassed?” he asked at once, trying to goad an answer out of him.

Harry merely rolled his eyes, not taking the bait. “I have no reason to be embarrassed.”

“Fine,” he scoffed, leaning against the mantle and watch Harry sift through his mail.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, Mr. Malfoy,” a voice boomed from the portrait. “Still letting Potter get the best of you?”

Draco whirled around to face his old potions professor, stunned beyond belief that Severus Snape, the last man Draco would have suspected, hung gracefully on Harry’s office wall, the Gryffindor office wall.

“Sir,” he greeted quickly and courteously.

Snape rolled his eyes and looked over at Harry who was smiling widely. “Is this a new game you’re playing, Harry? Watch the Malfoy squirm?” he asked.

Harry chuckled and Draco nearly lost his breakfast at the sound of Snape, his professor Snape calling Harry… well, Harry. “He’ll be staying with me while he has a house built nearby. Malfoy’s taken over your old position Severus.”

“Has he now?” Snape’s sallow face sneered down at Draco. “I imagine Minerva must be quite desperate.”

Harry shook his head firmly, only a hint of amusement in his voice. “Malfoy is very good at what he does, and I imagine he’ll be a fair bit nicer than you were,” he added.

Draco looked in shock and awe back and forth between his old professor and his… what was Harry exactly, a friend, a co-worker, a roommate?

“Students need a firm hand,” Snape said. “I used my firmest with you, and you turned out just fine. Draco however, I was soft on him and here his is kowtowing to a Gryffindor.”

“I am not,” Draco scoffed, completely offended.

Snape watched him a moment and then a subtle smirk shaded his face. “Oh, I see,” he said mysteriously and then his black eyes flicked to Harry. “Ah, yes. She is quite clever indeed,” he added before walking from the portrait frame.

“Where did he go? What the hell did he mean?” Draco demanded.

Harry merely shrugged. “He’s like that. Here one minute, gone the next. I think he picked up some things from Dumbledor.”

“Why is he here inn your office, the Gryffindor office? Shouldn’t he be in my office? I am the Slytherin head of house after all?” Draco huffed.

“Do you want him?” Harry asked.

“Well… no. He’s a bit creepy and mean, but that isn’t the point,” he scoffed.

Harry chuckled and shook his head. “He keeps me grounded. He’s the only professor that never let me get away with things and I trust him to keep me in line still,” Harry said with a smile, but the edges slowly faded at his next words. “During the war, we came to an understanding. I never got to say think you to the real Severus, so the least I can do is honor his portrait.”

Draco looked incredulously at the man he thought he had known. Over the last few weeks Harry had taken that image and turned it on its side. It was unsettling to say the least.

“So you’re… friends with him?” Draco asked, still unbelieving.

Harry shrugged. “I guess. I mean we’re friends right? How is that any different?”

Draco swallowed thickly and nodded. “I guess it’s not.” He still hated the way the word friend felt in his mouth, in his throat. It was like a cough that just wouldn’t come, and instead lingered too long until when it finally hit, you wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“Well, we had better go. Teddy is probably getting on Minerva’s last nerve and students will begin arriving later,” Harry offered.

“Right,” Draco replied with a nod. “Let’s go.” He was still caught off guard by the enigma that was Harry Potter, but he would have plenty of time to figure him out as they worked together and lived together over the next few weeks.

Suddenly the thought of leaving Potter’s cozy home and moving into one of his own sounded daunting, but Draco knew deep down it was for the best. In the meantime he would do what he could to figure out everything he could about the man walking beside him, so close he could reach over and clasp his hand.

It was all Draco could do to keep from acting on that idea.