Roommates

A.N. Thanks to chaneystarr for the beta. And thank you to anyone who reviewed, it's nice to know it's being enjoyed. This chapter is a bit more boring than the last...but that's only because I have to lay the groundwork for the coming chapters. It should get better. :0)

The Warning Remains the Same: This fic is very possibly the most OOC thing I have ever written, I did it for fun...yes there are more chapters to come. Warning, this fic may be a slash overload.
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Later in the afternoon, Harry was poking around the kitchen once more, this time looking for the peanut butter he feared one of his roommates had run off with. It was a warm day, warmer than usual, and it marked the beginning of the summer days. Windows were open throughout the house and dust motes danced in beams light.

It was a bit depressing for Harry to realize that summer was coming and for the first time he would not have a summer break. Not that he had ever really enjoyed his summer breaks, but the fact remained that he wouldn't have them anymore. It gave Harry a feeling of great nostalgia and loss as he continued to search for the peanut butter.

The apartment was silent, which seemed odd, as the house was rarely silent. The cause of this, Harry was sure, had something to do with Draco and Blaise escaping to go shopping. The most prominent racket makers were not present.

Just as Harry was digging through the last cupboard, he heard a screech, and just barely ducked out of the way as an owl came full speed through the window above the sink. The lemon-cream colored curtains Draco had picked out fluttered in its wake.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed as the crazed owl soared full force into the refrigerator and fell to the floor with a resounding thump.

Harry approached it warily and poked it with the toe of his shoe. It twitched, flapped its wings, and jumped up straight, blinking at the ebony haired man with wild looking eyes.

Crouching down Harry tentatively pulled off the letter attached to its leg. The letter was addressed to Draco. Ignoring his curiosity for the moment he tossed the letter on the table in favor of eying the owl.

The owl stared at Harry. Harry stared at the owl. This went on for about five minutes, during which Harry wondered why the owl was still there, and the owl wondered where the food was.

"What are you doing?"

Harry jumped, standing up quickly and spinning to face Seamus, who had just entered the kitchen.

"Did I hear something bang, just now?"

"This...owl, it just flew right into the fridge," Harry explained, but he was eying the owl again. "It had a letter for Draco, but I don't understand why it's still here."

Seamus raised an eyebrow at the aforementioned fowl. "It looks a bit rough, doesn't it?"

He was referring to the fact that the owl had extremely large optical devices, even for an owl. One was rather larger than the other, and they blinked often, and always twice in a row. Then, of course, there was the fact that it looked quite old, with rumpled brown and white feathers that extended out in all directions. In general, it was an off-putting owl.

Blaise and Draco entered the kitchen twenty minutes later, babbling, cheerful from their shopping trip, and began piling bags upon bags of clothing and useless household decorations onto the kitchen table. Harry and Seamus were still standing there, watching the disconcerting owl.

"Harry?" questioned Draco curiously, coming to peer around him. "What's wrong?"

"Owl," said Harry, and pointed.

Draco looked at the owl and frowned, then looked back at Harry...and then his eyes widened and he did a double-take of the owl. "Bobber-Mitten?" he demanded in a shocked sounding voice.

The owl hooted in a pleased sounding manner and flapped its wings, using just enough effort to get him high enough to land on Draco's shoulder.

"It...Bobber-Mitten?" asked Seamus, looking skeptical.

"Yes," answered Draco, reaching up to stroke its breast. The owl hooted again, sounding more pleased yet. "He's my Great Uncle Barbet's owl...but I haven't seen him in ages. My uncle, I mean."

"You have a great-uncle named Barbet?"

Draco detected the note of mocking humor. "Stuff it, Harry. I bet you had queerly named great-uncles on your father's side too."

Harry sighed and slid into one of the kitchen chairs. "Well, he had a letter for you," he said, motioning to the table covered in shopping bags. "But I think you've buried it."

A rustling filled the room as Draco descended on the mass of bags that continued until he found the letter. He tore it open and as he began to read slowly his gray eyes widened, until they were scarcely smaller than the owl's on his shoulder...which was seriously saying something.

"So what is it already?" drawled Blaise, rooting through one of his own bags. "What does he want?"

Draco shook his head. "It's not him," he said. "I mean...it is him, but it's not. It's his will."

"Will? You mean as in he's dead?" asked Seamus with a grimace.

"Well I'm not entirely surprised. The creep was well over one hundred and he was loonier than the Quibbler." Draco turned the parchment sheet over in his hands, reading the dark scrawl that also covered the back of the letter. "Which I suppose might explain this a bit, but still..."

"Draco, what is it?" demanded Harry, coming up behind the blond and resting an arm around his waist.

"He's left me everything in his possession," Draco said bluntly. "Not the house, that was shite, a shack of all things...but all of his money, all of his art...and Bobber-Mitten."

"That explains why the bloody thing is still here then," mused Seamus, squinting at the bird.

"What sort of art? Was he an artist or something?" prodded Blaise boredly, who was now holding a rather expensive-looking shirt to his chest. He debated buying the thing even after he tried it on, but Draco insisted it looked brilliant on him. It might look okay with those pants...

"No. He collected paintings. Muggle art; old stuff...and creepy too. I used to hate going over there. Father always made me."

As Draco talked, Harry had begun to read the contents of the will over his shoulder.

"Merlin's...Draco, this is a lot of money!"

"Of course it is. Uncle Barbet liked to horde."

"How much is it?" questioned Seamus, coming nearer as if drawn.

"...Way more than the six of us combined could make in a lifetime," Harry said after a moment of silence.

"Father would be furious if he knew. When he disinherited me, I doubt he considered the possibility his crazy uncle would leave me a fortune equal to that of his own," Draco ranted, his facial expression still registering nothing but shock.

"What's going on?" came Ron's voice as he stumbled into the perpetually crowded room. "Why are we all standing around?"

"Apparently...Draco's just been willed a great deal of money," explained Blaise.

Ron scowled.

****

That night Harry lay in bed leaning against their headboard, a book on Hogwarts propped in front of him. But his attention could not keep with the book's pace; instead, he was drawn to watching Draco dress for bed with a concentrated frown on his face.

"Draco, what are you going to do with it all?" he asked when he couldn't stand it any longer.

The blond looked up and met Harry's gaze through the vanity mirror. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...you've just been given a maddeningly huge sum of money. What are you going to do with it?"

Draco smirked and now he spun around to look at his ebony-haired love. "Harry-love, are you asking if I intend to share?"

After a moment of thought, Harry nodded, hesitantly.

"Of course I do. I'm going to get us out of this stupid apartment," he said determinedly, then added, "All of us."

Harry smiled, affectionately amused. "Sometimes I find it hard to believe you're the same Malfoy we all went to school with."

"Everyone says that," sulked Draco, and turned back to the mirror, continuing to brush silky, perfectly cropped hair.

It was quiet for a while, then Harry spoke up again. "Draco?"

Draco sat down the brush with a sigh. "Yes?"

"Does that owl have to be in here? It keeps...staring at me."

Draco abandoned his primping, crawling up over the bottom edge of the bed. Harry set aside his book.

"He won't be able to stare at you if the lights are off," mused Draco, stretching out on top of the other man and kissing along his jaw-line.

Harry snorted with laughter. "Draco, owls are nocturnal, or whatever. He will too." Still, he wrapped his arms around the blond in his bed.

Draco rolled his eyes and blew out the candle on the bedside table. The room was bathed in darkness and there was a rustle of clothing.

"I don't think you're going to notice it much."

Harry cast a silencing charm.

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Thanks for reading the insanity! Please be kind and review. :0)