Queer & There

Chapter Fifteen
Stage Two

"I don't really think that's a good name, Harry," a female voice was saying on one side of the room. It belonged to Hermione. "It's not really something that - well, you can attach it to quite a few clubs."

A male voice interjected. "I think it's wicked, it's sort of...something..." Ron trailed off.

"I don't know, I'm not very good at this." Harry's voice now, and it caused Draco to look up.

It was late afternoon the day following Draco's therapy, and he had a headache. He was currently squashed in the office of the club with Harry, Hermione and Ron. Draco thought the office was far too small for this amount of people, and said so.

At this comment, Harry looked up with raised eyebrows. "Draco, you're all the way over the other side of the room." He offered his boyfriend a bit of a smile, apparently allowing some sympathy given that Draco had experienced such trauma the previous day.

Draco pouted a bit. "Well, I can still hear you prattling on." He folded his arms and flipped a page of his magazine. Hermione, Harry and Ron had spent the past hour or so discussing the club - what to name it, how to organise it, when to open it. Draco had reluctantly come along after spending the morning with Remus Lupin, and he hadn't felt the urge to speak to anybody since.

Not a lot had happened, specifically. He had been very quiet most of the session, in a petulant, unco-operative sort of way, and Remus had pressed on about certain issues that Draco had no interest in. The older man had dragged information from Draco in a way that was no doubt excruciating given Draco's unwillingness, and there had been many an awkward silence.

Still, it had given Draco reason to think. He was still thinking now, and he felt it very selfish of the other three in the room to start all this planning when he was preoccupied by other things. It was his club, after all.

After a few moments, Draco felt the other side of the two seater he was on squash down a bit, and knew that Harry was beside him. He looked up and gave the other boy a pointed pout, which was kissed softly. Draco pouted further - he did not like to be won over so easily when he was trying to be in a bad mood.

He allowed the pout to turn into a scowl as he asked, "What?"

"Are you alright?" Harry asked quietly, and Draco was very aware of the hand in the back of his hair, the fingers fiddling with the ends of the blond strands. "You're uncharacteristically quiet, you know."

"So?"

Harry smirked a little. "Well, it's worrying. You should be on the other side of the room telling me and Ron that you'd rather die than paint the club green or something."

Draco looked mortified, and he exclaimed, "I would rather die than paint the club green! Are you painting my club green?"

He felt Harry pat his knee gently. "See, that's more like it. Come on, we'll let you hit us."

Across the room, Ron exclaimed, "No we won't!"

"Fine," Harry smiled, and turned back to Draco, "then I'll let you hit me. Lots and lots, until you feel better." He squeezed Draco's knee, and there was a pause, and then Harry asked quietly, "Are you seeing Remus again soon?"

Draco was quiet again for a bit. "Tomorrow. He says we have to move onto stage two. Actually, that's what my other therapist said." He shrugged.

"Stage two?" Harry asked. "What's that? What was stage one?"

* * *

"As you remember, Draco, stage one was simply getting to know one another, or at least attempting to." Remus Lupin gave a smile as he sat beside Draco in the corner of a small, rather deserted coffee shop on the outskirts of Diagon Alley. It was not far from the clubbing area, and Draco had walked there after finally coming round to spend an afternoon disagreeing with Harry and Draco, and being restrained by Hermione when he became too indignant.

Remus continued, "The first talk wasn't quite as I had hoped, but that is why this kind of thing takes more than one meeting, is it not?" He offered a smile that Draco had trouble returning - he still could not see this man as anything more than the dusty teacher who had barely seen him through third year Defence Against The Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Draco had had trouble respecting him when he was fourteen, and now, seven years later, it was still difficult.

Finally, Draco replied in a bit of a mumble, "I suppose, yes." He then said with a little more definition, "Yes, you're right. More than one meeting."

"I know this is not easy for you, Draco," Remus said gently, and Draco wanted to throw something at him.

He didn't like this at all, it was embarrassing and confrontational and he didn't even know this thin, aging man. He resented Harry slightly, and said to Remus in a cold sort of voice, "Look, can we just hurry up and get on with it? You haven't told me what bloody stage bloody two is." Before Remus could speak again, Draco added, "and if it's talking about my childhood, I'm going home."

He saw Remus hide a bit of a smile behind his hand. Draco glared at him pointedly, and the old man cleared his throat carefully before he said anything more. "It's not talking about your childhood," he confirmed, and there was amusement in his voice. "Actually, it's quite different. I would like for you to tell me about you, now. A little bird told me you quite like talking about yourself, so it shouldn't be too difficult."

Draco scowled again. He thought it very rude of Harry - who had clearly been the little bird - to tell this weird old werewolf that he liked to talk about himself. It wasn't true, for a start. He didn't talk about himself that much - he thought he could be quite shy and unassuming, actually. He could be quiet, sometimes.

Indeed, at this point he remained quiet, and Remus remarked, "Perhaps my sources have misled me." He then smiled that very small smile again, and Draco found himself annoyed. That smile was very annoying. "However, I have seen you talk in the past, Draco. I know you are more than capable of doing so. Why don't you go ahead and tell me something?"

Draco looked at him with a bit of a frown. "Like what?"

"Perhaps- well, tell me about your last job." Remus settled back in his seat a bit, took a sip of his tea. Draco thought it was a wonder that Harry had had difficulty working out this man's sexuality. It was screamingly obvious to him that Remus Lupin was as gay as... well, as gay as Harry Potter was, really. He smiled slightly at this thought, and the older man seemed to take it as a indication that Draco liked the idea of speaking about his old workplace.

However, this was not the case. Draco could think of nothing less that he wanted to discuss, so he simply remarked, "They fired me."

Remus was quiet for a moment, and then said carefully, "Go on."

"Go on, what?" Draco asked, raising his eyebrows. "There's nothing to go on about. They gave me the sack because I was shagging my boss. Well, sort of."

This seemed to surprise Remus, as he was the one to raise his eyebrows now, and he took another sip of tea before speaking again. "Ah. Was this a - female boss?"

"Yes, it bloody was," Draco replied quickly, looking affronted for a moment before remembering that he was actually bisexual and that perhaps sleeping with a male boss might not be such a surprise to people anymore. He was still working on not denying these things. "I mean, well, yes. She was- I didn't like her that much."

Remus quirked his brow again, "And yet you were still sleeping with her?" He didn't look so surprised now as he did interested, and Draco didn't like it. It made him feel as though he had done something wrong, like he was a child again and he was being silently reprimanded by his father. Or, he supposed in this case, it was more suitable to say his mother. Remus did not seem particularly masculine.

"You don't need to like someone to be sleeping with them," Draco pointed out with a scowl, finally picking up his milkshake and sipping some through the straw. Remus gave him a meaningful glance that annoyed him. "What now?"

"Do you prefer to have intimate relationships with strangers, Draco?" Remus asked after a moment.

Draco made a face. "That's a bit of a personal question, isn't it?" He raised his eyebrows and folded his arms across his chest for a moment, and then had to unfold them as another craving for more milkshake came about. He picked up his glass and sipped carefully. "I just usually have sex with people I don't know. Probably because I don't know that many people." He shrugged.

"But you know Harry," Remus started, and Draco gave another little scowl. Remus Lupin really did think a lot of himself. He clearly thought he was clued in, and Draco nearly interjected to tell him just how much Remus didn't know, when the older man continued. "You know Harry quite well, don't you?"

"I don't know him that well-"

"Ah, I think you probably know him better than you'd like to admit." Remus offered Draco a friendly smile, but it was not returned. Draco didn't much like this conversation. It was far too presumptuous for his liking. "But, I believe you were originally speaking of your job. Please, continue."

Draco looked up, and paused briefly. After a moment of carefully examining the other man's face, he wet his lips with his tongue a little and started to talk.

* * *

"You're late, aren't you?" Harry asked with a smile as Draco walked into the club, having indeed run over on his 'session' with Remus. Draco gave a small smile as Harry tapped the face of his watch, before moving to stand beside the other man where he was now rooting through a stack of paperwork. "Have you seen that- form?"

Draco raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "What form exactly? There's a lot of forms." He gave Harry a little quirky smile of his own and leaned into his boyfriend on instinct. In truth, he was in a rather good mood - although it would take some reluctance to admit it out loud, given that this uplift in spirit had been caused by spending an afternoon talking to Remus Lupin.

He had learned a fair amount about the older man as well, he was surprised to realise. He had discovered that Remus had a boyfriend, even after Sirius' death, and without Harry being entirely aware of the fact either. In fact, Draco had offered to share the news with Harry to spare Lupin, because he was quite sure Harry wouldn't take it so well hearing it from the man that had become like a surrogate godfather over the years.

"It's a green form," Harry was saying, making random piles from the paperwork that Draco had so carefully arranged. Harry ignored his little squeak, and carried on, "It's got - I don't know, something to do with insurance or... or- well, oh!" He gave an exclamation as he dropped the forms.

Draco's squeak was louder and a lot more high pitched this time, and he felt a little pang in his stomach as his organisation quite literally flew out of the window. Or, at least flew to the floor in a manic mess of paperwork.

"Harry," he managed in a voice that was far too hoarse to not be concerned, "They were- organised. The insurance forms are up in the office in a safe."

Harry made an interested sort of expression, smiled, and kissed Draco on the cheek as he stepped over the papers. "You're so good at this stuff." He started toward the stairs, leaving Draco slightly open mouthed on the other side of the room.

He made a vague arm flapping movement to indicate the mess on the floor, but it went unnoticed by Harry, who didn't seem bothered at all. This didn't surprise Draco so much as it agonized him, because living with the boy had given him plenty of practice tidying up after him. Kneeling down, he scraped up all the papers and dropped them on the surface they had originally been sitting on, and sighed as he started to put them in a vague kind of order. It would have to be left until later, he thought.

As his boyfriend more or less bounced back down the stairs holding a green form and appearing extremely pleased with himself. He called out, "Got it!" as he approached Draco again, and once he reached him set it in the middle of all the mess that was already on the table.

Draco eyed him carefully. "Shouldn't you be a bit more careful with that?"

"I think it will be alright there for a minute," Harry shrugged, before smiling and looking around the club. "It's looking pretty good, right?"

Indeed, it was coming along. It seemed the week had been very productive, and today Draco could really see the outlines of a club appearing - the bar was being lit, stock was appearing occasionally, and there were now areas clearly defined for the dance floor. There was a stack of small black tables in one corner waiting to be placed strategically throughout the rest of the floor place, and workmen were also floating around doing various bits and pieces.

Draco gave Harry a smile to match his own, and remarked, "I think we might actually need to find a name for it soon."

"I was thinking about that," Harry replied, his arms folding across his chest lightly as he spoke. Draco couldn't help looking at him - the more he did, the more he felt as though he had made a very good decision. Speaking with Remus today hadn't hurt either, and just as he was about to mention this, Harry asked, "Oh - how did it go?"

"How did what go?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "With Remus. How was it?" He shifted a bit as Draco paused, purely to make his boyfriend feel awkward. It was something he enjoyed doing. "Oh come on, Draco, it can't have been that bad." Harry looked worried as Draco remained silent. "It couldn't possibly have been that bad." His voice became slightly higher in pitch. "Could it?"

"It was alright," Draco replied with a smirk, shrugging and flopping down into a nearby seat. He glared as a workman gave him a look, apparently having been about to move said chair. "No, it was fine. We talked."

Harry looked very interested suddenly, and a flicker of telling paranoia appeared on his face. "What did you talk about?"

Draco tutted. "That's private, Harry. It's confidential therapy stuff. Very important."

"Oh." Harry looked disappointed. "So- but... was it productive?"

"Ish."

"Ish?" Harry repeated with a pout that Draco felt was inspired by himself. He was almost proud.

He shrugged again, settling back in his chair and swiveling his body round to look over at the bar curiously. "Do we have any alcohol in here yet? I'd quite like a cocktail."

Harry's pout turned into a frown, and Draco felt pleased again. He felt winding up Harry was a significant, important aspect of their relationship, and he planned to continue as long as he could get away with it.

"Well? Alcohol?" Draco beamed hopefully, and pouted when Harry shook his head.

The dark haired boy simply held up his wad of paperwork, and remarked, "No alcohol. Plenty of work to do."

"But I despise work," Draco whined.

"I'll buy you a drink later?" Harry suggested with a smile.

"Oh go on, then."

* * *

In the next passing week, Draco continued to visit Remus in fairly regular sessions. It felt as though a dialogue was emerging, and becoming easier by the day, and Draco had learned many things about the older man, if reluctantly at first.

But it appeared that Remus Lupin was a nice man, and Draco was coming to quite like is company - again, reluctantly at first. Progress had been made though, and people kept informing Draco of this. There was much praise for Lupin, and Harry seemed extremely pleased that his boyfriend was less scared about being his boyfriend.

"Harry, what time is it?" Draco asked on a Friday night, glancing over at the other boy and smiling a bit. "They'll be here soon-"

Harry shrugged as though he didn't much care what time it was, and said, "I don't see why he has to bring his boyfriend." He frowned. "Remus shouldn't have a boyfriend."

Draco smiled slightly at this, peering into the oven and prodding it a bit as though this would tell him when the food would be ready. He had no idea about cooking actual food, so Harry had prepared a simple pasta dish. Draco supposed it would do for now, and was considering learning to cook. It seemed something he should be able to do.

"Why not?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at Harry and fiddling with the buttons on the oven.

Harry glanced over. "Don't do that-" Draco pouted and stopped. "And, because. He doesn't need a boyfriend. He had Sirius. Sirius was a good boyfriend, I bet." He frowned again, and started fiddling with his jumper, picking at a thread.

It was Draco's turn to remark, "Don't do that." He shook his head and was unable to hide a grin. "You know, I bet this guy is great. And Sirius is dead, remember? Long dead, actually."

"Oh, thanks a lot. That's so sensitive of you." Harry folded his arms across his chest and looked incredibly sulky. Draco grinned a bit more. "So, so sensitive."

Draco opened his mouth to reply to this, only to be disturbed by a knock on the door. "Ooh, they're here." He more or less hopped to answer the door, and when he did, his eyes widened slightly. "Hello." He grinned.

Remus was standing in the doorway, holding a bottle of rather nice wine in one hand, and the hand of a very attractive man in the other. Draco couldn't seem to pry his eyes away from said man. He didn't think he'd ever been more convinced of his sexuality.

"Hey," the man grinned, and Draco felt a breath catch in his throat. This was going to be a difficult evening. Breaking up with Harry and stealing Remus' boyfriend might be a tricky couple of tasks, after all. "How are you?"

"Fine." Draco swallowed. His voice sounded too shrill. "You must be- the lucky man." He couldn't help but cough, and the cough went on longer than he had intended. Something was stuck in his throat, it had to be. "And Remus- very... very- lucky. Hi. Come in."

He stepped inside, holding the door open for Remus and his partner to walk through, before closing it behind them both. Draco was just about to introduce this gorgeous example of the human race to Harry, when the ex-Gryffindor exclaimed,

"Charlie?! Charlie?"

Remus seemed to have expected this, and he took a breath before remarking carefully, "I know it may seem a little strange."

Harry made a noise that sounded almost hysterical, and Draco looked from each man to the next, his gaze pausing a little longer on this Charlie. When he looked to Harry, he noticed his boyfriend was extremely red. "But- he's Charlie. I know him!"

Draco raised his eyebrows. "You know him?" He wondered how he had missed this friend of Harry's. "How?"

Harry gave him a look that bordered on glaring. "He's Ron's brother. That's just weird."

Not noticing immediately why this might be weird, Draco started to object to Harry's immaturity, before almost dropping the bottle of wine Remus had just handed him.

"He's a Weasley?!"

Draco could feel himself going red now, the blood rushing to his cheeks and away from his head. He felt slightly faint, and sat down next to Harry. He could understand his boyfriend's horror now, and looked over at Charlie with a newly discovered dislike.

Charlie didn't seem at all fazed though, and he gave his boyfriend a little smile and, Draco noticed, squeezed his hand. "We actually got together at the school," he explained, and both Draco and Harry remarked,

"I don't care!" They looked at each other, both frowned, and shifted apart somewhat. Draco cleared his throat.

"Charlie returned to speak to the newer Quidditch players," Remus continued after his boyfriend, appearing as calm as ever. "Of course, I had known him through Mrs Weasley long before."

Harry shook his head and muttered, "This is so weird."

Remus simply smiled. "Shall we have dinner?"

* * *

The rest of the evening was more successful, after the two younger boys calmed down and safe conversation boundaries were introduced. Politics seemed okay, work was fine, and the new club seemed to give everybody the most comfort. Charlie explained that he had seen the construction work when walking through the Alley, and so all four of the men had something to say about it.

Remus asked midway through the meal, "So have you two discussed a name yet?"

Harry looked at Draco and shook his head. "Not really."

Draco paused then, biting his lip thoughtfully and remarking, "I had an idea, actually." His boyfriend looked at him curiously, and Draco gave him a hopeful smile. "I like Stage Two." Remus gave a knowing smile and sat back in his seat.

There was a thoughtful quiet at the table, and Harry echoed, "Stage Two. That's not bad." He paused again. "It's better than anything I thought of. Much better than Snake." He grinned at Draco.

Draco smiled back happily. "So you like it?"

"Yeah."

"Stage Two?"

Harry grinned again. "Stage Two."