Pretty Things

Pretty things, so what if I like pretty things?

Pretty lies, so what if I like pretty lies?

From where you are to where I am now

I need these pretty things around the planets of my face

Everything's a sign of my astrology

From where you are to where I am now

Is it's own galaxy

Be a star and fall down somewhere next to me

And make it past your color TV

This time will pass and with it will me

And all these pretty things

Don't say you don't notice them

***

It hardly seemed right. Even after a month spent teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts here at Hogwarts, I had not yet come to the realization that I no longer needed an Invisibility Cloak to roam the corridors at night. Professors didn't have to sneak about, did they? They were free to wander at their leisure, to get up to whatever mischief they pleased. Merlin knows I'd seen my share of nightowl professors out and about in my days as a wayward student.

I was fairly certain, however, that none of my professors had ever been out at this hour for quite the same reasons I now was.

"You're late, Professor Potter."

Indeed, I was, but how had Draco beaten me to the tower? His rooms were far down in the Slytherin dungeons, adjacent to his Potions class. Things would have been so much simpler if McGonagall would have put the two of us in one set of rooms. After all, Draco and I had been sharing a bed for the past four years. But no, said McGonagall. What would the students think? Besides, as both of us served as the Heads of our Houses, being near our own students allowed us to handle emergencies in a far more expedient manner.

"Sorry," I replied sheepishly. "I was grading those Boggart essays for the third years."

I couldn't help noticing how handsome Draco looked when he was anxious. He leaned back against the stone wall, one foot tapping madly against the stair on which he stood. He was gnawing hard on the knuckle of his index finger, and his brow was knitted tightly above two wide silvery eyes.

He stared at me for a long moment, not speaking, not needing to. Silence between us was comfortable, not oppressive. I climbed the stairs to where he stood, stopping when I reached his step, and took his hand in mine.

"C'mon," I whispered, gesturing toward the top of the stairwell, and Draco nodded. We climbed together, stone step after stone step, until the stairs vanished into the cool night air.

"I still don't know what we're doing here," Draco grumbled as we stepped up onto the landing of the Astronomy Tower. "Some idea this was! It's October, it's the middle of the night, and we're in the bloody Scottish highlands. What were you thinking, Harry?"

"Actually, I was thinking you and I haven't spent a proper evening alone in the month that we've been here, Draco," I replied, more than a bit annoyed by his griping.

He glared at me and chewed absently on his bottom lip. "And you call this proper?"

Only then did I notice that his body seemed racked with chills. I drew closer to him, clasping the folds of his robe beneath my fists and pulling it tightly around both of us for warmth. His chest heaved slightly, and his breath caught in his throat, as if he was still the sixteen year-old boy he'd been that first summer at Grimmauld Place, exploring nervously and cautiously right along with me, but it was only for an instant. My mouth lowered to meet his and bestow a kiss that I knew would seem innocent enough, but I also knew that the rest of me was wholly incapable of keeping that innocence consistent. My fingers traveled to the waistband of Draco's pants, yanked out the ends of his tucked shirt, and snaked playfully up the length of his torso. His skin felt like silk in an icebox...but who the hell puts silk in an icebox? ...Stupid thought, Potter.

"Well, Professor Malfoy," I whispered hotly in his ear, "is this proper enough for you?"

I wasn't certain if Draco's knees had buckled or if he'd merely tired of standing, but suddenly he collapsed to the floor, pulling me down on top of him. There was an ominous twinkle in his eye. He crooked a knee upward so that it was pressing hard against my groin, creating a sensation that managed to somehow be both painful and completely delicious, forcing me to let fly an unabashed moan that traveled to my lips straight from the spot Draco's knee had found.

"Perfectly proper...."

***

"Oh--bloody hell--Harry--" Draco panted as I slid out from under him, not without some reluctance. He rolled on his side to face me, taking a moment to steady the rhythm of his breathing before speaking again. "That was...God, that felt great!"

I couldn't help smirking. "It's only been a month, Draco. Don't tell me you'd forgotten what sex felt like!"

"We..." he started, and when he stopped I turned my face toward him, waiting for him to continue. "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

"Been too busy," I answered, and then, after a second or two of swallowing hard and a little breathing regulation of my own--"Besides, Sinistra's had her fourth year's up here almost every night working on their mapping project for Astronomy. You wouldn't have wanted a bunch of little teenage gits up here poking you in the arse, would you?"

Draco snorted. "As you recall, I didn't mind you poking me in the arse when you were a 'little teenage git,' did I? Of course, if remember correctly, I did some of my own poking on you as well...."

"Don't be crude, Draco."

"Sorry," he said, smirking. "Couldn't resist."

Try as I might, I couldn't help smiling back. "Feeling warmer now?"

Draco draped one arm across my naked stomach, grasping my waist with firm fingers. "Yes," he sighed as I turned my face toward the night sky. "Much warmer...."

This felt good, felt right, lying under the stars with Draco, here at the only place I'd ever loved enough to call a home. Draco was right--we should have done this sooner. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him this past month. We'd both been so caught up in the hectic responsibilities of teaching that we'd hardly had time at all for each other. This wasn't the horrific predicament it would've been in the early days of our relationship, when a mere few weeks apart would have been enough to drive us mad, spouting ridiculous words to one another like "I'm aching for you with all of my being!" and "I can't breathe without you!" After four years, I could breathe without Draco and he without me.

Still, our current circumstances were not entirely pleasant ones. Healthy time apart was one thing, but for it to be demanded of us was hardly fair. I'd always considered McGonagall to be a just and considerate woman, but this was absurd! I didn't care suddenly that I was breaking her rules. I had my Draco, and I had my stars, those precious jewels, shining in all their splendor and loveliness, and that was all that mattered.

"Merlin, they're beautiful," I sighed.

Draco snuggled closer under the woolen cloaks covering us and nestled against my shoulder. I didn't know what was warmer, his body or his breath against mine. "What's that, love?"

"The stars," I said, nudging him lightly. "Just look at them."

"Come off it, dream boy," Draco snorted, but I knew he was only teasing. He lifted his head and looked to where my gaze was already fixed. "What is it with you and beauty? Merlin! You and you're pretty things...."

"Don't tell me to come off it!" I huffed with mock indignation. "So what if I like pretty things? Be thankful for that. It's half the reason you're lying here right now, pretty thing."

"Hey!" Draco chuckled, poking me hard in the ribs. "After all these years, is that all I am to you? A trophy boyfriend?"

"Yes," I joked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Draco smile before resting his head against me once more. I was half overcome with the urge to begin spouting poetic phrases, simply because doing so always irritated Draco to no end. But now, surrounded by all this beauty, these stars, Draco, the sheer exhilaration of being happy, being safe, being in love...it seemed fitting.

"Draco," I said a tentative voice, only to feel him squirm pleasantly against me and groan in a manner that I supposed meant I should continue. "I was just thinking, what if we'd known years ago what we know now?"

"Beg pardon?" he grumbled, his lips working lazily against my throat.

I mused a moment before continuing. "If we could go back in time, go back five, maybe six, years ago, and tell ourselves everything that was going to happen to us, what do you think we'd do? I mean, what would the old Draco have said if you told him that he would soon be on the side of Light, in love with Harry Potter, and helping to win a war against the most powerful dark wizard of all time?"

"Well," said Draco, laughing lightly, "first, he would have decked me, and directly after that he would have used Avada Kedavra on himself. What about old Harry? I mean, shagging a Slytherin! And Draco Malfoy, no less! What would old Harry have done?"

"Same," came my smug reply as I pulled the woolen cloak more tightly around my naked body.

"I'm glad we're not 'old us' anymore," said Draco sleepily. He placed a quick kiss on my cheek. "There was always a galaxy between us. Slytherin and Gryffindor...the Dark Side and the side of Light...Scarface and the White Ferret." I laughed heartily at this last statement. "All those stupid rivalries. I'm so happy all that's over."

"You and me both," I mumbled. "I was always too proud to admit how stupid it was, though. Proud and arrogant. Everything, I guess, is a sign of my astrology."

Draco snickered, and I couldn't keep myself from giggling when his hand snaked down my leg and tickled, albeit lightly, the inside of my thigh. "Aren't we Mister Philosophical this evening, dearest one? 'Everything's a sign of my astrology'," he mocked. "'Proud and arrogant.' Definitely a Leo, just like me."

"Better not say that around your students," I said, swatting his hand away from my thigh, half to stop the tickling and half to combat what would be inevitable--arousal. Merlin, I hated when he tickled me.... "You wouldn't want them to hear that you were born a lion. Honestly, who would ever appoint a Leo as the Head of Slytherin House?"

"Severus was a Leo, too," Draco remarked. Those Slytherins, I thought to myself. Just full of surprises, weren't they? And was Draco pouting? I hoped so. I hoped he was sorry for the tickling. Served him right, the git.

Either out of contentment or exhaustion, I sighed. "Listen, darling, as much as I'm enjoying this mindless banter, can we please get to bed? I'm absolutely bushed."

"No," Draco grumbled. I was nearly ready to chide him for being a whining little prat, too stubborn to even move with it was the practical thing to do, but he opened his mouth--his pouty, childlike, delectable little mouth--to speak again. "You said it yourself, it's been a month since we've been alone together, and I've missed you like hell. And now, because you're 'bushed', you want the two of us to split up and trudge on back to our own separate rooms? I don't think so! No, I want--"

"When did I say anything about going back to our own separate rooms?" I squealed, sounding far too much like a reprimanding father, which did indeed seem strange, considering how...unfatherly...I was feeling at present. "You're perfectly welcome to share my bed, love. It's not as if you've ever been too appalled by the idea."

Draco's lips pursed for a moment before stretching into a lopsided grin. "Don't you think McGonagall might have a teensy problem with the both of us sleeping in your rooms?"

"As if I care what McGonagall thinks!" I growled, not meaning it nearly as much as it sounded like I did. I did, in fact, care what McGonagall thought about some things. After all, I liked having a job. Gainful employment was a big plus. "Besides, McGonagall needn't know...."

Draco lifted himself off of me and sat upright, his pale grey eyes staring down into my green ones. For a moment, I thought he mind start scolding me, calling me irresponsible, but then I remembered that I was usually the one who did the reprimanding while Draco was the irresponsible one.

"You know," he sighed, beaming at me now, "for once in your life, you damned Gryffindor, you're utter disregard for the rules isn't entirely annoying."

***

Five minutes was all it had taken for us to find our way down to my rooms near Gryffindor Tower. We'd pulled ourselves grudgingly from the stone floor of the Astronomy Tower and redressed, sort of--neither of us had bothered to fasten our pants or shirts, and the cloaks we'd been donning were draped carelessly over our arms. I'd prayed to Merlin no one would run into us. They didn't.

And now here we were, Draco doing what little was necessary to remove his clothing while I administered the customary wards to the doors of my chambers. I smiled to myself. Things had been great outside, under the stars, but I was happy even here inside the walls of the castle.

"You coming?" I heard Draco whisper behind me. I spun on my heels to face him. He stood, leaning against the frame of my bedroom door, stark naked, as if it were the most common and natural thing in the world. I sighed, bit my lip, and moved slowly through the darkness toward him.

Draco took my hand in his and led me into the room. When we reached the bed, we stopped. Draco smiled, eyelash close. He wrapped his hands around my neck, then trailed them down over my shoulders, sliding off my shirt. I loved this, this happy familiarity. I loved that my heart didn't flutter when Draco undressed me, because it was a fact of life, had been a fact of life for four years. Draco was going to undress me, and we were going to climb into bed, and that was that. Some people hated committed long-term relationships for that very reason, but not me. Besides, when you put two individuals as dynamic as Draco and me together, it wasn't likely that things were ever going to become stagnant, not really. Just comfortable. And this, I thought as Draco pushed my pants down over my hips, this was my comfort zone.

I fell backward onto the bed. Draco was quick to follow suit, carefully positioning one knee on either side of my legs so that he was straddling my lap. His hands reached to caress my face, fingers brushing gently over my jaw and my brow and then trailing down my nose and over my lips. I kissed them lightly.

Draco's tongue darted out to wet his lips, and then he smiled, almost sadly, at me. "You have no idea how good you look to me right now, Harry."

My eyes narrowed. "I'm bushed, remember? I want to go to sleep."

"I know," Draco sighed, nodding. "I didn't mean...." He never finished. Instead, he leaned into me, wrapped both arms tightly around my shoulders, and buried his face in my hair. "Besides," he murmured, "we wouldn't want to sully these opulent bedclothes of yours."

"I'll thank you not to ridicule the comforter I spent two thousand galleons on," I grumbled, pulling back far enough to give him a reproachful glare. "Spun from unicorn tail, that is."

Draco scoffed. "Honestly, you and your pretty things...I'll never understand it."

"Don't say you don't notice them."

His face came close, his nose brushing ever so lightly against the tip of mine. His hands slipped into my hair gently. The breath Draco was about to release died on his lips. I tilted my head upward, bringing our mouths together for one sweet instant, then pulled back from him, eyes still closed, smiling, happy to feel the warmth of Draco's smooth cheek against mine.

"I do, love," he whispered. "I do, indeed."

FIN