A Promise is a Promise

A Promise is a Promise

"I promise to bring you chocolates!"

Harry stopped walking and turned. "What?"

Draco fidgeted, fingers picking slightly at the hem of his jumper. "I promise to bring you chocolates. Whatever kind you like."

Harry frowned at him and Draco scowled in return, hands dropping to his sides as he straightened up.

"You promise to bring me chocolates," Harry repeated slowly. "Why? So I'll conveniently forget that you turned my best friend into a frog? So I'll keep shagging you?" Draco winced as Harry's voice got louder. "You turned Ron into a frog, Malfoy! A fucking frog!"

Draco couldn't help himself. "Actually, it was a toad."

Harry threw his hands up in disgust. "I don't care what it was! You turned him into something he should never have been turned into. And you expect me to forgive that because you promise to bring me chocolates?"

Later Draco would realize that the entire idea was rather stupid, but it wouldn't occur to him until that evening when he was lying alone in his bed listening to Crabbe and Goyle snoring.

When Draco nodded in reply, Harry told him precisely what Draco could do with his bastard chocolates and stormed off down the corridor.

Really it hadn't exactly been Draco's idea to turn Weasley into a toad. Pansy had been the one to nonchalantly mention that she wondered if Weasley would be a red toad and Draco had found his curiosity piqued enough to try it.

Turns out Weasley would, and did. Draco, however, had not foreseen Harry's immediate anger or the fact that he'd stop fooling around with him. Walks to class were rather boring when there was no one to pull into empty broom closets.

Draco scowled across the Great Hall. Weasley was back to his usual self, all signs that he'd been a rather large amphibian completely removed, and yet Harry still hadn't spoken one word to him.

In fact, Harry had not even looked at him. Something had to be done.

"I need to go to Hogsmeade," Draco announced to the Slytherin table. Everyone ignored him.

Draco stood up and placed his hands flat on the table, leaning forward and nearly yelling directly in Blaise's ear. "I said, I need to go to Hogsmeade."

This earned him some attention, as Pansy finally looked up from the Daily Prophet Crossword Puzzle in front of her and Blaise shot him a rather disgruntled look.

"Why do you need to go to Hogsmeade, Draco?" Pansy asked in a bored tone of voice.

"I need to buy something."

Pansy rolled her eyes and turned back to her crossword puzzle. "Well, you're going to have to wait until next weekend. That's when the next Hogsmeade trip is."

Draco, who was not accustomed to waiting for anything when he really wanted it, found this statement unacceptable. "I don't want to wait!" He closed his mouth when he realized the entire Great Hall was staring at him, and while he usually loved being the center of attention, the one person he wanted to be looking at him was not. In fact, Harry was no where to be found; he'd apparently left the room at some point.

"Bugger," Draco said, with feeling.

***

Since getting to Hogsmeade was not an option, Draco did the next best thing: he owled his mother.

Narcissa responded to the request of chocolate by sending Draco a very expensive box of imported chocolate-covered caramels. But before Draco had a chance to give them to Harry, Goyle ate them.

Apparently it had not occurred to Goyle that expensive chocolates might actually belong to someone.

Draco tried to get his mother to send another box, and while Narcissa usually did whatever her son asked, she refused this time, saying Draco shouldn't be eating so much chocolate because it wasn't good for him.

In desperation (after all, it had now been five days since he and Harry had last shagged), Draco did something he'd later realize was really unbelievably stupid: he ordered chocolates off a flier for the Weasley twins' new shop that was hanging on the Notice Board.

They arrived in a rather inconspicuous package: a simple box wrapped in yellow paper with the twins' logo on the top. These chocolates also failed to make their way to Harry, for which Draco was immensely grateful after finding out what exactly they did.

It was Millicent this time who ate the chocolates, confusing them with the ones her mother had sent from Austria, which were wrapped in similar paper. Poor Millicent spent the next two days in the Hospital Wing as Madam Pomfrey removed the various animal parts and bird feathers.

Who knew that getting Harry chocolates would turn out to be so bloody difficult? He should have just offered something simpler, like a sexual favor. Draco was desperately wishing for one of those. Seven lonely nights had once again gotten him reacquainted with his right hand, which Draco decided was a poor substitute indeed.

Luckily for Draco the weekend had finally rolled around, and he was hoping that after a trip to Honeydukes and a bit of pleading all would be well again. It would be nice to get back to normal.

So Draco set off across the grounds that morning with Pansy and Blaise at his sides. Both were very curious about why Draco was behaving so strangely; his sudden interest in chocolates had, in fact, gotten the attention of his entire House.

He nearly sighed in relief as he opened the door to Honeydukes and quickly walked over to the back shelves where the chocolates were stored. Deciding not to take any more chances, he purchased three boxes. He had the woman behind the counter carefully wrap them up: nothing was going to go wrong this time.

Draco had one other near mishap in the Three Broomsticks when Crabbe sat on the package, but Draco figured that slightly squished chocolates would still taste just fine and was thankful that the damage was not worse.

He returned to Hogwarts, clutching the chocolates protectively to his chest. Now he just needed to find Harry. Dinner was uneventful that evening and Draco ate quickly, nearly choking on his Shepard's Pie as he wanted to be ready to go when Harry was finished eating.

As Harry stood up, Draco nearly toppled over the bench in his rush to leave. He ignored the weird looks he was getting and Pansy's exclamation of his name, nearly running out of the Great Hall.

Harry was already halfway up the stairs, and Draco hurried after him.

"Harry!" he called out breathlessly.

Harry stopped, but did not turn around.

Draco approached him slowly, unsure of what he might do. He stayed close to the banister, keeping as much distance between them as possible, until he'd managed to pass Harry and stand in front of him.

Harry didn't speak. He had a frown on his face and didn't look particularly happy to see Draco.

"Harry," Draco said again, bringing his hand up slowly to show the box. "I brought you chocolates, like I said I would."

Harry arched an eyebrow. "So I see."

Draco handed the box to him, and Harry took it somewhat reluctantly. "I'm sorry they're kind of squashed. Crabbe sat on them."

Harry gave a small grin. "That's all right. I'm sure they taste just fine." He took another step up the stairs, looking like he was going to leave, and Draco panicked.

"Harry, I'm sorry. I should never have turned Weasley into a toad. It was a stupid thing to do. You don't know how much trouble I've had getting you these blasted chocolates. Goyle ate the first box and my mother refused to send me another, so I was forced to order some from the Weasley twins, which was a phenomenally bad idea, and Millicent ate those and spouted bird feathers and a cat's tail, and, and...." He stopped talking when Harry held up a hand.

"I know all of that. Everyone's been quite interested in your new-found love of chocolates, you know."

Draco blinked. "What? You knew?"

Harry smirked. "Of course I knew. I thought it was rather amusing. And a fitting punishment, at that."

Draco frowned. "It was not amusing." He left off the part about it being a fitting punishment because he felt that Harry had a point, although Draco would never tell him that.

Harry grinned. "It was." He took another step and pushed Draco backwards until he was standing on the first floor landing, then stepped up to meet him. He brought his free hand up to Draco's face and ran his thumb lightly over Draco's mouth. "Thank you. For the chocolates, and the apology."

Draco shrugged. "You're welcome."

Harry's eyes took on a dangerous glint. "How many boxes of chocolates did you buy today?"

"Three," Draco said cautiously. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason, really. Except that I can think of lots of things to do with so many chocolates. So many, in fact, that I think we should get a head start on them. Don't you agree?" Harry's grin had turned absolutely devilish and Draco felt himself grow hard in response. It had, after all, been seven days.

"Definitely," Draco said, pulling Harry in for a kiss.

~*Fin*~