The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful

Chapter Five: Someone I Used to Love

Raj yelped as she was shoved down on the bar, a wand pressed against her neck. Ginny gaped at her best friend, confused about why he was suddenly attacking her girlfriend. "H...Harry?"

Harry was breathing hard, glaring down at the pub owner before shaking his head and releasing her, pocketing his wand. "I'm leaving." He whispered and turned, heading for the door at a fast clip that was only a step down from a run.

Ginny looked after him helplessly, leaving only when Raj waved her away, holding her throat. Ginny ran after Harry, grabbing his arm, spinning him around to press him against the wall. "What the fuck is your problem, Potter?"

Harry wouldn't look up at her, his hands fisted in his hair as he tried to control his breathing, already hyperventilating. He gasped as a fist collided with his stomach and he jerked his head up, staring at the woman in front of him.

"Gin..."

"What. Is. Your. Problem? You ungrateful arse!"

"Draco." Harry said shortly, still out of breath.

Ginny froze, her mouth dropping open. "Harry...I thought...what?!" She reached out to touch his arm. "Why..."

Harry jerked his arm way from Ginny, glaring at her. "I saw him! He was right there. He's ALIVE!"

"Harry," Ginny said softly. "I thought you had moved past seeing him everywhere." She reached up, gripping his face tightly, forcing his eyes to look into hers. "He's dead, Harry. Draco died ten years ago. Your husband, died, ten years ago. He's not coming back. And you have to let him go."

"I can't," Harry whispered, tears streaming down his face. Ginny hugged him tightly, the pair nearly crushing each other as they clung to one another, tears flowing down both their cheeks. Their legs eventually gave way and they knelt on the ground, just holding on to the only lifelines they still had.

"I miss him too, Harry." Ginny whispered. "He was an obnoxious spoiled brat...but he made me laugh." She closed her eyes, pressing her cheek against the top of his head.

Harry nodded under her head. She was right...she always was right. Draco was gone. He wasn't coming back. And Harry didn't see him standing on the beach, moon shining on his silver-blond hair. That was just another hallucination.

*

"What did you do to him, Draco?" Raj asked, slamming a glass down onto the bar, ignoring the crack that slid up the side.

Draco lifted his head from his hands long enough to drain his glass of whiskey and light a fresh cigarette before returning it.

"DRACONIS! You better fucking answer me, you pure-blooded prick!"

"I didn't do anything, Raj. Not this time at least.." Draco said, breathing out a stream of smoke, watching it with blood shot eyes.

Raj pulled on her hair for a second, the slight pain keeping her from beating on her best friend. "Explain."

"Ten years ago I was married."

"Yes, I know this. Some hot little lover boy that you refuse to talk about."

"Ten years ago, I was married. To one Harry J. Potter." Draco took another drag on the cigarette, not looking at Raj whose jaw dropped open.

*

Harry slowly picked at the label of his beer, dark sunglasses protecting his eyes from the harsh sun as he attempted to cure his hang over with alcohol. He watched as children ran by, laughing, floating Christmas baubles around them with their parent's wands.

A young boy with sun bleached blond hair caught his eye and he watched as the boy ran after what had to be his younger sister, teasing her, a smirk curling over his pink lips.

*

"Thank you," Ginny said, accepting the cup that Raj put in front of her, stirring sugar and cream absently into the dark liquid. "About Harry..."

"I went to Hogwarts with him," Raj interrupted, stirring her own coffee, staring at it as if it could replay those years for her. "With him, and you...and Draco Malfoy."

Ginny blinked, curling her legs under her. She remained silent, wondering what Raj was going to say. This was an unusual topic of conversation.

"I was a year before Harry and Draco. A Ravenclaw no one noticed. But I remember them. I'm sure everyone does. Draco Malfoy, heir of darkness and the Boy-Who-Lived. I watched them for six years. Watched their fights, their competition, their rivalry." Raj still didn't look up from her coffee, tears falling from her chin as she remembered events long since past.

*

Harry watched the boy for an hour, until the boy's mother started yelling at him and the sound of a scraping chair distracted him. He looked up as a blond sat across from him, leaning back in the chair slightly, watching him out of dark sunglasses.

"Excuse me, but I want to be alone." Harry said and the blond raised an eyebrow, still staring at him silently.

*

"For four years I watched them be children. And then I watched them become soldiers. I never wanted to see what they saw, never wanted to do what they did. I never wanted to be there, to see one of them die. Draco was a friend of the family. And Harry...Harry was something special. I didn't want to see war."

"But.." Ginny said and then went silent, thinking.

"I left, the day after Hogwarts ended for the year. I ran from what was going on in England. I found enough galleons in my vault to come here and open up the pub. The only condition...was I put Draco Malfoy's name on the deed along with mine. Three years later...I found something on my doorstep I thought I had left behind."

*

"Please, just leave." Harry said again, a bit more forceful, one hand sliding down to the wand on his hip. The blond still silently appraised him before setting the chair's legs completely on the ground, leaning closer. His lips brushed over Harry's softly, un demanding and sweet.

Harry's eyes fluttered closed against his will and the smell of roses that invaded his senses identified his kisser. His eyes fluttered open again and he smiled softly, pulling his lover in for another, deeper kiss before pulling away.

He opened his mouth to say something but suddenly felt the air rush out of the parted lips as the man silently removed his glasses, blinking cool grey eyes at him. "No.." he finally managed to gasp out, "You're dead."

*

Ginny blinked and then started as Raj tossed a photograph onto the table next to Ginny's cup. She looked down at the photograph, staring at the grey eyes smiling up at her.

"I don't know what happened between him and Harry. I don't want to know. It was ten years ago. I just know the man I've been living with the past two days, isn't the man I love. Something inside him is broken, and has been since Harry and you showed up on this island. I can't fix him, Gin. Only your friend can do that."

"How...how can this be possible? Draco Malfoy's dead."

*

"I'm afraid I'm very much alive," Draco said softly, watching Harry, hoping his lover wasn't about to pass out, keel over or hit him.

"No...you're dead. I buried you myself."

Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Belive what you want, Harry." He said, fumbling in his pockets for a cigarette. Finding his mangled pack he tried to find a lighter, only to find a flame in front of his nose. He looked up to Harry whose eyes were cold bits of emerald.

*

"His father killed him."

"I don't know anything about that, I just know that for ten years I've been sharing my life with Draco Malfoy. The same Draco I've always known. I don't know what he was running from...but he's here, and very much alive."

"That fucking bastard," Ginny growled, her hands trembling with rage. Everything he put Harry through, everything he put her through...and the bastard had been here, alive and happy the whole fucking time.

*

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked, his voice low. He wouldn't look at Draco, too angry and hurt to even think of looking into the face he loved so much.

"You." Draco said simply, taking a drag from his cigarette.

Harry snorted. "Don't you think it's a bit late for that? I'm twenty-nine now. And you've been dead to me for ten years."

"But I'm not now?"

"Yes you are, you just don't know enough to stay in your fucking grave."

*

"I'm going to fucking kill him!" Ginny roared and Raj rolled her eyes, lighting up a cigarette. "No, I'm going to tear him to pieces and do a little jig on them."

"Ginerva!" Raj finally snapped, tired of this rant that Ginny had been on for about five minutes. "Whatever happened, happened ten years ago. Draco loved Harry, with everything he had. Even I can see that and I wasn't there! At least give him a chance to explain. He obviously wants to change things or he would have just run the moment he saw Harry."

Ginny sat down heavily, burring her head in her hands. "Why did he run?" she whispered softly, tears in her voice.

*

"You've spent your life being the number one on Voldemort's hit list. You've spent your life with death stalking you." Draco said to the silence. "I don't know how the hell you handled it." He took a deep drag on his cigarette, blowing out smoke rings, trying to get his thoughts in order. "They wanted me."

"They've wanted you since the moment you were born." Harry finally said, the growl getting more pronounced in his voice.

Draco shook his head. "Not as a Death Eater this time. They wanted me for what I was to you. Your lover, your husband. They wanted to use me to get to you...to break me in order to find you. I...I love you, Harry. You are everything to me."

"So you ran away like a little trampy coward to protect me? Bullshit, Malfoy. You ran away to save yourself. Because you're weak."

"Your point? Yes I was fucking scared of them, what they would do to me. I was scared of how much I loved you, how much I meant to you. I was scared of what you were doing to me. So I ran. I used my father to fake my death and ran with my tail between my legs. You would expect anything more from me?"

Harry finally looked up at Draco, torn between wanting to strangle the prat and straddle him until they both moaned. "What do you want, Draco?"

"I want my husband back."

"Well it's too fucking late now, isn't it?" He said before throwing money onto the table and standing. "Don't come near me again."

"Just try to keep me away, Potter." Draco said, his eyes narrowing. "You're mine, Harry. You always have been and you always will be. Nothing can change that. You're still MY. HUSBAND."

Harry pulled a chain over his head and threw something at Draco who hissed as the sharp metal and gems cut his flesh. "Not anymore." Harry said before walking away.

Draco leaned over and picked up the object, staring at Harry's wedding ring.