Christmas Story 2018 - In the Spirit, part 17 (H/D)

[sesheta66]

Title: In the Spirit – Part 17
Author: sesheta_66
Prompts used: slythindor100’s early bird prompts 22: Don’t worry when we fight note and 24: ice skating (pictures under the cut) and dracoharry100’s prompts 27: work interferes with plans and 30: ice skating
Word Count: 1.7K
Rating: PG, for now
Warning: none
Summary: Harry had a rough Christmas last year, to say the least. But things are looking up this year, and he plans to embrace the season, even if he is still single.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Written for the slythindor100 Early Bird 25 Days of Draco and Harry and the dracoharry100 Christmas Challenge.

On LJ: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |
Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16

OR on AO3



In the Spirit – Part 17

"Harry, got a minute?" Ron, not waiting for an answer, strolled into his office and planted himself down in Harry’s guest chair.

Harry frowned. "Not really. I was supposed to take Teddy skating in ten minutes but Robards scheduled a meeting with me. He wants an update on that stupid niffler jewellery case in half an hour and I need to prepare."

"Any good leads?" When Harry shook his head, he said, "I’ll make it quick, then."

Harry sighed and pointedly looked at his clock. "You have five minutes. No more."

"I’ll be out before that, mate." He tossed a card across Harry’s desk. It had the typical Christmas cover, complete with fully decorated tree and gift-wrapped parcels beneath. When he opened it, however, instead of Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, it said "Don’t worry when I fight with you, worry when I stop because it means there’s nothing left for us to fight for."



He looked up at his friend in bewilderment. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? The card wasn’t even signed.

"What do you think?" Ron asked.

"About what?"

"The card, obviously."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Funny, I’d worked that bit out for myself. But what about it?"

"Do you think it’s okay?"

"Look, Ron, I’ve got a meeting to prepare for and I’m already going to be late picking up Teddy. Ask me a question that maybe, just maybe, doesn’t require me to read your mind."

Ron shuffled in his seat and picked up the card. "Mione and I had a fight."

"No, really?" This was no shock to Harry since bickering was pretty much how they’d spent half their time together since their school days.

Ron looked up at him with desperation. That got Harry’s attention. "This was a big one. Not like the usual. But, well, I love her and I love Rose and I love my life, only ..."

"Only sometimes you’d like the freedom to do whatever you’d like?" Harry’d known this about Ron, particularly when he’d been left out of the pub nights. And whether out of guilt or duty, Ron had skipped quite a few lately.

"Exactly! You understand."

Harry scowled. "Not really. You’ve got an amazing and very understanding wife. If you needed space once in a while – a night out with your mates, for instance – she’d be fine with that."

"You think?"

"Of course. But then you’d need to do the same for her. Without waiting until she asks. Let her know you appreciate everything she does."

"I do!"

"I know that, but does she? Do you tell her?"

"I --"

"Look, Ron, we’re best mates. We always will be. But Hermione’s my friend too. And she’s an amazing woman. I don’t know why she ever started hanging out with the likes of the two of us, never mind marrying you. Don’t fuck it up."

Ron opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. He looked at the card. "So, the card."

"Did you buy that for her or the other way round?"

"I bought it. I let the woman in the store convince me it was a good one. You know, because we fight a lot, but ..."

"Then give it to her, tell her you love her, and tell me what night you need off. I’ll take Rose and you take your wife for a night on the town. Then you can talk about all this uninterrupted." Harry knew how difficult actual conversations could be sometimes with little humans around.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Now go back to work so I can get back to mine."

"Thanks, Harry."

"Sure." He didn’t know quite when he’d turned into a marriage counsellor, or why anyone would come to him when his longest relationship had been with Ginny (and look at how that’d turned out) but he supposed he knew his friends best. And he’d been mediating things between them for years now. If only he could do something about his own love life.

Fifteen minutes later, there was another knock at his door. "I told you, Ron, I’ve a meeting with Robards in --" He finally looked up from his papers to see a tentative Teddy and smirking Malfoy at his door. "Er ... sorry, thought you were Ron coming for more advice."

Malfoy raised a brow. "Do tell."

Harry tossed his quill onto the desk and, ignoring Malfoy, addressed Teddy. "Hey, little man. Did your Grandma tell you I had to work late?"

He seemed to relax when Harry motioned them in. "Yup, but when I told Draco, he said we needed to come right over here."

Harry looked up at the still smirking man. "Oh, he did, did he? And why might that be?"

Malfoy pulled a paper takeaway bag from behind his back, dropped it on Harry’s desk and said, "We have it on good authority that you probably have not eaten a proper amount of food to sustain a grown man."

Harry looked at the bag, then at Malfoy, then at Teddy. "What?"

"Grandma says you never take care of yourself. She told us you never do when you work late. So Draco said that we would take care of you."

Malfoy cleared his throat. "Actually, what I said was that we would remedy the situation." He looked at Harry. "Did you eat today?"

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Toast and tea this morning."

"Right. So you’re to eat that." He pointed to the bag, which was now emitting a delicious scent. "I will not be accused of outshining you at skating simply because you’d weakened yourself before our outing."

"But—"

"Just eat, Potter. We won’t keep you any longer. When do you think you’ll be done?"

Harry, despite feeling rather perplexed at this odd turn of events, didn’t have time to figure out what was going on, so he just went along. "Briefing in a quarter of an hour. Can’t imagine it’ll take longer than twenty or thirty minutes."

"Perfect. Young Theodore and I will find something to occupy our time for the next hour." He turned to Teddy. "We can get that item we were discussing for Christmas." He returned his gaze to Harry. "Shall we meet you back here or at the ice rink in an hour?"

Harry grinned at the surreal nature of the situation. Draco Malfoy bringing him dinner at the office. If he didn’t have to meet with Robards, he’d have spent time dwelling on it, but since he didn’t have the luxury of time, he just answered. "Best come back here, if you don’t mind. That way, if I’m longer than I expect with Robards, you won’t be waiting in the cold for me."

"You won’t be long, will you?" Teddy asked.

"No, sir. Not if I can help it. As soon as I’m done, we will go skating, as planned."

"Eat up, Potter. I expect you to keep up."

Harry chuckled. "Will do."

"Come on, you," Malfoy said to Teddy, guiding him out the door. "We have shopping to do."

As they reached the doorway, Harry belated said, "Thanks, Malfoy."

Malfoy waved away his thanks and was gone.

***

Precisely one hour later, the three of them were on their way to the ice rink. When they arrived, Harry knew it had been the right decision to come on a weeknight, despite having been delayed at work. The rink was pleasantly open, with enough people present to go relatively unnoticed, but empty enough to allow freedom of movement, rather than the sometimes boring follow-the-crowd flow around the rink. And with the sun gone for the night and the mix of Christmas and office lights on in the background, it was a perfect setting.



Malfoy, as it turned out, hadn’t been lying. He was very good on skates. But Harry, as luck would have it, was also rather adept on the ice. The two of them skated circles around Teddy, much to his amusement, and did weaves and bobs on request from him, his vibrant hair morphing through a rainbow of colours mostly hidden underneath his hat as he laughed at their antics.

"Harry! Draco! Teddy!" Luna’s voice called as they skated off for a hot chocolate break. "Fancy seeing you three here."

Harry and Draco both rolled their eyes as Teddy dove in for a hug. "Hi, Luna! What are you doing here? Are you going to skate with us?"

"Oh, no," she said. "But I am going to get a hot chocolate. Would you like to join me?" She turned to Harry and Malfoy. "I can do this if you two want to continue skating."

Harry snorted. Malfoy said, "Subtle, Lovegood."

"I’m sure I don’t know what you mean," she replied with a less than convincing pout.

"Everyone knows what you mean. Even Potter here."

"Hey!"

"Let’s go, Teddy. They can talk about whatever Draco means while we get a hot chocolate, shall we?"

She left with Teddy dragging her towards the concession stand.

"So she just happened to be here," Harry began.

"After orchestrating this whole thing to begin with," added Malfoy.

"So, for the record, I wasn’t the only one feeling manoeuvred into conversations with you last night?"

Malfoy chuckled. "I think Weasel and Weaselette were the only two uninvolved."

"To be fair, Ron was probably just oblivious."

"No doubt." Malfoy looked back at the ice. "So shall we stand here getting cold, or go back out there?"

"I’m torn between being not wanting to be a pawn in Luna’s game and genuinely wanting to beat your arse."

Malfoy snorted. "No contest, then. You could never resist a challenge." And he took off onto the ice, leaving Harry to catch up.

As Harry worked to catch up, he had a fine view of Malfoy ahead of him. A very fine view. And all at once, he didn’t give a damn about what had got him here. In fact, if things worked out the way he was beginning to hope they would, he might have to thank Luna for her interference.

But for now, as he whizzed past Malfoy and said, "Cheater," Harry had a competition to win.

Part 18

Comments

[lijahlover.livejournal.com]

Oh Im sure Draco has very fine assests. 😈😈😈

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

What a lovely and fun update!

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Very fine. :D

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

Thank you!