Strong hands stroking Harry's hair drew him out of the realm of sleep and into the waking world. He tipped his head back and cracked open his eyes to meet the soft gray gaze of Draco Malfoy. He traced his fingers down to Harry's shoulders, then pressed his palms down his chest. He ducked under Harry's right antler and pressed a kiss into the crook of his neck.

"It would have been nice to wake up next to you," Harry said as he freed himself from his cushion sarcophagus and bent stiff, sore joints.

"Maybe I should have a custom bed made," Draco said. "Come on, there's coffee and tea and pastries in the kitchen."

Harry followed him to the small table that was tucked into the corner of the tidy and efficient space. The formal dining room beyond was dark, and Harry wondered if it was ever used. A house elf stood on a stepstool at the counter, pouring tea into a teapot and coffee into a carafe. He then brought it on a tray to the table before Disapparating.

"It's strange to still have house elves, isn't it?" Harry asked. "You care for non-human magical creatures but you keep a house elf."

"He's here by his own choice," Draco said. "He's free to come and go. I compensate him for his services."

"Do you?"

"Of course I do." Draco gazed at him levelly. "What kind of cognitive dissonance would I have to possess to keep a house elf against his will while providing care for his kin?"

"Right," Harry ducked his head. It was a silly idea, he supposed. He poured a cup of coffee and took a big sip. "I'm surprised you want to run your practice this way. Seems like other healers don't approve and you've been in trouble in the past."

"My past trouble had nothing to do with non-human magical creatures," Draco said.

"Muggles?" Harry asked.

"It's public record," Draco shrugged.

"Not really," Harry said. "Hermione looked it up. There wasn't much to learn."

Draco sat back in his chair and gazed thoughtfully at his pastry as he chewed. Finally he shrugged. "The accusation was true. I did provide magical care to a muggle man."

"In Brazil?"

"I was visiting for a week," Draco said. "I had finished with training and wanted to visit South America again before starting practice. I'd been before but I was intrigued by Rio de Janerio. The wizarding community there is very different from ours. It's influenced by Catholicism and mixed with symbols of the slave culture. Lots of tribal magic."

Harry was fascinated. The Draco he had known in school would have turned up his nose at the idea of African tribal magic. It was amazing what traveling the world had done for him.

"I spent some days mingling with the muggle tourists," Draco continued. "On the third day my guide mentioned that his father was injured. He said they couldn't afford to have him mended. I asked to see him." He paused and sipped from his tea cup but Harry could see the slight tremble of his hand. Clearly the memory still bothered him.

"His family lived in abject poverty," he said softly. "The house was hardly standing, mostly corrugated sheet metal bound together at the corners. His father was suffering badly. He was a bricklayer and he had fallen a week prior. Shattered his knee. He couldn't walk, he couldn't work, his family was desperate." He sipped from his cup again and then braced it between both hands. "I told his son to lay his hands on his father's leg. I told them all to close their eyes and pray in the name of Jesus. And when they were all praying I took out my wand," he took a deep breath and shook his head, "and I mended his bones."

"Merlin," Harry gasped. This was no small infraction. Using magic to heal a muggle was strictly forbidden. To do it where there were witnesses was unforgivable.

"They weren't stupid, they knew it was me," he went on. "I mean they thought it was their faith but they knew I helped make it happen." He took a shuddering breath. "So I ran, and when I could I Disapparated back to my hotel room, and then I took a port key back home."

"How did the Ministry find out?" Harry had forgotten all about his coffee. With a start he took a big gulp and grabbed a pastry.

"Word started spreading of the miracle healer," Draco closed his eyes. "A fair-skinned, blond man, sent by The Lord himself. The local Wizarding Counsel investigated, then correlated it back to my visit, and sent word to England.

"But they couldn't prove it?"

"The muggles never actually saw me do anything. Besides, I don't use my real name with tour guides," he said. "Just in case the name Malfoy is known and hated."

"Wow," Harry shook his head. "You almost ruined your career to help a muggle."

"I know," Draco nodded grimly.

"I never would have expected that."

Draco smiled weakly. "Neither would I." He sat forward and looked up at Harry intensely. "If I learned anything from my time in the war, and from my travels afterwards, it's that no one should have to suffer without any hope of salvation. To rob someone of hope is to take everything from them. I never had hope. And when I traveled I saw hopelessness that made what I experienced seem like a sunny walk in the park. No one should have to suffer because they can't afford to be healed. Good health shouldn't be reserved for the privileged."

Harry nodded, struck speechless by Draco's fierce stare. He reached across the table and grasped his hand, and hoped that was enough to convey the awe that he couldn't voice.

0oOo0

Harry waited in the lounge while Draco saw two patients, then after lunch they found themselves up in the master bedroom, Harry on top, seated on Draco's cock and thrusting with his hips in flushed-faced, sweaty abandon. Draco's eyes rolled up in his head in mindless ecstasy, and when he came his back arched high enough to lift Harry from the bed.

They collapsed next to each other on the mattress, once again separated by Harry's impossible antlers. He laid on his stomach and tilted his head so the left side angled off of the edge of the mattress and offered his neck some relief.

"Any new ideas about my Patronus?" Harry asked. "Shall we get a prying bar and try to unwedge it by force?"

Draco handed him his glasses and cleared his throat, which had gone raspy after his rather vocal show of appreciation for the orgasm. "I'm not sure how to solve this," he said. "The Reflecto Patronum spell drove your spirit animal deep inside of you. I don't know how to coax it back out."

"Some Healer you are," Harry joked.

"Says the man who ate his own Patronus," Draco shot back.

"The Reflecto Patronum reflected my stag back at me," Harry said. "If only there was a way to re-reflect it and bounce it back out."

Draco's eyes flew open. He shot straight up in bed and stared at Harry in amazement. "Potter, you brilliant bastard."

"I what now?" Harry sat up, too.

"The spell reflects or reverses the Patronus," Draco said. "The way to reverse it is to reverse it again."

"I don't follow."

"You don't have to," Draco grabbed Harry by the antlers and yanked his face in close. "We need Granger."

A mad scramble to get dressed, and a Disapparation to Ginny and Hermione's flat, and they were just in time to catch Harry's friends before they headed out for the Weasley family's Christmas Eve festivities.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny stood in the living room, packing up their presents and edible gifts, and gawking at the sudden and unannounced appearance of their antlered friend and their former school nemesis.

"Malfoy," Hermione found her voice first.

"Granger," Draco nodded respectfully. "How are your centaur friends?"

"They're well, thank you," she furrowed her brow at Harry. "What's going on? You look as white as a ghost."

"Draco had an idea," Harry blurted out. "Do you have a minute?

Draco was right, Hermione did indeed understand his proposed cure. She in turn explained it to Harry. It was simple. The Reflecto Patronum had bounced his spell back inside of himself. Cast again, it should reverse it once more and bounce it back out.

The trick was casting it. Expecto and Reflecto had to be spoken at the exact same moment. If not, the spell would fail. Harry and Hermione practiced saying their respective words at the same time. They practiced emphasizing the second syllable with exactly the same rise in tone, and uttered the second word with the same urgency. They stood across from each other in the small living room, Draco, Ron, and Ginny seated at the dinette table, an unlikely trio if there ever was one.

They counted down, swished and flicked, they spoke the spell in unison, repeating the nearly identical phrases over and over until the cadence was locked in their brains like a song.

"Just try it already," Ginny finally shouted. "We're going to be late for dinner."

"Are we ready?" Hermione asked. She looked to Draco for approval. He nodded grimly.

"Don't laugh at my Patronus," Harry said. "It sort of fizzles these days."

"We're going to fix it, Harry," Hermione raised her wand and took aim. "It won't fizzle much longer."

"I hope you're right;" Harry said as he raised his own wand.

They took a deep breath in synchronized motion, extended their wands together, and counted down.

Three, two, one, focus, swish, cast. "Expecto Patronum!" he shouted.

"Reflecto Patronum!" Hermione called.

White light guttered and flickered at the tip of Harry's wand, and he feared it wasn't working. Then a vortex spiraled out of the tip of Hermione's wand, and the blue light sucked towards its center like a giant Hoover. The light from Harry's wand grew and expanded and swirled towards Hermione's vortex until the light coalesced into the shape of a large, ten-point stag that bounded around the room until it finally dispersed. As the light faded, Hermione's vortex closed on itself until it, too, was gone.

The room went still, everyone gawking in unison at Harry as they waited for something, anything to happen.

Then they heard a tiny snap. Then a crack. Then a crackle and more snaps, and then Harry's antlers broke free from his skull and clattered to the floor. Harry's hands flew to his head and met no remnant of the growths, just normal scalp and hair, not even a pair of bald spots where the antlers had been a moment before.

"Merlin," he gasped, looking up at his friends in utter shock. "Great fucking Merlin."

"It worked!" Draco jumped to his feet. "It worked!"

"It worked!" Harry snapped out of it. He ran to Draco and scooped him up, this time managing to swing him around twice before releasing him with a grunt. Then he swung Hermione around, and then Ginny, and then Ron- well, he offered Ron a hearty back-slapping hug.

"Can I have these?" Ginny asked, holding an antler in each hand. "I want to mount them on my wall."

"I think it's only fair if I get to keep them," Draco said. "I'm the one who figured it out."

"He's right," Harry said. Ginny handed them over with a grumble.

"Thank you," Draco said as he hefted the antlers in his hand. "I always wanted to take ten points from Gryffindor."

Harry and his friends stared at Draco in utter horror.

"How long have you been waiting to say that?" Hermione asked, looking a bit ill.

"I thought of it the first day," Draco said.

"That's the worst pun I've ever heard," Ginny murmured in awed disgust.

"You owe me for that," Harry said. "Honestly, it's a criminally bad joke."

"Don't tell me you hadn't thought of it at least once," Draco protested.

"Just for that I'm going to tell the Ministry Healer to reopen his investigation," Ron shook his head.

"Let's get out of here," Harry shoved Draco towards the Floo. "I need a change of clothes."

"Are you coming by my parents' place tonight?" Ron asked.

"Not tonight," Harry said. "But I'll come by for Christmas dinner tomorrow." He turned to smile at Draco and took his hand. "Tonight I want to celebrate with an antler-free walk in the snow with my boyfriend."

"Is that what you're calling me now?" Draco's cheeks flushed.

"Yes," Harry grinned. "Watch this" he pulled Draco in close and tucked his head into the curve where his neck met his shoulder. Then he kissed his ear and withdrew with a grin. "See? You still have both eyes."

"We're leaving," Ginny made a gagging face and exited the flat with a harrumph. Ron and Hermione bade them good night and followed behind.

Less than an hour later Harry and Draco were back out in the snow, refreshed, relaxed, and walking hand in hand beneath the wreaths and lights of Hogsmeade's Christmas display. Harry plucked a red bulb off of one of the trees and held it over his nose.

"Look," he said. "Rudolph."

"Potter," Malfoy shook his head in disapproval. "You had weeks to make that joke. It's too late."

Harry hung the bulb back on the tree and pretended to sulk. "Still better than your joke."

"My joke was gold," Draco snagged Harry's hand and reeled him in close. "Be a dear and admit it."

"That's terrible, too."

"Look," Draco pointed above their heads, where a bundle of greenery hung from a streetlamp. "Mistletoe."

The snow fluttered down from the distant infinity of the sky, collecting around them in a field of sparkling sugar dust. In a world where magic outnumbered the mundane, Christmas was the most magical thing Harry could think of. He drew Draco in close and kissed him deeply, reveling in the wondrous sensation of fingers gliding uninterrupted through his hair.

They parted and butted their heads together, enjoying the muffled quiet as evening settled over the town.

Harry tipped his head up. "Look," he said. "Mistletoe."

"It's the same mistletoe."

"I know," Harry pulled him in for another kiss.

Draco smiled against his lips and kissed him back. When they parted he gave Harry a warning smirk. Harry grinned back and looked up again.

"Look. Mistletoe."

"Are we going to do this all night?" Draco asked.

"If I have any say in the matter we'll do it for the rest of our lives," Harry said.

Draco chuckled. "Merry Christmas, Harry."

"Merry Christmas, Draco." He tipped his head back. "Look. Mistletoe."

THE END