Shallow Secrets

Chapter Eleven

"What is it, Harry?" Astoria asks, referring to the envelope Ginny had dropped off about ten minutes ago.

I pull the little silver closure up and pull out the papers and photography paper inside, handing off the envelope to Draco.

I look at the photographs first. They're from Christmas time. Every picture is of the children and Ginny and Hermione and Ron—without me. I was completely absent for most of Christmas, and I know that. It's just hard seeing it in photographs that I was.

As I flip through the photos, I realize one actually wasn't from Christmas. This one had to be recent, as all of the Christmas photos had snow on the ground, where as, this one doesn't.

This one is of Ginny and Seamus Finnigan—kissing. And though that shouldn't have annoyed me, it did. Not because she was with Seamus, but because she didn't tell me. I somehow thought she may have wanted to tell me when she was finally seeing someone, but she didn't.

The papers inside were my divorce papers—signed by one Ms. Ginvra Weasley.

A smile slowly makes it's way onto my face. I am finally a single man again. The definition of 'single' being unmarried.

"Congrats, Harry, you're not married anymore," Astoria laughs, crouching down so Lily could jump on her back.

The children had been called to come see their mother, however, because of Ginny's comments toward Draco, I've decided it might be better if they see her at a later date. They don't seem to mind much, though, as Astoria and Draco have managed to distract them by asking them to chose a movie to watch as a family.

Later on after the children went up to bed, Draco, Astoria and I decided to watch another movie. Well, Astoria watched Nights in Rodanthe while Draco and I stared at each other and talked about how happy we were able to finally be together.

"Well, I'm going to head to bed, goodnight you two," Astoria smiles, dancing out of the room gracefully.

"Goodnight, Tori," Draco smiles back as I say, "Sweet dreams, Astoria!"

Once Astoria is gone, Draco turns back to me and gently caresses my cheek before he leans in and kisses my forehead, both of my cheeks, my nose, and finally, my lips.

I close my eyes and place my hand on the back of his neck gently, letting a light whimper escape my lips.

"Draco, I love you. And I want to thank you for waiting as long as you did for me to come to my senses and tell Ginny. And I want to thank you for accepting my children into your home and becoming another stable parental figure in their lives, along with Astoria," I begin, taking a hold of his hand with my free one. "You are my world, Draco Malfoy, and I want you to know that you genuinely make me happier than I ever have been, especially now that I can do this," I say as I lean in and kiss him. "whenever I want."

Draco smiles, leaning his forehead against mine.

"Harry, do you remember when we went out to celebrate our ten year anniversary and—"

"Almost had an unfortunate run in with Rita Skeeter? Of course. I may be getting old, but I'm not too old to remember that."

"Harry, I can't imagine my life without you. Ten years ago, we were fourteen year old boys, messing around, and look at us now. I'm more in love with you than I ever thought possible and one day, I hope to be with you publicly," Draco smiled, kissing Harry's forehead, lingering slightly.

Harry closed his eyes, reveling in that moment. He could've stayed there forever, in that moment.

Draco wrapped his arms tightly around Harry, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"I love you, Draco Malfoy."

"And I love you, Harry Potter."

Draco and Harry stood, embracing each other tightly, hidden by an alcove in the Leaky Cauldron. They hadn't come in together, and they weren't going to leave together, but the fact that they were together was all that mattered.

Harry was getting tired of lying to Ginny about where he was going and with whom, and Draco was getting antsy waiting for Harry to tell her.

Astoria, Draco's wife, was perfectly fine knowing her husband was happily in a relationship with Harry Potter. All she wanted was for the father of her only son to be happy.

"I know I saw Potter come in here! Where is he?!" the voice of Rita Skeeter floated into the tapestry covered alcove Draco and Harry were hiding behind.

Both men's eyes widened considerably, Draco's hands even dropped from around Harry.

"Why is she always around?" Harry hissed, standing up on his toes to kiss Draco's lips quickly.

Draco seemed to think for a moment before Harry saw his eyes light up.

"Follow me," Draco whispered.

The two men slipped out of the alcove and out the back door, leading to an alleyway behind the pub.

Draco wrapped Harry's arm around his and apparated back to the one and only Malfoy Manor.

Harry looked at his watch, realizing it was almost dinner time.

"I have to get home, Dray. If I come home any time past six, Ginny will have my arse. Once a month this happens, and she's going to figure it out eventually."

"Harry, it's been two years, if she hasn't figured it out by now, she won't."

"She will. But hopefully I'll be able to tell her first."

"Back when we were still young. And really bad at covering our tracks," Draco laughs as we lay, tangled together in our bed.

"Eh, nobody figured it out. Just shut up and kiss me, you fool," I say, running my fingers through Draco's hair.

Draco leans in and presses his lips to mine.

"But on a serious note, how did nobody figure it out that we were seeing each other? We hid it a lot, but there were so many opportunities for people to out us and it never happened," Draco points out, rightfully, I suppose.

There were a lot of opportunities for people to figure out that Draco and I were seeing each other, especially while we were at school, but somehow nobody did. People just ignored the fact that every time Draco Malfoy went AWAL, so did Harry Potter. That and when both of us went AWAL at night, neither of us would be at breakfast the next morning. Nobody ever caught that?

"Dray, we both conveniently disappeared at the same time. And it's not like that was a one-time thing when we sneaked away to have 'alone time', it happened at least a couple times a week. I question whether or not people actually figured it out and just didn't say anything. It couldn't have been hard."

"Maybe people just didn't want to out us. The only thing I wonder is whether or not Granger, Weasley, or Pansy ever figured it out before we told them. They were the closest to us, and inevitably would figure out both of us were conveniently M.I.A at the same times. Especially Granger. She's not as dense as Weasley or Pansy. Don't get me wrong, I love Pansy dearly. She's, aside from Tori, my best friend—excluding my wonderful boyfriend, of course," Draco smiles, kissing me before continuing. "But, she's not the brightest crayon in the box."

"Well, maybe they did, but didn't want to think about what we were out doing so they pushed it out of their heads?" I suggest, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm not sure what you mean. All we did was study," Draco says innocently, his face giving away that he isn't as innocent as he pretends to be.

"Yeah, study each other," I whisper in Draco's ear, flipping us over so I'm on top of him. "Every sound, every curve, every weakness. Dray, I know you better than I know myself."

"And I you."

That's all Draco can get out before my lips hit his, not that he seemed to mind much.

Well, this chapter took a while to get out. Sorry! I hope you all enjoyed though!

xoxo,

K.J