Your Fortnightly Drarry Story (Back by Popular Demand)

14. The Mystery of the Green Tie

Draco lay in Harry's bed the next morning, watching Harry pull on his three-quarter length jacket over the matching waistcoat and trousers for his second day of interviews.

'Have you got a green tie?' Draco asked, a wicked glint in his grey eyes.

Harry rooted in his drawer and found a forest-green tie and handkerchief set. It had a lime and emerald green paisley pattern to it.

'Mione bought it for me for Christmas. I'd forgotten I'd got it.'

'Perfect, it looks good against the black and highlights your eyes,' Draco said. 'I didn't know you even possessed a suit like that.'

'Yeah, well, I don't like wearing it, I feel like your father.'

Draco grimaced. 'I can absolutely confirm that you look nothing like my father. You're far better looking. I think it's your ridiculously messy bed hair, it drives me wild, you know. Plus, you lack the arrogance and pomposity of my father.'

'I quite like it when Faye writes me in outrageously fancy suits with leather trousers. Perhaps I should ask her to take me shopping.'

'I think you're becoming obsessed with leather trousers.'

'I'm rebelling. I'm quite clearly coming out as gay so I might as well wear leather trousers too,' (though Harry thought that perhaps it would be Draco who looked better in leather trousers with his long slender legs).

'Are you coming out? I mean, what do you intend with regards to this... us...'

Harry watched the insecurity hovering behind a fragile mask and sat on the edge of the bed.

'What do you want to do?' Harry asked.

'Can we wait a bit? Things are going to go a bit mental, aren't they, because it's you. I don't want to hide but I'd just like to grab a little bit of time with just us.'

'So, we just do what we want and don't make a big deal of it. No public announcements or anything. At some moment, we'll go to a public function together and everyone can work it out for themselves.'

'Yes,' said Draco quietly. 'That would be perfect. And no doubt our friends will guess soon enough, given their unsubtlety in the matter...'

Harry quirked a lopsided smile and rolled his eyes. 'Bloody Ron... Dray, I don't want to assume but are we official? You know, boyfriends or partners or whatever.'

Draco raised a discerning eyebrow. 'I don't just do this with anybody, Potter. I expect exclusivity. So, yes.'

'Okay,'

Harry smiled. The confirmation made him feel very light inside and just a bit squidgy. He leant over and gave Draco a quick kiss before he got up and picked up the tie.

'You don't think wearing a green tie is a bit Slytherin?' said Harry as he held up the tie. He shrugged to himself.

Draco was right, it did bring out his eyes. Maybe that was why Faye always wrote him in green t-shirts too (maybe he should buy some, along with the leather trousers and some of those ripped jeans). As he tucked the matching handkerchief in his breast pocket he wondered what had happened to Sirius's old bike jacket (did Sirius even have a bike jacket? Harry supposed so considering he'd owned that bike).

'You are a Slytherin, you've already established that. Be proud of the fact. Or simply enjoy the fact that they'll be distracted by it and thinking where the hell did you get that tie, just like in the stories. You know, we could have real fun, playing with all the clichéd tropes they write about us.'

'Are you going to get ready for work?' Harry said, ignoring Draco's comment.

'I'm not going in until ten. Remember me starting my shift later than everyone yesterday and no one bothering to fucking tell me you weren't in and I thought you were trapped in that building, that you were dead.'