A Walk In The Park (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Four

   It turned out Hermione was still studying at the same uni as Draco and his friends, and would be for a few more years to come. But Harry and Ron had graduated last year, making them a couple of years older than Draco and his friends. Well, not Blaise, who hurried to inform them that he had taken not one but two gap years travelling the world, as if that somehow made him superior. Pansy shook her head at him before grilling Ron about his training to become a police officer, wanting to know an unhealthy amount about mace spray training ("Painful!" was all Ron would say), and Theo chatted to Hermione about how he was thinking of doing a masters and how she'd managed the costs and so on.

Which left Draco with Harry, his jeans and elbows damp with water and a little blood, cider nullifying the stinging of his injuries, Snuffles the puppy between his legs. "You skate often?" Harry asked, taking a sip of his rum and coke, nudging the board propped up by the table with his trainer.

Draco shook his head and tapped his fingers on the cold pint glass. "First time in years."

Harry leant back and frowned at Snuffles, who looked up, appropriately guilty. "You big bully," he chatted at the dog. "You ruined his big moment."

Draco flushed warm again. He's just being nice, he repeated to himself. "What do you do now then?" he asked, keen to deflect the attention off himself. He was also genuinely eager to hear what people did once they graduated. He had been working towards getting into university for so long, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be aiming for anymore. Good marks seemed a little bit abstract against the deluge of life experience he'd finally been allowed to have.

"I'm sort of an assistant at the moment," Harry said, bobbing his head from side to side. "I'm training to work in social care." He smiled in a way that was kind of self-deprecating. "I like kids I guess, families. I'd like to think I could keep some together."

Draco swallowed. "Wow," he said. That was so impressive, so noble.

But Harry followed it up with a laugh. "Rubbish pay, of course," he said, shaking his head. "I'm a glutton for punishment. How about you, what are you studying, you got a plan in mind?"

Draco felt himself get a little smaller. How was he supposed to compete with something as altruistic as that? "Um," he said, feeling stupid. "I'm doing chemistry. Not sure what that's supposed to lead to, but I like it so I guess I'll figure that out in a couple of years."

Harry just shrugged. "I'm still not sure what I'm doing," he admitted, taking another drink. "Neither're half the people I know. You're better off getting a degree in something you enjoy, then working out the details later."

"Oh," said Draco, unaccustomed to this sort of attitude. He was used to being dogged, told what he had to do and when he had to do it by. If it wasn't his parents it was his teachers or his tutors or his professors. Harry's words knocked him off guard a little bit.

"You must be pretty clever, doing something like that," Harry carried on though. "Your parents must be proud."

Draco shrugged. "I think my dad would have preferred me to do law," he said dismissively, purposefully not thinking about the screaming rows he'd had to endure once he'd announced he didn't want to follow in his old man's footsteps. Thank god for student loans, otherwise he would have had no choice but to study what his father made him. "So, you didn't know you wanted to be a social worker?" he asked, switching the focus back to Harry.

He shrugged. "Still don't know if I do. The red tape is horrendous, but right now I'm in the thick of it, helping people, that's what I like." He gave Draco a half-smile. "My degree was in theatre studies."

Draco couldn't help but snort into his cider, imagining Harry prancing about in tights reciting Shakespeare. He himself had always had enough drama in his life without being tempted to put any on a stage.

"Oi!" cried Harry indignantly, digging him in the ribs, but Draco was glad to see he was grinning as he wiped his mouth. "It was mostly theory," he explained, probably guessing Draco's line of thought. "And I always preferred directing to acting."

"Ahh," said Draco raising an eyebrow. "Well I guess that's okay then."

"Why?" asked Harry, a mischievous glint in his eye as he lowered his voice. "Worried I'm some magnificent poof?" He winked, and Draco felt his stomach lurch.

He was glad the conversation opened up then into some film Blaise and Pans had seen recently, as had Harry and Ron, dragging the captivating, green-eyed, soon-to-be-social-worker away from Draco for a second. What did he mean by that? That he was gay, or that it was okay because he wasn't, and therefore Draco had nothing to worry about?

Snuffles rubbed his head on Draco's leg, drawing his attention with his happy, if not slightly gormless face. It wasn't like he was going to make a move anyway, Draco told himself, letting the knot that had appeared in his guts loosen a little bit. He finished his drink and decided a quick exit was probably the safest option.

"Another round?" Pansy announced though, thwarting his plan.

"Oh no," he stammered, looking at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "We've already interrupted your night for too long."

Hermione frowned at him. "You're not interrupting," she said, as if this was obvious, and Pansy gave him a death glare. Maybe she was interested in Harry, Draco thought suddenly. It was selfish of him to have hogged him so far, he'd probably love to talk to Draco's beautiful, heterosexual best friend.

But he didn't seem that interested in Pansy, as he leant towards Draco, a troubled expression on his face. "You don't have to go do you?" he asked.

Draco's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. "Uh," he said, feeling like everyone was looking at him. "No, no I just thought-"

"Excellent," Harry said, not letting him finish. "Same again everyone?"