Reckless Abandon (Drarry)

Chapter 5

"Oh, there you are." Ron sat down at Harry's cafe table, and the new recruit, Nathaniel, took the other chair. Just seeing his young, fresh face and his quick movements made Harry feel a hundred years old.

Harry greeted them, and concentrated on trying to look normal as he sipped his coffee as they chatted about the Quidditch game the previous night. His shoulders were really stiff this morning.

"What did you think of that final goal?" Nathaniel asked Harry. He had been OK to work with so far, treating Harry more like a co-worker than The Chosen One.

Harry shrugged. "Sorry, I didn't catch it."

Ron smirked and gave Harry a hearty slap to the back that almost had him whimpering aloud in pain. "Oh, he hardly has time to follow sport. Harry is always either showing me up by working extra hours or throwing on his dress robes to go speak at some charity gala."

Harry glared a little at Ron for his summary of his life to the new guy, but pinned on his normal smile to turn back to Nathaniel. "Well, there are so many good causes out there. People are always asking me to help out..." He shrugged.

"You know, I had an aunt who won big at the lottery a few years ago, and the same thing happened to her. Suddenly, people were always approaching her, asking for donations, and she had a really hard time saying No since they all sounded like good causes." Nathaniel said, sipping his latte.

Ron leaned forward, smirking. "I wouldn't mind having that problem if it came with all that money."

Shaking his head, Nathaniel put his mug down. "It got so bad she hardly felt comfortable leaving the house."

Harry had no problem relating to that. He often had to steel himself to go out and try to live a normal life, especially when the Daily Prophet put out a new story about him. "Did it ever get better for her?"

"Oh yeah," Nathaniel smiled broadly at Harry. "She just started a charitable foundation and hired someone to screen all the requests for her. After that, she just told people to contact the foundation, and it didn't take long before people mostly left her alone in public."

Harry chuckled, and leaned back in his chair. "Maybe I should do that." He made the mistake of letting his back touch the chair, and tried to not wince in pain.

"Oh, I have a second cousin who would be perfect! Clementine just finished some kind of office management course and I swear she is smarter than Hermione." Ron gushed, and gulped down the rest of his coffee. "I'll go right now and send her an owl so you can meet her."

"Wait, Ron..." Harry tried to grab his arm but missed, not moving as quickly as he normally did, and Ron rushed off without noticing. The idea was a good one, but Harry would rather choose his own person than get stuck with some misfit cousin of Ron's out of politeness.

Nathaniel was looking at Harry in a strange way. "Are you feeling alright? You are moving so stiffly."

"I'm OK. I just have a small injury the healers couldn't fix for now, and I keep moving a little too much." Harry tried to make his tone blasé, like it was normal to have untreated injuries.

Nathaniel nodded, not looking entirely convinced. His skepticism showed he had good natural instincts as an auror, but Harry needed him to drop this issue. Especially if he was going to be sore every week for a few months.

Harry leaned in a little closer, and lowered his voice. "Don't tell anyone, but I kind of avoid healers unless it's a really bad injury. Someone at St. Mungos always seems to leak information to the Daily Prophet, and everything gets all exaggerated. I'd rather have a bit of pain than deal with all that."