Happily Ever After I'm Dead

Chapter 7

Draco stumbled out of the fireplace, his cheeks reflecting the color of the flames around him. Note to self: don't floo anywhere when you're already nauseated.

"So...Malfoy are you okay?" The other man's sudden concern threw up a few red flags for Draco. He wasn't sure what to think about the sudden concern, especially the enemy of his childhood.

"Ughn...no. I felt fine before I flooed but now..." He felt himself falling impossibly slowly to the ground. Just before he passed out, he saw those green eyes he had found him staring at more and more as their school life slowly came to a close. He woke up, terribly sore. "Ugh..." His throat felt like someone placed a swelling charm on it.

"Hey. Feeling worse, I take it?" Draco felt himself nodding. "Here. Take this." The brunet placed a vial of red liquid. "It's a potion for motion sickness. I made it because I get floo-sick every now and again." Draco found himself nodding again and before he could protest, the red liquid was making its way down his throat.

Surprisingly he felt much better a few seconds later. He hadn't expected it to do much for him, but it had worked a miracle in his eyes.

"Thanks."

"No problem. I found that since Snape doesn't breathe down my neck anymore, I'm actually pretty good at potions. You hungry?" Draco nodded and followed Harry down to the kitchen.

He then proceeded to attempt to explain to himself exactly what the other man was doing, throwing that batch of dough in the air like that. It looked ridiculous and fun at the same time and he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was doing.

"Exactly what are you doing?"

"Making pizza. Why?"

"What's pizza?" Draco inwardly berated himself for seeming ignorant about something. Surprisingly, Harry didn't tease him for his ignorance, rather he quite nicely summed it up for him.

"It's an Italian dinner. Come here, I'll show you." Draco moved next to him and watched as he explained how to manipulate the dough to do what he wanted it to do. He then spent the next ten minutes tossing pizza dough. He was amazed to find that he actually had fun throwing food around a kitchen, even if he messed up once or twice.

"That's enough, we don't want it too big for the oven." Laughing good-naturedly, Harry took the dough and put all of the toppings of a supreme pizza.

"Wait a minute-how do you know I don't have allergies? What if I died because I couldn't breathe?" Draco chided himself silently for making the brunet feel bad, but the feeling didn't last long.

"Simple. You're smart enough to know to carry an antidote. And even if you forgot that, then you know what you can and can't have. Unless the only thing in that pretty head of yours is nothing but hot air." Draco bit back a retort and managed a smile. The friendly banter was nothing but that, banter. It wasn't worth fighting over.

"Just put the pizza in the oven." After a few moments of silence, Draco's musings were interrupted.

"So, what's your real reason for coming over? I know you said you were lonely, but you didn't have to come to me."

"I did, actually. No one else will deal with me. They don't want to be associated with an ex-Death Eater." He noticed that for once the other hadn't commented on something he had to say. He looked over curiously.

"Can I...Can I see it?"

Draco tilted his head in puzzlement. "See what?"

"The mark." Draco hesitated for only a second before rolling up his sleeve. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

"To think that the reason so many people can't get a job or a spouse or have kids is nothing but a scar so light you have to know what to look for. To think that this is one of the few reminders of why I can't live a normal life." Draco shuddered slightly but corrected him.

"You can have a normal life."

"No. I can't." Draco then watched Harry pull out some other things and quickly gave up trying to find out what was wrong. He knew that he wouldn't find out, at least not at the moment. Clearly it was a touchy subject with him, and he'd have to be careful and tread lightly if he ever wanted to find out what was the matter.

A few hours later, Draco decided to turn in for the night. However, Harry wouldn't let him as he had been ill earlier. He decided to stay for the night instead, although it wasn't exactly his decision. It was more of Harry telling him he was to stay here for the night.