InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Never shall we die"

Harry Potter (ab_harry) wrote in hogwarts_dawn,
@ 2021-05-03 16:22:00

Entry tags:

character: draco malfoy, character: harry potter

RP: Harry/Draco
Who: Harry/Draco
When: Evening, 3 May
Where: Harry's room
What: He's still not sure what to do

He had still not answered Parvati, because he didn't want to rush things. Taking care of the DMLE and the DoM was easy. Regardless of what people thought, he didn't mind having the DoM. He understood that it was important. What he had objected was to time wasted on time travel, because he knew that someone like Sirius would have tried going back. What Parvati was proposing was out of his experience.

He poured himself a glass of firewhiskey, not his first one for the day, and crossed the room barefoot before settling on the couch with Draco. "I've had a request to create a department to advance magical needs, things like music and clothes and other stuff. I don't know what to say."

He ran his fingers through his hair. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea. Me in charge. Maybe at the start to get thing running, but now? I don't do anything all day. I'm bored out of my mind and I can see people are starting to get annoyed and I don't know what to do. I can fight when there's someone to fight, but now-"

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 08:32 pm UTC (link)

Draco could practically see the stress coming off Harry in waves, and wished there was something beyond distracting him that he could do.

"For what it's worth, I think you're doing fine." He shifted, catching one of Harry's hands on the way back from his hair. "I think everyone is this weird combination of bored out of their minds and completely on edge, and it's running tensions high. None of us knows what's going to happen next, but at the same time it's been a good long chunk of nothing. I'd find you a Dark Wizard to fight, if I thought it would help." He raised an eyebrow. "You always do your best work when faced with a doomsday time limit."

He sideyed the firewhiskey, and wondered how many he'd already had.

"As for Parvati, I don't see why you shouldn't let her do it. As long as everyone is contributing does it really matter if they do more than one thing? It might raise morale."

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 08:39 pm UTC (link)

"That would definitely help. You get one decent Dark Wizard and people rally against that one enemy." Random little ones weren't any good. Five years as an Auror told him that. People started to forget as the important names in the ranks of the Death Eaters were brought to justice. They couldn't even care about the minor ones.

"But is that the job of the ministry? Am I going to have people saying that they are only doing what's fun?" he said, not really sure that it was a proper job but then there was no other place to get a job.

He drained his glass in one go and put the glass down. "What would you do? To raise morale. If you could do anything, forgetting the problems we have, what would you suggest?"

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 08:47 pm UTC (link)

"The Ministry had departments for games and sports, and other commerce. Maybe not exactly art and music and fashion, but we can lump it together for now, probably, and not cause much of a stink. And if people complain tell them that they can always pick up a second job if they want it. I might even see if Parvati wants some hair potions or things like that. It's about time we got serious about hair care around here." He smiled playfully, then nudged Harry to turn so he could properly massage his neck and back.

He thought for a long, quiet moment as he worked at least some of the tension out of Harry's shoulders. What would he do? Raising morale hadn't exactly been his forte before. He had never been a leader the way Harry was, and he'd been basically a hermit for years after the war. So what would he do, if he didn't have to worry about any of their problems here?

"I don't know," he said carefully, working at a particularly stubborn knot. "We've had a few parties, which I think people have enjoyed but they're not really enough, are they. I think the biggest thing holding us back right now is the lack of stability. Even if we have things sort of figured out there's always that threat hanging over us. What if we're the next one's to be sent back, or the castle does something even worse next time. I don't know how to make everyone feel secure here, when I'm not even sure that we are. A holiday or a club or a spa can't really compensate for that."

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 08:56 pm UTC (link)

He grinned. "She was talking about cosmetic potions so you can always talk to her. I'm not sure who she got for that, but if she's trying to convince Snape, I don't know how it will end." In fact, he sort of wanted to see that.

Harry looked at Draco confused, but turned. The confusion only mounted when Draco started- was he massaging his shoulders? And why? "What exactly are you doing?" He could understand touching for sex, but this was not it. In fact, it didn't feel like sex at all."

He snorted. "I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I enjoy. Stability means boredom. Besides you can never have stability. At best you have a sense of stability, but shit can happen at any time, even without the castle getting involved. You can break up, get divorced, hit by the Knight Bus, get an ailment and die. Life is worth living because it's constant change, but I wasn't thinking about people being safe. Just do something not boring."

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 09:04 pm UTC (link)

Draco nodded, maybe he'd talk to her later. Professor Snape, he was sure, could make brilliant cosmetic potions. Whether he would or not was up for debate though.

"I'm... I'm rubbing your shoulders?" He stopped, giving Harry a mildly confused look. "Do you not like it? I can stop, if you want. Just figured it might help with some of that stress."

Only Harry would prefer instability. Not that Draco could blame him. When had his life ever been stable? Draco, on the other hand, had had years of a stable, loving family before the war, and all of this. Still, he wouldn't want to go back. He was happy here, with Harry and Scorpius and Theo. He didn't really miss anything about his old life.

"Well, alright. Something less boring is certainly doable. Proper Quidditch league, with regular games and ranked players and things? Can't have a league tournament but we could at least have a yearly cup. That would be something most people could enjoy, and look forward too."

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 09:20 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I know what you're doing. I guess I wasn't sure why," Harry said, still confused. "And no, it's fine, it's just... weird. I guess I"m just not used to people touching me. It's not just all the hugging people do but-" He waive his hand in the air. "This too." He still wasn't sure that it was normal, but since people looked him funny when he said it, he stopped saying it.

Harry nodded. "Although right now, I don't know if we can manage three teams. With only two teams, you only need a game to figure out who wins, but I guess we can make it a little different, have a certain number of games and who wins a majority wins the league."

He turned his head to look at Draco. "What if we go out to dinner? I know what I said about the Muggle world but if we Apparate into Diagon Alley we can get out of the Leaky and just be in London. Just walk to the nearest place so we don't have to deal with Apparition and discovery. I mean it's not going to help with stability because people will need to be careful, but maybe it's something to look forward to? I kind of liked to walk around the Muggle world before coming here. No one knew who I was."

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 09:29 pm UTC (link)

"I thought I had made.it past your 'touching is weird' barrier," Draco said fondly. He should have known Harry wouldn't be used to back rubs. "As to why, I'm doing it because I like making you feel good. You look tense, and I wanted to help. If it's not helping I'll stop, if you like it I'll keep going. Simple as that."

He nodded, thinking about ways they could spice up a two person league.

"Yeah, we could come up with some sort of challenge rules. Switch things up a little. I don't know, I'd have to think about it. Or, rather, someone like Savannah should think about it. If anyone could do a creative take on the game without losing its integrity it's her."

He perked right up at the mention of going out for dinner.

"Yes, that's a brilliant idea. Dinners, maybe shopping. I don't understand muggle fashion but I bet people like Scorpius would enjoy seeing the shops. Even just the change of scenery would make a big difference, I bet. The castle is big but it's still just one castle"

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 09:45 pm UTC (link)

"Sex doesn't count," Harry said. "I was perfectly fine touching random strangers while fucking them." Granted, most of those encounters were done standing up and with clothes on, but there was touching involved. "It's fine, Draco, just confusing,but no it's good, you can keep going," he said with a grin.

Harry sighed. "That's the problem with being Minister. You sit there and there are people who want to do everything and you get to sign stuff off. I want to do something! And that's just for me not the rest of the world. I can do ... I don't know, I just know that this isn't enough. Life like this- I can see why my kids don't like me. If I slowly made it through the Ministry, Head Auror, Head of the DMLE, I had less and less to do and more and more time doing nothing. I think they got it wrong though. I don't think that I was too busy for them, but that I was so fucking bored with life- I can see drinking the day away because nothing makes you feel alive."

He shook his head, because it was all so very boring to him, but he knew people would like it. Even Draco got excited at the idea and he didn't know Muggles. "Let's start with one dinner. I don't want to get the castle to think that we're leaving. I'll go get some money exchanged for dinner and then if nothing blows up in our face, we'll plan something different for another day."

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 09:52 pm UTC (link)

"Good thing I'm not a random stranger then," he laughed, kissing Harry behind the ear and then going back to the massage.

"Sounds like you need a passion project of your own." Draco hated when Harry was down on himself like this. Clearly that image of his future and the relationship with his children had gotten into his head. But Draco had to admit, if Harry was already getting to the end of his rope in a few months, what would a few decades of boredom and unfullfilment do to him? But that Harry didn't have Draco.

"You know, you could take over the Quidditch reform. If you wanted. You know the game inside and out. Or something else. Anything, really. What would you do, if you could do anything?"

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 10:06 pm UTC (link)

Harry rolled his eyes, but chuckled. He reached back and put his arm around Draco as best as he could. "You're not or I'd never be stupid enough to turn my back on you." The very fact that Harry was willing to turn around showed just how much trust he had in Draco.

A passion project. It sounded simple, and maybe it was for other people. "It's just Quidditch, with two teams of people who aren't as good as they think. It's not really that important or hard to figure out." Play a couple of games and see who wins more.

He sighed. "I don't know. I never had to think about it. After the battle, seeing all those corpses I thought I wanted to stop, but the moment Kingsley asked me to track down the ones who had escaped, I jumped at the chance, because I'm bloody good at it. I have no idea with to do with no one to go after. What do you do all day? Do you like working for Ron? Parvati didn't seem impressed." Were they doing something wrong?

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draco_draconis
2021-05-03 10:23 pm UTC (link)

"I am a hardened criminal," he said gently, pausing the massage to let Harry find a comfortable position before starting up again.

"I like working for Ron. He's fair, and he knows what's he's doing. I can see why Parvati might not like it, but it suits me."

He stopped, something suddenly occuring to him.

"Harry. This might sound stupid, or obvious, but why aren't you the one looking for the clues to the Ministry vault? You've spent most of your life putting together clues and having insane leaps of intuitive logic. And you're the one who hid them in the first place. If anyone can find them, or get the castle the give them up, it's you. You could spend a portion of every workday looking. Here, Hogsmede, anywhere you think they might be. We're at a standstill in a lot of ways until we get into it."

It wasn't a long term solution, but it was something that could help right now. They could work on finding Harry a 'passion' slowly.

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ab_harry
2021-05-03 10:29 pm UTC (link)

"You're a terrible criminal," Harry said, laughing. "Seriously, the life of crime was never your thing." He stayed quiet, enjoying the massage. It did feel good. "Are we too concerned with the war? Should we do something different? Tell me the truth, because we've been doing things a certain way for years, and you've always been the one to tell me off when you disagree. I need you to tell me."

He frowned. "I don't know. It seemed- Like there was something else to do, and now- Maybe I should. Hell maybe it's time that I go into the Forest as well. We have centaurs, giant spiders, unicorns. Maybe it's time to see what we can find there and then keep going."

He sighed. "I'm so bloody bored, Draco. I had nothing to do all day. Parvati's message was the most interesting thing. There's literally not enough firewhiskey in this castle to keep me occupied during the day."

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draco_draconis
2021-05-05 08:40 pm UTC (link)

"I thought the whole point of all of this was that we were actually doing things differently this time. Making peace with the goblins, Lupin and his legislation, Regulus and Granger changing the laws. We're already not like we were before. I don't doubt that mistakes will be made, and if you mess up I'll tell you, but I think you're doing your best. What else can you do?"

Draco sighed softly, stopping the massage and taking Harry's hand instead.

"I think you need to be out there doing something. Go look for the clues, go into the forest, take Weasley and even Granger and do what you do best. No one will stop you, you're in charge. And besides, it's important. So not only will you feel better, you'll be helping everyone. Who could be upset by that?"

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ab_harry
2021-05-05 09:33 pm UTC (link)

"Right, I guess so. We take it one day at a time and maybe we can see if I can't come up with something that makes feel people better." Maybe he'd have to look at a trip into London. It'd have to be short, at least the first one to make sure that the castle didn't throw a hiss fit. He'll go and see about Muggle money in the morning and see if it was doable.

"Your son might stop me. He had things for me to do, very boring things," he said with a chuckle. "All right, I guess that the game plan for now and we play it by ear. It's not like we'll find that vault any time soon anyway."

He turned around and kissed Draco softly. "How about we stop talking about work and we do something a lot more interesting."

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