Dumbledore had stayed and talked until the small hours of the morning, about which Harry was both feeling grateful and guilty. It had taken the headmaster a long time to convince him that letting his friends visit was a good idea, but he had eventually agreed. What was stranger, however, was that after he had made the decision he had gone to bed and actually fallen asleep.

Bacon was what eventually woke him, the smell of freshly cooked bacon; a scent proven to wake the dead. He rolled over and peered in the general direction of where Dobby had set up the table the previous day and there was a familiar blond figure standing next to it. Jeremy had standing instructions to let Draco in unless told specifically not to do so, making his presence not wholly surprising, except for the timing.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up," Draco said, picking up a slice of the bacon which had managed to pull Harry from sleep and chewing on it sexily.

Harry shook his head and sat up; if he was finding the way his lover was eating breakfast sexy, then there was little hope of Draco escaping unravished. It was not a demanding, rip-his-clothes-off-now, kind of feeling, but he definitely had the urge to worm his way under Draco's robes.

The urgency of the previous day was gone, almost as if the fact that he had unequivocally marked his companion as his lessened the pressure of his demanding libido, but he had the sneaking suspicion he would never be able to look at Draco without considering how best to get him naked.

Climbing out of bed he wandered over towards his Slytherin, gave Draco a rather absent kiss, mumbled a greeting, snagged a piece of bacon from the plate on the table and headed for the bathroom. It was only after he had put his head under the shower and started to clean his teeth that he had thought about the way Draco had appeared rather startled by his actions, but he didn't think about it too much.

However, he was expecting something similar to the words which greeted him as he walked back into the other room, "You're odd first thing in the morning."

"What did I do this time?" Harry asked, pretty sure he knew, but interested to see what Draco would say.

"Random shows of affection," Draco replied, as if the whole notion offended his sensibilities, "it is entirely bizarre behaviour."

"Well you'll have to forgive me," he said as he rummaged in his trunk, "I was not brought up with proper Slytherin manners and we Gryffindors are quite prone to forget ourselves."

It was strangely comforting to simply chat about nothing. For a few moments Harry managed to forget quite what a left turn his life had taken.

Then, as he was pulling on his clothes, his mind flicked to the impending visit today of Ron, Hermione and Neville. Nev had become quite a fixture in their lives since the end of the fifth year and, although Harry knew people still referred to them as the Gryffindor trio, these days Neville was in on most of their antics. No matter how much part of him missed all three, the thought of facing them rather squashed his mood.

"Who doused your fairy light?" Draco asked as Harry walked towards the breakfast table with a frown on his face.

"My friends are visiting today," he responded and sat down.

The table was laid for two with a range of food not quite as large as the dinner the previous night, but still very extensive. Harry tried to distract himself back on to more settling thoughts by filling his plate. By the time he had finished, he had enough protein to feed a Quidditch team. One elegant eyebrow raised under a neatly trimmed fringe was Draco's only comment about that, but Harry had to admit that maybe he had been a little over enthusiastic.

"What time?" Draco asked conversationally while helping himself to a rather more normal selection of breakfast items. "With all lessons cancelled today there are bound to be far too many Gryffindors hanging around, and if yesterday at dinner was anything to go by, until our little fabrication becomes public knowledge, half of them want to kill me."

Harry looked up sharply at the same time Draco realised what he had said.

"Figure of speech," Draco corrected quickly and then paused, "at least I don't think any of them really want to do permanent damage," he continued with a thoughtful expression; "but there is a definite hostility. If it wasn't for Crabbe and Goyle I might be worried, not having my wand at the moment thanks to the bloody bureaucracy we call a government, but they seem to think I'm worth protecting. I wouldn't want to come face to face with Weasley though; I think he believes I am the spawn of Voldemort himself."

That sounded very like Ron, which of course brought up the other dilemma about the whole Draco relationship. How his friends were going to take that he had no idea, and he decided that one hurdle at a time was probably a good idea. If they could get past the whole star of a horror movie bit, he would be incredibly grateful.

"Just after lunch," Harry replied, sitting on the instincts that tried to rise to the surface at any suggestion that someone would hurt his human.

The possessive viewpoint no longer took him by surprise, but it did make him wonder what Draco thought about the whole situation. Draco did not appear to be complaining about the idea, but Draco had also shown he was not someone who would belong to anyone else either. It was clear he would pledge allegiance when pushed, but there was a line he would not cross.

Harry could not help wondering why his lover had not run the moment he marked him, since Draco had clearly had no choice in the matter.

"Why don't you hate me?" Harry suddenly decided to ask the question that was really bothering him.

They had started to have a conversation about their mutual lack of animosity before, but the whole changing the Dark Mark had rather interrupted it. The enquiry did not seem to faze Draco, however, and he sipped his tea thoughtfully before opening his mouth.

"At first I thought that my feelings towards you were simply to do with gratitude," Draco said after gathering his reasoning, "at least that is what I preferred to believe, but you rather destroyed that idea when you tried to be noble and throw me out yesterday. You may have noticed over the years that relationships are not my strong point—in my world relationships of any kind tend to be arranged for me, so I'm rather new at this.

"Having thought about it endlessly all night, the only conclusion I can come to is that I have no idea why I am drawn to you, I just am, and I may as well become used to the idea. I care what happens to you and I care for you; both of which, outside my immediate family, are new experiences, I don't think I wish to analyse it further than that ... yet."

Draco's tone was very final about that, and Harry decided he was not going to receive any more answers for the moment. His own emotions concerning Draco were also so mixed up that he wasn't sure he could give a sensible answer to the question either. They were connected, emotionally and now magically through the changes Harry had wrought on the Dark Mark and, for the time being, explanations would have to wait.

"Seen the Quidditch scores yet?" he decided that a complete change of tack was in order. "Your team's new Seeker is really bad, have you poached back the position yet?"

"Give me a chance, Potter," Draco said with a smirk, "rebuilding an empire takes time."

~*~

Harry managed to control the urge to touch Draco for a good half an hour, but eventually he couldn't resist. He snaked out one foot, rubbing it up against his lover's leg. The only reaction this garnered from the subject of his attention was a vaguely interested look over a teacup as Draco took a sip of his drink. Harry could not help the small predatory smile that graced his face as he watched his blond lover virtually ignore his opening gambit.

"Are you expecting any visitors other than the horde of Gryffindors today?" Draco asked conversationally as Harry sank a little lower in his chair and moved his foot further up Draco's leg.

"No one I know of," he replied, playing the game, "but even if they turn up unannounced, I shouldn't think it'll be anytime soon."

"So, if I push off you'd be in for a boring morning, then?" his lover commented without the slightest indication that Harry was doing anything at all.

In response he ran his toes down the inside of Draco's thigh, at which point his lover's legs moved apart, but above the table there was not even a flicker.

"Very boring," Harry replied casually, although he had no intention of letting Draco leave.

He had set his sights and there was little which could derail him once he was focussed. Even before his change of status he had been stubborn, now, when the wild forces inside him took charge he barely understood the concept of 'no'.

It crossed his mind briefly that he was lucky Draco seemed to understand this as well, or he could have found himself in serious trouble. Shifting again and moving his foot even further he soon found out that although Draco's face showed no reaction at all, there was at least one part of his lover's anatomy that was very interested in what he was doing. From the considerable firmness he found between Draco's legs, Harry decided that maybe his Slytherin had been expecting this move and anticipating it.

"I would probably pine away from sheer loneliness," Harry said innocently.

Draco was sitting just a little straighter in his chair now, and the way Draco's lips were slightly parted gave Harry a very good indication that he had Draco's whole attention. Smoothly the teacup was placed back on the table and elegant fingers rested on the table top.

Curling his toes slightly around the bulge he could feel beneath the soft fabric of Draco's trousers, he pushed gently, lifting his foot slightly and running it along the length of the hardness he could feel. Finally, he was rewarded with a reaction as Draco's eyes flickered closed for a moment and a low groan answered the move. Draco also sunk slightly in his chair, his legs falling further open.

"That would be unfortunate," Draco said, voice tight, but still playing the game of words, "it would place a hole in my ruse with the Ministry."

For that Harry pushed just a little harder, producing a grunt from his lover, but then he curled his toes again and ran them the length of Draco's inside leg before returning to his previous position. At last, Harry gained the reaction he had been after as his lover gave in and melted into his touch.

Draco's eyes closed all the way. blond head going back, and Harry rewarded his lover with another caress. Watching Draco's face, a small smile playing at his own features, he continued his ministrations and enjoyed the expression of pleasure which graced his lover's visage. He could have just kept going, but as much as he liked the sparks of arousal he could feel coming from Draco, he wanted to be closer to the source of that tingling power.