Every time something bad happened, Draco internally believed that it was his fault. All of the bad events happening to him are because he chose the wrong side of the war, and now he had to pay for his sins.

After dinner, they had gone straight to the Burrow to pick up Teddy, who was already half asleep. The two men put Teddy in his own bed, and he was asleep before Harry even got 5 pages into the story.

Shyly, Harry had invited Draco to spend the night in his bed. Draco had agreed, and he fell asleep with his head on Harry's chest listening to his heartbeat. He had mistaken the vibrating of his pager for the sound thumps of Harry's heartbeat.

Draco sat up quickly, throwing off the covers and checking his pager.

"Holy shit."

Harry had awoken in the midst of Draco's shuffling, and he followed him out of bed as he ran across the hall into his room. He emerged less than a minute later in his Healer's robes.

"This is bad Harry, it's so bad."

Before Harry could reply, his own pager went off, and Harry wanted to throw up. He knew what that sound meant from Auror drills.

"Teddy," Draco breathed.

"Go, I've got him. Every minute you're not there counts. Be careful Draco."

"I need you to come back to me," Draco pleaded, urgently caressing Harry's cheek as if he would be ripped away from him at any moment.

"I will come back to you my love, I promise," Harry swore, leaning his forehead against Draco's. "I regret that I didn't kiss you earlier, there's so much I thought I would have time to say."

"You will have time to say it Harry. You will come back to me so I can kiss you and take you on a proper date," were Draco's parting words as he apparated to Saint Mungo's.

He had to keep reiterating that Harry was coming back to him. Maybe if he said it out loud enough times it would be true. Draco wished he hadn't been such a coward after their date and had kissed Harry under the stars in France. That couldn't be thought of now, he had patients to attend to, and he prayed Harry wouldn't end up being one of them.

In his Auror robes, Harry scooped up Teddy and their go bags before flooing them to the Burrow.

"Emergency!," Harry yelled, covering Teddy's ears.

"Harry?," Teddy asked with his lip wobbling and tears in his eyes.

"I love you so much Teddy bear, and so does Draco. We have to go into work, so I'm going to leave you with grandma Molly okay? She'll keep you safe."

"I love you too. Be careful and come home to me and Draco."

"I will see you soon, love. Be good, yeah? I know you're the bestest," Harry said with a tight smile, hugging and kissing his godson as he didn't know when he would see him again.

"We'll take care of him," Molly promised. "Take care of yourself."

"I will."

With that, Harry allowed his pager to bring him to where he needed to be.

Bodies. There were so many bodies when Harry arrived that he had to fight himself as to not vomit immediately. He was immediately transported back to the Great Hall after the final battle, but he dug his fingernails into his palms to focus. He had to stay safe.

Moving quickly, Harry began whipping spells at those he recognized from his case files. He was angry that these people were breaking up families, including his. Squibs had been kidnapped and experimented on as this crime ring tried to extract the dormant magical energy flowing through their veins. They even took children, and it made him sick to imagine Teddy being placed in such a scenario.

His spells were brutal and easily knocked out anyone who had the unfortunate luck of finding themselves in his wake. Harry didn't care, he was filled with vengeance and needed them to pay for what they had done.

The fight went on for hours, but Harry didn't stop, even as more and more people fell to the ground. He refused to stop until he knew it was over. Once the last person was taken down, only then did Harry allow himself to collapse to the ground, bruised and bleeding, but other than that completely unscathed.

"Auror Potter, nice of you to finally join us," Head Auror Robards remarked.

"What is that supposed to mean? You paged, I came as quickly as I could."

"Not fast enough."

"So what, I'm supposed to leave my 5 year old godson home alone, asleep, to come and bail all of you out? Maybe you should have paged me before you made a bad call and endangered all of my fellow aurors by blindly sending them to war. If you thought you needed me, you should have taken preventative measures. I will not let you manipulate and gaslight me into taking the blame for your poor leadership choices."

"Auror Potter, I need you."

"Minister," Harry said in surprise, subtly flipping the head auror off behind his back.

Fuck him for ruining Harry's near perfect week.

"I do apologize for having to page you in, thank you for arriving so promptly. Especially as I know you're supposed to have been on vacation. I assure you after what I have to ask of you that your time and effort will be tremendously compensated."

"Okay," Harry agreed, a steely glint in his eyes.

He would do whatever it took for him to be reunited with his family. In the case of tonight, it meant Harry worked for essentially 24 hours straight, canvassing all of the hideouts with the Minister. They collected as much intel as possible and arrived back at the office to assemble a pinboard to try to discern where the ringleader was in all of this.

"I hate to do this to you Potter, but there is no one else I trust to go undercover with me. We need this ring to be shut down once and for all."

"Undercover as in no communication with my family."

"Can you get them somewhere safe?"

"How much time?," Harry asked, biting harshly at his lip.

"I can permit you a few hours to get your affairs in order but no more than that. It's going to be noticed eventually that the men aren't responding to the call. We must act quickly."

"Okay."

"I'll page you, level 1, as a 10 minute warning to finalize your plans. The level 5 page will bring you to me. Bring enough provisions for a month."

"Yes Minister."

Harry didn't even know where to go, or what to do with his time. He supposed he should go pick up some food, but what time was it? Where was Draco?

He supposed Grimmauld was probably the place to be. It would hold the most answers, and he had to repack his go bag.

When Draco heard the pop of apparation, he ran into the living room.

"Oh, my Harry."

"It's not over, I have to go again."

"What?," Draco asked, moving back as if he had been struck.

"It's an undercover assignment, I don't know how long. I... I don't want to go. The Minister himself is accompanying me. I shouldn't even have said that, but fuck this job. Fuck the world for not allowing me to be happy. I just want to be with you."

"You will be, when you come back," Draco promised, running his hand over Harry's cheek and healing him. "Let me help you pack. I have potions for you to take with you. I have one for you to take now to help with being tired, and I have food waiting for you."

"I don't deserve you."

"You deserve so much more."

"You don't even understand what you do for me, my love. Without you and Teddy, I'm nothing. You make my life worth living. If this was a few months ago, I wouldn't have cared at being sent away for an unknown amount of time. Now, I have a reason to be home."

"Go take a quick shower. Teddy is still at the Weasley's."

"We need him here," Harry said suddenly, remembering what the Minister had told him. "He said I need to protect my family in case there's retaliation. Draco I need you to stay here with him and be safe. Should we call Andy and have her take him so he's removed from this?"

"Harry, I will handle it. You need to stop worrying about us and focus on your mission. Come on."

Draco handed Harry a potion that healers took to keep them alert after having little to no sleep. It was potent, and Harry almost gagged at the taste.

"I'm sorry darling, they're in case of an emergency. They're not meant to be taken frequently."

"Are you okay? How long were you on your shift? It was bad, Draco."

"Shh, it's okay now darling. I got home a few hours ago. Shower. Then we can eat together. I'll check your go bag for you."

"Okay."

When Harry came out of the shower, Draco had made sure that he would come out to freshly cleaned clothes. His clean robe was hanging up, and Harry didn't know how he could bear to leave Draco. He felt like an idiot for not committing himself to Draco sooner.

Coming downstairs, he was met with a candlelit meal, and Draco nervously fiddling with a napkin.

"Draco?"

"I owed you another dinner date didn't I? It's not what I had in mind, but it's all I could do with such short notice."

"Perfect."

Draco got up, pulled Harry's chair out for him, and pushed him to the table.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

As they began to eat, Harry grabbed Draco's hand in his own.

"What can you tell me, Harry?"

"I was told to pack for a month, the timeframe is uncertain. He told me to get my affairs in order, which is never good. My will is already up to date, I revised it a week ago.

You should know, practically everything was left to Teddy, but I left Grimmauld to you. You've practically moved in anyway, it makes sense. I wanted to ask if you wanted to move in once your lease was up anyway."

"You want to live together?," Draco asked, feeling hope bloom in his chest.

"I want to do more than that Draco. We will have time, I will come back to you again. I need you to stay safe. At least stay here, to give me some peace of mind."

"I will. I'll be here unless I get called into Mungo's."

"Okay," Harry replied with an exhale, focusing on dinner. "What else do I need to do with my go bag?"

Harry made a mental list of what else he needed to add to his bag, and Draco insisted he finish his bag once he was done eating while Draco cleaned up. He snorted, seeing that Draco had neatly organized all of the contents of his bag for him. The potions he had personally brewed were in an indestructible box, and Harry was touched at the effort Draco had gone through for him. He would be coming back home.

Bringing his bags downstairs, he dropped everything on a chair next to the door before making his way back to the dining room.

"I probably shouldn't eat dessert before going on a mission."

"I think everyone deserves chocolate."

"What everyone deserves, is somebody like you in their lives," Harry replied softly, closing most of the distance between himself and Draco.

Draco fed Harry a piece of chocolate and softly caressed his face.

"I hate to do it like this, but I need you to know what you're missing when you're out there saving the world. This is what you have to come home to," Draco promised, pulling Harry in for a searing kiss.

Harry pulled Draco so closely to him that he thought they would fuse together and become one. One hand made its way into Draco's hair, while the other gripped him tightly around the waist. Breaking apart and breathing heavily, Draco leaned his forehead against Harry's.

"Mine," Harry whispered, leaning back in and letting his lips brush against Draco's as he spoke the word.

"Yours," Draco promised, doing the same in return before kissing Harry once more.

Draco immediately pulled away as he heard Harry's pager go off.

"Level 1, that's my 10 minute warning. Can you hold me until I have to go?," Harry asked, frowning at the thought of losing what he had just gained.

"Of course I will."

Harry buried his face in Draco's neck, working to memorize his scent as Draco soothingly ran his hands over Harry's back.

"You're okay my darling, you're okay. We will be okay. You're going to come back to me, and we're going to have a proper date."

"I like to think dinner in France was our first official date," Harry replied, looking at Draco as his ear rested over his heartbeat.

"I hoped it was, I didn't want to be presumptuous. Imagine what I can do when it's a mutually agreed upon date."

"I had hoped when you mentioned dinner in my office that it was going to be a date, but then you seemed to backtrack."

"I got scared that you didn't feel the same way and that I was rushing into things. But then you looked so disappointed, and I had hope that you did feel the same," Draco replied, smiling softly at Harry as his hand found his way into Draco's hair.

"Someone in my position would be an idiot not to fall in love with you Draco. It was so easy that I barely noticed the change in our relationship. I know we still have some things to talk about, regarding our shared history, but I want you to know that I forgive you. I've forgiven you a long time ago. Everything we went through was worth it so that I could be here with you, right now."

"Harry, I lo-,"

"Shh. Tell me when I come back, my love. That's the first thing I want to hear come from this sinful mouth of yours," Harry replied lowly, sitting up so he could kiss Draco once more.

"You're addictive," Harry continued, pulling back to cover Draco's face in small kisses. "If something happens, I'm not saying it will but it could I need to be realistic, remember me like this. Remember me singing Taylor Swift and being shit at ice skating and pushing you on the swings and loving you so much that I was fine remaining friends just to keep you in my life. Remember our small moments with Teddy, who I'm fairly certain has been trying to get us together this whole time. Draco, promise me that you'll remember that you are loved," Harry choked out.

"I promise, as long as you promise me the same in return."

Draco refused to cry until Harry left. He needed to remain strong for the other man. If he broke, Draco knew that Harry wouldn't go. There were other people more important than Draco out there who needed his Harry right now.

"I promise. I also promise that I will be safe. I will be cunning and I will think ahead before I act, and I won't act irrationally. I have you to come home to, and I will make it back to you. Our story is only getting started, Draco."

"I won't lie Harry, I'm going to miss you, but I know this is important. I know you're not allowed to contact anyone, but if there's some way that you can just let me know you're okay after a few days..."

"I will do the best I can, but if I am somehow able to establish contact, keep yourself safe and don't try to reply back."

"Okay," Draco replied, clinging back to Harry, who held Draco just as tightly.

"I need to put on my robe now, love," Harry said quietly after a few moments.

He knew his 10 minutes were almost up. Draco allowed Harry to get up, but he was right behind him.

"I included a few more of those potions, just in case you need to keep your wits about you. Do not take more than 1 within 72 hours do you understand? It will mess up your natural circadian rhythm. There are blood replenishing potions, calming draughts, dittany, and a few other potions in there. Everything is clearly labeled with explanations of its purpose and what you cannot take with it."

"You're amazing."

"Yes well, I lo- I care very deeply about you," Draco said pointedly, acknowledging Harry's wishes.

"I care very deeply about you too," Harry replied, pulling Draco in for one last kiss.

Draco was clutching Harry's auror robes so tightly he thought he very well might lose circulation in his fingers. Once he heard the beeping, he immediately pulled away knowing time was of the essence.

Leaning forward, Harry placed one soft kiss on Draco's forehead before picking up his bags.

"You're my reason to be Draco, I love you, and I will see you again," were Harry's parting words.

As soon as he was gone, Draco crumpled to the floor and sobbed.