alisanne

Title: The Advent Calendar - By Candlelight
Author:

alisanne
Word count: 685
Rating: PG
Characters/pairings: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy.
Challenge: Written for

dracoharry100/

dracoharry100's Christmas Challenge prompt: Candle.
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.
Beta(s):

sevfan and

emynn.
Authors Notes: This is part 4 of The Advent Calendar Series (LJ/IJ/DW)

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The Advent Calendar - By Candlelight

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Draco’s steps slowed as he moved away from Harry’s position and circled the tree. Sliding his hands into his pockets, he sighed. Harry had seemed almost...apologetic. As if he wants us to be friends again.

Draco snorted. He didn’t want to be just friends with Harry. Not anymore. Not after what they had been to each other. “I want what we had back,” he whispered. He closed his eyes. He hadn’t wanted to admit that to himself. “I wonder what he wants?”

A sound made him open his eyes and spin around. He frowned, staring at the tree. Something was different. He shuffled closer to one of the ornaments, eyeing it.

“Only you’re not really an ornament, are you?” Draco whispered, tilting his head for a better look.

The item, a lit candle, was sitting in a dish. Reaching out, Draco pulled it off the tree. “That’s dangerous,” he said. “Don’t want the tree burning down, after all. Not with us next to it, anyway.”

Holding the candle aloft, Draco inspected the tree. It wasn’t a real one, it seemed to be made of some sort of fabricated material. Paper?

Advent calendar, he reminded himself.

He continued his walk, candle in hand, glancing at the flame periodically. It made him feel warm, safe. He sighed. “Sort of like the way I felt when Harry and I were together,” he said softly.

The candle flickered as if in agreement.

Why had they gone so wrong? Draco pursed his lips. Everything had been brilliant when they’d been Auror partners. They’d shared everything, and, one night, after going out to celebrate closing an especially big case, they’d even ended up sharing a bed.

When Draco had woken up in Harry’s arms the next morning he’d felt as if he’d come home. He smiled. I basically moved in that day. Unbelievable. And Harry had welcomed him. After only a week they’d started planning their lives together.

Draco sighed, continuing to stare into the candle’s flame as he remembered. And then I guess I got too ambitious.

He’d thought Harry would be happy for him when he applied to the Unspeakable program. But he’d seemed...subdued. And when Draco had actually got in and started his training, Harry had grown distant, making constant cracks about Unspeakable methods versus Auror methods.

Draco gazed into the candle, the memories flying thick and fast. Draco becoming more immersed in his studies, Harry spending more nights out with his new Auror partner, a man called Williams. And then, the big argument.

We accused each other of some awful things. And then I ran. Draco sighed, ashamed. He’d been offered an opportunity to study in Switzerland and he’d accepted that day. He’d told himself at the time it was because he wanted to learn European Unspeakable methods but the truth was that he’d fled. He’d stayed away a year and half, only returning for holidays, and he’d been careful not to see Harry on his visits.

And now here I am, moved back a week and stuck in an Advent calendar with him. “I’m going to have to talk to him,” Draco said aloud. “Sort this. Because he’s right about one thing. We can’t go on like this. Teddy deserves better.” And so do we.

Mind made up, Draco hurried around the rest of the tree, but when he got back to where he thought he’d left Harry, no one was there.

He growled. “If you wandered off on your own, Harry, I swear to Merlin I will--”

“--aco!”

Draco looked up, eyes widening when he saw Harry suspended in the tree. “What the fuck, Harry? Get down here at once!”

“I can’t! Trapped! Help--!” Harry’s voice was choked off by a piece of tinsel sliding around this neck.

Draco went cold. “Oh no you don’t,” he snarled. “He’s mine. Leave him alone!”

~

Continued in The Advent Calendar - Past, Present, Future (LJ/IJ/DW).