The problem with living together, Harry and Draco discovered, was that they were distracting.

They had already been pretty brilliant at distracting each other before they'd gotten together, but now that they were in a relationship they had whole new ways of being completely and utterly distracting at the drop of a hat.

All this was to say that they had very much intended to spend the evening doing marking and lesson planning in their rooms, and, without Neville there, they had very much ended up not doing that.

However. One of them had to be at least a little responsible.

"We should go eat," Harry said, pulling back.

Draco looked slightly disgruntled at the interruption. "And show up late to dinner together? I think not."

"The kitchens, sweetheart. The house-elves are more than happy to help."

"Right. Fine." Draco tried to extracted himself from where he had apparently wrapped a leg around Harry's waist. He pushed up on Harry's chest. "Fancy moving?"

"Not really." Harry kissed him again.

Draco sighed. "You're the one who said we ought to eat. Move your arse."

"Make me."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Not on your life. Make up your own mind, Potter."

"You just think you can't make me move," Harry taunted.

"You know very well that I can," Draco said haughtily, blatantly ignoring Harry's saucy tone, "however I shan't. I'm going to lie here and nap. Tell me when you've made up your mind."

Harry sighed dramatically and rolled straight onto the floor with a rather loud thump. "You take the fun out of everything."

Draco peeked open his eyes and gave him a sly grin. "I made you move."

Harry narrowed his eyes and made a sound of annoyance. "You sneaking Slytherin, you know that's not what I meant."

"It's what I do best, love," Draco replied smugly, sitting up and smacking Harry's bum as he got off the floor. Harry turned around, giving him a hard look.

"You are such a trouble-maker."

"And you're not?" Draco countered, standing as well, and dragging him to the door by the arm.

~*~

Having had their fill, and succeeded in refusing the house-elves' offers for second desserts, they retreated back to their room before dinner was over, grateful that the halls were clear of people and ghosts to question their absence in the Great Hall.

Draco sorted through the scrolls on the floor to find the one he had been working on. "I take it we won't be doing any more marking tonight?" Draco asked, holding up the scroll.

Harry took it from his hand and tossed it on the top of the pile on the coffee table. "Not if I can help it." He slid his hands over Draco's hips and pulled him close to kiss his neck. "Unless you really, really need to."

"Rude," Draco muttered. "But I think I'm fine."

Harry just hummed and kissed Draco's neck again.

Draco sighed happily, circling his arms around Harry's back. "You're my favourite person, you know?"

Harry chuckled against him. "You were just calling me rude two seconds ago."

"Well you were just disrespecting my parchments two seconds ago." Draco tilted Harry's face up with a hand on his chin, and gave him a kiss. He made a contented noise. "I love you anyway, though."

"You make it sound so difficult," Harry teased.

Draco gave a falsely put-upon sigh. "It's a burden I suppose I'm willing to bear."

He kissed Harry again, and then again, deeper.

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked amusedly, and kissed him again. "I'm a real burden, huh?"

"Well," Draco hedged. "Maybe just one night is manageable."

"Mhm. Gracious of you." Harry kissed him again.

"I do try."

~*~

Some time later, they both lay still, sprawled out on the bed.

"Mm, don't know exactly what I expected, but that was probably better."

"Probably?" Harry asked.

"Got to leave room for possibilities. I don't know what it was I expected."

"I love you," Harry sighed, and wriggled over so that the length of their bodies touched, grabbing Draco's hand to intertwine it with his own. "I don't think I could ever get tired of you."

Draco brought their hands up to his mouth to kiss the tops of Harry's knuckles. "Yeah? Was that a possibility before?"

Harry shrugged. "People are people. Things change."

"Hmm, that's depressing." Draco paused. "Then again, so am I; so really this could just be your way of flirting?"

"You got me." Harry gave a small smile.

"In any case, I haven't got the time to sit about wondering why I shouldn't be with you when I'm already spending so much of it wondering when we'll get a moment alone that isn't dedicated to sleep."

"Haven't the faintest what you said, but 'm sure it was nice," Harry mumbled, apparently mere moments from sleep.

Draco turned on his side to spoon Harry and hissed. Merlin, his body did not, apparently, like this shifting and bending idea. He reflected that perhaps taking a bit more time preparing instead of rushing through everything wouldn't have hurt but, well it couldn't really be Draco's fault, could it? It was Harry's fault for getting him so worked up in the first place.

He found he really was quite sleepy, though, even despite the discomfort, and drifted off still clutching Harry's hand.

~*~

Draco was limping the next morning.

It was only a bit, and it was his own damned fault, but he didn't fancy his awkward gait would pass unnoticed under the keen eyes of the students. And he was probably going to kill Harry for it.

Just one more day! It was the last day of classes before winter holidays, so if they could have just shown a little patience⁠—

But Draco knew he was the one who had spurred them on the most, even if he really would like to blame Harry.

Unfortunately, both of their healing spells were a bit shite, and Draco certainly wasn't going to go to Poppy for an incident like this. He'd had enough mortification with Neville laughing him out of his room, thank you very much. Some brilliant friend he was.

Draco tried to just stand, still and imposing at the blackboard as his third years filed in ⁠— and he nearly thought he'd gotten away with it, too, when he managed to get through instructions for the class without any errant questions or looks. However, he made the fatal mistake of deciding it would be safest to sit behind his desk.

They were all distracted taking out their textbooks, so he had thought they surely wouldn't notice, but he had hardly made it a few steps before he heard a concerned, "Professor Malfoy, what happened to you?" and then all eyes were on him.

For fuck's sake.

"What do you mean 'what happened', Mister Brilla?" Draco asked tersely, and resolutely sat in his chair, and then immediately smacked his knee on the desk as he almost lurched right back up. "Merlin's saggy⁠— ...cloak," he managed to censor himself. Fuck that hurt.

The knee was the least of his problems, but that was what he grabbed to save face.

"I'm fine. Just smacked my knee on the desk. Nothing to worry about."

Some of the student's didn't question it at all, but a few looked confused.

"But Professor, you were already limping," the same student spoke up hesitantly.

Merlin, he just did not know when to shut up, did he?

"Well I was...in the Forbidden Forest last night and had a nasty encounter," he quickly fabricated. "That's why you should never go in there alone."

"Why did you go alone?" another student asked curiously.

He shot them a warning glare for speaking out of turn. "I didn't." He paused. "...Professor Potter was with me."

Well he didn't want to fuel the rumour mill, but he also didn't want to set a bad example or get easily caught in the lie. Surely Harry would cover for him.

The students looked awestruck.

"That's so cool! Did he fight off the creature? What was it?"

Draco raised his wand. "Wait. To be called upon," he emphasised.

A girl raised her hand, and he sighed and called on her.

"...Are you going to tell us?" she asked.

Draco grimaced. "He was...an integral part of the process. But he was the one who got me into the mess to begin with anyway, so I certainly won't thank him," he said, and left it at that. "Now! No more of that; on to Potions." He rapped his wand back against the chalkboard.

~*~

Harry's second class was buzzing with chatter as they took their seats. The third years always gossiped, but today was much worse than usual.

A student raised their hand, and the rest of the room quieted down.

"Sir, what happened with you and Professor Malfoy last night?"

For a brief moment, Harry entertained the possibility that these students truly somehow knew everything, but his Auror training kept his face composed as he said, "I'm not sure what you mean, Miss Torres-Gil?"

"The Forbidden Forest! Professor Malfoy said he was attacked by a Dark creature last night when he was there with you!"

Harry's mouth twitched up slightly. "Did he really? Imagine that."

"Yeah," another student chimed in. "He said you helped fight it off, but he wouldn't say what it was."

"And he said it was all your fault anyway!" another student added ⁠— clearly gleefully stirring the pot.

Harry laughed, unable to contain it any longer.

"What was it? Was it a werewolf?" someone asked.

"It wasn't even a full moon last night, stupid," the person behind them corrected.

"It was...a badger," Harry said seriously.

"But a badger's not even a Dark creature!"

"Yes, well Draco exaggerates when he's angry," Harry said, putting a final end to the topic. "Now if I could begin my lesson, today we'll be talking about Boggarts."