Four and a half years later, Draco and Harry were practically a legend at Hogwarts.

Every year, the new first years learned a few things quickly from the upper years: First, that their Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher was just another boring teacher, and the fact that he happened to be Harry Potter really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Second, that you may as well forget anything your parents have said about the Potions Master having been a Death Eater. Maybe he had been, and maybe he could be strict, but he was pretty nice, all things considered. Third, that those two were totally getting it on in secret, and they weren't even that sneaky about it.

First years always tended to be sceptical about all of those points, until they saw it for themselves and became the ones trying to warn the next year's first years.

Harry and Draco privately found it pretty amusing.

"Honestly, sometimes I wonder if they'll ever look back and realise that we couldn't possibly have been that clueless and sloppy," Draco mused, one night. "If any of them have ever put it together that we just don't care, but we're still going to be spitefully stubborn as all hell about admitting it."

Harry laughed. "I wonder too. I think we may be the reason some of those students got into investigative journalism. I see Nancy Greenwood from that original sixth year class in the Prophet all the time now."

"We're inspirational," Draco said loftily. "I told you it was a good thing to be stubborn."

Harry snorted. "I'm honestly a little proud of them."

Draco hummed. "Me too. They were annoying little bastards at times, but I'm proud of them."

They laid there in contented silence for a few moments.

"D'you ever think it's a bit cruel the way we tease the seventh years sometimes?"

"Cruel?" Draco waved his hand dismissively. "Pssh. No. If they weren't such nosey little so-and-sos, we wouldn't have to do it."

"True. And it entertains Neville too, at least."

Draco laughed. "Oh, he enjoys playing stupid when they try to squeeze information out of him too much."

Harry grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers and pulling them up to press a kiss to the back of Draco's. "Yeah. We've all gotta get our kicks somewhere, though."

~*~

When they came back from the winter holidays, however, it wasn't just the usual sly comments and suggestive behaviours that got students talking.

It was the matching rings on their middle fingers.

Speculation ran rampant through the castle, but ultimately the fact that the rings weren't on their ring fingers kept it ambiguous and left them all stumped.

Right after Draco had proposed to Harry on Boxing Day, he had held out a hand to stop him from sliding the ring onto his finger.

"I should warn you," he had said, "they're magically paired, so whatever finger you choose is where mine will be appearing on me, and they won't be budging until we get married or call off the whole thing entirely, so we may want to think through how obvious we want to make it."

Harry had stared at him for a moment, and then cracked a smile. "You want to keep up the charade even now that we're engaged? You're awful."

"And they should have all minded their business if they wanted to know," Draco had said firmly.

Harry had laughed and held out his right hand, sliding the ring that Draco was still holding out onto his middle finger. "There." He had leaned in to kiss him. "I love you."

Draco had looked down to admire his own new ring, and then had given him another kiss. "I love you too."

"Oh yeah? And do you plan to prove that?"

Draco had smiled and pushed Harry down with a hand on his chest. "I might."

~*~

As the end of the school year quickly drew near, Draco and Harry both found themselves swamped with assignments.

Harry looked up as the door to his office opened and closed softly whilst he was working on marking alone one evening.

"Oh, Draco. What brings you up here so early?" Dinner had been little more than an hour before, and it was the norm for them to spend several hours after in their respective offices this close to the end of year exams. Company was nice, but during crunch time, it was better that they not distract each other.

"What, not absolutely thrilled to see me?" Draco asked wryly, arranging himself comfortably on Harry's messy desk, as per usual.

Harry leaned back in his chair and grinned.

"No, not really," he said in a mock-sad voice, switching his grin to an exaggerated frown. "I was expecting my secret lover and now you've come along. Imagine if you'd come in just a few minutes from now. What a mess. Septima will be so upset — I'll have to call it all off." He sighed dramatically.

"Septima, really? You couldn't think of anyone better?" Draco snickered.

"Who, Filius? Septima's not so bad. Maybe I'm just attracted to intelligence."

"He's like eighty. I mean, get it grandpa, if that's your thing, but, like...Neville's right there," Draco said, and snorted when Harry wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Draco paused, considering the last of Harry's words. "I am rather intelligent. It would only make sense, since nobody else can even come close to me in any other area."

Harry looked amused. "There's the modest man I fell in love with. Now, care to actually tell me why you're up here?"

Draco slid fluidly off the desk, ignoring the pieces of parchment that fell to the floor, and sauntered around to Harry's chair. He placed his hands on the armrests, caging Harry in, and leaned forward. "Well you did say earlier that the only way we'd be able to shag for the next week and a half would be if it was on your desk in between marking assignments."

Harry's mouth dropped open and he raised his eyebrows. "I was joking!"

Draco cocked his head slightly. "Odd. I suddenly don't understand humour at all."

"Yeah, well what about sarcasm? I'm sure there's no state you'd be in where you wouldn't get that."

Draco simply widened his eyes innocently.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked at him incredulously. "Draco. Seriously? We can not have sex in my office!"

Draco finally straightened and leaned back against Harry's desk with his arms crossed. "Why?" he asked simply.

"Because!" Harry spluttered. "Students! Other teachers—"

"But they don't have to know. I mean locking and silencing charms are a given."

"A given— How often do you think this happens?"

Draco shrugged. "None of you Gryffindors ever bonked in the empty classrooms?"

"What?"

"Well I never did, but I know for a fact that Terry Boot and Daphne Greengrass made quite a habit of it." He narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps it was just them, now that I think of it."

Harry wiped a tired hand over his face.

"No, wait, Blaise definitely told me some...unnamed Hufflepuff bloke gave him a blowjob on the fourth floor once during a free period. He might've been lying though, he did like to brag. What were the options, anyway? Zacharias Smith? Not bloody likely — I don't think any amount of teenage hormones could convince someone to risk putting their prick anywhere near that prat."

"I have several questions, but I just...I don't even want to ask."

"I'm not sure I have the answers anyway. Fuck do I still hate that Smith bloke, though. Absolute bellend."

Harry laughed. "You don't have better things to do besides holding onto petty school grudges?"

Draco's eyes glinted. Oh hell.

"Mhm, since you ask so nicely," Draco practically purred, leaning forward until their mouths were just barely brushing, "I can think of at least one better thing I could do right now."

Oh hell. Fucking hell and goddamn it, Harry had played right into his hands. And he didn't even have the time to finish thinking that fact, before Draco was kissing him.

How unrepentantly conniving.

"You're still not allowed to seduce me in my office," Harry sighed, but he found himself kissing back. Draco was a conniving bastard, but...that was, unfortunately, part of the allure.

Harry made a mental note not to argue next time Hermione told him he had awful taste.

"Mmm?"

"It's unprofessional," Harry mumbled between kisses.

"Is it?"

"Very. Can you imagine what Minerva would think of this?" He turned his head and let his nose skim over Draco's cheek.

"I can't imagine she would ever need to know," Draco replied smoothly, kissing over Harry's jaw, which made him let out an embarrassingly breathy sigh.

"Yes, but I would still know," he argued. "And whenever anyone is in here—"

"You know many things, Harry," he murmured against his skin, as he slowly kissed down his neck, "and I think Minerva has yet to have a problem with that fact. I rather think it's why she hired you."

Fucking hell it was hard to keep up when Draco was doing that — which Harry was sure was the entire point. He opened his eyes (which had inconsiderately fallen shut of their own accord whilst Draco was kissing his neck), and swallowed back another appreciative sound. "She hired me to have sex with another teacher on my desk?"

Draco sighed, and leaned back with a scowl. "You're deliberately twisting my words."

"You're deliberately twisting the argument. Don't think I don't see through your Slytherin ways."

Ah, the sweet sound of victory. And probably regret, when he was trying to focus on marking papers instead of Draco. Damn, perhaps neither of them were winners. Ugh. What a cop out.

"Fine. I'll see you tonight," Draco acquiesced. He glanced over the masses of parchment on the desk and floor. "Possibly. I may already be asleep by the time you come in by the looks of your desk."

Harry nodded and tilted his face up for another kiss, which Draco obliged with a chaste peck. Harry pulled him back down for a deeper kiss, threading his fingers through his hair, and sliding their tongues together in a way that made Draco sigh quietly.

He pulled back regretfully. Utterly unfair that he had to go back to working now, like some sort of responsible adult. Ridiculous.

"See you later, then."

Draco looked just as regretful to leave as Harry felt, but, nonetheless, he pressed a final kiss to Harry's forehead and left, closing the door softly behind him.

Harry groaned and picked up his quill, trying to focus his attention back on the essay he'd been in the middle of marking.

~*~

Three hours in, and he had been making progress — perhaps slower than most days, but progress nonetheless — and he was very glad for a break when there was a sharp rap on the door. He didn't much care if it involved wrangling Peeves at this point, anything for a break from focusing so intensely on these essays.

"Yes?"

Draco opened the door and gave Harry a tired smile. "I think I'm done for the night."

He walked around to look at Harry's work over his shoulder.

"Ugh, that one's practically illegible."

Harry nodded and set down his quill, slumping a bit in his chair. Draco made a sympathetic noise and draped his arms over Harry's shoulders, hugging him from behind and burying his face in his neck. Harry sighed contentedly and rested a hand on the back of Draco's head, absently toying with his hair.

They stayed like that for several minutes until Harry spoke up.

"You're going up to bed?"

Draco nodded.

"I'm going to stay here for a bit longer."

Draco made a dismayed noise, and squeezed him tighter.

"It's your own fault, you know. I've been slow going because I've been a bit distracted — which I'm sure was entirely unintentional on your part."

"'S not my fault I'm so gorgeous. Or have you been thinking about how you want to fuck me on your desk?"

Harry groaned. "You come into my office, distract me from my work, and then you think I'm gonna fuck you?"

Draco turned his head. "Mmm? You finally want me to fuck you? Maybe I'm not so tired."

"Thought you said you preferred bottoming."

"I do, but I really want to see you bottom for the first time. Sounds hot. The kind of hot that should be illegal."

Harry blushed, but snapped back at him, "Well if we can whip up a time-turner, we shouldn't have to go too far back to get arrested for sodomy."

"Not funny." But Harry had caught the muffled snort of laughter against his neck. What a rotten liar.

He shrugged Draco off of his shoulder, and made a shooing motion with his hand, ignoring Draco's comment. "Anyway, I don't care what you say, you're falling asleep on me, and I do need to finish a few more of these. Come seduce me tomorrow or something, but go to bed for Merlin's sake."

"Alright, alright. I'm off to have saucy dreams about what your face will look like when I fuck you, then."

Harry covered his face with his hands. "You are utterly evil."

"I know, I'm told it's sexy."

Harry shoved at him half-heartedly. "Leave me to my misery already, before I find out if spontaneous death from sexual frustration is a real possibility."

~*~

After two and a half hours, Harry threw the parchment he was reading onto his desk and rubbed his eyes. 'Reading' was a loose term for it anyway — he wasn't sure he'd understood any of it.

He trudged up the staircases to their room and quietly slipped in, trying not to wake Draco. He shuffled off his shoes and discarded his robes on the sofa, which he was sure Draco wouldn't be too pleased about, but Harry would put them away tomorrow. Or at least, that was what he told himself.

He walked into the actual bedroom and sighed.

"Not that I should've expected anything else, but why aren't you asleep?"

Draco primly set a bookmark in his book and put it on his side table. "I was waiting for you."

Harry crawled into bed and shook his head. "You'll just be that much grumpier tomorrow morning."

"Come here and stop talking. Nox." Draco doused his reading light and put his wand aside, pulling Harry close. "See? Would you really rather me already have been asleep? Now we get to cuddle."

"Shh."

~*~

Harry had just dismissed his last class, and was now attempting to establish an order in which he might begin his marking for the evening. He was not expecting a visitor to come in unannounced and close the door firmly, muffling the sounds of the students yet to leave the classroom.

"Draco." he acknowledged.

"Hello my love," Draco drawled rather solicitously.

"Any particular reason why you're here?"

"Well I believe you told me last night to 'come seduce you tomorrow', and it's tomorrow, so here I am."

"I never thought I'd ever have to explain to you about sarcasm."

Draco walked right up against Harry and spoke in his ear. "It wasn't really sarcasm, though, was it?"

Harry avoided the question. "I have work to do."

"But you don't want to do work, do you," Draco wheedled lowly.

It really shouldn't have been as attractive as it was.

Harry held out for several long seconds before he broke. "Oh for Merlin's⁠— Fine." He turned his chair and grabbed Draco's face, pulling him closer. "Just kiss me."

Draco did as he was told, but Harry felt him smiling against his lips. "I love it when you say that."

He flicked his wand at the door, adding a few extra shielding and locking charms on top of the usual privacy spells. Better to be safe than sorry, really.