"Harry!!" Ginny shouted, sprinting over to him and throwing her arms around his waist in a hug.

Harry did his best not to groan as Ginny nearly squeezed the life out of him, "Geez Ginny, I swear you're stronger every time I see you."

She let him go with a grin and pushed her sleeve back to flex an impressive bicep, "Chaser drills! I've got to be on top form if I'm going to get onto first string this season!"

"I'm sure you will," Harry said.

She grinned with absolute confidence, "Yeah, I will!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him down the street, "Now come on, we haven't had lunch out in forever."

They bickered good naturally about cafes and settled on one they both liked well enough. Over tea and sandwiches they caught up; Ginny about training with the Harpies and Harry about his foot patrols of Hogsmead.

"Now," Ginny said as they left the cafe, "I've been to see Ron and he won't shut up about Andrew, that new cat of his."

Harry laughed, "He named him Andrew?"

"After the Cannon's star-" she aggressively finger quoted, "-seeker. Not the point! I've been thinking of getting a pet now that I've got my own place."

"I thought you were sharing a place with a bunch of other Harpies?" Harry said, letting himself be led, already filled with prophetic dread at their destination.

Ginny waved her hand flippantly, "Details. The other girls said they would be alright with me getting a pet, no rats or snakes though, and I thought you might have a perfect match for me too."

"I didn't really-"

"Hermione told me everything." Ginny cut him off, "Can't hurt to look. Besides, it's hard to imagine Ferret face being good enough for you."

Harry groaned, "She told you that too?"

"I can keep a secret," Ginny said with a cheeky smile, taking him into an alley to apparate. A few minutes later they were walking into Magical Menagerie, a place Harry had absolutely decided not to come back to just days ago. And Draco was wearing his reading glasses, they had slipped down to the end of his nose, an old leather bound book floated in front of him at eye level.

Ginny nearly ran to the center of the shop and spun around to face him, her arms stretched wide, "Ok! What's the perfect pet for me?"

Over her shoulder Harry saw Draco quickly mark his place and tuck the book out of sight under the counter, his movements stiff.

Harry pushed his glasses up to briefly squeeze the bridge of his nose. He wanted to groan. He wanted to turn around and walk right back out of the door but he supposed that wasn't an option. Not a good option, anyway. If only Draco Malfoy hadn't turned out so bloody gorgeous this wouldn't be so difficult.

"A date at the pet shop, is it?" Draco said with a faint sneer.

Harry's brow furrowed at the sudden hostility and with it came a faint surge of hopefulness.

He shook his head but his no was drowned out by Ginny laughing so hard she had to grab hold of the counter to keep upright.

Draco watched her with an expression that suggested he thought she had lost her mind.

"I'm not dating him," Ginny said in mock horror, jabbing a finger in Harry's direction, "Merlin, do you believe everything they print in the Prophet? The only things that aren't made up garbage are the photos!"

Harry felt flushed. It seemed to him that he spent half his time in this shop embarrassed.

Ginny put a hand to Harry's back, pushing him forward towards the counter with the most unsubtle grin Harry had ever seen, "Harry is very single."

Harry protested, "Ginny, please-"

"Harry-" she raised her voice, "is a very single, very bisexual young man."

"Ok!" Harry spun around, grabbing Ginny by both arms with a forced cheerfulness that was cracked on the edges, "Alright!" He guided her to the cat room, opening the door and pulling her into the room, "Let's get you a pet!"

Ginny pulled her arm free with a tsk of disappointment, "You suck," she punched his shoulder and turned to cats who all looked a little started by their loud sudden arrival. "So a cat you think?"

Harry rubbed his shoulder with a frown and pointed, "That one there. The siamese."

Ginny melted a little. "Aww cute~" She walking over to the cat tree where the little cat was sitting, head tilted sideways with interest.

Harry stiffened slightly as he heard Draco walk in behind him, closing the door behind himself.

"I call her Jonakr, but you can pick any name you like," Draco said.

Ginny scratched Jonakr's cheeks, "I love her already."

Harry looked down as he felt the warm pressure of a cat pressing against his leg. He watched as the orange cat was replaced by a black and white cat in the wake of Draco's brown oxfords as he stepped beside Harry.

"Jonakr doesn't like to be picked up and held," Draco said.

"So?" Ginny's nose wrinkled.

Jonakr eyes fixed on Ginny's shoulder, she crouched and then jumped onto it in one smooth motion.

"Whoa!" Ginny said with a laugh.

Draco said, "Some people find that untenable. She's quite a lovely cat. She's magically inclined and can enhance spellcasting, you'd have to train her though."

Ginny's eyes got huge, "She's a proper witches cat?!"

Jonakr walked across Ginny's shoulder, awkwardly turned around and then put her front paws on top of her head and jumped atop that as well. Harry held his breath as woman and cat wobbled slightly to find the perfect balance but no claws were dug in.

"Do you think I could teach her to ride on a broom with me?" Ginny asked.

A single eyebrow twitching up was Draco's only expression as he said flatly, "I dare say if any person or cat were capable it would be the two of you."

Harry grinned.

Ginny laughed and Jonakr carefully jumped back down on her shoulder with a happy meow.

"What are you grinning about, Potter?" Draco asked.

Harry shrugged, "It was funny."

Draco fought down a smile, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"I'm going to call her Jona," Ginny said, carefully walking over to them, on hand on Jona's side to help keep her balanced.

Draco nodded and quickly stepped over to the door, holding it open for all of them to go through, "Have you ever owned a cat before?" he asked.

Ginny shook her head as she went round to the front of the counter, "No, but I've catsit for Ron and Hermione."

"Well that's something at least," Draco said before launching into a list of things she'd need to buy and do.

Harry was left with nothing to do but stare. He could have stared around the shop but preferred Draco instead. Draco put on his reading glasses again and Harry watched them slowly slip down to the end of his nose. He tried to remember how Draco had looked in school, pointy and too thin, especially after his growth spurt and the sixth year thing had made him look almost half dead. He had certainly grown into his features. His eyelashes almost looked white and had his lips always been that soft pink colour?

" -rry. Harry. Harry!" Ginny shouted right in his ear.

"Shit!" Harry jumped, flushing madly. He glared at Ginny, rubbing his ear, "Was that really necessary?"

"Merlin you are in deep, aren't you?" she grinned cheekily.

"Fuck off," Harry muttered.

"Will do. I'm headed home," Ginny said filling her pockets with shrunk down cat supplies and gathering a meowing basket in her arms. She took a few steps backward towards the door and waggled her eyebrows adding, "Have fun."

Harry flipped her the two finger salute.

Ginny made a face at him. Pushing the door open with her back she called, "Thanks, Malfoy! Take good care of our beautiful boy!"

The sound of the bell chiming was the only sound left in the shop as the door shut and that soon fell into an uneasy silence.

"What in the world did she mean by that?" Draco said.

Harry didn't answer. Harry had let his whole body sink under the weight of his embarrassment and was crouched down, leaning against the counter.

"Potter?" Draco called, stepping around the counter, "Did you drop something?"

My dignity, Harry thought, except he hadn't dropped it, his friends had smacked it out of his hands and were playing keep away.

"It's fine," He pulled himself up and dusted himself off absently, more for something to do than for any sort of reason.

One of the windows caught his eyes. The skies were filled with the sort of clouds you only saw in paintings, moving languidly through a long blue horizon, below wind whipped through the tall green grass and in the distance a herd of sheep, little white dots on green, grazed across a hilltop.

"Where is that?" Harry asked, nodding to the view.

Draco leaned back against the counter beside Harry. He stared at the view for a long time before answering. "They're the fields behind the Manor," He looked over at Harry to see his reaction.

"Lovely," Harry said for lack of anything better to say.

Draco sighed, "I would play in them as a child, there's a forest- It seemed like a forest, it's actually a rather small copse of trees."

Harry's brow furrowed, "With your mum?" Draco shook his head slightly, "Friends? Like Pansy?" he shook his head again and Harry frowned, "By yourself?"

Draco crossed his arms, his chin lifting slightly, "A house elf kept an eye on me, I was in no danger."

"Seems lonely," Harry said.

Draco let out a breath that seemed to take all the tension out of his body at the same time, "It was," he said quietly, his eyes fixed on the window, "Theo was the first child I met, I was five. I met Pansy, Greg, and Vincent a year or so later. They might come over once a week, sometimes twice..." he frowned to himself, "but there would be stretches, a week or longer, where it was just the three of us alone in that massive house. It would get to where it felt like we were the only people in the whole world and when I went out to play, it was just me. Alone."

Draco turned away abruptly and walk back round to his side of the counter as if needing the barrier between them. He spread his hands over the immaculate wood surface, and said in a vaguely detached professional tone, "Does that answer your question?"

Harry floundered at the sudden tone shift managing a nod. It struck him that Draco, alone in those endless grass fields feeling like the only person left in the world, felt very similar to this small quiet shop. It was gap Harry only wanted to bridge more and more as he got to know Draco.

So Harry asked, with far more optimism than he felt, "Do you want to get a coffee?"

Draco nose wrinkled in disgust, "I don't particularly like coffee."

"Tea then?" Harry said, desperation creeping into his voice.

Draco's brow furrowed, "I make my own generally. I have an apartment above the shop." His gaze shifted over Harry's shoulder as the door opened and a family came in with two children close to Hogwarts age. He waved Harry out of the way impatiently and put on his shopkeeper smile, "Welcome to Magical Menagerie, can I help you find something in particular or are you just browsing?"

Harry slunk out of the way defeated and not particularly wanting to deal with any Potter fans if they recognized him. He slipped into the cat room, which seemed far more empty with two fewer occupants, and made his way over to a large purple tasseled pillow where Brynhildr was sleeping.

Brynhildr opened her eyes just a crack, twitching an ear towards Harry as he sat on the floor beside her.

"I suppose I'm here to say goodbye to you again," Harry said, pulling his knees up and crossing his arms on top of them.

Brynhildr closed her eyes again.

Harry sighed and rested his chin on his arms, "He's... turning me down, right? He doesn't want to say outright or... maybe he's just being polite. I am a customer so he can't, well he can, but if he does it would be bad for him, for the shop."

Harry frowned to himself.

Brynhildr lashed her tail in annoyance.

"He said it the first time I came in, something like, I have no awareness? Self-awareness." He jerked his head up and roughly scrubbed his fingers through his hair.

Brynhildr startled at the sudden action, flattening her ears at him.

"Sorry," Harry muttered and carefully pet her fluffy black fur until she relaxed again, stretching out her front legs and kneading the cushion absently.

 Harry told himself softly, "Stop being a delusional wanker, Potter. He doesn't want anything to do with you, just leave it alone."