Part Two: “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world”
Title: “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world”
Author: digthewriter
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~15,600
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Summary: Draco is in the closet but is still quite curious about the gay lifestyle. What happens when the first Muggle gay club Draco picks to attend and runs into the last person he wished to see?
Warnings/Content Notes: Overuse of the phrase “not bent.” The fic has SOME epithets-but trust me, they’re worth it.
Author's Notes: Thank you SW for the beta and being so thorough and encouraging. I apologise for the lack of SMUT. (Alternate Links: AO3 / Dreamwidth)
-*-*-*-*-
A week passed, and Draco returned to his daily life of being an apothecary owner and on Thursday night again he returned to Casablanca. He still went to the club on Thursdays and Fridays and spent only a handful of hours there. Mostly dancing with Mark. Slowly he visited other clubs on Saturday nights, but realised that since he’d made friends at Casablanca, it had more of “home” feeling for him.
Draco still only drank with Mark and sometimes with Potter, and in the beginning only danced with Mark. Eventually, Draco began to accept dancing invitations with other blokes, but still kept on his resolve of not being “bent.”
On Sundays, Draco made it a habit of having lunch with Mark. A few weeks after that, Potter started joining them. Though Draco wasn’t too excited about seeing Potter frequently in the beginning, he eventually got used to his company. If there were days when Potter didn’t make the lunch Draco scheduled with Mark, Draco caught himself feeling disappointed. He hated himself on those days.
The routine continued for several months. Draco frequented his favourite café and his favourite club. He made exceptions once in a while, but otherwise stuck to his routine. He was often indecisive when it came to Muggle clothes shopping and continued to recruit Mark for his help.
Everything changed the night Draco did the unthinkable-considering how he wasn’t bent.
It was a cold night in October. It wasn’t scheduled to rain-yes, Draco had got used to weather predictions on the telly at his favourite Muggle pub-but surprisingly it did. Draco was drenched due to the unscheduled thunderstorm and walked into Casablanca dripping. He had his wand with him, but he was seen by a few of his friends and he thought it would look dodgy if he excused himself to the loo and then spelled himself dry. He entered the loo and tried to dry himself off with the paper towels that were in the dispenser. He half-managed, cursing the entire time. He heard sniggering behind him.
A dark haired bloke around Draco’s age was smiling at him. He wore square-rimmed glasses that rather emphasised his blue eyes.
“What are you laughing at?” Draco hissed. He wasn’t in a mood to be polite.
“I’ve never heard anyone curse as much as you-especially when I don’t even understand half the things you’re saying,” the blue-eyed man responded. His smile stayed intact and Draco noticed he was definitely staring at the wet shirt where it clung to his chest.
Draco figured Muggles would have a hard time understanding Merlin’s beard or troll bogies amongst other things he’d uttered that weren’t so juvenile.
“Yeah, sorry. I just didn’t expect to get so severely soaked on my way here. It’s really going to ruin my night, especially if I get infected with Scrofungulus,” Draco said.
“Scrofun- what?” the man asked.
“Oh, never mind. It’s a rare disease amongst my people,” Draco said, trying to divert from wizardry talk.
“Who are your people? Gorgeous blonds with captivating eyes?” the man said.
Smooth, Draco thought. Wait, he’s flirting with me and I am... allowing it.
“Hardly,” Draco said, attempting to rub his hands on his arms in efforts to warm himself.
“Why don’t you just use the dryer?” the man asked, approaching Draco and pointing at a metallic square posted against the wall. “Give me your shirt,” the man spoke again. Draco raised his eyebrow but removed his shirt. As the man took Draco’s shirt, he gawkily stared at Draco’s physique. Draco cleared his throat. “Right, sorry.”
The man placed Draco’s shirt under the metallic square and pushed a button. The object in question roared startling Draco for a moment. Blue eyes-as Draco called him in his head now, kept rotating Draco’s shirt under the object and it seemed as though air was emitting through. Oh, that’s what that is for, Draco thought to himself. That’s quite clever.
Five minutes later, as blue eyes continued to push the button every time the object would stop roaring, he finally returned the shirt to Draco. “Be careful, it might be a bit hot.”
After putting the warm shirt back on himself, he tingled with amusement. But there was still the matter with his denims. How was he going to dry them?
“Thanks,” Draco said to blue eyes with a smile. They stood awkwardly in the loo for several minutes until Draco spoke again. “I’ve got to-” Draco pointed at the stall next to them and nodded.
“Okay, maybe I’ll see you on the dance floor,” blue eyes said.
“Alright,” Draco uttered before closing the toilet stall door behind him. He quietly took out his wand and placed a drying spell on his denims. His shirt was still a bit soaked and he could tell people he dried it under the dryer and his denims were dark enough that no one would notice. He grinned to himself and thought about blue eyes. He never did catch his name.
Draco eventually left the loo and spotted Mark at the bar. “Took you long enough,” Mark said as Draco approached him, handing him a drink.
“I-got caught in the rain and had to dry myself and this bloke-” Draco looked around searching for blue eyes “-helped me out with the dryer.”
Mark nodded as he took a sip of his drink. “Was he cute?” he asked.
“Sure,” Draco responded.
“Hey.” Draco heard someone behind him and turned to look. It was blue eyes.
“Hi again,” Draco said. “Thanks again for all your help.” Blue eyes nodded and looked towards Mark. “Oh, this is Mark, Mark this is-” uh-blue eyes.
“Sebastian, pleasure to meet you,” blue eyes, aka Sebastian, said. Mark smiled, shaking his hand.
“Oh, I am Draco…Draco Malfoy,” Draco introduced himself, offering his hand to shake Sebastian’s who shook it firmly and lingered as he let go. Draco was intrigued.
“Do you want to dance?” Sebastian asked.
Draco shrugged and said, “sure.”
“You should know, he’s not bent,” Mark said, smiling. It had been his ceremonial comment to anyone that had asked Draco to dance with him. Sebastian had been the only one who didn’t seem unsettled by the remark.
“I’ll take my chances,” Sebastian said as he drew Draco to the middle of the club.
Sebastian was a bit shorter than Draco and his ability to smile with his eyes kept Draco captivated though Draco wasn’t that fond of his hair. Sebastian’s hair oddly reminded Draco of Potter. It seemed that keeping a head of hair untamed was all the rage in speccy men. Draco mentally cursed himself for immediately thinking about Potter.
“Is everything alright?” Sebastian asked as Draco had stopped moving and his grasp around Sebastian’s neck had tightened.
“No, sorry. I mean, yes, everything’s fine. Just got distracted for a moment,” Draco said, flustered.
Sebastian smiled again and tightened his arms around Draco’s waist and pulled him closer. “Good, I was worried you had changed your mind,” he said. Draco raised an eyebrow in response but didn’t say anything. They danced without exchanging words for the next few moments as Sebastian continued to pull Draco closer and closer.
Soon they were hip to hip. Sebastian’s right leg was in between Draco’s and Draco’s right leg was brushing against Sebastian’s groin. There wasn’t a doubt that the other man was turned on and Draco was doing his best ignoring it. Sebastian had been the first man so close to Draco’s body. Even when Draco danced with Mark, they never dared get this close and other men Draco had danced with knew to keep their distance. Sebastian was being bold-and Draco liked it.
The third song that Draco and Sebastian were dancing to had a slower beat. Draco rested his head on Sebastian’s shoulder and Sebastian took the liberty to slide his hand up Draco’s back. The first thing Draco thought of when that happened was that it was a very ‘Potter move.’ Draco had watched Potter dance with other men. Potter often stated to him and Mark that he liked feeling his dance partner’s skin because it allowed him to imagine and recognise whether or not he would want to feel his body naked against theirs. That’s apparently how Potter determined whether or not he was going to take that bloke home for the night.
Draco immediately took his head off of Sebastian’s shoulder and stared into his eyes. He was searching for something; he just didn’t know what yet.
“What?” Sebastian said.
“I am not going home with you tonight,” Draco declared.
“I-uh-” Sebastian uttered. “That wasn’t my intention. I don’t-” he paused again. “I don’t usually take men home from the club. I-if I was interested in you, I would have asked you to dinner or to the cinema first.”
Oh.
“Good,” Draco said with determination. “Also, if you were interested in me?” He scoffed, causing Sebastian to laugh.
“Okay, I’ll admit. I am interested in you,” Sebastian confessed. “I’ve been watching you-I mean I’ve seen you around and I’ve seen how you are with all the blokes here. At first, I thought you were just playing ‘hard to get’ until I realised that you just-are.”
Draco didn’t respond. He was truly speechless. He wouldn’t know what to say if he had opened his mouth to say something. Their bodies hadn’t separated and Sebastian still had his hand up Draco’s back as Draco held onto Sebastian with his right arm. They continued to move slowly to the music.
He wasn’t supposed to be bent, right?
“I-”
Sebastian leaned in and softly kissed Draco. That was Draco’s first kiss-with a man. Draco wasn’t bent, so naturally he’d never kissed a bloke before and the only girls he had ever kissed were Pansy and Millicent and that was to supposedly make Pansy jealous. Pansy didn’t get upset with him after he kissed Millie; if anything, she was glad. She’d told him that she wanted to break it off and she just didn’t know how. They continued being friends and were still friends.
But this kiss, it wasn’t anything like kissing Pansy or Millie. Draco closed his eyes and released a small breath of air through his lips. This was sort of an important event in his life, the turning point. There was no going back now. He felt the set of lips on his again. Sebastian took the liberty of kissing Draco again since Draco didn’t pull himself away. This time Draco kissed him back. The second kissed lasted seconds longer than the first, and Sebastian’s grasp on Draco tightened yet again.
Draco opened his eyes and saw the blue eyes searching his face as though they were waiting for a reaction.
“Your eyes-they’re incredibly blue,” Draco said.
“I think your eyes are incredibly amazing,” Sebastian answered. Draco smiled. He wasn’t really sure why he thought this, but his first instinct had been that Sebastian would have uttered something about “having his mother’s eyes.” It was a phrase Draco had heard frequently. It was the second well-known fact about Potter. He was ‘the boy who lived’ and had his ‘mother’s eyes’.
“Is that a common trait in your family?” Draco asked. “Your eyes?”
“I suppose,” Sebastian answered. “Both my parents have blue eyes.” He smiled and leaned in to kiss Draco again. Suddenly Draco heard a beeping sound. He thought his ears were ringing until Sebastian let go of him and looked at his left hand wrist. “Oh, I am so sorry, I’ve got to run.”
“Pardon?”
“I set the alarm on my watch,” Sebastian stated, “I’ve got a flight to catch in the morning and I had promised myself that I wouldn’t stay out too late. But, I wanted to-” Sebastian paused for a moment, “I wanted to see you. I’ll be gone for a week and I had promised myself I’d talk to you today.”
“Right, because you’d been watching me,” Draco said with a smile.
“Yep, I sound like a stalker,” Sebastian answered.
There were still a few things Draco was confused about and they were all Muggle. Blue eyes was a Muggle, he had some sort of a Muggle alarm system attached to his wrist, and he was going to fly. How do Muggles fly? Draco remembered seeing something about Muggle transportation system in his book and made another mental note to refer to it later.
“So, maybe I’ll see you here next Saturday?” Sebastian asked and Draco nodded. They kissed again and he left Draco alone on the dance floor.
Draco turned to look towards the bar, hoping Mark would be there so he could go to him. Mark was there with a look of shock on his face. Draco smiled and walked towards his friend.
“Still not bent, huh?” Mark said when Draco took a seat next to him at the bar.
“Okay, maybe a little bent,” Draco admitted.
-*-*-*-*-The next night Draco returned to Casablanca and met up with Mark. He was sad to not see Sebastian there, but he also realised that up until the moment Sebastian had walked up to him in the loo, he’d never actually seen him before.
He asked Mark.
“No, I don’t think I have ever seen him before either. But, he’s not really my type so that doesn’t surprise me,” he answered.
Draco nodded and found it to be odd how both him and Mark had never seen Sebastian before.
“Oh hiya, Harry,” Mark said. “You missed quite the show yesterday.”
“I did?” Potter asked as he nodded hello to Draco.
Draco raised an eyebrow. Could this be possible? He had never seen Sebastian before and Potter hadn't been at the club the night before when Draco met Sebastian. Potter had lived in the Muggle world until he attended Hogwarts and his flat now was also in Muggle London. He could have easily changed his appearance with magic and acted like a Muggle.
“So, first kiss, huh?” Potter asked, interrupting Draco’s thoughts. Mark must have told him about the night before whilst Draco was pondering.
“Yeah,” Draco said with disdain. He glared at Potter but received no reaction. Potter was clearly acting. Draco scoffed and walked away from them. He didn’t know where to go so he went upstairs to the lounge area where he normally hung out with Mark.
A few moments later, Potter met up with him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Don’t act so innocent, Potter,” Draco spat out.
“What are you talking about, Draco?” Potter looked confused. He was indeed a good actor. Draco didn’t answer and simply stared out into the crowd, ignoring Potter. He stood next to Draco for a few minutes until someone from the floor waved at him and he walked off.
Fine. Two can play this game, Draco thought to himself. He wasn’t really sure what that meant, but he wanted to fool Potter as Potter had fooled him.
Draco stayed at Casablanca with Mark until Mark was off dancing with someone and Draco danced with one of his other friends. He eventually left for the night, determined to return the next week with a plan. Sebastian had said he’d be back on Saturday and that’s when Draco planned on returning to Casablanca.
The week was flying by in a breeze. Draco busied himself with work, picking up double shifts and giving Nathaniel Prince time to travel and collect ingredients for their potions. It was usually Draco’s responsibility, but Draco was still fuming from how Potter had crossed him and he knew he wouldn’t be able to think straight.
Thursday night came and went and Draco didn’t go to Casablanca. Though he didn’t really owe him anything, Draco made sure to ring up Mark and inform him that he wouldn’t be attending that night. He’d become close friends with Mark and didn’t care to harm that camaraderie.
*-*-*-*Friday morning Draco opened up shop at 8 o’clock and began cataloguing new merchandise when he heard the doorbell chime. The only person who’d ever come in that early at the shop in the past had been Hermione Granger. She was the only one, Draco knew, who was determined enough to have an early start to her day. Therefore, Draco was shocked to see Potter standing in front of him in all his Auror glory.
“Potter, can I help you with something?” Draco asked, noticing that Potter had arrived sans partner.
“You didn’t come out last night, so I just wanted to check in on you before I head off to work,” Potter said.
“Why do you care?” Draco retorted.
“I thought we were past that,” Potter said. He looked hesitant for a moment and Draco wondered if it was because Potter couldn’t decide whether to call him ‘Draco’ or ‘Malfoy’. “I thought we were becoming friends?” he added. “You’d rung up Mark to inform him you weren’t attending, so I thought I’d check in on you.”
“Again, I don’t need you to check in on me, Potter,” Draco snapped. “And why does it matter if I didn’t show last night? You weren’t there last Friday!” He had noticed Potter’s absence but was distracted by Sebastian. Sebastian-who may very well have been Potter for all Draco knew.
“Angelina had the baby last week so I was at the hospital,” Potter answered. Draco was clueless to what Potter was on about. “Angelina…Weasley? George Weasley’s wife?”
“Oh, yeah. Weasley,” Draco said. He didn’t know anything about whom was married to whom in the Weasley clan. All he knew that was Granger was engaged to Ron.
“Yeah, she alright?” Draco asked. He may not give two licks about the Weasleys, but he still wasn’t completely heartless.
“Yeah, she’s great and the baby’s doing great. Fred.” Draco raised an eyebrow. “They named him Fred after-"
“I know whom it’s after, Potter,” Draco snapped. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of the war-about the people that had been lost-about how he had been on the wrong side.
“I am sorry, I didn’t come here to talk about-to bring up old-" Potter paused. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Maybe I’ll see you tonight?”
“I doubt it. I think I am going to Rain tonight. I’ll be there tomorrow. I’ve got-sort of a date-I think. I am sure you know all about it,” Draco said. Given it might be you.
“Why would I know about it?” Potter asked, puzzled.
“Whatever, I’ll see you, Potter. Unless there’s something else?” Draco raised an eyebrow with his question.
“No. Have a good time at Rain. I’ll see you tomorrow night then, maybe.” Potter didn’t wait for Draco to respond and turned around and walked away.
As Draco looked out the window and watched Potter Disapparate away, he couldn’t help but wonder about Potter’s tone. Was Potter really that good of an actor? He sounded confused when Draco had mentioned his date and he seemed a bit disappointed at the fact that Draco wasn’t going to the club that night. Draco hadn’t planned on going to Rain and he wasn’t going to go; he just didn’t wish to tell Potter that he simply wanted to stay home and catch up on his reading. Ever since Draco had introduced himself to this lifestyle, he’d fallen severely behind on his potions research. He looked forward to having a few quiet nights in with the potions manuscripts written by Snape that were published after his death.
When one of Draco’s subordinates arrived at the shop, he excused himself and went into the employee room in search of the Prophet from a week before. He found the one from the Saturday before and the “birth announcement” was indeed there. Angelina Weasley had given birth to Fred Weasley, named after George’s deceased twin brother. But that didn’t mean anything, Potter still could be playing tricks on Draco. He needed to expose Potter’s deception for himself.
-*-*-*-*-As Draco dressed on Saturday night, the idea of seeing Sebastian again excited him. He really planned on having some fun. He was going to tease the heck out of Sebastian. He wanted to see Potter after he had his fun.
Draco walked into Casablanca looking the best he’d ever appeared. He had Mark to thank for that. When he spotted Mark on the dance floor, his reaction had been exactly what Draco had hoped for. Mark left the bloke he was dancing with behind and walked up to Draco.
“You. Look. Hot,” Mark said and Draco simply grinned. “He’s here and searching for you.”
“Who?” Draco asked.
“Blue eyes-I mean, Sebastian, of course,” Mark answered, glaring at Draco. “You’ve only been too excited to see him and that’s all you talked about last week at lunch!” Draco nodded, looking towards the floor searching. “How was Rain?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you go to Rain last night, that’s what Harry told me,” Mark answered.
“Oh, I ended up not going. I got stuck with-work stuff,” Draco answered. “Is he here?”
“Who?”
“Potter, of course,” Draco said, mocking Mark.
“No, haven’t seen him yet. He said something about a baby in the family-that he might be late-”
“Draco.”
Draco and Mark turned to look at the person who stood next to them. Sebastian smiled when he saw Draco and nodded a hello at Mark. Mark nodded in return and walked away.
“Hi,” Draco said. “How was your trip?” Draco had managed to read up on the chapter of Muggle aeroplanes and learned all about how they worked.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow and Draco immediately thought that blue eyes was definitely hiding something. “It was-eventful-to say the least, but it was-I can’t really talk about it.”
Yeah, can’t really talk about it because you’re a liar!
“Dance?” Draco asked and Sebastian agreed. Draco pulled him to the dance floor and Sebastian immediately wrapped his arms around Draco’s waist. Draco turned Sebastian around so they would grind to the music. Draco had never actually done this with anyone besides Mark before and with Mark it had been more of a tutorial. Draco had confessed to Mark that he didn’t know how to dance. That wasn’t entirely the truth; he just didn’t know how to dance like a Muggle, a gay Muggle, even though he wasn’t bent-at that time.
Now he was thankful that Mark had still taught him ‘the moves.’
Draco moved smoothly to the music as Sebastian pushed back into him. They danced together and Draco teased Sebastian the best he could. His hands slid into Sebastian’s black hair as he tugged on the locks. Sebastian leaned back and pressed his lips on Draco’s neck and Draco shivered with pleasure. This wasn’t going exactly the way Draco had imagined. Sure, he’d imagined Sebastian dancing with him, but his movements, his responses to Draco’s touch were genuine. Sebastian seemed to enjoy Draco’s caresses. Draco still wasn’t sure if this was Potter or not, as Potter was nowhere to be seen-but whoever this individual was that was dancing with Draco wasn’t having him on.
Draco abruptly turned Sebastian around and stared into his eyes again looking for something, an inclination, or some sort of an indication.
“What’s the matter?” Sebastian asked.
“Nothing,” Draco answered with a smile. “It seems as though you genuinely like me,” Draco blurted out. He didn’t know what possessed him to say that.
“I thought that much was obvious,” Sebastian answered. “Didn’t I tell you how I’ve seen you around-”
“Yeah, about that,” Draco interrupted Sebastian. “Why haven’t I seen you before? I asked Mark and he said he hadn’t seen you before last week either. If you’ve been here then-"
“I am good at hiding in the shadows,” Sebastian answered. “I usually got my drink at the bar and went upstairs there-" Sebastian pointed at a corner balcony on the floor above. It was opposite of where Draco usually stood with Mark. “I’d watch from there and you caught my eye-"
“Right,” Draco said, thinking that if Sebastian had really been at the balcony across from him, he would have seen the bloke. A familiar beeping sound rung in Draco’s ears. Sebastian had his arms around Draco’s neck and the watch was right next to his right ear.
“Oh, not again,” Sebastian groaned. “I am sorry, I’ve got to go and use my mobile. I’ve left it in the car.”
Draco nodded. He knew of mobile phones, and cars, obviously. Potter was doing a good job pretending to be a Muggle. Sebastian walked away and Draco returned to the bar. Mark met up with him immediately after.
“What happened to your boy toy?” Mark asked.
“He had to go use the mobile or something,” Draco muttered after gesturing to the bartender for his drink.
“Why do you look so upset? You seemed to be hitting it off great with him on the dance floor and all the blokes here are jealous of him,” Mark said.
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” Mark scoffed and then shook his head.
“You’re the virgin-you’ve been the virgin for months!”
“The virgin?” Draco asked.
“Yeah, fresh meat,” Mark said, puzzling Draco further. “When you first got here everyone was curious because nobody knew who you were, but then we all found out you’re friends with Harry.”
“Potter and I were never friends,” Draco retorted.
“Yes, I know that, but everyone else had just seen you two talking so they figured you were friends. Harry had warned each and every one that they better not-" Mark paused.
“Better not what?” Draco asked.
“Harry will kill me for this. That they better not fuck with you,” Mark said. “That you weren’t just some twink that was fresh meat, and that if anyone hurt you in any way, they would answer to him.”
Draco rolled his eyes. Leave it to Potter to become the self-appointed hero of the Muggle universe, Auror by day, twink rescuer by night. Draco was further annoyed for being called a twink. Yeah-he had become well versed in Muggle homosexual culture and frequented Time Out with Mark a few times.
“Does he do this for everyone?” Draco asked and Mark seemed puzzled by his question. “Potter, threaten the patrons as guardian of the innocents?” The sarcasm in Draco’s tone could not have been clearer.
Mark shook his head. “Not really, he’s broken up a few fights in the back alley, but besides that he hasn’t really claimed anyone before.”
“Claimed?” Draco roared. “He’s claimed me?”
“Well, obviously not, because here you are with Sebastian.” Mark gestured with his eyes and Draco turned to look.
Sebastian seemed to have returned from his errand and he looked disappointed. “Something the matter?” Draco asked.
“I’ve got to run, an emergency-a work emergency-has come up and-” Sebastian paused briefly. “Would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?”
“I can’t, I am busy,” Draco lied.
“Oh,” Sebastian replied, looking thoroughly disappointed.
“Maybe I’ll see you back here, next week?” Draco asked. He didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, Thursday?” Sebastian asked and Draco raised an eyebrow. Potter had shown up at the shop last week since Draco didn’t come out last Thursday.
“Sure,” Draco answered.
Sebastian took Draco’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “It was good to see you again and I had fun,” he said to which Draco smiled. “I look forward to seeing you again, Draco,” he added. Draco looked down at his hand that Sebastian held and rubbed his thumb on Sebastian’s wrist. He smiled and as he looked towards him again, Sebastian leaned in and kissed Draco. Draco placed his hand behind Sebastian’s neck and pulled him in as he kissed him back.
A few moments later they separated, and Draco looked deep into the blue eyes again. For the first time, Draco realised that he’d wished he was looking into a set that weren’t so blue but instead were emerald green.
Bloody hell.
Sebastian quickly pecked on Draco’s lips again and left. Draco simply stood there winded, wondering if that indeed was Potter and how in the bloody hell had he just wished it was.
“That was hot,” Mark remarked as Draco turned to take a seat on the barstool.
“Hello.” Draco sprang up when he heard Potter’s voice.
“Harry, you missed him again!” Mark remarked.
“I did? Oh, that’s too bad. But I do think I caught a glimpse of him from the other side of the room as everyone turned to watch you two snogging,” Potter answered. Draco rolled his eyes. “It was quite the sight to see, actually.” Potter teased Draco some more.
Draco was frustrated as he walked away. Stupid Potter had managed to ruin everything. Draco was more and more convinced now that Sebastian was none other than Potter himself. He was always around when Potter wasn’t and Potter would miraculously show up after Sebastian had left. What was worse was that now Draco was confused about his feelings. He was beginning to realise that he had a crush on Potter. This was the worst night, ever. Okay, the night Dumbledore died was the worst night ever, but still, this was just something Draco wished he could forget. Only if Obliviate Charms worked on oneself. Draco let out an exasperated sigh as he sat on the sofa by the balcony overlooking the dance floor.
“What’s the matter?” Potted had apparently decided to follow him.
“Don’t act like you’re just all so innocent, Potter,” Draco retorted. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“You told everyone here to keep away from me? So you could put a claim on me?” Draco remembered his conversation with Mark a few minutes prior. Though he didn’t have enough concrete evidence to prove that Sebastian was Potter, he still had enough information to confront Potter about another matter.
Draco watched as Potter’s chest rose and fell. “Mark told you that, did he?” Draco nodded angrily. “It wasn’t to place my claim on you-that’s just how these-I mean Muggles, operate. Once you tell someone to stay away from them or to not hurt them, they make it seem like I am an Alpha or something and I’ve placed my assertion. I just-I told you this before, Draco-" Draco rolled his eyes upon hearing his name. “I want to be your friend and I thought we were sort of becoming that over these past few months. I just know how tough it can be when you’re new into the culture. I just didn’t want you to hate Muggles if a seedy one tried to take advantage of you. So, I just wanted to ensure that you simply had the best Muggle-Wizard interaction.”
“And Sebastian?” Draco asked.
“Well, I haven’t met the bloke, but from what I hear, he sounds like a decent Muggle,” Harry answered and Draco scoffed again.
“Right,” he said as he stood up and walked away.
Before leaving Draco met up with Mark. “Don’t bring him to lunch tomorrow.” Mark nodded in acknowledgement and Draco was out the door.
-*-*-*-*-Draco was still annoyed the next day, although, he wasn’t really sure why. Was he cross with Potter because of the whole claiming story or was it because he had disguised himself as Sebastian and was toying with him? Had Potter only wanted to snog Draco and that’s why he’d told everyone to stay away from him? And now? All of a sudden a new bloke came into the establishment and kissed Draco without reservation and everyone was okay with it? That was an unlikely story.
When Draco met up with Mark at Café Renault, he didn’t wish to discuss his foul mood. Instead, he told Mark to talk about his latest exploits. Of all the friends that Draco had made, Mark was the only one, besides Potter he assumed, who was aware of the fact that Draco had never had sex with a bloke. He never told Potter this information but he figured Potter somehow knew. So he liked to sit once in a while and simply hear Mark chat about his own sexual voyage; it beat listening to Pansy or Blaise discuss their heterosexual activities. This was the only thing that had managed to take Draco’s mind off of things-usually had been the only thing-but now Draco couldn’t help but wonder how it would be like to be with Sebastian-to be with Potter.
Gods, Draco hated Potter.
The rest of the week Draco continued to submerge himself in work again. At work he organised and catalogued each item in their inventory, driving his assistants mad, and at home he stayed awake late into the night reading up on Snape’s private potions manuscripts. By the time Thursday rolled around, Nathaniel Prince told Draco to take Friday off.
“Why?” he asked.
“You seem quite stressed, so why don’t you go out to your little Muggle establishment tonight and sleep in tomorrow?” Prince said. Draco raised an eyebrow; he was confused, shocked, embarrassed, how did Prince know? “You left one of your Muggle magazines in the lounge. I took the liberty of looking through it and then hid it away before any of the junior attendants came upon it. Don’t worry, son, your secret is safe with me.”
Now, Draco was further frustrated. Potter was ruining everything. He’d pop up in Draco’s dreams, one eye green, one eye blue, he would tease him before disappearing, and Draco would wake up nearly hard every morning. And now? Draco was blundering up at work! Something needed to be done, soon.
Draco was going to tease Sebastian, nearly seduce him, and get him to admit that he wasn’t some mystery Muggle man who had to be whisked away in the middle of the night, and that he really was Potter.
Thursday night Draco arrived late at the club. He was a regular now so he no longer needed to wait in queue. He’d learned about guest lists and VIP lists from Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles and had learned to put that virtue into practise. When Draco arrived, he spotted Sebastian immediately. He went in straight for a deep kiss and pulled him to the dance floor. He walked past Mark, all but ignoring him. Draco made a mental note of apologising to him later. They danced as Sebastian was grinding on Draco and Draco was teasing Sebastian with his arse. Draco had turned him on instantly and Draco felt his erection. The idea that Draco turned Potter on intrigued him. Even though he would hear Sebastian’s voice, look into the blue eyes, Draco only thought of him as Potter.
After a few more songs, Draco turned to Sebastian and whispered in his ear. “I’ve got to go, maybe we can continue this tomorrow night?”
Sebastian looked bewildered. “Oh, okay,” he uttered. “Can I give you a lift somewhere?” he asked.
Draco smiled and shook his head and walked away. As he was leaving, Draco turned to Mark and winked. Mark smiled at Draco and waved goodbye along with blowing a kiss towards him. Draco chuckled. If only his father could see him now, cohering with Muggles.
He stood outside Casablanca. It was a clear night and the weather was surprisingly temperate. Draco wasn’t sure what he was waiting for but he just waited. A few minutes later, Potter showed up.
“Malfoy, you’re leaving?” Potted asked.
“Yeah, I suppose I am,” Draco replied with a smirk.
“I just came out for some air. I saw you in there, with Sebastian, I presume,” Potter said.
“Yet, you didn’t come by to say hello,” Draco answered.
“Well, you seemed sort of occupied,” Potter answered with a hint of resentment in his tone.
“Perhaps tomorrow night then? A proper introduction?” Draco asked, his tone purposely a bit flirtatious. Potter is such a fool. Potter nodded in confusion. Draco said his goodbyes and walked around the club to a dark alley to Disapparate home.
The next night, Draco arrived early and spotted Potter with Mark. He must have had his smirk on because Potter looked worried. He stopped by at the bar and purchased three drinks for them.
“Where’s your bloke?” Potter asked. Some nerve.
“Not sure, we don’t really make plans more than just to meet here sometime during the night, so we’ll see how the night goes,” Draco replied rather nonchalantly.
Another man, with auburn hair and light skin, walked up to the three of them and placed his hand on Potter’s shoulder. Potter turned to look at him and grinned. “Oh hey, you’re early,” Potter said. “Well, see you mates in a bit.” Potter walked away with the other man, leaving a feeling of jealousy in the pit of Draco’s stomach.
“You don’t look so happy,” Mark said. “You should tell him that you like him,” he added. Draco turned to look at Mark with disbelief. “Granted, it might be a bit difficult given you’ve gotten into the habit of shoving your tongue down another man’s throat.”
“So what makes you think I like him?” Draco said, pointing towards the direction Potter had gone to.
“That look on your face,” Mark said.
“What look?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow. Was he that obvious?
“I don’t know what the expression means, but I’ve heard Harry use it once with another man, named Charlie-”
“Weasley?” Draco exclaimed.
“Yeah, his brother’s best mates with Harry, right?” Mark asked as Draco nodded. “Yeah so I heard them-”
“What’s the expression?” Draco asked intriguingly, along with another question beckoning in the back of his mind, how has Mark met the Weasleys?
“As though someone kicked you off your broom,” Mark said, sounding confused and Draco erupted into laughter. “You know what it means?”
Draco nodded. “It’s just an expression. It’s cute to see you use it though,” he added. “How did you meet Charlie?”
“Harry brought him here one time. Charlie lives in Romania, he’s gay and not out, something to do with his work. So when he was visiting for holiday last year, Harry brought him and he seemed to have a good time.” Mark took a sip of his drink and looked out longingly onto the dance floor.
“You fancy Charlie?” Draco observed. It wasn’t a question-it was quite obvious-it all made sense. Why Mark was so close with Harry and how Mark always said what his type was. There was something familiar about the types of men Mark danced with; they all had red hair and freckles. Draco couldn’t believe his luck, the only real Muggle friend he had-fancied a Weasley.
“So what happened between you two?” Draco asked.
“We had a nice time together but he said he couldn’t pursue a long-distance relationship and it ended. I’ve tried to forget him-”
“I know, I’ve seen you-trying to forget,” Draco said; he wasn’t trying to be mean, and he hoped he sounded concerned. Their conversation was interrupted when Sebastian had conveniently shown up, wrapping his arms around Draco’s waist.
“Hi there, I’ve missed you,” blue eyes whispered in Draco’s ear. It felt so good to be in Potter’s arms and Draco hated himself for it. “Do you want to go up to the lounge?” he asked and Draco almost immediately agreed. He hated himself for that, too.
Draco turned to look towards Mark and asked, “do you want to come hang out with us?”
Mark shook his head. “No, you boys have fun.” He winked, picked up his drink and walked away. Sebastian almost immediately pulled Draco towards the steps to go upstairs. They found an unoccupied sofa in the corner and Sebastian sat down, pulling Draco into his lap.
“You’re an eager one tonight,” Draco teased, settling himself.
“I just want to make sure they all know you’re mine,” Sebastian answered.
“Oh, so now you’re placing a claim on me?” Draco asked as though he was talking to Potter. “I thought that wasn’t your style?” Sebastian gave him a confused look and before Draco could say anything else, pulled him into a kiss. Draco happily kissed him back.
They spent most of the night snogging on the sofa and Draco felt the other man’s erection pushing on his thigh. Draco was turned on as well and curious. He wanted to touch him, he wanted to place his hand on the other man and lightly rub his erection. He’d never touched anyone else before, but he also knew that’s not how he wanted to do it. Besides the fact that Draco wasn’t secure enough to take his outness to the next level, he also didn’t want to do it with a man who was in disguise. When he’d closed his eyes, he was kissing Potter, so to see someone different in front of him and know that it was really Potter was complicating everything.
Their mouths took a break from each other and Draco nibbled on Sebastian’s ear as he made his way down, dropping little kisses on his neck.
“Draco,” Sebastian moaned.
“Yeah?” whispered Draco.
“I have to leave for a trip day after tomorrow, but when I return, we should definitely go on a real date,” Sebastian said as Draco stopped and stared into the blue eyes.
“Go away again?” Draco asked.
“Yeah, but I will be here tomorrow night and we can spend more time together,” Sebastian answered. “And if you’re free for dinner on Wednesday of next week, that’ll be brilliant.”
“Before this goes any further,” Draco said, “I want you to come as yourself tomorrow night. I don’t want your games anymore.”
“I don’t understand,” Sebastian answered.
“If you want me, I need you to claim me as yourself,” Draco announced. Shortly after, he got up off the sofa and Sebastian’s lap. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Draco walked away without looking back.
The next night Draco met up with Mark for dinner before going to Casablanca. Draco wanted to give his undivided attention to Mark if he wished to talk about Charlie. Over the months he had grown quite close with Mark and genuinely cared for the bloke as he did for Pansy and Blaise. He’d even considered introducing them in the future-however, how his pure-blood friends would take to meeting a Muggle was a baffling thought. It would definitely be something he’d have to ease his friends into.
When they arrived at the club, they took their usual spot at the bar and ordered drinks. Shortly after, Sebastian stopped by. Draco looked at Sebastian with surprise. He had truly thought that Potter was going to come in his true self. He didn’t understand, so naturally Draco glared at him.
“What’s the matter?” Sebastian asked.
“Nothing,” Draco replied curtly.
Mark must have realised the tension that built inside Draco and took it as a sign. He grabbed his drink and left the two men alone. Sebastian immediately leaned in and kissed Draco softly. Draco closed his eyes and allowed for the kiss to continue. He had really hoped that he would be kissing Potter in his true self by that moment.
“Potter,” Draco whispered.
“Sebastian,” the other man answered.
“Why do you insist on keeping up with the façade?” Draco asked before pulling him back into a kiss, gently sliding his tongue in the other man’s mouth. They stopped talking for a while until they parted for mere inches to take a breath and Draco whispered again. “Potter.”
“Who. Is. Potter?” Sebastian asked firmly, his voice full of contempt.
“Well, this is awkward.” Draco heard a voice all too familiar from his right, but not from the man he’d been snogging. Draco nearly gasped with horror; Potter was standing on his right, whilst Sebastian was nearly on top of him.
Draco was an idiot.
-*-*-*-*-Draco’s heart sank. How could he have been so stupid? Unable to breathe, unable to cope with his ridiculous mistake, Draco slightly pushed Sebastian away and ran out of the club. He hid in the alley around the corner from Casablanca, took out his wand and cast a Notice-Me-Not spell on himself. Moments later he saw Potter. Potter must have chased after him and came around to the alleyway.
“Draco, what’s the matter?” Potter asked, looking worried.
Stupid Aurors, Draco thought to himself.
“You can see me?” Draco whispered as a test. Since Potter had already asked him of his well-being and given that Potter was an Auror, there was no doubt that he could in fact see him.
“Yeah, the Aurors are trained in detection of several veiling spells and all the impression Charms-it helps catch the suspects easily…” Potter paused for a moment. “Besides being dead and coming alive has its own perks,” he added. “But that’s a story for another day.”
Draco nodded, he was still out of breath, his heart still racing.
Potter asked again. “What is the matter, Draco? Why won’t you just talk to me?”
“I thought-" Draco huffed. “I thought he was you, you were him.” Draco pointed towards the end of the alley towards the club.
“Who?” Potter asked, looking towards where Draco had pointed.
“Blue eyes,” Draco said. He chuckled a little bit; after all this time, he still just called him that.
“Sebastian?” Potter exclaimed.
“Yeah, when he approached me, the way he talked to me-everything about him-just reminded me of you and I thought you were deceiving me. Maybe that you-I don’t know-fancied me and since I always refused to dance with you or spent time with you when Mark wasn’t around that-maybe you thought you could get me to fall for you,” Draco answered, looking at his feet. He continued to feel foolish. “Besides, you two were never in the same vicinity-so it was easy to assume-that you’d turn yourself into a blue-eyed Muggle to fool me.”
“Draco, that’s-”
“Besides,” Draco interrupted Potter. “You’re an Auror; you’re probably used to going undercover all the time. Assuming a different identity could come easily to you.”
“Draco, I would never make you fall for me by pretending to be someone else. That wouldn’t even make any sense,” Potter answered.
“It would when you would just want to have me on. A good story to tell your mates at the Burrow,” Draco replied.
“Is that really what you think of me?” Potter asked.
Draco didn’t know what to say. It really was something he would have done-so why not? He shrugged in response to Potter’s question.
“So you’ve fallen for Sebastian, then?” Potter spoke again.
Draco looked up. Had he? If it wasn’t Potter, then Sebastian was his own person. Had he inadvertently begun to fancy blue eyes?
“I-” Draco was at a loss for words.
“He must be looking for you, you should go back to the poor bloke before he has to run off again,” Potter said. Draco looked up and caught the expression in Potter’s eyes that he was evidently trying to hide.
“What?” Draco asked. “How do you know-?”
“Harry!” Mark came running towards Potter and Draco. Draco realised that his incantation was still on and Mark probably didn’t see him. “Have you seen Draco? That bloke Sebastian is looking for him. Why did he run off like that?” Potter looked towards Draco. “Why are you staring at the wall?” Mark asked.
Potter took out his wand and Draco panicked for a brief moment. “Finite Incantatem,” Potter whispered and Mark jumped.
“Potter! He’s a -”
“Muggle, I know. But he’s aware,” Potter said as Mark looked guiltily at him.
“But I thought-”
“Charlie sort of set the curtains on fire one time,” Mark said. “I didn’t know what had happened, but it happened several times before he finally explained it to me. I was scared, but he gave me the option of making me forget and I turned him down.”
“If the Ministry finds out-”
“The Ministry knows. The moment Charlie told me, I had a conversation with Kingsley about it. With Mark’s permission-we’ve placed him under a spell that even though he’s aware of our existence, he isn’t allowed to discuss it with any Muggle. It’s physically impossible for him to talk about it.” Mark nodded along with whatever Potter said.
“Oh.”
“Sebastian,” Mark reminded Draco. “He’s in there.” He pointed towards the club and Draco nodded. “I’ll go tell him that you’ll be in shortly.” Mark smiled at Potter and Draco watched him walk away.
“Come on,” Potter said to Draco, offering his hand and pulling him from against the wall.
“So Weasley really broke it off with him because of the long distance thing?” Draco asked keeping the discussion away from the topic of Potter and Sebastian.
Potter sighed. “Not really. Mark didn’t think he would ever be good enough because he’s a Muggle and that Charlie would probably want someone who could also do magic. He sort of broke it off because he was falling for Charlie and falling hard. He thought of it as protecting himself. Charlie understood and they decided that if anyone ever asks, that’s what they’ll say-that the long distance thing was the reason.”
“So now he’s here, night after night, working hard to find a replacement, an imitation of what he’s lost,” Draco said.
“Yeah, but he knows, as we all do, I suppose, that an imitation is not the real thing,” Potter replied. Draco was about to say something but they’d reached the doors to the club and he looked up to see Sebastian.
“Well, see you around, Draco,” Potter said as he nodded towards Sebastian and walked away.
“Is everything alright, Draco?” Sebastian asked.
Draco nodded. Sebastian leaned in to kiss Draco again and Draco once again allowed it. Realising that he wasn’t kissing Potter made everything simple. Sebastian was an imitation and Potter was the real thing. It was all so clear in that moment. Draco had been so committed in not falling for Potter, that he’d fallen for the first person that reminded Draco of him.
Draco stopped and pulled back from Sebastian, his inquisitive eyes searching for an answer.
“I am sorry, I can’t do this,” Draco said. “I am sorry, Sebastian.”
“What’s wrong?” Sebastian asked.
“You’re not the real thing,” Draco responded and rushed through the doors looking for Potter.
Sebastian ran after Draco and pulled on his arm. “Wait, Draco. I don’t understand. I thought that you liked me?” He looked confused and perhaps a bit hurt, and his grip on Draco’s arm tightened as though he wasn’t ready to let him go without a fight.
Draco sighed. The fact that he’d completely led someone on and for the wrong reasons caught up with him. He did his best to describe his situation to Sebastian. How his mind was playing tricks on him and he thought he liked Sebastian when he realised that he actually fancied someone else. Sebastian seemed to understand and nodded. As Draco was about to walk away again, Sebastian gave him a hug and whispered, “Go get him, he’ll be a fool to not want you back.”
Draco spotted Potter at the bar with Mark as they drank a shot of something. Draco caught up to them; he placed his hand on Potter’s shoulder and turned him around.
“Draco?” Potter asked. “What’s the matter?”
Draco pulled Potter in towards him and without answering any questions, leaned in and sucked on Potter’s lower lip. Potter immediately responded by tightening his grasp around Draco’s waist and kissing him back. When they pulled apart, Draco looked into Potter’s eyes that were equally inquisitive as Sebastian’s had been, but Draco seemed to prefer them.
Draco grinned. “I don’t wish to settle for an imitation.”
“So not fallen for Sebastian then?” Potter asked with an equally cheeky grin.
“No, I’ve fallen for you,” Draco answered. “-and definitely not not-bent,” he added.
And this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Months later when they were happily in love, Potter confessed to Draco that the reason he’d never seen Sebastian and Potter in the same vicinity before was because Potter used to hide himself under the Invisibility Cloak and watch Draco dance with other men. It was the only time Draco had relaxed and genuinely smiled, and Potter didn’t wish to ruin it for him. Draco thought it was mildly disturbing, but it was not the first time he was stalked by Potter. He figured that was his fate-Potter would always be around to keep an eye on him.
FIN
Author: digthewriter
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~15,600
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Summary: Draco is in the closet but is still quite curious about the gay lifestyle. What happens when the first Muggle gay club Draco picks to attend and runs into the last person he wished to see?
Warnings/Content Notes: Overuse of the phrase “not bent.” The fic has SOME epithets-but trust me, they’re worth it.
Author's Notes: Thank you SW for the beta and being so thorough and encouraging. I apologise for the lack of SMUT. (Alternate Links: AO3 / Dreamwidth)
-*-*-*-*-
A week passed, and Draco returned to his daily life of being an apothecary owner and on Thursday night again he returned to Casablanca. He still went to the club on Thursdays and Fridays and spent only a handful of hours there. Mostly dancing with Mark. Slowly he visited other clubs on Saturday nights, but realised that since he’d made friends at Casablanca, it had more of “home” feeling for him.
Draco still only drank with Mark and sometimes with Potter, and in the beginning only danced with Mark. Eventually, Draco began to accept dancing invitations with other blokes, but still kept on his resolve of not being “bent.”
On Sundays, Draco made it a habit of having lunch with Mark. A few weeks after that, Potter started joining them. Though Draco wasn’t too excited about seeing Potter frequently in the beginning, he eventually got used to his company. If there were days when Potter didn’t make the lunch Draco scheduled with Mark, Draco caught himself feeling disappointed. He hated himself on those days.
The routine continued for several months. Draco frequented his favourite café and his favourite club. He made exceptions once in a while, but otherwise stuck to his routine. He was often indecisive when it came to Muggle clothes shopping and continued to recruit Mark for his help.
Everything changed the night Draco did the unthinkable-considering how he wasn’t bent.
It was a cold night in October. It wasn’t scheduled to rain-yes, Draco had got used to weather predictions on the telly at his favourite Muggle pub-but surprisingly it did. Draco was drenched due to the unscheduled thunderstorm and walked into Casablanca dripping. He had his wand with him, but he was seen by a few of his friends and he thought it would look dodgy if he excused himself to the loo and then spelled himself dry. He entered the loo and tried to dry himself off with the paper towels that were in the dispenser. He half-managed, cursing the entire time. He heard sniggering behind him.
A dark haired bloke around Draco’s age was smiling at him. He wore square-rimmed glasses that rather emphasised his blue eyes.
“What are you laughing at?” Draco hissed. He wasn’t in a mood to be polite.
“I’ve never heard anyone curse as much as you-especially when I don’t even understand half the things you’re saying,” the blue-eyed man responded. His smile stayed intact and Draco noticed he was definitely staring at the wet shirt where it clung to his chest.
Draco figured Muggles would have a hard time understanding Merlin’s beard or troll bogies amongst other things he’d uttered that weren’t so juvenile.
“Yeah, sorry. I just didn’t expect to get so severely soaked on my way here. It’s really going to ruin my night, especially if I get infected with Scrofungulus,” Draco said.
“Scrofun- what?” the man asked.
“Oh, never mind. It’s a rare disease amongst my people,” Draco said, trying to divert from wizardry talk.
“Who are your people? Gorgeous blonds with captivating eyes?” the man said.
Smooth, Draco thought. Wait, he’s flirting with me and I am... allowing it.
“Hardly,” Draco said, attempting to rub his hands on his arms in efforts to warm himself.
“Why don’t you just use the dryer?” the man asked, approaching Draco and pointing at a metallic square posted against the wall. “Give me your shirt,” the man spoke again. Draco raised his eyebrow but removed his shirt. As the man took Draco’s shirt, he gawkily stared at Draco’s physique. Draco cleared his throat. “Right, sorry.”
The man placed Draco’s shirt under the metallic square and pushed a button. The object in question roared startling Draco for a moment. Blue eyes-as Draco called him in his head now, kept rotating Draco’s shirt under the object and it seemed as though air was emitting through. Oh, that’s what that is for, Draco thought to himself. That’s quite clever.
Five minutes later, as blue eyes continued to push the button every time the object would stop roaring, he finally returned the shirt to Draco. “Be careful, it might be a bit hot.”
After putting the warm shirt back on himself, he tingled with amusement. But there was still the matter with his denims. How was he going to dry them?
“Thanks,” Draco said to blue eyes with a smile. They stood awkwardly in the loo for several minutes until Draco spoke again. “I’ve got to-” Draco pointed at the stall next to them and nodded.
“Okay, maybe I’ll see you on the dance floor,” blue eyes said.
“Alright,” Draco uttered before closing the toilet stall door behind him. He quietly took out his wand and placed a drying spell on his denims. His shirt was still a bit soaked and he could tell people he dried it under the dryer and his denims were dark enough that no one would notice. He grinned to himself and thought about blue eyes. He never did catch his name.
Draco eventually left the loo and spotted Mark at the bar. “Took you long enough,” Mark said as Draco approached him, handing him a drink.
“I-got caught in the rain and had to dry myself and this bloke-” Draco looked around searching for blue eyes “-helped me out with the dryer.”
Mark nodded as he took a sip of his drink. “Was he cute?” he asked.
“Sure,” Draco responded.
“Hey.” Draco heard someone behind him and turned to look. It was blue eyes.
“Hi again,” Draco said. “Thanks again for all your help.” Blue eyes nodded and looked towards Mark. “Oh, this is Mark, Mark this is-” uh-blue eyes.
“Sebastian, pleasure to meet you,” blue eyes, aka Sebastian, said. Mark smiled, shaking his hand.
“Oh, I am Draco…Draco Malfoy,” Draco introduced himself, offering his hand to shake Sebastian’s who shook it firmly and lingered as he let go. Draco was intrigued.
“Do you want to dance?” Sebastian asked.
Draco shrugged and said, “sure.”
“You should know, he’s not bent,” Mark said, smiling. It had been his ceremonial comment to anyone that had asked Draco to dance with him. Sebastian had been the only one who didn’t seem unsettled by the remark.
“I’ll take my chances,” Sebastian said as he drew Draco to the middle of the club.
Sebastian was a bit shorter than Draco and his ability to smile with his eyes kept Draco captivated though Draco wasn’t that fond of his hair. Sebastian’s hair oddly reminded Draco of Potter. It seemed that keeping a head of hair untamed was all the rage in speccy men. Draco mentally cursed himself for immediately thinking about Potter.
“Is everything alright?” Sebastian asked as Draco had stopped moving and his grasp around Sebastian’s neck had tightened.
“No, sorry. I mean, yes, everything’s fine. Just got distracted for a moment,” Draco said, flustered.
Sebastian smiled again and tightened his arms around Draco’s waist and pulled him closer. “Good, I was worried you had changed your mind,” he said. Draco raised an eyebrow in response but didn’t say anything. They danced without exchanging words for the next few moments as Sebastian continued to pull Draco closer and closer.
Soon they were hip to hip. Sebastian’s right leg was in between Draco’s and Draco’s right leg was brushing against Sebastian’s groin. There wasn’t a doubt that the other man was turned on and Draco was doing his best ignoring it. Sebastian had been the first man so close to Draco’s body. Even when Draco danced with Mark, they never dared get this close and other men Draco had danced with knew to keep their distance. Sebastian was being bold-and Draco liked it.
The third song that Draco and Sebastian were dancing to had a slower beat. Draco rested his head on Sebastian’s shoulder and Sebastian took the liberty to slide his hand up Draco’s back. The first thing Draco thought of when that happened was that it was a very ‘Potter move.’ Draco had watched Potter dance with other men. Potter often stated to him and Mark that he liked feeling his dance partner’s skin because it allowed him to imagine and recognise whether or not he would want to feel his body naked against theirs. That’s apparently how Potter determined whether or not he was going to take that bloke home for the night.
Draco immediately took his head off of Sebastian’s shoulder and stared into his eyes. He was searching for something; he just didn’t know what yet.
“What?” Sebastian said.
“I am not going home with you tonight,” Draco declared.
“I-uh-” Sebastian uttered. “That wasn’t my intention. I don’t-” he paused again. “I don’t usually take men home from the club. I-if I was interested in you, I would have asked you to dinner or to the cinema first.”
Oh.
“Good,” Draco said with determination. “Also, if you were interested in me?” He scoffed, causing Sebastian to laugh.
“Okay, I’ll admit. I am interested in you,” Sebastian confessed. “I’ve been watching you-I mean I’ve seen you around and I’ve seen how you are with all the blokes here. At first, I thought you were just playing ‘hard to get’ until I realised that you just-are.”
Draco didn’t respond. He was truly speechless. He wouldn’t know what to say if he had opened his mouth to say something. Their bodies hadn’t separated and Sebastian still had his hand up Draco’s back as Draco held onto Sebastian with his right arm. They continued to move slowly to the music.
He wasn’t supposed to be bent, right?
“I-”
Sebastian leaned in and softly kissed Draco. That was Draco’s first kiss-with a man. Draco wasn’t bent, so naturally he’d never kissed a bloke before and the only girls he had ever kissed were Pansy and Millicent and that was to supposedly make Pansy jealous. Pansy didn’t get upset with him after he kissed Millie; if anything, she was glad. She’d told him that she wanted to break it off and she just didn’t know how. They continued being friends and were still friends.
But this kiss, it wasn’t anything like kissing Pansy or Millie. Draco closed his eyes and released a small breath of air through his lips. This was sort of an important event in his life, the turning point. There was no going back now. He felt the set of lips on his again. Sebastian took the liberty of kissing Draco again since Draco didn’t pull himself away. This time Draco kissed him back. The second kissed lasted seconds longer than the first, and Sebastian’s grasp on Draco tightened yet again.
Draco opened his eyes and saw the blue eyes searching his face as though they were waiting for a reaction.
“Your eyes-they’re incredibly blue,” Draco said.
“I think your eyes are incredibly amazing,” Sebastian answered. Draco smiled. He wasn’t really sure why he thought this, but his first instinct had been that Sebastian would have uttered something about “having his mother’s eyes.” It was a phrase Draco had heard frequently. It was the second well-known fact about Potter. He was ‘the boy who lived’ and had his ‘mother’s eyes’.
“Is that a common trait in your family?” Draco asked. “Your eyes?”
“I suppose,” Sebastian answered. “Both my parents have blue eyes.” He smiled and leaned in to kiss Draco again. Suddenly Draco heard a beeping sound. He thought his ears were ringing until Sebastian let go of him and looked at his left hand wrist. “Oh, I am so sorry, I’ve got to run.”
“Pardon?”
“I set the alarm on my watch,” Sebastian stated, “I’ve got a flight to catch in the morning and I had promised myself that I wouldn’t stay out too late. But, I wanted to-” Sebastian paused for a moment, “I wanted to see you. I’ll be gone for a week and I had promised myself I’d talk to you today.”
“Right, because you’d been watching me,” Draco said with a smile.
“Yep, I sound like a stalker,” Sebastian answered.
There were still a few things Draco was confused about and they were all Muggle. Blue eyes was a Muggle, he had some sort of a Muggle alarm system attached to his wrist, and he was going to fly. How do Muggles fly? Draco remembered seeing something about Muggle transportation system in his book and made another mental note to refer to it later.
“So, maybe I’ll see you here next Saturday?” Sebastian asked and Draco nodded. They kissed again and he left Draco alone on the dance floor.
Draco turned to look towards the bar, hoping Mark would be there so he could go to him. Mark was there with a look of shock on his face. Draco smiled and walked towards his friend.
“Still not bent, huh?” Mark said when Draco took a seat next to him at the bar.
“Okay, maybe a little bent,” Draco admitted.
-*-*-*-*-The next night Draco returned to Casablanca and met up with Mark. He was sad to not see Sebastian there, but he also realised that up until the moment Sebastian had walked up to him in the loo, he’d never actually seen him before.
He asked Mark.
“No, I don’t think I have ever seen him before either. But, he’s not really my type so that doesn’t surprise me,” he answered.
Draco nodded and found it to be odd how both him and Mark had never seen Sebastian before.
“Oh hiya, Harry,” Mark said. “You missed quite the show yesterday.”
“I did?” Potter asked as he nodded hello to Draco.
Draco raised an eyebrow. Could this be possible? He had never seen Sebastian before and Potter hadn't been at the club the night before when Draco met Sebastian. Potter had lived in the Muggle world until he attended Hogwarts and his flat now was also in Muggle London. He could have easily changed his appearance with magic and acted like a Muggle.
“So, first kiss, huh?” Potter asked, interrupting Draco’s thoughts. Mark must have told him about the night before whilst Draco was pondering.
“Yeah,” Draco said with disdain. He glared at Potter but received no reaction. Potter was clearly acting. Draco scoffed and walked away from them. He didn’t know where to go so he went upstairs to the lounge area where he normally hung out with Mark.
A few moments later, Potter met up with him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Don’t act so innocent, Potter,” Draco spat out.
“What are you talking about, Draco?” Potter looked confused. He was indeed a good actor. Draco didn’t answer and simply stared out into the crowd, ignoring Potter. He stood next to Draco for a few minutes until someone from the floor waved at him and he walked off.
Fine. Two can play this game, Draco thought to himself. He wasn’t really sure what that meant, but he wanted to fool Potter as Potter had fooled him.
Draco stayed at Casablanca with Mark until Mark was off dancing with someone and Draco danced with one of his other friends. He eventually left for the night, determined to return the next week with a plan. Sebastian had said he’d be back on Saturday and that’s when Draco planned on returning to Casablanca.
The week was flying by in a breeze. Draco busied himself with work, picking up double shifts and giving Nathaniel Prince time to travel and collect ingredients for their potions. It was usually Draco’s responsibility, but Draco was still fuming from how Potter had crossed him and he knew he wouldn’t be able to think straight.
Thursday night came and went and Draco didn’t go to Casablanca. Though he didn’t really owe him anything, Draco made sure to ring up Mark and inform him that he wouldn’t be attending that night. He’d become close friends with Mark and didn’t care to harm that camaraderie.
*-*-*-*Friday morning Draco opened up shop at 8 o’clock and began cataloguing new merchandise when he heard the doorbell chime. The only person who’d ever come in that early at the shop in the past had been Hermione Granger. She was the only one, Draco knew, who was determined enough to have an early start to her day. Therefore, Draco was shocked to see Potter standing in front of him in all his Auror glory.
“Potter, can I help you with something?” Draco asked, noticing that Potter had arrived sans partner.
“You didn’t come out last night, so I just wanted to check in on you before I head off to work,” Potter said.
“Why do you care?” Draco retorted.
“I thought we were past that,” Potter said. He looked hesitant for a moment and Draco wondered if it was because Potter couldn’t decide whether to call him ‘Draco’ or ‘Malfoy’. “I thought we were becoming friends?” he added. “You’d rung up Mark to inform him you weren’t attending, so I thought I’d check in on you.”
“Again, I don’t need you to check in on me, Potter,” Draco snapped. “And why does it matter if I didn’t show last night? You weren’t there last Friday!” He had noticed Potter’s absence but was distracted by Sebastian. Sebastian-who may very well have been Potter for all Draco knew.
“Angelina had the baby last week so I was at the hospital,” Potter answered. Draco was clueless to what Potter was on about. “Angelina…Weasley? George Weasley’s wife?”
“Oh, yeah. Weasley,” Draco said. He didn’t know anything about whom was married to whom in the Weasley clan. All he knew that was Granger was engaged to Ron.
“Yeah, she alright?” Draco asked. He may not give two licks about the Weasleys, but he still wasn’t completely heartless.
“Yeah, she’s great and the baby’s doing great. Fred.” Draco raised an eyebrow. “They named him Fred after-"
“I know whom it’s after, Potter,” Draco snapped. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of the war-about the people that had been lost-about how he had been on the wrong side.
“I am sorry, I didn’t come here to talk about-to bring up old-" Potter paused. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Maybe I’ll see you tonight?”
“I doubt it. I think I am going to Rain tonight. I’ll be there tomorrow. I’ve got-sort of a date-I think. I am sure you know all about it,” Draco said. Given it might be you.
“Why would I know about it?” Potter asked, puzzled.
“Whatever, I’ll see you, Potter. Unless there’s something else?” Draco raised an eyebrow with his question.
“No. Have a good time at Rain. I’ll see you tomorrow night then, maybe.” Potter didn’t wait for Draco to respond and turned around and walked away.
As Draco looked out the window and watched Potter Disapparate away, he couldn’t help but wonder about Potter’s tone. Was Potter really that good of an actor? He sounded confused when Draco had mentioned his date and he seemed a bit disappointed at the fact that Draco wasn’t going to the club that night. Draco hadn’t planned on going to Rain and he wasn’t going to go; he just didn’t wish to tell Potter that he simply wanted to stay home and catch up on his reading. Ever since Draco had introduced himself to this lifestyle, he’d fallen severely behind on his potions research. He looked forward to having a few quiet nights in with the potions manuscripts written by Snape that were published after his death.
When one of Draco’s subordinates arrived at the shop, he excused himself and went into the employee room in search of the Prophet from a week before. He found the one from the Saturday before and the “birth announcement” was indeed there. Angelina Weasley had given birth to Fred Weasley, named after George’s deceased twin brother. But that didn’t mean anything, Potter still could be playing tricks on Draco. He needed to expose Potter’s deception for himself.
-*-*-*-*-As Draco dressed on Saturday night, the idea of seeing Sebastian again excited him. He really planned on having some fun. He was going to tease the heck out of Sebastian. He wanted to see Potter after he had his fun.
Draco walked into Casablanca looking the best he’d ever appeared. He had Mark to thank for that. When he spotted Mark on the dance floor, his reaction had been exactly what Draco had hoped for. Mark left the bloke he was dancing with behind and walked up to Draco.
“You. Look. Hot,” Mark said and Draco simply grinned. “He’s here and searching for you.”
“Who?” Draco asked.
“Blue eyes-I mean, Sebastian, of course,” Mark answered, glaring at Draco. “You’ve only been too excited to see him and that’s all you talked about last week at lunch!” Draco nodded, looking towards the floor searching. “How was Rain?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you go to Rain last night, that’s what Harry told me,” Mark answered.
“Oh, I ended up not going. I got stuck with-work stuff,” Draco answered. “Is he here?”
“Who?”
“Potter, of course,” Draco said, mocking Mark.
“No, haven’t seen him yet. He said something about a baby in the family-that he might be late-”
“Draco.”
Draco and Mark turned to look at the person who stood next to them. Sebastian smiled when he saw Draco and nodded a hello at Mark. Mark nodded in return and walked away.
“Hi,” Draco said. “How was your trip?” Draco had managed to read up on the chapter of Muggle aeroplanes and learned all about how they worked.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow and Draco immediately thought that blue eyes was definitely hiding something. “It was-eventful-to say the least, but it was-I can’t really talk about it.”
Yeah, can’t really talk about it because you’re a liar!
“Dance?” Draco asked and Sebastian agreed. Draco pulled him to the dance floor and Sebastian immediately wrapped his arms around Draco’s waist. Draco turned Sebastian around so they would grind to the music. Draco had never actually done this with anyone besides Mark before and with Mark it had been more of a tutorial. Draco had confessed to Mark that he didn’t know how to dance. That wasn’t entirely the truth; he just didn’t know how to dance like a Muggle, a gay Muggle, even though he wasn’t bent-at that time.
Now he was thankful that Mark had still taught him ‘the moves.’
Draco moved smoothly to the music as Sebastian pushed back into him. They danced together and Draco teased Sebastian the best he could. His hands slid into Sebastian’s black hair as he tugged on the locks. Sebastian leaned back and pressed his lips on Draco’s neck and Draco shivered with pleasure. This wasn’t going exactly the way Draco had imagined. Sure, he’d imagined Sebastian dancing with him, but his movements, his responses to Draco’s touch were genuine. Sebastian seemed to enjoy Draco’s caresses. Draco still wasn’t sure if this was Potter or not, as Potter was nowhere to be seen-but whoever this individual was that was dancing with Draco wasn’t having him on.
Draco abruptly turned Sebastian around and stared into his eyes again looking for something, an inclination, or some sort of an indication.
“What’s the matter?” Sebastian asked.
“Nothing,” Draco answered with a smile. “It seems as though you genuinely like me,” Draco blurted out. He didn’t know what possessed him to say that.
“I thought that much was obvious,” Sebastian answered. “Didn’t I tell you how I’ve seen you around-”
“Yeah, about that,” Draco interrupted Sebastian. “Why haven’t I seen you before? I asked Mark and he said he hadn’t seen you before last week either. If you’ve been here then-"
“I am good at hiding in the shadows,” Sebastian answered. “I usually got my drink at the bar and went upstairs there-" Sebastian pointed at a corner balcony on the floor above. It was opposite of where Draco usually stood with Mark. “I’d watch from there and you caught my eye-"
“Right,” Draco said, thinking that if Sebastian had really been at the balcony across from him, he would have seen the bloke. A familiar beeping sound rung in Draco’s ears. Sebastian had his arms around Draco’s neck and the watch was right next to his right ear.
“Oh, not again,” Sebastian groaned. “I am sorry, I’ve got to go and use my mobile. I’ve left it in the car.”
Draco nodded. He knew of mobile phones, and cars, obviously. Potter was doing a good job pretending to be a Muggle. Sebastian walked away and Draco returned to the bar. Mark met up with him immediately after.
“What happened to your boy toy?” Mark asked.
“He had to go use the mobile or something,” Draco muttered after gesturing to the bartender for his drink.
“Why do you look so upset? You seemed to be hitting it off great with him on the dance floor and all the blokes here are jealous of him,” Mark said.
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” Mark scoffed and then shook his head.
“You’re the virgin-you’ve been the virgin for months!”
“The virgin?” Draco asked.
“Yeah, fresh meat,” Mark said, puzzling Draco further. “When you first got here everyone was curious because nobody knew who you were, but then we all found out you’re friends with Harry.”
“Potter and I were never friends,” Draco retorted.
“Yes, I know that, but everyone else had just seen you two talking so they figured you were friends. Harry had warned each and every one that they better not-" Mark paused.
“Better not what?” Draco asked.
“Harry will kill me for this. That they better not fuck with you,” Mark said. “That you weren’t just some twink that was fresh meat, and that if anyone hurt you in any way, they would answer to him.”
Draco rolled his eyes. Leave it to Potter to become the self-appointed hero of the Muggle universe, Auror by day, twink rescuer by night. Draco was further annoyed for being called a twink. Yeah-he had become well versed in Muggle homosexual culture and frequented Time Out with Mark a few times.
“Does he do this for everyone?” Draco asked and Mark seemed puzzled by his question. “Potter, threaten the patrons as guardian of the innocents?” The sarcasm in Draco’s tone could not have been clearer.
Mark shook his head. “Not really, he’s broken up a few fights in the back alley, but besides that he hasn’t really claimed anyone before.”
“Claimed?” Draco roared. “He’s claimed me?”
“Well, obviously not, because here you are with Sebastian.” Mark gestured with his eyes and Draco turned to look.
Sebastian seemed to have returned from his errand and he looked disappointed. “Something the matter?” Draco asked.
“I’ve got to run, an emergency-a work emergency-has come up and-” Sebastian paused briefly. “Would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?”
“I can’t, I am busy,” Draco lied.
“Oh,” Sebastian replied, looking thoroughly disappointed.
“Maybe I’ll see you back here, next week?” Draco asked. He didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, Thursday?” Sebastian asked and Draco raised an eyebrow. Potter had shown up at the shop last week since Draco didn’t come out last Thursday.
“Sure,” Draco answered.
Sebastian took Draco’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “It was good to see you again and I had fun,” he said to which Draco smiled. “I look forward to seeing you again, Draco,” he added. Draco looked down at his hand that Sebastian held and rubbed his thumb on Sebastian’s wrist. He smiled and as he looked towards him again, Sebastian leaned in and kissed Draco. Draco placed his hand behind Sebastian’s neck and pulled him in as he kissed him back.
A few moments later they separated, and Draco looked deep into the blue eyes again. For the first time, Draco realised that he’d wished he was looking into a set that weren’t so blue but instead were emerald green.
Bloody hell.
Sebastian quickly pecked on Draco’s lips again and left. Draco simply stood there winded, wondering if that indeed was Potter and how in the bloody hell had he just wished it was.
“That was hot,” Mark remarked as Draco turned to take a seat on the barstool.
“Hello.” Draco sprang up when he heard Potter’s voice.
“Harry, you missed him again!” Mark remarked.
“I did? Oh, that’s too bad. But I do think I caught a glimpse of him from the other side of the room as everyone turned to watch you two snogging,” Potter answered. Draco rolled his eyes. “It was quite the sight to see, actually.” Potter teased Draco some more.
Draco was frustrated as he walked away. Stupid Potter had managed to ruin everything. Draco was more and more convinced now that Sebastian was none other than Potter himself. He was always around when Potter wasn’t and Potter would miraculously show up after Sebastian had left. What was worse was that now Draco was confused about his feelings. He was beginning to realise that he had a crush on Potter. This was the worst night, ever. Okay, the night Dumbledore died was the worst night ever, but still, this was just something Draco wished he could forget. Only if Obliviate Charms worked on oneself. Draco let out an exasperated sigh as he sat on the sofa by the balcony overlooking the dance floor.
“What’s the matter?” Potted had apparently decided to follow him.
“Don’t act like you’re just all so innocent, Potter,” Draco retorted. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“You told everyone here to keep away from me? So you could put a claim on me?” Draco remembered his conversation with Mark a few minutes prior. Though he didn’t have enough concrete evidence to prove that Sebastian was Potter, he still had enough information to confront Potter about another matter.
Draco watched as Potter’s chest rose and fell. “Mark told you that, did he?” Draco nodded angrily. “It wasn’t to place my claim on you-that’s just how these-I mean Muggles, operate. Once you tell someone to stay away from them or to not hurt them, they make it seem like I am an Alpha or something and I’ve placed my assertion. I just-I told you this before, Draco-" Draco rolled his eyes upon hearing his name. “I want to be your friend and I thought we were sort of becoming that over these past few months. I just know how tough it can be when you’re new into the culture. I just didn’t want you to hate Muggles if a seedy one tried to take advantage of you. So, I just wanted to ensure that you simply had the best Muggle-Wizard interaction.”
“And Sebastian?” Draco asked.
“Well, I haven’t met the bloke, but from what I hear, he sounds like a decent Muggle,” Harry answered and Draco scoffed again.
“Right,” he said as he stood up and walked away.
Before leaving Draco met up with Mark. “Don’t bring him to lunch tomorrow.” Mark nodded in acknowledgement and Draco was out the door.
-*-*-*-*-Draco was still annoyed the next day, although, he wasn’t really sure why. Was he cross with Potter because of the whole claiming story or was it because he had disguised himself as Sebastian and was toying with him? Had Potter only wanted to snog Draco and that’s why he’d told everyone to stay away from him? And now? All of a sudden a new bloke came into the establishment and kissed Draco without reservation and everyone was okay with it? That was an unlikely story.
When Draco met up with Mark at Café Renault, he didn’t wish to discuss his foul mood. Instead, he told Mark to talk about his latest exploits. Of all the friends that Draco had made, Mark was the only one, besides Potter he assumed, who was aware of the fact that Draco had never had sex with a bloke. He never told Potter this information but he figured Potter somehow knew. So he liked to sit once in a while and simply hear Mark chat about his own sexual voyage; it beat listening to Pansy or Blaise discuss their heterosexual activities. This was the only thing that had managed to take Draco’s mind off of things-usually had been the only thing-but now Draco couldn’t help but wonder how it would be like to be with Sebastian-to be with Potter.
Gods, Draco hated Potter.
The rest of the week Draco continued to submerge himself in work again. At work he organised and catalogued each item in their inventory, driving his assistants mad, and at home he stayed awake late into the night reading up on Snape’s private potions manuscripts. By the time Thursday rolled around, Nathaniel Prince told Draco to take Friday off.
“Why?” he asked.
“You seem quite stressed, so why don’t you go out to your little Muggle establishment tonight and sleep in tomorrow?” Prince said. Draco raised an eyebrow; he was confused, shocked, embarrassed, how did Prince know? “You left one of your Muggle magazines in the lounge. I took the liberty of looking through it and then hid it away before any of the junior attendants came upon it. Don’t worry, son, your secret is safe with me.”
Now, Draco was further frustrated. Potter was ruining everything. He’d pop up in Draco’s dreams, one eye green, one eye blue, he would tease him before disappearing, and Draco would wake up nearly hard every morning. And now? Draco was blundering up at work! Something needed to be done, soon.
Draco was going to tease Sebastian, nearly seduce him, and get him to admit that he wasn’t some mystery Muggle man who had to be whisked away in the middle of the night, and that he really was Potter.
Thursday night Draco arrived late at the club. He was a regular now so he no longer needed to wait in queue. He’d learned about guest lists and VIP lists from Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles and had learned to put that virtue into practise. When Draco arrived, he spotted Sebastian immediately. He went in straight for a deep kiss and pulled him to the dance floor. He walked past Mark, all but ignoring him. Draco made a mental note of apologising to him later. They danced as Sebastian was grinding on Draco and Draco was teasing Sebastian with his arse. Draco had turned him on instantly and Draco felt his erection. The idea that Draco turned Potter on intrigued him. Even though he would hear Sebastian’s voice, look into the blue eyes, Draco only thought of him as Potter.
After a few more songs, Draco turned to Sebastian and whispered in his ear. “I’ve got to go, maybe we can continue this tomorrow night?”
Sebastian looked bewildered. “Oh, okay,” he uttered. “Can I give you a lift somewhere?” he asked.
Draco smiled and shook his head and walked away. As he was leaving, Draco turned to Mark and winked. Mark smiled at Draco and waved goodbye along with blowing a kiss towards him. Draco chuckled. If only his father could see him now, cohering with Muggles.
He stood outside Casablanca. It was a clear night and the weather was surprisingly temperate. Draco wasn’t sure what he was waiting for but he just waited. A few minutes later, Potter showed up.
“Malfoy, you’re leaving?” Potted asked.
“Yeah, I suppose I am,” Draco replied with a smirk.
“I just came out for some air. I saw you in there, with Sebastian, I presume,” Potter said.
“Yet, you didn’t come by to say hello,” Draco answered.
“Well, you seemed sort of occupied,” Potter answered with a hint of resentment in his tone.
“Perhaps tomorrow night then? A proper introduction?” Draco asked, his tone purposely a bit flirtatious. Potter is such a fool. Potter nodded in confusion. Draco said his goodbyes and walked around the club to a dark alley to Disapparate home.
The next night, Draco arrived early and spotted Potter with Mark. He must have had his smirk on because Potter looked worried. He stopped by at the bar and purchased three drinks for them.
“Where’s your bloke?” Potter asked. Some nerve.
“Not sure, we don’t really make plans more than just to meet here sometime during the night, so we’ll see how the night goes,” Draco replied rather nonchalantly.
Another man, with auburn hair and light skin, walked up to the three of them and placed his hand on Potter’s shoulder. Potter turned to look at him and grinned. “Oh hey, you’re early,” Potter said. “Well, see you mates in a bit.” Potter walked away with the other man, leaving a feeling of jealousy in the pit of Draco’s stomach.
“You don’t look so happy,” Mark said. “You should tell him that you like him,” he added. Draco turned to look at Mark with disbelief. “Granted, it might be a bit difficult given you’ve gotten into the habit of shoving your tongue down another man’s throat.”
“So what makes you think I like him?” Draco said, pointing towards the direction Potter had gone to.
“That look on your face,” Mark said.
“What look?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow. Was he that obvious?
“I don’t know what the expression means, but I’ve heard Harry use it once with another man, named Charlie-”
“Weasley?” Draco exclaimed.
“Yeah, his brother’s best mates with Harry, right?” Mark asked as Draco nodded. “Yeah so I heard them-”
“What’s the expression?” Draco asked intriguingly, along with another question beckoning in the back of his mind, how has Mark met the Weasleys?
“As though someone kicked you off your broom,” Mark said, sounding confused and Draco erupted into laughter. “You know what it means?”
Draco nodded. “It’s just an expression. It’s cute to see you use it though,” he added. “How did you meet Charlie?”
“Harry brought him here one time. Charlie lives in Romania, he’s gay and not out, something to do with his work. So when he was visiting for holiday last year, Harry brought him and he seemed to have a good time.” Mark took a sip of his drink and looked out longingly onto the dance floor.
“You fancy Charlie?” Draco observed. It wasn’t a question-it was quite obvious-it all made sense. Why Mark was so close with Harry and how Mark always said what his type was. There was something familiar about the types of men Mark danced with; they all had red hair and freckles. Draco couldn’t believe his luck, the only real Muggle friend he had-fancied a Weasley.
“So what happened between you two?” Draco asked.
“We had a nice time together but he said he couldn’t pursue a long-distance relationship and it ended. I’ve tried to forget him-”
“I know, I’ve seen you-trying to forget,” Draco said; he wasn’t trying to be mean, and he hoped he sounded concerned. Their conversation was interrupted when Sebastian had conveniently shown up, wrapping his arms around Draco’s waist.
“Hi there, I’ve missed you,” blue eyes whispered in Draco’s ear. It felt so good to be in Potter’s arms and Draco hated himself for it. “Do you want to go up to the lounge?” he asked and Draco almost immediately agreed. He hated himself for that, too.
Draco turned to look towards Mark and asked, “do you want to come hang out with us?”
Mark shook his head. “No, you boys have fun.” He winked, picked up his drink and walked away. Sebastian almost immediately pulled Draco towards the steps to go upstairs. They found an unoccupied sofa in the corner and Sebastian sat down, pulling Draco into his lap.
“You’re an eager one tonight,” Draco teased, settling himself.
“I just want to make sure they all know you’re mine,” Sebastian answered.
“Oh, so now you’re placing a claim on me?” Draco asked as though he was talking to Potter. “I thought that wasn’t your style?” Sebastian gave him a confused look and before Draco could say anything else, pulled him into a kiss. Draco happily kissed him back.
They spent most of the night snogging on the sofa and Draco felt the other man’s erection pushing on his thigh. Draco was turned on as well and curious. He wanted to touch him, he wanted to place his hand on the other man and lightly rub his erection. He’d never touched anyone else before, but he also knew that’s not how he wanted to do it. Besides the fact that Draco wasn’t secure enough to take his outness to the next level, he also didn’t want to do it with a man who was in disguise. When he’d closed his eyes, he was kissing Potter, so to see someone different in front of him and know that it was really Potter was complicating everything.
Their mouths took a break from each other and Draco nibbled on Sebastian’s ear as he made his way down, dropping little kisses on his neck.
“Draco,” Sebastian moaned.
“Yeah?” whispered Draco.
“I have to leave for a trip day after tomorrow, but when I return, we should definitely go on a real date,” Sebastian said as Draco stopped and stared into the blue eyes.
“Go away again?” Draco asked.
“Yeah, but I will be here tomorrow night and we can spend more time together,” Sebastian answered. “And if you’re free for dinner on Wednesday of next week, that’ll be brilliant.”
“Before this goes any further,” Draco said, “I want you to come as yourself tomorrow night. I don’t want your games anymore.”
“I don’t understand,” Sebastian answered.
“If you want me, I need you to claim me as yourself,” Draco announced. Shortly after, he got up off the sofa and Sebastian’s lap. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Draco walked away without looking back.
The next night Draco met up with Mark for dinner before going to Casablanca. Draco wanted to give his undivided attention to Mark if he wished to talk about Charlie. Over the months he had grown quite close with Mark and genuinely cared for the bloke as he did for Pansy and Blaise. He’d even considered introducing them in the future-however, how his pure-blood friends would take to meeting a Muggle was a baffling thought. It would definitely be something he’d have to ease his friends into.
When they arrived at the club, they took their usual spot at the bar and ordered drinks. Shortly after, Sebastian stopped by. Draco looked at Sebastian with surprise. He had truly thought that Potter was going to come in his true self. He didn’t understand, so naturally Draco glared at him.
“What’s the matter?” Sebastian asked.
“Nothing,” Draco replied curtly.
Mark must have realised the tension that built inside Draco and took it as a sign. He grabbed his drink and left the two men alone. Sebastian immediately leaned in and kissed Draco softly. Draco closed his eyes and allowed for the kiss to continue. He had really hoped that he would be kissing Potter in his true self by that moment.
“Potter,” Draco whispered.
“Sebastian,” the other man answered.
“Why do you insist on keeping up with the façade?” Draco asked before pulling him back into a kiss, gently sliding his tongue in the other man’s mouth. They stopped talking for a while until they parted for mere inches to take a breath and Draco whispered again. “Potter.”
“Who. Is. Potter?” Sebastian asked firmly, his voice full of contempt.
“Well, this is awkward.” Draco heard a voice all too familiar from his right, but not from the man he’d been snogging. Draco nearly gasped with horror; Potter was standing on his right, whilst Sebastian was nearly on top of him.
Draco was an idiot.
-*-*-*-*-Draco’s heart sank. How could he have been so stupid? Unable to breathe, unable to cope with his ridiculous mistake, Draco slightly pushed Sebastian away and ran out of the club. He hid in the alley around the corner from Casablanca, took out his wand and cast a Notice-Me-Not spell on himself. Moments later he saw Potter. Potter must have chased after him and came around to the alleyway.
“Draco, what’s the matter?” Potter asked, looking worried.
Stupid Aurors, Draco thought to himself.
“You can see me?” Draco whispered as a test. Since Potter had already asked him of his well-being and given that Potter was an Auror, there was no doubt that he could in fact see him.
“Yeah, the Aurors are trained in detection of several veiling spells and all the impression Charms-it helps catch the suspects easily…” Potter paused for a moment. “Besides being dead and coming alive has its own perks,” he added. “But that’s a story for another day.”
Draco nodded, he was still out of breath, his heart still racing.
Potter asked again. “What is the matter, Draco? Why won’t you just talk to me?”
“I thought-" Draco huffed. “I thought he was you, you were him.” Draco pointed towards the end of the alley towards the club.
“Who?” Potter asked, looking towards where Draco had pointed.
“Blue eyes,” Draco said. He chuckled a little bit; after all this time, he still just called him that.
“Sebastian?” Potter exclaimed.
“Yeah, when he approached me, the way he talked to me-everything about him-just reminded me of you and I thought you were deceiving me. Maybe that you-I don’t know-fancied me and since I always refused to dance with you or spent time with you when Mark wasn’t around that-maybe you thought you could get me to fall for you,” Draco answered, looking at his feet. He continued to feel foolish. “Besides, you two were never in the same vicinity-so it was easy to assume-that you’d turn yourself into a blue-eyed Muggle to fool me.”
“Draco, that’s-”
“Besides,” Draco interrupted Potter. “You’re an Auror; you’re probably used to going undercover all the time. Assuming a different identity could come easily to you.”
“Draco, I would never make you fall for me by pretending to be someone else. That wouldn’t even make any sense,” Potter answered.
“It would when you would just want to have me on. A good story to tell your mates at the Burrow,” Draco replied.
“Is that really what you think of me?” Potter asked.
Draco didn’t know what to say. It really was something he would have done-so why not? He shrugged in response to Potter’s question.
“So you’ve fallen for Sebastian, then?” Potter spoke again.
Draco looked up. Had he? If it wasn’t Potter, then Sebastian was his own person. Had he inadvertently begun to fancy blue eyes?
“I-” Draco was at a loss for words.
“He must be looking for you, you should go back to the poor bloke before he has to run off again,” Potter said. Draco looked up and caught the expression in Potter’s eyes that he was evidently trying to hide.
“What?” Draco asked. “How do you know-?”
“Harry!” Mark came running towards Potter and Draco. Draco realised that his incantation was still on and Mark probably didn’t see him. “Have you seen Draco? That bloke Sebastian is looking for him. Why did he run off like that?” Potter looked towards Draco. “Why are you staring at the wall?” Mark asked.
Potter took out his wand and Draco panicked for a brief moment. “Finite Incantatem,” Potter whispered and Mark jumped.
“Potter! He’s a -”
“Muggle, I know. But he’s aware,” Potter said as Mark looked guiltily at him.
“But I thought-”
“Charlie sort of set the curtains on fire one time,” Mark said. “I didn’t know what had happened, but it happened several times before he finally explained it to me. I was scared, but he gave me the option of making me forget and I turned him down.”
“If the Ministry finds out-”
“The Ministry knows. The moment Charlie told me, I had a conversation with Kingsley about it. With Mark’s permission-we’ve placed him under a spell that even though he’s aware of our existence, he isn’t allowed to discuss it with any Muggle. It’s physically impossible for him to talk about it.” Mark nodded along with whatever Potter said.
“Oh.”
“Sebastian,” Mark reminded Draco. “He’s in there.” He pointed towards the club and Draco nodded. “I’ll go tell him that you’ll be in shortly.” Mark smiled at Potter and Draco watched him walk away.
“Come on,” Potter said to Draco, offering his hand and pulling him from against the wall.
“So Weasley really broke it off with him because of the long distance thing?” Draco asked keeping the discussion away from the topic of Potter and Sebastian.
Potter sighed. “Not really. Mark didn’t think he would ever be good enough because he’s a Muggle and that Charlie would probably want someone who could also do magic. He sort of broke it off because he was falling for Charlie and falling hard. He thought of it as protecting himself. Charlie understood and they decided that if anyone ever asks, that’s what they’ll say-that the long distance thing was the reason.”
“So now he’s here, night after night, working hard to find a replacement, an imitation of what he’s lost,” Draco said.
“Yeah, but he knows, as we all do, I suppose, that an imitation is not the real thing,” Potter replied. Draco was about to say something but they’d reached the doors to the club and he looked up to see Sebastian.
“Well, see you around, Draco,” Potter said as he nodded towards Sebastian and walked away.
“Is everything alright, Draco?” Sebastian asked.
Draco nodded. Sebastian leaned in to kiss Draco again and Draco once again allowed it. Realising that he wasn’t kissing Potter made everything simple. Sebastian was an imitation and Potter was the real thing. It was all so clear in that moment. Draco had been so committed in not falling for Potter, that he’d fallen for the first person that reminded Draco of him.
Draco stopped and pulled back from Sebastian, his inquisitive eyes searching for an answer.
“I am sorry, I can’t do this,” Draco said. “I am sorry, Sebastian.”
“What’s wrong?” Sebastian asked.
“You’re not the real thing,” Draco responded and rushed through the doors looking for Potter.
Sebastian ran after Draco and pulled on his arm. “Wait, Draco. I don’t understand. I thought that you liked me?” He looked confused and perhaps a bit hurt, and his grip on Draco’s arm tightened as though he wasn’t ready to let him go without a fight.
Draco sighed. The fact that he’d completely led someone on and for the wrong reasons caught up with him. He did his best to describe his situation to Sebastian. How his mind was playing tricks on him and he thought he liked Sebastian when he realised that he actually fancied someone else. Sebastian seemed to understand and nodded. As Draco was about to walk away again, Sebastian gave him a hug and whispered, “Go get him, he’ll be a fool to not want you back.”
Draco spotted Potter at the bar with Mark as they drank a shot of something. Draco caught up to them; he placed his hand on Potter’s shoulder and turned him around.
“Draco?” Potter asked. “What’s the matter?”
Draco pulled Potter in towards him and without answering any questions, leaned in and sucked on Potter’s lower lip. Potter immediately responded by tightening his grasp around Draco’s waist and kissing him back. When they pulled apart, Draco looked into Potter’s eyes that were equally inquisitive as Sebastian’s had been, but Draco seemed to prefer them.
Draco grinned. “I don’t wish to settle for an imitation.”
“So not fallen for Sebastian then?” Potter asked with an equally cheeky grin.
“No, I’ve fallen for you,” Draco answered. “-and definitely not not-bent,” he added.
And this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Months later when they were happily in love, Potter confessed to Draco that the reason he’d never seen Sebastian and Potter in the same vicinity before was because Potter used to hide himself under the Invisibility Cloak and watch Draco dance with other men. It was the only time Draco had relaxed and genuinely smiled, and Potter didn’t wish to ruin it for him. Draco thought it was mildly disturbing, but it was not the first time he was stalked by Potter. He figured that was his fate-Potter would always be around to keep an eye on him.
FIN