Title: How Harry Learned to Keep His Hands To Himself (Most of the Time)
Fandom: Crossover: Harry Potter/Torchwood
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, Jack/Ianto
Summary: When is a Crup not a Crup? When it's a teleporting, time traveling, energy guzzling alien, that's when.
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None.
Word Count: 4940
Author's Notes: Thank you to my Beta, dogsunderfoot, for her quick look over. Written when I was a quite high on flu meds for a prompt at hd_smoochfest because I just can't say no to dysonrules, goshdarnit! :)

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. All Torchwood characters herein are the property of Russell T Davies and the BBC. No copyright infringement is intended.

Harry Potter grabbed Draco's arm as the momentary, but excruciating sensation of all his molecules being taken apart then put back together faded. 'What the bloody hell was that?' he demanded, panting a little as he stared suspiciously at his Auror partner. 'What did you do?'

Draco Malfoy returned the mistrustful gaze, wrenching his arm from Harry's grip then swaying unsteadily on the spot. 'What did you do, Potter?' he snapped, dragging a hand over his hair in an attempt to regain his composure. 'I'm not the one who couldn't keep his hands to himself. You just had to touch the Crup, didn't you? It must be some kind of Portkey...'

'I told you,' Harry seethed, glaring at Draco. 'It wasn't a Crup. No forked tail. It was a plain old Jack Russell Terrier.'

'It was a Crup,' Draco insisted stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. 'And it could have led us to whoever is selling poisoned love potions to Muggles if you'd let me run a check on the registration before you got all handsy!' He looked around, his nose screwing up in disdain. 'Where are we?'

'You need to check your book of Magical Creatures,' Harry retorted furiously, desperately trying to resist the urge to hex the infuriating man his own forked tail and ignoring Draco's agitation. 'Because if you think that was a Crup then you are a complete and utter...'

'Potter, where are we?' Draco interrupted, and the urgent undertone of panic in his partner's voice finally broke through Harry's annoyance.

He glanced around at the dusty shelves filled with odd looking artifacts, at the filing cabinets that lined the walls of the long corridor. 'I... I don't know,' he said slowly, raising his wand and murmuring a silent Lumos. 'Is this the Ministry? One of the lower levels?'

'No, this is Torchwood,' a soft, but steely voice said from behind them. 'Now, put any weapons you are carrying down, and turn around slowly, please.'

The order was followed with a duo of metallic clicks that, while having little meaning for Draco, made Harry stiffen with fear. 'Alright,' he said, raising his voice a little and holding his arms out to the side of his body.

Draco frowned, but Harry shook his head. 'Just do it,' he muttered, and Draco read the warning in his voice correctly. They dropped their wands and turned slowly, finding themselves face to muzzle with two handguns.

Ianto Jones trained his gun on the brunette. 'How did you get in here?' he asked, finger steady on the trigger. 'This Hub is secure.'

'Hub?' the blonde muttered. 'Dump, more like it. Do all Muggles live like this?'

Ianto bristled, his indignation making Toshiko Sato bite back a grin as she held her own weapon steady on the mouthy blonde. She checked the readings on her scanner. 'Both human,' she told Ianto then looked the men over, taking in their flowing robes. 'But their clothes...'

'You are in the archives of Torchwood Three in Cardiff, Wales, Earth,' Ianto said sharply, the blonde's remark obviously still rankling. 'My name is Ianto Jones, and this is Toshiko Sato. Who are you, and where – or when – are you from?'

A scuffling from behind them stalled any explanation that might have been forthcoming, and the blonde's face went from irritation to alarm. 'Hey, don't touch that!' he called. 'Crups don't like...'

His voice trailed off as the dark-haired woman picked up the small animal, who immediately began licking her face.

'... Muggles,' he finished, closing his eyes as the other man began to crow.

'I told you it was a Jack Russell,' he said smugly. 'I bloody told you...'

'Actually, you're both wrong,' Toshiko told them, reading from her scanner once more. 'It's a Bruvos.' She looked up interestedly at the blonde. 'What's a Crup?'

'Look, can we start over?' the brunette in the glasses interrupted. 'I'm Harry Potter, and this is my partner, Draco Malfoy. We're Aurors, and we were investigating a case when we found ourselves here. We're not really sure how it happened.'

'Aurors?' the woman holding the wriggling dog repeated. 'What's that, then? Intergalactic police?'

'That's Judoon,' Ianto said absently, still frowning at the robed men. 'What century are you from?'

Draco and Harry glanced at each other. 'The twenty-first,' Draco said impatiently. 'Did you say we're in Wales? We're supposed to be in London.'

'Temporal displacement?' Ianto said to Toshiko, who shook her head.

'I don't think so,' she muttered then peered up at Harry. 'Date and year, please?'

Harry told her, and she tutted. 'You've come forward a month so it's not a matter of simply putting you on a train home,' she said, eyes fixed on her scanner. 'I think we'd better get them upstairs. I can take proper readings there and figure out how this happened.'

As Harry and Draco tried to wrap their heads around the fact that a) they had traveled in time, or b) had been cleverly kidnapped by people who were clearly insane, Ianto tapped his ear piece. 'Jack, we've found the source of the incursion. We're bringing them up so Tosh can run some scans.'

'Them?' Jack said, his voice tinny over the communication device, but his concern clear. 'Everyone alright?'

'We're fine,' Ianto replied. 'Coming up now.' He clicked off then took a step to the side, gesturing towards the dark staircase with his gun and saying politely, 'After you, Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy.'

Harry stared at the cavernous room with awe as the man with the soft Welsh accent - Ianto - settled them on chairs beside a desk covered in computer monitors. 'Wow,' he whispered, glancing at Draco who was equally as awestruck, although hiding it far more successfully.

Harry took a moment to enjoy the sight of Draco's flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, his stomach flipping pleasantly. Draco's gaze shifted to Harry, and he quickly looked away, embarrassed about being caught staring. He'd so far managed to hide his growing fondness for his partner under their familiar combative snarking, but it was getting harder and harder to disguise his feelings as they morphed from tentative friendship to something that scared the hell of out him.

If he could just figure out how Draco felt about him... Sometimes, he caught the other man watching him with an oddly affectionate expression on his face that made warmth bloom in Harry's chest. Or they'd touch and the air would crackle with a strange, exhilarating energy that made Harry's nerve-endings spark. But then Draco would snap out some kind of snide remark and Harry would bite back and then they'd be quarreling again and Harry was sure he'd imagined their chemistry.

Bloody Malfoy. He can't ever make things easy.

Ianto had disappeared while Harry's mind was wandering, leaving him and Draco with the small Asian woman, Toshiko, who was concentrating on one of the computer screens, her fingers moving rapidly over the keyboard. The second woman trotted up the stairs and smiled at them, Harry's eyes involuntarily drawn to the gap between her two front teeth.

'I'm Gwen Cooper,' she said brightly, handing the small dog - not a dog, a Bruvos - she still carried to a wiry man about Harry's height, who swore loudly when the Bruvos' tongue bathed his face. The woman giggled and waved her hand at the man. 'And this is Doctor Owen Harper.'

Doctor Harper grunted and walked away, fending off the Bruvos' enthusiastic greeting. Gwen raised a hand-held device and smiled reassuringly at them. 'I just need to scan you with this,' she told them. 'It won't hurt and it'll just take a minute...'

'No,' Draco said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. 'I want some answers before you do anything to us. Where are we exactly? How did we get here? And who the hell are you people?'

An ear-splitting screech echoed around the room, making Harry and Draco gasp. Draco's hand clutched at Harry's, squeezing his fingers tight. 'And what is that?' Draco demanded angrily as they stared wide eyed at a large shadowy winged creature circling high above them.

Harry's mouth dropped open when he realised what he was seeing. 'Impossible,' he whispered, cringing as the creature screamed again. 'Is that a...?'

'Pterodactyl,' a matter-of-fact American accent proclaimed. 'Her name's Myfanwy.'

Harry and Draco both spun around, hands pulling apart, but they pressed closer to each other as they faced what had to be the most attractive man Harry had ever laid eyes on.

The man grinned at them – his smile wide and toothy - and Harry felt stripped naked as brilliant blue eyes traveled a slow, appraising journey up and down his body. He shifted uncomfortably when that gaze moved to Draco, the man smiling in obvious appreciation as he eyed Draco's lithe, lightly muscled figure.

'I don't mind a security breach when it's as cute as you two,' he said with a filthy smirk that had Harry's body responding instinctively. The man held out a beefy hand to Harry. 'Captain Jack Harkness,' he said with a quirk of his eyebrow. 'And who are you?'

'H... Harry Potter,' Harry stammered, taking the offered hand warily. Jack's fingers were rough, but the heat from his body and an indescribable scent that made Harry suddenly think of hot, sweaty sex made him flush. Jack chuckled, low and deep, and Harry heard Draco mutter something under his breath before he stepped forward, forcing Jack's hand from Harry's grasp.

'And I'm Draco Malfoy,' Draco said, glaring at Jack and ignoring his outstretched hand. 'I'd like my questions answered now. And I want our wands returned.'

Jack looked surprised, and glanced over his shoulder at Ianto, who pulled the two wands from his trouser pocket and handed them silently to Jack. Jack stared at them, turning them over in his hands before looking up at Harry and Draco.

'Wands?' he said thoughtfully. 'As in magic wands?'

Draco glanced at Harry who shrugged. He didn't see any way out of this situation but to tell the truth and Obliviate them all later. 'We're wizards,' Harry said simply and, to his surprise, Jack just nodded.

'Alright,' he said, ignoring the incredulous expressions on his team's faces. 'And how do you think you ended up in Ianto's archives? Oh, and he doesn't take kindly to his archives being called a dump, by the way, so I'd ask for tea, not coffee, when he offers.'

Draco opened his mouth to retort, but Harry stepped on his foot hurriedly. 'We don't know how we got here,' he said quickly. 'We were looking around a crime scene when we saw the dog... I mean, the Bruvos.'

'Harry can't keep his hands to himself so he touched it, and I was fool enough to try and stop him,' Draco broke in sourly, and Jack smirked, winking at Harry.

'Handsy, huh? You sound like my kind of guy,' he said playfully, and Ianto murmured, 'Jack,' warningly.

Jack grinned over his shoulder. 'You're still my favourite,' he said, undisguised affection in his voice.

Ianto rolled his eyes, his cheeks turning pink. 'Coffee, Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy?' he asked, ignoring Jack's lascivious smirk.

Harry and Draco both said, 'Tea,' at the same time, making Jack boom out an appreciative laugh.

'Right,' he said, clapping his hands together. 'Gwen, did you get the readings?'

Harry looked over his shoulder, seeing the woman smile and hold up the scanner. 'Yep,' she said with an apologetic glance at Harry and Draco. 'I've sent the information to Tosh.'

'They're human with minute traces of vortex energy,' Toshiko said distractedly, still staring at the numbers and diagrams scrolling across the screen. 'The Bruvos shows signs of Rift energy ,so I'm guessing it fell through here, but there's some other kind of energy I haven't been able to identify.'

'What is Rift energy?' Draco asked, frowning at her. 'And what is this place?' He turned to Jack. 'Who are you?'

'We're Torchwood,' Jack said, his face straightening as he crossed his arms across his chest. 'I could tell you what we do here, but then I'd have to make you forget it.' He cocked his head. 'I have a pill called Retcon for that. I assume you have a spell?'

Harry blinked, startled, but Draco tensed and moved, standing slightly in front of Harry. 'We do,' he said steadily, holding Jack's gaze as they entered a silent negotiation. After a long moment, he capitulated. 'Tell us how we got here and get us back home and we'll forget we met you.'

Jack laughed. 'I find that hard to believe,' he said cheerfully. 'This jaw line is not soon forgotten.'

'You know about us,' Harry said quietly. 'We can lose our jobs for telling you about our world. We won't tell anyone about anything that happens today.'

Jack eyed him thoughtfully then nodded. 'We'll keep your secret if you keep ours,' he agreed.

Harry felt Draco relax incrementally beside him and put a steadying hand on the small of his back. His stomach flipped pleasantly when Draco leaned back into the touch.

'Fine,' Draco said, mollified now, and Harry dared to wonder if his softening attitude had anything to do with his touch. 'Just... get us home.'

Gwen took Harry and Draco to the board room, and Ianto followed Jack into his office. 'Magic wands?' Ianto said doubtfully, closing the door behind him.

Jack chuckled, sitting on the edge of his desk and reaching for Ianto. 'After everything you've seen working for Torchwood, Ianto Jones,' he murmured, tugging on Ianto's hand until he was standing between Jack's thighs. 'Do you really doubt that there could be real witches and wizards out there?'

Ianto stared at Jack, eyes narrowed, for a long moment then sighed heavily. 'You've shagged a witch or wizard, haven't you?' he said resignedly.

Jack grinned, wrapping his arms around Ianto's waist and pulling him in tight against his body. 'Both,' Jack bragged. 'Together.'

Ianto rolled his eyes and muttered, 'Typical,' before allowing Jack to drag him in for a kiss.

'So what do you suppose they do here?' Harry asked as soon as they were alone.

Draco shook his head. 'I'm not sure I want to know,' he murmured, staring through the bank of windows down at the work levels where Toshiko was still working. 'That Bruvos thing... that's not an animal familiar to Muggles, is it?'

'No,' Harry said then he frowned, thinking of all the strange-looking artifacts in the archives. 'You don't think...?'

'I don't know what to think,' Draco said abruptly as he turned to face Harry. He leaned back against the glass. 'And I'm certain that I don't want to know.'

Harry nodded and for ten long minutes, they were silent, lost in their own thoughts and suppositions.

'He fancies you.'

Harry looked up from the desk where his fingers had been absently drumming a staccato beat. 'What?'

Draco scowled and waved his hand towards what they'd learned was Jack's office. 'Captain Harkness,' he sneered, spitting the man's name out like venom. 'He fancies you.'

Taken aback by Draco's fierceness, Harry could only splutter out, 'He... doesn't...'

'Of course he does,' Draco snapped, flopping into a chair without any of his usual elegance. 'He was salivating all over you down there. It was disgusting.' He folded his arms and pouted, and a thrill of happiness shot through Harry as he realised...

He's jealous. Gods, he's jealous.

'He's... not really my type,' Harry said cautiously, his gaze sliding tentatively across to where Draco sat sulking. 'A bit too... obviously charming.'

'He's obvious, alright,' Draco muttered then he glared at Harry. 'He's too old for you.'

'Yes,' Harry agreed quietly, delighting in Draco extolling Jack's shortcomings.

'And there's something going on with that man in the suit,' he continued. 'Although why a man who wears Armani that well would stoop to shagging someone who wears braces...'

'Why do you care?' Harry broke in, catching Draco's eyes and holding them. 'What do you care if he does fancy me? Or if I fancy him back?'

Draco's eyes widened, and the flash of panic and hurt made Harry's breath catch in his throat. Then Draco pulled himself together and spun the chair around, his back to Harry as he looked out over the lower level. 'I don't,' he muttered, swinging the chair agitatedly from side to side. 'Make yourself useful, Potter, and go hunt down some more of that tea.'

Harry frowned then sighed heavily before he left the room, unaware of Draco's grey eyes tracking him all the way to the tea room.

'Got it!' called Toshiko, what felt like days, but was really just a few hours, later.

Harry lifted his head off the long wooden table at her cry. He yawned and pushed himself to his feet, smiling wistfully at Draco who was asleep in a chair, his head lolling on his chest. They hadn't spoken much when Harry returned with a fresh pot of tea, courtesy of Ianto (who Harry had unintentionally interrupted in the middle of an enthusiastic snog with Captain Harkness), but Draco had been stealing glances at Harry until he dozed off half an hour ago.

'Draco,' he said softly, crouching beside the chair and giving Draco a gentle shake. 'They've worked it out.'

'Mmphf,' Draco mumbled, shifting in the chair but not waking.

Harry gave him a firmer shake then cupped his face, patting his cheek lightly. 'Draco,' he rasped, the feeling of the soft, pale skin under his fingertips making him ache to touch moremoremore.

Draco stirred and, to Harry's astonishment, turned his face into Harry's hand and kissed his palm. ''Arry,' he whispered, a smile curving his lips.

Harry froze, not wanting to break the moment and not quite believing what had just happened. He's asleep. He doesn't know what he's doing. Heart pounding, he slowly let his thumb ghost over Draco's lips, tracing the edge of the pink flesh with a feather-light touch. When Draco let out a breathy moan, Harry couldn't hold himself back any longer. He leaned in, and brushed his mouth lightly over Draco's, about to withdraw when Draco's lips parted on a sigh and he kissed Harry back.

Soft lips moved slowly together, Harry drowning in the warm heat of Draco's mouth. His hand slid from Draco's cheek to his nape, tangling in the silky strands of hair there that he'd longed to touch for so very long, then he felt Draco pull away. His heart stopped and he slowly opened his eyes, staring directly into Draco's dark gaze.

'See?' Draco whispered hoarsely. 'Handsy. Can't help yourself, can you?'

Harry exhaled sharply and bit his lip. 'Sorry,' he said quietly, mentally kicking himself for his lapse in control as he leaned away from Draco. 'I just...'

But Draco fisted a hand in Harry's robe, and drew him back in. 'Perhaps I was a little hasty in declaring that a bad thing,' Draco interrupted, a smirk forming slowly on his face. 'Convince me I was wrong, Potter.'

Harry grinned and leaned in for another kiss, their lips meeting less gently this time because now they'd had a taste, they were both greedy for more. Tongues pushed past lips to explore, finding all the places that made breathing hitch and fingers tighten in hair and clothing. Draco pulled Harry into his lap - arms twining around each other, hands sliding beneath fabric to stroke bare skin - and things were just getting really interesting when a throat was cleared loudly and pointedly.

'While I certainly don't mind when this room sees some action,' Jack said as the two blushing Aurors separated, 'I do usually insist on being involved. Spectator or participant... I'm not fussy.'

Harry felt Draco link their fingers before he growled at Jack, 'Never. What do you want?'

Jack raised an eyebrow, a smile playing on his lips as his gaze lingered on their joined hands, then he said, 'Toshiko is ready to send you home.'

Toshiko glanced up at Harry and Draco as they approached and smiled triumphantly. 'I'm just about ready to send you back,' she told them, spinning her chair around to face them. 'Ianto did some digging in the archives...'

'The filthy dump where you arrived,' Ianto broke in, obviously still offended by the slight to his pride and joy.

Toshiko put a hand on his forearm and continued. '... and he found some more information on the Bruvos. It seems they are attracted to places with high levels of energy in the air. Any kind of energy it can feed off. Rift energy, temporal energy...'

'Magical energy,' Jack finished, grinning at Harry and Draco as he lounged on the arm of a ratty looking couch. 'They are also capable of teleportation. Once they've gorged themselves on the energy and are hankering for a little variety, they teleport to a different location to feed.'

'The Rift,' Gwen said as she appeared from the Medical Bay with Owen, the two carrying a large square metal box between them. 'From the information Ianto found, we worked out that it wasn't able to... um...'

'Recharge?' Owen suggested as they heaved the box up onto Toshiko's desk.

'Exactly,' Toshiko said with a smile at the doctor. 'It can't recharge or teleport while in the containment box. It's been in there long enough to get the message that this place isn't sufficient for its needs, and it'll bounce back to the last successful location to refuel before trying again.'

'You're sure about that?' Draco asked dubiously, looking from Toshiko to Jack. 'It seems a little like guesswork to me.'

'Well, unfortunately,' Jack said, languidly peeling himself off the couch and sauntering towards Draco, 'we don't have time to test the theory. Every minute you've been here is a minute you've been missing from your time. You've now been here...' He checked his watch, 'four hours, which, if we can get you back the same way you left, is easy enough to explain away to anyone who noticed, but you jumped a month ahead when you teleported with the Bruvos. We can send you back to London, safe and sound, on the train today, but it'll be a month after you left in your time, and chances are, you've both got people who would have missed you.'

'No,' Harry broke in. 'We can't do that.' He shot a worried look at Draco. 'We've both got family and friends who'd be frantic if we just disappeared for a month...'

Draco sighed then waved an imperious hand. 'Go ahead, then,' he said, sounding very put upon, but Harry could see the fear under the nonchalance and brushed the back of his hand against Draco's. Some of the tension drained from the other man's body, and Harry couldn't help but smile.

'Right then,' Jack said, looking at Toshiko. 'Tosh...'

'It has to be done quickly,' she said, tapping out instructions on the keyboard. A map Harry recognised as London appeared, and Toshiko zoomed in. 'This is the location you'll be returned to...' Her voice trailed off and she frowned. 'That can't be right.'

Draco peered over her shoulder. 'We disappeared from Diagon Alley,' he said, realising her problem. 'You won't be able to see it on a Muggle map.'

'Muggle?' Gwen asked, sounding as if she was wavering between curiosity and taking offense.

'Non-magic folk,' Harry said before Draco could answer. He pointed at the screen. 'The pub leading through to Diagon Alley is between those two stores.'

Toshiko pulled up a different view and shook her head. 'It's just an empty building...'

'It has a Muggle repelling charm,' Draco told her impatiently. 'To keep the Muggles from finding out about us.'

'Why...?' Gwen began, but she was cut off by Toshiko's cry of admiration.

'Like a perception filter only on a whole store, a whole... alley?' Her eyes shined brightly and she bounced a little in her seat. 'That's so clever. Oh, I'd love to know how that works.'

'I doubt it's something that you can take apart and study, Tosh,' Jack said, squeezing his technician's shoulder. 'Magic comes from within. The combined magical core of the populace fuels the spells. Isn't that right?'

He looked at Draco who seemed impressed despite himself. 'Something like that,' he muttered then changed the subject. 'So can we do this?'

'Well, the inbuilt coordinates in the Bruvos' system will take it back there, and as long as you know the alley is there, you should be fine,' Toshiko mused. 'If one of us were to try it, we'd never make it because we wouldn't be able to see it.' She smiled as her fingers flew over the keyboard. 'That is just so brilliant.'

'Tosh,' Jack sang, trying to pull her focus back. She nodded and a few keystrokes later, turned to Harry and Draco.

'We have to be fast,' she said, all signs of joviality gone from her face. 'We have one chance, and if we miss it... Well, let's not.'

She slid the bolt on the lid of the containment box back, but kept her hand pressed down on the lid. 'As soon as the Bruvos realises the dampener is gone, it will teleport back to its previous location. You two were touching it when it traveled, and you need to be touching it now.'

'We get one go at this,' Jack reiterated, his face just as grave as Toshiko's. 'Are you both ready? This'll be quick and uncomfortable.'

Harry groped for Draco's hand, feeling Draco searching for his at the same time. 'What if it doesn't work?' Harry asked faintly, imaging arriving in Diagon Alley with bits of him missing.

Jack's jaw tensed and Harry felt a sense of foreboding. 'You don't want to know,' Jack said darkly, and Harry felt Draco shiver.

'Your... wands,' Ianto said, stepping forward and gingerly holding out the wands.

Relief washed over Harry as he pocketed his wand; he hadn't realised how naked he felt without it. 'Okay,' he said with a quick look at Draco.'We're ready.'

'As soon as I open this lid, you need to grab hold of the Bruvos,' she told them. 'It'll be over in seconds. Just don't let go.'

Harry took a deep breath and Draco tightened his grip on Harry's hand. 'Alright,' Draco nodded. 'Let's do it.'

Toshiko looked at Jack who tipped his head once. Draco looked over his shoulder at the other man. 'I would say it was nice to meet you, but...'

Jack laughed. 'There's a silver lining to every situation, Mr Malfoy,' he said, his eyes flicking to Harry. 'I suspect you're leaving with more than you had when you got here.'

Draco's cheeks flared with colour, and Harry bit his lips to stifle a chuckle as Draco turned back to the containment unit.

'Ready?' Toshiko asked, and they both nodded.

'Ready.'

'On the count of three,' Toshiko said, looking nervous. 'One. Two. Three.'

She flung open the top of the unit and Harry and Draco's hands shot out. There was a blinding flash of light and, when the Torchwood team opened their eyes, Harry and Draco were gone.

That horrible sensation of being torn apart then rebuilt - all in a fraction of a second - began to fade, but Harry didn't want to open his eyes. Not yet. Draco's fingers were still tight around his, and Harry wanted to hold onto that feeling for as long as possible.

Would things change now that they were back, if they were back? What would happen now that they weren't the only familiar things to cling to in a strange situation? Would Draco want to forget that kiss?

'Potter, you look like an idiot. Open your eyes, for Merlin's sake.'

Harry's body obeyed the command and his knees went weak with relief when he recognised the shop fronts. 'We're back,' he whispered, and Draco rolled his eyes, tugging his hand from Harry's.

'Obviously,' he said, the word dripping with condescension, and Harry's heart sank.

'We should get to the Ministry and check in,' he said despondently, shoving his hands in the pockets of his robe.

'I just sent Shacklebolt a Patronus telling them we'd hit a snag in the investigation, and that we'd report to the Ministry in an hour to let them know what we've been doing,' Draco said, the oddly hesitant tenor of his voice making Harry look up. Draco's cheeks were pink, and he seemed uncharacteristically uncertain as he waved a hand at the nearest shop. 'I thought that maybe we could get something to eat and talk about what we're going to tell them.'

A slow smile spread across Harry's face. 'Ice cream?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.

'If you don't want to...' Draco snapped, his defenses slamming back into place.

'No,' Harry said quickly. 'I do. I...' He smiled and reached for Draco's hand. 'You're buying, though.'

Draco snorted as he led Harry towards the door of the newly renovated Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. 'As long as you pay next time,' he agreed. He pushed open the door of the store and smiled smugly at Harry. 'And I'll expect a proper meal for our second date. Lobster, steak, and the finest wine money can buy.'

Harry laughed and followed him inside, his heart bursting with joy. 'Wouldn't have expected anything less.'

'Oh, and Potter?' Draco drawled. 'Keep your hands to yourself from now on, alright?'

Harry smirked. 'All the time?' he asked, and a wicked grin took form on Draco's face.

'Well, perhaps not all the time...'

fin.