Diagon with Pansy had turned out to be a great idea. It was kind of shitty of him, but Draco had a tendency to forget how much he actually loved Pansy. She'd been there with him through absolutely everything, and even though their friendship had been reduced to coffee and lunch dates recently, she knew him better than anyone. Blame it on the birth to earth, slightly creepy, pureblood arranged friendship-marriage deal they were a part of, but she was alright. Draco would keep her.

The sun that had woken him up bright and early had stuck around, a rarity for London even in Summer, and it left Draco with a hankering for ice cream. Plus it was always adorable to watch Pansy attempt to eat ice cream... her perfectly manicured hand wrapped around the cone and her lipstick-trimmed mouth chasing all of the drips before they could reach her fingers. He laughed a little just thinking about it.

"Draco, I just can't understand why this is such an issue for you. You've not been laid in ages, and you have two men to choose from. This is the opposite of a problem." She stuck her tongue out, chasing a hundred and thousand from the corner of her mouth.

"It's a problem, Pansy, because one of the men I have to choose from is Harry bloody Potter. Earthquakes would rock the planet, pigs would fly, the Titans would escape from Tartarus... it wouldn't be good." He would accompany this speech with some dramatic gestures, but even Potter wasn't worth spilling Fortescue's Earl Grey & Lavender ice cream. Priorities.

"You know I love your flair for dramatics, and I do understand where you're coming from. But can't you see that your entire young life built up to this moment? Potter refusing your offer of friendship, your rivalry that continued through six years of school, Potter saving you from fiendfyre... And as if that wasn't enough proof, your obsession with him that entire time? An obsession that led you to figure out that you prefer the company of men? Men that happen to look a lot like one Harry Potter? You've already been dragged by the Prophet for being seen with men that you didn't even care about and that you didn't even... enjoy that much. Would it be any worse to be dragged for someone you do care about, whom you probably would enjoy? Someone like-"

"Harry..."

"Exactly! I should have known a monologue would get through to you, you absolute drama queen."

"No Pansy, he's here...! Just there, with Granger! Salazar, hide me! This is not the time!"

"Draco, your whispering and flailing is causing a stir, you are bringing attention to yourself."

"Pansy please, I'm serious, I'm wearing my lazy jeans and I didn't wash my hair today and this is not how I want to look when I begin to seduce Harry Fucking Potter!"

Pansy was laughing. She was laughing and Draco was murderous.

"Pansy, stop it this instant!"

"I hate to break it to you, love, but it's a little too late. Your squealing has gone to the high pitched mandrake place and you dropped your ice cream on your shoe. And don't start jumping up and down trying to swat it off, because he's staring at you."

"Well fuck me with a cauldron cake, this is just bloody perfect."

"Smile, Draco," she said with a wave, "They're walking this way."

~xxx~XXX~xxx~

"'Mione, why is my life like this?"

"Calm down, Harry, at least you don't have ice cream on your shoe, look at the poor man. Now get that fudge off of your chin and let's go over there."

He gave himself a little shake, bracing himself. He had this. He totally had this, and he was going to be suave.

"Alright, Draco?" He reached a hand out for Draco to shake, immediately regretting his decision because it was the definition of deja vu. Merlin, he could even see Madame Malkin's from where they were standing. His breath caught.

He watched Draco's hand twitch, saw his face freeze. And then, so slowly that Harry was pretty sure someone cast a slow motion spell, Draco reached for his hand. Harry heard Hermione gasp and saw Pansy's hand fly up to her mouth, but when he finally made eye contact with Draco, well, he was pretty sure he could feel the world stop spinning.

"Yeah, alright Harry. Just testing out the new Summer trend of ice cream shoe."

He was funny and Harry was still holding his hand. He dropped it immediately.

"Yeah, sorry about that. D'you want some fudge instead? It's butterbeer flavour."

Draco smiled. The real smile, the gentle kind he had given Taylor. Harry shoved fudge in his mouth to keep from drooling. He was proper good at this. Truly.

"No, thank you, I actually don't really care for butterbeer."

Harry tried to make a surprised noise, because honestly who doesn't like butterbeer, but it just resulted in him choking on his fudge. Perfect. That's how you win over a Malfoy. Thankfully Hermione stepped in, always there to save his arse. Bless her.

"This one lives for it in any form it comes in. It's a little excessive, really."

Harry swallowed the fudge, coughing to clear out his throat. "Yeah, thanks for that, 'Mione, I really appreciate you taking the piss while I choke to death. The Dark Lord couldn't defeat me, but that fudge might have." He took it back- he was going to kill Hermione.

The girls laughed, and Harry was scared. He wasn't sure what would happen if Hermione and Pansy ever became friends, but he was sure that he didn't want to find out. Draco seemed to have the same idea.

"Well, this has been... enlightening. I'll see you round the pub, Harry? I need to warm up my icicle foot, lest I leave my shoe here like Cinderella." And with that, Draco spun on his heel, grabbing Pansy's hand as he left.

Which Harry would be eternally grateful for, since he had already opened his mouth to comment on Cinderella. For an auror, he was not very good at the undercover, two separate lives thing. Fuck.

"Well," Hermione said, "It could have been worse?"

~xxx~XXX~xxx~