Your Fortnightly Drarry Story (Back by Popular Demand)

8. The Case of the Body in the Peat Bog

Work was tedious and frustrating and only lightened by Harry's hour in the gym and then his wandless magic training with Draco.

The tedium was only because Robards sent them all off to Cheshire where they crawled around some boggy woodland that was, apparently a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It just seemed very wet to Harry and a futile waste of time. He was seriously debating going straight to Torquil Bones, the Head of DMLE, to discuss his worries in detail. They'd already had a brief chat about it in the lift on the way into the department.

As yet another Thursday passed with yet another Fortnightly Drarry Fiction (Back by Popular Demand), Harry tried not to think about yet another life-saving incident, all in the line of duty. He tried, desperately, to shake it off during his workout. The life-saving incident had happened as they crossed a boggy clearing and it had left Harry rather shaken. They had been reassured that there was a thick crust over the peat bog that made it safe to walk across, if not weirdly springy. However, despite their careful checking, Draco had ended up stepping onto a thin and fragile area and sinking through it up to his waist. The liquid wet peat beneath the surface had clamped around him, sucking him deeper like he was in some comic book and had fallen into a pit of sinking mud (well, he had really). Harry threw himself towards Draco and found himself lying flat across the precarious ground gripping Draco tightly to him as Draco held him around his neck, his cheek against Harry's and as Harry tried to calm the panic in them both.

In the back of his mind was a story he'd read some time back where they'd been in a terribly unrealistic Quidditch accident scenario during a Seekers Game. And just like in the story, or perhaps because of the story, Harry found himself whispering over and over into Draco's soft hair, 'I've got you, Dray. I've got you. Hang on. I've got you, Dray. Don't let go. Try to relax and stop trying to kick. That's it, go limp. I've got you, Dray.'

He couldn't help noticing that, amongst the rancid and earthy smell of soggy peat, there was a hint of alluring oriental spices that was simply plain gorgeous. However, as Ron and Blaise hauled him back by his ankles and with him, Draco, all in a very ungainly and sweary fashion until they were back on safe ground, there was nothing gorgeous about the situation at all, it was just very muddy and smelly and painful and awkward.

Neither of them said anything about the whispered endearment afterwards. Instead, they avoided eye contact. Cups of sugary tea were produced and Robards decided to abandon the stakeout as a false lead because there was clearly nothing occurring in the middle of bog in the centre of Cheshire (bar the odd selection of diverse insects and plants that they were trying not to trample, plus Muggles driving past in expensive Bentleys™).

Harry didn't want to think about Draco's arms gripping him tightly around his neck or the softness of his hair and the smoothness of his pale cheek or the fading smell of Draco's aftershave or the feeling of panic that took him right back to the war and the fire in the Room of Requirement.

At the end of his shift, he escaped to the gym as quickly as possible, plugged in his earphones, and set to on the rowing machine long before Draco even made an appearance.

When he finished his ten minutes of aggressive rowing, he came to a slow halt and ended up, once more, with his elbows on his bent knees and his head in his hands.

As he buried his head into his hands and messed up his hair tremendously, he slid back and forth gently to cool down and catch his breath. He couldn't help thinking that he wasn't sure what it was he wasn't dealing with but, whatever it was, he definitely wasn't dealing with it... (that's a lot of double negatives to equal that he wasn't coping and he knew, in his heart, that it was the Drarry Situation™ that he wasn't coping with).

He heaved a sigh and looked up to find Draco standing over him, blushing faintly as he said something.

He took his headphones out and Draco's eyes narrowed.