lamerezouille | 25 days of Draco & Harry

Title: Me and You and a Dog Named Gulliver
Author:

lamerezouille
Word Count: ~1000
Rating: G
Prompt: This snow-covered park
Warning: None
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. No copyright infringement intended.
Author’s Notes: Harry’s dog was named because of his strong resemblance to this guy.

Harry breathed in the cold air with gusto and looked up to the white-grey sky. He loved it when it was light and dim at the same time and smelt like snow was about to fall.

He leaned down and unfastened Gulliver’s lead. The dog thanked him with a loud and joyful-sounding bark, and immediately ran away, jumping and sniffing and generally doing what a dog did when presented with snow and wide open spaces, his tail flapping behind him.

Harry took some more time to appreciate the crisp weather and the almost unblemished snow, but soon realised Gulliver was spending much more time than usual behind the big oak tree in the back of the park.

Most likely, Gulli had just found some rubbish and decided to eat it, but as he approached the tree, Harry noticed footprints leading to the tree but stopping there. Harry just hoped the latest raving fan girl hadn’t found that kidnapping Harry Potter’s dog was a good idea.

Harry used all his stealth skills to creep towards the tree and, with a hand wrapped pre-emptively around his wand, he found there–

‘Malfoy?’ Harry asked, bewildered. ‘What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?’

Malfoy seemed to be desperately trying to get rid of Gulliver, who in turn seemed desperately trying to literally climb his leg, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Harry’s question seemed to catch his attention well enough, though, as Malfoy hurried to answer, with a somewhat faked nonchalance, ‘Stalking you, Potter? As if. Of course I’m not stalking you! Why on earth would I ever do something like that?’

Malfoy sounded too vehement and grandiloquent to be true, but Harry decided to go with it. ‘What led you here on this fine morning, then?’

Malfoy’s eyes widened a little – it seemed he hadn’t thought of an answer to this question – and he glanced around him discreetly, before answering in a very definitive tone, ‘I’ve come here to play tennis, obviously.’

‘You can play tennis in the snow?’

‘Of course, I can play tennis in the snow. I’m a wizard. Wizards can do anything!’ Malfoy seemed very pleased with his answer, but Harry was no less amused.

‘I figure wizards can also play tennis without a racket or a partner, then?’

Malfoy’s smile seemed to fall a little, but he soon recovered his composure. ‘I was supposed to meet Blaise, if you’re so interested. He’s the one bringing the rackets. It appears I’ve been stood up, though, so I was about to Apparate home when your devil beast attacked me!’ Malfoy said the last few words with a finger pointing at Harry’s chest, and was advancing menacingly towards him, but the effect was rather ruined when he almost tripped on Gulliver.

Gulli didn’t seem too fazed, though, because his enthusiasm towards Malfoy only seemed to grow. ‘My dog seems to like you very much, Malfoy,’ Harry said. It was a neutral enough statement, but Malfoy didn’t take it very well.

‘Well, maybe, your dog, even being the complete disaster it is, would at least like me enough to have the decency to owl me after a date!’ Malfoy was seething, but Harry couldn’t help himself imagining Malfoy and Gulliver sitting together at a romantically-lit table in a fancy restaurant.

Harry had to stay at least a little serious, though, because it was clear Malfoy hadn’t followed him here to have a good old laugh.

‘I didn’t think you’d want me to owl you, Malfoy. Our date was kind of a disaster. You barely spoke more than grunts and refused to meet my eyes for the whole evening.’ The date in question had been an arranged one, and neither Harry nor Malfoy had known who they would spend the night with. Harry’d just guessed Malfoy was too polite to simply bolt.

Malfoy took a sheepish look and his cheekbones got a touch more rosy than a few seconds before. ‘Perhaps the perception you had of my behaviour was a bit flawed,’ Malfoy said, eyes fixed on a patch of snow near his boots. ‘I was somewhat surprised to see you there, and maybe I was a little bit…’ Malfoy ended his sentence with a cough, and Harry chose to understand he’d meant something like “intimidated”.

Harry didn’t have time to answer, though, as Gulliver started yapping profusely, his snout obviously more interested in Malfoy’s overcoat than in having a romantic dinner with him.

‘Will you tell your dog off, Potter?’ Malfoy said through his teeth, sounding positively irritated.

Harry didn’t know why, but he discovered he found Malfoy’s furious look quite endearing and wasn’t so sure he wanted to do anything against it. ‘I don’t know, Malfoy, if Gulli is reacting like this, it has to do with food. If he smells some on you, there’s nothing I can do to keep him away.’

Malfoy seemed absolutely outraged by Harry’s reaction, and was opening his mouth to respond, when Gulliver finally reached his goal, tearing a box from Malfoy’s inside pocket.

Everything went very fast, then. Gulliver ran on one side of him with the box in his mouth, and Malfoy Apparated away with a loud Crack, his face flushed with what looked like a mix between anger and embarrassment. Harry considered Tracking him for a few seconds, but thought it was maybe wiser to contain the damage Gulliver was able to do when left to his own device.

Harry caught Gulli before he’d completely torn Malfoy’s box and extracted it out of the dog’s mouth with more than a little difficulty.

The box, before its encounter with Gulliver, had obviously been heart-shaped and seemed to be holding the remnants of butterscotch-filled chocolates.

Harry had a sudden flashback of his ill-fated date with Draco Malfoy. He remembered trying to fill the blanks at all costs and going on and on about Honeydukes’s butterscotch chocolate for the whole time the dessert had lasted.

Harry put the box in his pocket and resumed his walk with his dog, a huge grin never leaving his face.

Maybe he’d owl Malfoy, after all.