Cloudy

A.N. Welcome back for part two. To those who left reviews, thank you. To those who have favorited this and put me on your story/author alert, also thank you and please feel free to leave a review, I’d love to know your opinions on things.

I do not have a beta reader, I edited this myself. If you see any errors, or feel something doesn’t sound quite right, by all means message me and I’ll look into it.

(Also, Serapha, I replied to your PM but I don’t know if it went through! If you read this please send me the link again?)

Standard disclaimer applies. Please Enjoy.

There seemed, at least to Harry, to be an abundance of pet related accidents lately. All morning at the clinic he was holding down various animals that had eaten/rolled/played in something they weren’t supposed to.

His day came to a climax while trying to get Belle, an obese mastiff with an issue about strangers, back into the waiting room to meet her owner. He was doing an impressive backward crab walk, practically carrying the beast in his arms and trying to talk to her soothingly. Needless to say he was failing rather spectacularly as she gazed at him with doleful eyes and curled herself closer to the floor.

“You’re just everywhere aren’t you?” came the amused voice of one Draco Malfoy.

Caught slightly off guard, Harry’s head snapped up at roughly the same time that Belle found her owner and decided to shoot between Harry’s legs. Harry gave an undignified squawk before ending up on his back, staring at the ceiling. He took a moment to ponder the physics involved in the whole stunt; how did x=y when he knew for a fact he had flipped forward? Then again, he realized, there was another matter at hand.

“Malfoy?” he asked, a bit belatedly.

The blond smirked down at him, not unkindly. “Really Potter, this was the last place I expected to see you.” He extended his left hand, his other was curled around something tiny and shifting.

“Same to you, I didn’t know you had a pet.”

“I didn’t, until this morning.” Malfoy held out his other hand for Harry, where a tiny tabby sat clinging to his finger. She blinked at him and gave a pathetic mew. “I found her out at the site, someone sat their toolbox on her.”

It took Harry a few minutes for the story to click together. “Site?” His eyes traveled up the outstretched arm and realized, a tad slowly, that Malfoy was garbed in a dirty blue nomex suit with equally dirty work boots.

Here Malfoy looked slightly abashed. “Didn’t mention that, did I? I’m working over at a construction site not far from here.” He grinned widely, “I’m sure I’m bringing all kinds of shame to the Malfoy name. Working with my hands,” Malfoy wiggled his fingers for emphasis.

Harry couldn’t help the easy smile that spread across his face. “Absolutely blasphemous.” He agreed lightly.

“Mr. Potter? I’m afraid I need your help back here.” the vet, a portly older woman, poked her head from around the hallway. “We’ve got a testy boa constrictor, and well…you always seem to have such a nice repertoire with the reptiles.”

Malfoy and Harry shared a private laugh at that. “Be right there,” Harry called even as he turned away. “See you around Malfoy?” he asked, hesitatingly momentarily in the doorway.

“Oh, I’m sure you have a third or fourth job that I’ll inadvertently catch you at. So I suppose it’s inevitable.”

How things have changed, Harry thought merrily as he headed back to his job.

----------

Normal people do not receive visitors at two o’clock in the morning. Normal people do not receive visitors that bang loudly on the door while frantically calling out loud for them at two o’clock in the morning.

But once upon a time, Harry wasn’t normal. So the knocking doesn’t really surprise him, even if he is a little reticent to get out of bed. He eventually shuffled towards the noise, forgoing his glasses and not trying too hard to focus on the blurry shapes of his apartment.

Malfoy was standing on the other side of the door and looking particularly frantic even to the half blind man. He looked, to put it nicely, as if he had just woken up from a seven year slumber. And, Harry noted with some amusement, he was still in his nightclothes.

“She won’t be quiet.” Malfoy hissed, his hands cupped around something close to his chest.

Harry blinked slowly, feeling abnormally muddled this morning. “Who, exactly?”

Once again, Harry was met with a tiny kitten. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was open in a never ending screech that seemed considerably louder than it had been earlier.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her but she keeps making that noise!” Malfoy all but whined, prancing slightly in place.

Feeling suddenly awake, Harry pulled back slightly. “Look, Malfoy, I’m not a vet. I just hold animals still and things.”

“I know, I know, but if there’s something wrong with her and she dies on me I’m going to feel rotten. Please, surely you’ve picked something up working around the animals. Just look at her and tell me if you think it’s worth waking up a vet.”

It was the slightly desperate look in Malfoy’s eyes that finally did it. The please-I-finally-have-something look that Harry himself was more than familiar with. “Bring her in.”

The kitten, which Draco had yet to officially name, was squirming uncomfortably on the Formica table; her belly distended and awkward on thin legs. Both men stared down at her intently, as if she would suddenly start speaking and tell them all the answers.

She offered, however, nothing more than another ear splitting baby scream.

“Has she eaten this afternoon?” Harry finally asked, stroking her gently with one finger.

“Yes, she ate like a starved man.” Malfoy, Harry noticed, kept ticking his leg in some private beat.

“Has she gone to the bathroom?” prodded Harry.

Malfoy shook his head, the nervous twitching of his leg picking up in tempo. “I had a little box ready for her and everything, showed her where it was. She just kind of turned a circle and made that noise and it went on for the rest of the night.”

Harry picked her up, cutting off her pained yeow in the middle. He pried her mouth open gently, studied her teeth, and noted the blue blue of her eyes. “How old did the doc say she is?”

“Only about three weeks old, max. I know it’s too young to be away from her mum, but we did try to find her and I didn’t want to leave the poor thing out there if she was in pain.” Malfoy was babbling, which was another startling realization that Harry didn’t have time to properly absorb.

Instead, he set the man with a gentle smile. “Easy fix then.”

Minutes later; after a warm washcloth and an indignant kitten all was well. The kitten was off in the corner of Harry’s place, chasing after something or other and causing minuscule mayhem.

Her adopted human, however, was not fairing so well. Malfoy sat at the table, staring glumly at the dirty washcloth. “That’s it? All I have to do every time she needs to use it?”

The dark haired man across from him nodded. “It’s really not a big deal. Her mum would do it for her for a while still, and…well I suppose you’re her mum now.” He grinned, only a little sleepily, at Malfoy.

The words did little to assuage the blond’s fears. “I wouldn’t have known that. I don’t know anything about taking care of a pet.” He worried his bottom lip, staring down hard at the table and then he continued, the words flowing faster and faster; “This was a bad idea. I’m being selfish by keeping her. She’ll end up dead in a week. I'm never home during the day, and what if something happens, it'll be my fault. She would have been better if I het her loose after the visit to the vet. I shouldn’t eve--”

“Draco!” Harry shouted, “why are you being so hard on yourself? This isn’t something everyone thinks of at first. It’s alright, she’s fine now and if anything happens again I’ll be there to help you.”

Silver eyes gazed at him in wonder. “Really?” He asked, the disbelief plain in his voice. The unspoken question was almost tangible. Why are you doing this Harry? After everything I’ve done to you.

Harry smiled, something he was finding increasingly easy to do lately. “Of course, it’s what friends do after all.”

He wasn’t completely sure if “friends” was the correct term; but it felt right. The past still hung heavily between them, but Draco was turning out to be a comfortable companion. Someone easy to banter with, he had a surprising sense of humor and a considerable compassionate streak that-it turned out- came from his mother.

If things had been a bit different, we could have saved ourselves a few years of lonely pain.

"She still needs a name though," Harry reminded gently.

"I can't just keep calling her kitty?"

"No, kitty does not a name make. How would you like it if we just called you boy?"

Silence, something mumbled under Draco's breath that sounded suspiciously like "s'not a boy. I'ma man." But Harry let it slide.

"You know...she reminds me of something...."

"Oh?"

"Yea, Professor McGonagall was a tabby animagus."

"I'm not calling my cat McGonagall."

Harry shot him a look. "I wasn't saying you should."

It was hard to tell which one looked more offended.

"...Wasn't that crazy old bat named Minerva?"

Draco left, somewhere just before dawn, with a whole slew of written things to remember for the kitten, newly christened Minerva ("you call her whatever you bloody want," Draco had growled, "I'll call her Mini.") and promising to call if anything else should arise. It was, after all, what friends did.

---------

Two days later found Harry clocking out at the bookstore, tossing a cheery goodbye to his co-workers over his shoulder as he exited. He was not the least bit surprised to find Draco standing a short distance away, looking only slightly uncomfortable.

"Are you stalking me?" Harry asked in the same tone anyone else might say "nice weather we're having".

Composing himself rather quickly, Draco snorted "you wish."

Moments ticked by while that not-quite-as-awkward-as-before silence filled the gap.

"So...then why are you here?"

Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I wanted to say thank you for your help the other night. I've been racking my brain thinking of some kind of nice gesture and all I can come up with is treating you to damn coffee."

Harry didn't waste time arguing that, it wasn't a big deal, obviously it was to Draco. Instead he smiled warmly, "Coffee is always a great way to say anything."