Chapter Text
“Please, Draco, two of my hedgehogs are under the weather, and I really, really could use your help, especially today. Today is so very important.”
Draco rolled his eyes. “So important you won’t tell me why it’s so important. What, is the Minister coming for a visit?”
“You’ll see,” replied Luna very unhelpfully. “If you get overwhelmed or anything at all, you can leave whenever you want—I promise.”
“I don’t get overwhelmed,” scoffed Draco.
“So you’ll do it?”
Draco grumbled a bit. “…Fine,” he muttered at last, and Luna lit up as she skipped out of his bakery-patisserie shop across the street to her hedgehog café, but not before ordering her usual blackberry, lavender, and white chocolate opera cake—“it’s absolutely dreamy” was her reason for buying it every single week without fail.
And so he left the shop in Theo and Blaise’s capable hands for the day—Theo helped greatly with the creative side of things and Blaise with the business side, so between the two of them, Draco didn’t have to worry about a thing. He’d baked more than enough pastries to stock throughout the day, after all, and Greg took care of baking the bread.
No, instead, Draco had something else to worry about—namely, a speccy git known as the Saviour of the wizarding world, sitting in front of the tabletop Luna had set Draco down on.
Harry Potter.
Draco would recognise those viridescent eyes, that mop of inky hair, those ugly round glasses, and chapped, bitten-red lips anywhere.
Biting his lips had always been a nervous tic of Potter’s.
The question now was why Draco seemed to be part of the reason for it.
“I don’t know, Luna.” Potter sounded depressed, resigned. He darted an unsure glance at Draco. “I don’t think I can handle another rejection today.”
‘Rejection?’ Draco tried to ask, but only a few squeaks came out.
“Oh, you don’t know it’s a rejection,” said Luna. “Maybe something came up. He wouldn’t have agreed to a second date if he wasn’t interested.”
Draco blinked—he couldn’t wrap his mind around someone with a working brain cell standing up the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice.
Potter fiddled with the hem of his fitted turtleneck that he looked unfairly hot in. “Oh, I know. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. They’re excited and friendly and lovely until I tell them that I’m not really Harry Potter, that I just look really similar to him, and oh look”—he flipped up his bangs to reveal his lightning scar—“I don’t have the signature scar. And you should see their eyes—all interest just… dies.” He sighed. “Sometimes they agree to a second date, but I think it’s just out of some sort of awkward pressure, because they never show, anyway.”
“Oh, Harry, not everyone’s like that. Here, I know what will make you feel better.” Luna dashed over to the counter, then came back with a plate of small, cubed fruits within a handful of seconds. “Now I know the other hedgehogs find you scary, but Ormr here is a feisty one.”
And then Draco realised.
This had all been a setup—he’d bet his entire shop that Luna’s hedgehogs were just fine. ‘Under the weather,’ his arse. All because they were scared of Potter? So what? Now he had to let Potter pet him?
Absolutely ridiculous. Like hell, he’d let Potter touch a single quill on him.
“Ormr?” asked Potter. He cautiously nudged the plate of fruit towards Draco. “Is he new? I thought I met all your hedgehogs.”
“He’s not, but, well, he’s a bit prickly .”
Draco rolled his eyes.
“He has a tendency to bite people,” continued Luna.
Potter stared at her like she’d grown another head. “This is your brilliant plan? The other hedgehogs think I’m scary, so you give me one that hates people?”
“I didn’t say that, I just said he’s touchy.” Luna gave Potter a reassuring smile. “Give him a chance.”
Draco knew that was directed at him as well.