The sun was heavy for the winter day, Harry trudged heavily along the edge of the forbidden forest his eyes scanning the ground for any trace of the plant the shivered in the wizard photograph held tightly in the hand that clung the green scarf tight around his neck. The only noise that broke the air was his own panted breath and the occasional cheap of a bird (or some other animal) deep in the woods.
“Why did I agree to this?” He snapped to himself shuffling impatiently as he looked at the photo in his hand then down at a plant he had just spotted shivering off the snow that had gathered on it minuscule leaves.
“Ya know, legend says they move like that because the souls of banished fae are trapped in them.” Harry yelped and nearly trampled the tiny plant as he spun around to face a pink cheeked Draco. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, I... didn’t hear you coming.” Harry blushed and moved his hands down from their defensive position in front of his chest, shoving them deep into the pockets of his fathers old traveling cloak he had insisted on Harry borrowing.
“Flew.” Draco murmured shortly, blushing too. Every time they were together they were expected to be talking to other and had hardly gotten a second alone since then, the sudden silence of being together on a cold winters day was startling. “So... you think I’m fit?” Draco grinned a grin that made Harry’s heart tense that un-tense into a fluttering mess inside his chest.
“Extremely, you’ve grown a couple inches too.” Draco moved closer to Harry touching his cheek gently.
“As have you.”
“For that you can thank my father.” Draco’s eye knit down together and his head tilted, giving him the look of a confused animal. “You look adorable when you do that.” The air in front of Harry’s face fogged up and he realized his scarf had fallen from his mouth when Draco smoothed a hand across his cheek and leaned in.
“You have an amazing talent for letting secrets slip, Harry.”  Draco and Harry jumped three feet back from each other when they heard Severus’s voice behind them. “Now if you’d do the poor plant the favor of getting off it, son."
Draco looked closely at Harry as he came to stand beside him his father kneelled in front of the small plant; "I always knew there was a reason you were so stubborn, genetics."
"I can hear you Mr. Malfoy." Severus chuckled as he pulled a jar from inside his coat. "Also,l please refrain from grabbing my son's arse behind me." The two boys yelped and jumped apart from each other once again, but passed a look to one another. There'd be a time when the Professor wasn't around...