"What is this called again, Harry?"

"Cinema."

Harry Potter guided Draco Malfoy down the Muggle lane. The lights from the marquee shined in slick, oily reflections off the wet street.

"Like a play?"

"Didn't you ever go to the cinema when you had to live like a Muggle?" said Harry, lowering his voice as they neared the ticket kiosk.

"No. Never had the money for anything. Never dated."

"Oh. Well anyway, it's not a play. More like something in a Pensieve. Only you're not in it. You're just…watching. Passively."

Draco glared up at the marquee and scowled. "How the hell did the Muggles get a hold of this, anyway? What happened to the Ministry keeping it all hush-hush?"

"I don't know," said Harry, flicking his gaze up and down the mostly empty street. He really didn't want to be seen by any of his friends. "I heard a rumour that my cousin had something to do with it."

"The prat! But he'd have to have talked to someone in the Wizarding world. Unless you told dear Dudley about your precious adventures yourself."

"Big D?" he said with a private smirk. "Never liked looking at him let alone talking to him. No, plenty of wizards would do it for money, I'm sure. And Dudley is just unscrupulous enough to go for it."

"Well I hope the boy who's playing me is handsome enough. I can't stand when liberties are taken."

Harry rolled his eyes and quickly paid for the tickets. He ushered Draco inside where they got their first look at the children assembled in the lobby. Draco dug his heels in, his eyes wide. "Look at all these underage wizards and witches! What the hell are their parents doing letting them dress like this in Muggle London!"

"Keep it down, Malfoy!" he hissed. "They aren't witches and wizards. They're Muggles."

"Potter, you must be mental!"

"No, really. It's…our story is very popular amongst the Muggles. They think it's all fiction, of course."

"Merlin's beard!"

"Well a lot of time has past, you know. Fifteen years since we went to Hogwarts as first years."

"Yeah." Draco was still eyeing the children chasing one another with plastic wands. His lip pulled up in a familiar sneer.

Harry watched them, too. "I remember it all like it was yesterday."

"I know. You still have nightmares."

"Do I? Funny, I don't remember my dreams now."

"You thrash about a bit, too."

"Sorry. You should wake me."

"Maybe you're winning."

He smiled at Draco. Draco absorbed it with a grin of his own until his face drifted to the left. "What's that delightful aroma?"

"Popcorn. Want some?"

"Can we eat inside?"

"Yeah. Enhances the experience."

"Well! These Muggles may have something going, then."

Harry walked with Draco to the concession stand and purchased a large pail of buttered popcorn. But before they could reach the theatre doors, several children stopped dead in the lobby, pointed at Harry, and shouted, "It's Harry Potter!"

Harry froze. A Muggle woman rushed up. "Stop that!" She waggled a finger at the children. "That's very naughty!" She turned to a stunned Harry then. "Sorry about that. They've been doing that today to all blokes wearing spectacles." She gave him a withering smile and ushered the children away.

Draco stared at Harry. "Ever consider a different style of glasses, Potter?"

"I like these." He leaned toward Draco and whispered seductively, "So do you. 'Keep them on, Harry.' Isn't that what you always say when we're-" He waggled his brows. "You know."

Draco raised his chin, a study in silence. Only two red spots on his cheekbones gave anything away. He followed Harry into the darkened theatre and they took their seats amongst the chattering children.

"So what part of the story is this, Harry?" He plunged his hand into the popcorn and pulled out a wad.

"The final bit. You know. Voldemort's demise."

"Oh. Should be good, considering no one knows the real story."

"Well," said Harry lowering his voice, "Somehow they found out, because I saw mention of Horcruxes-"

"Blimey! I thought only we, Dumbledore, and the Weasleys knew."

"So did I." Harry felt a bit uncomfortable. Someone knew. Someone from the Ministry, probably, and they were making a bundle off of this.

"There's a spy in our midst," Draco grumbled, voicing Harry's concerns.

"Too late to worry over it now."

"I don't think it's a good idea for everyone to know about Horcruxes," Draco whispered back. "Don't want any new Dark wizards getting ideas of immortality."

"It's an awfully difficult spell. Besides, let the Aurors take care of them," he said between bites of popcorn.

"Don't want them to have to recruit you again," said Draco, a worried tinge to his voice.

Harry squeezed his thigh affectionately. "Don't worry. I'm perfectly happy teaching Defense at Hogwarts. I've no wish to become an Auror at this late date."

"Good." Draco sat back and pushed the wad of popcorn toward his mouth.

The theatre darkened and several adverts and previews flickered across the screen. "You're right," said Draco, leaning toward Harry's ear. "It is like a Pensieve. Weird."

"And the main feature hasn't even started yet."

But finally it did with a swelling of music and Harry's name spread across the screen fifteen feet high. He cringed a little.

Draco gave a yawn, stretched his arm, and slowly lowered it so it rested across Harry's shoulders. Harry smiled and looked at the hand snaking forward. Fingers inched along his collar. Subtle, Malfoy. But Harry snuggled into it nonetheless.

The story unfolded right away. Starting with the wedding of Fleur and Charlie. Then it switched perspectives to Snape and Draco. Draco stiffened beside him.

"He doesn't look a thing like me," said Draco in a shaky voice. "Though that Snape chap looks and sounds pretty close."

"I think he looks a lot like you," said Harry with a secret grin. "He may be cuter, in fact."

That hand on his shoulder flicked him in the ear.

"Ow!"

Draco snorted. "The bloke playing you, at any rate, is much better-looking than the real thing. At least his hair stays in place."

"Right, Malfoy."

"Jealous?"

"No."

"Right, then. You don't mind if I buy a souvenir cup with his face on it, then?"

"You do and I'll hex it."

Draco smiled and turned back toward the screen, but that smile quickly faded when "Voldemort" made an appearance. Draco's breath hitched. "I don't know that I'm enjoying this," he said under his breath.

"It's all right. The good guys win at the end, remember?"

"Yeah. But some die, too."

"Do you mind?" said someone behind them.

Both Harry and Draco turned, wondering what it was they were supposed to mind doing.

The Muggle motioned toward the screen. "Shush! We're trying to hear the dialogue," he said in a frustrated tone.

"Nobody really said those things anyway," said Draco. "I certainly didn't."

Harry elbowed Draco hard. "Draco!"

The Muggle raised his brows at the both of them.

"Oh never mind," said Draco, pulling his wand. He waved it over himself and Harry. "A silencing bubble. I want to be able to talk without some Muggle shushing me."

Harry glanced back at the Muggle who still eyed them suspiciously and decided he'd have to hit him with an Obliviate before they left.

The film went on, dramatic music rising as each Horcrux was discovered and destroyed. Draco nervously devoured popcorn until the pail was empty. Harry set it on the floor, aimed his wand at it under his jacket, and made it vanish.

But when the Lucius Malfoy character arrived on the scene, Draco stood abruptly. "I have to get some air."

"I'll go with you." Harry followed him, apologizing to the people in the dark whom he climbed over to get to the centre aisle. He followed Draco's rapidly moving figure and escaped with him out the double doors.

Draco leaned his back against the lobby wall, his head raised towards the ceiling. He seemed paler than usual. Harry raised his hand to Draco's shoulder. "You all right, mate?"

"Yeah. It's just…I know what's coming and I don't want to see it."

"Okay." Harry squeezed his shoulder and even ventured an arm around his waist. But just then the doors opened and a child shot out, heading for the toilets. In that instant that the doors were opened, a flash of green light filtered out, and a hissed, "Avada Kedavra!" made them both jump and duck. Harry's wand was out reflexively, but it only took him a moment to feel foolish and stuff it back into hiding.

He looked at Draco. "Too real, huh?"

"Yeah. I think I want to kill the prat who let this story loose. The Muggles have no right to know."

"They don't think it's real. It's better that way."

"I'm not so sure. We treat them like a bunch of children. I bet they could have helped."

"Or gotten in the way and more of them would have been hurt."

Draco stared at the wild patterns on the theatre carpet. "I don't know."

They stood in silence for a while. Harry tapped his foot. "You want to go back inside?"

Draco looked up at Harry and slowly nodded. "I guess. Have to see what these Muggles know, at any rate."

They ventured back in but this time sat in the back. They could hold hands that way, which made Harry happier when the film showed Dumbledore's emotional return and the final battle.

They squeezed each other's hands very tight as the climax of the film roared across the screen and rattled their nerves in stereophonic sound. "Voldemort" died spectacularly-as he should, thought Harry vehemently, surprised those emotions were still so raw and close to the surface even though these events happened some nine years ago. And all around them, the audience cheered. Harry studied the dim faces in the dark. Muggles or not, he smiled a little.

The credits rolled and Harry and Draco sat numb and silent as the theatre emptied. They didn't move even as the lights came up.

"Well," said Harry at last. "Was that how you remembered it?"

Draco nodded. "Pretty close."

"Wonder how they did it."

"I know how. I noticed the producers' grateful acknowledgement of one 'Aberforth D.'"

"No!"

"Not just the quiet bartender at The Hogshead, now is he?"

"Albus never would let his own brother-" But Harry realized that Dumbledore had very little sway over his wilder sibling, even though he was a pretty good Secret Keeper. He sank deeper into the chair. "And he seemed like such a nice chap."

"Now he's a rich one."

Harry looked at Draco. "We're not going to mope, are we?"

Draco got to his feet, brushing the leftover popcorn kernels from his shirt. "No. I'm going to take you to dinner. We're not going to celebrate exactly, but we can at least sort of feel relieved it's over."

"I agree." Harry stood. "Let's get away from these Muggles. Take me to a wizard place?"

He took Harry's chin and kissed him tenderly on the mouth. Harry beamed at him. "Sure. Wherever you like. I'm feeling reckless and extravagant."

Harry took Draco's arm. "In that case, how about the Wizard's Knoll?"

"Potter, I'm only a teacher. Are you trying to bankrupt me?"

"Oh I like that! Every time you want to go shopping-"

"My wardrobe is a necessary expense."

Harry snorted. "We've been married for five years. You are just as rich as I am, you git. The Potion Room?"

"No, let's go to the Wizard's Knoll. I've been dying to go anyway."

They exited the theatre and left behind the swishing of children's robes and foolish plastic wand-waving.

"I suppose," said Harry as they walked down the street, close together, their hands sharing a pocket in Harry's jacket, "I should tell you that they're making an opera out of this story. They're calling it the 'Hogwarts Cycle'."

"Oh for the love of Merlin-!"

"Well, you did say-"

"That our lives were operatic? As long as that's as far as they go. I don't think the kiddies would be interested in the world famous villain shagging the world famous Boy-Who-Lived."

"I would have paid to see it."

"That's because you are sick, Potter. A sick, twisted, nasty, little boy. Whom I dearly love."

Harry planted a quick kiss to Draco's cheek. "Likewise, you foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach."

"Harry love. You say that like it's a bad thing." Draco smiled.


The End

A/N: Those last two lines are an homage. That's a nice way to say I nicked them.

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