Harry was gone. For once in their life they had gotten along and been friendly; more than friendly! But it was all ruined now. Ruined because of his own godfather's ancient grudge and hurtful words.
Harry was gone.
Draco had called for him, looked for him for a good half an hour, all to no avail. He didn't know where Harry lived, so he couldn't go there. And if he did, well, Draco knew he wouldn't be able to restrain himself from doing something he might regret (not that he actually would regret doing anything to those peons) because of what they did to Harry. They were nothing more than a bunch of child abusing bastards!
He slammed the front door of the Manor behind him, practically kicking off his shoes at a startled maid. Surprisingly enough, Draco could hear his mother yelling. He walked stiffly towards the noise and stopped in the doorway of the living room. His godfather sat in an armchair while Narcissa stood next to the window, her pretty face marred by anger, mouth spouting words a mile a minute. She broke off when she spotted Draco, relief clearly visible in her eyes.
"Oh, Draco. Did you find the poor boy? Were you able-"
"No." His mother made to come towards him, but stopped at the look he gave her, sighing.
"Draco, you're dripping all over the carpet. You should know better than to go out in the rain like that."
"You," Draco sneered, whipping to face his godfather, "You! What right do you have to say that to me?"
"Excuse me?"
"Get out. Just, get out. I'm tired of looking at you."
"Wha- Narcissa, you can't possibly have taught your son these horrid manners."
"I agree with my son, Severus. Please leave." Her arms were crossed over her chest, eyes glued back outside the window, staring blankly at the rain as if fell.
"Fine. Narcissa, thank you for dinner. And Draco, I'll see you in class." Severus Snape rose from his seat and exited the Manor.
Finally.
"Draco?"
"I'm going to bed. Good night, mother."
"Hey, Draco! What happened to you last night? You went to go grab the booze from your car, but you never came back." Blaise called, jogging to catch up with him from the parking lot.
Draco slowed his walk but did not stop for his friend, hands stuffed in his uniform pockets. He shrugged his shoulders in answer, face set in his customary look of indifference.
"What's that supposed to mean? Pansy freaked on me when she went outside to find out what was taking you so long and your car was gone."
"Not my problem."
"Than what is your problem?" Blaise nearly yelled in exasperation.
"Something that's none of your business. Come on, we're going to be late." Draco advised coolly.
They entered the large building at a brisk walk and stepped through their homeroom door right as the bell rang. Draco's eyes instantly locked with his Godfathers and narrowed.
"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Zabini, take your seats so that I might begin today's lesson."
"Yessir," They chimed in unison, Draco slipping into his customary desk without so much as another glance towards Blaise.
"Professor McGonagall's core will be joining us. I expect that you all be on your best behavior and not cause any trouble. Let them start it." Snape narrowed his eyes minutely in warning,"You will be begin your senior project by pairing off to discuss your top three topics of choice- No, you may not choose your own partners. Names will be drawn once the others arrive."
Draco's heart was racing. Potter was coming. What could he say? Would Potter resent what happened last night? Everything that happened last night? It had all been so spur-of-the-moment. Even Draco didn't know what to think! He'd just never seen Harry like that, all bruised and broken and undeniably attractive: his hair had been dripping, his cheeks flushed from steam, lips petal-soft and just as pink. Harry acted neither dominant nor submissive; it had been just the two of them, off in their own little world-
"Budge over."
Draco jumped, eyes widening once they landed on the glum-faced Harry Potter. He looked exactly the same as he always had (all wild-haired and rumpled), if you didn't count that nasty bruise on his jaw and slightly puffy lip. Draco felt last night's anger rebuilding. Harry definitely appeared worse off than before, especially with the dark circles under his eyes.
"Malfoy, budge over," Potter repeated, scraping a chair across the tile floor and pointedly ignoring Snapes scathing glare at the noise.
"Ah... Sorry. Here," Draco edged over to give Harry more room, steadfastly refusing the blush that was threatening to surface.
They sat there for exactly five minutes, neither moving or speaking, maybe not even breathing; Draco counted. And then he couldn't stand it any longer. He needed to say something, anything would do-
"What are your three top choices?"
"Dunno, really. I was thinking about doing it on a career or..." Potter ended with a noncommittal shrug of indifference.
"Anything specific?" Draco prodded.
"I've considered doing it on the war against Voldemort or the benifits of sports... Even working for the government... You?"
"Pretty much the same as you... Except my top choice is about the high standards and stereotypes that are placed on children." Draco said confidently, leaning back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling.
"That's rich, Malfoy, coming from you." Harry mumbled distractedly, scribbling circles all over a fresh piece of paper in one of his spiral notebooks.
"How so?" His eyes fluttered shut, his tone bland and lacking true curiosity.
"You're a walking stereotype. You can't help but flaunt your good looks and your money. You love your status."
"Oh, just like you love yours?" Draco straightened, blue-gray eyes fixed in a heated scowl, "Parentless and abused by your only living relatives."
"You know nothing about my life, Malfoy; nothing!" Potter hissed.
"As you know nothing about mine," He sneered back, "One would think that you'd have realized that by now, Potter."
"Look, Malfoy... I- I'm sorry. I over reacted," The other boy apologized, a strained look on his face, "I've been having a really rough time of it-"
"Apology accepted." Draco interupted.
"Er, thanks."
"Mm. So... About your choices. I think you should consider doing your senior project on something else."
"And that would be...?" Harry asked uncertainly.
Draco considered if he should actually say this or not. After all, it wasn't a pleasant subject and they'd already just finished a row - albeit it wasn't a very nasty one. But, Draco Malfoy being Draco Malfoy, he went ahead and said it anyway.
"I think that you should take my example. No one would expect you to do it on your life. At least, not on how it really is." Draco said quietly, respecting the fact that Harry wouldn't want others to overhear their conversation.
"What?" Harry asked slowly, as if he didn't quite understand what Draco had just said.
"Harry," He used the other's first name, knowing already that he was in for another fight, "I think that you need to express your... feelings? It's not healthy to lock everything up."
"Well, Draco, I don't give a bloody rip what you think!" Harry shouted, rising vulnerably from his chair and drawing the attention of every single person in the room, "Besides, how do you even know I haven't told anyone?" He hissed quietly enough for only Draco to hear.
"Of course you haven't told anyone. I'm not stupid."
"Yes you are! You're a fucking little shite who has been nothing but the pain in my arse from day one!"
"Potter!" Snape began in vain.
"Nobody asked you!" Both Harry and Draco shouted simutaneously.
"You think I can do it on something like that? That it would be fucking easy, a laugh even-" Harry continued.
"I never said that it would be easy," Draco took in a slow breath, standing up to look Harry in the eyes, "I said that you need it."
"You can't know what I ne-"
"Yes, I do. I know because I need to."
Silence fell over the class room as the two boys quieted. Harry stared at Draco for a long while, no longer angry. His shoulders were slumped, body shaking. Draco watched in horror as malachite eyes slowly flooded. Two arms shot out to fist in his shirt, pulling Draco to him as the tears spilt over with a racking sob.
It was so uncharacteristic, so bizarre, that Pansy Parkinson lead a round of gasps. Blaise seemed confused, less so than Ron Weasley who was looking quite green, and Hermione Granger just looked smug, almost like christmas had come early. Both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were frozen and speachless because, out of all their many, many years of teaching, nothing like this had ever occured. Of course, neither Draco nor Harry noticed anything around them. Not when Harry was too busy crying and Draco too busy whispering soothing nothings into his ear.
