As always I don't own anything that has to do with the Harry Potter books, movies ect.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, I hope you enjoy this one, and it should answer a few questions, but maybe leave a few too.
Chatting at the Bar
He turns back to his drink, but not before I see the stricken look on his face.
"Why should you care?" He mumbles into his whisky. That's a good question, why should I care? It's not like we were ever friends, in fact as far as I could tell he always hated me, and I never exactly have any warm fuzzy feelings towards him either. As I look him over once again, from his worn out trainers, wrinkled clothes, haunted face, straight up to his untidy hair, I realize I feel sorry for him. Pity does not usually come to mind when thinking about any of the privileged Malfoys, but apparently he's not so privileged anymore.
"I don't know, it's just a shock to see you, so unlike yourself." I wonder what did happen to him. I hear him make a noise in response that sounds somewhere between a snort and a chuckle.
"Yeah I guess you could say that." He downs the rest of his fire whisky and signals for Tom to bring him another. I take a sip of mine and feel it burn all the way to the pit of my stomach, the burn is such an intense pleasure-pain sensation that it not only burns away the rock, but for the moment I forget what put it there in the first place. We sit in silence, contemplating the amber liquid in our glasses. It's gotten quieter since I arrived, most of the diners must up finished up and moved on. I'm startled when the silence is broken by the unfamiliar voice of this new Draco Malfoy.
"Why are you here? The rabbit hole get too crowded?" Although the old Malfoy would have said this with a sneer and obvious disdain, this new creature sounds almost wistful. Is it possible that he's jealous? That's ridiculous; I must be misinterpreting boredom for longing. I don't know why I decided to answer him. I came in here looking for someone to talk to, but I never thought I'd find him in here, let alone contemplate speaking to him.
"Ron and I had a fight." He turns to look at me with a dubious expression, then shakes his head and turns back to his drink. I'm a little insulted that he can think my problems so petty and jump to defend myself. "Look I know it might seem like a stupid thing to you, but I was really upset." I snap at him. When he only snorts I continue. "Not that you would care, I'm sure, but it was. We both said a lot of terrible things to each other and then I stormed out." I don't know why I'm blurting any of this out to him, but I keep going, although in a much quieter voice. "I didn't know where else to go where I wouldn't be all alone." He regards me curiously for a minute before commenting.
"I'm sure it was very traumatic." He replies into his drink.
"Well why are you here then? I'm sure it must be something much more traumatic then a fight with Pansy Parkinson." I can't help but snap at him again, and although thinking about the fight with Ron brought the rock back, my rising ire is keeping the pain at bay. His laugh is so unexpected I just stare at him completely loosing my train of thought.
"Pansy Parkinson." He says her name as if savouring a favourite sweet. "She hasn't spoken to me since before the war. She was a nice enough girl, a bit clingy, but good with her…" He trails of as if he forgot who he was talking to, and turns back to now contemplate the gouges in the bar, tracing a particularly long and jagged one with the nail of his thumb. I don't think he's going to continue, so I turn back to finish my fire whisky and order another. Tom doesn't hesitate to bring this one. I almost choke on the first sip when Malfoy begins to speak again.
"Did Potter tell you about the hearings?" I realise he must mean the Death Eater hearings that started once the Ministry got up and running again after the war. All the remaining known Death Eaters were rounded up and tried. We had all discussed them at some length when it was happening, and we continue to discuss them in my law classes, but I can't think of any particular instance Harry brought up and I tell him as much.
"No? Wow, I thought he would have told everyone about that good deed, coming to the rescue of his old school rival." This is news to me, I knew the Minister asked him to testify against the Malfoys, but I thought he had decided not to.
"I didn't know he had gone, what happened?" He searches my face, and must have decided that I was being truthful.
"So you didn't know he testified in my defence and the defence of my mother?" Now I'm even more shocked.
"No, I didn't know that. What did he say?" He takes a moment to gather his thoughts before he continues.
"He told the Wizengamot that I was being blackmailed by the Dark Lord and that the only reason I did any of the things I did was to protect my family after we fell out of his favour. Based on his testimony, and what my wand revealed, I got a reduced sentence, only eighteen months in Azkaban." I'm aware that my mouth is hanging open, but my thoughts are so out of control, I can't be bothered to close it.
"He told them about my mother helping him deceive everyone at the end of the battle, he said that she was instrumental in the Dark Lords demise. Because of him she got released. I just can't figure out why he would do it. Do you know?" He looks at me beseechingly, but I still can't believe what he just said. He's staring at me with an almost desperate gleam in his eyes. "Maybe you don't know, I've been trying to figure it out since it happened. I just thought you might have some idea." He turns away again, his shoulder slumping slightly. I think about my friend, about what motivates him, whose advice he seeks when making decisions, and what might have driven him to defend his enemies.
"I can't say for sure why Harry does anything, although I'm one of his closest friends, he doesn't always include me in all of his decision making." His shoulders seem to slump a little more at this. "I can tell you that he is a genuinely good person. Perhaps he was told that they were going to throw the book at your entire family and thought it was a little too harsh. He told me that when Voldemort asked her to check to see if he was alive, your mother's only concern was for you. Maybe he felt sorry for her, maybe he wished his mother to be somewhere worrying about him, maybe he connected with her somehow, I really couldn't say, but I do know that he is a fiercely loyal friend and he may have trying to repay her for her help." His only reply is a sharp nod and a mumbled "Thank you." I'm stunned to realise that this is the first time Draco Malfoy has ever been civil to me, and I never imagined him actually being polite to me. This is defiantly a different Malfoy than I had ever in countered before.
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