Draco's POV:
Blaise had invited him and Neville to Luna's house for an unknown reason. They seemed to be waiting for something and Blaise wouldn't let him eat anything.
There came a knock on the door and Luna rushes over to get it. Right in the doorway is Hermione.
"You guys ready?" Hermione asks.
"Ready for what?" Both him and Neville ask her.
"Oh yeah, surprise! We're going to the Weasley's for a nice dinner with everyone." Blaise informs.
"Wait, who's gonna be there?" Neville asks nervously.
"Only people we know. Don't worry." Blaise assures him and puts his arm around his shoulder.
"I'll apparate you all there. Grab onto me." Hermione says.
They all rush towards her. Draco felt awkward having any physical contact with Hermione, but he still grabbed onto her jacket.
With a woosh, they land right in front of an odd looking house. It seemed to have many different houses stacked upon it and almost seemed to reach the heavens.
Hermione rushes towards the house and they all follow her. She stops in front of a old wooden door. She turns the knob with a creaking sound and steps inside. They all follow her closely and Draco gets a whiff of some kind of food cooking, warm pie, and old parchment.
Draco took a look around. It seemed cluttered and chaotic, but oddly comforting in some way. He didn't know how to explain it. It for sure wasn't anything like his home.
"Hermione!" says the round red-headed woman he's seen many times before. "Oh, it's so amazing to see you. I see you've brought some new faces here!" Her eyes meet his own and he begins to worry for a minute, until she gives him a bright smile and says, "Draco, how wonderful to truly meet you." She reaches towards him and gives him a warm hug.
Even though he knows nothing about this woman other than his father hates her and her family, especially her husband, he strangely enough feels like he's getting a hug from his own mother.
Not that he doesn't have his own mother. They have been bonding recently, him and his mother. But her hugs seemed slightly colder than this one.
"We are so happy to have you here. Make yourself at home!" She says, pulling away from him.
He takes a step back and watches as she greets the rest of them with the same warm hug.
He searched the room and caught eyes with his father's enemy Arthur Weasley. He gives him a small wave followed by a small smile. Draco awkwardly gives a wave back.
"Draco, you're here!" says Harry with a bright smile.
"Are you sure I should be here? I mean, I'm not too friendly with the Weasley's..." Draco says.
"They said you were welcome here. They even asked your mother what you'd want to eat." Harry says.
Before Draco could say another word, Molly's voice booms through the house. "Dinner is ready!" She shouts.
Ron and George both run over to the table and Harry leads him towards them.
He scans the table and notices there's chicken legs, mashed potatoes, corn, crumpets, carrots, and even grapes.
Ron and George were already filling up their plates and Arthur Weasley was already taking bites of chicken.
"Boys, leave some for the guests!" Molly Weasley scolds.
"Ok." Arthur says, a mouth full of food.
Molly rolls her eyes and urges them all to take a seat. Draco sits with Harry while Hermione takes a seat beside Ron, Ginny sits with Luna, and Blaise sits with Neville. Molly takes a seat beside her husband and begins to fill her plate as well.
Draco hesitantly starts to fill his as well. He wasn't used to filling his own plate and he for sure wasn't used to getting to chose how much he could pick up and what exactly he wanted. It was all new to him.
He watched as the three Weasley boys stuffed their faces. He was never allowed to do that.
He takes a gentle bite of chicken and almost instantly cleans his face off and feels out of place.
For all of his life, the dinners with his mother and father were completely silent and with many rules, most of which the Weasley's were breaking.
His father was many miles away, locked up in jail. No one could touch him here and he was safe, yet he was holding onto these rules like his life depended on it.
"This is so good!" George Weasley shouts with a mouth-full of food.
"Close your mouth!" Molly Weasley scolds.
George Weasley simply ignores it and shoves more food into his mouth. Other people might've thought it was gross, but Draco saw it as hilarious and admirable. They didn't have a care in the world.
"You're so disgusting!" Ginny says through giggles.
"Says the girl who eats like a troll whenever the cupcakes come out." George says with a playful scowl.
Ginny looks down with a heavy blush upon her cheeks and says, "Well at least I don't chew with my mouth open!"
"We have guests!" Molly scolds.
He can hear Harry chuckle softly beside him. He looks over and Harry whispers, "This happens a lot. It's pretty fun to watch, but not to be in I'm sure."
Draco watches them argue silently from the other side of the table and smiles softly, yet he can't help but feel envious. He never had a family like theirs, but it's often what he would wish for. He feels even more stupid for shaming the Weasley's before. Maybe it's just because they had everything he didn't.
"I want to make a toast!" Arthur Weasley announces, raising his glass in the air. "To our new friends, Draco and Blaise."
"Our new friends!" Everyone else says, clinking their glasses with his own and drinking from them.
Arthur gives both Blaise and Draco a warm smile. They both smile back at him, but Draco feels like he gave more of a wince.
He felt tears form into his eyes but he tried to push them down as much as possible. Is he really going to be this stupid and cry over that?
He could hit himself, that always seemed to stop it. But then again Harry was right beside him and he would definitely notice. Not to mention if Luna on the other side of him happened the notice she would then be concerned too.
"Excuse me, where is your bathroom?" Draco asks politely, impressively hiding any amount of voice-cracking that could've come through.
"Down that hall to the left, dear." Molly says, pointing him in the right direction.
He rushes that way and finds it almost instantly. He locks himself in and takes a deep breath. Why did he get so emotional over that?
Then, he realized that it was because that toast oddly enough make him feel included. It made him feel like he was apart of this perfect family that loved each other and maybe, if he was apart of it as well, they would all love him too. But that was unrealistic. They just formally met for the first time after he insulted all of them for years along with his father.
However, the event still rings inside his head and many tears fall from his eyes. He crosses his arms over his chest, feeling embarrassed.
A knock came at the door. "Draco?" Harry's voice asks.
He wipes his eyes and sniffs, "Yeah?"
"Are you ok?" Harry asks him.
"Yeah, of course." He says back.
"Open the door if you can, please." Harry mutters.
Draco takes a deep breath and opens the door. He attempts to appear like everything is fine, yet Harry narrows his eyes at him.
"Your eyes are red." He whispers.
"I'm fine." Draco says with a forced smile.
"Did something make you upset?" Harry whispers. "I can take you home, you know."
"No, I... I really do like it here. It's just..." Draco feels the tears coming back and stops.
"I'm sorry if something upset you, really." Harry whispers.
"Really, nothing upset me... The toast was all-" Draco stops talking as his voice cracks.
"You can tell me, you know." Harry whispers. "You wanna talk about it somewhere else?"
"Yes, please." Draco whispers.
Harry takes his hand and leads him down the hall. He opens the very last door, which leads outside.
Harry closes the door behind them and sits down on the steps.
"So, what happened?" He asks Draco.
"The toast just... It's probably stupid." Draco chuckles humorlessly.
"Nothing is stupid. You can tell me anything, never forget that." Harry assures.
Draco takes a deep breath and says, "I don't know... I was just sitting there realizing just how different my family is from theirs. I mean, my family has all these table rules and we have to be silent at the table and sit up straight. The Weasley's have none of that. My family is small and lonely and theirs is big and welcoming. I started to get jealous, you know. How could I have ever insulted a family like that? Then they made a toast and I... I felt included in their family almost... Even though I'm probably not at all." Draco says. "And I felt like someone was seeing me, you know. No one ever sees me really... Unless I make a big scene." He chuckles shortly.
"So it's... Happy tears?" Harry asks.
"I suppose so. But they're pretty stupid." Draco says.
"I actually felt like that once... When I became friends with Ron and Christmas came, Molly made me a sweater. Ron always hated it, but that present made me feel so special and loved even though I wasn't a part of their family. And when I first came to the Burrow... It was amazing. It was like the loving home I've never had." Harry says. "I understand you completely."
"But it's embarrassing to cry over it, right?" Draco asks. "I mean, I shouldn't get emotional over that."
"You're just going to invalidate your feelings like that?" Harry asks. "You know, the brain is a weird thing and considering the things you've gone through recently, it's not completely irrational to cry over it. To be honest, I cried the other day because Ron and Hermione gave me a hug. You could say that was pretty stupid too. A long time ago Ron cried over getting a gold Godric Gryffindor card. George laughed at him for weeks... But my point is, you aren't stupid for crying over this and you shouldn't tell yourself otherwise."
"Thanks, Harry." Draco says with a real smile this time. "I guess it is less stupid than crying over a card." He jokes.
"Don't tell Ron I told you, he'd go ballistic." Harry says. "So, ready to go back inside?"
"I think so... Hopefully I don't cry in front of them."
"Don't worry. Even if you do, that'll only prove how much heart you have." Harry says with a smile. "Come on," Harry says, grabbing his hand and leading him back inside.
They drop hands when they come into view of the table.
"Oh, there you are!" Arthur says happily, "It's time for dessert!"
"Draco needs to get the first piece!" Molly says, smacking George's hand away from whatever was on the table.
Draco steps closer and gasps. His childhood dream was right in front of him.
"Well we asked your mother what you'd want to eat and she said you were never able to have this for some reason... So we made it! We had to ask Blaise himself what he wanted, so he didn't get a surprise but... Surprise!" Molly says happily.
There, sitting in all it's glory was a banoffee pie. He'd never seen one in person since he was twelve and it sat on his father's table, taunting him. He would beg for a piece, but father would never let him have one.
He's surprised his mother had paid enough attention to know that he'd always wanted it.
"Go get a piece, any piece!" Molly urges. He was almost afraid to ruin it's beauty.
He steps up to the plate and grabs the knife. He cuts it perfectly and slides it onto his plate.
As soon as he takes it back to his seat and get comfortable, George, Arthur, and Ron all attack the pie.
He grabs his fork and stabs it into the pie. He shovels the piece into his mouth and nods in approval.
"It's just as good as I imagined!" He says to Harry. Harry grins at him as he takes many more bites of the pie. He doesn't even realize that he abandoned his table manners almost completely.
"How is it, dear?" Molly asks.
Draco quickly wipes his face and swallows the slice. "It's amazing!" He says, which makes Molly perk up.
The Weasley boys make noises in agreement, their mouths full of pie.
He felt as if he was a child again and for once in his life he felt really happy. Not only because of the pie, but also because people had began to talk to him.
George said jokes and he would laugh along with them all while Ron and Hermione continued to playfully argue and Blaise and Neville continued to converse and stare lovingly at each other.
For a while, it felt to him as if he was laughing with his family. What he failed to realize was that this is his family after all and will be until the day he dies.