Chapter Eleven
It was around four o'clock when Draco arrived at the address Harry had sent him. It was an ordinary apartment complex, the building slightly worn with age and the grounds rather scruffy. After asking for directions from a security guard, he made his way down the path until he arrived at the correct apartment number. He stood there at the front door, his fingers at the buzzer, poised to press the buttons, but he hesitated.
Was he nervous? Yes. Was he going to regret coming? Fuck yes. But at the same time, there was a little thrill in his heart, a minuscule flicker of excitement… and despite himself, Draco had to admit that a part of him was looking forward to seeing Harry again.
He rang the buzzer. There was a crackle from the speaker, and the doors before him unlocked. Taking a deep breath, Draco crossed the threshold and made his way into the lift.
He stepped off on the fifteenth floor, turning to the suite 1501. He was ready to knock, but even before his fist brushed the wood, the door swung open and he found himself face-to-face with Cedric.
"Hey Draco! Good to see you!" Cedric beamed as he welcomed him. "Come in, come in. Slippers?"
"Sure, thanks," Draco said, entering the room. After he replaced his shoes with a pair of white slippers, he straightened up and took a quick glance around. It was a small two-bedroom apartment, the walls a cheerful shade of pale yellow, and simply furnished. Despite its modesty, there was something incredibly welcome about this place, the curtains thrown open to let in the sun, and for a moment, Draco relaxed, feeling as if he wasn't stepping into an MI6 meeting place but rather into a friend's home.
Then, his gaze fell onto the group of people seated around the dining table beside the kitchen, all of them glowering at him and positively radiating hostility, and whatever comfort he felt earlier vanished immediately.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!" Cedric said cheerfully. He gestured at Draco to take a seat, but Draco hesitated. Cedric was at the head of the table, and Cho at the end. Harry and Parvati sat on one side, and the only seat that remained empty was the one beside Dean.
Draco sat down stiffly. Cho's expression was carefully neutral, but she scowled at the sound of his chair scraping against the floor. Once again, Parvati had her arms crossed and was glaring daggers at him, her face twisted with hatred, but Dean… Draco glanced over for a moment and wished he hadn't. Dean was positively squirming in discomfort at being so close to him, and after hearing a mutter that sounded suspiciously like, "fuck this shit," Dean stood up and hurried to the opposite side, dragging another chair over to sit beside his friends and leaving Draco there alone.
Well, this was awkward. The atmosphere in the room was tense to begin with, but after that, the tension increased even more. Draco forced himself to shrug nonchalantly. It was really quite hurtful of Dean to show his uneasiness so obviously, but honestly, it was fine. It wasn't as if Draco cared, anyway. However, through it all, Harry watched in silence, the frown on his face growing deeper and deeper…
Then, Harry stood up. And this time, it wasn't only Draco that looked up in surprise as he left his seat, rounded the table, and very purposefully sat down next to him, arms crossed and chin lifted, those green eyes daring his friends to criticize.
Cho gaped in shock, but closed her mouth quickly and looked away. Dean flushed, perhaps from shame or anger. Parvati looked outraged, as if Harry had just killed his comrades in arms and defected to the dark side. And Draco… Harry didn't have to. Honestly, Draco was used to being alone and shouldering criticism by himself, and he would have been fine. He's been through worse than sitting alone in a meeting. But yet, Harry choosing to sit next to him despite the shitload of disbelief sure to come afterwards… it was such a small, stupid thing, but all Draco could feel was a rush of gratitude and affection for the man beside him.
"Cho, did you make these?" Harry asked. There was a plate of mung bean cakes in the center of the table and he reached for one, taking a bite. "It's really good!"
"Thanks!" Cho replied, a flicker of pride entering her voice. Then, she scowled and gestured at the stove in the kitchen beside them. "The stove broke just as I was about to make it, but thankfully, Cedric got it fixed just in time."
"Glad my degree in engineering didn't go to waste." Cedric winked at her, and Cho blushed in delight. "Those cakes taste even better with green tea. Do you want some?"
With that, the tension was broken. Cho and Cedric passed around mugs and a pot of fragrant tea, and everyone reached for a cake. Draco took a small bite of his. Even though he tried his best to keep his face in impassivity, his eyes widened as he tasted the dessert. It was heavenly.
"What do you think, Draco?" Cedric asked.
"I've been in Shanghai for years, but this is the best I've tasted." Draco answered honestly. After a moment, he asked, "Wait. Is this an MI6 safe house? Or is it…?"
"Oh, yeah," Cedric rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Like the office, the safe houses are also surveilled, so we'll be meeting in me and Cho's apartment. Harry and I, we'll let you know when to meet, but the location will always be here for the foreseeable future, unless if things change, of course. Would you be alright with that?"
"Of course." Draco replied. That certainly explained why the apartment seemed so welcoming and comfortable. Cedric was like a ray of sunshine. Wherever he went, happiness were sure to follow.
"Great!" Cedric beamed. Seeing that the snacks had been devoured, he clapped his hands. "Alright, now that we're all a little more at ease with each other, let's get back to business. After looking into Lee's leads, we started planning our next course of action, especially involving Theodore Nott."
Draco tilted his head. "Why Nott?"
"Nott will be arriving in Shanghai for a business trip next Tuesday, leaving from St. Petersburg, which happens to be where Bellatrix Lestrange is based. We suspect that he might be coming on her orders, and it would be good to pay him a visit just to see what he's up to…"
Draco nodded slowly. He hesitated, wondering if he perhaps shouldn't say what was on his mind, but since the MI6 dragged him back in, needing his advice and influence so badly, he might as well be honest with them. "I'm afraid to tell you that the chances of Nott working with Lestrange is quite low."
Cedric frowned. "How so?"
"Nott Senior and his family certainly run a very successful arms trade, but among the Death Eaters, he's not the most popular. People try to avoid working with him as much as possible because of his… eccentricities." Draco said haltingly. His father had made his disgust for the man evident, and even if a fragment of what he said was true, it was already more than enough to make Draco never want to meet him in his entire life. "I doubt that Theodore Nott is like his father, but the family name is tainted, and I don't think that enough time has passed for any Death Eater to start working with him yet, much less someone as high-ranking as Bellatrix Lestrange."
"Really?" Parvati's sneer cut through the room. Draco glanced at her warily. "Nott's arms trade is clearly thriving. Why would anyone not want to work with him?"
"You might think that everyone in the underworld are savages and brutes, but some of us do have morals." Draco responded dryly. "If you knew what Nott did-"
"Morals?" Parvati shrieked. Draco was honestly astonished that Parvati hadn't ripped his throat out from the moment he stepped into the room, but this was the final straw, and the pent-up anger she must have been suppressing came flooding out. She turned on him, blazing with fury, and didn't even wait for him to finish his explanation. "How dare you claim to have morals? Do you consider holding a gun to a child's head moral? Do you consider killing children moral?"
"Parvati!" Cedric thundered. "We agreed not to bring up what happened-"
"How dare you claim to be righteous when people are still suffering because of your actions!" Parvati yelled. Disgust crept into her voice. "God, just looking at you sitting here looking so innocent just makes me sick. I have never been so fucking revolted in my life!"
She paused to catch her breath, the room still ringing from the sound of her outburst. Cedric looked agonized at how quickly everything spiraled out of control, but Harry, Dean, and Cho looked stunned, still clearly processing the sudden emotional eruption.
Draco closed his eyes. He might have forgiven himself for his crimes and found peace in his soul, leaving his past and building a new life, but that didn't stop the guilt he had placed aside for so many years from slamming into him just as painfully as the day everything went to hell, and he deserved it. Every moment of it. Parvati had every right to be angry with him, and the least he could do was to bear it.
"He never said that he was righteous or innocent." Harry's voice cut through the silence. Draco opened his eyes in surprise. Parvati glared at Harry, but before she could speak, Harry cut her off. "We've been through a lot. Everyone in Hogwarts the day of the Fallout has been through a lot. But we need to remember that Draco's been through just as much, if not even more shit than the rest of us. Now, he's here helping us, voluntarily, to take down the Dragon Killer so that something like that won't happen again. The least we could do is to listen to his insight without getting angry, right?"
In the past, whenever Harry spoke in his defense, he had always sounded so pained, as if he was sacrificing a part of his soul in the process or something. This time, every word he spoke was calm and reasonable, looking so natural, standing up for Draco like how he'd do so for Weasley or Granger. Despite himself, Draco glanced over, half expecting to see tension on his features or disgust hidden in those green eyes, but there were none. Harry was sincere in every word he spoke.
For a moment, Draco wondered if he was stuck in a surreal dream induced by the sheer amount of stress he's been experiencing lately. Usually, it would be Harry not wanting to sit next to him and leaving the seat beside him empty, and it would be Harry getting pissed off at every word he said and turning every conversation into a shouting match. But this time… Harry taking a seat next to him? Harry defending him out of his own free will? Draco pinched himself, hard, and didn't know what to feel when he realized it wasn't a dream but reality.
"I can't believe you." Parvati hissed at Harry. Without another word, she grabbed her bag and stormed from the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
"Thank you, Harry," Cedric said in relief. The exhaustion on his features were undeniable. Harry nodded in response. "Draco, I'm so sorry for Parvati's behavior. That was unacceptable…"
"Don't worry about it." Draco said. He tried to smile, hoping to look reassuring. Seeing that Draco wasn't upset, Cedric relaxed a little more.
"Thank you so much as well, Draco, for your insight." Cedric continued, but hesitated. slightly "I trust in you that it is unlikely for Nott to be working with Lestrange, but since he's here… I think we should still pay him a visit just in case. Since I have my hands full with another lead, Harry will be in charge of this one. Draco, would it be possible for you to schedule us a meeting with Nott?"
"Of course." Draco replied. "I'll get to that immediately."
"Thank you." Cedric smiled gratefully.
With that, the meeting was over. After saying their goodbyes, Dean, Harry, and Draco made their way downstairs. The moment they stepped from the lift, Dean waved a hasty farewell at Harry and disappeared into a taxi. Harry and Draco stood there for a moment at the front of the building, watching the car vanish down the path.
"How are you going home?" Harry asked.
"Metro, probably." Draco answered. "There's a station a ten-minute walk away. How about you?"
"Taxi. But I'll walk you to the metro first."
"You don't have to worry about me." Draco was surprised. "If you're busy, you can head home first. I'm good with walking alone."
"No, no," Harry shook his head, laughing. "I've been sitting around all day. I need the walk, anyway."
"Alright, then."
It was rather cold outside, the breeze stirring the browning leaves scattered about the sidewalk. Draco pulled his jacket tighter around himself and tucked his hands into his pockets. He glanced at Harry. The wind made his tousled hair even more unruly, the autumn chill sending a flush of color across his cheekbones which contrasted beautifully with those vivid green eyes, and Draco forced himself to look away.
"Thank you for helping me out today." Draco said quietly. "But you didn't have to. Don't feel obligated to defend me. I'm used to this. I'm alright with handling it on my own."
"Are you kidding me?" Harry exclaimed, turning to him. Draco stumbled, taken aback by his intensity. "Parvati was out of line today, and nobody should be alright with being called out like that! I'm not defending you because I feel forced to. I'm doing it because I want to. Nobody should be forced to deal with this type of shit alone. I understand that Parvati is still upset about a lot of things, but she should at least have the decency to be civil about it and not insult you so openly."
Oh. Draco suddenly felt his face warm. Why was his face so warm? It was freezing! But why was his face so warm?
Harry then paused. "Well. Shit. I'm such a hypocrite. I'm just saying these words here like the stupid righteous hero I am, but forgetting that I'm usually the one pissing you off and making you feel like crap…"
"Fuck, I know, right?" Draco blurted. Was it out of nervousness? Or relief? He had no idea. He didn't even know what he was saying anymore. "Harry Potter, defending me? I swear, I spent half the meeting wondering if I was in some sort of stress-induced hallucination or something."
Harry burst out laughing, and Draco found himself joining in. The street rang with the sound of their laughter, and for a moment, they were just two friends having a good time.
"Truly." Draco sobered as they neared the station, but the smile still lingered on his face as he glanced over. "Thank you, Harry, for standing up for me today. I really appreciate it."
"No problem." Harry replied easily. He reached over. Before Draco could take a step back, Harry's hand had already moved away. That was when he realized that his collar was crooked, and Harry had just straightened it out.
"I… I suppose I should get going." Draco said, gesturing towards the station, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward.
"Yeah, uh, I suppose you should." Harry ran a hand through his hair, glancing to the side. Was it just him, or did Harry also look slightly flushed?
"I'll see you at Nott's meeting. I'll get that scheduled as soon as I can."
"Yeah, sounds good! See you!"
With that, Draco hurried into the station, swiped his card, scrambled into a train, and carried on with his day. But it wasn't until he arrived at his first bar to check up on when his heart finally stopped racing, and it wasn't until he stumbled home after work when his smile finally began to fade. And through it all, the old fears and warnings of not trusting Harry and the MI6 didn't show up at all.