Summery: Draco decides to stay away from Harry for their last year at Hogwarts. But being separated from him finally makes Draco realize how much he cares for the depressed Gryffindor.
Disclaimer: As much as I would love too, I do not own anything that has been previously mentioned in The Harry Potter Books, which is very unfortunate for me.
The Tale of a Dragon
Ch6: Good Things Come In Small Packages.
Glad that he had managed to tame his sense of smell and his hearing, at the moment the proud Slytherin didn't have much to worry about, but was finding to hard to sleep at night and was having mood swings. He had compared his emotional unbalance to that of a pregnant woman's on more than one occasion.
The grounds were damp and slightly frosty as Draco sat in the Quidditch stands hidden in the shadows as the Gryffindor team practiced their moves. He had just sent Alzar off into the sunrise to the Malfoy Manor. Draco hated to admit it, but Ron was a good captain and the Slytherin team would have trouble competing with them. Apparently Harry had turned down the title and suggested Ron, not because of his talents on the field (that much was obvious), but because of his strategies, fascination of the sport and surprising leadership skills.
Draco found himself watching Harry as he hovered around the top of the other players. He still had his robe up in his dorm and Harry only had a too-small hand knitted sweater over his school shirt. As the wind whipped his black hair around he strained his eyes to find the snitch, occasionally brushing his hair out of his eyes. When students started filing out of the castle the team banished their brooms to their dorms with a flick of their wand.
It was a Hogsmeade weekend and was also the week before and the first Quiddtch match of the year, and exactly eight days before the full moon.
Harry walked with Ron and Hermione, but wasn't involved in the conversation. There were a few people in between them and Draco, but if he let his hearing go a bit he could just hear what they were saying clearly. Most of it was boring.
Draco looked forward to buying lots of stuff from as many shops as he could get too, and that's just what he did.
With his pockets bulging full of shrunken objects, he sat down at a table in the three broomsticks with a blood-flavoured lollypop in his mouth (he had taken a liking to them). He propped a borrowed book up on a jug of something he assumed was water and read a few lines. It was records of every breach of the underage use of magic law, and he was skimming through it for the name Tom Riddle.
When the door opened Draco would have normally looked up to see who it was, but instead he just let go of his hearing and smell again, and was able to tell who it was. A gingery smell hit him and he looked up; it was Hermione. She looked around quickly before walking over to where he was sitting.
"Hi Draco. How are you"
"Can't complain. You"
"Yeah I'm Ok." Draco raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to one side. "Actually, I'm a bit worried."
"About" He edged her on.
"About Harry." Draco's heart started beating a little faster and he tried (and failed) to slow it down.
"Why, What's wrong with him" Just to sound like he didn't care too much, he added"Does he miss his little puppy dog"
Hermione shot him a look "You know, you could try to be a bit nicer, he is going through a tough time, not just because of Sirius. Plus, I think he's getting a cold."
When she said this, Draco started feeling guilty. He was probably getting sick because he hadn't been able to give his robe back. "You know, Hermione, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you liked him a bit more then a friend."
" I have no idea how you managed to get that. I'm going out with Ron. Harry's just a friend. And you know, Draco, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were gay."
Draco raised both his eyebrows and scoffed, but his uncertainty must have shown in his eyes, because Hermione raised her eyebrow. "You are aren't you" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I-I think I am." 'I stuttered. Why did I stutter?'
"It's ok if you are." She smiled. "You don't have to be nervous." Draco blushed slightly. "Now I know a gay guy, that's you by the way, a lesbian and a bisexual."
Draco knew who the lesbian was, but not the bisexual. "Who's the bi"
"Oh, it's Harry. I only found out this morning" Draco suppressed the urge to jump up on the table and shout for joy.
"Really"
"Oh yeah. Why"
"No reason."
"You like him, don't you"
"HELL NO" 'Hell yes.' Several heads turned in their direction.
"That's the second time I've seen you blush. It's really funny." She looked at her watch. "There's half an hour before we have to go back to the school, I've got to go find Ron and Harry. They're probably not in the same lace. They're fighting. Anyway, I'll see you at the Prefects meeting tomorrow." With a wave she stood up and left, leaving Draco to feel lonely.
He got up and followed her out, deciding that he would go into the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes shop that had taken over Zonkos. Fred owned this one and George owned the one in Diagon Ally, though sometimes they swapped or closed one when the other got too busy.
At the moment they were both in Hogsmead, trying to stop the flood of students. Draco was able to slip around with out being seen and scan the shelves. He bought some Skiving Snackboxes and planed to use them to get out of his 'initiation' into the Death Eaters, it was a long-shot that they'd work, but anything was worth a try. He had threatened a little kid who had wandered off from his parents to buy them for him. After all, Draco couldn't be seen buying anything from a shop run by a Weasley.
He walked out of the shop and saw that all the students were heading towards the exit. When he got there, the teachers had already started leading everyone along the dirt road to the castle.
Once again, Draco chose to walk near Harry, who had separated from Hermione and Ron who were holding hands and arguing quietly about something. Harry stayed silent for the entire walk, apart from the occasional sniff and clearing of his throat
Harry woke in the evening with a sore throat and a runny nose. He groaned as he sat up and realized that he had forgotten to take his glasses off and to close the curtains around his bed when he had fallen asleep after the Hogsmead trip. Luckily no one was in the dorms.
He coughed a few times, it sounded horrible and hurt his throat even more. Leaning back on his pillow he reached for a glass of water on the bedside table. Instead of grabbing the glass, his hand rested on lumpy parcel.
"What…" he said hoarsely. He winced at the sound of his voice.
The parcel was wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with muggle string. 'Odd.' He thought, as he pulled it over. Inside was his robe, cleaned and neatly pressed, but on top of it was a box of tissues and a note.
Harry,
I heard you aren't felling well this today so I thought you might need these. I had the robe cleaned so you don't have to worry about that. Take my advice and stay in bed, it'll do you the world of good.
Don't bother asking me why I'm being nice to you, I just am; I probably wouldn't give you an answer if you asked me anyway.
Hope you get better soon,
Draco.
There was a quick sketch of an utterly adorable little ferret on the bottom left hand side of the parchment, and Harry chuckled at it, but it quickly turned into a cough.
"Harry, You ok" Ron walked out of the bathroom with his hair sopping wet and his shirt half untucked. With a wave of his wand, Ron's dried his hair. "That's a pretty nasty cough you've got there."
Harry glared at Ron.
"What, you're being nice to me now? I don't need your help. I'm fi-fi-fA-CHOO"
"Bless you" Ron said emotionlessly. He grabbed his robe roughly and stalked out, sending a slight glance in Harry's direction as he closed the door.
Harry stood up and put his robe on over his pyjamas and fell backwards onto the bed, feeling more miserable then before. He sneezed again and reached for a tissue out of the box Draco had given him. After rereading the note a few more times he decided to write one back.
Draco,
Thanks for the robe and the tissues, it was really thoughtful of you, kind of surprising really. I was planning on staying in bed anyway; I haven't got enough energy to do much.
How did you know I wasn't well? Lately Ron and I have been fighting and Hermione's been spending a lot of time with him so I've been rather lonely and I don't think either would notice if I wasn't well. I'm going to be even lonelier now I've got this bloody cold… I suppose that's why I'm writing to you.
I was planning on staying in bed anyway; I haven't got enough energy to do much.
Anyway I'm sure you're getting bored with listening to me complain. Sorry about my rambling.
Enjoy your health,
Harry
P.S. Nice sketch. Very cute.
Luckily the school owl had stuck around, so Harry could send it to Draco straight away. He hoped Draco would get the hint that he wanted company. For some reason he wanted to see him, maybe it was because he wanted to straighten out that night when he found Draco crying and bleeding. Surely that was it.
After Harry had sent the owl, he didn't have long to wait. At first he thought Draco had sent the note back, but then (after a sharp bite from the owl) he realized it was on the back.
Keep your chin up. Be there soon. Bringing soup.
Obviously he got the hint. Harry started fidgeting with his blankets. What if people saw him walk through the Common Room? How was he going to get the password?
Ten minutes and six tissues later Draco carefully opened the door to the Gryffindor boys dormitories and tip toed in, followed closely by a house elf carrying a tray with a bowl of chicken soup balancing on top of it.
The house elf put the bowl on the bedside table and gave a small bow before leaving.
Harry opened his eyes and looked into Draco's, which were definitely not grey.
"I didn't think you'd actually come."
Draco sat on an angle on the bed.
"I didn't think you'd actually ask me… How do you feel"
"Like hit. Were you seen"
"No. All they saw was the house elf that was carrying the soup." 'And a small white ferret.' Draco smiled at the thought. He had accepted the fact that he was a ferret now, though it still worried him slightly.
Harry sat up and gave a cough that caused Draco to wince. As Harry ate the soup Draco found a more comfortable position on the bed. He decided to sit next to Harry, with his back supported by the headboard.
When the soup was gone there was a long silence, broken occasionally by a sneeze or a cough. When Draco spoke, Harry jumped
"What are you and Ron fighting about anyway"
"Just stuff."
Pause
"A-CHOO"
"Bless you."
"Thanks"
Another Pause
"What stuff"
"Look…" Harry sighed. "I don't want to talk about it. Ok"
"Yeah sure, I won't push you if you don't want to tell me."
"… I'm Bisexual. When I told him, he went all… Weird. He's so insensitive. He knows I've been having trouble coping without Sirius and I didn't need him to go and make it worse. I suppose it's ok he's not talking to me. At least he doesn't ask me if I'm 'Ok' every five minutes. They just don't understand that I don't want to talk to them about it."
After this outburst Harry went into a coughing fit and Draco placed one hand on Harry's chest as he bent over, while his other hand rubbed his back.
"Sorry to just explode like that." Harry croaked"I'm just really annoyed with them, that's all."
"And by them, do you mean Ron and Hermione? I could picture The Weasel doing that, but not Hermione. I had a talk with her at Hogsmeade and she seemed genuinely concerned about you. Not bothered by your sexuality at all."
"Really"
"Yeah." Draco replied softly as Harry yawned. " I think you should lie down and get some rest." Harry made a noise of disagreement in the back of his throat, but complied. Draco closed the curtains and slid down under the blankets. Harry was already asleep and snoring quite contently. He rolled over and instinctively cuddled into Draco. This was not a problem for the blonde until Harry nuzzled his head into the crook of Draco's neck.
Draco tensed as he felt Harry do this, but his discomfort was forgotten when he realized Harry was shivering. He took his glasses off for him and put them on the bedside table before wrapping his arms around the black-haired boy and going into a blissful sleep.
