Disclaimer: I don't own, I'm borrowing, well, the characters anyway, not the situation.

God I love writing this again-I should be studying for my exams, but writing is so much more fun. Anyway, chapter 15 now up-this is the longest fic I've ever written, so thanks to all my nice reviewers, it's all for you. I would dedicate chapters, but I wouldn't be able to decide who to dedicate them to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

The Other Way

Draco hadn't withdrawn entirely into himself, I was glad for that, but I guessed he would always withdraw like that around others. He had gone to bed already, leaving me sitting up with a mug of now stone cold tea and a pile of untouched biscuits. Thinking over what he had said earlier, before Charlie and George had come over.

He had never loved Harry, that struck me. When I had known they were going out I had been convinced Draco didn't love Harry. But before today I would have said the only reason he had stuck it to the point he couldn't get out was because he loved Harry. Remembering what Draco had said earlier made my skin crawl.

Just the thought of Harry being like that-he had always been possessive, I had just never paid it much attention. It shouldn't have been surprising to hear just how possessive Harry was, after all, he had grown up with nothing. He'd always been obsessed with anything magical, the invisibility cloak-very possessive, Hedwig… the list went on. So I shouldn't have been surprised that he would obsess and be that possessive over someone like Draco.

I shouldn't have been, but I was.

I sighed, put the biscuits back in the pack, poured my tea down the sink, threw some owl feed into Pig and went to bed. I was exhausted. Tomorrow I would think about everything with a clear head, tonight I was too tired.

I woke the next morning, wondering why there was an absence of bacon smell in the flat. Draco had been cooking every morning so far, I hadn't pressed him as to why, but it was always nice to go into the kitchen and have breakfast ready-made me feel a bit guilty in all honesty that I hadn't stopped him already.

So, the fact that there wasn't any smell of breakfast had me worried. But he had been exhausted, he might have been asleep. I got up, pulled on my robe and went out to the kitchen in search of my daily dose of coffee. To find Draco seated at the table, a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of him, his head in his hands.

"Draco?" I asked. It was today's paper, the brown owl in the cage with Pig told me that.

His head shot up, his eyes frightened before they went back to dull and lifeless. It chilled me to the core.

"Draco…" I pulled the paper across the table so I could read it. Baldwin. That complete ass-what in the hell was this? I read quickly and shock invaded my system. He had interviewed Harry, about his 'illness', about Draco, about how Harry wanted to see him, about my own relationship with Draco before all this-all about how I had disliked him, etc. even that time I'd hit him when Harry told us about them…

I looked at Draco, staring blankly at the tabletop.

"Draco." I said, reaching over.

He flinched away. "Read the end." He said hoarsely, his voice thick with the emotion his face lacked.

I looked back at the paper.

And all our readers will be glad to know that Mr. Potter, the Slayer of the Dark Lord, will be released from st. Mungo's after this weekend, his healers…

There was more after that, but I didn't read it. He was being released in three days. I looked back to Draco, he looked so… there wasn't even a word for it. I shivered. "Draco-I-"

"You won't let him… you won't let him see me? Right? Y.. you …" he trailed off, his eyes were pained suddenly, pleading with me.

It shook me, he was trying so hard to hide his emotions, but they kept spilling out. "No Draco, I won't let him see you if you don't want him to."

"But what if he… what if he comes here? He's your… your…" he looked at me helplessly, whispering, nervous.

He had a point. Harry might come here. "He won't come here, but even if he does, he won't be staying. Draco you are my first priority here, any friendship I once had with Harry does not, and will not change that. Ok-you call the shots on this one."

He looked away, biting his lip. "But he's your friend-it wouldn't be right to-"

"He stopped being my friend the second he started doing what he did to you. He and I just never realised it for too long a time." I cut him off. And strangely I realised it was true. We had stopped being friends, because for me, the last four years was a lie, and I think Harry was still living that lie.

I took the seat opposite him, pulling Percy's glasses out of my pocket and rubbing them thoughtfully on the tabletop. I wasn't really aware of Draco watching me, though I suppose he was. So I was startled when he suddenly said, out of the blue-the first real step towards initiating a conversation.

"Those are your brothers glasses aren't they?" he whispered quietly.

I looked over, very surprised, then at the glasses and smiled slightly. "Yeah." I nodded.

"What happened to him?" he asked, his face hidden by the shadows and his hair, but I knew he was watching me, curious.

"He did a very stupid thing." I said softly, tracing the outline of the frame. "He saved my life."

Okay then. Whatcha think. It's not long I know. But it's all I'm up to at this point. Hey, Draco's getting a little braver isn't he. I wonder what George said to him to inspire such a change? You'll have to stay with me for a while on this, because I know where I want it to go, I'm just not to sure how to get there. Hopefully this won't become a never-ending story.