AN: No beta. Thanks for the positive feedback. There's another note at the bottom.
Draco placed the bracelet he had commissioned into a small velvet pouch. He had written something on the card and then tied it around the owl's leg. He sent the owl on its way. He watched as the owl flew away. He hoped she would like the bracelet. He turned to return to his room when an elf appeared.
"Tibby doesn't want to get in trouble, but the Mistress is in your work room, touching things"
"What things?"
"Tibby doesn't know! Master said not to let anyone in, but Mistress said to let her in"
"Wonderful, Tibby go make something"
"What does Master want?"
"Just leave me alone I have enough to deal with now"
Draco walked to his potions room and found his mother closing the lid on the cauldron.
"Mother" Draco said
"Draco, how nice of you to leave tea early"
"No reason for me to stay. Though what are you doing here?"
"Is there a reason why you're brewing a love potion?"
"Honestly mother, must you be so nosey?"
"I want to know why my son is brewing a love potion, who are you going to use it on? Should I be concerned?"
"I'm not using it on anyone!"
"Then why did you brew it? This is not a pepper up potion Draco!"
"Why do you care? You're ready to sell me off to the next single female that walks by"
"I'm concerned for you. You seem sad, lonely"
"Very observant, and of course I obviously want to have tea with a 12 year old"
"She's not 12! She's only 3 years younger than you"
"She might as well still be 12. She's her younger sister! That's just wrong mother!"
"Why?"
"Because I have no interest in her!"
"But you have an interest in someone, why else would you brew this love potion?"
"You ask too many questions"
"Tell me why, and I won't try to arrange any more afternoon teas and such for a month"
Draco sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair and began to walk around the room.
"When you were here, under house arrest, I left England. I went as far away as I could. I ended up in California. I pretended I was a muggle, swimming in the ocean, walking on the sand, nobody cared who I was there. I felt free. And then I met someone"
"A girl?"
"Yes mother, I met a girl. And for a while we were happy. But she knew I was leaving. She knew and she still stayed with me for some reason. She wasn't even angry when I left."
"Then why the potion?"
"You know Amortentia smells different to different people. It smells like her. It's the only thing I have that reminds me of her, that's why I brewed it"
"Draco, why don't you return to her then?"
"I can't"
"Why? Is she a muggle?!"
"What? No, why does that even matter?"
"I just don't know why you hid this from me"
"You were just released from house arrest, I wanted to be here for you. I was gone for 2 years and I abandoned you. I won't do that again"
"You care a great deal for this girl don't you?"
"It doesn't matter"
Draco lifted the lid off the cauldron. He grabbed the nearby ingredients and threw them in. The scent of her disappeared and he closed the lid.
"Tibby!" Draco yelled
The house elf appeared in front of him.
"Empty the cauldrons and clean them" Draco said as he left
Narcissa watched her son walk off, wondering why he was so closed off.
Draco saw the letter tied to the owl's leg. He untied it and the owl flew off. He opened the letter and saw that it was from Pansy.
Draco,
You're an absolute wanker. Theo and I go to the desert for this insane hippie retreat where these muggles have built an entire city, burned everything, and they had so many drugs I swear I'm not even sure if I'm back home or I'm on another hallucination induced trip but you have the nerve to leave without saying anything? You were raised better than that! And I have to find out from Granger who seems to be floating in and out these days. What the hell Draco? Respond or floo call me. I have sand in every part of my body. Every part.
Your bestest friend,
Pansy
P.S. I think Theo is still alive, but I'm not sure.
Hermione held the seashell to ear, listening to Draco singing. She saw the owl appear at her window. She placed the shell down and opened the window. It flew in and landed gracefully on her table. It looked up at her and stuck it's leg out. Hermione untied the bag from the leg. She looked at the small pouched and opened it. She poured the contents of it into her hand. It was a seashell bracelet with pearls. It was polished and so shiny and bright. The light reflected off it, and she could see the different colors on the walls. She looked at the shells, they looked like the ones she saw at the beach. She looked at the card. She smiled when she saw that it was from Draco. She placed the bracelet on her wrist and placed her other hand on it. She thought of Draco and wondered what he was doing.
Draco was strumming his guitar when he felt it. He put the guitar down and reached into his pocket. The seashell that he didn't use for the bracelet glowed and felt warm in his hand. He had charmed it so that it would glow and warm whenever she thought of him when she wore it.
Draco sat with Daphne and Astoria at the cafe in Diagon alley. Daphne was going crazy trapped in the house. Draco needed to get out of his house, his mother was asking him about this girl he was with in California. Astoria was sent with Daphne to make sure Daphne didn't do anything. The three of them sat there drinking tea.
"Mother doesn't trust me not to run off to Italy" Daphne said
"Because that's what you did last time" Astoria said
"I'm an adult! I don't need her permission"
"Why doesn't she like Blaise?" Draco asked
"He's not rich enough" Daphne said
"Is that all?" Draco said
"She wants me to settle down and get married and pop out babies"
"Blaise doesn't want that?"
"I'm too young for kids Draco! I want to have fun! And with him I have fun"
"Too much fun" Astoria added
"Shut up Tori. You don't know anything"
"I know plenty! I know not to be that stupid to run off to another country without telling anyone! We were worried about you! Our parents thought you were kidnapped! But you were out partying with your boyfriend!"
"That's the most you've ever said in front of me" Draco said
"And you! I don't want to be here with you. I don't want to be married to you! You're old! And I want to have some say on who I marry! And it's definitely not you! You're rude, arrogant, snobby and you're too pale, what are you a vampire?" Astoria said
"Are you done now?" Draco asked
"I hate that I have to babysit you two" Astoria added
"Now that we've established that none of us wants to be here, can we move on?" Draco said
Harry was checking his phone when he saw that Hermione had sent him something. He clicked on it, and it was a video of her with a bunch of people in a small room. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. They were all holding classroom instruments and they started to play. Harry started to laugh out loud when he saw they were singing and playing with these silly instruments. He wiped his eyes when he was finished watching. He saw that the video had a lot of views already. He was going to respond when his eye caught Draco walking down the street.
"Malfoy!" Harry called out
Draco stopped and looked back and saw Harry walking towards him
"Potter" Draco said
"Have you seen this? It's hysterical" Harry said showing him the screen
Draco looked at the screen and watched Hermione, Greg and a few others play these silly instruments and sing.
"What the bloody hell is she doing?" Draco said
"I forget, you don't get it. They're playing this popular muggle song with classroom instruments for children. Bloody brilliant"
Draco reached into his pocket and took out his phone. It was dead, and he had forgotten to charge it.
"No wonder you didn't get it, your phone's dead. Need to charge it?"
"Probably can't until I get home"
"Does electricity work at the manor"
"No, I have a solar charger"
"Do they work well? I can't get electricity to work at Sirius's old place either."
Just then a silvery jack russell terrier appeared before Harry.
"Harry! The bloody beast is trying to scratch out my eyes! It's already torn up my arms! I'm leaving!" Ron's voice yelled
"You want to see Sirius's old place?" Harry asked
"I have nothing else to do today" Draco said
Harry placed his hand on Draco's shoulder and apparated them both. They landed inside 12 Grimmauld place. Harry looked around for Ron who had left. Crookshanks was lounging on the couch looking bored.
"Crookshanks have you been terrorizing Ron again? I thought we agreed not to draw blood things time" Harry said
The cat merely looked at Harry. It got up, stretched and then looked at Draco.
"That's Granger's? This ghastly ginger beast? I can't imagine why she would abandon it" Draco said
"He's a lot smarter than he appears to be. Plus he's half kneazle. He knew that Pettigrew was hiding as a rat."
"Kneazle? They sense deception and untrustworthiness. No wonder it hates Weasley" Draco said
"What? No, he's just cranky that Hermione has been gone this long" Harry said walking into the kitchen, "I think he's hungry again"
Draco looked at the cat who jumped off the couch and walked over to him.
"You're not the only who misses her" Draco said quietly
Crookshanks sniffed Draco, and then began to rub himself onto his pants. Draco looked down and picked up the cat.
"She'll come back for you, eventually. Me, I'm not sure" Draco said
"How did you do that?" Harry asked
Draco looked over at Harry who was holding a box of cat food.
"Do what?"
"He never lets anyone pick him up, except Hermione, and me on occasion, when he's not sitting on my face trying to suffocate me."
Crookshanks looked at Harry indigientaly. He hopped out of Draco's arms and walked into the kitchen.
"He senses that you are trustworthy mostly because you have no romantic interest in Granger. Weasley, he can smell it a mile away. Her familiar does not approve" Draco said
"And what about you? He didn't attack you"
"He knows I mean her no harm"
"Is that all?"
"Isn't that Black Family tree here? Upstairs?" Draco said walking off
"Oh no, you don't get to avoid the question" Harry said following him, "I know you care about her"
Draco didn't respond and kept looking through the rooms for the family tree until he found it. He looked at the massive tree on the walls.
"You're not denying it" Harry said
"I'm not" Draco said
"Alright, so what is it then?"
"What is what?"
"Why are you here while she's there in the states?"
"Why do you care? Aren't you glad that I'm not with her now? Isn't that what you wanted when you stupefied me against the wall?"
"Deflecting the question. So is it her blood status? Is that why you can't be seen with her?"
"I don't care about any of that!"
"Then what is it? You know I'm going to keep asking questions, it's part of my job you know"
"You were right"
"About what?"
"She's the brightest witch of her age. And it's not like her to be seen with me"
"Blimey" Harry said as he almost dropped the box of cat food
Draco's fingers touched his portrait on the tree.
"Don't you have to feed that ginger beast?" Draco said
"And here I thought it was you who thought you were too good for her"
Draco left the room and headed back downstairs. Harry followed him.
"But you think you're not good enough for her. Merlin, you must love her" Harry said
Draco's eyes went wide and he quickly headed for the door. The less Potter know the better. Draco walked down the hallway to the door when he saw Crookshanks standing there blocking him.
"What?" Draco asked
Crookshanks merely meowed and looked at him. He picked up the cat. Crookshanks meowed more and then rubbed his head against Draco's neck.
"Malfoy!" Harry yelled, "Is that the only thing keep you from her?"
Draco rubbed Crookshanks behind the ears and heard it purr against him.
"Potter. If by some miracle, your mother was alive again, wouldn't you want to spend every waking minute with her? Hold onto her to make sure she's real?" Draco asked
Harry paused for a moment.
"You know I would. I would give anything for her to be alive again."
"Then you understand. Your mother's love protected you even in death. My mother is the only thing I have left in the world. And I will never abandon her"
Draco handed the cat over to Harry. It squirmed in his arms.
"I understand, but I think my mother would understand too, if I wanted to go out and live my life. I think she would have wanted to meet Ginny too. Mothers love their children and they want them to be happy."
Draco said nothing. He opened the door and left. Crookshanks meowed as Draco left.
"He really does love her doesn't he?"
Crookshanks patted Harry on the jaw. He often wondered why humans were so slow to catch onto things.
So the classroom instruments thing is from Jimmy Fallon. It's actually pretty funny and amusing to watch them play these songs with those things. Pansy and Theo were at Burning Man, which explains why they weren't around. Sorry for the lack of Dramione, but they will see each other soon. Crookshanks knows what's up. Thanks for reading!