Chapter Eight

"Draco? Draco, you should probably wake up now. I'm gonna start making lunch in a minute."

Draco opened his eyes sleepily, trying to figure out where he was, and why he wasn't in his bed. Then it all came flooding back to him. He flushed a little as he realised he'd fallen asleep on Dudley's sofa. Sitting up, he watched as Dudley bustled around the room, opening the curtains and neatly making his bed. Apparently Dudley didn't find this really weird, so maybe there was no reason for him to either. After all, they were just friends who had stayed up late chatting and ended up falling asleep.

But for Draco that was weird. He'd never done that before, and had thought of it as quite a girly thing to do, not to mention a dangerous one. Your guard was lower late at night, when you were sleepy, and you could end up saying things you wouldn't normally.

A tapping at the window interrupted his thoughts, and Dudley opened it to let in a small owl. As Draco watched in surprise, he removed a scroll from the owl's leg, then grabbed a couple of treats from a packet by his bed to feed it.

"Who writes to you by owl?" he blurted out, then realised that might have sounded a bit rude, "I mean, I just didn't think you'd … well you know."

To his astonishment, Dudley went a little pink.

"It's just a girl who was staying at the safe house with me," he said shyly, "She's a witch, but she was one of the few not to judge me straight away when she heard how I'd treated Harry. She's … well I guess she's the main reason I ended up learning so much about the Wizarding World. She taught me a lot and we … we ended up getting pretty close. We can't really see each other very much at the moment, for various reasons, but we write to each other every couple of days."

It was funny to see Dudley so shy about a girl, and kind of sweet. It occurred to Draco that he ought to disapprove of a relationship between a witch and a muggle, and he noted with faint surprise that he didn't believe in that anymore. He wasn't sure when his beliefs had changed. Sometime in the last year, he supposed, while trying desperately not to get himself killed. And then meeting Dudley, and discovering how very similar the two of them were, had cemented that change.

Dudley was now sitting on the bed, reading the letter avidly. He let out a little chuckle at something he read, and Draco felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted somebody like that, who could make him laugh without even having to be there in person, whose letters he could await eagerly, and who would do the same for his. Someone who wouldn't judge him.

But that was too much to ask for. He didn't deserve to be that lucky.

"I'm going to get changed," he said shortly, leaving the room. His mood had changed abruptly. He and Dudley were nothing alike, not really. Perhaps they'd been quite similar, up until sixth year. But then he'd become a Death Eater, which was far worse than a bit of petty bullying. And Dudley had clearly changed enough that a witch would fall in love with him. Draco wasn't sure he could ever change that much.

Some rational part of him tried to tell him that he was drawing far too many conclusions from a simple letter, but he staunchly ignored that part and proceeded to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

Dudley seemed unfazed as always by his rudeness and sudden mood changes. It was quite annoying, really. How could Dudley remain so unfalteringly cheerful regardless of how Draco behaved towards him? Perhaps it was simply because Draco's opinion and friendship didn't actually matter to him at all. He had the girl from the letters; why shouldn't he be cheerful?

Refusing to be drawn in by Dudley's rather infectious cheerfulness, Draco ate his lunch sullenly and replied in monosyllables to any attempts at starting a conversation. He knew he should stop pushing away the only person who was willing to be friends with him right now, but as he thought about it, he realised Dudley probably didn't even want to be friends with him. What was it he had said to Harry yesterday? Something about being stuck in the house, so he had to be friends with Draco, because he had nobody else to choose from.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to be a last resort. Dudley could spend all day writing letters to girls for all Draco cared. He certainly wasn't going to complain. He was perfectly happy with his own company.

That rational little voice made a brief return, pointing out that he hadn't had a single nightmare last night, and that he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept as deeply or for as long as he had in Dudley's room.

Draco sent it packing so quickly he was sure it wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

Dudley noticed Draco's strange mood, and couldn't help but be a little hurt by it. He'd shared so much with Draco last night, had left himself open for rejection, and had been very relieved to see complete acceptance in Draco's eyes. And yet now Draco was withdrawing again, pushing him away.

An insecure part of him suggested that perhaps he'd been imagining the acceptance, and that Draco was pushing him away because he didn't want to be friends after hearing what he'd done in the past.

But he ignored that part. He'd gained a lot of experience of reading people over the last year, and all his experience was telling him that Draco's strange attitude had more to do with Draco's past than with Dudley's. So he didn't react to Draco's behaviour, trying to show him that he wouldn't be pushed away so easily. It would take more than mood swings to bother him. He would be Draco's friend if it killed him.

It hadn't escaped his attention that Draco had slept peacefully last night, and that this was not normal for him. After discovering the silencing charm that Harry had placed on Draco's room, Dudley had taken to checking in on Draco at some point every night. Most of the time he just checked, not doing anything to help, but if the screaming was particularly bad he would drop a tiny amount of Dreamless Sleep Potion into Draco's mouth. Not enough to have any dramatic effect, but enough to calm Draco down a little.

As far as he knew, Draco was unaware that he did this, and Dudley preferred to keep it that way. Draco was clearly a proud person, and wouldn't take kindly to being treated like a child or an invalid.

But the one thing he had learned from his nightly check-ups was that Draco never slept through an entire night without nightmares. Never. And yet he had when he'd slept in Dudley's room.

This didn't surprise Dudley. He'd met several people who'd needed only to know that they weren't alone in order to sleep peacefully. The presence of another person in the room, someone they trusted, could help in a way no amount of potion ever would.

But Dudley could hardly invite Draco to sleep in his room every night. That was an invitation that would definitely be taken the wrong way, and that Draco would doubtless be too proud to accept.

He supposed he'd just have to let the situation be for a while, and hope that it became a little clearer sometime in the future. It was hard though. He hated to feel helpless. Hard work didn't scare him, nor did starting what seemed like an impossible task. But sitting back and doing nothing when somebody was in pain: that was difficult.