Coming to a stop at Malfoy's side, Harry sits down beside him, places a hand on his shoulder, and uses a name he has never said before, "Draco."
The blond looks up at him tears glistening from his stormy blue, almost grey eyes, "What?" Draco snaps trying to put some of the usual callousness behind his voice, to cover the shakiness from crying.
"Are you alright?" Harry asks softly ignoring Draco's harsh tone, he's been in this position many times and knows where it is coming from. Nobody ever want to be caught crying.
Seeing the softness in Harry's eyes, something snaps in Draco, causing him to drop his head back onto his arms and let out another strangled string of sobs.
Harry shifts so he can pull the blond to his shoulder, rubbing his back softly letting him cry out what ever is bothering him.
Draco's sobs start to fade in the night, but he is still shaking curled into Harry's side. Gradually he raises his head to look at Harry, "He never says he loves me. I know it's not the most important thing to be crying over, but it still hurts. Seventeen years and never once has he said he loves me, but he wants me to follow his path. I don't want to; I don't want to follow someone who doesn't love me." Draco starts shaking again as Harry is rubbing his back, trying to soothe the pain.
Harry knows what it is like not to hear those words. He lived with people who hated him just because of what he is. It's not something he could change, nor would he if he could. He may be a pawn, but a pawn is better then the life he would be living with his relatives.
Draco is slowly calming, the shaking ceases, his breathing starts to regulate, but never does his head leave Harry's shoulder where it has come to rest. "Why can he not love me? I've done nothing but be the perfect son, good grades, a prefect, Quidditch captain," rising to look at Harry, "why doesn't he love me?" Draco pleaded with Harry through sparkling eyelashes for an answer.
Harry sat quietly listening to Draco poor his deepest hurt to him, thinking to himself, 'we really aren't that different, maybe if this was the Draco I met I would have taken his hand.'
Both boys sat quietly by the tree, watching the moonbeams bounce off the glassy surface of the lake, lost in their thoughts, but not breaking the contact between them. Something changed in them tonight, both knew it was for the better, but not knowing what was to come from it.