On coming back to the lounge room, Draco found that it was no longer pristine. In fact, he'd been on raids with Death Eaters and some of the houses had been left in better condition than this. Theo was leaning against the mantelpiece, casually swinging the fireplace poker with his fingertips. Draco knew Nott as well as most people knew their siblings; everything about him was screaming that he'd made a resolution on something and that all that was left was to achieve it. He was not the type to make resolutions, but Draco had never seen him fail in one once he'd decided upon it.

Trying not to wince, Draco raised his shoulders and let them drop. "So," he said.

"You're to tell her that you won't see her again." Theo's words were clipped; and more markedly angry than Draco had ever heard him.

Taking a breath, Draco shook his head. "I can't," he said, not letting his voice tremble as it so badly wanted to.

When Theo's brows rose, Draco tried frantically to assemble some form of logical game-plan in his head. He hadn't expected to have to so soon, but going up against Nott when he was determined required more than hope or luck. He was worried, but Nott had always given in to him before. Just so long as he gave him a good enough reason.

"It's nothing serious." He was pleased that his tone came out with the right amount of casual indifference. "We're just…"

"I don't want an explanation. I want a vow that this will end."

"I told you, I can't give you that."

Shrugging his narrow shoulders casually, Nott looked down at the poker he was holding. "I'll go to Parkinson then," he said mildly.

"No!" When the resolve did not melt from Nott's face, Draco resorted to begging. "Nott, no. Look, Bones is going through a really hard time right now…"

"As delighted as I am to hear that; I'm afraid I must insist on the vow."

Draco switched straight to negotiation. He was good with negotiation; mostly because he could annoy people into compliance. "Give me a month. Just one. If a month doesn't…"

"No." It was only then that Draco realised that the usually malleable Nott was implacable about this. "I get the vow from you here and now, or I go and fetch Parkinson and we'll extract the vow from Bones. I warn you, should it come to that, I will be considerably less pleasant about the whole thing."

The last time Nott had made a statement like that, he had followed it up by tearing a Death Eater to pieces; managing the task with what had seemed like ease even through a complicated protection spell. It was the only kill Nott had made through the war, and had left Draco with screaming nightmares of misty sprays of blood and bone. He wondered whether Nott had chosen those words and that phrasing because he had wanted to forcibly remind Draco that he had only ever killed to save him. Probably. No matter that Nott was as loyal as a Hufflepuff and as brave as a Gryffindor; he was also as Slytherin as a Slytherin. He knew how to plot and manipulate and win with the best of them.

"I love her," said Draco. He wasn't above emotional manipulation himself and, though he'd chosen his words with almost callous care, they came out raw and vulnerable and more honest than he was comfortable with. He swallowed and looked away.

"I don't give a damn."

That startled Draco into looking at him.

He was standing as he had been before, leaning gently against the mantelpiece; but his shoulders were tense and his eyes were hard and furiously cold. "If you're planning on choosing her, tell me now so I can let the others know."

"Choose? Nott, this isn't like that. I'm not dumping my friends for her…"

"If you take her back, we'll dump you." It wasn't a threat, it was a promise. Draco swallowed again. He wouldn't lose Parkinson, Crabbe or Goyle over this. The others, maybe. Probably. It didn't matter, because Nott would stand by his word and losing Nott was too much.

"Please, Nott. Trust me on this?"

Theo's composure shattered. "Like I did last time?" he almost yelled, hurling the poker at Draco. Draco knew Nott better than to flinch; and he was right, the poker sailed harmlessly past him. It missed by a mile. "We all knew what she was! Hufflepuffs are inherently weak. And I trusted you to keep your distance. You failed all of us."

"Theo…"

"How can you choose her?" Nott's voice was torn ragged. Even when he had killed that Death Eater so long ago, he had not been as distraught as this. "What has she ever done to deserve you?" He was quiet and not demonstrative and Draco was used to reading between the lines with him; so he heard the unspoken feelings as well as the spoken ones. He was asking why he wasn't enough, when he had betrayed the only family he had left for Draco. Why Pansy wasn't enough, when she had actually joined his side and fought through the war without so much as flinching in the line of fire. Why he would fail them all again for someone who had not sacrificed anything for him.

"Bones isn't weak," said Draco.

"She was strong enough to drag you down." Nott turned away and swore violently. He never swore. His father had been old enough to be his grandfather, and although he'd been a Death Eater, he had also been refined. Abnormally polite. The manners had rubbed off on his son. "Can't you see what she's doing? You're a Slytherin, you're meant to be able to see when someone's manipulating you."

"She's not manipulating me."

"She can't stand the sight of you during the war, and now that it's over and you're an upstanding member of society, she's visiting as though everything's fine?"

"We're trying to…"

"Malfoy." Nott was speaking quietly again, but the tone of his voice made Draco break off. There was violence in his voice still, but it was tempered with fear; and Draco knew that it was fear for him. "My father is dead because you had to take that girl's side. Your father is dead because you would not let her alone. Is she back now to try and spy on your friends, figure out if they're Death Eaters?"

"No."

"And you're sure about that?" Draco could tell that Nott had already made his mind up on the matter. "Because you know what happened last time you trusted her…"

It wasn't panic that made him give in and tell the truth finally. Nott had sacrificed as much as Draco had for the war and he had never even liked Bones. He deserved to know the truth. And Draco couldn't stand hearing that shattered, hopeless note in his voice; like the world had fallen apart all over again. "She can't remember me." He'd always expected that if he had to say those terrible words his voice would break trying to get them out. It didn't however, hardening instead until it was full of frost.

A look of confusion crossed Nott's features. "What?" Draco took a breath, but Nott held up a hand, a frown settling across his face as the words sunk in. "Gods, Malfoy. What have you done?"

Draco laughed hollowly. "You're not to tell Parkinson," he said flatly. "She's not to find out until I fix things. Bones is…Bones is going mad I think."

"You…were trying to protect her?" Nott's tone was cautiously neutral, but he was holding himself stiffly as he always did when he found something distasteful.

Draco laughed again shortly, the sound acridly bitter even to his own ears. He ran a hand through his hair. "I would never cut her mind apart. Not even to protect her."

For a long moment Nott didn't speak, and Draco thought that perhaps, in his quiet Nott way, he was letting the matter go. And then he asked, "Do you expect me to keep guessing?"

Shaking his head, Draco said, "I guess not. Did you want to sit in the kitchen?"

He was grateful that Nott didn't protest. He didn't think that his legs would hold him up much longer.