"Can you manage the night alone?", I wanted to know when I realised that it was already quite late and I was tired.
He nodded slightly.
"I think so."
"You still have the emergency button. Go ahead and use it.
I'll be here within five minutes if you need me."
"Sleep well", I said even as I was about to walk out of the room.
"Thank you, Daisy."
The use of my first name was so abrupt and unexpected that I didn't know how to respond.
So I just let it go as if it hadn't happened at all.
I closed the door, pulled my hood back over my head and quietly disappeared from the Slytherin rooms, undetected.
«Thank you, Daisy », just the thought of his warm and loving words gave me goosebumps.
I reacted quite strongly to words and touches from him, only I didn't know the reason, not yet.
Min didn't ask where I had been and I was quite grateful to her for that.
I dropped into bed exhausted and went straight to sleep, still in my school uniform, only I had taken off my cloak earlier.
I woke up as a deafening beep entered my ears.
Malfoy
I slipped on the first shoes I could find and ran.
Possibly the front door slammed louder than I had intended but it didn't matter.
Malfoy needed help. He was unstable and therefore every second counted.
I stood at his door, rushed and breathing heavily.
I took a deep breath, prepared myself for the worst and pushed down the handle.
It wasn't as dark as I had expected. Malfoy's bedside lamp was on and by the light it gave off I could see that he was sitting on his bed with his legs pulled to his body.
As I moved closer to him I could see that he was shaking.
I put a hand on his arm and stroked it gently.
"It's all right", I whispered. "It was just a dream. I'm here now."
"I...can't...do...this", he brought out stuttering, tears gathering in his eyes.
"I'm here now, after all, it's all right. You just have calm down for now. Breathe in... breathe out."
I did as I said and he followed my lead.
We breathed together a few times until he had calmed down to some extent.
"I can't do this", he whispered and I could hear that he was still close to tears.
"Do you want me to stay here?", I suggested.
My presence had helped him before, so this suggestion was not far-fetched.
He shook his head.
He pulled his hand from under the blanket, revealing the shard he was holding.
It was only on his hand, it hadn't hurt him yet but the emphasis was clearly on yet.
It was because of this room, everything here reminded him of his breakdown.
But what was the alternative?
Was it enough if he slept in the common room for a few nights?
Or maybe in the Room of Requirement?
That sounded like a good idea, the room would adapt to his needs, he could certainly sleep there.
"It's your room, right?"
He nodded quickly.
"You could sleep in the Room of Requirement", I voiced my previous thought.
"Can't I come to your place?", he asked quietly.
"My place?"
I was surprised by the suggestion, I hadn't even thought about him sleeping at my place. It was definitely not the best solution but for one night it would work.
Besides, I was pretty tired and sleeping in my own bed would be best for me.
"Okay."
I slid out of bed and held my hand out to him.
"Let's go then, I'm really tired and you could use some sleep too."
He grabbed my hand and didn't let go even as he stood.
"Do you need anything else?"
He shook his head and now I could see his pyjamas too.
Well they weren't really pyjamas. It was a white t-shirt and his boxer shorts.
That said a lot about his condition that he hadn't thrown himself back into one of his hideous silk pyjamas.
"No pants?", I asked with a smirk and when he looked down at himself I could have sworn he was blushing slightly.
He grabbed his wand from the bedside table and let a pair of sweatpants from his wardrobe fly onto his arm.
Walking around the castle in just a t-shirt and pants with a Malfoy would have been a pretty bad idea.
I was very grateful for the sweatpants he was now wearing although I hadn't expected him to own such clothes.
He never struck me as the type to wear such things.
He reached for my hand again and this time I was the one who flinched under his touch, but I didn't let go.
Silently we walked through the empty and dead silent corridors of the castle.
When we stood in front of Min's flat I stopped.
"We have to be quiet.
The bathroom is just to the left if you need to go to the bathroom again.
I'll leave the light on in my room and the door open a crack so you'll find your way.
Okay?"
He nodded his understanding and I pushed down the handle.
The flat lay silent, Min asleep, thankfully.
Malfoy disappeared into the bathroom on the left and I scurried into my room.
I kicked the clothes that were on the floor under my bed.
After all, he didn't need to see that I wasn't as tidy as he was.
I was just magically enlarging my bedspread when the door slammed shut behind me.
Malfoy was standing in my room, looking around.
"This will look the same in the morning, now let's get some sleep."
I yawned demonstratively and turned out the light.
I climbed onto my bed and gestured for him to lie on my left side.
"It was your suggestion. I won't let you sleep on the floor and I'm certainly not giving my bed away."
Indecisively, he looked at me.
"It's not as big as yours but there's plenty of room. We've slept in the same bed before, this shouldn't be anything new to you."
He sighed but then crawled into bed.
The blanket was big enough for both of us but now that I thought about it, I probably should have split it instead of making it bigger.
At Malfoy's we had had separate blankets, this now felt much more intimate than I had planned.
"Will you hold me?", Malfoy whispered softly beside me.
It was a strange request but I knew what strange needs one had when one was in such bad shape.
And closeness actually wasn't that strange, just strange that he wanted me close.
But I wanted to help him, so I slid a little closer to him and put my arm across his stomach.
"Sleep well", I whispered.
There was no more answer from him and I also fell asleep surprisingly quickly and didn't wake up again the whole night.
I was woken by Min calling my name.
"Daisy!"
Slowly I woke up.
Something was different than usual.
I was lying in my bed, that was normal but I wasn't alone.
Malfoy! Of course, I had let him sleep here tonight.
All of a sudden I was wide awake and sitting upright in bed.
Malfoy next to me must have been asleep too because he grumbled annoyed and pulled the covers over his head.
There was a knock on the door.
Shit, if she comes in now I'll get in huge trouble.
"I'm awake", I shouted quickly, almost falling out of bed and rushing to the door.
The handle was pushed down and I stopped her from opening the door more than a small crack, through which I was now peering.
"If you stay in bed any longer you'll miss breakfast."
She looked serious.
It was only breakfast, it wasn't that bad.
Sleeping in would definitely have been preferable.
"I'm up, thanks."
"I just wanted to make sure.
I'll be in the office if you're looking for me."
So as usual, you didn't had to wake me up for that.
I stifled a roll of my eyes.
"Okay", I said kindly instead, smiling at her.
"Have fun today, sweetie."
"Thanks", I said confused and closed the door between us.
She had pretty good laughs, otherwise she never wished me a good time.
Well she is allowed to have good days too.
"Sweetie?", Malfoy asked from my bed, who had now decided not to sleep any further after all.
"Don't ask, I don't know why."
I shrugged.
"Is she your grandma?"
"What?! No! Where did you get that idea?!"
"You live with her instead of the other Hufflepuffs and she called you sweetie.
I think that's enough circumstantial evidence for such an assumption."
"No, she's my godmother", I confessed to him.
What other choice did I have? He wouldn't have believed anything else anyway.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you dare tell anyone", I glowered at him.
"People love you anyway, it wouldn't change anything.
Besides, you clearly have more on me. I'd be stupid to tell anyone."
"People don't love me", I snorted and went to my wardrobe to get some clothes for the day.
Now that I was awake I might as well go to breakfast.
"Yes they do."
This was a discussion I didn't want to start because sooner or later I would say something I didn't want or should say, so I left it at that and changed the subject.
"How did you sleep?"
"I slept. That's more than usual."
I looked at him questioningly.
"I slept restfully", he added.
He didn't ask me how I had slept, but that didn't matter.
"Breakfast?", I asked instead.
"With these clothes on? Certainly not."
I sighed.
"That's the problem?
You'd rather starve yourself because you don't want people to see you in sleeping clothes?"
He nodded.
This guy was a real handful.
There wouldn't be enough time for him to go down to the dungeons to change and then have breakfast.
I put my things to one side and combed through my wardrobe.
I wore all kinds of clothes and that included suit trousers.
I found one in black and with a little magic it would fit him.
At the very back of the wardrobe I found a black buttondown that didn't belong to me.
It had belonged to my dad and I had wanted to keep it because Mum had always said how smart he looked in it.
It was a very emotional piece but incredibly chic.
A shame it had languished in my wardrobe for so long.
Seeing Malfoy wearing it would certainly be strange but I thought of my mum and how happy she would be that someone was wearing it again.
So I held both out to him.
"We need to lengthen the legs and widen the waistband of the trousers but the shirt should fit."
"You wear clothes like this?", he asked with wide eyes as he accepted them.
I just nodded.
"I'll go to the bathroom, you can change here."
When I got back to my room, Malfoy was standing there ready dressed and the shirt looked amazing on him.
It wasn't too tight, not too loose, just lay perfectly against his torso.
"Your parents in the pictures?", he asked pointing to the picture frames that were on my desk.
Damn, I hadn't thought of that.
I quickly turned the frames over.
There were pictures of me and my parents but also some of Grandpa and Grandma when they were younger.
Malfoy would have been able to recognise them, I couldn't very well have explained that.
"Come on, let's go get breakfast."
I pulled him by the arm out of my room and out into the corridors towards the Great Hall.
At some point he stopped abruptly.
I turned and looked at him questioningly.
"I'll wait a minute.
We shouldn't both come in at the same time. Once is a coincidence, twice is not."
I knew he was uncomfortable being seen with me, so I just nodded and left him in the hallway.
"There you are at last", my best friend greeted me as I sat down at the table with him and Hannah.
"Overslept a bit", I said, yawning to make my statement seem more believable.
"See", Hannah lightly punched him in the arm.
"You had nothing to worry about."
Embarrassed, he scratched the back of his neck and blushed.
"So, what's the plan for today?", I changed the subject.
I had promised them yesterday that I would do something with them.
"Hogsmeade", Hannah said quickly before Neville could say anything.
I would have preferred a relaxed day in the library but well, I was glad they wanted me there so I wouldn't complain.
Malfoy came into the hall and my attention was directly on him.
I had actually been a little worried that he wouldn't eat breakfast but that worry was probably not justified.
"First time he's come to dinner since Valentine's Day", Hannah remarked as she followed my gaze.
I hadn't given it a second thought and hadn't paid much attention to whether he was at dinner on Thursday night and Friday but she seemed to have noticed.
"Must be weird sitting at the table with your ex-fiancée."
I'm sure it will, I thought, hopefully he'll manage.
But instead of sitting in his normal seat, he went to the end of the table and sat there, alone.
I was unsure if sitting alone was good but certainly better than sitting with Astoria.
My stomach growled and I finally turned my attention to my breakfast.
It was a very British day, raining steadily and the wind swept across the expanse of the Scottish Highlands.
Not even with a rain jacket was I able to get to Hogsmeade dry, it was raining so hard.
Being a witch did have its advantages, especially when it came to drying spells.
"I guess most people don't dare to walk through the rain", Hannah laughed when we finally arrived in the dry.
Unlike usual, the Boar's Head was actually quite empty, only a few students had strayed in.
I couldn't blame them, if it wasn't for Neville and Hannah's sake I would have stayed in the castle too.
But now we were here and I had made a decision.
This morning when I had seen the picture of my parents, my decision had been made.
I had been silent about my parents for far too long.
I would not say who they were but I would tell them that they were dead and how I felt about Min.
That's not all there was to the truth, but it was a pretty big step for me.
We sat at a table for some time, chatting and drinking butterbeer or in my case hot chocolate, until I took heart and came clean.
"I haven't always been completely honest with you", I began carefully and they both looked at me questioningly.
Before either of them could say anything, I continued because I just had the courage to say it and an interruption could ruin everything. I took a deep breath.
"I am an orphan.
My parents died when I was four years old.
I never told you because it's not as bad as it sounds.
I hardly know it any other way and I still had a nice childhood.
You, on the other hand, had to go through a war.
I felt I had no right to get your pity for something like that, when you had to go through so much worse."
I paused for a moment and looked at two pitiful faces.
Neville stood up, came over to me and took me in his arms.
"Oh Daisy. Of course you could have told us.
No matter what we've been through, you have the same right to pity."
Now Hannah came over too and gave me a hug.
"That's not all", I said quietly as we still hugged us.
"Professor McGonnagal is my godmother, that's why I don't live in the Hufflepuff rooms. I live with her."
"Seriously?!"
Neville seemed to find this information significantly more interesting than the last.
I just nodded.
"What's she like in private?"
That was the first question he had?
"Like in class", I said confused.
"Oh man, I'm sorry about that."
"It's not that bad."
He laughed.
"That's why you never showed us where you lived."
Again I nodded.
"Please don't tell anyone.
Afterwards they'll think she favours me or be afraid I'll tell on them for every little thing."
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us."
Hannah patted me on the shoulder affirmatively.
The subject quickly changed again and I wondered why I hadn't told them about it much earlier.
And their reaction paved the way for me to allow the thought of telling them everything, eventually.
It was a really nice afternoon and it felt good just to spend time with the two of them.
We chatted so well that I hardly gave a thought to Malfoy.
But that changed abruptly when we were back in the castle and just on our way to the Great Hall.
Malfoy walked up to us with his ever arrogant expression and stopped in front of us, blocking our path.
"Harper."
He looked straight at me. "We need to talk."
"What do you want Malfoy?!", Neville hissed at him from the side.
"To talk to her, Longbottom. You got something wrong with your ears or something?"
I rolled my eyes.
A Gryffindor and a Slytherin, that always caused problems.
"She doesn't want to talk to you though!", he decided for me, as if I couldn't speak for myself.
I hate it when people do that.
"I can speak for myself Neville. And I want to talk to Malfoy.
It's about Potions, it's important."
I scowled at my best friend to make him feel bad.
After all, he didn't need to know that it wasn't about Potions at all.
Neville sparkled angrily at Malfoy.
"She tells me everything. If you so much as say a bad word to her, I'll..."
"You'll kill him", I added quickly to speed things up.
"I'll see you at dinner in a minute."
I pushed past Neville who still had Hannah by the hand.
Neville looked at Malfoy with contempt for a moment but then turned away and walked down the corridor with Hannah.
When the two were out of sight, Malfoy pulled me by the arm into the nearest empty classroom.
"Come with me," he said quietly.
As if I have a choice.
He closed the door behind us but didn't see the need to put a muffliato over the door.
"Are you all right?", I asked, now that we were finally alone and I was really worried about him intercepting me with my friends.
He didn't usually do that, so it had to be important.
"It's bearable", he answered my question but that only raised more questions.
"I'm sleeping in my room again tonight."
My eyes widened.
"That's great!"
Without thinking about it, I hugged him. Realising my mistake, I quickly backed away.
"Sorry" I murmured softly.
"You can still use the emergency button if something comes up."
"I modified it."
Now I looked at him, confused.
He pulled something out of his pocket.
Only now did I notice that he had changed and was no longer wearing my clothes.
"Give me your hand", he demanded and I held it out to him willingly.
He placed the silver necklace he had given me on my palm and then looked at me expectantly.
"Press your thumb on the pendant for three seconds."
At first I looked at him questioningly but I had nothing to lose and I still wanted to know what all this had to do with his emergency button.
I did as I was told.
Nothing happened, at least nothing that I noticed.
Malfoy played with a silver ring on his finger and finally pulled it off.
"It works on both sides now.
The chain and the ring are the respective counterparts.
If you need help you press your thumb on the pendant and my ring warms up. The inside shows me your exact position.
It works the same way with my ring, your chain gets warm and the back shows where to find me."
I looked at him with wide eyes still far too perplexed to speak.
This was genius.
"But you'd have to take the necklace back for that."
I nodded in agreement and put the necklace back around my neck.
Feeling the cold metal on my neck again felt good.
"How did you do that?", I asked when I finally regained my speech.
"I won't tell you my tricks but let me tell you this, it wasn't easy."
"Idiot", I laughed, rolling my eyes.
"But that's pretty ingenious."
He didn't reply anything to this compliment, maybe it was better that way because I could vividly imagine his arrogant comment.
"May I see the ring?", I asked curiously.
He handed me the ring he was still holding so I could have a closer look.
It was a wide silver Ring. It looked plain, much like my necklace you wouldn't guess it was anything more than a piece of jewellery.
I turned the ring in my fingers until I felt something on the top.
There were small engraved dots, for the uninformed in random positions but I recognised directly what they represented.
"The constellation of the Dragon", I said more to myself than to Malfoy, stroking my fingers over it again.
"If your necklace indirectly has your name on it, then it's only fair that my ring does the same."
Sometimes I forgot that Malfoy wasn't even his real name and had to smirk.
"Why Draco?"
I had never thought about it but Draco wasn't the most normal name and pureblood wizarding families often had a habit of giving their children very fancy names.
He looked at me questioningly, as if he hadn't understood my question.
"Do dragons have a special meaning in your family or did your parents just think the name was beautiful?", I elaborated on my question.
"I think they liked the idea that I could be strong and powerful, like a dragon", he explained with a shrug.
"That makes sense.
My mom loved flowers, so it was obvious that I would be named after a flower."
"You could have done a lot worse", he laughed and I would have liked to know what name he meant but he quickly changed the subject.
"You should get back to Longbottom, not that he'll worry or worse, kill me."
The sarcastic tone of his voice told me he didn't believe Neville's threat.
If he wasn't even wrong about that, Neville might have been sweet and kind but he could be completely different.
"We wouldn't want that", I laughed and disappeared through the door into the corridors of the castle.
