"Good morning, Draco," Harry said as usual when he set up in bed. He rubbed his eyes, looking like a sleepy child and not the sixteen year old. Draco just glanced at him, though Harry was pleased to see that for once he wasn't doing that "I'm going to kill you" glare he always did in the morning.
It didn't look like he was going to say anything though. Harry knew better than to believe one day of opening up would make them into the best of friends. Draco was still Draco, but he was coming around. At least Harry hoped so.
Groaning, Draco pulled his blankets back over his head. "Don't talk to me so early in the morning," he said, sounding like a spoiled child.
The brunette snickered, before looking at the clock. "Yikes is it that early?" Harry cursed, before burying himself under his pillow. "I swear it's a crime to wake this early on a Sunday."
The morning bells always woke everyone up, but never this early. "Why did they go off earlier today?" Harry mumbled. It had been three weeks since he had been at Hogwarts, this was the first Sunday the bells had gone off at such an ungodly hour.
"You talk too much," Draco complained. "I'm sleeping, go entertain yourself somewhere or something."
Draco sounded a lot more moodier than he had when Harry first heard him talk this morning. Harry wondered if he had hit a sore spot or something about asking why the bell went off early. How unusual; why would that make Draco angry? Sure, Draco never needed much reason to become a brat.
"Tut... you do that," Harry said. He got up and decided he might as well get ready for the day, early or not. He was slightly surprised when moments later, Draco was up too and getting ready, though Harry stayed silent about it. Weird.
"Hi, Harry!" Ernie said too loudly, making the brunette cringe. It was way too early to yell like that. Harry saw that his other housemates were giving Ernie annoyed looks as well. Theodore looked as if he wanted to clock the boy. Harry waved at Ernie; he hadn't got the chance to get to know anyone except for Draco these last few weeks, which was strange because of the way Draco treated him most of the time.
"Hey," Harry muttered. He raised his eyebrow when Draco walked into the common room, noticing the blonde was dressed in his finest clothes. Actually... Harry noticed everyone was dressed in their finest clothes.
"Why are you dressed up, MacMillan?" Harry asked.
Ernie rolled his eyes, "parent visitation day, what a drag."
'Oh,' was all Harry could think.
Walking over to Draco, Harry nudged his shoulder lightly. Draco looked up at him and blinked, before scowling. He looked more depressed than angry though.
"What?" Draco snapped. He didn't seem as harsh as he had before he and Harry went out together and had that bonding moment with the horse.
"Let's go get something to eat, Draco." With a smile, Harry nodded toward the common room exit. "We should raid the kitchens," Harry joked. "I heard the staff love to fatten us up. Come on," Harry tugged on Draco's arm, missing the shocked glances the other boys were giving them when Draco didn't bite his head off.
"Why are all the kitchen staff so short?" Harry asked, grinning across the table at Draco. He never judged anyone of course, he just found it odd the staff was shorter than most of the students.
Draco shrugged. He was barely picking at his food, looking very nauseous at the idea of eating. After thirty minutes of this, Harry had enough. He sighed and reached across the table, startling the blonde when he touched his hand.
"Listen Draco, if you want to talk, you know, I can listen. I know I talk a lot, but I'm also good at listening," the brunette shrugged, blushing, a little embarrassed by how mushy he sounded.
"You might have noticed I don't exactly like to talk," Draco half groaned. He ducked his head, refusing to look at Harry. What was it about him that made him almost want to open up? The horse riding incident shook Draco. Why was Harry so nice? What did he have to gain by being so nice?
For once, Harry remained quiet and let the blonde continue.
"It's..." Draco sighed, slamming a hand down on the table. "I can't talk about it, Harry! I'd love to be normal, but that will never happen. I'd love to... I'd love many things. I'd love my mum back, even my dad, no matter how mean he was. I'd love to push Aunt Bella down the stairs, but that won't happen, either. I'd love it if you'd just leave me alone!"
"I can't, damn it!" Harry screamed. He got to his feet and despite being so angry and depressed by the way Draco was acting, he pulled him gently up to his feet, even if he felt like shaking the blonde a little. He understood that Draco was depressed and that he missed his parents, but the way Draco was acting was too much.
"Don't you understand that I can't?" Harry asked softly. He held Draco at arm's length. The blonde gave him a pained, and confused look.
"Why?" Draco asked, his voice cracked.
"I don't know," Harry answered. "I really don't know. You give me every reason to want nothing to do with you, Draco, but instead, I want to . . . make things right. I just don't know how to!"
Pulling away from Harry, Draco slowly started to back away from him. It was lucky for them that they were alone in the dining room, though right at that tense moment another bell rang and a bunch of students started to pour into the room, chattering and joking about silly things that most normal teenage boys talked about.
Harry watched as Draco rubbed his red rimmed eyes and then the blonde turned and ran out of the room. Harry felt as if someone had just reached into his chest and squeezed his heart; he couldn't breathe.
'Draco . . . why won't you let someone comfort you? Why won't you let me protect . . . you?' Harry was a little confused with the way he was feeling, though all he knew was that he cared about the blonde and right now he felt his heart was on the ground, shattered beneath Draco's shoe.
"I'm very sorry, Harry," Dumbledore said to the brunette softly. He glanced over his spectacles at the teenager before looking back down at the report he was working on. He had called Harry into his office before the guardians were to arrive.
"I invited your parents for family day, of course, though because of the short notice, they had to turn down the invite."
Harry nodded. He figured it would be this way. His parents wouldn't be able to afford such a sudden visit; it was a wonder how they managed to send him to the school, though Harry was aware that his mum had managed to get him a couple of scholarships to help pay his tuition.
"I figured they wouldn't come. It's fine. I just saw them three weeks ago anyway," Harry laughed.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled before he cleared his throat and got a serious look on his face.
"It's always dreadful to come to these family visits when one of the students is . . . well lacking a proper loving guardian." Dumbledore knew he was gossiping again, but he felt he had to for Harry's sake.
"I shouldn't be telling you this, of course," Dumbledore went on.
The brunette just nodded, knowing that Dumbledore would anyway.
"His aunt had to be invited, you can understand why? No getting around that, no matter how she treats Draco."
"She's coming then?" Harry asked. He stood up and started to pace around. "Draco has been acting all agitated today. I can understand why, I mean if he's an orphan, but if this aunt who he hates comes . . . I can't imagine . . ."
Harry sighed, clenching his fists at his side.
"Aye," Dumbledore nodded. "I am aware of his feelings toward her, but there is no way I can stop her from coming. She is his legal guardian, after all."
"So, she is coming?" Harry demanded. "Can't you take back the invite? Draco is depressed enough as it is. You should see him when we're alone . . ." Harry trailed off, flushed slightly. He didn't want to talk to Dumbledore about the weird way he felt around Draco.
The aging man stood up and sighed. "Believe me I would stop her if I had the grounds to."
With a sinking feeling in his gut, Harry left Dumbledore's office. It was still early Sunday, though the guardians and family members were due before lunchtime.
'If they aren't coming until lunch, why did the bell have to wake us up so early?' Harry rolled his eyes and then thought about more important things.
He dreaded Draco's reaction if his aunt did show up and the way Draco was acting, Harry bet that the blonde knew she would be here.
Looking around as he and Draco entered the auditorium where the families were meeting the students, Harry tried to find this so called aunt of Draco's. Draco looked around as well, before shaking his head, seeming half relieved that his aunt wasn't there yet, but for some reason, he seemed a little upset that she wasn't there as well.
"There's Ron and the twins," Harry pointed out. "Wow, I've never seen so many redheads in one place before."
Draco rolled his eyes; he didn't care too much for Ron or his brothers. Even so, they walked up to the sea of redheads and introduced themselves politely.
Harry and Draco sat down, talking quietly about this and that, while Ron and the twins visited their family; every so often they included Harry and Draco in their conversation. Harry wondered if it was because they felt sorry for them for not having a family there.
Raising an eyebrow, Harry chuckled when Ron's younger sister, Ginny started to pester Ron. It was obvious that the girl had missed her brother, and looked up to him, even if Ron thought of her as a nuisance.
"Oww, mum!" Ron yelled, "tell Ginny to get off my back!" Ron struggled to get away from Ginny as she over enthusiastically jumped on his back and started to squeeze the life out of him. The twins started to laugh, annoying Ron even more when they followed Ginny's example and started to grab their younger brother in mock excited hugs.
"My dear Ronald," Fred cried, "so smashing to see you again!"
"So very damn wonderful," George agreed, teasing Ron.
"Ron Ron," Ginny cried, the only one being serious, "I missed you."
"Don't kiss me! Mum! Get them off of me!"
Harry watched the family reunion with an amused look on his face, trying to forget that sitting next to him was a sulking blonde. Every two seconds Draco looked at the clock and then sighed, the process repeated over and over again. So far his aunt hadn't shown up, though most of the other families had already arrived.
"Boys, stop teasing your brother, George language, Ginny stop kissing him," Ron's mother said. She looked frazzled, and no wonder, she had her hands full. Not only was Ron's mother, Molly visiting, and his father, Arthur, but it seemed Ron and the twins not only had a sister, but three more older brothers, all of who were being a little more behaved while they watched the twins and Ginny embarrass Ron to the point of tears.
Ron put his hands up in the air when another one of his many brothers approached him, his eyes terrified. "Percy if you dare think of kissing me I will kill you!"
The stuffy looking redhead grimaced. "How vulgar Ronald."
Ginny giggled.
Harry felt her eyes on him and was suddenly confused when she started to blush and quickly looked away.
Draco snorted, before looking at the clock again. "This is so stupid," he muttered darkly. He stood up and roughly grabbed Harry by the arm, pulling him toward the exit. Confused, Harry let him pull him, even more confused when he smirked at Ginny, before pushing him out the exit.
"Sure Draco, I would love to take a walk with you," Harry joked, hoping to get rid of some of the tension. What was wrong with Draco and why was he practically holding his hand?
"Hello, you home?" Harry tried again when Draco didn't even acknowledge him. He was just walking in a random direction, pulling Harry along for the ride.
"Draco?" Harry stopped moving, making the blonde jerk to a stop. Draco was shaking; this made Harry's stomach twist up in worry.
"I'm going out on a limb here and assume you want to talk now?" Harry said. "Are you . . . okay?"
"It's her," Draco snapped, though he wasn't snapping at Harry for once, he just seemed to be angry at his aunt.
"She sent me this formal letter saying that she would be here to see how I was handling my new living arrangement. Like she even cares! And she's late!" Draco growled.
"It's not fair Harry. All those families . . . so sickeningly lovey-dovey and I'm . . . just sitting there waiting for her and she doesn't even love me."
Harry's mouth dropped open; he hadn't expected Draco to open that much. To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. "Draco, I can't pretend to understand how you feel, but if there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it. Tell me what I can do."
"Murder is illegal," Draco said with a smirk. He sighed, before running a hand through his hair. He seemed calmer suddenly.
Harry was shocked by how fast Draco seemed to be cheering up. The brunette wondered if his words had done the trick. For some reason knowing that made him feel happy to the point of tickling feelings swirling around in his stomach.
"She can't be that bad," Harry said, nudging Draco's shoulder with his own.
"You haven't met her, Harry. She's dreadful, honestly."
"But you're upset that she's late?" Harry questioned.
"Well, it's the principle of the thing, you know? The fact that she's my only family and she doesn't care. I don't want her here, yet . . part of me wishes . . ." Draco looked down at his feet.
"Yeah, I know," Harry whispered, "Come on, let's go explore the forbidden forest."
With a smirk, Draco nodded, "It's forbidden for a reason, Harry."
"I'm not scared of bears or snakes and whatever makes it forbidden. Come on, live a little!" Harry tugged on Draco's arm, pulling him toward the exit that led toward the forest. "I promise I will keep your humanness a secret."
Draco groaned, "that's so lame. At least think of a better word."
"Well you have to admit the students compare you to a snapping turtle, cute, but when someone gets too close, you bite."
The blonde flushed brightly, though Harry had no idea why until he realized what he had said.
"Shut up, Harry."