𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄

Chapter 20

Chapter 20: "Chapter Twenty"

That night, after Draco and Theodore had finished their supper, Draco sat in silence for a long while, staring off into space.

"Are you making up another story?" Theodore asked quietly. Whenever Draco was silent for a long while, it usually meant he was supposing.

"No," Draco sighed. "I am wondering what I should do."

Theodore blinked. "Do?" he repeated, curiously.

Draco sighed again and leaned against one of the cushions on the floor. "I can't help thinking about my friend," he said. "If he wants to keep himself a secret, it would be rude to try and find out who he is. But I do so want to thank him, to let him know how happy he's made me. Anyone who is kind wants to know when people have been made happy. I wish that..."

He trailed off, for he had spotted something on a table in the corner. It was a little writing case fitted with parchment and quills and ink. "Oh," he exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of that before? I can write to him, and the person who comes to take the things away can take the letter away too. I won't ask him anything, and I'm sure he won't mind my thanking him."

So he sat down to write a note, and this is what it said:

'I hope you will not think it is impolite that I should write this note to you when you wish to keep yourself a secret. Please believe that it is not my intent to be at all impolite to you when you have done so much for me. I only want to thank you for being so kind to me, and for making everything like a fairy story. I am so grateful, and so is Theodore; everything is just as wonderful and beautiful to him as it is to me. We used to be so lonely and cold and hungry, and now...oh, just think what you have done for us. Let me please just say this, because I feel I ought to: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The boy in the attic.'

The next morning, he left this letter on the table, and in the evening, it had been taken away with the other things, so he knew his friend had received it, and he was happier for the thought. He was just reading one of his new books to Theodore before they went to bed when a soft scrabbling sound on the roof caught their attention.

"Something's up there," Theodore breathed.

"Yes," Draco agreed, rising slowly and moving over to the window. But then a huge grin split his face and he swung the window open. "It is the monkey," he announced. The poor creature was huddled outside in the nighttime spring frost. "He has crept out of the lascar's attic, and he must have seen the light."

He put his hand out delicately, crooning to the creature quietly in Hindi, and slowly, the monkey made its way across the shingles and into the room. He knew as soon as Draco had touched him that he would find no harm here. He had felt love in the hands of Ram Dass, and he felt it here, in Draco's gentle touch. He curled up to Draco's chest, taking friendly hold of a lock of Draco's hair that had come free from its ribbon.

"There, now," Draco murmured softly. "You're safe now." Theodore watched in amused curiosity as Draco carried the little, clinging animal across to the fire and sat down, letting him warm himself.

"He is rather plain-looking," Theodore said thoughtfully.

"He looks like a rather ugly baby," Draco agreed. "No offense, monkey. But I am glad you are not a baby. Even your mother could not be proud of you if you were, and no one would dare to say you looked like any of your relations."

He leaned back in his chair and watched the monkey for a moment. "Perhaps he's sorry he's so ugly," he said thoughtfully, "and that's always on his mind. Monkey, have you a mind?"