Invisible

Bitter Tears And Realization

Nothing strange happened the following night, no bang or crash, no lumbering sound. Draco Malfoy had gone back to being nasty, sneering at Harry whenever he saw him, but Harry never replied.

 

“Ugh, I really want to hit that guy”, Ron muttered. Harry remained silent. He was busy thinking. When they finally arrived in the Great Hall for lunch, he made up his mind.

 

“Ron.” Ron shut up and looked toward him, arching an eyebrow.

 

“Yeah, Harry”, he asked, curiously.

 

“Two nights ago, I heard this weird sound. It sounded kind of like...” Harry looked around the room at all of the people chattering before tapping his knuckles against the surface of the table and dragging them.

 

“Eh..?”

 

“You were asleep”, Harry went on to explain. “But, I heard it, I swear. And when I went out to explore...” He looked toward Draco who wasn’t paying attention to him at this current point in time. He wondered briefly if he should tell Ron he saw Draco. For some reason, he didn’t.

 

“There was nothing there.”

 

“Maybe it was a dream, Harry”, Ron replied after an awkward moment of silence and began reaching over for food. Harry fell silent as he watched Ron shove Yorkshire pudding in his mouth.

 

“Yeah, maybe...” But, Draco had heard it too. Ron must have seen the uncertain look on Harry’s face because he stopped eating for a moment.

 

“Look, Harry, I’m sure everything’s cool. Yeah?”

 

“Yeah...you’re right.”

 

Later that same day, Harry had zoned out, walking through the hall when his body slammed into something. The thing he ran into let out a squeak and he felt it fall over. Snapping back to reality, Harry looked down at a furious Draco, who strangely enough, was alone.

 

“Draco?”

 

“Potter! Oh! You barbarian! You lumbering imbecile! Why don’t you watch where you are going”, Draco Malfoy screamed like a girl who had just gotten tea spilled down her dress. Harry stood, stunned for a moment. Was...Draco crying?

 

“Er...Malfoy...”

 

“What?!”

 

“Are you...um...are you crying?” Draco looked horrified, looking away from him and scampering to his feet.

 

“No...no of course I’m not, Potter. If anyone was crying it’d be you.” Harry frowned slightly, but not because Draco was trying poorly to insult him. He didn’t know why, but he stepped closer.

 

“Hey...what happened?”

 

“Nothing! Ugh, English, Potter, do you speak it?! I told you, alright?! Nothing happened!”

 

“Draco, you’re crying.”

 

“...look, it’s nothing, why don’t you-you-”

 

“Run off and tell everyone that big bad Draco Malfoy is crying like a baby in a corridor alone?”

 

“...Christmas time is coming around”, Draco said hastily and Harry fell silent, nodding.

 

“Yeah, it is.”

 

“No-but...My dad’s quite busy and...he sent me an owl.” Draco averted his eyes as though he was ashamed.

 

“Yeah”, Harry pressed on, staring toward the boy’s pale, tear streaked face.

 

“He requested that I stay here, at Hogwarts”, Draco replied shortly. Harry blinked a bit, somewhat shocked.

 

“That’s why you’re crying? Haven’t you stayed before?”

 

“You don’t understand, Potter! See, I knew you would laugh!”

 

“I-I’m not laughing, Malfoy.”

 

“Yes, to answer your absurd question, I have stayed back before...but...I really looked forward to going home this time...” Harry pressed his lips together firmly and continued watching Draco.

 

“...” He wondered what it was like to be in his shoes, to have a home you actually wanted to go back to, because he didn’t. Harry had met Draco’s dad and he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to stay with someone so awful, but then it dawned on him. Draco had been raised with that horrible man. Draco was a horrible child, but his father was worse. Draco never had anyone else. That’s who he was used to. That’s who he called dad. That’s who he loved.

 

And, Harry was somewhat thankful he didn’t have that.

But...what if he did?