𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 31

Draco only felt slightly self conscious as he sat in the Gryffindor common room with Harry and the others as they all worked on their class assignments for the next day. The blonde had been going to head to his rooms after supper, but Harry had dragged him to the tower. He had to admit, he was pleased with the way the others seemed to accept him, especially after his boyfriends embarrassing tirade this morning at breakfast.

Currently he was sitting in a very comfortable sofa with the dark haired Gryffindor beside him, Hermione was curled up on a chair, taking notes from a large book on herbology. Ron had gone up to the boy's dorm to retrieve another quill from his room, as he had chewed through the one he had been using earlier.

Harry had yet to talk to Dumbledore about Lucius' release so had done his best to keep Draco away from any paper. He was actually glad that the Slytherin's weren't speaking to the blonde as he was sure one of them would have told him. He looked over at his boyfriend and gave a soft smile. He hated the idea of him cooped up in his rooms all alone, even if Harry did regularly visit him so they could practice their wandless magic. He figured it would do Draco good to be around others as the blonde, he realized, was a fairly social person, even though he'd deny it vehemently.

Harry was also very grateful to his house mates for accepting Draco and their relationship so readily. He never would have thought that they would have stuck up for the two of them like they had. The whole incident from this morning left him feeling warm inside as he remembered how his fellows had stood by him.

"Hey, we got a letter from my dad," Ron called out as he came down the stairs, waving the white envelope his owl had brought him through his dorm window. It had Ron's name on it as well as Harry's and Hermione's. The red-head plopped down in the empty space on the sofa beside Draco and opened the letter.

"Well, what does it say?" Hermione questioned.

Draco's face drained of color as he leaned over curiously and read the letter Ron had in his hands. "They released him?" he questioned waveringly.

'Oh, shit,' Harry thought.

"That's not all," Ron added; his face also as white as a sheet. "It seems that there's been a Death Eater attack in Wales. According to my dad, it was at a muggleborn's house. They're all dead."

Hermione put her hand over her mouth as Harry grabbed the letter, scanning it over. The letter ended with Mr. Weasley saying he would continue to keep them posted on what was going on with Lucius and of any further reports of Death Eaters, but that he wanted them to stay within the safety of the school and to make sure not to let Draco go anywhere alone.

Everyone was silent for a moment, taking in what they had just heard.

Draco was finding himself more worried about his father's release than the muggleborn family that had died and he felt immense guilt roll up within him. 'Merlin, what's wrong with me? I should feel something for that poor family, but here I am more worried about myself than anything else.' Disgust at himself soon replaced guilt as he realized that not that long ago he would have been glad that those people had died. Did this mean that he still felt that way? 'I'm a true Slytherin after all,' he thought, and this time he didn't feel any pride in that knowledge. The blonde clamped his hand over mouth to contain the mounting pressure of emotions, and a hiccupping sound that he realized was a sob escaped.

"Draco," Harry said worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Draco clenched his teeth in a futile attempt to silence himself and jumped up from the sofa to blunder towards the portrait door, pushing a small second year down in his haste to leave.

Harry caught up to him just as he was turning down the corridor to his rooms and grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around him.

Though that embrace, Draco could feel a flood of emotion pouring down their connection. The care and concern that Harry felt for him felt so good it was agonizing. How could the Gryffindor stand touching him? How could Harry feel such things for him? A person that had such poison running through their soul.