Distance

From a Distance

Draco hates Harry. With every fiber of his being, he hates him.

He despised Harry from the moment in their first year when he saw him for the first time waiting for Professor McGonagall. Because Harry was the Golden Boy. Draco's father had gone on and on about how Harry had defeated Voldemort. From this hatred he had started to follow Harry in his first year to try to bring him up for detention. He had failed gloriously. This incident makes him laugh now. His feelings towards Harry changed as he continued to follow Harry. Harry was not the person Draco thought. But he still hates Harry.

Because Harry has never looked at him with anything other than disgust in his eyes. Because he had only looked at Cedric with feelings that Draco so coveted. When Harry returned with Cedric's dead body from the maze, his cry could shatter diamonds. Draco hates Harry, Cedric and himself because he wishes it was him in Harry's arms.

It pained Draco that most of the Wizarding world didn't believe that Voldemort was back. Draco had known the veracity of that declaration. Things had changed forever. That faint hope which Draco carried with him, that one day when Harry was not preoccupied with keeping himself alive, he would look at Draco with something, anything other than disgust. But Voldemort coming back shattered that hope.

Draco had to take the mark. He had to, to keep his mother safe, the one person who loved him, whom he loved unconditionally. There was another reason why he had to be branded. Not a single human being, including Draco himself, had yet completely realized that he was doing this to keep Harry safe.

During their 5th year at Hogwarts, Harry had suffered immensely. Draco had followed Harry even then, especially after Umbridge had made Dumbledore leave Hogwarts. Merlin knew what Harry and his idiotic friends were up to. Umbridge had tortured Harry on multiple occasions. One night when Draco was looking for Harry, which was not suspicious as Draco was a part of the Inquisitor squad, the blond boy found the other silently crying in a desolate corridor of the castle. Draco thought it was because of the blood quill torture Umbridge subjected Harry to on a regular basis. But as he got closer, he saw Harry looking at a picture of Diggory in his Quidditch robes. Draco had found out that Harry liked Diggory last year, but never the extent of it. The black haired boy was talking to the picture about the plan they had made secretly. Harry and Cedric thought that it would be incredibly romantic (and childish) if they could both win the tournament. So they had planned to return with the goblet together. They did indeed. Something broke in Draco on hearing this. He was reminded of that feeling he often has that it should have been Draco instead of Cedric in Harry's arms on that fateful night. Then may be Harry and Cedric could find love in each other. Draco was probably going to die anyway, and probably while saving Harry. But will Harry shed a single drop of tear for him? He knew this was incredibly selfish but he was a Slytherin and this was expected of him. Draco wanted to envelop Harry in his arms and never let go but he left him with Cedric's memory as silently as he had come.