Boy Who Never Grew Up

To The Fairies That Draw Near

They all joined them back at the table: Dean and Neville either side of Blaise, Harry opposite Dean, Draco opposite Blaise and Pansy opposite Neville. At the head chairs of the table were Ron and Hermione with a chair for Seamus brought to the side. Pansy and Hermione were in an animated conversation about the Muggle world while the boys chatted about a sport that peeked Blaise's interest- Quidditch. Never had Draco saw his two best friends smile so openly. "You really love them, don't you?" A voice snapped Draco out of it. He turned to see Harry looking directly in his eyes.

"Yeah, without their parents, my family would be on the streets- that's what father told me." The blonde twirled and swirled the wooden spoon in the wooden bowl.

"Where are we sleeping then?" He said, changing topic.
Sensing his discomfort, Harry answered, "Pansy's with Herm, Blaise'll be staying with Ron, and you'll be with me." He made a mental note to actually tell Ron and Hermione that arrangement later.

"Luna!" Neville exclaimed to a bright blue light, golden sparkles shimmering down. Two newcomers gawped at the light, listening to a squeaking, mouse-like sound. The blue orb perched itself on the edge of the table, talking in that squeaky voice. "Nobody can hear you but me Luna!" Harry called from the other end of the table. The blonde was certainly confused, because why would this Luna talk to Neville if she knew he couldn't understand her?

Suddenly, Luna began to grow. Her glow faded slightly, she grew taller, her royal blue dress, reaching just below her knees grew with her. Pointed, blue, sparkling shoes glittered with two fluffy spheres on the ends of them.

"Sorry, I sometimes forget you're the only one who can hear me, Harry." She said then turned to the former-Muggles, "Your aurors are so interesting: I've never seen anything like it." She focused intensely on Blaise and Pansy, only she could see the green swirls in their centres. But when she moved to Draco, Luna almost fell off the table. Her gasp was enough for Draco to deduct that something was going on, however, he didn't see the look Harry gave her.

The rest of dinner went smoothly: the three outsiders getting to know everyone else. Pansy and Hermione easily clicked, along with Blaise and Draco with the boys (Harry in Draco's case, and Ron for Blaise). It was later, Draco had no idea the time because his watch was stuck on the same place: 5:59. In Harry's room, at the highest point of the tree was one large, king bed and on top of the royal red duvet was a tiger-print blanket.

"I'm sorry; I never get visitors... so there's only one bed." Stuttered Harry and neither of them pointed out the red, comfortable couch opposite the bed; or the rug on the bottom of the floor that would feel delightful to lie on.

Draco shook his head rolling his eyes, "Come on then Potter." sighed Draco throwing his shirt and trousers off to then jump into the bed. Harry stared at the boy in front of him, never knowing someone to be that... blaze about almost stripping naked! "Are you alright?" concerned, Draco asked leaning forwards so his muscles on his stomach showed more.

"Yeah-yeah, I'm alright..." Harry awkwardly shuffled to the other side of the bed, climbing under the sheets then taking off his bottoms in the bed so the cotton padded leather jeans slipped off the bed at the side.

They lay there for ten minutes in a peaceful, blissful silence. Watching the sky through the canopy of leaves and Draco was listening all of the constellations he could make out, one hand behind his head. To Draco, it was like all the stars shone brighter here, the plants were cleared a path by the velvety dark ropes of the night sky.

"How did you come to Neverland in the first place?" His voice carried with the wind, fluttering in the air creating a delicate sound and rhythm. "Don't you ever feel like going back?" Their eyes bore into each other's, and there was a spark Harry had never felt before in his stomach.

"Ron's brothers, Fred and George, took me, him and Hermione to this place... I've never looked back: everyone I love is here, so what's the need?"

From beside him, Harry felt the blonde sigh, relaxing more into the sheets. "Romantic love." Once again, their eyes connected, "The feeling that you can tell them anything, that without them you're not whole... that they can do anything, right or wrong, and you'd love them anyway." Harry didn't know how to respond to that, because that ticked off all the feelings he had for Draco like a checklist.

0o0

"It was him Gin, Colin. He has The Auror!" Exclaimed Luna, slamming her tiny palm to a small nub they use as a table in the Pixie Tree.

"We need to be sure Luna; we can't just give people false hope." Her fiery fair glittered the same as her burning red dress. The triangle-cut hem was so similar to flames that people might throw a bucket of water over the fairy. She was the ruler of the Pixie Race, with her advisor Luna, and reporter Colin.

"I'm the only person who can see aurors here Ginny! And the way he looked... he matches it perfectly."

"But when Harry was taking them to The Tree House, he could see the Thestrals." Colin piped in, taking a step to the table. "And he's lived a sheltered life: the Malfoy's wouldn't let him see death." Colins outfit was different to the girls. He wore green leggings, a yellowing brown shirt. And a jacket that looked like it was cut from a leaf over the top. Around his neck hung an old camera that didn't work in Neverland, but he kept as a reminder of his time in the Muggle World.

"But he can't be a murderer." Stated Luna, "He was so pure and full of life. He could radiate all positives of Neverland and muggle."

Ginny fiddled with her bottom lip between her teeth. She couldn't decide what to do- if she could rely on Luna's opinion alone. Colin had a point too; the Malfoy's wouldn't let their son see death.

She looked back up from staring at the table, "We wait. We keep this information between the three of us for now, if and only if he is who you say he is, then we tell everyone."

"It's him. Gin." Luna's voice was full with raw emotion that she rarely shows. Her mystical daze replaced with a hard look.
Ginny sighed, putting a comfortable hand on her shoulder and Luna deflated, "I need more information, Luna. I can't just go off the Auror alone, he might not be the only one."

"We're running out of time: it's him, or we're dead Gin." Colin deadpanned, looking her dead in the eye.

She looked back at him with a harder gaze, "If we say he is and he isn't, we're dead sooner than otherwise."