Behind Their Sleeves

Chapter 13

"I hope you know you deserve happiness as much as Harry does."

Draco keeps repeating these words in his head, but the truth is, he doesn't know that. Yes, he's been clean for a while now and he's feeling a lot better, but he doesn't feel like he deserves it, especially after seeing Harry in such a bad place. Why does he, the death eater, get to get better, while Harry only gets to get worse? With those thoughts overwhelming his mind, Draco walks back to Snape's chambers.

He enters the living room and sees Snape sitting on the couch, with his head in his hands, looking defeated. Draco has never seen his professor like this.

'Severus?' he speaks softly.

The Potions Master looks up at the boy and gives him a small smile. Draco walks up to him and pulls him into a hug, Snape stiffens, but quickly relaxes as he realizes it's simply Draco trying to comfort him.

'Are you okay?' Draco asks him.

'That's nothing you should be worried about,' Snape answers.

Draco sighs and sets himself next to Snape on the couch.

'It's unfair,' he mumbles.
'Why does Harry have to feel like this? He has suffered his entire life, when does he get to have a break?'

'I don't know, Draco, I don't know,' Snape mutters.

After a while, Draco stands up. 'I'm going to bed, you should too,' he tells Snape.

'I will, good night.'

'Good night.'

----------next morning----------

Draco wakes up the next morning to find Harry's not in bed anymore, and the bathroom door is locked. He panics and quickly walks over to the bathroom, banging on the door.

'Harry open this door!' he yells.

'I'm peeing, calm down!' he hears from inside the bathroom.

'Harry, if you don't open this door right fucking now-'

'Listen, I'm not ready for you to see my dick yet, so please, calm to fuck down and let me pee!' Harry shouts.

'Fine,' Draco reluctantly agrees.

As soon as Harry comes out of the bathroom, Draco grabs his wrists and pulls up his sleeves, checking for new cuts, not finding any.

'You seriously trust me that little?' Harry sneers.

'Harry, I-'

'Fuck off, Malfoy'

Draco winces at the use of his last name, Harry hasn't used it in a long time, but decides he deserved it and lets himself fall back onto the bed, screaming in his pillow.

Of course, Harry knows Draco was right to be suspicious, since he did cut himself while in the bathroom, just on his thighs, where nobody will check. He feels bad for sneering at him and for using Draco's last name, he decides he'll apologize later, when Draco's done with all his classes for today.

Harry walks to the kitchen and sits down across from Snape, who, just like the day before, already made breakfast.

'Good morning,' Harry mumbles.

'Good morning.'
'You know Draco is just worried about you, right?' he asks.

Harry looks at Snape in confusion, wondering why he suddenly brought that up.

'I overheard your argument,' he explains.

'Oh, um, yeah, I just- it just annoyed me a bit I guess.'

'That's understandable, I can imagine a little privacy would do you good, but right now we simply can't give you that.'

'I understand that, it's just that- I don't know, just- just forget it,' Harry mutters.

'I will check on Draco, please eat something,' Snape tells him.

Snape walks to the spare bedroom and slowly opens the door, he doesn't see Draco at first, but then he notices him, curled up in the corner of the room with his potions knife against his wrist. He slowly makes his way to the boy, cautious not to startle the boy. When he's close enough to hold Draco, he squats in front of him and carefully wraps his hand around the knife's blade.

'Draco, let go of the knife please,' Snape says softly.

Draco's strong grip lessens, and Snape pulls the knife away from Draco's wrist. He tosses the potion knife to the side and hugs the boy in front of him tightly. Draco let's a tear escape and soon he's sobbing into his professor's shoulder. He rubs circles on Draco's back and whispers comforting words in his ear. Snape slowly breaks the hug and wipes away Draco's tears.

'He called me Malfoy,' he sobs.
'I don't want to be Malfoy, I want to be Draco.'

'I know, Draco, I know.'

Snape grabs Draco's hand, pulls him up, and leads him to the kitchen, where he thinks Harry is, when they get there however, Harry is nowhere to be seen.

'Harry!' Snape calls, but he doesn't get an answer.

Together, Snape and Draco search every single room, but to no avail.

'Draco, I want you to stay here, alright? If there's anything you need or if your urges get too bad, go to Professor McGonagall, okay?'

He nods in agreement.

Snape practically runs out of his chambers, to the first place he thinks Harry might be, the Astronomy Tower. When he finally reaches the top, he sees he was right, Harry was standing there, hands on the railing, looking down.

'I'm not going to jump if that's what you're thinking,' he suddenly says.

'Then what are you doing here?' Snape asks.

'I needed to think.'

'Think about what?'

'Just- he relapsed because of me, didn't he?'

'He didn't relapse, I got there on time.'

'It doesn't matter if he didn't make a cut, he still felt the need to hold a knife against his wrist,' Harry sneers.

'How do you even know what happened?' Snape questions.

'I heard you,' he mumbles.

Snape sighs. 'Listen, right now, Draco needs you, so please come back to my chambers and make up with him, okay?'

'Okay.'

Together, they walk back to the dungeons and enter Snape's chambers. Draco's sitting on the couch in the living room with Professor McGonagall next to him, Snape walks over to them and puts his hand on Draco's shoulder, slightly squeezing it.

'Harry needs to talk to you, Draco,' Snape says.
'And I need to talk with Professor McGonagall, I'll be in the hall if you need me.'

Harry sits next to Draco and starts apologizing, while Snape and McGonagall walk to the small hallway.

'Did anything happen?' Snape asks.
'Did he-'

'He went to my office, telling me he didn't think he could be alone right now,' McGonagall cuts him off.
'We went back to your chambers and waited for you to arrive, nothing happened, and he didn't relapse.'

'Thank you, Minerva.'

'Anytime, Severus.'

McGonagall gives Snape a light smile, before turning around and leaving the dungeons.

Snape goes back to the living room and sees Harry hugging Draco tightly. He smiles to himself and announces that breakfast is still waiting, Harry groans, receiving a death glare from Snape and a concerned look from Draco, which he both ignores, when making his way to the dining table.

A/N: for like the third time, weird ending, but I don't want to repeat the same Harry not wanting to eat shit bc I'm getting bored of writing that, but that's basically what happens. next chapter will be a HUGE time skip, so get ready for that lol