Green & Gray

From the Desk Of DLM

Draco Malfoy

After a while, we ended up back in the clubhouse for snacks. Harry doesn't really like to bring food into The Collapsed Expanse unless necessary to avoid any of his work being ruined by grease or "critters" as he called them.

I perched myself on the island counter nibbling on a chocolate frog as Harry hopped up to the spot next to me with a bowl of cocoa puffs.

"How did you get your eyeliner so sharp?" I asked as he slurped down some chocolatey milk. 

"Artist hand I assume," he mumbled as he crunched his cereal. "I think I was pretty good from the start. Hermione doesn't understand how I do it without my glasses because my vision is shit."

"Damn, so your hand is just super steady?"

"Nah, my hand shakes like you wouldn't believe," he laughed, lifting the spoon as proof. I pulled my gaze from his face to his hand and saw the milk rippling from how his hand was shaking. He smiled a self-deprecating smile before lowering his mouth to the spoon. "Anxiety. But because I love painting, I've learned to work around it."

"I used to get elixirs from Poppy to manage that," I said as I pulled the trading card from the chocolate frog packaging. My stomach gave a lurch as I read Albus Dumbledore off the card. As if the fates were out to get me, this is the only card I've received since my assignment to kill him. "Stopped taking them under Poppy's direction."

"Elixirs work too well for me. I felt so numb that I couldn't feel anything at all, so I just take muggle medication now. It's better for me, at least. This way, it's being diluted instead of extracted."

With that, he picked up his wand and muttered under his breath, causing his bowl to float into the sink.

"I feel like I've shared a lot more of myself today than I have in a while," He mused, pushing a hand through his messy hair.

"Let me return the favor," I said, tossing the candy wrapper in the trash before pulling a ring off of my middle finger. It was a silver dragon, wings wrapping around to make the band. I tapped the ring twice before it shuddered and grew into a well-loved notebook bound in dark blue leather. On the cover, my Initials were branded in my mother's elegant cursive below my own slanted scrawl.

"From the desk of DLM? " Harry read aloud, tracing the words as he did. "Is this-?"

"One of my notebooks? Yes, yes it is. I mean, I always have a notebook on me." I explained as I extended my hands to show him the six other rings glittering on my fingers. "Like right now, every ring is a notebook."

"Are they all specifically for writing?"

"Yeah. Here," I slid each of my rings off and tossed each one to him as they transfigured back into notebooks. "Go ham."

By this point, he had a stack of 7 notebooks in front of him, different sizes and colors, but from this vantage point, I noticed that the oldest among them were the brightest and smallest. The more recent the book, the more it looked like I survived the first wizarding war. As he held up a yellow book belonging to 10-year-old Draco, he turned back to me, clearly unsure where to start.

"Any suggestions?"

"I'd suggest the dark blue one. Fro-"

"From the desk of Draco Lucius Malfoy," He murmured, picking up the blue book. "I remember." 

He sat, staring at the cover for a while with a pained expression clouding his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, resting a hand on his knee. He looked up at me then, eyes searching mine.