healing | drarry

thirty-six

guys im sad

~no pov

Draco woke up with an awful headache, the next morning, complaining about the sun. He stood up, stumbled downstairs and went to make himself coffee. Then he realised where he was, and that he had slept in Potter's bed, and oh.

His father was dead, and he got drunk and broke down in Potter's arms.

Before Draco could get his kid and Apparate away, planning to never see the brunet ever again, the brunet conveniently appeared in the kitchen with a cup of tea.

"You alright?"

"You're so loud."

"Hermione came by with a potion. Thought you shouldn't Apparate with a hangover."

"I've done it before." 

Potter sighed, handing the potion over. "She didn't think you should Apparate in your state of grievance. I agreed."

Draco downed it, grimacing and waiting for it to work. His was five seconds quicker, even after sharing his notes with the brunette. "I'm not grieving. I'm fine."

"The way I saw you yesterday proves you wrong."

"That was yesterday." Draco stirred his coffee. "I'm fine now. I just had too much to drink."

"Your father died. I know how much it hurts, alright? Don't pretend it doesn't hurt. Bottling only makes you breakdown worse, later on."

"Where'd you learn that? Therapy?" Draco scoffed.

"I did learn that in therapy, actually." 

"Oh."

"You would probably love my therapist." Potter smiled. "She's got the same hair as you. Besides, she's really good at her job."

"No one wants to hear a Death Eater complain about his life when people are dead because of him." Draco muttered into his coffee.

"What?"

"Nothing. Can we pretend whatever I said yesterday, or whatever happened yesterday, didn't happen?" Draco asked. "Great, I'll be off then."

"You don't need to run away just because you were a little bit vulnerable around me." Potter sighed. "It's alright. I'm not going to judge you or treat you differently."

"Look, it was stupid, okay? I don't remember what I said, but it was clearly pathetic and it'd be best if I left."

"If you leave, I'll kidnap Scorpius."

Draco gasped dramatically. "Where you gonna keep him? Here? I'll take him back in an hour then."

"Draco."

The blond looked up from his coffee, surprised to hear his first name come out of the brunet's mouth. "What'd you just call me?"

"Draco." Potter repeated. "You didn't like the fact that everyone calls you Malfoy."

"Did I tell you that like a drunk idiot?" Draco groaned. "It's fine, go back to calling me Malfoy."

"No." Potter folded his arms. "Look, Draco, it's alright that you were a bit open around me. I honestly wouldn't mind if you opened up to me more. Just stop berating yourself for it."

"I was being stupid."

"Your father died and you drunk it away to forget. That's not stupid. That's grieving."

"It's stupid. No idiot gets drunk and tries to pick up their kid when they can't even Apparate properly."

"When I found out how my parents really died, I had no way to cope. When the war was over, every Halloween since, I'd get blackout drunk so I wouldn't have to think about it. Ron and Mione have kept Teddy for the past four years on Halloween because they don't know how else to stop me from drinking my grief away."

Draco was quiet. He didn't know how to respond to that.

"You're not stupid because you chose alcohol over facing your feelings. Half the planet does that." Potter stood beside Draco. "I'm sorry you felt that was the only way to deal with it."

"I don't have a massive support system like you, Potter." Draco said bitterly. "Of course I turned to alcohol."

The brunet turned to face him. "Well now you have me. I'm part of your support system whether you like it or not. It's up to you to decide if you'll talk to me or not."

Draco felt his breath stutter and tore his eyes away from the brunet, not wanting him to see the tears forming in his mercury eyes. He hadn't had someone say anything like that to him in a really long time. His support system could be counted on one hand, and he'd still have five fingers left.

"Would you mind if I hugged you?"

Oh fuck, he hadn't hugged anyone besides his kid in a really long time. The only contact he got was sexual. And he hadn't even had sexual contact in a while. He was so touch-deprived it hurt to even hear someone offer him a hug.

So he couldn't help but nod. Potter put their mugs down and wrapped his arms around the blond's shoulders, the little amount of physical contact making Draco want to sob. He forced himself not to cry as he wrapped his own arms around Potter's waist.

"I'll always be here for you, Draco." Potter whispered. "You don't need to feel alone anymore."

Draco didn't respond, choosing to hug the man tighter instead.

This was home.

lol short chapter with the same last line as the past 28 chapters