𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑜𝑤𝑠

XXIII

Draco pov
The following day went like a breeze, no one fought, they entertained themselves and Teddy even helped me renovating his room. I would be putting all the finishing touches on the room when Teddy was back at Hogwarts, where I had to take him later today.

Teddy still seemed kind of off, but he was over the moon about his potions paper that we did last night. He was also interested in the different options there were for furniture, paint and other stuff for his room. I had given Teddy a template to put down every fabric, colour, furniture and how he wanted his room to look. That way I could finish it while he was gone so that it was done for easter.

We spent most of the day painting and planning his room, the others popped in from time to time but were quickly bored and ran off to somewhere else.
It was kind of nice to spend this much time with Teddy, he wasn't here much so it was all about spending time with him when he was here.

Teddy had insisted on doing all the painting by hand, the way Harry had done at their old house with Ginny. It took a lot longer time than it would have of we did it by magic, but we had a great time. Turns out Teddy was a whole perfectionist about this painting agenda, he taped down every single thing that had to be taped down, by hand and with amazing precision. I almost got jealous.

It became four in the afternoon before I could finally convince Teddy, that enough was enough. We all sat down for afternoon tea and afterwards I had the elves look after the others, while I took Teddy to Hogwarts.
Luckily James didn't seem to mind being alone, but I would try to make sure not to take too long. 

Teddy grabbed his trunk after changing into his uniform and then we apparated to Hogsmeade.
It was, as always, an uncomfortable feeling and Teddy even had to go puke before I polyjuiced into Harry and we walked towards Hogwarts.
We were still cautious about this whole "me being seen with the potter's" stuff, so for now I would just be changing into Harry until I'd discussed it further with him.

"Are you going to walk me in?" The question came from total silence, it was the first he'd said since we arrived.

"Do you want me to?" It hung there a bit before he answered.

"Yeah." Alright then, I'll definitely be getting my daily steps in now.

As we walked through the forests, I remembered my Hogwarts days when this was all we'd do on the weekends. The trees looked exactly like they did a little over a decade ago, not much changed here and it felt nice. Almost a soothing feeling, that even if my life changed these woods wouldn't.
I felt something warm in my hand, I looked down to see Teddy had taken my hand in his as we walked towards the castle, we were getting closer to the gates now and I could feel Teddy slowing down.

"Are you okay?" He gave a sharp, silent nod before picking up his pace again. It didn't sit quite right with me, but there was no reason to pick a battle now.

We walked through the gates, my body almost instinctively walked towards the Slytherin dorms which made Teddy tug me the other way. He was silent as a mouse as he led me towards the Hufflepuff dorms, I got a lot of looks from students as we walked by. 

Was this how Harry was looked at all the time? It was exhausting.

Teddy walked down a corridor which I knew led to the kitchens, he walked over to some barrels which had been there since time began almost.
He found one of them and tapped it a couple of times and suddenly it rolled to the side revealing a common room. How did I not know about this?

The common room was as far as possible from the Slytherin common room, it was full of plants, cozy couches with a big fireplace. There were blankets everywhere, a small kitchen in the corner filled with things for hot cocoa and other drinks. I didn't get to admire it too much as Teddy quickly pulled me along when people started staring.
They had a similar situation as the Slytherin common room when it came to dorms, to corridors filled with doors and names. There was a sort of veil that you had to walk through to get to the common room, we didn't have that.

Teddy walked through the veil while I slowly followed, the hall was warmly lit and on every door was a nameplate with all from one name to five. 

Nearly at the end of the hall Teddy finally stopped in front of a door, he hesitated to open it but did after a few seconds. Were the issues his roommates?
I followed him into the room to see a standard Hogwarts dorm, it was just so plain and unpersonal considering he'd been here a year and a half.

"Where's all your things?" It was a gamble to bring anything up now, but this was weird.

"Nate threw it out, said he didn't want my werewolf stuff all over his space." What the actual fuck?

"But what about the things on the floor, why don't you pick them up?"

"NO! Don't touch it, Nate's master at self-combustion spells and now I don't know if things will burn into nothing as soon as I pick it up."

"Where is this Nate?" Who did this guy think he was?

"I don't know, don't care either." Fair, but I really needed Harry in on this.

"Is there anything you need help with? Anything you need packed out?"

"I keep my stuff in the trunk, that's how Nate likes it." This guy honestly sounded like a total fricking prick.

"I'll get going then, we'll see you again tomorrow." He nodded as we hugged, he then showed me out and I had a nice walk to Hogsmeade before I could apparate back home.

Word Count: 1015