A Brother To Basilisks (a Drarry fanfic)

Chapter 34: Passing of Letters

Sirius sat there looking at the letter from Draco. Harry took a few bites of breakfast and glanced up again. No, he was still sitting there staring at the letter from Draco.

Eat your breakfast and attend to your private thoughts, Dash told him, winding gracefully around his neck and leaning down to eat part of Harry's buttered toast that Harry had rejected as being too crusty. It was still a luxury to be able to do things like that instead of eating everything in desperation, and Harry was glad Dash ate his leftovers. I'll let you know when he moves.

Harry managed a wavery smile and went on eating. Sirius finally spoke. "He wants to come here?"

Harry swallowed and looked up. "That's what he says." He would keep to the simple things, the true things, for right now.

"Why would he ask for that, rather than for you to come over to Malfoy Manor?" Sirius's fingers were rapping the edge of the table.

Uh-oh, Harry thought, and would have sat back, but Dash coiled around him, forcing him to at least partially relax. Nothing for it. Harry licked his lips and spoke what he thought was the truth. "He probably thought you'd never let me go over there."

Sirius looked at him in silence for a second. Then he nodded. "I'm glad that someone still realizes I'm your guardian."

Dash shared a fantasy of snapping forwards and shearing one of Sirius's fingers off. Harry gripped his neck and said, No. I don't want to deal with the fuss, which made Dash sulk, but reduced the threat. Aloud, he said, "Well, can he come over here?"

Sirius again looked at the letter. Maybe he's looking for the secret plot to have Death Eaters come kidnap me, Harry thought snidely, unable not to.

"No," said Sirius at last. "I'm just not comfortable having the son of someone I fought in the war swaggering around the house."

Harry closed his eyes for a second. Then he said, "What about meeting up in Diagon Alley? He suggested that, too. He could bring his parents. Or his father, anyway." He knew that Lucius Malfoy probably didn't want to meet up with him just because he was Draco's friend, but that was something he could deal with, too, in its place.

"I suppose we could do that," Sirius said slowly, as if the nonexistent plot to kidnap Harry couldn't be foiled in public. "But I want to go with you, and I want to make sure that you and Draco don't go away from me." He leaned forwards and stared at Harry anxiously. "I know it might not seem like it, but I do love you, kiddo."

"I know," said Harry, and if he worked at it, he could make his lips move into a smile. "I love you, too."

That's amazing, said Dash, snapping his tail down once against Harry's shoulders as he crawled most of the way to the floor.

What's amazing? Sirius was talking now about what shops he wanted to show Harry when they were in Diagon Alley and how much things had probably changed, but all of Harry's attention had switched to the internal conversation with Dash.

Not even you know if you're telling the truth or not when you talk about how much you love him.

Harry closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, and Sirius promptly broke off his chatter to ask anxiously, "Does your head hurt?"

"Just sometimes," said Harry, and opened his eyes. It suddenly occurred to him he'd been rubbing his scar, and Sirius was leaning away from him as though he thought Voldemort was going to come bursting out of his forehead. The look on his face made Harry look away and repeat firmly, "Just sometimes. So when should I tell Draco that we're meeting him and his father in Diagon Alley?"

*

Lucius watched in silence as Draco broke away ahead of him, shouting. He'd apparently already spotted Mr. Potter standing next to Quality Quidditch Supplies, looking at something in the window, his basilisk wrapped around his neck and shoulders. And behind Potter lurked Black.