The Hollow Beneath Hogwarts

114. Respect

If people thought Sloane and Draco were disgustingly sweet before, they hadn't seen anything yet.

The weeks following their conversation in the counselling office changed something between them.

Not dramatically. Not in some grand, earth-shattering way.

The change was quieter than that.

Deeper. More meaningful.

For Sloane, finally allowing Draco to see her grief had lifted a weight she hadn't even realised she was carrying.

For months she'd convinced herself she was protecting him. Protecting him from her sadness. Protecting him from her pain. Protecting him from the memories that still haunted her when the castle grew quiet at night.

Instead she'd only been carrying those burdens alone.

Now she wasn't.

And Merlin, it felt good.

Not because the grief had disappeared. It never would. But because someone else understood it now. Someone else carried a little piece of it with her.

Draco.

For his part, the experience had been equally life-changing.

Because for all his confidence and swagger, for all his bravado and arrogance, Draco Malfoy had spent most of his life terrified people would see the worst parts of him.

The broken parts. The ugly parts. The parts he hated himself.

Sloane had seen all of them and stayed. And now she'd trusted him enough to show him her own wounds.

That meant everything to him.

More than she realised. More than he could ever properly explain.

Because trust wasn't something Draco took lightly. And being trusted by Sloane felt like being handed the most precious thing in the world.

The result was noticeable. Very noticeable. To everyone.

Their friends noticed first.

Mostly because they were forced to endure it. 

"Merlin, look at them." Blaise groaned one evening in the common room.

The group all turned.

Across the room Sloane and Draco were sitting together on a sofa. They weren't kissing. They weren't cuddling. They weren't even speaking. They were simply looking at each other. Smiling.

Like complete idiots.

"What are they doing?" Theo asked.

"I don't know."

"They've been doing it for ten minutes."

"Maybe they're communicating through the bond."

"They're communicating through annoyingness." Ginny snorted.

Meanwhile Harry looked up from his book. "Honestly?"

"What?" Blaise asked.

"They're kind of cute."

The room fell silent.

Everyone stared.

Hermione looked horrified. "Harry Potter."

"What?"

"Did you just call them cute?"

Harry immediately realised his mistake. "Oh no."

"You did."

"I didn't."

"You absolutely did."

Harry buried his face in his hands. The damage was done. The teasing lasted for days. The teachers noticed too.