Trust Me (Drarry)

Chapter 20

DRACO POV

I didn't get to spend an evening with Harry until the end of March. He was so busy with Quidditch practice, anti-Dementor lessons, homework... You name it. Anything but spending time with me. I hadn't realised how much I had come to rely on our daily meetings. Harry had become an essential part of my life (not that I would ever admit that to him), so much so that I had been abandoning my other friends a little bit to spend time with him. I didn't know quite how much until during the Easter holidays.

"What are you doing tonight?" I asked Blaise, who raised an eyebrow at me, and glanced over to Pansy.
"Pansy and I are going to play chess. Why do you ask?"
I shrugged. "Can I join?"
Blaise burst out laughing. "Ok, what's happened?"
"Nothing! Why would you-?"
"You wouldn't be asking to spend time with us unless your buddy wasn't free. What's happened between you two?"

I knew he was talking about Harry, but couldn't say his name loudly in the middle of the common room. I glanced guiltily over at Pansy, who was glaring at me.

"You're right, guys..." I sighed. "I haven't really been a good friend, have I?"
"You've been a SHITTY friend, Malfoy."
"I know. I'm sorry."

Both Blaise and Pansy's eyebrows shot up towards the ceiling, and it was then that I realised they had probably never heard me apologise for anything.

"You're forgiven... I guess," Blaise muttered, obviously having prepared himself for a full blown row. "Now go and get the chess board!"

-/\-\/-/\-\/-/\-

During the Easter holidays, I couldn't believe the amount of homework we had been given. The exams were getting closer, and the new subjects that we had chosen just made the usual workload worse. I spent most of my evenings in the astronomy tower with a tottering pile of library books that I had taken, simply because the library was no longer a quiet, unfrequented place to study.

One night, I was knee deep in arithmancy equations when I heard footsteps up the stairs. It was too late to hide all of my books, but I dived between the sofa and the table anyway. A pair of feet came into view on the sofa, and I grinned.

"Fancy seeing you here!" I leapt up from behind the sofa, and Harry almost fell over in shock, before his mouth turned upwards into a confused grin.
"What are you doing here?"
""Hello Draco, how are you Draco, long time no see Draco..."" I muttered, and he snorted.
"Shut up. Why aren't you studying?" I raised an eyebrow and glanced at the table. His mouth fell open. "Oh."
"Care to join?"

He flopped onto the sofa. "Love to, but a) don't do arithmancy, and b) I'm trying to get away from studying." He groaned. "Plus Oliver will NOT leave me alone about the Quidditch match."
I smirked. "You don't stand a chance. We're two hundred points ahead of everyone." I was surprised when he didn't look fazed.
"There's always a chance," he said simply, picking up an equations sheet. "Holy shit, Draco! This looks worse than maths! Did you do maths?"
I nodded. "My father incorporated it into my home study plan. Said it was important to have a basic idea."
Harry gaped at me. "Home study? You didn't go to school?"
"Of course not, you fool. I wasn't going to attend a school full of Mu... Weird lessons..." I changed my sentence, but Harry caught on anyway.
"They're not all that bad, as I keep telling you."
"Except your family?"
"Except my family."

"What about your parents?" I ventured to ask, and Harry stayed silent. "I'm sorry... I understand if you don't-"
"I don't really remember them," he confessed, and I sat down next to him. "But everyone tells me they were wonderful, that they didn't deserve to die." His laugh was hollow, and I felt a pang of guilt for bringing it up. "But sometimes I think... If they hadn't died, what would life be like? Voldemort would probably still be in power. Maybe life wouldn't be as wonderful as I imagined it."
I heard the tears in his voice, and found myself reaching across to lace our fingers together. Harry looked up, surprised, but then he smiled weakly and put his head back down.