Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Thirty

Clara was tapping her quill on the table as she sat in the Great Hall with a piece of parchment paper before her.

"You look highly concentrated."

She peered up and saw Draco walking over and sitting across from her at the Hufflepuff table, which definitely gained some wandering eyes and hush whispers.

"I'm...failing to find the words to write this letter." she told him.

"You failing at words?" Draco scoffed. "That's like Abby running out of energy, it's almost impossible."

"Well, the impossible happened apparently." she sighed. 

"But you always know the right things to say," Draco said, a look of concern washed across his face as Clara continued to stare at the blank piece of paper. "Who are you writing the letter to?"

"My parents."

"And what is the letter about?" he asked curiously.

"I'm supposed to respond to them about my plans for the holiday break, only...I'm not sure how I'm supposed to tell them that I don't want to come home."

"You don't want to go home?" 

Draco was surprised by her answer, only because Clara never really had anything negative to say about her parents. They sounded like typical parents.

"I know it sounds horrible, but it's going to be the first Christmas since the battle and with things already being awkward between us because of this-" she pointed to her face, " I don't want Christmas to be awkward.It's one of my favorite holidays, but if I see my mother cry...ugh..." she pushed the piece of paper away from her and set her quill down before placing her chin on the table. "I don't want them to be upset with me, but I don't want to be upset with them."

"So you're planning on staying here?" Draco asked her, a hint of hope in his tone that Clara didn't catch onto.

"I want to. Abby's already staying because her mother is going off with her new boyfriend to see the world or something alone those lines. I definitely don't want Abby to be alone here for her first Christmas at the castle, that would just be awful. Her mother should be ashamed of herself, although perhaps I'm passing too much judgement since Abby doesn't seem all that bothered by it."

"Maybe Abby isn't bothered by it so much because she probably didn't want to spend Christmas with her mother to begin with. This was probably just a good thing in Abby's head." Draco said.

"You're probably right, but I don't want to be nosy and ask Abby the relationship between her and her mother, it's none of my business and I don't want to make her feel weird. So I thought it would be best if I stayed behind with her to celebrate. I was planning on going to Hogsmeade this weekend to pick up a few gifts for her."

"Do you mind if I accompany you?" 

Clara met his gaze, her eyes slightly wide. "You're not going home for Christmas?"

"No." Draco answered. "I don't want to go home for Christmas. It's not going to be a happy one."

"Why not?"

"My family hasn't been the same since the war ended. My parents hardly speak to one another and when they do it's hardly more than a couple of sentences. It's just awkward. My father doesn't leave his office for days at a time unless it's to shower or grab something to eat or drink. My mother doesn't want to talk to him, she blames him for the majority of what happened. So it would really just be all of us sitting in an awkward silence, or my mother trying to convince me to come home so she can protect me."

"Wow." Clara said. "Now I don't blame you for not wanting to go home. Although, considering how well my household sounds compared to yours, I sound like an absolute brat."

"No, not at all." Draco replied. "Not at all."

"Well," Clara said, "I should probably write this letter home then."

"I'll help you if you want?"

"You want to?"

"Sure."

Clara didn't expect Draco to want to help her write a letter home and she certainly didn't expect him to crawl under the table so he could sit beside her.

"So the first thing you do," he began, " is you pick up the quill." He picked up the quill and then took her hand with his free hand before placing the quill in her palm.

"Oh thank you, Sir." Clara chuckled to herself. "But I think I can manage the writing part from here, it's just the matter of what to write."

"I think the best way is to keep it plain and simple."

"And what would that sound like?" Clara said looking at him.

"Dear Mum and Dad, I'm not coming home for Christmas. Love, Clara. There you go."

"You weren't kidding about the plain and simple part at all."

"No, I wasn't."

It was quiet for a moment before Clara shrugged. 

"Works for me."

Draco watched as she wrote, but it quickly became obvious that Clara did not take the plain and simple route, as she added in a few other sentences that sounded like they were placed in to offer her parents some comfort.

She turned to him to see that he was making a face at her.

"Don't judge me." she told him. "I don't want them to think I'm mad at them. My parents can be very emotional creatures, where do you think I get it from?"

"I'm not judging you." Draco said placing his hands up.

"Yes,you are! It's written all over your face!" she laughed.

"It is not!"

"It is too. This is the face you were making at me." she said before trying to copy his facial expression.

"Okay, I do not look like that." Draco said. 

"You kinda do."

Before he could argue further, Abby arrived sitting across from them.

"Oooh, are we pretending to be Draco?" she said excitedly. "My turn! My turn!"