Whatever You Want {Drarry}

•Bringing Home Potter•

art credit {kra|deviantart}

It's been six months since the war ended and Harry wasn't counting, but it was hard not to. He had started to notice how people say time heals things, when no one was actually healing. There had been so much death, so much destruction- He wondered now if the Creeveys were okay...if they'd ever be okay.

He knew Collin's death was on him. All of the deaths were. If he had ended it sooner then they would still be here. All of them.

He wondered if any of them would be okay again. He had thought he would be, but that was before he and Ginny split. Before he saw Draco Malfoy looking terrified in the papers. Before the death eater trials had started. Before even more deaths were on his hands. And even after the trials were mostly over people were still looking to him for what to do. Tacking him in all the papers and asking him private questions in public. He was trying his absolute best to avoid people these days.

Harry, like most of the students from his class, had been asked to go back to Hogwarts to complete their N.E.W.Ts and at first he thought he might. Hermione was going and Ron was going and it was Ginny's last year too. The decision was made for him when looked at the list of returning students and saw how small it was and thought about how that was also his fault. Those were the exact thoughts on his mind as he strolled through Diagon Alley.

He looks around to ground himself in the here & now and sees a flash of blonde hair and is frozen again in the thought of strong arms around his waist and a terrified scream of: DON'T KILL HIM! He took a step towards where he saw the blonde just to be sure he wasn't just imagining things again and was met with the side profile of Narcissa Malfoy through a shop window. When he saw her head start to move he ducked out of sight. When he peeked back around the pane of glass she was gone. He saw her leaving the store with bags in her hands, making very purposeful strides towards the nearest apparation point.

Harry made to follow her before he stopped. He had been wanting to thank her. To say anything to her, but he could never find it in himself to send an owl without seeming insincere or pathetic (depending on what day it was). What did it matter to her anyway? Maybe her views on blood-purity hadn't really changed. Maybe she actually hated his guts as much as her husband did. Maybe she wasn't really a good person. Maybe, he thought, she had just made a choice. He stopped and berated himself. They had all made choices. Even he had made a few he wasn't too proud of. That didn't make any of them better than anyone else.

He still owed her that thank you.

Harry allowed his eyes to follow her as she walled further and further away. He could just let her go, and say something to her next time he saw her. His thoughts transported him back to Hogwarts. He was laughing and joking and he felt at peace with the rest of his friends because he had been so sure back then that he would see them again.

He took a deep breath and jogged up to the beautifully mature blonde.

"Mrs. Malfoy," he said with a raised hand, almost too loud in his own head.

"Mr. Potter," she responded kindly with a raised eyebrow and a nod. "Were you the one watching me through the window of Madam Malkin's, then?"

"I'm sorry," stuttered Harry feeling embarrassed. He looked down and scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck as the rest of his words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush. "I caught a glimpse of your hair and I haven't seen you and- I didn't want to owl and- I just- Thank you. You saved my life."

When he didn't get a response immediately he looked up to find her staring at him in awe as her eyes welled up with tears.