All the Ghosts are Screaming

20

Draco

He wants to tell him not to do it.

When Harry first mentioned that he was going to throw himself back into his fight the bad guys routine, Draco didn't think it would bother him this much.  He had just shrugged his shoulders and asked if he would be home for dinner, because in his head, he was thinking that going out to play the hero was just something that Harry did.  He could no more stop putting himself in dangerous situations in the name of doing the right thing than he could rip out his own DNA.

(Though after that disaster of the dinner with the Dursley's, Draco's pretty sure he would if he could.)

Turns out, though, that Draco did mind, enough that when the people from the old DA start showing up in his living room (Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Dean ushered in through the door, how are you, can I take your coats, try not to let him die tonight), he has to bite his lip to keep his concerns to himself.  In theory, it wasn't anything that Harry hadn't done a million times before, but in practice this was him going to face down some pretty bloodthirsty people with no back up and no official training.  They were still just all kids, vigilantes trying to take down people who weren't going to pull their punches.

"You're cool if Luna crashes here with you, right?"  Ginny shouts the question at him from out in the hallway, poking her head around the doorway, and Draco jumps.  He'd been too busy watching Harry to notice.

"Yeah."  Not that it sounded like it was actually a question.  He's pretty sure that if he said no Ginny would give him a black eye and Luna would end up waiting out the night here, anyways.  "That's fine.  Company'll be nice."

And it will be.  He knows from the war that he doesn't take well to being left behind, and when Harry had shrugged off his half-hearted offer of help, Draco had resigned himself to one long, lonely night pacing the hallways for Harry's return. 

"I told you it would be fine."  Harry comes up from behind him out of no where, and Draco leans into the hand he had placed on his shoulder.  "Draco will keep an eye on her."

"I'd rather keep an eye on you."  He'd promised himself he wouldn't do it, because Harry does not owe him anything, he does not belong to him, and anyways, saving the day is as much a part of Harry as his lightning bolt scar.  Self sacrificing tendencies are just one of those things you have to put up with if you plan on caring for him.  "Can't you let someone else do it?"

He doesn't say haven't you done enough, which is what he'd been thinking since Harry first announced that he was going to be going after these people.  Finish what Dumbledore had started, and all that.

"I'm going to be fine."  Harry's got his hand wrapped around Draco's neck, the two of them face to face with only inches between them.  He thinks of how it mirrors the good bye scene Hermione and Ron had gone through only a few minutes earlier and steps away.  "It's not like the last time."

"It's worse."  Draco tugged on his hands, trying to keep Harry's attention focused on him.  "This time they've got nothing to lose."

And they don't.  None of you-know-who's old supporters do, they're just on the run from the ministry and trying to regain some of the power they used to have.  For them, their only choices are to keep running and hope to find someone who lets them claw their way back into power, or go to Azkaban.  Draco's got a feeling they would rather it be the first choice, and they wouldn't mind murdering a few kids to do it.

"I'm going to be fine."  Harry's eyes search across his face, and Draco looks away, not wanting to him to see how worried he is.  "I promise."

Don't make promises you can't keep, he thinks, and then decides he'll take what reassurance he can get.