Saving Draco Malfoy - Drarry

7-

It's late. Probably late enough to be considered morning and the only person left at the manor who doesn't belong there is Harry Potter, whom Draco is leading very quietly to the door, and Blaise, who is passed out on the couch. 

They get there and both hesitate a moment. 

"I've decided I like your friends," Harry whispers. 

"You've barely met them," Draco replies. "And I have more friends than just Pansy and Blaise, you know."

"Is that an invitation?" Harry asks, still whispering. "I bet I'd like them too. I bet I'd like all your friends."

"I'd bet you wouldn't," Draco whispers back, leaning in slightly closer as if being pulled by a magnet. 

"Try me."

Their faces are close. Closer than Harry can ever remember them being before, though he knows he's got to be wrong. They've fought nearer than this. He's looking up at Draco, just a bit, to account for the height difference. The moment feels shatterable, like even the softest breath would break the spell. 

Draco looks away and Harry lets out a rush of air he didn't realise he had been holding in. 

"Theo-" Draco says, "Theodore Nott. He and I have been friends for ages one of the few I've spoken to since.." he trails off. 

Harry nods. 

"And Astoria," he says. 

Astoria? That name doesn't sound familiar. Was she a Slytherin? Couldn't have been, he knew all of them. Millicent, Pansy, and some other girl he doesn't know the name of. Was that Astoria? The idea sent a prickle of hate through him.  

"Who?" he asks, ignoring whatever reason he's so bothered. 

"Greengrass," Draco supplies, "Daphne's younger sister. She's a Slytherin in our year."

"I think that sounds familiar," Harry says, it's a lie. He isn't sure of the reason, but for some reason Draco being close to someone that he didn't even know the existence of makes him upset. 

Draco seems to know that he's stretching the truth, but if he does, he doesn't comment on it. 

"We've struck a bit of a bond," he says, "seeing as I'm marrying her and all."

Harry chokes, Malfoy's aristocratic features blurring in and out around the edges. A firm grip on his bicep is the only thing keeping him rooted to the ground. 

"Take it easy there Potter," Draco says, smacking Harry's back once casually with his other hand before letting go. 

"You can't just.. spring that on me," Harry says, his voice still sounding rough and croaky. 

He blinks harshly, trying to settle the bile that has risen in his throat from drinking so much. 

"What do you care? You don't even know her," Malfoy says. 

'I know you!' his mind protests. But that isn't what he says. 

"I know that all this time you've been talking crap about me and Ginny getting together too young and all the while you've been engaged!" he says in what's really less of a whisper, more of a shout. 

"Betrothed, technically."

That stops Harry's thought process almost completely. 

"What? I thought... I thought your father didn't have control.. over you anymore."

"He doesn't," Draco says. "And he never will. But the Greengrass's are good people. Astoria and I are close. I see no reason not to follow through. I can do what I please. This is it. "