Draco Malfoy, Broken

Chapter 35 - Waiting

35 – Waiting

Published: 12/25/2018

TRIGGER WARNING: for offensive terminology

Happy Christmas! Sorry for the long wait... pun not intended. Or intended.

Draco was so stupid. He should have remembered when the potion wore off before that his anxiety skyrocketed. In his sleep-induced state, it only made it worse. He slipped right back into the memory, again, playing out more bits of the scene. However, this time, Harry brought him back out, pulling him into his arms.

"Draco," Harry whispered, but he couldn't respond, it hurt too much. Harry lifted him up and dropped him gently on the bed without difficulty. He climbed in next to him, bringing Draco close to his chest. "Can we play the game?"

Draco shook his head. He didn't think he could.

"Will you listen to mine?" Harry said, his voice quivering.

Draco looked into his eyes and clearly spoke. "Of course, Harry." Harry's pain was always more important than his.

Harry almost breathed a sigh of relief and regaled his dream of death and destruction. The fiendfyre, ever present in Draco's dream cycle, was a critical entity in Harry's as well. Listening to Harry talk about people's faces burning off, certainly took his mind off worse things. He actually missed the acute fear of being burned alive. Draco put his ear against Harry's chest and his heart was beating faster than his normal steady rhythm. Harry was scared, even after finishing his story. Draco looked up in his eyes, again, and they were staring back at him, wide and in pain.

"Harry, are you okay?" Draco said, rotating in his arms to look at him properly.

"I should be asking you that, Draco..." Harry said, guiltily, tears in his eyes.

"I'm okay. I got... lost, but I'm back. I'm worried about you."

"I'm just so... I miss you. It's so hard to talk to people, about anything," Harry whispered. "I-I had a fight with Ron last night."

"What for?"

"Nothing and everything."

"That's nice and vague," Draco chided.

"He started questioning me about Bill and then started asking me how I was doing. I just snapped... started screaming. I was just so angry. I didn't know how to stop. I'm not saying he didn't deserve it or that he did. I'm not sure... of anything."

"You have to let it out, Harry. It was pent up in you."

"I told him what happened over the summer.... I mean what happened to... me."

Draco frowned. "What did he say?"

"I think he was just shocked more than anything. He tried to apologize, saying that he didn't know. Funny thing is that he always understood me loud and clear before," he growled.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what to say," Draco said, still just as unsure as Harry was about the Weasel.

"Nothing you can say. It's on Ron."

"This is my fault," Draco stated.

"No, it's not. We're not going through this again, are we?" Harry said, unhappily.

Draco shook his head.

"You want to talk about yours?" Harry asked, his green eyes searching Draco's.

"No... I can't."

"Not even why you were under the bed?"

"It was a hiding place when I was a kid. Until I realized that my father could homenum revelio me and magic the bed upward."