Just for a Week (Drarry)

The Plan

  Harry watched from across the room as Dean Thomas tucked a piece of fiery red hair behind Ginny Weasley's ear. She smiled at him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Harry turned away.
It had taken exactly three weeks for Ginny to move on from their relationship. In three weeks, she had managed to get over everything that she and Harry had had over the past year and move on to the next guy, or in this case, return to the previous guy.

It wasn't like Harry wasn't happy for them. They were both his friends, and he wasn't jealous of Dean. The spark between him and Ginny had been gone for a while. Everything had seemed so overwhelming and exciting during the war, but after, it just faded away. Harry and Ginny both knew it wasn't there anymore, but Harry was content with pretending like they were okay. After all, neither of them had done anything wrong or breakup worthy. Ginny, however, was not a fan of pretending. She's the one who called it off, but there were no hard feelings. They were better as friends.

So obviously, Harry was happy for them. Dean and Ginny getting back together wasn't what bothered him; what was bothering him was how pathetic he felt. Ginny had moved on so quickly, and what had Harry done for the past three weeks? He wallowed. He felt sorry for himself. That was what you were supposed to do after a breakup, wasn't it? He was sad, and he would miss having Ginny around all the time, but to him, the wallowing felt more like going through the motions, and it was pathetic. He could tell his friends looked at him with pity in their eyes. Ron and Hermione were the worst. They didn't want to make Harry feel bad, so they refused to act like a couple in front of him. Whenever he entered a room, they would jump ten feet apart and turn to him with the same sorry look on their faces. Harry started taking different routes to class just to avoid them.

His eyes scanned the quiet library until they landed on Draco Malfoy. He was leaning so far over the book at his table, Harry was afraid he might fall into it. His eyebrows were scrunched together in concentration, and he was chewing on his bottom lip. Harry thought it was possibly the most adorable thing he'd ever seen. Then, as if sensing Harry's eyes on him, Draco looked up from his book. His stormy grey eyes instantly met Harry's, and he shot him a wink. A small laugh that was more like an exhale escaped Harry's mouth, and he shot a wink back.
Harry was not really sure what to expect when he had come back to Hogwarts for his eighth year, but if there was a list of things he'd least expected, becoming friends with Draco Malfoy would've been at the top of it. Still, over the first three months of school, that's exactly what happened. It started slow at first. The atmosphere was different between them from the first day back, Harry could feel it. He no longer felt Draco's eyes burning holes into his skull, or heard him whispering cruel things in the corridors, and Harry didn't feel the urge to do those things either.
All of the eighth years pretty much had the same schedule, so Harry and Draco inevitably spent most of the day together. The first few weeks of school they only made subtle eye contact from across the room. Soon though, the eye contact turned to staring, the staring turned to smiling, that turned to waving, and eventually, they shared their first civil conversation.
Harry quickly found that Draco was actually really fun to be around. Sure, he could still be a jerk sometimes, but it was different from before. Now when he was being a jerk, he was joking. More important than his tendencies to tease Harry, was the fact that he was incredibly smart and witty. Harry was learning things about Draco that he never knew before, like the fact that he could play the most beautiful songs on the piano from memory and with his eyes closed. Harry loved learning new things about Draco.

They talked in class, studied together, went to quidditch games, and had lively debates in the eighth year common room. Draco was a good friend to Harry. He listened to his concerns, told him when he was being ridiculous, and was the only one who didn't have pity in his eyes when he looked at him. Draco got Harry through his breakup. He sat silently next to Harry through his hours of wallowing, brought his favorite treats from Hogsmeade to cheer him up, and reminded Harry repeatedly that it was better this way.