Only Ash Remains

Chapter 16

In the end, Hermione and Ron had been so jet-lagged that they'd opted  to skip eating and go straight to bed, even though it was still only  the afternoon. Harry had known that Ron must be truly exhausted to pass  up food, and had agreed without protest. But it left him at loose ends.  Narcissa and Lucius both seemed busy and Malfoy was nowhere to be found.  Harry wondered where he was. He stood outside Malfoy's door for several  moments, debating knocking. When he finally did, he waited several long  minutes before finally turning back to the stairs, dragging his feet in  disappointment. With nothing else to do, he went to bed early, hoping  that the next day would be better.

The next day he woke early, hopping out of bed with more enthusiasm than usual. Ron and Hermione were finally home! He couldn't wait to tell them everything. Well, maybe not everything.  He thought of Malfoy, of their tentative friendship-maybe-more, and bit  his lip. He couldn't tell them. Not yet. Not until they'd had a chance  to get to know him.

Still, he thought, hopping on one foot as he pulled on his jeans,  there was plenty he could tell them. It would be such a relief to get  some of it out in the open.

He discovered, once he reached the kitchen, that he was the first one  up. He shrugged, trying to bury his disappointment, and began preparing  breakfast. At first he thought he would make pancakes, but then he  remembered seeing a waffle iron in the back of one of the cupboards  while digging for a muffin tin. He unearthed it with a grin, deciding  that waffles were just the thing to make the morning extra-special.

He hummed as he mixed the batter and poured it into the iron,  butchering one of Molly Weasley's favourite Celestina Warbeck songs. He  turned with a grin when he heard footsteps behind him, but his smile  faltered when he found it was only Narcissa and not Ron or Hermione. He  quickly pasted the smile back on and continued making breakfast,  directing her to the cutting board and the fruit he'd laid out for  toppings.

Lucius joined them after a while, and Harry urged him and Narcissa to  go ahead and eat. He would wait for Hermione and Ron, he decided. It  seemed the good host thing to do.

After twenty minutes of sitting in silence at the table, eyeing the  platters of strawberries and blueberries and fluffy waffles hungrily, he  realised that they wouldn't be down anytime soon and decided he may as  well eat.

Twenty minutes of sitting in silence once he'd finished eating, and  he gave up the idea of breakfasting with them. They were clearly  jet-lagged, so he didn't really begrudge them the extra sleep,  but he was impatient to hear about Australia and tell them about how  he'd been cleaning the Manor with Narcissa and rooting out corruption in  the Ministry with Lucius. If Hermione pressed him for details of how  he'd been studying, he'd tell her about his Potions experiments with  Malfoy, he decided, but otherwise he'd keep them to himself. There was  something delicious about the thought of keeping such a secret from his  best friends.

Harry put the remaining waffles under a warming charm and headed up  the stairs in search of Malfoy. If he couldn't spend the morning  chatting with Ron and Hermione, he'd spend it working on Potions with  Malfoy.

But Malfoy didn't seem to be anywhere. Harry searched everywhere he  could think of, even braving his wrath by searching his room. It was as  if Malfoy had disappeared into thin air. Harry couldn't understand where  he'd gone. More importantly, he couldn't understand why he'd  gone. He still wasn't sure what he'd done wrong the night before that  had sent Malfoy off in such a snit. Really though, he thought in  annoyance, how was he supposed to correct whatever it was if Malfoy just  up and vanished?

Eventually Harry gave up searching and went to work on one of the  potions he'd been having trouble with, hoping Malfoy would find him. It  was past lunchtime, and Harry's stomach was growling insistently, when  he realised that he wasn't going to.