bury a friend • drarry

s i n n e r s

Chapter Three:

Malfoy didn't close his eyes as he and Harry sat on the edge of a branch in a tall  tree. Malfoy stared down at the ground, and felt the branch continue to creak beneath his weight. He immediately reached for Harry's arm, holding onto him with a vice like grip.

Harry chuckled. "Calm down, Malfoy. We're not going to fall."

Malfoy only became more and more queasy the more time they spent up there. "Can we just go down now?" He asked Harry, feeling as though he was going to either throw up or fall any moment now. 

Harry turned to face him. "Are you seriously afraid of heights?" He asked, shocked that Malfoy even had any fears.

"N-No." Malfoy tried to deny, but he knew he didn't sound very convincing, considering that he had stuttered.
Harry wrapped an arm around Malfoy's shoulder. "It's alright." he smiled at Malfoy. "Everyone's afraid of something."

Malfoy pushed Harry's arm off his shoulder. "Yuh-You're not helping." He was still staring down at the ground.

Harry stared him straight in the eyes. "Don't worry, Malfoy.You'll be alright."  Malfoy met his gaze. "Just breathe with me." Harry instructed, taking in a deep breath.

Malfoy closed his eyes and tried to take in deep breaths, but he was still panicking just as much as he had been when he first looked down. A strong wind came whizzing past his ears, and he found himself gripping onto the branch beneath him for dear life. Malfoy sighed, and gave Harry a pleading look. "Can we just go back down?" Malfoy asked, hating the whiney sound of his voice. His heart rate was still pounding at least a thousand times a second as he looked back down at the ground, fearing he would fall any second soon.

"It's fine. You're going to be fine." Harry tried his best to reassure him, and put a gentle hand on Malfoy's shoulder, although he knew he probably wasn't helping his friend very much. Still, he had something important to confess to Malfoy, and it meant something to Harry that they were up in the treetops when he said it.

Malfoy shook his head. "Harry, please." He begged, feeling tears begin to prickle in his eyes,  threatening to escape any moment now. He stared once again down at the ground as he felt his vision being blurred by tears.

"Woah, woah." Harry turned to Malfoy now concerned. The word fear didn't seem to exist anymore in Harry's mind. He'd faced so many freakish things that he didn't even think he could get scared anymore. But Malfoy had never gone through the things he had, which was what Harry was just realizing now. "I'm so sorry. I-I didn't know, I just-" Harry stumbled around his brain for the right words, but knew that it would come out sounding like a lousy apology anyway. "I just thought I could take you somewhere special." Harry mumbled under his breath, running his hand through his hair.

Draco nodded. "All is forgiven." he said quickly, his eyes screwed shut in an attempt to not look at the ground. "Let's just get down from here." He said quickly, not exactly meeting Harry's gaze.

Harry nodded and started climbing quickly down the branches, making room for Malfoy to follow down after him. Once Malfoy was back on the ground he slowly began to relax again, his heart gradually slowing down to it's normal rate. He looked up at Harry, seeing the concerned look on his face made him almost happy. It was nice to know at times that at least someone cared about him.

"You okay?" Harry asked, seeing Malfoy sit down on the ground, trying to catch his breath.

Malfoy nodded. "What was it you wanted to tell me?" He asked, still curious.