Struggling Through New Beginnings

Chapter 8

Being stuck in his room, as if he had reason to hide, was not in Draco’s nature. He might not be everyone’s favorite person, but he had friends. Well, he had friend-type people. He didn’t know how to qualify his relationship with Blaise. But he knew he needed someone to talk to who would not judge him, if only for a short time. With that thought he closed the book he hadn’t been reading anyway and left the room. He passed the rooms of other students and saw the happiness in them at being back at school. His house was normally not a gregarious one, at least not without alcohol in their systems, but all of the changes, and the new feeling of freedom many felt, made for quite the party atmosphere. Draco noticed that many people wouldn’t look him in the eye, and he admitted to himself that it hurt a bit. Not so much because he felt the loss of their respect or fear, but more so because he felt so alone. As bleak as the summer had been, he’d had his mother for company. Now…

“No one,” he whispered harshly to himself.

“No one, what?” Gregory Goyle asked from behind him.

Draco stilled to keep from jumping at the sudden appearance of Greg.

Greg looked at Draco’s pale face and asked, “Why are you standing on the steps like this? And, no one what?”

Draco glanced around and noticed that he had been so lost in thought that he’d reached the common room without realizing it. There were very few people about, as most were up in the rooms.

He turned to Greg, “Nothing. I was just…I was going to see Blaise.”

Draco watched and waited as the boy he’d grown up with seemed to struggle with something. At some point, Greg had grown into a man and Draco hadn’t noticed. He almost smiled when he realized the boyish fat had indeed turned into the muscle it had promised to become. And, he fleetingly thought it was odd that he’d never before noticed he was taller than his former body guard.

As he looked at Greg and tried to figure out the last time he’d seen his friend he had a quick flash of memory. For the first time since it had happened, Draco allowed himself to think about the missing third to their trio, Vincent Crabbe. He felt a stab of guilt that he hadn’t given the boy who’d died in the war much thought after that night. All the years they’d spent together and he hadn’t even attended the funeral. Draco had had many other things to contend with, and the fact that he had lost someone who he had spent the majority of his young life with had simply faded in the background.

Most people thought Draco the brains of the group, and Vince and Greg only muscle, but no one really knew them. Vince had been as hotheaded as a Weasley, but loyal to a fault. He was also the most insecure of the three. It had been his zeal for approval; Draco’s, his parents’, and Voldemort’s that had ultimately led to his death.

Greg was the quieter of the two, and the most intelligent of the three. He would have died of embarrassment if anyone found out, because it would have ruined his reputation as a bad-ass Slytherin, but his photographic memory made it easy for him to never study. He didn’t talk a lot, because he was not one for attention, and when he did it was most often to Draco, Blaise, or Theo. His school life had been easy enough as teachers never asked him to answer questions in class, as long as his work was done. It was widely assumed by most people, teachers included, that Draco did all his work for him, and Greg didn’t care as long as he got his grades and stayed in the background.

Greg never discussed his feelings or thought on things, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have them. Draco supposed this was why Greg was seeking him out now, for some kind of closure. Draco wasn’t really in the mood to talk, but felt the other man deserved to be heard after all their time together.