Blackbird

3 | Of Night

Draco looked up when his mother cleared her throat pointedly. He'd joined her for breakfast the next morning, as planned, despite the nagging feeling that he needed to get back to Grimmauld Place.

"Draco, darling. Is everything quite alright? You look distressed."

He met her gaze, forcing a smile onto his face. "I'm fine. Just a bit tired."

"Are you sure? I can ask one of the house elves for—"

"Mother, stop. I'm perfectly fine."

"Is it to do with the mysterious person you were seeing, who subsequently broke your heart?"

He sighed. "How do you even know all that? I didn't tell you anything."

"I'm your mother." She gave him a wry smile. "I can read your face, darling. I could see the happiness when you started seeing him, and the heartbreak when you suddenly stopped."

He stared at her. "So what do you see today, then?"

"Heartbreak again."

"I found something out. I can't share what it is, but he...something happened to him. Something horrible. I didn't know why he ended it before, but now I do. And..." his voice lowered as he choked the words out, "I realized that I'm in love with him."

"Are you going to tell me who it is?"

"I..." He sighed in resignation. "It's Potter, Mum. It's always been Potter."

Narcissa nodded sagely and took a sip of her tea. "I see."

"At school it was just a silly crush. He was handsome, and a hero, and frustratingly good at Quidditch, but now..."

He trailed off, running a hand through his hair and down the side of his face. 

"He's still those things, but he's so much more than that. He's considerate, and kind, and clever, and he likes learning new things, and he makes me laugh, and he's easy to talk to—he would listen to me drone on and on about potions nonsense for hours on end as if it was the most interesting thing in the world—and sometimes he would sing for me and I would just..." Once again, he found himself lost for words as a wave of despair washed over him.

His mother smiled gently, reaching for his hand. "What went wrong, sweet dragon?"

"I can't tell you that. It's not my—"

She nodded and released his hand after giving it a quick squeeze. She picked up her teacup again, a knowing look in her eyes. "I heard a rumor when I was out shopping yesterday. A rumor about...Harry." She used his first name carefully, as if she were trying it out.

Draco's eyes widened. "From who?"

"Our old friend Marcia Rushwood, from the Daily Prophet. One of the reporters got suspicious when Harry Potter left the Auror's on medical discharge and disappeared for two months. He started researching the Greyback case, and apparently he just got access to the public record, and, well...she was very excited to run the story, as you can imagine. I didn't know you were...connected...to him. I'm terribly sorry, darling. I couldn't have stopped it even if I'd tried."

She slowly pushed the paper across the table, and Draco gasped.

A HERO NO MORE: HARRY POTTER TURNED WEREWOLF IN GREYBACK'S REVENGE

The article was ignorant and scathing, full of insinuations that, although Harry had rid the world of Fenrir Greyback, he was now going to be just like him.

Draco's stomach clenched painfully as he read, and then fury flooded through him. He felt his face heating, angry tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. It was disgraceful, it was revolting, it was wrong.