I Understand

Flower Power

Draco was alone. 

Harry had needed to do something, and Draco was alone.

His thoughts had started to run wild and his attempts to organize them had failed.

Draco started to wonder if Harry would come back at all. Harry had said a lot of things, things he probably wouldn't have said around Draco under any other circumstance. Harry probably didn't want to deal with Draco.

Draco was a mess. An emotional burden. Someone Draco himself wouldn't want to be by. He didn't blame Harry from running off.

Draco's anxiety had started to grow.

What if Harry told Granger and Weasley? What if it got out that Draco Malfoy was a mess? That he had needed help because of some 6th years? That he couldn't live with himself? That Draco had cried? That Draco was weak?

His anxiety had started to overwhelm him. He tried to calm himself down. Tried to regulate his breathing.

It was almost like he could already hear the laughter. The teasing. The whispers. He could feel the stares. 

Draco needed fresh air. He needed to clear his mind. Just has Draco was starting to sit up, Harry walked back in.

Draco sighed with relief. A distraction.

But Harry wasn't alone. He was with Luna Lovegood.

Draco's anxiety, with had just started to go away, increased. A million thoughts raced his mind. They were all equally horrible.

"Hey. I know you probably don't want another person here, but Luna has helped me with somethings, and I thought it would be good for you to talk to her." Harry said running his hand through his hair and looking away. Draco hoped his fear wasn't showing on his face.

"Or, if you don't want to talk, you could let me draw on you." Luna held up a small bag, Draco's face contorted with confusion. "It's like a tattoo, but becomes washable when you want it to." She offered, Draco still wasn't sure of what she meant.

"Sorry, this isn't helpful. I... just thought... maybe if she... I don't know... covered it up... it'd help you? But it's no big deal, she'll leave if you don't want her help." Harry said quickly, picking up on Draco's hesitation.

Draco really didn't want anyone else there, just Harry. He wanted to be alone with Harry, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that. But he wanted to know something first, it was eating away at his brain. "Why would you help me?" He said in a small voice.

"Why wouldn't I?" She offered, then she sat next to Draco and pulled out some paint brushes. "May I?" She reached her hand out to Draco's left arm. He slowly reached out to her.

"Because," he looked at her with a pained expression. "You were..." He didn't know what to say to tell her what he felt. "I'm so sorry." Is all he offered. Tears threatened to show. He couldn't cry, not again. He didn't want to show how weak he really was.

"What are you sorry for? You didn't torturer me. And you saved Harry. You're the reason I'm alive." She had started to paint, she made bold black lines on his forearm, covering up scars and distorting his Mark. The paint was cold against his skin, but he didn't mind it.

"I could have helped you." He said, fighting back a sob. He could have helped more. He was a horrible person. He ignored her screams, her cries for help. How could she forgive him?

"Then we'd both be dead, and wouldn't have helped anyone. To be honest, I'm glad we're both not dead." She said. The lines she was making looked more and more like large flowers.

"The world would be a better place if I was dead." Draco lost all emotion because it was true. If he had died, the world would be better off. One less evil murder to worry about.

"No it wouldn't." It was Harry who said it. He had said it so strongly Draco was a little taken back.

"Miss me too much Potter?" Draco said turning to him with a playful look on his face. This was the distraction he needed.

"Only making fun of you. If you weren't here I couldn't make 'My Father Will Hear About This' jokes behind your back. And that's peak comedy for me." He said sitting on the other side of Draco.

"You should hear the jokes about you I make behind your back. It would be about what Perfect Saint Potter had screwed up that day. You screw up a lot, there was a lot of jokes." Draco retorted as if Harry failing was a fact of life. Which it was, there was always something Perfect Potter had messed up horribly. Mostly in Potions.

"What ever you say mister 'A Hippogriff Scratched Me Now I'm Going To Die'. Honestly I laughed about that for weeks." Harry said rolling his eyes.

"Yes, laughing at my pain, how very Gryffindor like of you." He sneered holding back a smile. Harry was really good at distracting him. He felt himself relax more. Everything was clam, okay, in that moment.

"As if that wasn't what you did to me. Having a double standard, how very Slytherin like of you." Harry shook his head teasingly. 

Draco felt a warmth in his heart that he hadn't felt in a very long time. Was it possible that he was becoming friends with Harry? Dare he say it felt good?

"If you two are done bickering like an old married couple, I'd like to show Draco the finishing touches." Luna said before Draco could respond. Draco felt so much better, like he had friends. Luna calling him by his first name made him feel like maybe they were friends.

"You're going to love it." Harry said leaning over the bed to look at what Luna had done.

Draco looked and was a loss for words. 

It was beautiful. Flowers in all shaded of blues seemed to blossom out of his arm. His Mark and scars were all covered up, he couldn't even tell they were there.

The flowers seemed to center around a single red rose in the middle of his forearm. It was perfectly shaded that it appeared real. He wanted to touch it, to see if maybe Luna had just placed a rose on him.

"That's not even the best part." Harry said, practically whispering in Draco's ear, he was leaning in close to look over Draco's shoulder to see. Draco suddenly became all too aware of the lack of space between them, he could feel the warmth emitting off of Harry's chest. His heart jumped a little.

"How? How can it get better, it's beautiful." He breathed. His mouth was slightly opened, his right hand was close to his face. It really was beautiful.

"Like this." Luna said and tapped his arm with her wand.

Then the flowers started to change colours. It shifted into a soft blue, then to a green, then coming to rest at different shades of soft pinks.

"You're happy." Luna noted, packing up her paints. Draco just looked at her with astonishment. "It reads your moods. It's a simple charm really. I gave Harry a chart of all the colours if you want to look them over, but guessing is always fun too. I need to go now, I'll leave you two be." She said and started to walk off.

"Wait." He choked. He got up and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you." He breathed into her hair.

When he stepped back she smiled and said, "That's what friends are for." Then she left him standing in the middle of the hospital, tossing the word 'friends' around in his head. He was really going to cry. But this time it didn't seem as horrible. She was his friend. 

Friend.

Draco was going to survive this year.

Sorry for not writing in Harry's POV, it's 1am and I need to sleep. I'll update it soon enough.

Speaking of soon, maybe one of them will realize that the weird feeling they get around each other is more than friendship. But who knows, maybe they'll dance around each other forever.

Stay safe.