The Thunder in My Heart

Date Night?

Draco had to admit he was somewhat surprised when Harry greeted the two Aurors who were stood on guard at the school gate like they were old friends.

'Evening Wilson, evening Knowles,' he'd said cheerfully. 'Hope it's not too cold for you. How's the new baby, Knowles?'

'Oh, very good, sir, a handsome young fella and sleepin' much better now.' The Aurors had smiled and exchanged pleasantries with the raven-haired man beside Draco. The light banter utterly belied the intimidating appearance of the two men. Indeed, the Auror bestowing the joys of new fatherhood had a severe crewcut and looked like he'd just about escaped with his life from a fight with Fenrir Greyback's talons. Wilson appeared to have several fingers missing and walked with an acute limp. Draco was rather relieved that he'd barely got a second glance from them, let alone a suspicious one.

'Are you heading down?' The one answering to Wilson said. 'If you don't mind, sir, we'll accompany you.'

'Of course, Wilson, I understand.'

Admittedly, Wilson and Knowles were nearly discreet, they followed behind by a couple of paces, allowing Draco to question Harry about what was happening.

'Apparently, the Ministry appear to think I'm a rather special person these days and that I need protecting when out in the public sphere. Something to do with some dark lord or another, but hey-ho, one must endure. I guess Kingsley seems to think that it'll reflect badly on him if something happens to me on his watch, especially now I'm so famous.'

Draco wondered why there weren't more bitter undertones to Harry's light-hearted comments. 'Don't you think they might have missed the boat with that one? What with this guard duty probably being more beneficial over the last seven years of your life rather than now said dark lord is deceased?'

'Well, there's still a number of Death-eaters at large and I'd prefer to have someone else looking over my shoulders for me so I can just live for a while. So, there's a permanent guard for a team of unfortunate Aurors and certain ground rules I need to abide by.' He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, 'and they get a bit jumpy when I'm approached by strangers, which is invariably all the time. Shopping for my Hogwarts stuff at Diagon Alley before I came back was hilarious. Mione and I turned it into a game.'

Draco wondered at the change in the man before him. He also wondered if everything was a game to Harry. He was so remarkably confident and so different from the boy of the first six years of Hogwarts, the boy who was orphaned at one, abused by his family, publicly humiliated by the Daily Prophet, doubted, bullied by him and his fellow Slytherins, the boy who spent the last seven years trying to avoid being murdered at every turn, either by errant members of staff or by Voldemort himself. He'd been the boy who just wanted to belong and have friends and play Quidditch but who wasn't allowed and, instead, he had to grow up too quickly under extraordinary circumstances. He supposed, in some ways, Harry must feel vindicated by this actual acknowledgement of his worth by the Ministry. But he was also surprised by the lack of bitterness. It wouldn't have been surprising if he was furious about it all, about how he'd been manipulated, about the unwanted fame that was thrust upon him, the belated security, about the senseless deaths that surrounded him. And it all came back to the senseless deaths in the end. It always raised the question of 'why'? Why all those deaths? And why wasn't Harry angry?

When they reached the Hogshead, Wilson insisted on going in first 'just in case' and Draco had to wonder exactly how many dark lords were after Harry.

'All clear, Mr Potter, we'll tuck ourselves away in a corner just in case you need us and will walk you back once you're done.'

'Very good, Wilson, and thank you.'

Draco had never been in the Hogshead before and was pleasantly surprised by the welcoming smell of log fires, woody pipe leaf, and Firewhiskey. Once they had brought their drinks and had a brief chat with Aberforth, who was scowling about the Aurors because 'they scare off the customers', they settled in the corner near the fire. Harry nudged Draco's Butterbeer with his own and said, 'you're deep in thought, Draco. I can positively hear you thinking.'