When You Turn Your Back [Drarry]

[1] High Hopes

1999
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From the corner of his eyes, Draco noticed the brunette dip down the couch with a huff, his tanned skin gleaming in the golden light of the fire and hair as messy as ever falling on his forehead in soft curls. The scene was familiar to him, so much so, that if he closed his eyes, he could paint that face down on a canvas with just a few shades of brown and black; even the bottle of whiskey that sat in front of him these days, too often.

The chattering in front of him never ceased, just the eyes had turned on him with curiosity laced in them, but they remained silent on the matter.

“...so, I told them to just leave me alone. I didn't want to spend the Christmas with them.” Pansy shook her head.

“How did they take it?” Blaise asked, eyes back on her.

“Well, I know they didn't agree, but let me be. They need me, I need peace, it's just a whole chaos.” leaning her head on one hand, she sighed.

With a nod, Draco chewed on his bottom lip, tempted to look Harry's way again, but not wanting the eyes back on him, he looked ahead. The sweetness of whiskey spread through the air, and his breath fell short, as he sat their, poised on the chair.

“It's the same everywhere.” he provided shortly, putting a piece of waffle in his mouth from the table.

It was the Christmas Eve, but no one seemed sober as the excitement of the Dark Lord gone brewed in the air with an intoxicating fragrance that heightened the Christmas to the top notch and had basically made the whole school mad with happiness. Though a few lives hadn't changed much, or had changed a bit too much to get a grip on matters and kept slipping out of the fingers as time ticked by, straining relationships to threads.

“What's up with Potter?” Pansy nodded her head towards the lone figure sitting in front of the fire with a bottle of whiskey beside his feet on a table. “He's been drinking a lot.”

Gaining a leverage to glance his way, he turned, roaming his eyes around the lean yet broad structure hunched on the cushions. Though there was a little scope of catching his eyes, but Draco didn't dare a lot to do that yet, even if he wanted to.

“His relatives left Privet Drive.” he answered shortly, not wanting to attract his attention for discussing his personal life, even if his desires were contradictory to his beliefs.

There was a little chance of keeping it that way with Pansy sprawled in front of him with her legs on Blaise's lap, as she seemed to grasp the little chances of gossips spilt here and there about anyone, lately. There was this tensed interest bubbling inside of her these days, Draco had noticed, to befriend anyone who showed some interest toward them and proved decent in her eyes. Maybe it was the stranded situation they all were dealing with, where almost everyone, even the people who had promised that they didn't hold any respect for the Golden Boy had turned their backs to them, complaining about how they were ungrateful and didn't deserve compassion to the least. Draco had taken the blame on his shoulder, turning his nose up dramatically to anyone who tried to bully him, or called him nonsensical words. But deep down, he was past that stage when he would try to use his notorious image to fight them, and just wanted some silence in his life, for once.

“Why?” Pansy asked inevitably, her eyebrows knitted with interest.

Even though he knew the reason, he shook his head with a “don't know,” and fell back to the sombre pool of melancholy they were lapping on a few minutes earlier. The distant knocks and squeaks of Harry moving beat on his eardrums, which proved to be the only way of him confirming his presence.