The Heart of the Matter | By : Jad Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 7323 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Chapter Eleven
'Oh, huzzah, look—it's the lesser of two evils.'
- Family Guy
: : :
When Draco awoke the next morning, Potter was gone. Draco yawned and, content in having the living room to himself, did not get up immediately. Stretching out and letting his mind slowly rise out of its morning drowsiness, he heard hushed voices in the hall, but did not think much of them. But the voices grew more acute, the urgency of the argument growing as the voices moved closer to the living room. Draco closed his eyes again and rolled over to face the back of the couch. The voices, apparently under the misinformed opinion that he was still fast asleep, wandered into the living room where he could hear them clearly.
'—immediately.' The voice, Draco recognised, was that of the Weasley mother. 'After breakfast, as soon as they're packed.'
There was a pause, then Lupin's voice. 'I understand your concerns, Molly, but I really don't think it's necessary. He's no more dangerous than I—'
'You are an adult and have dealt with this—this issue since you were very young, much younger than him,' Mrs Weasley insisted. 'Not only is he a stranger but he is also a teenager, Remus, and I've dealt with enough of those to know he's unstable as it is just being a boy. Wasn't it harder for you, at that age? To control yourself?'
Lupin was quiet again, and Mrs Weasley continued. 'Thought so. And you were as mild as boys come, I can tell you that much. I don't know this boy or what he's like, and I'm sure he's no devil and I know it's not his fault, but I won't have my children anywhere near him.'
'He has nowhere else to go, Molly,' Lupin pointed out. 'And it would help a lot if he had someone around who understood what he was going through.'
'I know,' Mrs Weasley said, calming. 'Which is why he can stay. But my children will be home before nightfall.'
There were quick footsteps, fading from the room; a small pause, then a quiet sigh—Lupin, sounding resigned, his slower footsteps following her path. Draco narrowed his eyes, angry and irate and flooded with relief all the same. So, the Weasleys were leaving. Probably Potter as well, then. He wondered if they'd make him leave, too.
Well, they could try, he thought, but he wasn't going anywhere.
: : :
Breakfast was a rather dismal affair. Nobody said anything except Tonks, who had valiantly kept trying to make small talk and failing spectacularly. She finally gave up, a begrudged look on her face, and began stabbing her eggs with unnecessary ferocity. Draco ate quietly, wedged safely between her and Adeline, the latter of which had clung to Draco like she'd been Spellotaped to his side since morning and shooting terrified, furtive looks at everyone else. She refused to speak at all and had actually started crying when Mrs Weasley tried to speak to her directly, but at least she was eating—so much, in fact, that she had gone through two helpings and was now nicking bacon off Draco's plate when she thought he wasn't looking.
Theodore was still upstairs, handicapped by his wound, or so Mrs Weasley had informed the table at large. By the way Lupin glanced at her and from his comment last night, Draco was willing to bet that Theodore was not only fully healed but probably hungry as hell and more than able to come downstairs to eat. They would bring him his breakfast afterwards, Lupin'd promised, however, and no one had said anything at all and ate what they were given without questions. It was more like the dinners Draco was used to at home, and, oddly enough, he found himself missing the noise.
Long after the clinking of silverware had faded, there was a simultaneous scraping of chairs as the Weasleys, Potter, Granger, and Tonks all stood to sort their dishes and slowly filter upstairs. Only Lupin remained at the table with them, not eating, just quietly sipping his tea. It wasn't until the last of the horde had vanished up the stairs that something tugged at the side of Draco's shirt—it was another one of Tonks', this one with some odd Muggle emblem Draco didn't know or understand. He looked down and saw Adeline with one hand hooked onto his shirt near his ribs, pulling insistently.
When she saw he'd noticed her, she whispered, 'I wanna see Teddy.'
Draco looked up and saw Lupin watching him; he nodded and Draco stood up quietly and plucked Adeline from her seat. She sat sideways on his hip with her arms firmly lodged around his shoulder. Draco looked at the table to see Lupin had gathered a plate full of breakfast for Theodore—bacon, sausages, smoked ham, and eggs. No potatoes, no fruit, no toast, nothing else—just the meat.
'Uh,' Draco said. 'You do know that Theo's a vegetarian, right?'
Lupin looked up at him, surprised and a little sad. 'Not anymore.'
: : :
Theodore wrinkled his nose.
'You're going to have to get used to it, I'm afraid,' Lupin said, looking apologetic. 'You can eat other things, of course, but the nights leading up to a full moon—the stomach of a wolf won't agree with anything else, you'll just be causing yourself more misery.'
Theodore said nothing, ignoring the plate of food and glaring out the window. It was overcast and foggy, a small drizzle sprinkling the window with mist, and Adeline sat in her brother's lap sucking on her thumb and holding her new doll in a one-handed hug. It was some ancient, lavishly dressed French bisque Mrs Weasley had dug out of a trunk in the attic and brightened up with a few cleaning spells.
'You'll need the extra protein anyway, to support the monthly upset in your body,' Lupin continued, 'And since that wound has healed already, you'll be in effect tonight.'
Theodore closed his eyes and let one side of his head rest against the wall beside his bed. 'Tonight.'
'All the Weasleys are leaving,' Draco pointed out, hoping this would be at least somewhat consoling. 'Hopefully Potter, too.'
Theodore glanced at him sideways. 'Malfoy, can you do me a favour?' Draco shrugged. 'Take Adelle downstairs. I need to—I'll only be a minute,' he said, his eyes darting to Lupin. 'Go on, dolly.'
Adeline gave her brother a very reproachful look, but obeyed. Draco picked her up again and she clung to his side, making him cringe; he was not really a fan of being man-handled, even by very small children. Out in the hall as he carried the girl towards the stairs, they passed the room on the other side. The door was ajar, and there were raised, agitated voices coming from inside. Draco held a finger to his lips and Adeline nodded, and he stopped just short of the doorway to listen.
'I don't give a damn what mum says,' Weasley snapped. 'If you're staying, so am I.'
'I'm not staying because I want to,' Potter returned, defensively. 'I have to stay. I told you, Dumbledore reckons it's too dangerous for me to be anywhere else I don't need to be.'
'Oh, like it's safe here with the werewolves!' Weasley snapped back.
Potter sighed heavily, and Draco thought he understood why; Potter had meant it was too dangerous for him to be anywhere else because he would bring the danger with him—not because he thought he himself would end up dead, werewolves or no werewolves.
Potter, however, didn't point this out. 'Look, Tonks and Hermione are going, too. It's just for a couple of days, Ron. It's not like I won't be here when you get back.'
'So it's just you and two werewolves?'
'Well—no.' Potter paused. 'I think Malfoy and the girl are staying, too.'
'Oh, well, that's much better then, wouldn't want to leave you alone with a couple of blood-thirsty animals and someone we didn't trust,' Weasley sneered.
'Malfoy couldn't cause any trouble even if he wanted to,' Potter snapped.
'I don't even know why you're letting him stay here, Harry.'
'He has nowhere else to go!'
'So what?' Weasley snapped. 'Do you think he'd give two shits if it were you? No!'
'That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.'
'You'll let that sonofabitch stay here with you, but you expect me to go? We said we'd stick with you, Harry, and we fucking meant it—both of us!'
Draco bit down on his tongue to keep himself from charging in the room and giving them both what-for, and instead continued downstairs to the living room, where Tonks, Mrs Weasley, Charlie, Ginny and Granger were already waiting, a pile of trunks at their feet. Draco stuck to the far edge of the room and circled towards the fireplace, where he put Adeline down on the floor before giving the grate a kick.
'Oh, thank you, dear,' Mrs Weasley said to him, turning around and startling him. 'Is Lupin still upstairs?'
Draco nodded but said nothing, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Adeline and leaning his back against the wall beside the mantle. Tonks tapped her fingers against her thighs, her nails clicking against the dragon-hide leather of her trousers. 'Fred and George are taking ages,' she complained. 'I swear they have an entire trunk just for their joke junk.'
'Junk, did you say?' chimed one of the twins, swinging into the room with an overflowing trunk. 'George, do you think she could be referring to the fruits of our genius?'
'Masterminds are always unappreciated in their time,' George declared solemnly, swinging in after his twin, two smaller trunks leaking ties and the ends of robes in both hands.
There were the sounds of more footsteps behind them, still thudding quietly down the stairs. Ginny stood up and told her mum, 'I'm just going to say goodbye to Harry.' and vanished from the room.
As Weasley stormed in and added his trunk to the pile, which had grown almost as tall as the ceiling in the small room, Mrs Weasley took down the box from the mantle and declared, 'All right, all right, Charlie is going to Apparate first, and once we get his Floo, you two can go on and Disapparate—Hermione, Ron, and Ginny'll go by Floo with the trunks—'
Charlie had disappeared with a crack just as Adeline leapt to her feet, calling 'Teddy!' Everyone looked up as she dashed across the room, braving the cluttered sea of trunks to attack herself to her brother's leg.
Theodore sighed before carefully pulling her off and holding her by the hand. Squatting down he whispered something in her ear and she bit her lip, but nodded obediently. Satisfied, Theodore looked up and approached Mrs Weasley, who stiffened as he drew close, but did not back away. Draco noticed there was still a slight limp to his walk—thought it was subtle, and he hid it well.
'I was wondering,' he said slowly, 'if you would be good enough to take my sister with you.'
Mrs Weasley blinked, apparently startled by the request. Theodore misread it as hesitation and continued, 'She's quiet, never makes a fuss, you honestly wouldn't even know she was there—'
'Oh—oh! No, no, I mean—of course, dear, if—if you really think—'
'I think it'd be best to have her as far away from me as possible during—' Theodore smiled, brief and viciously, his teeth flashing out the corner of his lips. 'Thank you. I appreciate it.'
Mrs Weasley offered her hand and, after looking longingly up at her brother for a moment, Adeline dropped his and accepted Mrs Weasley's, squeezing her doll protectively with her other arm.
Mrs Weasley beamed down at her. 'That's a good girl. Don't you worry, it'll be fine. And I think Ginny's got some old dolls that she doesn't want any more, if you like.' Adeline winced away from her voice as if she'd been scolded, but at least she hadn't started crying. Theodore seemed to take this as a good sign, nodded, and turned to return upstairs.
Just then the fireplace besides Draco roared and turned green due to an incoming Floo. Draco stood up and backed away from the spitting flames, in which Charlie's head now sat.
'It's fine, Mum,' he said, coughing through the dust. 'Start tossing me the trunks, you can't carry all of those through.'
Deciding there was far too much activity in the room to stomach, Draco crept carefully back outside, skulking down the hallway towards the kitchen. He wasn't hungry, but knew where Tonks kept the Firewhisky stashed in the back cupboard, and definitely thought he could do with a drink. One could only take so many Weasleys in one day, after all.
Looking back on things, Draco really wished he'd had just gone back up to his room.
It would have been funny, Draco thought, if Mrs Weasley knew what her daughter had meant exactly when she said she was saying goodbye to her boyfriend. Draco personally felt he'd been scarred for life by the sight that greeted him when he opened up the kitchen door.
Potter was sitting on one of the many chairs around the kitchen table, and Ginny was right there in his lap, her thighs draped across his hips and held in place by his hands. Her hands were tangled in his hair and twisting; her forearms and her curtain of hair hid most of the damage, for Draco could only see the implication of what that girl was doing to Potter's face. One of Potter's hands was furtively sneaking up the inside of her shirt and Draco, horrified, cleared his throat as loudly as he could.
Potter whipped around in his seat just as Ginny jerked backwards, which was probably unwise, as it sent Potter and his chair toppling backwards onto the floor.
Over a string of colourful language from Potter, Ginny yanked her shirt down hard and glared at Draco. 'Jesus, Malfoy, do you think it would kill you to knock!'
Draco folded his arms and regarded her coolly. 'Oh, sorry,' he drawled. 'Didn't realise that Headquarters for the Order doubled as a Hôtel d'Amour.'
'Fuck you, Malfoy,' Potter managed to hiss, climbing painfully to his feet.
'Kind of you to offer, but I see she's got that much covered,' he replied, smirking at the colours Potter was turning.
Ginny, however, seemed surprisingly composed aside from the fact that she was furious. 'I don't see what you can say about it, Malfoy, unless you're admitting that Pansy Parkinson is the tramp we allknow she is.'
Draco stiffened, but did not advance; this was a girl, after all, and Weasley or not, Draco was not raised a boor and he crushed his temper down. 'That's funny, coming from you,' he sneered instead, 'considering I'm willing to bet my broomstick your mother had no idea she had a slag for a daughter.'
The insult was barely out of his mouth before Potter was at his throat, wand drawn and looking murderous. 'You ever call her that again, Malfoy, and I swear to god—'
'You'll what?' Draco scoffed, smirking at him. 'I wonder if you've told Weasley what the two of you get up to—though, by the fact that he hasn't killed you yet, presumably not. Some way to repay his trust, if you ask me, taking advantage of his little sister when he's not looking.'
'Piss off, Malfoy,' Ginny hissed. 'It's none of your bloody business, what I do or what I don't, and whether or not my brothers know about it. Come on, Harry,' she said, her tone changing as she spoke to her boyfriend, pulling his wand hand down by the wrist and clasping it in her own. 'He's just trying to get a rise out of you. Ignore him.'
'Notice she didn't correct me,' Draco pointed out, a gleeful bubble of satisfaction swelling under his diaphragm as Potter, who had turned away, stiffened. 'I wonder, did she even tell you about her little tryst with Pucey? I know they tried to keep it clandestine, what with the House-wars and everything, she even started dating Thomas so nobody'd suspect—'
'How dare you,' Ginny snarled, rounding on him. Potter looked between the two of them, furious at Draco but too curious just the same to stop him. 'You snivelling little shit—'
'Ooh,' Draco taunted, getting into stride, 'so who's given me a rise, now? You broke poor Adrian's heart, you know, he was convinced he was so in love with you, even with everyone in Slytherin telling him what a tramp you were. Can't say I'm sorry he finally figured you out, though, I was really quite sick of hearing about some of the things the two of you would get up to—'
'That's enough, Malfoy!' Potter snapped, who was apparently not that curious. 'It's none of your fucking business, what she does, or what I do, so do us both a favour and just fuck off.'
Ginny started to talk but Potter cut her off with a look, a look that reminded Draco of the sort his father had frequently used to quell insubordination, and said, 'Forget it, Gin. I don't want to know.'
Ginny hugged her forearms against her sides and glared harshly at Draco before disappearing out the door and up the stairs, Potter following quickly without a backward glance, and slamming the door.
Draco, humming contently, sashayed over to the cupboard—then, deciding he no longer required the whisky to calm his nerves, summoned a pitcher of pumpkin juice instead.
: : :
Notes:
Pucey – Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin Chaser listed in the lexicon. He's listed to have started Hogwarts in either 1989 or 1990; for the purpose of this fic, it'd be 1990, which would put him in his seventh year during HBP.
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