The Tragic Tale of the Boy Who Lived and the Boy Who Wanted to Die [ON HIATUS]

About a week after the match, Draco was reading up in his room when he heard an owl at his window. It was a gorgeous snowy owl, and Draco recognised it from the morning mail deliveries at Hogwarts. He rushed over to let it in, and offered it some water from his own owl's cage. His owl Apollo didn't seem to mind the company.

He hadn't forgotten about his and Potter's meet-up in the woods. In fact, it was all he had thought about (other than the Death Eater infiltration). It had been an incredibly awkward meeting. After the incident, he thought Potter would definitely hate him. Maybe he did, and this was some sort of sick joke he had come up with.

He looked at the letter and saw it addressed to him with no signature. He opened it, and read it. It said, Malfoy- I hope this letter finds you well. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, I've been busy with the whole Dark Mark situation. I'm sure you've heard about that. Also, sorry about how awkward our previous encounter was, I didn't intend on running into you there. I was actually just looking for my wand. I'm staying at my friend Ron's house for the summer holidays right now (Ginny's brother). He doesn't know about you yet, so I had to pretend I was writing to Sirius. I'm sure you know who he is. He also happens to be my godfather. I hope your summer is going well so far, hope to get a letter back soon. -Prongs (P.S. I hope you like my pen name. It was my dads nickname back in school. Tell me if it gets confusing. Also, I think you should probably use one too.)

Draco was surprised Potter would put so much time into the letter. He could tell Potter had written and rewritten it until it was perfect. It had care put into it.

Immediately, Draco started drafting his response. First, he grabbed his book of stars to look for a meaningful nickname, as most of his family on his mother’s side were named for stars. He found a couple of good ones, like Orion and Leo. But one that stuck out to him the most was Pollux. Pollux was the brightest star in the Gemini, which was Draco’s zodiac sign. It was kinda stupid, but it was better than nothing.

Next, he grabbed a piece of parchment and his best quill. He wondered for a moment how to address Potter. Based on the letter that he had sent, the two couldn’t be on first-name terms yet. He considered writing ‘Prongs’, since that was what Potter had signed the letter with, but then realised Weasley would probably think it was weird that Potter was getting letters addressed to ‘Prongs’. So instead, he opted for ‘Potter’.

After massively overthinking every single line, he had his letter.

Potter- Thank you for your letter. I have indeed heard about the Dark Mark, no idea who might have caused it. I had no idea that Sirius Black was your godfather, he is also my mothers cousin. Fun fact, they were actually supposed to be wed as punishment for Sirius’s poor behavior and ‘betrayal to the Black name’ before my mother put a stop to it. As for how my summer is going, it could be better. Glad to know you are having a good summer. -Pollux (it's the name of a star, look it up in your astronomy books).

He could tell from looking at it that it was a very poorly written letter. Part of him wanted to ask questions and engage in a meaningful conversation, but another still didn’t fully trust Potter. He hoped that Potter had genuinely turned a new leaf, but he couldn’t know for sure. Before his parents could come in and see his letter, or Potter’s owl, he sent her off with his letter.

Instead of doing the logical thing and taking Potter's letter and tossing it in the trash, he hid it in his school trunk along with the card and the money he had yet to do anything with. He almost had a heart attack when he heard a knock at the door.

“Uh- come in!” He called, shoving his trunk underneath his bed hastily. Luckily, it was just his mother.

“Draco, tonight I will be leaving to get your supply list from Severus. Please at least try to not set your father off. He’s rather busy with work and the like.” This confused Draco, since normally his father went out to go get the list so they could purchase school supplies early. He tried not to think anything of it, since his father was probably busy at the Ministry. But busy to the point of being unable to make his annual trip to visit his friend? Lucius and Snape weren't close by any means, but Lucius had declared Snape Draco’s godfather (a role he rarely even acknowledged) and they made time for a visit at least once every summer.

His father didn’t work at the Ministry, but instead often donated and advised the Minister, Cornelius Fudge. It makes sense that Lucius would be there, after the World Cup incident. Fudge was practically incapable of doing anything himself, so he would probably need Lucius’s help.

Draco spent the next few weeks mostly playing Quidditch. He wanted to go to Diagon Alley to get his books, but his father never took him and his mother was always busy with the housework. Blaise did write, but let Draco know that his mother had planned a surprise trip to Italy with her newest boyfriend and that he wouldn’t be able to write. Draco and Potter sent a few letters back and forth, although there wasn’t any real conversation going on. Surprisingly, Ginny did write. Draco thought it was funny that both Potter and Ginny were writing from the same house, although Ginny presumably didn’t know. Her first letter to Draco was much longer than Potter’s had been.

Dear Draco, how is your summer going? Mine is pretty chaotic, the twins were caught with these sweets that made your tongue grow long and were apparently trying to sell it. When they went to pick up Harry from his aunt and uncle's house allegedly they dropped some and his cousin ate one. His relatives hate magic, so according to Dad it grew four feet before they would let him fix it! I wish I could’ve been there, but I was at home with Mum. Speaking of which, they finally started talking to me more! Mum was teaching me her banana bread recipe, which unfortunately came out burnt on the outside and raw on the inside, but it was pretty fun. Percy still avoids me like the plague, but Charlie and Bill came down to visit for the World Cup and they both think it's cool that I ‘broke the tradition’. Dad’s working overtime now after the Dark Mark thing. Did you hear that Barty Crouch’s house elf was found with the wand that did it? She was fired right after, and we're all pretty sure she didn’t do it, but it was awfully suspicious since you know that elves aren’t allowed to have wands. Hermione is pretty mad about that. I think she’s plotting to free house elves. Just wait until she finds out about the elves at Hogwarts. I’m borrowing Ron’s owl for this, I would borrow Harry’s but he keeps using it for deliveries. I wish I knew what he was doing, but he won't tell me. Ron doesn’t like the name I gave the owl, Pigwidgeon, but I think it’s cute. Anyways, I hope you're having a good summer, write back soon. Don’t worry about my parents finding your letter, they are more preoccupied with everything else. Take care- Ginny.

Draco found the letter ironic, since he knew exactly what Potter was doing with his owl. He also agreed with Weasley (a sentence he never thought would be true) that Ginny’s name for the owl was stupid, but didn’t tell her that in his return letter. Theo was another regular correspondent, and according to him, Flurry was settling into Theo’s home well.

One evening at dinner, Draco’s father told him about the Triwizard Tournament, an event that would be taking place at Hogwarts that year.

“It’s highly classified information, nobody else is supposed to know about it.” Lucius said.

After dinner, Draco ran up and decided to write to Potter about it. He could tell his other friends on the train, but chances were he wouldn’t see Potter much the following year.

Potter- have you heard about the Triwizard Tournament? There’s two schools sending people over to compete in this competition. Winner gets one thousand galleons! Are you thinking of entering? I might. They might put an age limit on it though. It’s also Ministry classified information, so don’t tell anybody there about it. I heard about it from my father, so there’s a chance you could’ve heard about it from Ginny’s dad. The supply list says that we need dress robes, so there might also be a formal event, like maybe a ball or a fancy dinner. Ginny wrote to me, and told me something about your cousin eating a magic sweet but not being able to fix it or something. Is he not a wizard? I thought you were a pureblood. Not that that matters necessarily, but I just assumed. -Pollux.

He didn’t expect Potter’s reply to be so quick, but his owl (who Draco learned was named Hedwig) returned to Draco’s window early the next morning.

Draco- no, I have not heard about the tournament, but Ginny’s brother has been talking about a ‘top-secret event’ going on. I assume this must be it. What kind of competition is it? Is it a Quidditch thing? Also, how do you already have the school supply list? I double checked with Hermione, and she told me they hadn’t sent them out yet. I don’t have any dress robes, but I’ll probably get some if they are on the list. Are they expensive? And yes, my cousin is a muggle. My mother was a muggleborn, and I stay with her sister’s family over the holidays. They aren’t very nice. I assume you stay with your family? I saw them at the Quidditch World Cup. Wasn’t your dad involved in the Death Eater thing that happened? Anyways, school starts in a few weeks, have you already gotten your school stuff? Since you already got your list, I assumed you probably already have everything. If you don’t, we could meet up in person at Diagon Alley, if you want to. It’d have to be quick and privately, but we still could see each other at least once before school starts. -Prongs

Draco immediately did a double take at the beginning of the letter. Not once had Potter ever referred to him as ‘Draco’ before; it was always Malfoy. Does that mean that Draco was free to call him ‘Harry’? It felt weird to even consider that. He’d always called him ‘Potter’ or ‘idiot’. What caused the sudden change?

Draco hated how he immediately knew that Lucius was involved in the World Cup monstrosity. It was probably pretty obvious, but it still stung. He also wondered what he meant by 'they aren’t very nice’. Like, how bad were they?

He also was surprised that Potter- or Harry, wanted to meet up in Diagon Alley. Draco knew it would be hard to convince his mother to let him go shopping alone, but he had to try. He decided to write a response first.

Once he had written back, explaining the tournament and dress robe decorum, and agreeing to meet up somewhere in Diagon Alley after planning it out, he sent it out and hid the other letter in his growing pile of letters inside his trunk.

“Mum, what do you think of me doing my school shopping alone this year? Since you seem to be so busy and-” he hesitated. He hadn’t planned this far ahead. “Well, all the stores get the best copies of their books when the lists come out.” He felt bad lying to his mother, but he did make a commitment.

“I suppose it would be easier… Are you sure you're okay with going alone?” Draco found his mother’s compliance odd, but knowing she was busy it didn’t shock him that much.

“Of course I am. I’ll go sooner to the start of term, that way it will be safer. You know, with more trustworthy people around.” He knew that his parents wouldn’t trust most of the people in Diagon Alley with so much as a shoelace no matter the time of year, but he needed his mother to agree.

“Alright, I’ll let you go. Don’t overspend and keep yourself safe.”

Draco was thrilled, and once Harry got back to him with some possible locations, times, and dates they could meet up, Draco responded with a plan.