Chapter 35 Draco
Chapter 35 Draco
Draco’s mouth fell open.
‘What?’ He felt his face reddening.
‘Do you want to shower together? Nothing else, just a shower.’
‘Yes.’ Draco did. He had often fantasised about what Dudley looked like under his clothes, the thought of seeing all of him made Draco more excited than he could express. The problem was, Dudley seeing all of him. Draco had never felt particularly at home in his own body. He was bony, his hips jutted out, he was pale and now he only had one hand. He didn’t want to be a disappointment.
‘Just… I mean, remember I’m still recovering, so there’s cuts and bruises and I’m still putting my weight back on.’
‘I don’t care about any of that.’ Dudley returned.
Draco really hoped that was true.
‘Come on.’ Dudley took his hand and led him into the bathroom. Draco turned the shower on and stood awkwardly on the bath mat.
‘Can I?’ Dudley asked grabbing the bottom of Draco’s jumper as if to take it off.
Draco took a deep breath and nodded.
Dudley carefully removed the jumper and threw it on the floor, he slowly undid the buttons on Draco’s shirt and pulled it off Draco’s bony shoulders, before undoing his trouser button. Draco was so thin his trousers fell straight to his ankles and he stepped out of them. Draco removed his own socks, all that was left was his underwear. Dudley had an indecipherable expression on his face, it made Draco nervous, he couldn’t tell if he was repulsed by his body or not.
Dudley hooked his fingers in the waistband of Draco’s underwear and pulled them down, Draco stepped out of them. Dudley stood up straight and studied Draco. Draco felt exposed and vulnerable he had to fight the urge to cover himself with his hands.
‘You’re perfect.’ Dudley said smiling. Relief flooded Draco. Dudley wasn’t disgusted by his pallid complexion or his bruised skin or his skinny frame.
‘Your turn?’ Draco asked itching to rip Dudley’s clothes off, he didn’t like being the only one naked. Draco was less careful with Dudley’s clothing. He tore off his shirt to reveal a broad, strong torso. Dudley was covered in a layer of padding all over, he was soft, not a hard line on him anywhere but he was still solid and strong. Draco noticed the white lines of old stretch marks on Dudley’s hips. He pulled down Dudley’s trousers and underwear together and Dudley stepped out of them, kicking them over to where Draco’s clothes were abandoned on the floor. Draco stood and drank Dudley in, he had to remind himself to breathe, there was not one person on this earth more beautiful than Dudley, he felt like he’d won the lottery just to be in the same room as him. Draco lightly placed a hand on his chest.
‘You’re beautiful.’ He kissed Dudley’s collar bone.
‘Come on’ Dudley took his hand and climbed into the shower. They took it in turns to stand under the water, Draco washed Dudley’s broad torso, lathering him up and revelling in the softness of his skin under his hands. Then Dudley did the same in return, paying extra attention to Draco’s various cuts and bruises. Draco washed Dudley’s thick hair raking his fingers through his locks. The steam was cocooning them in their own perfect corner of the world, where only the two of them existed and nothing bad could reach them.
They only emerged from the shower when the heat began to make Draco lightheaded. Dudley almost carried Draco out, worried about him fainting.
They dressed reluctantly, both of them now completely comfortable in front of each other.
Draco wanted to make Dudley breakfast before anyone returned home, they had an hour or so at least but they couldn’t risk being caught, they needed to be more careful than last time.
‘You hungry?’ Draco asked.
‘Always.’ Dudley said with a grin.
They walked downstairs together. Draco led Dudley to Vinny’s kitchen. The manor had two kitchens, one for show, filled with expensive pots and pristine silver, the other was Vinny’s kitchen, secreted at the back of the house, it was well used and cosy, herbs and spices stacked randomly in wooden racks. Pans left in haphazard piles, there was an aga and Vinny had sewn a pair of curtains out of Draco’s old bedsheets. It was a room that was loved and used, it felt real, there was no artifice in Vinny’s kitchen.
‘Pancakes?’ Draco asked.
‘Absolutely.’ Dudley replied.
Draco began to source ingredients from the various cupboards as Dudley sat on a stool in the corner. Draco was getting much better at doing things with one hand.
‘You look so domestic, I love watching you do stuff like this.’
‘Hang on’ Draco said opening a draw and taking out a frilly white apron.
‘Does this complete the look?’ Draco asked
‘And I didn’t think I could fancy you any more.’ Dudley laughed.
Draco plated up their pancakes and added some lemon and sugar. He passed Dudley his plate.
‘I thought we could eat in the orangery, what do you think?’
‘Perfect.’ Dudley replied.
Draco led them out the back door and through the garden into his orangery, they sat on the chaise and looked out into the garden, where there was a robin perched on one of the benches.
‘Do you ever wish you could just fly away?’ Dudley asked.
‘Most of my life actually. I always thought my patronus would be a bird of some kind.’
‘Patronus?’
‘Sometimes I forget how much of a muggle you are.’ Draco knocked into Dudley’s shoulders.
‘It’s an incantation that conjures a sort of shield against attack, but it takes the form of an animal, its different for everyone.’
‘That’s what that was then.’ Dudley said as if a penny had just dropped.
‘What?’
‘When me and Harry were attacked by those black ghost things, he got rid of them with a stag that he made with his wand. The stag chased them away..’
‘Good patronus, a stag.’
‘So what’s your patronus… no wait, let me guess, a dog? No, an owl?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘How come?’
Draco sighed ‘I’ve never cast one, expecto patronum requires a very strong positive memory to sustain the patronus, I suppose I just don’t have any memories strong enough.’ It had always been a source of embarrassment to Draco that he couldn’t cast a patronus.
‘You’ll do it, you’ll cast one one day.’ Dudley said with absolute surety.
‘How do you know?’
‘You’re determined, you’ll figure it out.’
Dudley’s faith in him warmed his soul. ‘What do you think mine would be?’
‘Oooh’ Draco pretended to think very hard
‘A worm? A slug? Maybe an earwig?’
Dudley put on an expression of faux outrage and playfully hit Draco on the arm.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they finished their pancakes. When they were done Dudley took a deep breath, Draco turned to look at him.
‘There’s something I need to tell you Draco.’ He sounded serious and immediately Draco’s alarm bells began to ring.
‘What?’
Dudley looked excited and a little bit scared.
‘The basilisk hatched.’
‘What! When?’
‘Yesterday.’
Draco couldn’t string together a sentence, he just spluttered incoherent sounds. He couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the words he needed.
‘You… you’re okay? How are you okay?’
‘She’s quite friendly really, she came out already blind, you must have blinded her inside the egg when you cast the spell the other day.’
‘She’s not friendly Dudley, it’s a basilisk, they’re cold hearted killers.’ Draco could barely believe what he was hearing, Dudley was unbelievable, only he could call a basilisk friendly, it was complete madness.
‘Okay, well she’s my killer.’
Draco had his head in his hands.
‘Dudley, you don’t understand, it’s a basilisk...’
‘I promise she’s awesome, you just need to come and meet her.’
They quickly returned to the dungeon, Dudley bouncing with excitement. Draco cast muffliato and they entered Dudley’s cell. Before Dudley opened the wooden box he looked at Draco.
‘Now she’s only met me, so I don’t know how she’ll react to a stranger, so just, y’know, be cool.’
Draco was suddenly gripped with a paralysing fear, what had they done? There was a basilisk in Malfoy manor, he regretted everything, this was quite possibly the stupidest thing he had ever done.
Dudley lifted the lid and sure enough curled up on a blanket was a small sleeping basilisk.
‘Merlin’s beard, what the hell have we done?’ Draco said, barely believing his eyes.
‘Killer?’ Dudley nudged her with a finger.
‘Don’t touch her!’ Draco grabbed his hand back ‘killer?’ Draco questioned.
‘Well she needs a name.’
‘No. Draco we’re not naming her! Don't be ridiculous.’
Killer’s eyes opened slowly, blinking a few times. Instinctively Draco shut his, before remembering she was blind.
Dudley stuck his hand back in the box and stroked her back, killer moved, seeking out Dudley’s hand. She pushed her head into his palm. What? Was Dudley petting her? And she was lapping it up, Dudley stroked under her chin and scratched her nose.
‘See?’ Dudley looked smug.
Draco was quite literally speechless. It was impossible, basilisks were killers, this creature should be trying to violently murder them both by any means possible, but she wasn’t, instead she was purring? Draco’s jaw was slack with utter incomprehension, his brain was rejecting the information his eyes were receiving. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was happening in front of him.
Dudley reached in and picked her up, she willingly allowed herself to be tucked into Dracos arms.
‘We are so lucky’ was all Draco could say in the end.