Viridian

This little boy called Harry is unexpectedly very kind. Draco hopes his father won’t hear about this, becoming friends with a Potter. It seems that he”s interested in this ‘secret on the third floor corridor’. Draco thinks it’s bullocks and doesn’t engage, but Pansy is very interested.

“Pansy! You beat me again!” Draco overhears Harry exclaim. Draco chuckles to himself. Pansy is ferocious at wizard chess.

He can sense Pansy about to hit something, so he intervenes. “Forget that! The presents are here!” Draco exclaims.

He looks at the huge pile of presents at the end of the bed, and sees Harry’s as well. They all dive into unwrapping. Draco’s father gives him a few bottles of calming draught, his mother gives him piles and piles of candy. He even gets a gift from Harry’s Moony, who was apparently his father. It contains a Christmas card and some Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans. He got 34 gifts in total this year, and Draco opens each with a smile. They spend the whole day playing around with their gifts, eating candy, and also with Harry’s invisibility cloak. All while heaps of snow is falling outside while a green fire crackles in the background of delighted shouts.

Draco can sense that Harry is glad he didn’t go home this time. It’s the next night when Harry calls Draco to see this “Mirror”. He says he saw himself without his scar and fame, just as a regular person. This greatly surprised Draco, as he would never give up fame or money if he could help it. But, Draco was excited to see what he would see instead of what Harry did.

They walk under Harry’s invisibility cloak together, being careful not to alert anyone of their presence. Suddenly, they come face to face with the mirror. It just looks like a regular mirror, but Draco gasps at what he sees. “What do you see Draco?” Harry whispers. Draco doesn’t respond but stays frozen. Because he doesn’t just see him super successful or following in his fathers footsteps. He sees him, his father and his mum. Happy, smiling. At him. It looks…so fake but so amazing at the same time. He sucks in a breath.

“Uh, just me being successful in the future,” Draco replies, his voice trembling. He can tell by Harry’s expression that he’s choosing to remain oblivious for his sake.

“We better get back to the common room, I hear Ms. Norris,” Harry says. Though he loves that image of his family happy, Draco is itching to get away from that mirror. Harry holds his hand, and Draco is surprised for a second, but his hand feels so warm and soft that he can’t pull away.

Harry also isn’t letting him. They manage to get down to the common room before they get caught, which is very surprising given how many times Harry trips and Draco has to catch him. Draco feels something stirring in the pit of his stomach, but he’s sure it’s just imagination. When they get to their dorm and Harry falls asleep, Draco takes his invisibility cloak with a heavy heart and runs back to the mirror.

He wants to see his mum happy, his father happy with Draco as an individual. And it’s like this every night. He keeps going back to see his parents happy. It makes him slowly believe it’s real. Draco knows, just knows that when he goes home for Christmas, that they’ll be just as happy as they look.

“Draco? Why are you up so late?” It’s Harry. Draco starts to panic, he can hear each breath he takes in full volume as it cuts through a jumbled mess of thoughts.

“I could ask you the same question,” Draco gets out. It’s hard to breathe, so, so hard to breathe.

“I’m looking for information on Nicholas Flamel, Hagrid accidentally told me about it, and yes I did go down to tea with him,” Harry replies.

All of a sudden, the breaths die down and start to come out easier. Slower. “Well, I was looking for you. I heard you get out of bed,” Draco lies.

Liar. His father says. Little liar. He can’t hear Harry’s response. Because he runs back to the dorms so fast and leaves Harry to pick up the invisibility cloak that he threw off halfway. He can vaguely hear his heart pounding and Harry trying to run after him, calling him. But all he can think about is how he’s a liar. A worthless, little liar.