“This is all your fault, Potter,” Draco mumbles, scowling at Harry as the two walk down the street to Little Predators Daycare.
“How is this my fault? You’re the one who started the fight in the first place!” Harry huffs, speeding up his pace. Draco speeds up, too. “Wait, Potter! How dare you walk away from me!” he shouts, trying to grab at Harry's uniform jacket sleeve, but he isn’t quick enough.
Without a word, Harry whips his head around to glare at Draco. No words needed to be said. His glare said it all; he was annoyed.
It’s safe to say Draco shut up for the duration of the walk there.
—
After another ten minutes of walking in uncomfortable silence, they finally arrive at the Daycare’s main entrance.
“Potter, who were we supposed to meet here again?” Draco asks, slightly slowing his previous walking pace. Harry gives a smirk and asks, “What? Scared Malfoy,” he snickers, his gaze never leaving the building in front of them.
“No! Shut it, Potter,” Draco snarls at him as he briskly walks past Harry. Alright then. Well, if you aren't scared, then—“ Draco swiftly turns away and enters the building first. “Okay then,” Harry states sarcastically, closing the door behind him.
“Welcome!” A very cheerful voice calls out to the two boys. “Oh, you must b-“ Harry was cut abruptly off.
“Ms. Minerva,” Draco speaks up.
“Oh, but don't worry about Ms. Just call me Minerva, darlings.” She smiles with an obviously tired expression.
“Um, what will we be doing?” Draco sheepishly asks. Harry was almost amused by the way Draco acted in this situation. He had to hide his smile by turning away from Draco's forward gaze. He would’ve started another fight if he had seen his smile.
“Oh, right! You're those students, right?” she asks, dropping her smile to a more serious expression. They both nod in unplanned unison. “Ah, I see. Follow me,” she states as she turns her back to walk away.
Harry starts walking towards her when he notices Draco. “What’s wrong? Getting cold feet. You know perfectly well that both you and I have to. “Draco's sudden actions cut Harry off. He swiftly speeds past him, as he had previously done just moments before entering the building. “Let's go—oh, and Potter,” as he lashes his head back to glare at Harry. “Stop belittling me. I can take care of myself, thank you very much.” He emphasized the word ‘very’ through gritted teeth. Draco walks away, following Minerva. Harry soon followed.
The boys have no clue where she is taking them or what their fates will be. What they did know is that there will be a lot of work involved.
When they finally stop walking down the colorful hallways, an orange door stands before them.
”Well, go on,” she commands as she suddenly stops walking. Harry steps forward and reaches out for the knob to turn it. Minerva then walks away to go do whatever she does here. “Just open it, you-“ Draco angrily spits out. “Okay, calm down. Snake.” Harry huffs under his breath.
Harry opens the door, only to be blinded by whatever light is in there.
Once regaining their sight, both boys step into the bright, cheerful room.
Just as both boys entered the room, a small child with long brownish ginger hair ran up to them.
“Play?” the child asks, looking up curiously at Harry. Sure. What would you like to do? " Harry is cut off by a sudden loud noise.
“Ouch!- what do you want?” Draco asks through gritted teeth, trying his best to fake a smile. “No fun!” the small ginger-haired boy shouts, running off to somewhere else in the room, not before kicking Draco's shin one last time. Harry snickers at the events that had just unfolded.
The little girl in front of Harry gently tugs on his sleeve. “Hmm? Oh, what is it? You still want to play?” Harry asks with a big, comforting grin. She nods, not letting her grip go off his sleeve.
She drags him across the room to play with the toys. Harry takes a quick glance back at Draco and almost ends up laughing aloud. Draco was getting smothered by little children from nearly every direction. Harry accidentally snorts in amusement as he sits down on the small blue carpet next to the little girl.
“Now play!” she demands, plopping herself down as well. She roughly dug through the plastic toy bin, searching for god knows what.
Finally, after a good solid minute of searching, she finds what she is looking for. “Here.” She roughly shoved the toy onto his lap. It was a yellow and green toy truck.
Harry takes the truck out from his lap and starts driving it around in front of him. “NO!” the little girl shouts rather loudly. “No, like that. Like this,” she demands, forcefully taking the truck back and showing him how to play with it properly.
‘This is going to be a long few hours,’ Harry thinks, pushing through the pain of all the little children running and screaming about.
Meanwhile, with Draco.
“You are stupid. How can you not know?” the small ginger boy laughs, clutching a large red wooden block in his tiny, shrimpy arms. “Okay then, you show me,” Draco smirks, thinking he has just outsmarted a small child.
“You are old; you need to know.”
The child's remark made Draco's blood boil. “I’m 16. That's not-“ Draco tries explaining. “16?? You are a grandfather!” the child exclaims rather loudly, pointing at Draco. He’s absolutely done with this child and with this stupid volunteering cause ‘you started a fight thing.’ He drags his hand down his face in frustration.
Meanwhile, Harry finds this absolutely hilarious. He has to turn away from Draco’s sight in order to laugh in his face about it.
It had been two hours since they arrived, and both high schoolers were tired of being beaten up by these little kids.
Just as a little boy was about to throw a block at Draco, Minerva swiftly opened the door. “Okay, children, it's time to play outside,” she said, clapping her hands together with a soft smile.
The children instantly drop their toys and run out of the room, shouting pure nonsense at each other.
“You two may have a break for half an hour,” she offers as she leaves the room to watch the children outside.
Both teens breathe a sigh of relief.
They get off the floor and leave the room for fresh air.
“Only two more hours of this until we’re done with this,” Harry sighs, hanging his hands off the side metal railing.
It’s only been a few minutes, and Draco has still said nothing.
Harry glanced sideways at Draco. He was looking down at the sidewalk below or watching the leaves rustle in the trees. He wasn't too sure, but in the end, he really didn't care…
Harry isn’t too sure what to think of the other boy’s expression. He doesn’t look mad, nor does he look upset; he just looks tired.
“Malfoy?”
He doesn’t answer; he continues to stare off at the ground.
“Malfoy!” Harry says louder, snapping Draco back to reality. “What do you want, Potter?” Draco tiredly snaps, his gaze never leaving the ground.
“Are you alright? “ Harry tries asking, but Draco snaps back, interrupting him. “I do not need your pity, Potter!” His gaze still does not leave the ground. “I’m not—just—just stop…” His words trail off to evidently nothing. Harry decides to give up and just let it go. He knows that he’s never going to get anything out of him in this state.
“I’m sorry….I didn’t mean to snap,” Draco suddenly speaks up. Harry looks back over to him. “What?”
“I-I you idiot…it’s nothing…”
—
Back inside, the children have already come back into the small orange room. They’re running around and throwing small toys at one another—Minerva’s nowhere to be seen.
‘Where did she go?’ Both boys think in unison as they try to stop the children from hurting themselves and others around them.
Draco closes the door to the room so as not to let any children escape.
Harry’s busy trying to stop the children from hitting each other. “Malfoy- agh!” Harry was hit square in the face with a small wooden block. “Wha-“ Draco gets sideswiped by a little girl with short brown hair and a devilish smirk planted on her tiny face.
“Why, you little- come back here!” Draco exclaims, standing up. “Stop moving!” he shouts.
Everyone stops whatever they’re doing to stare at him. “What has gotten into you all?” he asks, placing a hand on his hip. “It is playtime,” a child with short ginger hair speaks.
“Yeah, she said we could play,” another one with very short black hair speaks up.
Draco pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. “That doesn't give you the right to behave like animals, now does it?” he asks, generally speaking, letting both hands fall to either side of his body.
All the kids look down, ashamed of their actions.
Now listen. You can still have fun and play around, but don't act like animals who have just been let out of a zoo.” Some children look on in confusion. “Just don't act like you did before,” he calmly states in frustration.
The children finally calm down and go back to playing with the toys or with each other.
Draco and Harry, exhausted, sit down at one of the small tables they have in the room.
Draco slumps back into the small chair, hanging his head off the back of the chair. “Malfoy?” Harry asks. “What, Potter?” Draco tiredly questions, not looking up to him. “Never knew you had that spark in you, or were you just annoyed?” Harry snickers.
Draco sighs rather loudly; he’s annoyed at everyone and everything around.
“Shut it, Potter,” Draco grumbles, covering his eyes with his hand, trying to relieve his throbbing headache. “How much longer do we have?” Draco asks, slowly and tiredly raising his head to look at the heaping pile of kids across the room. “Uh, thirty minutes,” Harry responds, sighing into a smile of relief.
Draco's eyes widen with excitement when he realizes how much time is left. Harry quietly chuckles at that.
Draco didn't seem to notice.
“Almost over,” Harry states, as he sits on one of the carpets playing with some blocks and children that were around him.
The children still have so much energy.
Both boys couldn’t understand how they still had so much energy.
Draco, on the other hand, was almost falling asleep. He was really tired of breaking up fights between small children.
Within that last half hour, the children's parents would come individually to collect them.
When the last child gets picked up, both boys let out a sigh of relief as they slump over in exhaustion.
Just as Harry is about to say something to Draco, Minerva walks into the room and stands with her hands folded. “Good job, boys,” she says instead rehearsed.
“Can we go home now?” Draco asks rather rudely, mind you. I wouldn't blame him for it; they’re both exhausted beyond belief.
“Yes,” she says, with a huff of her speech. She then leaves the room.
Both boys get up and grab the things they’ve brought with them.
—
With a wave of Harry's hand, they were off from that nightmare building.
—
On their way back to their houses, Harry spoke up to break the silence. “Too long,” Harry complained, almost dragging his feet. Yeah, well, it's all your fault anyway,” Draco mumbled, not turning back to Harry.
Harry scoffs in frustration, “You’re the one who-“
“I’m just kidding, Potter.” Draco looks back at Harry with a half smile on his face.
Harry almost stops walking. ‘He was joking? Of course,’ Harry thinks. He calms his emotions and smiles back.
Draco turns back and simply states, “You’re weird, Potter.” He slightly finds himself blushing in a remark to Harry's smile.
Harry brings an arm around Draco’s shoulder, “whatever you say, Malfoy,” Harry says, chuckling in Draco’s ear. It makes the blonde-haired boy finch and gets all flustered.
“You….”