Time
Draco’s first thought when he wakes up is that whoever’s playing with his hair is getting the best Christmas present ever. Like he’s willing to spend at least his entire trust fund on whoever it is because it feels like Merlin himself has blessed their fingers. It’s calming and soothing and almost lulls him right back to sleep, but then his ears start working.
“Harry you have to calm down, we’ll think of something.”
Oh fuck.
Harry. Sirius Black. The shack. Whomping Willow. Weasley’s leg. Peter Pettigrew. The werewolf.
Fucking hell!
Draco sits up and throws open his eyes only to see a lot of weird blurs and fall back within three seconds. A few blinks later and Pansy’s furious face comes into view. The hand playing with his hair is gone. Just like his friend’s patience.
“You have a lot of nerve, Draco Malfoy, you know that? We contracted you to us so we wouldn’t have to do this shit anymore and then you go and get mauled by a fucking werewolf in some weird ass hideout that you could’ve died getting to! Give me one reason that I shouldn’t-”
“Pans.”
He’s never been happier to hear Blaise’s voice in his whole life.
Pansy backs off a little, even helps him sit up so Blaise can engulf him in a bone crushing hug. “You had blood dripping down the hallways when you came in. Gave us quite the heart attack, Pans nearly passed out, we didn’t know what happened. One second we were running around with our wrists burning and then you were in Snape’s arms, passed out and…”
“I’m sorry,” Draco whispers in his ear. His head feels so nice on Blaise’s warm shoulder, it feels good to grip onto something solid. Blaise rubs gently down his back and it somehow doesn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. Everything is just warm here, and when Pansy joins their little hug fest it feels like home.
And then someone clears their throat and his friends pull away.
Blaise stays close enough for Draco to lean against his shoulder. Pansy absolutely refuses to release her death grip on his hand. He thanks them a million times over for the support when he finally looks to the bed next to his where Wealsey is lying. Hermione sits beside him, eyes bloodshot and clearly worried, Harry stands with his eyes narrowed at Draco. He racks his head for a reason why his friend would be glaring. All he’s doing is stealing comfort from Blaise, or did he say something weird while he was sleeping? Oh, Merlin, what did he do? And for that matter what happened between-
“They’ve arrested Sirius,” Hermione informs him quietly, “Pettigrew escaped, they found Harry and Sirius by the lake, and they locked him up in the Astronomy tower before bringing Harry here…..” She hiccups, “They’re going to….he’s…”
“The death penalty.” Harry says with a worrying lack of emotion. “Sirius is going to die.”
“But he’s innocent!” Draco protests, “He hasn’t-”
“Well they don’t care, do they? We haven’t got any proof!”
“We could use a pensive-”
“They turned that down already!” Harry growls, moving from Ron’s bed to pace, “We talked to Dumbledore and not even he could do anything!”
Draco starts to make a comment about that not being particularly surprising, but then Dumbledore walks through the door and he has to bite his tongue. He learned a few months ago how much fun pissing off a powerful wizard is, and once is honestly more than enough.
“Sir!” Blaise greets him, “Did you talk them out of it?”
Dumbledore raises an eyebrow, “I have no clue what you’re talking about, Mister Zabini.”
If he wasn’t so weak he’d punch the glasses off the old man’s nose.
“Time...is such a fickle thing, wouldn’t you agree Miss Granger?”
Hermione’s eyebrows furrow. Draco wants to ask him what the hell he’s on about, but then he catches a glimpse of Aurors out of the corner of his eye. Fuck .
“Strange how time could be the only thing to save innocent lives….alas we cannot turn back time, can we?”
Hermione’s eyes widen at Dumbledore’s retreating back so at least one of them understood his bullshit.
“I came by to see if Mister Malfoy was okay, our guests have been quite concerned with the injured students, but I assume I can assure them that everything is safe?”
Draco nods. He would speak, but if he opens his mouth he would definitely let something rude slip, and the Aurors didn’t need to think the students at Hogwarts thought their headmaster was full of shit. Not when they were planning to free a convicted man before the end of the night.
“Very well. I’ll have to inform them thrice, but three is a lucky number, wouldn’t you say? Good night, children, do make sure to stay safe inside the hospital wing…”
Dumbledore leaves them, Hermione makes to talk but Draco shakes his head. Five minutes later he nods. “What the hell was that piece of shit code.”
“Listen, don’t be mad, okay? But I know how we’re going to save Sirius.”
“What? Gonna ‘turn back time’ or some weird shit like that?”
Hermione fucking nods, taking a small necklace from her pocket that almost has Draco falling off the bed. “A time-turner?! Is that how you’ve been making all your classes?!”
“Yes, and now I’m going to use it and save Sirius.”
“And…” Blaise shakes his head, but he’s smiling, “That Buckbeak creature Draco’s been on about all week. Dumbledore did say ‘lives’ right?”
Pansy sighs, “I wonder if he thought he was being cryptic by mention three so many times…”
Hermione laughs a bit, standing and looking around at them. “I can’t go alone, Ron can’t walk, and Draco is too injured to do much…”
“I’ll go with you.” Harry offers.
“You bloody hell will not!” Draco meets Harry’s glare with one of his own. “You’ve already almost died once tonight, and I can’t imagine you know any of the rules that come with time traveling-”
“Hermione knows them! She won’t let me get hurt-”
“It’s too dangerous! You’ll do something stupid-”
“I’m not the one with claw marks on their back-”
“I did that so you wouldn’t get hurt you giant fuck face! When will you get it through your thick skull that you cannot die!”
“And you can?”
Draco freezes, he can feel Pansy and Blaise stiffen on either side of him but Harry isn’t done.
“You throw yourself in the way of danger at any given chance! You’re had more close calls than anyone else in this room, and as far as I’m concerned it’s not your job to save someone just because their parents died! Do you not understand that people would miss you if you died? That seeing you hurt makes them upset? Do you care about anyone? Or is keeping your friends in a constant state of panic a Malfoy thing too?”
Draco’s face goes stone cold. “Watch your mouth, Potter. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“And you don’t have the right to paint me as some incapable git! I defeated Voldemort again in first year. I killed the Basilisk and defeated Riddle last year. Saving the only family I’ve got left will be easy, especially if I have my friends working with me instead of implying that I’m too incompetent to not die.”
He wants to protest, but he can’t do that without admitting that his life is worthless, and if he does that Pansy and Blaise will never let him out of their sight again, there’s no telling what Hermione would do, not to mention the look he’d get from Weasley. But time travel is such a delicate thing, if even one toe is out of line Harry could lose his mind. Hermione was one thing because she’s done it before, but test running Harry’s ability on limited time and a stressed mind can’t end well. He tries to ignore how saving Buckbeak will feel like Harry’s cleaning up after his mess, but that only urges the thoughts on stronger.
At some point during his mental battle he’s stood up and made his way to the other boy. His mouth moves before he can tell his brain to stop. “You have to follow what Hermione says, even if she tells you to stop breathing. You cannot be seen, you have to be punctual, you can’t get hurt, you can’t let your emotions get the better of you and-”
Harry grips his hands that have somehow ended up on the boy’s shoulders, “I’ll be back, promise.”
Draco has a vivid flashback of writing that down on paper and running off with Snape this time last year. A smile graces his lips, and since Harry’s already kept one promise, what’s the harm in another? “You two go. Be careful. You have to be at the Astronomy Tower as soon as possible, I’ll find a way to take care of things here.”
Hermione nods, standing up and throwing the necklace over her and Harry.
“What do you mean take care of-”
“Don’t worry about it, Harry.”
Harry seems very worried about it, “Draco-don’t do anything stupid-”
They vanish right as the clock strokes eleven, leaving Draco to turn and face his still pretty pissed off best friends, “You two down for a little sabotage?”
----------
Pansy and Blaise are always down to sabotage, and with Draco’s brilliance their plan can’t fail. The two of them will keep the meeting between Dumbledore and Aurors going until Sirius can escape, and Draco will watch over him to make sure no one gets excited and tries to kill him just for the hell of it. Ron had protested to no ends about not being able to do anything but-
“Sorry, Weasley, I’d give you a part but you can’t even walk, can you?”
If nothing else, angering his favorite red-head would be a perk of tonight.
Only, he didn’t think through how awkward it would be to enter the Astronomy tower and see his cousin tied up to the wall. Merlin, how that took him back to unpleasant times.
“Come to take a look at the criminal?” Sirius asks.
“Merlin, no. I’m on watch duty until Harry can save you.”
He was definitely adding ‘Sirius Shocked Face’ to his list of favorite things.
“S-Save me?! Does he have any idea how dangerous that is?!”
“Listen, I tried to warn him but it just made him pissy. He’s fought off a Basilisk, how hard can helping you escape be?”
Draco grabs his wand and frees the man from his chains but Sirius doesn’t move.
“A Basilisk? What the hell has that boy been getting up to? James would kill him….”
“Please,” Draco laughs, “That’s not even the worst of it.”
“Do I want to know?”
“I’m gonna tell you regardless, we need something to kill the time, but I do recommend taking a seat.”
Sirius’s eyebrows disappear into the mop he calls hair, “Merlin help me…”
A moment of shuffling later and Draco finds himself recounting all of Harry Potter’s stories through out the years and agreeing rather aggressively with every ‘what the fuck’ that comes out of his cousin’s mouth.
“You’d think being beat by a child once would be enough.”
“That’s what I said!”
Second year proves to be a lot for the man to handle, though he does laugh when Draco tells him about the Valentine's bullshit Lockhart pulled. They agree Azkaban is a lovely home for him. After assuring him that yes, Potter did beat Voldemort a third time, Sirius is practically glowing which leads Draco into the current year of bullshit, where instead of old Lizard Face he was facing a killer.
“I was thinking he deserved a break, but this isn’t quite what I meant.”
Sirius chuckles, “At least he has you looking after him. Would you tell me that story as well? I know Narcissa would never allow her child to put himself in harm’s way. Did you make a deal with Lucius?”
Well color him surprised and serve him up for dinner, “My mother...she doesn't know. Neither does father, of course, he’s gone a bit off the deep end.”
“He’s always been off the deep end. No offense to you and yours but I always thought your mother could do better. At least before the Dark Lord he wasn’t all that bad, but after…”
Draco sighs, and then Sirius asks him the worst possible thing he could.
“Will you tell me your story? Or are you going to let me believe Sissy isn’t as sharp as she used to be.”
It’s for his mother’s honor that he tells Sirius his part in the whole mess. For her and her alone he doesn’t spare a single detail, even when Sirius gets the murder crazed look on his face agian, even when tears threaten to spill, he keeps going. For his mother. Not because talking about it is extremely therapeutic.
“He wasn’t always awful...I honestly don’t understand how he turned into the man he is now...I have all these memories of him just being ‘dad’ not Lucius Malfoy the Death Eater. He was kind, loving, and did everything he could to make me happy…”
Sirius pats him on the shoulder, “I’d kill him if it wouldn’t land me in Azkaban.”
“Please don’t! You know Harry would sneak off to save you the second I turned my back.”
“You’ve kept him alive this long, I’m sure you’ll manage. I’m concerned for both of you really, you know both of your parents did everything they could to make your lives better than theirs….”
Draco raises an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
“Well, since you’ve given me some back stories, let me return the favor.”
He shuffles into a more comfortable position before he begins, “I was born into the Black house and almost instantly they hated me. Mother, Walberga, hated everything from my eyes to my laugh which I inherited from my father. Regulus, my brother, looked a bit more like her so she naturally liked him better. We all practiced the dark arts, I remember Bella and Sissy used to make jokes about it whenever Regulus and I were annoyed. The four of us were thick as thieves when we were children, running around our manors and getting into all kinds of trouble. For a very short time we were happy. And then Voldemort came into power. He promised shit like ‘blood purity’ returning to the wizarding world, and Mother bought every cent of it. She joined first, and would’ve forced father if he didn’t fall sick right before my first year at Hogwarts. The four of us kids still met, of course, but we were afraid. Bella hated the idea of bowing to man, and then her marriage arrangement was announced and she started to lose it. He tortured her parents until they caved, you know. She had to listen to her mom and dad screaming for hours on end, and that does something to a child. Sissy learned to be out of the house whenever he came to visit. She’d always end up at ours to the point that we didn’t even bother with the floo anymore. Some nights she would come to me crying and make me swear not to tell anyone how afraid she was...Voldemort made a lot of promises back then, and all our parents thought they were great even though the sight of him followed us into our nightmares…”
Sirius looks out into the night with a sigh, “And then we went to Hogwarts. And I wasn’t put in Slytherin. I begged the hat, I knew what would happen as soon as I was in Gryffindor reds. Father was close to death, Mother had wanted to disown me from birth. Bella was starting to lose her sanity, Regulus was being black mailed into Voldemort’s arms, and Sissy...she was too scared to stick her neck out for anyone that wouldn’t benefit her. It was shit. Got my first howler that told me I was disowned, and I really thought there was nothing left for me. But then I met James and Remus.”
A smile breaks out on his face, “Bunch of idiots we were. James came from the Potter line, so naturally we knew each of each other, but I was never allowed to meet him because his parents were too liberal, and my Mother had picked our family’s side. James...well he was unlike any pureblood I’d ever met. Didn’t bother with table manors, didn’t listen to the rules, hell I’m amazed he even passed first year with the amount of shit he pulled...granted Remus did keep us both in check when Lily wasn’t screaming down our throats and Lily...well she was our Hermione. Absolutely brilliant, yelled at us when we bullied Severus, always got on to us when we didn’t do our homework, or when we got up to shit we shouldn’t have. She was also the first to drag us to the hospital wing when someone so much as coughed, even if she did hang around Severus a lot back then. James took me with him for Christmas that first year and once I met parents that hugged me and treated me like their own, well I couldn’t go back to that dark house.”
“It was around fourth year, when the balls were still happening, that we placed a few things together. Remus’s first secret was out of the way in second year, and honestly I didn’t even guess at the next one until Lily cornered me and told me to get my act together. I mean, being gay is whatever unless you’re a pureblood, but even then they don’t care that much as long as you have a heir. Took me three months to realize before Remus and I got into some stupid fight and I kissed him. We’ve been together ever since, only a year or two longer than James and Lily or Sissy and Lucius.”
“I didn’t realize how much she was still looking out for me until our last year, when the war started getting worse. Lucius caught me sneaking into Myrtle's bathroom one night and she got in his way. Distracted him in the nastiest way possible, if you ask me, but sometimes snogging in the hallways is acceptable. I thought she didn’t care until that point and after that I started keeping up contact with her. Obviously Lucius was expected to join Voldemort, but Sissy told me neither one of them wanted to. She said it was either her life or his, and since he had more connections he was more valuable. Broke her heart for a while, especially because Bella had gone completely mad by then.”
“We were out of school and thick in the battle, I say I’ve never killed but I’ve ended more Death Eater lives than I can be proud of. All of us had secret keepers, Remus was mine, and I was supposed to be the Potter’s, but I changed with Peter at the last second so I could be my lover’s instead. We were soldiers, and it was an unspoken rule that Sissy and I would never write about the war. We wrote about old times, the weather, how she was excited for her son to be born, how she hoped she could protect him. The only time she brought it up was when she told me that Mother was dying, and some stupid fighting shouldn’t stop me from saying goodbye. So I went to visit her and Regulus. She didn’t want to see me...and Regulus….he was furious that I left him to deal with everything by himself. Called me a blood traitor and a disgrace, which wasn’t far off from the normal so I didn’t think anything of it until he brought Remus into the mix and I couldn’t very well handle that. I left to go see James and Lily before heading home, Lily made the best tea in the world, and James had been with me for so long he knew exactly what to do to calm me down…”
Draco gets a sinking feeling in his chest, he knows what comes next.
“When I got to their house….it was gone. Blown up in the middle of the street. I racked my brian trying to figure out what happened, how they had been found. But only five people knew where their home was…I knew it wouldn’t be Dumbledore or Hagrid. Remus couldn’t go anywhere with the full moon so close...and that left their secret keeper. I went after him, found him in the middle of a wizard nieghborhood, and tried to kill him but the stupid rat beat me to it. I didn’t even have a trial….”
There’s nothing to say so they say nothing. Merely sit under the protection of night and absorb how shitty the past is. How fucked up life has become, all because of some power greedy bastard.
“At least I get to see Harry all grown up...I bought him his first broom, you know.”
Draco latches on the lighter topic like it’s his only hope, “So you’re the reason he’s so good at Quidditch!”
“I heard he was an amazing Seeker. I meant to see him play, but every time I tried Dementors showed up.”
“It’s a pity he broke his favorite broom, but he still managed to beat everyone with a school one.”
Sirius shoots him a smile, “Do you think a new broom would make him a little more likely to forgive me?”
Draco frowns at him, “He’ll forgive you just fine, we don’t need Gryffindors stronger than they already are. It’ll be horrible for my team!”
Sirius just laughs and Draco can’t stop himself from doing the same.
LuLu finds them eventually. She meows at Draco like she’s cussing him out and honestly she’s been spending far too much time around Pansy with that attitude.
“Alright! Alright! I’m sorry I was reckless and got hurt, you can complain to Professor Lupin tomorrow.”
She glares at him but settles in his lap only to make a bunch of whiny noises until he pets her. Sirius keeps his smile throughout the exchange but it soon drops at the sight of a weird cloud rushing at them. “Draco? I don’t supposed that’s-”
Draco lights up like a tree, “Buckbeak!” Three seconds later he deflates, “I fucking told him not to pull something like this! He nearly died the first time by Merlin I am going to kill him!”
Buckbeak lands not too far away from where they are and Draco makes sure to place LuLu gently on the floor before hugging the two climbing off the beast.
“That was extremely reckless and I am very happy you’re safe. If you ever tell anyone that I hugged you I will hex you into next year.”
Harry laughs, Hermione shakes her head and then Sirius clears his throat. He doesn’t have to say anything for Draco to pull the muggle-born away and engage her in conversation so they wouldn’t have a chance to eavesdrop.
“Are either of you hurt?”
“No! We’re bloody brilliant, actually, and excuse my language but holy fuck I thought I was going to die at least five times during that.”
Draco grins at her, “What did he do this time”
He comes to the conclusion that he and Hermione both deserve a long holiday at some beach resort where the idiocy of one Harry Potter wouldn’t be able to hurt them so much. Not that they could stay long, they’d maybe last all of two days before worry got the best of them and they ended up rushing back and demanding a detailed report of what stupidity their friend had gotten up to.
Really? Distracting a werewolf? Running towards Dementors? Flying on a Hippogriff again without training? It’s like the boy was asking to die. Draco’s ready to chastise him to no end for that last thing alone, but then he sees the small happy grin Harry has walking back to them and decides it doesn’t matter that much. He might be an idiot, but he hadn’t died yet.
“You’ll write, won’t you?” He says instead, focusing his attention on Sirius.
The man pats his head despite Draco’s scowl that isn’t really threatening in the face of the elder’s smile. “Under a code, of course. I have a few things to clear up with a few people, Dumbledore and your mother included.”
“Leave me out of your letters, please. I can’t have her knowing anything, it could put her in danger.”
Sirius chuckles at him, but nods all the same. He casts a glance at the three of them, “Do try to stay safe, I look forward to seeing you again someday.” And before Draco can ask what that means Buckbeak nods at him and flaps his wings up into the sky.
Harry grins at them, “Well I’d call that a successful night, wouldn’t you?”
“You almost died ten times tonight! How in the hell is that successful?”
“I came back, didn’t I?”
Draco fixes him with a look. Surely he can’t know how much that means. Surely it was just a joke to go along with the playfulness in his eyes. Draco feels the soft warmth spreading through him and decides he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the possible deepness he should probably be considering.
“You did.”
----------
Draco pauses outside the DADA classroom, listening to the conversation inside.
Apparently Harry felt just as strongly as he did about Lupin leaving. He gets it of course, no parent in their right mind would be okay with a werewolf teaching their children. But that didn’t stop him from feeling guilty when Lupin reminds Harry that he did hurt someone. Draco’s wounds on his back were proof of that, but he didn’t intend on leaving the man feeling bad. Something about that didn’t sit right with him, he might need Lupin’s help later, after all.
“So, no goodbye, then?” He asks, leaning casually against the doorway and pretending like he didn’t just hear Lupin give Harry the map back.
They both startle at his appearance, Lupin looks a little too ashamed for his liking.
“No big deal, I guess...but I thought you had more pride than to quit so quickly after one mess up. The Lupin I know would’ve offered himself some chocolate and gotten back on his feet.”
Harry smiles at him as though he can see right through him. Lupin’s frown lessens so he guesses he’s doing okay at the whole ‘being nice’ thing his friends all thought was so important.
“Are you implying that Professor Lupin is being a coward?”
Draco doesn’t dignify that with a response, but he does raise a challenging eyebrow at the adult in the room.
Lupin rolls his eyes, “I’ll have you both know I’m leaving for more than just the werewolf issue.”
“Care to divulge?” Draco asks, moving in the room to lean against the desk next to Harry. Lupin looks like he might strangle them both.
“I thought keeping secrets was bad, professor. You see what it did for Padfoot and the headmaster.”
Another eye roll and some mumbling. “You two are awful together, you know that?”
Draco shrugs. “We’re only awful until you give us what we want.”
Harry nods in agreement and that gets Lupin laughing off to the side.
“Fine, fine. You may think this is a set back, but really, I’m excited. It’s been ages since I’ve seen our dear friend Padfoot, and I’m quite looking forward to our time together.”
The answer is well played. It leaves both Draco and Harry gagging at the implications, shaking their heads to get rid of the mental image.
“Ew! Okay! Gross but at least swear you’ll stay safe.”
“I’ll promise if you promise.”
Harry rolls his eyes, “That’s what I have him for.” He bumps into Draco’s shoulder, “He’ll kill me if I pull another stunt like this year.”
“And I’ll have every reason to! You went looking for a possible killer Harry!”
“But I didn’t die-”
“You didn’t die this time!”
“Or the other times!”
“Yes, because seeking out monsters each year is something to be proud of, isn’t it?!”
Harry opens his mouth to offer some retort but Lupin’s laughter cuts him off. They turn to see their professor, or possibly just another friend now, bent over his desk laughing like it was going to split him in two.
“Merlin!” He chokes, “You two are gonna do just fine without me-oh! Draco,” he reaches into his desk and pulls out a small wrapped present, “I know it’s a little late, but your birthday was a few days ago, wasn’t it?”
Draco takes the gift, his hands only shake a little bit, but no one has been able to give him something with the messes each year seemed to bring.
“It’s not much,” Lupin explains as he opens it to reveal a small silver frog that looks exactly like the ones Lupin forced them to eat after each practice, “But it’s something to remember good times by.”
Ignoring Harry’s ‘when is your birthday, I deserve to know you wanker!’, Draco smiles at Lupin. “Write to us and we’ll have a lot more to remember those good times by.”
It wouldn’t be their last good time, Draco’s sure. Bad things would come their way, particularly his way, but they’d managed worse when they were younger and less prepared.
And sure, the Firebolt that Harry gets from a ‘mysterious admirer’ during dinner annoys him just a bit because he knows how annoying Quidditch will be next year, but he can’t fight the smile tugging at his lips when he sees the look of pure joy on Harry’s face.
Life would always be shitty, but he’s found it’s not always that bad.
Life has stupid things, like tea time with Snape. Apologizes to Dumbledore. Even more spectacular things like cosying up with his friends, and the promise of seeing his mother.
----------
Crabbe and Goyle, sensing the impending argument between his two best friends and himself, had actually offered to sit with the other Slytherins on the ride back. Something about Nott having a new game to play, but from the looks in their eyes he could tell they didn’t want to get caught between Pansy’s wrath and Blaise’s fury.
Smart choice on their part.
Hagrid had come to him before they parted, thanking him for what he undoubtedly thought was Draco’s part in the sparing of Buckbeak’s life. He had wanted to refuse, but Harry had shook his head subtly and Draco merely pretended he had no idea what was being talked about, though he did give the giant a wink. His mind focuses on the giggle Harry had poorly concealed as Pansy rants.
“It’s like you don’t even care! You’re not even listening to me, are you? You ungrateful-”
“I do care,” Draco sighs, because it’s probably better to get this argument taken care of so there isn’t a bad taste in his mouth all summer. “I wouldn’t have entered our blood contract if I didn’t care, which of course I do. If it weren’t for you two I wouldn’t have made it through second year. Not with my father and all the other secrets I was forced to keep, which you know were too important to divulge without Dumbledore agreeing, and he couldn’t deal with that while students were getting hurt.”
“And while you were getting hurt?” Blaise asks in that steely voice that lets Draco know just how badly he fucked up. “The issue here is no longer your secret keeping, we understand why you had to do that now, but rather in the fact that you keep putting yourself in harm's way. You complain about Harry, but you do the exact same thing.”
To be fair, he only ended up in dangerous situations because of Harry, but that wouldn’t make sense to his friends. “I have to keep Harry alive, no matter what. I’m not saying that my life doesn’t matter, but I don’t stand a chance at defeating the Dark Lord if- no when he rises again. The Malfoy name is used for terror, not hope, and we all agree that Harry is the hope of the Wizarding world. If he dies, best case scenario is that people would rally behind a martyr, but there would still be no one left to actually kill the bastard.”
Pansy narrows her eyes, “What about Dumbledore? He’s the most powerful wizard in the world, he shouldn’t be leaving this fight to a bunch of untrained children.”
Merlin, he loves her. For her brain if nothing else. “That’s what I thought, but he is old and as much as I want to demand he leave us out of the war entirely, you know it wouldn’t be that simple. My father is already trying to train me to be a Death Eater, how much longer would it take for other pureblood families to start doing the same?”
Blaise grimaces, Pansy sighs.
“There are some families who stayed neutral.”
“And who’s to say they would do the same this time? Harry’s meant to kill the Dark Lord, that’s all we know for certain. The rest of it no one has a clue about. Other kids could already be casting their alliances, being trained in the Dark Arts, there’s no telling how many enemies are out there already.”
“Is that where you come in? Saving Harry until he faces the one thing you might not be able to save him from?”
Draco actually laughs at that, “Harry will defeat the Dark Lord. It will be dangerous, sure, but he won’t die. I won’t let him die, not until he suffers the consequences for my headaches over the years. And since I have to be there until the very end, I can’t die either. You two have nothing to worry about from that aspect.”
He doesn’t tell them about the cuts on his inner thighs, but only because it wouldn’t really help his case at the moment and he can see them starting to give in. Blaise reaches out and takes his hand, “You two were the first people in my life that my mother ever trusted to care about me. Should you break my heart by dying I hope you know she’ll hire someone to bring you back so she can wring your neck.”
Draco grins, though he does have to admit Mrs. Zabini angry is the type of scary his father aspires to be.
“And my father will bail her out so my mother can do the same.”
“And then your mother would have the third time, though she probably wouldn’t kill you.”
Draco laughs, “No, she’d find something much worse than that and keep a threatening eye on me.”
The door to their compartment opens and closes by itself. Draco only rolls his eyes before the air moves and three more idiots are standing there.
“I dunno who managed to get rid of Crabbe and Goyle,” Weasley says as he settles into the seat by the window, “But I say they deserve first hand in Exploding Snaps.”
Pansy and Blaise look towards him and match his smile.
The six gather around and spend the rest of the ride laughing. They don’t talk about the near death experiences. That Lupin has left and some weirdo would probably take his place and make life miserable. That Draco and Harry were both returning to a summer full of abuse. No one says a word about the millions of things that could go wrong until the train starts to slow down and Harry holds up his Invisibility Cloak.
“I know we can’t write, but I expect to see all of you safe and back in this carriage in a few months. Deal?”
He’s met with five heads nodding in agreement, even though he really only looks at Draco. A flash of movement later and the three Gryffindors are disappearing through an open door, leaving the three Slytherins to gather their things and make their way to the landing.
“That’s weird. Mother is never late to pick me up…”
Pansy matches Blaise’s confused expression, “Father is very punctual as well…”
They barely have time to share a look before Sisily is before them, bowing deeply but looking around as though she’d been through the shock of her life.
“Master Draco, you and your friends are expected to be coming to the Manor at once.”
Draco raises an eyebrow, “Expected by who?”
“Your mothers,” Sisily gulps, “All three of them.”
Well, shit.