Modern No-Magic AU Drarry

Chapter Thirty

A slender hand placed over his smiling lips, Draco locked his phone and drummed his fingers on his desk. The feelings he had tried to get rid of for too many years of his life were too difficult to continue suppressing, but it seemed as though Harry had been hiding something from him, too. All this time, were his feelings secretly reciprocated?

It's bad enough that Draco couldn't fall in love with a girl - one of the things he tried so hard to do throughout his teenaged years, but he was never successful - but the idiot who he couldn't stop thinking about was the godforsaken Boy Who Lived, as the Death Eaters called him.

Draco felt like he was the Boy Who Chose... but what would he choose? Sacrifice Harry and a man who Draco wasn't even sure did anything wrong, or sacrifice himself and his whole family? What type of messed up choice is that, anyway? He wasn't going to choose between Harry or himself. Not again.

A sharp knock on Draco's door made him jump, and he put his phone on the far corner of his desk, pulling over a book. "Come in."

Narcissa's pale face appeared in the doorway, and she surveyed her son with unease.

"...Mother?" Draco said cautiously, pushing his seat back and waiting for her to explain her sudden appearance.

"They are coming," Narcissa said, her voice low and urgent. She couldn't meet Draco's eyes. "I... You have to leave. Just for an hour or so, until they're gone." Her youthful face had races of wrinkles above her eyebrows and in the creases of her mouth that seemed to be permanently frozen in a pouty kind of frown. "I don't... want you to keep suffering. I wish there was a... a different way."

Feeling as though he was slowly thawing from being frozen in place, Draco tried to blink at normal intervals. "Mother?" he said, the uncertainty leaking through the cracks in his facade.

Opening the door all the way, Narcissa held out a hand to the exit. "Hurry. Keep in contact until I tell you it's okay to come back, which shouldn't be over an hour." When Draco didn't move, she widened her eyes. "Go!"

Forgetting how legs were normally supposed to work, Draco lunged for his phone and shoved it down his back pocket before hurrying out the door, grabbing his black "peacoat" jacket on the way. Just as he passed his mother, he maintained eye contact with her, but the unspoken words in the silence between them remained in the air like a strange smell long after Draco had made it out of the house.

Before turning on the engine, he checked his phone.

Harry: Going to be at the cafe this evening. will i be seeing u?

His heart picking up, Draco's fingers flew across the tiny keyboard.

Draco: Is that a request?

Without looking for a response, he slid the keys into the ignition and the machine purred to life.

---

"How many was it again?" said Ron's confused voice.

Stifling a sigh from where he was entering all the receipts into the machine, Harry repeated the instructions for the third time. Not wanting to risk Ron once again misunderstanding, Harry walked into the back room. "Twenty medium cups and then the six new bags of coffee."

"Right, right." Ron poked his head out from behind a disorderly stack of cardboard boxes. "Why the fuck is it so messy in here? Where's 'Mione when you need her?" His laughter awkwardly faded and Harry scrunched up his nose as he turned away, not wanting to go back into that uncomfortable conversation.