cold hands and warm hearts | drarry oneshot

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Draco was just coming out of a candy shop when he noticed the accruing tracks and he had no better idea than to follow them. He's lost his two friends, if one can even call them that, earlier. It's not like them, or anybody really, to just ditch Draco Malfoy like that so he assumed they were probably still somewhere, stuffing their faces. He was alone. He didn't mind. He was used to it, anyway.

As he was coming closer and closer, he suddenly picks up a quiet noise. He stops in his tracks and takes off his hat to hear better. He narrows his eyes and soon makes up that what he's hearing are... muffled sobs? He frowns in suspicion and looks around. When he sees nothing, he slowly starts leading toward what he assumes is the source. The tracks end with a rock.

He steps closer and the snow crunching beneath his heavy boots feels too loud. He reaches out his arm carefully, slowly, and he leans back, trying to distance his face from what could still possibly be some kind of a trick and he'd end up like that Finnigan lad in every class ever, possibly without eyebrows.

Then, he feels cloth against his hand and the sobs stop completely. The world stills and Draco's heart itches him in his throat. He can barely swallow when he tries but decides to just get this over with.

He removes the cloth - he still doesn't understand why the fuck isn't he seeing it - carefully in one swift movement, but what he finds under is the last thing he would ever expect.

From below, there were two puffy red eyes rounded by two black circles staring bitterly up at him.

,,Potter-?" Malfoy blurts out, bewildered, and steps back.

,,What do you want, Malfoy?" the other boy spits at the confused boy with look colder than the landscape around them. He doesn't look very fond of seeing the blond.

,,Are you- are you crying?" Draco asks and immediately scolds himself in his head for being so damn oblivious. Of course he's crying! He knows these eyes all too well not to notice that.

,,Yeah, go. Go ahead! Go tell your stupid peasant of friends that bloody Harry Potter was crying! And don't forget to laugh in my face next time you see me!" Harry stands up so fast Draco thinks he himself would've fainted with a head rush, and he approaches him, almost dangerously. Draco's heart skips a beat when he thinks Harry is going to punch him in the face with the way he's walking.

,,Harry I'm not gonna-" he starts but is cut off harshly before he can finish. Fortunately, not with a fist.

,,Go on! Go back to Hogsmeade and scream it into the world! Spread it around that THE Harry Potter cried-!"

,,Potter-... Potter-" Draco tries in between Harry's sentences but isn't given the chance to speak.

,,-Everyone, look at him!" the shorter boy throws his hands in the air, almost slapping Draco in the face in the process (which, let's be honest, would be well deserved, even if not purposely initiated).

,,Potter!" Draco now outright screams so that he would stop yelling at him and just listen. And that seems to do the job and Harry shuts up and turns around to face the blond, expectant of what he's planning to say, with his lips narrowed into a thin line.

,,I wasn't going to laugh," Draco speaks sincerely, not a hint of mock in his voice. Harry glares at him in suspicion and unsure, and Draco would be lying if he said it didn't sting a little. But then again, he can't really blame him. It's not like Draco has ever given him a reason to trust him. Yeah, he really wasn't taking Harry's rejection of his friendship request well.

,,I didn't know those were your tracks," he points at the ground to specify, Harry's eyes following. He doesn't reply though and Draco has no bloody idea of what to say or do next. So they stand in silence for a solid minute, until Draco thinks it's the appropriate (as in less inappropriate) time to grow a pair and finally ask: