IMPOSSIBLE RISKS // Drarry

28) SWEETHEART!

TW: Gay.

Visiting Arthur Weasley at St. Mungo’s was an odd experience for both Harry and Draco. While many members of the Order of the Phoenix visited him as well, it was strange for Harry because of the bubbling guilt swimming in his veins, thinking that it was entirely his fault for Mr. Weasley's stay in the first place.

For Draco, however, it is just as bad. Having used to be one of the Weasley family's rivals, it is very difficult for them to think of his sympathy for the situation as sincere. The only reason the family has an ounce of trust for Draco is the mere fact that he's kept their adoptive son safe.

But anyone decent would protect someone as wonderful as Harry. It's not all that big of an accomplishment. Especially with him already owing the boy so much for his previous torment of him.

Throughout most of the visit, the Order members—and all of the Weasleys, save for Ron— eye him distrustfully, as though waiting for Draco to return to his death-eater roots.

This is why it comes as no surprise at all when Mr. Weasley kicks all of the children out of the room once important matters begin to come into the discussion;

“So where were you when it happened, Dad?” asks George.

“That’s my business,” says Mr. Weasley, though with a small smile. He snatches up the Daily Prophet, shakes it open again, and says, “I was just reading about Willy Widdershins’s arrest when you arrived. You know Willy turned out to be behind those regurgitating toilets last summer? One of his jinxes backfired, the toilet exploded, and they found him lying unconscious in the wreckage covered from head to foot in —”

“When you say you were ‘on duty,’” Fred interrupts in a low voice, “what were you doing?”

“You heard your father,” whispers Mrs. Weasley, “we are not discussing this here! Go on about Willy Widdershins, Arthur —”

“Well, don’t ask me how, but he got off on the toilet charge,” says Mr. Weasley grimly. “I can only suppose gold changed hands —”

“You were guarding it, weren’t you?” says George quietly. “The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who’s after?”

“George, be quiet!” snaps Mrs. Weasley.

“Anyway,” says Mr. Weasley in a raised voice, “this time Willy’s been caught selling biting doorknobs to Muggles, and I don’t think he’ll be able to worm his way out of it because according to this article, two Muggles have lost fingers and are now in St. Mungo’s for emergency bone regrowth and memory modification. Just think of it, Muggles in St. Mungo’s! I wonder which ward they’re in?”
And he looks eagerly around as though hoping to see a signpost.

“Didn’t you say You-Know-Who’s got a snake, Harry?” asks Fred, looking at his father for a reaction. “A massive one? You saw it the night he returned, didn’t you?”

“That’s enough,” says Mrs. Weasley crossly. “Mad-Eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur, they want to come and see you. And you lot can wait outside,” she adds to her children, Harry, and Draco, “You can come and say good-bye afterward. Go on . . .”

They troop back into the corridor. Mad-Eye and Tonks go in and close the door of the ward behind them. Fred raises his eyebrows;

“Fine,” he says coolly, rummaging in his pockets, “be like that. Don’t tell us anything.”

“Looking for these?” says George, holding out what looks like a tangle of flesh-colored string.

“You read my mind,” says Fred, grinning. “Let’s see if St. Mungo’s puts Imperturbable Charms on its ward doors, shall we?”