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40 - The Last Getaway

The next morning, Snape was packing up the last of his things, thanking Merlin he would be leaving the castle soon. A long vacation was definitely in order. Snape sighed as he passed through his living room to his bedroom, seeing Draco staring into the fire with the same depressed look he'd had for the past week. The boy had lost both his family and his friends because of his decision. All of his old friends had been children of Death Eaters and refused to associate with a "traitor." Now the boy was utterly alone during such a hard time, with no one except for a snarky potions master for company.

Yet, though Dumbledore had insisted that he was the best person to take Draco in, he didn't know what to do to cheer up the boy. He wasn't exactly a cheery person himself. It would be wonderful if Draco could be friends with Harry Potter, but Snape knew that that would be impossible. All he could hope for now was a bit of a miracle.

As he was packing the last of his potions into a box, there was a hesitant knock at the door. Snape came out of his private lab and glanced at Draco, who was still staring numbly into the fire, before opening the door to reveal none other than Harry Potter.

"Er...hi Professor."

"Harry," he said quietly with a nod, taking the young Gryffindor by pleasant surprise that he had decided to continue calling Harry by his first name, at least when nobody else was around. "It's good to see you're feeling well, but this really is a bad time. I'll see you next year," he said, beginning to close the door. He didn't want to agitate Draco anymore by inviting his worst enemy in.

"Wait!" Harry said, catching the door before it closed. "Actually, the reason I came down here was really because some of the Slytherins said that Malfoy might be down here."

Snape froze and raised an eyebrow.

"And why would that interest you?" he asked.

"I really want to talk to him, so if he's here I can stop begging Slytherins for their password and searching the school."

Snape looked over at Draco who was now looking curiously over the back of the couch with interest.

"Let him in, Sev," he said quietly as he rose from the couch.

Harry hesitantly stepped through the door and passed the potion's professor. Snape went back into his lab to give the boys the sense of privacy, despite the fact that he would, of course, be eavesdropping.

Back in the living room, Draco crossed his arms and sneered at Harry with a significant lack of conviction. "What do you want, Potter?"

"I wanted to say thank you for what you did. That was the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do, standing up to your father like that."

"Well, I just got disowned by my entire family for it, but I'm glad it pleased you, Potter," he said with cold sarcasm. Harry did notice a slight softening of Malfoy's scowl, though.

"Well, Malfoy..."

"Don't call me that, Potter. I'm not part of that family anymore," he said, trying to sound cold, but Harry could detect the sadness in the Slytherin's voice and expression.

"Oh. Okay. So, um...Draco," he said , the name feeling strange to say. "I know you probably won't want to, and will probably laugh in my face when I ask you, but I was wondering if you wanted to come over this summer," Harry asked awkwardly, soon smirking at the shocked look on Draco's face.

"Is that a joke? Why would you want me to come over to your house?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, I know if it was me staying with a professor all summer, I might get bored. And I'm staying with an adult all summer so I'll probably get bored too. And we're building a Quidditch pitch out back, so we could play if you came over," he explained, not really sure himself why he was inviting his sworn enemy over. "Basically, I just don't think you're as bad as you like to pretend you are."