Tell me all about it (Drarry)

Daring, nerve and chivalry

"What about second year?" Harry asks out loud, Draco has been taking an unusually long time to answer this time, so he decides to move on, also wanting to know how second year was for him, it had been a total nightmare for Harry himself.

"The chamber of secrets..." Draco mumbles and Harry tugs at the hems of his sleeves, everyone had been believing he was Slytherins heir that year, the usual stares and whispers had been tinted by fear and hate, Harry could never decide what kind of stares made him the most uncomfortable, there had been the curious, admiring stares at first, when he had just entered this magic new world and found out about his parents, and they were kind of intruding, it had been a big shock for Harry, knowing that what he had grown up believing about his parents deaths was a lie, knowing that they had been killed protecting Harry; the titles, the fame, the stares and whispers were just a constant reminder that they were gone... then there were the hateful and envious stares, all trough second year, and later on, during the Triwizard Tournament and the time when he was torn down as a liar by the Ministry for saying that Voldemort was back; and those had been frustrating, he felt left out, a stranger in a place he had come to call home, it had been like going back to living with the Dursleys. And after the war the stares became divided; [two kinds of people] thinks Harry to himself, those who are still in awe of The Boy Who Lived, those who proclaimed him Savior of the Wizarding World, and then those who blame him... those who blame him for their lost family members and friends, for not being able to finish the war before so many people had to die for him, in short; people who blame him for the same things he blames himself for.

"Everyone thought I was the heir, they actually thought I had been setting the monster on Muggle-bornes".

"Yeah... that was quite stupid of them considering your best friend was a Muggle-born, besides, it didn't take much to see you were as much of a Slytherin as Pansy was a Hufflepuff" Draco says and Harry can't help but think back to The Sorting, would things have been different if he hadn't interfered with the Hats decision? They would have obviously been different, but would the difference have been for better or worse? Would the Wizarding World still have believed him the Chosen One even if he were in Slytherin? Would he have still become friends with Ron and Hermione? Or maybe he would just have had a normal education, sharing classes, dorms and weekends with the blond lying next to him, instead of with his red haired best friend... but deep down, Harry knows that no matter what the Sorting Hat had said back then, he is a Gryffindor, he always was, and very proud to be so too.

Still he feels the need to say "well, maybe the Sorting Hat wouldn't have agreed with that" he almost regrets it, when the blond lifts his head from the floor to stare at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well..." Harry says cautiously "it seriously considered sorting me into Slytherin... but I asked it not to, so I ended up in Gryffindor instead" Harry can see that the blond isn't really satisfied, that he wants to know more, but maybe as Harry, he feels that this weird point they're standing in is still to fragile to push things, feeling like he owes an explanation he keeps talking, "the only thing I had heard about Slytherin was that it was the dark house, now I know it isn't, but I was 11... besides Ron was ought to be in Gryffindor, as my parents had been, and then the Hats song just... Gryffindor sounded so amazing, everything I wanted to be and wasn't "You might belong in Gryffindor, were dwell the brave at heart, their daring, nerve and chivalry, set Gryffindors apart"" Harry recites. It had been amazing back then, at 11, even before knowing what everyone was expecting of him as The Boy Who Lived, he; as just Harry had thought that Gryffindors sounded like heroes, what could be more admirable than having a brave heart? Daring? Nerve? Chivalry?

"I don't know if you remember Slytherins part" Harry says and isn't really surprised when Draco mumbles "or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends, those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends."

Harry nods slowly, after so many years it seemed to not really matter, your house... of course it became your family, but it didn't really need to define who you were, who you are, because eventually Harry discovered that he wanted it all... he wanted a brave heart, a gentle soul, a ready mind and a cunning manner, and that wasn't wrong. But still he knows he made the right choice, because being a Gryffindor had instilled in him the feeling that he was courageous. Daring... nerve... chivalry... bravery... it had taken all of them for Harry to stand up to Voldemort without losing himself along the way, to retrieve and destroy the Horocruxes, to fight without getting immersed in the darkness, and finally to die for the people he wanted to protect so badly.

It had haunted him the first couple years, specially on second year, when his parsel tongue ability came out, and the chamber of secrets was opened, that maybe, both, the Sorting Hat and him had made a mistake, betting against his true abilities, and placing him in Gryffindor instead, but eventually Harry realized that it couldn't had been any other way.

"I couldn't see you in Slytherin" Draco says surprising Harry, "every time I looked at you, all I could see was the Gryffindor Golden Boy, so brave... ready to take on the world by storm, you might have had a couple of Slytherins valued traits, maybe a bit of cunning, maybe big aspirations, but your pure heart overrode it all Harry, I wouldn't change that, if I could go back, I wouldn't change things so that you were sorted into Slytherin, even if it meant us becoming friends, you belonged in Gryffindor all along... I just wish we had brought House unity, you know? We could have done it... The Boy Who Lived and Draco Malfoy, friends? We could have torn down that stupid rivalry between our Houses easily".

Harry can't even remember all the times he has thought about that, but before he can dwell on it too long Draco says "can't be helped now".

"Well, the rivalry is dead now anyways, we kind of unconsciously  tore it down... it stopped after the war, but still; would it compensate for something if we became friends now? I mean officially?" asks Harry sitting up, and Draco mimics him with a gleam dancing in his eyes, under the moonlight they look almost silver.

"Maybe it would" he says shrugging and Harry laughs.

"Playing hard to get Malfoy?" Malfoy gives him a smile and he feels proud of himself for making it appear [dazzling] is the only word running through his mind while he stretches his hand out, Draco seems to stop and think for a second and Harry raises his eyebrows at him.

"Just enjoying the moment, waited 9 years for this... more if I'm being honest" he says and shakes Harry's hand.

They smile at each other before lying back down, their elbows almost touching.

And Harry smiles to himself, who would have thought? After 6 years of childish fights, detentions, do ins, curses and hexes, quidditch rivalries, taunting, after being on opposing sides of a terrible war, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy; friends... [meant to be, some would call it] Harry thinks, and he can't help himself from thanking destiny, luck or star alignment, whatever made this possible at last.

Remembering a long past night in which he also happened to be with Draco, he turns his head in the Forbidden Forests direction and thinks to himself with a laugh [maybe Mars is just unusually bright tonight].

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