We Open at the Close (Drarry)

Where Poppies Grow

Draco threw the back door to the cottage open with such force that Andromeda jumped in her seat at the kitchen table. Her eyes widened when she saw the bloodied state he was in.

"What the hell happened?" she cried, getting to her feet. Draco marched past her without answering and headed straight for his bedroom. Andromeda quickly followed, "Where's Harry?"

"Don't know," he said shortly, throwing his hold-all onto the bed. "Don't care."

"Is he still out there?" she asked. "Is he hurt?"

"No more than I am," he spat, quickly shoving his meagre belongings into the bag.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Away," said Draco, staring fixedly anywhere but at his aunt. "Harry and I had a little chat and we both concluded that I'm not fit to be near anyone, so I'm leaving."

"Nonsense," she retorted. "Come back downstairs and we'll talk this out."

"There's nothing to talk about!" he shouted.

"You come storming into my house filthy and covered in blood without an explanation and announce that you are leaving, there's plenty to talk about," she snapped. "Stop packing your bag and look at me."

Draco threw his bag down onto the bed in frustration and turned to face his aunt.

"What happened?" she asked more softly.

Draco shrugged. "Potter and I did what we always do— we had a fight. This"— he pointed at his bloodied and bruised face —"is a pretty normal outcome to our spats. I'm surprised he managed to wait a whole five minutes before he pulled his wand on me."

Andromeda gasped. "He drew his wand on you? Does he know you're wandless?"

"Yes!" lied Draco, then admitted, "Perhaps I neglected to mention that the Ministry hasn't returned my wand to me yet. But he shouldn't have drawn it on me in the first place. He wasn't there to talk, he just wanted to fight."

"And you didn't?" Andromeda challenged. "Did you actually try to talk things out, or did you just antagonise Harry enough to make sure he'd draw his wand on you?"

"What does it matter? We all know how this is going to play out. I'm leaving before you can send me away," Draco stated, resuming his packing.

"What do you mean?" asked Andromeda confused.

Draco sneered. "Don't play coy with me. You let me stay here so long as it wasn't an inconvenience to you— I get that. But now Harry knows, and he's lost his shit over the arrangement we have, as I expected he would, and now he'll say, 'it's either me or him', and we both know that I'll never be picked over Boy Wonder. Honestly, Andromeda, I get it. It's fine. Just let me leave before it comes to that, I don't think I could stand to get sidelined for him again. It happened all through our school years and I refuse to let it happen again."

"Firstly Draco, stop packing when I'm speaking to you, it's rude," said Andromeda. Draco stopped packing and folded his arms, looking at his feet, still avoiding her gaze. "Secondly, obviously Harry hasn't said anything like that to me yet, he's probably gone home to clean up his own wounds. Third and most importantly, even if he did say something like that— and I doubt that he ever would —I'm hurt that you would assume that I would cast you aside so quickly. Being part of a family requires hard work and sacrifice from all parties, both you and Harry need to understand that. You both need to learn to bury the hatchet on this playground bullying nonsense that's been dragged out for far too many years."

"This is more than simple playground bullying, Andromeda," Draco snarled. "It goes way beyond that. I've done things...terrible, unforgivable things. I've been ignoring it for as long as I can, but I can't do that anymore. This latest confrontation has given me real clarity on that— I'm not a good person, Andromeda. There's no point pretending that I am."