Healing

Truth or Dare

Outside the Great Hall they met Neville who, as soon as he saw them, said, 'ah, there you Draco, I've been looking for you. Hi Harry.'

Draco felt astonished at Nev's reaction to Harry, as if it were perfectly normal for Harry to disappear into a fog for days on end and then reappear as if nothing had happened. But then maybe it was. Harry had effectively disappeared for eight months the previous year and then turned up, ransacked the school, fought an army of Deatheaters, offered his life to Voldemort, and then come back from the dead before killing the man as if he'd never been away. In which case, what's a few days hiding in the kitchens?

'Alright, Nev,' Harry replied. 'How's Hannah after the Mandrake incident?'

'She's good, there was no damage done and she said yes to being my girlfriend so all's good.'

'Excellent!'

They walked back to the common room with Neville and Draco on each side of Harry like bodyguards. They did meet a few students, none had anything to say to the three of them, but Draco thought they probably looked rather intimidating as they strolled through the castle side-by-side. There were some distinct whisperings of 'that's Harry Potter' and 'Harry Potter is back' and occasionally 'why is Harry Potter with Malfoy?'. Harry grimaced but the trio ignored them.

'It'll lessen over time,' Neville reassured him. 'You've just got to remember it's a big deal for them, you're a big deal. Even if it doesn't feel that way, from my brief experience of these matters.'

Draco smiled at Neville's modesty and leaned towards Harry to stage-whisper, 'Neville's been inundated with marriage proposals since he came back, barely an hour goes by without someone, male or female, first years to Professor Sprout, throwing themselves at his feet and begging to be his spouse.'

'Hey, Professor Sprout did not propose to me, that's plain slander, Draco Malfoy.'

And the three were laughing as they pushed open in the door to the eighth-year common room.

The common room was noisy, most of the year seemed to be there, Blaise was playing his guitar, and Ernie MacMillan was passing around Butterbeers from a crate.

'HARRY!' Seamus shouted. 'You're back!'

The noise abruptly dropped to silence as everyone stopped mid-conversation and turned to look at him. Harry had stopped quite unexpectedly as he entered the room ahead of Draco, so they were stood close together, nearly touching. He saw the man's shoulders immediately tense. He noticed the tightening of his tendons on his neck as he swallowed. He noticed Harry clench and unclench his fists at his side.

Blaise immediately took to playing 'A Flamingo in Love' again and Draco glowered at him. He did note, however, that Amanda was at sitting on a cushion at his feet, looking up at Blaise in adoration and Draco stored away that bit of information for later.

'Come and join us, mate,' Ernie held out a butterbeer.

'Er, no thanks, Ernie, I'm just going to go to my room.'

The disappointment in the room was palpable. Draco gently placed a hand on the small of Harry's back to try to relax and reassure him. He turned his head slightly so he could talk quietly to Harry without the others noticing, talking to the back of his neck rather than into his ear.

'You should get it over and done with,' he muttered, barely moving his lips. 'Fungbury is right, they're your friends, they've been through the war too. No one here is out to get you.'

He saw Harry's shoulders start to drop as he took a few deep breaths and at last he muttered, 'okay then, Ernie. Thanks.' And he stepped forward and took the butterbeer and walked round to slump down onto a sofa next to Megan, who immediately blushed and stared at Harry with doe-eyes, much to Draco's amusement. Though he did wonder if he looked at Harry like that too.