Nobody Cared Enough !

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 11

25 Sept 1991 - Wednesday

Draco woke at seven in the morning, and just as Harry's bed was neatly made yesterday, it was so again. Draco frowned at it. What was going on? Where was Harry?

Shrugging the mystery off as one he couldn't solve this second, Draco slid from bed and went into the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. A half hour later, he finished getting dressed, smoothed the covers on his bed, and ran out of the dorm.

Draco was just about to head into the Great Hall when he saw Harry pushing through the tall, oak doors into the Entrance Hall.

"Harry! Where were you?" Draco ran over to the boy who looked as though he hadn't had a good night's sleep.

Harry smiled gamely as he met his friend. "I was just taking a walk."

Draco frowned. "Bit early for that." He peered at Harry. "I know you went to bed last night, but did you get any sleep?"

Harry hesitated. It was natural for him to do so. Nobody had ever asked after him, and certainly nobody ever cared enough to know what he was thinking or feeling. But, Draco was his friend, right? Friends cared. They wanted to know if you were feeling all right or not. Harry knew that if something were wrong with Draco he'd want to know so he could help.

"Sort of," he hedged cautiously.

"Nightmares again?" asked Draco softly, as though it were a big secret.

"Yeah..." Harry stopped as they entered the Great Hall and made their way to the Slytherin table.

There were pitchers of juice and milk and teapots with hot water. Food wasn't served, yet, as it wasn't quite 8:15 in the morning. Harry poured some milk and Draco had some as well.

"So?" asked Draco, after he took a big swallow of his cold milk. For a brief second he sported a milk mustache until he wiped it off with his sleeve. "Same stuff you've been dreaming about or something else?"

"Something else," Harry said quickly, trying to dismiss any further talk about his nightmares.

Draco did continue to talk about nightmares, but instead he told Harry about one of his. "When I was five I kept having this terrible nightmare about these really scary guys in black robes and silver masks. They were coming to take me away, but my father was there and he was killing them with all sorts of spells. Only thing is, everytime he killed one, another would appear." Draco's voice dropped to a hush. "Then, the nightmare would really get awful because they weren't after me anymore, they were after my father. And... and... they'd get him." Draco shuddered at the memory of the nightmare.

Harry had been listening intently and was horrified by the dream. "So what happened? Did you wake up?"

Breakfast appeared and for a moment the nightmares were forgotten as the two boys prepared their oatmeal. Draco liked honey, so he had fun pouring the honey in a thin stream all over the oatmeal's surface in intricate little patterns. Harry liked butter and maple sugar so he stirred in a pat of butter and then added a spoonful of the maple sugar. After a few bites, their conversation resumed.

"Don't tell anyone, but I screamed really loudly," Draco replied.

"Did you cry, too?" asked Harry sympathetically.

"Oh yeah. I was a mess but my father came and... well, he'd do what fathers do." Draco looked up to see that Harry was frowning in puzzlement and was about to ask, what did fathers do? "You know. Like when Professor Snape helps you with your nightmares? That sort of stuff."

Harry seemed genuinely surprised by this information. "Your dad would hold you... and...?"

"Yeah, cause that's what fathers are supposed to do," Draco insisted firmly. "I think mums probably do that for girls. Father would hug me and tell me that the bad guys couldn't get to me because the wards around Malfoy Manor were really strong." Draco's voice again dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Want to know what's really scary?"