Roommates (Drarry)

Chapter 8 - Nightmares

*Harry/narrator pov*
"Ron! What are you doing here?" Harry ran over to his best friend immediately and embraced him tightly.

"Came on behalf of the Aurors to speak to McGonagall." Said Ron, grinning broadly. I saw Draco trying his best not to shoot daggers at Ron and mostly failing, but the effort showed. Harry was surprised and touched, however, that Draco was making an effort to not be rude to Ron. "How's school this year?" Ron continued "Are there many eighth years?"

"No, there's only four of us, it's really great though. We have our own common room decorated in all the Hogwarts colours, as we have one person from each house, two boys, two girls, sharing dormitories as usual, though they're a bit smaller this year. Just one boys' one and one girls'." I trailed off as I realised that Ron had stopped listening.

His eyes found Draco and his face twisted with intense dislike.

"Malfoy." He spat. Harry was shocked at Ron's rudeness. He thought Ron was mature enough to at least be vaguely nice to Draco.

"Weasley." Draco replied nonchalantly, though his dislike was poorly concealed. Harry appreciated the effort all the same.

"What are you doing here? Didn't they lock you in Azkaban with the rest of the Death Eaters?" Ron said spitefully. Harry felt a burning rage build inside of him towards Ron at the pain flickering across Draco's face, but his eyes shuttered and a familiar sneer distorted his face.

"Don't they tell you anything at that Auror office of yours, Weasley?" Harry's rage was still building at Ron, livid for being so rude and for touching what was obviously a very sensitive topic. Harry knew that Ron had deliberately hit a nerve. "No, I suppose not." Draco continued. "If they had, you would already know that I was cleared. Pity, I thought you were finally someplace you were important."

Ron's ears went pink. "Says the boy back at school because nobody would employ him. Don't kid yourself, Malfoy. You'll always be a Death Eater."

This was too much for Harry. His rage warned against his friendship with Ron and the fiery feeling turned frozen.

"That's enough." He said quietly in a voice that was ice cold, fixing him with a hard, unyielding stare.

"You're not seriously defending him?" Ron scoffed.

"After your behaviour?" Harry said in a voice that was quickly rising and dissolving back to the familiar burning anger. "You're that rude to him and you expect him to be nice to you?"

"Why would I be nice to him? He's only ever been horrible to us." Said Ron in a slightly hurt but just as angry voice as Harry's.

"Ron, did you not think that being a Death Eater, being forced to work for Voldemort, might have been traumatic for him?"

"Who cares?" Ron shot back. "Anything I've got against him can go towards paying him back for six years of hell!"

"Grow up, Ron!" Harry shouted. He took a breath and tried a different approach, speaking more quietly. "Hurting people for your own petty revenge isn't going to get you anywhere. People like Draco pick on others out of their own insecurities, and deliberately targeting those insecurities is only going to make them worse. You're better than this, Ron."

But appealing to Ron's better nature was seemingly useless. "Draco." He mocked. "What are you and dear Draco, best pals now?"