An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 20/20
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Explicit Language, Sexual Content, Spoilers
Summary:
Post HBP/Post war. Voldemort is dead, but when Malfoy is captured, Harry wants answers for his own peace of mind before he lets him go to Azkaban.
Finally, after Malfoy had eaten more food than Harry thought could possibly fit in that thin frame and polished off the rest of the pumpkin juice, he leant back in the chair and sighed. “That was the best thing I think I’ve ever eaten.”
Harry laughed. “I’ll tell Molly Weasley that,” he said. Oh the irony. Malfoy would hate that. He’d always hated the Weasleys with as much passion as he’d hated Harry.
But then Malfoy surprised him again, by opening his mouth to say something and then closing it with a shake of his head.
“Nothing,” Malfoy shook his head. “Though, I think…will you thank her for the food for me?”
Harry’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Ok, who are you and where is the real Draco Malfoy?”
The blond just smiled sadly. “I’ve always been here, just, most people didn’t care to look past the obvious.”
“The name, the expectations…I never really understood how much we had in common before…V-Voldemort threatened my family.”
Harry nodded slowly, not sure if he agreed with him, as he had never thought about it, but allowed that he might have a point. Harry had wrangled with everything that came with his name and the expectations of him, too.
“You don’t sound surprised that he threatened my family.”
Harry shook his head. “I was there, that night. I saw what happened with you and Dumbledore.”
Malfoy’s eyes widened for a moment before he resignedly shook his head and looked away. “I should have known. The second broom, right? Why did you do nothing?”
“I couldn’t do anything. Dumbledore used the split second he had to disarm you, to immobilize me instead, me being under my dad’s Invisibility Cloak. He knew he was dying, Malfoy, but he didn’t want you to be the one to kill him.”
“Snape told me later,” Malfoy confirmed. He looked up at Harry. “Did you trust him? Dumbledore, I mean.”
“Yes, I did. We’d had differences in the past, but by then, he’d told me what I had to do and I did.” Harry felt all this was very strange, sitting here with Malfoy who was naked, having a civilized conversation with him. It wasn’t…bad…just strange.
“You wouldn’t have killed him, would you?” Harry asked. This was one of the most important questions Harry needed answers to, but Harry thought that he already knew the answer to that one.
Malfoy looked back at Harry for a long time, then gave another small smile and shook his head. “I couldn’t. All that year, I thought I could…to save my family, I knew I had to, but in the end I couldn’t.” Malfoy folded his arms on the table and rested his head upon them. “I really wanted to believe him…that he’d help them. And then, after, I was stuck with Snape. He took me back to Voldemort, I took my punishment and he let me live.”
Silence fell then, Harry quietly relieved that he had been right in the end. After a few moments, Harry noticed that Malfoy’s shoulders were shaking and he realised that the young man was crying. He was just about to say something, when Malfoy began talking again in a much more strained voice.
“But he killed mother anyway. Father, he said was too valuable to him and so he kept him alive. He used me as bait for my father as well. Not that father had ever had any qualms about killing and torturing Muggles, but he said that it never hurt to have some insurance.”
A stifled sniff came from the bowed head, and Harry finally got up from his chair and walked around the table to the still sniffing Malfoy. Uncomfortably, he placed his hand on Malfoy’s shoulder. He wasn’t good at comfort, he never knew just exactly what to do, but he knew that losing ones mother was traumatic no matter who you were.
Harry was surprised however, when he felt one of Malfoy’s hands reach up and grip his and hold onto it. He left his where it was, offering silent comfort as he cried, and after a while, a tear-streaked face looked up at him and whispered.
“I know about Corpus Inflammare.”
💗💗 A.lovely fic about Harry learning that maybe Draco wasn't as bad as he thought he was,and likely doesn't even deserve Azkaban at all. This is a marvelous fic y'all, and I hope you'll check it out! I promise it won't let you down!💗💗
