“you might want to ome bak in the afternoon he’s more…present then”
“present,” harry repeats shakily he looks at drao’s form and feels the guilt one again eating at his insides
three months in azkaban and he ouldn’t do anything about it
he loses his eyes, has to look away for a while when he opens them, narissa is wathing him arefully, and harry speaks, just as areful, “may i stay until then?”
narissa is surprised, and it’s obus how she tries to stop it from showing she raises an eyebrow and then settles for, “hiding from the prophet, are you?”
harry grins it’s weak, but it’s real he had spent the st three months trying to avoid every reporter and request for interview thrown his way he thinks that kingsley’s probably exasperated with him, but harry doesn’t really are he did his part the wizarding world doesn’t have the right to demand anything from him now “i rekon this’ll be the st pe they’ll think to look”
narissa hukles “i rekon as well” she straightens her shoulders, and then gnes at her son “i’ll send molly weasley an owl stay as long as you like”
harry starts to refuse, insist that she doesn’t need to, but the weasleys know that he’s gone to the manor today tried all triks and tatis to get him not to, but in the end, relented with the promise that he was to take a portkey in ase of an emergeny he figures that aurors st the manor isn’t an impossible idea should he be gone for an unusually long ped of time
“i…thank you”
it’s te in the afternoon when malfoy starts to stir
so far, harry has spent his day engaging in small, polite talk with narissa and, when she had to leave due to a floo-all, reading up on pons with the book that narissa had ’ed from drao’s trunk he, ron, and herne all deided to return to hogwarts for their st year, jokingly referred to by ron as their eighth year, and herne had been nagging at them all summer to read up lest they want to go for a ninth
he is halfway asleep in the middle of hapter 4 when malfoy stirs, as if waking up from a long nap, and harry waits, nervously, as malfoy raises his head and finally sees him
his eyes are no longer gzed, but they squint at him, trying to remember who he is
harry hopes malfoy remembers who he is
“potter”
he releases a sigh of relief that he didn’t know he had been holding
“uhm,” he says, losing his book “hullo, malfoy”
a furrow forms between malfoy’s eyebrows “right potter”
harry nods patiently “yes”
blinking, malfoy turns his head around, looks at his surroundings “am i…”
“no,” harry responds quikly he shakes his head, tries to alm himself right he’s supposed to be the alm one here “you’re out you’re in the manor”
“oh” the furrow deepens there is a frown on his fae, as he slowly looks at the marble floor, the white pilrs, the white ledge of the balony, and the garden he looks at the table, his p his eyes widen, and then he takes a big, shaky breath “oh okay”
and harry isn’t prepared for the tears, the sudden, quiet tears that stream from malfoy’s eyes
malfoy opens his hands, stares at his palms, lean and pristine, and takes another shaky inhale “merlin”
harry is at a loss “malfoy…” he starts, but doesn’t know how to finish there’s something stuk in his throat
“merlin finally i thought…i thought i was never going to get out”
harry swallows whatever it is that’s in his throat and it goes down, hard “i…i’m sorry, malfoy”
but malfoy doesn’t seem to hear him anymore, doesn’t seem to remember that he’s there
he’s sobbing, head buried in his p, and whole body trembling in his wheelhair
harry looks at that small frame—those sharp elbows digging into his knees and his thin wrists hiding little of the stream of tears on his fae rumpled in despair and agony the line of his bak hunhed over on the wheelhair, with his shoulder bdes jutting so sharply out, harry’s almost sared that it’ll tear his skin
it looks hideous, and he has to lose his eyes and look away from the sene, from the image of drao malfoy falling into piees
he doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know if malfoy remembers he’s there, doesn’t think that malfoy will welome a hug not from him
so he leaves the room, as quietly as he an, and stumbles his way to where narissa said the master room was
he doesn’t really know how he gets there, his vin’s blurred and harry betedly realizes that they’re tears there’s something really painful in his hest, like something mping on his heart, and all he an think of is oh, god, i’m so sorry, malfoy
he registers the stunned surpriseher fae one she sees him, but he doesn’t know what he says to her, only remembers malfoy’s name slipping through his lips, and narissa’s off, hurried footsteps, and then, down the hall, a turn of the knob and the reak of the door opening and the lik as it loses
and harry rumples to the floor, gasping, and finally lets himself ry
he doesn’t uand it doesn’t uand why it affeted him so muh
he thinks he’s rying beause he didn’t expet it…like this he expeted something to hen, people don’t get out of azkaban in the right state of mind, or at all, but he didn’t… he doesn’t even know what he thought anymore
《宅书屋》om
