Draco chuckled internally at Harry’s appearance. The other boy’s cheeks tinted with cherry red as Harry avoided Draco’s gaze, quite intentionally.

Draco didn’t worry about Harry overhearing, he knew the boy was righteous and cautious enough not to use it against him or spread the news accidentally. He’d merely scare Harry enough to let him know not to eavesdrop next time.

Draco flinched as he remembered the last time he’d caught Harry in the cloak; he’d rather forget the event. Back in sixth grade, Draco petrified Harry, kicked him in the nose, and left him on the Hogwarts train. Was Harry uncomfortable right now? He didn’t look like it. The boy wasn’t tense either, just solemnly gazing at the floor, his hands toying with loose strings of his jacket.

Did he go outside in only that? Surely it wasn’t enough to stop the nearing winter.

Harry’s fleeting gaze landed on Draco, as if pondering if something is worth saying.

“Seriously Potter, I hadn’t petrified you. You can speak,” Draco commented, Harry’s silence getting to him.

Harry’s eyes lit up as Draco finished.

“What are the interviews for? Why do the questions need your father in them? What is the thing about being marke-,” his voice soon became muffled as Draco clamped his palm onto Harry’s mouth, shutting Harry quite forcefully.

Draco jerked his hand back immediately as he felt the outline of the other’s lips. The traitorous hand seemed to burn, pleasantly. Draco stepped back, surprised he hadn’t noticed their proximity until now.

Idiot.

“Why’d you wanna know,” Draco sneered.

“Because the whole Death Eater act, the Ministry, has gone too far,” Harry stepped closer, stating quietly, his green eyes burning, “It’s involving people that weren’t supposed to. The Lestrange boy, now you. I’m guessing your friends are influenced one way or another.”

Draco thought back to Pansy’s distraught look, how Theo dragged him to the library at dawn. Theo’s father was already convicted, the boy seemed bent on not letting him nor Pansy face the same experience. But they were the innocents, he wasn’t. He chose the wrong side to fight, now he just wanted to blend in, like a coward.

“I don’t need your pity, Potter.” Draco barely kept his voice from shaking. His usual threats felt empty, thin, rehearsed.

“It’s not pity. I’d felt it too. Being branded as an attention-seeking fraud. You saw it first-hand. Dolores Umbridge, remember?” Draco flinched at the memory as Harry’s whisper grew louder, “The Ministry tried to capture Dumbledore, me and the DA were a terrorist organization. And I couldn’t do anything to it. I couldn’t stop the rumors. Anything I did was just another proof of what a spoiled, fame-chasing, self-entitled brat I was.” Harry trembled, calming himself with forced deep breaths.

“The Ministry hadn’t changed. Create public panic, then find a common enemy. It all happened to me. Wouldn’t be that different with you. I could help.”

Draco’s breath hitched. How could Harry even compare himself to … Yet the flash of hurt and shame, the lingering tremble, it suddenly made Harry human. Not so different than Draco himself.

“Why would you-” Draco grew quiet.

“This is for me. Hogwarts was the first true home to me. I’m not letting the Ministry lay hands on it. Ever again.”

“If you want to do charity for Slytherin children, go find someone else. I’m coping fine here,” Draco snapped.

Harry seemed unhappy at Draco’s decision but didn’t question it.

A series of footsteps neared the library, paired with a familiar ragged whistling.

Draco’s breath hitched as he slipped on the invisibility cloak. Harry squeezed inside. Draco grunted as Harry elbowed him in an attempt to get the cloak back.

“This is my cloak Malfoy!” Harry huffed, his voice growing lower as the footsteps neared.

“Be thankful I’m not reporting you for loitering around then,” Draco whispered back with vengeance.

Moments later, the door creaked open as a gold lantern scanned the room, illuminating the dark corners and piercing through the cloak several times.

“Mrs. Norris, my sweet, there’s no one here.” Draco swore he could smell Filch’s breath from across the room. A cat responded with high-pitched whines, mirroring an infant’s shrieking.

“I know, I know. I heard sounds too. Annoying little pests, I’ll catch ‘em one day,” Filch grumbled as the door shut again.

“He’s gone now, you can get out,” Harry warned.

“What if he came back? I’m not facing him and that bloody cat,” Draco still whispered. The looming images of Filch from Draco’s earlier school years still lingered in his memories, “At least get me to the dorms.”

“I’m not doing that. You guys live in the dungeons; I’ll have to climb all the way up to get to my dorms.”

Fair point.

“I’ll report you and get the cloak confiscated,” Draco threatened, running out of useful ideas.

“I can’t see how that will affect me but alright.” Harry sighed, waving his wand for a luminous charm.

“Wait, really Potter?”

Harry didn’t reply as he dragged Draco towards the Slytherin dorms.

They walked in silence, Draco behind Harry. Draco eyed Harry with utter confusion as they took another passageway, one which was sure to be only known by upper-grade Slytherins.

“How come you know this place better than I do?” Draco whispered to Harry. His mouth almost grazing Harry’s ears, “Some secret girlfriend told you?”

The Gryffindor shuddered, eyelids fluttering.

“I had an enchanted map of Hogwarts, that’s all. So, no secret girlfriend.” Harry emphasized the last part with annoyance.

“Alright. I won’t promise you’ll not hear no rumors about that,” Draco tried to hide his laugh as Harry furrowed his brows, trying to twist through the sentence.

“What’s up Potter, growing some braincells there?”

“Just shut it Draco.”

Another flight of twisted stairs later, the stone wall stood before them.

“I guess we’re here,” Harry shrugged. Draco handed back the cloak gingerly.

As Draco said the password, the stone wall curved inward, sliding open to reveal his friends, who surrounded the fireplace.

“What took you so long?” Blaise frowned. He glanced right past Draco, then said sang almost teasingly, “Care to explain, Pah-tah?”

Pansy shot up here head immediately, wearing a kind of beam that reminded Draco of Luna when she wore the ridiculous Lion hat. Pansy turned to Theo, murmuring something in his ear before the two of them snickered together.

“I guess I should be going,” Harry said, waving a little to Draco before he turned.

“Alright.” Harry might’ve been put out by Blaise’s comment. What if Harry thought Blaise was targeting him? Draco rushed back to Harry, “Just don’t listen to Blaise, he’s always been like this. He does the thing to annoy people. I’m still not surprised he’s not punched yet,” Draco rambled in a hush voice. Unconsciously, he followed Harry’s retreating steps until they were outside the common room doorway.

“Don’t worry about it,” Harry chuckled, putting his hand on Draco’s shoulders and giving the Slytherin and light push, “Just go with your friends.”

Harry disappeared as he wrapped on his cloak, the fading footsteps signaling he’s really gone.

“You told me yesterday you couldn’t make friends with Potter. If you two are moving this fast, should I expect the happy news by end of the week?” Blaise mused as Draco went sat beside him.

“That’s two days away,” Theo added concerningly.

“Exactly what I’m talking about!” Blaise emphasized, making an impression of swooning as he leaned onto Pansy. Theo coughed quite intentionally, as Blaise gave an apologetic gesture. His teasing hadn’t ceased though. Blaise continued, “Few minutes ago, I’ve been feeling like the third wheel, when you and Potter came in, I feel like a fifth wheel.”

“There’s no happy news and no fifth wheel!” Draco stared at Blaise, rather outrageously.

“Does a fifth wheel exist?” Pansy asked, genuinely curious.

“There will be a seventh wheel when you two, you and your Potter, and his friends go on a triple date,” Blaise grumbled. Draco wondered if his friend was genuinely disturbed by the idea.

Third-wheeling sucks, as Draco experienced with Pansy and Theo. The two of them shared a connection, one that even the closest friends couldn’t tune in on.

“That’s a fantastic idea!” Pansy bolted up.

“A triple date?” Draco almost shouted. He wanted to charge all his friends, Blaise for suggesting the idea, Pansy for catching onto it like Mrs. Norris seeing fish sticks, and Theo … Theo for doing nothing.

“We could try a double date. Like me and Theo with Ron and Hermione. You know, the actual, confirmed couples,” Theo suggested, saving Draco from the embarrassment, “This weekend at Hogsmeade. I’m not close with Ron but I guess Hermione’s cool.”

Pansy gushed at the idea as Draco relaxed. The conversation soon steered into a rather safe territory, weekend plans and Christmas break. Blaise said he’d stay at Hogwarts for “early studying” as he called it. Draco suspected he was just uncomfortable with his mother’s new husband. The new stepdad was rumored to govern homes like he did with school, thriving on punishments and child-loathing. The rest of them all planned on going back home. Theo would join Pansy and meet her parents. Draco sighed as he thought of the Manor. The dark stains in their living room floor that couldn’t be quite erased, the agonizing, pleading hided inside the walls, and the empty basement which used to be filled with banned trinkets of the Dark Arts. There was that, but also their rose courtyard. The covered space under the stairs he used to play hide-and-seek with. His poster-filled bedroom. Draco knew Manor had changed since his childhood, but it was still his, however messed up.

Then the question rolled out, before Draco could stop, “Anybody knows what aspirin is?” Harry told him about it, but he never bothered elaborating much. His Slytherin friends stared at him with confusion.

“What is that?” Pansy asked.

“Some Muggle medicine,” Draco replied, it was vexing that he was the one asking the question. It dawned him suddenly that his friends knew little as well. He realized too late at his slip up.

“Who told you?” Blaise started. Of course, he was the one to point it out. Draco watched helplessly realization dawned on his so-called friends. Blaise wiggled his brows and whispered hauntingly, “Maybe a certain boy, in our year, used to have a scar on his forehead. Ring any bells, Draco?”

How did he know? Draco panicked like a deer caught in headlights. He needed to start suspecting Blaise of mind-reading.

“So, what happened with Potter?” Pansy asked Draco, more gently than Blaise. All three pairs of eyes were on him like hawk finding a delicious piece of meat. And he thought there wasn’t an interrogation.

“We talked. He wanted to help us with the Ministry situation. Satisfied? Or do your gossip mills need more,” Draco kept in his snap, at least by the best he could.

“Not at all. How much does he know?”

“That there are interviews of some kind, maybe we’ll be marked, and it’s the Ministry’s fault.”

“That vague?” Theo frowned, “What did you tell him?”

Draco shrugged, “Nothing, he overheard our conversation, using an in-”

“Invisibility cloaks!” Theo jumped up, “I totally called out that one.”

Pansy laughed at Theo’s reaction.

“Takes a smarter man to spot one though.” Draco bluffed. Truth was, he’d seen a corner of a jacket floating in the air. Didn’t take a genius to guess it.

“I bet you saw his shoes or something,” Theo narrowed his gaze. Draco wondered if his friend always been that competitive.

“Like Har-Potter would make that mistake. I’m just more intelligent.” First name basis was certainly too soon.

Theo snorted as the conversation fell back to schoolwork.

Half an hour passed before Blaise and Theo left for the Slug Club’s meeting. Pansy and Draco sat side-by-side, with Pansy leaning her head on Draco’s shoulder. Draco warmed his hands by the fireplace.

“You were going to say Harry back there weren’t you?” Pansy asked quietly.

“Was it that obvious?” He didn’t know how Blaise would react to the news. Theo too if he were being honest.

“No and I won’t tell them if you’re uncomfortable.” Pansy smiled lightly. The flames of the fireplace embracing her in a warm, orange light.

“Thanks Pansy.” Draco grinned back, remembering why he was friends with her all this time. Him and Pansy were like brother and sister. They would fight and argue. However, Draco knew Pansy cared for him the same way he did for her, like family. Other people often thought their relationship as weird because they were not involved romantically. He didn’t care about those people.

“But seriously figure out what you want Potter and you to be. I’m sure your normal pals wouldn’t escort you back to the dungeons.”

“It’s a one-time thing. You’re overthinking.” Draco argued back. He knew he wished those words weren’t true.

Harry’s savior tendencies were predictable, what Draco hadn’t expected was how his heart thumped when he felt Harry’s breath on his hand. The memory sent a heat coursing up Draco’s neck.

Harry seemed determined when he offered to help, whatever that entailed. The Gryffindor had spoken as if they were on the same side, like they ever could. His hand twitched towards his left arm. He traced the remaining scars of that skull. Ugly.