never let me go

plunge

lovelytheband – broken (acoustic)

"There's something tragic, but almost pure

Think I could love you, but I'm not sure."

Friday rolled around far too quickly, and as Draco stood in front of his mirror he almost decided not to go again because he couldn't figure out what to wear. He knew it was just casual drinks, but all his day clothes were still very fine, and he didn't want to stand out. He knew he would regardless, but whatever he could do to blend in would help.

He eventually settled on his plainest pullover sweater, which still had a nice silver trim, over a collared shirt and plain black pants. Simple. No need to overthink it. It's not like that was what he'd spent the last twenty minutes doing.

There was knock at his door, and he ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to flatten it (he'd stopped using gel sometime during the war when he was too stressed to care much about his appearance) and opened the door to Potter.

Potter gave him a quick once over, then simply said, "Come on, we're heading out now."

The rest of the Gryffindors and a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs whose names he did not recall were milling about the common room and started to make their way out as he and Potter came down the stairs. Draco gave a nod to Granger and Weasley, hoping it would at least start them out on the right foot, and they nodded back. Okay. This wouldn't be too difficult.

Potter stuck next to Draco as the group made their way over to Hogsmeade, trailing a little bit behind once again.

"Hey, I'm sorry about Pansy and Blaise," Potter said after a while.

Draco only raised his eyebrows, surprised to hear Potter using their first names. It took Draco a few minutes to respond, but he replied, "It's not your fault."

"It's not fair of them, though."

"I think they have a right to blame me."

"Blame you for what?" Potter actually sounded like he was outraged at even the thought. "Malfoy, I don't know exactly what happened, but you can't blame yourself. Everyone has different circumstances that they have to deal with, and sometimes we can't help that. What's important is that we try to be there for each other, but if they couldn't do that then maybe they just need time."

"I don't know..."

"Just trust me. Either they'll come around or you'll be better off without them."

Draco was discovering that Potter was actually really easy to talk to, and even easier to open up to, which was a scary thought. There were many things that Draco was ashamed of, and there were certain truths about him that he'd never shared with anyone and didn't know how because he had pushed that part of him down so deep. That identity was buried right at the back of his mind, the bottom of his soul, and if he knew that if he dug it up it would change everything.

"Do you ever feel like who are goes against everything you were raised to be?" he found himself asking.

Potter gave him a piercing look, and Draco felt like he was seeing straight through to that hidden part of him. "More than you know. You probably don't know much about what being raised by my aunt and uncle was like, but... maybe one day I'll tell you, for now I'll spare you the gory details."

That made Draco more curious than ever, but he kept quiet, waiting for him to continue.

"Basically, they raised me to believe that magic was terrible, and that being different in general was terrible, and so it took me a little while to come to terms with the fact that they had been feeding me lies my whole life."