Roommates (Drarry)

Chapter 16 - Explanations

*Harry/narrator pov*
Harry stared. His breath caught in his throat. When his voice came, it was hoarse and foreign.

"They- what do you mean, they've taken him?"

She took a long, shaky breath. "I think you'd better come in, Mr Potter. I'll make some tea."

***

Mrs Malfoy's hands gripped her cup of tea, knuckles whitening as she spoke. "He arrived maybe an hour ago. They must have k-keyed the h-house or something, I don't know. They all appeared at once, started calling him a b-blood traitor and then yelling s-slurs about him being gay. Said something about t-teaching him a lesson. And then they were just gone. They all Apparated away again, only they- they took him. I didn't get there in time." She stared into the mug. "And then you appeared."

"Um, about that. Do you know why my Portkey took me here instead of to the Burrow?"

She laughed, but the sound was hollow and humourless. "That was our great plan. I contacted Molly after I heard that you two had had some issues- "

"Issues?" Harry interrupted, voice suddenly cold. "I caught him kissing his girlfriend in the Three Broomsticks having just proudly told my friends that he would never betray me. She was only too happy to tell me that he'd been playing with my feelings and that he wasn't even gay." He swallowed the lump in his throat as memories rose to the surface.

Narcissa waited for him to finish before replying, utter incredulity and anger contorting her face. "I don't know who Astoria thinks she is or what on earth she thought she was doing telling you all that without even letting Draco speak - or, for that matter, how you have that little faith your relationship that you didn't even listen to his side of the story first! - but you are going to follow me right now and then you can tell me that he was lying."

She marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs, a bewildered Harry stumbling in her wake. She threw open an oak door in the hallway at the top and pointed to the desk in what was unmistakably Draco's bedroom.

Parchment was strewn all over the floor, crumpled and covered in writing. Harry picked up a few at random and smoothed them out.

Dear Harry, it wasn't what it looked like.

Dear Harry, I'm so sorry.

Dear Harry, I know you probably never want to speak to me again but

That last one was too illegible after 'but'.

Of course, Draco's handwriting was perfect, if a little shaky, but it was the drops of water that had made the ink run and smudge that caught Harry's attention.

The tears.

Narcissa, standing in the doorway, folded her arms. "Does that answer you?" Her composure seemed to have recovered, her voice even and cool as steel.

"B-but he ran home- he didn't try to explain-"

"Yes, Potter, he ran. He ran after you ran, because he correctly realised that you were not going to listen to him, and because the boy has hardly any self-confidence he blamed himself for Astoria forcing herself on him and thought that you wouldn't ever trust him." She spat Astoria's name like it was some disgusting fungus. "And when he did come back, apparently you didn't want to hear it." 

Shame heated Harry's face as memories hit him, one after the other - Draco trying to approach him, over and over, and being shut down; the fact that he'd run home after Harry had seen that girl kissing him, rather than gloating about it, because Harry had Apparated away without letting him speak-

"You're here because you two needed to talk it out, so Molly and I conspired with Dumbledore and enchanted your Portkey to come here. And because the realisation is dawning on your face, I'm going to assume that you're convinced and get straight to the point," she said in a brisk, no-nonsense sort of way that reminded Harry of McGonagall. "We have a situation. I can't go and retrieve my son because I am under house arrest by order of the Ministry. There are a few places they might be that I know of, and since nobody that small-minded can have more than a few intelligent thoughts of their own, it's unlikely that they've found somewhere new."

Harry nodded, slightly in awe that even when her son had been taken by Death Eaters, she could still remain calm.

"Er, I'll write down the addresses for you... You'll probably have to travel by the Muggle train since you haven't been there before..." Narcissa strode over to Draco's desk and took some parchment and a quill, writing the names and addresses of several locations. She flipped the parchment and wrote a few on the back too, giving about 7 in total.

"Here."

Harry quickly glanced at the parchment and nodded, grabbing his bag.

"I'll find him. I promise."

A/N

Thank you to whoever asked me for an update for reminding me :)

New chapter out soon hopefully but no promises as I have exams this week and next week.

Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, hopefully the next one will be longer!

-immortalsheep05