𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆

Seeing is Believing

The thought stuck in his mind that Draco might not be fully comfortable living with Harry yet; things had moved so quickly, there had been zero time for adjustment. Harry went back and forth between writing off Draco’s animated behavior as just the way Draco was and being completely convinced that it was an act, and that no one could be on all the time like that without totally exhausting themselves.

That Monday, Harry got his answer.

Things had started innocently enough; he and Draco had wandered in together, Ron had pulled his “Dear God Why is This Still My Reality” face, but followed it with a reluctant half-grin and Malfoy had given the slightest nod in Ron’s direction to acknowledge that he differentiated between Harry’s best friend and the inanimate objects in the room.

Heart-warming gestures completed, the three of them began to walk towards the locker rooms together, Malfoy chattering loudly at Harry’s left, Ron shaking his head in what was either disbelief or an attempt to make himself go deaf.

“We should really be learning about procedure in hostage situations, those arise very frequently and they’re often the most complicated to deal with,” Malfoy was saying, “I mean, negotiation is an essential tool in the..”

“Draco!” Hannah Abbot had appeared beside them, walking quickly to keep up with their long strides, and Harry realized that he had never really sorted that whole situation out…

She had her hand on Draco’s wrist, lightly enough, but clearly intending to speak to him alone. Harry watched her eyes search Draco’s, and wondered what she wanted.

Draco seemed to hesitate momentarily before turning back to Ron and Harry and saying, “You boys go ahead, I’ll catch up with you.”

He gave Harry a small wink, which drew a sound of disgust from Ron, but made Harry feel better about the whole thing.

“What’s that about, d’you suppose?” Ron asked as they continued towards the locker room.

“Dunno.” Harry said truthfully, “They’re friends though, so maybe she just needs to talk for a second.”

“Don’t you wonder why she couldn’t say it in front of us?” Ron asked, suspicion evident as he glanced back at Draco and Hannah’s retreating forms.

“Well…well, yeah…but I don’t think its anything that I should worry about.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” Harry said, somewhat irritated by all this addition to jealousy that was already quite vociferous enough in his head without Ron’s encouragement, “I know how to keep my man.”

Ron’s horrorstruck face was just as satisfying as Harry had expected.

“Harry, I’m trying my best to be supportive here, so in the interest of me keeping my temper and my breakfast down, please never say anything like that again.”

They laughed and talked about Quidditch and Hermione and the possibility of doing dinner, the four of them, even though Harry wasn’t particularly keen on forcing that situation before its time. As they emerged from the locker room, Harry automatically searched the arena for Draco’s pale form.

He was nowhere in sight.

Frowning, Harry searched instead for Hannah, who was slouched against a wall looking furious and tense. When she caught Harry staring at her, her blue eyes ignited with some impassioned emotion, and she turned on her heel, moving quickly towards the exit.

Harry had a very bad feeling about this.

Ron, having witnessed the whole exchange, took it upon himself to attempt acting as if nothing was wrong in the hopes that Harry would follow suit.