Canary Creams and New Yellow Paint - (DRARRY)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next thing Draco knows, he's locked in the library, and Potter is banging on the door.

"Let us out of here you prats!"

Draco turns away. Granger is quite frightening when she wants to be. And it's Potter who's still fixated on their conversation last night, not him. Even if Potter can't be civil for a few hours, they'll be let out eventually.

Hopefully.

Granger threw a tin of biscuits from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes at them on their way in, which implies she doesn't plan to let them out any time soon.

Draco scans the shelves farthest to the left while Potter looks opposite. It's not lost on him that, eventually, they'll meet in the middle.

He breezes past the sections on Arithmancy and Astrology, stopping only briefly to pull Aquatic Wonders of Yorkshire: A Wizard's Field Guide and Bestiarium Magicum from their housing under Biology before moving onto Herbology.

Despite what Granger ordered, he thinks he's got a better shot of solving this if he's reading up on related subjects, rather than fictional stories.

He unshelves Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs and Winogrand's Wondrous Water Plants next, then focuses on the Charms and Spells section.

A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions might be useful, as well as the Updated Counter-Curse Handbook ... Draco stops at a text on bezoars.

Could that be of any help? Traditionally, bezoars only work for potions, but maybe there's a way the bezoars can be prepared that would stop spell effects too.

Then again, there's no way the Wallygagglers can raise enough goats to slaughter one every time a member of their pod gets hexed. Maybe Draco can cultivate some sort of herb that will have a similar effect...

He'll have to speak to Luna about it.

Potter's voice calls his attention from the other side of the room. "I don't know what I'm doing here."

Draco looks up, then looks away. "Granger—"

"I don't mean that." His words come out roughly, but then he softens. "I mean I've never given a damn about interfering with magical creature livelihood before. If I'd shown even the slightest interest, Hermione would've kept hounding me to join S.P.E.W. But I'm here."

"Right."

Draco doesn't add anything else.

"What I'm trying to say is that ... maybe that was a mistake, a small one, to decide to do this, but maybe it's still worth it. To be here."

A laugh cuts its way out of Draco's throat. "Okay. Does that mean you're selfish too?"

"I think my life has been unique enough that I get to pretend you don't have anything in common with me, thanks."

"Go ahead. I won't stop you."

"Much appreciated."

Draco can feel the edges of his mouth fighting a smile, and he just lets it go.

Potter is so ... he's so much, all the time. Draco doesn't know what to do with all of it. How do you make someone understand something about themselves they're hiding from? Harry Potter is everything in the world dialled up to a thousand. His magic, his emotions, everything.

Draco can't keep ignoring that, trying to pretend Harry hasn't already cracked every barrier he put in place, just by existing.

Harry tries to tamp everything about himself down, but it'll just keep getting bigger. Draco wonders how so much of a person could have ever fit in something so small as a cupboard under the stairs.