Canary Creams and New Yellow Paint - (DRARRY)

Chapter Thirty

He's released from Madam Pomfrey's care a week later. Apparently, the "secure, undisclosed location," is once again number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Only, this time, a magic blocker is clamped around his wrist, and the wards are so strong that even entertaining the idea of escape seems futile.

Scorpius is the first to greet him. Though he's always been more tactile than Draco was with his own father, the hug takes him by surprise.

"Dad! Merlin, you have no idea how worried everyone was."

Part of Draco still hadn't believed Scorpius was all right, until this moment. "I think I can imagine."

"They're all in the sitting room. Come on."

Scorpius leads him to the others, and Draco drops onto the largest sofa with a groan.

Then, he sees Harry, and he remembers what he heard in Lightninglen.

"For fuck's sake, Potter. What kind of deal did you make with the Wallygagglers?"

Harry looks down at his hands. "I said I'd help get their brother back."

"But—" All at once, he remembers the Time-Turner Luna showed them that first day at the moor. "There were two of you." He looks accusingly at Harry. "Do you know how dangerous it is to interfere with—"

"We saved him."

"What?"

"Luna, Rolf, and I. We saved him."

"Fuck," Draco says slowly. "I mean..."

They know what he means.

"You'll come to terms with it all," Granger promises. We've had a week to adjust while together, and you've been busy recovering."

"But what now?" Draco asks. "You saved him, but the problem isn't gone. We're locked up so tightly the Aurors outside think they're on holiday, I hear the media's completely turned against us, and the woman who's going to be putting us on trial shortly is the one we helped get mauled by werewolves."

"You forgot about your fetching new scar," Blaise says cheerily.

Draco sighs. "Then let me. The last thing I need is to be mistaken for a bad Harry Potter impersonator."

There are so many emotions warring within him that he can scarcely breathe.

It's not until later that evening that he finds a moment to pull Luna into his room so they can talk privately.

"I have a question," he says.

"Ooh, goodie."

"What do you see when you look at Astoria that other people don't?"

She considers this. "Well, she's very beautiful."

"I don't mean that. Everyone sees that. Is there anything you see around her head?"

"Oh ... well, it depends on the day, doesn't it? Sometimes she's wearing sun cream, and I don't have to tell you how much that changes things."

"Right," he lies, "not at all. But the last time you saw her, for instance, did you notice any of your Boasting Diskies around her?"

She blinks her wide eyes at him. "You're much more observant than people think, Draco."

"Is that a 'yes'?"

"She's had an infestation for as long as I've known her. I offered to talk to her about how we could clear them away, but she wasn't interested."

"What about Scorpius?"