Cassiopeia Lily Malfoy (Harry X Draco)

Chapter 7

Draco sat up when Harry entered his cell.

Back again, Potter? Haven't you got anything better to do?"

Harry stared at him. There must have been something in his expression, because Draco jumped to his feet, and when he spoke, his voice was panicked.

"What's wrong? Is Cassie okay?"

"She's fine."

"What's happened? Is it my case? They're sending me to Azkaban, aren't they? What will happen to Cass?"

"Draco, calm down, nothing's wrong."

Draco fell silent at the use of his first name. Harry took off his thick winter cloak and held it out to him.

"What are you doing?" asked Draco suspiciously. He did not take the cloak.

"Just bloody take it, will you? It's freezing in here."

Draco cast him a suspicious look, then wrapped the cloak around himself. He visibly relaxed as the warming charms in the wool worked on him.

Harry sat on the wire cot.

"I read your letters," he said. Draco made a high-pitched sound and stepped away from him, backing into the wall.

"What?!"

"I was assigned to search your house."

"Those were private!"

"They had my name on them," said Harry.

"That doesn't mean oh, Merlin, never fucking mind. Marvellous. Spiffing. Why in God's name did you tell me? Don't answer. I know. To humiliate me. To make me feel like shit."

"No!" protested Harry.

"I haven't written one in ages, anyway," said Draco.

"Not for a year."

"It's Past-Draco who humiliated himself. Current Draco is not self-pitying in the least."

"They weren't self-pitying," said Harry, who was struggling to speak. "They were..." He had tears in his throat. He swallowed them down.

"And I'm not in love with you anymore," said Draco. "So you can stop feeling smug about that."

"I didn't think you were!"

Draco glared at him.

"I sent Blaise 5000 galleons." said Harry, to break the hostile silence. "More, actually, to pay him back for rent and so on."

Draco's furious expression was replaced with something more like surprise.

"Oh. Thanks," he said.

"Sorry isn't really a big enough word," said Harry. Draco gave him a strange look.

"What?" he asked.

"I can't... I can't express how sorry I am. I can't possibly explain," said Harry.

"You're... sorry?"

"L..." Harry shook his head, as if he had water in his ears. "It was so hard to read them."

"Well, you could have stopped, you know," said Draco.

"I owe you a lot of money," said Harry. "For childcare. Fuck. If I'd had any idea-"

Harry kept thinking of 18-year-old Draco Malfoy, scribbling desperate letters begging for help in Charring Cross tube station.

"What would you have done?" asked Draco quietly.

"I'd have bought you a flat," said Harry. He didn't need time to answer, because it was all he'd been thinking about since he read the letters. "A really nice one, preferably near my house. And I would have gone to all the doctors appointments, if you'd let me. And I would have been there when you were sick in hospital. I'd have paid for childcare so you could have a job if you wanted. Or paid for you to stay home and homeschool her, if that's what you would have preferred. I'd have taken her on weekends. I would bring her back and tell you all the funny things she said. I'd
have taken pictures of the two of you together, and made her birthday cakes, and just... I would have been there. For her. For you."