Thin Lines

17.

By the time Draco and Neville returned back to the private common room, everyone was already asleep. There was an open couch waiting for them with a few blankets stacked at one end.

The boys fell asleep sitting next to each other, sharing the warmth of the blankets as the fire died slowly.

Draco woke to a loud noise hours later. He glanced around wildly, hand reaching for his wand, only to find Daphne crouched on the kitchen floor. It took him a moment to realize that she had dropped her cup and when he did, he lifted himself from the couch and made his way towards her.

She was muttering softly, cursing the tea, as she carefully picked up the broken pieces. "Let me help," Draco offered, bending down next to her and carefully grabbing a few large pieces of the glass.

She hadn't heard his soft voice which made her flinch and look up quickly when she first spotted his hand helping to pick up the mess. "Draco," she blinked in surprise, "did I wake you?"

He contemplated lying so as not to make her feel bad, but he didn't have a good enough excuse so he just gave a small shrug of indifference and eyed the puddle for any more large pieces of glass. When he saw none, he muttered a quick spell to clean up the rest of the mess.

"Thank you," Daphne whispered, retreating to grab another mug. "Would you like a cup?"

"Might as well," Draco murmured, following her towards the kettle.

After pouring out two cups of the tea and doctoring them accordingly, two sugars and a dash of milk for her and only milk for Draco, the pair retired to the tall chairs at the breakfast bar.

"Are you still having nightmares?"

Draco almost hadn't heard her, her voice was so soft. He looked up, his storm-colored eyes meeting her dark ones. She was waiting patiently, though from her tight grip on the mug Draco could tell she was not as calm as she would have liked him to believe she was.

Eventually he released the sigh he had been holding back and his eyes fell to his hands. "Every night."

Daphne sent him a look and reached out to grab hold of his hand. And softly, she gave her own confession, "me too."

"Some nights aren't so bad. I don't always wake covered in a cold sweat and I haven't screamed myself awake for some time now. Some nights they aren't so violent, my dreams. But it's always a nightmare in some form."

"What I wouldn't give to have one night, just one night, where I could dream something nice."

Draco lifted his head at her musing and quickly found himself agreeing. "Anything. I'd give anything."

The pair took a second to sip at the cooling tea, and Draco only raised his eyes from the creamy brown liquid at Daphne's quiet request. "Can I ask you something?"

He paused, his cup half raised to his mouth. Her dark eyes looked sullen and empty, and though Draco had never been close to her before, he knew her all the same. And he knew he had never seen Daphne Greengrass with eyes that looked so dead. Hesitantly, he placed his mug back on the table and gave her his full attention, a quiet reply escaping his lips.

"He was in your house, Voldemort, yeah?"

Stiffly, he gave a slight nod of his head, to indicate that yes, Lord Voldemort had in fact lived in his house.

"What did he do to you Draco?"

His jaw clenched tight and he quickly adverted his eyes.

"I know you aren't the same Malfoy you used to be. You're different Draco, I can tell. Things happened in that house. And you don't have to tell the whole world, you don't even have to tell me." She had reached out to grasp his hand firmly as she pleaded with him, "I just want you to tell someone, Draco. You can't live your life holding it in."

Draco took a quiet moment to think of a reply. He searched his brain, trying to form the proper words to express exactly what he wanted to say. "No one deserves to even imagine the things I was forced to lived through," he had finally replied. "I can't put that on someone, I can't make them think about the shit I had to see. It's not fair."

Daphne frowned, "Draco, we all went through shit. You seem to have forgotten that me and you are the same."

Draco's eyebrows dipped in confusion.

"We're both pureblood Slytherins, I guarantee we experienced the same childhood and home life. And those Gryffindors, they went through some shit too over these past few years. If anybody is going to understand what you're going though, Draco, it's going to be somebody in this common room."

Draco didn't say anything for a long time and then he finally did, "Thanks, Daph, I think you're right."

The pair went back to sleep not too long after.