We Open at the Close (Drarry)

The Pensieve: Part Two

Narcissa squeezed her son tightly, running a hand through his blonde hair like she used to when he was a child, only now he was the one who had to stoop over her so she could reach him. Her little boy was a boy no more. It was a difficult realisation for her to bear, that she could no longer protect him from all ills in the world. He would have to do it himself, make his own mistakes and learn from them.

***

"It's not that big a deal, Harry," said Hermione. "And it's not like we didn't already know."

Harry's shoulders sagged. "You did?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat at their usual table at the Leaky Cauldron. He had finally plucked up the courage to come clean to his best friends about Draco, only it seemed by their unperturbed response that he needn't have bothered.

"Well it seemed kind of obvious," said Hermione. "You spent so much time talking about him, then all of a sudden you barely mentioned him at all. You did the same thing with Cho and Ginny."

"I did not!" he protested.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you did. You'd get all clammed up every time they came anywhere near you. It was kind of funny to watch."

Harry sighed. "If you already knew, why didn't you pull me up for it sooner?"

"We didn't want to push you," said Hermione gently. "We did ask you a couple of times if you had anything you wanted to tell us, but you just clammed up and said it was nothing. We wanted you to tell us in your own time."

Harry nodded, his heart swelling with love and appreciation for his best friends. "Thanks for being patient with me. To be honest I was worried about what you would say."

"About it being a bloke?" asked Ron, cocking his eyebrow in surprise.

Harry shook his head. "About it being Malfoy."

"Well, we must admit that we were a bit worried at first," Hermione admitted. "But you've seemed so much happier of late than you have for a long time and we realised...well, that it doesn't matter where your happiness lies, we're just glad that you are happy."

"Thanks," said Harry, relief washing over him. "I am, you know— happy, I mean. I just want to keep it private for as long as I can. Not because I didn't want you guys to know, I just know that when the press gets wind of this they'll hound him relentlessly. I mean, I'm used to them coming after me, I've been dealing with it for years. But Draco...I don't know how he'll handle it. The level of scrutiny he'll be under, it'll be ten times worse than when his trial was in the papers. I can see the headlines now— 'The Boy Who Loved a Death Eater' or something else equally as stupid."

"You know you can't keep this a secret forever, Harry," Hermione warned him. "People are going to get wind of this eventually. If you don't think he can handle the fallout from it, then you really need to talk to him about where this relationship is going."

"We have talked about it, but he insists that he can handle it. I know that it won't stay secret forever, but I'm enjoying the anonymity while it lasts. We just wanted some time to figure out for ourselves whatever this is that we've gotten ourselves into."

"So how serious is it?" she asked taking a sip of her butterbeer.

Harry smiled and lowered his eyes.

"Merlin," murmured Ron. "That serious, eh?" Harry nodded. Ron rubbed his forehead and sighed, "Great. I thought I'd finally got shot of the git once we'd left school, now I'm going to have to spend more time with him than ever."

"Ron!" scolded Hermione.

Ron shrugged. "I don't mean to be a dick about it, I'm just being honest. I really should have known better."