Just The Beginning - A Drarry Fanfiction (REWRITING)

The New Beginning: Draco's Unexpected Allies

While Harry was coming out to his closest friends, Draco was alone. In an empty corridor. Crying. He would usually go to the Room of Requirement when he had those kinds of nights, but it was in use. So, he settled for the hidden corridor nearby, waiting for the person to leave. He didn't think anyone knew where the corridor was. He thought he'd be safe. But after sitting there for Merlin knows how long, the entrance shifted. Draco jumped, staring at the entrance with fear.

"Hey, are you alright in there?" said a voice that Draco recognized to be Fred Weasley. He didn't want the Weasley twins to find him there, crying, but he didn't want to run, because that would make him look like a coward. So, he cleared his throat.

"Uh. Yes. I'm fine," he said, hoping he sounded confident.

"Malfoy?" George asked. Draco swallowed harshly and made a noise of affirmation.

"Who else?" He prayed he sounded normal.

"Are you sure you're alright? We heard crying coming from over here," Fred asked again, stepping further into the tunnel.

"Don't!" he cried out before he could stop himself. And then what little of himself he'd managed to gather to behave semi-normally, shattered. He wrapped his arms around himself and sunk to the floor, breathing erratically as his memories flashed past his eyelids, which were squeezed tight. He watched again as the muggle studies professor floated past him, beaten and bloody.

"Please don't," he begged softly. He jumped at the hand placed on his shoulder.

"Sh. Hey, it's okay, M-Draco. It's okay. It's over now. You're not there. Open your eyes," Fred said gently, the hand being a firm but soothing brace to reality as Draco opened his eyes to look at the red-headed man. They'd decided to come back and finish their studies and boy was Draco glad they did. Draco's breathing was still very irregular, and he was still panicked, but less so with someone else there. Usually, he'd have to deal with the panic attacks by himself.

"Follow my breathing. Breath in," they inhaled, "breath out," and they exhaled, with Draco's being extremely shaky. They did that a couple more times before Draco's breathing reached some semblance of regularity. He blushed.

"Thanks. Uh... could you..." He trailed off.

"Don't worry. We won't tell anyone. Do you wanna talk about it? I've found that talking helps," George said. Draco took a deep breath and nodded.

"I usually go to the Room of Requirement to calm down since, you know, it can provide the things I need to calm down," he said, wiping his face, still a bit uncomfortable with the two.

"Oh, sorry. That was our bad. We also needed a bit of an escape. It's open now. We were just on our way back to the dorms," Fred explained. Draco frowned.

"Then I'll just head in. I usually spend the night. In the Slytherin dorms, you can't get away with sneaking out. Most of us are still wide awake right now," he said, heading towards the room.

"Well, how about we all just stay the night in there? That way we have plenty of time to talk, and you know, get to know each other. Start over. You really helped us out back then, and to be honest, Harry's skin wouldn't be half as thick without you constantly berating him," Fred said as they walked. Draco grimaced at the statement. He hadn't wanted to berate or bully the other. He just wasn't very good at dealing with feelings. Especially when those feelings were for someone who he'd been conditioned to hate. And the feelings were the exact opposite of hate.

Yes. Draco Lucius Malfoy had a crush on Harry James Potter. The Chosen One. The Golden Child. His arch-nemesis since day one. But everyone only saw what Draco wanted them to see. What they didn't see was him lying awake at night, thinking about those brilliant emerald eyes, and that purposefully windblown look his raven hair always had, and those soft looking pink lips.