Draco soon realised that the best way to feel alive was to mess with Harry.
It made sense - Potter was the only living being who could see him, and thus the only proof he could have of his existence on the earth any more. The only way he could have any impact on anything at all was through him.
And, as much as he hated that theory, he had to admit that it was rather fun to fuck with Potter specifically. The pillock was evidently on a knife edge mentally as it was, and Draco liked the power of knowing he could be the one to push him over the edge.
And so he did his worst.
It began with the odd piercing scream whenever Potter didn't know he was about, and usually in front of Weaslette so he'd have to play his jumpiness off as something else.
"Stubbed my toe," Harry found himself having to lie several times after a sudden jolt caught Ginny's attention, or, "Thought I saw a spider!"
"You're not scared of spiders," the girl had responded on that occasion, her nose wrinkled in confusion. "That's Ron."
"No," Harry insisted through gritted teeth, "It's me."
Gradually, Draco amped up the noise. Wailing through the night to deprive the brunette of sleep became a speciality of his, as did talking loudly about the war or his death whenever Harry and Ginny tried to have a conversation, or watch something on their stupid Muggle picture box, or worst of all, have sex.
It killed the vibe effectively every single time, until eventually, after about three weeks, Potter stopped trying.
He stopped watching the box, took to wearing small white music-playing contraptions in his ears most of the time, and gently pushed off all Weaslette's attempts to initiate intimacy.
"Not now, love," he'd say, with a softness that irritated Draco like nails down a chalkboard, "Not tonight. I'm not feeling good."
After five weeks, he'd even quit therapy, including the three couples' sessions Gin had persuaded him to go to. There just didn't seem any point, with Draco there laughing at everything he said, or mimicking him, or making obscene comments.
Ginny's reaction when he announced this decision was one of anguish.
"You're not even trying to get better, at this point, Harry," she said in concerned exasperation. "This is why you took your year out - didn't you tell me your intention was to get better and work on your mental health while I do my Quidditch stuff?"
"Yes," said Harry tiredly. "I just don't think the therapy is working any more."
"Well, it won't if you don't bother," his girlfriend told him, and there wasn't much else to say after that.
Then one day in early Autumn, Harry had an idea to prove Malfoy's existence to Gin once and for all. He couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to him before, in fact, and marvelled at the genius of the plan.
He had thought back to Malfoy's interruptions in therapy, where a key move of his was to read out the notes on Annie's notepad, so one afternoon he sat his girlfriend down with a pen and some paper, and told her to draw whatever she liked.
"Make it relatively hard to guess," he said, taking a seat which faced away from her on the other side of the room. "And don't tell me what it is."
Turning to the ghost, who had been overseeing the events with a sardonic expression, he nodded his head towards the girl. "Go and tell me what she's put, then," he said.
Later, he'd wonder why the fuck he expected Malfoy to do him this favour with anything resembling sensibility.
"A puppy on a tiny broom!" he declared later on Malfoy's advice, as Ginny held up a picture of an apple tree, and then, "A bathtub with tarantula legs!", "A fifteen-sided chocolate biscuit with a fedora hat!" and, "The Eiffel tower coming out of a pigeon's neck!", while his girlfriend shook her head in bemused irritation.
"Ron Weasley's naked arse!" was Malfoy's final declaration, and Harry had to admit this one was ballsy, even for him. Surely there was no way she'd do that - though he had said to make it difficult to guess...
He sighed wearily. "Gin, I have to ask you this, as my final hope," he said, feeling stupid even before the words came out of his mouth.
Malfoy's eyes glowed with hateful excitement as Harry steeled himself, then spoke again.
"Are you holding a picture of your brother's naked arse?"
There was the sound of violently ripping paper, Malfoy's hysterical guffaws, and then a slammed door.
"Ginny?" Harry called. He was almost certain she'd left the house, but just in case - "Ginny! Come back, look-"
He got up from his chair and threw his arms out as far open as they went, leaving himself totally defenceless.
"Lob a book at me," he said hurriedly to Malfoy, his tone deadly serious. "Throw whatever you like, wherever you like. Go for the balls if you want, or my face is fair game too - do whatever you want to hurt me, but do something, and do it fast, for Christ's sake. She has to see! - Ginny!"
"This is bizarre, even for you," Malfoy jeered, but he willingly summoned the nearest book, a thick, heavy hardback, and suspended it for a while in midair.
Potter closed his eyes and braced for impact.
"Ginny?" he called again hopefully. "Here's your proof!"
When it was clear Ginny wasn't coming back any time soon, Malfoy didn't hesitate to hurl the book as hard as he could from this height straight down into Potter's undefended stomach, doubling him over with the force of it and leaving him curled up on the ground, winded.
"Did you see that, Gin?" the boy croaked victoriously, his eyes swimming with pain, "Did you see what he did? He's real!"
But when his vision cleared and the pain began to ebb away enough for him to hobble to the window, he realised there was no way she was still around. And that his little car was gone from the driveway.
***
Draco didn't spend all his time at Potter's place. That would've been gay, he thought with a disgusted eye roll.
No, he had important things to do too. Friends to oversee, events to silently attend - a prime example being the concert that he was heading to that very evening as he fled Potter's house, leaving him like a used pile of clothes on the floor.
Out with the old entertainment... in with the new, he thought as he flew. Later, Pisshead.
The band that Theo managed, Son of a Witch, was putting on a concert that night. It was at some Wizarding venue Draco had been too young to attend before he died, but whose prestigious name he'd heard from his parents and their friends many a time. He'd been delighted to find that all his friends intended to go together.
"It's important to support Theo in this, so I hope you'll come sober," Blaise had told Pansy one evening while Draco sat, unseen, between them. "Son of a Witch is his lifeline; managing them was the best thing that could've happened to him after... after Draco..."
He didn't finish his sentence; the name hung heavily in the air.
"Melly's good for him, don't you think?" Pansy changed the topic tactfully. "Keeps him going."
"Yeah," Blaise nodded, relieved. "Yeah, she's great."
Pansy smiled slightly wistfully. "She's good for him," she said again.
***
The venue was oppressively hot. If Draco could sweat, he knew he'd have been slick by now, but instead he hovered slightly above the swell of the crowd to watch the gig unfold.
Theo was in the V.I.P. box up top, of course, with Blaise and Pansy flanking him on either side, and Draco guessed it must be Melody's siblings over on the left if anything was to be assumed from their bone structure and blonde hair.
He didn't recognise anyone else, but assumed the other girls in the band had family, friends and partners in the box too, as well as a couple of Theo's agent mates.
Draco yearned to live in that moment - what he wouldn't give to be up there sipping champagne with his mates, one of Melody's older sisters sprawled all over his lap (or one of her brothers, he realised. He wasn't fussy when it came to gender. Fuck. Another thing he wished he'd explored in life.)
But he wasn't with them, he was alone. And he knew that was the way that things had to be. But it fucking hurt.
________________________________
a/n: hope you enjoyed this one! also i hope i'm not distracting too much from the story with the pansy-theo-blaise storylines, sorry i just thought it was interesting to focus on them and it is vaguely relevant!!
if you're enjoying please please vote and comment!!! lots of love❤️💗❤️💗
~ paradisedraco