July 29
"Here, may I?"
Draco was smiling as Luna bent her head forward so he could place the flowers he carefully braided together on top of her head, making her look like some sort of breathtaking nymph from a storybook.
She was so perfectly beautiful, so soft and gentle and sweet, it seemed so unlikely that she wanted him. Draco was all edges and he was always afraid that at some point he was going to accidentally cut her with one of his edges and she'd realize exactly who it was that she was with.
"And yours now," Luna said softly as she placed a single flower behind Draco's ear. "Perfect."
Draco's cheeks flushed with joy as Luna looked at him like she meant it. It was much too soon to say it, but for once, Draco didn't care about the carefully outlined steps of the courting process. He grabbed Luna's hand, slowly, and smiled at her.
"Luna, I—"
"There you guys are!"
Draco's expression closed off immediately as Susan and Neville came bounding across the yard to them, arm in arm and looking overjoyed to have found them.
Another time then.
Draco would have been more putout by Susan's interruption, if it weren't for the smile of happiness Luna got on her face every time she was surrounded by her friends. He held back a scowl as he flipped over on his back to watch Ron and his brother fly around the treetops in Harry's backyard while the girls and Neville chatted.
"I'm so bored," Susan sighed as she put her head in Luna's lap. "We should do something fun tonight."
"I thought we did 'something fun' last night when we repainted your room?" Neville asked.
"That was just something that needed done," Susan waved her golden hand flippantly. "I mean something fun tonight."
"You mean something mad and dangerous?" Draco asked, recognizing the glint in her eyes.
"You know, I didn't... but now that you mention it... that does sound like just the ticket, Draco, darling." Susan winked mockingly at Draco even when Luna pulled on a lock of her hair a bit harder than necessary.
Susan was as bad as Harry anymore.
"Like what?" Neville asked hesitantly.
"Like..." Susan looked up at Luna and as their eyes met Draco had a sudden thrill of foreboding go through him at the quick grins they exchanged.
Susan was infecting Luna with her madness.
Which was entirely unappreciated since Draco has spent the last few weeks trying to coax Luna out of her own shell of sadness and madness that she kept trying to retreat to.
"Like girls night," Susan said with a note of finality and a wide smile. "Tonight is girls night and you're all invited."
"No thanks," Neville said immediately, echoing Draco's exact thoughts. "Draco, want to see if Ron and Charlie fancy playing cards tonight?"
"We'd have to invite Uncle Severus too," Draco smirked with his eyes shut as the sun warmed him.
"No... thanks...." Neville said again, much slower this time. "It's weird, right? Living in Snape's house? Am I the only one who thinks it's weird?"
Draco, Susan, and Luna all answered at the same time, "Yes."
Living with Uncle Severus wasn't weird. Living with so many people was though.
Even if Draco did quite like his green room that Harry painted just for him.
Especially since Ron and Neville moved in to his room. Neville was meant to share with Blaise, who was still in Italy, and Ron was meant to share with George, who was staying at his shop, so they convinced Harry to move their beds to Draco's room so the three of them could share.
Draco drew the line at sharing his wardrobe though. He didn't care how much Ron and Neville teased him, he needed the whole wardrobe to himself.
"Plus it's Harry's house," Susan pointed out logically to Neville. "Snape just happens to live here as well."
"That doesn't actually make it any less weird," Neville said. Then he sighed, "Fine, let's see if Professor Snape wants to play poker with us while Susan and Luna do something absolutely insane."
Draco grinned a bit. He knew Uncle Severus wouldn't want to play poker with them, he'd barely left his office since Harry left for vacation, but Neville had to get over his nervousness of living with him.
"Excellent, you can ask him," Draco drawled. He peeped one eye open to find Ron and Charlie and cupped his hands around his mouth, "OI! Weasley's! Want to play cards tonight?"
"Sure mate," Ron yelled back to him with a cheerful smile that Draco shook his head at.
Ron was one of the most cheerful people Draco knew. Just... just cheerful to the point it made Draco question his sanity sometimes. Draco watched him fly around for a few minutes while Neville tried to convince Susan to invite Uncle Severus to card night in his place and thought about how he would act if he was Ron.
If his father was dead instead of rotting in a prison cell.
If his mother was supporting the enemy instead of living in his allies house with him.
Draco closed his eyes again and decided that he wouldn't be cheerful at all and Ron must be infected with the same insanity that his other friends had.
Pity.
Draco's best friend was a red-headed, freckled, crazy person.
***
Draco barely kept up his lofty Malfoy-mask when he brought the cards in to the dining room that night. Ron had clearly already gotten the house-elves to help him practically bury the table in a variety of snacks so outrageous that Hogwarts would be put to shame.
And there wasn't a fruit or vegetable in sight.
Which suited Draco just fine.
"I did it," Neville groaned as he threw himself in a chair and covered his face with his arm.
And people called Draco dramatic.
"Did what?" Ron asked him.
"He asked Uncle Severus if he wanted to come play poker with us," Draco snickered as he took a seat across from Ron.
"Did you really?" Charlie asked, sounding impressed. "Is he even alive in there?"
"Don't joke about that or Harry's going to apparate any second," Ron muttered.
Draco actually looked over his shoulder to make sure Harry wasn't standing behind him.
Harry would probably kill them all if something happened to Uncle Severus while he was gone.
"He's alive, he says he is busy and 'doesn't play cards'," Neville said, poorly imitating Uncle Severus' drawl. "But... but he does drink," he moved his arm from his face and grinned. "With Tonks," he added in a whisper.
"Old news," Draco yawned. "They drink together all the time. They're friends."
Charlie, for whatever reason, seemed to find Draco's statement to be the peak of high comedy. He began shaking with silent laughter, the muscles in his arms literally twitching with it.
"What's so funny?" Ron demanded hotly on Draco's behalf. "They do drink together. They did it back at Hogwarts last year too."
Charlie's laughter only increased until Ron and Draco were both red in the face and Draco was trying to silently summon his wand to jinx him.
"Oh just shut up so we can play," Draco snapped, cross that he couldn't just summon his wand like Harry did. "Who's dealing?"
"I'll deal," Neville offered.
Draco tossed him the cards and they got down to business.
After nearly an hour, Draco was finally on a winning streak. Ron might be better at guessing other people's strategies, but he was terrible at bluffing and hiding his emotions. Draco had a lifetime worth of work to excel at both of those things.
Charlee was unexpectedly good at poker, considering it was a muggle card game that Draco learned from Harry.
"I had a muggleborn flatmate back in Romania that was obsessed with these games," he explained as he shuffled the cards with ease.
"Do you miss it?" Neville asked him as he squinted then sighed at the cards in his hand that Charlie dealt him.
Neville was abominable at poker.
"What's not to miss?" Charlie laughed. "Dragons and lager and all my best mates? Getting paid to rescue and rehabilitate abused dragons? It's a dream."
"Why are you still here then?" Draco asked after he grimaced quickly at the excellent cards he'd been dealt.
Not too quickly though, he needed Ron to see his apparent dismay.
"Waiting for the war to be over," Charlie said with a careless shrug. "I don't want to be on a job if something happens here."
Gryffindors and their chivalry.
If Draco was working with actual dragons, he wouldn't come home for a war. That was mad.
"I see," he said diplomatically.
The game continued, and Draco truly was on a winning streak that he couldn't wait to tell Blaise about. That prat thought he was the best player in their group, and Draco couldn't wait to inform him otherwise.
Neville finally conceded and was snacking on crisps as he watched Ron's cards over his shoulder when a pointed cough drew Draco's attention from his own cards to the dining room doorway.
"What are you two doing?" Ron sighed as he too took notice of Susan and Luna standing there with mischief painted all over their faces.
Draco was a bit more concerned with examining what Luna was wearing. If he wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was when it came to clothes, that was his leather jacket that Harry got him for his last birthday she was wearing.
Then Luna winked at him, winked, and Draco was certain that was his jacket.
It was fine.
It looked better on Luna than it did Draco anyway.
Actually, Draco tried to be subtle as he kept glancing at her, Luna looked brilliant in it and Draco would rather she just keep the jacket.
And since Susan wore a matching one, that Draco was pretty sure came straight from Harry's wardrobe, the two of them looked devastating together.
"We need Charlie," Susan said with a charming smile. "Just for a couple of hours, then you boys can have him back."
"What d'you want Charlie for?" Ron asked suspiciously. "We're playing cards."
"We need someone to apparate us somewhere," Luna said. "And someone to stay with us until we're done because I promised Harry I would stay with Charlie, Tonks, or Professor Snape while he was gone and I don't want to break my promise."
"And I need someone to possibly cast a couple spells because it's a muggle area and I don't want Auntie to show up before I'm done," Susan said.
It wasn't until Draco processed what she said, along with the flash of anger in her eyes, that Draco had an inkling of what they were doing.
Girls night.
Merlin.
He'd forgotten.
"Absolutely not," he said before Charlie could answer them. "You're going to go kill those muggles, aren't you? You'll be arrested, Luna."
He didn't really care if Susan was arrested. If she was then Harry would break her out of Azkaban and could get his father as well. But he didn't want Luna anywhere near a dementor. Even picturing her alone in a dark cell in that terrible prison, alone and afraid, clenched his heart painfully.
"What muggles?" Charlie asked as Ron and Neville groaned as they remembered the same conversation Draco did.
"Harry's muggles," Neville said. "The Dursley's."
Everyone curled their lips up at the mention of Harry's relatives, except for Charlie who was woefully ignorant.
"Why would you go kill Harry's muggles?" Charlie asked. He crossed his arms and leaned forward to rest them on the table as he studied the girls. "Seems like the sort of thing Harry would be mad about, isn't it?"
"Don't be stupid," Susan said, "it's for his birthday."
Draco covered his eyes with his hand, content to let the Weasley's explain how murdering muggles was a gift more appropriate for the Dark Lord than it was for Harry.
Even though Draco thought Harry would actually probably like it.
Could you even gift wrap homicide?
"Why would you kill some muggles as a birthday gift?" Charlie asked. "Thats a bit odd, isn't it?"
"Harry's a bit odd..." Neville mumbled with a grin, unheard by anyone except Draco who nodded in vehement agreement.
"Harry knows I'm planning on killing them," Susan said with a toss of her hair. "Now, will you apparate us or not?"
"Not," Charlie said flatly. "I'm not interested in being the kind of bloke who goes killing muggles for fun. I think I'll leave that to the death eaters."
Draco tilted his chin at Charlie, a bit of respect begrudgingly welling in him for his refusal. Luna stepped a little closer to Susan, clearly content to allow her to fight this battle for them.
Susan scowled then abruptly became contemplative, which was much worse than angry. "Charlie, you rescue dragons, right? Ones that have been abused and tortured by their owners?"
"Yes?"
"Have you ever roughed up one of those owners? Taken a bit of revenge on the dragons behalf?"
Charlie uncrossed his arms and cracked his knuckles while his lips twisted in thought. "I suppose so, a time or two," he eventually said. "It's not right what they've done though. They take these innocent creatures and just—"
"Just hurt them," Susan interrupted him with a look so sharp that Draco could barely look at her without feeling it cut right in to him. "Exactly."
A heavy weight fell over the group as they all processed what Susan was saying.
It wasn't shocking news.
Except it made Draco terribly uncomfortable. Like the inside of his skin was itching.
"Harry wouldn't want us to talk about it," Neville said quietly. "He'll be pissed."
"And that's a heavy accusation to make," Charlie said firmly, his eyes locked on Susan's. "Any proof?"
"You want proof?" Susan's nostrils flared as she put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot irritably. "Are we all just pretending that we don't know who gave Harry that scar on his face? Who made Harry believe muggleborns would be better off living separate from their families? Who Harry would rather have slept outside than lived with? Is that what we're pretending? Because I don't need proof, Charles, I'm just not an idiot."
Draco's stomach curled with both guilt at the truth in her words and anger at those vile muggles.
Who the hell were they to treat their Harry so poorly?
Who were they to permanently mark his skin?
Who were they to try and break the greatest wizard Draco had ever, or would ever, know?
"I'm in," Draco said in a voice so hard he barely recognized it as his own while the others were struck silent at Susan's rant. He looked up and locked eyes with Luna, who looked like some sort of beautiful and vengeful angel. "I can see if my mother would take us," he offered.
"Harry said Charlie, Tonks, or Professor Snape," Luna said softly. "I promised."
"I'm in," Neville said firmly. "Let's go ask Tonks."
Draco was halfway out of his chair when Charlie cleared his throat.
"Is it true? What the paper said about Harry's muggles?" he asked Ron.
Ron who was a shit liar.
"Er... I mean Harry never said for sure..."
"Do I seem like the type of person to be doing this for fun?" Susan demanded, drawing the boys' eyes directly to her.
And yes. The way Susan stood there, her hair a fiery red and loose on her leather clad shoulders, looking like the Goddess of War, did actually look like the type of person who would do this for fun.
"A bit," Charlie agreed with Draco's thoughts out loud. "I'm not taking a group of kids to go commit murder though."
Susan blinked very slowly as she stared Charlie down until a smile split her face in two, "Spot of light torture then?"
And, apparently Charlie Weasley had no problem taking a 'group of kids' to go commit some 'light torture'.
Draco was beginning to think that he was the only sane one in the group, even as he hastily grabbed one of Ron's jumpers to throw on before he went with the others.
***
"Sh!" Susan shushed them as they slowly approached the most boring house Draco had ever seen in his life. It looked just like all of the neighboring houses, except perhaps with less flowers and green shrubbery in the front garden.
"How d'you know this is the right place?" Ron whispered.
An excellent question.
"I had Hermione look up the address in a tellyphone book," Susan said. She straightened up and patted her pockets once as they stood on the steps of '#4 Private Drive'.
"Are we going in?" Neville asked hesitantly as Susan just glared at the door.
"Neville, love, you've been friends with Draco and Harry for six years now, why can't you appreciate a moment for dramatics?" Susan sighed. She looked over at Charlie who had his hands in his pockets and a look of barely controlled anger on his face. "Ready then?"
Charlie glanced over his shoulder at the others and furrowed his brow for a moment. "Draco, Ron, Neville, Luna, why don't you guys wait out here?"
"No thank you," Luna said brightly. "I'd rather go inside."
"Me too," Draco said with a stubborn tilt to his chin.
"We'll- uh- keep guard," said Ron while Neville nodded in agreement.
Some people just didn't have the stomach for torture.
Not that Draco knew if he had the stomach for torture or not, but if Luna was going inside where these nasty muggles were, then so was he.
Susan raised her hand to knock and Draco suddenly remembered when he first met Harry. It was when he was shopping for his school supplies for the first time. And Draco had been standing on the stool, getting his school robes fitted, feeling every inch the prince his parents always told him he was, when Harry came in.
Tiny.
Merlin, he'd been tiny.
And... and Draco can remember clearly how Harry had flinched and fell right off his stool when Madame Malkin patted his shoulder.
"Let me," Draco said. He knocked Susan's hand to the side and rapped his knuckles on the muggle's door twice.
The six of them stood in silence as they heard a man yelling from inside the house.
"PET! THE DOOR!"
"Fuck this," Susan muttered before twisting the doorknob and stepping right inside.
Draco and Luna exchanged a quick look before stepping in directly behind Susan and Charlie, Neville and Ron waiting outside for them.
A woman, tall and thin with mousey brown hair and a face that vaguely resembled an abraxan came to a quick halt in a boring little foyer as they let themselves inside. "What? Who are you?? Vernon!" she shrieked.
"We're friends of your nephew," Susan said with a bright smile as Charlie swished his wand subtly at his side.
Draco would have asked what he cast, but the lock clicking in the door and the slight buzz of a privacy charm was undeniable.
"Ugh." Draco was unable to hold his cool mask of disgust in the face of the giant of a man who came waddling in the foyer. He had to be at least as wide as he was tall and had a ridiculously thick mustache to boot. "Vernon Dursley, I presume?"
"Who the ruddy hell are you?" The man puffed up and his face was quickly turning an amusing shade of purple.
"I just told you, friends of Harry," Susan said.
"We d-don't know any Harry," the woman said. In contrast to the man that was obviously her husband, her face was pasty white and her eyes were glued to Charlie's hand. "P-please go. We don't want any fr—"
"You weren't about to say anything 'freaky', right?" Susan hissed, taking a step closer to the woman. "Because that's what you think Harry is, right? Freaky?"
"We don't know any Harry!" the man roared. He pushed his scrawny wife behind him as he blocked Susan's approach. "You had better leave before we call the police!"
"We just wanna talk a bit," Charlie said. He leaned against the wall nearest to him, flexing his arms through his shirt and accidentally knocking a photograph off the wall and breaking the glass on it.
Or maybe it was on purpose.
It was a rather hideous photograph of a boy just as large as this man with this woman's mousey hair.
"Pet, go call the police," the man said with his ugly purple face and disgusting mustache and Draco suddenly saw a bit of red and did something he'd always been bad at in defense club meetings.
He lunged forward and punched him right in his mouth.
The man got knocked a few steps back, which pushed 'Pet' back a few steps as well.
Draco was pretty sure he broke his hand, but he wouldn't be saying that to anyone, would he?
"Call the police," he hissed at the man. "I can't wait to tell them about what you did to your nephew, you disgusting piece of garbage."
"WE DON'T HAVE A NEPHEW!" 'Pet' shrieked. "WE TOLD SNAPE THAT YEARS AGO! WE DONT HAVE ONE!"
"That's peculiar, because Harry definitely has an aunt Petunia and an uncle Vernon," Luna hummed. She put her hand on Draco's shoulder, suddenly reminding him that he was nearly nose to nose with the muggle man. "He has a terrible aunt who stood by and called him names and allowed him to be abused by a terrible uncle who put a scar on his face and made him think all muggles are dirt. Which, for the record," Draco peeked over his shoulder at Luna and saw a look of such disgust on her face that he had never seen before, "the two of you are," she said. "Not all muggles, obviously, but certainly you two."
"Magic," Petunia whispered behind Vernon. She tightened her grip on his shirt until Draco could see her knuckles were white. "They're magic."
"We are," Luna said. "Come on Draco, let's wait outside while Susan and Charlie talk with them."
Draco did not want to 'wait outside' anymore.
He rather wanted to hit that man again until he broke his other hand.
It was unthinkable— that Draco got to be raised as a beloved, precious, spoiled, prince of a child while Harry, Harry who was his best friend, Harry who moved Draco and his mother to his safe house, Harry who never knew that people loved him, got these people.
Draco didn't know if it was shame or anger that was flushing his face and causing his breaths to come so quickly, but he did allow Luna to guide him outside where he stormed past Ron and Neville and immediately began kicking all the ugly flowers in the garden.
"Stupid- bloody- pieces- of- filth!"
"You couldn't have known."
Draco didn't look up, he didn't acknowledge Luna at all, except to kick up a few more flowers especially viciously.
"How could you have?" Luna said softly, her voice coming closer and causing Draco to cease his kicking in case he accidentally hit her. "You didn't even know him then."
"Someone should have done something," Draco said. "It's outrageous. It's disgusting. It's—"
"It's life." Luna said simply. She wrapped her arms around Draco's waist as he glared down at the ruined garden he stood in. "Life isn't fair, is it?"
Draco considered his father in prison.
Luna's father murdered by death eaters.
Ron's father killed by a snake.
Susan's parents dead since she was a baby.
Theo's father, mean and dead.
Neville's parents driven to catatonic insanity by Draco's own aunt.
And Harry's childhood where nobody ever told him he loved him.
Even though Draco got to hear it as many times a day as he wanted.
"No," he said, "it isn't." Luna settled her chin on Draco's shoulder. "Why'd you make me come outside? I didn't want to."
"You were very close to cursing him," Luna said airily, like it didn't bother her at all.
And it probably didn't.
Luna loved Harry.
"I didn't want to be arrested."
Draco laughed, a bit hysterically, and he opened his mouth to tell Luna he loved her, except what he said was, "When we have kids, can we make Harry their godfather?"
"Hmm. No I don't think so," Luna said, very seriously. "Harry's a bit dangerous, isn't he? I don't know that he would be a very good godfather to our kids."
Draco turned around, with Luna's arms still around his waist, and skipped steps four, five, and six when he leaned forward and kissed her.
It was soft. It was short.
It tasted like sugar.
And it would be Draco's favorite memory for the rest of his life.
"You're right," he said. He pulled away a little and his cheeks were pink when he saw Ron and Neville grinning on the Dursley's porch. "We'll ask Neville."
"Perfect," Luna whispered. Her eyes were sparkling. Not like they were when she was faraway in her own mind, but like she was just as happy in this moment as Draco was.
And then their perfect moment was broken by a terrible scream that was abruptly cut off.
Probably by a silencing spell.
Smart.
A few minutes later though, Susan came waltzing right out the door. Covered in blood and effectively ruining Draco's attempt to re-seize the moment Vernon Dursley's scream ruined.
"They dead?" Ron asked carelessly as Charlie followed Susan out the door, looking a little shaken.
"They wish," Susan laughed. She patted her jacket pocket and wiggled her brows at Charlie. "You're a genius Charlie."
"And you're a bloody psycho," Charlie sighed with a shake of his head. "Can we go now?"
"We can." Susan offered Charlie her blood-covered arm with a grin. "Come on, let's go home."
Charlie shook his head again, but he seemed happy enough to take Susan's arm.
***
Draco's face paled the next morning as he looked at the box in front of Susan. "What on earth is that?"
"Harry's birthday present," Susan murmured.
"You're sending... you're sending Harry a- a finger?" he gasped. "For his birthday?"
"It's his uncle's finger," Susan said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "Duh."
Of course.
Silly him.
Who wouldn't want an actual bloody finger delivered to them on holiday as a birthday present?
Though, as Draco was signing his own short birthday message to Harry—
Happy birthday Harry. I have a present for you when you get home. Hurry home please, Susan is insane and we all miss you.
Love you,
-Draco
—Draco realized that a bloody finger of a man who once tormented him was actually probably just the sort of thing Harry would like. Because Harry was a lunatic. And Draco missed him terribly and couldn't wait for him to come home.