“i notied,” drao said urtly “you ould have just told them to leave you alone”
“i’m not very good at that,” potter admitted, rubbing the bak of his nek
“i notied,” drao repeated dryly
“it’s just…so many people ome to me and tell me their stories, how they survived the war, how they never stopped believing in me…sure, there are a lot of razy people too, but… i an’t just tell them to bugger off”
“of ourse you an”
potter sighed “believe me, i’ve lost my temper enough times to know how that ends as long as they’re being friendly,” he shrugged, “it’s okay”
drao shook his head potter was suh a goody two-shoes
diagon alley was buzzing with people, all den with shopping bags some stopped and stared as drao and potter walked past them it was highly unomfortable drao didn’t even know why he had pulled potter away from those people it irritated him, the way they pratially mauled him but that was none of his business, was it? he hadn’t even thought about it, but now…now he was walking down diagon alley with potter, who he had tried to stop thinking about sine bise sent him that artile he still flinhed whenever he thought about the way he had been looking at the prat in that piture he didn’t even want to think about the ways potter was probably going to tease him about it
“doing some st minute christmas shopping?” potter asked, peeking at drao’s bag
“not exatly,” drao replied, avoiding potter’s gaze “just some new robes”
“ah,” potter said “is there anywhere else you need to go?”
drao hesitated, w if this was some kind of trap “no atually, i was just on my way—”
“good how about we get a drink?”
drao stopped, almost dropping his bag a drink? with potter? was he seus?
“why?” was the only thing he found himself apable of saying
“why not?” potter shrugged
“beause…” drao didn’t know what else to say
“e on,” potter said “let’s go to the leaky cauldron”
drao followed him silently, not sure whether to be exited or mortified bumping into potter was one thing, spending more time with him than neessary, on the other hand, was very gerous drao almost felt like a teenager again; inseure, angry, foolish it wasn’t a good ombinan
tom showed them to a table and, as soon as they ped their orders with him, a torturous silene strethed between them
“i really enjoyed the ga,” potter said after a while drao leared his throat and simply nodded he refrained from pointing out that potter had looked utterly unomfortable the whole evening “you never got bak to me about another drink,” potter added
“what?” drao spluttered
“you know, i told you to owl me if you wanted to grab drinks” he didn’t sound offended, whih made drao wonder why he was bringing it up at all
“we’re having drinks now,” he pointed out in all hoy, drao didn’t remember that partiur n arently, there was a lot he didn’t remember about that night but even if he had, he wouldn’t have owled potter immediately
“yeah, but only beause we bumped into eah other” potter gave him a speutive gne “are you anti-soial in general or didn’t you want to get drinks with me speifially?”
drao suppressed the hoking noise he had been about to make, pressing his lips into a tight line had potter always been this blunt?
“i’m a busy person,” he shrugged, trying to at nonhant
“here you go,” tom said as he ped a butterbeer in front of potter and a amomile tea in front of drao potter eyed the tea for a seond, before he grinned and took a sip of his butterbeer
“feeling nervous, malfoy?”
ugh, that oky bastard!
“maybe this is why i didn’t want to get drinks with you,” drao said, almost sned, atually “you’re still so full of yourself”
potter studied his butterbeer, not taking his eyes off it as he answered “you’re not still hung up on the past, are you?”
“what’s that supposed to mean?” drao said, furrowing his brows
“we’ve grown up,” potter said with a shrug “we talked about what hened”
indeed they had potter had pratially fored drao to talk to him after his trial, even though, or maybe espeially beause, he had refused to at first drao had felt too ashamed, too embarrassed, but also too angry to talk to potter it was just the iing on the ake that potter, of all people, had been the one to save him again and even though gratitude had been somewhere in the mix, it had mostly felt degrading
as always, things had been ompliated
drao hadn’t believed his ears when potter had told him he didn’t hold a grudge against him sometimes, drao almost felt like he had gotten off too easy he hadn’t uood how potter ould five him for what he had done how ould potter five him when drao hadn’t fiven himself? sometimes, when he was feeling gloomy, he still asked himself that quesn
“that doesn’t automatially mean everything’s fotten,” drao murmured, urling his fingers around his up his skin soaked up the warmth, alming him
“is that why you avoided me at the ga?” potter asked “or why you’re avoiding looking at me right now?”
drao’s eyes involuntarily sned up to potter’s they were soft and warm, not at all what he had expeted
《宅书屋》om
