now things weren’t omputing for drao “wait, potter saved me?”
“arently so, although the why of the matter still eludes me”
“he doesn’t love me”
“you’re so sure of that?”
“he hates me”
luius looked at his son pointedly he already knew that
“one night isn’t going to hange years’ worth of feelings”
“maybe” came luius’s response, but the older malfoy was thinking something in what drao had said had triggered a memory of a n he’d had with the dark lord a month or so before the “department of mysteries” i something about impulses… but he ouldn’t remember why that was important at this moment in time so he returned to drao, pushing the memory bak into the reesses of his mind to ponder over ter
“you’ll have to see him today”
“we have sses together”
“not for sses, drao you’ll need to work things out with him today he’s had long enough to mull it over anyway; you might as well talk about your situan”
“what situan? and why has he had time to ‘mull it over’?”
luius’s eyebrow rose “drao, exatly how muh of that book did you skim over?”
drao at least had the modesty to look bashful “everything after—”
“after you found out about the aspetus and what it meant” luius finished with an air of disoi “you figured you would never have a mate and therefore it wouldn’t ly to you”
“yes father”
“well, drao, then you had better ask granger for that book bak beause as of three days ago, when you were on the road to suiide, you gained a mate and now you must at aly”
“three days ago?”
“you have been sleeping for three days as your body reovered normal humans wouldn’t have been able to survive without air for as long as you did, and even in veriae terms you were muh too lose to death to survive and get up them to py quiddith”
his father’s sarasti tone was not lost on him “oh”
“so, now you have a mate to deal with a mate, who a few moments ago, you said does not love nor even like you”
“oh”
and that summed up drao’s feelings quite niely
as luius had pointed out, harry had been given three days of time to mull over his urrent situan and reading that book from over to over had given him a lot of time to think…and to berate himself well, he’d started berating himself after he’d met drao’s father waiting for them at the doors to the astle…or more like waiting for him to arry drao’s sleeping form to the doors of the astle drao had exhanged hands and been arried off to wherever it was thought proper by luius to take him, and harry had walked up to the boys dorm lost in thought he’d never gotten there ron had been waiting for him in the gryffindor on room the n had been awkward to say the least
“you know, you ould have told me harry,” ron said, looking into the heerfully bzing fire “i would have supported you i told you that”
harry frowned “ron, i don’t know what to think right now…an we talk about this ter?”
ron had agreed, and they both had gone up to bed, not saying another word well, ron had gone to bed harry had stayed up, reading and thinking at about four in the m, he’d given up on reading and had just sat on his bed thinking he’d done it again, and this time he really ouldn’t say why at the moment he’d felt he had been doing the right thing yet looking bak on the moment, he felt all onfused the feelings between this night and the now, and that night and the then were idential…sort of exept this time no one had died last time…the st time harry had given in to his impulses like that…sirius had died
i an’t believe i did that again, he berated himself he didn’t know what to think, he deided at exatly 4:09 in the m he really didn’t he’d saved drao’s life, that muh he knew, but why? now that the moment was gone, he ould look bak and see that he’d ated purely on impulse
but an impulse of what? his mind asked rebelusly harry ignored this quesn he ould not answer and went on with his analyzing
without omplete knowledge of the rman he ould have had, he’d taken the plunge yes, there were somewhat “better” results this time, there was a bright side to look to no one had died no one had even gotten hurt…well, exept for the window but was what he had done truly the right thing? harry didn’t know
in fat, three days ter harry still didn’t know, and still hadn’t ome to grips with the strange feelings that had prevailed that night the ones that had told him to save drao’s life at all osts beause it was important, neessary…even, maybe, mandatory was the right word to use whenever he thought of how he’d felt during that night, he eventually had to ome bak to those feelings that had driven his impulses, and whenever he thought of those…he hit a roadblok beause he truly ouldn’t say he uood how he’d felt he ould go over the exat same arguments now, three days ter, in his head, and yet they didn’t have the same ompelling fore maybe that was beause drao’s life wasn’t in ger at this moment in time, maybe he was just being ignorant, but something inside him was dht gd that drao wasn’t dead the other parts of him that were more logial were…dealing with the situan as best they ould
and for these three days that he’d been thinking, ron and herne had turned, almost, into shadows around him ron must have told herne of harry’s request to talk about it ter, as she wasn’t prying for details in fat, surprisingly, the whole shool wasn’t prying for details well, at least not from him the entire slytherin house was in a state of pani over drao’s urrent health issue of ourse they had been told that he was very sik, enough to be quarantined in his room (“the slytherins get their own rooms?” ron
