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“I can’t believe this,” Draco bit off. Harry unfortunately found that he had to agree with him. “Those ‘ friends ’ of yours-”
“Oh, don’t go blaming this on them,” Harry snapped back. “Do I hafta remind you that Pansy was the one that took our wands?”
Draco’s eyes narrowed back at him. “No. You don’t have to remind me. I have plans in mind for that girl, don’t you worry.”
Harry huffed, looking out the window. “It’s not that far down. We could jump it if we really wanted to.”
“And break my leg? I’d much rather not.” Still, Draco was beside him and looking down out the window too.
Harry felt a part of him should point out that he could cast wandless. But… This wasn’t so bad. Besides it being cold. Ugh. Ron and Hermione weren’t going to hear the end of this. Making him and Draco spend the night together. Alone. In the Shrieking Shack. They spelled all the bottom level doors and windows shut, and Pansy and snatched their wands before they even properly knew what was going on.
As it was, he sat himself down on the bed and looked around. This was the room that they’d found out about Pettigrew in. “Could be worse,” Harry finally said.
Draco looked up at him, leaning against the wall and pulling his winter coat tighter over himself. “It could be worse. And how, exactly, could this get any worse?”
Harry shrugged, giving him a lopsided grin. “They could have abandoned us out in the Forbidden Forest and taken our wands.
Draco seemed to shudder at the thought. “Careful, they might hear you and get ideas.” Still, Draco seemed to huff and sigh before pushing himself away from the wall and heading over to sit down beside Harry. “You’ve got that look on your face.”
“Look?” Harry rose an eyebrow, looking over at him.
Waving at him impatiently, Draco didn’t make eye contact with him. “That look that you get. It’s when people are talking about things that happened in the war. You get that look and you just tune it all out.”
Harry frowned. He didn’t know he had a look. How did Draco know he had a look? “I have a look?”
Draco just nodded to confirm. “You have a look.”
Huh… Why hadn’t Ron and Hermione ever told him he had a look? That definitely felt like something his two best friends should have told him. Giving a shake of his head, Harry considered brushing Draco off entirely, but well… This year was all about second chances and new beginnings and such. So he leaned back until his head thumped against the wall. “This was where I found out that Sirius Black didn’t actually kill my parents.”
When he looked, Draco seemed surprised by that before he finally just muttered, “Oh.” When Harry smirked at him, he watched him shake his head. “No, just… I always thought you had known that. I guess… I never considered that you didn’t know.”
Harry gave him a shrug. “No one told me anything about anything.”
“I’m beginning to understand that, now.”
Yeah, it seemed like a lot of people were starting to figure that part out. Harry let his eyes shut, even as he felt Draco shifting beside him. “Hey,” he finally said to try to break up the tense silence that had settled around them. He wasn’t ready for something big and dramatic that would change the way they viewed the world, but…
Draco seemed to pause before Harry heard him ask softly, “Yes?”
“Thanks,” he told him in lieu of anything else. “For not being a total prick, at least.”
“Oh. Well, I’m so glad to have your approval of my turning over a new leaf.”
Harry cracked an eye open, unable to help his smirk. “Is that what you’re calling all of this? Turning over a new leaf?”
Draco huffed, crossing his arms as he shifted to lean back next to Harry. “As a matter of fact, yes, that is what I’m calling this. Why? What would you call it?”
Harry looked at Draco. During this eighth year, Draco had been… a lot more quiet. He’d still been hanging around with Blaise and Pansy all the time, but he never went out of his way to be rude, and even had had a couple civil conversations with Harry and his friends. So after thinking about it, he settled on, “Putting down the mask.” He was happy to see what Draco Malfoy looked like without the mask on.