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“Draco, you’ve misspelled a word here.”
Harry nudged him lightly.
Busy organizing his Herbology notes, Draco glanced at the spot Harry was pointing to. Sure enough, the word was wrong. Without thinking much about it, he reached out with his left hand, took Harry’s quill, and corrected it directly on the parchment.
Harry watched in fascination.
Even Draco’s left handed handwriting looked far better than Harry’s usual scrawl.
The elegant Malfoy script Draco normally used was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the writing was neat, graceful, and surprisingly delicate.
After fixing the mistake, Draco handed the quill back.
“Keep copying. And check for any other mistakes while you’re at it. If you find any, just correct them yourself. I’ll reorganize everything later anyway.”
Harry gave an absent minded hum of agreement.
His attention had already shifted elsewhere.
He stared at the handwriting on the parchment, deep in thought.
Draco never noticed.
He was too focused on sorting through his notes.
Harry couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen this handwriting before.
Yet this was the first time he had ever learned that Draco could write with his left hand.
And write this beautifully.
Then suddenly, a memory surfaced.
A stack of yellowing notes.
Carefully folded scraps of parchment.
The neat handwriting on those notes slowly overlapped with the writing in front of him.
Impossible.
Harry shook his head.
Maybe it was just a coincidence.
After all, this was Draco’s left hand.
If Harry hadn’t watched him write it himself, he never would have guessed that Draco could produce handwriting so completely different from the bold, elaborate Malfoy style he normally used.
When Harry finished copying the parchment, he quietly slipped it into his schoolbag along with his own notes.
Neither Draco nor anyone else noticed.
The rest of the afternoon passed in comfortable silence.
Only the scratching of quills could be heard.
As evening approached, Hermione and Ron finally arrived to drag Harry to dinner.
Harry packed up his things and said goodbye.
Draco didn’t stay much longer himself.
The moment he stepped out of the library, he spotted Pansy and the others waiting for him in a nearby corner.
Warmth spread through his chest.
A smile tugged at his lips as he walked over to them.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the famous Harry Potter.”
“Oh, Draco, stop making fun of me.”
Harry shifted awkwardly in his hospital bed.
“I’m a patient, remember?”
Draco snorted.
Taking a seat beside the bed, he grabbed a green apple from the table and started eating.
He said nothing else.
To be fair, Harry felt a little guilty.
If he hadn’t gotten overly excited about finally playing Quidditch again and completely failed to notice the Bludger flying toward him…
If he hadn’t ignored Draco’s warning…
Then he wouldn’t have been hit, fallen off his broom, and ended up in the Hospital Wing yet again.
At least he’d caught the Snitch first.
That was something.
Harry carefully glanced at Draco.
Still cold.
Still expressionless.
Slowly, Harry sank lower beneath the blankets.
“Don’t think hiding under there makes you invisible.”
Draco let out a cold laugh.
Harry reluctantly poked his head back out.
After finishing the apple, Draco tossed the core into a nearby bin and stood.
From inside his robes, he produced a pale colored potion and placed it on the bedside table.
“What’s this?”
“A potion to send you to meet Merlin.”
Harry froze.
Then laughed nervously.
“Well… I’m sure you wouldn’t be that cruel to me, Draco.”
While speaking, he quietly edged a little farther away from the bottle.
Draco caught the movement immediately.
Rolling his eyes, he said,
“It’s an improved version of Skele Gro. If you’d rather suffer through Madam Pomfrey’s version and spend hours growing bones in agony, feel free to throw mine away.”
Harry’s eyes lit up.
“Draco, I knew you wouldn’t let me go through that.”
Without another word, he grabbed the potion and drank it in one gulp.
A second later, he blinked.
Then blinked again.
Pumpkin juice.
It tasted like pumpkin juice.
Merlin.
Draco was an angel.
Harry looked ridiculously pleased with life.
Watching him, Draco couldn’t help smiling too.
This reckless lion had a remarkable talent for making him love and hate him at the same time.
Didn’t he?
“All right. I should go.”
Draco stood.
“Granger and Weasley will probably be here soon. They should be bringing your dinner.”
“Okay.”
Harry smiled.
“Thanks, Draco. Go get something to eat.”
Draco gave a small nod and left.
*
After Draco was gone, Harry found himself thinking about the potion again.
Sweet pumpkin flavored Skele Gro.
This was the second time he had tasted it.
The first time had been in third year.
After the Dementor incident during Quidditch, Harry had fallen from a great height and ended up in the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey’s Skele Gro had been awful.
The taste was terrible.
The pain of regrowing bones was even worse.
Harry never wanted to experience it again.
Then, the next morning, Ginny had appeared with a bottle of improved Skele Gro.
She claimed it would ease the pain.
Harry had believed her immediately.
After taking it, he really had felt much better.
Enough that he didn’t need Madam Pomfrey’s potion anymore.
Later, he had asked Ginny where she’d gotten it.
At the time, she had only been a second year.
There was no way she could have brewed something like that herself.
Ginny had hesitated and stumbled through an explanation.
Harry had been so touched that he never questioned it further.
Over time, the memory became one of the moments that helped bring them closer together.
After Snape’s death, Harry had assumed he would never taste another improved version of Skele Gro.
And yet here he was.
Drinking one made by Draco.
Honestly, it wasn’t surprising.
Draco had always been Snape’s favorite student.
His talent for Potions was undeniable.
Christmas arrived.
After consulting the students, Headmistress McGonagall decided to hold a Christmas Ball.
Nearly everyone chose to remain at Hogwarts for the holidays.
After all, this was the first Christmas after the war.
“My dear little dragon, you look incredible.”
Pansy’s eyes sparkled with admiration.
By now, Blaise was thoroughly accustomed to his girlfriend’s obsession with Draco.
And to be fair, she wasn’t wrong.
Draco was stunning.
Beautiful, even.
Draco merely lifted his chin and accepted the compliment with practiced confidence.
His pride suited him.
It always had.
The sight alone was enough to make countless Slytherin girls swoon.
His dark green formal robes had been tailored perfectly to fit him.
Silver thread traced delicate constellations across the fabric.
On the back, the constellation Draco had been embroidered in exquisite detail.
Under the ballroom lights, the silver stitching shimmered brilliantly.
A white dress shirt peeked from beneath the robes.
Black trousers emphasized his long legs.
The collar and cuffs carried intricate aristocratic designs.
Emerald cufflinks and a matching brooch rested against the dark fabric, drawing attention to his gray blue eyes and making them seem deeper than ever.
His platinum blond hair had grown longer over the past months.
Now it brushed his shoulders.
Combined with his delicate features, it became almost impossible to tell whether he looked more handsome or beautiful.
One glance was enough to become trapped by eyes as cold and mesmerizing as glaciers.
*
“My dear little dragon, remember fourth year?”
At the sight of Draco’s loose hair, Theodore Nott smiled in a way Draco immediately distrusted.
A sense of dread washed over him.
“Oh no.”
Unfortunately, he was too late.
Theodore had already raised his wand.
A quick spell later, Draco’s hair began growing.
Longer.
And longer.
Until it reached his waist.
“Oh, Theodore.”
Draco sighed.
“I really don’t want to relive that experience.”
“Relax.”
Theodore grinned.
“Last time was because you lost a bet with Pansy. This time I’m simply enhancing your natural charm.”
“I don’t trust that explanation at all.”
Despite his skepticism, Draco couldn’t be bothered to argue.
He knew Theodore meant no harm.
So he let it happen.
With waist length silver blond hair cascading down his back, Draco looked almost unreal.
Like an elf who had wandered out of a fairy tale.
His pale lashes appeared nearly transparent beneath the lights.
His platinum hair gleamed like silver.
Pansy stepped forward with a dark green ribbon.
Instead of tying his hair neatly behind his back, she gathered it loosely and draped it over one shoulder.
The ends rested just below the emerald brooch.
Silver blond hair framed flashes of deep green gemstone.
The effect was breathtaking.
⸻
The moment Draco entered the ballroom, he became the center of attention.
For one evening, nobody cared about his past.
Faced with someone so beautiful, people forgot everything else.
Girls from all four Houses gathered around him.
A few boys too.
Draco rejected every invitation with the same cool indifference.
It made no difference.
The girls still squealed whenever he frowned.
Still the Platinum Prince of Slytherin.
Still the prince charming of countless Hogwarts students.
Still the boy everyone couldn’t stop looking at.