"And he decided to try flying, of all things," Draco smoothly interrupted, his silver eyes glittering in potent warning that if Harry didn't shut up, Draco would find a way to make him. "On my broom no less. I could have told him if he'd asked, that I'd hexed it years ago to throw anyone but me. Trials of living in Slytherin," he explained almost as an aside.
Hermione had narrowed her eyes, and no wonder. Draco wasn't a great liar at the best of times, and he'd delivered most of that with such an undertone of hostility that the whole thing sounded fishy. Maybe Hermione would just think Draco was angry that Harry had supposedly touched his broom without permission? Of course Harry knew the truth. The Slytherin boy was fuming because Harry had come so close to confessing the truth about his magic being back.
"You were thrown from a broom," Hermione echoed in a blank sort of voice, as though that were so daft she was having trouble even repeating the words. "And that would be where, here in the living room?"
Draco gave off a laugh that almost made Harry cringe, it sounded so fake. "Oh, Severus lets us out sometimes. Haven't you come down recently and noticed nobody was home?"
Hermione slowly nodded, her eyes still suspicious as she pressed, "But where do you go?"
"Well, that has to stay secret," Draco informed her. "Sorry. We're a bit paranoid for Harry's safety, but you can't possibly object to that, I'm thinking."
When Hermione still looked extremely dubious, Harry ventured, "Listen, I know that bruise looked bad but you don't understand--"
"Stop talking, Potter," Draco snapped.
"I just want to say that--"
"There's only one thing you should say," Draco darkly warned, "and it's that you won't try sneaking off on my broom again!"
It came to Harry then that this was a conversation he really shouldn't have with an audience. Things were bound to get too ugly. So, rolling his eyes, he sneered, "I wouldn't touch your lousy broom again. Some of us have a Firebolt, you know."
"And the reason you didn't just try out your Firebolt if you wanted to test your flying, Harry?" Hermione smartly inquired. "Hmmm?"
"Draco's broom was handier," Harry invented, relieved that he could at least tell the truth as he added, "He brings it along sometimes when the three of us leave the dungeons."
"I see," Hermione said, in a tone that announced she didn't, not at all.
And that Harry hadn't heard the end of this.
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other:
Chapter Sixty-Three: Wizard Family Services
Comments very welcome. Remember, you can leave a review on the group or site where you saw this story, or email them to aylno.reviews@gmail.com.
Aspen in the Sunlight
Chapter 63: Wizard Family Services
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=63
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Sixty-Three: Wizard Family Services
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For once, Hermione didn't linger, though she did cast Harry several rather dire looks, as though challenging him to come clean. He probably would have, if not for Draco standing right there. It was just stupid to let Hermione go away without clearing this up. He knew though, he just knew, that if he tried to tell Hermione the truth, Draco would interrupt straight away with more nonsense about falling from brooms, or possibly something even more patently ridiculous.
Of course, Harry reflected, he could just go ahead and blurt everything out, but with Draco's impulse control problems? He might lose his temper and hex Harry or something --goodness knew he'd got enough practice at it in Devon-- and that would be just great, wouldn't it? All Harry needed was for Hermione to leave here with some actual evidence that he was being abused, instead of just vague suspicions.
Far better, Harry decided, to hash it all out once Hermione had gone.
The moment the door was closed, Harry rounded on Draco and pinned him with a glare. "We're going to have to tell her."
"Oh, don't be an imbecile," Draco scathed, scooping up the book he'd been reading before. He spared Harry a cursory glance. "Severus doesn't want that Muggleborn knowing about your magic, and that's that."
"Don't call her that!" Harry erupted.
"Why shouldn't I?" Draco smirked as his eyes returned to his text. "It's what she is, Harry."
"It means you think of her as something less than you or me, and don't think I don't know it!"
Draco just shrugged as he turned a page.
Fed up, Harry glanced once at Sals who was quietly basking in her charmed box, then flicked his hand in Draco's direction and hissed a summoning charm Parseltongue, "Book, get over here!"
The instant Blood is Thicker than Potion leapt into his hand, Harry tossed it behind him, onto a low shelf, and growled, "I'll have it out with Severus when he gets home from his detentions, but I've had it with lying to Hermione. It's not working anyway, she's starting to wonder what's going on down here--"
"Well she wouldn't wonder, would she," Draco sneered, stomping over. "if you'd gotten your bruises healed like I told you to! What the hell's wrong with you, showing off your battle wounds like that? Maybe you are an attention-seeking little arse like I used to think! Or maybe your little girlfriend is so important that you wanted her to guess you've been fending off curses like mad almost every day! Is that why you showed her Potter? Well, is it?"
Harry wasn't sure what to react to first. "She..." He cleared his throat, a little embarrassed to have to point it out, but Draco didn't seem to realize the real problem, so he detailed, "She doesn't suspect I've been practicing magic, Malfoy. Hermione thinks I'm getting beat up or something!"
Draco stopped breathing for a second.
"Yeah," Harry emphasized, now that he had the other boy's attention.
"If you knew she thought that, why didn't you tell her you aren't?"
"Maybe because every time I tried, you started butting in with rubbish about transfigured beds dumping me on the floor!"
"Maybe that was because you were going to tell her the whole fucking truth, instead of just the part she needs to know! Well, it's certainly good to know the truth about you, Potter. You go on about being half-Slytherin sometimes but deep down, she's the one who's really your mate. Her and Weasley!"
"I told you the whole truth too, you arse!" Harry shouted, fed up with Draco's insecurities. "Against Severus' advice, too, and don't think he wasn't pretty upset with me! I told you about the prophecy that's basically crapped up my entire life! Which, by the fucking way, I've never told Ron and Hermione about. Well, not completely, anyway, so get over yourself, will you? I like you too!" When Draco looked rather stunned at that outburst, Harry calmed slightly and added, "Ron hasn't betrayed my secret, not even to Hermione, and she's just as trustworthy. I think you even know that, at some level. But you want me not to tell her because you like having one over on her. Because it makes you feel like... you're closer to me than she is."