C6: Once Upon a Time
Draco saved Harry and Ron’s lives once. Unlike Ginny, once had been quite enough for them.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco had stood trial for his various crimes, but, in the end, the Wizengamot had not deemed him as much of a threat as the Death Eaters he’d conspired with during the war. In an effort to wring out as much justice as possible from those bearing the Dark Mark, Draco, who had not been branded, was given a deal in exchange for a prison sentence so that the Ministry could focus its time and energy on larger threats.
The fact that he had not been taken seriously as a threat had chafed against his ego a little. He had, after all, given Pansy and Blaise and many other classmates the impression that he had good connections among the Dark Lord’s followers. Publicly being denounced as a wannabe instead had stung.
But freedom as a wannabe was preferable to prison with the big boys, so Draco had not voiced his complaints aloud. Eventually, the unfair feeling of exclusion had been replaced with gratitude at his better fortune.
The deal he’d struck had been simple. He would forgo time in Azkaban as long as he willingly offered information about rogue Death Eaters to Aurors until either 1) all Death Eaters and Voldemort supporters had been captured, or 2) Draco’s information was no longer necessary.
It was many years after the war now, and Draco was still helping the Auror Department with their investigations in between Quidditch matches and practices. Somehow, Draco’s aunt’s brother-in-law had escaped justice, and for a time, Draco had worked closely and very antagonistically with Harry and Ron in tracking Rabastan Lestrange down.
The investigation had dragged because the three of them couldn’t get along. Harry and Ron had been specifically assigned to this particular case, so their requests to be transferred to a different case had fallen on deaf ears.
After handling the two war heroes with kid gloves for years, finally, the head of the department, Gawain Robards, had decided maybe Harry and Ron were the best team to go after the last of the Death Eaters. Robards had been tired of dealing with both Potter (to whom he had not wanted give any special treatment just because he’d saved the wizarding world from the darkest wizard to ever live) and Lestrange (who Robards had decided must be dead if his most skilled Aurors hadn’t found him already). Putting Harry and Ron on the Lestrange case served the purpose of giving them just the kind of busy work to make them feel important while getting them out of his hair. So it must have irritated Robards immensely that the two ingrates had thrown his gift back in his face and demanded a new one instead.
And so the partnership between, Harry, Ron, and Draco began.
Robards had discounted Harry and Ron’s skill because of their age. He’d discounted Draco’s stale information out of mistrust. But, in the end, as dysfunctional as their relationship had been, the three of them were the ones who’d found Rabastan Lestrange holed up in an abandoned Black property in Toulouse. When Robards had not granted them backup for the extraction, they had gone in alone. Just three twenty-two year olds with limited formal experience confronting Dark wizards against a single Death Eater cunning enough to evade capture for several years.
The mission had gone south fast. Harry and Ron had found themselves cornered, their wands confiscated from them, and Lestrange had been so focused on finishing the job his master had started that he had either forgotten or discounted Draco as well.
To Draco’s advantage. His first instinct had been to flee while his uncle’s brother was distracted, to leave Potter and Weasley to their deaths and finally, finally be rid of his annoying school nemeses.
Just when he’d been about to Apparate away, he’d been struck with conscience, a rare inner voice whispering to him that Lestrange’s inattention would give Draco the perfect opportunity to save his reluctant partners. To become the hero he had not been during the war. To be the man that Dumbledore had insisted he could be.
Draco had been sure that heroic man didn’t exist, but he must have lived somewhere deep inside himself because Hero-Draco had found a heavy frying pan in the kitchen and smashed it against Lestrange’s temple while the man had been focused on using the Cruciatus Curse on both Harry and Ron at the same time.
He’d gone down like a rock, knocked out in a single blow.
Harry and Ron had stared at Draco, and he’d stared back at them, all three stunned at Draco’s feat of strength and breathing heavily from pain and adrenaline and just a bit of fear that they had never admitted to feeling to one another.
“You saved us,” Harry had said in awe, in disbelief.
Draco had shrugged. “You would have done the same for me.”
It had been true, but it still did not explain why Draco had done it. No explanation would ever be given to that question, not then, and not a year later when he, Harry, and Ron went clubbing together.
They’d returned to England and turned Lestrange in—to Robards’s disbelief. Draco had thought that would be the last of his dealings with Harry and Ron.
He’d been wrong.
Not even a week later, Harry had invited Draco out for celebratory drinks with Ron. Then he’d invited him to dinner with Granger and Longbottom. Then Ron had invited him to his family’s home for Sunday brunch.
Draco wasn’t sure why he’d accepted any of these invitations. He’d probably thought they were jokes at first, but the more often he found himself surrounded by Weasleys and and their ilk, the more reality began to sink in.
Draco had been… adopted by Harry Potter. And it wasn’t out of pity, although sometimes it felt like it was.
When people had asked why Draco was there, at these outings Harry and Ron had invited him to, they had looked to him to explain, and Draco had decided the first time he’d been asked that he didn’t want anyone to know the truth. He didn’t want anyone to know he was capable of good for the sake of being good, so he’d made up an arrogant excuse, a story even more far-fetched than reality, and Harry and Ron’s friends had accepted it for some reason simply because Harry had accepted him.
Everyone had accepted him… except for Ron’s baby sister, who had always looked at him with suspicion, ever since his first brunch at the Weasley household.
It had become a challenge, then, to make her like him despite herself. But somehow, whenever they were together, Draco couldn’t stop himself from saying the wrong thing on purpose, from being arrogant and conceited and everything that she hated. He loved the heat in her eyes and the flush in her cheeks and her confusion over his evolving relationship with her friends and family. He loved that he was capable of being a better person than she thought he could be and she had no idea he was capable of it. He lorded that knowledge over her head as often as possible, even though she didn’t know what he’d done for her brother and her ex-boyfriend.
When Draco had saved her life the first time, in the Leaky Cauldron, when he’d spotted her sleeve catching flame, he’d acted without thinking. Somehow, he was always in the right place at the right time with her, but it had done nothing to change her opinion of him.
Draco had soon discovered how much he enjoyed the challenge she presented. How many times did he have to save her life before she began to see what Harry and Ron saw? Four times clearly was not enough. Would five be enough? Ten?
However, after the revelation at the Muggle club about Weasley’s fear of owing Draco magical life debts—life debts Draco could not even confirm existed—the fun of the challenge had dulled to unenthusiasm.
Even more so than ever before, Draco could not tell her how he had saved Harry and Ron’s life for fear she’d reduce their friendship into a relationship of obligation. The idea that she was incapable of seeing any good in him had once seemed a hilarious joke at her expense.
In light of the way he had teased her about her obligation to him? Now her ostracization just felt deserved.
Draco saved Harry and Ron’s lives once. Unlike Ginny, once had been quite enough for them.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco had stood trial for his various crimes, but, in the end, the Wizengamot had not deemed him as much of a threat as the Death Eaters he’d conspired with during the war. In an effort to wring out as much justice as possible from those bearing the Dark Mark, Draco, who had not been branded, was given a deal in exchange for a prison sentence so that the Ministry could focus its time and energy on larger threats.
The fact that he had not been taken seriously as a threat had chafed against his ego a little. He had, after all, given Pansy and Blaise and many other classmates the impression that he had good connections among the Dark Lord’s followers. Publicly being denounced as a wannabe instead had stung.
But freedom as a wannabe was preferable to prison with the big boys, so Draco had not voiced his complaints aloud. Eventually, the unfair feeling of exclusion had been replaced with gratitude at his better fortune.
The deal he’d struck had been simple. He would forgo time in Azkaban as long as he willingly offered information about rogue Death Eaters to Aurors until either 1) all Death Eaters and Voldemort supporters had been captured, or 2) Draco’s information was no longer necessary.
It was many years after the war now, and Draco was still helping the Auror Department with their investigations in between Quidditch matches and practices. Somehow, Draco’s aunt’s brother-in-law had escaped justice, and for a time, Draco had worked closely and very antagonistically with Harry and Ron in tracking Rabastan Lestrange down.
The investigation had dragged because the three of them couldn’t get along. Harry and Ron had been specifically assigned to this particular case, so their requests to be transferred to a different case had fallen on deaf ears.
After handling the two war heroes with kid gloves for years, finally, the head of the department, Gawain Robards, had decided maybe Harry and Ron were the best team to go after the last of the Death Eaters. Robards had been tired of dealing with both Potter (to whom he had not wanted give any special treatment just because he’d saved the wizarding world from the darkest wizard to ever live) and Lestrange (who Robards had decided must be dead if his most skilled Aurors hadn’t found him already). Putting Harry and Ron on the Lestrange case served the purpose of giving them just the kind of busy work to make them feel important while getting them out of his hair. So it must have irritated Robards immensely that the two ingrates had thrown his gift back in his face and demanded a new one instead.
And so the partnership between, Harry, Ron, and Draco began.
Robards had discounted Harry and Ron’s skill because of their age. He’d discounted Draco’s stale information out of mistrust. But, in the end, as dysfunctional as their relationship had been, the three of them were the ones who’d found Rabastan Lestrange holed up in an abandoned Black property in Toulouse. When Robards had not granted them backup for the extraction, they had gone in alone. Just three twenty-two year olds with limited formal experience confronting Dark wizards against a single Death Eater cunning enough to evade capture for several years.
The mission had gone south fast. Harry and Ron had found themselves cornered, their wands confiscated from them, and Lestrange had been so focused on finishing the job his master had started that he had either forgotten or discounted Draco as well.
To Draco’s advantage. His first instinct had been to flee while his uncle’s brother was distracted, to leave Potter and Weasley to their deaths and finally, finally be rid of his annoying school nemeses.
Just when he’d been about to Apparate away, he’d been struck with conscience, a rare inner voice whispering to him that Lestrange’s inattention would give Draco the perfect opportunity to save his reluctant partners. To become the hero he had not been during the war. To be the man that Dumbledore had insisted he could be.
Draco had been sure that heroic man didn’t exist, but he must have lived somewhere deep inside himself because Hero-Draco had found a heavy frying pan in the kitchen and smashed it against Lestrange’s temple while the man had been focused on using the Cruciatus Curse on both Harry and Ron at the same time.
He’d gone down like a rock, knocked out in a single blow.
Harry and Ron had stared at Draco, and he’d stared back at them, all three stunned at Draco’s feat of strength and breathing heavily from pain and adrenaline and just a bit of fear that they had never admitted to feeling to one another.
“You saved us,” Harry had said in awe, in disbelief.
Draco had shrugged. “You would have done the same for me.”
It had been true, but it still did not explain why Draco had done it. No explanation would ever be given to that question, not then, and not a year later when he, Harry, and Ron went clubbing together.
They’d returned to England and turned Lestrange in—to Robards’s disbelief. Draco had thought that would be the last of his dealings with Harry and Ron.
He’d been wrong.
Not even a week later, Harry had invited Draco out for celebratory drinks with Ron. Then he’d invited him to dinner with Granger and Longbottom. Then Ron had invited him to his family’s home for Sunday brunch.
Draco wasn’t sure why he’d accepted any of these invitations. He’d probably thought they were jokes at first, but the more often he found himself surrounded by Weasleys and and their ilk, the more reality began to sink in.
Draco had been… adopted by Harry Potter. And it wasn’t out of pity, although sometimes it felt like it was.
When people had asked why Draco was there, at these outings Harry and Ron had invited him to, they had looked to him to explain, and Draco had decided the first time he’d been asked that he didn’t want anyone to know the truth. He didn’t want anyone to know he was capable of good for the sake of being good, so he’d made up an arrogant excuse, a story even more far-fetched than reality, and Harry and Ron’s friends had accepted it for some reason simply because Harry had accepted him.
Everyone had accepted him… except for Ron’s baby sister, who had always looked at him with suspicion, ever since his first brunch at the Weasley household.
It had become a challenge, then, to make her like him despite herself. But somehow, whenever they were together, Draco couldn’t stop himself from saying the wrong thing on purpose, from being arrogant and conceited and everything that she hated. He loved the heat in her eyes and the flush in her cheeks and her confusion over his evolving relationship with her friends and family. He loved that he was capable of being a better person than she thought he could be and she had no idea he was capable of it. He lorded that knowledge over her head as often as possible, even though she didn’t know what he’d done for her brother and her ex-boyfriend.
When Draco had saved her life the first time, in the Leaky Cauldron, when he’d spotted her sleeve catching flame, he’d acted without thinking. Somehow, he was always in the right place at the right time with her, but it had done nothing to change her opinion of him.
Draco had soon discovered how much he enjoyed the challenge she presented. How many times did he have to save her life before she began to see what Harry and Ron saw? Four times clearly was not enough. Would five be enough? Ten?
However, after the revelation at the Muggle club about Weasley’s fear of owing Draco magical life debts—life debts Draco could not even confirm existed—the fun of the challenge had dulled to unenthusiasm.
Even more so than ever before, Draco could not tell her how he had saved Harry and Ron’s life for fear she’d reduce their friendship into a relationship of obligation. The idea that she was incapable of seeing any good in him had once seemed a hilarious joke at her expense.
In light of the way he had teased her about her obligation to him? Now her ostracization just felt deserved.
Author notes:
I'm so sorry for the delay, my friends. This chapter was finished weeks ago, but I felt bad about how not very humorous it is and couldn't bring myself to post it until I started chapter 7. The rest of the story will be back at its normal humorous level! If it's not, it's simply because I am incompetent, not because the subject matter is serious. ;)
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