(Drarry) Faking My Own Death

"I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say
And the heart it will not be denied
Until we're both on the same damn side
All the barriers blown away"

Draco was rather surprised that everybody agreed so quickly. He had done very little to prove himself more trustworthy than before, and he hadn't done anything remarkably helpful. Of course, Draco personally maintained that his turning against his mother and father should be enough to prove his change of heart, but he gave them the space they needed to come around to Draco anyways.

Yet, all parties were in agreement that Draco should be able to move around the cottage without supervision, without time limits, without locks. Bill said it was because of the emergency thing he had discussed with Harry, but Draco knew that wasn't it. Removing the magical lock on Draco's room was not the same as letting him freely move around completely. It was suspicious, especially in terms of how okay Hermione, Ron, and Harry were with it.

And so, after only a few days (had it been a week already?) of having a single hour of freedom, daily, Draco became more of an inhabitant than a prisoner in the Cottage. Much like Griphook, Draco was invited to breakfast, lunch, and dinner but he rather chose to sit on his own, most of the time outside.

It was almost always cold and windy outside, but he liked it. It felt like being able to breathe after his time at the Manor. Back at his childhood home, the air always felt heavy, suffocating, static. Out here, the air was light, refreshing, dynamic.

Despite having another bonding moment with Harry about their shitty childhoods, Draco kept his distance, wary of Harry's hot-and-cold behaviour over the past two weeks or so. In the meantime, Hermione and Ron had started to warm up to Draco.

Ron had explained how they travelled by tent after Bill and Fleur's wedding and the fall of the Ministry of Magic. From what Draco gathered, Ron was leaving out quite a lot of details, but he didn't ask any further questions. Ron did share that being cramped in the tent had taken a toll on their friendships, which is why Draco had heard them fighting in the forest.

Draco still didn't fully understand why a tent was their best option, and where Ron had gotten his injury from that prevented them from Apparating, but he figured it had something to do with the gaps in Ron's story.

Hermione also explained that the three of them had visited Luna's father right before getting captured by the Snatchers. They didn't explain what they went to the Lovegood residence for, but she was able to tell Draco that Luna had been in the Manor's cellars for quite a while, after being taken from her home.

Draco felt really bad about not even considering there may be prisoners of war in his home, right under his nose, but he had been too busy navigating the hostile environment to notice such things.

He tried to explain this to Hermione and Ron, but gave up halfway through. It sounded stupid, like he solely cared about himself (which was only partially true). Draco was also scared they would think he had nothing useful to tell them about the Dark Lord's operations and kick him back out on the street. Draco had nowhere left to turn to, so staying with Harry and his friends was his last hope.

This was part of the reason he was avoiding Harry. Although it seemed the trio made all their decisions together like a democracy, Draco was sure that if he upset Harry too much, he'd have the final word over kicking Draco out. At the same time, Draco didn't want to be treated like shit. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut if Harry was being a dick, and Draco didn't want to start fights on a daily basis.

And then there were those random moments where Harry was genuinely kind and invested, where he wanted to know more about Draco and comfort him. It was nice, sure, but it was mostly confusing. It made Draco very unsure about what Harry wanted, about how to act around him.