Sacrifices Betrayals Love and Foolishness

Author: TheSiner
Title: Post Scriptum
Word Count: ~ 5,200
Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Drama, Gen, Romance, a side story.
Pairing: Harry/Snape (mentioned), Draco/Neville implied
Summary: Draco knows that Neville is visiting Harry Potter.
Rating: Talk about sex and not the nice kind of sex.
Disclaimer: These characters are not my own and belong to J.K. Rowling and affiliates. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warnings: slash (mentioned), not beta-edited, abusive relationship (mentioned), child abuse


…Post Scriptum…

1.

Draco doesn’t let it show exactly how very surprised he is when Severus Snape doesn’t turn him down as usually.

Draco has never really expected to be invited into the Potions Master’s bed.

Oh, well, to be precise, he doesn’t even get to see the bed, not to mention sleeping in it, since it is already occupied by Potter; something Draco sees only as a benefit.

But the point is that getting into Snape’s pants has never been a goal he had really expected to achieve eventually, it has always been more of a game for him. Draco has always thought that the man would be too stuffy to accept his advances. With his professorship and his reformed Death Eater act, marriage, need to be able to take the moral high ground and all that.
Taking advantage of children in one’s care is not what the most people consider ethical.

So, yes, Draco doesn’t expect Severus to give in, however, the chase is fun and his flirtation annoys the man. The dark eyes glare fire at him and the Slytherin Prince is basking in his attention. Besides, Draco is persistent; maybe, he has inherited the obsessiveness of the House of Black.
Snape is the epitome of tall, dark and dangerous and something Draco wants for himself. A very fine notch on his belt (of course ‘fine’ not in the literal sense).

Imagine Draco’s surprise, when Snape suddenly gives in. And he is not going to waste the opportunity to fuck the head of his house, even if getting his prize has nothing to do with Draco’s efforts. He is perfectly aware that Snape has not realised that he has fallen in love with him all of a sudden or anything like that.

Draco understands that for some reason his dear professor has decided to use him in the worst way possible and his reasons have nothing to do with him personally. It’s more like Draco happens to be conveniently there.

It does not bother Draco.

It is enough for him to imagine father’s expression, if he only knew what his son was up to and with whom.

Father despises Snape. Hates his half-blood guts with passion. Draco thinks he can hear Lucius’ teeth grind every time he seemingly innocently mentions the Potions Master. It is very amusing and even somewhat embarrassing, which means, only more amusing.

“Remember, Draco, you can never trust a half-blood, a half-blood is not one of us.”

In father’s eyes, Snape is a traitor. Lucius sees the treason of the Dark Lord as a personal offence. What he really can’t stand is that Severus has turned out to be the smart one by siding with Dumbledore. Lucius hates losing and he always has to blame someone else for everything that doesn’t go the way he wants it. It never has anything to do with his own decisions. Oh, no, Lucius sees everyone’s flaws, except his own!

This time there is nothing he can do about it. As one of Dumbledore’s men and husband to the Boy Who Lived Severus is untouchable. Moreover, when Lucius himself has barely gotten out of the whole mess with the War unscathed. He has to lie low for a while and put on the act of the model citizen. Revenge is out of question.

Meanwhile, Draco is having his.

Snape is the furthest from the nice pure-blooded witches Daddy wants Draco to consort with. Or a half-blood witch or a ‘clean’ boy from a family that wouldn’t raise objections, preferably a poor one, – well, but only if Draco really can’t help himself.

Fuck you, Father!

Yes, indeed. By fucking Severus, he is doing exactly that. He relishes the possibility that Lucius might find out one day.

And then there is Potter. The scrawny, miserable creature that is lately looking less miserable, which is a shame, because the look of the haunted martyr somewhat suits him.

Draco is not even sure what it is that annoys him about The Golden Boy so much. He could name many things, like turning down his hand, their Quidditch rivalry, everyone’s adoration, which he commands without even making an effort.

“Look, look! It’s Harry Potter…” Draco hears them whisper in wonder when Potter walks by, completely oblivious to the attention he is attracting.

Potter wraps himself in casual innocence and it is not an act, it comes easily, effortlessly to him and it rubs Draco the wrong way. The naiveté Potter still possesses despite everything he had seen and done - Draco envies the boy for that. Why is Potter allowed to remain innocent, when Draco has long lost and forgotten the child he once was? What right has Potter to remain so clean, so pure when Draco can’t even remember how it feels?

Yes, Draco is envious, he is jealous like hell, even of Potter’s dead parents who obviously loved their baby enough to die for him. No one would ever be able to take that away.

And, does it really matter, why he hates the Golden Boy? The point is that Draco finds Potter terribly irritating and doesn’t mind fucking him over by fucking his husband.

Draco knows that Severus doesn’t care for him much (that is to put it lightly). Severus doesn’t even respect him. Quite the opposite. Like everyone else, he sees Draco only as a younger copy of Lucius. Like father, like son, apple from the apple tree and all that. A good enough reason to despise him, is it not?

Doesn’t matter. Snape will pay for his oversight.

Draco is aware that the Potions Master still can’t take his eyes off his slender, young body when he is lying stretched out and shamelessly naked on his bed. Cocky and wanton. Exactly what Severus expects of him. By the way, he gets to see the bed after all, when Potter runs off to Merlin knows where.

Severus weakness for Draco’s flawlessly pale skin, his white blond hair and mercury eyes and angel’s face is nothing one should hold against the man. It only proves that the Professor is human. Who would have thought?

He is not the only one. Draco has noticed the way people look at him. Men and women both. Even straight men. His schoolmates, father’s friends, people who are simply passing by.
Some of them stare to the point of rudeness, but still can’t take their eyes off him. Even if they despise everything Draco Malfoy stands for, his status, his father, his family, they still can’t resist his devastatingly good looks.

Snape is no better. Of course, Severus would sooner break his wand that willingly admit to such shallowness. He is almost an unwilling participant in his own way. Snape isn’t enjoying being attracted to someone like Draco. Flawlessly beautiful from outside with core as rotten as Draco’s is.

Sadly, poor Severus can’t help himself. He has gotten a taste and now he is hooked.

Therefore, Draco likes to rub it in. He has perfected the role of the young, spoiled, casually malicious aristocrat. The soulless, pretty doll.

Draco’s entertainment costs him.

Snape punishes Draco for his own weakness and, for whatever else is wrong in his life, mercilessly. He is rough and callous. There are no kind words and gentle kisses. Snape humiliates Draco and Draco lets the man.

“Yes, please… yes! Yes! Yes…” he even begs for it.

Draco doesn’t care, doesn’t mind. Draco deserves to punishment anyway, doesn’t he?

Besides, Severus will pay his own price; he will be punished for his weakness, he will pay for not being better than any of them, for being no better than his father’s fucking friends, no better than Lucius, no better than everyone else. Everyone pays in the end.

Everything has a price.

Draco has received many offers from many people since he had turned twelve. However, he had never cared for money or jewels or rare magical artefacts, he has always been smart enough to learn any spell, without anyone’s help. The bribes he has been offered for a chance to touch him, to kiss him, to have him, have never interested Draco, because he had always had plenty of all those things already.

While the idea of selling his body seems perversely enticing, Draco thinks that the reality of it would not be glamorous at all.
However to go to bed with someone because he find them attractive doesn’t seem… how to put it? Well, Draco thinks it would be stupid, ridiculous truly. Somehow too simple and dull.

Draco ponders on the subject and realises that there are many different ways to charge. For example, in tears, blood and pounds of flesh.

That is what it is like between him and Severus as well and he does not really care if the man realises that or not. If one is not capable of keeping up with the rules of the game, one should not be playing.

To say, that Draco is disappointed when Potter vanishes soon after his affair with Severus starts, is to put it lightly. The deal with the Potions Master is not as fun without the opportunity to gloat and to bite the Golden Boy. It is a major disappointment, but Draco continues the liaison because he has nothing better to do and maybe to prove that his life doesn’t revolve around The-Boy-Who-Lived.

He is almost relieved as Severus shows him the door, as it later turns out, a couple of weeks before Potter returns. Naturally, Draco makes a scene, acts out a part of jilted lover, even gets carried away and swears his undying love for the Professor and begs not to make him go away. Snape of course is disgusted by such behaviour, but can’t help feeling guilty.

It makes him despise Draco even more and probably despise himself for touching the Slytherin Prince.

It’s perfect.

Afterwards Draco ducks into the Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom to have good laugh. He can’t walk into slytherin common room giggling like an idiot. He visits the stupid ghost sometimes anyway.
After she is done with screeching, Myrtle is not that bad. The ugliest girl he has ever seen, of course. Certainly, no one has ever pretend to care for her because of her looks, but then, it doesn’t seem that anyone has ever cared for Myrtle at all…

But the thing is that the prepubescent ghost is the greatest voyeur Hogwarts has ever known. Let’s say, interesting things happened in Perfect bathrooms and broom closets. She also likes to share the stories and Draco likes to stay informed.

Nothing can spoil Draco’s good mood for the next two weeks. At least until he has to return to the Manor for Christmas.

And then two days after the beginning of Christmas break the headlines are screaming at him from the first page of ‘The Daily Prophet’. Potter has returned. The Wizarding Britain welcomes back its lost son with open arms. No one knows for sure where their favourite Hero has been wandering, but Skeeter and her colleagues are having the time of their otherwise dull lives guessing.

And, guess what! Potter’s pregnant.

Pregnant!

Draco bursts out laughing when he reads about it in the paper during the breakfast. It earns him a reproachful raise of an eyebrow from Lucius. Draco has a pleasure to ignore it.

Fuck you Father, - his private little mantra.

You can’t have a son, who is perfect in some ways and isn’t in others.

Well, Potter takes extraordinary to an entirely new level. He is really very special and for once Draco doesn’t envy the Golden Boy.

Lucius picks up his own paper and Draco watches his lips twitch and eyes narrow. He is angry, he wants to sneer or snarl or put the paper on fire. Father despises Potter and it is as personal as the hatred he feels for Severus. Draco wishes he knew, what father thinks Potter has done to offend him. It must be good.

Mother is sipping on her tea completely unaware. Whatever it is she’s taking these days… Draco doesn’t really care, he doesn’t.

He is anxious to return to Hogwarts and pay Potter a visit. To twist the knife, in a manner of speaking.

Of course, nothing goes according to the plan.
2.

It is confusing and sort of silly and not meant to be. Neville is not naïve-- or at least not naïve to that extent (he certainly is somewhat naïve), but he just can’t help it.

You don’t switch off love with Finite Incantatem.

It’s that there is something about Harry… Neville can’t exactly describe it. He knows that most of the codswallop about The-Boy-Who-Lived is just that. Codswallop. Not meaning that Harry isn’t a Hero, oh, he certainly is, but meaning that it doesn’t really make him more desirable or extraordinary.

To put it plainly, that ‘something’ is not his TheBoyWhoLived-hood.

Harry is not even very cool the way some of guys are, like Dean Thomas, who fits in very well, but in the same time seems to be a bit better than everyone else and it’s like you could never imagine him tripping or saying something silly. Well, yes, Dean is certainly the coolest Gryffindor.

Harry doesn’t fit in. He stands out. Harry is kind of weird actually. He is not… well, Neville actually thinks that Harry is very attractive in his own way. His eyes are gorgeous and not only those, but he is not beautiful the way others are, he is short and scrawny and often has awful, dark circles under his eyes.

Harry is a very strange boy.

After all, he is crazy in love with Snape of all the people, isn’t he? If that’s not strange, then what is.
That is not something to boast about, not really a good thing. Neville has accepted the fact, but it hasn’t been easy and he doesn’t fully understand.

He still doesn’t see much to love about The Potions Master. Well, yeah, he has certain presence, but to call it charisma would be stretching it a bit far. Ok, there are things about him that someone might find attractive. Neville truly believes that everyone in the world deserves love and everyone has someone who loves them and Snape should too, but… but, not, Harry! He wants to shout.

Yes, in this one case Neville is being unfair.

Maybe because Snape has never been all that fair to him.

Anyway. What Harry wants to shout at his friend ever since Neville notices the way he is looking at his sham husband is – But it’s Snape Harry! Snape!

And then Harry disappears and then he comes back and has a baby.

That does it. Neville loses any hope that Harry might see sense and show the Potions Master the door. If Harry could make a miracle to happen for that man…

Harry is a natural at being a parent.

Neville visits a lot. He walks down to Hogsmeade every weekend and sometimes when he manages to get away from the school. Seventh years have certain privileges and no one even bats an eyelid when they see Neville Longbottom leaving the school (he might be abusing said privileges a bit), because he of all people would not be up to no good, right? It’s almost a bit sad, that it is right.

Harry is always glad to see him. He offers Neville tea and homemade cookies and to hold Claudia.

“I didn’t really bake those myself,” he blushes, when Neville praise the shortbread. “Dobby has, err, decided to ‘get hired’ by me,” meaning the house elf simply turned up one day and refused to leave. “But, yeah, it was not me, who made the cookies, so they should be good.”

Neville personally thinks that the cookies would be marvellous even if Harry had made them himself, but he doubts that he has time for anything else, but the little girl. It is good that Harry has Dobby here.

Not that he is alone.

Neville suspects that Snape is around as much as Harry allows him to be (he is determined to make the man work for it). He has also noticed that the Potions Master has a habit of showing up every time Neville visits Harry. The boy wonders if he has put up some ward warning Snape every time Neville comes by.

The third time ‘the coincidence’ happens, Harry and Neville look each other in the eye and realise that they both are thinking the same thing. Neville has to bite his lip to keep himself from bursting into inappropriate giggles and Harry hides his own laughter behind a pretend cough.

Snape’s eyes narrow as far as it is possible without actually closing his eyes. He is not the kind of man who lets much slip past him. He doesn’t say anything, but, man, he is so transparent in his jealousy.

Harry is benevolent. He is treating Snape’s jealousy as a bad habit he is ready to ignore as long as his husband is making effort to keep it in check. Yes, from the twitching of Snape’s fingers, Neville can tell, that the man is struggling very hard to curb the desire to hex him.

“I’m sorry Neville,” Harry says later, the picture of embarrassment. “He’s just… sometimes he can be… Merlin, can’t you believe it? He thinks you are carrying a torch for me, or something. Please don’t mind him.”

Neville nods and smiles, afraid that Harry will notice how strained is his smile. But then Claudia makes a sound and Harry is on his feet hurrying to the crib, murmuring apologies to Neville.

The thing is that fatherhood makes Harry more attractive than ever. The thing is that Neville realises that he is nothing more than a guest in this house, no matter how well received. He swallows down the bitterness and relishes the sight of Harry cooing at the tiny baby in his arms. Beautiful.

He hopes Snape realises, what is that he has.

Neville promises himself to be around for the rest of his life to remind the man, to keep the bastard on his toes. Harry deserves all the happiness in the world. The same way everyone does. Neville truly believes that all people deserve to be happy.

3.

Draco Malfoy is as bored as the plaster on the wall of Binns’ classroom, sitting in the Three Broomsticks and watching the schoolchildren slurp butterbear, when Neville Longbottom stumbles into the pub. Literally stumbles. Meaning that he trips over the threshold.

Draco rolls his eyes. Some things never change. But… this might be the entertainment he desperately needs right now.

Longbottom stops by the counter and buys a bottle of butterbear. How predictable, how very third-year. Longbottom thanks Rosmerta and starts making his way towards somewhere in the back of the room where Draco is occupying a table, alone.

Now he is looking under his feet, but overdoing it, risking bumping into the people he walks by. Longbottom looks almost dejected, staring at the floor like that.

Draco addresses the pitiful excuse of a wizard when he has almost walked past him.

“Could you be any more pathetic, Longbottom,”

Longbottom spins around as if I had not simply spoken to him, but hexed the idiot.

“Excuse me?”

“You are pathetic, Longbottom, and the way you are pining after Potter is even more so,”

Draco is mildly surprised when instead of turning all red and stutter-y Longbottom pulls back the chair and sits down on the opposite side of the table with a solemn expression on his round-ish face. Well, not so round anymore, Longbottom has lost some of his baby fat and somewhat matured.

He still can’t be called handsome, not when he is sitting next to Draco Malfoy, but he is not the little, podgy kid anymore.
Not that Draco really cares for people who are incredibly good looking. No one would have believed, but he finds them boring. What Draco likes peculiarities and excesses – large noses, scars, too big mouths, too sharp features, crazy hair, scars, big feet, unusually coloured eyes… contrary to a popular belief, he is not interested in having it on with his mirror image.

But it irritates Draco. Longbottom’s unexpected behaviour.

“You do realise that it is pointless. You will never have him,”

It has been so obvious. Longbotton has been looking at Potter like a vampire at a blood-flavoured lollypop since the beginning of their sixth year. The resident hero has never even noticed.

He takes a sip from his butterbeer as if Draco has not made a sound.

“Pathetic,” Draco repeats, hoping to get some reaction, finally. This is just not fun. “You were at his house today, weren’t you? Was Severus around as well?”

Longbottom looks Draco directly in the eye: “Harry and me, we are friends. I am alright with that.”

“How noble of you, Longbottom,” Draco makes a face to show exactly what he thinks about that.

Longbottom shrugs.

“And how is little Claudia doing? I almost feel sorry for her. Such parents, you know?”

“Harry is a very caring parent. I wouldn’t feel sorry for Claudia. I would envy her,”

“You probably would,”

“Yes,” he just nods ignoring the jibe, thrusts his hand into one of his robe’s pockets, and rustles something. Longbottom removes the hand as if it was stung. Curious. But I doubt there is anything in his pockets I would be interested in.

“So, how is the royal couple of the wizarding world getting along?” I am speaking ironically, of course. Nevertheless, Potter could be a royalty judging by how much the Prophet has written about him, his brat, his new house and about Snape (reluctantly) by association.

“I don’t think, Harry would like me telling you this about him,” he sounds almost apologetic. Moron.

“Well, I think I can imagine very well by myself,” Draco’s tone is as implying as he can manage.

“They get along very well, Malfoy,” Longbottom defends.

“You are comparing to whom?”

“They love each other,”

“Love? Are you kidding me? Snape in love? I don’t doubt that Potter is fostering some kind of illusions of an astronomic proportion, but Snape in love… it is ridiculous,” Draco is not sure whom he is trying to convince.

Or defend. Or whatever. Snape. Love. For some reason all of it is highly disconcerting. The conversation is becoming disconcerting. But Draco is nothing, but persistent. He can’t give up, before he has gotten what he wants. The Black obsessiveness.

“I am wondering, how Severus likes being your rival, Longbottom. I think you are lucky that you don’t qualify for NEWTs Potions,” Draco pauses to watch his dark-haired companion. Neville is looking at his buttebear thoughtfully, but his expression is unreadable.
“I think that Severus is the sort to be jealous of air Potter breathes and of paint on his bedroom wall.”

Longbottom looks up. He looks Draco in the eye. Longbottom’s eyes are plain, grey, but he had incredibly long, thick lashes.

“He is very vulnerable,” Longbottom finally says with a sigh.

Draco doesn’t quite understand.

“Snape,” Longbottom clarifies.

Draco raises an eyebrow at his companion.

“Longbottom, I am afraid you need to be looked at by a mind healer. Did you just call Snape vulnerable?”

“Yes, Draco, I did. And I meant it. He is very vulnerable. The same way you are,” it is a statement, not a challenge.

“You are delirious,” Draco wants to scrape his eyes out with my bare hands, to claw that pitying expression off his face! Longbottom dares to pity him! That’s just laughable!

A sad smile pulls at Longbottom’s lips.

“I know only few people who have not been damaged by anything or are simply very good at hiding it, or dealing with it,” the hand disappears in the pocket again, followed by rustle. “We were born in a bad time. People like Snape and you, you think you are hiding it so well. But you are not, not really. I won’t claim to understand Draco. I have no idea about what has happened to you, but,…” Longbottom looks like he has no idea, what to say. But… what? What is there to say? What great wisdom would mend all the hurts of the word? Heal all the wounds and erase all the scars?

Longbottom is too down-to-earth to come out with such knowledge. If Draco had ever been able to respect anyone at all, he would respect Longbottom for that.

However, right now Draco feels strange tightening in his chest. He desperately wants Longbottom to shut up and to do it right now. But Longbottom is a bloody Gryffindor and no one who has spent seven years in that House knows, when to shut up.

“People like you and Snape; you are so hard on yourselves. You make it look as if you think yourselves so much better than anyone else in this world is and so everyone deserves whatever abuse you can dish out. But it is just the façade.
Deep inside you don’t believe it. It is yourself whom you despise the most.”

“You lash out at everyone you meet, you try to make them hurt as much as you are hurting. You unleash the anger, which you feel for yourself upon them, but it doesn’t make you feel better, because you know that they don’t deserve it and you feel guilty and despise yourself for being unfair like this.”

“It goes against everything you have been taught, it goes against everything you believe in, but you feel guilty. But you still keep doing those things, because you don’t know other way and don’t believe you could change anything.”

Longbottom’s eyes are piercing. Draco doesn’t think that his thoughts are being read, because one can’t read thoughts one has never had.

Longbottom hasn’t finished.

“Why don’t you try being the person you want to be, you could stop punishing yourself then.”

“You are beautiful and very smart, Malfoy and rich and all that. But you are not happy. You know, why? Because... I know this is going to sound corny, but, you will never be happy if you won’t accept yourself and won’t start loving yourself.”

Draco does the only thing he can think of.

“What would you know,” he lashes out realising that it is a very weak comeback.

Fuck! But he is angry now. A nitwit like Longbottom has no right to psychoanalyse him! One thing the idiot is right about – Draco wants to hurt someone right now, preferably Longbottom.

“Merlin, Malfoy!” The boy exclaims, springs to his feel and the next moment he is leaning over Draco, picking the shards of glass from his bloody hand. Longbottom thrusts the hand that is not holding Draco’s bloody one into the pocket and pulls out a large, checked, red and gold handkerchief, followed by a shower of Droobles bubble gum wrappers raining all over the floor.

“Don’t worry. It’s clean, just crumpled,” he murmurs carefully wiping the blood of Draco’s long, delicate fingers. “Not as bad as it looks. Erm… there is a spell…”

Draco nods and Longbottom fumbles through his robe for the wand. Cherry wood, Draco decides. He is good at telling apart different wandwoods. You can tell a lot about a wizard by his wand. Cherry. Red brown. Wood of medium hardness, firm, but not overly. Straight grain, easy to shape, carve and drill, without many knots. Has mild, aromatic scent.

“Episkey,”

The spell is warm and sweet like a very ripe cherry against Draco’s skin.

“Malfoy, I’m sorry,” Longbottom bursts out suddenly. “I had no right…”

And Draco is reminded that whatever has just come out of Longbottom’s mouth has not been sad to injure him. there isn’t a malicious bone in Neville’s body. For some reason it makes it all even worse.

“Why…” Draco’s throat is so tight that his voice comes out as a strangles whisper.

Longbottom lets go of Draco’s hand and with a sigh flops back into his seat, graceful as a flobberworm. “I watch people, not a lot, just sometimes, I am not usually even very perceptive,” he laughs out, but it is a derisive, mirthless, little laugh. “But sometimes I see… things about people… things that are wrong… oh, Hell, maybe I am wrong about everything, but it’s like I sometimes feel where they are hurting.”

Silence.

“God, Malfoy, I’m…”

“Shut up,” Draco stops what would be another useless apology. “I…” he twists the garish, bloodstained handkerchief in his hand. The silence lies between them, taut, heavy, suffocating.

Then Draco stands up abruptly.

“I… have to go,”

While Draco doesn’t doubt that someone like Longbottom can be incredibly naïve, he is sill shaken by the fact that the imbecile obviously doesn’t hate him. No, Draco laughs out, strolling down the main street, it is even more then that, the plant-loving fool thinks that he is not such a bad person deep inside.

Idiot, idiot…

Draco is who he is… he’s a Malfoy, he’s…

He stumbles into a side street and throws up.

Afterwards he presses cheek against the cold raw-brick wall and lets the tears fall. Draco doesn’t remember when he cried the last time. Well, no, he is trying to lie to himself right now, he does remember…

4.

Large, grey and disbelieving eyes are staring at the man whose posture clearly spells out a simple and clear message – dismissed.

“But, Father...” the boy pleads, forgetting that he has been berated for using that particular phrase, because it means whining and Malfoys do not whine. Draco is a very smart boy and usually quick on uptake, but at the moment he is too upset to remember all the lessons he has ever been taught.

“But, nothing, Draco,” the older man’s voice is hard as steel. Unforgiving, unrelenting. His eyes didn’t meet the pair of matching ones.

“I… but Dad… but father, he… Mr. Honig, he… tried to…” the boy doesn’t notice the uncertainty in the man’s bearing, because tears blur his vision.

“Mr. Honig is my business partner, Draco,” then Lucius puts aside the pile of parchment he had been shuffling through. His back straightens, shoulders square out. The man schools expression back into the usual mask of aloof indifference.

“From now you will know not to stay alone with Mr. Honig, won’t you, son?”

Then the older man looks the boy in the eye… only Draco is looking down at the patterns in the Persian rug, the one of the kind, presented to Lucius’ father by the wizard who was the Minister of Magic then.

This will not do.

“Draco?”

The boy straightens up and meets his father’s gaze: “Yes, Father.”

The tear tracks are still glistening and burning on his cheeks.

5.

Draco Malfoy runs into Neville Longbottom again and again, and again.

Who would have believed, but they become friends.

Draco tells Neville things he has never told anyone.

Neville often brings Draco flowers and never stays the night.

At least in the beginning.


~Fin~


Reminders:
Neville's mother Alice gives him a Droobles bubble gum wrapper during his visit at Christmas break, and Neville puts it in his pocket even though his grandmother tells him to throw it away, saying that he already has enough to "wallpaper his bedroom".

Neville’s wand - cherry wood and unicorn hair.

I go with Neville’s appearance from the movies, while in the books he is blond.

A/N: This is it! The last instalment, more like a bonus and I am not even sure if it fits with the story.

I have no idea what you will say about this, but, hey, I had to write it! Blame the muses.

Many authors write those terribly violent stories with multiple rapes and stuff, using them as plot devices and to make the characters more wangsty. I personally think that nothing as terrible and hurtful is necessary to mess someone up.

DanceswithHippogriffs: Thank you for review and sorry for not killing Draco, but he will die eventually. We all will. He, he! I guess I am too fond of the little bastard.

Wynja: Thanks for appreciating my hard work. You are the one of the best!

Crazy4Skittles: Would be funny if on your question I had answered ‘I am American’ (Grrr!) Oh, but, no, English is not my first language. That’s, why I always put possible mistakes in the warnings. And commas? I don’t like them even in my mother language. I try to use them, but, well… Just can’t get them right!

Serafine: Ah, a cookie goes to you for guessing that the last chapter will be about Draco. Not exactly comeuppance. But that’s the way I see the world sometimes, from different angles. Besides, I don’t believe that in the real world the bad things one does always are punished.

Review Responses:

Thank YOU ALL of course! If something bothers you after this and you want me to answer, you can always send me a mail and then I will answer personally. Or you can check my profile, you might find some answers about me there.

Stefzgf: I am glad that I made you happy with the ending. I must admit that I am yet to write a story with an unhappy ending. I have one planned, but I am not sure if I will be able to harden my heart enough to write it down.

Karisma: You wanted to punish Draco. You know, i have no idea what to tell you. I actually love Draco very much, evena s a bastard.

Jilliane: For some reason I like writing the Harry who is a little bit weak and broken and sometimes that means girly as well. But I know that it is OOC and not trying to convince anyone of the opposite.
As for my writing style – I am surprised that some people are surprised about it. There are a lot of writing styles out there besides the mot common 3rd person/past.

Babs: About Claudia’s huge nose – that was kind of a rebellion, it is kind of boring when children always inherit the best from their parents (especialy when one of them is Snape). Besides, I have seen some perfectly charming and pretty girls with very big noses. Cheers!

Loony: Thank you so very much for the review. I am glad that the story did it for you.

Cravedom: Thank you for the review. About Harry being protective – I also think that there were good reasons for him to get almost obsessively protective. Thank you for reading, I could feel that you were really into this!