Photograph

Thanks to snookems for the lightning beta! :-*

This fic was inspired by Nickleback’s song Photograph. I’ve heard it a million times and been thinking that it would make a good fic but didn’t ever have a story to write to it. Now I do. :D

This is for the picture with Draco, Goyle, Crabbe, and the two other boys. Exactly 750 words.

He looked at the photograph in his hands, his thumb running over the faces. The picture looked worn and slightly crumpled, as if he had looked at it a thousand times. The kids moving around in it avoided certain spots now, and weren’t even able to walk completely out of the picture anymore.

His smile was bittersweet as he looked at the young faces. There was Theo, nearly hiding behind him. Vincent and Gregory had his back, ready to jump in and pound anyone if he needed it. Blaise was just to the left of the camera’s vision, he remembered.

They were all about to jump Potter and his friends, who he could see in his mind’s eye, squared off much like he and his Slytherins had been. Potter’s face had been red, his eyes narrowed in anger, his wand pointed unwaveringly at him. Granger was holding Weasley back, the witch trying hard to keep them all from yet another detention. Weasley was hurling invectives at them, nearly stuttering in his rage. Even Longbottom had stood his ground against them.

Draco couldn’t remember what had sparked the face off, but he couldn’t forget the faces of his friends…or his enemies. A breath shuddered out of him as he remembered the near innocence of his youth. His friends with whom he’d gotten into so much trouble…and managed to escape it so much more.

Blaise, his best friend whose sole purpose in life was to serve the Dark Lord and bring glory to his family’s name. Draco watched in a near daze as a teardrop hit the photograph. Blaise, who had excelled as a student, nearly rivalling himself as the king of Slytherin House. Blaise, who had looked down on all around him as unworthy, and yet had never held back one iota of friendship and loyalty when it came to Draco.

The thought of Blaise automatically brought Pansy to mind. Everyone outside of Slytherin had always assumed that Draco and Pansy had been an item, but in reality it had been Blaise and Pansy who had discovered one another in fifth year and never looked at another person. Pansy was the perfect pureblooded woman for Blaise, whose pureblood prejudice could put a Malfoy to shame.

The thought of them was too hard, too painful; Draco shifted his reminiscing to the others in the picture. Goyle and Crabbe, who had been with him right to the bitter end, protecting him and standing by his side through the thick of things. He gave a soft smile as he thought of those two, whom everyone had always described as hulking buffoons. But they had been his friends, and now they were gone.

His hands trembled as they held the photograph, tears falling faster now. Theo…his throat constricted. He had always treated Theo poorly in school, a realisation that made a lump lodge in his throat now. The boy had been more of a tag along than anything else, someone to take advantage of and take for granted. That Theo had died taking a killing curse directed at him always sent waves of remorse flooding through Draco.
Draco closed his eyes and mouthed one last apology.

His thoughts shifted from individual memories to ones of the group as a whole, the pranks and high jinks they’d gotten up to. They should have been expelled numerous times but either fate, luck, or Snape had saved them every single time. Mostly Snape. Draco chuckled through his tears.

Every time they’d been caught doing anything untoward, the irascible Potions Master would step in. It was a particular talent of his, the ability to help his snakes slither out of trouble. They should have had half a dozen detentions in the last week alone, and yet, they’d spent every night in the comfort of their common room.

Little had he and his housemates known that Snape was as diligent when it came to protecting Potter as he’d been in protecting them. For all his snark and irritability, Snape had been an excellent guardian for the young students under his care who—

Draco heard footsteps behind him and hurriedly wiped at the tears making tracks down his cheeks. When a pair of strong arms came around him, he sagged forward, knowing that embrace.

“You okay, love?” Harry whispered in his ear, his voice laced with concern and understanding.

Draco nodded and swallowed around the lump in his throat, carefully placing the photograph back in his memory box.

“Just saying goodbye.”

~Fin~