I'm Trying Not To Fall Apart

So I never meant to let you down,
I'll wait with a stake in my heart,
Never meant to let you down,
I'm trying not to fall apart.

"Lentil" - Sia

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Dear Potter,


I regret having to ask a favor of you and I realize that we are not exactly friends or even on speaking terms but I must do so anyway. I know you are aware of what has happened since the end of the war. But in case you have forgotten or just do not care I will refresh your memory. My mother and father have been killed.


I do not know who did it but I assume it must have been a member of the group the left over Death Eaters formed. I know Father tried to persuade them to give it up after the Dark Lord's death but there were nearly 50 of them who refused to do so.


So many nights I heard meetings in the basement of the manor. I would hear yelling and arguing. They were furious at my father for giving up. They said they needed him if they were to continue the Dark Lord's will and said if he wouldn't help them then they would have to assume he was the enemy.


We received death threats nearly every day for weeks until one day I came home from my walk and Mother and Father had been slaughtered and They had taken over the manor. Obviously I fled immediately, and that brings me to my question.


I have no where else to go, you know I wouldn't ask this of you if there were another option. I have no money of my own, and you know as well as I do that we spent the last, crucial years of school fighting a war instead of preparing for a productive adulthood. I have no idea how to be an adult. No career, no home, no money, no goals. And I have a distinct feeling you might be having the same issues. You may turn me down, in fact deep down I probably expect it even. You know what I'm asking though, don't make me actually ask it.


I hear Grimmauld Place is nice this time of year. Please Harry.


-Draco Malfoy


Draco collected his quill and rolled it up into his extra parchment. He set them both in the corner of the dingy desk in his room above The Leaky Cauldron. Every day since he arrived a week ago he thanked Tom up and down for letting him stay for such a small fee. Draco promised he would come back as soon as he had the extra money and repay him for his kindness. At first Tom, the bartender, wondered if Draco really was a Malfoy. He certainly was more gracious and friendly than any Malfoy he‘d ever met. Having no job and nothing else to keep himself occupied, Draco spent a lot of his time downstairs in the bar, often times chatting with Tom for hours. The bartender had seen Draco many times when he was younger. There were several times Tom had seen Lucius Malfoy drag his son along when meeting with questionable people. And that young Draco was nothing like this new, polite Draco. Something must have happened to change the young man.


Finally one night Tom inquired as to why Draco was staying at the Inn in the first place. A teary-eyed, slightly intoxicated Draco burst out in tears and told the bartender everything about his parents’ recent deaths and how he simply had nowhere else to go. He was too young to be on his own and too old not to be, lost in this sort of limbo with no solid future in sight.


This is when Tom realized he'd heard the same confused speech about life from another young man recently. Harry Potter had frequented The Leaky Cauldron at least two nights a week for a while now and only when he was about three beers in did Harry confess to Tom about how lost he was. How he felt like he should be an adult now like Ron and Hermione and everyone else his age. But that he just didn't know how to. He wasn't sure if he was ready. Harry would go on and on about how he just needed someone to be there, or if he could just know that he wasn't the only one out there who was clueless about what to do next.


It took several tries for Tom to persuade the Young Malfoy to even listen to what he had to say about Harry Potter, and even more tires to get him to write a letter.


"Mr. Malfoy, Harry is troubled too. Contact him and you may be surprised. Neither of you are the same people you were when you last saw each other. Draco, you have nothing to lose."


Malfoy was running the conversation through his head, hoping that Potter would accept his request. He really had changed. Even Draco himself noticed that. He was no longer one of the proud, respected Malfoys who struck fear into the hearts of others and so on. He was the only Malfoy, with no money and no respect. He was alone and really had no right to be so proud and he certainly wasn't going to get any of the help he so badly needed if he maintained this "pureblood" attitude. So he changed. Nothing could take away his strong personality, but the way he'd been treating people for the last 7 years was not the right way.


He spent so much time crying lately. No one would blame him though. After all, his parents were gone and he was sitting on a dirty bed in an Inn with no where else to go, listening to a quite tapping on his window…


Oh god, it's Potter's response. He ran to the window, slightly tripping over the rolled up corner of rug on the floor. Throwing open the dusty windows, Draco grabbed the parchment and quickly patted and thanked the tiny black owl.


This was it. What would Potter say?


Draco unrolled the letter carefully without ripping it and read the first words of Harry's response. And then without hesitation he smashed the parchment into his fist and slammed the window shut.

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Hey, thanks for reading, let me know what you think. Feedback of any kind is awesome!!
If people like this I will continue, and post another chapter as soon as possible. I do work a lot so posting sometimes gets slow. :)

Oh the quote in the beginning is not mine, it's from a song called "Lentil" by a singer/songwriter named Sia.