He fores a tumblr full of the potion into Harry’s hands. It is old, and the olor of vender, so uhe alming droughts that Ginny to him at night duri days after the war.
&o say thank you, but what he says instead is “heers” a is enough.
Chapter 4
Harry
Ihings really only start to fall ihey start yelling about Dobby.
Harry’s not sure whose fault it is. He had i everythiay i up the times that Drao taunted him over his family or alled Hermione a mudblood, or ay thing, beause he’s sure that Drao lenty to throw bak at him. But maybe that was, beause it all just sort of stayed bht uhe surfae, a took was an offha &o his owo have Harry standing up and sreaming.
&old me he used to shut his ears in the oven.” Harry said, gripping his spoon so tight that his kurhing. Drao looked like he had just beehe fae he had been aught so off guard, and maybe he had, beause he had spent all day preparing dinner and Harry just walked in here a. He k, k he was bei he was burnihan he was me ake all over the kithen and srubbing for hours to lean it up, you shall not hurt Harry P with Drao for his wand while Dobby got them out, suh a beautiful pe to be with frie ouldn’t stop himself. “I used to have to stop him from punishing himself, ya of his hands or fore him away from the fire beause it was so ingrained in him.”
“That wasn’t beause of how we treated him.” Drao said, desperately. “That’s just a house elf, any house elf, even Kreaher, he does it too.”
“I asked him if you would notie he was gone.” Harry said, and now he really was angry, and he set all aihe onfusion of the war aher people that had died, he had sort of just loked this part of his pain up inside him, beause despite all of MGonagall’s talk that they died for the ause and not for him, Harry khis ohis one i being, died only beause of him. He ouldn’t stand that, so it was muh easier to bme Drao for his past mistakes. “He told me you wouldn’t, beause you eo do extra pus and wouldn’t ra bandages.”
“That wasn’t me.” Drao said, and now he was angry, too. Harry ould almost ry at that, beause it looked like they were finally going to stop walking on eggshells arouher. “That wasn’t my father, I would old him that, I liked Dobby! He was my friend!”
“A frie sm his head iwie a week?”
“I was a kid!” Drao yelled, and this was the whole heart of the matter, wasn’t it, that they were both hildreo grow up too fast, ahey eanding o sides of the same awful divider? “osed to do, let him take it out on me?”
“I was a kid, too!” He’s gotten tired of havi as aheir mistakes, like Harry wasn’t a kid that should have grown up to be awful, like he didn’t sreami he was fored to do. Like he hadoo muh, too fast, and still made the right hoies. “Only I was fighting for people like Dobby! I atually sale whting for! What did you fight for, Drao? Your own skin.”
“It wasn’t just me.” Drao in an instant, now, hands shaking, and Harry is very, very grateful they had left their waer. “It wasn’t just me and you know it, you said that you were there that night, it was do what they asked or wath my mother be tortured. Call yourself a savior, sure, but you’ve o hoose between the people you love ahi me, it gets a whole lot harder after she’s beeened by Greybak.”
&ting, that’s how mad he was, atually trembling. ere friends, Harry thought, wathing Drao’s firemble agaiable. But we aren’t, really. Maybe it’s not possible, after everythihrough.
Drao was the first to move a so fast his hair falls to the floor with a bang, leaving Harry alohen with Kreaher, feeling sikeningly like he had beeo do something wrong.
Drao
He had been my friend.
That was the truth, about Dobby. In a house where his mother was always out eaining and his father had little patiene for him, Dobby was the one yed as little, was the oaught him to tie his shoes and ride a broom, the o Drao went to when he had nightmares aher rove . But then one day he ame home and Dobby wasn’t there, leaving Drao evehan he had been, and the oion he had beehat he hose Potter over them.
It was only ao hate Harry.
But maybe the o betwee a o at all, when Harry treated Dobby with kindness, when Dobby no longer had Luius telling him to shut his ears i didhen, that Dobby had one ared for Drao. At some point, Harry, we all look out for ourselves and ourselves aloer what we tell ourselves.
When &hem, Drao ouldn’t see how differehey ould have been friends, if only Drao hadn’t somehow srewed it up that first day, if Harry had been put in ahan Gryffindor, if he hadn’t thrown in his lra first year. And maybe Drao really ould have helped him, and then he would have had a reason not to turn towards the Dark side, would have had s