分卷阅读19（1 / 2）

“It kept me from giving in to the terror that the Dementors wanted me to feel. But the more I did it, the easier it got, and the harder it was to come back.”

His eyes trace the map once more, down to the dungeons, and on the ribbon that reads Harry Potter.

“You remember the state I was in when I first got out of that place.”

The bed shifts, and Draco can imagine Potter nodding.

“But it got better, didn’t it? It became less frequent the last few times I went to the Manor.”

“Mm,” Draco says in reply. “My mother says it might be a relapse.”

“Why?”

Draco recalls his summer days in the Manor. He recalls the happiness he felt, the frightening unfamiliarity of it after all those months—after he was given the Mark, his mission, and that soul-gripping fear of what the Dark Lord might do to his family should he fail. And he recalls thinking then, that the world isn’t such a bad one to wake up to, if he woke up to banana pancakes and bright, green eyes.

And then he recalls the following weeks after.

Potter with his friends, always in the distance, always on the other side of the room, his green eyes now looking elsewhere.

Draco knows why. But he’s not going to tell Potter that.

“I have no idea, Potter.”

“I should go,” Potter says, sitting up with a sigh. “Ron will be worried.”

Draco nods mutely, because he’s not about to do something stupid like ask Potter to stay. The throbbing in his head had lessened to a dull throb, and so he tries to sit back up again.

Potter is arranging his robes as neatly as he can, before he takes out his wand again, taps the Map, and says, “Mischief managed.”

The ink disappears in a heartbeat and the paper folds itself once more. Potter pockets it together with his wand. He crosses the room to get the Invisibility Cloak on Goyle’s bed, and then pauses. He turns to look at Draco. His eyebrows are creased with worry. “You okay, Malfoy?”

Draco doesn’t know how to answer that, but he nods anyway. He will be.

Potter doesn’t look assured, but he nods back and walks towards the door. He holds the cloak open. And then he sighs. He turns back to Draco, opens his mouth as if to say something, but decides against it. He closes his mouth again. Instead, he says with a small smile, “See you tomorrow, then.”

The words are out of his lips before he can stop them. “Come back.”