分卷阅读8（2 / 2）

“I want a new broom.” Harry said, running his fingers down the handle of the one that the manager had left for them to suspect, eyes dancing. Draco figured this is what he must have looked like back in the apothecary shop. “Deserve it, after last year, huh?”

“Then buy it.” Draco wasn’t used to living with someone like harry, a person who had felt what it was to need to conserve money. In Draco’s house, if you saw something you wanted, you got it, no matter the cost. (Even if the cost wasn’t monetary.) “Use some of your Prophet money.”

One of the trials after the war centered around the Prophet and all the false stories they had been printing. The result was as if they had turned the whole building upside down and shook it, until every corrupted editors and writers had fallen out, fired and without another job to turn to. And Harry got a lot of reparation money for the things they had printed about him in his fifth year.

Harry looked tempted for a moment, but then he put it back and looked around for the manager, who he either wanted to say good bye to or thank. He’s always unfailingly polite to the people working. “Nah. Where would I fly it, anyways?” But then he was turning back to it again, so obviously wanting it. “Though I could go to the Weasleys. You could come to.”

He made the offer in an off-hand sort of way, but Draco still recoiled, drawing away from Harry as if the thought had burned him.. “No.” He spit the word out and the panic rose up, because didn’t Harry understand? “I killed their son.” That was the awful truth of it, how when you are on the wrong side but still right enough to feel guilt, every horrible thing fell onto your shoulders. “I’m never going there.”

Harry doesn’t push, just looked sad, like he wanted to hold Draco but couldn’t make himself reach out. “Alright.”

But they both knew it wasn’t.

“Listen.” Harry was leaving him, leaving him at the door of the Weasleys’ shop, and Draco didn’t know if it was payback for his comment or if this was Harry’s sick idea of trying to fix things, but he was about ready to throw his dignity out the window and beg for Harry to stay, because this can not happen. “It’s just going to be a minute.”

“I’ll come with you.” Draco could not express how much he didn’t want to go in there, all the rules he thought it would be breaking. It was different when he was with Harry. Harry was a shield, someone that stopped people from being reminded of what Draco had done. “I’ll just wait outside.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Draco was about to ask why, when he realized that he knew. They had been here all day, and there were only two shops they hadn’t gone to: the twins, and Ollivanders. Of course Harry would want to see him, and of course Draco couldn’t go.

“Right.” His took his hand off Harry’s arm, because he did not deserve to touch him. He could hear Harry calling after him, but he did not want to be more of a nuisance than he already had, so he turned and walked back through the door.

Draco had been in here exactly once, when he had bought the Peruvian instant darkness powder. Then, it was crowded and bursting at the seams with products, so bright that it almost hurt to look at. Now it was quiet, with gaping holes on the shelves and a witch with a pinched face behind the counter.

He wandered through the shelves, picking up one product and then putting it back. He’s fine until he turns a corner and comes upon a bin of edible dark marks, all those skulls and snakes staring up at him.

“Don’t you already have one of those?” He had been scared of George, but he shouldn’t have. He should have been scared of everyone else, and of all the displays to have been caught in front of, Draco knew this was not a good one. “If you want another mark, we can give you one.”

Draco didn’t raise his wand. He didn’t defend himself, just wondered what they were going to do, if they were going to burn something onto him and listen to him scream or just do it the muggle way. At the very least, he wouldn’t have it said that he started a fight in George’s shop.

But it doesn’t come to that.

“Oi.” It was George, wearing his faded work robes of that awful magenta, looking like he hadn’t come out of the back room in weeks. “What do you think you’re doing?” His eyes dart from the kids to Draco to the bin of the dark marks and seems to understand immediately. “He’s got a right to shop here as much as you do. If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

They scowl and then stomp their way out, slamming the door closed behind them. It left Draco and George looking at each other, the empty store around them making it even more awkward than it would have been otherwise.