分卷阅读9（2 / 2）

“I’ll think about it,” Draco said, but they both knew the answer was probably going to be no.

He leaves the shop before Harry shows up. Draco’s got his wand held out in front of him, just in case, but the only figure is one that he recognizes, all the way down at the end of the street.

It’s Harry, standing in front of the pet store and looking at all the owls. “You used to have an owl, didn’t you?” It had never made sense to Draco for a boy who had no knowledge of their world to come to school with one of the best kind of owls. “That white one.”

“Hedwig.”

“What happened to it?”

“She died.” Harry rocked back on his heels like the words had knocked him off balance. “Tried to take her with me when I was going from my aunt and uncles to a safe house. Got hit with a killing curse. Should have just let her loose.”

Draco doesn’t know what to say about that, so he doesn’t address it. “Why don’t you buy another one?”

They don’t have an owl at the house, which for a wizard is like having their hands tied behind their back as far as communication goes. “Don’t know. Probably should.” And then he walked away, hands shoved deep into his pockets, leaving Draco to run after him.

(Draco sneaks out the next day to buy another owl, this one tiny and jet black, and has it sitting on the kitchen counter when Harry comes home. He’d never seen him get so happy so fast.)

Chapter 8

Harry

Seamus…hurts himself.

It was Ginny who broke the news to them, bursting through the door of the boys’ locker room after training without waiting for one of them to answer her knock. Ron was already yelling and halfway through scolding her, but then they both saw her face and whatever they were going to say was replaced by that sick feeling in your stomach that comes when you know you were about to get bad news.

Ginny was crying.

Harry had rarely seen her cry, not since Dumbledore’s funeral or the day of Bill’s wedding. She hadn’t really even cried at George’s wedding, just stared at everyone with a set jaw and a face full of fury, but this time she had a quivering lip and tears slipping silently down her face.

“What’s wrong?” Ron was on his feet in a moment, arms held out like he was trying to hug her, but Ginny just shrugged him off. “What happened?”

“It’s Seamus.” She let half a sob out and then swallowed the rest, turning to kick the locker door so hard Harry was surprised she didn’t break anything. “He’s at Mungo’s. He…”

“What?” Ron was still looking for something to fight, an enemy to push his fear towards. Harry was just watching Ginny, the way she was crumbling. “Did someone hurt him?”