InsaneJournal

Who: Draco and Theodore
What: Draco needs somewhere to stay until he sorts his life out; what are friends for? (Apparently, for suggesting parties.)
Where: Hogwarts library
When: Morning of Saturday 13 June
Rating: Perfectly clean
Status: Complete

It wasn’t that Draco had a problem asking for things - he asked for things all the time, though possibly a better word for that might be demanded or required or if he was feeling particularly polite and respectful to the person in question, requested.

Supplicants asked. The less fortunate asked. People in need asked.

He’d tried to find options. But with barely a week left - and that week exams - it was time to face up to some hard facts: Malfoy Manor was closed to him, and he had nowhere else to go when the gates of Hogwarts closed behind him.

Time to ask.

He made surreptitious inquiries at breakfast as to where various people would be later in the morning. The last thing he wanted was an audience for any of this. Theo first, he reasoned. Theo had stood with him and listened to Lady Noir (mind you, so had Pansy). Theo might understand. Oh, Vincent or Greg might be quicker and readier to agree, but understanding was often a stretch. They were his second option, if this fell through.

“This” being finding Theodore in that hidden corner of the library where he liked to sequester himself and saying, before he could think better of it, “Got a moment? I need to ask a favour.”

Despite how some people may think of Theo, as flippant or not caring or something like that about school or his friends or life in general, Theo had a lot going for him that he wasn't about to squander. That meant that, yes, he did spend time in his books and yes, he was going to get his NEWTs done and pass them.

Theodore looked up when Draco spoke, and he moved his books aside and leaned back to look at his friend. He nodded. "Of course. Anything for a break, yeah?"

“Tell me about it.” Draco had never precisely been a slipshod student, but in the past few months the weight of his family’s expectation for his grades had been replaced by the rather more urgent need to show them, not to mention the creeping horror that his NEWT marks were actually going to matter. He’d been working harder than ever, so much that it became a habit and there was a jangling unease in his fingertips right now because they weren’t holding a quill. “Hard to believe it’ll all be over and done soon. Which, ah…” He picked at the edges of leather bindings in the bookcase he was leaning against, and shied away from a direct approach. “Do you have plans? For after?”

After all, there was no point even getting into it if Theo was going straight from graduation to, say, Jamaica.

Ah, the questions about plans. It was certainly all anyone could talk about. He nodded. "Yes, I'm starting a position with the Ministry," Theodore answered. "Skipping all these stupid internships and getting right to it. Why waste time?" He crossed his arms and smiled a little tightly.

Draco’s answering smile matched, tweaked by his brief relief and ongoing worry. “Exactly,” he agreed. “Why dabble about like we were still children and not launching on real lives?” So here it was. A bracing breath, pulling on his blitheness and bluster, and then: “Which is part of why I’m keen to move out on my own immediately. But it’s hard to arrange something from in here, you know, so I was wondering… well. If I could stay with you, just until I get everything sorted.” From his brusque tone, that would be about five minutes. Not more than a few weeks. (Oh please Merlin, not more than a few weeks.)

Theodore knew that things with Draco's parents were going well and hadn't been for a while. But that didn't mean he knew it was bad enough to warrant Draco actually asking him to live with him for a while.

He nodded a bit. "Yeah, of course. It's just me and Anastasia. Dad's usually holed up in his rooms so there's plenty of space."

This time, the relief was almost staggering. Draco had braced himself for explanations, evasions, down-playing, or even - if worst came to worst - outright honesty. Theodore’s easy agreement left him actually dizzy for a moment. And in that moment, he thought maybe he could actually do this.

Maybe? Of course he could. He was a Malfoy. How hard could making his own way be? Everyone else managed it.

“Thanks,” he said, with a brief but very genuine smile. And then, because it was the least he could do, he added, “I owe you one.” Not a sentence lightly uttered. “I’ll, uh, let you get back to it, then.”

"Don't owe me anything," Theodore insisted. He smiled at his friend. "It's no problem at all, really. We'll have some fun. Probably should host a party or something for everyone, what do you think?"

Draco pointed to Theo with a grin. “I like it,” he declared. This was what it could be like, living his own life. Deciding what he wanted to do, and just doing it. “Welcome to summer party. Welcome to the rest of our lives party.” He had a moment’s pause as all the blips already crowding that life - work, a place to live, Pansy - loomed large, but he shook it off.

Theodore's own smile grew and he rapped his knuckles against the table. "I'll owl Anastasia and get her to start setting things up. Maybe mid-July would be good. It'll be a great bash. No one will forget it."