分卷阅读9（2 / 2）

“I don’t know that it will.”

“Don’t be so contrariwise,” she chastised.

“I found him, the first night, standing outside the Slytherin dungeons. Talking to dead people and crying. And by dead people I mean specifically me,” Draco started slowly. “And how he misses me.”

McGonagall opened her mouth to speak and then closed it, looking rather like a fish.

“I’ve already brought so much pain into his life,” Draco continued, “That I was never able to amend. I think it will ruin me to see him so torn up like this when I could so easily fix it, if only things were a little bit different. I think I can only hold up for so long before I ruin everything. It’s already almost more than I can bear.”

McGonagall was silent for a moment that stretched on for what felt like eternity. It was the closest Draco had ever been to admitting everything out loud.

“You never hated him, did you?” she asked gently.

Draco smiled back at her weakly.

“No, I suppose you didn’t. I suppose that was another act to please your father.”

“I suppose it was.”

He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want to see the sorry look on her face.

Finally she said, “Let me figure out what I can do. We’ll meet the same time tomorrow.”

Draco nodded.

When she left, he looked around at his room, feeling a bit of melancholy sink into his stomach. He reckoned they wouldn’t be his rooms for much longer. Not if he got his way.

Chapter 6

Harry supposed the only plus to not having grown since his school days was that his old Invisibility Cloak still covered him down to his feet, if he crouched.

He had been standing in the dungeon hallway for thirty minutes. He had heard the brick wall clicking closed as he turned the corner upon his arrival, but he hadn’t been sure if that meant someone had just gone in or come out. The hours between morning and nightfall had been treacherous, but those mere minutes in the hallway were utter agony. After half an hour, the curiosity at what was on the other side outweighed his fear of whomever he may encounter.

He closed the space between the door and himself, muttering the password.