House : Slytherin

Category : Short

Prompt: "I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?"

Word Count : 507

Narcissa Malfoy was sitting in The Leaky Cauldron, an empty glass of firewhiskey on the table in front of her. She thought it was her fifth, but she couldn't be completely sure. She didn't care much, all she cared about was the pain tearing through her. Just as she looked for the bartender to order another drink, she heard a voice behind her.

"Mrs Malfoy?"

She turned around and found herself face to face with none other than the Boy-Who-Lived, the celebrated Chosen one, Harry bloody Potter.

"Come to brag?" She wasn't sure if she was allowed to speak to the savior of the wizarding world in such a manner, but in truth she couldn't bring herself to care. Her usual impeccable manners seemed strangely absent, washed away by copious amounts of alcohol.

"No, I -"

"Save it, Potter. I'm not in the mood for chitchat and pleasantries. I'm trying to drink myself into oblivion before my family and I are tried before the Wizengamot for horrendous war crimes." She glanced up at the clock. "The trial is in less than an hour and I can still feel the pain, so I'd appreciate if you left me do it in peace."

Silence followed her words, and she almost thought the boy really had left when he spoke again, his voice soft and gentle."I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?"

"Why on earth would you thank me?"

"You saved me, Mrs Malfoy," he said. "You stood up to Voldemort himself -" Narcissa suppressed a shudder at the name. "You lied to his very face," Harry continued. "The Wizarding World is forever in your debt."

She laughed coldly. "I am no hero. I had no other choice."

"We always have a choice. You chose to save me. You chose to help a world that rejects and accuses you, even though you could've been royalty under that lunatic."

"Do you need to remind me?" she muttered bitterly.

"I don't mean to offend. All I wanted to do was say thank you."

"Well, you've said it now. Surely you have important things to do."

"I wanted to give you something first."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes."Make it quick. I have a trial to get to."

"Actually, you don't." Harry took an envelope from his cloak pocket and handed it to the Malfoy matriarch. "In view of your outstanding acts of bravery in the Battle of Hogwarts, the Minister has decided to grant you a full pardon. I thought I'd deliver it in person."

"And Draco?" A pardon meant nothing to her if her son was lost. It would have all been for nothing.

"He and Lucius are pardoned as well. You're free. It's over, Mrs Malfoy."

Before she had even fully realised what he had just said, tears were pouring down her porcelain cheeks. "I - Thank you," she choked out. It couldn't possibly be true, all of them free and together. Never in her wildest imaginings had she thought it possible.

Harry smiled ruefully. "Thank you, Mrs Malfoy."