Close The Door

Two Shot: Drarry

Draco didn't even bother to stop his fingers as they easily flew over the keys on the grand piano stashed away in the Room of Requirements. He just allowed himself a glance at the opening door and relaxed after the hint of red and gold. The person who had entered wouldn't interrupt him.

It's been nearly four months since the first time this stranger had strayed into the secret room Draco kept for himself. Nearly four months that Draco had been sharing a part of himself with this Gryffindor boy who couldn't seem to leave him alone. He'd always wondered why the other boy would always come back, almost every night to listen as Draco poured his heart out over the piano, but he never dared ask. Any words that were ever exchanged weren't deep or even friendly. Yet both parties would always return night after night to sit and listen to the music.

Draco's eyes remained closed as he played faster; reaching the tense and fearful part of this melody he had composed himself. This was his favorite part to play, and that is why he waited for the other boy to walk into the room before he allowed himself to reach it.

Words were one thing they could not use, but his music was something different. Maybe if Draco tried hard enough, the Gryffindor would begin to understand. But maybe that was too much to hope for. No one could understand what he had to go through every day. Well, no one but one person.

"You should tell him you know..."

The voice of the boy made Draco stop dead in his tracks and his eyes pop open. His fingers paused and the music came to a dramatic and sudden halt. The silence was almost deafening and it scared Draco more so than the words had.

He turned on his piano bench and glared daggers at the boy who'd found out his deepest darkest secret.

"It is none of your business, Longbottom." Draco hissed in controlled anger. He didn't know for how much longer he'd be able to control it though. The Gryffindor wasn't supposed to speak, especially not of him.

Neville's eyes remained hard set on the blond's expression, the boy looked so determined that Draco actually faltered. Never had Neville possessed that look before. As if nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted.

"I've been coming here for months now, nearly every day." Neville started to speak quietly, but he cleared his throat and his voice rose a bit. "I've heard every song you've played since the first night I found you here crying-"

"I was not crying you insufferable lard of useless magic!"

"-Crying!" Neville almost screamed to drown out what ever insult Draco had come up with. "About the very loneliness I've been-"

"I am in no way lonely!"

Neville glared, his own anger flaring up to meet the young Malfoy's. He'd been gathering up his courage for three months now, just waiting for his chance to actually talk to this stubborn blond, and he was not about to leave this room without accomplishing just that!

"Shut up! You will listen to what I have to say!" Neville was yelling and he could tell that it shocked Malfoy to the core he knew it wasn't like him, even he was surprising himself but still, this had to be done. No, Neville wasn't one to lose his temper, in fact, he never believed he had this kind of feeling inside his body. There was that time in the Ministry of Magic where he tried his hardest to protect his friends against the Death Eaters, but this was a new emotion he didn't understand.

For so long he had kept this secret from the people he cared for. He's thought about nothing but Malfoy for four full months, not merely because he had seen the young pure blood at his worst, but because he also knew how it felt. To be all alone, consoling yourself, with no one but yourself to look to for support, Neville has been there and he had seen Malfoy there too. This is why he could not leave Malfoy alone. It was why he came back every night. Why he paid attention to the Slytherin so much so that he figured out about his unrequited love for one of Neville's own house mates.

Neville took a deep breath and shook his head. "Draco, don't you get tired of this..."

The blond scowled venomously his eyes silently warning the Gryffindor that to continue this conversation would result in blood, but Neville wouldn't get the hint. "I know you don't want to be this person. You don't want to be alone, mean, bitter-"

"I am no such thing and it will be in your best interest to remove yourself from my presence before I do something the two of us will both regret."

Draco was pissed. Beyond angry and past the point of no return. How dare this useless Gryffindor speak as if he knew anything at all. Just because he has sat here listening to Draco play a damned piano, he was suddenly an expert on Draco's life? Who did this boy think he was anyways, getting mixed up in affairs that had no connection to his own?

But Neville refused to back down. He needed to remind himself that he was not doing this for Draco, he was doing it for Harry.

"He's tired too, you know..." Neville stated with a frown, eye brows knitted and hoping to god that the youngest Malfoy would just listen to his words. Maybe it was too much to hope for, but this needed to be said. Malfoy wasn't the only one being hurt by uncontrollable situations, and Neville had an idea of how much better things would be if Malfoy just admitted that.

"He's tired of being the center of attention." Draco snorted but didn't interrupt. "He's tired of all the pressure everyone constantly puts on him. Did you know he's been watching you a lot. All year in fact. Did you know that? Ron and Hermione think he's obsessed, and he thinks it's because you've got something to hide, but I can see it. Just like I saw it in you. I can see how much he care-"

"He feels nothing for me!" Draco grabbed the sheet music from the piano's stand and tried to throw it at Neville, to quite him. This could not be said, nothing could change, he had something he needed to do, something he needed to accomplish and even if it would pull him further and further away from his humanity, he needed to protect the people he loved. All of them. Including Potter…

"Yes he does!" Neville insisted as he reached forward and grabbed Draco by the shoulders. He really didn't see it coming and that was why Draco's fist actually took him by surprise.

He was knocked back and Draco was given enough room to escape. Draco rushed for the door and pulled it open, but Neville's voice followed him out. "You can't do it alone Draco!"

No...he couldn't. He already knew that. But he would do whatever it took for his loved ones. Even if it cost him his life.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"That's a pretty nasty shiner there Neville, are you sure it was only a door?" Ron's voice was suspicious, but Neville just smiled it off as he sat across from the Golden Trio. He hadn't spoken to Draco in weeks now, the blond had even taken to avoiding the Room. He didn't know what to do to reach Malfoy anymore. But still.

His eyes fell on Harry's form, well actually, on the back of his head as he was turned around staring straight at one particular attraction sitting at the Slytherin table.

Neville sighed. Two people who were never meant to feel anything but animosity for each other have been reduced to this...and he was the only one who knew. He was the only one who could do anything about it. This was too much for Neville...

"Harry! Would you stop! At least get something to eat before you start your stalking fest." Hermione chastised the green eyed savior who had the humility to blush at her accusation.

"I'm not stalking." He sulked, but even he knew the truth. "He's up to something 'Mione."

Ron looked at his best friend with an odd expression. "Mate, though I happen to agree with that statement, I don't believe stalking him is going to do any good. Maybe we just need to wait for him to slip up."

Neville sighed as the two friends tried to get Harry to look away from the Slytherin table. Harry was reading his own emotions all wrong. The obsession wasn't just suspicion, though Neville actually couldn't deny that it might be a big part, it wasn't all of it.

Harry was fond of the blond. Neville could see it in the way Harry always looked at Draco. It was the exact same way Draco always looked at Harry. Draco had accepted it for what it was though, while Harry had a harder time admitting anything of the sort could happen.

The two had more in common than they would ever know, and maybe that was why they attracted each other. It was so frustrating to watch.

"I've got to get some last minute studying done for the quiz in Potions, so I'm heading for the library. See you guys in class." Neville excused himself and stood up, as he left he felt a pair of eyes staring at his back and he knew in an instant who it was.

Draco would be at the Room tonight.

Suddenly an idea struck Neville, a way for Harry to notice.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"You want me to..what?"

Neville sighed heavily as he glared at Harry's confused face. He'd been trying to explain what he wanted Harry to do for an hour now without giving away too much about where they were going.

"You think Malfoy's up to something right? Then come with me, I know where he is." Neville tried again, playing at the other boy's weaknesses. In an instant Harry's eyes burned to life. It was so comical, how much he reacted just to the blond's very name. How could Harry not notice his own feelings? No matter, soon he would. He just had to see Malfoy vulnerable. Then he would begin to notice what the attention he showed Draco truly was.

"What? Where is he? What is he doing this late at night? How do you know where he-"

Neville threw his hand over Harry's mouth when the savior's voice started to rise above a whisper. They were in the Gryffindor dorms and if Ron awoke, his plan was all for not.

"Just come with me. Bring your cloak and stay behind me, don't talk when you see him and don't make a sound. I want to show you what I discovered about Malfoy."

Harry's eyes narrowed and Neville could see the jealousy in there, but Harry probably just read it as suspicion. "What do you know about him Neville?"

Neville sighed again and started to get off of Harry's bed, deciding to leave it up to the Gryffindor Golden Boy if he followed or not. "It's up to you Harry. But if you do come, just follow the rules okay? If we wanna catch him, we need to be sneaky."

Then he walked out of the room, not surprised when he heard footsteps following behind him. He chanced a glance back and saw that there was no Harry to the footsteps. Good he was under his cloak already, all the better.

The walk to the Room of Requirements wasn't so far from the Gryffindor tower as some might think. The room was in the top floors, and so they merely went up one stair case to reach the floor they needed. As they walked Harry remained quiet, and probably questioning where they were and why Malfoy would come all the way up here from the dungeons to accomplish whatever it was he was scheming. Thinking this, Neville almost laughed. Almost.

He reached the room in no time, already taking notice of the door. Draco was in there already. He pulled the door open and turned around while putting his finger up to his lips to signal Harry to be very quiet. The second the door was pulled open, the tones of a piano were clear and loud, Malfoy must have missed his nightly releases because the emotion in the melody was almost violently depressing. He heard Harry gasp and turned sharply to signal for silence again before walking in, allowing Harry enough space and time to slip in himself. Then he closed the door and walked further into the room.

It looked just like it always had, a plain room with one comfortable arm chair, one grand piano and one burning fireplace. Neville noticed that Draco hadn't even bothered to open his eyes to check who it was this time, just kept playing, not letting up.

Things remained like this for twenty more minutes before the melody actually began to slow. His fingers must have been tired.

"I didn't think you'd come." Draco said so quietly that Neville almost missed it.

"I didn't think you would either. You haven't been for almost a month now." Neville answered as he took his usual seat in the arm chair. He didn't know where Harry was, but it was probably in a corner looking at the whole room.

"Yeah." Was Malfoy's only answer as he finished the melody.

Once it was over, he turned around in his piano bench to stare hard at Neville. "You came though. Every night."

Neville shrugged. "I figured it was my fault for bringing up unpleasant things last time." This answer actually got a smirk out of Malfoy before it disappeared just as quickly.

"I may have over reacted." Malfoy admitted with a tilt of his head. "I've had a bit of time to think."

Neville raised an eye brow at that. He hadn't been expecting this. They never spoke like this. The only time they shared more than two sentences was during their last encounter, when Neville finally got fed up with watching both him and Harry destroy themselves over the other. "About what Draco?"

Malfoy's eyes suddenly got very guarded, something that made Neville feel a bit jumpy, but just as quickly as it went up, the wall was down again. Draco's face wasn't blank, his expression wasn't unreadable, and his eyes weren't empty. Neville could see it clearer than ever before. The hurt, the stress, the helplessness.

"About him." Draco answered with a small wince. "I can't, I don't know how to approach him. I don't know how to ask for his help, I don't know what to do, but you might. You're always with him, always allowed to be near him. You have something I have always wanted and if I am to protect my family, myself, and him, I need your help."

Neville was shocked. This was not supposed to be happening tonight, Harry was in the room tonight, this was not good.

"Draco, we can talk about it another-"

"There won't be another time." Draco sighed as he allowed himself to sag. He'd never sat like this in front of Neville before, but for the first time the Gryffindor was able to see Draco utterly deflated. "If I can't get you to help me talk to Harry, then I am taking my family, and running away. As far away as I can. Neville, no matter what, I have no trust for Dumbledore, but I don't want the old man dead. Neither do I want to be the one to do it."

Neville gasped at hearing this, and so did Harry.

"That was your mission!? You have to kill Dumbledore?"

Draco winced again and looked down, his blond bangs hiding his face, still he bobbed his head in a nod. Neville was floored. Why? Why did Draco decide to talk about all this tonight!? He should have come alone. Harry shouldn't be hearing all this.

"I don't want to do that to him. Harry would break if Dumbledore...I just can't do it by myself. I don't want to be a murderer, I don't want to kill or torture. I...I don't want to be a Death Eater."

Neville looked around the room for any sign of Harry, but everything looked undisturbed. Harry was listening to all of this, silently. That was actually surprising. Neville had believed that Harry would be livid at all of this information, he thought the boy would be shouting that Draco was a liar or something along those lines. Maybe it was just the shock, Neville sort of felt it too.

"How am I supposed to help you Draco?" Neville finally spoke after a few minutes of silence. When he said this, Draco's head came up and he stared deep and piercing into Neville's own eyes.

"I don't know." Draco admitted. "I don't know if there is anything you can do. I don't know if there is anything you would be willing to do. The person I need, the one who can help me is Harry." Draco snorted at his own comment. "But I doubt he would even speak to me. I am nothing but a – how did Granger put it? 'foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach'." Draco actually chuckled at himself.

Neville frowned, Hermione had said something like that? Really? "Maybe you aren't giving Harry credit, if you asked him I'm sure he would talk to you."

Draco snorted again as if he found it funny. "He might be willing to talk to me, but what in the world would make him believe in anything I say? Certainly not this!" He pulled up his sleeve and bared his left forearm. Neville recoiled at the Dark mark that burned on Draco's skin like fire. Draco looked at his own arm and smiled bitterly. "So proud father was of me, his little boy crying and begging the Dark Lord not to do it. He showed me just how proud he was when he got home that night. I had never felt pain like that before in my life. Still..."

Draco breathed deep and Neville let him have that moment. This was it, all of the feelings inside his melodies, this is where they all came from. "Still, I don't want him to die. Not him, not mother...not anyone. Especially not because of me."

Neville scowled. "He beat you! He tortured you, that is no father!"

Draco's head rose and he glared hard at Neville. "He is my father. No matter how imperfect, he gave me life and raised me."

"He's a Death Eater!" Neville insisted.

"So am I!" Draco cried back.

"No you're not!"

The very air seemed to still as a voice that wasn't Neville's or Draco's echoed within the room like the sound of a ringing bell. Draco was up in seconds, his wand out and pointed at Neville.

"Who's here?!" He hissed as his face twisted in pure anger and betrayal. Neville's hands rose into the air and he cursed under his breath, just as he heard Harry curse too.

"Malfoy don't." Neville said but Draco shot a stunner his way only to be absorbed by a shield charm.

"Who did you bring!?" Draco cried again, shooting another curse that was blocked.

"Malfoy!" Harry appeared in front of Neville and blocked another curse. "Stop!"

Draco's eyes widen, his face going pale as the new fallen snow. It couldn't be. He'd heard it all, every part of it he-

Draco turned on his heel and went for the door, but Harry was fast, tackling the blond onto the ground like a football player. "Malfoy!"

"Get off! Let go of me you filthy mudblood!" Draco thrashed as hard as he could, he threw punches at any part of Harry he could reach, but the other boy would not let go.

"Stupify!" Neville's curse hit Harry in the back and Neville cursed as he'd gotten the wrong target, Draco struggled to push the still Harry off of him but once he was free another curse flew his way, Neville easily put him to sleep.

Lifting the curse he'd accidentally hit Harry with, Neville winced when Harry glared.

"Get a better aim Neville, or people are just going to end up dying." Harry hissed before turned to look at the sleeping Draco. "Was all the things he said..." Harry paused. "Was all of it for real?"

Neville chanced a stare at Draco and nodded silently. "He came to this room every night and one night, the night you and Ron had that fight about him and kicked everyone out of the dorm, that was the night I was headed to the Astronomy tower, but...I heard the music."

"That had been more than five months ago Neville, how long have you kept this secret?" Harry seemed curious, and just that. He wasn't angry or doubtful, he was merely curious.

"It's been a bit longer than that. He's not a bad guy you know, he wants everyone to believe it because that is what is expected of him. Even you expected the worse Harry."

Harry sighed at Neville's words, his friend was right. He had come here hoping to catch Malfoy...no, Draco, doing something evil. He had been here to prove he wasn't just stalking the other. Maybe he was though, because even though Draco admitted his connection to Voldemort, even went as far as to show his Dark Mark...Harry believed what the Slytherin had cried out with so much emotion that even Harry's eyes had watered up. 'I don't want to be a Death Eater.'...Harry could relate, he didn't want to be the world's savior.

Neither of them had much of a choice he supposed.

"He's been carrying those burdens all his life, just like me. Expected to be what everybody wants you to be no matter what you want for yourself. He's lived just like me...probably worse."

Neville gave a sigh of relief as he listened to Harry. So his friend had seen it, he'd actually listened closely to every word Malfoy had said in his rant. He'd been listening closely and open-mindedly. Neville couldn't ask for anything more than that.

"He's been under his father's thumb all his life. I don't know how he could still think of that awful man as family." Neville shuddered and shook his head but Harry just breathed in deeply, moving Draco to lay on his back and then ran his fingers through the silver blond strands he'd always found himself wanting to brush behind the Slytherin's ear.

"Family." Harry whispered. "I know what he feels. I get so much pride when I hear someone tell me how proud my parents would be of me. He wants the same feeling, has probably craved it all his life, but to get his parents approval, he has to do bad things. Things he himself doesn't want to do. How did he withhold so much inside without any form of release?"

"He had a release."

Harry and Neville jumped at the voice that came from the door. Pansy stood there with a sad frown on her face. "He had a release. It was that piano over there." She pointed to the grand piano just off to the side, walking into the room to stand beside Harry watching Malfoy as he slept, under the affects of Neville's curse. "That piano is the same one that his mother used to play to him when he was a child. I'll bet this room made it for him so that he could escape."

"What do you know about this Parkinson?" Harry asked as he looked up. For the first time Pansy saw nothing but honesty and curiosity in Potter's green eyes and she sighed. Draco had done it, he'd gained the Savior's trust. Lucky bastard.

"All of us are the same. In Slytherin, we protect each other, support each other. We always have from the very beginning, but Draco...he was always the one people looked to. His father is You-Know-Who's right hand man, if anyone had any power within Slytherin, it was Draco. And he wore it so well, protecting younger years and upholding everything Slytherin stood for. This year he even stopped relying on me and Blaise."

"What do you mean he stopped?" Harry asked as the Slytherin girl crouched down to look longingly at Draco's face, not daring to touch it.

"I've known about this room long before he had. In fact I told him about it." Pansy smiled a bit. "He left the door wide open one day when he was playing, the day you found him." Pansy's face turned up to look at Neville. "You didn't even notice I was in the room sitting in the arm chair because you were so focused on Draco. After he met eyes with you, you just ran away." She laughed under her breath as Neville flushed. "I stopped coming up here that day you knew, because I figured if anyone could help him approach the one he wanted to, it was you. I couldn't help him. He was always the one helping me." Pansy's hand reached for Draco's hair but Harry found himself catching her hand before she touched the sleeping blond.

Pansy just looked blankly up at Harry's face as the Gryffindor noticed what he had done. Blushing he let her hand go, but she didn't try again. "He looked at you like you could rescue him. Like you were his light in the darkness. Did you know that Potter?"

"Why are you here Pansy?" Harry asked changing the topic of conversation. He wasn't very comfortable with the current one.

Pansy just sighed. "I heard you and Longbottom talking when I'd been making my way back downstairs. Draco asked me to come tonight, said he was going to do it, he was going to expose the truth and depending on how things went with Longbottom he would stay and fight or run as far away as his family's money would get him." She sat down on the stone floor, drawing her knees to her chest as she looked over Draco, Harry taking a seat as well. "He wanted me to come with him. Me, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle, but I can't leave my family behind, they need me. When I left the room, he started playing and I heard you two coming up the stairs. Two Gryffindors versus one Slytherin sounded a bit unfair to me, wouldn't you say so too Potter?" She laughed as Harry's face turned even redder.

"I kept telling him to close the door, but he never did. That day Neville found us, I think he was hoping it would have been you." Pansy said with a sad smile. "He wanted to be saved."

"I can't save him. I don't know if I can save anyone." Harry answered as he lowered his head, Pansy just shook hers.

"That's not what I meant. Draco is strong enough to protect himself Potter, he isn't a coward."

"Then what did you mean Parkinson?" Neville asked.

Pansy gazed down at Draco and sighed. "I figured one day he'd fall in love with me. We are engaged after all, his father didn't want any contamination in the family line. He never did though, and I only figured out why after you came into this room that night Longbottom."

"That doesn't answer his question Parkinson." Harry hissed. Pansy just smirked back.

"It's not my secret to tell Potter. I think you know yourself what he wanted from you that he never got from anyone else, not even his parents. The question is if you can give it to him. He'd let go of everything in one second and fight beside you no matter the risks if you gave him just one simple thing."

Neville's eyes widened and he understood. "Love." He whispered and Harry rounded to him.

"What the hell are you talking about, why would Malfoy want me to give him love?" Harry cried as he looked between Neville and Pansy.

Pansy continued to smirk. "He's watch you a lot over the years. Just like you are watching him now. With that sparkle in your eyes. You know, I may be a Slytherin, but I'm just as human as the rest of the world. So is Draco. We've all been after just a few things in our lives. Love and understanding."

"You're not acting very Slytherin now Parkinson." Harry growled as he shook off the thought. There was no way he could-

"The house you're in doesn't define you Potter." Pansy sighed as she stared at him like he was stupid. "It gives you a chance to stick close to people, who are more than a bit like you, but it doesn't define who you are, and it certainly doesn't make you inhuman."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Harry asked as his eyes came down to look at Draco's face, pale and twisted in throws of a nightmare.

"Treat him like a human being. Treat all of us like humans. The second you close the door on the possibility that we might just get along, then that door will never be opened again." Pansy sneered, her face twisting up in an ugly way. "I figured this night would end badly, but maybe it has put some sort of sense into your brain. Something that took Longbottom here months to uncover."

Neville blushed. "Hey!"

Pansy sent him a sweet smile and looked into Harry's eyes.

"We're all human. Even that nasty snake man who's been trying to kill you. He was human once and someone took that away from him. Maybe you should look at who the real dark lord is before that same man creates another one." She took out her wand and cast a curse on Draco who was lifted into the air. "I'll take him to his rooms, as a Perfect, it wouldn't do for either me or him to be caught out here after hours."

As the two Slytherin's left Harry looked down at his hands. What did the girl mean by that.

"Harry if you're going to just sit there, at least close the door, anyone can walk in if the door is-"

Harry's eyes snapped up to meet Neville's and the shy Gryffindor stepped back as a light bulb seemed to go off. "Say that again?"

"If you're going to-"

"No further than that."

"At least close the door?"

"And?"

"Anyone can walk in if the door is-"

"Open"

A/N: Well I left you lot with a bit of a cliff hanger now haven't I? lol I don't know if this is the end, that will depend on reviews. So if you like it and want me to go on, you better write a review, because I for one am satisfied with this story as it is.