Topgallant : HP : Queen for a Day

queen for a day.

Archiving: just ask.
Rating: PG.
Pairing: H/D.
Date Written: August 18, 2005
Disclaimer: Not mine.

Notes: for

balfrog, who asked for "Harry/Draco where Draco wears a big furry hat and thinks he's the queen of Russia." This, er, um, isn't what you wanted. But I hope you like it anyway. :)

The day they have appointed to give Lucius Malfoy the kiss, his son is brought to Azkaban to watch. Harry is with him when the alarms sound, with him when the Dementors, newly reinstated in the prison, move past them in noiseless fury. Draco's eyes are wide. When Harry cradles him close he clings and says in a raspy whisper, "When Anastasia escaped they never found her. Never found her."

They do, eventually, find Lucius Malfoy, with his throat cut and his body mangled. Harry holds Draco's hand at the funeral, pretending not to notice the way Draco's eyes dart nervously to the left and right.

The hat itself is a keepsake, a memory of Lucius at his most eccentric. When Draco puts it on Harry thinks for a moment that he is seeing things, seeing Draco's father, or his mother, alive and well and dripping in ermine. "I'm the Queen of Russia," Draco laughs, admiring the hat. "The secret queen, they never found me."

The hat itself is not so much. But Draco never can bring himself to take it off again, and Harry can never bring himself to let go of Draco's hand.