Topgallant : HP : beauty

Harry/Draco, for

storyteller, who asked for Beauty in the Little Things, Hope, and Pettiness. Uh, I tried to give you all three so you might possibly hate the result. Erk. K

�You�re lucky the Ministry let you live, let alone let you off with such a light sentence,� Harry seethed. �And you have the gall, the contempt to sue them?� Malfoy�s face was calm, and Harry fought against the urge to spit in it. �I knew this about you, Malfoy,� he said, lowering his voice. �I knew you were dirty, I knew you were petty, but I��

�If it were your family home they�d raided and nearly destroyed, Potter,� Malfoy interrupted, his voice dry and tired, �you�d call it many things, but I�m guessing none of them would be �petty.��

Harry paused at this, thrown by the resignation in Malfoy�s voice. Malfoy leaned forward.

�When you do your final raid,� he said.

�I�m not�� Harry inserted automatically.

��Shut up. When you do your final raid, there�s an upstairs safe behind the library fireplace. There�s a pine box in it.� Malfoy shrugged his shoulders, a long slow movement that looked half like arrogance and half like defeat. �You might as well keep it.�

�Stuff it, Malfoy,� Harry answered.

But he looked for it anyway.

There was barely anything of value left at the Manor by that point; the Aurors had been over and over the family rooms so often that they�d taken to setting things on fire out of boredom. Inset into the charred and blackened wall of the great fireplace, lurking behind a mound of charred and blackened books, Harry found the safe.

�What�s that, Harry?� Ron asked, peering over his shoulder as Harry opened the pine box. It was delicate, sleek to the touch and elegantly wrought�much, he imagined before he could help himself, like Malfoy himself would be.

Dear Potter, he read in the first line of the first hand-written letter whose edges curled up at him.

He straightened.

�It�s nothing,� he answered quickly. �Nothing at all.�

He touched his wand to the box, turning the letters to ash before the shock in his bones had time to harden into wanting or despair.