nce. He didn’t have any right to meddle in Potter’s life anymore.

“You really care about him, don’t you?” Luna said, tilting her head.

Draco said nothing, while his gaze was fixed on the floor. They both stayed silent for a while, until Luna got up and started rummaging through a pile of magazines on her desk.

“Did Harry ever tell you about his childhood?” she asked.

“How his bloody Muggle relatives starved him?” Draco grumbled. “He did.”

Luna nodded. “It’s more than that, though.”

Draco’s eyes widened. What else did they do to him?

“Did he tell you they made him sleep in a cupboard?”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah. They treated him in such an awful way. It still makes me sad.”

“Those bastards! Thank Merlin he got away from them,” Draco muttered, rage still coursing through him.

“That’s the point, though, isn’t it? He didn’t really get away from them.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s part of him, what they did all those years ago. It shaped the person he’s be and he’s obviously still haunted by it, even if he may not realise it. He thinks he doesn’t deserve anything, he always puts others first because he thinks that’s how it should be…He has no sense of self-worth.”

Luna seemed to have found what she was looking for. She sat down beside Draco, several magazines in her hand. “I don’t like how he unconsciously punishes himself over and over for something that isn’t even his fault,” she said quietly. “And things like these aren’t helping.”

She handed Draco the magazines with an uncharacteristically serious expression. The only magazine he recognised was Witch Weekly. The issue was about a year old. Draco almost choked as he looked at the cover, at the headline in bold red letters.

Plump Potter! The Boy Who Lived…to let himself go!

Draco’s mouth dropped open. His eyes quickly scanned the other two.

Inside the Chosen One’s unhealthy lifestyle!

Harry Potter—From heartthrob to sad slob!

Beneath the headline was a picture of Potter in a café, eating treacle tart. All of the magazines had pictures of Potter that seemed to catch him in a rather unflattering light.

“They seriously printed this?” Draco asked. Why hadn’t he seen these before?

“The articles inside are even worse,” Luna said. “I kept them, in case we needed them to prove the invasion of Harry’s privacy. Luckily, Hermione got them all to stop selling them after a few days, although none of us have any idea how she did it. But I guess it was too late. Those articles really got to him. Harry didn’t admit it, of course, but that’s when he stopped eating when anybody was around.”

Draco’s heart gave a painful squeeze. “Those bastards,” he growled. “I can’t believe this!”

“It’s awful,” Luna agreed. “Ron tried to talk to him about it once, but he immediately closed up. We tried to ease him back into it, we thought it would be okay for him if only close friends were around, but he found ways around it. He’d show up late into the evening, to make sure dinner was already over, things like that.”

Draco’s mind raced as he tried to process everything Luna had just told him. Never in a million years would he have expected that Potter was hiding such an awful secret. He startled when he felt Luna’s hand on his wrist. He hadn’t realised his hands were shaking.

“That’s why I was so surprised he made dinner for you,” she said with a ghost of a smile.

“Yeah, well, we didn’t really get to eat it.”

“Still, Draco.” Luna squeezed his wrist reassuringly. “He’s obviously trying. You must be very important to him.”

Draco’s stomach rumbled ufortably at that. Was it really true? Had Potter been trying? This whole time? But the way he had acted on the day of Chang’s wedding…Why had he…

“Oh…Oh no.” Realisation hit Draco hard, like a Bludger to the head. “I’m such an idiot,” he murmured to himself.

But how should Draco have known? With all this new-found information, it was suddenly painfully obvious why Potter had asked to turn off the lights, why he had wanted to keep his shirt on.

“Luna, I’m sorry, but I have to go!” He jumped off the sofa and stumbled towards the fireplace.

“Are you going to see Harry?”

Draco nodded. He watched as Luna approached him, a warm smile on her face. She pulled him into a tight hug and patted his back.

“Be patient with him, Draco,” she whispered.

Draco wrapped his arms around her, letting her warmth seep into him.

“Thank you, Luna. Thank you for your help.”

She pulled away, her silvery-blue eyes glistening.

“Of course, Draco. That’s what friends are for.”

本站無廣告，永久域名（fanyan.cc）