Draco stared at Harry sleeping across the room. He didn’t like sharing his room with the Gryffindor golden boy, but Uncle Severus had made it clear that he had to be nice to Potter no matter how much Harry glared at him. Potter apparently didn’t want to share Severus either, and Draco didn’t like him to begin with- he didn’t! He had to watch as Potter stayed practically glued to Severus’s side and insisted Draco call him Harry.

Across the room, Harry whimpered, curling up into a ball. Draco sat up, gaze intensifying on the boy-who-lived. He wasn’t sure if he should cross the floor to try to comfort Harry. He was a Gryffindor, his rival, the person trying to steal his Uncle Severus. But he always wanted a younger sibling, always dreamed of it would be like to be looked up to like that and show them everything he already knew. And part of that was being the one to sooth the nightmares to rub their back and feel like an adult.

Harry thrashed with a louder cry, throwing the blankets off him. Draco hesitantly crawled out of his bed. Potter might hit him in the middle of his nightmare or just out of spite. Was it really worth the risk? There was no way Potter would ever acknowledge Draco helping him with a nightmare, but at the same time, Harry was hurting and needed someone to help him.

Draco still found himself making his way across the room. He could see tears shining on Harry’s face, hear his barely audible whimpers as he tried to curl tighter around himself. He wondered what the Gryffindor was dreaming about; he looked so much younger like that, like a younger sibling Draco could be in charge of taking care of.

And then Harry let out a sharp cry of what sounded like pain, and Draco shoved all those little worries away to gently touch Harry’s shoulder. He pulled on his magic like he did when he was a kid and was pretending one of his stuff animal was his younger sibling he had to sooth. His magic cascaded down his arm and around Harry. It took a couple moments, but Harry relaxed and let out a soft sigh. Draco watched as he slowly uncurled seeming a little more at ease. Good. Now he could take his hand off and pretend like nothing happened.

The moment he tried, Harry grabbed his hand and curled around it. Draco froze. There was no way he could get his hand back without waking Harry, and that was against the older brother rules, right? Draco looked over his bed, the blankets thrown over each other and back at Harry curled around his arm. If anyone asked he was going to stoutly deny it, but in the end, he crawled into bed beside Harry and tried holding him like his parents held him after a nightmare.

“Don’t worry. I got you,” Draco whispered to Harry. Maybe Harry could be like his little brother?

Harry muttered something back, but Draco didn’t catch it. It probably wasn’t related, after all he was still more or less asleep.



Severus stumbled out of his bed, surprised he didn’t wake up to an insistent pounding on his door the way Draco seemed to think was the best way to wake up. It took him a few moments to wonder just what the thirteen year was up to if he wasn’t pounding Severus’s door.

He threw open the door and rushed down the hall to Harry’s room, heart pounding. There were wards on all the exits to keep unwanted intruders out and warn him if one of the boys tried to leave without his permission, and they hadn’t went off. So he could be reasonable sure that he hadn’t lost the Malfoys’ only son. At the very least, he was somewhere in his quarters.

He stopped at the entry to the boys’ room, abruptly feeling silly for going to the worst possible scenario. His two boys were curled up fast asleep together, his godson looking like he was trying to protect Harry from the world. That was good. Harry needed someone like that after what he’d been through.

He knew they’d be okay with each other eventually. Draco was still set on the idea of having a younger sibling, and Harry needed someone his age to hang out with through the summers and holidays. If he had a camera, he’d take a picture of them as proof he had a family now.

After a couple moments just watching them, he turned to go make them breakfast. It would be a nice change of pace to have Draco waking up to breakfast instead of annoying him to no end, because it was six in the morning and how can anyone sleep past that.