Time After Time. *Complete*

Chapter Twenty Three - Shine Bright

Draco was spacing the Slytherin common room as he waited for his wife. He always thought his wife looked beautiful, but it was extra special when they got the chance to getvall dolled up for some occasion. Like Hermione, Dtmraco was more of a home bird and would rather spend his Saturday nights at home with Sienna and Hermione but every so often it was nice that they got to let their hair down and have some husband and wife time.

"Draco, you are making me queasy. Park it!" Theo said from the armchair by the fire where he sat with a tumbler in his hands filled with Firewhiskey.
"Yeah, it's like your wedding morning all over again," Blaise groaned and turned to Harry. "The morning of their wedding, Hermione and Draco were both nervous wrecks. We had to let them have five minutes alone together before the ceremony just to get them both to chill out."

Harry chuckled at the thought of Hermione fretting over her big day and then felt a little pang of jealousy that he wasn't there to see her on her special day.

Draco sat on the arm of Theo's chair and stole his drink, downing the contents. "Oi!" Theo pouted. "It's bad enough you stole my money, but now you steal my drink?"
Draco and the others chuckled. "I won your money, Theo. It's not my fault your poker face is like an open book. Even Harry caught on to your tell."
Theo scoffed as he stood to refill his glass. "I don't have a -"
"You scratch your chin and blush furiously when you are bluffing," Harry interrupted, knowing full well he was right. Not that Theo was alone. Draco was a very good poker player and won almost every hand. The only one he lost was one he folded early because Hermione had sent him on a letter from home about Sienna, which he replied to, so he missed a few rounds.

That round, Harry managed to win, and the cash was now sloshing around in his suit trouser pocket. With Draco out of the runnig for a few turns, it gave the others an actual shot at winning. The only player is worse than Theo wasnRon who lost every hand and gambled away far more than he had. He ended up owing quite a few galleons to everyone at the table and stormed off in a huff after about two hours. "You know you will never receive so much as a Knut from Ron," he said, feeling ashamed himself.
Leo brushed him off. "We sort of guessed, but that's fine. We wouldn't have felt right cleaning him out."
"I doubt there is anything to clean out," Harry said to himself more than anyone, but they all heard him.

Draco sighed. "I may not like the guy, and he may think he has some sort of claim to my wife, but he seems a little..."
"Drunk?" Blaise offered.
"Fucked up?" Theo shrugged.
"Out of it?" Was Leo's polite answer.
"I was going to say like he had lost his way," Draco rolled his eyes.
Harry sighed. "None of you are wrong, though." He quickly went on to explain how much Ron had changed after the war, the drinking, cheating, money issues, and also mentioned how the family had tried an intervention to try and help him.
"Thing is," Draco sighed. "You can only help him if he admits he has a problem and wants help. It doesn't seem like he does."
Harry shook his head. "He thinks we don't know, but he is not that good an actor."
"He will wake up some day, and his wall around his emotions will come tumbling down. The reality of his life choices will come back to bite him in the ass. And when it does, he will need you." Blaise said, looking into his own glass.

Harry didn't want to overstep, but it was obvious from the look on Theo, Blaise, and Draco's faces that they knew this first hand. Draco noticed his reaction though and sighed. "Crabbe. He drank to cope with the fear of being a Death Eater. He was all talk at first and proud to be chosen, but it wasn't smooth sailing like he thought. If we did wrong, he received the cruciatus curse as punishment. Crabbe couldn't cope and so would drink to numb the pain."

Harry thought back, trying to remember the last time he saw Vincent Crabbe. He couldn't remember. Theo cleared his throat. "The drinking used to be every night to help him sleep, but soon it was every morning too so he always felt a buzz and never had to deal with a hangover."
"Hair of the dog, they called it
Or something like that," Blaise added.
"What happened?" Harry found himself asking, although he was terrified of the answer.
The boys looked to one another. "He drank too much. Damaged his liver. He was sick as his liver began to fail, and the pain only caused him to drink more," Theo explained.
"We tried to help," Blaise said defensively. "Tried to hide his alcohol and everything."
"And he was so desperate he tried to apparate to a pub in the middle of the night," Daco was whispering now as if too pained to speak up. "Splinched himself badly and bled out in his room. His father didn't find him for almost a week."