I'm sorry, professor," Harry was surprised himself at his choice of address, but didn't regret it when Snape's eyes widened ever so slightly, "a lack of empathy happens to be one of my larger pet peeves."



"Draco focuses his empathy."



"I am still in the room," Malfoy pointed out. The tips of his ears were an odd shade of pink.



"Focuses," Harry said to Snape.



"His empathy for those who have lost loved ones is nearly overwhelming. For children without parents, for people who are alone. What you ask for is for him to create empathy outside of his realm of experience. Do you believe that's entirely fair?"



Harry wasn't ready to give up. "He could bloody well try." He turned his eyes on Malfoy. "You could try."



Malfoy stared at Harry for a bit. Finally he said, "Why is it such a crime for me to be unable to understand why someone would want to be taken from his family? Not even Severus wanted that, and his family was awful."



"Did they feed him?" Harry asked without even thinking about the question.



Malfoy's eyes went a slate shade of grey. "Of course they fed him. What kind of family doesn't feed it's child?"



Harry drew his robes around himself protectively. "The kind that Children's Services removes a child from."



"But that's." Malfoy stopped and then started again, speaking very slowly, as if slowing his words down would make them more understandable on a thematic level. "It's their child."



Despite himself, Harry found it somewhat endearing that Malfoy couldn't think of this in any other terms. He sneaked a look at Snape, who was nearly smiling. Nearly. Harry said, "I need visual aids," and swiped another sandwich.



.................."I wasn't asking."



"No," Severus said, pain evident in the breath he took just to get the small word past his lips, "you don't have to."



..................

"You get nervous when we don't have sex for a while. You tend to think that material and physical attention are the only ways a person can show love. It's unsurprising, given the team your parents made, but it makes me hesitant to deal with emotionally taxing issues between us when my ability to pleasure you is limited."



"If you could never touch me again-"



"I said hesitant, not unable. It's just who you are, Draco."



..........

Draco often found comfort in the things that could be controlled. The temperature of the house, or how clean the photo frames in the hall were, or the exact amount of time a soufflй needed to be cooked.



He and Severus were alike in that way, Severus having his potions with their thirty-eight clockwise strokes and finely ground cockroach eyes. Lucius had often wanted Draco to focus his detail-oriented mania on "more important pursuits." Those pursuits usually required other elements--a certain amount of power, the right position of the sun, though. That defeated the whole point of Draco's need for predictability and order............



"Ron'll forgive me."



Affronted, Draco pulled back. "Are you suggesting I wouldn't have?"



"It's better when you don’t need to,"

An Eye for an Eye by Arsenic