House Proud by astolat

[capitu]

Title: House Proud
Author: astolat
Rating: R
Word Count: 23,000 Approx.
Summary: His house liked Draco Malfoy more than him.

As the summary says, Harry's house likes Draco more than it likes him. But you know, Harry does have conflicted/negative feelings about Grimmauld Place, why wouldn't his house have conflicted feel the same way about him, right?

And there's room for this to be funny, and there are funny moments; the house pretty much flourishes when Draco is around, but it's all sad, daunting and decay for Harry, which ultimately leads to Harry and Draco being trapped inside the house. And yet, at the same time we understand how and why Harry feels this way about his Grimmauld Place, there are wonderful insights into Harry's character here:

“It was a mess when I first got here! I didn’t know what it could be like, I didn’t grow up with a manor and a house elf looking after me. And then you swanned in and the place just fell over itself to make clear I was—second-rate,” Harry said, but the word that had really wanted to come out at the end was unwanted, some useless hateful freakish thing left on the doorstep, only to be shoved in a dingy corner—under the stairs—and ignored as much as possible. He swallowed.

We also get to see Harry, with Draco's help, working very, very hard to make Grimmauld Place his own, and the result is wonderful. :)