Thus ends Chapter Five, “In The Houses Of His Fathers”.

I didn't write annotations on the last few pages because I thought too many words would spoil their emotional impact. (It's the same reason I didn't use many words on the pages themselves.) The annotations are back now (although I might do the same thing occasionally in the future).

If I had more time to dwell on the details, I would have shown Draco's reluctance to talk. In Draco's world, the most important thing is to be strong. If you show weakness, you're supposed to be punished for it, rather than to receive sympathy. So it would be a very awkward scene where Harry tries to communicate to Draco that ze feels sympathetic, while Draco tries to appear strong to compensate for the fact that Harry has just seen zir weakness (since ze assumes Harry will think less of zem for it).

Harry probably wouldn't feel the same way if Draco had just told zem about what we've just seen, but there's a certain unavoidability about directly experiencing another person's memories.