“it was a boggart,” harry says, a bit reduntly, stowing his wand in the bak poket of his pants without looking drao i’s all it was, drao. just a boggart.”
“oh.” drao felt like rying. in fat, he was rying, both beause all the ws he had been thi ame to say with harry had been said out loud, by the o he did o say them, and also beause he had been aught at it, on the floor like a hild. and also beause he wao tell him that it was all okay, whih he was dht.”
“do you really think that?” harry’s head snapped up, and he was rying, too, hurt by this whole thing, and drao just wahe floor and hat i want to say all those things?”
“i’m afraid of it,” drao ahe boggart has left him ell the truth. “i keep telli it was silly, that you wouldn’t have said all those things if you didhem, a,” he shrugs. “fears don’t always make sense.”
“beause i do.” harry’s words were halted, like he was trying tn himself i you.”
“i know.”
“and i have fiven you. f. everything you’ve dohing you might do.” harry waves his ha’s like it’s ent.”
“i know that, too.”
“and i know that this—what we’re doing—i’m n around. it’s,” he is searhing for a word, learly, something stroo express his feelings with drao away. “this is it for me. this is all i ever want, you a ottage.”
that—those st six words—make drao feel like he is able tain. “i know.”
“do you?”
drao does not wao him. maybe he hasn’t beely, but he has been holding bak, burying things that he should have id out in the open. “i’m starting to,” he amends, whih is ruth but is loser thaen before.
“okay.” harry nods his head, faste losed oime, and stiks a hand out to help drao to his feet. “sood here?”
“yeah,” drao says, and this time, it does not feel like a lie. “we’re all good.”
harry
harry had been surprised before, but there’s nothing quite like hearing your boyfriend talking to someohe atti and limbing that rikety stairase only to find that the persoalking to is…yourself.
& is hurling abuse, apparently, as drao sits on the floor and just takes it, like all the fight goes away where harry is onerake what may ome flying from this person’s mouth as gospel, and harry feels sik about it, and even more so when he remembers ahat he had stared at a dupliate of himself in this house, a was a boggart.
whih, when you think about it, is evehahat runs ar venom at the people you are about.
“i just don’t uaer, wheaketehough it is ohe m a of the bathroom to find drao urled up on the wi, drawihe fss, “how you ould have thought those horrible things about the two of us.”
“i’m o people like you loving me.” drao doesn’t look at him. “the war left its mark on the bad guys, too.”
“i don’t think yuy.”
“and that’s probably the biggest differeween us.”
harry stares at him, not knowing how to fix the sudden rift that had appeared, but it seems that he doeso, beause drao turns to him, fae pale a like he is preparing for a punh to the fae, ahat the old malfoy has showed up to the fight.
“you wah?” drao isn’t waiting for a harry nods anyways. “the truth is that i are about you a lot, ahis whole time we’re together i was waiting for someoo shoasn’t happening, how this wasn’t real or you didn’t wa just seemed too good to be true. and i was so afraid of that that i started l sig even there, and you made this omme was, really, beause it was that insignifiant—about how i sh for pes, too, and i thought that you didn’t wao ome with you, whih meant that you ould not think about me the same way i think about you, beause you, harry, are it for me, too.”
harry doesn’t have a respo, beause he remembers the omment (and how stupid, beause he o harry inion, not that he was trying to throw him out o) and it was before they eveage, whih meant that this must have been needling in drao’s brain for weeks.
“you had to have knohat i meaears burning in harry’s eyes and he blihem away. “didn’t you?”
“well i almost bought a ft in london, so i’d say that i didn’t.”
“i just wao be happy, s to say that—that you didn’t just have to follow me, or whatever, that it was was our deision. that’s all.” he erate for drao to uand this. “i was tryi you knoere oing with this.”
&her thought, o want to fous on, about how maybe drao didn’t wahe ottage after all, but ome on. harry had built him a potions b, for merlin’s sake.)
“a. logially.” drao lifted one shetially. “but i also k you ould hange your mind any time.”
“i’m not hanging my mind, drao.” ahough it’s muh too soon, possibly even unwanted, how badly harry had apparehings up, he adds, “i love you.”
it a whatever response drao had been fo