Drarry - The Boggart

THIRTY

The Hufflepuff common rooms were already Harrys favorite. He'd only just shown up, but instantly he was hit with the smell of fresh air and basil.

It was just a pretty mellow and pleasant place, too. House plants sat on every surface, and even some not-house plants. He saw a tree growing lemons in one corner. The windows were all wide open, welcoming butterflies to flutter in and land of the furniture.

The walls had a clear, pastel yellow color . Everything looked like it came from nature not too long ago, and thought Harry had never really appealed to that, he did now. The whole place just seemed... clean. And bright.

Everyone was either busily talking to friends and smiling, or watering a plant, or studying. It was all a very open and big space. Nothing like the other common rooms, which were now starting to look kind of stuffy in retrospect.

"Ok, well, here we are. I'm sure we can get right to work without anyone bothering us, though everyone is friendly here and might want to socialize. Mostly everyone was excited to help you out with this." Hannah Abbot explained as she lead Harry through the room, waving to people at random. Everywhere they went Hufflepuffs turned and smiles and said hi or something kind like that.

Once they got to a table near the back of the common room, Harry was met with an agreed upon group of Hufflepuffs sitting around a coffee table with drinks and a sewing machine and plenty of fabrics and sewing kits. They all had their wands laying on the table and seemed to be engaging in an interesting conversation. Just when Hannah and Harry got to the table they all started laughing at a joke someone had cracked. Harry smiled. He liked it here.

"Hey guys! This is Harry, as you all know. Harry this is- well, you guys can introduce yourselves if you want." Hannah nudged Harry towards the table and the nice, goofy-looking kids stood up and said hi, shaking his hand and introducing themselves one by one.

There was gangly boy with glasses too big for his face who went by Roger Salesbolt. A tall girl with short curly hair who's name was Shara Niley. A short redhead called Clary Fray. A brown haired pale boy named Hugh Groover. And a stout blonde girl who introduced herself as Daya Nightshade. They all wore kind smiles that grew to their eyes. Harry instantly felt safe and welcomed and happy.

"Ok, so, I'm thinking his color is more of bright red since it compliments his hair, but I know we're aiming more for green here because of Slytherin..." They all started discussing what fabrics to use and what design they should fit him to.

Hufflepuff life was rushing around them, hurried smile politely saying hey as they went by. Some carried stacks of book, some potion bottles, and some plants too big for their arms to hold. But everyone felt simply happy.

In that moment, Harry had no clue why Hufflepuff was ever labeled as boring. Why was it that anything thats just fun or happy or kind seems to earn that title? Everyone there was living their life freely and happily and they all looked to be friends.

Things were good here. Things were really good.

~~~

"So, how did that whole suit thing go? Did they poke you with needles? Charlie said there was a lot of that when he got his first and only suit tailored. More painful than its worth, if you ask me." Ron talked to Harry as they headed towards the quidditch fields. It was a closed practice and Ron was always there early, which meant that Harry was always there early.

"No, it was really calming actually. And don't get me wrong, because you know I love Gryffindor, but Hufflepuff has got some nice common rooms. And they were all just so... I don't know, cool." Harry stated. Ron chuckled at that.

"Well of course they are, its in the description isn't it? 'Hufflepuffs are all awesome people'. I swear its there somewhere, I had to have heard the sorting hat say it once or twice." Harry laughed. It was true, what else did he expect? Snarky remarks? A dark dungeon? It wasn't Slytherin, it was Hufflepuff.

After a mildly terrible quidditch practice (all thanks to Harry not being able to focus), one of the guys in the locker room commented on how it could be because Harry had a new boyfriend, just like how when Ron started dating Hermione his performance dropped a ton.

They all just laughed a little, but it felt nice to hear the words 'Harrys boyfriend' referring to Draco come from someone other than Ron and Hermione. It wasn't like he needed other people to know about it for it to be real or anything, but it just felt so... relieving. Like he could finally breath now that everyone knew and no one was even mad. Quite the opposite, actually, most people loved that they were together. Especially the Ravenclaws.

Harry headed up to the Gryffindor boys dormitory and plopped down on his four poster bed. He thought to himself that nothing could get any better from here.

He was so used to living in the future his whole life. From the ages of as-early-as-he-could-rememeber to eleven when he got the Hogwarts note, everything was about counting down the days until he could leave the Dursley's. He'd planned his whole life after escaping that house to a tee. It wasn't like he didn't have time, there under the cupboard.

Then everything became about planning on the next attack on Voldemort. It was like that one evil monster consumed his mind to a point where he never even really had a life.

But now things were looking up. Now he could just live in the present, and it was such a solace. That in such a dark and scary world, where Lucius Malfoy existed, and death eaters still thrived in some towns, he had Draco. Beautiful, perfect Draco. And he could just look at Draco and live in the right now. He didn't have to look ahead. It was so reassuring to not have to look ahead, because when you're only looking to the future you don't know a thing. You can never know for sure whats going to happen, and when you're whole life and many other whole lives depended on what was going to happen, it really drove you mad.

But Harry got through it, with a prince in shining armor waiting for him at the end. And, of course, Ron, Hermione, Luna, and Neville to help him through the toughest times. This year was the easy part of his life. And he would be damned if he wasn't going to take full advantage.