I kissed a boy (drarry)

Chapter 21: Harry's POV

TW: Use of a homophobic slur.

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A large crowd of students were grouped around a specific corner of the hallway. They were pointing at a piece of graffiti on the wall. Some of them were laughing loudly, and others were muttering nervously, shaking their heads. Harry and Ron just so happened to be walking down that very same hallway, watching in confusion as the crowd buzzed with quiet conversation. Hermione came pushing through the horde of people, a wildly anxious look on her now pale face. She tried her best to hurry them along, her hands trembling uneasily. "There's nothing to see here...just some silly words....you really don't need to worry about this, Harry..."

That just peaked his confusion even more, and, if he was curious before, he was itching to know what was written there more than ever now. So Harry approached to bustling crowd, and, strangely, they immediately parted for him, falling silent at once. Harry reached the wall, with large lettering staining the usually immaculate stone, and he felt his stomach drop and his head spin. In what looked like bright red spray paint, someone had written the words:

'HARRY POTTER IS A FAGGOT'

"Like my new art piece, Potter? It describes you perfectly, doesn't it?" A voice called from behind him. Harry whipped his head around, and spotted a tall blond boy leaning against the wall opposite the graffiti, his arms crossed and his face smug. He blinked. Draco? Ron and Hermione instantly frowned at him, moving to Harry's side protectively. "Come off it, Malfoy. Even you wouldn't to stoop this low," Ron said in a quiet voice, sounding almost pleading. Hermione simply glared at him through hooded eyes, and said nothing. Draco smirked, looking as if he was thoroughly enjoying the situation.

"Oh wouldn't I? And don't bother trying to scrub it off," he added, as Neville made a desperate attempt to clean the words on the wall with the sleeve of his jumper, and failing miserably. He scowled at Draco with a look of great dislike, and stood back, giving up completely. "I used 'Spelly's Eternal Stick Paint' on that," he continued, moving towards Harry. The atmosphere became heavy and suffocating, and for a few moments, no one spoke while Draco and Harry stared at each other, neither of them wanting to look away. Harry took a step back from him, an incredulous smile on his face. "You know, you were beginning to become my favourite person, and I might've even loved you," Harry said in a low voice, so only Draco could hear him.

Draco's smirk fell. "You loved me?" he whispered, his eyes full of hope. Harry scoffed. "Maybe. But I've obviously wasted months of my life trusting that you could really change," he murmured, his usually bright, green eyes dark and foreboding. "You haven't changed at all, have you? I would've dropped everything for you, would've forgotten what you said, even what you did, but this-" He motioned to the wall, shaking his head as if surprised- "is how you respond? Get a fucking life, Malfoy, because if this is all you have to say to me, I suggest you pick something more original." Harry swept down the hallway, threading himself through mobs of gaping pupils, with Ron and Hermione hurrying after him.

They all left without giving Draco a second glance, and Harry felt a wicked stab of pleasure, relishing the anger pulsing through him.

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The following days that passed felt like wading in thick mud, and Harry's head felt as if someone had replaced his brain with wool. For such a large school, the news of what happened spread so quickly that by breakfast the next day, the whole student body knew about everything - in immersive detail too. Now whenever he would walk into a room, conversation would immediately stop, and people would turn to stare at him. Draco hadn't stopped trying to get his attention, and Harry found it satisfyingly easy to ignore him. When he, Pansy, Hermione, and Ron were eating in silence at the Gryffindor table, a girl with bubblegum pink hair done in a long braid slipped Harry a note, winking. "He wanted me to give you this," she whispered.

Draco was glancing anxiously at him from the Slytherin table, his eyes darting from the note to Harry's face. Oh, Harry thought, It's from him. He smiled sweetly at the blond, waving the note in the air. Draco smiled back at him. Harry held the small cut of parchment up, then, still smiling, ripped it in half, dropping it, and watching as the pieces drifted to the floor. Draco's smile fell away at once. Hermione gave away a short, harsh laugh, and Ron did the same. Harry said nothing, turning back to his untouched plate of food. Pansy was being oddly silent. Hermione stopped laughing, and instead settled on giving Harry an apprehensive glare, eyeing his plate meaningfully.

"Please try to eat something, Harry," she said desperately, for what seemed like the twelfth time today. "Your body needs the energy and nutrition to get through the day-"
"I know that, you don't need to remind me, Hermione. I'm eighteen now, I can look after myself," Harry snapped impatiently. He knew he was being unfair and unreasonably mean to Hermione - but he couldn't help it. Just when he thought he was getting his shit back together, this happens, and if the only thing he can control is his eating habits, then he'd happily take advantage of that. He also knew that Hermione was right - his body constantly felt as if it was about to shut down, and it used to feel as if the guilt of making others worry about him was killing the little amount of hope he had left.

But, Harry found, if he ignored all this for long enough, he wouldn't feel it anymore. And it was true. So when Hermione continued to give him another scrutinising look, he stuffed a hash brown into his mouth, gagging slightly. She still didn't appear to be satisfied, but didn't press it any further.

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-R🧚